I am not aware of any other job lead service that lets up to 50 people who are (a) looking for someone in your line of work (b) in your area and (c) deliberately choose to look at your detailed profile, for the cost of a couple of pots and a packet of chips down at your local. For 10 clams you get: - a premium pay-per-click (you don't get fairer than that) profile which promotes your skills, services, experience, expected fees or price and any special offers. - direct contact details so you get motivated customers right on the spot, before they have a chance to cool off. - instant access to new job leads in your area. - feedback, so your past form and valuable third-party endorsements allow you to leap off the page. In the Yellow Book, the more you pay, the more you stick out. That doesn't say anything about your workmanship or quality, and that is exactly what customers give a shit about. This means that your homefriday.com.au profile is working it's arse off night and day. You have paid for it many times over with your first job, let alone the fantastic ROI if you pick up more. Let's see...$1500 for an outdated ad with the rest of the flock in the Yellow Book which no-one reads any more, is no endorsement on quality and still doesn't guarantee any work. Or $10 (0.15%) to join the cheap and effective online revolution. And we are prepared to be fully accountable. I stand by this - if you get a PPC profile and after 50 clicks haven't picked up a job, I'll give your dough back. Guaranteed. I'll bet my hand stays pretty safely out of my pocket. Prove me wrong. Actually, it's better for everyone if you prove me right!! WE CAN SET YOU FREE FROM OVERPRICED, OLD-FASHIONED, UNACCOUNTABLE ADVERTISING. https://www.homefriday.com.au/accountSPjoin.aspx?referedBy=

I came across this Google ad on a blogposting in the US. Lesbian relationship? Declare your lesbian relationship with Centrelink from July 1, 2009 www.centrelink.gov.au So, two things. Firstly, the government has paid for ads to go trolling for lesbians to apply for welfare. Talk about group-specific. Are lesbians known to be less aware about social security than heteros? The second point is that the ad is so poorly-targetted that it appeared at the bottom of a US blog about gifted children. Is it just me missing the connection? GFC hasn't hit home in Canberra yet. Glut of Fcuking Clowns...

List your premium service provider profile on homefriday.com.au and get work where, when and how you want it - and, most importantly, for HOW MUCH. This is the perfect scenario for all the Gen Y'ers who are leaving school, or have uni holidays. Your listing works its butt off on the website without you lifting a finger or raising a sweat. These are the good bits, as I see them:

• Your profile listing is free. Actually, it's not usually. But key in this code summa08 on the payment page and you get a freebie. Whataguy!
  
• You get automatic job alerts when someone needs you in your area.
• Set your price. Not only to be rewarded for your skills, but it can moderate according to demand. If you are flooded, jack the price a bit. If you need more work, trim it back.
• Get eBay-style feedback. Just like the traditional word of mouth. Your reward for being good at what you do. And a great calling card for other jobs.
  
• Pick up great casual jobs where you want them. Beachside places are full of opportunity for babysitters, gardeners, cleaners, nannies...you get the drift. Do some gardening in the morning, surf in the afternoon, babysit the occasional night. It's your choice.
• Cash is king.

Don't take what you're given - get what you want.

It is really important to let people know about your work and there are some fantastic resources to promote blogs. In Australia, we have Gnoos.com.au, which is a startup by Ben Barren and others. Perhaps the world leader is Technorati  - here is my listing there Technorati Profile

You may have noticed links from websites you have visited to other sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Redditt. I think there is a fair bit of confusion on how they work and what they can do for you. If there is enough interest, I will post a simple explanation. Let me know if you want that.

From May, eBay will change the feedback system so that sellers cannot leave neutral or negative feedback for the buyers they deal with, yet a buyer can rate the seller any way they like. This is to entice back selllers who have been burned by buyer feedback. But...this is exactly the point - for feedback to work it has to be frank and two-way. Watch this space - there is going to be a fairly dramatic drop-off in eBay users. Anyway, below is my ten cents' worth on an Australian blog.

We have an online home services directory in Australia called homefriday.com.au, which was partly inspired by the transparency promised by an eBay-style rating system. We have applied similar logic, but tried to improve upon it. I always thought the feedback on eBay was a lot of crap overall. "AAAAAAA+ trader" - puleeeaase. Sounds like you bought your second-hand Tupperware from God!! Anyway, we encourage householders to give detailed and specific feedback to service providers and allow one right of reply. This avoids ongoing battles - we heard some doozys about au pairs on one site - but gives a person a chance to justify or defend themselves, or describe extraordinary circumstances. We have found that it is pretty clear to users what the situation is and who is being unreasonable. Of course, get a chain of negative SP feedbacks and you are toast - the free market in operation, as it should be. This also applies to householders - if you keep bagging SPs, no-one is going to be that keen on working for you. Real eBay feedback which helps make important buying/selling decisions is now screened by the endemic and banal nonsense that passes for user comments. FFFFFFF+ to you, eBay.

Here is a link to the Sydney Morning Herald blog story http://blogs.smh.com.au/mashup/archives/random_access/017412.html 

 

indexing home service provider profiles. So this gives you even more exposure than the thousands of monthly visitors to homefriday.

But the great news for householders is that these search engines are also picking up on the free job listings. Which means that your job title can appear in the world's leading search engines, giving you more opportunity to find the ideal tradie or other service providers.

The longer lead time you can give your job, the more chance that the automated engine bots will drop by and put your ad up in lights. 

The Yellow directory has closed for advertising in Brissie, deadline is today in Sydney and next week in Melbourne.

We are constantly hearing that people are sick of its expense, lack of flexibility and that it doesn't let the top performers stand out from the crowd.

Congratulations to our members who have saved themselves a packet by changing over to homefriday. 

Here's an example of the phone tennis you can play with YP - and why people are embracing hf.

homefriday is working with Google daily to get you listed on the world's biggest search engine.

Google is all about relevance, so it gets excited when things are changed or updated and it wants to know about every new member. We let Google know what's happened each day with the result that our premium members end up with their own Google listing and can be found according to their profile title - try keying yours into Google now. Your title comes up in the search results with a bit of info about you - usually in the primo position of the first page of natural search - and linking directly to your full profile.

Not everyone appears on Google straight away. The "bot" has a lot of ground to cover, so visits periodically and randomly, but much more frequently when it receives regular updates.

To help out, we designed the site so that it can find you simply and easily (Google hates snags and barriers).This is great news and is another benefit of the full profiles. Keep it in mind when you write your title - you want something that isn't too general (ie Babysitter), but something that you think people would naturally type into Google (ie Experienced nanny in Melbourne bayside).

Oh...and keep on posting to the forums on homefriday. Not only is it informative and fun, Google is checking out your pearls of wisdom there too!!

There are some great free solutions for hosting documents or images on the Internet. Have a look around and choose your favourite one and download their software or join the service. When you have uploaded your files, simply add the web address link to the description section of your homefriday profile. 

I tend to use Google Docs because it is flexible, secure and free. You can choose to share your documents privately, with only people you give permission, or publicly, so anyone can see them. Worth thinking about this - it is probably best to give access to a CV with personal or address and contact details only to people you trust. 

For pictures, the same applies to free hosting sites like Flickr and Picasa. Again, link from your hf profile after considering who you want to see your stuff.

Both these can be a great way to promote yourself - for example, evidence of police checks are important to some parents, while pictures of a builder's finished work may be the clincher for householders planning to renovate.

 

People ask why we created homefriday and what we are about. I plan to use this blog in part to answer your questions, so let's start with that one.

You will have to give me a bit of leeway in this first post. I would probably be better to answer this in a nutshell, but I'm really excited about this new evolution in the Internet and how it can deliver solutions which actually help people, so I will probably babble on a little bit!! Promise to tighten it up in future posts!  

If it came down to two words, they would be choice and control. And if it was a mantra: "Don't get what you are given...get what you want". 

That's the point - we are building a community of users here at homefriday, not just another banal directory. The principles of respect, trust, integrity, transparency and honesty are what matters - in that way, homefriday is an old-fashioned concept bundled up in a modern era and delivered via the latest technology.

Our website is the online equivalent of neighbours leaning over the fence for a chinwag and recommending their favourite tradie. But that doesn't seem to happen much these days. We live busy lives, work long hours, shift around more often, know less people in our street and, sadly, are more suspicious and less trusting. 

Unfortunately, the traditional directories haven't helped. They are about money, not quality. All that you know about the biggest advertiser is that they have paid the most - doesn't make them any better than the next fella. In fact, it gives people the chance to hide behind their mediocrity and poor performance.

You don't get that on homefriday. There is nowhere to hide. The feedback rating system sorts out the goers from the duds. Every person on homefriday is there because they are proud of their work and prepared to be judged by their actions.

People have asked whether this is necessary during bouyant times of full employment - aren't all the good guys busy? I think it is even more important. On the one hand, the best guys are still advertising and looking for more work that suits them best. On the other, if there are cowboys out there, they are going to do better now than ever. And you don't want to be the one to be caught out.

From the service providers' perspective, homefriday gives them the opportunity to chase their ideal jobs with flexibility - if they want more work, they can widen the net by tweaking their profile any time for free. Even when work is easier to come by, they still want jobs closer to home, in their field of interest, maybe that pay better. For householders jaded with playing phone tennis ("Sure I can do it - see you in August"!) they can find heaps of background information on peer-endorsed, capable people before calling - the comfort of knowing more about someone and having them pre-qualified by feedback. Additionally, they can advertise their job requirements on the site for free and have skilled and available people offer to help them out.

And nobody gets anything shoved down their throat. We play matchmaker and you sort out the details. This is the way for householders to start long-term, fruitful relationships with talented experts. And a way to give them credit for their great work. 

It's really that simple. We welcome your feedback about us too, so put any comments below.

NEXT POST: safely putting extra documents such as CVs or police checks online to strengthen your profile.