With the recent minority possition taken by Housevalues in Active Rain there has been lots of discussion about what benefit there is for Housevalues to do such a thing. I think that the consensus is that it amounts to 60K+ REALTOR membership at Active Rain creating a stronger and stronger link partner for Housevalues in the long run.

This got me thinking, if blogging on Active Rain is Aiding Housevalues, Isn't blogging and otherwise providing content such as answering questions, Blogging, and such on sites such as Active Rain, Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and other similar sites, I think Homes.com even has their blogging/whatever platform as well. Anyway run on there but anyway, all those companies are competing with us directly for the customers we want. If we help them by providing them the unique content they need to attract our customers, aren't we giving them for free what they need to win the battle for our customers, just so that they can sell them back to us or whoever in our marketplace is willing to pay for them??

What are your thoughts??

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James Boyer
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
Morristown, NJ 07960
973-647-0253
Serving the Real Estate markets of Morristown, Morris Township, Madison NJ Real Estate, Chatham NJ , Summit, Short Hills, Millburn, Maplewood, South Orange, & West Orange Referals happily given and accepted. For information on home sales in New Jersey please contact. Morristown NJ Real Estate Madison NJ Real Estate Chatham NJ Real Estate

A good point you make here. I think you are right, and I am glad you brought it to my attention. I think Housevalues did this for the exact reason you stated to get a chance at all of the realtors on Active Rain.

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Atlanta Real Estate

Excellent points, James. I've had some of the same thoughts myself, but I had no idea Housevalues took a position in AR. Housevalues, homegain, home.com etc...they are all our direct competition. I totally agree with you, adding unique content to these sites only hurts us by giving the bad guys high SERP's.

I'm going to set that up a REW blog on my site very soon. The main reason people blog on sites like AR is to drive traffic to their site. Why not just have your blog on your personal url? Screw the middleman!

Damn, I can't believe Housevalues is going to profit from AR. That sucks!
Thanks for that info.

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Ronnie Bredahl

Austin Real Estate
Austin Texas Real Estate

Jim, a little off topic but, HV putting cash into AR gives them a front for advertising space. Now their cheerleaders have a 60,000 agent platform to post how successful they are using HV. When I have checked the stats of local realtors who claim their high success rate using HV, they must not record the sales on the MLS as they are not even close to what they report. And, I agree with you, what HV now has with links and promotion for their program was a brilliant idea for getting new exposure for a company that needs an influx of new subscribers to take money from. Getting just one agent a day from AR signing up will generate close to $1M in revenue in the first year. The fact is that most agents see lead generation companies as the only way they can get internet leads, so they are willing to pay for them. Most realtors just don't get it that most of these lead generating companies are in it for revenue.. not for making realtors successsful on their own.

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Excellent idea Ronnie, just make sure that REW makes your blog a do-follow blog so that you can join the ever growing group of do-follow bloggers here who from time to time help each other out by reading and commenting on each others blogs, in the long run that tends to help the blog owner as well.

Jim

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James Boyer
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
Morristown, NJ 07960
973-647-0253
Serving the Real Estate markets of Morristown, Morris Township, Madison NJ Real Estate, Chatham NJ , Summit, Short Hills, Millburn, Maplewood, South Orange, & West Orange Referals happily given and accepted. For information on home sales in New Jersey please contact. Morristown NJ Real Estate Madison NJ Real Estate Chatham NJ Real Estate

OCTEAM, you make a valid point but remember that most Realtors are not like us and do not spend all of their waking hours on the internet. It's not like they have many options. Where else are they going to go for leads?

There are only 10 spots on the front page of Google, and not enough room for every agent in town.

You can't have a top ten site without a lot of work or a lot of money to pay someone else to do a lot of work.

For most Realtors their only hope is to attach themselves to one of these well ranked referral sites. The good thing is that we know this and can profit from not buying into it.

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Coastal Delaware Real Estate Sales
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I'll make sure it's a "do-follow" blog.

REW will do anything I tell them for the right amount of money. It's like I have mind-control over them!

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Ronnie Bredahl

Austin Real Estate
Austin Texas Real Estate

LOL, you ain't kiddin' brother!

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Jessie: Panama City Beach Real Estate, Panama City Real Estate and Panama City Beach Condos

I've been thinking about this but I'm not sure at what level we're really helping HV. If it's just that they now have easier access to more agents that will try their services then I don't care - let those agents give them their money.

However, if the AR platform is helping HV rise above my sites in the se's, then I have to rethink my membership there. As it stands, I don't think I'm in competition with HV for my keywords. My big competitors are realtor.com, yahoo & Homegain. Sometimes I'm on top, sometimes one or more of them are.

Will our continued posting actually help HV in the serps? If not, then I will keep posting there to help out my sites, as I don't get anything else from AR (have yet to get an actual lead or referral from them & I'm the Featured Agent, or whatever, for my popular town I work in).

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S. Next door you can find Tinley Park homes for sale and get Orland Park amenities at a more affordable price.

Well I won't be as active on AR now. I worked hard to get to the #1 spot for Sunnyvale and it seems a waste to just let it slip away.

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Sunnyvale Real Estate
Santa Clara Real Estate
Cupertino Real Estate