Heads up: Guest post over at MyTechOpinion

Readers of my “Site Optimization Series for Real Estate” may find some usefulness in my recent guest post for Nicole and Reggie over at MyTechOpinion.com.

It’s called “Three KPIs for Real Estate Websites.”

Lawyer warns MLSs’ to read data sharing contracts.

Glen Roberts Jr. over at Inman News reports on a paper written by Brian Larson, a Minneapolis lawyer, about the sorts of risks multiple listing services are taking by signing contracts with Zillow et al.

The main points seem to be:

• Signing anything without negotiating is bad form
• Even though the listings are free, there are costs associated with setting up a data feed (don’t I know it)
• All legal risks associated with publishing at the sites tends to default to the MLS
• The question of when will a listing be removed is murky and often undefined, leading to a listing remaining on a site long after it becomes inactive
• Some contracts grant the sites “almost complete control” of the data
• Potential brand risks
• Promises such as providing data that is “free from defects” is boilerplate in many of the contracts, something that the MLS can’t guarantee.

I would have liked to see a little more meat in this but I haven’t been able to locate the original paper.

Economic Maps of the US

This little post is for the interactive economic map lovers out there.

Ann Arbor Real Estate Talk has tipped us off to USAToday’s “How’s the economy in your hometown.”

Combine that with the Phoenix Real Estate Guy’s tip to the WSJ’s “Housing Markets: A Vacant Look” and there’s definitely some overlap.

For example in the USAToday map, markets are listed alphabetically over on the right as you roll over by state. Meaning you had best paid attention in 4th and 5th grade when you were learning the important markets of the US to get any contextual information from the map.

WSJ, on the other hand, really only surveys a few counties, but you can see the data in context and the markets grouped together. California is a particularly interesting puzzle.

Do you see anything in these maps?

Paid Search vs Organic Search for Realtors

If you’re a Realtor who has been hesitant to dive into Google AdWords, today is the day to get started.

First, you’ll want to be clear about the difference between “organic search” and “paid search.” Organic search results are a product of a Search Engine’s algorithm (a fancy word for method), rather than paid advertisements. Search engine algorithms are a bit of a mystery and always changing – and Google and Yahoo like to keep it that way. Until you’ve spent some time (and perhaps money) to optimize your site content and understand the variety of elements that contribute to the algorithm, ranking high on a Google search engine results page (SERP) with “organic” search can be frustrating and challenging.

Another way to get traffic to your site is by setting up a “paid search” campaign with a tool such as Google AdWords to generate more traffic to your site. If you’ve done a good job delivering those people to the right part of your site for their search terms (known as a landing page), those new visitors will hopefully “convert” by contacting you and/or registering on your site to make best use of the search tools the next time they return. You can also use what you learn from your advertising successes to help inform decisions on your site content, but that’s a topic for a different post.

You can get started with online advertising on your own or get in touch with the Internet Marketing Team at Union Street Media. You can also keep following this blog for more information about internet marketing for Realtors. In particular, follow G. Dewald’s series on Website Optimization for Real Estate.

Multiple Choice: Where do customers look online to find a home?

Over at the Future of Real Estate Marketing, Joel Burslem gives a great rundown the different ways customers can find a home online. Pull quote:

It’s great that there are so many options, but it’s all starting to feel like a little too much. Too much overlap. Too many options.What’s even more bizarre is that all of these developments are coming at a time when tent cities are popping up in LA as housing refugees flee their foreclosed homes.

On-site Optimization for Real Estate Part 2: Getting ready to measure

Last time we discussed the overview of a site optimization process, so I bet you’re ready to get rolling on improving your site. But before we can start implementing our process we need to chart a course. Let’s get started.

Determine the objective

For most real estate sites, the objective is to increase qualified leads (the people who are looking for the kind of property you like to sell or selling the kind of property you like to buy). Maybe there are other objectives as well. Think about this as you begin your process. Maybe sometime in the future your goals and objectives will change, that’s fine. The important thing is to know what your goals are so that you can track them.

Track your progress

Once your objectives are determined, it’s time to figure out what metrics you’re going to use to track your progress. The TLA (three letter acronym) used to describe the metrics that connect to your objective is KPI (key performance indicator). It’s very important to remember that every KPI is a metric but not every metric is a KPI. There are hundreds of reports a decent analytics package will produce for you. Not all of them relate to your objective. An excellent rundown of what makes a metric into a KPI can be found on Dennis Mortensen’s VisualRevenue blog:

7 KPI characteristics

1. a KPI echoes organizational goals
2. a KPI is decided by management
3. a KPI provides context
4. a KPI creates meaning on all organizational levels
5. a KPI is based on legitimate data
6. a KPI is easy to understand
7. a KPI leads to action!

I know it’s easy to let your eyes glaze over as you read that handy list. But resist the urge. Note a couple important items like #2: a KPI is decided by management. That means you. Your analyst (me) can make some good suggestions but ultimately you’ve got to decide that it’s relevant. If you don’t, then everyone will just be spinning their wheels. Take the time to understand why your analyst is suggesting a specific KPI and make it a conversation.

Another great one is #5: a KPI based on legitimate data. You need to understand your analytics package and establish your degree of confidence in it. You also need to understand what your analyst is doing with the numbers outside of the analytics package (yes, we’re making spreadsheets and trying to provide more context–Google Analytics has some pretty graphs, but we need more).

Number 7 is the most important of all: a KPI leads to action. If you can’t do anything with the data, if you can’t base a business decision on it, then it isn’t worth tracking. It may be interesting. Entertainment is interesting. Analysis needs to inform action.

For some examples of KPIs for real estate sites, check out my guest post over at MyTechOpinion.com: Three KPIs for Real Estate Websites.

Now what?

Take a deep breath. If you’ve come this far chances are good that you’ve done more than your competition: you know what you want to do and you know how you will measure your progress. And you are committed to making improvements to speed your progress. You’ve done the thinking and now it’s time for acting.

Next time we’re going to cover setting up a benchmark study (so we can see if any of our decisions and actions are helping or hurting).

More mobile stats released

The New York Times reports on an M:Metrics study finding that yes, iPhone users do more internet surfing than smartphone users and mobile phone users. But we already knew that. Over at the M:Metrics site there’s more useful information, like

They [iPhone users] are more likely to be: male, aged 25-34, earn more that $100,000 and have a college degree, than the average mobile subscriber.

The Mark Donovan, a senior analyst at M:Metrics also adds this:

“While the demographics of iPhone users are very similar to all smartphone owners, the iPhone is outpacing other smartphones in driving mobile content consumption by a significant margin,” said Donovan. “In addition to the attributes of the device itself, another important factor to consider is the fact that all iPhones on AT&T are attached to an unlimited data plan. Our data shows that once the fear of surprise data charges is eliminated, mobile content consumption increases dramatically, regardless of device.”

Nice to have a little demographic and analysis in with our iPhone-is-eating-the-mobile-market coverage.

Better branding: Keeping people in their homes.

As mentioned previously, I was very impressed with Inman’s suggestion at NYC Connect 07 that real estate professionals do what they can to help their customers in trouble. Here’s a pretty decent post that outlines some resources to help keep your clients in their homes (skip to the bottom). File under: long term brand building through customer service excellence.

Calculating ROI for Real Estate (or any business) Blogging

I couldn’t resist picking up the gauntlet dropped by Louis Cammarosano over at HomeGain. In his post, an excellent outline of all the questions one should answer before embarking on blogging for real estate or for any business, he asks in point #3

Is blogging a cost effective use of time?

Ask yourself, why spend time blogging (unless you like to) when you can spend time engaged in other activities that help you sell real estate? Indeed, blogging will probably cut into your leisure activity time too.

This is all the hook I needed to put together this how-to on answering this important question. I advise everyone to apply similar discipline for the “other activities that help you sell real estate” (or whatever else you may sell) as well. If you measure it, you can improve. Here we go: Read more

Universal MLS data feed?

One of the best ways to market real estate online is to get your listings in front of as many people as possible. This is pretty much common sense. On the other hand, negotiating ways in which the data that makes up a listing can be shared is a particularly touchy subject. Against a backdrop of prolonged discussions of a national MLS and an increasingly competitive market, technology companies are going ahead with plans to create a universal feed for syndicating listings.

There is a relevant “geek speak” phrase that come to mind in the real estate online marketing landscape of early 2008: Steward Brand’s “information wants to be free.” Here’s the full context, from his speech at the Hacker’s Conference way back in 1984:

“On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.”

Sounds a lot like the careful dance of getting an MLS online in the most effective manner, doesn’t it.

As people were discussing at Inman Connect NYC, Yahoo!, Trulia and Zillow are getting together to work on a standardized feed for syndicating real estate listings. Here’s where they’re at now. Very interesting indeed.

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