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We’ve heard you! Today we are releasing a number of upgrades to ajcexchange, based on your feedback.

One of the best new features on ajcexchange is the ability to easily upgrade your ad to a print ad in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, from both the My Ads page and from the Ad Posting Confirmation page. With the power of the AJC, you can reach even more potential buyers in the Atlanta market than ever before! To add a newspaper ad, simply login and click the link from My Ads.

Other new enhancements to ajcexchange:
• The Featured Ad photo slideshow (at the top of search results pages) is no longer limited to 12 ads.
• Email to a friend feature, allowing you to share your favorite listings with friends via email.
• Prompt notification of suspended ads, with a way to call Customer Care with questions.
• Line breaks are now allowed in ads.
• You can now request that your activation email be resent to you if you did not receive it the first time.
• Good news for our mobile users: you will now be able to browse ads in a specific subcategory from your mobile device.

Let us know how these new features work for you. We hope these enhancements improve your experience on ajcexchange. Happy buying and selling!

A recent article discusses how online classifieds have become a great resource for home decor on a budget. Everyone from interior designers to DIY’ers are going online in search of the perfect piece to complete their home. The results can be impressive. Not only is recycling used goods an eco-friendly way to decorate your home, but usually those items purchased via an online hunt reveal more of the owner’s personality, instead of purchasing mass-produced items from a department store.

Here at ajcexchange, we offer hundreds of listings that can help furnish and decorate every room of your home. Don’t forget to check out our popular antiques category, as well as our collectibles category for unique items.

Tell us about your fantastic online finds!

Good news for those of you looking to rent an apartment, condo or home in metro Atlanta: occupancy is down, so deals are up. According to a recent AJC article, apartment occupancy has fallen to 88 percent over the last 12 months, down from 91 percent. So what does that mean for renters? More competitive rental pricing and other freebies.

The downside is that credit requirements have also tightened, so make sure to check your credit report and work on increasing your score so you can take advantage of the good deals right now.

As always, search the ajcexchange apartment listings for great apartments all over metro Atlanta. Remember, you can narrow the results by including a neighborhood in your search. Happy apartment hunting!

We’ve heard you! The top concern from ajcexchange users is the number of fraudulent ads. While we are committed to letting legitimate ads go up live immediately, we want to make sure questionable ads go through a review process.

Today we are launching an improvement to the Web site. All ads will be checked automatically for criteria we know are common to fraudulent ads, and questionable ones will be held back for further review. These ads will be posted as soon as the ajcexchange.com team approves the ad. Typically, this is within a few hours, but may be as many as 12-24 hours based on staffing. All ads that pass the automatic check will continue to post immediately, as all ads have done in the past.

All ads on ajcexchange will continue to get reviewed, even those initially rated as safe. However, the most suspect ads will not post immediately, ensuring that buyers do not see them unless we
determine that they are valid.

We will not publish all of the criteria that go into rating an ad. (If we did, the bad guys would try to get around the system!) One thing you can do to improve your TrustMeter score is to refrain from posting duplicate ads. If you want to “renew” your ad before it has expired, take the time to cancel the original ad first.

The ajcexchange development team, led by Eric Bates, has worked hard to bring you this enhancement, which we’re confident will make ajcexchange a safer environment for Atlanta-area buyers and sellers.

Let us know what you think about TrustMeter. We look forward to your feedback!

Featured ads on ajcexchange are a great way to give your item(-s) for sale more visibility and hopefully connect with an eager buyer. Featured ads appear on the ajcexchange homepage, at the top of search listings and at the top of the category chosen for the ad. For example, Dogs/Puppies is a popular category where you can see featured ads in action:

Dogs/Puppies

So how do you make your listing a featured ad? There are two ways. After posting your ad, choose the “upgrade your ad” option on the ad confirmation page. Or access your listings via My Ads and then scroll to the bottom to choose the “upgrade this ad” option. Either way, just follow the simple instructions and you will have increased your selling power on ajcexchange. Happy selling!

(Note: This blog entry is only for asking questions or leaving a comment about how to post a featured ad on ajcexchange. Please do not post ads here, as they will be removed. Thanks!)

All of the feedback ajcexchange users have provided so far has been very helpful in letting us know what new features you would like to see on the site. We want your ajcexchange experience to be a positive one, and that’s why we are asking you to complete this brief survey:

ajcexchange survey

As always, we encourage you to leave additional comments and feedback via the exchange blog, our Twitter feed, or the Get Satisfaction form, via the blue “feedback” button.

Thanks and happy buying and selling!

For those ajcexchange users that have sent us comments via Get Satisfaction, thank you. We want you to know that each and every comment is read and considered, and often, someone will personally respond to your feedback. Here are some reader suggestions and our progress on implementing your ideas:

• Garage sale maps: This was a popular request, and garage sale maps are now on each listing posted on ajcexchange. We are working on fixing some minor issues, but please continue to send us your feedback if you see a map that is not pointing to the right location.
• The expiration of listings: Garage sales have been such a popular category that the listings were becoming cumbersome to search. So now garage sale listings will expire a day after the user specifies, and we may refine this depending upon user feedback and performance issues. Thanks to all who made this suggestion.
• Repeated listings: We are working on ways to reduce duplicate listings and will remove repeated listings. Please keep us informed if you see such listings, and we will be happy to investigate.
• Scams: Unfortunately, this is a major issue for online classified sites and we are dedicated to making your ajcexchange experience safe and secure. Visit our safety center for tips on shopping safely online, and please report any suspicious listings to us.

So keep the feedback coming, we are listening and want to make your ajcexchange experience a pleasant and successful one.

We’ve added a new feature on ajcexchange that we hope you will find really useful. Garage sales are so popular on ajcexchange, and now when viewing the detail listing for each individual garage sale, there will be a Google map to show you where it’s taking place. Click on the map and a box will pop up, allowing you to get directions to the garage sale from your location.

This feature will be really handy for you bargain hunters that want to visit multiple garage sales in a single day. Try it out and let us know how it works for you. Let us know if there are any other map features that you would like to see on ajcexchange!

We’ve made it even easier for you to give us feedback about ajcexchange. From the homepage, just click on the blue button on the left-hand side that says “Feedback.” A new screen will pop up, powered by Get Satisfaction, that will allow you to share your thoughts about ajcexchange. You can suggest a new feature, report any site issues, or just let us know what you love about ajcexchange. A real person will read all feedback submissions, and your comments will help us make ajcexchange even better for our users.

There is also a section on the feedback form where we post a suggestion from an ajcexchange community member like yourself and allow other users to indicate whether they are interested in that proposed new feature as well. For example, “garage sales map” is the current topic to vote on. Let us know what you think!

iStockphoto.com

We have plenty of vacation rental listings on ajcexchange, so we’re curious to know what our users look for in a vacation home rental. Is it all about location – say walking distance to the beach or close to good fishing? How do you feel about renting high-rise condo units vs. a separate home? And do you try to go off-season to avoid the higher rates or is it just too hard to resist the beach in summer or a nice cozy cabin around the winter holidays?

I’ve rented plenty of cabins in the North Georgia mountain area and for the most part have been very pleased. For me, the more photos of the rental home in the ad the better – I really want to see what I’m paying for before I trek there.

Let us know your good and bad experiences with vacation rentals as the summer season approaches.