All our very latest News
17th February 2012

We’re Mobile !

That’s it, our NEW Multi Platform Mobile version of the site is now LIVE.

And, it's VERY easy to use. It's a full version of the website, only Mobile Smart !

m.bigbuildersbum.com

Now, when you access www.BigBuildersBum.com from a mobile phone, it will automatically recognise your device, and ask if you want to use the mobile version or the web version.

So all you "Mobile Happy Tradesmen" can now do everything with total ease on your mobile phone. From checking new jobs, to corresponding with your clients via your secure members area, and even updating your profile.

New Tradesmen can sign up on the new mobile version, and its super easy to post jobs too.

The Mobile site is completely secure, and designed for ; iphone, android, blackberry, windows mobile, etc. Having been built on the jQuery mobile framework, it is cross browser compliant. (For the non techie, that just means everyone with a smart phone should be able to use it!)

And, ... there's a Mobile App coming soon too !

Let us know if you have any problems, so we can iron out any glitches that might appear.
support@bigbuildersbum.com

The Review Crew !

Next up is a revamp of the review system.
As this is a very important part of the site, we want to make it as engaging as possible.
So, over the next few weeks we will be creating a system that job posters just can't wait to use !

Get on Sarah Beeny's New Channel 4 Property Show

4th February 2012

Want Featured on Sarah Beeny's NEW Channel 4 Property Show ?

We are delighted to say that Sarah Beeny's team have asked us to help source
home improvement projects to feature in her new Channel 4 Property Show.

It's a fabulous opportunity for You to get Sarah's invaluable expert advice.

To be considered, just post your job with us.

You can then choose to have your details forwarded to Sarah's team.
If they like your project, they will contact you directly.

And, obviously the necessary, Professional tradesmen will contact you too - FAST !

Will Your House Do ?

Ideally they are looking for people who are starting renovations, or extensions to their properties which will significantly increase the size of their home. With the aim to have their projects finished in the summertime, and with planning permission in place.

Sarah will be available to consult and advise the home owner on any aspects of the project you might need help with. Although there will be no financial assistance to homeowners for taking part in the show, obviously the filming process does encourage contractors to stick to their original timeframes, quotations, and to deliver a very good quality finish.

Tradesmen on TV - for FREE !

So, Tradesmen, if you want the chance to be featured on Sarah Beeny's new channel 4 property show, and get some FREE TV exposure, make sure your membership is up to date.

You will need to be quick to quote on those big renovation jobs !

Wishing you all the best of Luck !
Leona

30th January 2012

FREE Trials, FREE Trials !

With the festivities well and truly behind us, and the fresh new year rolling in.
It's now time to end the 3 month trial for new members ...

Don't worry if you have already signed up, your 3 months FREE will still be valid.

But, as the 1st of Feb new tradesmen members will get a 1 month free trial.

So, if you want to get take advantage of the old 3 months FREE system, you better get yourself signed up before the end of the working day on Tuesday Jan 31st !!!

This still makes us the most economical and transparent site of its kind !

Remember there are NO HIDDEN FEES anywhere.
It's just £10.00 + VAT per month once your free trial is up.

That's just 33p per day folks, for genuine, quality job alerts !!!

Wow, we have just realised, that's about the cost of your daily paper !!!!

Mobile Site's a Must !

There's a new mobile version of the site in the works, making it much easier for those of you who use your mobile phone on the site throughout the day. Hopefully this will be launched by the end of February.

Raving Reviews

We are also re-working the review system now, making it a lot more fun to use. So get those reviews up here, the more good reviews - the more work you get !

Ok, that's all for now - Back to work for me !

Wishing you all a Fab day
Leona

3rd November 2011

Well Hello There !

I know it's been a while since our last news update, but we did say we were going to be busy !

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing !!!

Firstly, a big Warm WELCOME to all our new Tradesman and job posting members.

As promised, we have been busy with Search Engine promotional work, and it’s really beginning to pay off !!! There are more, and more jobs being posted now every day, and some great marketing stints are still in the works.

Thank you to those who have taken the time to let us know that you are enjoying the site, and getting work from it. That's what it's here for, and it's just the tip of a very large iceberg !!!

If you are new to the site, and looking for a tradesman, don't worry if you can't find any listed in your area. Just Post Your Job, which is completely free of charge, and we will do the rest by sourcing the relevant tradesman for you.

Attention all tradesmen

We want to make something very clear to those who have not signed up with us yet :

There are NO HIDDEN COSTS - ANYWHERE !!!

You get 3 months FREE membership.
Then, if you want to stay with us, it's just £10 + VAT per month !

No initial registration fee
No charge for leads
No commissions
No charge for reading this page !

When (and only when) your initial 3 FREE months are up, it's just £10 + VAT per month.

For that membership fee, we actively market every one of our tradesmen, individually online.

Remember this site has been created for you, so do keep the suggestions rolling in.

Billy's Blog

I know I said in my last post that Billy would be letting you know what he has
been up to, but he got all caught up in the football season !
Which I am sure some of you can appreciate !!!!

However, our very own former professional footballer, Mr Paul Cherry, has been working
with Billy and we will be launching Billy's own Blog very soon now.
Stay tuned ............

19th July 2011

And there’s More !!!

More 'Fab' functions & Billy Builders Debut drawing near !

How many tradesmen can quote for one job ?

We have heard from a good few of our members, that it’s not much fun when a multitude of you quote for the same job. (It really can’t be that much fun for the job poster either!) Obviously, it’s not a problem right now, as we are just starting out. But, in an effort to prevent this from happening in the near future, we now ask job posters to choose how many tradesmen they want to hear from.

You’ll see a new dropdown on the “Post a Job” page, with the option to select a maximum number of tradesmen -
1 through to 6, or unlimited. In the help tip that appears when this box is clicked, we suggest 3 as a maximum.

Once the maximum number of tradesmen requested have initiated contact, which
works on a first come first serve basis, no one else will be able to quote. Unless
however, the job poster chooses to change the setting from their members’ area.

We realise this doesn’t stop people requesting a zillion quotes. But, it certainly makes them stop and think about how many tradesmen they actually do want to hear from. This will help prevent tradesmen having to battle for jobs in an auction-like manner.

The jobs alerts we send you will state if there is a limit to the amount of tradesmen that can quote, as will the job page.

Once the site starts getting really busy you can let us know how this is working for you...

New Trade Categories too !

We have just added some new job categories too -

Architect
Carpet Cleaning
French polishing
Handy man
Interior Design
Oven Cleaner
Pest Control
Removals

Come back and add them to your profile if they are relevant to you
and feel free to suggest any that are missing : suggestions@bigbuildersbum.com

The Marvel of Mighty Marketing

That’s all the additional relevant functionality added for the time being, although we do have loads more up our sleeves!
Our main focus right now is online marketing. We have spent the last month preparing the site for this. Now, with all the preliminaries done, it’s time to get serious and drive more traffic to the site. Which will get all you very patient tradesmen the genuine, quality leads you signed up for !

A great part of professional, lasting internet marketing is accumulative and takes time, so this won’t be accomplished overnight. But keep an eye on the search engines, as over the next few weeks and months, you will see the site being found more and more for the relevant search terms.

We have to take a moment here to say :

To all our social media friends!

If those of you with a Facebook and, or Google account want to help just that wee bit more, click below...
+ Us, What’s not to like !

Billy Builders Official Debut !

Our logo and Mascot Billy, asked us to tell you he has been very busy over the last few days. But, he will be letting you all in on his whereabouts in the next day or so ...

You are not going to believe where he has been !!!

As always, wishing you all fun!
Leona

4th July 2011

Well it’s all systems go here !

There is just so many new functions we want to add to this site, it’s crazy !

Anyway, we have just installed what we call the “Phone System” !

Which means people posting a job can now request that tradesmen contact them directly and immediately over the phone !!! It’s super secure, really adaptable and highly beneficial to Job posters and tradesmen alike.

Here’s a rundown on how it works :

People posting a job are now asked to select their “Preferred method of contact” :

Telephone and internal mail
Internal mail only (this was the original contact method)

Those who choose “Telephone and Internal email” enter their phone numbers into the boxes provided. Moments after their job has been posted, the relevant tradesmen are notified via email and told that this particular job post has requested direct telephone contact.

Here’s where the security kicks in !

First of course, to gain access to the telephone numbers you have to be registered with us on Big Builders Bum. Second, you have to be logged in. And third, you are asked to click a button on the relevant job details page before the telephone numbers are shown.

So, when you receive these job notifications, simply click the link in the email which will open the site on the job’s details page. Log in at the bottom of the page (as normal) and then click the button that says “Get Phone No’s” and Voila, the telephone numbers will appear right there. And for your convenience, we email them to you as well. At the same time, we inform the person who posted the job that you have requested their numbers, and provide them with a link to your profile page. Does that sound good to you ?

Obviously the job posters can remove their phone numbers, or change their preferred contact method at any time from their member’s area.

This functionality not only saves time & money for people looking for tradesman, it makes the whole process of finding quality jobs for tradesmen even faster.

We have noticed that a many of you log in to the site with your phones and mobile devices. Therefore we have made sure the “Phone System” is easy enough for you to continue to do that. If any problems do arise however, let us know, so we can keep the site as fast and easy for you to use as possible.

Billy Builder Update

Now, as we said in our last News Post, we will be featuring our Mascot & Logo Billy Builder very soon! At the moment he is in conference with his cartoonist, preparing all sorts of things to entertain you - Watch this space ............

Wishing you all fun !
Leona

20th June 2011

A big Hello from all at Big Builders Bum,

And have we got news for you !

In April of this year we joined forces with the web development company
who originally created the site so we have been very busy with a great
big re-design. The functionality has been streamlined making it even easier
to use (never forgetting your security however) and a lot of time is now
being spent on marketing.

The change we think all you tradesmen might like the best though is the
payment system ....

Small drum roll please!!!

We now do Not charge Commissions!!!!

It just makes the site cleaner to use and in the economic
climate very fair for tradesmen. So your first 3 months
membership are FREE, then it’s just £10 + VAT per month,
easy, don’t you think ?

Don’t worry though, we have not made up the costs anywhere else and
it’s still completely free to post a job.

This now makes us one of the most economical forms of advertising anywhere !
And, there are no obligations. Tradesmen, you can cancel your membership at any time.

The greatest part of the £10 per month (when we do eventually start to charge
you) will be spent creating highly specific online marketing campaigns uniquely
for each tradesman that signs up, targeting their working area and particular
trades. In other words we spend a lot of time marketing each of our tradesmen
to help make sure that they do actually get value for their £10 per month.

Now for the fun stuff

Our Mascot and logo “Billy Builder” has acquired a personality ! We will be adding cartoon strips of his latest successful escapades and he will soon be holding competitions asking if you can guess where he has been working this month. He has featured himself on facebook, where you can add him as a friend. And, he’s been learning how to tweet away on twitter so you can follow him there too - A very clever chap indeed !

Review Responsibilities !

As much as we want to keep a fun element to the structure of this site, remember it’s the review system that drives it. Jobs well done deserve positive reviews. We are all helping to build tradesmen’s reputations here.

All new for You !

There’s loads of new functionality to come over the next few weeks and each time we add something to the site we will post news of it here. Keep in mind that this site has been created for YOUR convenience, so if there is anything we can add that will make it work better for you personally, please don’t think twice about contacting us.

suggestions@bigbuildersbum.com