Cooperative

[Tubby]

I have for a long time pondered the concept of a website cooperative. I have owned a classified website dedicated to classic cars and parts for a good few years and sometimes get the urge to expand my interests.

My basic thinking is that I have a source of traffic and a steady supply of adverts that could easily kick start the Automotive content section. directing traffic to a webmasters cooperative classifieds site would not be difficult.

The problem is the other categories would be bare and empty, and that my own links would not generate enough energy to punch the new site to the top of anything.

If there were a cooperative. A multi webmaster owned site - where webmaster selling a variety of different items could each contribute to sections. most of the traffic and content problems would be eliminated.

Example; a webmaster of a site that sells clocks could freely list stock items and site users could easily be directed to a jointly owned site where they could list items for sale.
A webmaster of a say an Art site could freely list artworks or paintings. In turn the site users could list items that they had for sale.

My thought was that if there were a high number of cooperative owners all linking to specific sections the new site would get a great kick start.

I am interested in talking to webmasters with a genuine traffic base about the possibility of testing this concept and maybe turning it into a reality.

Expressions of interest are welcome in this thread.
Suggestions, thoughts, ideas - are welcome in this thread.
proposals, and on topic discussions - are welcome in this thread.

Would a Webmasters cooperative Work ?

[mjtaylor]

I'm game. It sounds like a great idea, Tubby.

[Tubby]

Excellent. . I have not set any thoughts in concrete - but the thought of owning a 100th part of a huge site appeals to me.

I would dearly like to own a 1000th part of something that has potential to complete with a site the size of eBay.

**One day one of my dreams could come true**

I might see If I can 'virus' this concept a little bit . .

We can open up a WPW community group if needed.

[cw1865]

Now you know why people incorporate and form corporations {even though you seem to be thinking more along the lines of a co-op}! I would suggest that you retain ownership of your domain name. Do the test with a new domain name. Different scenario, but my grandparents lived in a co-op in NYC for many years - the internal politics can get pretty petty, pretty quickly.

Since you're experience on the web mainly stems from cars, check out http://www.autotrader.com/ - you could do a similar thing in Australia and form either a corporation or an advertising cooperative for all of the car dealers in Australia {check out the laws in Australia on the latter because technically that could theoretically violate anti-trust laws}

[Tubby]

CW The Auto trader was not quite what I had in mind.

What I had in mind would be more in line with allowing A cooperative member like MJ tapping into submitted adverts like
1950 Buick Super Riviera - car for sale - West Palm Beach (Florida) XXXXX@msn.com (name removed)

The concept being that this could KICK START - a classified section that delivered traffic and pr to a network of sites that a cooperative member like mj has already established.

I am not greatly interested in copying something that is already in existence.
I have here for instance Florida adverts.

May 2010
1935 studebaker dictator. Wanted, interior door handles - Fort Walton Beach, FL
e-mail: *********@aol.com ph...850-803-3536

1970 Pontiac Wagon Rocker Moldings and Wheel Opening Moldings Dan - Clearwater,
FL 727 515 2858


1966 Pontiac parts wanted - Black kick panels for 66 bonneville with A/C - Delray Beach, FL
Phone # 561-441-0101

1957 Buick Century - parts wanted - tail light assemblies in good condition Clearwater, FL -
Dan 727 515 2858

1940 dodge 4 door sedan need master cylinder or kit, and front wheel cylinders - West Palm Beach (Florida) - - Contact pod 1947 -

1937 Hudson Terraplane Wanted rear leaf spring pivot bolts - Hudson # 153238 .740 od 3.0 long (2) Live Oak (Florida) - *******@hotmail.com

These listing for me under Florida have very little Value as my users search for year make and model. But A cooperative Member. Might well use them in a local situation very effectively as starting platform for something local.

I suspect the incentive to ad ranking power to a Cooperative would be far more potent than the odd reciprocal link posted in a reluctant half hearted effort.

[cw1865]

CW The Auto trader was not quite what I had in mind.

OK, you have to remember that with respect to that particular industry, I have very little experience.

Even if you think autotrader isn't the specific model or niche that you are looking to fill, due to my lack of experience in the industry, I still must refer to it to make a general point.

In the autotrader model a for profit company is selling advertising, essentially to dealerships, who post data feeds of their autos. On a daily/weekly/monthly basis they are paying autotrader and in return, they're hoping to generate leads and to generate sales.

Working within the autotrader model, and again I understand this isn't quite what you're looking to do, you would be selling the cooperative or shares in a corporation on the basis that in the long run this will turn out to be the cheapest way for them to advertise/generate leads, etc.

The basic point about a cooperative though is that no matter what the niche, no matter what the industry (it could even be an agricultural cooperative set up to sell produce directly to customers), the niche that the co-op fills is 'sold' on the basis that: 1. this is a cheaper way to do it than to do it internally and/or 2. its cheaper than outsourcing it to whomever the members of the co-op are currently outsourcing it to.

To illustrate my point further, consider ADP (Automatic Data Processing), a for profit company that processes payrolls for many businesses. Businesses choose to utilize ADP's services because its cheaper than doing it internally. You could theoretically start a co-op and hope to do it better and/or cheaper than ADP {or you could start your own corp. and decide to directly compete with them too!}

The specifics, that I'll leave to you!

[Tubby]

P.S.
Designated Florida traffic is useless to me. traffic that arrives at my site from Florida never arrives due to location -

Stats for a Florida page here http://us.2.p12.webhosting.yahoo.com...d-classics.com These Florida stats are useless. . No reason that they could not be a starting point for A Florida site.

My traffic as I mentioned earlier arrives via year make model of vehicle.

content on my site for Florida pages is wasted - a webmaster in Florida could make better use of it - Then my efforts to link to Florida would be of more value. I would get Florida representation - Florida would get better Classic car ads.

As I see it it could be wins everywhere.

Leather briefcase traffic - is useless to me - but If the next page on the classifieds cooperative page is 'Oklahoma Chevrolet windscreens in ' - I will link to the next page. Or re-print the advert under 1967 Chevy Windscreens.

I am rambling a bit. But I think webmasters with traffic - cooperating to deliver the goods to their users could work out how to deliver something worthwhile with a little effort.

If YOU SELL BOOTS - we simply have a 'boots' classified section, linking back to your boots page.

[cw1865]

P.S.
Designated Florida traffic is useless to me. traffic that arrives at my site from Florida never arrives due to location -

Stats for a Florida page here http://us.2.p12.webhosting.yahoo.com...d-classics.com These Florida stats are useless. . No reason that they could not be a starting point for A Florida site.

My traffic as I mentioned earlier arrives via year make model of vehicle.

content on my site for Florida pages is wasted - a webmaster in Florida could make better use of it - Then my efforts to link to Florida would be of more value. I would get Florida representation - Florida would get better Classic car ads.

As I see it it could be wins everywhere.

Leather briefcase traffic - is useless to me - but If the next page on the classifieds cooperative page is 'Oklahoma Chevrolet windscreens in ' - I will link to the next page. Or re-print the advert under 1967 Chevy Windscreens.

I am rambling a bit. But I think webmasters with traffic - cooperating to deliver the goods to their users could work out how to deliver something worthwhile with a little effort.

If YOU SELL BOOTS - we simply have a 'boots' classified section, linking back to your boots page.

The model is starting to look more like an online mall. I've read a LITTLE bit about that, I think an example of this is rakuten in Japan but its obviously difficult to make out quite what they're doing there because its obviously in Japanese.

Perhaps something similar to shopping.com?

Classic co-op by the way were the farmers who set up co-ops to bypass the Millers! The farmers were always suspicious that the Millers were stealing from them and locally the Millers would have a kind've monopoly to mill the grain!

[Tubby]

CW. My thinking is not so much selling a niche. .

More about utilising our traffic. some of my users might want to buy a pair of sunglasses one day, I do not sell them. Some of your users might want to buy a pair of sunglasses, You do not sell them. MJ's users probably all have sunglasses already, but one of them might want to sell an old pair. . . Between us we have a lot of users. Someone selling sunglasses might find this a useful concept.

I am not looking for a particular Niche. I am looking at all of the niches at once - in a cooperative.

[cw1865]

Honestly, the closest thing popping into my mind right now would be shopping.com or even to a much more limited extent, Amazon.com, but more closely resembling something like this:

Your Super Brand (an online mall to get 'everything')--->
Tubby Cars (in association with 'Your Super Brand')
Craig Wallets (in association with 'Your Super Brand')
.....etc so on and so forth.

No?