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  Q1: Does anyone have anything else that they think could possibly make this idea more unique from similar websites. I know there are a lot out there but they are not very well organized or informational. (5 pieces of advice)

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  by mountainmann 

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  11.21.08 | 09:06 PM

  Make it unique to apartments where students from the school have lived and that are in close proximity. Make it almost prestigious for places to get on it, so they might give incentives for students to live there. You could almost offer them a guaranteed supply of college students each year if your site says good things about them.

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  by ripley117 

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  11.20.08 | 04:53 PM

  Sounds like you are really trying to make things a little bit more convenient for college student now a days. Finding an apartment can be difficult while in especially if you are going from rent period to rent period without any real long lease. My advise, since you seem to have found your target market would be to start looking at some other ways you could make your site the exclusive search engine for colleges.
  This could be done in some different ways. For one, you mentioned an online how site with apartments already listed. What is your plan to first find these apartments and then get them signed on to your site. If college age is the crowd they are looking to attract.
  A good way to do this is through price. Beating your competition for advertising space and more ways to advertise would be your first option
  There are alot of different magazines out there that are now websites shuch as
  http://www.forrent.com/
  http://www.rentalguideerie.com/
  http://www.apartmentguide.com/
  magazine source
  http://www.freetrademagazinesource.com/16-204…more8824965/description.aspx
  All of these are valuable sources for anyone to get on to find an apartment including college students. So what can your site offer that your competition cannot.

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  by greenlawn86 

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  11.18.08 | 04:00 PM

  The most important think to keep in mind is that your website will act in a similar fashion to a physical store. The more comfortable they are with your site and the more legitimate and professional it appears, the more likely they will do business with you. I always recommend pouring as much as you can into website development. This is your first real contact with a customer and you want them to continually return and use your services, so make them feel as though this is a legitimate operation.
  
  I also think that in terms of website marketing you should look into where and how you are advertising. I would arrange some ad swaps with some other sites that are not your direct competition. This will expand your market quickly and get the word out at a relatively cheap rate. Also, if you must pay for advertising look for value. It may cost alot, but if it increases the hits to your website then it will probably be worth it. A monthly examination of your profit loss sheet and your expenses will allow you to toy with the correct percentage of revenue you should commit to advert…moreising.
  
  http://www.howstuffworks.com/web-advertising.htm
  http://www.auctionaddons.com/category_23/Ad-Swap.htm
  

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  by business_sense247 

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  11.17.08 | 09:51 PM

  I have had a lot of experience as a college student (mostly bad) trying to find a place to live that fits the college lifestyle: cheap, close to campus, and college friendly. In order for you to differentiate from other housing websites, you might actually need to limit the listings to things that fit the college ideal. I know when I would look for places, I got overwhelmed by the fact that every other place I looked at was way out of my price range, was too far away, or was full of grandmas. So, I think you'll need to make sure to list primarily places that fit that bill, which will most likely mean having significantly less listings on your site, but if I had had that, I would have had a much easier time than having to weed out all the other very non-college-ey places. Also, I know it was important for my roommates and I that whatever place we got, the area/neighborhood was college friendly. You might want to do surveys of areas around each campus, and find where the younger crowd is.

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  by pchaney 

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  10.10.08 | 05:31 PM

  Considering that every college kid on the planet is tied to Facebook, I would make sure that you had a Facebook app of some kind. The likelihood is that the student would find you via Facebook (or MySpace for that matter, so create a widget for it as well) than via the web itself. Plus, considering it's a Facebook app, there's virility built into it allowing students to share with their friends.

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• Advise

  What advice do you have to help me grow my idea?
       (1 pieces of advice)

   

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  by ripley117 

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  11.20.08 | 05:14 PM

  After surveying the hyperlinks above, what did you learn about your competition? Do you still see strength in what you are trying to do? Its not only easy looking at the competition, especially when you know you have to beat their price and way of doing business, however the one strength you do have is you can really capitalize on the niche market.
  My advise if your really wanting to get results is to base your site's activity around college towns. This would increase your chances that people who visit you site plan to rent in these towns, who are most likely college students. By doing this you really weed out the larger demographic and can better focus on how to please the college crowd.
  
  Another idea might be some supplementary services for your idea. You already are creating a business based around finding apartments for students, why not add on a business helping college students find roommates as well? This could complete the service structure for your business.

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