INTERNET ADVERTISING, AFTER 16 YEARS, STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS.

INTERNET ADVERTISING, AFTER 16 YEARS, STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. 

Ah, memories.  Michael Thornton inspires a few memories with his morning post "Monday Morning and Some Points to Ponder".  When I decided to "go Internet" in 1995, I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but my instincts and experience advertising told me that it would work.

STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS.  That said, for 16 years, this Internet adventure has been a work in process.  As the Internet adapted, I had to do the same.  Simply dipping your toe into the pool of a new advertising medium is not enough.  With Internet advertising, we early adapters quickly learned that, "WAIT, THIS THING IS MOVING VERY FAST". 

TIMING IS EVERYTHING.  Inspired by Michael Thornton to ponder this journey, I'm reminded of a time in 1994 when I first learned of the Internet and BINGO, what a fabulous and fortuitous medium and at just the right time.  I had just left a mega broker and was faced with the Herculean task of reaching home buyers.  Direct mail to renters in large apartment communities worked well.  I also had the routine referrals from family and friends of satisfied buyer clients.  I loved being known as the "family Realtor", as one lovely buyer called me.  Why not?  That one family beginning with one buyer resulted in seven transactions.  However, once the "company generated" referrals were no more, it was all up to me.  ENTER THE INTERNET!

"HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR BUYER?"  It was a routine question that I heard often.  Agents and your own broker would ask that question with every new transaction.  When you answer "Internet", the next comment would often be, "What's the Internet?".  So, you know that you still have a bit of a lead but you also know that you'll have to work hard to stay in front of the pack of hungry competitors, many far better financed.  It seemed that each new day brought a new portal, new directory, new search engine to explore.  Fortunately, some of the mega brokers considered the Internet no threat. 

However, the real estate business has always been fueled and sustained by the actions of individual agents through personal promotion, newspaper advertising, individual yard signs and magazines.  Remember when the real estate magazines were devoured by home buyers and made the phone ring???  By 1997, those magazines were already losing advertising market share to the Internet.  Look at the formerly mighty newspaper which is now often an advertising memory.  Not only can newspaper real estate advertising not compete with Internet advertising, HA! that newspaper itself may be just a memory. 

WHAT?  NO GOOGLE?  In 1995, simply having a web site was not enough.  For one thing, there was no GOOGLE to magically crawl the Internet each day and find your site, index it and, often with plain dumb luck, produce your site in a consumer search.  In the beginning, Internet advertisers had to watch as new directories, search engines, portals, etc. came online then work hard to try to be included in those sites.  SEARCH was rudimentary when compared to what Google routinely does each and every day. 

WHEN IS AGE A BENEFIT?  HA!  You thought I was referring to the age of real estate agents, didn't you??  Not at all. 

• Age of your domain name.
• Age of your credit report. 

Fact:  The date of registration of a domain name will help your site rank well 

Fact:  The length of time you have maintained good credit will be reflected in your credit score.

SEE:  HOMEFINDERS.COM WHOIS registration record:  
Creation date: 21 Jun 1995
Expiration date: 20 Jun 2014  

DOMAIN/URL/WEB SITE.  Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but. . . . one way of avoiding the dreaded Google sand box is building a web site with a domain name that was registered some years ago.  Google knows the age of your domain/the URL of your web site and when your web site went live!  I have often read the warnings of web site developers that "your site will be in the Google sand box for about 6 months".  NONSENSE!  If I heard that from a site developer, they wouldn't get my business.  Avoiding the Google sandbox, if there is one, takes good Google sense, not six months.

HEARD IN DECEMBER 1994, 

• Broker, "WHAT'S NEW WITH YOU, LENN?" 
• Lenn, "I'M THINKING OF GOING ON THE INTERNET."
• Broker, "WHAT'S THE INTERNET?"

That question was asked of me in December of 1994 by my then broker.  He really didn't know what the Internet was and for the next couple of years, as I expanded my Internet business, he often bragged about his lack of knowledge of Internet advertising.  His was the attitude of many agents and brokers who eschew the Internet because "we're doing just fine without it, thank you." 

A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY.  As I ponder my Internet adventure this morning, fact is, I and others in the ActiveRain community, are still a minority of agents who embrace the Internet.

FINE WITH ME!

Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988.

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