Easily Add A Classifieds Marketplace or Auction To Your Site With Premade Scripts
In Hosting Online Auctions or Classified Ads: An Introduction to Marketplaces, I introduced the concept of earning additional income on your site by creating a marketplace for users within your niche that allows them to buy, sell, and trade related goods. I know that many of the larger sites who have created marketplaces in the past used custom code that they designed specifically for their own site. That’s an expensive proposition, and not one I would lightly recommend to the average site owner. A custom application may be necessary for some, but many of you won’t need to go down that path right away (if ever).
Free Open Source Marketplace Auction Script
If your site isn’t flooded with millions of visitors each day or you just want to try out the idea of adding a marketplace to your site, without spending a fortune on a custom application, I recommend using a prebuilt solution, such as the free, open source WeBid application. WeBid is still in beta, so keep that in mind, but the price is right! 
WordPress Classified Ads Themes
Here are two premium themes designed to turn WordPress into a classified ads system. Both allow you to charge users to post ads in the system. ClassiPress is the older and more established of the two. It comes with tons of features – way too many to list here. Templatic’s Classifieds theme is less well known, but has a nice streamlined look that might better suit your style.
WordPress Auction Plugin
If you are looking for a way to simply auction off some of your own items on your blog, then I’d suggest checking out WP Auctions. This is a simple WordPress plugin that lets you auction items within posts or pages, and you can even list the auctions in the blog’s sidebar by using the included sidebar widget.
If you routinely offer products for sale on sites such as ebay or any other auction marketplace, you’ll probably want to consider offering them right on your site to the people who are most interested in what you sell. Since there are no listing fees or image fees or any other type of fees to list your own products on your own site, it makes sense to make use of your site’s own real estate to make a larger profit from your sales.
(Helpful hint: The WP Auctions plugin author’s site is laid out a little oddly, so if you’re looking for the plugin features, you’ll actually find them listed on the Download Now page.)
Disclosure: Affiliate links may be used within this post for products I recommend. They in no way affect my judgement of said products, nor do they affect the price of the product.
Tags: Online auction business model, Online Auctions, prebuilt solution, WordPress
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