The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

RoofBright of Florida · Guest

RE: CLOSING The Forum ??

Mobile Prowash · Guest

Is there a way that you could limit the time that the ones who haven't paid to something like 10 minutes a day? If it is completely closed new guys (like me) would not really have a way of finding out if it is the right business for them to get into. It would be a way to sample the board and then decide if they want to join. You could maybe let them on for 1 or 2 weeks then either join or be deleted.

RCIA Founder

Roof Cleaning St Louis Missouri (636) 221 2582 wrote:

Is there a way that you could limit the time that the ones who haven't paid to something like 10 minutes a day? If it is completely closed new guys (like me) would not really have a way of finding out if it is the right business for them to get into. It would be a way to sample the board and then decide if they want to join. You could maybe let them on for 1 or 2 weeks then either join or be deleted.

we will be exploring several options in Tampa

Ohiovalleyroofcleaning.com · Guest

I feel that on the registration page everything must be filled out. If someone doesn't complete the page they can not get in. There are a lot of people on here that do not give their name or where they are from. Why have a registration page at all ?

Guest

Roof Cleaning St Louis Missouri (636) 221 2582 wrote:

Is there a way that you could limit the time that the ones who haven't paid to something like 10 minutes a day? If it is completely closed new guys (like me) would not really have a way of finding out if it is the right business for them to get into. It would be a way to sample the board and then decide if they want to join. You could maybe let them on for 1 or 2 weeks then either join or be deleted.

My thought is something like a detailed summary would be shown to get the interested person enough info to decide if this is for me, with things like testimonials from guys like us ,my 2 cents

Roof Cleaning Missouri 417-230-8103 · Guest

300 was bad azz, what ever you think chris, put me in the car, Im riding w/ya//
I just started my marketing last week and pick up one job first day, a good one have 5 more estimate to do now.. I will be sending you a few DUBS, here real soon
Thanks for everthing Chris
any one seen MIKe Sullivan I haven`t seen him for a minute..

KID

Jun 12, 2009

This forum has to be closed..........I was just worried about guys coming on here stealing info starting a business and under cutting legite guys. I walked right into the opposite two days ago and I shared it with Vinny from Long Island. I gave a price on a job and the customer laughed right in my face.......you see he was sixty five years old.....and found this site....learned all about the " bleach " we use. First he talked me down forty dollars on the price....then informed me he found this site...read alot....found me on here and called me. Then asked me if I really thought bleach was that expensive. I was set back a little but not really that suprised....I knew this site would one day shoot itself in the foot on me. He said he was going to BJ's to get what he needed to the job. I wished him luck and walked away....I thought back to when I was about seventeen....I was in a three mile race....I was in second place approaching the final quater mile......I made an unorthodoxed move prior to that to give me the only shot at winning the race....I went all out earlier then I should have......I won the race...I walked over to the second place finisher { who had first locked up } I was so ****y I told him how I beat him....I never forgot to this day what he said to me, and it comes into play here. He looked right at me...and without skipping a beat and with all sincerity said " never tell anyone how you beat them! " and he walked away.I realized then what a mistake that was and kept to this day what a stranger told me......I feel this board is doing just that....telling someone how to beat them.

PowerClean · Guest

This is why I said what I did earlier... I've spent a ton of money on information in the cleaning industry educating myself in general over the years. These guys are giving away "trade secrets" and they know it. People go to court over trade secrets everyday you guys. Unfortunately, we are going to have to pay more and more for the information we so easily receive by click per click.

If we truly are "professionals" (and we are) we will be more than willing to pay for it. These guys worked their butts off for many years to be heads in their industry and I for one, know a thing or two about the internet's double edge sword. The other thing is this industry is changing. It's not uncommon for a customer to think they "know" what you know about roof cleaning thanks to the very thing that educates us (this forum, elbow grease and the experience of just doing it EVERYDAY). The debate has been going on for years. I live next to Microsoft in WA. Maybe you heard of it... ...Try competing in this market here with me next to people who learn these things at which the speed they create the very medium you use. If you want to keep up, than pay and learn up. We are at the mercy of supply and demand here. ALWAYS. Our customers are asking us to be smarter than them (they click & learn too).

I had a customer today challange my cleaning education/experience (which is to challange my pricing as well). Long story short, I talk a great game and work very HARD. I GUARANTEE ( a HUGE word over here) my work. Customers with a 14' over 12" pitch cedar roof call me because they "can't, don't "want to" or have been "burned" by the last company who cleaned it. Capitalize on those reasons or your business DIES to the competition.

P.S. Chris, Dave, Jeff... You guys ever thought about starting an actual Roof Cleaning University and teaching full-time when you retire? Hell, even I don't plan on cleaning roofs forever. I'd like to be sipping Mai Thais on a white, sandy beach with you guys someday sharing stories about how the hell we got there... biggrin

RCIA Founder

Roof Cleaning Branson/Springfield,Mo (417) 230 8103 wrote:

300 was bad azz, what ever you think chris, put me in the car, Im riding w/ya//
I just started my marketing last week and pick up one job first day, a good one have 5 more estimate to do now.. I will be sending you a few DUBS, here real soon
Thanks for everthing Chris
any one seen MIKe Sullivan I haven`t seen him for a minute..

KID

Someone needs to CALL Mike Sullivan ??
He is TRULY missed.

Roof Cleaning Missouri 417-230-8103 · Guest

I called him twice now, The man is busy and was waiting on his system to get fixed
but you are right he is missed...

KID

SP Cleaning · Jun 13, 2009

Hey Patrick, Sorry to hear about the bad experience with that guy. IMHO you don't want his business. I found that customers that complain about price, or try and negotiate a price are not worth the time and hassle. Chances are if you did do the work for this guy, he would either complain about something, or blame you for something that was already damaged. Either way, you are better off without the possible headaches he would bring you. disbelief

I would keep checking on his house to see if he actually tries to clean the roof himself. It would be interesting to see him try and mix 40+ gal. of chems, and see how he will get it all on the roof consistently, safely, and without damaging the landscape, house or deck. It will cost him more to do it himself then if he paid you your price to do it.... he just doesn't know it yet. He will find out the hard way. doh

Anyway have a great weekend Patrick.

Back to the original question at hand.........
I think the site should have a main page and 3 separate sections or pages.

MAIN PAGE - would have a description of what the RCIA is and its Goals and
Mission Statement and links/logins to the other sections.

1st Section/page - would be for "customers" with info educating them on what is on
their roofs,the proper way of cleaning with NON-Pressure
ROOF CLEANING Methods, and why they need there roofs
cleaned, as well as contact info for a ROOF CLEANER in their
area.

2nd Section/page - would be for those that are interested in JOINING the site. This
section/page would have some "Teaser" information, "Sales
pitch" if you will.... and testimonials from current members. This
page would have a sign up form with a registration fee of ???
$50-$100?? or whatever is deemed reasonable.

3rd Section/page - would be CLOSED to only those that have registered and are
current members in good standing, with a Yearly membership fee
to help pay for the site and expenses.

FOUNDERS/MODERATORS: I would be willing to help with such a change, as I think it would be best for the future of the site and most importantly the members.

EVERYONE: Please chime in with any ideas/ changes to the above proposal, as many heads and thoughts are better then 1.

Chris

Roof Cleaning Pro's of NJ · Guest

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Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 · guest

Hi, and welcome back Rob. I am glad you got it working!!! Rob talked to me on the phone and has formed a friendship with Chris T. He just couldn't post for a long time due to 'technical issues"
Good to see you here!!!

Ambient Roof · Guest

I'm not sure the status of this issue as the last post was Sept '09 but being a newbie and having spent the last two months reading the wealth of knowledge on this site, I will throw my opinion into the ring. I agree with several posts that the information provided should remain with professionals or VERY serious beginners (especially regarding pricing). I think the ideal situation would be an "open" section that would explain the purpose for the membership and perhaps the credentials of the members. I think this would give serious beginners the confidence that a membership would be worth its weight in gold. I would vote for something that would make people reconsider their commitment, like $100 to start and a monthly or annual renewal.

My only concern with a minimum post requirement is that (speaking from experience) I don't have much to contribute to the group as of yet. Just my thoughts.

Roof Cleaning Corpus Christi TX · Guest

I agree about having parts of the forum closed but some need to be open to the public.

Maybe I am wrong but my website guys tell me that when you go to a bbs and whatever you cannot see (because you are not registered there), viewing as a guest, etc... is what google and yahoo also cannot see.

There are bbs's out there that have parts of their site closed but it is also closed to the spiders as well.

When you close part of a site that was once open to the spiders, I think that eventually you get penalized by google for all those links all of a sudded "missing."

Please correct me if I am wrong and let's see some links to parts of the site that are closed to guests but open to google spiders because what the spiders see will show up in search results and if that is true then the competition will see everything anyway.

Please let me know if I am wrong here.

What parts of the bbs are open to the public?
What parts of the bbs are open to the spiders?

Thank You.

RCIA Founder

Roof Cleaning Corpus Christi TX wrote:

I agree about having parts of the forum closed but some need to be open to the public.

Maybe I am wrong but my website guys tell me that when you go to a bbs and whatever you cannot see (because you are not registered there), viewing as a guest, etc... is what google and yahoo also cannot see.

There are bbs's out there that have parts of their site closed but it is also closed to the spiders as well.

When you close part of a site that was once open to the spiders, I think that eventually you get penalized by google for all those links all of a sudded "missing."

Please correct me if I am wrong and let's see some links to parts of the site that are closed to guests but open to google spiders because what the spiders see will show up in search results and if that is true then the competition will see everything anyway.

Please let me know if I am wrong here.

What parts of the bbs are open to the public?
What parts of the bbs are open to the spiders?

Thank You.

Your SE guy is correct Chris, closing the forum will hurt us cry

ALL the forum, except two parts are open, the mod part, and in the shade section.
I will send you passoword for it.

Roof Cleaning Corpus Christi TX · Guest

Thank You.

CarolinaContractors · Guest

All I've got to say is I'm glad that I would've registered anyways,because I DO want to learn evry single little bit I can about this.I aslo agree that closing it to the public is a very wise discision.I know from my experience in the construction field that there's waaaay to many people that 'thinks' they know how to do something and go out and cut their own plus my throat in the process,by giving a ridiculous cheap price,just to wind up doing a sh*tty job.I understand customers' would like to have the cheaper price,but sometimes it'll cost them in the end.Letting this be open to everyone in puplic just prevokes that type of attitude in my opinion.I wouldn't and would hope that noone else would read a lil bit on here and go out and charge someone to clean their roof and wind up giving 'us' a bad name so to speak.Anyway Chris I'm glad you did what you did and I'm glad to be on here actually learning.Thanks to all ya'll.I Love This Site

Ugly Shingles LLC · Mar 14, 2010

I am ever so humbled that I found this forum and I was able to learn PRICELESS AMOUNTS of INFORMATION for just my time to read and interact. smile

I do agree there should be a separation from homeowners / guest VS registered / paid users. confuse

I would be willing to stay and pay to continue to learn and grow not to mention it is also therapeutic. wink

Renew it · Guest

What about making the search option only for donating members? The amount of knowledge on this site is amazing and worth a donation to see it! Thanks to all of you! In fact you all have given me the courage to have a go at it and start up my own roof cleaning business. I am scared to death, but I got to start somewhere and I am sooo happy I found RCIA. I hope in time my mistakes (I am sure there will be many) will help others.

Thanks,
Noll

-- Edited by Renew it on Monday 15th of March 2010 01:50:25 AM

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum "Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"