Automotive Parts Classifieds - Powered by Styckyd
 

What does it do?
Adds a new marketplace to your forum specifically designed for automotive enthusiasts to buy and sell parts to and from the entire Styckyd network, add a non-advertising revenue stream for you, and eliminate classifieds moderation.

How does it do that?
We have built it on top of a parts classification standard that many large parts retailers and auto recyclers use. This has allowed us to build a part cataloguing system that makes searches much more relevant and allows sellers to associate parts with specific vehicles.

This is a hosted solution and by using this plugin you'll have access to the for sale listings of all the other forums in the network and vice versa. We'll handle any customer service issues that may arise and alleviate you and your team from having to do the same.

We charge a fee when a seller successfully sells their part - there is no fee to list a part for sale. 10% of that fee goes to the forum.

Who are you guys?
We are automotive enthusiasts and are trying to make buying and selling automotive related products effortless. You can read more about us here: http://partners.styckyd.com/whoweare

Features?

• vBulletin Single Sign-on
• Automatically calculates shipping between buyers and sellers
• Built-in Want to Buy system that notifies buyers when a part they're looking for has been listed for sale
• Hosted solution but users remain on your site - similar to placing Facebook Comments on your site.
• Hosted on the Amazon Web Services cloud so you don't have to worry about spotty service
• We handle any problems and issues with classifieds for you. If you hear any complaints from users, send them our way!
• Integrated Tire Rack affiliate program
• No template edits required

Learn More:
http://partners.styckyd.com

Screenshots:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/03/38.jpg
http://www.styckyd.com/images/blog/partners_account.jpg

Version: 3.5????

Screenshoot vBulletin?

Yes, this will work with vb 3.5 and up. A screenshot of it working in vBulletin is below.

Is your community all based out of Brazil? If so, this may not work for you yet. We have some location based stuff happening (Shipping calculation) and all of the funds are in USD.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/03/38.jpg

You guys have gotten my attention, but the integration I've seen so far with vb on the demo is, well, weak. It looks just like an iframe of the normal styckyd site. I'm still researching it though...

The vBulletin forum hosted on the Twenty12 domain is definitely sub-par, I'll be bringing that down shortly.

It is currently running in an iframe though. The reason for that is that we're assuming that we're going to have to adjust and change a number of things as we get user feedback so it's much easier for us to make rapid improvements in the interface and functionality this way. Once we're sure that we've reached a point where everyone agree that it's much more awesome we'll build out our web service and the plugin so that it's no longer running within an iframe.

This is just the first step. We want to make the users happy first, if we can't do that then there's no need for better technology, like a more advanced API.

Does that make sense? I know the iframe isn't ideal but I'm hoping that we'll be able to look past that for a little while so we can focus on making a killer classifieds system.

I can understand that, and from a development side it makes sense. But from a forum owner side, an iframe of another side doesn't make too much sense. Like what I was discussing with Nathan earlier today, a module that sits above the normal classifieds forum that shows that's in styckyd is what's going to grab some attention. Plus, an integration like this also looks more seamless from a forum design perspective.

You've got a chicken and egg problem here. And the killer thing that would help this get traction is thousands of ads of products in styckyd. Partnering with a large network of automotive sites would help get you guys off the ground, but it may require giving things away for a while and functioning like the 'free' systems that everyone is used to.

I think we've actually solved the integration problem from a forum design perspective. While iframes are 'unsexy' I think you might be surprised what we've done. Even the more advanced users won't recognize that it's in an iframe. (The previous demo is a bad example, it works differently now) We have built a way to dynamically change the height of the iframe based on its content so there are never any scroll bars. We have also built a way to take the forums text and link colors and bring them through the iframe. When the referrer comes though the iframe we dynamically load a different header and footer, like shown in the screenshot above. So in effect, it looks just like any other plugin (Except I hope you'll agree, a little sexier than most...). What we've done is actually the same way that facebook gets facebook Connect to work.

So really the only downside to the iframe now is SEO. We can't help from an SEO perspective at the moment. I think that's ok right now because there are many, many other ways to drive traffic to your site through SEO. Correct me if I'm wrong but it's probably the most common feature of other plugins. What we do better than anyone else, though, is:

A) Monitize your existing user base through a very powerful classifieds system
B) Take the pain of managing classifieds off your hands. We simply want to do it better than anyone else. We'll handle this for you so you don't have to.

That's our value proposition at the moment - I think it's more valuable than additional SEO, do you agree?

There definitely is a chicken/egg problem and we're working on some unique ways to solve it. If this were easy, everyone would be doing it. ;)

Am I right in believing that this mod which is essentially an iframe, is designed to give YOU 5% commision on sales with a very small partner commision to the forum using this iframe?

Why don't the forum owners simply download a free classifieds script for their own site instead of helping you make money off their users?

I am actually curious because this just seems like a way to self-promote and make your business money.

Yes, your understanding of how it works is correct - if you're questioning it because you're unsure perhaps I need to do a better job of communicating that upfront. I'll consider what we can do better there.

There are many reasons why any other classifieds script would not be in the same space as what we're doing. All existing scripts lack:

- A parts classification system built on top of the ACES database (What auto recyclers and large retailers use for parts classification and vehicle cross-referencing)
- Specific automotive classifications - We're serious car guys. I don't know about you, but I hate wading through a tree of 300 categories just to find what I want.
- A connection to a broader network and larger inventory that extends beyond your community.

We're not making a script. This is a Software as a Service coupled with a customer service offering. Ours is a platform that does the things below and a number of very, very powerful features that are on their way - none of the existing systems can do what we're able to because of how we've built the system from the ground up.

- We are trying to help YOU make money, too. Yes we are charging for our service. eBay does the same thing, except in our market their average comes to around 13-14%. We're focussed on providing an exceptional service to automotive enthusiasts which means we're going to have to hire customer service people to support the community. Some forums do incorporate eBay listings, but those are really impersonal they're not truly integrated with the system and the community. Would you agree?
- We are taking the pain of classifieds and turning it into something that just works. We believe with allowing us to handle it, as it's our sole focus we can do a great job of it and keep everyone happy so that you can focus on the things that forums do best, like nurturing the discussions about our cars.
- We don't want to just be another stand-alone classifieds site (There are many). Our site does car parts better than anyone else, but we want to be more than that. We want to work together with the community and make facilitating the transactions easy. No one is doing it this way right now so I guess it's a bit of a foreign perspective. We can only keep moving forward and prove this methodology though action, I suppose.

I could literally go on forever because I, and my team, are very passionate about making a system that just works, but I'm writing far too much in this reply. We know we can do automotive classifieds better than anyone else. A bold statement to be sure, I'm hoping you'll allow us the opportunity to prove it. :)

Which forum do you run, Rich?

Awesome! I'd love to see a demo. Has the plugin been re-written for this yet?
Personally, I haven't done much in terms of SEO, so this doesn't matter much to me. I'm not sure how many of the sites that have a classifieds forum truly gain users from it. Most new users have restrictions that does not allow them to interact with classifieds forums.
I agree. As community owners, I think all of us can relate to that on some level. :)

Yup, this is how the current plugin included above and available for download on our site currently works. :) Again, iframes are kind of seen as unsexy but we're kind of proud of what we've done with it... I haven't seen anyone else do it like this before.

Yes, we did a bunch of research during the summer of '08. What we saw is that when forums lock their classifieds down in this way it greatly reduces the quality of the classifieds. The number of listings plummet. We understand why they choose to do it, but we think we have a better way. ;)

At the moment, this is a value add to enhance the community. We do have ideas on how we'll also be able to turn it into a driver of traffic to the communities, though. But those are still a little ways down the road.

Hi Ladies and Gents,

I want to gauge interest in a feature that we're currently developing. I've been talking with The Tire Rack to see how we can integrate our product database with the forum sponsorships that they provide and I believe we've found a way to make it work.

Basically after installing the plugin you would add your Tire Rack code and we would insert it into a referral link on the product pages. So on the product detail page for the Bridgestone RE-11 page for example there would be a link to The Tire Rack with your referral code. If a user clicks that link and then purchases the tire from the Tire Rack they pay you a commission.

We don't see any revenue from this feature, our revenue source remains solely earned from helping the users sell their parts. This is just to make the system more useful for everyone.

Thoughts?

I think if you open the door for tirerack, others will want the same and turn the product into an affiliate network that you guys can't make money from.

It's been a while since styckyd has been released. It needs to have mass acceptance by the users. Unfortunately, I don't know any definitive way to make this happen.

Hi Samir,

It's only been two weeks! We have a long way to go! :) Rome definitely wasn't built in a day, our little site has a long way to go and there are still many more things to do.

We already have a built-in way for the forum admins like yourself to add other supporting vendors to the system so not only the Tire Rack will benefit. They're just the easiest because they already have systems in place to make this happen. We hope that this will add value to the forums and their supporting vendors. Whether or not we make money from this effort is not very relevant to us. Our goal is to help people buy and sell auto parts and we want to earn our keep by providing that service. These are ancillary services that add value in many ways and they're relatively easy for us to provide. If our service helps the forums it's a win for us, too:

1) It provides more reasons for you to want to work with us. If we're helping you, why wouldn't you want to work with us?
2) This is new territory. I could be wrong, but I've been involved in forums for a long time and I haven't seen anything like this before. This allows us to learn more about what works and what doesn't - and keep making it better.
3) If everyone finds the system useful and uses the forensics system then that also adds value to the classifieds system (The product database is the same). So the better we make Forensics, in turn the better Classifieds becomes.

We need a critical mass of users that breaches a certain threshold, but not everyone needs to be on board all at once and we don't expect that either. We'll get them in time by offering a better service. We truly believe that we'll be able to succeed in that. The users that have seen it so far really like it, but it does need more people involved to be really useful and that's why we're looking for forum admins to work together with us. We just need to start the conversation.

We're talking with some and are learning more about what we need to do. We're working on better integration with the vBulletin login right now by popular request. We'll have it done in the very near future. What else do we need to do to get more forums to try it out? The more forums that use it, the better we can make it for everyone.

I'm glad to hear that it's going well. :)

I can't speak for other forum owners, but the barrier to entry for me is tighter integration. The single sign-on that you're working on definitely helps with that integration.

Great, we'll have that done shortly. Is there anything else or will you be willing to get started with it after that's done?

It'll still take some time to get going, but the more people we have using it, the better it will be for everyone.

That's the biggest barrier of entry for most. For me, since I don't currently have an official classifieds section, will be integration of styckyd with the system to be implemented.

Like most classified systems, to prevent abuse, there are post and time-based restrictions to limit the use of the system. Mainly this is to keep away the scammers that we've all seen as admins. The good thing about the styckyd system is that this is eliminated by asking for valid cc information. It will be rare that scammer is willing to put valid cc information into the system for the purpose of scamming someone, although I guess it still could happen. But I don't want the CC requirement to be a barrier to entry for my users who will quality via post count and tenure to use the original system we want to implement.

So the issue is how to implement both systems and keep them running in parallel via a single screen interface? The best way I could think of that is to have some sort of block of 'featured' ads that is at the top of the classifieds forum, and these pulling from the styckyd system. Very similar to how ebay and other companies have a scrolling bar of the most recent or featured items for sale. This way, a user is rewarded for having their listing in the styckyd system by getting extra exposure, while those that wish to simply list like they normally would can do so.

This implementation would require some sort of feed from the styckyd system, ideally a flash banner in a standard IAB size, so implementation would be even easier. I don't know if there's an rss feed out or anything like that, but that's also another way to get the two systems integrated.

Thoughts?

Sorry, I got lost at this point. Can you clarify what both systems are?

This is what we're currently doing. It's the simplest and easiest way to get started. On the home page for Classifieds is the most recent ads listed. This isn't really our goal, though. There are much more powerful, useful, and relevant things we can do with our system.

The next thing we'll be working on once the volume of listings increase is making it so that these are unique to the community (If you had a forum for BMW enthusiasts, it would show BMW parts). After that it will be unique for the users. Similar to how Amazon or Netflix recommends books and movies for you, we'll be able to recommend parts (Seriously, wait until you see what we can do - it's going to be pretty cool).

Sorry about that. One system is a traditional classifieds forum and the other system is styckyd.

But this is on your homepage, and is not something that the user can currently see while concurrently looking at a traditional classifieds forum.

Good stuff. Now imagine this integrated with a common classifieds forums with a flash module above the start of the forum that showcased these items on styckyd like the 'vidoes being watched now' on this page:
http://demo.agriya.com/product/produ...el-member.html. This is what I'm looking for.

Ah, I see. This is where the confusion is then. In response I propose a question: By using Styckyd: Classifieds, why do we need a traditional classifieds system at all? :)

Until the system is also able to appropriately handle cars I see Styckyd: Classifieds along with a regular forum for cars and then a regular forum for everything else (couches, watches, etc.), those things that people sell on forums that don't fit within the car domain.

As with above, Styckyd becomes the classifieds on forums and the functionality I'm referring to (customization) isn't viewed anywhere on our site. These things are served for just your forum and just your users. The experience will be different on everyone's forum as we build out these customization features. They're easy for us to do but useless for us to create them unless we have data to work with.

With the understanding above, have your thoughts changed on this? If I'm still missing something, please help direct me so I can understand better.

One way that we'd like to make this more relevant to the users in time (And our goal is to be useful while not being invasive) is to have a text based results search on forum threads. For example, if a product is mentioned within a thread that matches with a search result from our database we can deliver information that is relevant to the content in that page. Like more details provided by Styckyd: Part Forensics, or even some parts for sale. This, too, needs to be developed after we have data to work with, though. So we're at the beginning of our journey.

All of this will be able to be turned on and off at the admin's discretion. For example, if you just want Styckyd: Part Forensics to take advantage of the Tire Rack referrals and links to your other vendors, you can disable Classifieds entirely.

You don't, but the problem is that which is common in forums--users don't like to change something that works. Why bother changing from the existing system? That's the barrier that's got to be overcome. I can see users using the styckyd system more than a regular forum to the point the regular one gets phased out, but only after they are ready to let go of the existing system. They're going to need hand-holding and training wheels through this time or they'll demand their old system back. Tight, seamless integration with a traditional classifieds forum is the only way I can see my users accepting and using styckyd. And I think it's going to be similar everywhere. In the last week, I've had two requests to add a classifieds forum, and yet I can't get one bit of feedback from my users about styckyd:
http://www.huntsvillecarscene.com/showthread.php?t=3876
Exactly. This is why I see tight integration as crucial.
Hmmm...so are there site requirements to have this sort of customization?
I think I'm still missing something. I know that styckyd is customizable, but how will that make transitioning from one system to another smooth, or running both traditional forum-based classifieds and the styckyd system concurrently feasible? :confused:
Sounds like a neat bunch of features.

That's why we built this, we've been using forums and their classifieds for a very long time. We don't think they work well for classifieds. Forums were built for conversations and they're great at that, but they're really not built for buying or selling things.

We're doing this differently than anyone else has even attempted so I don't expect, nor would I want everyone to switch over all at one time. We will have to encourage and engage the users to show them the value. As they begin to use it we'll learn more and make it better. And it will become easier and easier for each new community that joins the network.

Right now we have a bit of a communication problem - many people don't understand exactly how it all works when they take a quick look at it. This will be improved on our next release (Aiming for next week). Which leads me to this one:

Unfortunately there weren't many people that came through that link, and with the communication problem I mentioned above they might not have understood exactly what it was doing or why you were looking for feedback. It's not clear from that page that it will integrate nicely into a vBulletin forum. So I imagine they came and saw some classifieds site, clicked through to one of the listings and then left confused.

If you don't have a classifieds forum already, isn't that a perfect opportunity to use Styckyd as your classifieds system? I think your users are geographically focused though, so it may not be as useful until there is a network of communities involved (One of the main features is that we calculate shipping and include it in the price the buyer pays).

Yes, install Styckyd. ;)

We can handle everything from there. For some of the features to work we'll need to add some information to your forum profile (Like if your community is focused on one particular make or model), the rest will grow organically out of the features we implement over time.

Oh you don't have to convince me. :) It's the users that will need to be convinced. And unless they perceive it to be at least 50% better than what they're using, they'll dig their heels in.
I didn't think many people would click on it, but I expected at least one or two 'yay or nay' type of comments. To be honest, I don't even know how it will integrate nicely, so I could see their confusion.
Starting out with styckyd would be a serious consideration if there was tight integration. But the CC barrier to posting will immediately turn off the users in this area who expect everything for free. There's other local forums with more active classifieds sections even though they have less traffic, and yet the postings primarily go there and craigslist because of 'free'. For my site, I would already be facing competitive pressures from the other traditionally-formatted classifieds sections, so adopting an unfamiliar format would probably work against me unless users had a choice on using styckyd or a forum and both were working concurrently.

Automatic shipping calculation is great, but Fedex is horrible in our area. So adding UPS will be important. Especially since UPS is the only shipping company in the US that guarantees their ground shipment times. I have a UPS daily account and used to do almost $2k a week with them in a previous business. I tried every company out there before I settled on UPS.
I could install styckyd, but frankly, it would be a tab on my navbar that wouldn't be clicked if there's a classifieds forum. This is why I need integration to make both systems simultaneously available to the users.

I'm currently in the process of a complete site re-design, so any classifieds implementation will come after that, and maybe not until the end of the year since the content producing season is basically here. During this season, I rarely have time to breathe moreless consider any infrastructure changes.

hmmm. ok. Let me think about your comments for a little bit longer and I'll get back to you. I'm pretty sure I have your e-mail address. If you have more thoughts in the mean time feel free to e-mail me @ kerry at my domain. We'll be able to make something work - just not sure exactly what yet.

I'm definitely listening to you and hear what you're saying.

Sounds good. As you can tell, I believe in styckyd and want it to succeed. :) Thank you for listening to my concerns, and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with. :)

[A copy of the blog post I just made about vBulletin single sign-on:

Many forum admins are asking us for greater vBulletin integration. On the top of the list is integration with the vBulletin login system. So because you asked for it, we built it. Here’s how it works.

If the user is logged into the forum and has used Styckyd before, nothing more will be required. If the user isn’t currently logged into your forum and they attempt something that requires authentication a lightbox will open up that looks like this:

http://www.styckyd.com/images/blog/not_logged_in.jpg

If they’re logged in but haven’t used Styckyd before we need to register them quickly before they can continue. Here’s the lightbox that pops up in that case:

http://www.styckyd.com/images/blog/register.jpg

Finally, if they’re logged in and have already used Styckyd on a different forum, then as a security measure to ensure we’re keeping accounts safe this lightbox will pop up asking them to confirm the auth code we sent to the e-mail address that they first registered with:

http://www.styckyd.com/images/blog/auth_code.jpg

We have much more on the way. Let us know if there’s something you really need working on your forum. Every day we make this system a little better.

Very well done!

We have recently added two new features: A 30 day free trial for new forums (Any listings created by your members within that timeframe will never be charged a listing fee) and integration with Tire Rack's affiliate program.

On deck: A feed to seed listings into the regular classifieds forums and link back to the plugin, and the ability to add free local listings.

We have recently updated the app so that Want to Buys are more prominent and useful - users can add a wheel size and bolt pattern they're looking for and they'll receive an e-mail when there is one available.

We have also added functionality for "Feelers" which allow sellers to post up an item that they have to see if there is any interest from buyers. If there is, then they can move to a full listing and add other details like price and pictures.

We've made it so that sellers can list their part locally which buyers within 60 miles can purcahse and there is no charge for local listings.

Try it out: www.styckyd.com

More on the way.

It's great to see continuing development on this product. :)