I've been thinking about what should go in an expanded listing versus a paid listing. On the one hand, I would like as much information as possible in the listing to make it useful to my users. On the other, it would be nice to be able to charge for an expanded listing to help pay for the site and people are only going to pay if the expanded listing is beneficial to them. So where do I draw the line?
Here are my current thoughts:
BASIC
Name
Location (Mapped)
Phone number
Website
Email
Description
Hours
Extra info on some times such as whether reservations are accepted for restaurants, whether a hotel has a pool, etc.
BASIC STICKY
Same as basic but sticky with a different background color in teaser list
EXPANDED
All of the basic items
Photos
File upload (for menu, etc)
Coupons
No other ads displaying on page with full node
EXPANDED STICKY
Same as expanded but sticky with a different background color in teaser list
BROCHURE PAGE
Full one page "website" with all of the above plus a choice of layouts. Sidebars and header turned off with just a small link back to the main site.
Automatically sticky with a different background color in teaser list
I'm interested in others' thoughts on this. I don't have any sort of marketing background so it's hard for me to get into the "businessey" side of things. Do you think that's a fair division? Is there enough in the expanded to make it worth paying for? I hate to take anything out of basic because my primary focus is on providing a good service to the users, not making money off the listings. Still, I'd like to make a bit of money to pay for hosting, so I need to have some value added worth paying for.
Thanks,
Michelle
Comments
Some thoughts
Not sure if this will help you bit some of the things I have as "value added" features are:
For paid listings:
Hope some of these suggestions are useful.
Cheers,
tys
BLUE MOUNTAINS health & harmony
www.health-harmony.com.au
building an alternative health & spirituality community in the Blue Mountains
tys
Tyswan
BLUE MOUNTAINS health & harmony
www.health-harmony.com.au
building an alternative health & spirituality community in the Blue Mountains
More thoughts
1) In the interest of accuracy, I'd like entries to be in all the applicable categories, even basic ones, so this option isn't appealing to me.
2) I plan on having banner ads for local businesses, but that would be seperate from the directory entry.
3) This is one I've seen a lot and I am deliberately not going that route. My reasoning is that the directory is there to provide a service to users and not including the site's URL makes the directory less usable. From personal experience, If I'm looking something up in a directory and it doesn't provide an easy way to get to the business's site, that's a real turn off. Currently my page is only PR 3, so it's not a terribly valuable link. If I get up to 5 or 6 at some point, I'll look into the option of using nofollow on basic listings. That way I'm not hurting the users but still providing added value to paid listings.
4) I was planning on not showing ads on pages with paid listings but showing their ad is a better idea. Thanks. :)
5) I was planning on having a featured business on the main page but I'm not sure I want to tie that into whether or not it's paid.
6) I definetly don't want people to have to pay before posting content. :)
Sorry if it sounds like I'm shooting your ideas down. I welcome the discussion, but I suspect my needs are a bit different than most here because I'm not creating this directory as a business, so my focus is on user experience first and making money second. :)
Thanks,
Michelle
I totally understand
It's all a learning process, and our requirements for a business directory vary greatly.
If it was up to me I'd happily allow people to have as much information as they want, but unfortunately I have to cover costs, and to support those who do pay me money, by providing a value added service to them.
Having a free service is easier in some ways - because you don't have to heavily market your website in order to repay your customers for their loyalty. You simply let the directory grow, and if you're not marketing - well it's a free service anyway. As soon as you have to start marketing, that's where your business has to charge more money in order to do that effectively.
Just to clarify that my suggestion (2), above does not refer to banner ads. It's the ability to replace the "title" link in the directory listings (teaser list) with a graphical link. The graphical link looks more impressive, and so stands out more than the usual link.
Example:
http://www.bluemts.health-harmony.com.au/directory-type/healers-practiti...
All of these subscribers are able to have a graphical banner, but only Michelle Jacobs, and the Self-Realization Meditation Healing Centre, are taking advantage of the ability.
The listing is functionally the same (which is what I think you're wanting), but the paid listings stand out more.
The other thing that I have is that paid listings are able to appear in a block on the home page, which randomly shows 5 businesses. I'm not sure how effective it is, but again, that helps to improve exposure of your paid subscriptions.
The current subscription divisions you've got look fine to me. The best way to assess if the divisions are correct, is to ask potential subscribers if they think the value added features would be worth them upgrading.
Good luck!
Cheers,
--
tys
BLUE MOUNTAINS health & harmony
www.health-harmony.com.au
building an alternative health & spirituality community in the Blue Mountains
tys
Tyswan
BLUE MOUNTAINS health & harmony
www.health-harmony.com.au
building an alternative health & spirituality community in the Blue Mountains
Ah, I see
That does look really nice. I don't think replacing the title would work right in my design, but letting premium users add a big image like that into the description would make it stand out as well.
I'm trying to keep this site a hobby and still make enough money to cover costs. I need around $50 a month to get off shared hosting plus a little something to cover some simple advertising like printing flyers and business cards. I work for free so I don't need to pay anyone's salary. That gives me more freedom than someone who is trying to make a successful business venture, but I still need to think somewhat like a business if I want to make even my small monetary goal. So this group is really helpful to bounce ideas off of. :)
Thanks for the input,
Michelle
I made a comment on my
I made a comment on my thread about Organic Groups, which could be a great way to give the "expanded" members a lot more features. I've given it a quick try and it works pretty well. One could probably tie in some of your points Tys into organic groups.
--
BeFused - Drupal tutorials | Twitter @blairwadman
Premium members vs listing
That's an interesting idea, but that seems more geared towards premium memberships than premium listings. There's nothing wrong with that approach; it's just not a direction I'm going. So I don't really have any input on that.
Michelle
Michelle, Why do you limit
Michelle,
Why do you limit your "brochure" option to only 1 page? I don't know if your directory is limited to one industry or a niche... or not limited at all.. You can plan your brochure and make an outline of what kind of information you would like to include on each page. Then your brochure with turned off header turns into a private mini-site, which will be pretty much their own. Just define content types for each page and limit them to 1. Also your brochures can have their own navigation.
Another idea... add something like tips or professional advise content type and let your members to submit those tips... add a block to their brochure page/site with their latest tips. Fresh content will attract search engines on daily bases and your popularity will dramatically increase pretty fast. This kind of stuff opens new opportunities.. like letting visitors to vote on each tip and leave comments (if you wish), or you can generate newsletters every month that will include most interesting/voted tips (so visitors could subscribe) - this is additional advertisement for your members (which would be very targeted - high quality)...
just my $0.02
Hope this helps.
Brochure & tips
I suppose I don't have to limit it to one page. It was more that I was aiming it at tiny businesses that wouldn't need more than one page. I guess I'll have to see where the market takes me. If I start having people want more pages, I could add a few more. If they want a lot of pages, though, it would make more sense to just make them their own site.
I'm not sure about the tips section. So far getting the two business owners I know to just give me some information I can use to set them up a brochure page for free has been like pulling teeth. Getting ongoing content is likely impossible. LOL! You've got some great ideas there that will likely be of use to other people reading this post, but I think that's all a bit overkill for my site. My area directory is just a part of my site and not even the main focus.
Thanks,
Michelle
I finally saw your site -
I finally saw your site - very cool.. I really like the way it organized. I see that you have wide range of businesses... yes, my suggestions would work much better with a niche directory. I know everything about pulling content from clients :)LOL
Thanks :)
This discussion prompted me to do a spin off... http://groups.drupal.org/node/6090
Michelle
subscribe
link
Please stop doing that.
I'm getting a lot of posts bumped up in my tracker here and on d.o just to find you subscribing. That's a waste of everyone's time opening posts just to find nothing new. Please use your browser's bookmarking feature when you want to track old posts. The only reason to "subscribe" to a post is if it's an active discussion and you want to keep up with it. Even then it should be used with care.
Michelle
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region
+1. I would go a bit further...
...in saying that folks shouldn't even "subscribe" to a post here on g.d.o but, rather, if they find a group interesting, join it and then just do the first thing you mentioned by saving http://groups.drupal.org/unread as a browser's bookmark.
That link, now saved as a bookmark, should then always indicate any new posts to any groups here on g.d.o that a person belongs to without ever having to bother others by "subscribing" to a post. Right?
And if they aren't on a computer that has their bookmarks, all they have to do is be logged in to g.d.o and then click on "unread" and they'll have arrived at the same place.
Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing
Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing