The Exclaim, a New Site Blending Local Classifieds with E-Commerce, Launches in Beta Mode
Port Huron, MI, July 30, 2010 --(PR.com)-- TheExclaim.com was born out of a discontent with the two main names in member-to-member marketplaces. It aims to be a haven for those seeking an alternative place to advertise and sell.
With the forerunner of e-commerce selling, the repellent comes in the form of triple-dipping profit-leaching fees sellers have to absorb: first there's the "insertion fee" to post any item with a starting price of more than 99 cents, which is charged even if the item doesn't sell, and then if it does sell, a percentage of the selling price is taken as a "final value fee," and finally, upon receiving a buyer's payment, a seller's profit is further diminished when another cut is taken by the payment service, whether PayPal or another, based on the total sale price including shipping.
Contributing to frustration with the kingpin of online local classifieds are rampant spamming, the prevalence of would-be buyers not showing up after arranging meeting times, the very poor quality of item photos due to being shrunk to fit strict size limits, and the limitation of not being able to advertise across an entire country with one post, only a single city or metropolitan area.
Evading each of those issues, The Exclaim:
1.) is free of fees, other than for optional upgrades, such as making an ad featured.
2.) keeps e-mail addresses private by handling correspondence between members through an internal messaging system. So those spammers pretending to be interested in items just to get members' email addresses when they reply can't run that scheme on The Exclaim. And violators sending blatant spam can be suspended or banned for life, as an account is necessary in order to contact Exclaimers.
3.) has a feedback system, like that of eBay's but ratings can be exchanged not just between sellers and buyers, but — to deter those discourteous no-shows — between any members who have contacted one another through the site.
4.) allows photos to be as large as 1500x1500 pixels, and doesn't drastically compress them.
5.) is structured to accommodate both local and national advertising and selling. In any of the Items for Sale subcategories, an item is made available both locally and nationally when shipping and payment services are selected, and skipping those options enables selling in one's local area only. In subcategories falling under Jobs, Housing, Community, and Coupons & Deals, there's a checkbox that can be clicked to list an ad nationwide.
Among the site's other features are the option for members to display their eBay feedback with their listings (verified via a code posted in the eBay profile), an "accept offers" (aka "or best offer") option when posting items for sale, a zipcode and radius selector in lieu of the city-separated format popularized by Craigslist and now used by many other classifieds sites, the ability to re-list expired ads, and the ability to mark items as sold or bought.
Although it just debuted last month, The Exclaim has already yielded a few sales for early members, attributable in large part to its association with Google Product Search and TheFind.com: items posted to The Exclaim that include shipping options are also submitted to these popular shopping portals.
To top off its uncommon array of offerings, The Exclaim has an in-house affiliate program that's open to all its members and pays based solely on free actions (no purchases by referrals are required), up to $1.50 per member referred.
Both The Exclaim and its affiliate program are open only to residents of the United States and its territories. Foreign sign-ups are prevented with an IP address check on the registration page.
"Next-generized" is a term (based on the word "next-generation") owner Jenny McIntyre came up with "to convey The Exclaim's founding principle to improve upon, not imitate, existing representations... to not be 'just another' in the sea of cookie-cutter free classifieds sites," she explains.
Visit The Exclaim at http://www.theexclaim.com.
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With the forerunner of e-commerce selling, the repellent comes in the form of triple-dipping profit-leaching fees sellers have to absorb: first there's the "insertion fee" to post any item with a starting price of more than 99 cents, which is charged even if the item doesn't sell, and then if it does sell, a percentage of the selling price is taken as a "final value fee," and finally, upon receiving a buyer's payment, a seller's profit is further diminished when another cut is taken by the payment service, whether PayPal or another, based on the total sale price including shipping.
Contributing to frustration with the kingpin of online local classifieds are rampant spamming, the prevalence of would-be buyers not showing up after arranging meeting times, the very poor quality of item photos due to being shrunk to fit strict size limits, and the limitation of not being able to advertise across an entire country with one post, only a single city or metropolitan area.
Evading each of those issues, The Exclaim:
1.) is free of fees, other than for optional upgrades, such as making an ad featured.
2.) keeps e-mail addresses private by handling correspondence between members through an internal messaging system. So those spammers pretending to be interested in items just to get members' email addresses when they reply can't run that scheme on The Exclaim. And violators sending blatant spam can be suspended or banned for life, as an account is necessary in order to contact Exclaimers.
3.) has a feedback system, like that of eBay's but ratings can be exchanged not just between sellers and buyers, but — to deter those discourteous no-shows — between any members who have contacted one another through the site.
4.) allows photos to be as large as 1500x1500 pixels, and doesn't drastically compress them.
5.) is structured to accommodate both local and national advertising and selling. In any of the Items for Sale subcategories, an item is made available both locally and nationally when shipping and payment services are selected, and skipping those options enables selling in one's local area only. In subcategories falling under Jobs, Housing, Community, and Coupons & Deals, there's a checkbox that can be clicked to list an ad nationwide.
Among the site's other features are the option for members to display their eBay feedback with their listings (verified via a code posted in the eBay profile), an "accept offers" (aka "or best offer") option when posting items for sale, a zipcode and radius selector in lieu of the city-separated format popularized by Craigslist and now used by many other classifieds sites, the ability to re-list expired ads, and the ability to mark items as sold or bought.
Although it just debuted last month, The Exclaim has already yielded a few sales for early members, attributable in large part to its association with Google Product Search and TheFind.com: items posted to The Exclaim that include shipping options are also submitted to these popular shopping portals.
To top off its uncommon array of offerings, The Exclaim has an in-house affiliate program that's open to all its members and pays based solely on free actions (no purchases by referrals are required), up to $1.50 per member referred.
Both The Exclaim and its affiliate program are open only to residents of the United States and its territories. Foreign sign-ups are prevented with an IP address check on the registration page.
"Next-generized" is a term (based on the word "next-generation") owner Jenny McIntyre came up with "to convey The Exclaim's founding principle to improve upon, not imitate, existing representations... to not be 'just another' in the sea of cookie-cutter free classifieds sites," she explains.
Visit The Exclaim at http://www.theexclaim.com.
###
Contact
The Exclaim
Jenny McIntyre
810-824-7373
www.theexclaim.com
Jenny McIntyre
810-824-7373
www.theexclaim.com
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