cheers all
looks like a web site then,any reccommendations of designers used
If you can wait a few weeks I'll recommend one to you, but for the moment we're a bit stuck, our guy sadly passed away a week or so ago.
bit off subject here, but on the subject of websites, i read here somewhere someon
e mentioning that paid websites were better than ones hosted for free. is there any posts on why that is, as i have a free site, and wondering what the advantages are to paying for one.
I said and say that. I'd recommend getting all the free directory listings you can get your hands on. But expect cold callers trying to get you to upgrade for some fee, often claiming they have customers waiting to call you but don't have a tiler in your area, so don't listen to 'em. But the right ones can get you a bit of business (
Contractor Forum | Builders Forum | Building Forum for Professional Contractors and Tradesmen has an article on that website listing some decent free ones) over the year.
But a free website, hosted free, often on a sub-domain name (so
www.something.TheirWebName.com[ instead of ww.YourWebName.com), often with advertisements (which again you don't want) generally don't rank that well in the search engines. Partly because if they did they could dominate and they'd be worth billions and not just millions, but partly because they have to make their customers user interface easy which limits customisation options, often the exact ones you need to optimise a website.
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You can get a complete website built yourself, by yourself, hosted, with a domain name, and you'd be able to edit the pages if you can work this forum, for around £50 - £100 per year. It'd work okay, you'd need to keep on top of optimising it, though easy, you'd still probably be checking things often with me and whoever else helps you (which i'd be happy to do by the way) which takes time up. But you'd get there and can add photo's and whatnot.
Or, you pay about £500 for the first year (that's a price we managed to agree with a firm due to the amount of work we could pass them, otherwise expect to pay £750 - £1000+ - I've heard of people being quoted £3000+ even in this economy when designers are plentiful - but the right ones still have to reduce their prices to match the industry, as in tiling I suppose), then about £50 - £100 thereafter and it's professionally designed initially (hence the fee) and then still the same as the first case every year thereafter. You can add things, change things, no cost at all, support comes with it FOC and often what you want done or changed gets done for you. Dave does his now (
David Howe Tiling | Tiler in Durham | North East Tilers) and that's the sort of thing you'd expect. But what you don't see by looking at the website is this
tiler in durham - Google Search - click all those links in the natural listing section (so the listing in white on the left - not the adverts) and see how many out of the 10 listing either ends up on Dave's website, or has a link to Dave's website on the very page you're on. I'd say 6 to 8 out of 10 and it's been like that for a few years now.
That's the difference between a free website, done yourself, or even a paid for one which gets you lots of benefits and control but costs you time optimising it, or even a fully paid for one that is managed mostly for you, but still lets you change text yourself, add pictures yourself, and everything you want to do EXCEPT optimise it.
I think of it like this. In your books over 12 months you'll have all your incomings and all your outgoings. Whilst a website is an outgoing, it's also part of, and it'd be a big part of my own, advertising budget which is offset against your tax bill and even if it wasn't, it'd pay it's £500 on the first couple of crappy jobs, let alone the type of jobs you'd be aiming for with a website such as UFH, stone work, commercial kitchens, wetrooms, etc etc - very little push on "we do kitchen splashbacks" will prevent you getting them. And when you do you're lucky enough to price them out if you're busy.
Get yourself with TilersForums Arms access as I explain quite a bit more in there.
Always feel free to PM me.
