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Hello All,
I am joining a local networking group and in the group there is a sales rep for citysearch, which I was told is a sister company of service magic. I searched on our board and didn’t see a lot of information about citysearch so I thought I would do a quick poll and find out how citysearch has worked for everyone. Your additional comments and replies would be appreciated.
FYI – I am going ahead and trying it out on a 3 month contract with a small budget of $350/month. I will be paying a monthly flat fee of $9.95 and $.30 per click on my ad. I figure this will give me a chance at over 1100 clicks. If 1100 people click my ad and I don’t make $350 then there is something seriously wrong there, either with the ad or Citysearch, so it will be a good trial. Although 1100 clicks probably won’t happen, at least I know I will only be paying for the clicks that I do get.
I am one of the ones that hasn’t tried it. I’m sure you have alread thought of this, but throwing it out anyway especially for the new operators. I am always leary to try something new ad wise that will run during my slow season (see 2nd half of Jan, all of Feb, and even some of March can be questionable for me depending on weather). You may not get an accurate representation of how succuessful that medium can be. Don’t know if my slow season coincides with your’s if you have one, but just something to consider. No matter what I do, Feb is always slow, especially when I get a big snow winter like last year. I know you have to spend money to make money, but if there is no demand you’re best to save for the spring rush.
City search has just contacted me last week. I have been looking into the idea very seriously. I told them that I would try them out. I wanted to set a small limit of $80 a month. This is when they told me that the min was $350 . I told them that there was no way I was going to authorize them that much at first and sorry for wasting each others time. He quickly called me back and said that his supervisor said they they could do a flat $100 a month for us. Now for that I might just try them out.
yeah I was told that the minimum was $200. I figure that $350 is going to be hard to max out, like I said before that means 1100 clicks. If I don’t make money on 1100 clicks then something is wrong and I won’t continue. Figured it was worth a shot and I would go after it. Funny how anyone getting paid on commission can always get their boss to “reconsider” and “make exceptions” huh?
Grant do you have a web site. If so what is the site. I am putting mine together right now. I would love to see as many HB sites as possible. The one that I am going to use is going to look alot like the one in Arizona but with just my info, and a few changes.wwwh.heavensbestaz.com
I think that I am going to hammer them down to $100 limit and only pay per click. That is still 270 hits. if I don’t get a job off of that then I can’t see 1100 hits as being effective either.I don’t have a personal website but should probably put one together. It would probably help an ad like citysearch. I have met several graphic designers who build websites but it’s outrageous how much it is for a good one. Are the websites we can get through corporate any good? Anyone have one they can post a link for???
Try out mine and tell me what you think http://www.heavensbestaz.com this is a site for the state of Arizona but you can get the idea. I talked with my web guy and he said that he could do a similar site that is customized for $250 and a $20 a month hosting fee.
wow! Most of the web designers here are charging thousands for sites that don’t look near that great.
Hey Grant, et al,
Let us know how Citysearch works for you. We were just contacted, as well and will be in touch with our representative in the next few days.
Thanks!
Emily and Jesse
Greg, just a heads up on the hosting fee. $20 hosting should get you excellent service, but if he is reselling I doubt its that great. Some good hosts at a great price are these two:
http://www.hostgator.com
http://www.siteground.comEven godaddy would be a bit cheaper, but I’ve been consistently unimpressed with godaddy’s hosting services.
Your web designer may be giving you a great design price in hopes to make his money back by getting you to sign a 2 year hosting contract. I would also ask how much he plans to charge for requests to make updates and changes. Just a few things to watch out for. If you review some of the larger hosting websites you’ll see that $15 will buy some of their top packages.
I’ll be darned…My son in law (April, 07) just started work at Hostgator.com in Houston…daughter started this summer as a geologist at BP. He is a coordinator for those switching hosts. Awesome company and very reasonable rates as well. We are going to bring up a website this next year and use them as our server…
Dave
Update on citysearch. I have been with them for almost two months now. I’ve gotten a total of 1 call that wasn’t even in my area. Needless to say, it has not worked for me and I will not be continuing after my three month contract is up. I even got customers that were close friends to take the time to give me good reviews and so forth. Of course when I talk to my rep with citysearch, they can only say that it takes time to develop an effective presence on the website, which in a way is true, but is also easily said when they are collecting my $$$. My bill is up to $80 so far this month and that means 250+ clicks with no calls. Certainly not worth it in my opinion and fro this area. Hope this helps. I know we have to advertise to make money but this is my experience with this particular advertiser. I would like to know what kind of web presence has worked for other operators. I know that people are searching for carpet cleaning online. Where are they going to find it? And what is the most cost effective way to get good results?
I’ve been hearing a lot about Google’s “click and pay” campaigns. You can go onto Google and set up an adword campaign for your business. You delegate the amount of money you are willing to pay per click onto your website. I’ve been hearing good responses on a good return for the investment.
As I say this, it has taken me a week to have 1/2 of the campaign completed. I am not live yet on Google because it’s taking me a long time to input my keywords for my area. I don’t want clicks from people in Florida when I’m in Georgia. It is very detailed; however, I”m excited about the presence of being on Google. The operation in Maryland and DC has had great results and they are the ones who pushed me towards that advertising option. I’ll keep you posted as we move forward!
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