Do you have a company web site?

[Plow Babe]

Disclaimer: This post is a shameless plug for Chuck Smith


How many of you have a company website?

I always thought of this as something we would look into "down the road," but had not gotten there yet. Then last summer, Chuck made an offer in a forum thread to design a web page for free for the first three people who responded. It had been a few days since his post, so I figured, no way, those three spots are long gone. But just out of curiosity, I responded, and asked for some pricing and info. Well, guess what? He had not gotten three responses yet, so he designed my free web page for my listing in the s-c.com directory. It was so cool, I could hardly stand it, so went ahead and had him design a whole web site.

I have already had considerable customer response from the site, resulting in new contracts, which more that cover 100% of what it cost me to have this done. Plus, it is one more thing that sets us apart from most of the local competition.

If you haven't considered a company web site yet, think about it, even if you are a one-truck business. And, of course, I highly recommend Chuck as the designer/host.

Thank you, Chuck! :burnout

[Snoworks]

I had one for about two years. I did not renew last year, because I wanted to make some changes to the site. I want my new website to be more interactive. Hopefully, I will get my new site up and running by the end of the year.

Chuck B.

[YAKO]

weve had a pretty good response from our website as well.

[Big Nate's Plowing]

mine is in the sig, it is kinda a all in one site, no need to have 3-4 different names for 1 parent company.

[JD PLOWER]

We have had a website for about 18 months now and I have to say I'm not overly impressed with the response. We receive MANY requests from apartment complexes, homeowners, and sub contractors. The problem is we don't wish to plow any of those types of places. Our focus is on large commercial and in particular industrial sites and that type of property manager doesn't seem very "web savvy" in our experiences. We promote the site on all our literature and stationary and I ask how they found us and the number one response has been "through the yellow pages". I think in terms of this particular market many property managers are older than most people who buy things (anything) on the web and simply look for contractors the old fashioned way, in the book. We will continue to to use the web but our expectations are much lower than when we first started the website.

[micah79]

I designed and maintain ours. www.brightonservices.com
I think it is a valuable asset to our business.

[Snoworks]

JD-Plower

Our experience with using a website, was similar to yours. I still believe it will become a big sales tool in the future. Maybee 5 years or so down the road.

I wanted to offer something to my clients that no other contractor could. Like GPS tracking of our trucks if needed, or at least, estimated completion times. I also wanted to try and get up to the minute weather bulletins to them - from our service provider, etc, if needed. Maybee, starting and finish times for plowing events, # of events plowed, etc.

Basically a interactive site, that is usefull to the customer. Something extra that sells my business! Thats where I am headed with my website.

Chuck B.

[WoofsPlow]

micah79 liked your site. The way you set it up and all the availiable neighbor incentives is what makes your site work. People love to beleive they are getting a deal.
pimp

[micah79]

Thanks. The neighbor discounts have worked well for us.

[KenP]

Mine would have been up and running by now if I didn't have a million other taks to tend to. SIMA has a pretty good dael on sites, if anyones looking

[windmill]

So Karen do you still think Chuck has time to do a few more?:) I have one but am a little ashamed of it as I haven't had a lot of time to spend on it and would much rather have someone else design it. I think that I could probably maintain it once it was up, but I'm not sure.
uh . . . Chuck :) :) :)

[khblack]

I have a website not to pleased with it but i am adding things to it. I would like to make more interactive to anyone that has so advice to make it easlier for my future customers would be great! the web site is www.outstandingservices.biz i know stupid now it is in the process of being changed.

[bud16415]

I have a website not to pleased with it but i am adding things to it. I would like to make more interactive to anyone that has so advice to make it easlier for my future customers would be great! the web site is www.outstandingservices.biz i know stupid now it is in the process of being changed.


Looks like a good start.

Making it a little bit more interactive is a good idea. For instance if I could click on snowplowing under winter and then see a picture and some snowplow information. Stuff like that.

You did ask for constructive advice and the only thing that lead me astray was the picture at the top of the tropical beach. After seeing the picture I next went to figure out where you are located and thought “Maine” hmmmmm. I guess I don’t see the tie in between the picture and the services you offer.

Like I said nice start and keep going
Good luck

[LB Landscaping]

Chuck also helped me put with some of the stuff for getting my site up and running. www.mainelandscapesolutions.com It is still a work in progress, got a few things to ad still.

[Ecurb]

Nothing to do with snow as we dont want too grow anymore....sorta on the downward side close to retirement.(i said that 5 years ago LOL):grinz
But it does work for other bussiness.

[A + SNOW SYSTEMS]

We get alot of business off our websites .We are in the new age where most people look up things on computers not phone books !! We used to advertise in the phone books and got a few calls but for spending $1200.00 a month is crazy ! So now we still advertise in the phone books in areas that are expanding but for the most part our website does us just fine and alot less money !!

[hlntoiz]

All the websites look great. I would love to get one up. I just don't have any time. I know it would be worth the cost.

[Rocket]

We have one. In total we have between two and three thousand visitors a month, four to six thousand page views, and more than ten thousand hits a month (all not including spiders). We're still small but it is sort of a hobby for me. I've got customers who get out and landscape to relax. I play with websites to relax.

[Mike Fronczak]

What are the costs for a website? Averages or ball park. To set up? Then host? What else?

[Chuck Smith]

All over the place. I will say there is a HUGE profit for the one creating it. THey act like a simple web site costs a fortune, when in fact it does not. The .com address should be registered by YOU under all circumstances do not let anyone else do it, or they will own YOUR name.

I like Register.com, but there are many cheaper options. Hosting prices are all over the place. Design prices are all over the place too. Many of them make a nice site, some overdo it big time, and don't even get ranked in the search engines. Search engines hate Flash sites, and frame sites. Just my opinion though :rolleyes:

I also suggest never paying for rank, it is not worth it. Again, trust me ;)

I host a few sites for guys on here. If you just want a basic functional site, I can do it. I try to keep it simple. I can also just host it and you can do it yourself with the program of your choice. Most are easy to use. They are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. I do recommend staying away from Yahoo and Register.com for hosting, but that is a personal preference.

~Chuck

[Wizard]

I'm using myhosting.com. Pretty reasonable, 30gigs, 50 pop3 emails, for $10/month. Although I don't take full advantage of all they offer, I still think for what I use it for, it's pretty reasonable. Creating websites is pretty easy if you just want something basic, even microsoft word can create a decent looking page. I currently do everything in straight html, but after a few hours of staring at straight code in notepad, I have to break away. My current obsession is with iFrames and pop-up tool tip windows. Company website is non-existant at this point, but I have created and maintain websites for several volunteer organizations I'm involved with, just no time for a company site, and very little demand for it anyway...

The cost to register a name with MyHosting was $10 I believe, and I own it, not them. I also use their domain forwarding which is also a good option to have multiple site names. Domain forwarding is $10 a year, and if your ISP has web space (most do nowadays) you can put your site there and have yourcompany.com forwarded to it with framing (which keeps the real address semi-invisible).

[ManForAll]

http://www.manforall.com

I get as many estimate requests from the website as I do from the phone book. And, they are usually better leads since phone book callers are generally nickel and dimers who want cut for $10 per lawn.

I designed and maintain the site, and use http://www.1and1.com for our web hosting. I would highly recommend them to anyone for hosting.

[Earthscapes]

I've been using Dotgig for over 3 years now with no problems. Samuel is a great guy and easy to get ahold of in case of any problems. I use Microsoft Frontpage to design everything and I can update it easily 24/7. I use the Dotgig 1000 package. With all the free templates and such on the web, there is no need to pay someone wads of money to design a site for you. Both my sites are in my sig.

Keith