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Market for a new classifieds website focused on the Chiangmai region?


Mcffee

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I feel totally bored and am addicted to developing user-friendly service websites. What do you expats peeps think is there still market for a new classifieds website? What I've seen so far does not make me happy. (except from the new Thaivisa real estate website that's a sweet one)

If not classifieds, what else is needed for a better expat experience?

Edited by Mcffee
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The current real estate sites leave much to be desired.

If you could 1. scrape all the existing sites and 2. get the actual sales prices for units sold, you would have some hell of a database that would be gold for a prospective buyer, i.e. being able to see average selling prices/sqm. for an area, building, what the average discount is, how long units are on the market in various areas/buildings, etc.

Of course it might be a challenge to obtain the data, at least the actual sales prices.

You could team up with a sizable real estate agent, as that could possibly give access to more data.

Edited by WorkingTourist
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Over the years I have seen many Chiang Mai classifieds websites come and go. There are still quite a few in existence but hardly anyone uses them. When I look at the different categories most of them are marked with a zero content. There is now a successful Chiang Mai classifieds website called Chiang Mai Locator, that has become more famous for advertising it`s adult establishments, but similar would entail a lot of setting up, plus it has to attract the advertisers, work permits required and would probably require a team rather than a one man operation.

An alternative to craigslist may work, but probably not viable to run in Thailand, due to the strict defamation laws, again work permits required and so on. It`s the same with dating websites, the Internet is flooded with them.

Probably easier and less complicated to stick with blogs and facebook.

Edited by Beetlejuice
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The current real estate sites leave much to be desired.

If you could 1. scrape all the existing sites and 2. get the actual sales prices for units sold, you would have some hell of a database that would be gold for a prospective buyer, i.e. being able to see average selling prices/sqm. for an area, building, what the average discount is, how long units are on the market in various areas/buildings, etc.

Of course it might be a challenge to obtain the data, at least the actual sales prices.

You could team up with a sizable real estate agent, as that could possibly give access to more data.

Al so keep on top of them. When one is sold or rented take it of the list. That would require a lot of work.

Not sure but do you need a work permit to do online only business? for some reason I have been under the impression that you don't. Or it could be that they are like with most other things not following up on work permits.

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Not sure but do you need a work permit to do online only business? for some reason I have been under the impression that you don't. Or it could be that they are like with most other things not following up on work permits.

Interesting, guess I better ask a lawyer what's the best way.

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We have a small fresh herbal juice business and also stock a few other healthy items. I have been constantly looking for a local media to advertise in that targets the permanent CM expat market (not tourists) and gets good traffic. I am willing to pay for decent exposure. Other than advertising here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/28-chiang-mai-forum/ (which I am considering, great traffic, but for some reason the banner ads do not show up on my computer???, how many others cannot view them?) I cannot find an appealing local media outlet. Perhaps www.chiangmainews.com but the tiny online banner ads do not allow any description whatsoever. I want to be able to mention at least 4-5 items and a link to our website.

Don't know if this helps but just my 2 cents from a frustrated potential small business advertiser looking for a popular media outlet. I do not know how typical our situation is but my guess is there are hundreds of small area businesses like ours looking for better exposure that does not "break the bank".

Doug

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Not sure but do you need a work permit to do online only business? for some reason I have been under the impression that you don't. Or it could be that they are like with most other things not following up on work permits.

Interesting, guess I better ask a lawyer what's the best way.

If it's a Chiangmai /Thailand related site pretty much sure you would require a work permit as it would be generating income arising in/ from Thailand.

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We have a small fresh herbal juice business and also stock a few other healthy items. I have been constantly looking for a local media to advertise in that targets the permanent CM expat market (not tourists) and gets good traffic. I am willing to pay for decent exposure. Other than advertising here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/28-chiang-mai-forum/ (which I am considering, great traffic, but for some reason the banner ads do not show up on my computer???, how many others cannot view them?) I cannot find an appealing local media outlet. Perhaps www.chiangmainews.com but the tiny online banner ads do not allow any description whatsoever. I want to be able to mention at least 4-5 items and a link to our website.

Don't know if this helps but just my 2 cents from a frustrated potential small business advertiser looking for a popular media outlet. I do not know how typical our situation is but my guess is there are hundreds of small area businesses like ours looking for better exposure that does not "break the bank".

Doug

Doug are you using Chrome or Firefox? May well be you have ad block switched on, you would simply have to whitelist your site to see the ads if that is the case.

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We have a small fresh herbal juice business and also stock a few other healthy items. I have been constantly looking for a local media to advertise in that targets the permanent CM expat market (not tourists) and gets good traffic. I am willing to pay for decent exposure. Other than advertising here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/28-chiang-mai-forum/ (which I am considering, great traffic, but for some reason the banner ads do not show up on my computer???, how many others cannot view them?) I cannot find an appealing local media outlet. Perhaps www.chiangmainews.com but the tiny online banner ads do not allow any description whatsoever. I want to be able to mention at least 4-5 items and a link to our website.

Don't know if this helps but just my 2 cents from a frustrated potential small business advertiser looking for a popular media outlet. I do not know how typical our situation is but my guess is there are hundreds of small area businesses like ours looking for better exposure that does not "break the bank".

Doug

I am going to give you some professional advice for free:

Firstly, 2 points of importance to mention here: 1. If you are running your company from within Thailand, that you are doing so strictly according to Thai law as regards foreigners owning and running businesses in the Kingdom, 2. That you are a little IT savvy, able to design and create a basic website and so on.

For companies, Google and Weebly hosts excellent free websites. Easy to create templates for layouts, then once uploaded all you need to do is register your website with the search engines and online listings directories.

Also create a facebook company page, list the company with linkedin and even a Utube video for maximum online exposure. If wanting to be more adventurous and you have some knowledge of File Transfer Protocol (FTP), it is possible to create a professional website using a programme such as Abobe Dreamweaver and uploading using an FTP client including your own domain address with a host from a little as 150 baht per month.

Once you have established your website and other links mentioned above, then you can advertise your company in various online classifieds displaying the links to your website that will increase the odds of it being crawled and picked up by the search engines. After 6 months your company name will appear all over the Internet at virtually no cost, plus you will have full control and able to make amendments and updates, again at no cost.

And of course you have the option of becoming a Thai visa sponsor if you specifically want to aim at the Thailand ex-pat market.. Whatever, as the wise man says; where there`s a will, there`s a way, if you are prepared and determined to work at it.

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If it's a Chiangmai /Thailand related site pretty much sure you would require a work permit as it would be generating income arising in/ from Thailand.

or a Thai "owner"

just carrying on my thoughts as I posted earlier. I owned a small weekly newspaper and a website design/mgt business in Canada in my past, so I have had some exposure to "marketing/advertising".

I am thinking along the lines of an online "CM Small Business Directory" well organized under proper headings and subheadings. One of my frustrations is I cannot find any classifieds that even mention in their headings: "Herbs/Herbal, Thai Herbs, Natural Health, ..." etc. A heading "Health" usually goes to hospitals/doctors yet Thailand and CM have a very strong and rapidly growing (booming actually) "Natural Health Products" businesses developing. My guess is that whoever is responsible for creating Categories and SubCategories does not put a lot of thought into their Directory Categories/SubCategories.

Here is an example of what I feel could be the structure of two areas of an online "Small Business Directory"...

TRANSPORTATION:

- Bus - Stations - Mini Bus

- Taxis

- Car/Truck Sales/Service/Repair

- MOTORBIKE - Retail Stores - Service/Repair

- BICYCLE - Retail Stores - Service/Repair - Social Groups/Organizations

- WALKING - Trails/Clubs/Hiking

HEALTH:

- Hospitals/Clinics

- Doctors by Specialization

- NATURAL HEALTH - Naturopathic Doctors - Chinese Medicine - Herbs & Herbal Products Services/Stores

My thinking is the simple one-line listing is free, but if they want a "Premium" listing with some description of their business/service and a hot-link to website/email they pay in advance. XX$ for one month, XXX$ for 6 months, XXXX$ for one year. We would be VERY interested in a paid listing for "Herbs & Herbal Products Services/Stores" if the Directory gets some decent traffic.

Once you have the Directory Categories organized then print an inexpensive flyer with the Directory Categories outlined and personally visit small businesses you think should be interested. Give a huge discount for 1st time advertisers exp on start-up, if they get traffic then they will gladly renew for full price.

Doug

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We have a small fresh herbal juice business and also stock a few other healthy items. I have been constantly looking for a local media to advertise in that targets the permanent CM expat market (not tourists) and gets good traffic. I am willing to pay for decent exposure. Other than advertising here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/28-chiang-mai-forum/ (which I am considering, great traffic, but for some reason the banner ads do not show up on my computer???, how many others cannot view them?) I cannot find an appealing local media outlet. Perhaps www.chiangmainews.com but the tiny online banner ads do not allow any description whatsoever. I want to be able to mention at least 4-5 items and a link to our website.

Don't know if this helps but just my 2 cents from a frustrated potential small business advertiser looking for a popular media outlet. I do not know how typical our situation is but my guess is there are hundreds of small area businesses like ours looking for better exposure that does not "break the bank".

Doug

I am going to give you some professional advice for free:

Firstly, 2 points of importance to mention here: 1. If you are running your company from within Thailand, that you are doing so strictly according to Thai law as regards foreigners owning and running businesses in the Kingdom, 2. That you are a little IT savvy, able to design and create a basic website and so on.

For companies, Google and Weebly hosts excellent free websites. Easy to create templates for layouts, then once uploaded all you need to do is register your website with the search engines and online listings directories.

Also create a facebook company page, list the company with linkedin and even a Utube video for maximum online exposure. If wanting to be more adventurous and you have some knowledge of File Transfer Protocol (FTP), it is possible to create a professional website using a programme such as Abobe Dreamweaver and uploading using an FTP client including your own domain address with a host from a little as 150 baht per month.

Once you have established your website and other links mentioned above, then you can advertise your company in various online classifieds displaying the links to your website that will increase the odds of it being crawled and picked up by the search engines. After 6 months your company name will appear all over the Internet at virtually no cost, plus you will have full control and able to make amendments and updates, again at no cost.

And of course you have the option of becoming a Thai visa sponsor if you specifically want to aim at the Thailand ex-pat market.. Whatever, as the wise man says; where there`s a will, there`s a way, if you are prepared and determined to work at it.

We have an excellent website that is in all important search engines, we come up #1 in the "search terms" we want to.

thanks!

Doug

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Doug are you using Chrome or Firefox? May well be you have ad block switched on, you would simply have to whitelist your site to see the ads if that is the case.

I use Firefox which is likely blocking the ads as in IE the ads do show up. According to the info below Firefox and Chrome users represent over 60% of the market usage. Does that mean 60% + people on TV do not see the ads????

Not sure how to "whitelist" my site, but the above question still remains - are 60% or more TVisa users not able to see the banner ads, as extremely few would bother to "whitelist" just to see ads???

Doug

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers

Usage share of desktop browsers for December 2014 Source Chrome Internet

Explorer

Firefox Safari Opera Other StatCounter 49.7% 24.6% 18.0% 4.7% 1.5% 1.6% W3Counter 42.5% 17.6% 15.6% 14.6% 3.2% 6.5% Wikimedia 48.1% 17.5% 16.7% 4.8% 1.5% 11.4% NetApplications 22.7% 59.1% 11.9% 5.0% 0.9% 0.4%
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We have a small fresh herbal juice business and also stock a few other healthy items. I have been constantly looking for a local media to advertise in that targets the permanent CM expat market (not tourists) and gets good traffic. I am willing to pay for decent exposure. Other than advertising here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/28-chiang-mai-forum/ (which I am considering, great traffic, but for some reason the banner ads do not show up on my computer???, how many others cannot view them?) I cannot find an appealing local media outlet. Perhaps www.chiangmainews.com but the tiny online banner ads do not allow any description whatsoever. I want to be able to mention at least 4-5 items and a link to our website.

Don't know if this helps but just my 2 cents from a frustrated potential small business advertiser looking for a popular media outlet. I do not know how typical our situation is but my guess is there are hundreds of small area businesses like ours looking for better exposure that does not "break the bank".

Doug

I am going to give you some professional advice for free:

Firstly, 2 points of importance to mention here: 1. If you are running your company from within Thailand, that you are doing so strictly according to Thai law as regards foreigners owning and running businesses in the Kingdom, 2. That you are a little IT savvy, able to design and create a basic website and so on.

For companies, Google and Weebly hosts excellent free websites. Easy to create templates for layouts, then once uploaded all you need to do is register your website with the search engines and online listings directories.

Also create a facebook company page, list the company with linkedin and even a Utube video for maximum online exposure. If wanting to be more adventurous and you have some knowledge of File Transfer Protocol (FTP), it is possible to create a professional website using a programme such as Abobe Dreamweaver and uploading using an FTP client including your own domain address with a host from a little as 150 baht per month.

Once you have established your website and other links mentioned above, then you can advertise your company in various online classifieds displaying the links to your website that will increase the odds of it being crawled and picked up by the search engines. After 6 months your company name will appear all over the Internet at virtually no cost, plus you will have full control and able to make amendments and updates, again at no cost.

And of course you have the option of becoming a Thai visa sponsor if you specifically want to aim at the Thailand ex-pat market.. Whatever, as the wise man says; where there`s a will, there`s a way, if you are prepared and determined to work at it.

We have an excellent website that is in all important search engines, we come up #1 in the "search terms" we want to.

thanks!

Doug

As they say; you only get what you pay for. The free classifieds websites are not really up to much. What it requires is something like banner ads on well known Thailand related themed sites, or regular ads in well known online magazines, including as I mentioned, Thai visa. Other than that, considering you already have a company website and the other means of low cost or free ways to promote your business that I have mentioned, there is not much else open to you.

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We have a small fresh herbal juice business and also stock a few other healthy items. I have been constantly looking for a local media to advertise in that targets the permanent CM expat market (not tourists) and gets good traffic. I am willing to pay for decent exposure. Other than advertising here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/28-chiang-mai-forum/ (which I am considering, great traffic, but for some reason the banner ads do not show up on my computer???, how many others cannot view them?) I cannot find an appealing local media outlet. Perhaps www.chiangmainews.com but the tiny online banner ads do not allow any description whatsoever. I want to be able to mention at least 4-5 items and a link to our website.

Don't know if this helps but just my 2 cents from a frustrated potential small business advertiser looking for a popular media outlet. I do not know how typical our situation is but my guess is there are hundreds of small area businesses like ours looking for better exposure that does not "break the bank".

Doug

Have you considered Facebook advertising, with the right targeting it can be very cost effective. Also with the addition of a small amount of javascript on your site you can re-target people i.e. just display an ad to people who have already visited your site. With the correct setup you can also track conversions.

Expats living in Chiang Mai would be relatively easy to target, "lives in Chiang", members of CM related groups, gender, age and some behaviour can also be targeted.

To do it cheaply just target people you visit your site.

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Doug are you using Chrome or Firefox? May well be you have ad block switched on, you would simply have to whitelist your site to see the ads if that is the case.

I use Firefox which is likely blocking the ads as in IE the ads do show up. According to the info below Firefox and Chrome users represent over 60% of the market usage. Does that mean 60% + people on TV do not see the ads????

Not sure how to "whitelist" my site, but the above question still remains - are 60% or more TVisa users not able to see the banner ads, as extremely few would bother to "whitelist" just to see ads???

Probably you have an ad blocking plugin in Firefox.

Either way I wouldn't focus too much on banner ads; few people click them. However when you become a sponsor you get to start posts that describe your business, and new products or promotions, etc. A lot more people see those.

And if you become a CM Expat Club member then there are forum members here who will plug your business relentlessly. rolleyes.gif Achieves almost the same thing.

Edited by WinnieTheKhwai
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We have a small fresh herbal juice business and also stock a few other healthy items. I have been constantly looking for a local media to advertise in that targets the permanent CM expat market (not tourists) and gets good traffic. I am willing to pay for decent exposure. Other than advertising here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/28-chiang-mai-forum/ (which I am considering, great traffic, but for some reason the banner ads do not show up on my computer???, how many others cannot view them?) I cannot find an appealing local media outlet. Perhaps www.chiangmainews.com but the tiny online banner ads do not allow any description whatsoever. I want to be able to mention at least 4-5 items and a link to our website.

Don't know if this helps but just my 2 cents from a frustrated potential small business advertiser looking for a popular media outlet. I do not know how typical our situation is but my guess is there are hundreds of small area businesses like ours looking for better exposure that does not "break the bank".

Doug

This. There are more shops, small businesses, noteworthy services etc. that deserve more exposure. But what's missing is an always up to date total overview, it's included in my concept. All websites so far are half baked, dead or difficult rubbish. Also, having a brilliant idea and developing a website is one thing, but continuation is another thing which is much harder, and marketing and promotion are not less important.

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If it's a Chiangmai /Thailand related site pretty much sure you would require a work permit as it would be generating income arising in/ from Thailand.

Even when it is not generating income I guess. Registering on a Thai name is no problem, but I wonder what activitities I can do myself on a safe way then.

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If it's a Chiangmai /Thailand related site pretty much sure you would require a work permit as it would be generating income arising in/ from Thailand.

or a Thai "owner"

just carrying on my thoughts as I posted earlier. I owned a small weekly newspaper and a website design/mgt business in Canada in my past, so I have had some exposure to "marketing/advertising".

I am thinking along the lines of an online "CM Small Business Directory" well organized under proper headings and subheadings. One of my frustrations is I cannot find any classifieds that even mention in their headings: "Herbs/Herbal, Thai Herbs, Natural Health, ..." etc. A heading "Health" usually goes to hospitals/doctors yet Thailand and CM have a very strong and rapidly growing (booming actually) "Natural Health Products" businesses developing. My guess is that whoever is responsible for creating Categories and SubCategories does not put a lot of thought into their Directory Categories/SubCategories.

Here is an example of what I feel could be the structure of two areas of an online "Small Business Directory"...

TRANSPORTATION:

- Bus - Stations - Mini Bus

- Taxis

- Car/Truck Sales/Service/Repair

- MOTORBIKE - Retail Stores - Service/Repair

- BICYCLE - Retail Stores - Service/Repair - Social Groups/Organizations

- WALKING - Trails/Clubs/Hiking

HEALTH:

- Hospitals/Clinics

- Doctors by Specialization

- NATURAL HEALTH - Naturopathic Doctors - Chinese Medicine - Herbs & Herbal Products Services/Stores

My thinking is the simple one-line listing is free, but if they want a "Premium" listing with some description of their business/service and a hot-link to website/email they pay in advance. XX$ for one month, XXX$ for 6 months, XXXX$ for one year. We would be VERY interested in a paid listing for "Herbs & Herbal Products Services/Stores" if the Directory gets some decent traffic.

Once you have the Directory Categories organized then print an inexpensive flyer with the Directory Categories outlined and personally visit small businesses you think should be interested. Give a huge discount for 1st time advertisers exp on start-up, if they get traffic then they will gladly renew for full price.

Doug

Much of this is already included in the CCCC monthly Community Resources Newsletter

I can see I'm being a wet blanket in this thread but I really doubt there's a worthwhile income to be made from the local business and small ads. Huge competition from the free tourist print media as well as the online places would make it an uphill battle and without a sales force of some kind and that gets to be too high profile to stay under the radar, as it were. A properly registered business is going to need something really unique as well as some patience and investment.

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We have a small fresh herbal juice business and also stock a few other healthy items. I have been constantly looking for a local media to advertise in that targets the permanent CM expat market (not tourists) and gets good traffic. I am willing to pay for decent exposure. Other than advertising here http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/28-chiang-mai-forum/ (which I am considering, great traffic, but for some reason the banner ads do not show up on my computer???, how many others cannot view them?) I cannot find an appealing local media outlet. Perhaps www.chiangmainews.com but the tiny online banner ads do not allow any description whatsoever. I want to be able to mention at least 4-5 items and a link to our website.

Don't know if this helps but just my 2 cents from a frustrated potential small business advertiser looking for a popular media outlet. I do not know how typical our situation is but my guess is there are hundreds of small area businesses like ours looking for better exposure that does not "break the bank".

Doug

Sounds like you have done things arse about backwards your supposed to find a hungry market then create a product to feed that market not create a product then start looking where to sell it

Classic mistake

So the key now is go where your market is if it were me I would start a facebook group focused on maybe healthy living chiang mai and start building a community of people that is your target market there are lots of food groups with thousands of members once you have built it up you can easily be the sole sponsor for the group offering your products plus you have a direct FREE ADVERTISING line to all the members I would also become part of those groups and become a valued member which will also get you a following.

Banner ads suck these days with a 1-2% response rate considered good, facebook retargeting could be an option just have to be careful as costs can be high if you dont know what you are doing.

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If it's a Chiangmai /Thailand related site pretty much sure you would require a work permit as it would be generating income arising in/ from Thailand.

Even when it is not generating income I guess. Registering on a Thai name is no problem, but I wonder what activitities I can do myself on a safe way then.

Not a lot unless you have the WP

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The problems faced by these online business entrepreneurs in Thailand, is that the majority are not registered businesses, either hoping that the authorities will not notice or using Thai names to front their activities.

So in fact they are caught between a rock and a hard place, wanting the maximum exposure aiming at the appropriate clientele but also having to operate with a certain discretion not wanting to bring too much attention to themselves by whom they consider as the wrong people. This is why they prefer the free classifieds rather than go the whole hog and advertise in the main stream media.

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I see on another site where you are not a Chiang Mai resident.

Are you looking for some thing for all of Thailand or just Chiang Mai?

Just Chiang Mai, lived there for 15+ years just now in EU for several years but planning to return and spend my time useful.

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