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KLB
03-14-2006, 08:42 AM
So several months ago I bought a group of domains with the idea of creating a forum and content site around them, but haven't gotten to it. I have some friends who buy and sell used cars on a regular basis and I thought this could make an interesting topic for a forum. I purchased the .com, .info, .biz & .us for UsedCarExperiences and UsedCarExperience.

Now I personally know nothing about buying or selling used cars so I can't get my site off the ground without someone who knows the "business". I know these are really good domains and a really good website could be created around them, I'm just not sure in what direction I want to go with these domains. :confused:

paul
03-14-2006, 09:17 AM
Ken,
I do some work for a sub-prime lender who buys contracts from used car dealers. Take a look at www.sunstarrepo.com/gallery to see pictures and prices for the last few repo sales. I have pictures and auction sale prices for the last three years. You might also look at my placeholder page at www.carpaper.com for the fun of it.

The default rate for this kind of lending runs 25% or more but the profits can support that. It's real expensive to need a car after you have trashed your credit. Wecome to the dark side :)

KLB
03-14-2006, 09:31 AM
What I was thinking of was a two purpose site, one that helped educate used car buyers to be smarter consumers and the other to help people who want to be small time used car resellers. I'm actually suprised how much small time reselling goes on. The primary source of revenue I was going to depend on was ad revenues. I figured the traditional content/blog/forum model would work really well if I could just get it off the ground.

KLB
03-14-2006, 09:43 AM
Paul, I was just looking at your website and have a couple of suggestions. First the page you linked to above does not link to any other page of your site making site navigation difficult. Second I couldn't find where (as in city and state) your auctions took place until I used the Google maps link. I'd recommend putting your city and state on each page so that people can figure out whether it is possible for them to go to your auctions.

paul
03-14-2006, 09:45 AM
Its such a huge market you will probably want to stratify or subset content for selected demographics. You might enjoy reading through a book by Remar Sutton called Don't get taken every time. It was published many years ago, but the fictional car guy he created to make his points (Killer Monsoon) was VERY on target. It's probably in the library or a used book store.

paul
03-14-2006, 09:50 AM
It's a funny situation with that site. The owner is afraid he will have more bidders than he can handle so it is never advertised and I have never linked to it from anywhere else. We mail a flyer to some interested people that does have the URL, but thats the only advertising that gets done. About a hundred regulars show up, many with printouts of the web pages.

KLB
03-14-2006, 09:53 AM
Okay that is the screwiest thing I've ever heard of. Being afraid to attract too many bidders. :lol: