In the early days of the internet finding what you were looking for was easy but with thousands of new sites being added every day the task has become rather like hunting for the proverbial 'needle in a haystack'. At Collector Cafe, we recognised that problem and have spent the past two years looking at ways to develop a gateway to the internet which would provide collectors with an easy to use 'roadmap' to thousands of dealer sites covering the complete range of collecting interests.

Producing a simple index to dealer sites is hardly a ground breaking concept but that was only the starting point to the development of Collector Cafe which we believe will soon become the world's largest online collecting community.

A lot more than links.
Providing a simple to use guide to collector sites was the starting point but we quickly realised that launching Collector Cafe would require a different approach to most other web portals, which exist to promote a range of products to consumers.

Collector Cafe would need to satisfy the needs of a wide variety of collectors who have specific needs. It would have to have a front door with up to a hundred separate areas where each collector and dealer could be offered information and services which would be specific to their interests while also being part of a very large world-wide community.

Content, content, content ...
The one factor which will be featured throughout Collector Cafe is editorial content. We anticipate that within the six months collectors will be able to access thousands of articles, which will quickly become a massive searchable archive on a wide range of collecting interests.

Thousands of site links.
Bona-fide dealers will each receive a FREE site listing under one of over 90 collecting interests. The details shown in the listing will allow you to fully describe the services you can offer to your customers and will include full contact details. Making Collector Cafe an important marketing vehicle for your business is our second most important objective ... the first is to create 'visitor value' so that collectors join the community and return to the site regularly.

Good communications.
As every dealer knows your customers like to meet and share their interests with other collectors, which is why each of the 90 separate interest areas will have their own email 'Bulletin Board' where visitors will be able to communicate on a regular basis with other collectors. This will be organised and maintained by our editorial team to ensure that the content remains useful and relevant ... any inappropriate and unsavoury messages, which are the plague of many Bulletin Boards, will be excluded.

Selling or buying ?
Our Classified Advertising section should prove popular with both collectors and dealers. Again this will be organised by interest and visitors will be able to view advertisements by subject and by country. This is a FREE service which will be updated daily with each advertisement running for four weeks, after which users can re-book another advertisement or repeat their previous entry .... at no charge. Dealers who have Registered to include a link in Collector Cafe, will be able to place their FREE classified advertisement by visiting the site.

Archives.
Not only will we be building our own editorial archives but we will be welcoming contributions from publishers, dealers and collectors. Collector Cafe is a genuine community site which should represent a broad range of opinions on a wide variety of collecting interests.

World-wide Marketing Campaign.
Immediately on launching Collector Cafe we will be running a major campaign in hundreds of collecting titles throughout the world. Our marketing and development plans will be published on a regular basis and will be available to dealers who register to receive our newsletter.

Future Plans.
This is the first phase of a four stage development project. Within the very near future will be sending you further information about some exciting developments for Collector Cafe which will prove very popular with both collectors and dealers.