Hi from buzzmart

[buzzmart]

Dear All.

Hi my name is Michael I am one of the co-founders of Buzzmart.com. Since a young age I have been an advocate of buying and selling online, specifically on ...cough..ebay..cough sorry. I really enjoyed making my own money and most of all I enjoyed spending it even more. However, over time, especially as I grew older and realized that I needed more money to support myself, I realized the bay was too expensive for a small scale seller as myself. After the deduction of all fees, it was just not worth it anymore. So I thought of maybe trying other websites that do not charge such big commissions. Fair enough, there were many just like the bay out there but there was just something missing about all of them which did not make them stand out. They all felt like they were clones of one another, doing what ebay does at a cheaper cost to the seller but without offering anything unique. Not to say that this does not work. However, with the rise of facebook and youtube, I thought it would be a good idea to start my own marketplace which would incorporate some of these social networking and rich media elements, and so the story of Buzzmart begins.

In a way, I would describe Buzzmart as just having started off as a hobby, and it still is my hobby project, but after conducting some research into what people would like to see in new online marketplaces I decided to turn it into a business as well. After months, weeks, days, hours and time we should have been spending with our girlfriends, what you see live today at http://www.buzzmart.com is what we have been working on the last 2 years almost. To be honest we really underestimated the amount of work, think about having to code a marketplace from scratch as well as include social networking features. Not easy I tell you.

Anyways, we are continuing development as I write this. The ecommerce/auction market is a very competitive one to enter, with some very big players and sites popping up left and right before you can say "oh no, not another one!!". So we have to be realistic about our goals, but we truly believe we have something different from most our competitors. Our goal right now is to get as many people signed up and selling their stuff for free, with no commission or final fees. Marketing costs are not cheap as many website owners will know, so our success relies on our users to join and start selling.

Thanks all for reading.

 

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[DeletedUser394]

Against the rules?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm going to let it stand since the post seems genuine and the intro is well done. It isn't copy paste either.

Hey Michael welcome to the forum and thanks for posting your project -- definitely looks like you've put a lot of time into your venture -- hope it turns out well!!

 

[buzzmart]

I'm going to let it stand since the post seems genuine and the intro is well done. It isn't copy paste either.

Hey Michael welcome to the forum and thanks for posting your project -- definitely looks like you've put a lot of time into your venture -- hope it turns out well!!

My post is genuine and a reflection of my experience and how I came to making the website. I really appreciate people's feedback and suggestion, be it good or bad. Looking forward to talking to everyone here.

 

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[JP66]

Good luck with your venture Michael, I hope it turns out the way you want it too.

Btw, I think Ryan was just asking if your post was against the rules; there was no ban comment.

 

[buzzmart]

Good luck with your venture Michael, I hope it turns out the way you want it too.

Btw, I think Ryan was just asking if your post was against the rules; there was no ban comment.

Thanks mate. Me and Ryan gave each other a big hug, all good now.

 

[Sparlin]

There is reason for members to question your motives. People often sign up with the sole purpose of spamming the forum and pushing their product. Ryan's question was fair. It looks as though you are off to a good start with your website. I would recommend reading through the threads and learning from some of the success stories here. MJ also just wrote a great book that you might want to check out.

Good luck in the fastlane! :fastlane:

 

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[sk24iam]

Welcome!

It's nice to see other online startups in action.

Did you have any coding background when you started the project? What were some of the hardships you faced getting your site up and into beta?

 

[buzzmart]

There is reason for members to question your motives. People often sign up with the sole purpose of spamming the forum and pushing their product. Ryan's question was fair. It looks as though you are off to a good start with your website. I would recommend reading through the threads and learning from some of the success stories here. MJ also just wrote a great book that you might want to check out.

Good luck in the fastlane! :fastlane:

Thanks buddy. I have been reading through quite a few posts, life is a learning game and we at Buzzmart certainly do have a lot of learning to do still, but we believe what knowledge we have gained so far has put us on the right track.

 

[buzzmart]

Welcome!

It's nice to see other online startups in action.

Did you have any coding background when you started the project? What were some of the hardships you faced getting your site up and into beta?

I had some html and java background, but I realized that was not sufficient enough for this project. I did find a few freelancers to get the early prototypes coded, but with a lot of money spent on coders who were more interested in trying to drain every penny out of me, I realized the best thing to do was to find a good partner who was as passionate as I am about the project and its potentialities, as well as had the skills required to code a website of such complexity. I certainly learned that doing this project on my own would have been too difficult. Our team now consists of 5, 1 designer 2 coders and 2 project managers with vast experience in web development and who are passionate about everything that has to do with the web. Of course, most of us are doing this as part of a hobby and pushing our own abilities, but also in the hopes that something good will come out of it in the near future as the buzzmart community grows.

Hardships? I wish I knew where to start. First, prioritizing university, relationships (cough...girlfriends...) and time to get away from the computer screen to do something else every now and then (very important to one's overall well-being). Another major challenge was finding the right people with skill to code a website such as buzzmart from scratch. Not easy I tell you, and I have gone through many freelancers who made a lot of promises but could only talk the talk but not walk the walk. I learned a lot of lessons on the way, unfortunately spent a lot of my savings as well, but as I said before, find a good partner who believes in your project as much as you do - it just takes a huge load off your back. I always say to people that running a website is what I imagine raising a child must be like, in other words a lot of work! I look back at my early prototypes and the poor screenshots I made on paint, kind of nostalgic to look back at how things have evolved. Lastly, never give up, keep believing in what you do and even if it fails, well...just hope your mother has a spare room in her basement or attic. Better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all, at least that' how I see it.

 

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[sk24iam]

What process was involved in partnering with coders? How did you find these engineers?

 

[buzzmart]

What process was involved in partnering with coders? How did you find these engineers?

To be honest with you, I think we just got really lucky with our last coders. I saw their portfolio and I had seen that they had experience in creating social network and marketplace websites, so they were the obvious match. Our coders are young and ambitious, and the fact that they were much cheaper than everyone else we had used in the past was a bit worrying at first, but they really proved themselves on our project and did more than we had expected and even asked for. We even invited them to Cyprus (where our company is based) with all expenses paid where they had a great time with the rest of the team, as well as gave us an opportunity to discuss some business in person. I think that was also a nice motivator for them and helped us build a solid relationship in the end. We have a close friendship with them and are now a full part of our team.

They are great engineers, they told us that what they enjoyed most about Buzzmart is the fact that it was a big problem solving game, as they have done things on the website they have never attempted before. It is a good feeling when your coder tells you he enjoys the challenges of the work, quite different from what we had experienced from other coders. Our coders have been able to do everything we threw at them, things even I imagined could not be done, but nonetheless they found a solution to every problem.

Buzzmart at first might appear as a simple website, but there are some really smart workings in the background which can only be experienced when you buy or sell an item

 

[buzzmart]

Dear all,

I wanted to ask the people here about obtaining an investment. There seems to be a trend with a lot of startups having received investment funding from investment firms and angels and thus having really helped pushed forward the brand or idea. I was wondering, because I have no idea whatsoever to be honest, how are some of these startups getting investment? What is the procedure and what is required? Where to go to find investment? What must one give-up in return? Lucky?

Any info would be appreciated, even from actual investors on this board.

 

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[darkjediii]

I checked out the site and it looks great. some problems that you need to address:

1) looks bare, there are no listings. this is further magnified by the fact that you have the categories on the bottom showing your lack of content... I suggest removing the bottom categories for now, or somehow re-listing items for sale from other sites. you look like a big shopping mall with only a handful of items for sale inside.

2) you need to build your user base, possibly by hiring a full time guy (or do it yourself full time) to go to other listing sites and contacting sellers to list their items for free on your site.

3) what are you doing for marketing and how are you getting people to list on your site? I suggest going to forums with large user bases like niche forums. for example: car forums, camera forums, AV forums, off-topic discussion forums. there are usually large sub-forums within these sites that have TONS of niche listings. You can make a deal with those site owners to have you re-list all their classified listings within buzzmart.com for a larger exposure.. get with local papers throughout the country and strike a deal to re-list their local ads on your site.

another idea might be to offer up and coming discussion forums to have you run their 'for sale' section/sub-forums. name it something like 'buy and sell forum - powered by buzzmart.com'

4) invest in google ad-words or some kind of online marketing campaign to draw in buyers once you have a good amount of content.

Those are just ideas off the top of my head.. I don't fully understand your market but it seems like your biggest problem now is your lack of content.

 

[sk24iam]

In regards to filling your site with products, I think it is something you need to do to build incentive for vistors to sign up. You should look into dropshipping. You could list several hundred products on your wite through your personal account, and have them setup to be dropshipped. You wouldn't be offering the best prices, and may not get a lot of sales but it would fulfill the purpose of filling your site with products and listings, giving the appearance that there is more activity than there really is. It will also show users there are prices they can beat by listing their own products at better deals than what you have listed. This could serve as a boost to getting your site rolling.

 

[buzzmart]

I checked out the site and it looks great. some problems that you need to address:

1) looks bare, there are no listings. this is further magnified by the fact that you have the categories on the bottom showing your lack of content... I suggest removing the bottom categories for now, or somehow re-listing items for sale from other sites. you look like a big shopping mall with only a handful of items for sale inside.

2) you need to build your user base, possibly by hiring a full time guy (or do it yourself full time) to go to other listing sites and contacting sellers to list their items for free on your site.

3) what are you doing for marketing and how are you getting people to list on your site? I suggest going to forums with large user bases like niche forums. for example: car forums, camera forums, AV forums, off-topic discussion forums. there are usually large sub-forums within these sites that have TONS of niche listings. You can make a deal with those site owners to have you re-list all their classified listings within buzzmart.com for a larger exposure.. get with local papers throughout the country and strike a deal to re-list their local ads on your site.

another idea might be to offer up and coming discussion forums to have you run their 'for sale' section/sub-forums. name it something like 'buy and sell forum - powered by buzzmart.com'

4) invest in google ad-words or some kind of online marketing campaign to draw in buyers once you have a good amount of content.

Those are just ideas off the top of my head.. I don't fully understand your market but it seems like your biggest problem now is your lack of content.

These are great suggestions and we will definitely be looking into everything you've suggested. One of the things we never wanted to do was put listings up for sale that are not actually available for the sake of just populating the website, it just seems wrong. We have been marketing through some forums, but there is always the risk that we are just there to spam, point and case this forum. So forums are always risky and we have to be very careful with our approach and wording so that it does not seem like we are simply there to spam only. Googleadwords and Facebook ads are all good, but money is always a factor with advertising :smug2: Thanks for the suggestions, it is really appreciated, this week we should be completely done with our coding, we have a few extras here and there we want added or changed to the website and we will focus more on the marketing side of things.

With regards to online advertising, e.g. adwords and facebook, and the lack of finance for a successful advertising campaign, what do you think about crowd-funding in order to raise money to support marketing initiatives. For example, we have started this Rockethub

 

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[buzzmart]

In regards to filling your site with products, I think it is something you need to do to build incentive for vistors to sign up. You should look into dropshipping. You could list several hundred products on your wite through your personal account, and have them setup to be dropshipped. You wouldn't be offering the best prices, and may not get a lot of sales but it would fulfill the purpose of filling your site with products and listings, giving the appearance that there is more activity than there really is. It will also show users there are prices they can beat by listing their own products at better deals than what you have listed. This could serve as a boost to getting your site rolling.

This is a great suggestion!

 

[sk24iam]

I came across this site today. You might want to give it a shot, it looks like others have been successful in obtaining funding...

www.kickstarter.com

 

[buzzmart]

I took some of the advice here, and have 10 new sellers already in the last 24hrs. You guys are awesome.

 

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[Icy]

I took some of the advice here, and have 10 new sellers already in the last 24hrs. You guys are awesome.

That's awesome man, keep it up!

 

[camski]

Perhaps I missed it, and if I did I apologize, but may I ask how do you plan to generate revenue?

 

[buzzmart]

Perhaps I missed it, and if I did I apologize, but may I ask how do you plan to generate revenue?

Right now we have a free service and there are no ads. Our aim now is to get people buying and selling, getting a good amount of listings live on the website. As soon as we feel we are ready we will introduce some revenue generating ads (nothing too intrusive) maybe offer paid featured listings. We have a few ideas but right now we are more concerned about growing the marketplace and developing it. When there is traffic there will be revenue.

 

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[gotbalz]

sounds like great idea ebay needs competition with how much they have raised listing fees

 

[camski]

I think it is great that you are more service focused at first but I would also make sure that you have some kind of concrete plan for revenue generation. Dont take any offense to this because my view is somewhat contrarian to many others here on the forum in that I believe business plans are important. I know some feel that the action is more important than anything else and they think you should just jump in and do it and figure out how to get paid later. I believe that a good solid plan including revenue streams and profitbility study, followed by action is the best route.

It is very easy to give away goods and services, people will always flock to that. What happens too many times though is that once revenue generation becomes a necessity (if you are running a business there are always expenses) peoples business model changes and then they lose a good portion of their customer base. The trick to a great business is to provide value for value. Value for free as a model is not sustainable.


Keep pursuing your dream though I am looking forward to monitoring your progress.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Our aim now is to get people buying and selling, getting a good amount of listings live on the website. As soon as we feel we are ready we will introduce some revenue generating ads (nothing too intrusive) maybe offer paid featured listings.

I think that is a good idea.

Monetization of a huge site with thousands of buyers and sellers isn't that difficult. What is difficult, is getting thousands of buyers, creating an exponential customer flow, and growing it. Whenever I had competitors enter the marketspace, they could never compete because they couldn't get their marketplace going -- they were immediately trying to monetize their revenue model when there was nothing to monetize -- in other words, they were trying to charge money for a website that was by all measures, dead. You can't ask customers to make the leap of faith. To compete, they had to offer their product for FREE to fortify their product, then worry about the $ later. Tough choice that most would not do, and hence, they always failed.

 

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[Rem]

Yeah I see this all the time. New websites that aren't even 4 days old pitching their Advertise section. How about creating something of value first, and generating enough traffic. I know that over time, and it doesn't take too long, you will begin actually being approached by people asking for advertising rates. Selling ads on websites is not a new concept so you don't have to pitch the "idea" to advertise. Just say "here I am" by providing value and the advertisers will come.

Good luck!

 

[buzzmart]

sounds like great idea ebay needs competition with how much they have raised listing fees

Well, I do believe ebay does have quite a lot of competition already and I knew this before I even started with Buzzmart. However, I think the majority of the competition has been copying exactly what ebay does, for a cheaper cost to the seller of course, with very little innovation and creativity in that market. I think many, or at least I do, people would like to see something new for a change. I am not saying that copying ebay has not worked for some successful ebay competitors but personally, as a seller I do not find these competitors intriguing enough other than them being cheaper to sell on but with a significantly smaller user base, which again then just leads me back to going to ebay. My opinion. But you are right in saying the fees are ridiculous, I use to sell a lot on ebay, but it was not worth it anymore after the ebay and paypal fee deductions. Unless you are someone who can get stuff at very low prices that sell for high profit margins.

 

[buzzmart]

I think it is great that you are more service focused at first but I would also make sure that you have some kind of concrete plan for revenue generation. Dont take any offense to this because my view is somewhat contrarian to many others here on the forum in that I believe business plans are important. I know some feel that the action is more important than anything else and they think you should just jump in and do it and figure out how to get paid later. I believe that a good solid plan including revenue streams and profitbility study, followed by action is the best route.

It is very easy to give away goods and services, people will always flock to that. What happens too many times though is that once revenue generation becomes a necessity (if you are running a business there are always expenses) peoples business model changes and then they lose a good portion of their customer base. The trick to a great business is to provide value for value. Value for free as a model is not sustainable.


Keep pursuing your dream though I am looking forward to monitoring your progress.

I totally agree with your view. We do have some very good ideas for revenue generation in the future. As a matter of fact, we did have a paid system in place on Buzzmart, but we were getting a lot of negative feedback saying that as a new marketplace, there is no way we will attract sellers by charging them. They were absolutely right, we listened, and completely abolished the fee system. A friend of mine who has a successful mobile app development company said that "Advertisement is just as viable, if not better, than the paid model route" As I said before, once you have the traffic, generating revenue wont be an issue for us, whether its through some advertising or asking a minimal fee for some featured services. We have discussed many ideas but the main priority now is growth, and until we get that growth and enough users, we have enough time to discuss how to best generate revenue should that time come. You said it best, businesses incur expenses, and the free mode is not sustainable. Agreed.

The ecommerce business is highly competitive one, I know the chances of failure are higher than the chances of success, especially when it comes to a new business. Hence, what I am trying to say is, I am keeping my finger crossed, hopefully the website does well and if it does I can assure you that we will definitely turn it into a profitable business.

 

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[sk24iam]

Another way to differentiate yourself from ebay is to except more types of payment. I know that many ebay sellers are frustrated with paypal policy but are obligated to use it since ebay owns paypal and makes it a standard. Perhaps focus on google checkout or something similar. I think amazon has a payment system as well...

 

[buzzmart]

Another way to differentiate yourself from ebay is to except more types of payment. I know that many ebay sellers are frustrated with paypal policy but are obligated to use it since ebay owns paypal and makes it a standard. Perhaps focus on google checkout or something similar. I think amazon has a payment system as well...

Yep, our the other option we offer is Moneybookers. But lets not forget PayPal is number one, so I think the vast majority will use that.

We are going to implement Google Check out soon, but implementing payment APIs is a lot of work and a learning process, because we have to re-work code so that our system can respond and communicate with the API. For example, when an item is paid for, a buzzmart admin can see that the item has been paid for as we get a callback from the api to our admin system (this helps in a dispute process), also the seller gets an email notification of payment from Buzzmart and his activity page changes status from "Pending payment" to "Paid" which in turn enables him now the option to enter a tracking number and mark the product as shipped (which he cannot do unless there is a callback from the payment API as being paid by the buyer). Basically, when A happens B happens and then C and so on. You get my point it takes a lot of work to implement another payment api because we have to make sure everything updates and works according to the way we have designed it to work. Which is why I like to brag about some "smart workings" in the background.