Wishing all FOREM readers a very happy holiday season.

2008 was one of the busiest years on this blog. Traffic keeps growing month by month and RSS readership recently cracked the 5K mark. Thank you to all visitors for your feedback, comments and questions.  Heck I’ll even take the occasional insult every once and a while too.

With the year winding down I’m going to take some time off blogging here to attend to friends and family (and, frankly, get away from the computer and do some snowboarding) but I expect to be back at it in the new year. I’m gearing up for Real Estate Connect and REBarCamp in New York City, so I expect there to be lots to talk about.

I hope to see many of you there.

If you aren’t already following me on Twitter (@jburslem) - please hit me up. I’ll be posting lightly there over the coming weeks.

Happy Holidays.

joel

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers. - Voltaire

I’m a big fan of engaging consumers online and answering their questions as a marketing strategy (see Impart your Wisdom with Answers). It’s not a new strategy, not particularly inventive, but it is effective.

Really, it’s win-win all around. For consumers they get what they want (i.e. the answers to their questions). Realtors and brokers get to build relationships with potential clients in an neutral forum with people that may never seek them out on their own web sites. And for publishers it’s a great way to build up engagement/stickiness through cheap (read, free) user-generated content.

Trulia figured this out a while ago and so built Trulia Voices (see Trulia Finds Its Voice).

And today there are a couple of new destinations you can participate in.

New this week is Mahalo Answers - which is very similar in format to Yahoo Answers, referenced in the first link in this post. Mahalo is veteran Internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis’ lastest effort at building human-driven search engine.

As a new destination, the real estate section on Mahalo Answers is woefully empty right now, but it may be a place to keep your eye on.

A more promising alternative is Zillow’s new ‘Zillow Advice’ forum, a Voices-like platform — which they were promptly called out on by the folks at Trulia (see Rich Barton of Zillow Hearts Trulia).

It’s a revamp of their old Q&A section and it’s functional enough - like Sellsius, I like how you can narrow results down to the State or Local level which should address the problem of out of town “experts” jumping in to discussions just to earn brownie points (see Zillow Advice Provides Local Real Estate Answers to Consumers).

The big problem with this local approach is a lack of content for consumers (granted, it’s only day 1) but a search for buying advice in Oregon revealed a big old goose-egg. YMMV. But it’s not much incentive for me, the buyer, to return if the place feels like a ghost town.

More worryingly to the folks at Zillow long term should be the feedback from the agents who were already participating in the old forum. It has not been resoundingly positive so far… the most popular topic on there right now is BRING BACK THE OLD FORMAT. That sentiment needs to change if this Advice thing has any chance of making it — we’ve been down this road before (see Yourstreet is Now Empty).

More Reading:

• 1000Watt Blog: Zillow Advice: Innovation deflation
• A Web 2.0 feud: Zillow and Trulia - TechFlash

yahoo answers, mahalo, mahalo answers, zillow advice, trulia voices, real estate 2.0

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

Late last week I added Google Friend Connect to this blog (if you followed @jburslem on Twitter you would have seen my tweet asking for people to help me test it out). I did so after Google  made the service widely available to all web site owners.

Friend Connect is part of the Open Social movement that lets you, the web site owner, add community and social features to your site with single upload (ok, it’s two uploads but there’s still no programming required).

By doing so, you’ll instantly bring a new social networking aspect to your site. But the best thing is, rather than having people build new identities from scratch, Friend Connect lets people join your site using their pre-existing identities. Effectively countering the growing sense of social networking fatigue.

In short, by enabling Friend Connect on your site, your sites visitors can easily join your community by logging in with their Google account as well as a few others — which, as of today, also includes their Twitter profile.

For example, to join the FOREM community, click on the ‘Join’ button in the right side bar (RSS subscribers, get out of your readers and come to the site to see what I’m talking about). You can use any one of your chosen identities to log in and then begin to connect with the other members of this blog’s community.

For readers, the upside is it means you can see who’s reading a particular site and start to find other people who have similar interests to yours; clicking on their thumbnail reveals their profile and what other sites they are members of.

For publishers and site owners it is a way to build your traffic through word-of mouth recommendations, reader reviews and by adding other functionality to an otherwise static experience.

To add Friend Connect to your Blog

1. Log into your Google Account at http://www.google.com/friendconnect/home/

2. Click on the “Set Up A New Site” button.

3. Upload files - canvas.html and rpc_relay.html to the root directory of your blog. That’s it!

To add any the Gadgets (the community, Wall or Review gadgets) to your blog; just cut and paste the HTML code in your sidebar or use Wordpress’ widgets (if you use Wordpress).

Friend Connect is interesting project but is not totally complete yet. There’s still a few pieces of the puzzle that are missing.

I’d love for it to integrate into Wordpress’ comments system more deeply (but I suspect it is only a matter of time before someone develops the proper plugin). Moreover, as the site owner, I’d love to be able to message all members of my community (respectfully, of course) — if they did this it could turn Friend Connect into a highly effective permission-based marketing platform like Facebook Pages (see Marketing Real Estate on Facebook (and Other Social Networks)).

Let me know if you add it to your blog! Drop your URL in the comments section.

social networking, friend connect, google friend connect, web 2.0

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

Agents can now change the linked web site of their listings on Trulia to their own web site.

A common request from agents on Trulia.com is to change the linked web site for their listings, so the listing points to their own web sites. When we receive multiple listing submissions for a property, we aggregate the listings together, and display the highest priority source. Usually, this is a franchise or broker submission.

With a Trulia Pro subscription, you can change the web site linked to your Trulia.com listings. When some one clicks for more information about the property, you can redirect them to your own web site, and get more traffic to your site, as well as your other listings.

[Emphasis added]

I think this is a sign that The Notorious R.O.B. might be on to something.

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

In an announcement on the Redfin Corporate Blog, the Seattle-based venture has abandoned Microsoft’s Virtual Earth maps in favor of Google’s offering. The reason? According to Redfin:

In the end, it was speed, speed, speed that convinced us to switch. In our worst case scenario of 500 pushpins on the map in IE6, GMaps is 385% faster.

A quick survey of Hitwise’s top real estate sites reveals VE is still preferred by most of the other destinations however - snagging 4 of the top 10 results.

1. Realtor.com (Virtual Earth)
2. Yahoo! Real Estate (Yahoo Maps)
3. Zillow.com (Virtual Earth)
4. ZipRealty (Virtual Earth)
5. Rent.com (Mapquest)
6. RE/MAX (Google Maps - Beta site also)
7. Homegain (Google Maps - through partnership with Homescape.com)
8. ServiceMagic (n/a)
9. HUD (n/a)
10. RealtyTrac (Virtual Earth)
11. Trulia.com (Google Maps)

What’s less clear is the preferred choice for brokerage web sites.

Does VE have a lock on residential real estate sites or is Google making in roads here? Any insight from RE web site developers would be appreciated… What’s the preferred mapping solution?

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

Yahoo Real Estate, the nation’s #2 real estate search portal, launched a redesign today.

The site, which has adopted a much more muted color palette (lots of earth tones), offers up a new dynamic search results page and much larger photos in its listing pages (see Inman News story). It’s a decent catchup effort but still needs to go a bit further to keep pace with some of the technology leaders.

While the new Y!RE experience is intuitive, I found as I dug deeper into the results, it began to feel like there was often one too many clicks to get to where I wanted to go. This was a little frustrating frankly.

More importantly however, the individual listing pages still felt somewhat spartan and vaguely underwhelming, especially compared to some of the newer search offerings like those on MRIS’ HomesDatabase (see MRIS Takes on the Search Sites).

All that said however, Steve Schultz, Senior Director for Yahoo! Real Estate writes on the Yahoo! blog that this is just the beginning; more is coming, including “a greater emphasis on property photos and meaty new personalization and sharing services.”

In conjunction with the new public face to Yahoo! Real Estate, the company has also introduced a range of new features for Real Estate professionals. Brokers, if you’re already syndicating your listings to the portal, you can now log into Yahoo! and manage them all online.

Agents interested in tapping Yahoo!’s reach can purchase a classifieds listing on the site for $49.95 and are also encouraged by the company to give Yahoo! Sponsored Search a whirl to build traffic to their websites.

Despite a tough market and months of turmoil at the company, Yahoo! has made some impressive strides over the last couple of years in this space, and it looks like they are still committed to seeing their presence dial up. I’m looking forward to seeing more from them in the future.

Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo!, real estate search, real estate 2.0, real estate

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

Word today from the Official Google Mobile Blog, Adwords advertisers can now target their ads to searchers using iPhones, G1 or other mobile devices.

Now, advertisers will be able to display ads exclusively on these mobile devices, create campaigns for them, and get separate performance reporting. If you prefer not to show your desktop ads on these phones, you can opt out and show ads only on desktop and laptop computers.

The upside here is that real estate advertisers who are aggressive targeting city-level or neighborhood level searches can create unique campaigns with mobile-ready landing pages as well as mobile-specific calls to action (e.g. “Call 1-800-XXX-XXXX for help with your home search).

This video posted by the Adwords team goes into more detail about how you can set up one of these campaigns.

google adwords, mobile adwords, real estate marketing

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

I’m a pretty heavy iPhone user, the thing is pretty much attached to my hand at all times… but one thing I didn’t expect was how much I’ve come to depend on it while on the road; to get directions, to find a particular store or get restaurant reviews. It’s a fantastically powerful device to have in the car, but one that’s incredibly dangerous too.

The iPhone’s touchscreen means that it’s very hard to type without looking at the screen, so it usually means I have to madly scramble while stopped at a red light to find what I’m looking for.

vLingo (iTunes store) solves this problem. Now you can speak to your phone and it understands you.

It’s voice recognition for your iPhone, much like the recent voice search feature added by Google, but vlingo takes this one step further; not only allowing you to perform Google searches but local searches (on a map) and even voice dialling your contacts all in one.

As a bonus, you can even update your Twitter or Facebook status by voice as well. vlingo instantly transcribes your spoken words to text and sends them out.

It’s pretty amazing. And lightning fast. Give it a try.

vlingo, iphone

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

Century 21 released the results of a recent market research study today (see Inman News) that shows that they are “the best-known name in the business”.

Full results below:

“Please tell me which real estate agencies you have ever seen or heard of?”

1. CENTURY 21: 97%
2. RE/MAX: 93%
3. Coldwell Banker: 89%
4. Prudential: 75%
5. ERA: 51%
6. GMAC: 38%
7. Keller Williams: 33%
8. Weichert : 18%
9. Realty Executives: 14%

The results came from the 2008 Ad Tracking Study, conducted between March and August, 2008 by Millward Brown, a market research organization. The survey was based on 875 online interviews.

Certainly, C21 has been one of the more aggressive marketers despite a down market. Their ‘Path Home’ ad has been all over the airwaves this year, so it’s not surprising to see them at the top of this list.

century 21, real estate marketing

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.

The situation for the local real estate section looks grim. AdAge is reporting newspaper ad revenue fell nearly $2 billion in Q3 of 2008.

Even online ad sales are looking miserable.

Newspapers’ online ad sales, where everyone is hoping some part of the future business model resides, accelerated their decline with a 3% drop. Online ad sales slipped 2.4% in the second quarter.

No question that once we’re through this recession (now official) the advertising marketplace will be radically different. And the shakeout won’t be pretty. I don’t believe a business model solely reliant on advertising can survive (see Storms Ahead for Real Estate Sites).

So it’s more pressing than ever for the big publishers and online media sites to start thinking about how they can help the industry.

Over a year ago I wrote about three things newspapers could do to help their bottom lines and also help real estate professionals make the transition online (see 3 Ps - The Future for Real Estate Newspaper Advertising)- it’s more urgent than ever to start thinking about some of them.

Reprinted below:

Providing the Platform

Leverage existing publishing infrastructure to provide agents/brokers with a web presence, but free the database from the design so it is totally customizable (Ubertor) and retain a unique top level URL and easily create single property web sites (RealBird). Agents have complete control of their presentation of these sites but traffic can easily be fed both directions. Make the data exportable so if the agent wants/needs to leave they can.

With control of the source of the listing data, it can then be pulled back to enhance the mothership’s search results. There is an opportunity to up-sell featured listings (Trulia) or even premium placement for the agent’s sites on search results (Zillow). Don’t get greedy either - help agents get these listings elsewhere on the ‘Net too (Point2NLS, vFlyer).

Give the agents a blogging platform (Move.com, ActiveRain) and allow the content to be rolled up into a hyperlocal information source (Outside.In, Localism, YourStreet). Bonus - you can use this approach to find talented writers that can build out into group blogs (RainCityGuide, BloodhoundBlog), e.g. the PI’s Seattle Real Estate Professionals.

Packaging the Right Tools

Give agents the tools they want to get video tours of their properties and connect the agents with the producers (RealEstateShows, WellcomeMat) but don’t confine the distribution to your site - following the listing model, help the agents syndicate those videos out across the web (TubeMogul).

Promoting the Brand

The package should include various levels of self-service advertising network (with CPM, CPC advertising options) - with options to centralize ad buys on other sites as well. The package could also include placement inside an enhanced local service provider directory (MerchantCircle) in the real estate section. And it should give the Realtor the tools they need to manage their online reputations on other local directory destinations (CitySearch, Yelp, etc.) as well.

With this approach, brokers and agents ultimately would benefit from the one-stop-shop for all their marketing needs as well as playing off the paper’s still resilient brand with local real estate consumers.

If they can see this opportunity, the papers are the only ones that (for now) have the local market penetration to pull something like this off. And at each of the step, there are clear and obvious ways that the newspapers could monetize this - far beyond selling simple classifieds ads.

advertising, real estate marketing, real estate 2.0, online media

Flickr photo by eob.

Ad: Are you frustrated by a website that does not work? BREAK FREE! Trade in your old website and receive an amazing discount on the premier agent system! Make the change today and save!.