[Roger Slater]

Its a well known fact by savvy webmasters that Google cant spider then list any of the topics on this forum because it is password protected.

For eg: Googles spiders find the home page for Clean It Up but cant gain access because it needs a password.

Admin can quite easily allow guests to view topics but not post, create polls or vote etc... until they become a registerd member accepted by Admin/Moderators.

Or

Create an advertising page and the guests cant see the rest of the forum?

What a waste of a huge advertising resource, this would give Clean It Up members massive exposure on the net. Its also a well known fact that forum signatures is an excellent way to advertise your business.

Signature eg:

The Window/Carpet Cleaner

Liverpool, Birmingham, London etc...

Google would spider this signature then list it exactly as you see it above with the forum post following it.

Surley Clean It UP wants us to get as much business as we can.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Perhaps it's an oversite over to the owner!

Shaun

[Straker Cleaning]

Unlikely as the gaffers want us to advertise on Spick & Span ......... so why would they give us free publicity on here  :

[markpowell]

does anyone advertise on spick and span, does it work?
Mark

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Steve Gunn wasn't too impressed but I've never advertised only the free listing which I have had nothing from.

Shaun

[Roger Slater]

This is interesting.

I know it's early days as the poll hasnt been running very long, but i have posted the same poll on the Window cleaning forum and all seem to think its a bad idea because of the copius amounts of money there making and dont want the customers to see the forum, which is understandable, but they cant seem to grasp that a seperate advertising page that could give us excellent exposure purely because of the amount of content posted here every day.

The mind really does boggle.

Spick & Span ive never once had a google alert informing me that my listing has ever been listed.

And perhaps your right about not wanting to give us free advertising, and if thats right they should consider that we make the forum its is, not them, and not surpress the forum to grow even further.

IMO

[Jim_77]

I got 2 months half-price listing on S&S and never got a dickie bird from it.  The second month's £7.50 direct debit never got taken out of my account, maybe they were too ashamed

You have to look at this from the forum owner's point of view though.  This forum exists as a marketing tool for the company that operates it, why should they compromise this?

[garyj]

The tag line on S&S is "find and compare cleaning companies in your area".

To me that translates as "phone around and get the cheapest".

[davep]

 

[garyj]

[Jim_77]

The tag line on S&S is "find and compare cleaning companies in your area".

To me that translates as "phone around and get the cheapest".

Exactly mate.  Although it seems that nobody is"finding" S&S

[mark shannon]

Not sure but is : a click for CIU directed through Express cleaning giving the Express site the benefit of the click?

CIU has no pagerank. 

[Roger Slater]

Not sure but is : a click for CIU directed through Express cleaning giving the Express site the benefit of the click?

CIU has no pagerank. 

If you mean page rank through Google thats because its a closed forum and Google cant spider the forum pages which is pretty much useless in ranking terms even to the sponsors of CIU.

[Mitch Evans]

The Spick and Span Directory has proved very succesful for many of our members, large and small contracts have been generated and are being generated from it. As with any form of advertising it works for some companies and not for others. I also think that cleaning companies need to always ask where their customers came from, many customers just say "Google" it's an easy answer, but they may have actually found you on the Spick and Span Directory from Google like many do. Also you have to remember that your contact phone number is on your listing so all the customer has to do is ring you, they do not have to contact you via email or sms text message through The Spick and Span Directory.

In fact many customers want to find a contact number and sort out their cleaning needs there and then so they will not just send you an email and await your response. The more serious customers will ring you straight away regarding their cleaning needs. Of course some prefer the method of sending an email/sms message and this too is proven to be working for many of our cleaning companies.

Free listings only appear in one cleaning category and don't hold much data for that company, whereas featured listings appear in up to 6 categories with lots of data about the company as well as a company logo/image to make the listing stand out and of course featured listings appear at the top of their respective pages.     

We did used to let Google spider our pages using a web tool that we designed and examples of the way they work is like if you do a search on Google for "potential earnings from window cleaners" you will see we're at number 1 and when you click it it doesn't open in the usual ciu way for security reasons etc.

[garyj]

I cannot see any reason at all why anyone would want Google to search the site.
Why we would want our customers on here is beyond me 

I know £7.50 a month is not a lot of dosh but does seem excessive for an internet directory especially when most of them are free!

[Mitch Evans]

We do offer a free listing as well as a featured listing, cleaning companies do get contacted more as a featured listing due to the profile and exposure of the listing - but there is always a free option for companies to opt for.

Thanks

[garyj]

I can appreciate the amount of work that has gone into the directory and this site. You are never going to satisfy everyone as to the layout, design and price.
I do have a free listing but could not justify £7.50 per month for a directory which ranks lower than many free listings.
I also think it is a shame you cannot search by location name, I think many people are weary about putting in just a postcode as it more often than not can give marketing people an exact location.

If I was looking for a carpet cleaner to help me out in Oxford I have to know the postcode for somewhere in Oxford, extra hassle so therefore just go to another site. Just a couple of examples but I think an important and constructive ones.

[Roger Slater]

I also think that cleaning companies need to always ask where their customers came from, many customers just say "Google" it's an easy answer, but they may have actually found you on the Spick and Span Directory from Google like many do.

There is a very easy way to find out if Spick & Span is generating you any leads, clicks or views.

Use your site stats to find out who your top referrers are.
Any good hosting company will provide you with these invaluable tools free of charge.

I use this all of the time to look at my ROI.

[spindle]

wife used spick and span for a while paid  fees etc.........

no joy..no phonecalls.................biggest watse of money after y/p imho

[Jim_77]

£7.50 per month

It was being offered to me at £15 a month full whack, I wangled 2 months at half price as a trial

Mitch I know for a fact I didn't get any calls from it, I always ask every single one of my customers where they found out about us and if they say google I ask further questions to pinpoint the exact source.  The only ones I've ever had through google clicked on my listing in the 10 results from google maps and went direct to my temporary web page that's been there for nearly 4 years.  That was the most useful 30 minutes I ever spent on the internet

I think what sealed the deal about S&S was when the guy phoned me up after 2 months and I told him I'd had no enquiries from it.  He came out with what you'd expect a salesman to say when he knows he's at a dead end : Then he said something like "oh hang on I'm sure we had an email enquiry for your listing, didn't you get it?"  "No"  "Well I'll forward it to you."

No email came.  I wouldn't expect to make many customers if I didn't get back to them when I said I would.

But anyway I don't wish to kick off a massacre of S&S, just wanted to clarify a couple of points