Muse launched. Feedback needed.

[jcpeden]

Today I launched the first stage of my muse: LetsMove.In (http://www.LetsMove.In)

The site takes property listings from a popular UK classifieds website and displays them on an interactive map. I outsourced all development via Elance and while this version is free for everyone, I have my developer working on stage 2 which will allow users to create ebay-style property listings (for a fee) and have them displayed on the map. I want to get people using the site before I fork out a further $400 for the development of the second stage.

I know you are all very busy working on your own ventures but I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks

John

[jpb209]

I think its a really cool idea, but with sites like craigs list, and what not, it would be hard for me to imagine people paying for something like that. BUT, if you where to make your site like something like aparments.com and sell ad space and what not, it could work. Really good site tho. Cheers!

[jcpeden]

Craigslist seems hugely popular in the US but property classifieds here in the UK leave a lot to be desired. My intention is to charge sellers for creating their listings a la ebay and force them to create consistently high-quality listings. This should make the site much more usable for buyers and attract more traffic.

As you say, the alternative is just to sell advertising space.

The biggest issue I'm facing at the moment is promotion; I have next to no money and next to no experience. I'm working with marketingexperiments.com but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[jpb209]

look into free publications on the internet, or around your towns, and you can even pay someone to go onto them and post links to your site. Message boards, craigslist, etc. Anything free helps. You can also do the Google ad words campaign, and really try to hit the ground running, once you get a steady stream of traffic you can use that in your campaign to find advertisers on your site. I am kind of putting together something similar to what your doing, but in the states, California to be exact, and have been focusing on the ad sales. Really push the simplicity of the system to buyers, and make it fun to do. Really you have a great idea. Congrats once again!!

:D

[simplegs]

I think having people pay to post is a great idea. It also cuts out people you don't want posting and creates credibility.

From first glance your site looks pretty good. A few suggestions:
- add some keywords into the Title tag of your site
- I don't see meta-keywords or meta-description in your source code
- it looks like your site is mainly ajax based. Search engines typically have a hard time picking content from it. Recommend putting an introduction page or something of the like.
- the blog doesn't look like it belongs at all. recommend putting a theme on it so it atleast somewhat resembles your site (can be free) or get a custom built ($$$)

As for getting the word out (free options):
- submit your site to all the major search engines
- check out classified sites and put a posting there (quite a few do this for free, ie. http://kijiji.ca
- forums relating to housing, moving, packing, relocating etc. offer advice to people and leave your signature at the bottom of every post (of course your website address will be there)

Those are a few of many possibilities. Be persistant and good luck.

Hope this helps.

[jcpeden]

Hi Ryan,

I had planned to attract traffic to the site before I started charging for hosted advertisements; a few days after launching I bit the bullet committed to spending another few hundred £ for the following:


A revised theme (not everyone is keen on the green tabs)
A theme for the blog
A revised site layout (keyword rich landing page with the map on a sub-page)
An enlarged site offering housing-market information
Hosted listings charged at £20 for 30 days (have to experiment with pricing!)
Ability to receive payments through Paypal/Google checkout
Additional property listings from 4 classifieds websites
Revised search and filter features on the map
Revised map that updates dynamically
The back-end system to manage the added complexity


I can't afford to promote the site if it isn't making money and I won't attract visitors without promotion. My intention is to offer valuable information on Britain's property market through the blog and promote the blog as much as possible.

[Memery]

Hey John,

Great idea! I was actually thinking of doing something similar recently when I had to do an apartment hunt using craigslist - there is definitely room for someone to improve that process.

Had a quick question - would you mind sharing who did your web design? I'm looking for a similar layout for a project of mine (has nothing to do with apartment hunting.)

Again, great work. Looking forward to seeing how your project develops.

-Matt

[simplegs]

Hey John,

Those are some excellent idea. Remember you don't have to do all of those at once.

If you are focusing on attracting exposure through search engines then getting a site up that is easily spidered by google will be key.

I would recommend checking out 37 Signals Getting Real book, it's free to read online and has some excellent concepts that I think will help you along your journey.

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ (not affiliated)

Best of luck!

[jcpeden]

Hey John,

would you mind sharing who did your web design? I'm looking for a similar layout for a project of mine (has nothing to do with apartment hunting.)

-Matt

A company called TBITSoftware found using Elance; I'd recommend them for similar startup/small projects as they are relatively cheap.

[jcpeden]

Hey John,

Best of luck!

I need all the help I can get! Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out now!

[jcpeden]

I've had LetsMove.In (http://www.letsmove.in) upgraded quite significantly. The developer had a whole new theme created and changed the way in which properties are displayed on the map. Furthermore, I can now charge users to list on the LetsMove.In map which will offer improved features over the listings that are parsed from Gumtree.

If you could take a look, I'd love to know what you think! Definitely check out the property map (http://letsmove.in/map.php) at least!