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ThemBid.com - “Make them bid” on your requests

ThemBid is a fresh new entrant to the the same space as DoMyStuff.com - allowing you to post requests and have relevant service providers bid on your business.

Requests receive bids, and questions, negotiations, etc. can take place in comments. Here’s a good in action example. Businesses and individuals bidding for business on ThemBid.com have profile pages that include maps, reviews, an Apple-esque star-rating, and links to BBB (Better Business Bureau) search-result pages.

ThemBid also crosses into classifieds, offering a simple way to post things that may not fit into the service marketplace.

First Impressions & Suggestions

ThemBid does a good job of covering off high level functionality, but falls short on detail and usability. Given the new-ness of the site, it doesn’t come as a surprise, and I’d expect it to improve over time. For the moment though, compared to DoMyStuff, ThemBid comes across as more of an after hours effort…

More Structured Data Please: Requests have relatively little structured data associated with them, making the process more complicated than it needs to be (i.e.: for “babysitter needed,” days and hours required should be a structured field). Structured data should ideally be category specific.

Category and Location Browsing: Requests are posted to categories & locations - but browsing by either as a criteria is an awkward process - you can’t tell how many requests or classifieds are in each category or location, making browsing a time consuming, hit-or-miss proposition.

Search: Hmm. There doesn’t appear to be a text/keyword means of searching the site at all. That would be a good thing to include.

Design: A know that design and appearance is fundamentally subjective, and lord only knows, Craigslist is a 100% design-free blockbuster - but I find the appearance of ThemBid to be a little tough on the eyes. Greys & reds just don’t seem to contrast well online, and overall the design - to my eye at least looks dated. Given some of the slick functionality that the sight offers, a more eye-grabbing contemporary design would go a long way to converting visitors into members and speaking to ThemBid’s credibility.

Functional Clarity: Classifieds, Requests, and Companies need to be conceptually separated more clearly. There’s stuff in classifieds that could be a Request, and vice versa. My suggestion would be to drop classifieds entirely and focus on the more unique aspect of the site (requests/bids) better.

Summary

ThemBid is a new entrant to a sparsely populated space that I call “reverse classifieds.” Given the headaches of launching anything new in the Classifieds space (craigslist & ebay are their own barriers to entry), “reversing” the equation provides a unique and attention grabbing angle. ThemBid is new and shows it around the edges, but has early mover advantage. If they can keep iterating the site on a rapid basis, ThemBid could get some traction.

Of course, there’s little in the way of barriers to entry protecting ThemBid, so speed of execution is key. Also, providing a viral angle - for example a “Bid on My Request” widget to embed on blogs or MySpace pages, or Facebook platform integration - would capitalize on their early mover position.

If you want to follow their progress, keep an eye on the ThemBid.com blog.

classifieds, craigslist, domystuff thembid

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Review Queue

Just a quick FYI - I’ve got a good number of sites in my “review queue” that I’ll be getting to over the next few days, including ILetYou.com (”Rent from anyone, Rent to anyone”), Yuuguu (lightweight desktop collaboration), IndabaMusic (”Find People. Make Music. Easier.”), AmieStreet.com (”Independent Music Lives Here.”), and TexTango (”Redeem your music”).

Edit - also add ThemBid to the list. Thanks Elmer!

Edit 2 - also add TransClick, which does exactly what I was looking for here - thanks Pat!

Thank-you all for your contacting me, and sit tight!

amiestreet, iletyou, indabamusic, reviews, techfold, textango, thembid, transclick yuuguu

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