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Best new car research website! (How NOT to ask/take advice)

GuestUser303

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And yet, you've contributed NOTHING to any other thread.

I wouldn't think you would really want contributions from someone that has yet to start a successful business...

Regardless, this is only my second day on here, I have a day job, and tons of comments to respond to on here. I haven't even had a chance to work on my website today because of all the responses I have had to post here.
 
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RyHi

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Why not at least be honest about your intentions OP? You do not care about anyone's advice. Your only intent is to try to drum up traffic for your spam site.

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk
 

MJ DeMarco

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And besides the fact that most people that have actually taken the time

And that's the point you're missing. Your average drive-by consumer ain't gonna take time to "figure out" what your doing. The block of text on the front page?

Here's what the consumer will do:

post-58499-Alyson-Stoner-Missy-Elliott-da-fMKo.gif


It's much easier to click back and re-Google.

I wouldn't think you would really want contributions from someone that has yet to start a successful business...

That's not true.

Your opinion as a human being, a man, and consumer, an aspiring entrepreneur, and someone who demands better for his life is worthwhile. Not everyone here has a successful business -- as I mention upstairs, your action here alone very much exceeds what others have done.
 

GuestUser303

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Why not at least be honest about your intentions OP? You do not care about anyone's advice. Your only intent is to try to drum up traffic for your spam site.

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk

Oh really? So the fact I am trying to redesign my website and I am going to remove the donation options is not caring about anyone's advice?
 
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GuestUser303

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And that's the point you're missing. Your average drive-by consumer ain't gonna take time to "figure out" what your doing. It's much easier to click back and re-Google.

I'm not sure why you think I am missing that point. The admin at acurazine.com messaged me and said he thinks my website is very informative, so he is going to leave the post up. My strategy is to get car junkies on it, because they are the ones that will most likely try to figure it out. If they like it, as much as I think they will, than they will share it with their friends and family. Someone said my friends and family would just talk it up. They didn't. They gave me constructive advice. They said it needed images. So I put them up. They said it needed tool tips. So I added them. They said it needed a tutorial, so I made one. Most of what you all give me is, "I don't think the website is needed". Not constructive at all.

That's no true.

Your opinion as a human being, a man, and consumer, an aspiring entrepreneur, and someone who demands better for his life is worthwhile. Not everyone here has a successful business -- as I mention upstairs, your action here alone very much exceeds what others have done.

As I said, I haven't even had time to do anything else today but answer posts here.
 

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I think the site is basic, but I like basic. I like craigslist because I'm all about getting data presented to me in a simple and fast manner.

With that said, when I searched for an R8, it didn't show up. I think the buttons are screwy. I click one and the others all light up or turn off. I'm confused.

Also, I think there is a market for your data. I had friends who were so obsessed with 0-60 times and HP that they could quote 1/4 times of every single production car.

Ironically, yesterday I was designing a new product for a car and I needed to know the distance between headrests. I measured 3 cars personally and got 31", 32" and 36". I'm trying to make a small, medium and large size and I don't know what distance to use.

Imagine if I could do a search and find out that 80% of the regular SUVs had headrest distances of between 32"-36" and that most compacts were around 31". That would have made my data gathering so much easier. If your website had that dimension, it would have been a godsend.

But for now, I have to keep asking friends (and strangers) if I can go measure their headrest distances of their cars.

This is just an example of a weird need. But if I have it, others probably would have it too.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Fox

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This is like playing minesweeper (and not in a good way). I have tried 5 times to do a basic search and it keeps resetting.
 

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Site seems really glitchy along with some other issues. That aside...

I search for cars a lot online. I was going to start an import business in the past (moving old land rovers to the USA and Canada - huge mark up) - I just don't see the need for a site this detailed. Your plan is to make money through ads so you want massive traffic. At the moment you are going the exact opposite direction - there will be 1% of people you love this and 99% who will go elsewhere. No one likes to be told they wasted time on an idea but unless you change your profit plan or "dumb it down" it won't ever get those big numbers to bring in the revenue.

Also on a side note if you have to make a 12 minute video to explain why your site is the best and how to use it then you need to switch things up. I can get my mum to use AirBnB and she doesn't need to be told what to do. You should check out the book "don't make me think" about userface design.
 

Fox

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Seems to be a lot of these threads lately @MJ DeMarco - maybe like a "shark tank" section of the forum where people can critique things?
Does that already exist but people don't use it?
 

QDF

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I think you missed one of the most constructive comments in this thread.

The average person looking for a car won't have the patience to figure out your website as it is right now, especially considering the bugs people have mentioned.

BUT....you said your ideal customers who will take the time to figure it out are car enthusiasts. Let's assume this is true.

In this case, your best move right now is to go to a forum full of car enthusiasts and ask for advice on features AND create a poll on that forum to see if those users would use your website based on the idea alone.

Fun story....a while ago I had an idea for an app/site I thought was genius and the numbers worked out. I went directly to a forum of people in this market and talked to them as well as polled them. I got almost 100 votes on the poll...maybe 2 or 3 said they'd use it. I killed the idea. It still could have worked...maybe. But the odds were extremely slim, and I'm not going to be in the business of forcing an unwanted or unneeded solution.

You came here because you wanted actionable feedback. By all means fix the bugs in your site, and redesign it to be simpler, etc. But communicate with your actual customer base and poll them. If you don't do this, it's likely because you're afraid they'll reject your idea - trust me, this is a good thing if this happens. Either way, you're informed.

If you poll them, you can actually use basic statistics to accurately calculate the views of the entire population of car enthusiasts based off of your poll results alone.

I'm just afraid you'd ignore their feedback too if they told you they wouldn't use it.
 
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Fox

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But communicate with your actual customer base and poll them.

Thats the thing though - I think we are the target audience. There is at least two guys on this thread who have own/owned supercars. I have owned over 20 cars in my life and used to buy and sell them for profit in Uni. This feedback is what his marketing will be thinking especially if he wants large traffic to drive ad revenue.
 

The-J

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You sound like a bit of a dickhead. I don't know what you're trying to prove. I'm almost certain that I wouldn't like you in real life. But you're giving it an honest effort and that's respectable.

I'm not a car guy. I don't know jack shit about cars. I can't even drive a manual. But I do know websites.

I like the design of the site as it stands today. I don't know what it looked like yesterday. But on desktop, it's alright. I like the colors.

The mobile view, I don't see much of anything. No CTA above the fold, which is problematic if you want to get people to do something.

I used the search function and it looks like your data is pretty limited. I can't tell if you're pulling up exact models for cars that exist today and are on the market, or if you're just giving the information. If it's the former, there's no links to the person/dealer I can call in order to talk further about it. If it's the latter, there's simply not enough information on enough models.

What's nice about this is that I can look up a car and find the EXACT specs, all on one page. I like that. I'm not a car guy and I only have cursory knowledge of what the specs mean. But I can find them if I want to know them for whatever reason.

What's not so nice is that... there's nowhere to go from here. I've found my information so what am I gonna do now, just peace?

With any website, the 1st fundamental question to ask is "Why are people here?" The 2nd is "Are they getting what they want?" To answer question #1, you wanna get people to the site, see where they're coming from, and see what information they were given before arriving. Not us, mind you: I went to the site to see how bad it really is, seeing all these comments. I don't think it's bad, it's just flawed.

To answer question #2, you wanna see what actions people are taking on the site. Are they leaving from the front page/landing page? Then they're not getting what they want. Are they searching for information then leaving? They might be getting what they want. Let's say you toss a button to link to the dealership. Are they clicking on that link? If so, they might be getting what they want (info on a place to see who is selling the car in question).

"The purpose of this website is to give people a starting point for finding a vehicle." Who is 'people'? You seem to want to go after the car enthusiasts. One thing about car enthusiasts that I've noticed is that they love to talk specs. Your site could help settle some arguments, especially ones concerning "Which one has the higher HP" and stuff. I don't know where the money is in that, though.

As it stands now: people visiting the site in order to get info on where to buy a car of a certain model will NOT get what they want. People visiting the site to get info about the specifications of a car might get what they want... if they are able to find the car info on your site in the first place.

The real flaw is the business model, that is, there is none. Even pre-revenue companies with millions of $ in VC funding and hundreds of thousands of visitors per week have a business model in mind: they're just building an audience and assessing needs. What kind of audience would you build, small or big? Would you be able to give them what they want?

tl;dr i don't really see a need but i'm probably not your target market anyway
 

QDF

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Thats the thing though - I think we are the target audience. There is at least two guys on this thread who have own/owned supercars. I have owned over 20 cars in my life and used to buy and sell them for profit in Uni. This feedback is what his marketing will be thinking especially if he wants large traffic to drive ad revenue.

Agreed.

There are quite a few car enthusiasts on the forum, and he's received good advice from them.

I'm just saying, if this is his target audience as he has mentioned, feedback from this audience exclusively (not everyone on this forum are car enthusiasts) would be more valuable.

I agree though - if he wants large traffic and ad revenue, appealing to only car enthusiasts can be limiting.
 
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A few opinions of mine regarding the site.

The Website

6zlr82.jpg


1. Remove the big wall of text. Less is more. Use better copy and get to the point.

2. Change the logo. I think it's good looking but the question mark doesn't make sense with your theme. Buyers are looking for the exact car. So they already know what to find.

3. Your website is about finding the exact car you want. I recommend changing the name.

The Name

1. Whichride4you is too long and a mouthful. I understand you like the name and think it's brilliant but it comes off as spammy. Buyers who sees this name through email campaigns won't open the email, in my opinion.

2. The theme of the site is finding the complete car. So use a better name. Here are some examples:
  • totalwheels.com
  • truewheels.com
  • totalvehicle.com
These names sound bland but try to focus on the theme of your site. Buyers are looking for a seamless experience. Offer that to the buyer -offering flawless results.

The Website (Pt. 2)

20z1kk2.jpg


1. I made a quick mock up of what the mobile version of the site could look like.

2. The site title should have an appealing font with eye catching colors.

3. The USP could be something like choose your ideal car in seconds. This might be a pretty bad USP but get creative and succinct.

4. Where the orange bar button is, replace with "view directory."

5. Where you see the steps, use a 3 step instructional with great looking logo designs explaining to the user how to easily use the site.

6. After the steps, you could use a video to further enhance the site.

7. Add social media logos and maybe reviews.

The Features

1. I like the features aspect of the site and how it visually shows the details after the search.

2. However, fix the bugs and make it look more appealing and organized.

Note:
- These are just a few opinions of mine regarding where I think the site needs improvement.

- My suggestions makes the site simple, speedy, and user-friendly.

Important: determine who's your target market since there seems to be ambiguity here.
 

KSR

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The issue with the above scenario was my time wasted every single day checking for a new listing. I tried to automate it on kijiji (similar to ebay marketplace in US) but the automation tool is a complete joke and never worked. Autotrader had this feature to notify me of new postings which fall in to my criteria but it was very very buggy and only worked 20-30% of the time, resulting in lost deals. I had no choice but to manually search every site, every day, multiple times per day.

If you can come up with a tool which properly notifies me via email, text or the app on any new postings across all platforms (kijiji, craigslist, trader) which match my criteria, this is the winner. This is an actual need, it saves me time and hassle and provides extreme value for the daily car shopper or hustler/flipper. When you save someone time and provide value, those are the key ingredients to success with such a website/tool.

Screw this guy, what languages would I have to learn to do this?
@Fox ?

99.5% of statistics are made up. Or did you conduct a scientific survey?

You know -- the fact that he gives you a great tip and that's all you took from it proves that you just don't want to be helped. Either take advice from people who have earned $$$ online or don't, the choice is yours.
 

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No, that's a WRX. I was looking for the base Imprezza.
The WRX also didn't come up in my search even though it matches the criteria I entered.

I found what I was looking for by searching all Subaru. Not sure if it's a bug or I'm doing it wrong. The UI is not super intuitive.
 
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corius

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I want to apologize for the earlier post. Today has been a day with gremlins in the internet for me.

While im not as experienced as everyone else that has given opinions I am a "car guy". Your site has good information but very hard to get to. Just searching for it took me 3 tries because of confusing which and witch if english is not your first language.

Asking my wife her opinion (shes not a car person) she could care less about all that info. And more along the lines of "is this a work car" "will this tow my boat"

If your target marker is going to be new make your website match new.

Now if you want to attract "car guys " give us something that we can use to settle arguments. For example "did the 1972 impact have a small block 350 or a 409 bigblock
 
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Michael Burgess

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Pivot, and build a platform that allows people to search for used cars online with greater detail and ease.

Four users have now made it clear they think the idea of a used car filtering system that catches information from other sites (Kijiji, craigslist, autotrader, etc) would be worthwhile. I'd say either pivot to work on this, work on this in addition to your current site, or have somebody else take it entirely.

Market Evidence:
1)
If you could build a site or app that lets me add your search variables / filters to USED cars that are posted on craigslist and Kijiji, that would be a really useful idea. Just my thought.
2)
@ddzc 's idea? Now that I seems interesting.
3)
Screw this guy, what languages would I have to learn to do this?
@Fox
4)
I do have a great idea though for people looking for used cars. I hope you steal it and become huge, or someone else does..... my time wasted every single day checking for a new listing.... the automation tool is a complete joke and never worked... resulting in lost deals... When you save someone time and provide value, those are the key ingredients to success with such a website/tool.

^^^
Hope I didn't butcher your quote too badly, but there's a great idea that solves real pain points and is totally tangible.

I'd personally use a service right now that did exactly this. Don't continue to let me manually search for a 2005-2007 Ford F350 with the 6.0L diesel engine, crew cab long box dually with King Ranch interior under 200,000KM with no CEL (in white only, please).

Somebody build this system. You'd find a way to monetize it and literally make millions if you did it right.
 

ddzc

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I bet you this guy isn't coming back because he didn't like our feedback. MJ has a lot of patience though, I must say.

But while on this great topic because I'm a car freak and have owned dozens and flipped cars in my past, I still think the market needs something for the used car market. Kijiji in Toronto has really taken off in the past few years for vehicles/homes, and I believe more used cars are posted there instead of on autotrader. The problem is, kijijis search and filtering capabilities is utter crap! I'm surprised, with the revenue they bring in, they can't easily hire someone to fix their search/filters.

See attached. I searched for a BMW M4 Coupe. Look at the search results, F32 Bumper, Wanted M3, 330CI, 335IS, wtf? Look at the second attachment, I can only filter on price, that's it?! What a complete joke. For me to find what I want on kijiji, I have to search "2015 BMW M4 Coupe, 2016 BMW M4 Coupe, 2017 BMW M4 Coupe", and then search everything without coupe, and then manually go through them all.

If you build an app that searched kijiji and properly filters the results with your criteria and again, the instant notification features (this can even be sold to people for a premium price), I would use this all the time and I know many people who would. Then having your app or site do this from multiple sources and compiling everything in a neat format, this would be awesome. There's a new app which I've been selling random stuff on lately called letgo. It's pretty good, people listing cars there also, a hidden gem perhaps? Great for busy/lazy people because it takes seconds to post something for sale. I've seen motorcycles/cars on there lately, out of curiosity. Every time a new selling platform comes out, you add it to your app, now your searching kijiji, craigslist, trader, letgo.

The above is the basic platform and then you build upon there and make it a little fancy, provide the address, phone numbers of the users, have geographic services enabled so it detects how many KM away from your home each listing is, have the app detect and delete all of the duplicates who post the same exact ad on multiple platforms, etc.
 
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GuestUser303

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I think the site is basic, but I like basic. I like craigslist because I'm all about getting data presented to me in a simple and fast manner.

With that said, when I searched for an R8, it didn't show up. I think the buttons are screwy. I click one and the others all light up or turn off. I'm confused.

The only thing I can suggest is to watch the tutorial. Also, to find the R8, just select Audi, then R8, then show vehicles.

Also, it's good to know some people like the simplistic layout. Thanks.
 

MidwestLandlord

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The only thing I can suggest is to watch the tutorial. Also, to find the R8, just select Audi, then R8, then show vehicles.
Have you watched the tutorial?

STOP trying to sell us your service, and START listening to the feedback.

Otherwise, go somewhere else to spam.

Seriously, a business, and business owner, that can not ADAPT to what the market tells them is DOOMED to FAIL.

With your attitude, you are going to fail with this. How do I know? Because you already have.
 
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Drew D

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I will take that as a no.
As soon as someone sees they have to watch a tutorial to figure out how to navigate your site they are going to back out and go right to your competitor.
 
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GuestUser303

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As soon as someone sees they have to watch a tutorial to figure out how to navigate your site they are going to back out and go right to your competitor.

The only other way to get all the information is to go to each manufacturer's website and do all the research yourself, which will take far more than 12 minutes. So in reality, I have no competitor's.
 

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I think the most important lesson that I have learned since reading TMF and joining this forum is "ADD VALUE"!! This thread is riddled with value added feedback and you have given ZERO back. You have 45 posts in total, ALL in this thread. If you wish to stick around, I recommend that you do not post another reply in this thread until you have posted here:

Forum Introductions (Who are you!?)

and here:

GOLD - I've Read The Millionaire Fastlane!

Of course, I am not a mod and have no authority, but it seems you are walking a thin line and I've seen others get shown the door for similar attitudes.

Your choice! If you've actually read the book, then you will know what that means.
 

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