Selling a Car Online for Free? Is Anything Really Ever Free?

One of the biggest topics online I keep tripping on these days is free, freemiums, free offers, free sites, freebies, free lunch pros and cons….(did you know if you Google ‘free’ that the #3 Ad is a test for Dumb Blondes? Huh? Would anyone normally pay for that?)…I have even seen people recently on one social networking site asking other members of the community for a free car!

But back to the point- I do have a lot of people ask me where they can list their car online for free. They want to join the rocketing trend of online car sales but don’t want to have to pay for it. My usual response is that you get what you pay for. Don’t get me wrong! Craigslist is fun and can get you some pretty great responses from your local area but it isn’t really maximizing the potential profit that you could earn from selling your car yourself by exposing your car to millions of buyers.

• Almost one quarter of all used cars sold were found online.
• Autotrader attracts more than 13 million qualified buyers to the site monthly.
• Cars.com is visited by more than 8 million auto shoppers each month.
• eBay Motors has over 12 million unique visitors a month
• Internet car shoppers visit an average of 10.5 sites throughout the online shopping process.
• 70% of all cars sold on eBay Motors are sold across state lines.

The nice thing about the free sites is that they have developed pretty good software to deal with a few pictures and translate some description to a local group of buyers. They are not easy to search and compare and the quality often leaves a lot to be desired. The great thing about the sites that you pay for is that they are all competing to create and maintain the most state of the art, user friendly, content driven sales spread to millions of ready and willing buyers. In other words, you get what you pay for!

Isn’t it logical that investing in a better advertising method nets you more money in the end? Who do you think makes more money in this day and age? Some one advertising a Dumb Blonde Test in the thick, paper Yellow Pages or on Google?



For a great debate on the economy of free.

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