My New Internet Business Venture - Feedback Appreciated

Zascar

Hey guys,

I would appreciate your feedback on a new website I have started. The site is www.quidsin.ie but have a read of this blog post to get a good understanding of the concept etc.

QuidsIn.ie is a new website where people can buy and sell simple products and services online. It’s a new type of platform enabling people to make money from the things they can do, either online or locally; a place where people can browse a whole host of jobs being offered up for a small price. People have all sorts of skills that could earn them money, but until now there has been no real place to advertise their services – without charge – to a huge audience of people on the lookout for good deals. QuidsIn.ie is here to help.

There are more than 400,000 people unemployed in Ireland right now. Many have specialised skills which they are no longer utilizing because they can’t find work in that field. They would be more than happy to help and advise other people for a relatively small fee – because who knows what that initial job might lead to down the road!

How often have you wanted something done, but didn’t possess the skills to do it yourself? You know it’s an easy job for someone who knows how – but where can you find that someone to help you at a price you can afford? Or what about that job you’ve been putting off for weeks? You’d happily pay them a small fee for their help, and they’d happy take the money! Here you can find someone to do it for you for a great price, and help them out by giving them the work! It’s a unique win-win situation.

QuidsIn.ie enables anyone to post up jobs for anything they can do, at multiple fixed price points of €5, €10, €15, €25, €50, €75 and €100. The people who are browsing the site can buy anything they like with just a few clicks. The service is fully integrated into Facebook & Twitter, and payment goes through PayPal so it’s completely secure.

Anyone can log on and make small amounts of money quickly and easily over and over again – and it’s totally free to join and post jobs. Sites such as this are hugely successful internationally – now Ireland has one of its own – but there is one key difference. Ireland being a small country we are not restricted to online activities. There’s an amazing amount of real world offline work that can be done, too! The possibilities are virtually endless. Just think, what could you do to make a few quid???

I have only just done a soft launch, I have a bit more work and tweaking on the site before start properly promoting it - but you'll get the idea I'm sure.

Very interested to hear what you think – and if anyone wants to get involved in any way please let me know.
Cheers
Zascar

steve_

The website looks beautiful, nice and clean and easy to navigate. I also love the idea, its a great way of letting people generate some extra cash using the skills they know. Was the site built by you or did you get someone else to do it.

Best of luck with the site, i hope it takes off like a rocket

Homer

Best of luck with. Just signed up Will share it on Facebook etc and spread the word!

kennedmc

Zascar wrote: »

Hey guys,

I would appreciate your feedback on a new website I have started. The site is www.quidsin.ie but have a read of this blog post to get a good understanding of the concept etc.



I have only just done a soft launch, I have a bit more work and tweaking on the site before start properly promoting it - but you'll get the idea I'm sure.

Very interested to hear what you think – and if anyone wants to get involved in any way please let me know.
Cheers
Zascar

HI Zascar - I like it - nice idea - is it orignal or did you get the idea from another country?

Regardless Its a nice simple idea and they are very often the best ones! I see this appealing not just to the unemployed but maybe even more to the student and mid -late teen markets.

You should also try and have a local element to it as some of the services will be physical and local - a bit like Groupon for example - I can search in the Dublin area / Manchester area etc. This needs to be prominent.

The biggest challenge you will face is getting the word out there and also moving quickly on this as there is a low barrier to entry in terms of the idea and technology. I recommend levargaing students unions in 3rd level to ensure you get some coverage and help spread the word quickly.
Ultimately if you can't scale i won't be a success -what kind of commercial model do you have in place?

Brilliant idea, something like this should spread pretty quick. Good luck!

Zascar

Thanks guys, your support is much appreciated. The idea is not unique, there are a few similar sites out there but most of them are aimed worldwide and pretty much online-only, they seem to focus on tech & silly stuff too. I’m differentiating because it’s aimed at Ireland; Irish People – Irish Jobs, and since our nation is so small there can be many offline ‘real world’ jobs too. Down the line if the site takes off I will regionalise it to counties & cities etc. There are loads of things I can do if it becomes popular. It’s aimed at anyone that would like to earn extra money from the skills they already have – or even people who want to gain exposure to more people for the jobs they currently do.

I’ve got a multi staged launch planned, right now I have just launched to my friends on facebook – getting initial feedback which has been great so far. I’m building a facebook landing page to engage customers and encourage them to like & share. Current one i http://www.facebook.com/quidsin.ie - if you could 'Like' it that would be great . I will also be hosting a competition between sellers and they can help spread the word. I’m also partnering with a friend who has a network of sites that could send traffic my way which should help considerably. Once the site has grown and is more active I’ll get some media attention which shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve been offered seed capital to get me off the ground and get some proper PR done too. The revenue model is that I take a fixed % on each transaction. I have set it at 10% currently which I think is fair - but I may change this in time.

If you'd like to show support please register on the site (using facebook connect is easiest - just click the button, accept and you're done) - I will send out monthly emails. Also like the facebook page for occasional updates on new job posted in your facebook stream.

All other comments welcome

iMax

Just tried to use it & went through to the payment point, made the paypal payment & it threw me back at an error page, so the payment went through for €5 but I see no way of completing the transaction (telling the vendor what I want).

Zascar

Hmm ok thanks for that I'll look into it - I've had a number of transactions without any problems the last few days, but some work is being done on it right now so maybe that's it. You can still message anyone using the "Contact Seller" link on the job page. I'll check it out and get back to you. Thanks for the feedback

jamiecoins

great site you beat me to it have been in talks with a web designer on the design and costs . i dont think theres enough competition for two of these services in ireland its a great ides and the site is easy to use and the layout and design are cool. well done to all involved nice to see people trying to do something new and make a mark for themselves now i hope i make some revenue of it lol again well done

GroupDeals

Great site, I think there is definitely a market in Ireland for a Fiverr style clone

Best of luck with it

maxer68

Excellent idea, a sort of nixers.com reversed.

Couple of points - try not to have so many €5, €10 offers on the front page or allow search by amount.

I think you could have a premium section that allows for €100 - €500 deals that would attract trades people. - Last week I was looking for someone to paint a fence (found someone), but it is a €400 job (long fence)

Categorize into areas
National
Leinster
Munster
Connaught
Ulster

But certainly a great site and a first mover advantage. - Maybe the Daft guys will be buying it in a few years:D Or maybe its something they should get into on the ground floor.

suey71

A great idea and a lovely site, but as an online retailer (start up) I think that 10% commission on sales is more a little high. Why don't you do it for nothing but charge for advertising. You'd attract a lot of business's then.

Zascar

Thanks Maxer Yes I actually had a pint with one of the guys who started Nixers.com a few weeks ago - really nice guy - he was very supportive of the whole thing and gave me lots of great advice. Your above points are definitely on the agenda but probably down the line, start small and see where it goes. In fairness you should be able to get a tradesman for €100 a day - and you can always purchase twice for two days work!

Suey, No that's not the avenue I'm taking really. This is not just a place for people & exisiting business to advertise for their products - there are dozens of websites out there for that. This is a site where people offer special deals and cheaper prices than usual - hence the fixes price points. It's more about services but certain products might work too. If I let any price be chosen then I'm no different to any other e-commerce website out there. I don't think 10% is high at all - most of the other sites charge 20%. If you are familiar with Groupon/Citydeal website, they offer massive discounts on normal prices, but Groupon take 50% of the sale price! It's amount exposure to new markets and gaining new customers.

This is a recessionary market and the consumer is king. I need to attract buyers too - people will only come back to the site consistently if there are great deals to be had! Most people will take a punt on spending €5 or €10 on something small - and that's where the fun lies, finding these fun and crazy things you can get for very small amounts of money!

iMax

Still waiting on the guy I "purchased" from to email me back

Zascar

Pm sent max I'm on the case for you

maxer68

iMax wrote: »

Still waiting on the guy I "purchased" from to email me back

That will be an issue - maybe have a feedback system or have it part of the contract that purchasers are contacted with 48 hours of purchase.

As for 10% commission - very reasonable.

Cianos

maxer68 wrote: »

That will be an issue - maybe have a feedback system or have it part of the contract that purchasers are contacted with 48 hours of purchase.

As for 10% commission - very reasonable.

10% is very reasonable alright. Fiverr charge 20% afaik.

GroupDeals

Cianos wrote: »

10% is very reasonable alright. Fiverr charge 20% afaik.

The reason for 20% is because Fiverr only has one price point - $5

kennedmc

very similar to fiverr........!!!

Is there not a chance they can stop you? I.e by legal means. Not so much with the idea more that the website look and feel is very similar!!

steve_

wow they are very very similar in style

Zascar

Fiverr spawned loads of spin offs in the same way that groupon did. They all have a very similar style because, well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it! I did some of the graphics etc myself but I plan to get a but of a facelift done before the site launches properly. Not trying to reinvent the wheel - just taking a proven business model and adapting it slightly to the Irish market. There is a ratings system included so if someone does not deliver in time you can give them negative feedback.

Feckfox

I feel this is a site where you have to search through lots of crap to find anything semi-useful. I don't mean your site exactly, but the concept.

I would love to know if people are making money off simple things like this (http://www.fiverr.com/users/matt5409/gigs/find-10-errors-with-your-website) and who would pay for it?

A person could save the money by posting on any forum for free. Active forums will give the feedback free and it will come from multiple sources. I guess some people are lazy.

Anyway, good look with it.

spoonface

I like the idea and wish you well with it. I am signing up now.

Once I signed up, I couldn't manage to get logged in with Firefox, only with IE. Would be better if it told me something was going wrong e.g. wrong password/cookie problem or whatever.

Zascar

Feckfox wrote: »

I would love to know if people are making money off simple things like this (http://www.fiverr.com/users/matt5409/gigs/find-10-errors-with-your-website) and who would pay for it?

Actually, its a job just like this that gave me the inspiration to embark on this project in the first place. I have a blog that got a virus and took my site down. I'm not a coder so had no idea whatsoever as to how to fix it. From the error I managed to find out what it was and Googled it but it would have taken me many many hours to fix it, if I would have been able to fix it at all. But I found someone who knew what they were doing, and for $5, fixed it in about 15 minutes, and also ran a biog security report for me. Absolutely priceless!

A while later I got someone to do some graphics work for me - he did an amazing job - it would have taken me many many hours to do the same - learning as I go from tutorials etc! When I went back to him a while later he said he had got loads of work from these little jobs, that that they had progressed into clients, giving him bigger and more profitable jobs down the line - his business was really taking off. So, this is what i hope can happen for many Irish people through QuidsIn!

I would like this site to be more full of interesting and useful 'real world' jobs rather than the silly and fun (crap) stuff that dominates most others. I will have to see if I can steer the direction of the site in time but as with most things, the users will really dictate what they want and what works.

YouBuyLocal

Hi Zascar,

Nice looking site. I found a lot of the things people were offering a bit spammy and crap though, but that has nothing to do with the fact its fundamentals are very interesting. What I would suggest is that after building up the user-base you introduce a deposit system. A sremium premium text registration system like that of Donedeal would work nicely. This system takes the deposit (€3) from their phone credit. Once the seller or service provider makes a sale (or completes a job - which ever is more feasible for you to track) you give the deposit of €3 back while processing the transaction. This would dissuade spammers and people providing unwanted products or services.

Goodluck:)

chelle355

Great idea, well done!

My only thought, and i'm sure you've thought about this, relates to social welfare. I assume some sellers are unemployed so if they dont declare this they would be in breach of their social welfare payments. Of course, this is their own concern but might be helpful if they were reminded/advised of this on the website.

daRobot

chelle355 wrote: »

Great idea, well done!

My only thought, and i'm sure you've thought about this, relates to social welfare. I assume some sellers are unemployed so if they dont declare this they would be in breach of their social welfare payments. Of course, this is their own concern but might be helpful if they were reminded/advised of this on the website.

With respect Chelle, that's a not a wise suggestion. It's no place of a commercial website to:

a) Associate itself with the unemployed

or

b) Self-Police on behalf of the government


>Zascar

Love the site and the idea. Nice and creative.

Obviously, you'll have a few issues with people not delivering what they've promised, so having either a feedback system, or a paypal style payment hold for disputes, would be advantageous, and inspire more trust. The latter suggestion would be expensive, and overkill for where the site is at currently, but worth thinking about anyway.

Hope it works out for you. There's an awful lot of talented folk out there, who have never put their skill to any commercial use, so maybe this is the platform for them (and you) to thrive. Good Luck!!

johnmurph01

Nice, simple interface. I like it!

J

Zascar

Thanks . Yes there is a ratings system included already – you’ll see the thumbs up and thumbs down on each listing. The seller does not get paid until the job is finished, and I can issue a refund at any time, so the buyer is protected and the seller is encouraged to deliver properly to avoid a bad reputation. I was also thinking of integrating facebook comments on each individual listing page – so people can openly ask questions and the sellers can reply – I’m just not sure if I could moderate it all etc, could be handy though.

Someone commented previosuly that there are a lot of rubbish jobs and only a few good ones. I guess that's kinda like the internet overall - however I would like this to be more 'real' jobs that just silly/funny ones. The question is, do I moderate and only allow good listings, or do I allow everything and just see what happens. My instinct tells me to do the latter - my experience as a Mod on boards shows me that the people really do not like moderation unless it's clearly complete rubbish. However, one man's rubbish is another mans treasure. I guess I'll just see where the site goes. I really need to work out how I can target 'skilled' people to get them put more jobs up - not quite sure how I'm going to do this as yet though.

In terms of promoting the site etc - I have not officially launched fully as I'm still working on developing the site a little further, and I need to get more interesting and useful jobs on there. Trying to come up with as many good (cheap) promotion ideas as possible, so any ideas anyone might have I'd love to hear them!

Facebook is going to be important. I'm working on a custom facebook page right now (current one: www.facebook.com/quidsin.ie - please 'Like' and share if you would ) and I'm also thinking of a competition (maybe for an iPad) where sellers will have to like & share the facebook page - and then promote their own gig. Then I'll let the users decide who wins based on a vote. I think that could spread virally quite well.

I’m working on some more details Terms and Conditions etc now but essentially each person is responsible for declaring and paying tax on any money they earn from this - in the same way if they sold products or services by using Adverts.ie or Buy&Sell etc.

I have someone else assisting me who's going to help out and also drive traffic from some existing sites - will take a while - then hopefully some media attention will really kick it off. I'm on holidays for the easter break but will be pushing full force when I get back!

stephenpalmer

Nice site! Great idea!! Good luck with it

stephenpalmer

Yes I to made and order.. and am now waiting!!!! :cool:

I also got brought back to an error page after I placed and order ...