Hello Providers!

We are excited to share with you today our newest and arguably most valuable new feature: Profile Traffic! Now you can see how many people visit your page per day for up to 4 months. Not only that, you can also see the number of times your page was viewed by these visitors.

New Profile Traffic feature at Laborfair.com

Want to see your traffic chart full of high bars with many customer visitors?  To make it fun, Laborfair will raffle an iPod Shuffle among the providers bringing the top 10 number of visitors to their profiles during the rest of August.

iPod Shuffle Raffle at Laborfair.com

Bring all the customers you can by August 31st and we will let you know on the first newsletter of September if you made it to the top 10 and got the iPod Shuffle! Go to your new Profile Traffic page to learn of several tips to bring more customer visitors to your profile.

Simply log in using your laborfair account at member.laborfair.com, go to your Home tab and click the “Profile Traffic” link to view your profile traffic numbers. Since the feature was just launched there will be no traffic shown before August 26th. Starting today and forward all profile visits will be tracked so you can easily view and analyze them.

Use the tips on the Profile Traffic page to increase your traffic of new customer visitors to your profile and make it to the top 10 of August to enter the drawing for the iPod Shuffle! 

Good luck out there! We sincerely hope the new Profile Traffic tool helps to grow your business on Laborfair.com!

Have a great day!

Team Laborfair

Hello everyone,

We’re constantly searching for ways to improve your Laborfair experience, but we don’t know everything that is wrong, what’s broken, what should be improved etc. That’s where your feedback comes in! We’ve added a handy feedback tab to the right side of pages throughout the site.

Go ahead and click it! Make a suggestion, vote on suggestions or just leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you! Or visit the feedback site directly: laborfair.uservoice.com

We will be regularly reading suggestions and developing improvements based on them. So please vote on the suggestions you would like to see the most, so we know how to prioritize our development. Laborfair will only get better from your input, so please take the time to make a suggestion or vote on a few suggestions. Your vote counts!

You may also have noticed the category names and links have changed. This is an effort to further improve our search engine optimization and put all profile pages higher in Google and Yahoo search results.

The list of new URLS:

We will continue rolling out improvements and new features as we develop them. Because of the continual improvements to the site we are considering the site a “Beta” version until we reach a final, finished and bug-free product.

You may encounter some bugs like broken links, pages not loading or other problems. Please report any and all you encounter through the Feedback tab! Help us to help you!

Have a great day!

Curtis and Team Laborfair

Hello providers!

Is your inbox full of “Alert: FREE, Open Lead Available in Your Area!”? Your initial impulse may be to move them all to the trash or, God forbid, unsubscribe from Laborfair notifications. Please don’t! By unsubscribing you will be unable to receive any notifications at all! That means we will be unable to send you personal leads and customer contact info.

A better alternative is to set up a filter for these emails so they go straight to a specific folder. I will now describe in detail the process of setting up this system in Google, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail:

1. Log in to your gmail account

2. Click the “Create a Filter” link near the top next to the “Search the Web” button

3. In the “has the words” field type in “Alert: FREE, Open Lead Available in Your Area!” then click “Next”

4. Check “Skip the Inbox” and “Apply the Label”

5. Under “Apply the Label” select “New Label” and type in something along the lines of “Open Leads”

6. Click “Ok”, Click “Create Filter” and your done!

Now, just be sure to check the left hand side of your inbox for new open leads within the “Labels” box.

1. Log into your Yahoo! Mail account

2. Under “Options” in the upper right corner, click “Mail Options”

3. Under “Management”, click “Filters”

4. Click “Add”

5. Within the “Subject” field type “Alert: FREE, Open Lead Available in Your Area!”

6. Under “Then…”, Select move message to “[new folder]” then click “Add Filter”

7. Type something along the lines of “Open Leads” then click OK and your done!

Simply check your “Open Leads” folder under “My Folders” along the left hand side of your inbox to view any new open leads.

1. Log in to your Hotmail account and go to your inbox

2. Click “Options” in the upper right corner

3. Under “Customize Your Mail”, click “Automatically Sort Emails into Folders” then click “new filter”

4. Select “Subject” from the drop down menu, then in the 3rd field type in “Alert: FREE, Open Lead Available in Your Area!”

5. Select “New Folder” and type in “Open Leads”

6. Click “Save” and your done!

Simply check your “open leads” folder from now on to view all the open leads you’ve received.

That’s all there is to it! Hope this guide helps make your inbox spic and span.

Have a great day!

Curtis and Team Laborfair

Hello everyone,

As our site grows, there will undoubtedly be those that see our rising traffic and try to take advantage of our users by posting job leads that are SCAMS. We have doubled our efforts in catching these bogus leads so hopefully no one else will have to feel the pain of being scammed, but the best prevention is education. That’s where this post comes in! Read on to learn about ways to protect yourself from being the victim of scammers.

Most recently this bogus personal lead has been sent to some of our providers:

My name is Mrs Jenny James, I need a nanny for my Daughter, Helen, i also need a housekeeper as well..
We are willing to pay a salary of $2500/Month and also allocate a car for you to use..
We require your service from the hours of 9am - 3pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays..
If you are interested send your responds to :  jenny underscore james178 at y.a.h.o.o dot com

Read all of the emails involved in this scam here.

If you have received and/or taken this lead, DO NOT pursue it, she/he is a scammer and will try to steal your money!

“Jenny James” will seemingly deposit $2500 into your account and then ask you to move that $2500 to another account because she is running low on funds and will soon be paying you another $2500. After you deposit $2500 into the other account you will never hear from “Jenny” again and the $2500 you saw deposited in your account will turn out to be a mistype. Jenny will have persuaded you to give her $2500 of YOUR money. Avoid scams such as these by dealing locally and be wary of any money orders or transfers.

To learn more about common internet scams click here!

Have a great day!

Curtis and Team Laborfair

Hello cost-conscience providers!

In the current economy with gas prices through the roof, the mortgage crisis still raging and the cost of food ever rising, it’s becoming harder and harder to make ends meet. I remember not even five years ago when a gallon of gas was as low as $1 and the economy was booming. Now, gas is near $4 a gallon and the stock market showing a gain is an anomaly that will be rectified by twice the loss the following day.

Amidst this economic climate of hopelessness there is still hope! According to Kiplinger, food and gas should moderate by next year, with an increase in worldwide grain output and oil supplies, plus slower economic growth in developed countries. Kiplinger’s sees the price of gas falling to $3.45 a gallon nationwide by December. Joyous speculation, but only time will tell.

But you would probably prefer more tangible financial hope. Well, I can’t promise you stocks will rise, food will be cheaper and more jobs will be available, but I can tell you that according to a survey by the Toronto marketing firm ICOM, a household of four that uses coupons strategically can save up to 25% a year on its grocery bill without actually purchasing any less! 25% a year, That’s more than just peanuts!

Consider this, if you go grocery shopping an average of once a week and spend an average of $50 each trip, by the end of the year you’ve spent $2600 on groceries. By using coupons, you could cut that burdensome bill down to $1950 saving you and your family $650. Now that’s a chunk of change you could use!

I’m sure many of you are thinking, “yea that would be great, but who has the time??” No one wants to spend arduous hours pouring over the newspaper searching through the maze of coupons for one you can actually use. Your time is precious, and spending it tediously cutting coupons out of newspapers probably isn’t very high on your to-do list. Well, I have good news for you!

In our computerized world it seemed the last bastion of non-digitalness were coupons, until now. Many sites now offer a wide selection of coupons for your to easily browse and print, for free. Coupons.com, CouponWinner.com and CoolSavings.com provide printable grocery-store coupons by zip code. Thecouponclippers.com will mail you coupons for specific brands or products for a small fee. Additionally, you can visit the sites of your favorite products and more often than not they will offer some printable coupons to take in with you next time you go shopping. The savings are there for the taking, all you have to do is use that printer!

Have a great day!

Team Laborfair

Laborfair is going FREE!

Rejoice! No more paying for personal and open leads, no more paying for contact information. All contact info will be easy to see and access. When a customer contacts you for a job, get ‘er done! No more hassling with buying credits and purchasing leads that may or may not turn into jobs. Now, there will be no time or money wasted. Feel free to pursue any lead you want, and if that work doesn’t pan out into a job, no worries because the contact was free!

Soon, Laborfair will be offering optional premium services to help differentiate your services from other providers. Customizable profiles, web tools, mapping tools, pay for placement and many more new and exciting features are in development! So stay tuned to Laborfair.com as we modify and expand our services to better serve you!

Credit Refund Policy:

Perhaps you are thinking, “Hey wait a minute! I just bought 50 credits that I haven’t used! What am I to do?!” Never fear, Laborfair’s got your back. You can hang on to your credits and use them to be one of the first to add some of these exciting upcoming premium features to your profile, or if you would like your previously purchased and unused credit balance refunded, simply send an email to refund@laborfair.com and we will credit your PayPal account the full cost of the credits.

Have a great day,

Laborfair Team

Laborfair will soon be changing all profile links to a more vertical design that will allow for your profile to be found more easily on the web. Joe’s plumbing service will be listed on “plumbing.laborfair.com”, Bob’s moving company will be listed on “movers.laborfair.com” and so on. Don’t worry, you won’t lose your Fair ID. Your Fair ID will simply be added onto the end of your new link as a unique identifier.

To accomplish these link improvements we need everyone to edit their profiles to one (1) category and one (1) market. This will allow for local potential customers to do a broad Google search for a specific service and find your profile near the top of search results.

Don’t believe it?

Suppose Annie is a busy single mother searching for a dependable babysitter in Los Angeles. She’s never heard of Laborfair so she types “Los Angeles childcare” into Google and within the first few results one of our LA childcare providers will be listed. Such as, “childcare.laborfair.com/jane’s-babysitting-los-angeles:jane238″. She clicks one, discovers the quality service providers listed on Laborfair and now only searches Laborfair for all her service needs.

What do you mean by one category?

Choose the category you would prefer to work in, and if you have no preference, choose the category you have the most experience and reviews working in.

Why?

Laborfair strives to offer customers the highest quality service providers in each category. When a customer searches for a babysitter, they are more likely to hire a babysitter that is only a babysitter. Customers assume a provider with a single specialty will offer better services, even if that is not true, we all want to cater to the customers needs, wants and assumptions.

For example: Jane’s Childcare/Housekeeping service is currently listed in both childcare and housekeeping. Jane has done far more childcare throughout her career, and she prefers to take care of children rather than clean. So, Jane re-lists herself in only the childcare category, but she can keep her service title of “Childcare/Housekeeping” if she chooses. Either way, Jane should be sure to mention her housekeeping services in her description and keywords.

What do you mean by one market?

Choose San Francisco, Sacramento, Stockton/Modesto or Los Angeles. You can still list yourself as working in multiple areas within each market, but you can only be listed in one market.

Why?

Laborfair strives to offer customers local providers. Customers get frustrated when they perform a local search and get providers listed across multiple markets who are not necessarily local. Listing yourself in one market will make customers happier and ensure that when people search for services in your market, anywhere on the web, your profile will be near the top.

For example: Joe’s Plumbing service is currently listed in San Francisco with area preferences of Peninsula and East Bay and he’s also listed in Sacramento. Joe will have to choose if he’d prefer to list himself as working in San Francisco or Sacramento, but if he chooses San Francisco he can keep his area preferences of Peninsula and East Bay.

But wait there’s more!

As you may have noticed, to further your marketing capabilities we are incorporating your service title into your new link. This will allow you to tailor your title to be better found on the web. Load your title with relevant keywords or the typical jobs you do. Synonyms for your listed category would also be a good idea for your title.

For example: Jane is listed in childcare but her title is “Jane’s Babysitting”. A customer searching for either term should find her quickly. “Joe’s Plumbing Service” is now listed on plumbing.laborfair.com so it would be a good idea for him to change his title to a popular search term, such as “faucets and more” or “toilets, showers and water heaters by Joe”. While listing keywords in your title may bring you more traffic, they don’t make for the most memorable or appealing titles. The choice is yours, either choose an effective title loaded with keywords, a catchy title of your choice, or, ideally, some mixture of the two.

These changes to your profile link will bring more traffic to your profile and specifying your primary market and category will make sure that visiting customers are local and searching for your services. A win/win situation! At Laborfair, we’re always thinking up new ways to better advertise your services.

Have a great day!

The Laborfair Team

To all you hard-working father’s out there, Happy Father’s Day! Enjoy your day, you only get one a year!

Sons and daughters, spend time with your dad on his special day. Ask him what he’d like to do on his day and join him in the activity. Whether it’s watching the ball game or tinkering in the workshop, enjoy your time with dad because these moments are precious and fleeting.

Fathers, you work hard everyday to provide for your families, so on this one day, take a break from you busy schedule, you’ve earned it. Spend the time with your family, forget about the worries of tomorrow and enjoy your day to the fullest!

Once again, Happy Father’s Day!
The Laborfair Team

Images: courtesy of poagao and jonSpot at Flickr.com

This week the Laborfair product team released a new improvement in our lead distribution system for Laborfair leads. This helps you control Open Leads for you. From now on, you will receive open leads only if you are published in the category and location of the open lead. Not for you? Simply go your Laborfair account and unpublish your profile!

Remember that as a Laborfair member, you have the freedom and flexibility to publish and unpublish your profile whenever and how many times you want depending on your availability and your schedule. If you are overbooked or simply you are on vacation for a few weeks, just unpublish your profile. From that moment, you will not receive open leads while you remain un-published. This will also serve your customers and colleagues at Laborfair: consumers will contact only available and interested providers instead of investing the time and energy to reach you when you are not available.

Quick Tip!

Keep your profile up to date! You will get better quality leads and optimize your time. 

Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions by adding a comment below.

Carolina

We are announcing the new member.laborfair.com as your online marketing tool, the website where you manage your advertising to and your leads and reviews from customers online.   Member.laborfair.com substitutes laborfair.net as the place to manage your Laborfair account.  This site is exclusive for our community of home service providers in the areas of household, care and pro services.

Add any questions or comments here.

Thanks!

Team Laborfair