Ways to make money from your marketplace

Yclas gives you several ways to earn from your marketplace, and you can combine them. The right mix depends on your niche and how big your site is. A useful rule: charge for extras before you charge for the basics. Free posting brings in the listings that attract buyers; paid extras earn money from the sellers who want more.

Most of these need a payment gateway such as Stripe or PayPal, so members can pay you. See Take payments on your site first.

The quickest way to start is Make money in your admin sidebar: in about two minutes it switches on the options you choose, with suggested prices, and connects Stripe or PayPal. See Make money with the guided set-up.

At a glance

Model	Who pays	Good for	Set up in
Boosts	Sellers who want more visibility, in one easy choice	Almost every marketplace, once it has traffic	Make money
Featured listings	Sellers who want more visibility	Almost every marketplace, once it has traffic	Settings › Payments or Make money
Bring to top	Sellers who want to be seen again	Busy sites where listings sink quickly	Settings › Payments or Make money
Urgent, Highlight, spotlight	Private sellers who want a cheap extra; businesses who want the home page	Sites using the Nova theme	Make money
Paid renewal	Sellers whose listing is about to expire	Sites where listings expire	Make money
Pay to post	Every seller, per listing	Jobs, property, vehicles, B2B: listings worth a lot to the seller	Settings › General and categories
Memberships	Sellers, per month or year	Dealers, agents and professional sellers who post often	Add-ons › Subscriptions
Commission on sales	Sellers, a share of each sale	Marketplaces where buyers pay through your site	Add-ons › Stripe, Escrow
Advertising	Advertisers	Sites with a lot of traffic	Design › Theme Options, Design › Widgets

Boosts

Large classifieds sites earn most from boosts: packages that combine featured days with several moves back to the top, such as Quick, Fast and Max. Sellers are offered them in My Listings (and, in Nova, right after posting and on their listing), and get a reminder email after five days. Switch them on in Make money. See Boosts and promotions.

Featured listings

Sellers pay to have their listing highlighted with a badge and pinned at the top of lists for a number of days. You create one or more featured plans (for example 7 days, 30 days) with their prices.

Go to Settings › Payments, switch on Sell featured listings and add your plans. See Featured listings and promotions.

Bring to top

Sellers pay a small fee to move their listing back to first place, as if it had just been posted. On the same page, switch on Bring to top and set the To Top Price.

Pay to post

Sellers pay before their listing goes live.

1. Set a price on the categories that should be paid, under Listings › Categories. Categories without a price stay free. See Categories.
2. In Settings › General › How new listings go live, choose Payment on, or Payment with Moderation if you also want to approve each listing after it’s paid.

Charging only in some categories (for example “Jobs” and “Property”) while keeping the rest free is a good way to start.

Memberships

Sellers pay a recurring fee for a plan that lets them post a number of listings. It suits professional sellers and gives you predictable income. Memberships are part of the Professional and Marketplace plans. Switch on Subscriptions under Add-ons, then create your plans. See Membership plans.

Commission on sales

If buyers pay for items through your site with the Buy Now button, you can take a share of every sale:

• Stripe Connect pays the seller directly into their own Stripe account and sends your commission to you. See Stripe.
• Escrow holds the buyer’s payment until they confirm they received the item, on the Marketplace plan. See Escrow payments.

See Let members sell with Buy Now for how buying works.

Small extras and paid renewal

• Urgent and Highlight: a red Urgent label or a coloured card for a few days, cheap enough for private sellers. See Urgent and Highlight.
• Home page spotlight: a few premium places at the top of your home page. See Home page spotlight.
• Paid renewal: the emails about an expiring listing offer to renew it for a small price. See Paid renewal.

Advertising

Show banners from advertisers, or from networks like Google AdSense, in your theme’s banner fields and widget areas. Nova also has three ad slots: the top of every page, between listings and on the listing page. See Banners and ad slots.

If you use AdSense or another ad network, they ask you to publish an ads.txt file. Paste the line they give you into Ads.txt under Settings › General › Advanced and click Save changes. See Ads.txt.

Ads from networks pay very little per visitor. They only start to add up with tens of thousands of visits a month, and they can make a young site look less trustworthy. Selling a banner directly to a local business often pays more.

More ideas

• Coupons: run promotions on featured listings or memberships. See Coupons.
• Win back unpaid checkouts: remind sellers who started paying and didn’t finish, with an optional coupon. See Unpaid checkout reminders.
• Sell tickets or downloads: members can sell event tickets or digital goods through listings, with your commission.
• Sponsored content: charge businesses for a page or blog post about them.

Pricing tips

• Wait for traffic. Sellers pay for visibility only when the site has buyers. Start free, then add paid extras.
• Keep prices simple. One or two featured plans are easier to choose from than five.
• Tell sellers what they get. Show how many views a featured listing gets compared with a normal one.
• Watch what works. The Make money page shows your earnings by product and how many new listings were promoted. See Your earnings.
• Payment currency: fees are charged in the Currency set in Settings › Payments, which can be different from the currency of listing prices. Check that your payment gateway supports it.

Related guides

• Make money with the guided set-up — switch everything on in one place.
• Take payments on your site — connect Stripe, PayPal and others.
• Orders and transactions — see what you’ve earned.
• VAT and taxes — invoices and VAT on your fees.