Why So Many Views On Apollo Duck And No Enquiries?

[nb celestine]

HI,

I have had my boat for sale on Apollo Duck for a week now but I am a bit confused. My advert says I have had over 2000 views. Surely that must be the Duck website in general? I cant believe my advert would have that many views and not one serious enquiry.

I don't think the boat is too overpriced to put people off that much. There may be better pictures I could put on the site but it is the amount of views I'm confused about.

Anybody got any advice?

 

http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/advert.phtml?id=318128

[churchward]

HI,

I have had my boat for sale on Apollo Duck for a week now but I am a bit confused. My advert says I have had over 2000 views. Surely that must be the Duck website in general? I cant believe my advert would have that many views and not one serious enquiry.

I don't think the boat is too overpriced to put people off that much. There may be better pictures I could put on the site but it is the amount of views I'm confused about.

Anybody got any advice?

 

http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/advert.phtml?id=318128

I can believe it.

 

There is a lot of choice out there and people who go to that site are likely to view many adverts. There are also those of us that recreatonally look at the for sale sites like the duck but have no intention of buying.

 

Looking at your advert you could add some photos in general and particularly of the engine 'ole. Beef up the description of the accomodation and technical detals maybe a layout plan would help.

[matty40s]

get a working linky???

 

 

 

managed to get through the appollo duck site.

Take the personal view out of your sales blurb, advertise facts (ie, excellent woodwork - not, - I think the woodwork is excellent)

It's summer, take some sunny shots, bit more green on trees.Otherwise, it looks like the boat has been for sale for quite a while.

It looks as theough the spec would suit a liveaboard, so use that as a selling hook.

Price is about right from my knowledge.

Edited July 29, 2013 by matty40s

[churchward]

get a working linky???

It worked for me.

 

Try this link but don't know why it will be different.

 

http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/advert.phtml?id=318128

[RLWP]

Linky worky here

 

Short answers:

 

• It's free to day dream on Apolloduck
• A week isn't very long
• there are a lot of web crawlers like Google that visit sites to gather information - these count as views
• yours is another £50K narrowboat amongst many
• times are hard, boats aren't selling

 

 

Richard

Edited July 29, 2013 by RLWP

[Guest]

Definitely needs a fuller description and definitely more photos including the bathroom.

 

It's a competitive time to be selling a boat and your ad. and boat need to really stand out.

 

The ad. sadly looks pretty run of the mill much like about 90%-95% of the others on the Duck..... sorry to be blunt.

[journeyperson]

I never took too much notice of the views, currently showing 17.723 on my ad which is 4 months old. Number of enquiries 8. I have sold the boat now though and the purchaser saw it on Apollo Duck. I bumped it from time to time to get it back to the top and each time I was pestered by boating publications trying to sell me space.

 

Your ad is as comprehensive as mine was. (actually, looking at it again, maybe not!)

Edited July 29, 2013 by journeyperson

[Dr Bradley]

You'll have had a lot more views now from people not in the market..

[DustyDave]

Why have you put a photo of the boat out of the water? Is there something wrong with it? Is it still out of the water?

 

My thought on views is that I don't know how the duck counts views. When I was looking at the photos I went back and forth to view each photo. Does each back result in a click? If I view the boat again tomorrow does that result in another view?

 

Other than that I suspect your boat could be overpriced (though I'm no expert on boat pricing). Though it is a nice clean and tidy boat there is nothing which jumps out at me. How about a floorplan? Picture of the bed? What sort of diesel heating?

 

Dave

[Tuscan]

get a working linky???

 

 

 

managed to get through the appollo duck site.

Take the personal view out of your sales blurb, advertise facts (ie, excellent woodwork - not, - I think the woodwork is excellent)

It's summer, take some sunny shots, bit more green on trees.Otherwise, it looks like the boat has been for sale for quite a while.

It looks as theough the spec would suit a liveaboard, so use that as a selling hook.

Price is about right from my knowledge.

 

Says it all . Take out the personal comments and increase facts that appeal to the male and female part time marina owner and the live aboard

[PaulG]

If you don't mind me saying so, you need to put much more information on the page.

 

Statements like "I imagine there will be some vital information I have missed out but I've got a lot on my plate." may be true, but they do give the reader the impression that you really can't be @rsed.

 

If possible, try to offer additional information - photographs, specifications, etc "on request". The object of this is to start a dialogue with a prospective buyer.

 

Look though other adverts and see how others sellers, professional brokers, etc describe their boats.

 

I know it possibly sounds corny, but how about some lines like "comprehensively equipped for living aboard or extended cruising"?

 

The galley looks nice - is that a split-level oven and grill? four-burner gas hob? Describe it. Clear all the clutter out of the way and take new photos.

 

Get rid of the laptop off the dinette table and lay it up for dinner for two - put a bottle of wine of it and a couple of glasses, or alternatively, just a vase of flowers.

 

You're selling a lifestyle, not a boat!

Edited July 29, 2013 by PaulG

[RLWP]

You're selling a lifestyle, not a boat!

 

Nicely put, I would have said a dream rather than a boat. No one needs a canal boat

 

Richard

[Lady Muck]

I'd dress the boat the same way you'd dress a house before the estate agent comes round to photograph it. We've just done this for a relative - all the clutter is in the garage. We even took out the desk and chair in the smallest bedroom and dressed it as a nursery so the house appeals more to large families.

 

Just take as much of your stuff and most of your furniture out of each cabin before you photograph it. Remove those two low shelving units for the photos as they make the cabin look cluttered. Ditto the dish drainer. Scrub the galley and then photograph that too. Buy some cheap scatter cushions and a new duvet cover for your bed, plump it up and photograph that. Remove all your personal stuff, so the potential buyer can visualise themselves in the boat.

 

Have you got a friend who has a fish eye lens on their camera?? Have you a photo editing program? Just lightening the photos up helps.

 

I agree - if you have a table onboard set it for dinner. As PaulG says you're selling a lifestyle. If you have any attractive summer pics of your boat whilst out cruising, add them too.

[RLWP]

Being a bloke, I'd like to see a photo of the engine hole too

 

Richard

[bigste]

I'd say the photos are lacking a lot and you are competing with a lot at that price. I am in the market for that size of NB and would stretch to your price but the boat does not appeal to me. I my view the price is OTT. Sorry if it ain't what you want to hear but that is my view.

[PaulG]

Being a bloke, I'd like to see a photo of the engine hole too

 

Richard

Tsk tsk. That's just boat-porn, Richard!

[Burgiesburnin]

Your views will really jump now.

[MtB]

 

If possible, try to offer additional information - photographs, specifications, etc "on request". The object of this is to start a dialogue with a prospective buyer.

 

Totally agree with all you say exept this bit.

 

If you have information, PUT IT IN THE ADVERT, ffs! It really annoys me to the point of just clicking 'next' when I read 'further information on request' in an advert. The whole point of reading adverts (for me) is to gather as much info as poss in the minimum poss time is order to make a shortlist before getting on the fone and interviewing the vendors.

 

Arbitrarily witholding information is just plain bonkers in my view. It puts off far more people than it entices in, unless the advert look amazing in other ways and gives you a special reason to call for the 'further information'.

 

MtB

[Caprifool]

Nice and tidy boat. Well out of my search range though. So I haven't seen it before. I'm missing pictures of sleeping quarters, bathroom and engine hole. The personal effects (wine glass, dog bones, spectacles and book) suggest to me that the boat is in use and in working order. Over tidy boats make me wonder when a boat has been out last?

 

Normally I'm more bothered with what is not shown or described in a add. So show and describe everything you can think of.

[nb celestine]

Thanks for all the replies. I will do all that is recommended. I'll be back on the boat later in the week and take some photos and email them to my sons to put on the Duck because I'm not quite up to that level yet.

I've had an enquiry this morning from someone I met at Fradley a couple of years ago. I'll see how that pans out.

Thanks again. The truth hurts a bit but not as much as not selling my boat.

[PaulG]

 

Totally agree with all you say exept this bit.

 

If you have information, PUT IT IN THE ADVERT, ffs! It really annoys me to the point of just clicking 'next' when I read 'further information on request' in an advert. The whole point of reading adverts (for me) is to gather as much info as poss in the minimum poss time is order to make a shortlist before getting on the fone and interviewing the vendors.

 

Arbitrarily witholding information is just plain bonkers in my view. It puts off far more people than it entices in, unless the advert look amazing in other ways and gives you a special reason to call for the 'further information'.

 

MtB

I agree with what you have said, but the point of an advert is to provoke a response.

Of course you should have all the basic information in the description.

The trick is getting a prospective buyer to want even more information.

It's a very fine dividing line between telling them every single detail they could possibly want to know, thus no dialogue, and not enough, so they lose interest.

The basic advert and accompanying information has got to be good enough to get on the prospective buyer's shortlist.

If you can get a dialogue going, you have the opportunity to expose the prospective buyer to the irresistable force of your salesmanship!

[Neil2]

At the risk of repeating myself:

 

- Picture of engine and transmission

 

- Layout plan

 

- photograph her actually under way (ok making way, for the purists)

 

- You could tell us a bit more about the builder, never heard of Price Fallows.

 

- Good point about selling the lifestyle - tell us exactly where she's been on the system.

 

 

The location maybe doesn't help, I wonder how others is the West Country get on, it seems more out of the way than the Midlands. Not much you can do about that though.

[louca Inglese]

HI,

I have had my boat for sale on Apollo Duck for a week now but I am a bit confused. My advert says I have had over 2000 views. Surely that must be the Duck website in general? I cant believe my advert would have that many views and not one serious enquiry.

I don't think the boat is too overpriced to put people off that much. There may be better pictures I could put on the site but it is the amount of views I'm confused about.

Anybody got any advice?

 

http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/advert.phtml?id=318128

Well if it`s still for sale when we return to the UK in September we would like a viewing as it looks like the sort of boat we are looking for.

We also know the area well as we lived in Fyfield near Marlborough for many years before moving to Portugal.