New advertising site

mytechdirectDOTnet

I have developed a new site to help generate an additional revenue for my business. Could anyone give it the once over and give me some feedback?
Thank you.http://ineedbusinesscapital.commytechdirectDOTnet12/13/2007 11:02 PM

stonesledge

Okay, we need to get some content going. What do you need help with to get some text up there? Can you explain exactly what your site does...how it works? Just trying to help, I promise.
Erin

mytechdirectDOTnet

Honestly, I am just looking for some honest feedback.
I packed all of the details in the FAQ, to keep the advertising page uncluttered.

mytechdirectDOTnet

I forgot to mention, the site was conceived to
help generate additional revenues for my existing business. We want to expand
into another part of our state and this idea was the most economical for us.
The site allows potential clients to bid on 7 advertising spots for monthly
advertising. With six of the spots starting at $1.00 every month, it could
potentially be a very economical for any advertiser from the startup to the
well established.

mytechdirectDOTnet

I understand that and stated that the specifics were detailed in the FAQ, as to not take away from the content of the potential advertisers. In addition, I also posted a very brief run down in my post above yours.

mytechdirectDOTnet

If you are going to be a smart ass, why even respond? I suppose maybe maybe this forum was the wrong place to seek advice? Kindly avoid my topic.

Webline

You want to sell/auction ad space .... thats fine .... but who is the end market/user thats going to see the ads once you get them? Is the general viewer just going to search for "Ads" and come across your page? Is it linked to/promoted by/connected to your other site? As a potential advertiser/bidder, I don`t see anything telling me who the end market / audience is, how they find your page, traffic stats ..... nothing to tell me this is beneficial to me in anyway. If it`s just ads .... is it really useful to anyone other than yourself making a few bucks?Maybe I`m missing something, but I don`t get it .... and I did read the FAQ.
Webline2007-12-14 9:8:58

mytechdirectDOTnet

Thank you for the reply.
The site is still in early development stages and more development is needed
and coming, but I wanted to see what people in business and potential
advertisers thought before it is really promoted. Judging from some of the feedback we have received from others, the color scheme will likely be changed. Given the connections we have
made in our IT services business over the last 4 years, I have already
contacted some of our financial clients, including a Credit Union, Financial planners
and advisors, independently wealthy investors, and our accountant about the
possibility of providing some financial advice columns in exchange for
advertising, but like I said this is still early in development.
Our target audience is a broad range of groups, including small advertisers
that may not be able to afford a lot for advertising to larger more traditional
advertisers seeking an additional click through without having to pay a lot to
do it, to people trying to discover ways to get additional business capital. I
will be honest and say that if this idea moves in the way we think it could, it
could become cost prohibitive for smaller startups to get their message out affordably
through our site, but all the spots reset monthly to their minimum bid amount,
which is $1.00 for zones 2 - 7 and $2.00 for zone 1.
We have submitted the site to all of the major search engines and DMOZ. I am a realist though and do not see us being listed on DMOZ even after we are running at full speed. The site name alone will net some traffic, currently there are 48 million sites dealing with business capital and while I do not know this to be a fact throughout all the sites, after the first couple of pages a lot  of the sites are just advertising sites that provide no substance, where as we intend to provide information to help capital seekers once we are up and running. Currently, this site is only minimally being fed traffic by our main site, as it has not been properly introduced their yet.
We have been trying to figure out a way to disclose traffic stats and we have
decided to inform on a case by case basis to potentials that request the data.
Right now the site has only been online for 5 days and we have almost 10K hits.
We have one local small business that has bid on zone 1 for January and I think we
can all agree that $2.00 for a month of advertising is pretty cheap, providing
her bid stays @ $2.00.
mytechdirectDOTnet12/14/2007 10:16 AM

mytechdirectDOTnet

No, but I would take the time to read the FAQ. But again, this is still in its` infancy and when I originally placed it in the Marketing section, it was to get a feel on how it would appeal to potential advertisers.

Webline

The point is .... 7 advertisements that make up a site is no reason for anyone to go to that site .... I can go to almost any other website and find advertisements without looking for them .... but I`m on those sites because they have content that I am interested in, i.e., I am there for a reason, and it isn`t to primarily see advertisements, it is because of some type of content that I want .... so why would I, or any other net surfer, be interested in a site that has 7 ads on it, and no content that interests me? What is the reason I would go to it to start with?I personally don`t see the practicality of it. Why not just implement targeted ads into your existing site?

mytechdirectDOTnet

I am not sure why you all are missing what I am saying, but I have stated what we intend to add content and the site is still in its` infancy. I answered your previous post question by question.
The reason I do not want to clutter the main page is we feel it would not be fair to our customers. The links across the top for navigation, we feel blend well and should allow for ease of use. It is not our intention to become millionaires with this site, just to help sustain cash flow during a planed expansion. It costs us next to nothing for the site, as it is running on our own servers that host other sites, so if this falls through the cracks, we will move into other ideas we came up with.
As to your second question,
We do not want to clutter our site with advertising. In addition, we are an I.T. services company that only services local customers; currently has no intention nor the financial means of expanding out of our state. It is our opinion that we need to control our own backyard first, before we look to take on anyone else`s. Out of state contractors contact us via the online yellow pages.

topthought

It might help everyone if you put up some example articles/content so that we could get an idea of what vision you have for the site. It is very hard for us to imagine what is in your head.
From what I can see in the this thread, all of the most supportive, informative, and knowledgable reviews have given you feedback. If they don`t understand your site, then the average website user certainly won`t understand it.
If you are going to ask for free advise, you need to check your pride at the door and reflect on the advise and gracefully accept it. You don`t have to agree with it, but you should appreciate the fact that people took their own time to help you.

stonesledge

That is exactly what I was attempting to do..help. I didn`t see much of anything on the site. I understand what was stated here in the description but that did not come over when viewing the site. Folks here are here to help you really... we want you to be successful and the folks who posted on this thread are amazing and knowledgable people (won`t say folks again...):), that is why I aske dyou what you needed in the way of content to see if I could give you some to help. Take a breath and don`t feel as if anyone is attacking, we WANT to help.
Erin

mytechdirectDOTnet

The only person I was rude with was the one that was the smart aleck. I very much appreciated all the other replies and it has helped me. Stonesledge, I am sorry if you took offense to what I said, I did not mean for it to come off as such. I was hoping you might stop back by, I got side tracked by the smart aleck that posted after you. The only I time I felt attacked was when I was and after reading a few of his posts in other topics, he seems to just be that way.
To topthought, I am not sure what you mean, I have been appreciative and have answered the questions directed at me and have not been rude. The only time I said anything that could be construed as such, was after the asked and answered questions came back a couple of times. If my replies were read, the answers where already there. As to your question about content, as I have stated, it will be financial advice. I cannot provide a sample, as that is not my expertise and I intend of relying on some "experts" that I already personally know that run those types of business. We are still trying to hammer out all of the details with them on an individual basis.

stonesledge

We all wanted to help. Craig expressed his opinion and because you wanted to hear something else he told you what you wanted to hear. I say, let`s start over and figure out how we can get to where you want to go on your website.
Erin

mytechdirectDOTnet

We can agree to disagree about his post. Thank you for the help.