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Jun

David Borden Interview: How Do You Compete Against Craigslist?

Posted by   Published in FreeRentalSite.com

Here is the 4th of 8 videos with David Borden.

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6 users responded in this post

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Chris Berkompas said in June 25th, 2010 at 2:02 pm

David,

This is fantastic commentary. The biggest challenge seems to be the pricing model, which allows Craigslist to amass a phenomenal amount of content. I really like your business model at FreeRentalSite.com. Rewarding managers for quality UGC is a brilliant move. Your monetization will be significantly less efficient, but I suspect you’ll be able to make it up with scope and the competition that ensues. Have you had people spring for the extra credits in many of your markets yet?

Thanks Dave, for producing this content!

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Ying said in June 25th, 2010 at 4:51 pm

This video will make a lot of people who own listing/classified ads site feel warm and fuzzy inside. A good reminder that people will pay for better user experience & service as long as the results are not too far off.

Dave, I don’t know if you remember, but before I took the leap of faith and started my Toronto rental site, I sent you an email asking about Oodle.

I was really worried that I would waste my time and money as big players would crush us little guys. You gave me the proof and confidence that we can swim with the Craigslist and Oodle monsters as long as we can provide better value. Thanks Dave!

David, I think this video will give a boost of confidence to entrepreneurs who have doubts in entering an industry that has very big players. Many sites will be created because of this video. I hope Craigslist don’t see this video :) .

David, have you considered doing a job site or auto site just to try something different?

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Dave Borden said in June 27th, 2010 at 9:24 pm

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the nice comments. I believe the next video specifically addresses the pricing model, and I would love to get your thoughts. We have had upgrades in Edmonton and Toronto, but very minimal so far. We need to achieve a certain measure of success before we can expect a lot of upgrades. Once we have lots of ads, traffic, and leads, then we can get more upgrades. We also have an “All Access Pass” which allows property management companies to brand their company across our site and craigslist for a nominal fee. I go into that a little bit in a later video as well.

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Dave Borden said in June 27th, 2010 at 9:32 pm

Ying,

With our technology, and the team that we have, we could very easily build a job, auto, or any other classified site. We would consider doing it for someone else for the right price, but we do not want to do it ourselves as we do not have expertise in those area. We do not want to lose focus on what we are working on either.

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Dave Dugdale said in June 27th, 2010 at 9:35 pm

@Ying. Thanks for your kind words.

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Robbie said in June 28th, 2010 at 1:47 pm

I have to 100% percent agree on the user experience!

Good Video for everyone! Even if I’m way down in Florida!