Steve....I think you're onto something GOOD!
You COULD be collecting a MINIMUM of $250 a month from each and every car dealer in your town!
You have what is known as an, "Internet Car Mall". Combining cars onto ONE website makes it easier for consumers to find a car they want.
THIS fact is "newsworthy" to any "business reporter".
Looks like you've got a decent search engine although when you get more cars I would add a category of "Make" and "Model" so that someone looking for a "Ford - Crown Victoris" can find one.
Here's what "I" would do;
Offer each car dealer a page showing their inventory on your website (TruroUsedCars.com/SamsCars)
Initially, YOU take digital photos of each and every car in their inventory.
Show someone in the dealership how to take photos and upload them to your website. Have each car dealer take digital photos of cars they get in an upload them on a daily basis to your site.
OR...they could take the photos and send them to you and you would upload them to your site (Depends on the search engine software you have AND how computer literate the car dealer is)
I know a TWO websites where they have their participating dealers take photos and upload to their "Auto Mall" website.
http://www.minnesotacars.com (they have 154 dealers uploading cars)
http://www.findcars.com (they too have over 100 dealers)
BOTH these operations have been in biz for OVER FIVE YEARS (so there IS longevity to this)
They have a software program that makes it easy for their dealers to upload photos. There's now way they could upload photos for all these dealers each week. However, in the beginning, you could have your dealers send you the photos and you upload for them.
By YOU (or someone with you) taking phots of ALL the inventory of eachparticipating dealer you get LOTS of cars onto your site....making your site instantly appealing to consumers (and reporters)
Twenty dealers with 50 cars is 1000 cars on your site which consunmers can sort thru. This also means $5000 a month coming to you which you can spend some on advertising in the local "Shopper" newspaper.
I would also collect at least $250 initially from each dealer for a "SetUp Fee" to cover your time taking photos and uploading.
I would also offer each dealer a software program where they could make their own Window Stickers (Charge extra for this)
Your job will be to advertise the site so you get traffic for your dealers.
There's a guy in my area who's been operating this type of program since 1998 with 30 dealers. He takes the photos for his dealers and gets $300 to $600 a month per dealer. (Averages $400/mo...$12,000/mo)
http://www.nwautopage.com
From what Minnesota Cars and Find Cars has done, I would have the dealers take the photos and upload to your site. Depends on how big you want to get. Initially YOU could provide the service of taking the photos....then as you grow into "NOVASCOTIAUSEDCARS.COM"...you'd have to have the dealers do this.
Worth looking at.
In fact, because I live in a somewhat sparsely populated area I've been looking at starting something like this. The "Sticker" people have pretty much stayed away from Southern Oregon because of the distances between towns....making a program where the dealers can do their own stickers and take their own photos...wide open.
Steve...did you create the Search Software program or is there an "off the shelf" program I can get?
OR...could I pay you to create a search software program for MY site?
Thanks....Don ALm