

Ask HN: Review my Startup, MotoListr.com - tontoa4

Hello All,<p>My startup is called MotoListr @ http://motolistr.com<p>The website is a motorcycle classified site that's incredibly simple. The first page you come to is the actual searching application. The default is to show ALL motorcycles.<p>I started the site because I got fed up with competing sites with more advertisements than content, and broken and non-intuitive search/sort functions.<p>This is my first end to end project, I taught myself PHP/MySQL along the way.<p>Please let me know your first impressions/opinions of the site.<p>Thank you,
Nick
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satyajit
Not much happening here, but a very simple interface. Clear, easy to navigate.
Though little basic. Sending email page has funny question "Are you human?" -
isn't that too easy to crack? You don't even take 'y' as an answer, only
obvious ans is 'yes'!

From biz perspective - how do you plan to monetize? By $9 listing? What would
this provide that Craigslist doesn't? Sorry to sound -ve, but I just wonder...
because I am dealing with similar questions about monetization in my startup,
though in a diff space. All the best!

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tontoa4
Here's a screenshot of the email you sent.

<http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/5822/email-from-form.tiff>

I'm going to target the Niche, and spend the income from the site on
advertising to get it popular. Dealers are be able to list at a discount by
buying bulk listings at a reduced price per listing.

The reason I can charge is because:

1\. Ebay charges $30 for a motorcycle listing 2\. CycleTrader (closest
competitor) charges $25+ 3\. My website is simpler, with NO ADS just pure
content. 4\. When the $9 the customer pays for a listing... they're going to
get much more than $9 in benefits. I'm going to create value any way possible.
Free listings that are ad supported also depend on pageviews and exposure...
which means that if the site is too successful... it will undermine itself
because the bikes will sell and content will disappear too quickly.

~~~
satyajit
I hope all you say is true and wish you all the best ... But as one of HN
reader in recent past noted: people have gone too far with receiving free stuf
on internet, so they don't want to pay ... From that perspective, you didn't
talk about 'Craigslist' (No ads, pure content)!

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sam_in_nyc
This is an idea that requires reaching a "tipping point" in order for it to
work. It could work, but you're going to need a solid strategy for getting
people to adopt this over, say, craigslist or one of 20 other classified
sites.

Being "incredibly simple," at this point, is probably not enough to get enough
people using it.

Best of luck

~~~
tontoa4
Of course, but it's a huge improvement over my competitors. I think JUST
targeting the Niche will help too. Plus I can be free for as long as is
necessary to reach the "tipping point." It's the chicken and egg problem in
the beginning. I agree just being simple will not be enough in and of itself.

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tontoa4
Clickable link / <http://motolistr.com>

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eli_s
Looks good to me - from what I can tell bike riders seem to be pretty tight
bunch so if you get a few on board they'll probably recommend you to their
friends.

On this page: <http://motolistr.com/listing/316>

The 'Email Seller' box is after the fold. This is the most important part of
your page it needs to be right at the top next to the image of the bike.

Your design would probably work well with a fluid layout too. It takes a lot
more work but if you do it right then you will get a better experience for
small and large screen sizes.

