internet hits and leads - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Home Serve · 10-02-2007, 05:38 PM

Hey folks:
How about leads/hits on the internet during typical slow months? We have a good friend that will put us up a web site and for 150 per month put us up and promise us so many hits a month. This is with a major company I'm not for sure which one however I could find out. The thing is it will take 30 days to get it up and active which will be into November. Nov-Dec-Jan-Feb are typically VERY slow for us doing exterior remodeling (windows-doors-siding). We would love to have some work during this period windows in particular however I am aprehensive about actually getting any work during this period even off the internet. Can you give me some feedback on this??????? Do you get leads during this period in your experience??
Thanks,
David

Bill · 10-02-2007, 05:50 PM

well, I tried it, did not like it. If I go to google, type in plumber, richmond, va I come up with 692,000 links for plumber. Now if each one of these sites lists 100 plumbers each, the odds I have now are 1 in 69,200,000
I dont like them odds

Mike Finley · 10-02-2007, 06:05 PM

1,000,000 hits a month from people who are searching for "Brittany Spears Beaver" landing on your site won't sell too many windows.

Quality over quantity always in marketing.

Home Serve · 10-02-2007, 06:19 PM

Just for your info I've spent some time researching internet sales/marketing on this forum and other forums in the service business. Several service type business owners have reported good results from internet marketing. Some responses that I have seen folks say that it is the only form of marketing they do. Obviously these guys are happy with their online results. Maybe they will share what works and what doesn't. It's a big world out there and I'm sure that you can waste plenty of time and $$$$ going down the wrong road. I'm a novice at internet marketing so anything I learn will be a plus.
Thanks,
Dave

shed-n-deck · 10-02-2007, 06:33 PM

Keep in mind that there is a difference between hits and visits....A hit occurs anytime that an image is called, a CSS file is called, etc....So if you get 1 visit to 1 page, that 1 visit might produce 20 or more hits, depending on how many external files are being called from that page(images, javascript, css, etc.). I have a site that in the busy season gets over 1,000,000 hits in a month, but I only made $5.00 in ads on that site in it's busiest month ever.

What's truly important are visits. Now, anybody can get you 1,000, 10,000, even 1,000,000 visits in any given month, there are services out there that do just that. What you need is targeted traffic. For $150.00 per month, you will need to get results. I personally would never pay a per month fee when the best targeted traffic you will ever get is traffic that searches for, and finds, your site. 99% of the time, that visitor will find you using a major internet search engine.

Nobody can ever guarantee a number of targeted organic visits with out fully understanding the market they are guaranteeing those visits for. If they are giving you different options, like 1000 visits for $xxx or 10000 visits for $xxx, then they will send you untargeted, and therefore useless, traffic.

Home Serve · 10-02-2007, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shed-n-deck

What's truly important are visits. Now, anybody can get you 1,000, 10,000, even 1,000,000 visits in any given month, there are services out there that do just that. What you need is targeted traffic. For $150.00 per month, you will need to get results. I personally would never pay a per month fee when the best targeted traffic you will ever get is traffic that searches for, and finds, your site. 99% of the time, that visitor will find you using a major internet search engine.

Nobody can ever guarantee a number of targeted organic visits with out fully understanding the market they are guaranteeing those visits for. If they are giving you different options, like 1000 visits for $xxx or 10000 visits for $xxx, then they will send you untargeted, and therefore useless, traffic.

David, The sales guy for this internet marketing will promise to deliver us a certain number of "targeted" visits. I'm not exactly sure how many it is because I kind of wrote it off due to the time of year it is. The company that he is with puts up a site as part of your fee but the site can only be accessed thru their search engines or whatever (you could not use it for other uses). The customers find you by searching for the service you offer if the customer has an ip address that is in your zone or whatever they call it. It's tied into the search engine thing and the monthly fee depends on how large of a zone that you want to target with your service the way I understand it. Like I say I'm new at internet marketing. I'd check out exactly what they promise to deliver before I signed on the dotted line. I'm concerned about the monthly fee thru the winter time if you know what I mean.
Thanks,
Dave

shed-n-deck · 10-02-2007, 07:03 PM

If your winter months are quiet, and if you don't mind me making a suggestion, you could get your own targeted traffic with just a little effort. If what you have is time, but are lacking on money (like me), that might be a great way to go. I know a bit about internet marketing, so if you need any advice, it's free, and if I don't know how to help you, I know people that can (free too).

Home Serve · 10-02-2007, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shed-n-deck

If your winter months are quiet, and if you don't mind me making a suggestion, you could get your own targeted traffic with just a little effort. If what you have is time, but are lacking on money (like me), that might be a great way to go. I know a bit about internet marketing, so if you need any advice, it's free, and if I don't know how to help you, I know people that can (free too).

Yes David we get plenty of quiet time in winter unless we do a job for the family for cheap or something.
Maybe that would be a way to go and I appreciate the offer to help.
Guess my first thing would be to buy a domain and get started on a site. Where did you get your domain?
I did talk to a guy at church that will set up a site for cheap if we supply him with info. I need to get out there and take a bunch of pictures to post because to me it seems there is a lot of visual needed.
Thanks,
Dave

sonny · 10-02-2007, 08:01 PM

Contact Mike Hall at http://www.webfirstcreations.com/ . I found his company thru this website. Mike is a very knowledgeable guy & very helpful & no one is more fair in pricing that Mike and he will work within your budget. I don't usually recommend anyone but am just returning the favor that someone did for me. No doubt about it in today's market you better have a website - and nothing is cooler than coming home and finding requests for estimates in your email.

Sonny

Home Serve · 10-02-2007, 08:05 PM

Thanks Sonny, will contact him on your recommendation.
How is response to your site and are you getting some interest and best of all work off of it?
What is your web site?
Dave

**Ed the Roofer** · 10-02-2007, 08:19 PM

Some other members use them. You should check out their website and see if you like what they have to offer.

Their are paid sponsors on this site and each of them have wonderful feedback from satisfied CT members who you can explore for the same, if not less investment per month.

Ed

dougchips · 10-02-2007, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonny

Contact Mike Hall at http://www.webfirstcreations.com/ . I found his company thru this website. Mike is a very knowledgeable guy & very helpful & no one is more fair in pricing that Mike and he will work within your budget. I don't usually recommend anyone but am just returning the favor that someone did for me. No doubt about it in today's market you better have a website - and nothing is cooler than coming home and finding requests for estimates in your email.

Sonny

If you don't mind find somebody else other than Mike. My local organic searches (boston window contractor) have really good placement and my national ones (window contractor) are finally moving toward the first page. If he creates a site for you it will only hurt my national keywords. I don't mean to be greedy but find some other trade other than windows or look for another SEO/design guy.

dougchips · 10-02-2007, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Home Serve

Hey folks:
How about leads/hits on the internet during typical slow months? We have a good friend that will put us up a web site and for 150 per month put us up and promise us so many hits a month. This is with a major company I'm not for sure which one however I could find out. The thing is it will take 30 days to get it up and active which will be into November. Nov-Dec-Jan-Feb are typically VERY slow for us doing exterior remodeling (windows-doors-siding). We would love to have some work during this period windows in particular however I am aprehensive about actually getting any work during this period even off the internet. Can you give me some feedback on this??????? Do you get leads during this period in your experience??
Thanks,
David

I'll try to pick one apart.

Slow months are just slow, people will not buy snow shoes in July.

A good friend does not charge $150 per month for a website.

Hits are like measuring the air volume outside on a windy day, the term does not mean much.

Your friend owns a major we company and you don't know the name of it?

If the design of your site takes 30 days you will not see much organic (free) traffic for a few months. If you want traffic without waiting a few months you will need a PPC campaign which cost money. The keywords for windows cost money and PPC fraud can kill you if you have a limitied budget.

There are a bunch of pay per hit "drive traffic to your site" campaigns out there if you want people from China clicking on your site all day. Nobody, not even someone who claims to be your friend can promise you a volume of traffic on your site. I'm not talking about hits, I am talking about someone who visits you site and actually spends time looking at your pages because they have an interest in your goods or services.

To sum up my response, you do not have time to get a website up and running for free organic listings before your slow season. A crappy PPC campaign will not make you money. I know this for a fact, I have not made any money (or not much money) from any of my PPC campaigns (I need a coach).

shed-n-deck · 10-03-2007, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Home Serve

Yes David we get plenty of quiet time in winter unless we do a job for the family for cheap or something.
Maybe that would be a way to go and I appreciate the offer to help.
Guess my first thing would be to buy a domain and get started on a site. Where did you get your domain?
I did talk to a guy at church that will set up a site for cheap if we supply him with info. I need to get out there and take a bunch of pictures to post because to me it seems there is a lot of visual needed.
Thanks,
Dave

I use godaddy for my domain names. I have also used namecheap, yahoo domains, and several others, but godaddy is my favorite.

I host using resellerzoom, I have a huge account and can add up to 125 websites for $5.00 per month. The servers are good, but their customer service is only good when you promise contact with the BBB(true story). Customer service aside, any other technical problems that have occurred on my hosting plan have been handled every single time within a few minutes. I've been with them since September of 2006.

If you are just looking at hosting a single site, then hostingzoom would be sufficient. I would suggest that you stay clear from hosting providors that are primarily domain registrars. Go for an account with cPanel, it's the simplest to use and comes loaded with tons of free scripts.

MattCoops · 10-04-2007, 07:40 AM

the 150 a month is probably to help pay for a ppc campaign

LubDub · 10-06-2007, 04:45 PM

$150/month seems pretty cheap to me. I have a lot of experience in internet marketing, and to get a site up (design, programming, etc.) takes a lot of time and money - unless, of course, they throw up a cheap looking template. Still it takes time and there are hosting costs and what not. I don't know why people go so cheap when it comes to paying for internet stuff. You don't find people in the construction industry charging such low prices (unless they mow lawns). The old adage "You get what you pay for" is true even in the online world.

If you want the best conversion rates, hire a salesman.
If you want cheap marketing that works 24/7 get a website.

MattCoops · 10-08-2007, 11:28 AM

We paid $25 for domain registration, pay nothing for hosting (through DotEasy), and I did all the design and html markup.

So you can get away with getting a deal for putting together a website that brings you customers.

screening · 10-01-2008, 03:54 PM

Good point

epoxy floor guy · 10-02-2008, 09:55 PM

From what I am hearing is that you are looking for a way to get jobs NOW and are concerned that the "easy" temptation of web marketing has caught your eye by you are not sure if you will get your $$$ back. RIGHT?

Here is my take.

Take the $150

Send a 'flier' or 'offer' to your PREVIOUS clients.

Let them know about ALL the services you provide. Maybe they had you install windows but did not know you also install Patio doors, or Storm doors.

Maybe offer to do a "home energy audit" for FREE. Then reccomend energy saving improvements that you can do for them.

Maybe introduce a NEW product or service that you are now providing.

YOUR PREVIOUS customers are a HUGE opportunity for more $$

Unless you were RUN OFF of every job you did in the last five years there is certainly lots of opportunities for you to pick up some work.

The best thing about selling to previous customers is: they know you, know what to expect from you AND are LIKELY to trust you. SO even if THEY are not in the market, a lot of them may send you referrals initiated from your letter.

tinner666 · 10-03-2008, 05:32 AM

Domains are only $6.95 and you can have a site up in 2 hours. Or go for high dollar domain seller and pay $9.95 and have a site up in 2 hours. It's all about 'keywords'. A little research will go a long way.

I think I paid $156. for the next 5 years of hosting on my site. Which I cobbled together and update every week or so. If you're into spending $150. per month, let me suggest you BUY MS Office with Frontpage and save that $150. per month and do it yourself. You'll be slow anyway and learning what works will be helpfull and you'll have full control of your site. Most here can give free advice, including me.

Guaranteed hits? Possible involves 'blackhat' techniques which works GREAT for several months or so. Then, google realizes what's going on, and bans your site from it's search engine and you lose all traffic.

Call me today. Cell # is on Albert's roofing site.