4 hot Web tools for agents
Part 2: Trends and gems from Connect NYC
By Bernice Ross, Monday, February 15, 2010.
Editor's note: This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Read Part 1 and Part 3.
What are some of the hot new technologies for agents in 2010? Here are four terrific resources, and best of all, they're free!
1. StatCounter.com
When it comes to Web site analytics, very few agents pay attention to this important data that tells them how visitors find their site, which keywords are generating the most visitors, as well as what causes visitors to surf elsewhere. Google Analytics provides great basic information. If you want a more detailed analysis, however, most companies charge a fee. In contrast, StatCounter.com provides analysis on 29 different factors at no charge.
For example, under "search engine wars" you can see what percentage of your traffic originates from various sites. If you are using a pay-per-click or "ad word" strategy, this shows you where your money is best spent for ads.
The "keyword analysis" allows you to determine which keywords provide the greatest number of visitors to your site. For example, is it better to say "homes for sale," "houses for sale" or "listings for sale?" The only way to know is by monitoring which words receive the most clicks on your personal site.
One of the most important tools to use from StatCounter is the "repeat visitor" tracking tool. Paul Zweben and Mitch Ribak, in their session on "How to Make Leads and Influence People," reported that their Web site visitors would typically return 25 to 30 times before they would contact them personally about doing business. Tracking repeat visitors allows you to identify which Web visitors are most likely to do business with you.
2. Tumblr.com
What is Tumblr.com? It's a combination of a photo-sharing site like Flickr.com, a micro-blogging platform like Twitter, a tagging site like del.icio.us, a video sharing site like YouTube.com, and a recommendation site similar to Stumbleupon.com (a site that finds blog posts on topics you select and sends them to you.) If you don't have an account, you can visit the "Popular" tab on Tumblr to see how it displays interesting photos in real time.
The cool thing about Tumblr is that it allows you to create blogging content in a wide variety of ways other than just writing. The basic format works like a blog, but it also does much more. For example, the "Bookmarklet" allows you to easily share posts, articles, pictures or videos with your friends and followers. If you write a blog post, you can also post it to Facebook or Twitter.
One of the most attractive factors about Tumbler is its e-mail publishing tool. If you have an iPhone, you can post texts, photos, MP3s and videos directly from your mobile phone to the Tumblr site. For those who like to talk but aren't dedicated bloggers or writers, Tumblr allows you to post directly to your blog by dialing an 800 number.
Unlike Posterous that sends the traffic to the Posterous site, Tumblr allows you to set up your account so that what you send comes from your personal Web site URL rather than a Tumblr address. This means your site receives the traffic rather than a third party. ...CONTINUED
All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
You must login or register to post a comment.
Submitted by Susie Blackmon on February 15, 2010 - 2:06pm.
You can also use your own URL on Posterous. My Posterous site address is http://SusieBlackmon.com
Susie Blackmon
http://unhub.com/susieblackmon
Submitted by Bernice Ross on February 15, 2010 - 5:05pm.
Bernice Ross, CEO of www.RealEstateCoach.com, home of this year's number #1 selling book at NAR--Real Estate Dough--Your Recipe for Real Estate Success
Susie, it is my understanding the Posterous creates a "skin" that looks like your site, but is residing on the Posterous site. Hence, the traffic goes to their site, not yours. Is your main site http://horsealicious.com/ or do you have a separate URL that you own and host on a separate server for SusieBlackmon.com? If you don't have a separate website for SusieBlackmon, then there's a high chance that this traffic is going to Posterous. A comparable analogy is Typepad's blogs. I have a Typepad blog at www.LuxuryClues.com, but that traffic still goes to Typepad, not my website. If you or any of our more sophisticated techies have the answer, would love to hear from you.
Submitted by Joan Lorberbaum Moore on February 15, 2010 - 7:58pm.
I'm not a "sophisticated techie" but I do know this:
I have two Posterous sites -- one of which has its own URL (www.bocadelrayboyntonphotoblog.com) that I purchased through & is hosted by Go Daddy. Thus, with its own DNS and with it set up to be monitored by Google Analytics I will assume the traffic goes directly to the site. I love seeing where the traffic comes from : - )
My other Posterous site address is joanlorberbaummoore.posterous.com. The title of that one is: Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach Florida Real Estate Source
All I'm really sure of right now is that I really need to start posting more to each site!!!
Joan Lorberbaum Moore
Broker Associate, GRI
Lang Realty
9858 Clint Moore Road
Boca Raton, FL 33496
www.boca-delray-boynton.com
Submitted by Gahlord Dewald | Thoughtfaucet on February 16, 2010 - 8:08am.
Statcounter is nice. But there's no way I'd recommend it over Google Analytics. Gotta disagree with you there, Bernice.
GA is also free and it's way more configurable to your own business needs than Statcounter is. Of course, maybe doing the configuration is a hassle. In which case Statcounter makes a good "gateway drug" to using the more full featured Google Analytics later.
Other than that, great tools!
G. Dewald | Thoughtfaucet
Let's Make Things People Like
Submitted by Bernice Ross on February 18, 2010 - 2:54pm.
Bernice Ross, CEO of www.RealEstateCoach.com, home of this year's number #1 selling book at NAR--Real Estate Dough--Your Recipe for Real Estate Success
Joan thanks for the update on Posterous. Gahlord, I'm probably like most Realtors--clueless on doing the configuration on this type of website data. Statcounter was free and seems pretty simple to use. Agree full blown analytics (which in many cases are provided by the agent's website host) are the best way to go.
Submitted by Gahlord Dewald | Thoughtfaucet on February 19, 2010 - 1:40pm.
Out of the box, with no configuration, GA is still better than StatCounter. ;)
The web analytics package provided by most web hosts is usually fairly miserable.
G. Dewald | Thoughtfaucet
Let's Make Things People Like