NEWS SEARCH ENGINES REALTORS ON THE NET DOING BUSINESS ON THE NET CREATING A WEBSITE
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News Archives Month of June 1998....... Realtors Are Using Printouts of Their Web Sites as a Sales Tool to Get Listings.. 6/27 With all the hype about the Internet, home sellers are becoming more and more aware of Real Estate activity on the web. Many Realtors are taking advantage of this and setting themselves apart from their competitors by impressing potential new listings with their web sites. They have put full color printouts of their web sites in their presentation portfolio's. In some cases this is the deciding factor that gets the listing. 23% of All US Households On Line by End of 1998.. 6/27 International Data Corporation, (www.idc.com) is a major resource for web research. On their web site there is an article about the growth of Internet usage in the states. They are predicting that 23% of American households will be on line by the end of 1998. This is a considerable growth from the 13% at the end of 1996. With the continued downward slide in the prices of MMX computers that are now available for well under $1,000., this growth will accelerate over the next two years. We can expect to see more than 50% of the households with computers by the end of the year 2000 Fraud on the Net (from Inman News) 6/23 In the current issue of Inman News they write about Net fraud and mentions that consumers are not the only victims. They speak of credit card fraud against businesses operating on the net. I would expand upon this and point to what amounts to fraud (possibly unintentional) by the many people or businesses that are offering web site development services. It seems every week we get letters asking why a web site is not producing and after reviewing the site have to tell people that the site is not set up or designed to earn a high position on the search engines. In many cases the site was not even submitted to the engines. To us, as Internet marketing professionals, anybody who presents themselves as an expert in a field should be aware of all the elements involved. There are many in this field who don't know what they don't know and they are selling their services as supposed experts. Unfortunately for the business person who utilizes one of these companies, it can take a year to find out that the web site they paid hundreds (if not thousands) for is not properly designed. We know of a situation where real estate web sites have been developed for several hundred real estate companies and many of them are rip offs of the associates in the offices. Mortgages on the Internet There has been considerable news lately about the developing mortgage business on the Internet. I do not know all the players but, it seems there are some heavy hitters getting into the on-line mortgage business. The story line seems to be that the lower costs involved are attracting the lenders to the Internet where they can reach a broader market area. The ease of use (for the consumer) will supposedly put conventional mortgage brokers out of business in the future. (See articles in Inman News.... www.inman.com) Microsoft, with its new Real Estate web site program is looking to capture the mortgage business generated by activity from that site. When Microsoft presented this program to a recent meeting of the major Real Estate Companies the reaction was rather negative. I doubt we will see these large companies on Microsoft's site. Real Estate Shopping Centers on the Web There is a continuing trend in Real Estate web sites towards developing large one stop shopping centers. These web sites offer home listings, appraisers, Realtors, mortgages and just about all that you can think of. The only people who will make money out of these sites will be the site owners and the major players who capture the bulk of the business from the site. Each of the individual participants, Realtors and the like, will just get a very small piece of the pie. For those who have participated in a large office web site, you know what I mean. There is no opportunity on these large sites to wave your flag and stand out from the crowd. More on search engine keywording.....6/21 Keywords, meta tags and more has been added to our section on the search engines...>>>CLICK Tucson Realtor sells over $ 900,000 in two transactions In the first two months with a home page on Home Finders USA, Donna Gallagher sold two homes totaling $950,000. Crediting Home Finders with creating a considerable increase in traffic on her web site, Donna is all smiles. In a market that has a large number of buyers from around the country, the Internet is really paying off for Donna. 6/3 Four Million Dollars in Annual Sales from the Web...... The talk of the town recently has been a Philadelphia area Realtor who closed 4.3 million Dollars in sales from the web last year. Judi Wolfson, a ReMax Associate, closed 32 transactions in 1997 totaling more than 4.3 million dollars. Just to prove it was not a fluke she has closed 17 transactions in the first 120 days of 98!! Judi has achieved this by promoting her web site on the search engines and with links from numerous Link sites and directories. In a market that lacks the relocation and retirement volume of other areas of the county, this is an exceptional achievement. Search Engine Shuffle...... The top search engines continue to jockey for position with acquisitions, partnering and remodeling. Netscape has joined the battle with their own branded search engine powered by Excite. Netscape is moving towards becoming an full fledged Internet service provider. The major search engines and directories are progressing through expected evolutionary changes as the Internet continues to expand. Yahoo is becoming more independent no longer relying on traffic from Netscape and other sources. Yahoo management believes they have acquired enough recognition and customer loyalty that they can stand on their own. Two other directories, Look Smart and Snap!, are coming up to compete with Yahoo. Century 21 has established an arrangement with AOL to promote their Real Estate information on AOL. Realtor.com is promoting their site on AltaVista. MetaMedia Completes Study of 40,000 Business Web Sites MetaMedia, an Internet market research company, recently completed a study in which the greatest finding was that only 31% of the business web sites on the net use Meta Tags. This reflects on the capabilities of the web masters who designed the sites and one has to wonder if there are other search engine directed elements missing. At some point in time the owners of these sites will wonder why they are not getting much business from the Internet. Our Publisher Named Search Engine Guru for Real Estate Cyberspace Society The Boston based Real Estate Cyberspace Society has named Glenn Weilbacher of GAW Associates to its Hall Of Fame. As a Hall of Fame Guru Mr. Weilbacher will respond to the Cyberspace Society members e-mailed questions on search engines and promoting one's web site via the engines. The Society is dedicated to providing members with the latest up to the minute evaluations of Real Estate Cyberspace strategies, tactics, tools, sites and services of particular value to real estate professionals. Visit the Society web site>>>www.recyber.com |
