We are actively recruiting Advertising Sales Agents, paid on a commission basis, to sell adverts on this website to businesses, services, product suppliers, house sellers and individuals. We need at least 1 agent for each of the islands that we cover.

For the larger islands we will potentially require multiple agents to cover vertical markets, for example, one agent to cover the building trade, another to cover accommodation, another for transport & delivery, one for property for sale by owner and real estate agents, etc. So for the larger islands we will allocate sales areas/specialities as necessary. However, an agent may have more than one sales area depending on the size of the potential business base and their ability to cover them adequately to achieve targets.

If an island is too small (not enough potential advertisers to make it attractive to a sales person) then we will consider allocating multiple islands to the same agent when the islands are geographically close to one another and easily commutable and if the agent can manage it.

Responsibilities:

• To create and/or help add to the Free Business Card Directory for the island being represented and ensure that all businesses, services and properties for sale are listed. And to keep it up-to-date as new businesses open and old businesses close, or as new properties become available for sale or are removed if sold. (Thereby making & maintaining your potential sales list.)
• To approach all entries on the Free Business Card Directory to sell them a paid for advert, which will be shown on the most specific category page for their business or property in addition to appearing in the directory.
• To ensure that the advertisers pay in a timely manner and be on hand to help them if they are not computer literate.
• To assist in keeping the reciprocal links category up-to-date for the allocated sales area.
• To keep a control list (spreadsheet supplied by us) up-to-date.
• To submit monthly request for payment.
• To renew adverts (reminding advertisers and encouraging them to make prompt payment) when renewal falls due.
• To represent all businesses and potential advertisers in your area, in an honest and unbiased manner whether you are directly or indirectly in competition with them.

Targets:

• We require sales agents to sell a minimum of 36 adverts in the first year, averaged as 3 adverts per month. (Min of 36 Business Cards Plus at £49 each, earns agents £24.50 each so total minimum commission £882.)
• Other targets to be agreed with individual agents depending on their experience, the scope and size of sales areas.

Commission Payment based on Current Advert Prices:

• For sales of a Business Card Plus advert, sales agents will receive £24.50 (50% of advert price at £49.00 per year).
• For sales of a Full Advert Page, sales agents will receive £59.50 (50% of advert price at £119 per year).
• For sales of Story Layout adverts, sales agents will receive £199.60 (40% of advert price at a once only price of £499).

[Please note that in our experience you should estimate potential earnings on a maximum of 50% of the potential advertisers in the Free Business Card Directory upgrading to paid for advertising.

And of that, you should estimate selling 60% as Business Card Plus (BC+) adverts and 40% as Full Advert Pages (FAP).

Please don't even calculate Story Layout Adverts (which are only available to FSBO property sellers and are one-off payments) as these are the icing on the cake (added bonuses if you're really good at selling).

Therefore, for a small island with 600 entries on the island's Free Business Card Directory, you could estimate a maximum potential earning per year (commission) of £11,550. Your commission will depend on your dedication, determination, ability to sell and the size of your sales area.]

Employment Terms:

• You will work for us on a self-employed, commission only basis.
• You will be responsible for your own income tax and TEBE contributions.
• Commission payment to you will be made at the end of the month following satisfactory payment of adverts sold by you.
• You pay your own expenses.
• You must have a bank account and if you don't already have one, must be willing to open a Paypal account (we will help you to do this).
• You are required to sign our Advertising Sales Agent agreement.
• You are required to abide by our Advertising Sales Agent Good Practice policy.
• You must agree to have your photograph and name published on the home page of your island with a contact form so potential advertisers can get in touch with you.

Commission Payment Dates:

You will be paid your commission, as detailed above, on all adverts sold or renewed for each month upon presentation of your control sheet (supplied by us) and request for your payment at the end of the month following payment by advertisers. For example, if you sell 3 adverts that are paid for in January, you will be paid for them at the end of February.

Commission Payment Method:

We pay our Advertising Sales Agents by Paypal.

As a minimum:

• You must be fluent in Greek to be able to communicate with your potential advertisers and be able to speak & write enough English to be able to communicate with us and if necessary translate for your non-English speaking customers.
• Own or have regular access to a computer and a reliable connection to the Internet with your own email address.
• Be able to navigate the Internet and send emails.
• Be resident in the island(s) you represent at least 60% of the year.
• Know your island intimately or be prepared to get to know it.
• Have at least 2 hours per day to work without distractions.

Ideally you should be:

Organised, professional, friendly, enthusiastic, honest, unbiased, determined, self-motivated and have a caring attitude towards the island that you represent.

Ideal to have but not vital:

• to have a digital camera (handy, but not essential, to take photos for your potential advertisers if they don't have one of their own to supply pictures or there isn't a professional photographer on your island to take photos for advertisers).
• a laptop (so you can show potential advertisers the site and sign them up at their premises if they don't have their own PC or laptop, useful but not essential). Or you might have a PC in a location that is easily accessible to your potential advertisers that you could use if you don't mind people calling in.
• access to a printer (useful but not essential, if you want to print your business cards and promotional literature to give to your potential customers).

Previous Experience:

Prior sales experience, especially selling classified ads, is desirable but not vital. Local knowledge, good contacts with the local businesses, willingness to go out and meet people, to communicate well and obtain trust within your community and enthusiasm to promote your island is essential in addition to the minimum requirements shown above.

Training & Support:

We provide on-line help and how to guides, with help to get you started, sales strategy, procedures, how to overcome objections, selling the benefits as well as how to use the functions of this website. In addition we supply templates, which you can personalise, for promotional literature, reminders, thank you notes and standard letters with paragraphs that you will use on a regular basis. In addition we provide technical and sales support by phone, MSN and Skype during regular working hours (Monday - Friday, 09:00 - 18:00) plus an out-of-hours emergency hotline.

Spin-Offs:

In our experience we have found that business owners in Greece are generally becoming much more aware of the benefits of being "on-line" and are aware that they have the edge if their potential clients have been in touch with them prior to arriving on the island. But quite often they don't have the experience or know-how to take advantage of this method of promoting themselves. Many will say that they don't have an email address so there's no point in paying for an advert on the internet - however if you want to sell them your services to receive and print their emails, handle their enquiries or even arrange bookings and house visits - then you are welcome to do this extra business for them at rates you will negotiate with them for yourself. They will pay you separately from the invoice that we will send them for their advert on our site. Similarly they may not have photographs nor have access to a photographer so if you wish to charge them for taking pictures - that's your business. They might not be able to write their own advert in English, again you can negotiate your own rates for doing this for them perhaps as a translator if they provide you with the Greek text. Some hotels and smaller pensions might want someone to handle their online advanced bookings, again if you charge them a handling fee of between 10-20% on each booking this is your business. Your potential advertisers may want their own website, if you have the skills to build them one then feel free to go ahead. Our business is just to sell adverts, so long as you achieve your sales targets, any additional business that you pick up is exactly that - your business, we won't expect payment. But we do insist that when negotiating additional work you make it very clear that apart from hosting their paid for advert on the Greek Islands Real Estate website, we are not responsible nor have anything else to do with any spin-offs you undertake.

Interested: Please send your CV (a message with your background, what you're doing now and why you think you would be good at this job) to our Administrator: Kelsey Edwards, using this form. Thank you for your time and interest.

We need a Volunteer Contributing Editor (a VCE for short) for each of the islands on our site. This is an unpaid function.

If you are knowledgeable about your island, like writing articles, encouraging others to tell you what's happening, are good at finding out information and generally sharing your enjoyment of your home island, or you have a special interest in promoting the best interests of your island for free (such as the municipality), we would like to hear from you.

Calling professional or amateur photographers, we need your images. If you're interested in showcasing your work from around the Greek Islands or even just contributing one or two photos with your own gallery on our site, we would be very interested to hear from you.

Are you a bit of a gourmet, or perhaps a shop-a-holic, an art guro or maybe you just like to follow the parades.

If so we are looking for reporters to volunteer to cover specialised areas to help with contributions for our site. (For larger islands it will be impossible for one person, our Volunteer Contributing Editor, to write articles about all aspects of living in the community so this is one way of spreading the load.)