Thank you very much for the great ideas. Since I moved from Calgary to Truro this area could be considered very scarcely populated too. Actually, the population of the entire province of Nova Scotia isn't that much greater then Calgary.
Because of the limited amount of dealerships... I was thinking about this too. Once the site gets known, I could sell banners for car part suppliers, or maybe even make available coupons or discounts for mechanics, autobody, paint, etc, just about any business that is car related. Might be able to bring in some advertising revenue that way too.
The software on the site:
MOJO Mail powers the mailing list program It is a careware Perl/CGI Script.
Open Auto Classifieds is a free PHP/MySQL script being used as the car database software.
The search engine for local outside links (car related links) is powered by a free PHP/MySQL script called
Orca Search v1.0.
I was out visiting today. I got another 35 cars to put on the website, and another guy who has a 20 or so he insists on washing before I take pictures of them. And I got an "in" with the local Toyota dealer, which may turn into a sweet deal.
To address the issue about allowing customers to manage their own accounts. You DO have that option with this car database software. To manage YOUR account you don't need any knowledge of html or PHP or MySQL. Some of the people I have contacted have expressed an interest in begin able to do this -- so I will set them up that way. Others.... want YOU to do all of the work, so you could offer one price for do-it-yourselfers and another for dealerships that want YOU to do all the work (pictures, data input, etc..)
When you said, "THIS fact is "newsworthy" to any "business reporter."
...you're right! I guess I don't need a special angle to announce it. Maybe later on, I could create some sort of event to get even more media attention. I might be able to use that "rent a field -- sale by owners" idea you had. I would have to get owners to pre-sign first though. The insurance for that in Nova Scotia runs between $1200 (dry) to $3500, if you were going to put up a beer tent.
(he-he)... then of course, depending on where you had it... you might do OK with a beer tent too.
Thanks again Don. I really appreciate your input.
Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan