Hello all,

i just finished my website 100% custom built.
http://www.carslap.com

I did best recommendations to be user friendly easy to navigate, search engine friendly, but very very low on traffic. I may say not any natural traffic.

The site goal is to provide classifieds listing of new/used cars, motorcycles, RVs even boat ( just added this feature ). Ajax type select of vehicle listing all nice features.

BUT! ... very though to make it poppular and to generate traffic.

I tried adwords:
I generated separate group for the cars , motorcycles, rvs, boats and even for dealers registration page. Selected few dozens of good keywords: not just "used cars" or other trivial and high bid keywords.
and still no clicks. Even the CPC for each one of my keywords is above 50, 70 cents, even $1.

I am sure i am doing something wrong. I admit i am new in SEO and website marketing but i am trying to do my best making this site really nice and useful.

I need advice how, where and some good practices in making this site really visited and used. Maybe this i tough work because there are thousands maybe millions of sites "claiming" to provide vehicle classifieds. Maybe the auto "world" is too big for one more site.

I am starting to think to sell the site because of this.

I will appreciate every advice or reproaches.

Thanks,

when you start a new web site it will be better to wait a while then add ads to it. By this time it will gain PR and traffic

moussa854,

The site was published in january.
and since i see no any benefit ( no fraffic generated ) from having adwords i stopped using it. It didn't worths the money. Just clicks not from my adwords but from content network which was usually a wrong accident click and the visitor probably was not attracted from such content.

What is a good budget to start advertising with adwords or other adveristers. $5,$10,$20, $100 /day .. i can not afford 100$/day adwords budget with no income from the site yet. Give me an exmple where and how to market the site.


Thanks,

I have no experience in the auto trade industry but I would say your best bet would be to join some Car / Auto related message boards. Post advice for members and put your URL in your signature on that board. Anyone reading an automobile message board is your target market so your site should be of interest to them.

Also, have you tried contacting automobile websites to see if you can strike up a partnership deal of some kind? For every visitor they send your way you will give them x dollars?

Finally, in the UK we have a car magazine called "Auto Trader". It is basically a magazine for everyone in the UK wanting to sell there car. If you have something similiar wherever you're from it might be worth placing an ad in one of those magazines. Instead of paying $1 for every AdWord to Google, why not drop the AdWords and pay $1000 to a car magazine for a quarter-page advertisement. Everyone reading that magazine is obviously interested in buying or selling a second hand motor ~ if they see your big advert saying "Free to buy/sell a car" they will probably check it out.

Hope these are of some help ~ I'm struggling with SEO a bit myself and believe offline advertisements might be the way to go for the time being.
Will

I'd fix the search first. It appears there are never any results.

I think the bigger issue is, you started this without a plan.
Building a web site first, and then trying to figure out how to market it second.

I agree with Will, that the best thing to do is to start buying some ads. Next up, drop the adsense ads displayed on your site. Most of them directly compete with your site.

Originally Posted by downliner

Instead of paying $1 for every AdWord to Google, why not drop the AdWords and pay $1000 to a car magazine for a quarter-page advertisement. Everyone reading that magazine is obviously interested in buying or selling a second hand motor ~ if they see your big advert saying "Free to buy/sell a car" they will probably check it out.

Thank you downliner for the proposals.

Everything seems reasonable what you say.
I was thinking about doing offline advertising but in a later stage.
I still have no what to provice to my customers. Still no traffic, no car ads people do not know the site to post their advertisements. So if i do advertise now they may visit the site, will see nothing exciting and will leave it , forget it or even worse remain with negative impression of the site.

So i think to follow your other advice to start doing partnerships with other car related websites, forums etc...

If you have idea where to start with please give me advice.

I really appreciate your posting
Thanks.

Thanks willcode4beer for your reply,

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

I'd fix the search first. It appears there are never any results.

The search works fine but still there are like few dozens of car ads. Maybe that is the reason you have no results. As i posted before it is brand new ... no really many ads.

So i am in the stage of making new parnerships and start making popular the site.

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

I think the bigger issue is, you started this without a plan.
Building a web site first, and then trying to figure out how to market it second.

Yes, i started the website because i had idea for the desing and wanted to have a car related website. But when i started i wanted to have cycles after that RVs, boats so it was still in development.

Now im stuck with the marketing of the site. I realized how tough is the internet auto branch (Or maybe i still do not know how togh is) .But i know that the beginning is tough.

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

I agree with Will, that the best thing to do is to start buying some ads. Next up, drop the adsense ads displayed on your site. Most of them directly compete with your site

Yes those ads do not benefit anyting but driving away my visitors. I will remove them.


Thanks again for the anwer and the proposals.

I will appreciate any partnership or advice for the marketing begginer as me.