I was actually looking for Mail Chimp after reading a post on the VA Forum and ran across Hoover when I started to drift around in Google.... ADD onset!

I talked to thier salesman and they have a great site full of information if you want to pay for it. You can go on thier list builder and enter in the locations you want, the business types you want, the size of business you want and more information can be delineated than I would need. But he ended up just looking for construction businesses on the West Coast (WA, OR and CA) for me and we found 200 of them to mail leads to.

I have been using a shotgun approach lately and using my chamber of commerce and my phone books for leads. This would drastically speed up my leads finding, but I cannot afford it on my own.

The pricing for 10,000 leads per year is pretty astronomical for me - $358 per month. That is with three users on the account. If I had two others who wanted to use this with me, I could cheapen it for each person to $120 a month (with a year's subscription) for each person.

So, here are my questions.

1. Have any of you used this type of service before?
2. If you have, was it worth it?
3. Have any of you found a cheaper way to go besides the way I am currently at - chamber of commerce and phone books?

I just sent off for the listing of new businesses in Oregon from the Secretary of State, so I am hoping that will provide some leads, but those are for startups, and I would like to have some established businesses for my long term business help.

Thanks for any and all help on this!!

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~ Norma Guerin
DSA Virtual Assistant Services

Look into Reference USA it is free if your library provides it. Also check http://trial.selectory.com/lp/google...W&LeadDest=DNB They offer a free 7 day trial. I tried the 7 day trial and I couldn't afford to buy into it and I got a call from one of their reps. (I tried many different database places and got many of these calls). Their rep called me and I told him the same thing that I told the others, I just started this business, I have no income coming in, so I can not pay for anything right now. The rep asked me if it would help me to receive 1000 leads? I said it would and he asked me what area, income range, and a couple of other questions of what I was looking for. He then emailed me an Excel spreadsheet of 1100 different businesses with all of their information including contact information. This was all without charge. I don't know if this is their general practice or not, but I received my list from them because of him for free. I emailed the rep back and told him that the moment I start making money and need a database, I will contact him for it.

Amazingly enough he has not even bothered me about it since.

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Erika Glem
www.advadminsol.com Let my administrative solutions be to your advantage.

Thanks, Erika. I will be heading to the library today. When I got the call, I was told that the salesman would send me the list he and I filtered, but so far, I have not gotten it!! Not really suprised..... After the library I will be going to the website you mentioned.

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~ Norma Guerin
DSA Virtual Assistant Services

I took a marketing class that really emphasized that the leads you generate yourself are the best leads…….You can do a ton of things that are free or low cost. If you start a campaign you need to give is a least 3 times of putting something out in front of people before you decide if it is working or switch to something else. You gotta be careful these days there are a ton of lead companies popping up latey...I hope this helps.
Teresa Duran