How to generate income with a completely free platform

[jahangir18590]

Hi all,

I am not tech savvy and require some advice. The platform is completely free for the customers and sellers. It will be a meeting point for both parties.
There are companies out there that charge the sellers a monthly or annual fee for using the similar system in the £100s.
As a small start up we want as much traffic as possible and hoping with a free platform and good marketing we can attract both parties at a large level.
I am aware of ads and placing them on the platform for income. But is there any other ways to generate decent amount to atleast help us break even each year? I was thinking creating a e-commerce behind the free platform and building links with relevant companies.

Thanks

 

[Mirecart]

Any chance you can outline a little more information, its very vague.

There are hundreds of open source platforms out there which you can use with the right skill sets to generate income. Wordpress is a great example of this.

I build a lot of small businesses using open source platforms, but its the ten years of experience i have learnt which allows me to use them effectively.

I'm more than happy to part with some hints and tips, but you need to explain a little better what your thinking of using and what for.

 

[jahangir18590]

The idea is to connect homeowners with local tradesmen. There are companies like RatedPeople and Plentific that charge. But have a high amount of unsatisfacted tradesmen in their platform.
They do generate a lot of income from monthly and annual fees.
The only way I can think of is making the platform completely free creating income opportunities without directly charge the users.


What's your thoughts?

 

[Mr D]

Why are there a high amount of unsatisfied tradesmen?

Can you offer either side some services which promote them or help them?

 

[jahangir18590]

The reason why there are bad reviews from trademen is that they have
1. pay upfront fee
2. Customers are constantly shopping around
3. No one is monitoring the customers

Solution:
1. Make it free
2. Identify serious customers, which saves time and money
3. Reports on customer transactions

 

[Mirecart]

I've been down this path before with a domain i had in Australia called, localtradesman dot com dot au. I was distracted with other jobs at the time and its on the back burner. But the concept was similar.

I've started building a site called apps.network and I've installed a open source social media platform. Think of it as your own version of some large social media brands, you get to control the entry and exit points, who sees what and so on.

I feel it would give you two things, One a stand alone platform which you create and control the groups on it, and of course you can charge for advertising etc.

Its worth reading the documentation on it and see if its something you could get your head around. Tech is not scary, its the time it takes to learn that is.

 

[jahangir18590]

Sounds interesting

 

[Mirecart]

It is powered by the Open Source Social Network you can see other examples of active sites powered by the same source code.