rated people, etc.

[johnryan]

hello all. has anyone had any experience of these kinds of site, eg. rated people, service magic etc.
haven't had a lot of work on lately, and was wondering if these kind of sites are worth looking at. i must say that i'm not too keen on them, for various reasons, but thought maybe someone here might be able to tell me more about them. would be interesting to hear peoples opinions before i write them off as a bad idea permanently.
by the way, i did try to find any other posts already on this subject, so i apologise for double posting if there is. wasn't to sure what to search under, when i was looking.

 

[Gazzer]

Plenty of posts like this before but I think you will find out that generally they got bad reviews.

 

[johnryan]

ok, thanks. do you know what i should search for if i look for them. not sure what they'd be titled under.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

stick to the sort of advertising that you can control John, and preferably using as little cash expenditure as possible. word of mouth is still as good a way as any to drum up business and find new customers. there's loads of advice in our Marketing section of the forum, so have a nosey round and see what you find. most guys find that shelling out hundreds of pounds to rated people and so on doesn't yield much in the way of return at all.

 

[johnryan]

stick to the sort of advertising that you can control John, and preferably using as little cash expenditure as possible. word of mouth is still as good a way as any to drum up business and find new customers. there's loads of advice in our Marketing section of the forum, so have a nosey round and see what you find. most guys find that shelling out hundreds of pounds to rated people and so on doesn't yield much in the way of return at all.

ok, thanks. i was thinking the same kind of thing myself, but just wondered if others knew a bit more. just looking at all the options atm, as i moved recently, and am just starting up around here. i'm working on a website atm, which dan is going to help with, but it's taking longer than i thought, so looking at other ways to generate some work in the interim..

 

[Gazzer]

Trust me , the overall return will be low. You will be competing with other people but still haveing to pay to get the contact. A lot of the work on those sites go to unskilled people and at very low rates. Yes I have tried in the past but found it a lot of hard work for very little income.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

ok, thanks. i was thinking the same kind of thing myself, but just wondered if others knew a bit more. just looking at all the options atm, as i moved recently, and am just starting up around here. i'm working on a website atm, which dan is going to help with, but it's taking longer than i thought, so looking at other ways to generate some work in the interim..

have you tried leaving your business cards or posting leaflets in the local amenities such as Post Office, Newsagent, church notice boards etc?

 

[Dan]

If you scroll to the bottom of this thread you'll see "similar threads" and there's 5 threads right there about ratepoeple.com.

 

[Andy Allen]

try your local parish mag, get to know your local tile shops there number one for passing on work, if you have a van get it sign written, leave a hand full of cards with every customer........its all the little things that pay off in the long run .............and dont beat yourself up about it theres quite a few scratching round for work at the momment.

 

[johnryan]

have you tried leaving your business cards or posting leaflets in the local amenities such as Post Office, Newsagent, church notice boards etc?

haven't got round to that yet, but it is on my to do list. i was pretty busy up till jan, so didn't get round to any marketing so far, but will be working on it from now. i really need to get my website sorted first thing though, as i'm thinking that's going to help a lot. as soon as it's ready dan said he'll help me to get it rated etc. as at the moment i have a free site that's virtually useless. before i moved i had regular work from builders i knew and never got around to looking at advertising and such like, so i have to start reading up on it, i think

 

[DHTiling]

One that i do think is good in a way that you do not get spammed or telephoned all the time by cold callers.. and that site is one i use and it ranks well in google as well as you get your own page.. and that is Free Index..

FreeIndex - The free UK business directory


And they also post jobs on this site..

 

[johnryan]

If you scroll to the bottom of this thread you'll see "similar threads" and there's 5 threads right there about ratepoeple.com.

just checked out those threads, and have just consigned this idea to the dustbin. thanks to all the replies.
oh, thanks for the link dave. just had a look, and will be signing up for that one. cheers.

john

 

[Deleted member 9966]

we're here to help John :yesnod:

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

Rated People also have an automatic payment system that will keep on taking your money even if you tell them to cancel,
the only way to stop it is to cancel your payment card with your bank and request a new one.

chris

 

[Stewart]

I use Freeindex too and I think it's quite good, and I've actually got a job from it so can't be bad considering it's free.