Advertising in Thomson local

[cjones]

HI ALL

Had a rep from thomson come round to try an sell me an advertising package, he was a good salesman and claimed all sorts and reckoned at the least ide get four calls a month from it. I'm sceptical and i'm sure some of you already advertise in thomson,

so is it any good?

[grumpygrouter]

How much was he asking for?

[Ultimate Tiling]

I've just spent £940 with thompson.
Good salesman cos when we came around I only intended to have a little ad in their!
Endes up with a website and everything.

[cjones]

well for what i wanted originally the salesman quoted £1500-£1600. But after a bit of choping and changeing he said £750.

[tiler burden]

if you are going to use one of the directories then simply use the one thats mostly read ie yellow pages

or another angle would be to get a website built for around 500 quid and use yell.com for around 365 with a couple of surrounding areas....try and imagine or uses the internet for work and who uses a directory??

[grumpygrouter]

Seems a lot of money to me. I am sure it could be better spent driving around conservatory companies, builders plumbers etc. Then at least you can speak to peple face to face.

With directories such as these there is no guarantee of any repsonse!

[brian c]

never had a call from yell.com but had a good few from yellow pages.

[tiler burden]

its weird isnt it bri,

3 years ago i spent 2k on a largish ad in yellow pages....got 2 calls over 2 years

last year i did the above and got 38 calls in the year of which i got 11 jobs out of. i suppose its all abit hit and miss really. the only good thing about using one of the books is that you look reputable and established over a period of time. its a reference point for people to locate you also...i suppose you have to go with wohat works best for the individual..

ed

[charlie1]

I've just spent £940 with thompson.
Good salesman cos when we came around I only intended to have a little ad in their!
Endes up with a website and everything.

Hi UT,

£940 seems a lot to be spending at the start of your carreer. Have you persued all free options first ie business cards, flyers and sign written van, I know there is an initial outlay for this but I would make sure I had done all this first before parting with that kind of money in the early days.

£78 pm seeems a lot mate considering it would need to bring you 1-2 enquieres pm to be worth while.

Do you get many enquieres from your add mate?

[cjones]

i agree it is exspensive for what is essentially a gamble.
However im looking to break into the bathroom refit market in a different area,
and i think this maybe the way to do it .

cheers

[Ultimate Tiling]

Hi UT,

£940 seems a lot to be spending at the start of your carreer. Have you persued all free options first ie business cards, flyers and sign written van, I know there is an initial outlay for this but I would make sure I had done all this first before parting with that kind of money in the early days.

£78 pm seeems a lot mate considering it would need to bring you 1-2 enquieres pm to be worth while.

Do you get many enquieres from your add mate?

It is expensive but that includes a pro website which they are going to build and all the google credits ect.
I am also doing the free stuff as i get time.
That should cover most of my online advertising because of google and thompson.co.uk

I'll keep records of where my enquirys come from and review it next year.

The salesman also said if it doesn't work I get gthe same amount of moneys worth to spend next year with thompson as well.

[robbo]

As Grumpy pointed out speaking to other trades sparkies, plumbers and general builders etc) and getting your name about like that can be really valuable, i get a lot of work through other trades recommending me and i do likewise for them..

[CLAYS TILES]

well for what i wanted originally the salesman quoted £1500-£1600. But after a bit of choping and changeing he said £750.

ru sure he was from thompson local??
the new book is out this month so be careful!
i've paid £200 for my advert,i'm sure the dearest was £495!
ru sure you've not been conned or was it yellow pages?? that can cost upto £1500 for the year

[ad tiling]

if you have a free ad with yell.com you should get a free line in the book
when the next copy is due for print they will phone and phone and phone again to make your ad bigger for a price, then wait, haggle (150 in the bag)

[cjones]

My name is already out there with other trades and i get a constant flow of work through word of mouth,

however i would like to be doing whole bathroom refits and the only way of doing this is to get directly in contact with customers and to do this I think advertising is essential.

Thanks for your comments

[whitebeam]

Was in the thompson many years had a advert quite a big box, Never had a single call in a year did,nt bother after that

[ryanmc0305]

mate why dont you just make your own website ! and theres loads of sites that allows free advertising ! i made a website in like five minutes ! have a look RMC Tiling LTD | No job to big or small you can then submit your site name to google and haypresto your on google search page ( takes 14 days tho ) . thats all they do when they charge you for it ! i made mine on Freewebs.com - Free website, free hosting, free webpage - Make a web site with photo albums, blogs, videos, forums and more! !

Damn maybe i should of charged you for that info lol !!!!!!

[Dan]

JESUS! What an outlay for a business for just an advert!

The Sun can do you a better deal and hits more locals I'm sure!

I recommend you always use the free listings - as customers will look at those too whilst they're on the page - but I'd recommend investing that cash in advertising more uniquely personally.

[Dan]

you can then submit your site name to google and haypresto your on google search page ( takes 14 days tho )

Doesn't work quite like that. And it doesn't take 14 days. It can be quite quickly - just a few days - or ages - months.

You're best getting a couple of links from already indexed websites. And you don't need to submit to google or any search engine to list in google or any search engine. You just need links to your website.

Are you actually ranking for "Tiler in yourlocalarea" with that website then?

[ryanmc0305]

Thanks for my first thanks dan the man !!!!

[ryanmc0305]

just goin on what your sayin dan , links do help to move you up the page also key words such as (in my case say "liverpool tiler") but acording to google your website has to be submitted to them for you to apear in there search !

Are you actually ranking for "Tiler in yourlocalarea" with that website then?
What do you mean by that ?

[Oli]

He means when you do a google search for tiler in liverpool, does your site appear in the search results.

[Oli]

And the answer to the question is yes, your site is ranked on the 1st page of results when 'tiler in liverpool' is searched.

[ryanmc0305]

oh , i see ! and yes it is on the 1st page so i must of done somethin right lol !

[whitebeam]

I get work thru other trades and recommend them for work not that the plumbers/heating engineers need it

[Ultimate Tiling]

I've just been on the phone to manager at Thompson Local.
After filling an order form out for the website I ordered (£950 package) they informed me that I could not make any changes to my website without going to a higher package which was about £250 per year more. The sales rep told me that they would not update website but i could.

When I got talking to the manager I also found out that this £950 is renable after a year and if I cancel I just get the domain name back NO WEBSITE!!!

This completly the opposite of what the salesman told me, he said I paid for a website to be built so it would be mine if i did not renew my package!

Anyway ive cancelled that package and look like having a go at building one on my own and getting it ranked.

If anyone is going down the thompson website package way pm me if you need any advice as i am now an expert on their T&C after having over an hour on the phone canceling it!!!

[ryanmc0305]

see my previous post mate ! that should help you out !!! if you need any help that is lol !

[ourhandyman]

I just got a call from Thompson local today trying to sell me website advertising. She tried to convince me that they do something so special with getting us noticed on google that no one else does. She called it. "embeding spiders on my website" I intreigated her further to explain what she meant and all she was talking about was keyword and optimisation for them.

I have done this myself for over 6 years. Who do they think there are kidding. It should not be allowed as most people do not understand the terminology they can con them into a sale. If you want help in SEO then Ill help you all I can when my free time permits. Dont pay for the over expensive SEO that they are offering.

Hope this is helpfull

Al
www.ourhandyman.co.uk

[mikethetile]

I got a call today from aquagoogle whoever they are

well impressed with his patter, I wish I could do that

so for only £120 a month I can have a website that will be in the top 5 on page one with 1700 hits a month

he reckons on 170 leads from that

now then what am I going to do with 170 leads a month

[ourhandyman]

Ill share them with you once you have paid for the advert.