craigslist

[Steve]

Eventually, I discovered a way to eliminate the spam and have gotten a really nice group of clients who never complain and pay on time. What is your advice on how best to screen the spam you get from the site and find good customers?

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[dpld]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by Steve What is your advice on how best to screen the spam you get from the site and find good customers? i am also curious to that as well because unless you leave absolutely no way to contact you it is never going to happen. at best, you may be able knock a small percentage off but eliminate is totally false. if you believe that, i got a nice unicorn for sale if you are interested and i also have a leprechan that knows where the pot of gold is at the end of a rainbow. i will give you a nice package deal if intrested.

[ringahding1]

Originally Posted by Steve

What is your advice on how best to screen the spam you get from the site and find good customers?

On your website have ONE contact page enabled with "Captcha" WordPress is great for this. In the system itself, it provides an add-on or plugin that blocks SPAM, for FREE! That is just one way of controlling spam, now if there were a plugin for your phone that could 100% block spam..lol

[dpld]

Originally Posted by ringahding1

On your website have ONE contact page enabled with "Captcha" WordPress is great for this. In the system itself, it provides an add-on or plugin that blocks SPAM, for FREE! That is just one way of controlling spam, now if there were a plugin for your phone that could 100% block spam..lol

what about CL being a captcha enabled web site? would you be able to do the same for a reply in your ad on CL ?

i have that on my web page but at the same time it does nothing for me if my phone # and email is on the site and only really helps you if they want to contact you directly through your website.

it just seems to make things a hassle for anyone intrested in your service looking to contact you and for a new guy starting out it would seem that he would want to make himself more easily accessible.

even though i am not a fan of CL from a business perspective i still would not knock anyone for using it and if it is working for a particular individual i would say god bless them.
as i said earlier CL varies greatly from state to state and the people i see that think it is the bees knees are in PA, illinois and the west coast and i easily could envision it being a totally different crowd in those area's but if you were in Northern NJ CL you would definitly be singing a different tune.

being close to New York and just in the general tri state area with the population so congested as well as all the scumbag theives seem to congregate here that the probabillity of getting burned is high.

[ringahding1]

Post your URL and I will take a look for you. As far as the Craigs Ad is concerned, make your ad somewhat OUTSTANDING and then when you get a hit off it, it won't be someone trying to scam you...this is not 100% full proof.

If you're placing pictures of your work like you are on your site, and maybe just str8 out offering a discount, you wont' have to worry about the Cheap customer. Who would say instead of the "10% off" discount is going to try and suggest you give them a 15% instead?

I can't suggest anything about your website if I don't know how you rank in your area or analyze it. I can say this is the only way we're found as we don't need Craigslist or the phonebook, although I will place an CL Ad that looks like it's only for serious clients.

I've had a CL ad running for a few months now and haven't received one piece of spam.

You post an ad with an image advertisement like jymie explained. All contact information is on the "flyer". Keep your contact info as anonymous and keep it on the flyer only.

Spambots can't read fliers so they do not get your email address.

So far 3 of my clients are from CL, I have performed work for each of them and 2 of them have given me a tip for great work. I do understand CL does have people lookin to save a buck, but to say it's a waste of time is silly. It should by no means be your only method, but it's far from a waste of time.

[Hedgemaster]

Originally Posted by dpld

i am also curious to that as well because unless you leave absolutely no way to contact you it is never going to happen.

at best, you may be able knock a small percentage off but eliminate is totally false.

if you believe that, i got a nice unicorn for sale if you are interested and i also have a leprechan that knows where the pot of gold is at the end of a rainbow.

i will give you a nice package deal if intrested.

I'm not really interested in the unicorn, but if you can make me a good deal on both, I can sell the unicorn on Craigslist and make a profit.





Seriously. I've not received one spam email, phone call, or singing telegram.

I realize it's hard to believe because some people like to brag, but honestly, not an ounce of spam. I can't believe it myself - it's why I avoided CL like the plague initially. I had placed a listing there a few years ago when I was looking for work in an unrelated field and I received nothing BUT spam.


I did exactly as Saber just mentioned. My phone and email are on the ad, but spambots can't "see" them.
I know people are lazy and would rather "click" a link to a website, but for the sake of preventing spammers, I can accept that I may miss out on a few clients. The "email" contact that people can click on is the CL contact email. If they want to reach me via my normal email, they have to read it and type it.

Here's the thread I started when I first posted my ad...
http://www.gopherforum.com/showthrea...ght=craigslist

[dpld]

Originally Posted by Hedgemaster

I'm not really interested in the unicorn, but if you can make me a good deal on both, I can sell the unicorn on Craigslist and make a profit.





Seriously. I've not received one spam email, phone call, or singing telegram.

I realize it's hard to believe because some people like to brag, but honestly, not an ounce of spam. I can't believe it myself - it's why I avoided CL like the plague initially. I had placed a listing there a few years ago when I was looking for work in an unrelated field and I received nothing BUT spam.


I did exactly as Saber just mentioned. My phone and email are on the ad, but spambots can't "see" them.
I know people are lazy and would rather "click" a link to a website, but for the sake of preventing spammers, I can accept that I may miss out on a few clients. The "email" contact that people can click on is the CL contact email. If they want to reach me via my normal email, they have to read it and type it.

Here's the thread I started when I first posted my ad...
http://www.gopherforum.com/showthrea...ght=craigslist

hey i am not knocking it as a whole i am just giving my perspective from my region.
your in pittsburg and one dude is in st louis and another is in minnesota and another is southern california.
i think it is safe to say that the 5 locations includeing mine have absolutely nothing in common with each other from A to Z from food to people even right down to our local economy's.
it's funny, what i do for humor is i will go on CL and go all around the country and visit all the locations and go right to the rants and raves board on each areas board and you can get a good pulse of a region on these boards.

some area's like in cally the people are all mellow and easy going and a typical post will be "RANT: went to tito's burrito's and they are killer".
and you get to the midwest and they are typical civil rants or raves and then you get to the northern nj boards and its full of piss and vinegar and the only boards i have seen as bad as nj's is philidelphia.
it amazes me in how many miserable people there are where i live and call home.
but in a nutshell that is how it is here, people drive a million miles per hour and if you even make someone even twitch for the brake pedal they will want to run you off the road and have a battle royale to the death over it.
you go to the food store and if you stop you will be plowed over.
home owners here within 5 minutes on the phone have 10 landscapers coming over to give them a price on their lawn.
in this state the way people are they will spare no expense and not make one exception to have that 80,000 car in the driveway or that McMansion they live in or the 5 vacations a year.
and the lifestyle they live forces them to have to cut corners and they usually do to the easiest guy in town to beat up, the landscaper.

9 out of 10 home owners watch these home improvement shows and think they know what they are doing or on a construction job they think they are gonna GC the job and they think they are gonna get everything done at a sub contractor rate and it always ends as a nightmare .
and that is who you are gonna get calling you on the nnj CL board and that is why i would never use it myself.


i do all commercial properties and have not done any residential work in 5 years and i don't plan on doing work for home owners any time soon if ever so CL serves me no use as well i was in business before there ever was a internet so fortunately i have never had to rely on the internet too much for work.

the internet is a valuble tool and i have incorporated it into my business over the years but my point is in this day of technology that some of the older tride and true methods that get overseen still work today. some of them in the end build you a better customer base and if you want to get into the big jobs and high dollar customers you need to be more hands on and approach these people more directly and that is something anyone can do whether you are just starting out or been at it a while.

[jford1995]

i am a teen that loves working hard and loves working in the landscape industry. i do work for some people doing a different job but ive never worked for anyone doing lawn care and i do not want to. i want to make a career out of this and i know cl is not the best source to gain customers. what do you suggest is the best way to grow in the lawn care industry?

Originally Posted by dpld

from day one you need to properly advertise to get your business the right customers for your business.
just any customer is not what a business needs to grow, well, maybe if you got a corner store but in the landscape industry you need specific types of consumers to prosper and i know it varies from state to state with CL but one thing is certain the consumers i am talking about don't exist on CL in any state.

i would not want to be the owner of a business full of CL customers because most of these people allready know what it is gonna cost and then they turn to CL to see if they can find some hard up sap to do it even cheaper.
if you think small thats all you will ever be small and if all you are looking to do is replace a paycheck from a old job and say you are your own boss then you might as well go back and get your old job back because it will be a lot less of a hassle and probably more profitable.

as the old saying goes nothing good in life is free or easy.

[ringahding1]

Just messing around on CL tonight, so in response to your thread decided to make an ad for serious customers, so you can view it. Craigslist AD

Honestly we have probably received and performed roughly 10 requests for services this past year, advertising on CL...I do know what you are talking about though.