[Mike_Boxall]

17th September 2007

Hi

Finally we have the site online at http://www.spickandspan-directory.co.uk/

We're still in the process of adding data to it so some categories are empty at the moment. We're also finishing off some more functionality (each listing will have a google map attached to it, for example)

To see the difference between a Free listing and a Featured listing please search for 'Window Cleaning Traditional' in TR27. Tou can then select the first 2 or 3 results (including David Morris Window Cleaning) and compare the results.

We've done our best to accomodate all the suggestions that have been made over the past couple of months and I hope everyone will give the site a try for at least a few months and then let us have some feedback in terms of the business generated. You will start to see the site advertised heavily both online and offline over the next few months. We're keen to keep developing and improving the site so if you have any more ideas then please let us know.

In terms of pricing , there are 3 options. You can get a FREE listing with your name, address and telephone number or you can pay either £15 + vat per month or £150+ vat per year for a featured listing like the Dave Morris example above.

As an incentive for forum members to sign up quickly, we are offering a 10% discount on these prices for the next 2 weeks only. To qualify for this discount you must use the referrer code 'cleanitup' on the sign-up screen. Once you submit your information, the 10% discount will be applied on the following screen.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know

Regards

Mike

************************************


Hi

You may remember a while ago we mentioned about developing a cleaning directory to supplement the forum. At the time, it was said that a number of directories were in the process of being created and / or launched and we decided to wait and see what developed. However, none seem to have got off the ground successfully and we have now decided to continue with the development ourselves.

We are now very close to launching this brand new specialist directory. It will allow end users to find and compare cleaning providers in their area and will offer effective low-cost advertising for contractors of all types.

Our aim is for it to become the UK's leading online advertsing tool for small to medium sized cleaning compaines by providing end-users with specialist information not available elsewhere.

We're working with a number of third parties to offer unique facilities such as insurance verification and trade membership details and we have a comprehensive marketing plan that will guarantee a high volume of users.

What we would like before we launch is some general feedback on your experiences of other online directories you may have tried.


What has worked and what hasn't?
As an advertiser, what features would you like to see?
What features do you think your potential customers would like to see?
How much do you spend on online advertising?
What proportion of your business do you get from online advertising?
 

If you have any questions or suggestions please post them here.

Regards

Mike Boxall

[Clive McDonald]

Glad to see you've included us- the window cleaners-, this is known as the largest online cleaning forum mainly due to us.Our part of the forum creates the interest.

If there was some way that this vitality could be reflected in any directory i think it would generate interest and be more successful (amongst domestic customers anyway).

[Mike_Boxall]

I'm sure that like any new business or service it will evolve over time and whats important to us is that we promote the more professional companies out there. If you have any suggestions then please let us know....

Regards

Mike

[Clive McDonald]

Well, you could do with a unique difference.
There are lots of directories online or local.
This you say is for cleaning; all types, and is searchable by area

Well you asked for ideas, and I'm not saying this is a good one, but what if there was someway that customers could give feedback (think ebay sellerrs), what if there was a guarantee that if they used us and we created issues they could complain.

[Mike_Boxall]

...yes, that's a good idea but I'm not quite sure how you would get it to work without it being abused. We'll certainly give it some more thought and keep you posted.

Thanks

Mike

[J. Deans]

This advertising site might give you some ideas.
http://www.freeindex.co.uk/
They are free (obviously) and there is a facility for your clients to provide feedback via checkable email addresses.
There is a five star rating system and clients can leave comments about your service. You simply request a customer feedback, provide the clients details and they are then emailed and may or may not respond.

A couple of points:

I am wary when people say "Effective low-cost advertising"
There are plenty of free directories out there - so yours' would have to be very 'effective' to encourage potential advertisers to pay to be listed.

If it is a money making scheme you are trying to build, you may be better off looking to make your money from advertisers that want to target the cleaners. Combine this with the various Google ad campaigns that you could incorporate into each section of the directory using the adsense technology.

I wonder if lumping all the 'cleaning' trades together might be a bit restrictive for potential search engine queries to find your directory. I know there are many different cleaning diciplines and we are all still cleaners, but the traditional search methods tend to be more specific, for example, the search term might be: 'Window Cleaner' or 'New-Build Cleaner' or 'Carpet Cleaner' etc. etc. This may make things difficult for SEO of the directory.

IMO

[Mike_Boxall]

...thanks for your feedback. It's really appreciated and we'll certainly bear it in mind.

regards

Mike

[Mike_Boxall]

Hi

We're getting there! Thought you might like to see some screenshots. We plan to launch the live site very soon and have had some really positive feedback so far.

The elements that users will be able to compare companies by will initially include:

Distance, date established, number of employees, services offered, payment types taken, free quote availability, moneyback guarantee, reference availability, insurance details, trade memberships, minimum call-out charge, days per week service

Categories will initially include:

Carpet Cleaning, Carpet Protection, Upholstery Cleaning, Upholstery Protection, Curtain Cleaning, Hardfloor Cleaning, Hardfloor Restoration, Window Cleaning Traditional, Window Cleaning Pure Water
Window Cleaning Abseil, Leather Cleaning, Leather Restoration, Office Cleaning, Domestic Cleaning, Car Valeting, Oven Cleaning, Drain Cleaning, Fire Restoration, Flood Restoration, Trauma Cleaning, Computer Cleaning, Builders Cleaning.

It will cost £15 per month or £150 per year to advertise in up to 6 categories and we have a significant amount of end-user advertising planned and, indeed, already booked. There will be an option to add your business for free but you will not be able to list the details above. It'll be easy for people to use and I'm sure you'll find it to be the most effective way to pick up targeted new business!

Trade association memberships will be validated on sign up. The initial options we hope to list will include the NCCA, APWC, FWC and BICSc but if you have other suggestions please let me know.

Please keep your feedback coming. It really is appreciated!

Many thanks

Mike

[Mike_Boxall]

Hi

For those who I've not yet emailed directly, I'm pleased to be able to let you know that the new 'Spick and Span' directory will be launched next Monday the 17th September.

Can I suggest that anyone considering any form of new advertising should wait until they've seen this new site before committing to it. I'm sure you'll be impressed with its functionality and the unique potential to generate new business for you.

There will be a discount for all forum members that sign up within the first 2 weeks.

Please feel free to post any questions you have.

Thanks Mike

[Mike_Boxall]

17th September 2007

Hi

Finally we have the site online at http://www.spickandspan-directory.co.uk/

We're still in the process of adding data to it so some categories are empty at the moment. We're also finishing off some more functionality (each listing will have a google map attached to it, for example)

To see the difference between a Free listing and a Featured listing please search for 'Window Cleaning Traditional' in TR27. Tou can then select the first 2 or 3 results (including David Morris Window Cleaning) and compare the results.

We've done our best to accomodate all the suggestions that have been made over the past couple of months and I hope everyone will give the site a try for at least a few months and then let us have some feedback in terms of the business generated. You will start to see the site advertised heavily both online and offline over the next few months. We're keen to keep developing and improving the site so if you have any more ideas then please let us know.

In terms of pricing , there are 3 options. You can get a FREE listing with your name, address and telephone number or you can pay either £15 + vat per month or £150+ vat per year for a featured listing like the Dave Morris example above.

As an incentive for forum members to sign up quickly, we are offering a 10% discount on these prices for the next 2 weeks only. To qualify for this discount you must use the referrer code 'cleanitup' on the sign-up screen. Once you submit your information, the 10% discount will be applied on the following screen.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know

Regards

Mike

************************************

[Alan Rowley]

Mike,

There are two partners in my business - could we have one entry for my post code and another for my partners post code?

Can we have an entry under more than one category - eg office cleaning and domestic cleaning?

The website does not look good with a browser set to 800 pixels x 600 pixels - which is still the most popular setting. Will this be fixed?

Thanks - ALAN.

[absolutecleaning]

Mike

The site doesnt appear to come up when you "google" carpet cleaner then my area - how are you going to get people to the site in the first place.

You already have plenty of advertisers so presume this has been addressed.

Thanks

Simon

[Mike_Boxall]

Mike,

There are two partners in my business - could we have one entry for my post code and another for my partners post code?

Can we have an entry under more than one category - eg office cleaning and domestic cleaning?

The website does not look good with a browser set to 800 pixels x 600 pixels - which is still the most popular setting. Will this be fixed?

Thanks - ALAN.

Hi Alan

I don't believe the system will allow two separate entries from the same postcode and / or telephone number. If you go for a paid listing you will be able to choose six headings. Bear in mind that with a paid lising you also get to add much more detail which will stand out from the others.

A number of people have made referenece to the screen setting and we'll look into it tomorrow.

Regards

Mike

[Mike_Boxall]

Mike

The site doesnt appear to come up when you "google" carpet cleaner then my area - how are you going to get people to the site in the first place.

You already have plenty of advertisers so presume this has been addressed.

Thanks

Simon

Hi Simon

Getting natural google listings takes a while and the site only went live today so Google won't have indexed it yet. You'll see the site come up as a sponsored listing from tomorrow.

Within a couple of weeks it should start appearing in the normal results. Have you signed up yet?

Regards

Mike

[Alan Rowley]

Mike,

I'm looking for one entry for my business partner's postcode (Derby) and one entry for my post code (Nottingham). We operate in both areas.

Is this possible?

ALAN.

[Mike_Boxall]

Mike,

I'm looking for one entry for my business partner's postcode (Derby) and one entry for my post code (Nottingham). We operate in both areas.

Is this possible?

ALAN.

Hi Alan

Yes, if they are different postcodes and phone numbers then yes you'll be able to add them both as free listings.

Regards

Mike

[Alan Rowley]

Great Mike - thanks.

[absolutecleaning]

Mike

I still cant see the listing (sponsered or otherwise) - what does the customer actually have to enter into google for it to be there.

Thanks

Simon

[Mike_Boxall]

Hi Simon

With Google sponsored listings you don't appear for all results on all pages and it's the same for Yahoo listings. We're targetting all types of cleaning in all areas so it won't appear every time. If you do a serach on Google for 'spickandspan-directory.co.uk' you'll see the sort of sites its getting listed on through the Google adwords.

If you do a search on Google for 'window cleaning cornwall' you'll see David Morris Window Cleaning listed on the first page with his featured listing.

Don't forget that it's not just these sites it's being advertised on and so far we've had 3338 searches performed. We're also only just starting to get this sort of pr: http://www.cleaning-matters.co.uk/stories/articles/-/newsletters/2007/september/news_/spick_and_span_helps_end_users_and_contractors_alike which gets emailed out to 13,000 subscribers.

Regards

Mike

[garyj]

Don't want to be a pain 

Just had a look at Dave Morris's enhanced listing and the map covers up some of the text on his write up. I don't appear to be able to get rid of the Google map.

I'm not a big fan of directories due to the amount of cold calls and pressure selling we had over the years, I appreciate this is very different and feel it's a good idea AND a way of supporting a site I've used for years. However I realise the costs of setting something like this up are huge but still feel as if £15.00 a month is expensive.

I'm sure this has been brought up before, because we're all a bunch of tight business folk but have you considered an introductory offer? Even a fiver a month or £7.50 ( half price!) would give us the chance to see if it works for 6 months, and even if no work comes in from it then nothing lost really.

My thinking is it would be cheaper to use Google AdWords and have your own site at number 1 on the paid listings for less than £15.00.

With the amount of users on here I think far more will take the offer up with the lower price and in the long run pay for its self quicker.

[dhnjj]

Perhaps it would be an idea to run a poll on here to see the potential interest from others on the forum if the price were reduced for a period of time

Dave

[garyj]

Noooooooooo, no polls, they went out with AJ 

[dhnjj]

AJ? 

[Mike_Boxall]

Don't want to be a pain 

Just had a look at Dave Morris's enhanced listing and the map covers up some of the text on his write up. I don't appear to be able to get rid of the Google map.

I'm not a big fan of directories due to the amount of cold calls and pressure selling we had over the years, I appreciate this is very different and feel it's a good idea AND a way of supporting a site I've used for years. However I realise the costs of setting something like this up are huge but still feel as if £15.00 a month is expensive.

I'm sure this has been brought up before, because we're all a bunch of tight business folk but have you considered an introductory offer? Even a fiver a month or £7.50 ( half price!) would give us the chance to see if it works for 6 months, and even if no work comes in from it then nothing lost really.

My thinking is it would be cheaper to use Google AdWords and have your own site at number 1 on the paid listings for less than £15.00.

With the amount of users on here I think far more will take the offer up with the lower price and in the long run pay for its self quicker.

Hi Gary

Thanks for the feedback.

I guess you're using a screen size of 800 x 600 and we're aware that there can be problems in Internet Explorer when users also have the favourites column down the side. It's something were looking at.

In terms of the cost (if you enter cleanitup as the referrer code, without spaces!, you still get the 10% discount at the moment) it can come down to just £135 plus vat for the year which is the equivalent of £11.25 per month. The other thing to bear in mind is that it's not just being promoted on Google adwords. We're spending a lot of money advertising through other Pay Per Click sites and we'll also be doing our first leaflet drops shortly. Doing it any cheaper just doesn't give us the budget to advertise it in the way it has to be to be a success and, besides, those that have signed up at these rates would be pretty cheesed off if we now dropped them.

For most people £15 per month is worth trying providing it can be cancelled at short notice without any hassle. I completely understand what you say about the pressure selling, but we don't use those sort of tactics.

Hopefully, I'll have some more statistics for your before long although I can tell you that currently the most popular searches are 1) car valeters 2) window cleaning traditional 3) Oven cleaners

Regards

Mike

[Art]

Hi Mike,

 What search term or terms do you put in to find the directory through google? I'm sure you said previously that it would be on there with a sponsered link?

Arthur

[Mike_Boxall]

Hi Mike,

 What search term or terms do you put in to find the directory through google? I'm sure you said previously that it would be on there with a sponsered link?

Arthur

Hi Arthur

(I posted this yesterday to a similar question - hope it helps!)

With Google sponsored listings you don't appear for all results on all pages and it's the same for Yahoo listings. We're targetting all types of cleaning in all areas so it won't appear every time. If you do a serach on Google for 'spickandspan-directory.co.uk' you'll see the sort of sites its getting listed on through the Google adwords.

If you do a search on Google for 'window cleaning cornwall' you'll see David Morris Window Cleaning listed on the first page with his featured listing.

Don't forget that it's not just these sites it's being advertised on and so far we've had 3338 searches performed. We're also only just starting to get this sort of pr: http://www.cleaning-matters.co.uk/stories/articles/-/newsletters/2007/september/news_/spick_and_span_helps_end_users_and_contractors_alike which gets emailed out to 13,000 subscribers.

Regards

Mike