Site overhaul and doll-mart future

I had a web designer review the site and spent about 2 hours with her discussing this site and the future of doll-mart.

I will be restructuring the site. I will have two parts to it, one part will be the forum and amenities and the second part will be the sales part.

I will not close the site while doing this because I want everyone with dedicated sales forums to be able to get to their forums. Just be aware that if it is acting a bit funny (changing about while you are on) this would be the reason.

I will be researching grants and applying to those grants I qualify for to pay to have an auction site for doll-mart. The forum will remain as it is but all sales will move to the auction site. There will be listing fees but no final value fees...this is to cover the cost of the hosting and back-up and professional help to work the kinks out.

The initial cost to set up an auction site properly is anywhere between $2000-$7000. The mthly hosting fee starts at $100 and goes up from there.

If I can get a grant then that will cover the cost of set-up.

The auction site will NOT be for profit. Fees charged will be to cover the cost, any additional money earned op top of that will go back into the site.

It will be 6mths to a year before I can make this happen...if I get the grant. When/If this auction site happens then the doll-mart forum will only be accessible for those persons with an active account with the auction site EXCEPT for those who were already members up to the point that the auction site opens...those persons can continue to be members here whether or not they have an account at the auction site.

ALSO, I will soon require all new members to use their name in their user id's. Existing members can stay as they are. ALSO I need ALL members to put in their profile where they are located...it can be general (ie, US, Canada, UK)...this will be helpful to me in knowing what population to approach about the site and get the word out.
I am working away to make this a success and beneficial to everyone.

Liz

Do we have a future on doll mart?
nothing seems to be happening, I come on everyday and nothing new, what is happening?

We do. We are now connected with UHippo with a link to our forum on the UHippo site. I have set up a announcement site for the doll community that is up. I have also put together a FB page for our site:

http://www.uhippo.com/news,page,content_pages
(about halfway down the page)

http://dollworld-news.forumotion.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Doll-Mart-Doll-Community/101718546573358?created

I have worked hard to establish a strong doll section for everyone on UHippo for those who want auctions with reasonable fees, exposure and seller friendly environment.

I have gotten a little less enthusiastic too because I haven't seen a lot of activity here and I have done just about all I could come up with to strengthen the interest and activity. I have posted requests from sellers on items to feature that they are selling and heard nothing back. I have posted for ideas insights, thoughts etc and didn't get much response. I sent out newsletters but never got feedback that the newsletters were even recieved or read.

I can't do it alone, there are a few ladies here who have put work into this site besides me but we need everyone to help if you all truly want a strong doll community environment.

How can we bring life to the site?? I really worked hard on the amenities here to make coming here enjoyable for everyone but I pulled back on that because many were a bit overwhelmed with everything. I am more than happy to have contests, free drawings etc but I need help from others, I don't have enough hours in the day to carry everything and truly it takes more than just the few of us who have worked on the site to make this a great place for people to come, connect, share, sell, buy, and play.

Lets here from you all....and thank you LDC for addressing this!!

Liz

I will get my thinking cap on and see if I can come up with something.

Hi, all! Just my two cents worth, and who knows what that value is in this economy! As a seller, I am still listing on eBay, etsy, and my own website. I have checked out Uhippo quite a few times, but have yet to list with them. Not due to any failing by doll-mart, and thank you SO much Liz for the work you did for us with Uhippo, but because of UHippo itself. The site does not appear to generate much traffic or interest. What is Uhippo doing to advertise itself? I never would have even heard of them except from email updates by Liz. Simply stated, UHippo itself is a bust, maybe only because it is dwarfed by eBay, but they really need to sell/hype their site. Again, thank you Liz for all that you have done and continue to do. ~Bonnie

I agree Bonnie, what has UHippo done for itself? I will ask Shawn thus. Anyone hear about Upillar.com?