What would be the ideal Trade Directory for me to advertise on?

That was the question I asked myself when I found myself in the position of relaunching my locksmith business having moved home in 2024. I had previously used a well-known trade directory and a couple of the pay-per-lead sites but costs were high, the competition was high and the commitment to the trade directory was also high as in long term. So I put pen to paper to design what my ideal trade directory would look like in terms of its service offerings to its subscribers – you. And that’s when I came up with Your Home Trades – a Trade Directory that is LOW Cost, LOW Competition and LOW Commitment – the 3LC’s as I call them. I consider these 3LC’s to be the ‘holy grail’ of advertising on any trade directory.

45,000 FREE advertising spaces

Now, when we are talking about LOW Cost, you cannot get any lower cost than FREE and at the end of this blog I’ll let you know how over 45,000 Tradespeople and Home Service providers can claim FREE advertising in their local area and it’s Free-For-A-Year. For now I’ll take you through the 3LC’s.

At the highest level in every business is all about money in and money out. Your Home Trades is here to help with second part which should help you achieve the first part. Aside from the FREE advertising additional subscriptions are just £2.00 per Postcode DISTRICT per month. The average number of households in a Postcode DISTRICT is 15,000 across the UK. Residential areas are in the 20,000+ region at a minimum. So for the minimum spend of £10.00 a month subscription that’s 75,000 additional households to be in front of on average, but more like 100,000+ in reality. By the way, my Postcode DISTRICT, BB5, has over 27,000 households in it.

So, who wants to be on page one of a trade directory with no more than 4 competitors and also get a fair chance of the number one spot in the listings? We all do that’s who, so that’s what I have created. There can be no more than 5 like-for-like Trades or Home Service providers in ANY Postcode DISTRICT – and that’s one of 15 guarantees – which means we only need one page to display you all. We also rotate the 5 listings randomly so that with every search you all get an equal chance of the number one spot. Who wouldn’t like that? Number one spot on page one.

When you think about commitment in terms of a trade directory there is the commitment to the cost (above) but also the commitment to the length of the subscription. Where other trade directories require an annual subscription with up-front fees Your Home Trades does not. The maximum subscription length is one month. We recognise that the ‘money out’ part of your business needs to be manageable so that’s how it is. One month – no catches. Leave when you want with the click of a button and without making calls or sending emails and then being hassled to come back, etc, etc. You are in complete control of your subscriptions and therefore finances.

Over 45,000 Free-For-A-Year advertising spaces

Ready for some numbers? Good. There are 80 Trades or Home Services listed on the website and each of these can claim one of 5 Free-For-A-Year spaces available per trade in a Postcode AREA. That’s 400 Free-For-A-Year spaces in each of 119 Postcode AREAs in the UK creating over 45,000 spaces. 47,600 spaces to be precise. All Free-For-A-Year. And each space consists of 7 Postcode DISTRICTs, each of which contains an average of 15,000 households. So that’s 105,000 households on average that could be seeing you in the next few days – for FREE. But remember, it’s more likely to be 140,000+.

Simplicity is the key

Simple to register. Simple to claim your Free-For-A-Year Postcode DISTRICTs. Simple to advertise. Simple to leave too.

Registration takes minutes for you to apply and is usually authorised by Your Home Trades within hours.

Then choose your 7 Postcodes DISTRICTs within one Postcode AREA and complete your advert details. Advertisement authorisation is usually within 24hrs.

You are in control if you want to cancel a subscription – simply click the cancel button. Done.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, so it isn’t.