Web site aids students’
item searches
By Sarah Szczepanski
Assistant
Features Editor
Last February, Joe
Gaughran was talking with a friend at Hunter's Pub, in West Lafayette.
Gaughran, an August graduate, was preparing for his upcoming graduation.
He was planning to move to California, and dreaded the hassle of selling
the items that he didn’t want to take with him.
Without thinking
about it, Gaughran asked his friend, Dan Crouse, a senior in the Schools
of Engineering, if Crouse could put cheap local classified ads on Crouse's
own Web site.
The two kept talking,
not fully realizing that an idea had been born.
Now, less than a
year later, the two are the founders of www.BoilerStuff.com, a registered
Web site designed to be a virtual space for Purdue students to buy and
sell what ever they want. The categories range from electronics, to
text books, to furniture, to pets. The cost to place an advertisement
is $2 per week, and the cost to submit a wanted advertisement is free.
"It was something
I wished was set up when I graduated, " said Gaughran. "It was born
out of desire by us."
Crouse, the site's
designer, said its goal is not personal profit, but rather to be a service
to the community.
The site is designed
so that a user can find whatever he or she is looking for in three mouse
clicks. In addition, there are no company logos, advertising banners
or pop-up screens in the site.
"If we have that,
then people are not paying attention to what a guy is selling," said
Crouse. "We don’t want to be like other sites. We did this because
it helps everybody. For example, throughout the semester if someone
wanted money to go to Harry's, then they can go on the site and sell
some CDs."
Another important
aspect of the site, according to Crouse and Gaughran, is that it's designed
specifically for the Purdue students to find things locally.
"You can always
find some guy selling a wagon in Cambodia," Gaughran said. "But we are
reaching out and catering to a specific community."
Now that the Web
design of BoilerStuff.com is completed, Crouse and Gaughran are concentrating
their efforts on informing people about the site. For three weeks this
summer, they posted flyers around campus one and a half hours a day,
two days a week.
Based on the response
of visitors to the site, Crouse anticipates 1,000 people a day to visit
the site. But he says his marketing work has just begun.
"There are still
60,000 people that don’t know about us," he said.
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