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9 things about Localism

1. In 24 months Localism will have more traffic than Trulia and Zillow combined. (That's not an entirely fair prediction since Trulia and Zillow are focused solely on real estate, whereas Localism encompasses everything local.)

2. Where ActiveRain gives real estate professionals a chance to talk to consumers, Localism will give real estate professionals a chance to talk with consumers.

3. Top Neighbor positioning is always free and based solely on a member's contribution to a community.

4. Being the community sponsor does not mean you own the community.

5. Being a community sponsor will give you additional exposure; Just like any good advertising should.

6. We purposely priced the community sponsorships below market value.

7. Localism.com will be backed by a significant advertising campaign.

8. Sponsoring a few communities or small cities should be looked at like an investment in the future.

9. The entire vision for Localism has not yet been made known realized.

Posted by Jonathan Washburn on 07/28/2008 11:25 AM

Comments (98)

localism

Originally posted at: jonwashburn: 9 things about Localism

Post is included in group: The New Localism

98 Comments on 9 things about Localism

JUL

2008

OK, good information! Will park here and wait for the "entire vision" as I'm sure it will not disappoint and will be fantastic! Thanks Jon!

What day will sponsorship start ?? and have pricing been set ?

Eric Reid, Managing Broker Renaissance Realty Group Inc. Home Loss Prevention Expert Short Sale Certified REO Certified Graduate Harris Real Estate University Office: 404-921-2067 x 102 Fax: 770-513-4443 Search All Georgia Homes for Sale at www.GeorgiaOnlineHomes.com

That was plain and simple... more understandable :)

Jon, where can I get information on sponsoring my neighborhood communities? Or is that information not ready to be released yet?

Jon- Great to see you in San Francisco. You definitely made me excited about localism. Can't wait to find out more!

Eric,

I think sponsorship starts July 31st at noon...not sure if it's EST or when at noon...that should be clarified by AR...as there are am abundance of us in FLorida...and if it's West coast time...we need to know, b/c I think that is 3 pm here in the east.

Jonathan - Thanks for the KISS (keep it simple stupid) explanation. I think I am in a wait and see mode.

Jim,

I'm not exactly sure, however I think Brad wrote an article about it early last week...you might want to find Brad Andersohn's blog and scroll through...the info is out there. It's next July 31st at noon, as I replied to Eric.

The cost has not been discussed as yet that I have seen so far...maybe it has, but I have not seen it.

Karen, I am sure the entire vision will not disappoint. I can't wait for it to all come together.

Eric, July 31st is what we are shooting for. It will most likely be a slow, state-by-state, rollout. Pricing has been set. It starts at $15 per community or small city if you sponsor one, and goes down to $7.50 per sponsorship if you buy many.

Sally, I'm glad that this post was more understandable. I will work to post more and hopefully make things clearer.

Thank you for the information. A lot of us are still trying to sort it all out. Enjoy your evening. Regards, Carolyn.

I am very excited. Is it 7/31/08 yet? The fee is so small too. Can't wait for the unveiling. Thank you for all you do.

Jim, You can get information on sponsoring a community here: http://localism.com/sponsor

Ginger, It was great to see you too in SF. Our conversation on Thursday made me realize that I need to post more, and specifically write this post.

Karen, You are right all times listed will be in PST. We will be providing a detailed schedule regarding when each state will be available for sponsorship.

Pam, Wait and see mode is understandable! However, we did price the sponsorships in such a way that buying one or two shouldn't hurt too bad, and if it turns out that it isn't for you then you can always cancel. There is no long term contracts - just month to month.

Pat, Yes the fee is too small. :) We priced it as such so that ActiveRain can make a little money to keep the lights on, while at the same time creating a fair way to allocate the creation of the static content on each community page.

Thank you! I'll be waiting in line on the 31st!

Jon - I like your communication style. I am really excited about your plan, and I'm sure it will benefit most of us.

Jonathan - so how would something like Clearwater Beach work - it's actually not a city it's a community and is part of Clearwater Florida and less than 5000 residences

is that considered a small city?
is it $15 to sponsor it?

When we added communities to Clearwater Beach when Localism started we added lots of condo communities with say 100-200 condos in them.

The reason I gave specifics is to get a more concrete handle on how this is planned to work. Thanks for claifying for me. Still trying to figure it all out

I think that the problem is going to be that some of the communities are terribly over-priced, while others are under-priced. There are some communities I've seen with a few thousand homes, and others with just dozens. Not really worth the same price.

Jim, I am so glad to hear that you will be supporting the ActiveRain community on July 31st. I am sure that it will be good for your business.

Larry, "Benefit most of us." You know that sums up our plan very well. It is such a tricky endevour to find a way to create a viable revenue model for ActiveRain without turning off our members who are so important to us. At the end of the day I am most happy when I see real estate professionals benefiting from ActiveRain.

Cyndee, Clearwater Beach is a community. You can find it here: http://localism.com/fl/clearwater/clearwater_beach

You can tell if something is a community or city by looking at the url.

http://localism.com/fl/ This represent state level - Florida

http://localism.com/fl/clearwater/ This represents city level - Clearwater

http://localism.com/fl/clearwater/clearwater_beach This represents community level - Clearwater Beach

We will be releasing a list of all "small cities" or cities that are sponsorable soon. I believe there are a little over 5,000 across the country.

(I realize that this comment is not the clearest answer. I will try to create a post with more details and screenshots.)

Thanks Jonathan - that helps a lot seeing a specific example.

Jonathan- I started adding more Localism posts to my blog. This was a nice, clear, concise explanation, concerning communities. Looking forward to hearing more explanations of the entire vision for Localism.

Lane, You are exactly right! It does not make sense for someone to sponsor many (most?) of the communities available on ActiveRain, and those communities will remain sponsor-less until the traffic to those communities increase. And that is okay!

Some of the communities are priced just right at $15/mo, and some are going to be a steal for those early adopters.

Our hope is that active AR bloggers sponsor one or two communities, or small cities, that are most important to them. We looked at charging a subscription fee instead but we felt that maintaining the free option was important for many people just starting out, or who have not yet earned business from ActivRain.

We also looked at an auction model but I felt that was not in line with our culture.

I like that some of our members will be getting a huge value for their money; isn't that consistent with the way things are normally done on AR?

How about Coral Springs, FL...would that be:

http://www.localism.com/fl/coral _springs? I am interested in this area.

As you posted above: http://localism.com/fl/clearwater/clearwater_beach

Does that need a www. associated with it to work?

Jonathan,

How does the first come first served basis work? Also, regardless of the size of the town/city, I would appreciate the opportunity to sponsor these areas anyway. I live in a small town, the towns surrounding me are small as well. I realize the traffic won't be the same, but regardless I would still like an opportunity to sponsor them anyway.

More traffic than Trulia and Zillow? I can't wait to see the "entire vision" and I appreciate all that you AR folks are doing.

Karen, Coral Springs is a city. Another way to determine this is to go to the home page of Localism and type in your community/city name. In the search results it will list all of the matches and categorize them appropriately. Below is an screenshot of the keyword search "coral springs". Notice the Coral Springs communities on the left under the "Communities" header, and the Coral Springs city listing on the right?

Rebecca, We will be offering sponsorships on a state-by-state basis. We will be publishing the dates and times that sponsorships will become available.

We are debating the idea of giving AR members with higher points a first shot at the sponsorships. For example, Members with 200k and more points will be able to sponsor at 12pm. 100k and over will be able to sponsor at 12:15pm, 50k+ 12:30pm, and then allow any AR member the ability to sponsor at 1pm.

The sponsorships will be made available on a first come, first serve basis.

Matt, A big part of the vision will be revealed in about a month when we open up Localism contributions to anyone. Stayed tuned!

Hi Jon - Thanks for these points (no pun intended). I think I understand what you're going for at the local level, but am wondering how much the overall success of Localism is dependent on the degree of suceess in communities and the number of communities involved. I'm still undecided on the new Localism, but at least it's got me thinking a lot more about locally-focused content.

John, All of the success is dependent on the success of the communities. These hyper-local communities will become the virtual hub of the real world communities.

Jon- the new localism really rocks! Thanks man.

Yes I see Coral Springs. Last week I could find Fort Lauderdale and some other's but I didn't see Coral Springs...You guy's are great. I can tell that Localism get's better every day.

Now, If you could just edit those articles that go to Localism...I don't see where when I need to edit my blog for some reason, typo, etc...that the correction goes across to Localism once the post is there...

Thanks! Jon!

Karen,

"Now, If you could just edit those articles that go to Localism...I don't see where when I need to edit my blog for some reason, typo, etc...that the correction goes across to Localism once the post is there..."

Thanks for letting me know about this. I will look into it and get back to you with a solution.

Thank you Jonathan!

Jonathan - Looking at the screen shot about eight comments above this, am I correct to say only the communities of Coral Springs are available for sponsorship, but not the city? And that cities will only be available to sponsor if they are below a certain population?

John, Your assumption is correct. If the population according to the last census data is less than 40k, then the city is sponsorable.

Larger city sponsorships will be given away to the member who sponsors the most communities within that city.

JUL

2008

Jonathan...

"Investment in the future"...I simply don't understand why folks don't seem to get that.

Please hit the God button. The Members need to read it before the deadline.

TLW...ROAR!

We will be releasing a list of all "small cities" or cities that are sponsorable soon. I believe there are a little over 5,000 across the country.

(I realize that this comment is not the clearest answer. I will try to create a post with more details and screenshots.)

07/27/2008 09:14 PM

by Jonathan Washburn (ActiveRain Corp)

Has a list of small cities been generated yet? If so, I missed it - can you point me in the right direction? Thanks so much for keeping us all informed!

Yes this will be very interesting to see how it plays out...can't wait.

It's exciting to see the new information as it rolls out! Looking foward to the next few weeks!

JB Brookman

Castle Homes and Estates

Ladera Heights, CA

Jonathan,

Thanks for posting more information about the new Localism. You will probably get a lot of comments from all sides as I did with the following post:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/606165/What-s-all-the

Thanks again!

I love localism! I've noticed more about everything there is here since I started writing for localism. Thanks for the explanation.

We await all of the good things that localism is and shall become. I love # 9 and will stay tuned in to see what develops.

thanks for the post Jonathan

I'm definitely interested to see how Localism will progress

Hi Jonathan - I am really looking forward to the new Localism taking shape. I am sure it will get better and better.

Jonathan, While trying to follow all of the comments, I'm still a tiny bit confused. Huntsville Alabama is a city, Madison Alabama is a city (suburb of Huntsville). Huntsville population is 386,000'ish and Madison Alabama is 38,000'ishSo, if Kimberly Grant and I decide to "share" are we allowed to do that? She is number one in Huntsville, I'm 2nd in Huntsville, So, I'm assuming she will want Huntsville which is where she lives and I'll take Madison which is where I live. Huntsville is MUCH larger and may cost her more than she has planned. If that is the case, can we split it or something? We do play well in the sandbox together:) The more I write, the more I am confusing myself. Have I confused you yet? We both work the same areas. Can we split it all?

I like the "regionalism" that localism espouses.

Jonathan, that was me on the Huntsville comment. I wasn't logged in. Sorry:)

Jonathon,

I viewed a few villages (cities) in the Chicago Metro area. When you click on some villages, the associated neighborhoods lists other villages (cities) that may ba as far as 10 to 20 miles away and no way associated with the city just selected.

Are the lists of neighborhoods supposed to represent those contained in only that village? Someone may sponser Franklin Park, but it shows up as a neighborhood under Burr Ridge which is about 15 miles away in a different county.

Probably a glitch that can be overcome.

Thanks for this good information. I look forward to using this product and hope it will allow me to build my business further...

Thanks Jonathon, We really do appreciate the tremendous effort you folks have made and loof forward to a long and prosperous relationship !

What's Localism? :)

What if the cities/communities/neighborhoods are listed incorrectly? Will that be corrected prior to pricing and purchasing begins?

Jonathan, One more question...when will the prices be posted? Kimberly and I are wondering how much Huntsville Alabama will be?

I guess we shall see. That should be an exciting time in the history of Localism.com

Thanks Jonathan.....what if I am on a trip on July 31st and want to sponsor my neighborhood?

Ginny

Jonathan - Thanks for the clarification. I'd like to sponsor Ridgewood, NJ which is a community of 20,000 people. It is listed on localism as a city. I think you did it this way because there are some other communities listed as being part of Ridgewood, NJ.

However, I actually created these "communities" on the old localism and there are no posts in for any of them because I decided it was getting too granular. These are not communities but rather several block areas that have a nickname within the town (country club area, lawns area, etc.).

Additionally, some of them overlap. For instance, localism lists "The Lawns" and "Eastside" as two different communities but the "The lawns", which is only a few streets, is on the "Eastside".

This is a long way of saying, in my opinion, Ridgewood NJ is definitely a Community not a city. I am hoping I would not need to buy these empty communities to get the Community of Ridgewood because no realtor or business person or resident is ever going to post to "The Lawns" or "Old Country Club". It is way too small an area.

Thanks.

-Al

I am waiting anxiously for the sponsorship details to be unveiled on July 31/2008.

JW, I am a believer and I AIN'T looking back.... I hope you post (again?) what we need to do to sign up. AJ

JONATHAN - Thank you for the update on the future of Localism as it pertains to the top neighbor designation. I know that it is important to many people, but personally, I am more concerned with the actual posting of my blog to Localism.

What is the status of the current layout issues that are going on with Localism and the outside blogs? Are there plans in the works to make each platform interchangeable? Right now, many of my posts look fine in AR, but are shifted and difficult to read on Localism and the outside blogs.

Jonathan,

I'm very excited about Localism! I have had over double the traffic to my website in the past week. Thanks again and I look forward to the future with AR.

Pippa

Jonathan, take a look at my most recent post about my back-end statistics concerning Localism...Numbers already are showing what you have been preaching!:)

Jon - This looks great and we are both looking forward to the unveiling of sponsorship. We'll definitely be on line to sponsor some of our local communities. Only one question still perplexes me. When is the HTML going to be fixed on the localism site. I digress. Our blogs seem to be getting cut off from the pascackvalleyrealestate blog site? Sorry for the personal question but I would like to sponsor these communities but only if this little bug gets fixed. Thanks in advance and we on the east coast are looking forward to this launch. Best of luck with it. Sorry we couldn't make it to Frisco. Bob Hammerstein

I loved #2 in your post Jon, until I saw #9. You should add the word realized! :-) I'm jealous of your short and consice posts, I've got to do something about mine!! lol~

Thanks for the information, Jonathan. We are really enjoying the new look of Localism and can't wait for the latest developments to be unveiled. We believe this could be a very useful tool in our marketing campaign. We are getting phone calls from our posts on Localism - whatever you are doing back there behind the curtain - keep doing it!!! 8-)

James, Good to hear it. We will try to publish more details before the 31st.

AJ, I am glad that you are a convert. I am sure your belief will pay off big very soon. Stayed tuned for sponsorship methodology.

Adam, As of right now we have no plans to change the column sizes on Localism, but we may be looking to update the sizes on AR. Stayed tuned, we will figure out a solution to this problem.

Pippa, I am so glad that the new Localism is giving you great benefit already!

Diane, WOW!! Those are amazing numbers. All I can say is just wait; you haven't seen anything yet.

Bob, I just checked out your profile on Localism and see the display problem that you are concerned about. I don't think this is something that can be fixed on our end as the posts have HTML hard coded in that requires a greater width that the column. If you would like help reformatting your posts with new HTML give one of us at AR a call and we will do what we can. We missed you both in SF.

Brad, Done.

Fair enough!

Thank you for helping me to understand Localism. I look forward to hearing more about the sponsorship details.

Russell, Thank you for writing that post. I love hearing from our members, especially when they feel that AR is going in the wrong direction. So much of our development efforts have been guided by the feedback from our members.

David, Thanks for letting me know about those geographical inaccuracies. We will get on that right away.

Bill, Thank you for your support. Just know that we are over hear working our tails off to bring you as much prosperity as possible.

Bryant, I am sure it is way over your head. I wouldn't worry about it. You just keep listing!

Kimberly, As we learn of mis-appropriated cities and communities we will make adjustments. All of Localism will not be corrected before launch. We will allow a large deal of flexibility around the communities as they are member defined.

Elizabeth, I believe Huntsville has a population around 150k, so it will not be sponsor-able. In order to win sponsorship of that city you will need to be the member with the most community sponsorships within the city. I can only guess how many communities will be initially sponsored within Huntsville. On larger cities it does seem that the first person to sponsor the communities will have a huge advantage, as the first communities sponsored are most likely the most valuable.

Mina, I think the next 12 months will be an exciting time for Localism!

Ginny, If you are gone on the 31st and are unable to sponsor your community, then it is likely that your world will fall apart. Sorry. ;)

Aloysius, Assuming Ridgewood is listed in our records with a population less than 40,000 then you will be able to sponsor that city without needing to sponsor any of the underlying communities. However, even if you don't sponsor some of those smaller communities I would recommend that you create some content for them.

I had started to write a post about an issue I see with localism in our area. There are cities that have been created that ARE NOT cities but they are neighborhoods. There are cities that have been created that don't exist they are "areas" that the locals talk about and there are multiple instances of cities created with misspellings. So how are these going to be fixed or are they going to be fixed. If they are offered for sponsorship they might confuse a consumer who is looking for a particular city or neighborhood.

Thanks for the clarification..this surely helps :)

I am liking it so far mostly - I like the layout a lot - obviously a lot of work went into its launch. Thank you - I think you guys are brilliant and congrats on reaching 100k!

Jonathan...

What Elizabeth was thinking is what a lot of the members are thinking. It's a big part of the ongoing misunderstandings I am seeing.

TLW...ROAR!

Thank you Jonathan! Localism is helping me immensely. I'm looking forward to the changes and rolling with the new terrain...with a founding group like Active Rain, it's got to be good!! A very positive update - good, good, good.

Jonathan, Thanks so much for clarifying...I don't know why I have such a hard time understanding:) I think I have it now! I'll pass this along to Kimberly.

Is there a clarification on the payment scale. How many is many and the cost of a sponsorship going to $7.50. Is it gradual? ($15, $12, $10, etc.)?

Not sure I love the idea of giving the first shot to members with highest points count. As for the list of communities, I see the duplicates, which could be the result of 1. One name being incomplete or sloppy, and 2. Difference in filing, i.e. "Plaza Resort & Spa" and "The Plaza Resort & Spa".

There are more than enough examples of that.

so where do I sign up? And where were you in SF. I kept hearing you were there, but never met you.

thanks for this one as am behind on understanding and implementing new localism.

best

Jonathon - Thanks for posting this information. I had actually posed a couple of questions about Localism yesterday and members instantly stepped up with links for me. This is a great online community.

Ah, now I get it. Thursday at noon you can stake your claim on Localism. Too bad I won't be at my desk. What about those of us that will be working?

Jon. Im still confused on the neighborhood designation for example we have focused on Ada, Forest hills, and Cascade Township. Ada Is a small village with a township of the same name with about 5000 homes, Cascade township is next door and has maybe 10,000 homes and they are all in the Forest Hills school system. How do we make the sponsorship decision? Buy all three and the person that buys Grand Rapids, Michigan which is right next door has 200,000 properties?

I don't think any of us know all the things that AR can become, will become...I look forward to seeing my ideas of a national convention and national them them week become reality....and I am sure there are zillions more...watching it grow and being a part of it is very exciting !

Jonathon.....great information on the benefits of localism.

Hey I just noticed .... NO MORE FREAKING GRAPHICS - THANK YOU!

Sponsoring a community or town - will that be done by phone call, or internet?

Can 1 zip code have more than 1 community? I hope the answer is yes.

JUL

2008

I will have to research this further, Thankyou

::::sitting:::: holding that bag of cash I mention <grin>

How are you today boss???

Jonathan,

Is there any way to put at the top of the blogs...posted to Localism, or to the "outside world" like you do when someone makes a member's only post.

I mean you could possibly click the member's only post and it still could go to the outside blog?

People will make different comments when it's posted inside our little, rather large community, verses something that was going to the outside world to see.

Does my question make sense?

This is a great idea. Can't wait for the 31st.

JUL

2008

I am SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!! YES I will buy a lot, YES I want the exposure, how can you beat the price?? :) and NO I am not biased! I love the new Localism going up. It is sooo cool.

JUL

2008

I just logged in and it shows a counter telling me 6 hours 3 minutes from now it opens. Its currently 8:57 a.m. I guess most communities will be bought up then by the high rankers first eh. ah well it was a fun idea...

nm just noticed it is pacific time.

Good luck to everyone taking part in this today. LET THE LAND RUSH BEGIN! (in 6 hours from now)

Wow - I have never seen so many comments -apparently I have been missing out on a good discussion. That site sounds great - thanks for talking about it. I have been looking for new alternative for home searches. I did find one recently called <a href="http://www.propertymaps.com/directory/mls/usa" title="PropertyMaps">PropertyMaps</a> which I love. It has a google maps/mls tool. I can't wait for this new site - sounds great.

Sorry - that link didn't take, the site is called Property Maps, and it's www.propertymaps.com

I am looking forward to being able to sponsor a community. Will there be a limit as to how many communities in one city an agent can take? I do not have as many points as some agents on Active rain longer in my area and dont think there will be any cities left that I specialize in.

we actually read this one as soon as it came out. continuing on with Rich's list.

If we are a member of Active rain does that mean we are automatically members of localism? I see my articles showing up , but when i click to see if I am a neighbor I am not listed ..why?

AUG

2008

Everything I read about it gets better and better.... Thanks!

AUG

2008

I am sure the day will come when people forgo Zillow and Trulia in favor of a more accurate estimate from a Realtor. Cross your fingers that its soon!

AUG

2008

Short and sweet! Very informative!

Thanks for the post!

Have a great week!

Jonathan,

I did support 3 communities and I blog also. What is the difference of if you pay to support a community or not? Will that put us at the front or something? Please let me know. Thanks.

Grace

AUG

2008

Jonathan, has the vision now changed? With all of the post by AR staff and the features by AR members not liking the New Localism I am really really confused.

I thought I understood the vision - and now with the changes I am feeling like it has changed or has hit a snag because some don't understand and cant figure out why we don't have to talk about real estate all the time.

I see Localism as different than AR am I wrong? Can you write another blog about your vision for Localism.

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