“Google it” and you’ll be amazed at how many service providers　are listed online, on Google Maps, Yellow Pages, or Yelp, just to name a few sites of business listings and customer reviews.

What is the next step? Let’s say you require a plumber to fix your bathroom faucet this Saturday. Your budget is only $50 but you want someone qualified and highly recommended by others. You pick the first 5 listed on Google and start calling them. After an hour on the phone you realize that they ask too much or they don’t have availability for that Saturday! And so you keep on calling the next 5 plumbers…

What if there was a better way?

Well, I started PinBud because so many times I was that frustrated caller on the phone! I thought why can’t I ask my questions once and then wait for those 10 plumbers to respond back to me? I want to make the selection myself based on what I read, I don’t want to pay any “finder’s fee”, and I simply want to save some time when reaching out to them.

This is what PinBud.com offers now and it turns out it will be a real winner. Because everyone is winning! I win because I save time and I get the best contractor for my job. Companies listed on PinBud are winning because they get a free profile and free, unrestricted emails from potential customers with clear job and quote requests. Yes, that’s right: free and unrestricted requests! There’s no transaction fees, no job commissions, no intermediaries in the negotiation process! Let me know if you get a better deal on Yellow Pages, Yelp, Service Magic, or Angie’s List! I am very curious to hear about it!

How does PinBud make money? Of course we’re into this website to make a couple of bucks! We’re offering a great service for everyone and the response will be overwhelming: so many companies are already getting a listing on PinBud! At some point the list will become very crowded and some smart business people will want to spend a couple hundred of dollars to get a top listing and make sure they are selected by our users on their quote requests. Hey, can someone please tell me how much did you spend on your online advertising last year and what clear results did you get from that marketing effort?

PinBud’s strength is in the quality and number of our members, NOT in how much we rip off a new small business for getting a link on our website. $149 is really low for the value you get but we’re counting on many subscribers on PinBud, not just a few paying a lot.

Now here’s the real great news of the day: PinBud is still new and we don’t have millions of listings just yet! So, you don’t really have to pay for that top listing just yet! Get yourself listed and get a head start on PinBud. Don’t miss the next customer looking for your services in your city!

I can tell you one last thing: in this “Great Recession”, people that don’t take up free offers like this really deserve to go under!

Happy sales!

Chris

We are celebrating the New Year’s beginning by launching a new BIG opportunity for our users.

You know that any PinBud GOLD account usually comes with a 1 year completely free, full trial period. But we are ready to give away some extra FREE 1-4 years subscription periods!

What’s the deal?

The deal is simple. You must have a blog and post a review about PinBud. Or you can ask a friend that has a blog to help you and post a review on his / her blog. We encourage everyone to be honest and write honest reviews (with both pro or cons). In order to get the promotion, the review must meet the following conditions:

1. The blog’s homepage must have at least Google PageRank 0. Blogs with no PageRank will not be accepted.
2. Your review must contain at least 1 dofollow link towards PinBud.com or PinBud.ca (this is up to you, but we suggest you to link the most appropriate domain). Reviews with nofollow link will not be accepted.
3. The review must contain at least 200 words. This text contains 185 words up to >>> here <<<. Shorter texts will not be accepted.
4. The review must be a real, readable text. Ready-made reviews composed with article spinning software will not be accepted. We need real, honest feedback!
5. The blog must stay live all the time during the promotion. We’ll automatically check every blog, from time to time. If you get a 3 years subscription but the review will disappear after 2 months, we’ll cut your subscription (and notify you).
6. The reviews must be unique and coming from unique blogs. The same blog cannot be used in order to promote 2 different company profiles.

What do you get and for how long?

1. If your blog has PageRank 0-2, you will get 1 extra year (plus the initial 12 months).
2. If your blog has PageRank 3-5, you will get 2 extra years (plus the initial 12 months).
3. If your blog has PageRank 6-7, you will get 3 extra years (plus the initial 12 months).
4. If your blog has PageRank 8+ you will get 4 extra years (plus the initial 12 months). That’s almost 5 years!

We will consider only the initial PageRank. If your blog will gain or lose PageRank in a given unit of time, we’ll not increase or decrease your subscription period.

How to get this promotion?

This is the easiest part. First of all, make sure that you have an account with PinBud. Then write your review (or ask somebody to write it). Then drop us a note at the following e-mail address:

reviews |a| pinbud DOT com (of course, you have to replace |a| with @ and DOT with . )

and mention in that note:

• what’s your business profile on PinBud
• where is posted the online review

We’ll acknowledge your application, we’ll analyze it and we’ll give in few hours a reply if accepted or not. Than, if accepted, you will see in your account the new subscription’s activation.

Enjoy writing!

We must say a big “THANK YOU !” to all those Canadians who visited and used PinBud Canada during the last November. As anyone can see from the map shown above (taken from Google Analytics), PinBud is now used all over Canada, from Halifax to Vancouver and from the frozen North to the US border.

For December, we are preparing some changes that will positively impact the UX and another big launch. Stay tuned and thank you all for your support!

Are you using Firefox? Now you can dress it in a nice Persona inspired by  PinBud’s logo

You can install this persona from here:

http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/persona/292579

Enjoy!

We also changed the action buttons on the search pages. We used “Contact selected” and “Next step: Contact selected” but this was confusing because PinBud, unlike Yellow Pages, Google Local and other local search engines, is first and foremost about planning and quote request. This is why we changed all the action buttons and now the buttons reflect better the core function.

PinBud is very convenient for both users and businesses. The users:

• will make an informed decision
• they can negotiate prices
• they can keep online an history of the contractor and its actions
• if a business is present in PinBud listings, it means that this business has nothing to hide and it’s pricing policy is very user friendly!

The contractors will benefit from PinBud in many ways.

• There are no pay per lead fees
• The prices are affordable and we offer even a free package
• They are free to take any jobs they want and to decline any other jobs

So, why don’t you “Get quotes from local businesses with one request” ?

It has been reported that the Yellow Pages Income Fund has fallen by almost one third in their latest financial quarter. Due to the economic uncertainty at present, clients have been ‘shying’ away from investing their hard earned money into the organization.

According to the Directory Publisher, the recent economic statistics that have been released has shown that there is widespread uncertainty when it comes to the economic recovery process; hence consumers have become skeptical in matters regarding investments.

At present Yellow Pages is looking to reinvent itself by moving its business from a paper publisher to a digital one. As many are aware Yellow Pages recently acquired Canpages and are currently examining ways in which to increase their revenue base in the digital arena. One of their plans includes implementing a search engine solution in order to make-up for the pressures faced by print media.

This is indeed a very good idea by Yellow Pages to move their business to the digital age, and I am sure this will definitely please many Yellow Pages users. Hopefully this move will aid the company in regaining their lost glory. Read More by: Nicolas Van Praet

Calgary is considered to be the "hail storm capital of Canada". Because of its high elevation and proximity to the Rockies, Calgary is closer to the bad clouds than other large cities in Canada.

According to the media, auto body shops like Precision Auto Body (http://www.pinbud.ca/business/3287-Precision-Auto-Body-Ltd/account-details.html) have been inundated with calls starting immediately after the storm and some are booked up well until next summer!

I am pretty sure that auto body shops in Calgary don't need PinBud to get jobs at the moment

However, I am curious to see if their tens of thousands customers will be happy with their services. Or with the services of the insurance companies, for that matter.

So, I do need someone to fix my fireplace. An electrician experienced with fireplaces, or vice-versa, a fireplace guy licensed as electrician.

So now, please tell me, where can I find someone like that? What, the Yellow Pages? Google Maps? Are you kidding me? Did you see those lists? And no, my buddy did not refer a good electrician to me either.

Let’s look at Yellow Pages. Results for “Electricians in Calgary”: three sponsored listings plus another 45 businesses. All have phone numbers. Some have websites and emails. One has photos, several have videos, and three have reviews. Unfortunately there are no keywords available. Obviously, I would narrow results if “fireplace” was a keyword.

Let’s look at Google: A few sponsored links and a bunch of organic listings. Some are electricians, others are classifieds (kijiji), the BBB, a couple directories (more directories?), and one or two review sites. Plus, of course, Google Maps (aka Google Places, formerly Google Local).

Now, you may think this is great! Plenty of choices, right? Actually, I don’t think so! Now I have to do a lot of research: read some business profiles and consumer reviews to find out who is qualified to do a good job. My budget is also limited; I figure this is a hundred bucks job, not more. Then what am I supposed to do? Select a few companies and call them one by one, explain the problem to each of them, get quotes, book appointments? Man, that requires some effort and it sounds time consuming!

I have a better solution: PinBud. Yeah, I’m not joking! The website is brand new but it is already returning some good results. Businesses are enrolling every day – for free! – all over Canada and United States, in many service categories, with all kinds of keywords and information. I can sort and display results by distance, by number of listings per page, or by working hours. I can indicate the search radius around my address. Or I can look for my keywords. Sorting by ratings and number of reviews is also available.

Each PinBud business listing has a detailed presentation page. If they completed their profile I can see a relevant description, contact information, location on the map, current deals and discounts, and previous job portfolio. User reviews and ratings are also enabled. Really, a listing on PinBud looks already as good as, if not better than, most other directories out there.

But our truly great local search improvement is the one contact form for multiple service providers. I can select several good local businesses, complete a quick and easy service request form, and send my quote request to all of them in one easy step.

So, here I go: I search for Electricians around my postal code, T2Y 4L6. PinBud returns 191 businesses located in a 25 km radius. That sounds like an awful lot, so I reduce the area to 10 km. I still get 59 businesses. Nevertheless, the first three listings are PinBud members that I can contact at once using the one request form. Ideally I should get tens of businesses so I can sort, review and select five or ten of them, but three will do for now. (Hello, Calgary Electricians! Why aren’t you there on PinBud already?)

I am sending my job request to the three Electricians I selected, and then I will wait for their response and decide for the best quote (not necessarily the cheapest).  In the end, one electrician will get the job and we will have a working fireplace this winter. And no moth either!

Chris (going back to my Jagermeister now)

• plumbers in Calgary
• general contracting and renovations in Calgary
• interior design in Calgary
• basement renovations in Calgary
• office & shop renovations in Calgary
• fireplaces in Calgary
• tax preparers in Calgary
• accountants and bookkeepers in Calgary
• interior design in Edmonton
• painting in Edmonton
• graphic designers in Calgary
• realtors and appraisers in Calgary
• and many more…

We still have to populate certain categories, such as dentists in Calgary, where we would love to see more plain members. As we wrote earlier, PinBud's 'own radius' feature is ideal for businesses such as a dental clinic or a veterinarian cabinet in search for clients. Using 'own radius' feature, combined with vouchers, a dentist or a vet can easily get clients from outside its community.

But we have now almost 300 businesses that can be contacted and participate in bids for a lot of jobs. Thus, we have also experience the first  "single requests for service" / "get quotes" and we must say that our system works like we wanted: it's simple to understand, simple to use and the first users seem to love it.

So, don't wait anymore:

• open your account 
• fill-in the profile
• get reviews
• publish your badge
• answer and bid…
• enjoy PinBud!

When it comes to utilizing local search it deemed as the least understood and unused online marketing strategies. However, what many fail to realize it is probably one of the most cost effective ways of marketing one’s business.

It has been reported that in the United States of America, there are approximately 16 billion search queries that are conducted over the internet and at least one out of five of those searches are labeled as a local search inquiry. The report also stated that many consumers who purchase a good and or service online do so within their geographic region, meaning their purchases are made mostly local.

Businesses that fail to take full advantage of the local search marketing strategies that have been made available to them are losing out on the potential business opportunities that present itself them.

For those who are looking to increase their chances in the local search results there are five tips in which they can utilize such as claim their listings, distribute content, optimize their profile, encourage customer reviews and track performances.

These are just some of the tips business owners can use in attracting potential consumers to their businesses through the local search strategies. At PinBud (http://pinbud.ca) we offer a 6 month free business listing once you sign up, so visit us today to find out more! Read More by: Jon Schepke