The ActiveRain Listing-Router
Feature Your Listings, Get More Traffic and Get Paid to Participate.
After a ton of feedback from the network, we have decided to offer our new Listing Router product free for the intial two weeks of launch, until November 10th 2008.
Some of the prevailing factors that led us to this decision:
Test drive before you buy. Many members would like to set-up their campaigns and test the system, resulting in self-trial clicks that would charge their accounts. We respect your need to try and test without paying for the privledge.
We tend to fear what we initially don't understand. AR wants to allow all members the time to read about, understand, and create campaigns with confidence. New products and services, change in general, can be uncomfortable at first. A free trial period should alleviate most members concerns around what we feel is a huge win-win service.
Establishing or refining your IDX sites. Many members will want to insure their IDX websites are functioning properly and others who don't have an IDX site will want to shop for and obtain one. Many larger brokerages offer IDX solutions to their agents for free. For those who dont and are in the market for one, either ask a trusted member or email me for some reccomendations. A well thought out and managed IDX solution can be the difference between just traffic and a converted client.
$1.99 per click?? Thats alot of coin! We're in the midst of adjusting our pricing tiers that will result in a reduced pay per click (less than $1.99) in 99% of the markets covered. We understand that a click to a market like Beverly Hills, CA is worth more than a click to say, Waco, TX. This is in addition to the discount we're offering AR members who have achieved substantial point tiers:
- 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
It's going to take us a couple days to implement the new city by city pay-per-click pricing, so you may want to wait until this is complete before setting up your campaigns, or you'll have to re-do them to reflect the new pricing. You should still go ahead and set-up your My Markets section, your traffic routed to your serviceable areas will always be free. In any case, we'll release a post when these pricing changes are updated.
Bugs! As with any new product or service release, there are going to be some inherrent glitches and bugs. Some of the initial issues we've discovered include:
Changing credit card information.
Search box semantics...currently you must just enter a city, hit enter and the system will ask which city and state you are looking for...we are changing this to allow one to enter city and state as well as 'predictive text' where as you type the city and state, the system will begin to predictively fill in the most likely results.
Site/page errors (arrgh!) and other smaller admin glitches.
When signing up you will still need to enter your credit card information, which will not be charged, only authorized for validity. At the end of the two week trial period, the pay-per-click charges will be zero'd out, however, you will still receive credits for anyone that used your Listing Router toolbar and was routed to an IDX site out of your area of practice during this time.
Finally, on November 10th the Pay-Per-Click campaigns will begin full tilt and you will begin to be charged for any campaigns you have set-up.
Cheers!
If you haven't already, be sure to check out these related posts:
The ActiveRain Listing Router
Listing Router 'Whiteboard Explanation'
Listing Router - How To Set Up Your Own Click Campaign
Listing Router - How To Setup & Save Your Own Traffic
A Lead vs a Hit.........for Listing Router (how to make the most out it)
you guys never stop getting better. Quit it already you're going to crush the competition :)
So, just to be absolutely clear -- You will zero out the charges, but we must go in and remove our card on Nov. 10 if we no longer wish to participate. If we leave our card, charges will begin on Nov. 10. Is that right?
Thanks for the test drive!
@Elaine: Yes, charges will be zero'd out (but you will keep credits for the traffic your site referred). You don't need to remove your card, but you should cancel any pay-per-click campaigns prior to November 10 that you dont want to participate in. I would encourage you to keep your My Markets enabled so you may keep all your local traffic going to your IDX site, and continue to receive credits for routing traffic to IDX sites out of your personal markets...
Absolutely -- I love the My Markets aspect!
They sound like some great improvements. I think I will definitely try it. Thanks.
ahhh........sounds like someone figured out certain cities cost more to click on. Hope I didn't let the cat out of the bag..........
Great! I signed up for 3 cities already and put my market cities into my profile! I can't wait for things to start happening!
Thanks for letting us know. Sounds like I need to investigate this further ASAP so I can take advantage of it.
I'm all set up and ready to go - and very glad you decided to lower the price. I already use some pay-per-click and my are all set up for less than that. Looking forward to seeing results (I hope.)
Thanks for the update, Jeff. I still haven't had time to delve into this new product but may give it a closer look soon.
Help! I am getting an error when I try to enter the name of a city in the very top box under the heading "Start a New Campaign". Here is the error, maybe you can help??? Thanks! PattiAnn
Proxy Error
The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server.
The proxy server could not handle the request POST /action/click/city_search.
Reason: Error reading from remote server
Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) mod_ssl/2.2.3 OpenSSL/0.9.8b Server at activerain.com Port 80@Missy: 99% of cities will fall below $1.99/click. 1% will be incrementally above $1.99. Will be making another post with a detailed breakdown.
thanks - definately easier to try when the price is right
Thanks Jeff, we've encountered some of those glitches. Hope they all get fixed soon.
Patti,
We just released an upgrade to the search box that allows people to put in a wider range of terms and also speeds up the query on the database (the cause of the proxy errors on the site recently). You were probably searching while the upgrade was happening.
@Patti: Ahhh...The dreaded Proxy Error :-o While we are steadfastly working on reducing/eliminating those (techie clean-up issue), for now please try refreshing the page or reclicking the link...
Thanks Jeff, got the Listing Router to accept the city after I did a refresh, but then when I tried to actually start the campaign, I got this:
Home : ActiveRain Error
An Unexpected Error Occurred.
We've notified the appropriate people at ActiveRain about this error. Sorry! We'll try to get whatever caused this fixed as soon as possible. Please click here to return to the home page.
I tried refreshing again and re-entering everthing a couple of times and still get the "unexpected error". Will try again tomorrow. I don't want to miss out on the free trial!
Jeff - This is a terrific concept, and I look forward to watching how things play out. Thanks for the update!
I'm worried that this will allow companies with deep pockets to outbid us regular agents on the pay per click. For instance, I see that Just Listed.com is already in there. Realtor.com will surely follow then the big real estate companies. Someone like me will not have a chance
Jeff, This is the part I am confused on. I have a campaign running so do I need to delete that one and start a new one once you do the "city" thing?
It's going to take us a couple days to implement the new city by city pay-per-click pricing, so you may want to wait until this is complete before setting up your campaigns, or you'll have to re-do them to reflect the new pricing. You should still go ahead and set-up your My Markets section, your traffic routed to your serviceable areas will always be free. In any case, we'll release a post when these pricing changes are updated.
Thanks Jeff and Active Rain! I was a little hesitant not really knowing how it worked. I just need to figure out how to capture the leads now. Thanks so much!
Great idea to have a free trial for two weeks. Always good to be able to try before you buy.
Jeff- suppose I think that a city search wouldn't help me at all... because my market is a lake. A lake who's name is what my potential clients would be using to search for?? Is there a way to break it down to communities under a city name to get traffic that way?
Haven't paid a lot of attention to what's been going on lately. Now I'm waaaaay behind.
@Patti: Jackpot! You got the other type of error the network generates ;) As Jon stated, we are in the middle of many updates, so while slightly inconvenient these errors will be rectified very soon.
@Anonymous: You cannot be outbid, its not that type of program. The PPC charges are fixed per city. Bob Stewart explained the reason why justlisted.com appears on certain city searches on another post (I've paraphrased a bit for relevancy):
Every one of our members can lock up their own traffic in their own markets. Visitors that are searching for property in cities that an AR Member has not selected in any of their campaign(s) is sold to a national sponsor. The national sponsor is only taking inventory that NO OTHER ACTIVERAIN member is currently taking. This is how we are able to offer credits to members for visitors searching for listings in cities not reserved by AR members.
@Jo: Yes, once the new price per click terms are released, you will need to delete and restart your city campaigns to take advantage of the new pricing (which will be discounted in 99% of cities). We'll put a post out notifying you when the new pricing is released. You're fine for now :)
Hi Jeff,
RE: MARKETS, I wanted to let you know that there is only East St Louis, listed (unless someone else has taken the St. Louis, MO area). East St. Louis in in IL. There was no Town and Country (MO) either. Do the cities disappear if someone else takes it as their market?
Thanks for your efforts, Judy
okay then maybe I should get to setting up a real website that won't be directing these links to my broker !!! :)
already set up - looking forward to seeing how it all plays out:)
Jeff- It took me more than a half dozen tries to get through the enrollment, without being error-ed out. I hope it was worth the effort. It sounds like a great system, but my expectations are not high for Westport, CT traffic. Hope you guys prove me wrong.
@Judy: There is no exclusivity to cities, so East St Louis (or any other city) wouldnt disappear. I'll do some research on the other cities...we're upgrading the system daily, so please keep checking back :)
@Emily: That would be a good idea ;)
I want to sign up for listing router but am having a very hard time with it
please help
Jeff - I'm really excited to try the listing router... and to be able to test drive it for free - that's great!
This is the best invention since sliced bread!!! Way to go guys!
I love being able to test this for free. You guys are the best! Do you ever sleep, any of you? My guess is, not much! We appreicate you!
Jeff: I really don't know what else to do about IDX, but to purchase it from my MLS before setting it up.. You stated that you may be able to help us if we can't get into our local mls.... Don't worry I'll be the first to call....
Thanks for all your hard work on this I can't wait to get started..
@Deanna: Feel free to email me with your specific issues, I'm glad to help!
@Donna: I'd be happy to recco some IDX solutions for you. Email me and I'll pass some names along.
Jeff,
I put in my campaign cities. Do I hit the start campaign button or do I wait to do that until you get the new pricing in. It looks like you have it in for my city.
I'm ready to give it a roll in the hay!! GBU!
This sounds good. I'll have to try it out.
I have the same question as Jo above. Should I wait for the next post of updated rates before setting up the campaigns? Thanks for all your work!
Sounds interesting. I will check it out.
Jeff.. the 2 week trial is a great idea. Thanks for sharing this information
I am all for a price reduction. I tried a pay by click once and my competition ran up a big bill for me!
I really appreciate the idea of a trial period and am off to go try and set up this new tool AR has provided to us.
I set up 3 campaigns on Tuesday: I did try a test click, and I did get charged. So far no credit back shows up in my Listing Router "dashboard". Any idea when the credit adjustments will be made? Thanks!
PS Gee, I don't wanna have to redo everything after the 10th. I've got enough on my plate already. :-)
Great to hear you recognized these things....I think the discount based on points is good motivation. Nice work.
Jeff - does this mean you're wiping out the balance we have so far as well?
Jeff, thank you for all your hard work on this. Glad to see that things are limping along! I had such a hard time trying to sign in and start that I just gave up. Hopefully now some of the bugs have been worked out with your attention! I guess I'll just shutup and start!
Jeff, I assume this is what you have been working on upon your arrival as one of the "gods." Good job. I think that a post concerning the trackabillity of IP addresses for those considering sabotage should be addressed. It's unfortunate but we do have some of those here and it should be dealt with swiftly. That way it will remain a viable source for all and those trying to harm will be reduced to ashes. I spoke with Bob about it the other night.
Jeff, could AR please consider adding a $25 budget a month. That's all I have left in my budget until January unless I pull some from localism sponorships. I would like to try this program and potentially increase it but until I rework some of my other campaigns, I just do not want to commit to $50.00.
How does the Listing Router handle the situation of multiple agents in the same city?
Jeff, you are probably working on this, but when I put in my cc info and hit start campaign I get an unexpected error.
Hey all-
We're working on a Q & A post for Listing Router that will cover most, if not all of the questions you've posed here.
Thx for you patience!
Jeff
Couple quick answers to issues:
You will not have to to restat your campaigns post free trial on Nov 10, the system will retroactively adjust the pricing for your campaigns.
We're working on the errors you all are recieving, they should diminish substantially over the next few days.
Michelle,
We will add a $25/mo option. Thanks for the suggestion!
Jeff,
Very exciting. Now even more technology to catch up on!
Jeff, that's answered most of the questions so far. Still, should there be a limit on the number of agents who can sign up for an area?
Looking forward to seeing the revised rate list.
You guys just keep getting better and better. I recently had a conversation via email with Brad about some concerns for fraud, etc. and as always, you guys addressed most of what brad and i discussed. Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
I have not signed up yet but am shortly now that I have my website up and running....can't wait!