Notorious R.O.B.

Conversations about the real estate industry, marketing, technology, and public policy

Jul 23, 2008

Trulia to Active Rain: Your Days Are Numbered

Breaking news from Inman Blogger Connect: Trulia has announced that it is launching a blog platform. I don’t have a link, because this was on a piece of paper, but there will be an official announcement later.

I actually had a chance to speak with Vicky Gkiza, Sr. Product Manager for Community, at Trulia and… well… she’s a lovely, lovely person. In more than one way, actually — take a look:

She was really nice, very kind with her time, and extraordinarily smart — as is sort of par for the course for the boys and girls at Trulia.  But the point is not to talk about Vicky.

The point is this: Trulia may not intend to put ActiveRain (and others of its ilk) out of business, but the impact of this blog product is to do precisely that. As a matter of fact, I have a bet with Vicky now that I plan to collect at Inman in 2010.

Here’s the thing: Trulia has 5 million unique users each month, by their own count. If you’re a real estate agent doing a consumer-oriented blog, then what you’re after are consumer readers. ActiveRain, Agentgenius, and any of those guys may have a great platform, but until and unless they can provide consumer traffic to the tune of 5 million uniques per month… I’m afraid the value simply ceases the exist.

I have to take pains to point out again that Trulia probably doesn’t intend malice upon ActiveRain or other similar consumer-oriented agent blog networks.  As they see it, they just want to help their agent members connect with their consumer visitors.  Once you have listings, then have Trulia Voices, then Trulia Q&A, the agent blog is the obvious next step.

I’m just pointing out the obvious: if you’re an agent, and you want to have a blog somewhere, why would you do it anywhere other than at Trulia Blogs?  ActiveRain, as it is, has a tendency to be realtors talking to other realtors.  Which is fine, and might be great for an industry-focused blog like this one, or the Onboard Informatics corporate blog, but… for an agent who wants to blog to drive leads and grow business, I just don’t see the value anymore.

What this product does is divide the RE.net in half: those who are focused on consumers, and those who are focused on industry.  The agent blogs have to find a reason NOT to blog on Trulia.  (Presumably, a good one might be Zillow‘s answer, if they have one.)  The industry blogs may want to continue at places like ActiveRain or independently.

Perhaps after Inman is over, I’ll have to do some thinking about what this means in the even bigger picture: now that Trulia is creating a compelling platform for agent blogging, together with listings, together with Q&A, together with consumer traffic… what is the next evolution for the Big Brokerages like Century 21 and so on?

-rsh

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Category: Real Estate, Technology

Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

  • http://realestatezebra.com/ Daniel Rothamel, The Real Esta

    Interesting.

    To me, the main reason you wouldn’t blog on Trulia is the same reason you wouldn’t blog on ActiveRain– you don’t own the content. When you don’t own the content, bad things can happen.

    Of course, I guess we’ll have to wait for some sort of official announcement that has some more details.

  • http://realestatezebra.com Daniel Rothamel, The Real Estate Zebra

    Interesting.

    To me, the main reason you wouldn’t blog on Trulia is the same reason you wouldn’t blog on ActiveRain– you don’t own the content. When you don’t own the content, bad things can happen.

    Of course, I guess we’ll have to wait for some sort of official announcement that has some more details.

  • http://www.60646blog.com/ Mark A.

    When you don’t own the content, bad things can happen.
    Bad things have happened and continue to happen with Trulia anyway, when I think of their agent-unfriendly nofollow-tag policy. A real estate portal that blatantly bites the hands that feed it cannot be trusted (no offense Rudy), and I’d imagine that this might be a good reason not to blog on Trulia. I’m just wondering when the big companies like Realogy and Prudential come to realize that they made a big mistake supplying Trulia with their listings.

  • http://www.60646blog.com Mark A.

    When you don’t own the content, bad things can happen.
    Bad things have happened and continue to happen with Trulia anyway, when I think of their agent-unfriendly nofollow-tag policy. A real estate portal that blatantly bites the hands that feed it cannot be trusted (no offense Rudy), and I’d imagine that this might be a good reason not to blog on Trulia. I’m just wondering when the big companies like Realogy and Prudential come to realize that they made a big mistake supplying Trulia with their listings.

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com/ -Rob

    @Mark A.

    What’s so unfriendly about nofollow-tag policy? As I see it, once the blog platform is in place, there’s little reason for an agent to leave the Trulia ecosystem at all. And yes, that includes the MLS, if you think about it.

    But whatever the downside to “not owning the content” (which may or may not be true, because I can think of at least a half-dozen reasons why Trulia would NOT want to own the blog content), do they outweigh 5 million unique users per month?

    -rsh

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com -Rob

    @Mark A.

    What’s so unfriendly about nofollow-tag policy? As I see it, once the blog platform is in place, there’s little reason for an agent to leave the Trulia ecosystem at all. And yes, that includes the MLS, if you think about it.

    But whatever the downside to “not owning the content” (which may or may not be true, because I can think of at least a half-dozen reasons why Trulia would NOT want to own the blog content), do they outweigh 5 million unique users per month?

    -rsh

  • Pingback: Trulia Blog Platform? « 4realz.net

  • http://www.myleavenworth.com/ Leavenworth Real Estate – Geor

    Which 5 million visitors? I only get 50 or 60 a day on my blog, but they are reading my content and interested in Leavenworth WA. Trulia, like Zillow, is pretty and shiny but their content is lacking and I am not convinced that consumers are spending much time there. The consumers I am looking for certainly aren’t spending any time there. Mostly it looks like agents trying to get noticed.

    And yes, the staff at Trulia are very nice people.

  • http://www.myleavenworth.com Leavenworth Real Estate – Geordie Romer

    Which 5 million visitors? I only get 50 or 60 a day on my blog, but they are reading my content and interested in Leavenworth WA. Trulia, like Zillow, is pretty and shiny but their content is lacking and I am not convinced that consumers are spending much time there. The consumers I am looking for certainly aren’t spending any time there. Mostly it looks like agents trying to get noticed.

    And yes, the staff at Trulia are very nice people.

  • http://www.60646blog.com/ Mark A.

    What’s so unfriendly about nofollow-tag policy?
    It’s disingenuous. By implementing this policy, they’re implying to Google that they’re the original source of property listings so that Google would rank them higher in specific property searches. A detailed discussion about this can be found here. Moreover, Trulia engages in stuff like this. In light of this MO, why would any blogger be interested in blogging on/for Trulia? Just because they have traffic? So does Zillow, and they have forums for RE/Mortgage professionals to interact with consumers. Now contrast Trulia’s sleazy tactics with the way Zillow (i.e. dofollow) operates.

  • http://www.60646blog.com Mark A.

    What’s so unfriendly about nofollow-tag policy?
    It’s disingenuous. By implementing this policy, they’re implying to Google that they’re the original source of property listings so that Google would rank them higher in specific property searches. A detailed discussion about this can be found here. Moreover, Trulia engages in stuff like this. In light of this MO, why would any blogger be interested in blogging on/for Trulia? Just because they have traffic? So does Zillow, and they have forums for RE/Mortgage professionals to interact with consumers. Now contrast Trulia’s sleazy tactics with the way Zillow (i.e. dofollow) operates.

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com/ -Rob

    @Geordie

    I guess time will tell. But unless somehow, the Leavenworth WA market is comprised entirely of bloggers… I venture to guess that most of the buyers in that market do not read lengthy blogs.

    Nor, and this is important, do most consumers begin the homebuying process by reading blogs and opinions. There’s no real survey out there, but I find it completely unrealistic to believe that the average home purchaser or home seller starts by checking various blogs.

    According to Pew Research, only 16% of Americans read blogs at all. Even that sounds high to me, because I think most blog readers are reading political blogs, or sports blogs, or entertainment blogs. I seriously doubt that 16% of Americans read real estate blogs.

    But let’s say that 16% do read blogs.

    What exactly is the advantage in going after a market that is 16% of the total possible for Leavenworth, WA? Apparently, Leavenworth, WA has a population of about 2,225. Using the Pew numbers, that means about 350 blog readers in that market.

    Even if you’re happy with being big in that tiny market, fact is that someone blogging on Trulia in your market, about Leavenworth WA, is going to get traffic from those who are merely searching for properties, and then stumble across the blog about Leavenworth, WA written by some Trulia agent.

    This doesn’t matter to people like me — I’m more of an industry blogger, and I could care less about generating leads. Or traffic for that matter. :)

    But for people who are agents and brokers, and they’re blogging as a business tool, I just don’t see how they ignore 5 million uniques a month — that is growing, fueled by the marketing campaign that Trulia is carrying out.

    What am I missing here?

    -rsh

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com -Rob

    @Geordie

    I guess time will tell. But unless somehow, the Leavenworth WA market is comprised entirely of bloggers… I venture to guess that most of the buyers in that market do not read lengthy blogs.

    Nor, and this is important, do most consumers begin the homebuying process by reading blogs and opinions. There’s no real survey out there, but I find it completely unrealistic to believe that the average home purchaser or home seller starts by checking various blogs.

    According to Pew Research, only 16% of Americans read blogs at all. Even that sounds high to me, because I think most blog readers are reading political blogs, or sports blogs, or entertainment blogs. I seriously doubt that 16% of Americans read real estate blogs.

    But let’s say that 16% do read blogs.

    What exactly is the advantage in going after a market that is 16% of the total possible for Leavenworth, WA? Apparently, Leavenworth, WA has a population of about 2,225. Using the Pew numbers, that means about 350 blog readers in that market.

    Even if you’re happy with being big in that tiny market, fact is that someone blogging on Trulia in your market, about Leavenworth WA, is going to get traffic from those who are merely searching for properties, and then stumble across the blog about Leavenworth, WA written by some Trulia agent.

    This doesn’t matter to people like me — I’m more of an industry blogger, and I could care less about generating leads. Or traffic for that matter. :)

    But for people who are agents and brokers, and they’re blogging as a business tool, I just don’t see how they ignore 5 million uniques a month — that is growing, fueled by the marketing campaign that Trulia is carrying out.

    What am I missing here?

    -rsh

  • terrylynn6

    Listings are everywhere by the droves. The whole business model is to get others to supply your content so you can sell ads. That’s it! We really sell real estate and consumers gather info first then pick local sites because they have the most current info. I have never had anyone send me something from Trulia, too many clicks to get photos. Even in the hey day of Realtor.com, it was for marketing the listing, few inquiries came from it, but you do get a lot of hits. Great tool for the consumer – For Realtors, you have the same thing as Realtor.com but this isn’t going to cost you 8K for a skyscraper ad! RE technology and really selling real estate are two different animals now, as it collides it should get better for everyone.

  • terrylynn6

    Listings are everywhere by the droves. The whole business model is to get others to supply your content so you can sell ads. That’s it! We really sell real estate and consumers gather info first then pick local sites because they have the most current info. I have never had anyone send me something from Trulia, too many clicks to get photos. Even in the hey day of Realtor.com, it was for marketing the listing, few inquiries came from it, but you do get a lot of hits. Great tool for the consumer – For Realtors, you have the same thing as Realtor.com but this isn’t going to cost you 8K for a skyscraper ad! RE technology and really selling real estate are two different animals now, as it collides it should get better for everyone.

  • http://www.RayNellum.com/ fortsmithrealestate

    The visitors alone is worth the visit to the platform. I am a strong AR supporter, and I love it. My Blog platform has change to focus more on the consumer!!! That is what it is all about. Getting the information out for the consumer.

  • http://www.RayNellum.com fortsmithrealestate

    The visitors alone is worth the visit to the platform. I am a strong AR supporter, and I love it. My Blog platform has change to focus more on the consumer!!! That is what it is all about. Getting the information out for the consumer.

  • http://teamatthebeach.com/ lynne pope

    I just visited Trulia event at Inman and gave the blog a try. Right now it was a taste sample to see what it was like. Time will tell if it will become a staple. Trulia voices is pretty cool.

    All in all Realtors are trying to reach out and be seen, found, discovered and we may just look like sand or ants. We have to make a difference one day at a time. Wherever we are located.

  • http://teamatthebeach.com lynne pope

    I just visited Trulia event at Inman and gave the blog a try. Right now it was a taste sample to see what it was like. Time will tell if it will become a staple. Trulia voices is pretty cool.

    All in all Realtors are trying to reach out and be seen, found, discovered and we may just look like sand or ants. We have to make a difference one day at a time. Wherever we are located.

  • http://www.propertyqube.com/ David Bethoney

    I agree with Daniel above and this is why Propertyqube does it differently. Real estate agents should be building their OWN brand and owning their OWN content rather than giving it out to others. They should be utilizing sites to distribute their content.

    What makes Propertyqube different from the others is exactly that. Real estate agents have the ability to feed in their outside blogs being hosted on wordpress or the multitude of other blog platforms. It takes about 20 seconds to do so using RSS. Every time a blog entry is posted, we automatically pull it into our system and distribute it to four different local places in our platform. We import links so when a consumer clicks on your blog entry title, they leave Propertyqube and go to your blog to continue reading. That way, the consumer experiences your brand and you realize the increased traffic (think of it like an autmatic Digg – Just an initial submission required and we take it from there :) ). Come join the hundreds of RE bloggers already part of our system!

  • http://www.propertyqube.com David Bethoney

    I agree with Daniel above and this is why Propertyqube does it differently. Real estate agents should be building their OWN brand and owning their OWN content rather than giving it out to others. They should be utilizing sites to distribute their content.

    What makes Propertyqube different from the others is exactly that. Real estate agents have the ability to feed in their outside blogs being hosted on wordpress or the multitude of other blog platforms. It takes about 20 seconds to do so using RSS. Every time a blog entry is posted, we automatically pull it into our system and distribute it to four different local places in our platform. We import links so when a consumer clicks on your blog entry title, they leave Propertyqube and go to your blog to continue reading. That way, the consumer experiences your brand and you realize the increased traffic (think of it like an autmatic Digg – Just an initial submission required and we take it from there :) ). Come join the hundreds of RE bloggers already part of our system!

  • http://jarvisteam.activerain.com/ Joshua Jarvis

    To an experienced agent, I would say that this is great news. I might actually get leads from Trulia Blog. However, the purpose is still the same – to drive the traffic to my website. If trulia continues their deceitful ad practices and has the nofollow tags on the blogs then I see little value in their blog other than sensational topics.

    The nice side effect is that is – if everyone had my approach then the top questions would only get answered and the top blogs would only get read. Presto! Better content.

    Just my 2 cents.

  • http://jarvisteam.activerain.com Joshua Jarvis

    To an experienced agent, I would say that this is great news. I might actually get leads from Trulia Blog. However, the purpose is still the same – to drive the traffic to my website. If trulia continues their deceitful ad practices and has the nofollow tags on the blogs then I see little value in their blog other than sensational topics.

    The nice side effect is that is – if everyone had my approach then the top questions would only get answered and the top blogs would only get read. Presto! Better content.

    Just my 2 cents.

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com/ -Rob

    @David Bethoney,

    Ignoring for the moment your plug for your company, because there’s an important point to be made there, here’s my question:

    It’s great that you have some way of sending consumers to the agent’s own blogsite with a click. But that feature is somewhat pointless unless you have consumers, no?

    in other words, touting that you (or anyone else really — not picking on propertyqube specifically here, but ALL blog aggregation networks) have X number of agent bloggers is fine and good. But really, if I’m an agent looking to blog for business, why do I care how many other bloggers you have? The real question is how many people of the audience I am looking for do you have?

    All this talk about how agents should own their own BRAND and such is misguided, IMHO. Because at the end of the day, the decision will have to be based on this: What is the value of a brand that five people know about? compared to the value of leads generated from a large base of consumer users?

    So really, the blog networks have to stop talking about how many bloggers they have and start talking more about how many unique visitors they have. If Propertyqube (or whoever else) starts to get into the millions of unique visitors a month, which strongly implies that consumers are coming to the site, then you’ve got something. If your unique is roughly equivalent to the number of bloggers, then… well, you’ve got yourself a nice social network to talk to other agents about various topics.

    That’s the challenge that Trulia Blog network represents.

    I haven’t yet heard a compelling reason why the other blog networks will continue to provide value in comparison.

    -rsh

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com -Rob

    @David Bethoney,

    Ignoring for the moment your plug for your company, because there’s an important point to be made there, here’s my question:

    It’s great that you have some way of sending consumers to the agent’s own blogsite with a click. But that feature is somewhat pointless unless you have consumers, no?

    in other words, touting that you (or anyone else really — not picking on propertyqube specifically here, but ALL blog aggregation networks) have X number of agent bloggers is fine and good. But really, if I’m an agent looking to blog for business, why do I care how many other bloggers you have? The real question is how many people of the audience I am looking for do you have?

    All this talk about how agents should own their own BRAND and such is misguided, IMHO. Because at the end of the day, the decision will have to be based on this: What is the value of a brand that five people know about? compared to the value of leads generated from a large base of consumer users?

    So really, the blog networks have to stop talking about how many bloggers they have and start talking more about how many unique visitors they have. If Propertyqube (or whoever else) starts to get into the millions of unique visitors a month, which strongly implies that consumers are coming to the site, then you’ve got something. If your unique is roughly equivalent to the number of bloggers, then… well, you’ve got yourself a nice social network to talk to other agents about various topics.

    That’s the challenge that Trulia Blog network represents.

    I haven’t yet heard a compelling reason why the other blog networks will continue to provide value in comparison.

    -rsh

  • http://www.trulia.com/ Heather

    I think Vicky is totally hot too!

  • http://www.trulia.com Heather

    I think Vicky is totally hot too!

  • http://jonwashburn.com/ Jonathan Washburn

    Rob, The measure you should be looking at is not the total traffic of Trulia or ActiveRain as a network, but how much traffic is delivered on average per post authored.

    However, even if you do continue to measure the value of a blogging platfrom by traffic to the whole network, the traffic to ActiveRain is very significant, even compared to the heavily funded Trulia. ActiveRain and Localism recorded over 2.3 million visits in the last 30 days, with 78% of that being delivered from organic search results.

  • http://jonwashburn.com Jonathan Washburn

    Rob, The measure you should be looking at is not the total traffic of Trulia or ActiveRain as a network, but how much traffic is delivered on average per post authored.

    However, even if you do continue to measure the value of a blogging platfrom by traffic to the whole network, the traffic to ActiveRain is very significant, even compared to the heavily funded Trulia. ActiveRain and Localism recorded over 2.3 million visits in the last 30 days, with 78% of that being delivered from organic search results.

  • http://thequbeexchange.wordpress.com/ Dave Bethoney

    Hey Rob, thanks for the great response to my comment. In response to the plug part, the plug was made because it went so well with the point I was trying to make. We dont plug a lot (and you can go around the blogosphere to verify that) but when it seems appropriate, we do it :) Maybe it wasnt in this case..?

    “If I’m an agent looking for business, why do I care how many bloggers you have” – I’m not sure you should care. The last comment I made was simply to convey that the system we have created is being used by many professionals and many professionals are seeing results in the form of consumer traffic coming from Propertyqube. Propertyqube isn’t a professional to professional network, it’s a consumer site. Professionals are a necessary and extremely valuable part of it.

    I think it is really important to separate professionals into two groups. The ones who DO want to build a brand (which IMO isn’t misguided and should be done for those who are able to dedicate the time and energy) and then the ones who could care less about building a brand to generate leads from their blog/content and want to instead use a system like Propertyqube or Trulia or ZIllow to generate leads. Many of the professionals we interact with day in and day out are part of group one but are the minority compared to the number of professionals out there. We recognize that but we are catering to both groups.

    In regards to the unique visitors to the site, well that’s the challenge right? That’s what everyone’s trying to do. If we didn’t think we could do it and we were not growing at a good clip every month, then we would stop. That isnt the case.

    Jonathan, Agree with your metric comment. An important metric few talk about.

  • http://thequbeexchange.wordpress.com/ Dave Bethoney

    Hey Rob, thanks for the great response to my comment. In response to the plug part, the plug was made because it went so well with the point I was trying to make. We dont plug a lot (and you can go around the blogosphere to verify that) but when it seems appropriate, we do it :) Maybe it wasnt in this case..?

    “If I’m an agent looking for business, why do I care how many bloggers you have” – I’m not sure you should care. The last comment I made was simply to convey that the system we have created is being used by many professionals and many professionals are seeing results in the form of consumer traffic coming from Propertyqube. Propertyqube isn’t a professional to professional network, it’s a consumer site. Professionals are a necessary and extremely valuable part of it.

    I think it is really important to separate professionals into two groups. The ones who DO want to build a brand (which IMO isn’t misguided and should be done for those who are able to dedicate the time and energy) and then the ones who could care less about building a brand to generate leads from their blog/content and want to instead use a system like Propertyqube or Trulia or ZIllow to generate leads. Many of the professionals we interact with day in and day out are part of group one but are the minority compared to the number of professionals out there. We recognize that but we are catering to both groups.

    In regards to the unique visitors to the site, well that’s the challenge right? That’s what everyone’s trying to do. If we didn’t think we could do it and we were not growing at a good clip every month, then we would stop. That isnt the case.

    Jonathan, Agree with your metric comment. An important metric few talk about.

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com/ -Rob

    @Jon

    Hey J-dub; thanks for the response. I feel like I should update this post somewhat based on our offline conversation, but that may need to wait for a followup post.

    Keeping on topic, however, I’m curious why you think (and Dave, why you agree) that average traffic per post is the key metric for a blog network. Because logically, that would make a network with a single post outperform any network with more than one post.

    So what’s the behavior you’re trying to capture/measure there?

    Also… 2.3 million visits or uniques — there being a fairly substantial difference between the two. :)

    I may need to do a followup post though, with the new information I have on ActiveRain and Trulia Blogs.

    -rsh

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com -Rob

    @Jon

    Hey J-dub; thanks for the response. I feel like I should update this post somewhat based on our offline conversation, but that may need to wait for a followup post.

    Keeping on topic, however, I’m curious why you think (and Dave, why you agree) that average traffic per post is the key metric for a blog network. Because logically, that would make a network with a single post outperform any network with more than one post.

    So what’s the behavior you’re trying to capture/measure there?

    Also… 2.3 million visits or uniques — there being a fairly substantial difference between the two. :)

    I may need to do a followup post though, with the new information I have on ActiveRain and Trulia Blogs.

    -rsh

  • http://realsummerlin.com/ Chris Shouse

    Will be interested in the follow up post. I have watched this debate with great interest about Trulia and the new blog platform will be now tossed into the mix. Since I was not @inmann does anyone know who will be able to use the blogging platform. Been trying to get an answer from Rudy but no answer?

  • http://realsummerlin.com Chris Shouse

    Will be interested in the follow up post. I have watched this debate with great interest about Trulia and the new blog platform will be now tossed into the mix. Since I was not @inmann does anyone know who will be able to use the blogging platform. Been trying to get an answer from Rudy but no answer?

  • http://pasadenaviews.com/ pasadenaviews

    Chris, anyone with a Trulia account can set up a Trulia Blog. Just go into your settings and you’ll see the blog set up option.

  • http://pasadenaviews.com pasadenaviews

    Chris, anyone with a Trulia account can set up a Trulia Blog. Just go into your settings and you’ll see the blog set up option.

  • http://www.foundbydesign.com/ FoundByDesign.com

    No follow tags do not provide the contributor with any credit. And while only 16% of the public may read “blogs”, when relevent and updated content is put out there, it creates the opportunity for an agent to get found in the search engine listings. Done right, a good website will contain a blog that does not appear to be a blog! This opens up more than just the 16%!

    The reason I would advise ActiveRain over Trulia would be the No Follow issue. If Trulia will enforce no follow tags, they agents contributing are only building the Trulia brand, not their own. But with Active Rain, they can blog and get back links to their own websites which makes it a fair tradeoff for the agent and the blog site.

    I personally blog at ActiveRain using summaries of what I post at my own website. ActiveRain does get a large amount of traffic, even consumer traffic and if my summary gets their attention, they end up on MY site rather than swimming with all the competition!

    Just food for thought.

    http://www.foundbydesign.com

  • http://www.foundbydesign.com FoundByDesign.com

    No follow tags do not provide the contributor with any credit. And while only 16% of the public may read “blogs”, when relevent and updated content is put out there, it creates the opportunity for an agent to get found in the search engine listings. Done right, a good website will contain a blog that does not appear to be a blog! This opens up more than just the 16%!

    The reason I would advise ActiveRain over Trulia would be the No Follow issue. If Trulia will enforce no follow tags, they agents contributing are only building the Trulia brand, not their own. But with Active Rain, they can blog and get back links to their own websites which makes it a fair tradeoff for the agent and the blog site.

    I personally blog at ActiveRain using summaries of what I post at my own website. ActiveRain does get a large amount of traffic, even consumer traffic and if my summary gets their attention, they end up on MY site rather than swimming with all the competition!

    Just food for thought.

    http://www.foundbydesign.com

  • http://www.trulia.com/ Heather @ Trulia

    heather again (subbing for Rudy as he Connects at Inman) – this time with serious answers…

    @ chris and pasadenaviews – Trulia Blogs are still in a private beta. We’ve invited/provided access to a limited number of Trulia Voices users, friends, family etc. We are open to giving beta access if you are interested in taking a look and providing feedback. If you want access, please email rudy or me… heather [at] trulia – and we’ll give you the access code.

    @foundbydesign – blog content will be dofollow, so agents can absolutely link back to their blogs and get the links that you refer to. We’ve heard loud and clear how important this issue is to agents and want to make sure we are building an experience that proves the ROI to the agent, while building value to consumers and making Trulia a better overall experience!

    Have a great weekend all.

  • http://www.trulia.com Heather @ Trulia

    heather again (subbing for Rudy as he Connects at Inman) – this time with serious answers…

    @ chris and pasadenaviews – Trulia Blogs are still in a private beta. We’ve invited/provided access to a limited number of Trulia Voices users, friends, family etc. We are open to giving beta access if you are interested in taking a look and providing feedback. If you want access, please email rudy or me… heather [at] trulia – and we’ll give you the access code.

    @foundbydesign – blog content will be dofollow, so agents can absolutely link back to their blogs and get the links that you refer to. We’ve heard loud and clear how important this issue is to agents and want to make sure we are building an experience that proves the ROI to the agent, while building value to consumers and making Trulia a better overall experience!

    Have a great weekend all.

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  • http://www.foundbydesign.com/ FoundByDesign.com

    If indeed Trulia will allow links to be followed by the search engines, this is a good thing. But that does not mean the end of ActiveRain, not by any means. ActiveRain has a strong precense and that won’t go away that easily. Plus, anyone that understands SEO will understand the value that both sites will offer to your own site. For those of you that don’t get that, visit my website and I can help you develop such a strategy! http://www.FoundByDesign.com

  • http://www.foundbydesign.com FoundByDesign.com

    If indeed Trulia will allow links to be followed by the search engines, this is a good thing. But that does not mean the end of ActiveRain, not by any means. ActiveRain has a strong precense and that won’t go away that easily. Plus, anyone that understands SEO will understand the value that both sites will offer to your own site. For those of you that don’t get that, visit my website and I can help you develop such a strategy! http://www.FoundByDesign.com

  • http://www.adrhi.com/ Jeff In Hawaii

    It seems that everybody is jumping in the game with their agent blogging platforms. Not a bad for the Truila, Zillow and HomeGain’s of the world. But, is it really good for the agents? Wouldn’t it be better for the agent to spend time and energy on their sites and blogs they actually own? Instead they continue to help these Giants get even BIGGER. Before long the search engines will only be full of these large Nationwide sites agents will have no choice, but pay them for their online exposure. It will be the only option. Maybe I am missing something???

    The whole No Follow issue is another concern as well. Trulia wants agents to put all their gadgets on their sites with a real link to boost their search engine rankings, but are a little stingy when it goes the other way. Basically telling Google I do not trust this site. Now is that a fair way to treat the ones that are boosting them??

  • http://www.adrhi.com Jeff In Hawaii

    It seems that everybody is jumping in the game with their agent blogging platforms. Not a bad for the Truila, Zillow and HomeGain’s of the world. But, is it really good for the agents? Wouldn’t it be better for the agent to spend time and energy on their sites and blogs they actually own? Instead they continue to help these Giants get even BIGGER. Before long the search engines will only be full of these large Nationwide sites agents will have no choice, but pay them for their online exposure. It will be the only option. Maybe I am missing something???

    The whole No Follow issue is another concern as well. Trulia wants agents to put all their gadgets on their sites with a real link to boost their search engine rankings, but are a little stingy when it goes the other way. Basically telling Google I do not trust this site. Now is that a fair way to treat the ones that are boosting them??

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com/ -Rob

    @Jeff

    As Heather from Trulia mentioned, they’re doing away with the nofollow tag, so that’s a moot point.

    The question is whether blog networks/platforms are good for agents. I guess my answer to that would be what the agent’s goal in blogging is. There are only three reasons to blog, when you get down to it: Pleasure, Fame, and Money.

    I believe anyone blogging for pleasure (like me for instance) probably doesn’t care one way or the other.

    Those blogging for Fame should probably do it on their “own site” just in case they do get famous somehow.

    The Money-bloggers, however, really have to balance the revenues (both present and future) vs. “ownership”. Since I view blogging for agents as a form of advertising, it really is a question of reach vs. control. For now, I just can’t see what the value of an “owned” blogsite that gets 30 visitors a month is to a Money blogger when they can tap into millions of visitors at one of the network sites.

    -rsh

  • http://robhahn.wordpress.com -Rob

    @Jeff

    As Heather from Trulia mentioned, they’re doing away with the nofollow tag, so that’s a moot point.

    The question is whether blog networks/platforms are good for agents. I guess my answer to that would be what the agent’s goal in blogging is. There are only three reasons to blog, when you get down to it: Pleasure, Fame, and Money.

    I believe anyone blogging for pleasure (like me for instance) probably doesn’t care one way or the other.

    Those blogging for Fame should probably do it on their “own site” just in case they do get famous somehow.

    The Money-bloggers, however, really have to balance the revenues (both present and future) vs. “ownership”. Since I view blogging for agents as a form of advertising, it really is a question of reach vs. control. For now, I just can’t see what the value of an “owned” blogsite that gets 30 visitors a month is to a Money blogger when they can tap into millions of visitors at one of the network sites.

    -rsh

  • Shell Smith

    I thought this had happened a long time ago with http://www.truliablog.com? I guess that is why most the info on that site is negative towards trulia. I for one refer my clients to http://www.propertymaps.com. I use this site myself – there are no ads or people trying to grab you – just a good google maps/mls mash-up. I also had never thought about a blog restricting “ownership” of your content…..very interesting. I guess I just need to keep reading your comments to learn my stuff!

  • Shell Smith

    I thought this had happened a long time ago with http://www.truliablog.com? I guess that is why most the info on that site is negative towards trulia. I for one refer my clients to http://www.propertymaps.com. I use this site myself – there are no ads or people trying to grab you – just a good google maps/mls mash-up. I also had never thought about a blog restricting “ownership” of your content…..very interesting. I guess I just need to keep reading your comments to learn my stuff!