On Line Lead Resources Please...

Spectatorz

LOL...!!!!!
Most certainly I ask people how they got my number. There are many ways for us to be found as you all know. The bottom line is the membership at Contractor.com is what started the flow of calls from the internet for us.
The lead credits come from the people at Respond.com since it is set up the way you say. Details, Details. I was giving the mega short version of all the information, Pardon me if I sound ignorant.
I just know they are advertising our business in a way that most of us would not be able to otherwise. The peple at Contractor.com are launching a new advertising program that wil be using Radio and TV ads to promote their services among other improvements being made. Unless you actually try one or more of these services and see what the affects are you cant say what it will or wont do for you. If you work the system, it should work. I am still trying to make it work. As with most things, some people succeed quickly and others not.

Nathan

Has anyone used http://www.reliableremodeler.com

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Grumpy

Spec, The way you made it sound was as if someone copied contractors.com. Infact that's exactly what you did say. All I did was point out you too can have your own referral site, and it would look pretty much the same as contractorhunt.com and contractor.com

Nate, At my last job we got a few leads from them. 5-6 a month. Not bad really.

I just went through my extensive list of lead services and signed up for each one with my new company. That took a good few hours.

Grumpy

Spec, did you pay the $900 flat out or break it down into monthly payments?

Spectatorz

Grumpy you are Absolutely correct in thats what I said. Whether or not thats what they did is not as important as this :
I did in Fact Pay Money to associate our company with Contractors.com and get us all the bells and whistles that go with that. Never did we agree that this would allow any other lead service to represent us as a member or an associate of their organization.They do not send me any leads at all. The information they have posted on our company is an exact copy of what we wrote for our paid membership. I contacted the people in charge at C.com and they told me there was "No Affiliation" between them and the people at C-Hunt. Truth or not is irrelevent to me.
As we see this matter it will be as if you or any other contractor, handyman or plumber would paint a sign on their truck advertising " In Association With Home Depot" as if there were an agreement other than being able to buy materials at their stores. It just isnt TRUE.
What I paid for the "Gold" package was less than $900 since it was a few months ago.I did pay in Full.
To my knowledge just signing up with these lead sources gets you a sample of leads and in order to actually get real info on the prospective customer costs money. They will be contacting you soon in order to sell you the "Full Monty"
I could be wrong but if I were a customer thinking about using the internet for a contractor search, Contractor.com would be the First thought to come into my mind in order to see what that would get me. Not Service... Not Reliable...Not Respond... or any other blah blah blah. It just seems reasonable to me, but what do I know ?

Mike Finley

Wow, you freaken guys confused the hell out of me!

I'm working on Servicemagic and Improvenet. Contractors.com for $495-$995 seems too steep without a money back guarantee or a trial period. I don't know about their system. They basically try to get a consumer to contact you directly through a directory system like a phone book, you are basically paying that big money to get a listing that shows ahead of the free listings. So the consumer is supposed to see your listing and contact you directly. Any other leads you want you have to pay for, but you can't access them unless you have a paid listing with them.

All this other stuff you guys are talking about with copies and driving phone calls because of your contractors.com listing is confusing me. If it is all shared leads, couldn't I just sign up with a cheaper affiliate and get the leads from them?

I was also under the impression that Servicemagic was the big dog on the block, but it doesn't sound like anybody else agrees.

HVAC Doc

I have used these folks in the past http://www.buildcentral.com/ with mixed results. Some jobs that I have bid on I didn't get but ended up on the list for a different project by the same company in a different location. Only problem was so many of the jobs were too far out of town for a company my size to bid competetively.

Spectatorz

Mr. Finley,
Allow me to clear up some confusion here.
To my knowledge S-magic does not allow the freedom to control the number of leads purchased as well as C.com.
First of all, if you go to Contractor.com (C.com in future ref) they will allow you to sign up for a "Free" membership also known as a "Bronze" status.
This will get your business a listing at the site somewhere under all the other guys there before you.After you set this up then they will start sending "Samples" of the Leads to your e-mail for the category of service you are listed in. To my knowledge the only way a member at that level can buy the info is to set up an acount thru a direct deposit from you to them or a Card on file with them. Either way you are encouraged to pay for a member upgrade to at least the "Silver" level and a higher rated location on the list.
I know this because it is what I did in the begining, and watched closely for 3 months before making the move to buy.
The phonebook type listing is part of the package just not the primary reason for membership. Paid listings at "Silver" or "Gold" come with so called "Free Lead Credits" included in your member price. I dont know what it is now, but I got $200 worth with my mebership,of that I have spent over $300 buying leads and thru credits for bogus leads, now still have $80 worth left.Leads cost anywhere from $2.50 to $24 it depends on what you want.
The listing I got is "Location Specific" and that is the leads from a zip code or county in a certain field like "Drywall" or "Painting" and whatever are the only ones I am sent. We like this because we can see the general info on the leads before we decide to pay for it. The other services dont exactly work like this as far as I know. They have been calling me since I listed with C.com.
And "No, they Do Not Share The Leads"
I am not trying to sell anybody anything, just explaining what I know.

Grumpy

Spec, I am pretty sure you have no idea what I was trying to tell you so I am dropping it, after I try one last time to summarize all this into one paragraph.

It's all the same network with a different name, respond.com contractors.com contractorhunt.com and many others. It doesn't matter who you give your money to, the leads all appear on all the sites in the network. There is absolutely NO difference.

Spectatorz

Thanks Grumpy !!!

I am sure we all want to know just how it is that you know all the leads are the same for everyone ??? Are you telling us it is a conspiracy to make money by a certain group of people?
I am pretty sure you are telling me that we are being played. If that is anywhere near the truth then let me ask YOU :
Why did you spend all that time registering with all those lead sources?

Grumpy

I am a member of contractor.com respond.com and contractorhunt.com How's that for an answer? I joined respond.com MANY YEARS ago. I joined contractors.com on their free service about 2 years ago. I joined contractorhunt.com when nate built it, infact I was the one that turned nate onto respond.com when he brought up the idea of building a lead service program.

I joined respond.com for the leads, at the time I didn't know how they worked. No big deal I got lots of leads. I joined contractor.com for the leads and directory not knowing it was the same. Right away I realized it was the same when I started getting duplicate leads. I joined contractorhunt.com because Nate built it and I'd rather he get my commission that some corporate stranger.

Respond.com is an affiliate system like any other.

Nathan

No, they are called affiliate programs. Someone creates a software engine, in this case a leads engine, and other websites act as marketing agents to get more members. These affiliates get paid per lead that they send to the main company, in this case Respond.com.

No ones getting played... its how the web works.

Another example. I just started a new site www.protooldepot.com (lots of work left) This site is an affiliate site of Amazon.com. All the tools I sell through this site are the same as the ones on Amazon.com. I'm just sending them leads and I get paid for them.

Hope this helps.

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Mike Finley

Okay - Spectatorz - some things may have changed since you joined, or I may not understand exactly how c.com works, but I did sign up for it and read everything pretty well. I joined the bronze (Free) level thinking that was all I had to do to be able to buy leads, but then found out that in order to buy leads you have to upgrade to a silver (495) or gold membership (995). I don't know if they are going to tease me and send examples of leads, according to their FAQs those are only available with a paid membership. In my opinion the free directory listing is worthless and had I know that was all I was getting I would have skipped it.


To everyone else: if contractor.com respond.com and contractorhunt.com are all using the same leads, and I don't want to pay the $495 to contractors.com for a silver diretory listing just to buy leads, do respond.com and contractorhunt.com use the same model as contractors.com or can you buy leads without paying a minimum $495 annual membership fee? If that is the case I could see myself using one of them to skip the high annual membership fee.

The fact that all these leads sites are playing such games is leading me to believe that their leads aren't going to be worth a damn. If they had a great product why do they need to jerk around everybody with their little games? Just let contractors buy the leads and be done with it!

How far away will it be before some genius changes it to a auction system where you set a high bid and the highest bids get the leads first and then they go down to the next bidder and the next based on the amount of your bid?



(by the way it is contractors.com not contractor.com unless we are talking about 2 different sites here)

Grumpy

Mike you asked if you can buy leads from contractorhunt.com without paying $495 and the answer is yes. I think you sign up with a min depsoite of $50 which is credited 100% twoards the purchase of future leads. I am fairly sure respond.com works the same way. Consult with Nate before signing up if he plans to keep contractorhunt.com as part of his services. It seems like the folks at respond.com aren;t the easiest people to work with on his end.

Mike, you asked if the leads were worth a damn, and they truly are. I do beliee they max out the leads at 4 contractors, and you can see how old a lead is AND how many contractors have already accepted. I do pretty good with these leads. LIke I say to everyone when discussing lead services you have to be agressive. You have to call the customer immediately and introduce yourself or don't bother accepting the lead.

Either site contractors.com or contractor.com is the same. I just typed both into my browser and saw the same site.

Mike Finley

Well, I'm sorry to find out that Contractorhunt.com doesn't supply leads for any of the services I provide, no remodelling, no bathrooms, kitchens, basments or decks! The sign up sheet only give you these choices for leads

Electrician - General
Heating / Cooling Install
Heating / Cooling Repair
Maid Services
Pest Control
Plumber
Sewer / Septic - Clean
Sewer / Septic - Install
Termite Inspect / Control
Water Heater - Install
Home Security
Home Wiring
Indoor Lighting
Outdoor Lighting

Nathan

They have more...

"Can't find the category you need? Call 1-866-638-5323 (703-259-4457) for assistance."

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

ContractorMike

You missed one that we've had great success with-- www.HomeImprovementPortal.com

Most of the ones you listed are either non-exclusive, not that great, or both.

Grumpy

As said in another post I don't care if they are non exclusive. Why should I? I am a salesman. I like the compitition. It's like a sport for me.

RespondRep

I see there was a lot of discussion about Respond.com I found these forums and simply wanted to say "hi" My name is Bradley Blinn, Marketing Director at Respond.com If you have questions regarding your service at Respond, please feel free to email me at: blinnb (at) respond.com or call me at 703-259-4303

I'll be happy to answer questions within this forum as well. I look forward to participating in these forums, as time permits.

Best Regards,

Bradley Blinn
Marketing Director
Respond.com
703 259 4303