Hello Eva,

I have worked with Kompass as a telesales executive and if I may say so: I think it is a good company. I registered with a free listing in their on-line database and it is so far the only company which has a sales force that approached me without the usual aggressive sales techniques and that understands it completely if you want to go no further than the free listing. Their category structure is a bit awkward, though, when requesting a free listing. My advise is to simply go ahead and see how far you get: if your free listing is put in the wrong place they will pick up on that rather quickly and contact you to advise you in which category your free listing might be better placed.

Personally I have opted to offer my services with as many free listings as I can possibly find in order to maximize exposure on the world wide web. It does give me a few more spam emails than before, but for the relatively small investment of time I find the rewards far outweiging the disadvantages of unsolicited emails. In that respect you could also consider a listing in Craigslist and all kinds of other business directories on-line.

Best of luck,

Theo, Dutchman in France

Hi Eva,

I think you and I both exist regardless of the internet, as do a lot of people . Some cannot live without is, but that is another matter.

The best way to register in the Kompass International database is via www.kompass.com. That way you avoid having to deal from the start with the local sales force which trawls though the listings looking for new business. Once you have listed there they will contact you anyway and offer you a few country-specific services which you are -of course- not obliged to accept.

On the subject of getting exposure on the internet: try to include hyperlinks to your website into your listings wherever possible; that seems to be irresistable stuff for search engine 'sniffer bots', I am lead to believe. They seem to go berserk if they can index a hyperlink  that matches a key phrase they already know from your website. I believe the name for that is anchor texts but I happily stand corrected.

Craigslist, I am told by experts, is a favorite of every search engine but a quick search on the internet will yield many websites where you can list your services for free and often you can specify in which region you want to advertize your services. Be aware though, that not all free web directories are good for generating business and that you, where you can, should opt not to receive any messages about their services (in my opinion that is, because you don't advertize to be flooded with offers to buy things or to win lotteries).

Good luck again and regards,

Theo, Dutchman in France