New community page re-imagines the beloved “Classifieds”
$100 cash drawing for all who use the site by 4/15
By Andrew Harris
Picture yourself grabbing a Wellsville Daily Reporter back in 1996. You’d read the front page, then quickly fold the paper to page 2, or 3, and check the police blotter. Then the eyes moved through the hospital report to find out who was ill, or who had gotten better, or who was born! Everyone read the obituaries before moving past the centerfold. After reading any opinions or the community calendar, most would skip over the classified ads to see the sports section. But then, when finished reading the sports, you went back to the classifieds.
Would there be a funny birthday or anniversary announcement? Maybe one of those cryptic personal ads or a notice about a diamond ring found in the Giant Food Mart parking lot. Used cars, a litter of pups, upcoming estate sales, and ads for used cars and homes for sale by owner. If you think about it, the classified section had more local “news” than the paper itself, no offense to John Anderson and Oak Duke.
The beauty of the classifieds was that it allowed everyday people to place an ad in the local paper at an affordable price. For thirty dollars you could advertise your used John Deere lawnmower or upcoming yard sale for a week. To post a birthday ad for a co-worker or a 16th birthday for the day was ten bucks. Ah, the good ole days….
www.ClassifiedSun.com
Now that the Wellsville Sun has firmly established herself as a local news source, she will also have a classified section. The goal is to recreate the service provided by the daily newspaper but with some modern twists. First, and foremost, this is a “do-it-yourself” service that uses strictly PayPal. The bottom line is that this site isn’t going to be a risk for users, which is inherent with processing credit or debit cards. With Paypal, online thieves must contend with the authority on internet transactions who offer a secure transaction. It is very possible that payment options can extend to Venmo in the future, which is now a subsidiary of Paypal. I use Paypal daily to conduct business and I recommend it for ease of use and security.
The next big difference between the classifieds of olden days and the Classified Sun is the audience. The Wellsville Sun and the Hornell Sun will share the Classified Sun(so sunny sorry.) The two communities are 36 minutes apart and Andover, Alfred, Almond are part of the population. Together, this site will provide nearly 50,000 potential readers. As part of both the Wellsville and Hornell’s Sun, these classified ads have the potential to reach many more eyeballs than the back pages of the now defunct Wellsville Daily Reporter.
Last, but not least, this site is FREE TO USE, for now. As a brand new site and service, we need to polish and improve in order to “get everything exactly perfect.” All you need to do is create an account and create your ad. For those who do, if you send us a note with comments/concerns/issues, you are automatically entered to win $100 on April 15th.
www.ClassifiedSun.com
Please, check the site out and create an account. Critique it heavily, suggest a new category, sell your own home, car, boat, engagement ring? Trying to hire staff? Give it a try and you might win $100 next Saturday! Any questions just use the “Contact Us” link on the site.
