Project owners have access to contractor profile and portfolio pages to help in their determination of who they want to hire to complete their project. How you complete your profile also helps determine where you place in our popular online contractor directory. That’s why it is important to be as complete as possible when filling out your profile and portfolio pages.

We all know how important first impressions are. You’ll want your profile page to represent you in such a way that project owners will have a good first impression. Use your profile page to your advantage; as a useful tool to market your services.

Follow these guidelines to help insure online success.

• First Things First
• Directory Listing Ranking System - How to Increase Your Ranking
• Fill in Each aspect of the Profile Page
• Company Overview
• Listing Your Services
• Licensing, Bonding, and Insurance Information
• Awards, Affiliations, and Special Offers
• The Importance of Ratings and Reviews
• Before Submitting Your Profile
• Your Portfolio Gallery

First Things First

The first step in effectively marketing yourself as a contractor at HandyCanadian.com is to think of your profile page as an online résumé. Use it to sell yourself to the project owner so they are more compelled to hire you instead of someone else.

In order to win favor with a project owner, your professionalism as a qualified service provider must shine through. Not only would an incomplete profile page look unprofessional and not provide enough detailed information about you, but it would suggest two things to the project owner:

1.) It would suggest that the contractor doesn’t take his profession seriously, or that he doesn’t' take pride in his work.

2.) It would suggest that the contractor might not be complete or thorough in his work, since he didn’t even take the time to complete the profile page.

The successful contractor member at HandyCanadian.com has discovered something important. A well-written, completed profile page equals an increase in responses from interested project owners. Why? Because ample information was provided on the profile page.

Remember, project owners will measure you and the extent of your capabilities by what is in your profile. Don’t be concerned if you have just started out and/or haven’t yet acquired a portfolio filled with glowing testimonials from previous clients. There are other ways to help ensure online success

The most important thing you want your contractor profile page to say about you is that you are a confident, qualified professional who takes pride in their work.

Fill in Each aspect of the Profile Page

It is important to fill in each aspect of the profile page, which is really your online resume. For best success, don’t fill in the fields “off the top of your head.” Take the time to thoughtfully consider what you want to say.

After filling in company basics such as company name, contact persons, address information, and web site URL, you will have the opportunity to provide a Company Overview. This will be a summary of the type of services your company provides. It might also include how many years the company has been in operation, and what the vision or goal of the company is.

Company Overview

Use this section to really make your company shine. It can be a very basic overview of the types of services provided, bulleted or otherwise. Or it can be creative copy that highlights an advantageous aspect of the company, or a sales pitch that reaches out to the reader and grabs their attention.

Example: “If you’re tired of the runaround every time you’re in the market for a service provider to complete a business or home renovation on time, you’ve come to the right place. Renovations Unlimited not only provides quality work by highly skilled professionals, but we guarantee project completion time! (see exclusions below)”

Whichever style you prefer using, remember – the targeted audience is potential clients. Let them know what you can do for them, and how they can benefit if they decide to hire you. Write your company overview down on paper, before filling in the field. And then read it aloud; how does it sound to you? If you were a project owner, would you be compelled to read further?

Listing Your Services

Fill in the Services Offered section. Although the list of choices is lengthy, be sure and include all services you and/or your company provide. The more services you provide, the more new project e-mail notifications you receive; increasing your chances of winning a project bid. However, increasing your list of services will decrease your ranking within our popular contractor directory. If you're concerned about your company ranking in our directory, start with selecting only the services your company specialize in.

Licensing, Bonding, and Insurance Information

Another important aspect of the contractor profile page is the Licensing, Bonding, and Insurance Information section. Without fail, every business and residential renovation project owner who posts their project online at HandyCanadian.com will take note of a contractor’s licensing, bonding, and Insurance information.

Contractors who bid on a project but fail to provide this information in their profile can jeopardize their online success. They will either be asked by the project owner to provide it, or will be overlooked entirely in lieu of another contractor who took the time to provide the information in their profile.

Awards, Affiliations, and Special Offers

The Awards field that follows provides another great opportunity to make your credentials and expertise shine. Include degrees, awards, and any formal acknowledgements or recognition you have received that highlights your skills and expertise as a contractual service provider.

In the Affiliations field include any groups or organizations you are a member of or are affiliated with. In the Coverage Area include what areas you service. If you are willing to travel to another province for certain projects, make note of that.

In the Special Offers field, list any special offers or discounts you provide. This might be a senior citizen’s discount, a free on-site estimate, or a discount if the client mentions they saw your profile at HandyCanadian.com. If you are not offering a discount, leave this field blank.

Before Submitting your Profile

After you have completed your contractor profile page, look it over carefully before submitting. Check for possible spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Does the profile reflect what a good online resume would contain?

Make sure your profile says exactly what you want it to say. Although time consuming, remember: by taking the time to fill out your profile page to the best of your ability, you are investing in your business and will reap the rewards of greater response potential.

Finally - if you really want an edge over other contractors, do what the most successful contractor members do; fill out the Portfolio page. Various completed projects can be highlighted, pictures of successful projects can be posted, and brief testimonials from satisfied clients can greatly influence a project owner.

The Importance of Ratings and Reviews

One other aspect of the profile page that helps to build contractor credibility with project owners is the Ratings/Reviews feature. Even client reviews for projects that were completed prior to joining HandyCanadian.com can be added. Simply contact previous clients and provide them with the HandyCanadian.com URL.

Previous clients can sign up at HandyCanadian.com for free, locate the contractor’s profile, and submit their review.

As you bid on jobs and complete projects posted at HandyCanadian.com, ask each client to take a few minutes to rate you and review your service.

NOTE: Members attempting to submit false or fictitious ratings and reviews for themselves or other members will be removed immediately from our system, without notice or refund. Your client(s) MUST submit their ratings and reviews themselves, you cannot post it on their behalf.

Your Portfolio Gallery

Not only will your portfolio help increase your response rate, but it will also help increase your ranking and exposure in our contractor directory and also in major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. The key to improving your exposure is to ensure each photo album you create is properly categorized according to the project type i.e. "Kitchen Remodeling", "Bathroom Renovation", "Roofing" etc. You also want to make sure that each album is properly titled to describe the pictures included.

It's also very important to provide a brief description for each picture you submit. Each description you provide will be indexed and added to our "Picture Gallery" that showcases all the pictures posted by our contractor members. Without a proper description for your images or category for each album, your pictures will be excluded from the search results.

Directory Listing Ranking System

HandyCanadian.com has implemented system that awards our contractor members points for completing and maintaining their profile, and for acquiring positive reviews from their clients. The more information provided in your profile and the more positive reviews you receive, the more points you have, the higher your company profile will be listed in our contractor directory. Points are awarded for the following:

• Membership Status: Premium Members are awarded enough points automatically to enjoy top positioning above free membership listings in the HandyCanadian.com Directory. Putting your company name and services at the forefront of project owner searches for area service providers – increasing your chances of contact. Click here to upgrade your account.
  
  Free and Premium members would then be ranked based on points accumulated by completing the following. They are listed in order of importance:
  
  
• Ratings & Feedback: Points are awarded for each positive feedback posted by your customers. Points are also deducted for any negative feedback posted. All feedback posted will be verified by our staff members to ensure its authenticity. Request reviews from your clients
• Top 3 Main Services: Selecting the top 3 services your company focuses on. Again, this helps increase the ranking of contractor members that only offer specialty trade services. Update your preferences
• Services Offered: Our system rewards contractors a greater number of points for selecting a fewer number of services and, reducing points from contractors with a larger number of services. This helps increase the ranking of contractor members offering specialty trade services such as electrical, plumbing, painting, HVAC, mould removal, roofing etc. Manage your services
• Category Descriptions: Adding detailed descriptions to each category you selected from the list of services. This will not only help increase your ranking for each category you add a description, it will also help improve your success rate by targeting your listings to the specific needs of consumers using our directory. Add your category descriptions.
• Company Overview: The more information you provide about your company, the more points awarded. All text copy must be of original content and not copied from another website or source. Update your company overview.
• Adding a Link to Your Website: Adding a short text ad from your company website linking to HandyCanadian.com will help increase your overall ranking. - Add a link
• Adding Your Licensing Information - Add your license Information
• Adding Your Insurance Information - Add your insurance details
• Portfolio Albums/Pictures: Provide a description for each picture you submit to your portfolio. Be sure to separate albums based on project type i.e. Bathroom Renovations, Kitchen Remodeling, Roofing Projects etc. Separating your albums will help your ranking for each category you assign an album. Manage your portfolio
• Adding a Company Logo - Add your logo
• Participating in the Ask The Pros forum: Each time you provide a detailed response to questions posted in the forum you accumulate points that will help increase your ranking. Go to Ask The Pros
• Submitting a Special Offer - Add a special offer

Remember

Keep your online resume current; update your profile and portfolio regularly. This will lend credibility to your professionalism and quality of service, heightening your potential for success at HandyCanadian.com.

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If you have specific questions not covered in this article, please contact info@handycanadian.com