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Angie’s List Surpasses 2 Million Paid Households
More than 16 years to 1 million; 18 months to 2 Million
INDIANAPOLIS (April 22, 2013) – Continuing its aggressive member growth pattern, national
consumer review service Angie’s List (NASDAQ: ANGI) has topped the 2 million, paid households
mark.
Angie’s List passed the 2 million mark on Sunday, April 21, 2013.
“It took us more than 16 years to get to one million paid households but just 18 months to double
it,” said Angie Hicks, who in 1995 co-founded the company with CEO Bill Oesterle in Columbus,
Ohio.
“Realizing such momentum in membership growth is truly a testament to our commitment to help
consumers find the best local service providers,” she added. “Our members drive Angie’s List.”
Angie’s List passed the 1 million paid household mark in October 2011 and finished March 31,
2013, with 1,951,774 paid households nationwide.
Angie’s List helps consumers find high-quality, local service providers offering everything from
home improvement to healthcare using the prior experiences of their neighbors as a guide.
Because most of the categories of service reviewed on Angie’s List carry a high cost of failure,
Angie’s List places a high premium on providing highly reliable information. The company
prohibits anonymous reviews, requires members to affirm the validity of their reviews and
encourages companies, free-of-charge, to monitor and respond to reviews. Companies are
prohibited from submitting reports on themselves and their competitors. Angie’s List uses
proprietary technology, human review and outside auditing to ensure report reliability and
fairness.
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Angie’s List helps consumers have happy transactions with local service professionals in more
than 550 categories of service, ranging from home improvement to health care. More than 2
million paid households use Angie’s List to gain unlimited access to local ratings, exclusive
discounts, the Angie’s List magazine, and the Angie’s List complaint resolution service.
Cheryl Reed
Public Relations
317-396-9134
cherylr@angieslist.com
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Angie's List and Square Working Together to Bring Mobile Payments,
Improved Business Relationships to Local Marketplace
Angie's List, the national consumer review service, is working with Square, the payment innovator that is making commerce easy for everyone, to enable mobile payments in the field, as part of its services offered via the Angie's List Business Center mobile app. The Angie's List Business Center app allows companies to seamlessly accept payments in the field, track e-commerce purchases, create invoices, and respond to member reviews as soon as they appear online. Merchants will also have access to free analytics reports, which can be used to make important business decisions.
"Working with Square will help provide happier transactions for our members and service companies," said Angie's List Founder Angie Hicks.
"We're excited to work with Square because they understand what small businesses need to succeed."
Hicks said Angie's List will continue to look for ways to further expand convenience to its members and the service professionals they review.
"Whether on site or at a customer's home, people will now have a fast, reliable way to accept payments. With Square, Angie's List businesses can focus their time and energy on what really matters—doing great work," said Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. "We're proud to work with Angie's List to make life easier for businesses of all sizes."
Square offers a free credit card reader that allows anyone to accept credit cards anywhere, with one simple, low transaction rate of 2.75 percent per swipe, with no hidden fees. Funds from swiped payments are typically available the next business day, eliminating the wait for cash flow.
The Angie's List Business Center mobile app is currently available on iOS.
Angie's List helps consumers have happy transactions with local service professionals in more than 550 categories of service, ranging from home improvement to health care. More than 1.7 million paid households use Angie's List to gain unlimited access to local ratings, exclusive discounts, the Angie's List magazine, and the Angie's List complaint resolution service. Square is making commerce easy for everyone. Square Reader enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere, anytime at one simple rate. Square Register serves as a full point-of-sale system for businesses to accept payments, track inventory, and share menu and location information. Square Wallet, available in the US, is the most seamless way to pay, enabling individuals to pay with their names at their favorite local businesses, discover new ones nearby, explore menu listings, and store receipts. Founded in 2009, and headquartered in San Francisco, Square is currently available in the U.S. and Canada. More information is available at squareup.com.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 101
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
SEO is the process through optimizing a website so that search engines, such as Google, will rank the website high on the results page. Google and other search engines use complex algorithms to gauge which websites are most relevant to search and then reward those websites by placing them in the top spots on search engine results pages (SERPs).
How does Google, and other search engines rank websites?
Search engines like Google send out what they call spider bots, or bots for short, that crawl every single website across the internet, most a couple times a week, but some larger websites will get crawled many thousands of times a day! These bots then return to Google and store all the information they learned about your website, and when someone searches on Google for something that is relevant to what is on your website Google will return the SERP with your website ranked on it. Obviously the most relevant websites ranked first.
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Angie's List Answers: Share your networking best practices
Seriously, we want to know! The more you network and engage with your audience, the better the chances for you to gain new customers.
Share your best networking practices with other businesses, ask questions and learn new ideas with Angie's List Answers! Our open forum is a great place for experts to connect with both Angie's List members and other service or health providers. Check out this free, easy opportunity to share your knowledge and learn. Look for the results in February's newsletter.
Visit Answers.AngiesList.com today to secure your user name and start participating. Don't forget – your Angie's List Answers profile is different than your existing profile so secure your user name and update your profile with your business information during your visit.
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The costs of not pulling permits
Maintaining your competitive edge can be difficult, especially when businesses that don't play by the rules start directly competing at a lower price. What's the best way to overcome this obstacle? Educate your potential customers!
One of the initial steps to any project is obtaining the proper permits and is often factored into the timeline for job completion. Since unlicensed contractors can't pull permits for home improvement projects, this greatly calls attention to the importance of hiring a licensed contractor.
Here are the primary repercussions to the homeowner when permits aren't pulled on time or at all
Hard to sell - the house likely won't pass inspection should they try to sell it.
Insurance issues - homeowner insurance policy modifications or changing companies often require a Certificate of Occupancy. If the certificate doesn't show structural changes that have been made, the insurance company can decline coverage because it's not code compliant.
Safety considerations - especially when work is completed that could represent potential fire hazards.
Double the costs - any permits pulled after work has already been completed include a fine that doubles what would have been the initial costs of pulling a permit before work was done. First, they need to contact their local building and planning commission as they are now responsible for pulling the permits.
Homeowner accountability – permits pulled after work is completed is the responsibility of the homeowner. It requires the inspection of visible modifications and changes not visible, which need to be detailed by the contractor or a hired structural engineer.
Many consumers are not aware of the full costs associated with contractors not pulling permits. Use this information to educate your potential customers how much short-term saving can cost in the long-run.
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