There are many directories that will list you for a small fee. Problem is, you don't really know if it's worth it, and if you shell out the bucks for all one of them, you can spend a fortune.

The bottom line is to get traffic. To get the direct clicks by surfer's in the directory, and indirectly by accumulated link popularity for the search engines. For example, one local community directory gives me 6 clicks per day in which I'm paying $10 per month. That's economical as that ends up being 5 cents per click. Reasonable. Plus, I get the inbound link from a high scoring community site.

Here's a partial list of directories that will list agents, most for a fee:
http://dmoz.org/Business/Real_Estate/Agents_and_Agencies/Directories/

Any experiences out there? Good? Bad?

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Ruperto Elpusan Jr.
Banker's Realty
e-mail: Ruperto@FineHomesInLA.com
Beverly Hills-Malibu-Palos Verdes Real Estate
Torrance/South Bay Real Estate

I realize we need to be careful where we get our links, from a link popularity/link reputation standpoint.

With a link from a penalized site, you will be guilty by association with some of the search engines. Yikes!

I'm surprised no one has replied to your post, Ruperto.

My personal opinion is the Pay Per Click programs are a waste of money and the click for hits exchanges a waste of time, primarily because while your traffic may appear to be going up, your sales probably are not affected by this traffic as it simply is not targeted.

You are right about guilt by association. The free for all link pages have turned out to be the worst place to be a part of because there is no theme, no common denominator to give it value.


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~neodemes~
Neodemesne: Your Real Estate Portal
Where Sellers, Buyers and Real Estate Investors Come Together!

[This message has been edited by neodemes (edited 12-30-2003).]

Hello Neodemes,
I have to respespctfully disagree somewhat with your post Obviously, top search engine placement is desired but since the vast majority of RE websites are never going to get there for numerous reasons I won't go into, PPC can be a very effective means of generating highly targeted traffic if done correctly. Like everything else, it's a bit complicated and time consuming and needs to be started, tracked and continuously optimized for the best results by a proffessional. I never solicite business here on the board because at the risk of sounding like an idiot, beleive me I'm not, we take on very few new RE clients. Especially any in existing clients markets.

With that being said, I just had the 04' budget meeting for a client this afternoon. This client has a 2 office, 17 agent operation and generated over 6mil gross sales in 2003 directly attributable to the PPC campaigns. Total cost for all campaigns and our billables for same over 03' was $34,670. They're pretty happy. This year they're actually going to let us build a site and maintain it so they can reallocate those PPC dollars to other marketing efforts one the search engine rankings are obtained.

There's no one click answers to making money on the net for realtors. Much time and investment are sometimes neccessary but the future of your proffession awaits. Those who have figured it out are doing well, those who continue to close their eyes and give all the power to companies like realtor.com, homegain and the likes, are surrendering, albeit unkowingly.

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Rich
Advetising, Marketing & Virtual Tours