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i must be fairly dense i subscribe to all four magazines and until George took over the forum i didn't realize the magazine owned the forum. i would like the for sale section and think it's reasonable to pay for it. i have given things away before on this site because i would rather they go to my friends here than some thug on e bay. this spring I'm going to do a major house keeping to organize the garage and lots will go. free if need be.
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My "for fee" idea is intended for the institutional sellers. And it's in the idea bud stage, but it would work like this. A company decides they have a bit of overstock and puts out a flyer with advertised specials. Among those tools might be a rotary table that is going out of production. Rather than buying an advertisement here to advertise that, they list it, for a fee, in the For-Sale area. It is both a spot advert for their business, and a specific item for sale, and a bit of income for HSM. The same model as the magazine.
I'd really recommend against using a forum area for sales as posts last forever unless manual pruning takes place. They can last even longer on Google. Even CL ads have an almost permanent home on Google. Purpose built classified ad software is good, affordable, and self-tending.
Edit: Something else - I've run an on-line auction site for about 10 years. That has been a lot of fun for me, all the proceeds go to a charitable fund for a fellow biker friend, and has made a lot of money for his PT and special transportation needs. More and more people are dissatisfied with Ebay and CL, so perhaps a local auction section, using real auction software, could work here.Last edited by dp; 12-17-2009, 11:51 AM.Comment
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Originally posted by kcleere
am i blind or ? i don't see any direct link to the mags. how does one subscribe ?
i too would like to see a buy/sell area. ads only available to mag subscribers as no-charge. but available to all to see. . . .Comment
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Craigslist Ads and Ebay auctions are tagged as No-Archive for exactly that reason -- they don't want them showing up on Google searches.Originally posted by dp"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did."Comment
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Go to their main web page...... I don't see any direct link to the mags. How does one subscribe? ...
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Thanks for the comments guys. I haven’t had a chance to read through all of them yet, but it looks like there are some good ideas.
As I had mentioned, don’t expect anything soon. I need to get with IT for this (see glacier reference in my first post) to figure what we can and can’t do. Getting it by the ad rep was just the first step.
GeorgeGeorge
Traverse City, MIComment
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I wish that worked.Originally posted by lazloComment
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It does. Try to Google a Craigslist post that has been removed. It's gone. Ditto for Ebay auctions.Originally posted by dp
The only time they show up is if those annoying little personal referral link sites that troll Ebay to generate a list of auctions, in which case Google will index the copy of the Ebay auctions."Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did."Comment
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I not only wish that worked, I wish you were right. I find dead listings for Ebay and CL all the time - why do you think I brought it up? It's a bit time waster.Originally posted by lazlo
Try: metal lathe site:seattle.craigslist.org on Google, for example, then follow the top links.Last edited by dp; 12-17-2009, 06:18 PM.Comment
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<meta name="robots" content="NOARCHIVE"> works exactly as it should:Originally posted by dp
Click on the first link for the Craftsman 6" Lathe:
It was an active Craigslist Ad that was deleted by the seller, so now the Craigslist auction is gone forever.
Google correctly indexes "http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/tls/1502619418.html" (which says "Ad Deleted By Seller") because that's a valid Craiglist link.
Everything works exactly as it should."Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did."Comment
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Except there's nothing for sale at that link. What part of useless are you missing in this? I don't want to find a valid but stale link. That stale link may still be there on Google weeks from now. That is why Google is so frustrating with Ebay and CL.Originally posted by lazloComment
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That's neither Google nor Craigslist's fault.Originally posted by dp
"http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/tls/1502619418.html"
Is a valid link. Should Google not index it? Or should Craigslist delete the Ad number once the item is sold?
Sounds like you want Craigslist to change the 'bot entry from <NOARCHIVE> to <NOINDEX> once the item is sold, to save you an extra click.
In any event, it's a minor annoyance and should not be any issue for George having for sale ads here. It certainly isn't an issue on CNCZone or PracticalMachinist."Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did."Comment
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BACK to the orig "for sale item post".
ii just checked the hms web site. books published ever other month.
i will still subscribe but, with the want ads only appearing every 60 days, they become stale before they even get to print. hell, some of us old boys could be dead by the time the ad comes to print.
i guess thats one argument for an on-line for sale place to go for our stuff. . . just my humble opinion.
i suppose we all cannot be considered resoponsible enuf to delete whatever our ads may be when stuff is no longer available ? ? ? if george can convince the powers that be. . . .Comment
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Don't run too far with that - Source Interlink owns most of the car hobby magazines in the US. They have a petty common web site build for each mag. And they suck, all of them. Car Craft and Hot Rod get some decent traffic but most of the others catch very little. The sites are slow and not real user friendly at times and none have a "for sale" section. These are pub with circulation in the 150K~250K range. Modified Mustangs has a paid and stand sales of 81K copies and their forum is very quiet. All that's just to put things in perspective.Hmm. Have whomever check with Glacern to see just how effective this forum is. Without this froum and the numerous participants I suspect your magazines would be non existent. Any print publication without a significant on line presence has already died.
Some of the most active sites on the internet have no other presence in the real world. Most of those are specialized (one I'm familiar with) - like fordmuscle.com, fordfe.com (source of all FE info on the net), 351cleveland.net. These sites do a good job of moving related product among their members and people get referred there from other sites when searching for specific items.
IMHO as a person with a long time web presence (since around 1996) - For a mag like HSM that has a limited print schedule, AND that have an active forum presence - either because of the magazine or in spite of it LOL - a For Sale section could (would I say) be an additional traffic generator. Pulling more people to the forum site increases the chance of subscription sales for the magazine and chance sponsor sales. The marketing folks should know this unless they have their heads in the sand.
The q then is free or fee. One big site I frequent is The Ford Falcon News. Dave only lets supporters post For Sale ads while non supporters can only post Wanted ads. The site has 4100 members and is member supported.
Allowing non-subscribers to post ads may bring in traffic that might otherwise pass by. Charging commercial vendors a small fee based on "impressions" (site hits) would generate some revenue. You could also mandate that posting an ad in the For Sale section requires you "opt in" for magazine advertisement traffic. This would not be "spam" because (IIRC) spam is not spam if you have established some business or other relationship with the sender.
Whatever drives traffic to the site helps and the magazine identity should be more prominent on the site. The magazines should have banner ads on the top, just like Glacern. I also think that an additional section like "Free Association" or some such should be provided to draw off topic posts. "General" should maybe be more like "General Machining" and posts there held closer to that standard. Nothing wrong with the "787 fight" type posts, but they do detract from the machining center of the category. IMHO, anywho. The membership here seems high enough to drive the ad traffic, especially since PM drives away the "import machine" crowd. HSM should take advantage of that, Chaski does.Last edited by Falcon67; 12-18-2009, 12:55 AM.Comment
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The pay to play would weed out the hookers and con artists I get hit with on craigslist.
I sold this week.. a antique cinncinatti to a lurker, a miller 300 spectrum plasma cutter for a bargain.
I have a dozen ads on there, I have been hit with hundreds of PHISHING inquiries.. normal is.. a link that looks like a picture, but opens up a octlet stream?? what the heck is that? a networking line?? and then the vague inquiries.. "is your item still available??" they don't want a thing but a email to spam..
Rock on HSM.. With each new open door, there are more doors to find.Excuse me, I farted.Comment
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