An online startup in Singapore for less than 10k? maybe....

[mrlily]

hey nhfang, it's not... joomla, drupal, phpbb, vbulletin or ...

it is a type of CMS (content management system) if you genuinely want to know more check out this link http://php.opensourcecms.com/

it is open source, which means you have access to the source code thus you can customise it to fit your business model. i reckon "open source" and the internet go hand in hand, why re-invent the wheel over and over again.

[mrlily]

hey ksl

Yes it is very likely that alexa isn't the most accurate thing in the world but it does give you some perspective. generally speaking the higher the ranking the more accurate the results.

sorry, i'm confused about this "sleeping website" you used for branding cameras you mentioned, how does that work?

ditto, domain names are very important, ours both say what they should... our product name.

hits, i don't want to sound like a know it all but hits don't really tell you a lot about your site, do you track "Unique visitors", "number of visits" and "pages" stats? i'm using google analytics to monitor my stats, personally i haven't come across anything better.

we don't carry stock, we are just a service.

we approached a number of bookstores in SG, funnily enough they didn't want to know us. competition?

we have no overheads other than the hosting fee, they have stock and rent to worry about.

[ksl]

hey ksl

Yes it is very likely that alexa isn't the most accurate thing in the world but it does give you some perspective. generally speaking the higher the ranking the more accurate the results.


sorry, i'm confused about this "sleeping website" you used for branding cameras you mentioned, how does that work?

ditto, domain names are very important, ours both say what they should... our product name.

hits, i don't want to sound like a know it all but hits don't really tell you a lot about your site, do you track "Unique visitors", "number of visits" and "pages" stats? i'm using google analytics to monitor my stats, personally i haven't come across anything better.

we don't carry stock, we are just a service.

we approached some bookstores in SG, funnily enough they don't want to know us. competition?

we have no overheads other than the hosting fee, they have stock and rent to worry about.

sorry, i'm confused about this "sleeping website" you used for branding cameras you mentioned, how does that work?

Yes I started to brand digital cameras online in 2000, for a Taiwanese manufacturer on a commission base, like all manufacturers, they show no interest unless it's in 100's of units, camera's like 1000 at a time. Quite stupidly they believe that purchasers are idiots. After discussion i said i will brand their product, if they sell one carton 20 units at a time, no one is interested in a unknown product, and will not risk capital investment in crap.

They agreed to 1 carton of 20 units at a time, so within one year i had 17 Countries selling the brand, mostly through ebay, they built there sales up slowly in each Country, so my commission would be paid each quarter by the manufacturer on the revenue generated.

We agreed that his brand was well established in these Countries and he the manufacturer didn't require my services any longer, so they asked if i would make a settlement with them. With no contract, I thought well he really doesn't have to pay me anything and I can do nothing about it.

So i agreed a lump sum settlement and still remain friends with them. You do not need to spend lots of money to do business, in fact the idea should be to use as little as possible, so that you break even more quickly!

The website i used is sleeping, not hosted but i still own it, I have 4 other domains in fact.

For best results, you may want to pay to have your website address advertised in the local press , just a one line website address , which shouldn't be expensive, then measure the response in Singapore, no need to write anything about your website, becasue the name says it all! Probably be the best investment ever.

[mrlily]

For best results, you may want to pay to have your website address advertised in the local press , just a one line website address , which shouldn't be expensive, then measure the response in Singapore, no need to write anything about your website, becasue the name says it all! Probably be the best investment ever.

This is so true, 1 million % agree.

for our next trick; the wife wants to try and get interviewed by one of the big newspapers in SG. any suggestions? I've read a couple of articles recently about opentrolley, would love to know how they pulled off the interview.

[jpatokal]

any users of Google’s marketing suite using this forum?

Yes. Long and short of it is, AdWords is useless if you're selling anything cheap (like used books.... or new ones, for that matter), since the cost per click is so high. Basic math:

$0.50/click / 1% conversion rate = $50 per every user who buys something

...although if you're only getting a 1% conversion rate, then you're targeting the wrong keywords as well.

[sundaymorningstaple]

JP....

[ksl]

For best results, you may want to pay to have your website address advertised in the local press , just a one line website address , which shouldn't be expensive, then measure the response in Singapore, no need to write anything about your website, becasue the name says it all! Probably be the best investment ever.

This is so true, 1 million % agree.

for our next trick; the wife wants to try and get interviewed by one of the big newspapers in SG. any suggestions? I've read a couple of articles recently about opentrolley, would love to know how they pulled off the interview.

Opentrolley is connected to the publishers, therefore it's in the interest of the publishers to chip in and pay for the marketing effort, doesn't cost that much, we have also done quarter page adverting interview and quite often do magazines in gourmet food and a page and a half in IP mag.
Though its not easy to understand your business model or strategy from a forum chat, though i believe you are just after exposure and may not care so much for actual transactions, many people are into building hits, and selling the websites on.

Internet marketing like google add words will die a certain death, when users eventually realise it doesn't work, the per click must be the easiest scam available. I get a fair share of requests, for link exchanges. You may consider that in Singapore, though you are new, with very few hits, so you need to find sites, that you may compliment, like charities, salvation army, and those that deal in all sectors of household demographics, that you feel books will have an interest second hand books that is. You split your target audience into 3 sectors and take one at a time in a link exchange, within Singapore.

Take dating websites, property website forums and so on.

Though if you do a check on singaporeexpats you will see it's a slow website at over 4 seconds to load time, the stats are interesting. Though after reverting to your first post, I see a more sinister approach sorry to say, and it is more advertising Glad we have moderators!

[sundaymorningstaple]

ksl, I just bet you are! Like de ja vu yeah?

[mrlily]

ksl, you were saying in a previous post "I actually got my website up and running for less than 200$ and accumulated my own traffic!" i see you have also spent a bit more on advertising "we have also done quarter page adverting interview and quite often do magazines in gourmet food and a page and a half in IP mag." that can't be cheap, can you elaborate? how did you go about getting the interview (it was an interview right?)

Sinister? are you loosely referring to the word "marketing"? mate, if no one was reading this post you wouldn't be pluggin your site here, neither would jpatoka (against the forum rules, but only for certain people ay!) and sundaymorningstaple wouldn't be eluding to the fact; on a number of occasions you have done and do exactly the same thing. careful.

[sundaymorningstaple]

But ksl knows when to back off. And he's got the system of fence-walking down to a fine art. It's something to aspire to. Maximizing the exposure without upsetting the applecart and not pissing the moderators off either.

[ksl]

ksl, you were saying in a previous post "I actually got my website up and running for less than 200$ and accumulated my own traffic!" i see you have also spent a bit more on advertising "we have also done quarter page adverting interview and quite often do magazines in gourmet food and a page and a half in IP mag." that can't be cheap, can you elaborate? how did you go about getting the interview (it was an interview right?)

Sinister? are you loosely referring to the word "marketing"? mate, if no one was reading this post you wouldn't be pluggin your site here, neither would jpatoka (against the forum rules, but only for certain people ay!) and sundaymorningstaple wouldn't be eluding to the fact; on a number of occasions you have done and do exactly the same thing. careful.

Our advertising campaigns are pretty well established, two years after the website was built I mean we are a multi million dollar company, so we can now afford to advertise but as a start up, one must go the cheapest route and that is to build your own traffic, otherwise your costs end up out of the window with your breakeven point pushed down the road. 10K to build a website is not cheap and like you say its the services you are selling not secondhandbooks.

Internet marketing is pretty low on my priority list because it doesn't produce many results a few yes , but if you are looking at targeting an audience for example in Singapore then the newspaper is the best way.

Singapore expats have a rating of 174 in Singapore according to Alexa you should check their statistics, though i wouldn't advertise on here because expats are not our main target, though i am looking at a way, to capture this audience.

Someone said to me why do you spell DrinkingVinegar in one word, is that your way of branding, i said is it?

With regards to the forum rules, we walk the line, and the moderators, moderate, like i say i have also been warned like you, personally i don't care i'm not a moderator, I try to abide by the rules the best way i can, if i get a roasting, it's because i over stepped the line

They have allowed us to have a signature and that's fine by me, Yes I'm sure JP and others also plug....and its your right to lodge a complaint when you think the line is broken, this way we are all moderating ourselves, I haven't seen any special treatment on here yet But I'm still hoping

The newspaper will do a phone interview or arrange a time to meet you, to write up your profile and introduction into what you are doing in Singapore, just ring and ask for a quarter page on the advertising section, its around 500 to 800$ You can then write what you like within reason, censorship.

[mrlily]

The newspaper will do a phone interview or arrange a time to meet you, to write up your profile and introduction into what you are doing in Singapore, just ring and ask for a quarter page on the advertising section, its around 500 to 800$ You can then write what you like within reason, censorship.

that's the answer i was looking for, ta.

[jpatokal]

Sinister? are you loosely referring to the word "marketing"? mate, if no one was reading this post you wouldn't be pluggin your site here, neither would jpatoka (against the forum rules, but only for certain people ay!) and sundaymorningstaple wouldn't be eluding to the fact; on a number of occasions you have done and do exactly the same thing. careful.

Relak-lah. This is a "Business in Singapore" thread about running online businesses in Singapore, so relevant links to online businesses in Singapore -- both yours and mine -- in messages containing actual content are perfectly on topic, IMHO.

[troys]

Alexa positioning is a good guide but you need to be aware of how they measure and how this skews the numbers, they basically have a toolbar that is installed on millions of PCs, some people would call it malware since it tracks and sends back information on all the sites you visit(this is how they get their data).

That means for certain categories of sites, the rankings will be overestimated, especially internet marketing niche, where everyone has the alexa bar installed.

For other types of sites like those aimed at tech savvy users, users that are much more likely NOT to have installed the toolbar, numbers will be underreported.

This actually changes the dynamics of the whole internet advertising industry since alexa rankings is an industry standard in negotiating ad rates, some sites will be underpaid and some sites will be overpaid because of the nature of their demographics.

mrlily, I would be interested to know the name of that site that that posts shopping vouchers for singaporean companies, if you could pm me that site, it would be greatly appreciated.

[mrlily]

Alexa positioning is a good guide but you need to be aware of how they measure and how this skews the numbers, they basically have a toolbar that is installed on millions of PCs, some people would call it malware since it tracks and sends back information on all the sites you visit(this is how they get their data).

That means for certain categories of sites, the rankings will be overestimated, especially internet marketing niche, where everyone has the alexa bar installed.

For other types of sites like those aimed at tech savvy users, users that are much more likely NOT to have installed the toolbar, numbers will be underreported.

This actually changes the dynamics of the whole internet advertising industry since alexa rankings is an industry standard in negotiating ad rates, some sites will be underpaid and some sites will be overpaid because of the nature of their demographics.

mrlily, I would be interested to know the name of that site that that posts shopping vouchers for singaporean companies, if you could pm me that site, it would be greatly appreciated.

PM on its way.

yes you make an interesting point. it appears they also crawl sites to gather data (static info only), the link below makes for some interesting reading.

http://www.alexa.com/company/technology