FreeForte.com - Professional Services Marketplace
Price: $1,500
URL: http://www.freeforte.com
FreeForte.com is a global marketplace for the professional services. Here buyers needing different kinds of services post their RFPs - Requests for Proposals - for which service providers or freelancers can submit their offers. Service providers can list and promote their products and services and people looking for such services can search the listings to locate one or more of them qualified to execute their projects.
What exactly the site does?
This site certainly is different from other sites offering a similar service. Other sites first charge a subscription for the privilege of being able to submit a bid. They then additionally ask the service providers to pay a commission on the business obtained through them. It turns out that the service providers are working for the benefit and profit of those sites rather then for themselves. This site doesn’t charges any commission on business that the service providers would obtain through the site. Because no commission is charged, all service provider revenue is theirs to keep. It’s revenue model is totally commensurate with the service providers’ ROI - return on investment; in fact, highly competitive.
Neither does the site prevents prospective buyers from contacting the service providers directly. It is open and transparent. It doesn’t asks service providers to hide their contacts. In fact, it encourages them to put their e-mail address, telephone number, physical address and website address with their listings. They know the name and contacts of the person to whom they are submitting their offer. The buyer, similarly, knows about who is submitting the offer. This is not just the best way to negotiate; this is the only way to negotiate. Negotiations are held between real people not between created profiles. Prospective buyers know that there is a real person or company existing to whom they are going to entrust their valuable projects.
Service providers interested in listing their profiles and information on their products and services are required to register at the site first. They can then publish detailed information about themselves along with 5 pictures. Their contact e-mail or, if they decide not to disclose it, a hyperlink to contact them, is published with the listing. Optionally they can publish their physical address, telephone number and website address. Similarly prospective buyers who wish to post a Request for Proposal are required to register. A listing typically is for a period of 365 days for service providers and 30 days for a RFP - Request for Proposal (set by Admin) unless the listing owner decides to remove it earlier or for some reason the Admin decides to delete it. Further information on how this site functions can be read under Freelancer Guide and Buyer Guide on the site.
How much money can the site make?
In order to promote the site, the first listing for service providers is free. Subsequent listings require a fee of $10 per listing for 365 days and progressively reduced to $30 for five listings and $50 for ten listings. This, of course, is set-up via Admin and can be changed anytime as needed. It has been deliberately kept low initially and can be increased based on the popularity of the site. For the sake of calculation, 100 listings per month will bring in $1,000; a 500 listings will bring in $5,000; so on and so forth. Depending on the exigencies of the market, you can increase or decrease the fee as needed. You can have featured listings and charge a higher price. Buyers, of course, list for free. However, later on, should you so decide, you can ask the buyers as well to pay for listing projects. While you can do your own permutations and combinations - pessimistic, realistic and optimistic - note that you can make this money with no overheads at all. All you pay is for hosting and renewal of the domain name.
What are the site’s special features?
Built using PHP scripting with two separate MySQL databases - one for service providers and the other for buyers, the site is totally manageable from a browser based Admin - again, two separate Admins. You can manage users, listings, configuration of the site - all from your web browser.
Listing payment system can be via PayPal.com, 2CheckOut.com or another processor. You set the minimum amount a user should pay and once the payment is received, corresponding credit(s) get reflected in the user’s account via the automated payment gateway. If you decide to charge $10 for a listing, the minimum a user must pay is $10. He/She may pay a higher amount for listing multiple items and may decide to pay $30 or $50. Five or ten credits, as per payment, is updated in their account for 5 or 10 listings.
The period for which a listing can remain on the site can be set from the Admin. You may set an uniform period for all listings or let users choose the period for which they would like to list. You can also charge for listings based on how long they are to remain on the site. Users have their own control panel from where they can manage their listings. Users can add new listings, modify existing ones and delete the ones that are not required. Listings accomplished and no more available can remain on the site and marked as such.
FreeForte.com - Domain Name
Free Forte is a synonym for freelancer and better expresses the theme of this site. A highly relevant, easily remembered and brandable domain, would be worth in 4-figures for the name alone.
