Hometalk is a community of homeowners, renters, and home
improvement pros who enjoy sharing ideas and advice about home and gardening. Hometalk.com exists for
one simple reason: to make home improvement better and easier for you.
On Hometalk, you can ask and answer questions about home
and gardening, share and view helpful and inspiring photos, and search and browse through thousands of
previous discussions.
Homeowners, renters, contractors – anyone planning or involved
in home improvement or gardening projects can use Hometalk to plan ahead, see what others are doing,
ask for advice, get ideas for projects and share pictures and videos of the results!
The Ask button can be conveniently found on the top right of every page on Hometalk, so you can ask
a question from anywhere on the site.
Just click the button, type your question into the top box and click Ask. For best results, add an optional description or a photo to help illustrate your question.
Click the Post button at the top right of the page to open the post box. You can choose to upload
photos or videos from your computer and/or embed videos from youtube. Be sure to add a title to your
post in the top box, and then click Post.
Adding photo and video captions is a great way to share information about the media you post. In the
share box, once you’ve chosen photos or videos to share, type your caption text into the boxes beside
each photo or video.
You can make changes to any question, photo, video or comment you’ve posted on Hometalk. Every post
and comment has a set of tools that you can access by clicking the down arrow on the upper right corner.
When logged in to your account, click Edit or Delete from the toolbar to permanently change or remove
your post.
On the Hometalk feed, it’s easy for you to view the content that’s most helpful to you. Click "Following" to see posts from people and clipboards you’re following; or "Popular" to see posts that
have received the most likes and comments and "Most Recent" to display only the most recent content in the
feed.
The most common topics discussed across Hometalk can be found in the left column of the homepage and in the "Topics" dropdown of the header. If one of the topics interests you, click on it to only see posts related to that topic. Once a topic is chosen, you may narrow down even further by choosing from the "Related Topics" dropdown menu.
At the left side of the feed below the "Topics" section, you
will find the "Showing" section. "Everything" will be selected by default and will show you all types of
posts. Click on "Photos" to see only posts with photos, or "Questions" to browse through the questions that have
been asked.
Type in a word or phrase into the search bar located at the top left of every page. Once you press
Enter, you can choose to filter your search results by posts, photos, members and professionals. For a
more advanced search, you can also filter by popular home improvement topics. Just select one from the
left side of the search results page.
If you want to hire a local pro, type a name or industry into the search bar, for instance "plumber" and then choose
professionals in the search results page. All of the plumbers in your area who are on Hometalk will
appear in the search results. You can view some photos of their work and see how popular they are in the
community by how many Likes and Followers they have. Click on their name or photo to view their full
profile, or click the "Contact" button to privately request a quote.
The Social Widget is the box you see to the right of every post which helps you interact with all the
questions, photos and tips posted on Hometalk. From the widget, you can Share, Like or Save the
post and see who else did the same.
The Share button allows you to spread the word about the great things you see on Hometalk. Once you
click "Share", you can choose to post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Stumble Upon, or send
an email to a friend.
Saving is a way of collecting your favorite stuff from Hometalk. You can Save questions whose answers you found useful or photos you find particularly beautiful & inspiring. Each item is saved to a virtual clipboard of your choice where it can be referenced later.
Once you click the Save button from the Social Widget, a box will appear on the screen. You must choose an existing clipboard or create a new clipboard on which to save the post or photo. Then you can add optional text and click the ‘Save it’ button.
All of your saved items can be found by clicking "Clipboards" on the left side of your profile page. You may click on a specific clipboard to view all of the saved items within that clipboard. As the owner of a Clipboard, only you can save items to it, but all clipboards and saved items can be viewed by anyone.
If you are the owner of a Save or Clipboard you can edit or delete it at any time. From the Clipboards page, click Edit to change the name of a clipboard or Delete to permanently remove the clipboard and its content. From the clipboard page, click Edit from a Save to change the description, cover photo, or clipboard on which it’s saved.
When logged in to Hometalk, go to the homepage and click Following. You will see all of the most recent updates from the people and clipboards you’re
following.
You can view the members following you and those you are following from your profile page. The number of followers you have is displayed on the top right of your profile. Click on the number to view a list of all your followers.
On your profile page, click the "Following" tab on the left side of the page. You will be shown a list of all the people and clipboards you follow. When hovering over the word "Following" below each member and clipboard you follow, the word "Following" will change to "Unfollow". Click "Unfollow" if there is a member or clipboard you no longer wish to follow.
To edit any of your profile information, hover over your username at the top right hand side of the page, and then click "My Account". Once on your account page you can choose from the left navigation which personal information or settings you would like to change.
When you are logged on, go to your account page at www.hometalk.com/my-account. At the bottom of the Profile section, you will see your current profile photo. Click "Upload" to use a picture from your computer or "Import from Facebook" to retrieve your Facebook profile picture.
Hover over the arrow next to your username at the top right hand side of the page, and then select "My Account". From the "Settings" navigation on the left, click "Email" to change which email address you would like associated with your account, or "Notifications" to choose which notifications you receive via email.
Hometalk is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. We don't share, sell, rent or trade personal information with third parties. For more details visit our
Privacy Policy.
If you want to hire a local pro, type a name or industry into the search bar, for instance "plumber" and then choose
professionals in the search results page. All of the plumbers in your area who are on Hometalk will
appear in the search results. You can view some photos of their work and see how popular they are in the
community by how many Likes and Followers they have. Click on their name or photo to view their full
profile, or click the "Contact" button to privately request a quote.
You can privately contact any Hometalk pro directly from the Professionals search by clicking the red "Contact" button. Or, if you see a pro that seems qualified while browsing the site, click on their name or photo and you will be taken to their profile page. On their profile page, you can find their phone number, location and website, and buttons on the left to send them a message or request a quote through Hometalk.
Hometalk is a super tool for professionals to make connections and increase exposure in their communities. The three key elements of making Hometalk work for your business are: Filling out a complete profile (including your profile photo or logo); posting pictures of jobs you did; and most importantly, consistently giving helpful answers to users' questions.
The more active you are in helping other members, the more you'll be noticed and approached by potential clients in your area.
Seeing your posts and replies in the feed: Every time you answer a question, that question is viewed and read not only by the person you responded to, but by anyone else searching for the same thing. Every question you answer is a potential lead every single time it is read.
When members specifically search for professionals in their area.
After you log in, simply select a topic on which you’re knowledgeable on the left side of the homepage. Then select Questions from the Showing section below topics. All questions that have been asked and are related to the chosen topic will show in the feed.
Users have the ability to send you a private message through the site or to call you using the phone number displayed on your profile page. Additionally, when you show up in the professionals search, a ‘contact’ button will appear below your name and photo.
Have your customers share their experience. Just send them a link to your Hometalk profile and ask them to write a review.
The reviews will then automatically appear on your profile. In addition, positive reviews will give you better placement on Hometalk.
It is against our guidelines to post any advertisements of your services or products in the activity feed. You may post helpful tips or pictures of projects you have done so that the community can see your work. The best way to get visibility on the site is to post useful answers to members' questions. That will give your profile much better placement on Hometalk. Once users see your profile, they will see all the info you posted about your business, including your phone number and website.
The first thing to do is to reply to the review by providing a level-headed, fact-based response to clarify the issue. Getting drawn into a protracted, nasty dialogue will probably not serve your interests. The next thing to do is to ask your satisfied customers to provide positive reviews to counter the negative one. Each positive review will help considerably.
If you would like to request a review from a previous customer, just send them a link to your Hometalk profile and ask them to write a review.
You may not post advertisements in the form of a reply, tip, etc. You MAY post photos with information about your work. Members who try to sell products and/or services inappropriately will have their accounts revoked.
Name calling, personal attacks or other inappropriate behavior will not be allowed and may cause your account to be terminated.
You may only post material and content that you own. Posting copyrighted material, trademarks and other violations of the DMCA is prohibited.
In order to ensure the highest quality user experience, we ask that you only post home improvement and gardening related information and questions.
We reserve the right to remove any content which we feel violates the posting guidelines outlined above.
If you see any posts that break our posting guidelines or terms of service, please report them and we will check them right away. You can report a post or comment by clicking the "Flag as spam" link from the tool box which can be accessed by clicking the down arrow at the top right corner of the post or comment.
