What Can I Do For You...

B

Bobby G

New member
The down turn in the economy is hurting all of us. I think it is times like this that being part of a community like Autopia.org can help.



What can I do for you pros to help bring you more (or more profitable) business?



One of my thoughts was to use my programming skills to automate creating listings on Craigslist and other national classifieds. I can easily do this so you have a fresh ad every 7 days.
 
That sounds like a neat idea David, but I'd make sure to check Craigslist's TOS. I know there was a guy that was using some code to scrape craigslist housing ads to map out houses for sale and they pinched him. He wasn't even charging for it!
 
I'm not talking about scraping CL ads, I'm talking about posting ads.



The TOS specifically prohibit duplicate posting. Well, I'm not going to do that. I will generate a 100% unique CL ad in the appropriate city that contains the guts of your Autopia Directory advertisement. The ads will be 100% legit.
 
DavidB said:
I'm not talking about scraping CL ads, I'm talking about posting ads.



The TOS specifically prohibit duplicate posting. Well, I'm not going to do that. I will generate a 100% unique CL ad in the appropriate city that contains the guts of your Autopia Directory advertisement. The ads will be 100% legit.
Click to expand...



I know you wouldn't be scraping ads.. but I didn't even see the harm in that for this particular case I mentioned above.



If you can make the ads repost every 7 days in a unique enough manner to get around the dup warning that's fine.



How would you handle the CAPTCHA verification and then the email notification you get with a link to publish?
 
I'd be all over that. Most of my clients in this area consider having their car detailed a "luxury" and therefore the first thing to go in times of higher gas prices. I need all the help I can get!
 
Greg Nichols said:
I don't see any issues, only benefits. Sounds like both you and I will benefit.



cheers,

GREG
Click to expand...



I'll start my research next week to make sure I'm not going to break CL rules. If my posting these ads on your behalf is not prohibited by their TOS, I will get going on my program.



db
 
Thinking out loud here: I'm not sure how many "Pros" are advertising on Craig's List. This has been discussed on a few occasions and it kinda came to the conclusion that CL clients and Autopian standards don't share a common denominator. :nixweiss



My idea is to push more of a consumer crowd to this site and once here to the regional forums. One idea is to devise an interesting and eye catching Autopia.org sticker/decal that people can display on their vehicles. As people drive around their clean and shiny vehicles catching people's attention, they spot the decal and explore our site. This could have a direct impact to this community that could impact us all. As people become more interested and educated on Autopian car care, they may have more of a need for a local Autopain Pro to help them with their vehicle.



I detail now only part time and almost every project I've posted here was generated from my presense on this site. For this, I am personally grateful to DavidB. :bow
 
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