Experience with bark.com?
- Thread starter Matt Temple
- Start date
In this thread you say
So surely you must know how to develop your own leads...?
I suspect Bark sends the quote requests out to multiple providers, charging each one a fee. IMHO you'd be far better off running your own advertisement...
So surely you must know how to develop your own leads...?
I suspect Bark sends the quote requests out to multiple providers, charging each one a fee. IMHO you'd be far better off running your own advertisement...
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- Original Poster
- #5
From what I can see Bark give you nothing more than a phone number and a messaging system.
They say all leads are vetted by them but and send you a list of questions each lead has answered but these often don't provide enough detail to quote so I don't know how much "vetting" they really do.
And of course they will be selling these leads to multiple people, they won't make a lot of money selling each lead fo £10-20 only once.
They say all leads are vetted by them but and send you a list of questions each lead has answered but these often don't provide enough detail to quote so I don't know how much "vetting" they really do.
And of course they will be selling these leads to multiple people, they won't make a lot of money selling each lead fo £10-20 only once.
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I run an IT support company.I cover a large area.I havent found Bark to be very good.Probably only get 1 in 30 turn into jobs, even when I lower my price.
Just yesterday I got a lead who provided their phone number. They asked me my hourly rate. Literally as soon as i mentioned my price they hung up. Very rude indeed,and a good indicator of the calibre of customers. They are just shopping around for the cheapest price.
Not a great site,then.
Just yesterday I got a lead who provided their phone number. They asked me my hourly rate. Literally as soon as i mentioned my price they hung up. Very rude indeed,and a good indicator of the calibre of customers. They are just shopping around for the cheapest price.
Not a great site,then.
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- Original Poster
- #10
That is what I have now. I have first refusal on work from 2 local marketing companies I have found the business networking events invaluable.
I don't want to just rely on these 2 companies and Hull for business. I have this week registered myself with a business networking group in Leeds and hope to attend at least every other meeting.
I realised a long time ago the only freelance market places are flooded with low skill, low priced labour and I can't compete at that level were the lowest bidder takes all.
I don't want to just rely on these 2 companies and Hull for business. I have this week registered myself with a business networking group in Leeds and hope to attend at least every other meeting.
I realised a long time ago the only freelance market places are flooded with low skill, low priced labour and I can't compete at that level were the lowest bidder takes all.
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Investing in PPH, freelancer and others is worthwhile - I even know people making fiverr work for them.
Surely though, and no offence here, but you're a developer, presumably for web - so shouldn't you be using your skills to demonstrate your skills? Why not pay for a copywriter to write your copy, get a UX designer to make your front end, and then use your great dev skills to build something amazing that works well on the eye and with google.
Use it as part of your portfolio. If I met a developer that said "I'm not good at sales, but I got the bits I couldn't do done by pro's, and I made the rest, and look I get 10 leads a week with no spend on adwords" - I'd got with them.
Surely though, and no offence here, but you're a developer, presumably for web - so shouldn't you be using your skills to demonstrate your skills? Why not pay for a copywriter to write your copy, get a UX designer to make your front end, and then use your great dev skills to build something amazing that works well on the eye and with google.
Use it as part of your portfolio. If I met a developer that said "I'm not good at sales, but I got the bits I couldn't do done by pro's, and I made the rest, and look I get 10 leads a week with no spend on adwords" - I'd got with them.
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Bark never worked for me.
Upwork: Not, or not always the lowest price wins. It's much more busy than Bark, I've got around 1-2 leads/month from Bark.. meanwhile on Upwork there are hundreds of projects. It's a lot of effort to reply to project etc.
Yes, you have to start with a very low hourly rate on Upwork. Like half of what you want to earn.. and after a 3-4 projects you can start increasing it gradually. I've restarted my profile with a different Upwork account and after one year I can manage to get higher hourly rates that I'd like to have when started. If you know your stuff, I think there is a market on Upwork even if you are at the higher end of developers as well.
Upwork: Not, or not always the lowest price wins. It's much more busy than Bark, I've got around 1-2 leads/month from Bark.. meanwhile on Upwork there are hundreds of projects. It's a lot of effort to reply to project etc.
Yes, you have to start with a very low hourly rate on Upwork. Like half of what you want to earn.. and after a 3-4 projects you can start increasing it gradually. I've restarted my profile with a different Upwork account and after one year I can manage to get higher hourly rates that I'd like to have when started. If you know your stuff, I think there is a market on Upwork even if you are at the higher end of developers as well.
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I found Bark has never worked for us - credits are quite expensive for the return. PPH was initially very useful to us years ago, but the competition is now vast.
We now find very targeted (either by location or service) Google Ad's most cost effective if we need to boost our client base.
But recommendation and writing relevant forum and blog posts (I initially used Linkedin as we wanted to connect with professionals on a B2B basis) is really the best foundation.
We also did a few really cheap good-cause and NFP sites years ago and that started to boost our visibility.
Good luck.
We now find very targeted (either by location or service) Google Ad's most cost effective if we need to boost our client base.
But recommendation and writing relevant forum and blog posts (I initially used Linkedin as we wanted to connect with professionals on a B2B basis) is really the best foundation.
We also did a few really cheap good-cause and NFP sites years ago and that started to boost our visibility.
Good luck.
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I've also been getting spammed by Bark. It started a few days ago but I've already unsubscribed.
They remind me of the dodgy cold calls I used to get whenever I listed a car on autotrader.
"we have a buyer lined up ready to purchase and all you need to do is sign up with us first for £70 and we'll make the introduction".
No doubt the leads from Bark won't amount to anything but they are probably setting the price point low enough so people think it's worth a try.
I could be completely wrong on all of the above, and those cold callers mighhave really had buyers lined up for my car - but more than likely not!
My advice would be to unsubscribe and try and generate your own leads.
They remind me of the dodgy cold calls I used to get whenever I listed a car on autotrader.
"we have a buyer lined up ready to purchase and all you need to do is sign up with us first for £70 and we'll make the introduction".
No doubt the leads from Bark won't amount to anything but they are probably setting the price point low enough so people think it's worth a try.
I could be completely wrong on all of the above, and those cold callers mighhave really had buyers lined up for my car - but more than likely not!
My advice would be to unsubscribe and try and generate your own leads.
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So today I took a leap of faith and bought some credits. I bought 40 credits (£37.40 ex VAT) and spent them on 2 clients looking for a website design with a value £400-£800. I contacted the client straight away and had a phone conversation and also gave them a quote. We operate as a digital marketing and web design agency so this applies only to our business model or others similar. Now I will wait to see if they go ahead with the jobs or I'll never hear from them again. I will keep you updated on how it went. Despite other people saying not to trust bark I had to see it myself and I will pay the price. 
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How did you get on? I tried to cancel my membership and was given 2 free responses, but despite contacting the buyers as soon as I was notified, and following up with a phone call both buyers had already gone elsewhere and projects were in progress.So today I took a leap of faith and bought some credits. I bought 40 credits (£37.40 ex VAT) and spent them on 2 clients looking for a website design with a value £400-£800. I contacted the client straight away and had a phone conversation and also gave them a quote. We operate as a digital marketing and web design agency so this applies only to our business model or others similar. Now I will wait to see if they go ahead with the jobs or I'll never hear from them again. I will keep you updated on how it went. Despite other people saying not to trust bark I had to see it myself and I will pay the price.
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I didn't say you should rely on them I said you could approach them. Having reliable work from agencies allows you to grow your portfolio and have a stable income base while you grow your business.
Why not use your marketing skills to develop and implement a marketing strategy and plan for your business? That will tell you which channels you should be using and what content to reach your target market.
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So after waiting over a week now, I came to a conclusion. I got some leads from Bark and after contacting the person/business requesting the service in a professional matter I realised that they either don't know what they are looking for or they want high-value services for pennies. So bark is a no go from my point of view. I will also write a detailed review about this on Trustpilot.
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I would say exactly that - and it's a super easy way to get your name out to the wider area as well.
In regards to Bark - I got nothing from it, a local chef got one job from it paid for 25 leads and got nothing more and a photographer went for 10 and got nothing so I'm not entirely sure if that's a good route...
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C
Chris Needham
I haven't worked with Bark, but I have with other similar business formats. The problem is that the leads are very very cold. The person selling the lead cannot gauge the level of interest and also the business does not trust that the company being recommended is right for the task as they have not been properly vetted. Can be problematic.
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Good morning all,
I am a Private Investigator and have been trading for over 20 years. i signed up to bark to evaluate the service. Within a few hours I started getting lead enquiries. However, the names on the enquiries are somewhat suspicious. For example:
Sax
Oxy
Park
I think you get the picture. Clearly these are false enquiries, designed to lure the account holder into spending money on "credits" in order to be able to respond. Having been in this business for so many years, I obviously see a trend in requires. However, via bark, I receive enquires, from people supposedly based in England at times such as:
01.00
03.00
04.00 etc. This is on a DAILY basis!! Now, either the nation has taken to night work with a passion or once again, these enquiries are wholly false. I am definitely leaning towards the latter.
I am a Private Investigator and have been trading for over 20 years. i signed up to bark to evaluate the service. Within a few hours I started getting lead enquiries. However, the names on the enquiries are somewhat suspicious. For example:
Sax
Oxy
Park
I think you get the picture. Clearly these are false enquiries, designed to lure the account holder into spending money on "credits" in order to be able to respond. Having been in this business for so many years, I obviously see a trend in requires. However, via bark, I receive enquires, from people supposedly based in England at times such as:
01.00
03.00
04.00 etc. This is on a DAILY basis!! Now, either the nation has taken to night work with a passion or once again, these enquiries are wholly false. I am definitely leaning towards the latter.
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J
Jamie-Bark
Hi Timothy,
My name is Jamie and I manage the Customer Support team here at Bark.com.
I wanted to address some of the issues you’ve raised, as it’s disappointing to hear your feedback when we have 1000s of professionals securing new business every single day on our platform.
So you’re aware, every Bark (request) goes through a thorough screening process before its released - and we only ever accept a request on the basis we’re 100% satisfied it is genuine. We always aim to get the client between 2 and 5 responses and on average see 2 responses per Bark. Response rates are watched very closely by our Marketing department for two main reasons:
We do not want to overwhelm the client.
We want Sellers to secure business and continue using us - we do not have a subscription, sign up fee or contract and operate on a pay per introduction basis - meaning its in our interest to keep competition levels low.
Here are just some of the ways that we screen our leads:
When a request is placed we know its origin and which campaign it has come through.
We know if the client has used our services before and what the outcome was.
We check their IP address against the place they are requesting the services. We also have anything outside the UK flagged to us.
Verifying the phone number - we work with a 3rd party company that check the number has been connected to a network within the last 3 hours.
Verifying the email address - when a request is placed we send the client a welcome email - if this email is not delivered (e.g. bounces back) then we do not release the Bark.
Ensuring Adequate detail is provided - If not all the questions are answered or we feel the description is too vague then we manually follow up with the client.
With some sensitive categories we ensure they’re all manually checked before release.
If it does come to light that something has slipped through the net then we close the request and re-credit those that have responded.
Looking in to your account specifically:
We did send emails from a Oxy and a Sax. There were no enquiries from anyone called Park.
We alerted you to 244 jobs between 15/6 and 29/8. You were only charged for the ones you responded to.
65 of the 244 jobs did arrive between midnight and 0600. Reasons for this will include:
The nature of the work, often involving suspected cheating spouses, may become apparent late at night
In a number of our sensitive categories an additional human layer of checks is built in to ensure quality. This may mean that the time the request is placed, and the time it’s released are slightly apart
The most common times for job to arrive was between 2200 and midnight.
The accusations that our leads are false is totally baseless and we can see you have actually been hired and have a 5 star review from one of our clients.
We’ll happily speak to any Seller who has concerns about any enquiry and we can be contacted at our London office on team (at) bark (dot) com or via 02036970237 should you or anybody else have any questions for us.
Kindest regards,
Jamie
The Bark Team
Phone: +4420 3697 0237
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I used Bark for a bit but I think the trouble is the way in which they market for leads means that the clients are ultimately just looking for the best price. Therefore the value of what you are offering is already reduced because of the quality of the clients. I've seen some of the Google Ads popup for Bark when I've been searching for services online myself and they quote prices that are generally unrealistic - such as web design from just £250. Having said that - I did get a job from Bark but I have spent far more on leads than I have got so the ROI is not great.
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When you're spending £16-20 on leads, it's high risk. I think Bark are over valuing them considering the quality and commitment of the average requester. I provide a premium service but when you work out income vs cost per converted lead vs time spent on the project, for me, it's not profitable.
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it was money down the toilet for me. I spent about £300 and every lead was worthless, I did not get a single response, even when I offered a really cheap price.
My wife tried it as well for her business, and same result.
Frankly I think the site is a rip off at £25 per lead. Maybe if they were considerably cheaper, then it might be worthwhile when you do finally get a good lead. But as it stands, it is definitely cost prohibitive and from my experience and I doubt you would make your money back from the small number of useful leads you might get.
My wife tried it as well for her business, and same result.
Frankly I think the site is a rip off at £25 per lead. Maybe if they were considerably cheaper, then it might be worthwhile when you do finally get a good lead. But as it stands, it is definitely cost prohibitive and from my experience and I doubt you would make your money back from the small number of useful leads you might get.
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