Appreciate your input though, thanks man. anything which improves the performance of the site is my goal. I want it to be ‘cool’. Like lighting fast, top security, fraud and performance protocols. Our key metrics currently are site speed, search performance and accuracy of listing data. Was just thinking totally different. Need to take others points of view and concerns into account too though. So thanks.
I can appreciate the concern a bit more now. Seems like an understanding guy.
Will action next week to try to understand the issues service providers are facing not just from the nomad’s point of view as I have been doing.
But it is one of the core goals of the site and me personally, to help and highlight legitimate services and empower them. While filtering out and detecting fraud. So the goal’s are aligned.
Need to somehow make that more clear and articulate though.
Josh Harris Most agents don’t want to list their prices. Is a big part of the goal of the project to have more clear pricing and transparency of visas but also the agents fees, so can be filtered. Am still considering how to go about this but feel like it’s: “they will because they have to” not because they want to. They can remain more unfair and charge timid people more, dominant people less, which I don’t like if prices are not advertised. Should be uniform and fair in my opinion. But is up to them if they make it public. By adding a filter element to the search, they will just not be included if they don’t add prices. I think that’s good enough.
Yeah, but airbnb had to start somewhere. My goal is not to promote visa agencies. It is to prevent fraud and collate all the visa options globally. And I am not competition for them or passing their services off as my own as least not attempting to. If that’s not clear is a design flaw which will be addressed.
I am giving them a free service by making the listing and of course then plan to contact them as to whether they want to use it or not.
I don’t see any down side for them, the listing directs straight to their website and they pay nothing, so is purely just free advertising (for now as that is obviously unsustainable).
But if I have nothing to show, they’re just simply going to say: “why? what’s the point” more effectively to just show: “here it is”. Not the cheapest/fastest way, but at least they can see exactly the point immediately and decide.
Airbnb used to offer something similar and actually took your photos for you and help you make the listing, then stopped as they got bigger and didn’t need to.
There is of course a tipping point where people find you as opposed to you finding them.
So I mean, yeah, could take your timid: “ask and beg” approach. But I just don’t really care. They’re not going to see value until they have had a few referrals anyway and I clearly say: “unverified, if you own this, send us a message” so we are not and not attempting to pass of like we own listings that have not confirmed their details.
Dude, this is a huge project and even how much time to allocate to each visa agency when we have hundreds, soon probably thousands and dozens of countries will need to be figured out. Especially as we are pre revenue.
But I appreciate the feedback. Have actioned making sure all unverified listings are linking to the owners website as a current top priority.
And ch om pu is no longer listed so we no longer recommend her services as she is unverified and we can’t confirm if they are a legitimate business which is totally fine. We will stick to the normal verification process moving forward.
And for commissions will of course be a balance, based on how much they refer for and how good they are. But on a basis of reputation, there is absolutely no incentive to refer bad agents. For example, if you want to lower tax I would be recommending Get Started HK, can find them on the site along with multiple others in HK. They give us no commission, but if we refer enough, I’m sure they will be happy to over time.
This Muay Thai gym, for now. I don’t like, just purely based on their attitude. But if they’re the best in Chiang Mai, need to put my personal opinions aside and refer.
But you can see above where they recommend someone to get a membership when they live in Chiang Rai and I wouldn’t support that.
So is personal integrity at the end of the day. What is important to me is truth above all irrespective of if it offends, just personally. Will not be selling out my principles for 100 baht. No way.
Dude, how else can we run a business? Just run a free site and charge nothing?
Also, we would be advising whether the DTV is even relevant for you. You think a muay thai gym will do that? They just want you to sign up. This is about as impartial as it gets. You’re also an adult, you know what you want.
Plus, this is a software. We don’t ‘talk’ to anyone unless later on they ask when we have live chat setup. You can simply browse the visa options and decide yourself.
I want to charge for yearly listings so we don’t have to keep their details up to date ourselves. Is a lot of work, have a VA doing it full time now and am hiring a second. This way if they’re no longer running the business, they will not pay, the listing can be taken down automatically and it’s automated.
Secondly for referrals, then it’s totally free for the nomad. Having the site free for individuals and the agents simply give a referral. Is automated for me, free for you and the agent gets a customer. Win/win/win.
My point and goal is to make my research public though and help others save time doing so.
I do want yo have clear/set commissions at some point, but for now just let agents set their own and over time see what is reasonable.
Okay, have deactivated the listing. If you would like to be listed again in future can go through the normal signup and listing creation & verification procedure. Best of luck with it.
