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HeavyMetalBay.com was started by Denise Dale. Time to learn a bit more about HMB and its founder Denise Dale. Denise called me punctually to talk about her latest business endeavor. Denise explained: "It started a few years ago. It was just an idea which came to my mind 5 years ago on a Sunday afternoon. I went online to see, if there is something like that, but there was nothing. Within an hour I had registered for the domain." But even if the internet offers almost everything, it ain't easy to start some auctioning platform similar to the mighty Ebay. "Right, it took 2,5 years of programming and another 2,5 years to get everything working." Denise added. No easy task to program such a platform with all it's needs like easy navigation, etc., especially when you do it from scratch. But lately the site wasn't always working well... "Well, we got an overwhelming response to the site, so many hits that the server crashed. the site is up and down at the moment, coz we move to a dedicated server." With the dedicated server this problem should be solved and the site should be working properly now. "It was out of my hands when it came to programming issues." Denise explained. But HeavyMetalBay.com has more to offer then 'just' auctioning. "Right, we have a band corner which is a place for to promote bands - signed and unsigned - where you can add a biography, links, etc. a bit similar to MySpace. Then there is the concerts guide where bands and promoters can add their concerts and sell tickets. We use Euro and US dollar on HeavyMetalBay, to buy you don't need a PayPal account, but as a seller you need a PayPal account." Denise states. To promote HMB they decided to not asking for a fee for two months and they hope that many people sign up and join the community. Registering is easy and done within a few minutes, so Denise concept to make it easy for fans to use works out well.
It took 5 years to bring it to life which means a lot of time and money to spend without knowing if it will be a massive success like Ebay. Denise agreed "People start registering, but it isn't an overnight success. But there is no competition, HeavyMetalBay is unique! But it was very expensive to built up, very expensive!" HMB is still on an early stage and some things might need some fix to run properly, but it needs people to register and using it, to learn where it needs improvement. "I would love to see more fans from Germany at HeavyMetalBay. Germany has a huge metal scene and we need more people to use HMB." Denise told me. But every metal fan is welcome, no matter from which part of the world. "I hired Chip after testing the site and I want to start promoting the site in each country." Denise continues. I wanted to know what drives Denise to put so much effort into HMB. "I'm a heavy metal fan myself, you have to be a metal fan to book heavy metal bands - and you need to understand the fans. I'm a booking agent for 10 years now." Denise told me. And it's true the love for this music is driving almost everybody who is somehow active in the metal world. Some complain that auctioning platforms have a bad effect on record sales... "No, it's a place to buy physical items, that's no harm to the sales. And we have more then just CDs and DVDs, we have posters, clothing, jewellery - everything a metal fans is looking for." Denise said. And told me about future plans. "We want to have a forum, a video channel for everything which is metal. The plan is to have one platform where a heavy metal fan finds everything in one place." And that's a good plan, even if it will take time to realize it. I wish Denise all the best for HeavyMetalBay.com and if you haven't registered yet, head over to HeavyMetalBay.com and do it now!
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