Archive for November, 2006

One more update… Here are some comments made by Aaron after this was posted:

——————

When you are editing a vflyer, there is a link to the Photo Editor. On that screen, you can upload one main photo and up to 24 gallery photos. As you browse, select an image and upload from the lower entry area, it will continue to add photos.

By the way, from the “Advanced Contact Settings” link, you can upload an Agent photo, logo, and reference the Realtor association logo.

If a user goes to a postlets and clicks on “Powered by postlets”, the user is sent to the front door of postlets. From there, a user could find other properties in the area. From the vFlyer home page, there isn’t a way to find other properties. This is important because people are setting up other ad campaigns that point back to their vflyers. Those users would not want the visitors to easily jump to other properties.

——————
Man, that is frustrating… I just about finished my post and firefox crashed…   So here we go again
This is a followup post to the one I made earlier today concerning the functionality of Postlets.com and vFlyer.com

After posting, I received a private message from one of the founders of vFlyer: Aaron Sperling.  He wanted to clear up a few things about vFlyer.   And in order to be fair, I want to post his comments here.  They have a really great service, and I want to be as objective as possible.

Here are his comments to me, and my commentary:

vFlyer offers upload of up to 25 photos.

*On my flyer, I couldn’t see where I could upload more than 2.  Am I missing something there?

We also allow users to add custom fields and custom links.

*This is a great function.  If you need to add more specific info in categories, the custom fields can help.

With these custom links, people can easily link to video and virtual tours.

*I’m not sure why anyone would need more links than to a virtual tour and to their website, but I’m sure someone will find this useful.  One thing vFlyer does not do is embed video into the flyer itself.  This is a very cool feature on postlets.

vflyer also provides much more professional design themes.

*This is absolutely true.  The degree of customization available is fantastic.

vFlyer offers advanced activity tracking so users can see where there traffic is being generated.

*I think I mentioned this on my last post.

vFlyer also provides an advanced tool for facilitating craigslist postings.

*This is something I overlooked before.  And unless I am mistaken, this is a feature of the browser plugin, which would still require you to go to the craigslist homepage, find the category, and enter posting information.  Postlets does most of that for you.  But, one thing I need to mention is that the browser plugin can really help with other classified sites that require manual posting.  The plugin will quickly add your html to your listing.

Another key differentiator is that vFlyer isn’t a marketplace. It provides standalone professional landing pages for your online ads. Users cannot jump from your ad to another ad on vFlyer. I am not aware of any other service that has taken this approach.

*I’m not sure what Aaron was getting at here.  I have a postlets flyer in front of me, and I don’t see any way to jump to another ad.  Am I missing something?
I would suggest that you provide a fully filled out example of a vflyer in the comparison.

*As requested, here is a sample link for a full flyer: http://getaways.vflyer.com/1/index.html

One of my favorite SEO/Webmaster blogs is SEOMoz.org. The content these guys put out is outstanding.

The founder: Randfish recently posted on the pubcon 2006, and based on some of the things he learned, he made some predictions for the next 6 months. (You’ll even notice a mention of Zillow, which shows me the reach and impact it has made in the seo/webmaster world)
Here are the ones I thought were most interesting with my comments below:

• Google’s Webmaster Central will offer full link information about your site (like the old link command before they broke it) *I’m curious to see how this will develop. It’s frustrating sometimes when you can’t see detailed link info from Google.

• Digg will reach its height of publicity and begin to wane as other verticals in the space take off. *It’s true that digg has some room to grow yet, but with the advent of other similar sites, I agree that we will see a spread in traffic.

• SearchEngineLand will become the definitive source for search-related content; most in the industry foresee SEW (search engine watch) becoming irrelevant very quickly.

• Linkbaiting will continue to grow in opportunity and popularity - many more firms will begin to offer services in that sector. *This is an obvious one. I have been seeing some very creative link baiting techniques being tested in the last 6 months. The opportunities and new ideas in this area are almost endless.

• A few SEO-backed projects will become big brands in the online world. I think the next Zillow or MySpace or YouTube will have its seeds in this industry - so many capable people are hard at work on fascinating projects. *Totally agree… again, this one is a no brainer really. The one obvious problem is that the SEO world is so chock full of good talent, that you don’t have any one major industry leader. But you have countless mid-sized firms all vying for the top spot… stay tuned on this one.

• Google will continue to make it more worth spammers’ while to take white-hat routes as they close off link spam opportunities and make authority sites impossible to resist. *Cheers to Google for plugging the holes in the damn. I’ve seen less and less link spam sites showing up in the serps lately. Quality results have become the norm, and not the exception.

• Blogs will find more creative ways to finance their growth - and while blog number growth may slow down a bit, web traffic to them will continue to skyrocket. *Hopefully this means that the rapid growth of the splog will die down, but I doubt it. Does anyone have internet wide stats on blog traffic? We are truly in the golden age of the blog. As content improves, things will only get better.

Thanks Rand for the great reviews of Pubcon, and these predictions. They look pretty sound to me.

There has been quite alot of talk about VFlyer lately with their new release of services specifically tailored to real estate.

I thought it would be useful for the AR community to do a full rundown and comparison of the two different free services and let you decide which one to use.  One thing is for certain, if you aren’t using one of these services already to promote you’re listings… you’re missing out big time.

Here is a comparison Chart:

Let me know if there is anything I missed.

Bottom line, I feel very strongly that postlets.com is the best of the two.  With the extra usability within the flyers, data from Zillow, embedded video and virtual tours, ability to upload 12 photos, and advance craigslist support, they are clearly the winner of this battle.

Some might argue that the lack of customization within postlets is a problem, but to be honest, I don’t think most customers will care.  They just want useful information: descriptions, photos, videos, etc.  If they can get all that in one place, they will be happy.

The only thing that would be nice with postlets would be trulia support.  But it will probably be coming shortly…

If there is a particular reason you use one or the other, please share!

New report from the NAR shows a definite change in the market. Falling home prices, rising inventory, and slowing sales are just a few of the statistics discussed in the article.

We covered it in our other blog. Here is the link:

Christian Real Estate Network: 2006 3rd Quarter NAR Report Shows National Home Sales Falling

And if you don't mind, I'm going to post a non-related picture....

I just read a really interesting piece through a newsletter subscription that I have through Internet Marketing Secrets.  It’s SEO buff Michael Cambell’s weekly newsletter.

He’s always been big on affiliate marketing, and adsense revenue strategies through solid SEO techniques.  I used to be a big time SEO geek that would read anything I could get my hands on, but lately I’ve been so busy, my affiliate marketing side business has been at a stand still.

But something about Michael’s newsletter hit me… maybe it was the title: “1,200 New Visitors in 7 days, all treat, no tricks”

…I read on…

You can read the article yourself here, but I’ll just summarize it for you.

The basic idea is to find a niche within YouTube, create a video about it, and then direct people to your website with a short advertisement at the end of the video.

Michael’s strategy was to create a video about how to groom a cat.  He then proceeded to place an affiliate link at the end of the video (I assume for cat grooming products).  He claims that he made close to $500 in less than a week.

It is definitely a good idea if you have time to mess around with affiliate links, and editing video.  But, it really just got me thinking about the real estate industry… and how a similar idea might be used to promote listings, or simply promote yourself.

Maybe a dog grooming video could drive some traffic???  food for thought

Just found a funny but useful robot online.  He is an expert on SEO, and claims to have all kinds of industry secrets and gossip.  Here is the link

You can refresh the page to get him to speak again.  His name is promo and he was created by the gang over at Search Engine Worshops
Here is a quote from their site:

“Turn up your computer sound and click your refresh button to hear Promo, the Search Engine Robot giving you some general SEO gossip. He is libel to say anything, so be prepared!”

One minute, he’ll throw you some technical advice, then next minute, he’ll run his mouth off about how his relationship with the “female” hotbot robot didn’t workout. But it’s ok because he’s starting to date a new robot over at Yahoo.  But he’s not sure how it will work out yet, because he claims that the yahoo robot is considering a name change to inktomi.

He says some pretty funny stuff… but when he gets serious, he has some very quality up to date SEO advice.

Craigslist.com was recently sued by a Committee of lawyers in Chicago for alleged discrimination and violation of the fair housing act.

Here is a quote from Inman news:

“The online classified service Craigslist.org is not a publisher and can’t be forced to stop its users from posting alleged discriminatory housing advertisements, a U.S. District Court Judge has ruled.

The ruling is the latest of several in which courts have held that Web sites that serve as intermediaries to allow users to post ads or commentary enjoy protections under the Communications Decency Act not afforded to print publications such as newspapers.”

The article goes on to talk about the official view of HUD on the subject:

“Some Web sites assert that they are exempt from liability under (the Fair Housing Act) because of a provision in the Communications Decency Act which limits the liability of interactive computer services for content originating with a third party user of the service,” wrote Bryan Greene, HUD’s deputy assistant secretary for enforcement and programs. “However, HUD has concluded that the (Communications Decency Act) does not make Web sites immune from liability under the Fair Housing Act or from liability under state and local laws that HUD has certified as substantially equivalent to the Fair Housing Act.”

This is an interesting battle, and I’m sure that we will see many more lawsuits of this kind in the coming months and years. Another official statement by HUD encouraged similar investigations into alleged acts of violations on websites with 3rd party information similar to craigslist, and instructed it’s regional directors, to pay close attention to such alleged violations.