Hourville: Buy and Sell Online

Anything by the hour. That’s what Hourville promises service providers and seekers who do their businesss online. Hourville is a free Web service that allows freelancers to advertise and market their services ranging from belly dancing and doing magic shows to tutoring and writing film scripts. The freelancers can advertise their services, seek clients, receive payment and get referrals from customers to convince their target customers.

All they have to do is to sign up for an account and fill in their particulars including specific services provided, rate by the hour and contact information. This will be viewed by Net users at local, regional or national areas and advertisers can then choose the jobs they’d like to take up. Hourville also generates a “Book Me” widget which can be embedded into advertisers’ personal site or posted to services like Digg, Reddit, Technorati, Craiglist, etc. Users can just click on the widget for their requests to be processed through Hourville. Besides helping advertisers to market and sell their services, Hourville also plays its role during and after the transaction. Hourville will issue an invoice and send it to the client after the service is rendered. Payment for the advertiser will then be processed via PayPal or Google Checkout. Clients also evaluate the service and the rating will be featured prominently next to the advertisers’ username subsequently.

Hourville is equally useful and practical to people seeking services ranging from the mundane to the bizarre. If you’re looking for a clown for a children’s birthday party, just type in the service you require and enter the city name in the text search box. A list of clowns and a link to their profiles will appear on your computer screen. A short description or blurb, the starting hourly rate and a link to the advertiser’s profile will help users to make decisions quickly and efficiently. Comments from other users can also be viewed on the link.

Hourville is a platform for freelance businessmen and businesswomen to set up shop online. The service is completely free for both the buyer and seller while it is still in beta but a fee structure may be imposed on service providers in the future.