Learn All You Can About Your Car
Include the VIN in Your Ad
Include All Relevant Information
Take Good Pictures
Respond to Inquiries Promptly
Update Your Ads
Request Feedback From Buyers
Give Yourself A Good Name
Learn All You Can
About Your Car: Before advertising your car on Nairaland, run an Autocheck
or Carfax
report. Some dealers list their cars without knowing their history. After
heaping praises on them, they are then surprised when somebody produces a
damaging Carfax report. If you know your car's history ahead of time, you
will be in a better position to market it effectively.
A Carfax report is more authentic when it
is produced by a 3rd party. So after getting the report, don't post it
yourself. Wait for Monitor_1 or another user to post it. Stating that the
car has a clean Carfax report in the description is enough to drive home
the point.
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Include the VIN in
Your Ad: In a post dated October 12, 2008, Seun
Osewa, the owner of Nairaland.com wrote in part: "I strongly urge Nairaland members to avoid buying any car if the seller doesn't provide a chasis number or
VIN... There is no penalty for not including the chassis number but nobody will buy your car!"
Despite this strong recommendation, some dealers
still do not include the VIN of
their cars while others include it as an after thought in subsequent
postings down thread. To ensure that your car's VIN appears on this site,
include it in the very first thread. We do not have the capacity to search
through the entire thread for the VIN. So if we do not see it on the first
thread, we enter "Not Stated" under VIN.
If you have the VIN for a car you are
selling and we marked it as "Not Stated", send
it to us.
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Include All
Relevant Information: Some dealers advertise their cars on Nairaland
without including all the relevant information. Now and again, you see
cars listed without a price, prompting comments like "How much is
this car? Is it free?". Consider including the following information
on the first thread of your ad: Vehicle Make, Model, Year, VIN, Price, Options
etc.
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Take Good Pictures:
Ads that include pictures attract far more attention than plain text ads.
However some dealers do not make enough effort to produce high quality
pictures. You often see pictures taken with Mobile phone cameras. Invest
in a digital or other decent camera and use it for your business.
Nairaland allows dealers to add up to 4
pictures in the first thread of an ad. You may add more by replying to
your ad and then uploading the pictures. However, they have a strict file
size requirement when it comes to pictures. If they are larger than 200
kilo bytes, they will
not load. In that case, reduce the file size or contact other Nairalanders
for assistance.
The pictures should include the front,
back and inside views of your car. Include a minimum of 4 and a maximum of
8. Anything more than 8 may lengthen your ad unnecessarily.
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Respond to Inquiries
Promptly: After you advertise your car on Nairaland, check it
periodically for any inquiries. Once you get an inquiry, respond as soon as you
can. In this age of instant communication, Nairalanders expect answers to
their inquiries in hours not days.
However you should only respond to
reasonable inquiries. Some trouble makers may try to drag you into an
argument by making unflattering comments about your ad. Ignore such
comments completely. Nothing pains such trouble makers more than being
ignored.
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Update Your Ads:
Ads on Nairaland do not have expiration dates. So if your car sells or
becomes unavailable, endeavour to update the information for the benefit
of other Nairalanders. Some dealers do this by adding "SOLD" at
the bottom of the ad.
But a better way to do this is by adding
"SOLD" in the title of the ad. In that case one can easily tell
that a car has been sold by looking at the title instead of opening the ad
and reading through it. For instance an ad that originally read "2002
Honda Accord For Sale" now becomes "SOLD! SOLD! 2002 Honda
Accord For Sale".
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Request Feedback
From Buyers: At the conclusion of a successful transaction, ask your
buyer if he will be interested in leaving feedback. If the answer is yes,
show them how do so either by narrating their experience in the thread
where the car was advertised or by opening a new thread. A
positive feedback can be a powerful way of letting potential clients know
that you are reliable and trustworthy. But
remember, Nairaland is filled with skeptics and doubters. An annonymous or
shady feedback may attract ridicule. But if your buyer agrees to provide
his name, phone number or email address, it will be more authentic. We
all remember how this feedback enhanced Ayodeji1's image: "Ayodeji1 Is A Great Guy-Delivered Honda Accord 2005 EOD
today" Top
Give Yourself A
Good Name: Do not tarnish your image by engaging in forum fights and
other un-productive activities. Participate in helpful discussions. If you
have an answer to a problem, provide it. Help new dealers understand
how the auto section works.
Nigeria has more than 100 million people.
There must be enough car buyers in that population for every dealer (only
if we can reach them).
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