[pataburd]

I'm hoping that ad fees will be more reasonable than they are on AudiogoN. At $6 a pop, it's ridiculous. Plus, I've had communication nightmares using A'gon, with the Gestapo-like iron grip on what the user is allowed to say, do, think. I have not sold on AudiogoN in years, and plan not to in the future.

 

[dragan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pataburd /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm hoping that ad fees will be more reasonable than they are on AudiogoN. At $6 a pop, it's ridiculous. Plus, I've had communication nightmares using A'gon, with the Gestapo-like iron grip on what the user is allowed to say, do, think. I have not sold on AudiogoN in years, and plan not to in the future.

pataburd - very glad you asked! The fees are as follows:

Listing (all categories): $2.00
Listing Renewal: $2.00
Featured Ad Status: $2.00
Ad Bolding: $2.00
Better Placement: $2.00
Attention Getters: $2.00
Storefront (1 month) $50, (6 months) $250.00 and (12 months) $450.00

Now, few things to know - each new registration gets 10 credits worth 10 simple listings, upgrades are extra.

No percentage fees collected at auction end or percentage fees of any kind.

Wanted to Buy ads are for free and are set up through "notify me" feature in "My Account" area - I can explain this more if needed. You can run as many as you like and for as long as you like.

Six-month StoreFront subscription is also given for free to all users with "business" registration automatically. Since this feature is available to all, private accounts, if interested, can just email and I'll activate the store subscription for them as well.

In the forum section only thing I ask is respectful behavior. I will not tolerate offensive language etc. No other sanctions or censorship. Say what you will and please speak your mind, agree or disagree all you desire but do in a respectful way. The site is beholden to all equally. Simple!

Thanks for your interest and I hope to see you visit the site and become a member.

Not to forget, there are few advertising options available on the site. All free of charge.

 

[kg21]

always good to have an alternative, and having a seperate headphone category is definitely a smart move, that is one weakness audiogon has. A lot of headphone stuff is sold there but people put it in different categories more of a hassle if you want to look at all the headphone stuff instead of searching. Not sure where to draw the line for "high end" but good luck on the site.

 

[dragan]

kg21, thank you! I didn't have the headphones category initially but good folks on this site commented and suggested I create one. So I did! It was a big oversight on my part and hopefully forgivness will be granted

There have been few other good suggestions offered and I ended up incorporating them as well.

The way I see it, it is efforts we all make and I certainly am very thankful for everybody's support.

 

[Bostonears]

One thing I really dislike about Audiogon is that it now prevents regular paying ad listers (like me) from posting web links in their ads (like to reviews in magazines or product listings on manufacturers' web sites). When they instituted this absurd policy, I had an email exchange with them asking why they did it. They never came back with anything even remotely resembling a reasonable explanation. It was just "we decided."

I'd be happy to buy and sell stuff on someplace other than Audiogon. eBay is fine for low end stuff, and Head-fi is great for cans, but Audiogon has been the only realistic option for buying and selling most high end audio gear.

Of course, the key to a successful online marketplace is getting lots of eyeballs to look at it. So Dragan, other than this thread here on Head-fi, how else are you drumming up users?

 

[dragan]

Bostonears, great question. This is what I have done so far:
Head-Fi, running a thread and depending on the response I may grow it into a full ad. So far, it is generating visitors and I'll stick with it.

CAM, you'll see mention of the site in few threads with me watching them very close

AA, same thing plus a commercial post in their Industry News section. I inquired about becoming a sponsor but was completely ignored due to their perception of me as competition (?)

Posted and followed up in various other smaller/bigger boards etc.

Running a full ad with 6moons. Began speaking with Enjoy The Music and will have something hopefully soon on there as well.

Contacted AudioReview and they are looking into advertising options for me. They seem a bit reluctant but I'll wait and see.

Speaking with UsedPrice to establish audio blue book service (free to all members) and possible combined advertising.

Considering heavily print magazines but will wait a little while as the costs are very high.

Respectfully asking everyones help, if they like the site, to please post content and help me spread the word.

As I write this, the site is getting a major revision. Please check it out later tonight. This is being done in response to good people making comments and suggestions. Meaning, I'm not only listening but am very willing to implement requests etc. After all, the site is for me too, I buy and sell just like everyone else.

A lot of work left and need a lot of help from everyone.

 

[Bostonears]

6moons ought to get you the right kind of eyeballs. My favorite review site, even though I don't always agree with their reviews.

 

[dragan]

Yes, Srajan has been very easy to work with and very helpful. Completely unsolicited and on his own, he made a small mention of my site few months ago which generated huge numbers for me.

The v2 is now up, please let me know what you think. Tomorrow night I'll be back here to make an announcement.

 

[Bostonears]

dragan,

The new (v2) site looks quite nice. But I noticed a couple of minor things:

- Every time you choose a subcategory in the navigation on the left side, the navigation list collapses back to its original state. It would be easier to use if the list remained open to its prior state, so the user could just click another subcategory. (For example, I might want to look at Solid State power amplifiers, then immediately look at Digital power amplifiers.) It's really a nitpick that just adds one or two extra clicks for the user, but its the kind of thing that get really frustrating when you use a site frequently.
- If I click on DACs in the Digital subcategory of the navigation on the left side (http://www.hifihock.com/hindex.php?a=5&b=206) I get "webpage cannot be found."

 

[dragan]

Thank you! Appreciate it. As for the cat menu, I'd like to wait a while. I agree with you and see how it could be better but would like to wait for more feedback on it as well as on site in general.

Thanks for noticing the bad link, it's been fixed this morning and now takes you to proper destination.

 

[dragan]

Greetings,

With the increasing number of visits and registrations HiFi Hock has been receiving, some excellent suggestions on how to improve the interface came in as well. One common sentiment seems to be that pages were little too busy with too many features. All in all, the site was in need of a minor overhaul in order to make it a little less cluttered and so we set out to make some changes.

The biggest issue we faced was how to "clean up" without taking away too many good and useful features. By implementing a change in the site's theme, we were able to preserve most of its functionality and did away with only a few minor things.

With your help, v2 has been finalized and is now in place. We think we did better then we expected and we hope you'll love it as much as we do.

Thanks,
Dragan

 

[krmathis]

Looks nice!
..and thanks for contributing to the Head-Fi community.

 

[dragan]

Thank you, appreciate it. It's been a long time coming but it is now all finished and live

 

[nor_spoon]

One thing, wouldn't it look better with Headphone Cables, instead of Headphone Cable in the sub-menu of Headphones?
Sorry for my nitpicking... I might be wrong.

Nice site. Good to have alternatives.

 

[dragan]

nor_spoon, no need to apologize. Glad you saw it... Yes, and it would be consistent with Cables in main category. My bad. Fixed.

Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it.