Guest Author today:
Justin Davis, Founder, www.Swapski.com
Bartering online – three ways
Bartering is becoming an increasingly important tool to use in business, especially considering today’s economy. Trading goods and services helps small businesses (and large) save that precious cash, while still making headway toward their goals.
The question is – how do you do it? It sounds like a great idea, but how do you find people to trade with? Let’s take a look at a three ways in which you can use the internet to help you navigate the bartering waters.
The Classifieds Model
The Classifieds Model of bartering is the simplest way to engage in trading with others. Popularized by sites like Craigslist (www.craigslist.com), this method of bartering involves posting what you need and offer, and hoping others will find the ad. This is low cost, but has a downside – it’s quite ineffective. Placing an ad hoping for a trade requires just the right person to come along at the right time for you to make a deal.
The Barter Exchange Model
The Barter Exchange model of bartering acknowledges the weakness in the Classifieds model, and solves it with online currency. It works by giving you “trade dollars” that represent a value of a real-world dollar. Services are ‘bought and sold’ on the exchange like they are in the regular market, except that the trade dollars are only a representation of a real dollar, not actual money.
This method is much more flexible, and the flexibility generally comes at a cost. Most barter exchanges (like www.itex.com) charge a membership fee, plus a fee per transaction. The Barter Exchange solution is ideal for companies wanting to commit to a long-term strategy of bartering. This model can be somewhat overwhelming for those businesses that are just the occasional barterer.
The Token Model
The Token Model of bartering splits the difference between the Classifieds Model and the Barter Exchange Model. In the Token Model (www.swapski.com) , individuals can post what they need and what they offer, and trade directly with someone. If they are unable to find someone who has what they need immediately, users may help someone, earn a token, and then spend that token getting help from someone later. This provides the flexibility of the Barter Exchange model, while avoiding the complexity of a “trade currency” system. This is ideal for small companies and individuals who need to barter occasionally, but cannot devote resources to managing the accounting of a barter currency system.
Justin Davis
Founder, Swapski
Please visit their website and get started bartering. Also consider joining oru Forum, we are sharing ideas right now on this subject.
