Sorry I haven't been here for a while, I've been finishing off my degree in Eastern European specialised Economics and it's been pretty tough! But I'm back now and hope to regularly update you with real estate news, trends and advice from London,UK :-D

For my first post back I'm going to focus on something dear to my heart, online property advertising. Regardless of any downturn in the property market, we’ve known for a long time now that press advertising was going to fall out of favour with agents. Advertising properties online allows anyone in the world to see your properties and let’s face it, people don’t just move within the perimeters of their weekly local newspaper area!

Local newspapers have always been a staple part of the marketing mix for estate agents, but as more and more people come online it’s hard for agents to resist the allure of online advertising. In 2008, house hunters want to look at all the properties in a specific area with a certain number of bedrooms, bathrooms, features etc. Leafing through page after page of teeny abbreviated listings with just the one photo is not ideal for anyone. Who has the time?

Regional press advertising is unlikely to dry up completely any time soon, but in today’s tight market online advertising is coming out on top as offering better returns for a smaller spend. Yesterday, Daily Mail and General Trust warned that its regional papers were suffering and placed the blame mainly on a lack of property advertising. The news sent shares plummeting to their lowest in more than a decade.

DMGT, which publishes the free London papers Metro and London Lite amongst others, said property advertising in March and April fell 12.7% and early reports for May seemed to indicate a further decline. Here at Zoomf on the other hand, we’ve seen a huge surge in the number of agents wanting to advertise with us. We’re definitely not complaining about this change in trends!

In this difficult market, have you paid more attention to the cheaper ways to market yourself and your listings online? Are there some expensive methods of marketing that you're finding hard to keep footing the bill for but still see as an essential part of your brand promotion?

It's nice to be back!