SELF EMPLOYED ADVERTISING

[Blooflame]

I have cut the shackles of employment and have, from scratch set up on my own. Has anyone here set up a website and if so does it bring in much business?
Further, what does bring in the most business?

 

[skodaman007]

the best £££ work comes from word of mouth,be prepared to put the hours in as well.

you need to bring in a basic salary so be prepared to accept all work any trade you need to be doing some work and drop the lower paid work for the cream when it comes in.

it will all work out just be nice to your customers.

web sites should be your last resort.

 

[dcawkwell]

Waste of time will not generate any business.

Easy enough to set up a simple page.

I have website on all my advertising. Very few visits.

Google ads doesn't work either.

Stick to small ads in local through the door mags and the odd ad in
the paper. A few flyers when working in the local area also works.
But keep advertising cheap.

Yell, yellow pages and the like waste of time, avoid.

 

[r896neo]

Whilst recommendation is by far the best I conversly to DC have found very good results from my website. I set it up as a wordpress site which is free and quite straightforward.

The key is ranking well in google. I would say even more important is a google places listing. IF you don;t fancy a full site then a google places page is a must. You can treat it like a mini-website and its much like a facebook page to update etc.

If you live in a small-medium sized town it will definately bring you some work but if you live in a large city the competition will be so high that you don't rank well without a lot of effort.

I live in a town of maybe 15-20000 and am a landscaper so the number of people who are trying to rank well for 'Landscaping holywood' is quite low and of the rest only 1 has a website so i come up at or very near the top.

Search for 'Plumber (insert your town)' and see. You'll notice the google places listings are more prominent than the actual search results and people on a smart phone often simply take one of these numbers and don't bother with the website link.

Personally if i search for a local tradesman or company and a list comes up of say 5 with phone numbers and addresses and only 1 has a website i will always look at the website and probably call them first.

Sorry for the long reply but it has got me quite a few jobs with some very good ones.

I won't put a link to it as i'm sure its considered spam but try 'landscaping holywood' in google and i'm the first google places listing.

 

[dcawkwell]

Whilst recommendation is by far the best I conversly to DC have found very good results from my website. I set it up as a wordpress site which is free and quite straightforward.

The key is ranking well in google. I would say even more important is a google places listing. IF you don;t fancy a full site then a google places page is a must. You can treat it like a mini-website and its much like a facebook page to update etc.

If you live in a small-medium sized town it will definately bring you some work but if you live in a large city the competition will be so high that you don't rank well without a lot of effort.

I live in a town of maybe 15-20000 and am a landscaper so the number of people who are trying to rank well for 'Landscaping holywood' is quite low and of the rest only 1 has a website so i come up at or very near the top.

Search for 'Plumber (insert your town)' and see. You'll notice the google places listings are more prominent than the actual search results and people on a smart phone often simply take one of these numbers and don't bother with the website link.

Personally if i search for a local tradesman or company and a list comes up of say 5 with phone numbers and addresses and only 1 has a website i will always look at the website and probably call them first.

Sorry for the long reply but it has got me quite a few jobs with some very good ones.

I won't put a link to it as i'm sure its considered spam but try 'landscaping holywood' in google and i'm the first google places listing.

I too live in small town approx 20000 people.
If I search for "my town" plumber I am on the first page.
Phones not ringing. No one is following it my website as I track this.
If people aren't buying they aren't buying.

 

[r896neo]

Well thats good info too in order to provide balance. I'm surprised as i find mine has been great. Have you done a google places listing as people often just take a number from that and don;t actually visit the site.

I have got 5/6 big jobs (3000-5000) from it so far this year. Then another 10 or so smaller jobs, just a day or two.

To be fair my line of work is very much sold by pictures of your previous work which isn't exactly relevant for plumbing so that is something for you to bear in mind Blooflame.

(Not saying a very neatly installed cylinder and pipework isn;t very pretty)