The Value of Using Local Classifieds

As the saying goes, one person's trash may be another person's treasure--and you can find any number of examples of this when looking at what people buy and sell through the classifieds. Our friends at First Rate Classifieds have sent along a series of tips for finding the best deals with local classifieds.

You Never Know What You May Find

If you want something, there's a good chance that someone near you wants to unload the same product. The question is: how do you connect with that person? The answer to that question is quite often to check your local classifieds. Local classifieds that offer free listings to sellers can be a buyer's dream come true since they are often the first stop for people wanting to get rid of unwanted belonging without a lot of cost or effort.

Whether you have a specific purchase in mind or you are just in a shopping mood, your local classifieds are a great place to start any shopping excursion. Local classifieds are an easy way for sellers to list all but the most sensitive of items for sale, so you many find anything from a dining room table to a lawn mower turned go-cart for sale.

Making an ISO Listing Is a Great Way to Find a Bargain

Many local classifieds will allow you to post an In-Search-Of, commonly abbreviated as ISO, listing for free. This is great way to find something specific through your local classifieds. You let the world know you want to purchase something, and people looking to sell will contact you looking to strike a deal. If you get multiple offers, you may be able to negotiate for quite a bargain.

Not Just for Buying and Selling

Your local classifieds may be a great way to buy and sell almost anything under the sun, but they are also great at helping you find new ways to enjoy your community. You can search for all kinds of things going on around you in your community by browsing your local ads. Maybe there's an art fair or a car show coming up that you had no idea about. Check the local classifieds and see what you've been missing right outside your front door.

Great For Online Business Owners

Many people who run online businesses make the mistake of not advertising locally. Targeting your local market, even if your business serves global customers, is a great way to bring in more traffic. Everyone loves to support local business, so let them know that you're operating out of their hometown and you may find them searching you out the next time they need your product or service.

Introducing C and E Carpets and Vents in Houston, Texas

When was the last time you brought someone into your home to help you with carpet cleaning? And what about air duct cleaning? Even when you're a diligent housekeeper, it's all too easy for dust, allergens, mold, and other contaminants to build up in your home. Sometimes we all need professional help to keep ourselves and our houses at their healthiest. Based in Houston, Texas, C & E Carpents and Vents in an independently owned carpet and vent cleaning company which provides the following services: carpet cleaning, air duct cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, upholstery cleaning, and tile cleaning.

Unfortunately, consumers have to be very careful when choosing cleaners because too many companies have given the industry a bad reputation by using bait and switch tactics, hidden fees, and outright deception. It's best to look for companies like that operate with transparency and use upfront pricing for services. You'll find C & E's prices on the front page of their website.

When I asked about her number one priority as a business owner, Cheryl Shenave of C & E said, "The most important aspect of our business is the customer and meeting the customer's needs and expectations 150%."

In describing her experiences as the owner of C & E, she went on to say, "In business the little things can mean the difference between getting repeat business or never hearing from the customer again. We like to say 'We aren't satisfied until You are satisfied!' but if I had to sum up our attitudes about customer service, I would say that customer satisfaction is our number one priority above any other aspect of our business. Our goal is to build our company one customer at a time and do that in such a way that our customers feel completely confident and comfortable referring their family and friends."

C & E offers green services upon request--and all of their solutions are FDA approved. The company has extensive experience with cleaning projects for residential homes as well as businesses. If you're in the Houston area and looking for honest, customer-centered service for carpet cleaning, air duct cleaning, and more, check out http://www.candecarpetsandvents.com.

Meet Alexey, Entrepreneur and CEO of Townhang.com

Alexey, age 26, is a the founder and CEO of Townhang.com, a new website that allows groups of friends to meet new interesting people for fun hangouts. Alexey was born in Russia and grew up in the tiny European country of Luxembourg where he had a very successful corporate services business, but more importantly, he had a big dream. To pursue this dream, Alexey left his life and moved to California to make Townhang.com a reality.

Alexey loves spending time around fun and interesting people, good food, and wine. He traveled the world, is passionate about India, and has strange addictions like powered paragliding--and he's going everywhere with his Hippopotamus (not a joke!).

1. How did you come up with the idea for Townhang?

I came up with the idea for Townhang when I tried to spend a few days after a business trip to Seattle to meet some locals to hang out with. Aside from dating sites and special interest groups, frankly, the options were very limited! Finding myself alone in a city of millions of interesting people felt like being marooned on a boat at sea: surrounded by water but nothing to drink. I am sure that lots of people feel similar to how I feel, because one of the most pressing symptoms of modern life is that millions of us live in big cities but find it increasing hard to make new friends or meet a partner.

Returning home and knowing I'd spotted an opportunity, I thought: wait a minute--something needs to be done here... And I started getting the team together right away!

2. Do you think the internet makes it harder in some ways and easier in other ways to make new friends?

Of course there is an ongoing debate around social networks and whether they made us more lonely and have replaced to some extent the real life interaction. It is a difficult question and certainly a very interesting one.

However, we are specifically interested in the impact internet has on our ability to meet new interesting people, and in this particular space we do not think that internet has been that helpful. Most of the social networks out there today are trying to duplicate your real-life connections (Facebook, LinkedIn), or trying to connect you in some shape or form to people you wish you knew personally (twitter).

But when it concerns actually meeting new people, we have spotted a genuine problem: it's not very easy for busy and affluent people to meet new people and make new friends. Towns are full of new, interesting people--if only there was an easy and natural way to connect with them! Current online space doesn't answer that need because most online outlets either connect people for dating, or they try to lock people in a particular group around a specific hobby or interest.

Meanwhile, there are millions of busy people living in crowded cities who still find it difficult, intimidating or just boring trying to meet interesting new people or even that special someone. You generally have to "go it alone," and that's neither fun nor very natural.

We believe that the only good way of meeting new people and making new friends is the natural way. The way it happens in real life. When you are out with your friends!

That's why we have designed Townhang.com in a way that recreates this real life environment and allows your group(s) of friends to connect with new interesting groups of people over something you all enjoy doing in real life. Lighthearted, fun, pressure-free and everything but awkward!

3. How is Townhang similar--and different--from other social networks?

Many online sites offer SOME elements of what Townhang.com offers. NOBODY does the same thing. The closest it gets to Townhang.com is Meetup.com.

However, there are quite a few fundamental differences:

1) Meetup.com invites you (alone) to join a big fixed group with a specific purpose e.g. dance tango at 7:00PM every Saturday. Townhang is much more spontaneous--your group of friends meets a small, like-minded group of people, over something you all want to do. Maybe you'll meet for a brunch and then tennis session, and end up going to an art gallery instead because your stomachs are too full and you can't be bothered to jump around. No pressure and no boring commitments.

2) On Meetup.com you have no control over who you will meet. If you like a certain activity, you just have to go along with an existing group that has been fixed long ago. On Townhang.com you decide weather you want certain people to join you or not. You can message in groups and individually, and you can see profiles of people you will meet and the feedback they have received and make a decision on the spot on whether you want to hang out with this person or not.

3) Townhang.com is more spontaneous overall: it's more about spontaneous things, rather than about an organized, recurrent activity of interest like Meetup.com.

4) Townhang.com is totally free :)

4. What happens on Townhang that allows people to make new local friends?

In a nutshell, Townhang.com is about rekindling the joy of making new friends while discovering all the exciting things your city has to offer. The site invites you and your group(s) of friends to connect with new interesting people and to hang out over a multitude of real-life happenings in a given city, that we call "Townhangs." Townhangs are in essence all sorts of things that different groups of people want to do, and when you go on Townhang.com the multitude of these happenings are visible on a page fpr your city. You can filter Townhangs by date or interest category to find things that you'd love to do in real life more easily. If nothing corresponds to what you looking for, you have good excuse to create your own Townhang with your buddies that your future friends can find and join in order to meet you for real!

We take our users' privacy very seriously, though, which means that we have developed a flexible system which allows each user to limit the visibility of their Townhang and protect some of the private information on it. This means we are ensuring that you will hang out with exactly who you want and share private information only with those who need to see it.

5. Are you planning to expand to other cities--and can people contact you if they are interested in seeing a community for their area?

Yes, of course--we are planning to be active in major cities of California within a few months, and then continue an aggressive expansion all over the United States and abroad.

The magic is that you can already create and join Townhangs from custom locations, which means Townhang.com is already everywhere, technically! The rest will depend on how quickly the word will spread and how active our users are. We believe that our earliest adopters will be ultra-social people living in big cities, holiday-makers and business travelers who are coming to a new city and want to experience it like a local, students (oh yes), young creatives, foodies, art-lovers, party animals, and everyone else looking to find like-minded people for fun hangouts!

To your question on whether its possible to contact us--what we do speaks for itself! We love meeting new, passionate, and interesting people with fresh ideas, and our email doors are always open for anyone that has one!

Thanks, Alexey!