Delica Trader (New Site Feature)

[mark]

I've been working on a new feature on the site for Delica classifieds (currently in BETA) called...



(or "DT" for short)

For those interested in taking DT it for a test drive, the URL is http://delica.ca/trader/ . The objective is to provide a fully searchable platform specific to Delica's for sale (both Dealer Sales and Private Sales). This way, site visitors in (say) Ontario can restrict their search to vehicles for sale in their province, or folks who have their heart set on specific features (e.g., crystal lite roof) can quickly find exactly what they are looking for.

Folks in the market can also "subscribe" to receive real-time notification when a new listing becomes available.

The user database for DT (registration is required for sellers) is separate from this forum. For this reason, if you foresee posting classifieds in the future, it would be wise to register your username ASAP at http://delica.ca/trader/user/create_form/ .

Please post any feedback, bug reports, etc. relating to DT in this thread.

Cheers
Mark

[thedjjack]

Do we have to make a new account or can Delica.ca memberships be transferred over?

Site looks good

[mark]

Unfortunately, I was not able to "bridge" the user databases. So yes, it is necessary to create a new account at:

http://delica.ca/trader/user/create_form/

(only Sellers need to create account; prospective buyers can respond to ads without logging in)

[mdrive]

Hi mark:
Are you going to switch all the ads to new site?

[Rising Sun Auto Import]

We registered yesterday, buy no email confirmation so far.

Steven

[mark]

On mdrives' advertising querry - Yes a key reason for implementing this feature is to improve the quality of "Ad Targetting" on the site.

As you know, this site's practice is to display advertising to "non-logged" viewers only. For "non-logged" viewers who see ads, it would be preferrable if the ads were relevant to what the visitor wishes to see. Poorly-targetted advertising offers no benefit to the advertiser, to the publisher, or to the end user. By replacing these existing slots with highly-targetted ads (i.e., Delicas for sale), I believe that this will create a "win-win-win" situation.

I don't anticipate that Delica Trader will displace 100% of the ads shown to non-logged viewers, but I do want to allocate a significant portion of the existing ad slots to DT. The current settings are quite "general" (the algorithm shows DT ads to non-logged viewers in Canada only at 1-minute intervals). As more listings become available, it will become possible to target by geography and (for search engine traffic) by actual search string.

***

Steven - I sent you a PM on this a minute ago (which hopefully should get you up and running).

If anybody else is having difficulties in receiving their activation e-mail, please PM me and I will do my best!

Thanks to all who are helping me iron out the wrinkles during this Beta-testing phase.

[psilosin]

Is this just for Delica vehicles or also Delica related parts? Non-Delica vehicles? Considering there seems to be at most 10 Delica vehicles for sale at any given moment I can't really see the need to sort geographically etc though. Cool idea though if the throughput gets high enough.

Signed up last night as a potential private seller. Are you wanting us to do some beta testing by posting some fictitious for sale ads or anything?

[mark]

Thanks for the feedback --

I suspect that there are afew more that 10 Delicas for sale. However I take your point that a "Delica-only" listing site, though extremely well-targetted, may turn out to be overly specific.

The "Parts" idea is a good though (which Falco suggested to me as well), but this does present some challenges in terms of categorization (it's impossible to find 6 or 7 common "sortable" fields that can cover turbos, spare curtains, fuel filters, ladders, and floormats!) Therefore I'm not yet sure that the DT platform offers any clear advantage (relative to the forum platform) when it comes to parts.

Before launching, I did test the site with "test ads" -- At this stage, lets keep the ads restricted to actual Delicas for sale (no running shoes, etc). I noticed that there is not an actual ad posted on the site, and (given that DT has only been up for a few hours) I anticipate that over the next week or so we should have a more listings.

[mark]

DT Site temporarily down for maintenance...

[TardisDeli]

Hi Mark, nice to see you online. Great Idea, I have signed up just now. It would be nice to be able to post non delica vehicles sales, which you can restrict to those who are truly delica owners (to finance the purchase of their second Delica). Cheers, Christine.

[thedjjack]

Hi Mark, nice to see you online. Great Idea, I have signed up just now. It would be nice to be able to post non delica vehicles sales, which you can restrict to those who are truly delica owners (to finance the purchase of their second Delica). Cheers, Christine.

Is it time for Delica 2.0? Your not selling the Echo are you :)?

[mark]

Good thought Christine --

But is there actually a market for those "Offbeat" (i.e., non-Delica) vehicles anymore?

[Firesong]

Is there an IPhone app?

;)
FS

[Rising Sun Auto Import]

Hi Mark,

I am wondering if we post in-transit delicas in " Delica Trader ".

Steven

[mark]

Good thought Steven -- I've made a note to add an additional custom field to the Dealer Ad section (e.g., "Landed Delimigrant" versus "In Transit") - This way folks can distinguish between the two categories, and (if they prefer) can restrict their custom search to "landed-only" vehicles. I will tackle this one this evening.

Please go ahead and list any vehicles in transit (and note the "in-transit" status in the description) -- I should be able to add the extra field this evening, and at that time will set the new field to read "In Transit"

Another upcoming change will be to create pages showing the listed inventories for specific dealers (e.g., in your case this would be found at the URL http://www.delica.ca/trader/list/Rising+Sun+Auto+Import) -- One change that I'd like to make would be to add a thumbnail.

Cheers, and thanks again for helping me iron out the wrinkles!