Setting up a marketplace

**Kay** · 12 March 2014, 9:25 pm

I'm thinking of setting up a marketplace on one of my smaller sites. It would be a buy, sell, trade, employ (BSTE) type of place for like-minded people. Any suggestions for how to set it up, please? The site is on WordPress.

My biggest concern is spammers, and keeping them out.

At first glance, a forum seems to be the obvious way. Let people post their ads. Simple. But there's always an awful lot of back-office work on forums in keeping out the scum and I don't fancy going through all that just for a little marketplace. (If the site already had forums it would be easy to add a BSTE, but it doesn't have one and I've no desire to create one.)

Another option I considered is a dedicated classified ads program. I had one of these many years ago on my expat site, but it was an absolute nightmare trying to keep it clean.

Charging a nominal entry fee (say $1) might be worth a try with some sites but not with this one. It's nowhere near critical mass. Mind you, I could let all my pals in free to kick it off. Who said I'll be in there on my own, then?

I suppose I could add listings if people send them to me by contact form. But I'd rather the system was more automated. Also even contact forums get a lot of spam these days.

Sad isn't it? The first thing to think about isn't giving the customers what they want, it's how to keep the slimeballs out.

**KenW3** · 13 March 2014, 5:48 am

Commercial software is the way to go for easier day-to-day maintenance with this type of site. For lower end, take a look at Premium Press themes. For higher end, Agriya Scripts may provide your solution. You can use any script (or even a second install of Wordpress) for an existing WP site.

**Kay** · 13 March 2014, 6:07 am

Brilliant! Thanks, Ken. Definitely low end in this case but high end could also be useful for future reference.

And for other EP members, of course.

You know, it never even occurred to me that you could do a second WP install for the same site. I guess it's one of these things that seem obvious, but only after someone has told you the answer.