Textbook Exchange Site

[ISMT]

I have created a site for college students to buy/sell textbooks with each other at their school. Could you guys let me know what you think? What's good and what's bad about it, what I can change.

Site: www.isellmytextbook.com
Login with: demo/demo

Thanks!

 

[Jacklin]

I did'nt logged in but its a good idea and surely a great concept and it will help students to buy/sell textbooks with each other so comfortably

 

[claire333]

It's a good concept and a beautiful design, but it seems like there are too many existing sites with a similar concept already. It might be difficult to get a good user base with a wide variety of textbooks available, and without that, it would be hard to get people to sign up.

 

[ISMT]

Thanks for the replies guys. What do you think I could add to distinguish the site from other sites?

 

[johnn]

What script are you using?

 

[LilBlackDress]

I wrote an article on how to sell college textbooks for a content site. The article has been pretty popular, there are lots of students who want to sell textbooks. I just looked and my article is at #12 in a search with about 3 million google results

One site I mention in the article will buy the books back directly from you and students like that immediate money. Of course Amazon is great because Amazon is the place students think of to find a book immediately when they need it and its easy to sell there (though they take a chunk)

My thought for you would be to get involved in college forums and spread the word about the site in a non spammy way. Also write or hire someone to write articles for content sites on related topics that can link to your site. Get yourself high in the search engines, so kids think of isellcollegetextbook.com when they want to sell their books.

 

[ISMT]

Thanks guys. Johnnn I'm using PHP (I think that's what you're asking).

That is a good idea LilBlackDress, I never thought of marketing it that way (hiring a writer)!

 

[LilBlackDress]

Absolutely hiring a writer or writing yourself would help shoot your site higher in the google engines. You can write all sorts of related articles and link to your site. There are tons of content sites out there ready for rich content for college students.
Getting involved in college forums would be another excellent way to spread the word.

I think it would be pretty easy to get your site out there on the net. Also consider approaching colleges with special offers for students. I haven't looked at your business model but you could also hook up with a shopping site to offer a tiny rebate to customers and this would give you tons of advertising.

Lots of things you could do and on a shoestring budget.

BTW I just looked again at the site and think you may want to expand your model so its not just students at the same school selling to each other..that seems limited but then maybe its all you need.

 

[Jacklin]

I totally agree with you and i think so its good to expand it to different colleges tooo it will help it grow more

Absolutely hiring a writer or writing yourself would help shoot your site higher in the google engines. You can write all sorts of related articles and link to your site. There are tons of content sites out there ready for rich content for college students.
Getting involved in college forums would be another excellent way to spread the word.

I think it would be pretty easy to get your site out there on the net. Also consider approaching colleges with special offers for students. I haven't looked at your business model but you could also hook up with a shopping site to offer a tiny rebate to customers and this would give you tons of advertising.

Lots of things you could do and on a shoestring budget.

BTW I just looked again at the site and think you may want to expand your model so its not just students at the same school selling to each other..that seems limited but then maybe its all you need.

 

[johnn]

Is it customized or commercial script?

 

[ISMT]

Customized. I write every script myself from scratch for all my sites, why do you ask?

 

[cbsort]

Good idea for website