Name of your website?Wannaman: Local Tradesman Classifieds
Your name?
Sandy Toplis
Your Location (city, etc)
Colchester
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Wannaman is THE BIG tradesman classifieds Site for the small tradesman (within the UK United Kingdom). People can browse the Wannaman directory to find tradesmen in your local region, or register as a tradesman to our directory.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I am a professional wooden floor fitter. Many of my clients often ask me if I can recommend good plumbers, decorators, painters etc...
I have handed out literally hundreds of business cards for fellow high-quality tradesmen through the years......then I realised that we really need a place to advertise ourselves, at a very low cost, where potential clients can read customer reviews, before choosing the best tradesman for the job......and so I started up www.WannaMan.com, which is just that.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
2007. Free-online-yahtzee-game.com (A yahtzee game for many players)
How did you decide on a name for your website?
It goes with the topic - wanna' man?
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
It is the only site that is easily navigatable, where the rates of exposure for tradesman are not only reasonable but impressively low. The price of a one month advertisement costs less than the profit gained from finding an extra job, no matter what the trade is. Also, we are giving away three months free at the moment.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The eventual goal is to help tradesmen across the UK to obtain better value-for-money exposure than they are getting at the moment and to create a network whereby tradesmen can recommend others that they have worked with.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We are only just beginning so we are putting in much more time than we are seeking to gain financially. That is normal.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would pay other people to do the programming. C'est la vie!
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes. The website is very self explanatory and payments are automatic. There is a daily job of maintenance, but the administrative tools make this so easy that it does not take any time really... we have plenty of time left for development and answering emails.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Paying for a spelling mistake on the side of the van to be replaced.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Building a community from nothing. We did this before with free-online-yahtzee-game though, so we have a bit of experience.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Free Advertising.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I expected the customers to struggle more with the website. We have found that they find it very easy to use.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We have been live for only one month, and it is normal to at least see out one year. At that point, we expect to have reached a good balance of costs versus rewards anyway.
What do you dislike most about your own business?
The colour scheme. We need to work on it!
What is your website address?
Wannaman: Local Tradesman Classifieds
No trackbacks.
Comments
