The ActiveRain Hit-Router
Feature Your Listings, Get More Traffic and Get Paid to Participate.
On Tuesday October 28th, ActiveRain we launched a new service called ‘Hit Router’. As the name implies, it's ActiveRain's initial move into the Property Listing aspect of online real estate search, albeit with a twist. Instead of trying to disproportionately aggregate listings directly into the network, we are instead going to route visitor traffic to our member's existing IDX sites in a Pay and Get Paid Click Campaign.
*Warning* I write long posts and this one is no exception :-) My style is to address as much and be as thorough as possible. To break up the reading, as a team we are going to release information regarding Hit Router in multiple stages and formats, beginning with this post. Brad Andersohn posted 'how to' tutorials as well as screen shots of the new service and Bob Stewart has a 'white board video' explanation of the new release.
Before I get into the nuances of Hit Router, allow me to first offer some basic explanations as to how most consumers find ActiveRain, and what they typically do upon arrival…
Prologue
Google and the other search engines love fresh relevant content, granting a high degree of authority to sites that produce such and ranking them accordingly on given search results pages.
Google also grants authority to websites that have other like websites linking to them. The more linkbacks a website receives, the higher the authority of that website through Google's goggles.
These last two paragraphs very generally encapsulate what is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or ‘Google Juice’. The better a website's SEO for a given term, phrase, topic, question etc. the higher Google will rank that site when someone (a consumer) types in a relevant search query, thus increasing the likelihood a given site (or page within a site) will appear on the Holy Grail of search results: The First Page.
ActiveRain’s community members produce a TON of fresh relevant real estate related content. AR also has an incredible amount of other relative sites linking back to a multitude of pages within the community. As a result, Google can’t help but consider ActiveRain and the content its community members generate as an authority for a myriad of search topics when it comes to real estate. Proof of this resides in the fact that 80% of ActiveRain's 2M+ unique visitors a month come from Google and other search engines.
Google is very smart, however, it’s not perfect and cannot read someones mind. Google knows when people are searching for a specific type of real estate information that ActiveRain is a highly authoritative resource for that information. What Google doesn’t know is that the next logical step in a consumer’s journey, after they find information on ActiveRain, is a Search for property Listings.
Although many AR members have been extremely successful with generating business from AR, we believe the success found to date is just the tip of the iceberg, so the question we posed to ourselves was:
‘How does AR further leverage its valuable Google Juice to turn prospective traffic into MORE business for our members?’
The answer became this little but powerful property search tool called 'Hit-Router'.
What is Listing-Router and How Exactly Does It Work?
For a visitor, it’s a new header that will permanently reside at the top of every page within the ActiveRain network. It will feature a search box preceded with phrase “Find Homes for Sale in: _________”. Once a user completes the search box and hits enter, “Hit Router” will send the user directly to an ActiveRain members existing IDX (or other property listing) site.
Hit Router Property Search Bar
The idea here is that the prospective homebuyer now has a clear option to continue along in their home buying journey.
For an AR member, Hit Router is effectively a Pay Per Click account campaign that allows AR members to buy traffic from other member’s sites and pages, with one major additional member benefit that I will share with you right after the example below.
For example:
Jane is a AR member who works in Bellevue WA and likes to write about equestrian property. Bill is a horse breeder near Lawrence, KS and stumbled upon a blog post by Jane after doing a search on Google about equestrian property. Bill found the exact answer he was looking for in Jane’s post and is now more excited than ever to start his search for a new home. Since Jane is not licensed to sell real estate in Kansas, Bill would normally at this point leave ActiveRain in search of real estate listings from a website that served Kansas.
At the same time, Todd (also and AR member) would love for Bill to come to his site and would gladly pay for his delivery or ‘click through’ for the increased potential of converting him into a client.
Using the Hit Router search bar, if Bill, on Jane’s site searches ‘Lawrence’ via Hit Router, he will be routed to Todd’s IDX site and Todd will pay approximately $2.00 for Bill's visit.
And Now for the Really Cool Part!
Hit Router will credit Jane’s account a percentage of the $2.00 click to route the visitor to Bill’s site! Jane may use these credits to purchase traffic of her own from other member’s pages in the same dynamic fashion.
This is worth repeating:
Any time a visitor uses an AR members Hit Router search interface to locate listings outside that agents area of service, that member receives credit to buy clicks from other member’s visitors.
How many credits do you earn?
How much you earn depends on a number of factors including how much someone pays to have traffic delivered to their IDX site. The easiest way to track how much you'll earn is to sign up and opt to run Hit Router on your blog pages, then check your Account Billing page.
In the Account Admin and Billing section you can purchase credit that can be used to buy traffic from other member’s sites and monitor the 'Click Credits' you receive.
Keeping Visitors in Your Market for Yourself!
No ActiveRain member wants to send visitors to their own blog, searching in their own market away to someone else. To insure this doesn't happen, there are two ways that a member can capture visitors in your own market and insure they get delivered to you FOR FREE.
1) Pre-select as many cities as you woud like to direct to your own IDX site.
In the My Markets section of the Hit Router admin panel, you may add as many city markets as you wish. When someone searches for any of these cities while on your blog, your blog posts or your profile, they are routed directly to your IDX site's page for that city. Again, this insures the traffic interested in your market is routed to your IDX listing pages.
2) Opt out of the program completely.
Simply unclick the checkbox you see below.
If you choose to opt out of the program, the toolbar will default to a hyper-linked text message of your choice.
While opting out is certainly your choice, doing so prohibits you from accruing credits from traffic that would otherwise leave your site and pages anyway, so why not get paid for it?
As always, your feedback is vital and greatly appreciated.
Here are links to tutorials and the 'whiteboard video explanation'
Saving your own traffic for free
Whiteboard Video Explanation of Hit Router
Exciting stuff!!!
Make sure to check out my 'whiteboard explanation' of this feature if you like to watch an explanation. We hope the combo of reading and watching will give you the clear picture.
I think this will be a very powerful tool. Am anxious to hear more about getting started.
WOW! This is awesome. I've been sitting on pins and needles since e-mailing Bob this morning and finding out you were debuting something today.
This is big!
Do you have a readers digest kind of version for the attention spannally challanged?
This sounds exciting! You are right it is a long post and I am going to make sure I bookmark it so I can read it through when I have no distractions. Good stuff!
Very good stuff goin' on in Wash.! This looks very promising for us agents. Thank you.
Just when I think you guys couldn't POSSIBLY get any better, you surprise me yet again!!!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!
...And did I mention: WOW!
Teresa,
The reader's digest version is a video.....but still kind of long since this is a lot to 'digest', haha.
Teresa,
Think Ad Sense and Ad Words except for AR and IDX sites...Readers Digest version
thanks Jeff. :)
I guess I am still a tiny bit confused but I did have a pretty big blow to my head yesterday and was bleeding like crazy after showing a house!
Anyways looks Bleepin' cool!
Jeff, You guys are incredible. This is a very powerful tool. Thank you to all who worked hard to provide this great tool.
OMG! I just want to echo Mirela's mantra here, but to be with the program, I'll just add: I am ACTIVE RAINER Mara Hawks, and I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE!!!!!!! :-)
Okay, Jeff... this IS exciting stuff.
what about if you work for a company that doesn't allow our stuff out onto IDX ... (we won't name any names, right?).... what then?
and btw... the whiteboard explanation was helpful.. thanx
Jeff, awesome explanation - I watched Bob's video and then came here to read. I think I get it - EXCITING!
I am going to have to book mark this. You know, the techinically challenged will have to read this again. All I know is I am excited and this sounds big.
Jeff, this sounds like it could do more than adding inside links to our webpages! Great idea to keep it in the AR family!! I've still not been able to find out when this will all start. Can you fill us in on that?
Hi Jeff - this certainly sounds interesting for sure. I think I need to go watch the reader's digest version and then come back and re-read this one again to make sure i get it all. I'll be back!
Ann
Jeff,
It sounds quite intriguing and like an excellent tool to be running on our blogs....I'm looking forward to learning more.
Jo
Lee and Pamela,
It will launch late tonight.
This newest feature, "Listing Router," is just one more step (and a HUGE one at that!) of ActiveRain adding true value to the network for it's members. One of the obvious keys in maximizing your participation in Listing Router will be to ensure that your IDX landing page/process can effectively capture the consumers who will be directed there.
Excellent job, Jeff!
"... and Todd will pay approximately $2.00 for Bill's visit." I'm a numbers guy, Are there any financial models available on how much traffic the AR Team expects this to bring to our IDX sites? At $2.00 per visit, that can get expensive pretty quickly, even if this is partially offset with credits.
Heading over to the white board...So I can figure this out...Sounds pretty exciting...
John Novak,
You will be able to set limits on how much traffic you would like to receive. If $50/month is your budget, then you would get 25 visitors to your IDX site. How effective you are at converting those people to prospects will be dependant upon your IDX site's ability to convert traffic to prospects (leads).
Also, it should be noted that their will be price breaks for ActiveRain members based on points. Do not quote me on this but I think it will be a 20% discount for the highest point earners.
Very, very interesting. Question: Can leads be routed off of my blog to other areas without me signing up to receive them from others?
OK, back from watching the reader's digest (barely) version. Think I understand it better now, but have one question - how does it work with more than one AR member from any given area paying to get those visitors?
Thanks,
Ann
Sounds very interesting... not sure how we can prevent people from "playing" on the system and purposely charging people for clicks, but I guess we'll see how that ends up working.
Very intrigued to say the least!
You going to the NAR convention?
Hello! Just to clarify...can you explain the cost portion? Is it actually $2.00 per click or is that an example? And then what percentage do you get back as a credit?
Wow. Do you guys ever sleep? I love that you always have something new, just to keep us on our toes. Now, to digest this. I think it sounds like a good plan, I just need to re-read a few times, as I'm just a tad tech challenged...(shock!). Thanks guys, for another job well done:)
OK, this is a lot to digest. But, I'm up for the task. Active Rain is great! Thanks!
Question - what would be considered "highest points" to get a discount?
Are there any stats available for how many are over 25,000, 50,000, 100,000, 200,000, 300,000, 400,000, etc.?
When you sign up to receive traffic to specific towns/cities, what happens if more than one agent signs up for the same city? Will it be first come, first served or will traffic be parsed to more than agent on a rotating basis?
Also, won't we be paying for leads w/o knowing if they're serious or just tire kickers? Just askin'...
I'm having a hard time understanding the exact cost. I like the free part of it, but I still don't understand how it all works. Help!
Ann,
If three people are buying clicks in Seattle, click one will go to the first person that set up the campaign, click two will go the second person, click three will go to the third person and click four will go back to the first person......and it will keep going like that until one of those three hits their cap (which they set) and then it would route between the remaining two people.
Hey all! There are many great questions here and we really appreciate the feedback. I will be following up shortly...just didnt want anyone to think I was ignoring them :)
Great idea for more traffic to our listings and to get paid for it. Thanks for the information Jeff.
"Is it actually $2.00 per click or is that an example? And then what percentage do you get back as a credit?"
The cost will be $1.99 per click in the beginning and we may adjust that price over time depending on supply and demand. We will be offering discounts for members based on points.
The % that will be credited back is being kept confidential to start until we can determine more specifics on the economics of how this will work.
Very very cool. I'm so interested to see this in action, and interested to see how it works. I've shied away from pay per click, because I haven't heard of many agents who think it has worked for them. I'm not sure if I completely grasp the concept, but what I am getting from this post is that it is pay per click, with the added twist that if your blog gets enough traffic to send to other's blogs, you might end up not having to pay for the traffic that comes to your site from another blog...Is that close?
I can't wait. This is incredible. Active rain is all I will need. Yeah!-Dinah Griffey
It's the "BIG" announcement everyone's been waiting for, now for the countdown till final launch. Tutorial posts coming next... :-)
Sounds great I will look more into this.
Another question: Will the search bar be present on the non-blog pages of AR? For instance, the homepage, general info pages, group pages, etc.? And if so, will the same rules apply as far as click prices? Thanks for your quick responses.
You're giving us more incentive to blog, baby blog!
Oh my, I am so confused. It costs money, it doesn't cost money, one person per area or a bunch per area, another "land rush" type free for all or not, and now more tutorials coming my way.....my head hurts! I'll read as much as I can over the next few days to try and figure this out.....
Your blog post was very educational, and like everyone else there are questions left to be answered. The bottom line would be this would generate traffic not only to your AR listing, AR blog and yourself in general, the key would be...be the first to sign up correct? The first to sign up when you launch the program would be the one to generate the most traffic, is that correct?
Can't wait and very curious.
Cheron Lange
Very interesting. Cant wait to see it in action
This is a great idea! It gets better all the time!
WOW Looks interesting - off to read more about how everything works on Bob's post too.
Looks like Bob has answered most of the questions here and we (Brad) are working on a series of tutorials to answer the most common questions, they'll be released in the coming days. There is a good amount of info to digest here but once you see Listing Router in action, everything will clear up pretty quickly.
This strategy of explaining a product then releasing it has its upside and downside...Upside is we can address questions and concerns pro-actively, downside is you can't jump in and get your hands dirty rigt off the bat...In the end, we decided to feed it out there in easier to digest pieces rather than the whole enchilada at once :)
@ Pat and Wayne. There are always going to be tire kickers...We'd love to create a product that had a 100% click to conversion ratio but I don't think that's possible :) You will be able to measure your Return on Investment (ROI) within a very short time...as in you paid $x to convert a client that paid you $x using Listing Router. We expect this ratio to be far better than most advertising campaigns ROI as the traffic from AR to an IDX site will be far better targeted than advertising in say the newspaper or other periodical.
As far as 'What % do I get back?' Thats an alogrithim that considers numerous factors, including # of sponsors for a given city, $ amount paid for clicks, size of city and other traffic metrics. Its kind of a secret sauce, similar to what Google uses when determining how much they pay out for their Ad Sense/Ad Words products. The best way to determine this % is to watch what pages you are getting paid on and where that traffic went upon searching.
If you don't have an IDX site, you may point your sites traffic to the Listing site of your choice...it just must be a (preferably your) Listing site.
In the end, Lisitng Router was designed to 'softly' integrate Listings into the AR network, allow memebrs maximize and monetize their traffic, purchase highly targeted traffic to convert into clients as well as incentiveize you to blog. The more you blog, the more traffic you'll receive and the greater the discount to buy traffic to your Listing sites. We're leveraging a few potent platforms here for the greater benefit of AR members.
Awesome post Jeff, thanks, I will definitely look into this:)
With the 'My Market" aspect of things: Do you need to be signed up for a pay version in order to keep the traffic/clicks that are already in your own blog and start a property search?
So basically if we don't have our own IDX or similar site, we are out of luck...... Just asking. We have one, but there are changes that need to be made to it.
Congratulations to all on the new toy. Look marvelous baby but is it test drivable. I bookmarked and will come back to see.
Hmm, don't quite know how I feel about this yet. Guess I will treat it like another PPC service, which we don't use. I will have to remember to set up my areas as you suggest.
Just watched Bob's "whiteboard explanation" and read your post. I think I am getting the idea. Can't wait to see it in action.
@DJ: Thx :)
@ Terri: I *think* the answer to your question is yes. To be sure, ill state: You must set up your account and configure it the way you wish. You don't have to put money in it, but you have to set it up to start receiveing credits and configure your markets to direct any traffic to your listing site(s).
@Marlene: Yes, you do need an IDX or similar listing site. Listing Router's purpose is to only send traffic to an agents (yours or another outside of your area of practice) listing site. If you're not happy with your listing site/IDX solution, email me and I'd be happy to recco a few very good ones :)
@Joyce: It will be test drivable tomorrow afternoon.
@Matt: Be sure and set up your areas...and feel free to to use the credits you accumulate.
Send me that Tucson traffic!!!! Yippee!!
I personally like having the IDX links for you own site on the left side. That alone will bring many more clicks to my website. I will be more than happy to pay a little to get solid traffic to my website. Considering we pay hundreds for homes & land ads that bring no leads or newspaper ads that bring no leads, $2.00 will be a bargain.
Jeff - thanks for the info. I am going to re-read this (it is bookmarked) so I make sure I understand how to set up the account. Thanks!
Jeff,
I'm confused. Who do you work for? Are you an employee of Active Rain? A consultant? Are you the developer of this?
Chris,
Jeff is our newest team member. Yes, an employee of ActiveRain. Jorgen is the developer that built this feature and everyone at AR had input on how the product would work, so we all consult :-)
Jeff and Bob,
I pray this doesn`t become a Cyberhomes type of site! You`ll be the next Trulia if that`s what you`re aiming for!
Good Luck...
Realtors - if you don't have IDX on your site, you're missing the bus completely. This should be a good incentive to get IDX now.
Looking forward to the new upgrade.
Tks. I thought he was with RateSpeed.
Damn It Man...
I was hoping you did a vid too. Oh well. I can't have it all :)
Y out :)
TLW...ROAR!
X...
I find the following most agreeable:
"20% discount for members over 300K points"
Just makes all the work worth while :)
Y...Over :)
TLW...ROAR!
Hey Y...Ill be in the next video...Bob is a primadonna and wanted the camera all to himself. Kelan had to fight to make his appearence ;)
You have earned your discount :)
This is a great, so excited. Are you going to launch at my bedtime, 10:00?
Jeff. I'll look forward to the follow up and -"I'm In"- this will be a great addition...free would be better.. but it sounds good! Steve
Very cool!!!!! You guys are awesome as usual!
Jeff.. This sounds like exciting stuff. Just for me, and maybe some others, this is over my head at the moment of how to do this. I've read it 3 times, and still not sure how to do it. I'm more of a visual person I guess. I look forward to the continued blogs about this.
Are there any mechanisms to identify false clicks and quick bounce backs?
@Valerie: I began by addressing the what and why's...the how's are coming :) By releasing and explaining this new service in pieces it should be easier to understand and digest...as opposed to just dropping this new-fangled header on AR and letting everyone try and figure out what it is and how to use it :)
@Missy: Yes, we are waiting till you go to bed ;)
Ok Jeff ... I'm going to keep looking to AR for more updates on this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pippa
This sounds like a great idea.
@Evan: As far as 'false clicks', if you mean click fraud, we have elements built into Listing Router to monitor and prevent such. Anyone caught abusing the system will be expelled from the network and dealt with a heavy hand...
As far as 'quick bounce backs', we cannot control if a user enters a city, goes to that Listing Site and leaves within a relatively short time frame.
While the vast majority of the visitors who use Listing Router will genuinely be looking for the good information on the other side, there will always be that very small % who either try to game the system or otherwise have malicious intent. We'll steadfastly deal with any perpetrators and continue to build appropriate measures to insure these incidences are kept to a minimum.
Jeff - I've never used pay per click as I want niche leads not general leads, but since it's an Active Rain creation, it's worth trying out.
I asked Bob but maybe you can address my question. A few weeks ago we took our registration page off our IDX site so anyone can use it with our telling me who they are. Do I have to put it back on to get the person I just paid $2.00 for to register or will you have a registration page before they can go to my IDX site?
OMG - it will get real interesting at the local board meetings. I am new to this AR site and have found that it is a goldmine for agents seeking support and getting ideas from each other. I am not clear yet as to what the ListingRouter will do (drive traffice to each of us based on what our listing text says? ) I dunno - I think I'll go read the White board explanation or the Reader Digest Version as my head is spinning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:)
Jeff, Thanks can't wait to see this up and running. Hummmmm sounds very interesting.
Terry- You don't have to put the registration page back and we don't have a registration page for a visitor to fill out. The only item a visitor has to enter in the Listing Router toolbar search box is the name of the city where they would like to search for property...The visitor is then routed to whatever Listing page url (website address) you choose when you set up your personal campaigns. Let me know if thats a clear and acceptable answer :)
I'm glad you're finding AR helpful Deanna...Let me know if I can explain Listing Router further for you, and be sure to check back for the launch, tutorials and follow up posts.
Looks like a great tool. Can't wiat to get on board once this going.
Glenn
This sounds amazing! I am really looking forward to getting on board for this!!!
I don't understand all the techie stuff, but I do get the gist of it and I like it!
I'm already paying gazillions on realtor.com and google ad words; this sounds way better!
Where and when can I sign up?
This sounds FANTABULOUS! I am really excited to learn more. Thanks for the update!
I love the idea.. I guess that I have to pay the $300 for my MLS IDX, so that I can take advantage of this.....I'll look into it...
Jeff,
I was just looking at my website stats and I have tripled my traffic in the past few weeks adding links, working on SEO, etc. However, I don't seem to be converting this increased traffic. I'm concerned that I will be getting a lot of click throughs but little conversion. I'm not sure where my site is lacking. Most of the traffic to my website is coming from AR and the MLS link on my AR blog. I need assistance in figuring out how to convert more of these clicks. Any suggestions?
I think it is going to take a little while for me to wrap my head around this.
WoW...this looks great.. I marked this post to come back and study the system
Okay...this is totally cool! I am gonna watch Bob's little video...and read through yours again. I'll be good to go after that! GBU!
Like the 93 comments before this one. Wow, what a great opportunity for all of us.
Way cool! Just wondering what your thoughts are as ALL MLS sources are merging. CA is tentatively set for a Statewide MLS within the year & a National MLS is not so far off in the distant future as well. We (USA) are behind the times as Canada is already there with a Nationwide MLS, eh? The IDX on the Active Rain site will be a win-win for agents and buyers/sellers for the interim as I see it. Best wishes for a successful and profitable launch.
Jill Stanton-Bricker
South Lake Tahoe, California
RE/MAX Realty Today
www.jillsellstahoe.com
OK I will play ...not sure if I will be any good but I will try .. and see what happens next
This sounds like a great idea, cheaper than homegain and other lead gen sites
OMG! I am excited about expanding AR. I have been a member for only a few months and have already received a lead. This will a great way to get more leads.
sounds like a good business builder for all of us
.
I'm curious will only credits and charges be involved or will points also play a part (besides the discounts)? I will definitely try it. Julie
I would be interested in something like this,what would be the downfall or negative part if any?
Be honest.
Jeff- Thank you for the very detailed explanation. You made is easy to understand for those of us who need to read things.
Bob- I think your video is great for the visual learners so you covered the bases.
You were saying that members may be able to use their credits to buy non cash items. I would suggest maybe even credits off of Localism sponsorship fees and Active rain/mixpo video fees.
Looking at the screen shots, I don't see a place for visitors to enter a state name in their search. For example, if someone simply enters "Henderson", which city of Henderson will they be routed to -- NV, NC, KY, TX, NE or MN?
this will be exciting to see & be part of...Active Rain is Great! thanks.
Love it. Looking for next step.... it's Tuesday! XXOO
Very smart ! Great job AR.
-- Zoltan
RealBird.com
Jeff- this sounds like an amazing feature! Thank you for the explanation.
I think this is an exciting tool. As a loan officer, is it beneficial for me to use the Listing Router for someone who finds my blog and wants to be directed to listings?
Ditto on the "city and state" question. There are four towns named Holly Springs in NC alone, and 10 towns named Holly Springs across 4 surrounding states. This is one of the few problems I can see up front.
Great information - I can see how I can apply this to my own business!
Thanks again!
Lots of questions of course... When will it start? How do we know that if someone "clicks", it will pay up for us in the end, or just a chance we take? I do not pay per click anywhere...But, I love AR... SO, maybe I will here. Or, at least try. I have search engine on my website but, not IDX..Would I need to subscribe to local IDX in oder to participate? Where does the "click" send someone to, my website or where?
Belinda Sanchez, Realtor
Summerville,SC
Very good idea. Definately caught my eye. I will definately try it. Sounds like something that could really work. Will look for more great stuff.
This sounds like a great idea. I can't wait to get more details.
So...this will be available on Tuesday to everyone - very exciting stuff - thanks so much for your continued efforts to improve AR and us!!
Very cool. Just one question do you guy's ever sleep?
Guessing there are some bugs to work out. How do you change your campaign URL - don't see where to do that.
I wish I had something original to say, but what is better than "AWESOME" - very intrigued to learn more!! Great information, and thank you for taking the time to share it.
Sandy
I'm going to have to digest this-----glad you're posting it in little bits and pieces. Sounds like a great idea, though.
Thanks for posting the details and explaining them. It was very helpful.
Jeff,
Thanks for the post and the detailed explanation of the listing router process and benefits. Kudos!
Jeff,
Forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere. If we direct visitors to our own IDX site by Pre-selecting cities to direct them to from our own site, do we get charged?
Jeff & Bob, could you sneak out a savings for us poor ARers just over 20K points??? Time to rock and roll! Thanks guys for keeping us updated. Just was wondering if this all came out of the BARcamp last week??
Nice ! Good breakdown of how it works. I look fwd to seeing how it all plays out.
Is is possible that somebody will re-blog my content on their active rain site? If so, how would the system handle it?
jeff... for those of us "pay-per-click virgins"... do you have any thoughts on a 30-day-trial, so we can see how this thing works, and what it might potentially gain/cost?
Also, i haven't seen my original question answered (unless I missed it in the myriad of posts)... what if your broker doesn't allow IDX? What would be needed to "capture" the leads... I thought that's what AR was doing?
Also, is there any 'exclusivity'? If I choose Evanston, IL... can others choose it too?
OK, I think I understand this. First it pays to blog more. Good content of course. Right? Then, IDX, is that my website? Where these leads end up is confusing to me. Like if they go to my website and log it, I capture them. Otherwise I'm just paying $2. for them to visit?
Sounds interesting....since most of my buyers are from the Philadelphia area, can I pick that area for my city at the shore?
This looks interesting. I'm signing up.
Good Stuff:) Thank you for looking ahead and helping us work together!!!!
Thank you so much, please know we appreciate everything about ActiveRain!
The process to choose your own cities to route your inquiries (type in city name, click city name, enter url etc) is very time consuming for people that cover larger market areas. I would suggest something to simplify that part...
Awesome! You guys are terrific. Thanks.
ar does it again. this is a great tool! what else do you guys have in store for us?
Jeff, How can this help a mortgage broker? I don't have listings but would like to be involved.
I do agree with Alan May's comment, give us a 30 day FREE trial. Two bucks a head and how many of those are just lookie looes? No idea. $50 a month is not much (if you have it) but then again, all of us newbies with less than 25,000 points gets NO DISCOUNT????? I guess if you have been a rainer and earned (tons of time blogging) you deserve your discount, congrats to you all. So, rich (in points) gets richer..... Not wanting to be negative but newbies deserves a break as well.
This sounds great. I've got a lot of work to do. I signed up early on with AR but have been mostly a user not a contributor. Have picked up same great info though. Guess I need to start blogging and make sure my website and IDX are linked with AR correctly.
Lisa Bullerman, Lawrence Ks, Realty Executives
I am excited & confused but very eager to see it all work. Thanks!
Ok, i've read pieces of this and the others and it's a bit too much to take in right now (or for next month) but glad to see AR improving still.
Jeff quickie question-suggestion: The link box works great now. However could it be set up so that when a consumer is taken to the IDX site that the AR blog site they were on is still open? Right now they are taken off the AR site and into the IDX site. I'd like them to be able to have both windows open if possible. Could this be implemented?
First I find a GREAT long tail search term,"Central Florida real estate"....and I am highly ranked for that in my blog AND in my AR profile.... THEN a bunch of new AR members see what I have done and jump on the bandwagon...resulting at one time over 900,000 webpages for that search term.... that was pretty neat, being copied because of that.... BUT now something different has happened....
My real estate website is now #1 for the search term "Orlando Florida MLS"...and #4 for the term "Orlando MLS" for a combined 950,000 webpages for those terms..... I guess I am going to have to compete with AR now for search engine placement with my website....... I never anticipated that.......
I am looking for ways to market for next to nothing.... I am going to be looking deeper into the AR IDX system to see if I can do that. Competing with AR for search engine placment is something I NEVER thought would ever happen...... please tell me it is not so....
If someone could let me know I am NOT going to have to be competing for search engine placement with a company that suddenly makes over $400,000 per year from localism, plus the money from ads and now the IDX system, how will I be able to compete with that?
Or am I getting hasty and scared for nothing?
0 0
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Sounds great, I'll be anxious to see how it works. My next task is to get our local Board of Realtors to get on board with IDX....
@Fred Miller...
I am a Coldwell Banker agent, and currently have LEADrouter... Lead Router is an entirely different animal than LISTINGrouter, which is what Active Rain is now offering.
Sounds great! Looks like I'll need to do some studying...............
Century 21 Classic Gold Realty, Carver MA larry@larrycosta.com
Looks like youve really enn making the donuts! This seems very interesting. Cant wait to see it in action
Sounds like a great idea and I can't wait to impliment it and see how great it's going to work... on to the video.
Will the header for the listing search also show up on our outside blogs? Or is this only within AR?
I noticed that when searching for a city in my area the search box or "lead router" at the top of the page on Active Rain goes to Justlisted.com for you to fill out what you are looking for and they get the leads. How does this help an ActiveRain member like myself????????????????
Hey Jeff: I can not wait to get started. I will stay tuned for additional information
Thanks
DOn
Hey Jeff: I can not wait to get started. I will stay tuned for additional information
Thanks
DOn
this sounds both very exciting and rather confusing..I will be looking into this more as as newer blogger I am on the learning curve here.
A wonderful idea, lets get started.
A wonderful idea, lets get started.
Hi Jeff, This is a very interesting concept and one that may prove to be very fruitful in the longer run. Has ActiveRain ever kept track of where the entries are coming in from for Localism. For instance, what are the number of monthly consumer entries ( not members) coming from the San Diego market?
Hey Jeff...Wow, not sure how many searches will Come my way in Canada, but it looks good!
Put Me Down!
A few people mentioned a free trial. The beauty is that if you are writing great content, the free trial is built in. It will take a little bit but soon your content will be sending consumers outside your market to other agent's willing to pay for that traffic......and what do you get back? Credit....and with that credit you can purchase traffic in your own market from someone else. So your content can get you a free trial and we will have 1000's of members with credit's they will be able to use to drive traffic to their own sites.
Brandon,
Justlisted.com is buying all excess inventory right now. If AR members come in and decide to buy traffic in their market, they will get put in the rotation to get traffic. If you lock up your own markets, you assure that people landing on your blog, posts, and profile go to where ever you want to direct them.
Here is how them buying clicks helps AR members.......we can use the money they pay us to credit you back. There is nothing sneaky going on here my friend, so please take it easy with the ten question marks, my english teacher is rolling over in his grave, haha!
WOW! This is so exciting! I can't wait to get started!
sounds interesting... now do I jump in or wait and see wha thappens???
This sounds like a great benefit for all AR members and visitors alike. It's nice to see new tools being created and used rather than more variations of the same old tactics. I'm very excited to learn more and start using it.
@ Jill Stanton-Bricker: I’m sure everyone is looking forward to state and Nationwide IDX solutions…they will streamline the search for listings tremendously. Its quite a task to ‘normalize’ all that data from the hundreds of MLS’s across the country.
You should be able to route traffic to your individual pages for individual cities within your IDX under the Listing Router admin panel.
@Julie Black: Points will play a part in the fact that the more points you have the greater the discount you will receive in cost per click:
* 3% discount for members over 25K points
* 5% discount for members over 50K points
* 10% discount for members over 100K points
* 15% discount for members over 200K points
* 20% discount for members over 300K points
@John Novak: The search box is intuitive to the point that when you enter a city name and hit Enter, Listing Router will ask you which city AND state you are looking for. If there are more than 1 city name in the same state we will delineate that out further.
@Belinda Sanchez: When someone searches on your site, you will receive a credit that you’ll see on the Admin page of Listing Router on your Home Page. You don’t need an IDX (specific) site but you must point the traffic to a Listings page. I would suggest getting an IDX site, as they are typically nice clear and manageable listing solutions. Email me if you need a recco for a good one ☺
@Patty Carroll: We take turns sleeping ;)
@ Buyers Broker of Northern Michigan: You will not be charged for sending traffic to your preselected IDX site, that is free to you!
@Lee and Pamela: You need to blog a little more (or refer people into the network etc) incentivize ☺
@ Eileen Musser: We’ll address the re-blog issue very soon…
@Kris Wales-Macomb: It may be possible to have the search results open in a new tab or window...don't quote me on this, I'll ask our programmers.
@Alexander Harb: AR is a search engine magnet. AR doesn’t have an IDX system, rather Listing Router points traffic to an agents existing IDX site. I would post your content here at AR and on your personal site and leverage all the SEO juice you can ☺
@Don Fabrizio-Garcia: Good question! The answer will be yes, soon ☺
For all you loan officers and non-real estate agents, I’ll be making a post describing how you can use Listing Router to your advantage in the very near future.
Brad Andersohn has released a few tutorial posts, be sure to check them out!
Listing Router - How To Setup & Save Your Own Traffic
Listing Router - How To Set Up Your Own Click Campaign
Listing Router - How To Opt Out
Hi Jeff,
Quick question:
Whats keeping realtors from clicking on Calgary, landing on our page (costing us $2) just to balance their account... ?
Won't this encourage Realtors to search others' cities and click, just to top up their own account? (and in turn, cost the Realtors in other cities $2 per click.....)
Carolyn Budreski
Marketing Specialist
BCOMM Marketing Management
Rob Johnstone Real Estate Inc.
Re/Max Real Estate (Mountain View) Ltd
Calgary, Alberta
Office: 403-247-5171
Fax: 403-247-4200
www.CalgaryHomePros.com
Jeff- This is a very exciting tool and potentially a great opportunity for all of us who are active on the site. Thanks for rolling it out.
Best,
Scott
Note to Donna Paul,
Keller Williams has an IDX solution for every market center. It is free! You put it on your own KW provided website. Contact help@kw.com to find out the roll out date for your market center. We've had it in Ann Arbor for a while. You should get yours soon!
anyone else feel overwhelmed or am i just not awake today.
Sounds pretty good. Lets see how it works.
@Rob- This would be considered click fraud, for which we have measures in place to monitor and make sure does not happen. Anyone caught trying to 'game' the system will be expelled from the program and network.
I like what I am hearing so far. Now I am off to read the other posts so I can get set up on this program.
Great idea and I think you could take the concept in a different direction as well...why not do this for buyers...?
Jeff - Will there be an option to utilize this on the AR blogs, but not on the outside blogs? Haven't made up my mind whether or not I would want this on the outside blog. Thanks.
Thanks for the prompt response Jeff -
One more question: is there a minimum amount of time you have to sign up for? (Minimum term) - or is it flexible? If we try it and it doesn't work for us - are we tied in?
Great, exciting stuff. I'm looking forward to trying this out. Will there be a test period prior to "pay per click"?
I guess the overload is causing it not to work right now.
Q. If our IDX site only allows access from our own (1) domain, what can we do? Currently I use a redirect page to get them there from here.... is that going to work?
Q. Buyers thinking of moving to Maui are open to many towns as a possible home. Can I select a county (Maui) instead of a whole lot of towns which add up to Maui?
Thanks
This is very exciting. I just watched the Bob's white board video too. Wow - what a great thing for AR members.
@Rob: No minimum, completely flexible. I would reccomend that you claim your markets and stay 'Opt-In'...this way you dont have to buy clicks outright but you may continue to accrue credits...
@Melissa: Sorry, no test period...You can always accrue credits by staying Opt-In and then use those credit to buy clicks. So, no money out of pocket from you, then you can 'test' it out.
@Georgina Lisitng Router essentially redirects traffic to the IDX page(s) of your choice. Please give the site a second to catch up (its chuggin along), try again and let me know how you fare. Sorry...you cannot select a campaign by county, only by city. You will have to select as many cities within Maui (including Maui) that you would like to route to your Listings site.
Jeff, all of the tutorials have been awesome - I have my cities set and I have a campaign started - but reading all the comments all over is the "test" "clicking" going to be charged today. I have seen people say that they have clicked on other profiles - and oops that would be a charge. I know that they are just interested in how things are working but I don't want to pay for "testing" - does that make sense?
Q. I keep getting this message when trying to Route consumers to my sites for free
No cities matched your search
Is this a standard response because the system is overloaded?
Pay per click can get expensive unless you allow a max amount per day or month.
Still haven't found out what happens when more than 1 agent choose the same city? Who gets the click?
Great explanation, not long winded at all. Easy to follow and set up. So now, let's see how it works....
Thanks for the detailed post.
I'm going to have to check this out...thanks for the update.
Jeff I am getting the same response when I go to choose the city "No matches found"
@Linda Jandura: Bob Stewart answerd this above:
If three people are buying clicks in Seattle, click one will go to the first person that set up the campaign, click two will go the second person, click three will go to the third person and click four will go back to the first person......and it will keep going like that until one of those three hits their cap (which they set) and then it would route between the remaining two people.
@Catherine McKendry: What city are you searching?
I use pay per cick on Google,Yahoo and MSN and this is a different twist.
I will try it.
Richard
I miss a couple of days on AR and big changes happen. Don't blink!
Thanks Jeff....... I am glad you cleared that up !!
=-)
thanks Jeff for the answer, with so many comments, I didn't read them all. Guess I should have!
now, Can I ask one more question?
How will we know how many other agents have spoken for our area? Will there be a limit as to how many can sign up? Suppose an area, such as Raleigh, as 1000 agents. That could be a long time between clicks!
You guys rock, thanks so much!
Jeff I am searching Sewell New Jersey,Deptford New Jersey,Blackwood New Jersey.Williamstown New Jersey and Sicklerville New Jersey
@Linda: There is no limit as to how many can sign up...while your scenario is hypothetically possible its not likely...Thats really all I can say, for today :)
@Catherine: Although this will issue will change shortly, you simply need to input the city name only, not the city and the state.
How do you sign up for the free trial? When I tried, it wanted my credit card....
@Michelle: You still need to register your credit card but it will not be charged.
The free trial is to encourage members to sign up for and create new campaigns without fear that people 'testing' the system will lead to 'dead clicks' (and lost credits) during the initial launch period.
I assume the bugs are being worked out on this still. I tested this new feature out and about 40% of the time got error messages.
I'm going to sign up and get in on the ground floor. I'm sure it will be a GREAT success for all agents who participate!
Can you set a maximum monthly amount that you can be billed?
How do I already have credits for each of my blogs?
I think I like this idea; but will remain sceptical
Incredible. When it rains, it pours
@Matt: Sorry bout those, we're working on that :)
@Cheryl: You sure can!
@Michael: You are already being credited for visitors using the Listing Router search bar on your blogs...Success!
@Ron: I hear ya...Im soaked ;)
Thank you for letting us do a test drive and see if it is really working. Thank you for showing us you trust the website you build.
I think this one of the most fabulous features that could have been added to AR. While I went through a few hiccups trying to initally get everything set up in between error messages, the overall process was easy to understand with all the great tutorals posted between yesterday and today. Thanks AR...you guys rock!!!
Very thorough - thanks for the screen captures. This system really sets AR farther 'apart' and ahead of the online pack!
YIPPEEEEE! Way to go guys. Let's hit another one out of the park.
Sorry, I don't agree with the majority here and I'm sure this comment will not stay on the site long. This seems to be one of the best ways to kill this site since it will only get bigger and bigger until it is morf'd into ActiveTrulia. Everything seems to turn into a pay site these days, no more "free" blogging.
I have to agree with Don, it is amazing how all of the sites seem to be headed in the same direction with charging for leads that are ours anyway. I thought this was an area that connection was between agents to blog and get advise.Well things never stay the same for long.
When I set up the campaign I did not put my web address in correctly....how do I edit my website info?
Jeff,
can you stand one more question? I'm excited about your new program and looking forward to learning more about how it works. I have been a member from before AR's 1st Birthday and I always love to see what's new and how AR is always thinking ahead.
I am an Insurance agent and do not have listings, so it seems that this is a program I cannot use, but I am always telling Realtors and Brokers about AR.
I'm a true believer in "With Change, Comes Opportunity" How can I let Brokers that have not become members yet learn about this opportunity for their Office?
Wow. This is a great new way to attract buyers to your personal site.
Thanks for the info!
I'll be interested to see how this plays out and if it is as successful as it is being touted to potentially be for people here on the site. The post was long and detailed so I'll have to go through it again to get all the details, but we'll try it out and see where it goes. We've been posting listings and pre-listings here already so new traffic is always welcome.
@Don: Would never delete your comment simply because you may not agree with something that goes on in the network. We appreciate any and all feedback, so long as it is phrased constructively. You may Opt-out of the Listing Router program all together and are not required to spend a dime to participate on AR, although you may still receive credits which you may subsequently choose to use to purchase clicks to your own IDX site, if you wish.
Blogging will always be free here on AR.
@Catherine: The way Listing Router is set up, you do not have to pay for leads. By setting up your My Markets section of Listing Router, you may have all traffic that ends up on any of your pages directed your personal IDX site for the cities you service for free. AR's core value proposition shall remain to be a place where agents blog and get advice and consumers look to you for the same. It's a natural progression for a consumer to search out listings once they recieve advice and Listing Router is a way for them to subsequently find those listings, either yours (in your area of practice for free to you) or elseware around the country (for which you will recieve credit for directing them to such).
The only time a member is required to pay for leads is if they would like to have traffic they would likely otherwise not receive be routed to their IDX sites.
Change is rarely comfortable, yet any changes we make are with our memberships best interest in mind. Since we have decided to offer Listing Router for free for the initial 2 weeks of its launch, I encourage you to try the product and then make a decision if you would like to continue. There is really no risk involved.
@Terri: I would refer them to AR and make sure that they indicate when they sign up for a profile that you referred them in, this way you are properly acknowledged and recieve bonus points. As for letting them know about Listing Router, simply point them to my, Bobs and Brads posts. These are a great place to start.
@Diane: You should hit the 'Remove' button and re-enter the city and correct website.
Great explanation.. I am trying to catch up on everything that's been going on!
The minium click charge with AdWords is somewhere around 5 cents. Why not set this up as a bid system? All clicks are not created equally, and long tail clicks should have a much lower CPC. The top of the tail may be worth two dollars, but not the bottom. ..or am I missing something on how the CPC charges work?
I have $12.00 invested so far.
This would be a great place to use a www.BudURL.com in place of your IDX URL to keep track of how many clicks you're getting and where they're coming from
Bud URL is sort of like the TinyURL service on steroids AND it's FREE!
Problem
I just signed up and, stupid me, mixed up a number on my credit card. Now I can not go back in and correct it. Help please
Thank you
Anne
I need a very very simple explaination on IDX feeds. How do I know if I have one? Clueless on this. Thanks
It's too late, and my brain tries to shut me down. I will have to read it carefully in the morning, as I always end up behind (LOL)
Hi Jeff,
Can you tell me where the discount is applied? Also, I set up a small campaign, googled my areas several times and I never showed up. How long does this take to apply?
Seriously now you AR folks... are you kidding me (us)? $2.00 ? per click for pass through traffic to our personal IDX'd website? I hate to RAIN on your AR plans, but there is NO WAY we would consider shelling out that kind of dough for this type service.
I've also semi-slogged through this voluminous post as well as a good bit of the whiteboard explanation (what was THAT all about?) and ... guys, come on. Give it to us short, simple and sweet in a highly compelling, brilliantly organized and well thought out cinemagraphic 20 to 35 PowerPoint or Keynote slide presentation. You're all drinking too much coffee and Twittering and brainstroming and ... I'm 'ivory towered' out by it all........
Dear Overwhelmed and .... underwhelmed:
In certain markets including yours, you would only be paying $.89 per click. Comparing similar pay per click programs available in the real estate industry you will find this one to be very cost effective. Additionally, based on the fact you have over 25,000 points you will also get an additional 5% discount.
As far as the delivery of the content, different people learn and absorb information in different ways. We tried to lay it out in an easy to understand format and if we failed to put the information in a format that was easy for you to understand, I'm very sorry.
I can only assume that your 'Ivory towered' comment some how refers to the fact that we don't know what it's like to be in the trenches or are somehow out of touch with the needs of our members. I will have to respectfully disagree with you on that one.
wow this seems to be a great feature...
I have a question I have been sitting on the sidelines watching to see what most of the AR community thought but today when I went to active pre signing in I searched my local area and an ERA website was on the header when I hit meet on the search bar it pulled up only ERA agents???? Will that rotate or are they paying extra or are they the only ones in my area? I also searched AR and could not find all the agents as being active? Just curious.
Overhwelmed and ... underwhelmed, I've been following this post. As someone who has done pay per click campaigns for 2 years, this is fabulous. I pay 5.00 per click in Ann Arbor, put it in perspective. 42% of all my closings in 2008 are from my campaigns. Just saying....driving traffic to our web-sites works if you understand it and do it right.
Perhaps my problem is one of time ... I am swamped with business and have precious little time to parse a service like this. Didn't meant to sound harsh.
A carefully crafted, precise, meticulously organized -- and simple -- presentation is what I (and I think a lot of other Realtors) need and are looking for.
Something I think AR folks don't get 'on the trench side' is that inbound traffic needs to blogs, or websites, that have lead capture forms. In an effort to incorporate lead capture: enter lead router to IDX's (which have a one dimensional, non USP-based lead capture form approach.)
You can add lead capture forms to your AR blog using Google Docs apps however there are severe limitations. For instance, you cannot program leads to be funneled directly to you database from a Google form, nor receive text notification of lead forms submitted. Additionally, there are customization features not yet available in Google forms to compact layouts. The solution is you can add hyperlinks that bounce to your own websites that contain forms.
The Holy Grail, I believe, is AR finding a way to allow users to imbed lead capture forms in their blogs. No lead router revenue stream from that I don't think, but I'm sure we would all like it. Perhaps AR could offer this as a step up from free blog sites.
Got listings to enter. See you guys later.
Viva la Obama.
This is certainly a lot to digest. It looks like I will have to watch the whiteboard presentation and I hope that will clarify any issues for me. Thanks for this info. It looks like it will be a great feature.
This is all very interesting. I would love to see how it works. I will red on and become a part of this new program.
Debbie
Do consumers actually read this thing?
Looks great but there is not way for a Canadian to sign up. Teh billing system does not accept our Postal Codes
I'm looking forward to seeing the results of LIsting Router.
I signed up ($50) with this at the beginning, and have yet to have any leads come my way from it. From my own investigation, they all appear to go to a VIRTUAL brokerage about 80 miles from this county. I spoke with the "virtual broker" as an interested buyer. She was not able to tell me the last property she ever sold in this county, not could she provide any accurate information for this area when I asked a few questions. When I asked her why I got referred to someone way out of the area who seems unfamiliar with it instead of a local agency (which there are many), she said the smaller, unknown agencies work harder and are really better. whatever... I am completely discouraged and frustrated by this set-ip that does not support local professionals. It feels more scam-ish than legitimate or ethical. And it takes A LOT for me to gripe in the RAIN! In a later communication, I refused to pay her for leads she is willing to sell me. What greed and manipulation this seems to be. This really feels awful.
Hi Jeff,
Is it possible to add the listing router city search text box to my website? Rather than refer people out to realtor.com or some other site, it would be cool to send them directly to another AR member. Please let me know if thier is a widget for this.
Thanks in advance,
Mike
Thanks for the info, I am late in the game but have finally added the info for my page.
I am at the listing router and I want to start a new campaign! When I click on it, add a city, it comes up with a blank URL? What URL do I put in there? do I put my url?
Coni,
Yes, you add in the URL you would like people to be directed to if they search in the city you selected. This post explains in more depth:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/759375/Listing-Router-How-To-Set-Up-Your-Own-Click-Campaign
So has anyone had much success with this yet? I just set up my new blog for about 20/month and say this to add to it and was reading about it and just wanted to know what other AR'ers thought about it??? Has anyone gotten credits? Gotten Leads??? Just curious before I set it up thats all. I think it is a great idea but never done a pay per click. I tend to get clients that find me the natural way and like it when that happens. Seems to make me feel like I earned them - however what I am reading (I think) it looks like another agent in my area could advertise on MY BLOG (if I dont) and get the leads - is this correct or did I read this the wrong way. That just doesnt seem right... Any one else see it this way? Thanks. Looking forward to the responses...
Nicky,
No you didn't read that right. There are two components to listing router. A free and a paid component. You can set up your markets in the free component and any time a person is looking on your blog or profile and searches for a home in the areas you designate, they go to your site for free.
However, if you didn't work in say, Seattle and someone on your blog searched for homes in Seattle, then another member would be able to buy that traffic and you would get credit to purchase traffic from someone else who had a consumer looking in your market (since they don't service yours).
Thank you for the clarification. I feel bad having written that post now. I knew I had to be reading that wrong. I love AR and this sounds like a great addition to it! Guess if others thought the same thing now their question will be answered too!
This is indeed something that I am going to try out - my feeling is that if our ActiveRain guru's built it then it has to be worth trying out!!! Thanks guys!
Hi Bob, I noticed the customize link on the upper right hand corner is removed. Is there any way to have it back up? Or Listing Router is the only option now? Please advice. Thanks
-Josh
Josh,
It looks like it is gone. I wasn't even aware. Obviously the new header design changed things up a little bit, but I would like to see that if someone didn't have the listing router enabled, that they would at the very least have that custom link above.
I'll have to talk with the developers and see what happened exactly.
Bob
Josh, I'm very new to blogging and just set up my Individual Account. My question to you is this, I think I understand how listing router works as far as setting up campains and directing people to the towns I work, but does one need listings for this to work. Right now I have no listings and I am trying to get traffic to me so that I can pick up both Buyers and Sellers. I am not sure I understand if Listing Router is doing this for me.
Any help would be great.
Christopher,
You do not need your own listings. You do however need a website that displays listings. The idea of listing router is that it routes clients to your IDX website where they can look for listings and hopefully you can capture their information.
Okay, I gave up my own website about 3 years ago because I got NOTHING from it for over 2 years and I spent big bucks having various people tweek it for me. So now all I have access to is my companies website, is it a good ides for me to direct it to that site? If not any suggestions, otherwise (if I'm not mistaken) listing router is not something that will work for me?
Christopher,
No ... you need to have your own site. Even if it's a "jumping point" to other sites. Godaddy.com and Fatcow.com and 1and1.com are all sites that have inexpensive methods for creating your own webpage. Some MLS providers even offer a free one (I.e. MLS PIN in MA).
The bottom line, you might leave your company, it could close, you might want to sell your book of business someday. Even if traffic is lite, a website is part of "your package." Moreover, who's to say that all the leads at your corporate website are being properly filtered.
Get a cheap site ... even if it's only one page ... you need to be in control, it's part of your branding.
Good luck,
Mike
Here's the kick in the head on all this from another angle..the activerainer who creates the communities that were not in here before, and the sub communities within that community. And he collects and posts a slew of images with tags about that community over the years. And then he posts his brains out on local events, the "pieces" of the local town from hospital to library to schools to sporting events and throws a few listings in but does not make it strictly real estate. He has brick and mortar of the local flavor of the area. Oh sure he has blogs on local financing and how the interest rates are doing in his area, local customs, market conditions to dove tail with state and national climate that are real estate related. But not all real estate. He adds other local channels someone outside looking in would want and come back to. He shoots, narrates 300 live video of area events, property and embeds them into blog too.
Say the guy has 700 blogs, hundreds and hundreds of images uploaded and he pointed other sites he created back activerain, and other blogs and all the social networks from Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace and countless other ones with links to activerain blog as primary blue ribbon one...reflecting and driving traffic back to the AR behive. Then once the local area he serves is 99% totally created by this one guy for the little 6000 person town he lives in, AR wants his credit card number. To now say hey...you want to buy the community...$9 a month....want more than one? Keep adding up the per unit charge. And keep in mind he created the subcommunities from stratch, fed them, kept adding to them with images and blogs...$9 extra a piece...then another $19 a month...and if you want this feature etc...you wonder what credit the over achiever blogger gets for the setting up the shop in the local area? I know there are areas like Atlanta, etc where you have a slew of AR members contributing and building and reflecting their community. But what if you have a one man army..in a small Mayberry type town in rural America where the county population is 11 people per square mile? Same tier treatment? Realtor.com finally has 16 levels and recognizes they were not getting the outer little areas due to cost prohibitive. On top of ad revenue from the blogs all 130000 of us created...now Joe Broker or Joe Banker is asked to "buy" back in on top. When you go in and see a entire community built from stratch with blogs and images from one person, that "real estate in (community) name" block that is added smack dab in the middle that can be bought from someone that was not a little red hen to create it is one thing, and to expect the little red hen to pay to get his listings posted makes you think blogging on a different platform that is happy with ad revenues or rewards for effort is the place to set up his community windows in addition to the other blogs he creates. Welcome to an area where you can buy a home in the $20's, $30's...and 600 acres for under $150,000. Whole different mindset and treatment the same across the board does not work. If an AR member is top of his state, has added video, podcasts, images galore and writes blogs with lots of helpful links and with time and effort....charge him accordingly? You can say you are going to get credits for traffic that is redirected...but just give us $50..pay monthly and keep blogging, creating stuff for Google and others to pick up on so the flywheel keeps spinning. I think it i a heck of a deal for the person who has one or two blogs, and can suddenly benefit from all the effort of someone with 700 that has done the SEO community saturation.
Andrew, first of all your content will still be found over any listing router. You don't have to purchase to sponsor a city, if you post enough you will own it regardless.
You also don't have to do the listing router...you can still add your communites for free.
Search some of the other posts on this and you will see it is added value not a must.
Missy..thanks for jumping in. But in the case of Houlton Maine...we set up the main and all the sub communities...and in localism, all the main and sub-sections...you have "check on Houlton Maine real estate" with a link you have to buy. You yourself are a steady, constant quality blogger and I am sure in a community of others contributing AR members with some population. But what if you have no other contributors in your AR broadcast center that you set up in a little little Mayberry size town...same treatment, no credit for all you did do? Across the board same fares and sponsor ship with $9 per each community here, $19 for outside blog there and more to come? Still have on top of every blog you do do ...the space to ask about real estate information in the town of the blogger that attracted them? I can see the refer to another area out of state part etc. But when they specifically like the piece, video, images you crafted on say Maine winter recreation and why you ought to live here....you hook 'em, and then have to pay to keep them into your shop to peddle properties which is how we all make a living. I know you can say they will eventually find you because of all the other pieces you have blogged on...but would you want / expect from your own blog to have them to work with automatically if AR is selling ads, has revenues generated from other outlets too?
Mike thanks for th advice about getting a cheap site and why I should do it. The one issue is that from the cheap site, if they customers want to search the MLS they go to my companies web site where I loose control of them. They don't have their site set up so that it identifies unique customers coming from agent web sites.
With this said I still will probably have to get a cheap site and risk things. Does anyone know of a search engine site that I can incorporate into my own site so I avoid sending people to my companies site?
Christopher contact Kelley@housechick.com Her husband does IDX search set ups.
Missy, I will check this out thanks for the info. I've looked into a few sites and I am getting excited again about getting back into having my own site!
Hi Bob, I noticed the customize link on the upper right hand corner is removed. Is there any way to have it back up? Or Listing Router is the only option now? Please advice. Thanks
I activated my Listing Router but now can not customize. One other thing I'd like to ask, from the drop down menu of city choice. NO ONE. NO ONE spells out Saint in St Joseph, can we get that as a abbreviation?
Thanks
It's so hard to keep up with everything. Thanks for taking the time to explain this one.
Wow! I actually understand this stuff. I'm getting ready to write a blog about I've been on AR all day just trying to learn some stuff and catch up!
Not sure I understand the whole IDX thing
Bob,
Thanks so much for explaining this to all of us. This is cutting edge technology, I am working on this now.
Steve
Im lost......Any additional explination would be appreciated...I am not an agent, so , can I still earn hits by routing leads? That what we actually do anyway?
Thanks
<a href="http://myloannightmare.com"><img src="http://onlinebuilder.myregisteredsite.com/matrix/servlet/ShowAsset;jsessionid=BE2C3FC495ED5F283104622CA412CAB0?id=35547952"></a></p>
I'll try it.
Thanks Jeff....
I just joined, so i am definitely looking for ways to expand my network. I will give it a shot and see what happens.
thanks
exciting hope i can figure it all out.
Hi Jeff - Is the whiteboard video still up? I'm trying to access it, but can't. I am logged in, etc... but no whiteboard video access. Thanks - Wendy
Is there a way a mortgage broker can benefit?
I am starting to get this idea that this is something I should have done along time ago.