Student Buy/Sell Website?

SimonDance

No, waste of time.

Lastly, in agreement with another poster. I would try it out on one uni first....

Encourage all uni leavers to put their books up for nothing... get a large user base etc... then copy it over.

If you decide to promote too big too soon then the site and its impact will suffer.

Simon

tobyosbourn

No, waste of time.

In my opinion when there are sites like ebay and amazon, there is no real point in making a specialised site just for students.

djhworld

Countless things like these have been tried in the past, heck I even started to design one.

It won't work, as toyosbourn said, there's already avenues in place (eBay, amazon marketplace, university chat boards) to sell items, no one will move to a site which is alienated to students.

Sorry to be so harsh, keep up the enthusiasm, I'm sure that big idea will come one day!

cowboy

Thanks for all the input. I do plan to create a forum rather than a proper website... as forum allows potential buyers to know the sellers first. Also, there is less work for me - i just need to spend time approving members and moderating the forum.

The special thing about the idea is that....the site will allow users to buy/sell their products to other students in their own uni, unlike ebay/amazon where you have to pay for listing and p&p. Well, it's similar to a small buy/sell section of your university board but in a larger scale.

The only problem is promoting the site... I do have my own webhost (I own a small webhosting company) and I also have a pretty good domain name for this purpose (will keep it secret for the time being. :P)

Also, I'm thinking of recruiting at least one student from each uni in the UK and get them to promote the site. But that would mean I must find a way to make more money from the site (profit driven, either by ads on the site or other methods) so that I can pay my workers.

I'm still contemplating on starting this project....would like to hear more feedback if possible.

guerillasaver

Yes, that's brilliant!

pm sent to you cowboy

ericthekidstoner

Yes, that's brilliant!

consider recruiting the students on a rep basis and only pay them a commission or performance related wage (x number of students must register, number of transactions etc etc)

best of luck

just out of interest, whats your webhosting firm called?

SimonDance

No, waste of time.

"consider recruiting the students on a rep basis and only pay them a commission or performance related wage"....

Give it a go, but make sure that the forum is up to scratch first... or you will drive a lot of people away with students badgering their friends to visit the forum...

Just a point.

Si

The_doomed

No, waste of time.

good luck - you'll need it going by what you have outlined, brief or not.

There is potentially some market there, define it, access it, sustain it and expand it... you may just make some return.

cowboy

ericthekidstoner wrote:

consider recruiting the students on a rep basis and only pay them a commission or performance related wage (x number of students must register, number of transactions etc etc)

best of luck

just out of interest, whats your webhosting firm called?

That's a good idea, but will definitely need a way to generate money for the site (otherwise, it'll be negative profit!).

It's not really a webhosting firm; more like virtual company. PM me if you're interested....don't feel like advertising here. :P

I have a potential partner now.... anyone interested in helping out? This is more like voluntary work (as the site will start off being a non-profit based) . But if we have large enough user base and trade going on the site, then I wouldn't rule out the possibility of generating income for the site...Anyone dare to take the challenge? So, I'll be sponsoring the webspace + bandwidth, whereas you guys contribute in terms of effort and time?

Dead_Eye_Jones

Id do it if you are interested in hosting a site in a hobby sense. Then see what happens. I run a couple of sites and traffic is pretty modest and Ive spent quite a bit of time promoting and SEO etc. But I only do it for fun so Im not bothered. If you are doing for commercial reasons then there are prob better ideas out there...