I think I have written to you before about my objective of using the internet to help pursue the club’s mission of preserving and promoting the Classic GMC Motorhome. We can go a long way towards doing that by helping GMCers buy and sell their GMCs. Keeping the club going and introducing new generations to the “Classic GMC Motorhome” as the best class A RV available requires that young people know about it and those young people use the internet for everything.
Long-time GMCnet member Dave Silva (aka hertfordnc) and a relatively new member of our GMC Motorhome family, Bob Jordan (aka rcjordan ) have fired up the cause of introducing the Classic GMC Motorhome to a new generation of RVers. Bob’s new site, www.BestClassA.com (along with www.GMCMotorhomesForSale.com) wants to be the “doorway” to the world of the Classic GMC Motorhome on the internet – a place where search engines like Google direct people looking for information about the GMC. From this new site there will be articles, links to clubs, vendors, the GMCnet and associated web sites, and GMCs for sale and anything more that Bob can dream up.
Bob is a very experienced internet developer who recently bought two GMCs and is having them refurbished by Jim Bounds at The Cooperative Motor Works shop in Florida. Being the familiar GMC-fanatic type, and an itchy internet developer, Bob is compiling a database of Classic GMC Motorhomes for sale on Craigslist.com from all around the country. Any GMC he finds and whose ads follow certain guidelines, gets listed on his site for the whole country to see. It’s important to note here that Bob’s professional web expertise primarily focuses on how to have a site show up in the major search engines. Already, one of his GMC sites is among the top 3 sites shown by Google when someone searches for “GMC motorhomes for sale.”
Based on his prior experience with several very successful online publications, Bob anticipates that the site will have a premium or paid section that is followed by a free section. Members of GMC clubs will be able to list their coaches for free on the site (via the craigslist.com path).
Bob has requirements and suggestions for getting your coach listed on his site. The main requirement for members of GMC Western States will be to go through the club coordinator – me for the time being. Bob intends to be generous with those who contribute to the GMC Motorhome community by being members of clubs or by participating in the online “club” known as “The GMCnet”.
The following is a list of strong (even mandatory) suggestions for your CraigsList.com ad:
- It's best to start your ad in the Craigslist NEAREST the coach's physical location.
- Ad MUST be under "recreational vehicles" in Craigslist
- Must use the phrase "GMC motorhome" somewhere in the Craigslist ad (quotes not necessary in the ad)
- Do NOT mention "class b", "class c" "camper", "1970", "1971", "1972", "1979", "1980", "1981", "1982", "1983", or "1984"
- MUST have at least one picture of the exterior showing a good portion of a side or front view. (It's OK if something is cropped off in the photo.)
- MUST indicate a price --preferably in the title.
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- If you (the seller) belong to a GMC club, have your club’s contact person (Armand in the case of the GMCWS) send Bob the Craigslist ad's URL as soon as it is up and running.
- If you are not a member of GMCWS or any other club that works with Bob but you are active on the GMCnet, post the URL at GMCnet in the Swap Meet section of the forum and specifically ask for "rcjordan" or "hertfordnc" see that it's included.
- If you do not belong to a club or post at GMCnet, try contacting Bob through a GMCnet member you know.
- After an ad is on Craigslist, it will only stay there for 3 or 4 weeks so you must repost your add at least monthly. Please don't post it more often than every 3 weeks (unless you are changing the price) since it is a nuisance to Bob. Also, do not list it in any more than 3 CraigsList.com locations.
We will be listing BestClassA.com and GMCMotorhomesForSale.com as GMC vendors, along with our many other GMC-oriented vendors, on our club’s web site.
Bob is very active in making editorial decisions about placement and even inclusion with the goal of promoting GMCs overall --not specific GMCs. At the time I am writing this article Bob is holding 2 ads for nasty, mud-covered GMCs. He says “They're not going to make the ‘Most Current’ list and embarrass the Marque. I sometimes do the same with delusionally-priced motorhomes.” The picture at left is from a Craigslist ad showing a nasty, mud-covered GMC that Bob was talking about - click the image for a closer look.
Bob’s experience with GMCs on Craigslist so far is surprising to him and me. Since the first of 2013 -only 2.5 months- he has tracked 145 GMCs through his database. Ebay is insignificant by comparison when it comes to the sheer number of coaches. He estimates conservatively, that if he were to include those that he’s rejected, the number would be around 160. It's too soon to say, but his best (modestly educated) guess is that during the year 2013 no less than 325 of our coaches will go up on Craigslist. Perhaps it could get as high as 450.