Need advice on creating an advertising site.

Here's is my idea and my main goal. I want to build an advertising website as a local service in my county and maybe all the surrounding counties. It's only going to be classifieds. They are no local online servies like that, and I would like to be the first to do it. I
I want individuals to be able to list their items for free, or up to so many items free, or charge a small price for unlimited listings. I really don't know yet. Businesses would be charged more depending on what they are selling. I still haven't figured out rates yet. But I want to be very competitive with the local printed classifieds. I plan on advertising my site with brochures, business cards, and local radio stations.

That is my idea. I want to make a small business and if it works like I hope open a local office and hire workers to maintain it.


Here is what I need to know.


How do I get started. I plan on using PHP and mySQL. I have no experience at with either, but I have a few ebooks. And PHP looks close to basic and I am very good with basic. I need the website to be able to be modified easily, like adding cateragories and other things that might need to be expanded. Also, I want people and business who are able to do their own listings and edit them. I am hoping by the end of the year I have my site up and running and all the bugs out of it. I have a long ways to go I, haven't even got started. Just been reading some of my books.





Thank you in advance for replies


BTW, I am probably going to use netfirms as my host, and godaddy for the domain name.
After I get some replies I will get my webhost and domain name.

i cant really help you that much but i would say that you can get better deals for what you want than on netfirms, try http://www.reg-123.com its basic like netfirms but gives you more for your money. pluss they also do cheap domain names.

Check out my site. http://www.citinow.com . it has classifieds, job listings, events, rss feeds, personals, and more...all without writing one line of code.

My advice would be to forget all those books, unless your goal is to learn how to program. If your goal is to start a website for classified ads, then get to know and love Open Source CMS's!

The most famous advertising forum is the social bookmarking. It will help you promote somehow.

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brochure printing

Hi Andyrichardson!
You`ve chosen very hard occupation. You should have tremendous power to build your business, especially in that sphere. Firstly, the domain should describe your service. Be creative and make a list of as many words as you can describing the content of your website, use the shorter, memorable domain name that are harder to mispell. Secondly, if the content is fresh and innovative, the number of traffic will positively increase. The article pages of your site must be specified by separate specific keyword. Thirdly, you may add your web address to your own profile signature and if you post useful content on the forums, people will check out your site.
And don`t forget about sitemap, as you can make sure your site is indexed!
Good luck with your project.

yes that isn't the easiest occupation at all.. with a little elbow grease and the right marketing tools you will succeed. I would try all free forms of advertising first.