advise needed building free online trading portal

[schick]

dear members,

i have a blog about business and like to move step forward with very own portal. I need some advice how can i make a trading portal like Home Page - Malaysia Auction & Online Shopping or something like alibaba.com. How much the budget cost to have this sites and how can i promote the portal?

I found new malaysia online shopping sites on google Online Shopping Buy | Merchants Online Shop & Shopping eCatalog

how about timestreets portal? i think it cost me less than lelong or alibaba.

additional questions;

1. If i hire programmer to make online shopping like Online Shopping Buy | Merchants Online Shop & Shopping eCatalog, how much it will cost me?

2. How this site monetize its web?

3. is malaysian ready to have another online shopping beside lelong.com.my and timestreets.com? - mean market factors

really need some advise about this.

tq

[yonghs]

Do not forget ebay.com.my

If you want something as big as those sites and you need others to program/maintain for you, the cost might be mind boggling. At the very least think of some unique feature(s) to differentiate from those sites or focus on a certain niche.

[calvynlee]

you will need a huge cost to do marketing and advertising.

your website also need to be well maintain and not contain any bug, and user friendly is the most important.

just marketing cost and maintenance cost already take a lot of your budget.

by the way, how much your budget?

[schick]

i have no problem with budget, but i think lelong or ebay is too big for me.

how about online shopping portal like timestreets?

i think it should be easier for me to maintain. how about security? is this sites like timestreets need advance security? - i dont think so, they don't have any shopping cart i notice.

anybody can estimate for me?

[yonghs]

Originally Posted by schick

i have no problem with budget, but i think lelong or ebay is too big for me.

how about online shopping portal like timestreets?

i think it should be easier for me to maintain. how about security? is this sites like timestreets need advance security? - i dont think so, they don't have any shopping cart i notice.

anybody can estimate for me?

>> i have no problem with budget
I like your style

Dang, I can't understand their English .................... Now, this is GOOD NEWS for you, it's easier for you to tweak your idea and do it better

Anyway, from a glance it seems to be a normal "Classifieds" site (or is there any major difference)?? Whereas, ebay and lelong are auction sites.

You can just buy a open source classifieds script, modify it and launch your site within a couple of weeks....all for peanuts

But of course you should tweak your idea and add somthing fresh. (Classifieds sites are a dime a dozen)

Maybe you'd like to explain what's your idea of "trading portal" and how it's different from a run-of-the-mill "classifieds ad" site? Then maybe we can give u more input. Whether you want a "classifieds" or "auction" script, just go to hotscripts.com and look around first. (or go directly to Geodesic Solutions - Leaders in Classified Ads Software and Auction Software Programs to look at some classifieds and auctions scripts/demos - you can even immediately start a site like Lelong with their script, but of course you should redesign the original layout to look much much nicer than Lelong)

Lastly, differentiate yourself or focus on a niche. For example, focus on antiques, or collectibles, or fashion, or jewellry or a locality....well, you get my drift. Be unique, get creative. No point doing the same thing as the "big boys" are doing.. you'll be crushed in a heartbeat, unless you have a bottomless wallet

PS:
About the estimate. That's kinda difficult. Depending on the type of script you want, it should be about RM300 ~ RM1000++. If you can modify the original script and layout, then you can save a big chunk. For hosting, if you start small with shared hosting, that'll be about RM300+ per year (with domain).

[schick]

oh thanks yonghs,

who English you don't understand? thanks for d link i will look around.
i think there is too many classified web here.

something unique.. hmm..

[yonghs]

Originally Posted by schick

who English you don't understand?

timestreets

btw, lelong used to dominate the malaysian market, until ebay.com.my came in to share the spoils... now that's a really good reason to differentiate and dominate your own niche so that it's easier to weather any challenges from competitors

Haha... i just found a Malaysian classifieds site running on the Geodesics script (using the same bundled layout design)

[schick]

Originally Posted by yonghs

timestreets

btw, lelong used to dominate the malaysian market, until ebay.com.my came in to share the spoils... now that's a really good reason to differentiate and dominate your own niche so that it's easier to weather any challenges from competitors

Haha... i just found a Malaysian classifieds site running on the Geodesics script (using the same bundled layout design)

yup i agree lelong is huge and ebay also not bad. which malaysia classified site running geodesics script?

can i have d link

[JLHC]

Hi,

Here is a link for you to have a look at Classifieds and try the demo of it.

It offers categories and subcategories of unlimited depth, variable fields per categories, image upload for categories and classifieds, locking categories, classifieds approval, classifieds management by user, auto-generation of thumbnails and customizable e-mail notifications.

And it's open source, so you can hire someone to tweak it to suit your needs.
Hope this helps.

[yonghs]

schick,

Oredi sent PM to u

[Hydroburn]

Hi,

If you are serious about starting such a website and maintain it, you might want to consider a full time programmer instead of contracting the work to another development company or a freelancer. Such website will need constant updating of the features, addons or bug fixes.

As for hosting wise, i would suggest to start with at least a VPS and move on to a dedicated server when the need comes. You can also consider to start right from a dedicated server. Depending on the requirements you have for your resource usage. Do look into the amount of bandwidth you need as well. It is an important factor. A website that takes long to load will turn visitors away.

Regards,
Derrick Goh
sgWebster Solutions Pte Ltd

[alfirus]

If you already have buget, find a programmer (freelance) like me, or web program company like Hydroburn.

No need to 'pening'. You should focus on you goal.