It's 100% all about referrals....that's it....not waiting for the gatekeeper

Bob from Brio just IM'd me about my misspelling in this post.  (rediculous, fixed to ridiculous) He asked me: "was this post prematurely posted? or am I seeing it in a draft mode............" 

That good huh?  Thanks for the vote of confidence Bob.

I am using the excuse that I am posting as a "stream of conciousness" - so if what I post is crap just know that it is a direct reflection of what is running through my head.

What's a "gatekeeper"?    Are far as prospecting goes, I wait for no one and I definitely use a pull strategy.  Most of these lead-generators are offering nothing but a clicked reference to a name and a phone number, and nothing of substance.  

I click on stuff all of the time on the Internet with little or no intention of buying.  I'm just having fun, doing a little research.  But what do you mean by gatekeeper? 

Larry,

Referrals are key.  But it takes time to establish that base. Check out this post about how to rate a blog lead. 

Andrew, they are gatekeepers because they stand in the way of the client getting to the source of information (the real estate agent)

I see now your stream of consciousness method at work. I like it. Much more your style. I've seen your desktop before..........30 tabs? you must be having a slow day...........

No, not a slow day at all Bob.  9 windows open, half of those windows are browsers and each of those have 30 tabs open.;)

Jonathan,   Yes the lead generating companies are a problem. I wonder why the FTC and DOJ don't limit referral fees to the betterment of the consumer?

Gary, FTC and DOJ limiting referral fees.  Hmm I have never heard of that angle before.  I imagine that the relo companies wouldn't like that too much.  And since the relo companies are often owned by large brokers (Realogy), I don't think the NAR will be lobbying too hard in support of that idea.  

I don't think the lead generation companies are the problem per se.  I always lean pretty heavily towards letting the free market figure out what is most effecient.  For a while the lead generators were an effecient way for agents to connect with ciients.  I think with the advent of web 2.0 and the adoption of agents sharing their local market knowledge, agents and consumers will be able to connect directly, thereby bypassing the gatekeepers (lead generators).  

A link to Pat's post?  I guess I will see about finding it.

I wonder why agents blogging about their areas fare worse than aggregators.

Sharon, you mean in search results?  If that is what you are asking I think that right now in general AR blogs rank higher in long tail - natural language type searches and the real estate aggregators rank higher on the short tail type searches.  Over time as AR gets more members (and incoming links), the AR blogs will start to surpass the aggregators on the short tail searches.

What is even more exciting in AR's future than the higher search rankings is the prospect of seeing our members localized posts syndicated to other online publishers.  Just imagine being a Seattle area real estate agent and being able to write a local neighborhood blog post and then within a day see that blog article syndicated to the SeattleTimes.com and realestate.yahoo.com.  

Jon,

Obviously, I'll disagree with you.  

Your logic would suggest that NBC is the gatekeeper to a Big Mac.

Lead generators are advertising mediums that some  Realtors employ to expand their reach.  Realtors are the gatekeepers to a homebuying experience because of their knowledge and expertise. 

FWIW...it's good to see a little rant from the RainMaker; it's long overdue.

PS- Great party last week.