Archive for December, 2008
James Caan vs Miles Shipside, round one in 2009.
Written by Mike Carter on December 30, 2008 – 12:45 pm -According to EAT, the property portal space is about to be shaken up by one of the Dragons, James Caan. He’s taken a 25% stake in Look4aProperty.
Someone queue the theme from Rocky.
A property blog is content, that’s all, nothing scary.
Written by Mike Carter on December 29, 2008 – 6:14 pm -Missy Caulk, an agent in my old hometown of Ann Arbor Michigan, has posted a great presentation on why you should blog as a property professional. One thing to take away is that blogging should not be thought of too specifically using the term ‘blog.’ What I mean is that a blog is simply website content. Content that is a easy to create and update. Having good content on your website should always be a priority. That is if you want people to stick around and learn more about your business beyond just seeing your ‘property list.’
So if you’re still on the fence about installing on blog inside your website, then this might prove inspiring. Thanks to Missy!
Newspaper says no to the web and wins.
Written by Mike Carter on December 28, 2008 – 5:59 pm -If you run a newspaper these days, you probably wake up hating the web. Even the most forward thinking newspaper companies are making 20% of revenues from digital at the most. More go bust everyday across the globe in this financial storm … but not everyone.
A small local newspaper has shunned the web on purpose as part of it’s general strategy. TriCityNews of Monmouth County of New Jersey has been growing 10% a year since 1999.
“Why would I put anything on the Web?” asked Dan Jacobson, the publisher and owner of the newspaper. “I don’t understand how putting content on the Web would do anything but help destroy our paper. Why should we give our readers any incentive whatsoever to not look at our content along with our advertisements, a large number of which are beautiful and cheap full-page ads?”
Of course, the company is only 3 people and has a circulation run of only 10,000 but with rates that never change and a happy group of hyper-local advertisers… who’s afraid of the big bad web? Not Dan Jacobson.
Replace location, location location with YouTube
Written by Mike Carter on December 27, 2008 – 5:50 pm -During this downturn, there are many agents out there starting to think about other ways to make revenue from switching to the ‘online agent’ model to opening a cafe inside their high street premises.
Well here is another idea to add to the list…. if you’ve got a digital video recorder, why not replace Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp of Location, Location, Location.
How would that work? Well have a read of this recent article in the NYTimes. Get it right and you could become the virtual version of that popular Channel 4 show.
