I’d love to know who is giving Ben Dunne advice on his web business strategy. It’s not to think that it’s nothing more than a young guy just out of college or else someone taking Ben for a ride. As we all know Ben is the master of taking a small idea and making big business from it.
If we were to use the “mock up” of his new website currently available at www.bendunne.com as a guide, it appears that this site will be another of what can only be described as a classified ads website.
The difference with this is that Ben Dunne is going to charge €3 per listing. The problem with that is that there are already much more popular websites providing the exact same service for free. Take your pick from Adverts.ie or even Gumtree.ie – both allow you to publish your items for free, plus they already both have a massive user base.
There’s no doubt that people will use this site – it’s already being advertised on local radio and it the site has yet to be launched. But for how long and will it be long enough for Ben to make money from it. I’ve discussed the issues with TenderMe.ie in another article and the general consensus from the comments in response to that article were that it was lacking transparency – hopefully Ben will have addressed this issue with BenDunne.com
If I was him, I’d reduce the listing fee – €3 is a little bit too steep in my opinion for people to make the move to this new site. If I was looking to sell something online, I’d be happy to pay him €1 to list the item and still list it on Adverts.ie. But €3 is a little steep and something I’d only do as a last resort.
Anyway – I wish Ben Dunne great success with his new website, I hope when the site goes live it is not as bad as I expect it to be.
#1 by Richard Hearne at October 5th, 2009
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Not to mention donedeal.ie and buyandsell.ie (who just got bought).
These sites depend on traffic – I wonder who’s doing the SEO for it? Have you considered contacting en Dunne himself to let him know what you think?
#2 by Tom Doyle at October 5th, 2009
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Jesus are they his too? God, didn’t even know that!
I wouldn’t even try contact him!
#3 by Richard Hearne at October 5th, 2009
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No. They are actually more competition that don’t charge to place ads (they have free and paid options).
Not sure what he sees as wrong with current models, nor what his USP is with this?
#4 by Tom Doyle at October 5th, 2009
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Right – yeah I’ve no idea what he’s up to at all. But I won’t knock it just yet- he’s a canny knack of proving people wrong!
#5 by A Dela at October 5th, 2009
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I believe the €3 price is partly due to the mobile networks. I’d expect them to use the same system as Donedeals.ie with text patment and the mobile networks charge through the nose for the service.
#6 by Tom Doyle at October 5th, 2009
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@A – They could bypass that cost by setting up the site as a mobile web app.
Most mobiles nowadays have a web browser. Could easily make the site work and avoid that charge. I know there are data charges too, but they’re getting cheaper all the time and it certainly wouldn’t cost €3
#7 by Stuart C at October 14th, 2009
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Heard the ad for this on the radio today, I know from having some experience in the market that sites like this depend mainly on SEO. Most searches for dogs, tickets, motorbikes etc on Google.ie will bring you to donedeal.
I dont think that donedeal will be toppled anytime soon.
#8 by John Lawlor at November 4th, 2009
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Well, I think ben dunne has a video camera spying on me . I spend 4 months developing a website similar to tenderme, when I had it ready to lauch ” for free “, all i got was his bloody tv ,radio, ads day and night promoting his website, I cant understand why someone of his stature would bother, let the little guys have some of the cake. Is that really his voice on the radio — sounds like a 60 year old talking to us like we havent a notion about anything…….. BEEEN DUUNNNEEEE DOOOT COOOMMM… ;¬) Anyway by the looks of it he would be luck to pull a weeks wages from his site.
#9 by declan at November 26th, 2009
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i’d say ben saw site called donedeal.ie and thought subconciously dunnedeal.ie. There is no way he can make money out of it. The guy clearly doesnt understand young people or how the web works but is trying to make money out of it.
#10 by Mike at December 9th, 2009
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Tried to post an ad to Bendunne.com. just now, entered all the info, then it would not accept it, saying that my email adress was not a proper one. One can become very frusrated when this continues to happen, and in all probability people may try it once, if it doesn’t work they may never try it again, Best regards Mike
#11 by Paul at December 9th, 2009
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At the moment its down with a message saying it will be back at 11.30. I could see it being a success though given all the publicity that BD can generate and his ability to keep it cheap and wait awhile for a return.
#12 by thomas at February 12th, 2010
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We get a lot of replies to adds on ben dunn, a few fellows send over a bank draft, the goods cost 50-00c the sender adds a small cost for the collector, anyway the buyer sends a bank draft for 3,000 sterling. i tear it up and tell the buyer to hump off, its a pure scam.