Welcome to DIY Doctor's blog

How can DIY Doctor be free?
This is a question we often get asked by users of our site. We make DIY Doctor a free website for our users by selling advertising space.

This is the same as most websites, but we always try to make sure that the products and services we list on our site are of interest to our users.

Video is the new black
London Fashion week is over, but we are all slaves to fashion in some way. The internet is no exception, with videos being the latest high-growth area of many websites.

Streaming sites have made it really simple to upload videos, and have become very popular places to learn new skills, and check out new products. DIY Doctor is no exception to this craze, and we love making videos to help users complete Home Improvement jobs and choose the correct tools for the job.

DIY Doctor has started using a new publishers revenue company, Coull Vidlinkr to help to increase our revenue by collecting sponsors for our YouTube videos, which review DIY products, or provide instruction guides on how to perform a particular home improvement task.

Making money from our videos this way means we can use the funds to make more videos, and so continue to increase our video library for our users.

An easy way to monitise videos
Once we installed Vidlinkr on the DIY Doctor website, it automatically picked up our YouTube videos and added a link to pre-approved tool suppliers pages. We are happy to recommend the links on the video, knowing that they are relevant to our users, and offer them good value for money.

This enables the viewer to purchase products recommended by us, and ones that are necessary to complete the DIY task, straight from the video.

“An easy and seamless experience. Integration of videos and products is a quick and very simple process that could be easily completed by someone with little or no previous experience.”- James Gardner, DIY Doctor

Early Results
These have been very encouraging for us and we can recommend the services offered by Coull Vidlinkr to anyone who needs to make money from their blog or website. Although we would be careful to stress that the content must be of use to your readers and users.

• Strong clickthrough rate: At 2.7%, DIY Doctor’s strong clickthrough rate shows how a relevant call to action within a video can engage viewers.
• Superb conversion rate: At 8.2%, their excellent conversion rate, from clickthrough to purchase, highlights the way viewers use video as a resource in their consumer journey. It drives demand for products.
• Average commission per transaction: The average commission earned by DIY Doctor per transaction was £1.89, reflecting the earning potential for bloggers using Coull Vidlinkr.

How it looks
This video link, below, shows that the users experience is subtle enough to be informing without being annoying.

Let us know what you think – click on the comments link at the top right of the page.

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New estimating software helps avoid cowboy builders by taking the guess-work out of building costs

Price Doctor is a new online application that will allow homeowners and builders to effectively work out the price of building jobs, and order materials.

Price Doctor – Extension quote and price checking software

Price Doctor helps the user to understand all the costs involved in home improvement projects, from basic DIY, to project management of an extension, and even self-build. Homeowners can also use it to compare builders’ quotes for their job. Builders can price the job using their own labour and material rates, together with the mark-up they need to cover overheads and profit.

The system displays options at every stage, using pictures with captions. No building experience is required, nothing needs to be downloaded, and using it involves minimal computer skills. The user just clicks on the picture that matches the design and material they want, and then displays the total cost of the chosen extension. Other options available include access to labour costings, and materials breakdown lists.

The basic design package is free to all users. Additional features are available for domestic through to commercial use, from £10 to £80.

Home Improvement Doctor, which also owns the online advice site DIY Doctor, have developed Price Doctor as part of their campaign to improve the reputation of the building trade in this country. Director Mike Edwards explains “Price Doctor is a really important tool in our drive to arm the consumer with the information they need to avoid cowboy builders, and all the financial implications of that”. Recent reports indicate that 13% of homeowners have been affected by cowboy traders costing some £3.7 billon [Sainsbury’s Home Insurance].

The software has been in the planning or BETA stage for the last two years while it has been rigorously tested. Price Doctor developer Jim Gardner said “Ironically the fact that we wanted to make Price Doctor easy to use made building it more difficult. The information in the programme is incredibly detailed and comprehensive in order that it can cope with everything from a simple extension to a complete build, but we recognised that the system itself would have to be as easy to use as possible, so that anyone can use it, even if they have minimal computer skills”.

Builders can use Price Doctor to accurately quote for jobs ensuring that their prices are fair and make a reasonable profit, avoiding those ‘guestimates’ on time and materials that can cost them money. Quotes can be prepared immediately and left with the customer at the first meeting.

Mike Edwards says “Creating the quote with the customer there to make choices in design, cuts down on office paperwork for the builder, and allows for alternative materials and dimensions to be considered to fit in with the customer’s budget. This creates complete transparency in the quoting process and builds trust in the builder/customer relationship from the beginning.

If Price Doctor is used with our Desired Outcome Building contract, our Payment Protection Plan and our own reliable, insured Tradesmen, there is absolutely no reason why any rogue tradesman should set foot through your door. “

The labour list itemises all of the different trades involved in the build and gives a total cost per trade as well as how long each should take in days. The materials list gives a complete overview of all the construction materials needed to complete the chosen job including individual quantities and prices for each item. It automatically includes all new regulation calculations for home insulation.

The Trade version allows tradesmen to alter the materials and cost per hour quoted by Price Doctor to take account of their own pay rates and trade discounts on materials.

No downloads are necessary and customers simply log into the Price Doctor page to start using the product.  Completed projects can be saved and edited later to adjust both design and price.

For more information about Price Doctor follow the link http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/price-doctor/

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The Government has announced cashback deals for householders who intend to carry out energy-saving home improvements, under the Green Deal, from January next year.

Money will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis so providers should encourage customers to take up the deal sooner rather than later, in order to take advantage of this deal.

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Government Energy Secretary Ed Davey said “The Green Deal also presents a great opportunity for businesses of all sizes to take advantage of this transforming market – and now is a critical time. Whatever your business does in this sector, the Green Deal will have an impact. So I say to businesses large and small – gear up, get training and get ready to take advantage of the Green Deal.”

Companies and Individuals who are interested in becoming authorised assessors and installers under the Green Deal Scheme can find out more by following this link to the Green Deal Oversight & Registration Body website or through one of the certification bodies.

Further details are available on the DECC website.

Hopefully this initiative will encourage consumers to commission work for the providers which in turn will save them them money on their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient.

To find out more about Green Deal and service providers click here.

For other Green Deal blog posts from DIY Doctor click here.

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We have recently been asked by tool company Screwfix to compile some independent video reviews of their products. These are underway and are being updated onto our site weekly.

DIY Doctor likes video tool reviews because they are a very easy way for us to communicate the pros and cons of each tool for the users of our site. So our customers win.

Product manufacturers like their tools to be reviewed so that their products get exposure to the market, and are more likely to be found by DIY enthusiasts. So our commercial colleagues win.

Our CEO Mike Edwards fancies himself as a bit of a star of the stage, and he certainly has the knowledge to be able to properly test the tools having spent more than 20 years in the building industry before setting up DIY Doctor. So he wins.

If you like the very positive vibe of this blog post and you are a DIY and Home Improvement enthusiast then please do recommend tools that you want to see reviewed either by commenting here or visit our Forum and make a request under the relevant thread.

If you are a tool manufacturer and would like to have your product reviewed then please contact us for more information. We wont hold our punches, but if you are as sure of your product as we are of ours I am sure you wont mind the scrutiny.

To check out our current reviews please visit the Video Tool Reviews section of the site, by clicking on the button to the left, or you can go the DIYDoctor’s channel on You Tube

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Video is the web’s best product selling tool.

Surveys released by Reelseo, the web’s guide to online business video, show clearly that attaching a video to your product increases the chance of a sale considerably.

At DIY Doctor we have been promoting the idea of video product reviews for over 12 months and are now pleased to announce the birth of our own video product review service run by Home Improvement Doctor Ltd.

Example video

Click here for more examples

For only £300 plus VAT you can send your home improvement or DIY product to DIY Doctor and have a professional video produced promoting your company and the product at the same time. We can work to your script, or you can rely on our experts to provide a great review of your product. We shoot all videos on site or in a studio adapted to the conditions necessary to highlight your product.

We are confident in saying you will not find independent experts to review your products, on video, in their natural surroundings, at this price, anywhere in the world. With a marketing program for 2012 – 2013 of over 1000 in-house videos, Home Improvement Doctor is destined to become the one stop shop for home improvement product reviews.

For more information and to contact our team, click here

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