Wasn’t going to do this because it’s probably sending the wrong message but can’t help it – it’s more curiosity now than anything esle. Wondering how many links it will take to get Chicago Northwest Suburbs Real Estate to the #1 spot. I know Knox and Cal linked as well. Maybe it’s a little personal for me because I had spent quite a bit of time being seduced by the points at Active Rain and I do have the top spot for Davis. My Active Rain profile does OK. It flirts with the first page of Google for a good keyword, Davis CA real estate.
It’s like the debate over forced registration on a real estate website – people will swear they get clients who chose to work with them because they did not force registration on their site – problem is they’ll never know how many potential clients they lost out on because they did not get contact information from the vast majority of users. Active Rain is like that. Yes, maybe you can rank for some terms if you blog consistently on AR however, what about the missed opportunity of building the authority on your own website.
This blog is new, so likely the only ones who will see this post right now are limited to those who get here through referring sites, but that won’t always be the case.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve had a top spot at AR for my main term…mostly it was just for status. IF the TOS ever does change (like it already has) to something else, you may have wished to not have given away so much content. Good point is localism…all that content and you have to pay for placement and all of your links are no followed.
We have the same concerns with our website as to whether or not we should make people register to be able to see all the features. We currently do make them register and we receive about 60 leads a day on our Fort Worth website.
Charles you are right which is another good reason to primarily stick to blogging on your own property or at least sites that you have a higher level of trust with.
Ashlee – just wanted to point out for anyone who stops who may not know you that I know your numbers are completly legit – and I’m sure can be even higher.
The decision to make the people who visit your site register is a difficult one. People have mixed feelings and you can’t please everyone so I think it’s best to do what you feel comfortable with and hope for the best!
Hi Carolyn, it’s Lenny with Sundream Estate in Marbella, Spain. (Also a member in Realestatewebmasters Forum) We don’t force our clients to register to get in on our web site. Many clients have said that they jump over those sites that have that, because in 1 or 2 hour some “hard pushing agents” is calling.
I am bummed about the time I wasted on AR trying to gain points and whatever for my Hawaii real estate site. I regret almost every minute of time I spent there.
As far as forced reg, I think you have to make them register and so does Morgan at REW. Why would you want people to surf around if they’re not ready to talk to you? Basically if a person is ready to buy or sell a house, they will be ready to give you info.
Also today I got an email from a ‘lead’ that told me that the only reason he gave me his email was because he liked the info on my site so much. so the moral is – have a great site with tons of good info and people will give you their info.
I do not have forced registration to view my branded website but my unbranded site requires the person to sign-up for homes. On occasion I receive an email from an irrate consumer who will call me a “spammer” but other than that it works very well.
On our main websites we get plenty of leads by not having forced registration. I would rather have people contact me because they want to as opposed to making them give me their details when viewing properties. It makes for a nice relationship. lol
Hey, just a tip for the people who’ve left keywords instead of names – you are likely going to have someone put you into the spam folder at some point and the way the do-follow plug in is set up here – you’re not likely to get the link love. Now that is out of the way-the debate on forced reg. vs. no registration is likely to on forever – don’t think I can convince anyone otherwise, but really do believe the people who will go out of their way to call you are in the minority compared to people who will leave their contact info. Then it becomes a matter of what kind of a job you can do to convert them into clients – I don’t think I have everything figured out-but I at least know what I need to do.
One of the sites with the most traffic in Hawaii does not require a login. I also find it non-user friendly. Despite that, the two-person team does very well.
Hopefully the market picks up and we can all make some more sales!