Michel and All,

I've just discovered this board and I'm seriously impressed with the frank and expert responses to the posts.

I'd appreciate a frank and fearlessness critique of the copy on my startup website Jessie's List.

http://www.jessieslist.com

A similar site that's franchised throughout the US has women as 70% of their members. I expect my members to be predominantly women aged 30+, married, home owners or buyers and educated.

My other major problem is marketing. I'm working on a shoestring and if anyone's got any good ideas on how to kickstart this operation I'd be "all ears"

You can gain access to the members area by using the username = michel and the password = fortin

Thank you all for any advice.

Peter Reuter

Hi Peter,

I fit right into your target demographic. I like your site and the services it offers.

It seems to me that the membership fee is a little high; but it depends on the content you'll have. I would probably only need to find a service contractor once a year at most, so the other features on your site would have to make that membership fee worthwhile. A list of companies, products or services offering discounts for members might be helpful. (I'm often disappointed when promised discounts because they're usually for items I would never purchase... so knowing this in advance would help to sell me on the idea.)

I think as a general rule, women are more budget-conscious than men, so you'll really have to convince them that your site will SAVE them more than they'll spend on the membership fees. Perhaps you could add a guarantee to that affect?

I think your site has great potential and I expect you'll do quite well with it!

FYI, there was a little glitch, and I don't know if it's a problem on your end or mine... when I was in the member area, every time I hit the BACK button I'd get a "Warning: Page Expired" notice and have to REFRESH.

Thanks Bonnie, that's really good information.

May I ask what you thought of the copy on the site? I'm struggling to nail down good selling copy for this idea.

I can see what you mean about value for money. There will be discount vouchers on the site which will mainly be a % off the invoice when members hire a service business from the List.

I've also started placing valuable content on the site already. This will be expanded over the coming months with topics such as "Childproofing your home", "Dealing with your local Council", "Becoming an Owner-Builder" etcetera.

A forum is also in the planning stage.

I'd be happy to give a guarantee that if a member used two businesses from the List each year they would save more than the membership cost.

My reasoning is that if a member gets two good service businesses from the List in a year, they'll see the real value of the List - which is being able to find a professional, reliable, honest service business, with testimonials from other members, at the click of their mouse.

At which point I don't think they'll want to cancel their membership and get their money back.

Peter
http://www.jessieslist.com

Hi Peter,

I'm just wondering if there is any other kind of site that proves that this revenue model works. The reason I ask is that given yellow pages (online and offline) and other local directories etc., it's not entirely clear to me why people would line up to pay for this service.

If I recall correctly, I took a quick tour through the site and looked up a couple of categories of business. Neither had ratings, so I couldn't really see how this was any more beneficial to me than using yellow pages.

Looked at from my own point of view, when I'm looking for services and tradesmen, I will usually only go on a recommendation from someone who's already used them. I kindof got that your site was about recommendations, but how would you police your advertisers so that they lived up to the promises that you are making about them?

Sorry if I'm talking out of turn, but I dont think I would pay a subscription for a directory that is only offering me very marginally more than I can get for free. It's a great idea, but is it viable? Have I misunderstood?

Jane

Jane,

Yes, there is a model of success. Angie's List is franchised to about 20 major cities in the US. On average they get about 0.5% of the population of each city as members after 3 years of operation.

Sydney has a population of 4 million. 0.5% is 20,000 members - I'd be more than happy with half that number!

You're right about the recommendations. However, this is the classic chicken and egg problem. Without members it's difficult to get recommendations, and without recommendations it's hard to get members.

As a start I've put all the Sydney Small Business Award winners on the site, plus those businesses that my friends and I can personally recommend.

The business recommendations are eventually self regulating. A business with several positive service reports from different members would usually be a good business to deal with. If they didn't live up to their good rating, they'd probably get a couple of poor reports, which would trigger an investigation from me.

If they didn't improve, they'd be removed from the List.

That said - how can I improve the copy?

Peter

Jane,

I just re-read your post.

Businesses cannot pay to get on the List. The only way a business can get on the List is to be referred to the List by a member.

Peter

Hi Peter,

OK - I geddit now. I've just re-read your copy and here are some thoughts (for what they're worth - but I am female, and I lived in Sydney for 4 years, so almost relevant!!):

General thoughts:

- I like the idea of being able to make a contribution to charity
- The strength of the concept didn't hit me, and in fact I didn't really get why I should pay for the directory until you explained why
- you could make one of your reports freely available for people who sign up to the ezine - at least then you are collecting names, even if those haven't bought from you YET - I imagine people are only going to sign up to this when they actually need a tradesperson
- shouldn't you ought to use the term "tradesperson" - rather than "tradesman"? Sydney women are pretty tough minded, and I would think you would run fewer risks of alienation by using the non-gender specific term

Some other thoughts about the offer/structure etc:

1. How are you going to motivate people to hand over their recommendations?
2. What is the legal situation regarding advertising "recommended" services, and can you be held accountable if someone has a bad experience with a company advertised in your directory?
3. What level of accountability do you have that you are willing to advertise?
4. In order to get beyond the chicken and egg scenario, can you make the directory free, or heavily reduced until you have it populated with more recommended services?

For example, I did a couple of searches on postcode 2090 (where I used to live in Cremorne) and only got companies in Lane Cove.

5. Can you make the directory a bit more like a membership site (which is presumably the IT architecture that it's built on) by creating a lot of content that would be useful? I know this will take time and probably money (because you'll have to buy some content) but that would be the sort of added value that I would look for in something like this. For example, I'd definitely stick my hand up to read an article on "How not to get ripped off by your garage - especially for women".

About the actual copy:

1. I think you need to make it more clear that the ONLY way someone can get into the directory is via a good recommendation and that advertisers don't pay. This is my assurance that I'm not paying to read a load of advertising, and that this directory really is different

2. Be more specific about what I will get. What sort of discount vouchers will I get? What sort of reports will I get?

3. The term "good guys" doesn't paint a vivid enough picture for me and it's too generic. I would like to hear the specifics and to hear words such as:
reliable, good time-keeping or turn up on time, don't rip me off, honest, trustworthy, friendly, quality work, not fly-by-nights, established, well-known, good reputation etc. (I know you used some of those at the beginning, but it didn't quite gel into a tangible concept or picture for me).

Here's an idea: can you say something to the effect that businesses can't get into the directory until they've passed the Jessie's List 10-point inspection (or whatever).

The idea here is to really prove why this matters and to prove that my investment in your site will be worth it, and explain how this does lead to me saving money and time because all the businesses have been "vetted" in some way. So when someone comes to recommend and rate a business, can they check a load of boxes to demonstrate their satisfaction in certain areas?

4. As a woman, I often feel intimidated by trades-MEN. Especially garages - where they often treat me like a full-on idiot and I can't be sure that they're not carrying out unnecessary repairs, or charging me for work they haven't done. If you suspect that your market will be mainly women, then it might be worth addressing this fear in some way. Perhaps you could have a section on women-friendly businesses? Or even, businesses run by women?

This is not as far out as you might think. One very clever man in London is building his plumbing business by having proper livery and uniforms, and employing disillusioned corporate managers (men and women) to service his well-heeled customers in Kensington and Chelsea. It stands to reason that people feel more comfortable with people like themselves, especially when they're wandering around in your home. I would certainly welcome a visit from a female plumber, who might put me at ease and clearly explain what she was doing.

5. I think you should more clearly define the problem (shoddy tradespeople and unreliable service - especially a problem on a big project like a kitchen re-fit or building an extension). Or the problem of lost work hours when the drain cleaner didn't turn up when he/she said they would. And then, agitate it like mad!! More specifically address people's fears and frustrations. Then promise that that experience can be a thing of the past if and when they know the best companies in their area, and that's where Jessie's List can help them.

I hope some of those ideas resonate and are of help. I'm probably talking out of turn, but the design doesn't really work for me. The letters in "the sydney homeowner's grapevine" don't render properly. More broadly, I just don't feel that that design is right for the kind of service you're providing. This is just a personal opinion and I hope you don't take offence.

Best of luck with it!
Jane

Hi Peter,

In general, I think Jane is right... basically the letter is too short, you could really elaborate on many points to help build trust and value here to help it work for you.

You could explain each benefit offered in far greater detail.

I know full well what it means to sell a trade service to both men and women, as I was a building contractor for many years. I know the extreme challenge backwords and forwards of what it means to go through this process, and the intense psychological hopes and fears that come with this territory.

You could really play on this more... much more. It's no joke to find a reliable company that will share, destroy, and rebuild something as intimate as your own home with you, everyday, for perhaps months on end... costing perhaps a fortune...

Very, very important to address this fear... but be careful to not turn it into a men's/women's issue. I think it would be a big mistake to create a "women-friendly" section, because this will imply that the others are NOT women friendly... same with businesses run by women.

Men can have the same fears (perhaps less likely to admit them), but they are there, and good companies run by men can (and should) address these fears well... what's critical is that you build more trust by showing happy users (in particular women), perhaps criteria that demonstrate that the businesses listed "carefully listen", and bend over backwards to help clients feel confident and comfortable "taking the client by the hand" each step of the way, etc...

Comfort your target market (mostly women, with things they want to hear, but that ALSO apply to men)... if you make the wife happy, in 90% or more of cases, the husband is happy (but he will watch on like a hawk ready to intervene if things go astray)!

You could definitely find a better unique angle (USP) to present this service, "grapevine" and "Sydney online gossip", aren't really benefits... they say nothing that stirs emotion or builds trust.

Gather testimonials, lots of testimonials, and use them to hammer your beneficial points home.

Good luck...

Jane & Timothy,

Thank you both very much for taking the time to review the site and provide me with such impressive insight.

I've copied the full text of your comments to my hard disc and I'll use them as a template to replan the site and rewrite the copy.

I suspect I'm far too close to Jessie's List and I'm assuming everyone knows as much about what the site has to offer as I do - which is patently ridiculous.

Having you both look at it with objective eyes is a much needed wake-up call for me.

Thank you both again.

Peter

Peter,

Glad to be of assistance!

I hope the site does well and that you have very many satisfied Sydneysiders who can confidently get their home improvements and repairs done by good people!

Jane