I have created a few different classified ad web sites over the years.  I wanted to create a new site where users could upload their own photos as well as pay for ads easily.  After using all of the top horse classified web sites, I knew how difficult many made it to place and pay for ads.  Additionally, the ads were not live for several days in some cases.  I started by building a prototype site at www.Horse101.com/portal which allows ads for all breeds and disciplines. 

I then created a new specialized site (DressageStar.com) based on it where users could advertise dressage horses and include videos.  The key issue was that most sites did not allow video ads.  Those that did charged a lot for them.  I wanted to make video ads that were low cost.  The best way to do this is to leverage the capabilities of the new video sharing sites like YouTube, Google Video and others.  I created www.DressageStar.com which allowed users to embed videos in the ads from these sites.  Along with video classifieds, visitors can read news via RSS news feeds and shop for saddles thanks to eBay's RSS technology.

Site Utilizes:

• Custom photography and graphic design
• Affiliate marketing program
• RSS news feeds to receive and disseminate news
• Customized classified ad content type with photos and external video embedding capability.
• Google Maps
• Web based newsletter system
• Display ad management system (non-classified ads)
• SEO (search engine optimization) tools
• Google automated sitemap- updates real time with site changes.