Classified Board

A board lives on categories and listings. While a category is empty, the catalog looks broken: users click twice and close the tab. This manual is about launch on your own domain after the script is already installed: what to fill in, when to enable moderation and VIP, and what must be on the first screen.

Product overview: PHP classified board script. This article is operations.

Day 0: categories without fanaticism

I start with a short tree. For a city board, this is usually enough:

• Real estate: rent, sale, commercial if needed;
• Transport;
• Jobs;
• Services;
• Personal items;
• Pets / hobbies depending on the niche.

Deep nesting like phones to brand to model to memory is a launch blocker for both authors and search. I split a category when it consistently has more than 30-40 active lots. Empty menu leaves reduce trust.

Day 0.5: cities and submission

Add the main city and its surrounding area to the directory. The header filter must survive page reloads and not reset on every click. Details: city filter.

I test the submission wizard from a phone:

1. Category selection.
2. Text, price, city.
3. Upload 4-6 camera photos.
4. "Pending moderation" screen, not "published", if pre-moderation is enabled.

If the photo step fails, fix photo upload and directory permissions before advertising.

Listing card

The card should contain gallery, price, city/district, publication or update date, description, contacts, and report buttons. Contacts are better revealed after an action such as click or login; otherwise phone parsers work faster than your sellers.

I send a clean URL card link to the client in messenger. If it returns 404 because rewrite is broken, fix nginx/apache before opening registration. A VIP label must be clear but should not cover the photo with stickers across the whole frame.

Moderation before registration opens

I enable the queue. Even if the first 15 listings are uploaded by hand from admin, the habit of checking the queue must exist before users arrive. Rejection templates are short: no photo, wrong category, prohibited item, contact in the title.

Moderator role: sees queue and complaints, not payment keys or file manager. VIP plus queue is covered in a separate article.

When to enable paid services

Not on installation day. First:

• each key category has at least several lots;
• moderation responds the same day;
• a test VIP payment changes status and term correctly.

Otherwise a seller pays for emptiness and writes complaints. Packages and terms: paid placement.

"Ready to invite sellers" checklist

1. Homepage has no broken previews.
2. Search finds a card by a word from its title.
3. City filter narrows the feed.
4. Author account shows statuses.
5. Listing report reaches the admin area.
6. Mobile submission reaches the end.

Optional: Telegram channel with new lots: bot. For engine purchase, see turnkey classified and purchase checklist.

Common launch mistakes

Too many categories, unprotected contacts, VIP without moderation, "test test" demo texts, and no HTTPS on the login form. Another one: promising agencies "post unlimited for free", after which one account fills all real estate with copy-paste. A limit on active listings per account saves the feed.

Launching a board on your own domain means closing the cycle category to submission to moderation to searchable card to later VIP. While the cycle has holes, your ad budget warms up other platforms. Close the holes, then invite first authors.

Permissions, mail, service pages

Before opening registration, I run one more boring pass:

• Rules, contacts, and personal data pages contain readable text, not lorem ipsum.
• Registration and listing status emails at least log or send through SMTP.
• Captcha or an equivalent on submission and "show phone" if spam is already knocking.
• Database backup after demo lots are uploaded, so there is a rollback point when someone deletes "test" and production data together.

I immediately assign the person responsible for complaints in the admin menu. An unanswered complaint is worse than no complaint; authors see nobody is steering the platform. Response templates are three or four phrases, not essays.

First-week metrics

Not presentation KPIs, just working numbers:

1. How many listings reached "approved".
2. Average time in moderation queue.
3. Rejection share and top reasons.
4. "Show phone" clicks or messenger jumps, if tracked.
5. Empty categories still linked from the menu, candidates for hiding.

If the queue stands for more than a day while ads are live, strengthen moderation before increasing budget. Enable VIP when busy categories are already crowded and authors have a reason to pay for the top. Before that, selling a showcase feels like charging for emptiness and damages reputation faster than revenue grows.

Mobile homepage and speed

Most authors and buyers come from phones. The homepage must serve previews quickly: compressed thumbs and no heavy autoplay slider. The "post listing" button must be reachable without hunting through menus. If the submission wizard takes more than three seconds on LTE, authors leave before you enable VIP. This is not design for design's sake; it is a condition for content supply.

I test separately as guest, new author, and moderator. Each has their path. Guest browses and filters. Author posts and checks statuses. Moderator lives in the queue. Until these three roles pass on a phone, I do not consider the board launch complete, even if desktop looks perfect.

One more practical tip: add a short admin note "how we work" with moderation terms, rejection wording, and when VIP is enabled. The script will not replace this. But a new team member will not reinvent rules every week. A classified board on your domain depends on a short procedure more than on another module in the price list.

Backup and small technical debt

After categories and demo lots are entered, immediately take a DB dump and upload archive. This is the rollback point when someone deletes test data together with production. For mail, check spam delivery: a listing-status change without notification creates repeat tickets. robots.txt should not block entire categories. Sitemap comes after live cards appear, not on an empty install.

If you plan VIP in a week, create a service page with draft tariffs in advance, even if it is hidden from the menu. Authors will ask "can I bump this?" earlier than expected. It is better to show term and price than answer the same question in messenger ten times a day. Launching a board also means being ready to answer repetitive questions with one short link.