On my trips and at home, I often start talking to native pet owners and tell them what I do. Most of them have never heard of Trusted House Sitters, but have the need for our services! Now, as they are strangers to me, I normally don’t like asking them for their email address. Instead, I write down the THS website on a piece of paper like a shopping receipt or even on a doggie poo bag… Would there be a better way? For example, could THS print and send us proper business cards with their details which we could hand out? If we could order them with our personal refer-a-friend code on them I would be even willing to pay for such advertising material. Or do such materials already exist? If so, how can they be ordered?
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I used the QR codes to create some cards on my laptop and then sadly neglected to print some off before we left. Next time!
@Snowbird and @Kelownagurl
To clarify: I do not want to advertise for myself. All the people who print their own cards do just that. I want to help other members of the organisation and the people in need to find each other. Therefore I would not want to pay for such cards - unless I get free membership months in return when the recipients become members. But I do not expect nor want them to contact me personally!
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@SandC : No, it’s not a contradiction. With the refer-a-friend code I can get free membership months. This chance would make it okay to pay some money for such cards, but that would be the only incentive. I do NOT want those strangers who receive these cards from me to contact me personally, and therefore I am not going to print my own cards with my name on them. I hope I have made it clear now. I want to help advertising for the organisation not for myself, and I am sure many other members would do the same if THS would just send out free card packs to all of us.
It’s pretty easy to create your own card on most word processing programs (Word, Pages etc) with exactly what you want on it and then print it off on card stock. Cut them up yourself. Pretty much free. That’s what I did anyway.
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Hi @Romana thank you for helping spread the word about TrustedHousesitters our members are the very best ambassadors for our brand.
We provide print ready artwork for any member who would like their own business cards which could include your RAF code and no direct contact information, simply the website address. I’m sure you can understand why individual mail outs would not be possible with over 90K members in 130 countries.
Or as @Pawtastic says you can create a QR code, there are ways of having the information available without going to any personal cost and of course you could add more free months should someone sign up through your code.
Thank you again and to everyone else in this conversation who is helping create awareness about our amazing THS community.
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Angela, how can I/we get this artwork?
Snowbird shared links to it on the second post.
Here’s the current information on the logo. In the two posts I linked near the start of this post, members share a range of ideas on how to share information with others. Many are creative, and everyone adjusts to suit their own needs and preferences.
I definitely need to make some cards. I could have handed them out back on the beach after explaining TrustedHousesitters to others in the Wild Swimming group we joined today!
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I just had another conversation about THS with total strangers at the supermarket today, and this time I asked them for their email address - which felt quite awkward because it felt like being pushy and intruding too much into their privacy. I definitely need cards to hand out. If THS does not have any printed ones to send to members on request then I will have to produce them myself. I would prefer the first option though. Thank you all for your replies!
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Why? Perhaps because I am a bit older and I utterly dislike the mobile-phone-dependency of younger people. Those Smartphones and iPhones, which they don’t use for making real telephone calls any more, have eradicated proper conversations among human beings. Therefore, I refused to use the “texting” function until a couple of years ago, and when I placed some sales ad on Gumtree or EBay and people texted me, I always PHONED them back - and some were shocked! Okay, so I changed my manners. The “scanning” function I have enabled about two months ago because some government department wanted me to scan my ID and didn’t offer any other option (sadly). I don’t intend to use this function ever again, unless I am forced to. Handing out a business card has way more style.
P.S. to the above: Not all people carry around their phones when they walk their dogs and enjoy time in nature.
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Sure, you are right. No offense intended. It is just my personal choice that I do not want to play around with a mobile phone all the time. I will make my own cards then. It just would have been a nice service for members - which many other organisations offer - if we could just personalise a template offered on the website.
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Thanks, @Snowbird. Logos downloaded. Hope I’ll manage the next steps with creating a card with one of those formats.
Thanks once again for all your replies. On a last note, I would not only welcome and buy adjustable business cards from THS, but also T-shirts, jackets, shopping bags and car stickers with the logo - if such merchandise was available in a dedicated THS online shop. Perhaps also some dog and cat toys, to leave as presents for the homeowners. But that’s just me.
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@Snowbird
Okay, thanks for the link to your online store. I forgot that it even existed, probably right after looking into it for the first time.
Quite honestly, I can’t see myself paying £17 for a shopping bag with your logo, or wearing a tight-necked T-Shirt for £15 which is available only in White and costs £3 without the logo in any local discounter.
Okay, I might order a sticker for £2 to add to the sticker collection on the back door of my mobile home, but I don’t expect an overwhelming response.
Some decades ago, in the 2000s, I used to run an online shop for a “closed community” myself. I only had a few hundreds of clients, but I had an average of 300 items on offer and continuously added new ones and sent out group emails to all my customers or prospective customers once a month. My items included not only accessories specifically designed for this clientele but also books worth reading or ebooks worth listening to, maps and links to language courses etc., considering my clients’ common interests.
It would be great to see someone taking on a similar task with improving or replacing your - at the moment, sadly - very poorly equipped and unattractive, current online store.
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