Test my site - free business listing in exchange!

[QuikFind]

Hi all!

My name's Adam and I am the developer of quikfind.com.au - an Australian online business directory. I know, I know - another business directory! LOL

Anyway, I've tried to do things very differently with QuikFind because as I'm sure you know, a lot of the smaller online directories are pretty ordinary. I've been working on it on-and-off for 3 years now, and I'm finally at a point where I think it's ready to start marketing it pretty heavily.

Before I do this though, I'd really love to put the site through its paces and get some honest feedback.

So, what I am proposing for any of you on this site who own or manage a business is this - test my site, try out all the features, try and "break" it, give me some feedback, and I will happily give you a free lifetime listing for your business.

If you're interested, just go to http://www.quikfind.com.au/join and list your business. Post some feedback here and let me know your business name and I'll make sure your listing is marked as a free one.

Thanks in advance for anyone who wants to take up my offer!

Cheers,

Adam Casperson
Director - QuikFind Pty Ltd

[joshyybaxx]

Just editing this instead of double posting.

After checking out the site I can say I am impressed with the way it's set out, something I find annoying online is complex registration/implementation of content onto directory sites and this site keeps it nice and easy.

The advertisement I created was pretty rushed and had a few mistakes in it where I could optimize the listing better by using the various other utilities on the site (such as coupon creation to monitor where the leads come from), Adam also recommended some fix ups with things in the listing itself which is great as it shows that he is extremely dedicated to the clients of his service.

The payment set up is a good one, and it's a pay per page view, which might work out better for some companies who wish to pay per exposure rather then a yearly fee in one hit that might generate nothing. The ability for clients to check easily how many hits their page has had is nice, and simple to understand.

I would recommend giving the site a shot, registration is simple, you can never have your business listed on too many sources and when it has been offered for free if you give feedback (surely limited numbers) you really cannot go wrong. I will be referring the site to friends who use online directories to list their trades companies and will suggest to each member of AT.

(sorry if I didn't use correct technical jargon with the whole PPC/impression or what ever else there is these days.)

Cheers,

Joshua Baxter.

[TopTMTips]

Hi,

I listed my business Telemarketing Training, Top Telemarketing Tips and Training Resource Centre a few weeks back and found it all very easy. Your site collected more data on my business than some others which was good.

I also received mail from you along with little cards to give to referrals - a really nice touch.

I like the concept of paying for results as well.

[RyanChadwick]

The design is simple and elegant. I really like this as i dislike superfluous clutter.

The signup process was easy. I would like an update of where I am in the process however (Eg. step 3 of 5) Would be nice. I like to know how much more work I've got. If it's too many I'll leave. Normally if I'm not told I'll assume it is many and leave anyway.

It may be nice to have a directory of some sort. eg. I tried looking for hardware in Sydney and I got no results. Was this because there are none or because they are actually listed under a different phrase?

It would be good to have autocompletes too on the fields. Eg when I type in Sydney for the location it would be nice if a drop down suggested Sydney or Greater Sydney (similar to Google Suggest). You can implement this type of feature easily using a framework such as Scriptaculous.
(talk to me if you would like to know more about this)

On the business listing pages the spacing of elements is nice and makes it clear and easy to read. I also like the google maps feature.

Pages load quickly which is great.

Also wondering how I know if you've granted me a free listing? Will you credit me a large balance?

[RyanChadwick]

Just another thought. It would be nice to have to option to prepay as well.

eg. I deposit $50 and then you display my page until credits run out then my listing is hidden until I log in and deposit another $ amount. This way I feel safer in how much I am spending.

[QuikFind]

Hi again,

I haven't checked this thread for a while now, so it's great to see some replies!

Joshua - thanks once again for your great feedback.

TopTMTips - thank you for taking the time to list your business, and now that I know you were referred from this thread I will convert your listing to a free one. I hope your business gains some extra exposure from it!

Ryan - I have just approved your listing and will also convert it to a free one. Unfortunately at this stage it doesn't show anywhere in your account that the listing is free. It will still appear in your performance monitoring section that you are being charged, but the system will never actually generate an invoice for any of it. I'll take a look at making this clearer in future.

Thanks for your ideas on how the site could be improved. I still have a lot of plans on making it better, and I'll take your suggestions on board (especially the one about pre-paying - I can definitely see the benefit in that). I'll also take a look at Scriptaculous as auto completing fields is on my to-do list.

Also, if you want to take another look at the listing process, it does actually say at the top of each page "Step 1 of 4" etc. I guess you just missed it, so I'm glad you didn't give up and leave

If anyone else wants to take advantage of this offer, please do so as soon as possible as I've now decided to end it as of 30th April 2010.

Cheers,

Adam

[one]

Hi Adam,

The site looks good, I've just registered my business on there. The registration process was pretty easy, but I guess not that different to the dozens of other directories I've listed on.

So what is your point of difference? There was nothing that really jumped out at me that was different. How will you justify charging for listings when there are all these free sites out there? What are you doing at the moment to get visitors to the site?

But yeah overall it looks good, well done.

[RyanChadwick]

Indeed,

One of the problems that sites of this nature face is building traffic. Business owners won't want to list if there is little traffic. Similarly visitors won't keep coming back if there are few businesses listed.

Ideally what you need is some incentive for both parties to come play.

You may get value out of joining in on my thread about creating a new marketing method, We may be able to help you out here.