What: Bark offers to connect service providers of all kinds with potential customers. But you pay for leads that are sometimes worthless.
Expected pay: You set it yourself
Husl$core: $$
Commissions & fees: No commissions. But you’ll buy each potential lead with Bark Credits upfront.
Where: United States, UK, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.
Requirements: Must have a service to offer; must be of legal age to work in your country
Bark Review:
Bark promises to connect service providers with potential customers in 1,000 different fields — tutoring; cleaning; child care; IT support; web design; magic — just to name a few. The sign up process takes just a few minutes. Once your account is in place, you will be considered a Bark Pro. At that point, Bark will send you leads for potential clients seeking your service.
If a lead works out, you (the service provider) negotiate the rates and terms with the customer and do all the collection and job management. Bark’s role is simply to provide you with job leads. Once it has provided customer contact information, the site’s job is done. You are in charge from then on out.
Fees for contacts
But there’s a big catch. You have to pay “Bark credits” to see the contact details for any particular lead. These details include the potential client’s name, phone number and email address.
And even though Bark claims there are no commissions or hidden fees, the pay-for-leads system is complex.
You buy “Bark credits” upfront. The standard price for each credit is $1.80, but you can bring that cost down if you buy in bulk. The number of Bark credits required to buy any single lead varies from 3 to more than 20, depending on an opaque lead value system. In other words, it could cost you between $5 to $36 to buy contact information for a single potential client.
No guarantees
Bark offers no guarantees that the potential customer leads that it supplies will result in business. In fact, service providers contend in reviews that many leads are old, fake, or simply lookie-loos, who aren’t interested in buying anything.
The site says that if you don’t get any customers after using your first batch of lead credits, Bark will “restore” those credits. But that gives you the ability to try again, not to get a cash refund.
Recommendations
Although there may be some legitimate leads to be found here, the risk of spending a considerable amount for no return is real. When responding to complaints, Bark actually reveals one of the reasons why: It’s up to the client to remove their job request. If a client doesn’t report that they’ve already hired someone/filled the position/moved on, their job request remains on the site indefinitely.
This site works a great deal like Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor, which are panned by service providers for identical reasons. If the leads were appropriately vetted and kept up-to-date, they might be worth paying for. As it is, it’s a crap shoot. And the odds are never in your favor.
Our best advice is to go to the SideHusl.com work page and click on your industry — build, beauty, lawn & garden, teaching, tutoring, accounting — whatever you offer. Look for sites that have Husl$cores of $$$ or more.
What their users say: (from G2.com)
“I can’t recommend BARK.COM for anyone trying to find genuine leads online. The system has a deceptively nice-looking UI, but doesn’t do what they advertise. We spent 500+ AUD to get at least one answer as advertised, but we haven’t heard back from any of the people we contacted.”
“Don’t waste your time or money dealing with them. You’re better off standing on a street corner with a sign!”
“I’ve received zero work so far from Bark and only one company has reached out. After following their tips, being a good fit for the people I reach out to, and following up, I feel as though I should have more interactions with potential clients for the cost.”
“It is exceedingly expensive with no guarantee. I am a professional photographer and it costs me about $22 to buy a lead. Only to find out they have already gotten the work done or they are just shopping around. I’m out hundreds and hundreds of dollars with zero to show for it. Much better off with an SEO expert who can bounce me above them in an Google search and let the client contact me directly.”
Fake leads?
“Recycled / Fake leads? C’mon.. Anyone with a brain can notice how “copy and paste” these leads are. They switch the name and minor details. Don’t believe me? Sign up, put your email but don’t pay.. get out, and then you’ll see your Email get spammed with similar leads all alike, with the exception of minor changes. I’m done!”
“Many leads turned out to be nothing, even when filtering out those “just researching and planning,” as Bark suggests. Why are we paying for leads that do not even answer their calls? In one case, a text message reply was sent saying “STOP” to us on our first text contact to that lead. We had only sent one message and were asking them about the project they supposedly wanted information about! When I complained about the leads – bark tried rushing us into canceling our account before using up all the remaining leads on our account. We will be canceling our account when our purchased leads are all used up.”
From Sitejabber:
“Ok I’m speaking from a professional cleaning standpoint: The company is trash. We have to pay for bark credits and there’s no guarantee that these people are legit! They allow the same individuals to get on and repost for absolutely no reason. Don’t waste your time or money trust me!”
“Bark is a waste of money. The market is full of people who are only after a cheap deal without understanding the process and work that goes behind the jobs. There are many people that will gladly take their little money and not provide a proper service. I would not recommend bark to anyone looking to improve their business unless they offer subordinate services at cheap prices.”
“26 leads. No return. You pay premium prices or little to no results. It’s downright criminal. I suppose that’s capitalism in a sense. Wont be returning. STAY AWAY. “
12/9/2021
Suggested Options.
Medical writing: side hustle success story
Medical writing may be an ideal side hustle for anyone with medical or science experience, from lab…
Gigs in film, coaching and more
Four new side hustles reviewed this week offer gigs in film, coaching, marketing and hospitality.…
4 Rotten job sites
You know how cops direct people away from gruesome scenes? That's how we feel about these rotten…
Weekend side hustles
If you need to earn extra money, but don't have the energy to add hours to work day, you might want…
Make money and save lives
Want a feel-good side hustle? Donate plasma or platelets. You can make money and save lives at the…
Blogging as a side hustle
Larry Ludwig may well be the poster child for why people recommend blogging as a side hustle. He…
Side hustle success stories: Selling on Etsy
Helen Spallas has worn many hats--investigator, janitor, tax preparer --but she didn't make six…
Great holiday gift experiences
Want to give someone something unique this holiday season? Consider holiday gift experiences.
Jobs for military spouses
The typical military family moves every two or three years. And with all that moving around, jobs…
3 Best tutoring sites
The best places to find a tutor are also the sites that are the best places for freelancers to…
Scam, Scam, Scam
I have tried Bark.Com and have been left disappointed and out of pocket. I had a technical difficulty with my account at Bark.com and have had the unfortunate experience of having to communicate with Ms Kim at Bark.Com, she was extremely rude to me. Extremely aggressive behaviour, does not listen and talks over the top of you the whole time. When I asked a question from her, she just kept saying that she is unable to assist and I should refer to their website for more information and hung up the phone. I would never deal with this agency. Don’t waste your time or money dealing with them.
We as a new Business got ripped off from Bark. All the leads they sent us was a bluff, without any notice they charged our credit card over £2700 in just one week before we started to realise Bark is a Fraud Company, trying to steal money from hardworking people in UK. I have talked to solicitor and I want to make sure Bark won’t be able to cheat on other people.
Total fraud