When you CAN help.

Three things you need to do when you have the product or service that can help.

Post a reply. To not only let the person looking for help know but let the rest of the community know you are the right person for the job.

Send them a PM. Send them your contact details and any credentials you have.

Telephone them. This is a hot lead and they have asked for your help. Nothing beats the personal touch of a telephone call.

So many people only do one of the above.

I mostly only do one - call them.
I'll leave a PM/ email if needed though.

Absolutely right Ross. So often you see can you help threads, where people respond saying 'yes I can do that. Call me for a quote' etc. Pointless! The person who calls more often gets the job.

Is it not consdered rude to call people, as opposed to reply and say "contact me if you wish?".

Asking because, I use the phone all day and to me it's more natural and obvious. Although, some people do jump out of their chair if you call.

Sometimes I have posted things where I am looking for a range of views and have received a number of hard-sell calls, for me that is a turn off, but otherwise I like it when people call.

I think if you put in a request for help you are inviting contact by any normal means.

If you want to exclude some of the obvious ways of doing it just say so - e.g. "please don't call" .

I would say all of the above.

All three work. It depends on the question.

Happy to receive a call from someone who can help. A phone call can save a lot of time.

Absolutely right.

laughing. Business as usual then.

Interesting.....my name recently came up, amongst others, on the Help Section as someone was looking for an anniversary gift.

I posted a reply confirming I'd love to help, but didn't do privately contact the member posting the thread, as I have a product to sell and certainly don't want to be pushy. The lady concerned will be well aware what I do and how I can help.

Surely if I had telephoned her purely to re-iterate the info I had put on the forum then that's pressure? If it was a different request, for example, for some advice, then I totally agree a phone call is the way forward.

But not when it's already very clear what you are selling and how you can help.

Maybe I'll never get on in business because I'm just not pushy enough?

I think if it's something which people have a specific requirement for, then ringing is by far the most effective method, unless the poster has said please don't ring etc.

If in that case it was more along the lines of 'i need something for an anniversary gift' where the person didn't really know what they wanted, then what you did Jan was fine I think.

you still need to post a reply. that lets EVERYONE know that you can help. Doing both FTW

I only do that If I can say what I need to in a open reply e,g, where to find a tutorial / advice website.

For talking about individual cases it's much better to call / PM them.

If you're really good you don't even need to post a reply as everyone else will throw your name into the hat. (I haven't got that status yet).

I tend to disagree with your last sentece.

I think if someone has been kind enough to recommend you, then you should definitely post - one reason being to acknowledge their recommendation with thanks, and the second reason to confirm you can help....

Just my opinion....

Yeah true, I haven't been in the situation so can't talk from experience.