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sell.com Links Print Classifieds to Enhanced Web Pages
Dallas, February 2002 - Beginning today, newspapers can
offer advertisers the opportunity to directly link classified ads to a temporary web page
showcasing advertisers' products, powered by sell.com. Classified ads linked to sell.com provide
advertisers temporary online space for detailed product descriptions, multiple photo displays, and
a private forum to negotiate with interested buyers.
sell.com affords publishers a new source of revenue by charging advertisers for an enhanced online
listing, while not incurring any additional expenses. Newspapers and publications use existing call
centers or online ad submissions to sell the online listing service as a specialty feature in a
revenue partnership with sell.com.
"Traditional online auction sites cannibalize print classifieds by stealing away customers," says
Darren Dittrich, CEO of sell.com. "sell.com was designed from the beginning to work in conjunction
with print classifieds as an enhanced offering for their customers."
Online listings permit lengthy descriptions and a maximum of ten photos per item using sell.com's
online classified service. Interested buyers need only type a short URL such as
sell.com/299J, to directly link to a product
listing. Consumers who may traditionally shy away from running a print classified because they are
apprehensive about providing personal contact information can use the sell.com engine to privately
negotiate.
Mark Kessel of Dallas, turned to the Dallas Morning News classifieds to look for an Apple
PowerBook. Kessler found three classified listings, one of which had a sell.com product code. Using
this code, which was submitted by the advertiser, Kessel went directly to photos of the computer
and detailed specifications.
"I had been trying to purchase a computer from an auction site, but at the last minute bidders
would come in and raise the price," says Kessel. "With sell.com I submitted my offer and it was
accepted promptly. I would have never found the PowerBook without the classified ad, and sell.com
made it an extremely easy transaction."
The sell.com engine is a versatile add-on for any publisher's web site while providing reporting
and automated integration into the print classifieds of these properties as well.
"sell.com has built a one-of-a-kind system for linking a specific classified directly to an online
product page," says Dave Mathews, new business development, sell.com. "These URLs take about as
much space as a 10-digit phone number in print."
About sell.com, inc.
sell.com Online Classifieds, founded in 1999, is a privately held Dallas-based negotiated commerce solution provider, allowing both businesses and consumers to trade goods and services online via a patent-pending one-on-one negotiation forum. ThinkTank LLC, a SoftBank-affiliated venture capital firm, provided initial funding for sell.com in 2000.
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