The only thing you had to do in the early 2000s where having a website was only a privilege to a rich minority was printing your website address on a business card and distributing it to your friends and acquaintances in order to introduce your website.

These beautiful days where registered domains could be counted on the fingers of one hand of course passed away completely in 2005. While registered domains were about 40 million, they have already exceeded 90 million today. Printing your website on a business card and distributing is impractical today.

While the growth rate of Internet is incredibly high today compared to any other field, methods for attracting visitors becomes shortened day by day. Though it seems as a contrast, it is explicitly a fact that it is actually the right thing.

Although it was only 5 years ago when web portals promising you to find everything in a single website fell from grace, even the biggest ones today are at high risk of going bankrupt. After people discovered that they could not find everything in a single website, they write only a single word on their address bars of their browsers when they are connected: Google!  Of course, only if they did not set Google as default start page…

Google doesn’t say, “We have everything you look for”; they say, “We don’t have what you look for but we can find it for you”. The actual success of Google is that they managed to create clearly the image in people’s mind that “Google can find!”

Only having a website lost its significance now. Now the importance is to have a website with higher search ranks in Google. It is the actual key aspect which will change everything.

It was shown in a research done by personally Google that users are only interested with first 4 search results. Being on Google clearly means being among first 4 search results on Google.

Well, while Google will list us, not them, while there are thousands of rivals with similar contents and even worse, it is so easy to have a website by buying a domain name and hosting account and then installing WordPress in 5 minutes?

We confront with the concept of SEO for the very reason. SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is the most important feature required for having a successful website now.

In today’s Internet world where websites focus on keyword ranking in Google, SEO knowledge is no longer an additional area of interest but has become a main expertise field that all website administrators should certainly know and apply as well as Web Design and Web Programming knowledge. Then, how will you learn SEO techniques and increase the rank of your website in search engines by applying these techniques?

When you make a small research for SEO, you will see that there are serious problems with it since it is a pending issue. When you witness that everybody developed their own techniques and that they believe these techniques as the best beyond any doubt, you’ll be confused much.

“SEO Hocası” (which means “SEO Teacher” in Turkish) is a successful website managed to make itself accepted in the sector by standing out among SEO blogs in Turkey. Being at 2^nd rank in Google search for a difficult word like SEO is the best proof that how professional solutions they developed. By the way, being listed at 3^rd rank for SEO teknikleri (“SEO techniques” in Turkish) search in Google is an Easter Egg for everybody following the sector closely

What does Seo Hocası (established by Kaan Gülten) owe for its success of becoming a unique SEO source by being supported by many authors who are experts on their fields in a short time?

It has a very simple answer! Google Webmaster Guidelines gives following tip:

“Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.”

“Seo Hocası” has become a big brand in a very short time by offering the best possible content in quality for real users and it is approaching to the deserved position in Google day by day…

While many so-called professional SEO bloggers think that incompletely translating foreign articles about outdated SEO techniques and offering them to users is a big success, Seo Hocası sustains to grow up with each passing day against its rivals by both genuine and effective articles, and genuine Free SEO Analysis tools that all website administrators would need.

Free Introduction Article where you can introduce your website, İM service where you can bookmark pages in your websites easily to accelerate the process of being indexed by Google, Dizin (Directory) service where you can add your websites to have better linking ranks in Google and many other tools are offered by Seo Hocası and the website takes firm steps forward as being the single source which is needed by a website administrator for SEO.

It doesn’t matter if you have a tiny blog where you publish cake recipes or you are a website administrator of an international trade company; Seo Hocası can tell you how to get a better rank in a Google search.

While publisher makes an effort to find a channel for reaching its target market in the shortest and the most economical way, each channel owner continues to argue that he is the best option.

Advertising is doubtlessly an application to decide after very long research and analyses, and now Reklam.com.tr securing its position in advertising world day by day is a quite genuine website gathering all alternatives for publishers under the same roof.

Though Internet has become one of the most important concepts of our lives, it is still barely used as an advertisement channel in Turkey. The overwhelming dominance of traditional advertisement channels still continues. While TV commercials are the biggest slices of the cake, printed media is the second for publishing ads. Though newspaper ads lose their power with each passing day, publishers still care their prestigious positions.

Except that, billboards, movie commercials, outdoor advertisement practices and of course Internet advertisements are among the channels mostly used.

Then, how can an institution decide which channel is the most advantageous for advertising? How many publishers are aware of so many alternatives? Reklam.com.tr aims to gather all these alternatives under the same roof and provides publisher a great opportunity to make a choice freely among all channels by treating them neutrally.

Channels are also in an incredible marketing battle to convince publishers as publishers have difficulty to choose a channel. By its quite favorable options, Reklam.com.tr aims to gather channels and potential publishers researching advertisement options in Internet. Channel owners have the opportunity to reach publishers directly by sponsoring for pages they desire in Reklam.com.tr through prices they can never find anywhere else.

Reklam.com.tr will have its name rather frequently mentioned soon since both it fills a deficiency which is really needed in Turkey and has a cool generic domain name (reklam means advertisement in Turkish) that can not be obtained easily.

HangiBar does not have a rival in its field to the full extent and it is not just a search engine for helping you to find events and/or locations but also has some unique applications like musician pages and location friendship.

When we review HangiBar closely which was renewed in February 2010, we see that it dates back to years ago. While Internet was quite different in 2003 than today, HangiBar was started out as a web service aiming to introduce nightlife in Ankara and carried on its growth by adding İstanbul and other cities into its database in 2005.

HangiBar carrying on its broadcasting for 7 years changed its appearance according recent web trends. It is seen that this change will be useful for the service to reach more visitors.

Location search options are quite wide in HangiBar. You can find details about locations such as beer price range, availability of payment by credit card as well as other information about location such as city, area and type (café, bar, wine-house etc). You can make alphabetical searches from A to Z. You can also add locations which do not exist in the website by using “Add Location”. This feature may please both location owners desiring to be in HangiBar and end users wishing to add their favorite locations.

Event news is one the most important features of HangiBar. It is possible to see events by choosing days in event calendar. The location friendship area is the social network of HangiBar. Users in this area may list their favorite locations and may contact with each other. By means of these new features added to HangiBar, you can see regular customers of a location.

One of the most important issues paid attention by the website since its establishment is promotions. Users have chance to win invitations to some events / locations and dinner tickets. The only thing that users have to do for these promotions is to fill forms on relevant promotion pages. Free participation to all promotions makes HangiBar more attractive.

Users also can make their announcements in Forum pages of the website. If you need a job or an employee, you can announce it freely on Announcement pages of the website. It is very helpful for those worked, desiring to work or looking for employees especially in this sector.

I am actually interested in the income model of the website. Some sponsorship works were made for Burn and Binboa in the website previously. Event bulletins are sent specially for Ankara and İstanbul over HangiBar and firms can be sponsor for these bulletins. It is possible to make package advertisement works by banner facilities on the website. You can even make HangiBar girl to wear clothes for the purposes of your firm.

With a layout and content of high quality which should be an example for web entrepreneurs and managing to create loyal user groups by its unique features, HangiBar seems that it will maintain its increase more and more.

Can you please mention us about your expertise field and the working field of MoreClick Agency of which you are a manager?

After I graduated from the department of International Relationship, I had my expertise on Public Relations. After performing many delightful works for long years with many brands that are famous in their sectors, I took a fancy to information technologies and now I continue my professional career as the General Manager of MoreClick.

MoreClick is an advertising agency affiliated with Değişim Group founded in 2002. Our company is the 2^nd agency managed to get the certificate of Google Adwords Qualified Company in Turkey. In this context, we have a pioneering role from that day on. When it comes to Search Engine Marketing (SEM), MoreClick is the first name that comes to mind. We offered our services to almost 1000 clients. High rates for customer continuity and satisfaction by this high portfolio makes us proud of ourselves.

What are the advantages of SEM applications for entrepreneurs when compared with printed and/or visual media?

We believe that each environment has its own dynamics and they all have advantages if they are used in a proper way. The important thing here is to plan accurate advertisement campaign by advertiser. On the other hand, we have to admit that Internet advertising is quite superior to other alternative environments in terms of measurability and return on investment (ROI). Besides, Internet advertising expenditures in the whole world are near those spent on conventional advertising methods and even more than them in some countries. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) has a prominent position among Internet advertising because it is SEM which receives the highest return on investment among Internet advertising channels. Thus, while all environments and even banner advertising were decreasing during crisis times, SEM budgets increased.

How frequently Adwords is used in Turkey by Internet entrepreneurs? What do they expect from Adwords?

As you know, Turkey is among the stars shining in the developing markets of Google together with Poland. Adwords usage is prevalent in Turkey; it is used by SMEs since it is one of the limited advertising alternatives as well as big sized enterprises. It has a high return, budget has no limit and it is quite flexible. However, here is the critical point: Though the prevalent usage of Adwords, is it being used effectively? Unfortunately, we can not give a positive response to this question.

Since Adwords is a system established onto optimization basis, it requires an expert management and a successful optimization process. 80% of advertisers in Germany conduct their advertisement campaigns over an advertising agency; otherwise, they can not have the whip hand of their rivals by a mismanaged account. We, as MoreClick, act by the mission of raising this awareness during both advertiser and media purchase agencies phases.

The main expectation of advertisers for Adwords is the return in the simplest meaning. ROI concept became prominent by Adwords. We draw attentions of our advertisers into this issue at every turn and offer them powerful tools to make these measurements.

It is predicted that Internet entrepreneurs will concentrate on SEM applications in near future. At this point, how necessary is it to apply a SEM expert? Everybody believes that they can conduct their advertising campaigns on their own…

I do not think that agencies like us in developed markets do not have concerns to do such explanations. However, we need to answer such questions for a while. Primarily, Adwords system is a system based on advertiser competition and optimization basis. Also, sectoral experience and account management exercise will bring you much. Of course you can manage an account without this experience and knowledge; however, you will see by means of ROI measurements that an account managed by agencies will cost you less. Surely, those I mention here as agencies are certified firms and/or experts.

What do you suggest for entrepreneurs who did not use SEM before?

They do not need to wait for trying SEM. There are firms having good results even by 10 TL per day. It, of course, varies according to your sector and keywords. Thus, I suggest firms beginning SEM for the first time certainly to get an expert support.

There are many agencies working on SEM. What are the key points that entrepreneurs planning to get consultancy in this field should be careful for?

They should check agency if it is qualified (Google Qualified Company) since there are limited numbers of qualified agencies in Turkey and the world. Besides, works and clients of agency are also important criteria. Beyond these, establishing a harmony between agency and client is very important. An agency understanding what you want to do will help you to save both time and money.

Is SEM a right choice for all entrepreneurs?

A SEM campaign proper for almost every sector can be created. It also can be used by means of Adwords for an organization trying to build brand recognition. Thus, an appropriate solution can be generated within SEM for all entrepreneurs as long as it is planned well.

What are the return rates after Adwords budgeting? How long does it take for an entrepreneur using Adwords to return to profitability after receiving its investment back?

This is the exact point that our agency draws the attention of our advertisers. When a client applies to us, they usually ask costs per clicks, daily budgets and/or view counts in the beginning. The actual question that should be asked is the extent of advertisement returns and how they are measured. We certainly make this measurement in our campaigns. After a while, also our clients get used to this terminology and become able to evaluate their campaigns properly. An Adwords account built and measured in this way may bring you new works and you may move into profit. It is not possible to obtain such a fast return in other advertising environments. I think this is the case that our clients mostly like.

Marketing activities on social media increases more and more. Can this situation send Internet entrepreneurs away from Adwords? Does MoreClick plan to conduct its marketing activities over social media?

Indeed, social media is an undeniable reality and grow bigger each passing day. People become socialized and when it is about Internet, the issue should be handled by its own dynamics.

Social media is like a two-edged knife for brands. If brands can not be managed well in social media, companies can get themselves into trouble. The contrary is also possible. From this point of view, we will offer companies a service for managing their own brands in social media. There is an opinion by agencies and advertisers that it is just having a FaceBook page. However, brand management in social media is quite comprehensive and long-termed work. We, as MoreClick, approach the issue in this way.

Even though social media is very important its importance grows day by day, I do not think that it can supersede Search Engine Marketing. As I mentioned before, they are not the alternatives for each other though they are different environments. However, they can create a synergy when they are used together. Hence, I do not anticipate such a tendency for advertisers.

Thanks for enlightening us and sparing your time.

I thank you.

Hürriyet Kıyasla, which drew attention of users by vehicle loan and mortgage calculation widgets added to HürriyetOto (first and second hand automobile searching website) and HürriyetEmlak (estate searching website) within Hürriyet group, now works on comparing loans and considering the most appropriate loan option for user and it is planning to offer comparison options for different areas soon.

After the website was opened for use, users’ interest focused on calculating mortgage and consumer loans. Loan searches made by visitors are as below according to the information we obtained from Hürriyet Kıyasla directors:

1. Mortgage Loan – 100.000 TL, 120 months repayment terms
2. Consumer Loan – 10.000 TL, 24 months repayment terms
3. Vehicle Loan – 25.000 TL, 36 months repayment terms
4. Vehicle Loan – 25.000 TL, 48 months repayment terms
5. Mortgage Loan – 75.000 TL, 36 months repayment terms
6. Mortgage Loan – 80.000 TL, 120 months repayment terms
7. Consumer Loan – 5.000 TL, 36 months repayment terms
8. Consumer Loan – 2.500 TL, 48 months repayment terms
9. Mortgage Loan – 50.000 TL, 120 months repayment terms
10. Mortgage Loan – 50.000 TL, 60 months repayment terms

I believe that the design of homepage affects these search results. As far as can be seen, loan options in the first three positions of results reflect instant search results in the Display area of the website.

This case shows that users click on instant search results and then make changes on result pages or prefer to do searches according to their own criteria. Thus, it is obvious how important Display area is.

Currently, Hürriyet Kıyasla enables user to choose appropriate one according to their budgets by making comparisons for Mortgage (Estate) Loans, Vehicle Loans, Consumer Loans and Credit Cards. The website supported by diligently prepared Expert Opinions answer many questions in visitors’ minds before they ask.

Hürriyet Kıyasla planning to add new products for comparison soon will help users to make comparisons in many fields such as GSM operators, ADSL prices etc. that users have questions for price/performance issues.

Using Display area effectively may be critically important for many products/brands. A user visiting the website for calculating Mortgage Loans may click on instant results for ADSL price comparisons when he/she sees them on Display and his/her interest may attracted to such different results.

According to my personal opinion, comparing not only loans and services but also products will increase user loyalty largely in the website. In fact, loans and services are not products that are required frequently and thus, more interesting comparisons are needed to increase returning frequency of visitors. For instance, if air tickets for same destinations are compared in the website, visitor may see it when he/she visits the website for vehicle loans and even if he/she does not interest these ticket comparisons on that visit, he/she may visit the website again when he/she plans to buy an air ticket. Besides, the website is currently making some surveys in order to learn products that visitors want to compare.

When comparison is in subject, the most important issue is trust. While there are many large and small websites in which interest rate calculations and/or loan comparisons are performed, Hürriyet Kıyasla gives the required trust as reflecting the most current and accurate results by the name of Hürriyet and thus it is one step ahead of its competitors.

Zihni Tutumluyuz and Differences Created by an Institutional Blog

There is an entertaining organization featuring Hürriyet Kıyasla when compared with other websites in the sector. An interesting and entertaining blog called as Zihni Tutumluyuz created by Hürriyet Kıyasla team is completely far from the apathy of an institutional blog and it is inviting everyone to be provident by examples from real life and by using an informal language. The emphasis made on being provident both offers useful information and scores a successful campaign for increasing brand value definitely by keeping alive the provident feature of Hürriyet Kıyasla in minds.

The blog consisting of wide-ranging articles such as football broadcasting tender, using mortgage loan for a 2300 years old palace, the relationship between divorce and frugality, the connection between Credit Cards and Swine Flu etc. is read easily with its entertaining perspective and succeeds to make us awaiting new articles impatiently.

Are not all these already confusing? What about managing all these accounts? We sometimes may miss many details during all these online activities which constitute a shift all by themselves.

Photos, status messages, friends and “ex-girlfriends/ex-boyfriends” (when they change their relation status) we deleted from Facebook when we suddenly got angry with something, feeds that we wrote on FriendFeed when we were drunk and then deleted them since we felt remorse when we woke up in the morning, blog articles that we deleted since we regretted to write them, tweets we wrote when we were in a café and then deleted since we did not like, photos we deleted from Flickr since we thought “I don’t seem pretty here…” and much more contents in our online world become inaccessible by a sudden decision.

Backupify developed by the motto “Err is human” helps you revert your mistakes made “in a furious moment”.

With its incredibly successful interface and backup substructure prepared “as explaining to a grandmother”, Backupify helps you to revert your mistakes you made on Internet and to review what you did in the past.

Backupify is currently compatible with Flickr, Twitter, Delicious, Zoho, Google Docs, Photobucket and WordPress services and it is also in beta phase for supporting Gmail, Facebook, Friendfeed, Blogger and Hotmail.

After adding your services just once to Backupify with a single click, you can take backups of all these services daily or weekly and you can re-upload these backups to your services whenever you want.

Backupify stands out as a project that will become more important as Internet grows and services we use increases. Backupify already adding Youtube and Tumblr into the services that it will support soon will increase its user number by adding new services that will appear in near future.

HTML 5 Player which is currently in test phase has great advantages when compared with Flash player. The most important one of these advantages is not have to wait for loading video when you jump any part of video. I confess that I liked this feature very much.

When I tested HTML 5 player on Safari and Chrome, I got good results more than standard Flash player. I watched the video and went to any part of video at anytime I wanted to without any interruption. In this respect, this comfort is priceless.

HTML 5 Player is still in test phase and it is planned to double up the pleasure of watching online video by new features to be developed soon. For example, you can not watch videos in full size mode currently. Vimeo reported that they are developing the player in order to solve this problem related with browsers. HTML 5 Player is working only on Vimeo currently; in other words, videos can not be broadcasted on other websites by embedding code of video. The final disadvantage is that all videos on Vimeo can not be watched by this player; however the situation is not so bad. 90% of videos uploaded last year and 35% of all videos can easily be watched by Vimeo HTML 5 Player. If a video can not be played on HTML 5 player, Vimeo is directing visitor automatically to Flash version of that video and visitor is watching video without any problem.

When you sign up to the system which even does not require an e-mail confirmation during sign-up process, everyone can ask questions even anonymously. Of course, only those you answered are published in your profile. The service aiming to cure the curiosity of people about others who know each other mostly over social networks will be forgotten in a short time. It seems entertaining at first glance; however, it will be boring in a short time as it has excessively minimal purpose.

Yet, as we learnt from TechCrunch, Tumblr is making ready for giving a service which functions similar with Formspring. The toy of Tumblr may be consumed up by social media in a short time; however it may make tremendous impact since it has a brand value and it is not the only service given by Tumblr.

Internet was perceived only as a communication tool and approached with low expectations in the past. Since the first day that Internet was offered to large masses as the key opening the door of a new era, everybody focused on the ways of earning money by using Internet.

E-commerce websites in the beginning were just for big companies since both their substructure investments were extensive and softwares for these websites were being sold for high amounts in the market. Most of those who ventured on it went bankrupt anyway. Since the profit margin was so lower in market with high initiating expenses when compared with real life, of course expenses exceeded incomes. Soon after, many e-commerce websites launched with great ambition and investments lost within Internet dumps.

While (fake) victory cheers of e-commerce were ringing in whole world, many open source e-commerce software were launced into the market soon after. Now, high software prices required for establishing an e-commerce website were disappeared. However, many e-commerce websites appeared in Internet and everbody became a dealer. There were so few buyers in Internet that everybody planning to do business over Internet was taken out of their sails.

Then it was realized that people were actually trusting products sold over Internet while they were not trusting websites which sell those products and e-commerce systems adopted auction systems instead of setting up a shop. Of course, Ebay which would enter into Turkish market later was responsible for this trend.

By means of auction concept which turned markets upside down, everyone might sell everything they had over Internet for low listing expenses. Thus, individuals might take up business at micro scale without requiring any substructure investment.

Auction system for Turkish market was certainly an attractive feature as in whole world; however, trust issue was at maximum level in Turkey. Gittigidiyor achieved an incredible success by developing trustworthy shopping concept. The method they applied show that people prefer to trust easily an institutional structure rather than a person they do not know.

Many auction websites were launched later on, however none of them became an alternative to GittiGidiyor including those having huge media support. Because the only thing they did was to imitate the same system.

Well, was the auction system able to solely meet all requirements? Did people really prefer to sell or buy products over an auction website first when they needed to sell or buy something?

Frequency Table for Shopping from Auction Websites

According to the results of a scientific research, it is found that members of auction websites made shopping 1-2 times within last year as a rate of 33.3% and those shopping 3-4 times within last year were 25% of total members. [1]

These data shows us that most of people shopping over auction websites could not make it a routine and they probably returned to traditional shopping ways after a few tries over online shopping systems.

What is the real problem? Why can not people maintain the sustainability on such systems that are working without any problem? Maybe the most important problem is the existence of active and passive sides. Does the imbalance between buyers and sellers affect these people to move away from such systems?

Takas Merkezi is an Internet project for seeking the answer of this critical question. In ages in which the money was not invented yet, people needed to produce goods and to barter these goods with those they needed to have. The invention of money removed the obligation to find someone who needed our goods in order to obtain goods we needed.

Could this obligation be removed without using money? Bartering system established long years ago committed companies to barter their excess stock with products they needed without using money. Even though it is not my job to explain how much this system was abused in Turkey, I can express that bartering system was perceived as an effort to sell products expensively by fooling the client.

We can shortly say that Takas Merkezi is a bartering system between individuals instead of companies. Though their job can be defined as bartering, they do not name it as bartering since it reminds improper associations.

In order to get a product in this market in which everybody is both seller and buyer, you should first sell a product and this process is made certainly without money. This condition establishes the first step of making all users active.

Unlike other auction websites, users do not get money in exchange for their sales. Thus, users return to the website since the income obtained from the website can only be spent on the website.

Money can be used in the website only in two cases, as 10% commission taken from buyers and secondly, in cases that members want to buy points when they do not have enough points to make a purchase. 1 point is equal to 1 TL in the website.

I did not see any website having such interactive shopping system same as the system developed by Takas Merkezi. In this respect, it is indisputable that the system has an innovative and promising structure.

Well, how much goods do people have for selling? When you examine the website, you see that there are users thar reached to numbers with many digits in transaction volumes. Surely, contests cleverly organized with beautiful presents ensuring users to be motivated have great effect on those high transaction volumes. The first hypothesis that comes to mind as “people do not have many goods to sell” is refuted when you tour the website.

It is hardly comprehended by many new users that they can not get money for goods they sell. Thus, the system continuously warns you that you can not get money for goods you sell and such warning is ethically necessary.

One of the most significant striking features of the website is well-positioned Live Support system. While even big shopping websites use impractical bots, finding a real human in 15 seconds after connecting to the live support and receiving detailed answers really impressed me.

Also I have to mention that such a project has been developed only by using owner’s equity without receiving any investment until today. Since the system managed to become almost perfect by using owner’s equity, it will maintain growing more. Investments that may be needed after this point may be used just for introduction purposes.

These innovative features and the success in creating user loyalty brought monthly 33% growth to Takas Merkezi. This means that the website may reach 10 times growth at the end of 2010 and such a growth can be obtained by only few Internet projects.

Income Models and Innovative Methods

Making an Internet project to work without any problem by only using owner’s equity is a great and praiseworthy success. Takas Merkezi built its most important income on 10% commission taken from buyer. Any listing payment is not charged for products to be sold except that commission. This will ensure the system to grow by removing the most important factor that decreases the motivation of user in the first sale in other auction websites.

Takas Merkezi also know how people afraid of using their credit cards on Internet. Thus, alternative payment methods are integrated into the system. Shopping process is shortened especially by Turkcell Mobile Payment solution (Turkcell is a GSM company in Turkey). When it is considered that users already prefer to use this mobile payment system more than transfer/EFT solution, it can be understood that it is a good choice.

Even though the Internet is accepted as the most significant source of globalism, Takas Merkezi actually preferred to be localized as the actual way of growing. They have a goal as improving their resources and accelerating to spread at the same time. Directors aim to establish a Takas Merkezi office in every city by franchising and it seems that they are quite successful in this goal.

It is possible to attend to franchising system only by paying a participation fee and there is no annual payment. These franchises are responsible to find active members from their own regions. It is planned to establish one office in small and medium populated cities and one office per district in high populated cities. Even if users are not directed by these franchises, they are registered to their sub-accounts and 30% of the 10% commission (taken by the system) is paid to franchises. As it is considered that participation fees are quite low, these franchising system applied by Takas Merkezi is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs.

The system getting “newsmongers” locally by franchises will increase its user number in a short time. Takas Merkezi planning to complete its franchise structure in 20 regions at the end of January 2010 clearly mentioned that it will raise participation fees after this structuring period.

We also heard that they give their best attention to the franchising and do not allow everyone to be in the system. Giving priority to institutional applications that are currently showing activity in their own regions shows the importance given to brand value by Takas Merkezi.

What can be done in the future?

Even though Takas Merkezi currently has a stable structure and an active system, it should not be forgotten that it is still a developing project.

The most important factor increasing member number in such markets is certainly the depth of market. Though Takas Merkezi has a rapidly deepening market, it should make a name for more people and should include people into the system who are not regular Internet users. Effective introductions and successful campaigns to be arranged are surely needed.

The most important deficiency I observed that the system does not allow multiple product sales. Thus, institutional clients can not use this system for “destocking”. Maybe different solutions can be offered for institutional members in the future. Such an initiative will definitely increase transaction volumes.

Another important initiative announced by Takas Merkezi is applying the system in foreign countries. Some interviews also made about the issue. However, this project seems to be remained on the shelf since the directors prefer to work with a partner localized and knowing the dynamics in their country well.

[1] Bengü Boyacıgil, “Auction Websites in terms of Marketing in Internet and Attitudes of Consumers about Auction Websites”, Postgraduate Thesis, Yıldız Technical University, İstanbul; January 2008

It is difficult to sell online, however it is more difficult to mediate a sale. Websites defining themselves as only a mediator are condemned to fail in the beginning when they are involved into a sector they do not well. Birol Kabakoğlu, one of the founders of tasit.com is a person who had run an auto gallery in Germany previously and tasit.com project was probably appeared when he was seeking solution for difficulties he had while he was introducing cars in the gallery in those days.

Many people misthink that it is possible to conduct business on Internet just by purchasing a “10 USD” domain name. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. When we review successful Internet projects, we see that there are experienced, vision holder entrepreneurs behind project who know sector well.

Though vehicle sales-purchases are one of the main factors of economy, the sector is not very active in Internet yet. As a matter of course, there will always be mediators in real life no matter how much Internet and auto galleries are improved. Indeed, it is not easy to deal with many procedures and people you do not know on your own when you want to sell your car and/or buy a new car. As the income model of tasit.com is based on selling corporate subscription to auto galleries which are about 70.000 in Turkey, individual users are not forgetten to sell their cars by free subscription to the website.

Let’s face it; it will not be easy to sell your car without using particular “featured” aspects of your car. tasit.com helps its users to feature their cars by acceptable prices compared with its opponents. Surely, it is aimed to increase brand recognition rather than creating profit by activities of individual users on the website. Otherwise, focusing on individual users by such an initiative can not even be a matter of discussion.

The most significant factor leading an Internet project to the success is certainly the brand recognition. Even though the domain name costs 10 USD as we mentioned above, the catchy domain name of tasit.com (tasit means ‘vehicle’ in Turkish) cost much for initiative owners. As initiative owners notice that starting out with a generic domain name will quickly increase the initiative, they waited for tasit.com for a long time and purchased it when it decreased to a reasonable price.

The increase of brand recognition is important not only for making gallery owners to subscribe to the website but also for making people to visit the website who consider buying a car. Gallery owners keep being a member in the website as long as they get find clients over the website. Thus, tasit.com gives importance to studies made on recognition.

Working with a celebrity is very beneficial for brands. Müslüm Gürses (a Turkish arabesque singer who was very popular years ago) is a well-known name in Turkey even he does not have his previous popularity and charisma. If it is considered that men are more interested in vehicle sales-purchases, choosing Müslüm Gürses is a smart move.

Of course, working with a celebrity has high costs. Thus, we can not see such aggressive moves in Internet projects much. If it is announced well, entertaining shootings made with Müslüm Gürses will introduce tasit.com in Internet rapidly and many people deciding to buy a car and/or making market researches may be aware of tasit.com instead of institutional clients.

Word of mouth is an important concept for Tasit.com.  Thus, the website gives credit (5 TL worth) for each friend you invite. We all know that people do not think about it too much when such promotions are offered. However, if more realistic prizes are offered, people may make more effort for inviting their friends. For instance, a member invited the most friends in a month may win a real gift.

Since it is very hard to make a schematic or optional difference in the sector of Tasit.com, different ways are followed to keep the growth. tasit.com making direct sales to auto galleries by field sale representatives gained 300 institutional members in a short time. Of course, they will get the advantages of WoMM soon since their sector is one of the fields benefiting from the word of mouth. An auto gallery owner knows at least 5-10 colleagues. In a short time, other galleries will willingly subscribe to the website in a short time without being encouraged by a field sale representative.

Another feature of tasit.com is 50% discount for new gallery owners to subscribe to the website. I researched other rival websites since I do not know the sector well and I see that tasit.com announced itself as “the cheapest” website in the sector. Attractive price policy in rising period is surely an important factor for getting new institutional members. 1 month free trial option offered to institutional members by Tasit.com is really a tempting and appropriate application.

What can be done in the future?

Tasit.com has a good work plan and it is prepared as it is able to fill an important gap in the sector. The design of the website needs to be improved and its software needs to be reinforced. Projects at such scales can not be established easily, we have no doubt that its deficiencies will be met soon.

The thing that should be done for now is perhaps to announce the system to people as far as possible. Effective social media usage and viral spreading are needed for that purpose. It may be possible to draw target visitors to the website by arranging various promotion campaigns when conducting introduction activities. Even though there is a Facebook page for the website, we can say that Tasit.com can not use social media efficiently.

To the best of our knowledge, Çağlar Erol, one of the founders of Tasit.com is also the owner of EnUygun.com. In a near future, various opportunities will be offered to members of both websites by establishing an integrated system on two websites. In tasit.com, for example, auto loan or insurance calculations can be performed over the website. (*Fixed)

Above all, even though tasit.com picks institutional membership sales as income model for itself, the real success will be getting a share of the cake of automotive market. Automotive sector which was among 10 sectors giving advertisement most in first eight months of 2009 became the sector which reduced its advertisement expenditures most. If it is considered that advertisement expenditures are directed to Internet due to the reduction in the sector, it can be understood easily how important project tasit.com is.