PoolPlayersforHire.com

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PlayerforHire

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Hello Fellow Players: There is a brand new website that is designed to promote pool player owned businesses: www.PoolPlayersforHire.com. Would you mind taking a look and giving me any feedback you have on it? Questions, comments, concerns are very much appreciated. I would like to make this a successful site for all parties involved. It was created in an effort to help each other during these tough economic times, another way to support our beloved pool community. Thanks for taking a look.
 
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I have held a list for the past 6+ years of local pool players that live and work in Phoenix.

http://www.azpoolscene.com/PlayersHelping.aspx

You might want to contact these persons and/or add them to your website (with their permission of course).

Our mission statement. If you need something done, why not hire a fellow pool player to do it for you.
 
I think the cost for membership is far too high. Less than $50 a year may be appropriate; however you have no numbers to support the costs. Professionals (business persons) have many networking/professional trade organizations that prove added revenue, and virtually none of them will cost as much as you ask.

And the requirement of "You must offer a discount or coupon within your posting on PoolPlayersForHire.com" is a little much to ask.

Just my opinion...

Edit: Sorry, I forgot to mention, I really do like the concept.
 
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CrownCityCorey said:
I think the cost for membership is far too high. Less than $50 a year may be appropriate; however you have no numbers to support the costs. Professionals (business persons) have many networking/professional trade organizations that prove added revenue, and virtually none of them will cost as much as you ask.

And the requirement of "You must offer a discount or coupon within your posting on PoolPlayersForHire.com" is a little much to ask.

Just my opinion...
Click to expand...

Whatever happened to free?
 
The biggest thing is creating traffic to your site, places like AZ Billiards and many of the live streamers get heavy billiard related traffic, might be an idea.
 
JasonS said:
Whatever happened to free?
Click to expand...

1. They're offering a service (customer svc, personalized web page, etc).

2. The owners have to pay a provider to host the website.

2. A company would be advertising on the site and it is customary to pay for advertising. (The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.)
 
I like the idea and I think the site was organized in a simple, clean way. Easy to navigate.

· Design stuff, hope you won't get mad... it's subjective opinion.
If you say "well I like it the way it is" then I won't be offended.

- When a small image is visibly repeated/tiled many times across a page, it looks a little ugly. The really pro sites seem to keep the tiling effect to a minimum. If you can photograph a much larger section of cloth and tile it subtly, it would look nicer.

- Also not a fan of the font for the header. Courier's not a bad font, but it's built into pretty much every computer. I think it's the windows default for notepad, at least in earlier versions. When you use one of the common, built-in, default fonts on a PC... you can leave the impression that not much thought went into the font choice. People subconsciously think "hey, he just picked that font that comes with windows". Somehow it's not as nice-looking as a similar font that you must find elsewhere.

Example of something similar that is just different enough to look good:
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/exljbris/museo-slab/500/
(and you don't have to use bevel/emboss/etc)

- While the green gives the page a uniform look... a 2nd color, or variations on the green, would spice the page up and draw attention to the important parts.
http://creedo.gbgl-hq.com/poolplayersdotcom.jpg

· Non-design stuff:

- I'm not a businessman at all but the pricing does seem a touch stiff. And at the same time you could end up getting bitten by it. As someone who's done web pages before, I know you can't just charge 1 price per page. One guy will be content with a name, phone number, and 6 photos... the other guy wants you to set up a virtual shop and forum and blog and 250 photos with linked captions.

Also it's not clear what's meant by members own page. A page that appears inside the left and right navigation bars within poolplayersforhire.com? A totally separate page without any of the other ppfh.com stuff on it, but still under the same domain? Their own domain name?

I might offer plans and packages... 100 bucks for a listing, add 50 for a custom ad/banner you create (or they create and you use)... another 50 for a mini-page with pics, reviews, etc... you get the idea.

- Under the locations header is a link that says "locations" again. Minor oversight I'm guessing, or maybe you were going to make a map or state-by-state listing?
 
WOW! Thank you ALL for your input. I am very much appreciative of everyone's comments.

To the website "design" commentators: I am forwarding your comments to my web guy. I paid someone to do this for me. I am quite the idiot when it comes to this stuff. I will forward the comments and I'm sure he will thoughtfully consider them and make changes where he sees fit.

To the "pricing" commentators: I really wasn't sure what to charge. Several things went into consideration on this: First, it costs $250-ish PER MONTH for a 1/4 page ad in the hard copies of the billiard magazines. Some will include e-news, some won't. 1/4 page. One month. Anything less usually means less information.

I figured if I gave each advertiser an entire year with an entire page, including pictures, ongoing changes, and my time in writing the ads, that would be fair. Additionally, I am bearing the cost of the website domain, design, and time spent doing stuff like this where I'm promoting it without making a dime. I have been on Facebook, LinkedIn, here and working on swapping links with other sites in order to promote the site. This takes a lot of time.

My next step is seeing how much I will be charged for advertising the site myself...places like P&B Mag, Billiards Digest, and, of course, AZ Billiards. Advertising costs to promote the site will not be nearly as cheap as what I'm offering, so I have to be careful not to slit my own throat while trying to help others.

I DO appreciate your comments, though, sincerely, and am considering your suggestions. The whole idea is to help these players out by keeping their businesses growing.

Thanks, again. And thanks for using the services listed on the site.
 
I wish you luck and I say that because I think you will need a lot to make this take off.

I have contacted all the pool room owners in my area and told them to send me any and all of their ad's and I will post them up and all the information for FREE on my site. Guess what? Only 2 people actually sent me anything for the past 3 months.

And like I said, I have maintained a list of Pool Players that have other businesses for the past 6 years on my site and it's been quite sometime since I had to add/edit any of them. I think I've added 3 or 4 new ones in the last year. And that is all for free!

Good Luck!
 
Hello, all, again:

To AZHousePro: I took a look at Marissa's list. It is WONDERFUL! But totally different than what PoolPlayersforHire is. Her list is great because it gives you a quick idea of what these players do and will connect you to each individual website. Great idea!

PoolPlayersforHire.com provides much more. It is an opportunity to have web presence when you don't already have your own site. If you do, it is a way to piggy-back onto what you already have through another avenue, which is optimum for marketing. (And your website is linked in to your page.)

"If you're attacking your market from multiple positions and your competition isn't, you have all the advantage and it will show up in your increased success and income." (Jay Abraham)

Each page contains information about what the business does, any license or cert information, pictures of jobs completed, etc. Some businesses don't have the time or money to invest in creating their own website. This is a way to have it.

Secondly, it is targeted (marketed) to people who are most likely to call them -- people that know them from leagues or tournaments.

Third, at the bottom of each page, there is a POOL BIO section. This is just a fun addition that may (again) trigger how you know these people. For example, if so-and-so has been a member of the local Moose and played in the state Moose tournaments, you might say, "oh, yeah, I know who that guy is...." and again, it might prompt you to call them, knowing you're supporting a fellow player.
 
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To StuckArt:

You have been a wonderful support already! I took a look at your list, and this is what makes us family! I see where you've tried to help the players, too, even close to my own slogan (Players Helping....)

Please take a look at my last response and I'd like to add the following:

The site isn't just sitting idle. My job every time I go out to a tournament is to pass out Inside English magazines (which has a quick reference and ad about PPFH in it), post the IE page on the tournament site's wall, make announcements over the PA, etc., etc. and when I'm home, I promote it daily on FB and here and.... I'm working it, baby! I want my people to succeed, and I'll do whatever it takes to get their names out there.

Every day I'm making calls. I also promote it once a month through my personal email list, mentioning new businesses, reminding people to check out the site and use the services. Pass it on to your aunts and brothers and friends that aren't players, etc.

You're right in that it doesn't drive itself. But I'm treating this as a full time job, and I want to hear success stories from my advertisers. Which I am pleased to announce is already happening!

Thank you, again, for your wish of good luck. And, by the way, I used to live in Arizona, and your list provided a couple of names I knew from back then. It will be fun catching up with them.

Enjoy your day!
 
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