Anyone browsing the classifieds this afternoon will notice a few significant upgrades that have been rolled out...
below is a summary of what's new.
#1)
On the "View all new/active ads" and each category page, there are now two small dropdown lists that give you a lot more control over what ads you'd like to view. In the first dropdown menu, by selecting any of:
- view non-sold, sold, wanted, reduced, or free
you can have the list show on ads that match your criteria. This will come in especially handy for those people that have given me tons of feedback over the years that they don't want to hunt through all of the "sold" items to find ones that are still available.
In the second dropdown menu, you can choose to have the ads sorted by the date they were posted (newest OR oldest) as well as by price from highest-to-lowest or vice-versa
#2 a)
For those looking to get their ad further prominent exposure on top of the regular feature ads, there are now
category feature ads. At the top of each category in the classifieds, there are now two spaces allocated to category feature ads. Every single time the category page loads, it will randomly choose from all category featured ads and place two at the very top. It has a link to all featured ads from the top. The cost to have your ad category featured is $4.99 and it stays featured for a full month. The option is now available on the page that you use to submit your ad. More details can be found at
http://www.ebrandon.ca/classifieds_upgrades.aspx#categoryfeature
#2 b)
With the introduction of category feature ads, I am now giving businesses the opportunity to add their products to the site under categories that they fit in. Staying true to the classifieds' setup of now allowing business ads amongst standard free category ads, business ads will
only be available through the category feature ad spaces at the top and the links that accompany that section. I've gotten a
ton of requests from businesses over the years that would like a way to make use of the classifieds, and my answer has always been that I'd like to find a way to make it work for all involved but not a way that sacrifices the quality of the system that's grown to what it is today. This in a very unique way gives us a chance to see what businesses have to offer, but separate from the standard private sale ads that folks post to the site.
For businesses that load a fair amount of inventory into the site, there will be a link that allows the user to view all of that business' inventory on one single page.
Any business interested in taking advantage of this feature can drop me a note and I'll let you know what's involved.
#3)
Not so much a new feature, but a change that should be noted with the standard feature ads that appear on the main classified page. The price for a standard feature ad has received a modest raise to $6.99. Still
way less than comparable classified sites charge for the same option, but the main classified page feature ads have to cost a little more than category feature ads. When combined with the fact that main page feature ads are almost always sold out the small increase makes sense as supply is nowhere near demand!
I did a bit of math over the weekend, and it turns out that your average main page feature ad gets a boost of 56% more views on average when compared to an ad that hasn't been featured... so it's still the premiere way to get attention for your ad and priced as such.
#4)
In line with main page feature ads, I get several requests per week from people that want to upgrade their ads *after* they're posted. I would do my best to accomodate, but it was becoming clear that I couldn't keep up and couldn't have the ads featured at the exact times people want them featured (evenings, weekends, etc).
As part of the upgrade today, I've added a couple of new links to the "edit ad" page that you see when you login to make changes to your ad. Using those links you can instantly and easily upgrade any ad to a main page feature ad or a category feature ad. This includes anyone that has posted an ad to eBrandon before this upgrade was rolled out. Main page feature ads are of course subject to the maximum ten ad per week limit, but when you login to edit your ad you will now be told exactly when the next ad is expected to open up.
If you'd like more info on either type of feature ad, I've added a new page at
http://www.ebrandon.ca/classifieds_upgrades.aspx
A big thanks to everyone that's helped to make the classifieds a success and given me reason to constantly find new and better ways for us to buy and sell. Don't hesitate to drop me a note if you have any questions at all!