Hello everyone, recently Shanghai SEO (SWJ) will be sharing some fairly good website planning articles with all of you. It's unnecessary to focus solely on SEO all the time. Once you use it too much and become proficient, you might not find it easy anymore, instead realizing there’s even more to learn. People always grow through continuous learning, SWJ believes.
Today, while online researching the recent developments of barter websites, I mostly saw reports in the news search saying "Barter frenzy after the holiday". But suddenly, on Admin5, I came across an article dated July 25, 2007 titled "1 Million RMB for Sale: Barter China Website!", which was sourced from the well-known barter site "Barter China". After further searching, I also found an article on Chinaz dated December 18, 2007 titled "Barter Websites Close One After Another, Anonymous Transactions Amplify Risks", which is the latest article about the barter industry within the webmaster circles, and none of them are positive news. Is the winter for barter sites approaching? I can't believe it. Upon closer inspection, these two articles mainly mention three reasons: one, anonymous transactions carry risks; two, insufficient development funds; three, the low success rate of two-way exchange methods. I think the root of these three problems is the funding issue. With adequate funding, these problems can all be solved. At the same time, I believe that the fundamental problem of funding lies in the profit model. With a good profit model, you can quickly achieve certain benefits or attract venture capital (VC), and naturally, funding won't be an issue. However, the current profit models of some barter sites seem unclear and poorly executed. Some innovative profit models such as logistics delivery are still far off. Therefore, I would like to discuss the two most basic profit models for barter sites with everyone, hoping to assist in the development of barter sites.
One, intensifying the promotion of "embedded ads" on item classification pages
Barter China once said "with daily visits less than 100,000, we don't do advertising". If the site has sustainable economic strength for development, then this approach is certainly feasible. If the site lacks economic strength, and funding becomes a bottleneck for its development, then timely embedding of ads to gain certain income becomes very necessary because it is not only an economic guarantee but also a confidence boost for your persistence in development. As long as the site has a certain level of fame and regular visitors, it naturally has advertising value. Some barter sites claim they have 350 categories, and if each category could host just one ad, theoretically, this barter site could at least accommodate 350 ads. Would barter users hate these ads? I don't think so. When users log into these pages to check, they may well be potential demanders for items in that category. When their needs arise, they promptly see ads from merchants that can meet their demands, and they probably wouldn't dislike it. Their needs don't necessarily have to be satisfied through exchange. These ads placed on classification pages, although seen by fewer people, are more targeted. Merchants generally would be interested in these ads directly displayed to potential consumers. Someone might ask, isn't it easy for you to say, who would negotiate so many ads, who would they negotiate with, how to ensure successful negotiations? I think the second method below can precisely solve this problem.
Two, quickly recruiting franchisees nationwide, absorbing funds, seizing the market
The current focus of barter sites is on local transactions, but when you randomly search for bartering information in second-tier cities on well-known barter sites, some only have one or two exchange information entries, or even none at all. This shows that the depth and breadth of promoting the barter concept are still far from enough. However, without a doubt, every household and individual in every city has potential barter needs. There are still many people who frequently go online but don't know about bartering, and even more people who don't go online but have potential barter needs, which could be ten times the number of barter users. If these potential users' barter needs are mobilized, barter sites will inevitably become bustling. Seeing so many local barter sites constantly emerging shows that the promotional efforts and depth of the industry are still far from sufficient. Otherwise, just a few large barter sites could influence and serve the entire nation. Barter sites should conduct some offline promotional activities targeting local cities. Don't forget that during the early days of Barter China, the offline barter activities held in university campuses played a significant role in its development. So, who will conduct the offline promotional activities for local cities, and how? It's simple: recruit franchise agents nationwide, let the agents do it, and let the agents arrange locations for offline barter activities. This way, it's easy to build up fame and promote the barter concept deeply and meticulously. How do agents make profits? It's simple: sell ad spaces on the item classification pages of local sub-stations. If you think these ad spaces are hard to sell, then I would say you definitely haven't studied how to effectively assist local commercial clients in their business promotion using the internet, and you don't know how to create network ad placement plans for local commercial clients targeting local audiences. Suppose a local agent has thoroughly studied these two aspects and promoted the agency sub-station solidly. Then, they will surely attract commercial clients to place ads. If they attract 100 advertisers, with an annual fee of 500 yuan per ad, the agent's gross profit is 50,000 yuan. If they attract 200 clients, each paying 1,000 yuan, the agent's gross profit is 200,000 yuan (based on a municipal city standard). This doesn't include other future value-added services conducted on the barter platform. Of course, the value of ad spaces and the income of agents ultimately depend on the site's fame, traffic, and user effectiveness. Some might laugh and say this is just a theory, not easy to achieve. But fortunately, barter sites can allow agents to join with minimal investment, such as a county-level agent paying only 1,000 yuan per year or even less in franchise fees. The agent only needs to distribute a round of flyers to get started, and with an investment of a few thousand yuan, aiming for a return of 200,000 yuan, it's worth a try. But even if an agent pays just 1,000 yuan in franchise fees, with 3,000 cities nationwide, if 500 join, the franchise fee revenue reaches 500,000 yuan. If the franchise fee is 5,000 yuan per year, reaching 1,000 franchisees, the franchise fee alone could generate an annual income of 5 million yuan. In short, how many and how large profit points the barter site designs for local agents will determine how much and how large the agents' investments will be, and also decide how much franchise income the barter site can obtain and how much it can develop.
Speaking of this, you might laugh and say how many agents can thoroughly research "how to effectively assist local commercial clients in their business promotion using the internet" and "how to create network ad placement plans for local commercial clients targeting local audiences." Indeed, very few agents know how to do it, and that's why others don't join your program by developing their own programs. It depends on which marketing director of the barter site is better, and which barter site can sooner produce detailed and effective "barter site local branch promotion and operation plans." Whoever does it better and faster will attract more franchisees and earn more profits.
Of course, as the scope of barter exchanges expands to swapping people, emotions, and services, various platforms such as barter websites, forums, teahouses, time exchange networks, skill exchange networks, multi-party exchanges, national barter websites, local barter websites, operating models, and competitors continue to increase. The methods mentioned above may not be applicable, or even due to limited knowledge, they may seem naive. The writer's shallow knowledge may lead to inadequacies, writing this article merely to throw out a brick to attract jade and make friends with fellow writers.
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New Start Article from Miaochuang Network February 28, 2008
SWJ concludes: The barter site model in China, I believe, is still quite immature, similar to classified information. However, bartering requires a higher level of social integrity to bring about change...
(SWJ Summary: The barter website model in China, I believe, is still very immature and is similar to classified information. However, bartering requires a greater improvement in the overall social credit system to bring about change...)