[Russell Morgan]

Hi all, im considering having a website and just wondering whether or not it brings in any jobs or does it work just if people are directed to you from website advertising, if you canb understand what i mean

[Neil Grainger]

Yes Yes yes, best form of advertising you can do these days, It just gets better all the time, can be slow to start with but will build up very quickly if your website works.

[garry22]

Russell,

Yes, I think I know what you mean. The answer is a resounding YES.

The main thing is that you get some sort of contact from it (either phone or E-mail).

Do they work? Yes.

Some friends have a business where say, 98% of their work comes from the web. What started of as an e mail enquiry from an interested party turned into several phone conversations. It finished up as a quote for a staggering £ 98,000 of work! Sadly this was not a carpet cleaning business.

A website should be an important part of your marketing armoury.

Best of luck,

Garry

[Russell Morgan]

cheers, i think i should get one, been running a couple of years now, im a bit behind the times 

[derek west]

look at it as an extension of your little ads in mags and papers, its cheap to advertise your web site, just one line but once people visit your site you can say so much more,
derek

[Mike Halliday]

if you can tell me how the internet can target a 3 mile radius of my home and bring in enough work within that area to keep me busy then I'll agree.

but if you want to cover the whole county and travel miles to jobs, go for it.

A website is a good addition to any marketing, but to rely on it is not an ideal situation.

[Russell Morgan]

well i've got the back pages of the main directories in my two nearest towns, got a yell and yellow pages ad and im the only ncca listed cleaner in the ncca listing in the peterborough yellow pages, i pay 2 grand a year for these, so for the sake of a few hundred for a website, i'd be  a foooool not to

[garry22]

Russell,
You can do what you like, it's your website.

Just write on your website which areas you work in and which you don't. You can even say what sort of customers you want or don't want if you do it subtly.

You can also do geo-targeting with adwords down (almost) to individual postcode areas.

Garry

[clinton]

I have had a site for about 4 months and it does get me some work not a lot mind you.

The good thing is it looks more of a prof set up on your cards and  leaflets van signs etc

[Mike Osbourne]

Mike

Who said anything about totally relying on it?

In your situation I would hav thought you would be able to have an evn bettr chance of creating a niche through keywords.

Once the cost of the site is coverd it's all profit so you can afford to weed out what you don't want. You could evn say you serve a spcific community and no on else.  

[Straker Cleaning]

My sites get me work in the areas i wish to travel to .......... i list the areas or postcodes i will cover  :

Can always farm out surplus work or jobs out of range .......extra income 

[davep]

I never get calls from all over the country, max 10 miles away.  People search for a cleaner in there area.   

[Mike Halliday]

Mike O  I was counterbalancing Niels Yes yes, best form of advertising you can do these days answer.

if it does what I ask then I would agree, but it doesn't.

Chris you make my piont exactly, 'I list the areas or postcodes i will cover'    if I wanted to cover areas & postcodes I would use the interent

but I only want to cover 1 area and 1 postcode

[Mike Halliday]

PS;  it looks from what I'm saying that I'm against the internet, far from it I'm in the process of having a website done, and we are all different so if the internet fit into your marketing strategy then  that's great use it to its full effect,  my only question is with Neils first answer..... 'YES.YES.YES........etc'

[Mike Osbourne]

Mike

I reckon if you say I only serve xyz please don't call outside this area will strengthen your local community image strongly.

[clinton]

Dave have you changed your site

Or the name

[Neil Grainger]

I will travel pretty much 30 miles from home and because of this web is great, I can also target any area I want by town.

So many good customers around here so why would I want to limit myself to 3 miles from home. 1 good job a day is better than 3-4 when you are driving to and fro.

I only advertise using the internet and its got better and better. 1 London customer has paid for my business for the next 2 years and thats just from the internet, One in Holland park and another near Odiham. PArts of London are gold and to target these area's when I am only an Hour away is a must.

Internet works for me and I would recomend it over any other advertising but I maybe lucky as this area all the way into London is the Silicon valley of England so it maybe that more people use the internet to find traders.

[ianharper]

mike

it can be done. if you follow what everyone is doing and just keep your keyword to streets in the 3 miles then you would pick up work.

for example you had some photos up for sale some time ago, and these would be a good start. by using a blog (wordpress) type site it would be easy for you to post them each day say.

I would post one a day with with the street name. people can be funny about their names being linked to a photo and in a small area you would find some problems with this. its not so bad when you work over a large area. so by just using street names and towns you can avoid this.

its a shame your not a NCCA member I just started to write some articles about this.

as you know if your keywords relate to you target area then you will get work. and if you think about it if its only say one a week that money is worth the time, as it will only take you under a minute to post your photo.

I think that a testimonial based site will give you more work. i use photos and it shows prospects what can be done. if say their carpet is not as bad as the ones in the photos it will give confidence to them that its worth spending the money.

respect

Ian Harper

[Mike Halliday]

Ian  I could target a very specific area, I could put I only work down my street and only for the house with even numbers, but how much work would it bring in?

within our industry the internet works for people who target a large area, if this is'nt true could some show me a carpet cleaners website that does target a very small geographical area, everyone I have seen either don't say any area or list towns and counties.

mike

[Straker Cleaning]

I would love to work within SM3 but only so many nice big house to go around  That is why i have my areas as SM, SW & KT ............. areas with affluent streets aplenty 
Just had my van MOT & service and realised that only done 6000 miles in a year, so must work relatively local then  :