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Should you add your listings to this site?

By
Education & Training with Marketing Artfully

I got an email from a client today (Julia Fishel from The Suncoast Partners in Palm Harbor) asking if she should add her listings to a site. Now I know that she is VERY proactive about marketing her listings and does the best for her clients, BUT how can you tell if she will actually get any traffic for the effort of adding her many listings?

The easiest way I have found is to go to www.alexa.com and check the traffic of the site. You can add real estate sites that you know get traffic (I used Trulia and Zillow but you could use MSN Real Estate, Yahoo Real Estate, Realtor.com or any other site that is known to have good traffic).

Now don't get me wrong, most sites do not generate enough traffic to even make a blip on the radar, BUT if I am going to enter all my listings onto ONE MORE site I want to know that it will get seen! Here are the results from my search:

 

See the results!

 

Zillow had .06 per month as an average
Trulia had .04 per month as an average
classifiedflyerads.com barely registered

 

Based on the level of traffic this site gets, I would think that Julia could find other places to spend her valuable time and listings on that might get her more exposure!

 

Comments (7)

The Somers Team
The Somers Team at KW Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA
Delivering Real Estate Happiness

Thanks for the insight.  Dont those sites automatically upload the listings from the MLS or do they need to be added ?  Sites such as trulia and zillow ?  We have our listings showcased on Realtor.com.  I could not understand the link so it does not make much sense to post listings to this site ?

Jul 10, 2008 12:42 PM
Tara Jacobsen
Marketing Artfully - Clearwater, FL
Marketing Artfully

Hi Christopher! The MLS doesn't automatically upload to anything (in our area) but to Realtor.com. You can add your listings to MANY different sites who will send them out to many different places, BUT it takes TIME. I think that if you are going to add to any sites that postlets.com, point2agent.com, zillow.com and trulia.com are good ones to start with (postlets.com is the BEST though because you can cut and paste their code into Craigs List, Active Rain, your sidebar or anywhere else to make a pretty listing without having to know how to write HTML code).

Basically I have found that you can spend all day loading your listings to online sites - I would just check and make sure those sites have traffic before you take the time to share your listings!

Jul 10, 2008 12:50 PM
Eric Reid
Renaissance Realty Group of Keller Williams Atlanta Partners - Lawrenceville, GA

It's hard to keep up with every web site request demand I currently don't pay to post ..and if someone "barrows" my listings oh well

Jul 10, 2008 01:07 PM
Tara Jacobsen
Marketing Artfully - Clearwater, FL
Marketing Artfully

Dear Eric, I can tell you that you could spend ALL your time posting your listings on different free websites. The problem is that if they do not have any traffic you are wasting your time! I would not pay to add my listings to ANY site as there are so many free options BUT if you are spending your time then they are not really free since they are taking you away from lead generating or talking with your clients or previewing homes or any of the million other things realtors do!

Jul 10, 2008 01:12 PM
David Gibbons
Zillow.com - Seattle, WA

Hi Tara it's David G from Zillow.com,

This is a great tip. Online marketing can consume your time; you have to spend it wisely. Besides alexa, two other free traffic estimating services are compete and quantcast (with compete being my personal favorite.)

Jul 10, 2008 01:45 PM
Anonymous
Julia Fishel (Keller Williams)

Tara,

Thanks for your brilliant input.  Once again you've saved me from fretting precious hours away.  Now if I could just stop being such a sucker for these ads that sound so convincing! 

Jul 10, 2008 02:56 PM
#6
Tara Jacobsen
Marketing Artfully - Clearwater, FL
Marketing Artfully

@David - I DO like compete.com better!

@Julia - Obviously a good sales letter...:) AND you may want to keep an eye on them - they may not have much traffic now but if they are doing some aggressive marketing they could be on radar soon!

Jul 10, 2008 11:25 PM