Is there an alternative to Gumtree for advertising your services?

[Hayley]

Hi all

In the past, I've advertised my freelancing services on Gumtree (when it used to be free). I liked Gumtree not only because it was free and attracted visitors to the ad locally, but also I could add new services when I wanted to through another advert (I offer a few different freelancing services such as wedding make up, freelance writing, proofreading, etc).

Adverts start at the top of the search list and then move down the list the older the ad gets. You then have to pay a fee to 'bump it up' - or in the 'olden' days if you were like me, you could just create a new advert for free to get to the top again. That tactic doesn't work anymore because Gumtree now charge for ads.

I wondered if there is an alternative to this site that anyone uses?

 

[Jon]

Facebook seems to be the way that a lot of people are going at the moment. People join 'local' groups for the area they live in and then get recommendations from within there.

If you could infiltrate 'said' groups then you would have a captive audience.

Seen quite a few people advertise through freeindex as well. When I used to run a IT Services company I used to get A LOT of work through that site.

I suppose the only thing is you are offering something that is available nationally and I was just offering local services.

 

[Hayley]

Thanks Jon. I had been thinking about whether Facebook would be an option and I've never tried FreeIndex before so will give that a try too.

 

[Jon]

Yeah Freeindex really did work wonders for me. As you get 'feedback' your listing goes up higher and higher in the rankings and the site seems to be VERY well indexed by Google.

I too used to use Gumtree to advertise various things I was doing but with the cost attached to it it just isn't worth it anymore.

Just an idea as well

but could you sell your services on Ebay as Buy it Now? Maybe list it with like a 1 month long ending time and have multiple options to buy. I dunno, I've seen a few people selling web design and the like on eBay, dunno how successful it is though

 

[Hayley]

Yes, eBay could a be different tactic to try! I've seen people offering WordPress websites on there before actually with their portfolio included in the description. Advertising on eBay would actually be cheaper than Gumtree in this case.

I wondered about including different listings on Yell.com too. I think Yell.com is free?

 

[Jon]

Yell is free but only for a very basic listing, as was Google Business Listing, think I did that one as well.

It sounds stupid but I actually started off by advertising my IT services with posts in post offices and newsagents at 50p a week. It bought in quite a bit of custom from the older generation shall we say and things spring boarded from there so maybe don't be afraid to try some offline techniques as well