Hello everyone! We've been working on this new aviation trading platform for about 2+ years now and would like some honest feedback about the launch.
We are trying our very best to be the single place to buy and sell all things aircraft related. Hence the name: partsandplanes.com. It's all free. We try to cover our costs by the pay-per-click, advertisers, and a very small transaction fee for part sellers of only 1%. Yes; I too miss the days of getting Trade-A-Plane in the mail and thumbing through it for days on end. Hopefully; what we are offering will fill that space and be a positive addition to the aviation community.
If you have any parts; you can list them one at a time, or in bulk as our built-in, AI will sort them out and put them in the correct order. We will also launch the app next week which will allow users to instantly upload parts and aircraft, again; all with ease and simplicity.
Please use the "feedback" button to reach out to us if you find something that doesn't quite work right or makes sense, and we will address it immediately.
I'm a commercial pilot, mechanic, and owner of four aircraft, so hopefully I designed it in a way that all aviation geeks will find useful.

First post, come to hawk a product. Poor form unless you are paying the site as an advertiser.

Not my first post, but thanks for thinking that?
I've been on here since N155L. My old D55. Just haven't posted anything in a few years due to the fact that I haven't had a Beech aircraft since I sold my 56 V Tail, N4654D which was totaled the day I sold it, by the ferry pilot. You can see the details here...http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2018/02/b ... y-llc.html

But, why even lead with a negative comment?
Thanks,
David

You have a post count of 2 and two posts in this thread so….

Two pieces of advice…

1) you are trying to enter a saturated market with nothing to separate yourself from the established players. Not only are you at a disadvantage, anyone using your site is at a disadvantage to buyers and sellers using the bigger marketplaces. You are going to have to be MUCH better to overcome your late entry. I don’t see anything that makes me believe you can effectively compete.

2) Showing up on forums you don’t actively participate on and using them to hawk a product or service can always be expected to elicit a negative response. Most people who see this thread will be LESS likely to want to use your service than they were before. This doesn’t just apply to BT, it will be the case in most online communities.

Your venture is pretty much doomed to fail. Hopefully you learn some lessons from this and have better luck next time.

Give the guy a chance. A -1 for asking this community for input and advice was a low blow. I am sure he planned to support the site as an advertiser when he is ready to launch. Stomping it when you know little about it is uncalled for.

David, if I may...

I'm not sure your site design accomplishes your goals. It's an online marketplace, but the front page contains only marketing aimed at sellers and clickbait ads for other sites. It's not apparent where anyone clicks to browse the listings.

There is a search bar at the top, but if I'm going to your site just to browse, I don't want to search. On top of that, the search bar on the home page isn't a search bar, it's a button to start browsing uncategorized ads. How do I go see the newest ads for piston singles?

The thumbnail and slideshow plugin you're using needs some attention as well. It crops all the photos to fit a fixed resolution, and there's no way to see a larger image, or even an uncropped one.

Marketplaces are defined by buyers. Make it a good tool for the buyers and the sellers will come.