Jobtrio.com Releases 6-Month Traffic Numbers

Santa Barbara, California – April 4th, 2010 – The construction contractor directory and profile website, Jobtrio.com, has released its visitor traffic numbers for the last six months of operation. Since October, the quantity of visitors to the site has nearly tripled, surpassing 34,000 visitors for the month of March.

“We couldn’t be happier with the exposure we are now able to offer to our members,” said Laura Scredon, Sales Operations Manager at Jobtrio.com. “Our traffic numbers speak for themselves. Our continual investment in search engine marketing and website optimization is really paying off.”

Based out of Santa Barbara, California, Jobtrio.com is a free Internet service launched in February of 2009 that allows users to browse more than half a million listings of contractors or quickly locate a business by name, location, or specialty. Key features include candid customer reviews and detailed profiles to help project managers and home owners find great construction professionals. Jobtrio.com is currently one of the largest contractor directories on the Internet.

California Unemployment and Construction Contractors

In late March, the Employment Development Department of California released the state’s unemployment data, with numbers up through February 2009.   Overall, this report paints a grim picture of California’s ecomnomic status, and in particular, the health of the construction industry.  Here are a couple key statistics and I would like to discuss what they mean in regard to recovery:

–  Percent difference in amount of construction industry employees between February 2009 and February 2008:  -18.5%

–  Unemployment by county:
Colusa = 26.6%
Monterey = 16.2%
Santa Barbara = 8.3%
San Luis Obispo = 8.1%

The point I would like to make first is, the -18.5% reflects where we are now with respect to the past, but says nothing in regards to present trends.  Home sales numbers indicate that the California housing market bottomed in February, and started its gradual rebound in March (see my previous blog, “California Construction on Path to Recovery”).  Given the direct correlation between the health of the construction industry and home sales, I would expect construction jobs to be returning very soon.

The second point I would like to address is the overall strength of the Santa Barbara construction and San Luis Obispo construction economies, at least with respect to most other California counties.  True, the construction economy has slowed in these two counties, but for the most part these regions are in pretty good shape.  What does this mean?  It means that given the low point in the housing market reached in February, these counties are poised for a very quick turn around in 2009 and 2010 since their local economies do not require much in the way of resusitation.  Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties are very regions in which to be a construction contractor during the next 18 months.

Josh Groves

President of jobtrio.com

Profiles and Reviews of California Contractors

Jobtrio.com Partners with Internet Marketing Inc. To Provide Greater Exposure to Contractors

Santa Barbara, California – April 9^th, 2009 – The construction contractor directory website Jobtrio.com has retained the search engine optimization firm Internet Marketing Inc. to help increase the exposure offered to California contractors.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a process through which the quality and volume of organic, or natural, search engine-generated traffic to a website is improved. “In a nutshell, this means that it will be much easier for consumers to find our contractors,” says Josh Groves, President of Jobtrio.com. “For instance, a Google search performed for a specific contracting company’s name will now be more likely than ever to return that company’s Jobtrio.com profile as a top result.” The ability of consumers to find contractors translates directly into Jobtrio.com contractors acquiring more construction leads.

Jobtrio.com selected the SEO firm of Internet Marketing Inc. based on their track record with such organizations as US Army and Ritz Carlton Resorts. “We chose a top tier firm because more Internet visibility equals more contractor leads for our members. We want our clients to get the most value possible out of Jobtrio.com,” says Brett Vernon, CEO of Jobtrio.com.

Jobtrio.com is a free Internet service that allows users to browse more than 250,000 listings of California contractors, or quickly locate a business by name, location, or specialty. Key features include candid customer reviews and detailed profiles so it is easy for project managers and home owners to find great construction professionals.

Contact:
Josh Groves
joshgroves@jobtrio.com

www.jobtrio.com
315 Meigs Road, Suite 388 A
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
United States
Ph: (800) 436-3885

###

Disparity in Construction Contractor Presence on the Web

When my partner, Brett Vernon, and I began the conceptualization of jobtrio.com, we were spurned by a vacuum both of us had experienced first hand:  Why is it so hard to find contractors on the Internet.  With only a couple clicks you can find every restaurant in town, every doctor, or every car dealership, but where are all the construction contractors?  Below is a collection of other interesting facts we have stumbled upon which have encouraged jobtrio.com along the way:

• Consumers are searching. A 2008 Yahoo study found that 59% of homeowners use the Internet to help them choose the right contractor for their projects.
• Contractors are absent. In a study conducted by jobtrio.com team members, a random sample of 100 contractors was selected from a database of all 250K+ licensed contractors in the state of California.  A Google search was performed using the business name for  each of these 100 contractors.  Of these 100, only 9 contractors appeared in the first 2 pages (top 20) results on Google.  Of course, I realize that 100 is not a very large sample size, but it is certainly enough of a sample to indicate a disparity.
• Just having a company website doesn’t cut it.  We have found that about 15-20% of contracting companies with more than 5 employees have a company website.  A website is a great way to spread information about your product and services, but who is going to your website?  Chances are, unless you have employed search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) firms, the majority of people landing on your site are either existing clients or someone who heard about your site through some other media outlet (newspaper, radio, word-of-mouth).  In other words, your website may be doing very little to generate new business for your organization.
• “You come to me” is on the out. In the late ’90s there was a wave of web-based companies that featured “you come to me” business models, meaning, a consumer specifies their general desires for a product or service, and a handful of providers then bid to get the consumer’s business.  As the web and its users have evolved, this old-school approach has proven to have little staying power.  For one reason, the “bidders” began to setup automated response systems or other tactics which are intended to lure-in unsuspecting consumers.  Also, consumers have grown much more savvy, and wish to be in the driver’s seat, with all decision-making tools placed right at their fingertips via the Internet.

These above mentioned discoveries have been integral in shaping the jobtrio.com product.  Here is how we responded:

• jobtrio.com is built around a database already containing the business name and contact information for 250K+ California contractors.  The information was hiding out there on the web, we just assemble it all in one place.
• jobtrio.com is absolutely free for consumers to use.
• we have employed top-notch SEM and SEO firms to assure that jobtrio.com listing come up with high rankings in Google and Yahoo searches
• We set our Enhanced Profile pricing as low as we possibly could.  In order to benefit the consumer and contractor, we are aiming for volume, volume, volume.

As always, I would love to hear any feedback on this blog!

Have a great day,

Josh

President of jobtrio.com

Profiles and Review of California Contractors

Experts (And the Numbers) Indicate California Construction on Path to Recovery

In scouring the net for the latest news which affects the California construction industry, I recently came across a couple articles that I felt were quite encouraging in nature, indicating a likely increase in California construction work and construction projects as a whole. 

The first snippet is a statistical analysis taken from www.dqnews.com and is a comparison of Southern California home sales for February 2008 vs. February 2009. 

	Sales Volume			Median Price
All homes	Feb-08	Feb-09	%Chng	Feb-08	Feb-09	%Chng
Los Angeles	3,468	4,590	32.4%	$460,000	$299,000	-35.0%
Orange	1,471	1,879	27.7%	$520,000	$375,000	-27.9%
Riverside	2,147	3,420	59.3%	$325,000	$190,000	-41.5%
San Bernardino	1,242	2,324	87.1%	$290,000	$153,000	-47.2%
San Diego	1,954	2,473	26.6%	$415,000	$285,000	-31.3%
Ventura	495	545	10.1%	$445,000	$327,000	-26.5%
SoCal	10,777	15,231	41.3%	$408,000	$250,000	-38.7%

Though this may not look immediately encouraging, the increase in sales volume, despite the low sales prices, means good news for new construction, general constractors and their subs.  With so many loans in default and so many homes in foreclosure, it is a necessity that this market surplus in lower-income home supply be first depleted before lower-income new construction projects can thrive again.

The other article I’d like to share with you is from the WordPress blog of David Edwards.  His article summarizes the ideas presented recently at a Realtors summit by Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS®.  Here are a couple key quotes from David’s blog:

“[Yun] forecasts price stabilization by the end of the year and a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in sales of existing homes nationwide as the impact of the housing stimulus package kicks in.”

. . . and:

“Yun said the Housing Affordability Index is at its highest-ever level, thanks in part to declining home values and historic low interest rates. Stricter underwriting standards, “frozen” jumbo loans (a big factor in the high-cost markets such as the Puget Sound area), and shaky consumer confidence are impeding sales activity, Yun believes.
     Yun also spoke of the correlation (or lack or correlation) between jobs, the recession, interest rates and home sales. In the 2000 recession, “we lost jobs yet had rising home sales because of falling interest rates.” Interest rates make the difference, he said.”

. . . also:

“”Using California as a barometer, Yun said momentum is rising “much faster than I ever anticipated.” In Orange County, where prices are considerably higher than Seattle, activity had been stalled, but began turning around over the past six months. He attributes the shift to a combination of pent-up demand and psychological factors. Some who have been sitting on the fence don’t want to be the last ones left sitting,” he observed.
    Yun also cited a return of multiple offers in some California markets. That suggests prices may be bottoming or have bottomed out,” he stated.”

I know what you might say:  It’s this guy’s job to put a positive spin on our current recession.  But, whenever an “expert” invokes historical evidence and statistics the way Yun has here, I am much more willing to pay attention.  Let’s hope that his interpretations have some validity, as it could indicate that California construction is rounding the corner, on its way to a rebound.

Josh Groves
President
jobtrio.com
Profiles and reviews of California contractors.
“Let’s get to work!”

jobtrio.com – One Of Our Press Releases

Brett Vernon comes from a family rich in construction experience. His dad, brother, and uncles are all successful home builders. Though Brett, a 27 year old business school graduate and former Navy SEAL, had his own short run at contracting, being a natural problem solver he came away with a concept for a product that could alleviate some of the pain contractors and their customers face.

“As a general contractor, I continually ran into the same issue when I would start a project: there’s no simple way to research and select the best sub-contractors for a job. I soon realized that across the board, from home owners to construction project managers, everyone was experiencing the same problem.”

The Internet is the perfect tool to help businesses reach their client base, but most contractors are stuck in dark ages and can’t even be found on the Web. With only 5% of construction contractors having websites, the Internet is a largely untouched territory for the nation’s 2nd largest industry. What Vernon envisioned was a low-cost way for contractors to get a meaningful Web presence and a free way for consumers to select the best contractors to perform their construction project. He enlisted the help of systems engineer and childhood friend Josh Groves to assist in building the Web application that has become jobtrio.com, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.

“The Internet has a handful of sites which attempt to match construction contractors with customers, but they all seem to be taking a mid-‘90s approach to the challenge, trying to dictate the flow of information to the consumer and using market price-setting,” says Groves, who studied physics at Columbia University before working in home automation system development. “Our goal was to take a Web 2.0 approach. Low entry cost, democratization, and fee-flowing, user-generated content were crucial forces driving the jobtrio.com site design.”

In simple terms, jobtrio.com is an easily searchable directory of all licensed contractors in California, with some of those contractors paying $20 a month to create an in-depth profile of their company. What truly makes jobtrio.com special, though, are features like honest user reviews, a site optimized for browsing, and the level playing field among the contractors. Jobtrio.com is attempting to do for construction company websites what Myspace.com and Facebook.com did for personal homepages. While removing the barriers to entry and fostering an online community, Vernon and Groves simultaneously create a very useful tool for the public’s benefit.

“We are trying to present all the means for making the right decision when choosing a contractor,” says Vernon. “We really just want to bring clarity to contracting – clarity that benefits the contractor and the consumer.”

The creators of jobtrio.com know that it may not be easy to convince a largely word-of-mouth industry to convert to the marketing methods of the Internet, but, more and more, people demand to have free access to information about products and services before they buy. We are well within the age of the informed consumer, which is clearly demonstrated by the popularity of websites like Amazon.com and Yelp.com. Jobtrio.com has presented the construction industry with a long overdue, low-risk channel to get 21^st Century advertising exposure. For that sake of all home owners, let’s hope that contractors embrace all that jobtrio.com has to offer.

The Funding Dilemma

I am always looking for black and white answers to problems, then to make a sure-footed decision, and move forward decisively . . . perhaps it’s the engineer in me.   So, I am very big on gathering all the facts so that an educated choice can be made with my eyes wide open.  I don’t think I’m wishy-washy, though, because when I decide, it is almost always final.

My normal MO has been hard to follow when it comes to whether and when to seek funding for my company, jobtrio.com (contractor advertising), however.  Maybe it’s because I’m new to this particular strain of dilemma, or maybe it’s because there is no right answer, but irregardless, this quandary is making me crazy.

On the one hand (acquire funding) is:

• having the resources to execute our marketing plan as we truly envision it
• hire great help to tune-in our product. do sales, expand our geographical coverage
• employ industry experts to give us much needed advice along the journey

. . .Then on the other hand (hold-off on funding):

• retain control and a large stake in the company I started
• test-out our business model on a small scale so that we fully understand our cash flows (i.e learn what our product is really worth)
• not obligate our selves to anyone else (i.e. at present, we only let ourselves down if we fail)

I get all sorts of varying advice on this topic.  In general, industry veterans tell me to bootstrap for as long as humanly possible.  My friends and family all advice me to get some funding so that I can stop working 16 hours a day.

At present, we have yet to seek funding, but this lifestyle is really starting to grind on me!  I would very much appreciate it if anyone could offer me some words of wisdom regarding either path.

Josh

Construction Contracting SEO Keywords

I recently employed a search engine marketing (SEO) firm to help recode our construction contractor directory website in order to improve our site’s search engine relevency for certain keywords and phases which our customers may use to find our site.  The idea being, we try to have the code for our site mention as many of these keywords as possible in all the right places, and this in turn convinces Google, Yahoo, etc. that we are the most appropriate search result for these terms.

So, our SEO firm, Internet Marketing Inc., has aked me to compile the top 20 terms I think our clients would use to locate or site.  This is a little tricky since we have two types of clients:  contractors and people seeking contractors.  Here is my best shot, assuming that some of the “seeking a contractor” keywords would actually be used by contractors to locate advertising outlets:

1. construction leads
2. contracting leads
3. construction projects
4. construction work
5. contractor profiles
6. public works projects
7. builders
8. remodelers
9. roofers
10. painters
11. plumbers
12. electricians
13. find a contractor
14. contractor reviews
15. landscapers
16. gardeners
17. construction jobs
18. general contractors
19. kitchen remodel
20. bath remodel

I would love any suggestions or input anyone has one this topic.

Thanks,

Josh

Construction Contractor Resources on the Web

My research involved with discovering the best methods for reaching construction contractors on the Web has caused me to stumble across a large variety of resources aimed at the contracting community. There really are some great sites out there that have the contractors’ best interests in mind, but there are also plenty of domains which are focused on simply getting at the contractors’ pocketbooks.  It is my stance that sites which are driven by any motivations other than content, openness, usability, and community are destined for failure in the very near future.  The burgeoning Internet populace just won’t stand for it.  That being said, here are some of my observations/thoughts on some of the leading contracting resources on the Web:

• Servicemagic.com :  The behemoth site which solicits home owners to enter details about a project which they need performed, and then Servicemagic disseminates these leads to “relevant” contractors in the same geographic region as the homeowner.  The contractor then pays a fee to acquire the contact information for the homeowner.  From what I understand, the per lead fee varies between $20 and $50 or so.  Servicemagic themselves say that about 1 in 10 leads should pan out for the contractor.  My research shows that it is more like 1 in 20.  Just look around the Web to see how contractors feel about Servicemagic.  Contractors overwhelmingly seem to loath them, but they also seem to see no alternative.  In my opinion, Servicemagic is the epitome of what we don’t want jobtrio.com to be.  Servicemagic controls the flow of information between client and contractor, they throttle back the ever important human aspect of business so the homeowner likely ends up with a contractor who doesn’t really match their specific needs, and they place the entire burden on the contractor.  Everyone is gets stuck holding the tab except Servicemagic, of course.  Servicemagic is doomed for the same reason that ebay.com gets ten times the traffic as shopping.com:  consumers want uninhibited access to information and products so that they can make an educated selection.
• Buildingnetwork.com :  This is probably the most contractor-friendly resource on the web right now.  The Building Network owns 10 or so different forums (contractortalk.com, electriciantalk,com, etc.), all revolving around construction or home improvement.  And, they are all free.  The advertisers foot the bill.  I have absolutely no critiques on their business model or they manner in which they conduct themselves . . . I just wish I had thought of it.
• Bidclerk.com :  this is a very professionally-geared site.  I believe it is $40 a month, and a contractor then has access to different projects which get posted in their geographic region.  The projects tend to be posted by project managers or general contractors.  From what I have heard, Bidclerk is really a toss-up.  If you live in a small town, you can go months without having a relevant project appear on Bidclerk.  But, on the flip-side, I have also personally interviewed very successful contractors who get all of their work off of Bidclerk.  I would say, set some ROI limits, and then give it a shot.
• Craigslist.com :  Don’t get me wrong, I love Craigslist, but I would never recommend using a contractor found via a Craigslist ad.  In my personal experience, contractors advertising on craigslist or responding to craigslist ads have fallen on very hard times and are desperate — this is never a good thing.  OK, I’ll say it:  I’ve been burned by a couple contractors I located via craigslist.

I could continue, but it is getting late (for me) and I have probably angered enough people already with these statements.  The short of it is:  business only works if everyone is winning and happy.  Contracting is the most organic form of business, so make sure that you are picking the right contractor for your project and make sure that you are paying them a very fair wage.  Any website which muddies the waters of contracting is doing the whole industry a disservice.

Josh

jobtrio.com – Reaching Santa Barbara Contractors

As President of jobtrio.com, one of my jobs is to understand our client base so as to better know how to provide them with a useful service.  Presently, we are marketing our contractor lead generation website very hard to the Santa Barbara area.  Being a numbers guy, I generally like to start with statistics, and see what I can deduce.  Here’s the major trades in SB, along with the number of contractors practicing those trades:

Total Contractors (1652)

• General Contractors (821)
• Electrical (144)
• Painting (144)
• Landscaping (123)
• Plumbing (109)
• Engineering Contractors (66)
• Climate Control (HVAC) (52)
• Concrete (45)
• Tile (47)
• Cabinets and Finish Carpentry (38)
• Roofing (34)
• Flooring (35)
• Masonry (26)
• Home Theater, Networking and Security Systems (25)

The first thing I notice, is the large proportion of General Contractors.  This is likely a symptom of the booming economy over the last 10 years.  The next thing I notice is the low number of HVAC Contractors; this probably has to do with the pleasant climate of SB.  Just look at Florida and see how many HVAC contractor there are per capita.

Of course there are many other observations that can be made, but I think the large number of Generals is very key:  they are hubs in the social network of contractors.  If we can show them that jobtrio.com offers a great, affordable means for contractor advertising, the popularity of our site could really snowball.  But, how do we reach them?

Here is our proposed approach:

1. free memberships for the major hubs
2. Personalized cold-emails to the smaller hubs followed by
3. sales calls to the smaller hubs
4. account setup assistance and support for the smaller hubs

Starting this week, we will be putting this plan into action.  I will let you know how it goes.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Josh