Glad your taking this more seriously Alan and beginning to realise how important it is, and will effect the business, and any business hugely (especially of this nature). Design isnt your or my fortae actually, but most people know what needs to be done, and should be done right, by the right people, to get it all right, and make it all come together to build a great, progressive, known busines, company, service, and site.

Thanks for the post Zack. I didnt make myself clear enough, and really, you dont totally disagree, you dis agree on one element which I merely just didnt explain as I should have.

It's agreed the first place most people think of for selling goods online is ebay. Now, let me state more clearly, thats mostly concious thinking. On the colours, brand, and all things that make ebay, that plays a huge part on why they think of ebay, and is largely in the sub concious. eBay as just one example has developed a colourful friendly image, that logo does stick in peoples minds with other associations to the brand and site, and usually sub conciously (like most advertising). Even more so particularly as more recently TV adverts of ebays, are fun and friendly, and have a fun and friendly, colourful logo at the end, which everyone recognises and associates, whether you may recognise that or not, whether it be concious or not (usually not).

That is simply put, factual stuff with marketing, branding, and with business that is taught, prooved, accepted, and known across the industry, so its not really something you can disagree with. If you have a slightly different view then fine, but lets not get into an un-necessary debate, especially about such basic prooved elements of advertising, marketing, business, branding and more.

On the other points, totally agreed of course. Branding, design, theme, look, feel for Kaqoo needs to be consistent from the start, and yes of course other sites will be a mixture of same or similar design and feel, or they're design, its their choice and thats another matter. Alan has said he'd encourage people to have theyre own tweaked designs and he's right, but at the end of the day that choice is on other peoples court, so should be left aside on dealing with Kaqoo itself for that purpose (will get messy otherwise).

Hello all!

For those who wish to test the administration features of Kaqoo, as a site owner, you can now do so.

Go to:

http://www.collectorscarauction.org/index.php

and login with username and password:

alanlondon333
newuser

You will now be able to play around with all the administration features!

You will see that there is very little for you to play with as we have made sure that most things are done for you. The main items you can change are the charges you make for the site, listing fees, FVF, etc. and the design. You will also be able to change the emails which go out to users to suit your style.

This is also where you will choose the categories to show on your site. If you want to change them, check:

http://kaqoo.com/kaqoo2/client/index.php?act=list&items_filter=all

to see which items are in which categories; change them to correspond and they will show on "your site".

A word of warning!

We are playing with all the sites for the rest of the week so some things may not work.... We are stress testing, checking anything which users could do to make it go wrong, and also changing the translation interface, so you never know what may happen! It could be exciting!

If the language doesn't look right, or you have strange characters, just click the language selector at the top right, it should fix any problems.

If you find a problem which holds you up, try again later. It will probably have been fixed.

Please don't forget, this is BETA, there are things waiting in the wings to be added, but we will not put them in until we have finished stress testing.

Thanks for your patience!

Regards

Alan

Ok, these are my questions for now, and I hope I am not asking something that is already up there and I just did not see it:

Is the car collections site an example of what all participants in kagoo would have?

And are the participants (sellers) covered under a uniform terms of service concerning sales of reproductions, licensing, shipping, and refunds? Or do they carry customized TOS for their sites?

Am I correct in assuming that the participants are running multiple-seller sites within their sites, as in the car collector site catering to individual sellers in that market?

If so, who enforces standards regarding individual sellers, and how is this done?

Hi teapotdee,

Good questions!

teapotdee wrote (View Post): › Is the car collections site an example of what all participants in kagoo would have?

If you are talking about design, yes, all sites will have a VERY standard design initially which they can modify to their own site design. As designs are offered free, or for sale, there will be a choice of designs.

(please don't re-open the "I hate the design thread"!!!!!!!)

teapotdee wrote (View Post): › And are the participants (sellers) covered under a uniform terms of service concerning sales of reproductions, licensing, shipping, and refunds? Or do they carry customized TOS for their sites?

Yes, they will be, as part of their agreement to use the software. Site owners will be able to add restrictions to the T&C.

teapotdee wrote (View Post): › Am I correct in assuming that the participants are running multiple-seller sites within their sites, as in the car collector site catering to individual sellers in that market?

Yes.

teapotdee wrote (View Post): › If so, who enforces standards regarding individual sellers, and how is this done?

A combination of controls through the individual site and a Kaqoo overview of what is happening. An example is that we have in place a checking mechanism which will restrict scammers........ I am sorry, I cannot tell you what it is, otherwise the scammers know!

I trust this helps. Any other question, just ask!

Best regards

Alan

I went into your admin test and looked around.

I can see why you are going to want someone available to "hold hands" with new users.

It is obviously a very powerful program.

The features may be overwhelming to some, but your marketing plan would suggest what level of sophistication you expect people to bring with them.

I can also see that the features that might be turning people off to design are the temporary features that would look completely different once you dress it up.

Maybe some who "hate" it don't recognize that they are looking at a "naked" selling platform, and they can see the guts, *lol*

teapotdee wrote (View Post): › I can also see that the features that might be turning people off to design are the temporary features that would look completely different once you dress it up. Maybe some who "hate" it don't recognize that they are looking at a "naked" selling platform, and they can see the guts, *lol*

That was a risk we decided to take!

Best regards

Alan

Alan,
Where is your company located?
In the U.S?
Sanders

Here is another point of view on advertising.

I do not feel that a lot would be needed especially if you are running an auction along side of a web site that has been out there in search engines.

Not everyone that sees the word "auction" neccessarily will enter into a site and purchase or sell. Customers do price comparison on the net. The loyalty to one shop onlne is not as it used to be.

Having the web site, people entering in to that site, you having a link explaining that you have an auction on the same server, will help in it's own advertising to a point.

Those people that enter the web shop and who are intersted in auctions, will enter into the auction site. BUT what people forget is when someone is doing a serach, the engines will pull up more then one place. It is that list of places as to where catching the eye of the person looking begins.

I have been on the internet, have dealt with enough people over the years, listened to them, talked with online business people and with all that info, I know more of what people do when they serach for items.

So, in other words, you are going to catch their eye first through a search engine. And what you want in those engines is not neccessarily the name of the site itself. More of what you want is the product and the price to show. Those are the ones I go to first. Then I compare with other sites that do not show any pricing.

JMO

Good design takes time and collaborative effort. Designers have rent to pay, and contests are for people who don't have to pay rent.

Having said that,

I think some of us here may be taking unecessarily strong positions to one side or the other of the image issue.

Those standing for a solid "image" and attributing ebay's success to its consistent image are right, but those, mainly alan, who are more optimistic about "evolving" a design are also right.

eBay didn't get as slick as it is now right from the start. They had the concept and the logo colors down in a very similar fashion to others, and they had a firm enough start to make a seamless transition to a more deliberate and fully fleshed-out image. They lucked out at the beginning because they were able to use their original logo all the way thorugh their growth.

But attempting to go for a fully developed image right at the start is costly and risky, because you really don't know what the "character" of your market will be, even if you have a strong vision of what you expect it to be. You will be more likely to change an image that is too "finished" at the start because it may not fit well within a couple of years.

You want something that you can live with for a while.

The thing to do is probably more like a two-level design process, IMO.

Run contests regularly for templates, but hire a couple of consultant/designers for your main image.

Don't look for strong tech in your consultant, instead look for a good eye and strong instincts. The consultant can come up with a few possible directions after spending time getting to know your vision.

Then you can get people with stronger tech, maybe pulling them out of the template winners but don't commit to that. Give the tech designers the project you chose from among the several the consultant suggested, and let them make all the bells and whistles ding and hoot the way they should.

Pay your main consultants and tech designers and keep them on board and working as a team that way, so that you won't be reinventing the wheel every time you want to add new features to the site. Let them build relationships with your sellers, who can have several tiers of design assistance to choose from: from the freely available templates of your contest winners to paying for a fully custom package.


And please don't price their work at less than you'd pay for a pizza party with the guys! *lol*

June 14 1997

http://web.archive.org/web/19970614001443/http://www.ebay.com/

December 1 1998

http://web.archive.org/web/19990117033159/pages.ebay.com/aw/index.html

I am delighted to announce that, on release, Kaqoo Software will be free of rental to all Site Owners.

In order to expand our marketplace we are concentrating on making selling easier and cheaper to those who help Kaqoo reach a wider audience. All features which are available now will continue to be available on release. Upgrades will continue to be free.

I am sure you will agree this will help to increase your sales in a most cost-effective way!

Please register for the forums here:

http://kaqoo.com/forums/register.php

and post a message telling us you want Kaqoo here:

http://kaqoo.com/forums/viewforum.php?id=32

Alan

The way you have "Site Owners" capitalizes suggests owners of certain sites, not just web site owners in general. Could you clarify this part, alan?

Is Kagoo another online auction site competing with ebay? Also, just my 2-cents. ebay.com is where they are today because they were first to the market (then copy cats came out, only helping to build their brand) In addition, they go and buy out popular web sites such as skype, paypal, prostores just to name a few that have, oh, about 100,000,000 users combined. That's how ebay got to where they are and not because a logo sticks in the mind of people. I heard someone say auction, I think of ebay. I don't think about a logo.

In order to really compete with ebay or bidchaser, you need something that changes the way you do business via online auctions. Throwing up an online auction website (which you can now buy at your local Staples) is truly, 100% waste of time and money. Unless you build it and you offer something nobody else has.

Not here to rain on a parade, but I read the thread and was stumped that some think ebay made it because of a logo etc. They were first to market.

Hi Dee,

You are right, unclear.

"Site Owners" means all who download and install the Kaqoo Software to their websites. There will be no rental charge for life.

The Kaqoo Network will function exactly as described with each member site showing each others items for sale. At the official launch of Kaqoo.com all items will also be displayed.

We feel it is only fair to reward Members of this forum who have assisted us over the past month and in our pre-launch phase. You will be our "Founding Members" and it is only right that you have recognition. This offer will not be available following the Kaqoo.com launch.

Is that better? If not I am happy to try again. Please ask any questions, I will answer to the best of my ability.

OK, So I better get in there and download or what? I am kind of in a frenzy of prelaunch of my own right now and so I don't want to miss your deadline.

BTW, alan, you are going to stop by Marge's Online Launch Party Feb 12-14th, I hope?

We will meet at her thread here in PSU and then go on the internet version of a Boston-pub-crawl! *lol*!