"Driven by Experience, Focused on Solutions..."
The people behind this guide are Debra and Greg Smith. Our hobbies include RVing, boating and golf — plus buying and selling stuff on the Internet and at local marketplaces. The buy-sell part of the hobby has been improved over the years with the use of the Internet and free classified ad sites.
When we wrote this guide, we set out to fill a gap.
We found plenty of courses out there for people who want to build commercial web sites. And there are courses for people who want to write small personal web sites.
But what we haven't seen before is a comprehensive, professional-grade guide for everyday folk who want to sell their stuff FAST.
We set out to fill that gap by writing our own online guide. It is about 50 pages in length and represents the best of what we know on the topic of writing better ads and linked in focused web pages. Things that have worked for us time and again.
Who is it for? Well … it’s for you. The proven techniques we outline in the e-Book offer you fast-tracked self-paced solutions — ones that have made us successful at selling stuff online — and which will sell your stuff faster.
The More Than Classifieds eBook was developed as a solution to a common situation. Our experience shows people on the Internet love to email other people. If your ad says “email for Photos” people tend to do just that — email for photos regardless of genuine interest or not. While this is OK, it becomes difficult to distinguish between the serious buyers and the photo collectors.
Then we had that "A-ha!" moment. We placed all the photos on a central web page and replied to the emails by pointing all the inquiries to that web site for additional information. Eventually we began to put a hyperlink (the missing link) directly in our ads — people could answer their own questions by clicking over to our pages.
Requests for photos and the same questions asked over and over stopped AND appointments to come by and see our stuff increased. Casual browsers were turned into interested buyers. Stuff sold easily and quickly.
So we decided to write about the lessons we learned. The e-Book More Than Classifieds is a complete How-To Guide. It takes you by the hand and leads you through the steps to sell online. For many, it will be their moment when things go “Click” and you finally understand how all of the pieces fit together.
We continually improve the sites and never stop seeking new ideas, so come back often to see what is new. We hope you enjoy using this site and the book as much as we did preparing it.
To your success.
Debra and Greg
News Update
May 2008
According to Craigslist Statistics, “Cars and trucks” and “Recreational Vehicles” listings in our For Sale section are up 120% and 100% respectively in just the last 8 months, a trend that is accelerating". Putting extra effort into your sales plans and giving the shopper what they want will keep you out front of the competition.