Special offer

Hyper Local 1000 pt Contest and Hyper Local Content For Your 1000 pt Post

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Zillow

Right now ActiveRain has a great contest going on where you can get 1000 points just by writing hyper local content.  So that then begs the question, "Great, but what should I write about? I sure want those darn points!"

Coincidentally, Zillow just launched our Local Pages which has all kinds of local data that can be chopped up and served in many different ways - perfect to use in your local blog posts and score some bonus points!

First, click on the new Local Info tab.

 

 Just going into the Overview tab of the local pages, you can see a wealth of info.  For example, in my Chicago neighborhood of Near North, I can see:

- Zillow Home Value Index (remember this is an index of all homes, not just the one that are for sale or are currently on the market) is $344,000, representing a 1-Year Change of a positive 7.5%. 

- 98.3% of the type of homes in Near North are condos, verses only 1% are single family homes.

- 43.4% are single verses 40.8% are married. (important to know if you are moving to a new neighborhood in search of a future spouse) 

And from there I can see photos of the area that people have posted (this could be another blog post in itself on how to use your community photos for marketing purposes) and any questions people may have asked in the Zillow Advice in the Near North neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want more information about home values and prices, click into the appropriate area from the side bar.  Here is where you can really sort and chop up the data into interesting talking points. 

You can select up to four neighborhoods to compare side by side, and you can alter the data to appear for one, five or ten years.

By clicking on these various filters, you should be able to come up with a number of great local posts.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Good luck to all with the contest.  What a great way to pick up some extra  points, get some great information about your neighborhood out to the public, and score some SEO juice.

Posted by

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

   Thanks for reading!  Subscribe here to be alerted of blog updates. rss sara bonert blog zillow  

Want to learn how to use Zillow better?  Check out:

 

 

I'm on Twitter too! Follow me at @sbonert

 

Chris Olsen
Olsen Ziegler Realty - Cleveland, OH
Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate

Somehow I am not seeing the connection on how contributing to Zillow is really going to benefit me.  Seems like I am an adjunct to Zillow, whereas on AR, agents are the center of this platform.

Jul 28, 2009 03:02 PM
Kathy Streib
Cypress, TX
Home Stager/Redesign

Sara, I just used Zillow's new tab tonight when doing some research for the hyper local content contest.  Thanks!

Jul 28, 2009 03:17 PM
Margaret Woda
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. - Crofton, MD
Maryland Real Estate & Military Relocation

Looking forward to your answering Katerina's question.  Great tutorial, Sara.

Jul 28, 2009 03:40 PM
Melissa Brown
Helen Adams Realty - Charlotte, NC
Realtor - South Charlotte NC Homes for Sale

I appreciate Zillow's efforts to provide data for us to use!  It's getting better and better

Jul 28, 2009 03:43 PM
Roland Woodworth
Blue Cord Realty - Clarksville, TN
Blue Cord Realty

Sara.. this is great information.. I didn't know about this new product from Zillow.. Thanks for sharing.

Jul 28, 2009 03:58 PM
Lane Bailey
Century 21 Results Realty - Suwanee, GA
Realtor & Car Guy

I guess I'll have to go over and play on that jungle gym a little, too...

Jul 28, 2009 04:04 PM
Michael Sciacca
Oxford Realty - Aliso Viejo, CA

Thanks,

 

But how does active rain know it is hyperlocal and award 1,000 points instead of the normal 200?

Jul 28, 2009 04:10 PM
Will Nesbitt
Nesbitt Realty at Condo Alexandria - Alexandria, VA
Nesbitt Realty is a family-run brokerage.

Is there any other type of content than hyperlocal?

Jul 28, 2009 11:03 PM
Roger Johnson
Hickory, NC

Thanks for sharing this info.  I will check it out.

Jul 29, 2009 12:02 AM
Michael J. Perry
KW Elite - Lancaster, PA
Lancaster, PA Relo Specialist

Interesting post, I need to expand my listings exposure on Zillow.

Jul 29, 2009 12:30 AM
Tere Rottink
CoastalVa Realty Inc - Virginia Beach, VA

I will head on to Zillow,and see what you have for my area. 

Jul 29, 2009 01:53 AM
Sara Bonert
Zillow - Atlanta, GA
Real Estate Internet Marketing

Sabrina- We indeed do have info about Woodland Park, CO.  Here is a link- http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CO-Woodland-Park/r_8000/

Katerina - Let me get back to you.  Want to check with legal to make sure I answer you correctly.  What I can say is that anytime we use any information from a partner, we give them attribution.  This is the reason that people like to upload photos, because underneath the photo we put their name with a link back to their profile page.  (you could also always watermark the photo in a non-intrusive way). More to come here...

Marc- Sorry, not in Canada yet! 

Chris- The difference is audience.  While AR does a great job with SEO to attract consumers, you are right that it is place where real estate professional hang out (except for localism).  On Zillow, our audience is mostly home buyers, sellers, owners.  About 25% of our audience is in the professional sector.  It is important to be where your clients, or future clients are hanging out online.  Actually, I think it is important to be in both places!

Jul 29, 2009 02:20 AM
Sara Bonert
Zillow - Atlanta, GA
Real Estate Internet Marketing

Back to Katerina's question - The photos stay property of the copyright holder (owner or agent, whoever took the photo), but Zillow gets a license to use the photos.  So say the photo came in for a particular listing.  With this license we can then reuse the photo in other features of the site, like Dueling Digs or include them on our Local Pages. Again, we still always give attribution to the source that gave them to us, via a by line that includes a link back to the agent's profile.  

Jul 29, 2009 05:05 AM
Joetta Fort
The DiGiorgio Group - Arvada, CO
Independent Broker, Homes Denver to Boulder

Wow - a positive change in home values would be something to shout about - going to check it out now!

Jul 29, 2009 07:02 AM
Jeani Codrey
RE/MAX Corridor - New Braunfels, TX
Director of Opportunity & Agent Development

Cool!  I am always looking for more local data...I have several sources, but I am liking this idea!  Thanks for the tip!

Jeani Thomas Richie, REALTOR

Jul 29, 2009 08:46 AM
Carol Pease
JP & Associates Realtors - Bastrop, TX
CRS, Broker-Associate 512-721-6320

I'm going to head over to Zillow and check it out. 

Jul 29, 2009 08:58 AM
Vickie McCartney
Maverick Realty - Owensboro, KY
Broker, Real Estate Agent Owensboro KY

Sara~ Thanks for passing the information on about Zillow.  I am going to check it out now.

Jul 29, 2009 12:48 PM
Gary L. Waters Broker Associate, Bucci Realty
Bucci Realty, Inc. - Melbourne, FL
Eighteen Years Experience in Brevard County

Lots of good info here. I need to get back to my Zillow account and get to work. Thanks.

Jul 30, 2009 01:38 AM
Sara Bonert
Zillow - Atlanta, GA
Real Estate Internet Marketing

*Update* - Not only do we have all of this info on the site, we've now turned it into a widget so that you can easily have this local info automatically feed onto your website or blog- for free. 

More info at - http://www.zillow.com/webtools/widgets/RegionalHomeValues.htm 

Aug 20, 2009 12:20 PM
Anonymous
pictures contest

Great work sara. What shall I write if someone asked me to write? Pictures contest what all matters to me .

http://www.picturescontest.com/

Oct 12, 2009 12:13 AM
#50