Question for everyone

[skoebl]

Hey everybody. It's been a looong while since I've posted 'round here. Been really really really busy in the jewelry business (constant 16 hour days really wear on you).
Anyway, to the point of this post.

I am in the process of making a website for vehicle enthusiasts. It's going to be loosely based on Myspace in that it will be user profiles; allowing them to show off whatever they have. I have a basic idea of what I want, but I would like to have feedback from anyone who is willing to give it.

So basically the question becomes; What would you like to see?

The basic outline so far is:
A home page with announcements, news, upcoming events (possibly customized by area), featured profile/ride. As extensive of a forum as we can manage. Being both as broad and concise as possible. A store (for swag and whatnot). And a media page (user submitted, admin approved) for pictures and videos. The pics will be able to be seen on member's profiles, but, if they choose, they can be put into the pool for the general galleries (possibly navigated tag-style like flickr or photobucket).

So that's what I've got so far. What do you guys think?

TIA,
Skoebl

[scottpA_GS]

been done... plenty of sites like that, but good luck if you want to start your own

http://www.cardomain.com/

http://www.ratemyride.com/

[yamahonkawazuki]

heya skoebl, i ended up closing my shop. repairing too many walmart rings, too many times, and listening to many "know it alls, who knew nothing , am now on the smaller side out of my home. working on a tennis bracelet. with 32 4mm stones in it  , anyhoo, yeah its been done. BUT when you get it running. what kinds of cars, etc. and send me a link, hell ill join 

[skoebl]

heya skoebl, i ended up closing my shop. repairing too many walmart rings, too many times, and listening to many "know it alls, who knew nothing , am now on the smaller side out of my home. working on a tennis bracelet. with 32 4mm stones in it  , anyhoo, yeah its been done. BUT when you get it running. what kinds of cars, etc. and send me a link, hell ill join 

Bah, sucks about your shop. I'm rather concerned about what my job will become. In the 11 years that the current owner has...well...owned...we haven't advertised for jewelry repairs. So far all our business has just been word-of-mouth. We're in the process of getting our shop organized to the point where we can deal with an extra 60-80% increase in repairs. It's really hard for me since, besides the owner, I'm the only jeweler. Really all he does now is designing custom jobs and running the store. I get to do everything else. So we've had our fair share of wal-mart and fred meyer (our "closest" competitor in this area) "jewelry" to repair...but it hasn't been tooo bad. A lot of times we are brutally honest about the durability that a piece can have; and often refuse to get involved with a piece that won't last.

One thing that I would really like to do is open up a zero-inventory store. Basically you carry no stock (except maybe mock-ups in silver or vermeil) and stick to custom work. With a couple of the new CAD programs out there it makes it a LOT easier to do. I spoke for a while with Joel McFadden a couple months ago. He's a writer for In Store magazine and runs a zero-inventory store in New Jersey. He swears by it. Says that you find your profit margin to be a LOT higher since you don't have to have your money tied up in things that will sit on your shelf for who knows how long.

Do you have plans on doing more later? Or are you gonna stick to working out of your home for a while?


Anyway, as far as the site is concerned. I've been asked how my site will be different. I don't really believe in being different per say. One of the things I say often is "People want to be unique...just like everyone else." CarDomain, and RateMyRide, and all those others do what they do quite well. But my goal is to combine what they have with a close, forum-style community. Where even if there are 100,000 members; it's like everyone knows everyone else.