If you write a blog, it is safe to presume that you want other people to read it. Unless of course you have blocked the search engines and are allowing only certain people to see your blog. From what I can gather when it comes to the real estate blogs, most of us would like our blogs to be read. In fact some of us have set a goal to turn first time visitor to our blogs into regular one or even a subscriber. In fact in some other niches, the value and the influence of a blog is determined by the number of subscribers.
In real estate, blog can also be responsible for the growth of your business. In fact, many real estate blogs are highly monetized digital “properties” on the internet, while others contribute to the successful real estate transactions outside of the Internet. In either case the subscribers to your blog may have something to do with the dollars in your pocket at the end of the day.
In this tutorial, I will show you one way you can track a specific goal (lets call it “subscriber goal” for the sake of the argument) using Google Analytics. If you are not familiar with Google Analytics but are serious about your online marketing efforts I strongly suggest opening an account. Learn as much as you can about what Google Analytics has to offer, it will only benefit you in the long run.
Before I get into technical part, which will require some minimal knowledge of HTML, I would like you to sit down a determine following. Think about the past month. How much income (preferably net income) can you contribute directly to your blog? Now divide that amount by the number of subscribers- the result will be used in Google Analytics as “goal value”. For example if your net income was $1000 and your blog has 265 subscribers, dividing $1000 by 265 will give you $3.77- when setting your gaol at Google Analytics you will use this amount to indicate your “subscriber goal”.
Setting The (Subscriber) Goal In Google Analytics.
If do not have an account with Google Analytics, you might want to register first and implement the tracking codes in the template of your website.
In order to track your subscriber you need to know who many people had actually clicked the subscription button or link. However, I highly discourage against placing Google Analytics tracking code int the feed of your blog. Also, if you are directing your visitors to your blogs feed at FeedBurner, you may not be able to implement the tracking code even if you advanced in programing.
In order to capture these statistics you will need to implement what is known as a jump page. You can do that by using a simple text editor such ad Notepad. Create a file a name in subscribe.html. Then copy and paste the code below, but make sure to replace few lines of that code with your own info (explained below the code):
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL=YOURFEEDSURL" />
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" />
</head>
<body>
<–REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR GOOGLE ANALYTICS CODE HERE–>
</body>
</html>
Make sure to replace YOURFEEDSURL with actual URL of your blog’s feed and the line that says to replace it with Google Analytics Code.
Upload the file (subscribe.html) into the root directory of your blog. The meta refresh in the “head” of this HTML file will redirect users to your blog’s feed wile Google Analytics will capture necessary data.
Login into your Google Analytics account. In the dashboard area you will see the list of your websites in the table called “Website Profiles”. Then click “Edit” link for the blog you are about to implement a “conversion goal”. You can set up up to 4 different goal for each website. If you followed my instructions in creating the jump page and uploading it to your server, your conversion gaol configuration should look like this:
Note that 3.77 is the result of calculation we did dividing your net income by the number of your existing subscribers.
I know that it sounds some what complicated. But it is not as hard as it looks and the benefit of having these statistics measured should supersede any fear of tackling Google Analytics and a little bit of HTML coding.
Depending on the popularity and traffic to your blog you can see results within day or two. However to have more accurate statistics, you might need to wait longer than just one day.
Here is an example of how this is working for my website:
The figures in “Per Visit Goal Value” column offer me clear idea how much I can pay per each visitor and still profit if I were to strike advertising deals with the referring websites and blogs.
Warning: The above describe method should only be used in conjunction with other statistics. It maybe that some visitors may not actually subscribe eve after clicking the subscription button or link. You will also need to factor in unsubscribe rate and never ever use the gross income in calculating the goal value. Being very conservative when assigning the goal value will shorten the range of the error margin. You should also be conservative with your subscribers numbers, it’s better to err on the side of lower number of subscribers.
Since publishing the infamous Cease and Desist notice, I was asked by fellow bloggers few questions that I cannot ignore. But before I start, I need to say this- the publicity may scare the “beast” away, but this sort of publicity is the last thing I am looking for. I just want to do the right thing. Nothing more, nothing less.
I wish it was simple. The cease and desist letter sent the chills down my spine. When the original post was getting so many comments I was hoping that some of the other influential bloggers would notice my article. But as Greg Swenn points out this blog is insignificant. There are barely 100 unique daily visitors to my blog. So when I received the lawyer’s letter I knew that I was facing the Goliath all alone. To put it simply, I was scared.
Why am I posting this now?
Since attempting to comply to the demands of the lawyers from WILLOUGHBY, STUART & BENING it not feel right. I basically was admitting that all their false accusations are true. I also felt like I had betrayed all who offered their feedback. Publishing the cease and desist letter was a way for standing up not only for myself but for all who commented on my post.
And finally an extra bonus if you wish: I still believe that idea for the website was good. Way short of brilliant, but good enough to run with it. The execution of the idea was absolutely terrible.
EPerks.com claim to be a part of what we know as Web 2.0 marketing. As such, Web 2.0 is a form of marketing where engagement with those who like you as well as those who criticize you is of great importance. But so is reevaluating your product and improving it.
Many companies of this “Web 2.0 pound” started off by offering free membership to their potential clients and customers knowing that their product is so darn good that 99% of the free members will pay money to continue to use their products. EPerks has chosen a different path, launching their website they charged real estate agents $100+ dollars per month, without a proven record for their product’s effectiveness. I am not saying it was wrong way to launch a website. But if you do so, not listening to the criticism is like shooting yourself in the foot.
I would suggest to go back to the drawing board. Consider all criticism and come back a winner. Of course you can continue the way you go about your business. Continue to send cease and desist notices and even sue small guys like my self. Will any one remember your name a year from now?
Have you seen it yet? Here is the link. I think it’s great that real estate companies are finally realizing the potential of such websites like YouTube for the growth of their own business. I do find the videos a little cheesy. Here is one for you. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Does your company have a channel on YouTube? What are you waiting for?
PRWeb is widely recognized as the leader in press release distribution. Many companies use this service to generate online buzz and even get attention of major publications. PRWeb is extremely well positioned for promoting your real estate website. Your press release can be targeted to a specified metropolitan so your the traffic to your website can be as local as possible. Following video explains how PRWeb works:
I has been more than one week since list of top 100 Real Estate Blogs went live. If you made the list before we launched the list, you may be well aware of it. If you have not heard about it. It is a list of real estate blogs that ranks blog. To rank real estate blogs we have factored in Google PR, Technorati Rank and Alexa Rankings. It is a first list of its kind and of course such an attempt will draw some attention and criticisms. So today I would like to acknowledge the incredible feedback we received and to respond to some criticisms.
Thanks For The Buzz
Fir of all I would like to take time and thank every blogger and blog that linked to my original post announcing the list or to the list itself:
Now I would like to respond to some criticisms. While I tried to respond to some of it personally on the blogs offering their feedback, I think t is important to gather the criticism into one place. I have tried to counter the criticism I found so far, but I have decided to include the criticism or rather my response to what I see as trends in criticism of our list. I tried hard to respond to particular posts personally, however it doing so I mark all the criticism with hope to improve our list or or to respond to something in a greater detail here on my own blog.
The list is unreliable. Just because we use rankings that are not necessarily most reliable does not mean our list not worthy to take a look at. Out of all list that rank blogs and websites our list is the most focused on real estate even though some blogs that are not primarily write about real estate slipped through. However unreliable one may hold Google, Technorati and Alexa- these statistics are hard to manipulate and artificially inflate therefore it will be very hard to progress on our list as well.
I can’t compete with big Blogs. There is an underlying consensus among real estate bloggers out there that in order to have nigh rankings you either need to write about technology or otherwise to be connected to “Silicon Valley” or you need to have a multi authored blog. I would argue that when it comes to blogging it is not your connection and your niche that are crucial to your success - it is the content of your blog. Here is an example. Doshdosh- an internet marketing blog is barely year old and is authored by one person. In just over one year not only the blog gained 11,000 subscribers but is widely accepted as leading blog in that particular niche.
The list has many blogs that should not have been there. I have tried to be diligent in compiling the list. I started with 30+ blogs from my Google reader. Then I moved to the blogrolls of the blogs I subscribe to and other websites like Blogflux to come up with the “first” 100 blogs. I certainly may have made a mistake or two and if your notice a blog that should is “home an living” kind of website please let me know and I will correct.
What other value our list brings comparing let say to Blogflux. Our list is more focused. I examine carefully each submission before including the blog into our list. We give each blog clean and search engine friendly links. We aggregate the latest post form each blog on the list.
Infringing on NAR trademark. I just have to say that it was on oversight on my par when we purchased the domain. There was no intention to neither compete with nor associate ourselves with NAR. As you an see our list is hosted on it’s own domain now.
Feel free to offer your onion about the Top 100 Real Estate Blogs. If you have a real estate blog feel free to submit it to me via email: vlad @ go-beyond-mls dot com. Special thanks to Mark from 45n5 fro his tireless effort programing the list. If you have not visited the list lately we have 127 blogs already with more submissions in my mailbox. Make sure to bookmark the list for the future reference and use.
Picture credits: atroszko and Daino 16.
The idea to compile such a list was born a few months ago. Just as other similar top lists where appearing. After talking to Mark from 45n5- who is an outstanding programmer and internet marketer, a decision was made to bring the idea to fruition. Mark was in charge of programing the list, while my job was to find the blogs to be placed in the list- an easy job I should say for a former real estate agent.
So I present you today with GeerRealtors Top 100 Real Estate Blogs. It is a must bookmark page for many reasons. Not only will you be able to see who is who among real estate bloggers. You can also see the latest posts from the blogs featured on the list. If you are on the list this will give you an opportunity to see how your blog compares to your colleagues and/or competitors. Visit those blogs and see what are they doing that makes them more popular than yours.
If you visit the list, you will notice that there are actually more than 100 blogs.This means that you also can submit your blog, and then work your way to the top. If I have missed your blog feel free to submit your blog, and depending to the rankings elsewhere (Google Page Rank, Alexa Rankings, Technorati Rank) you may very well end up in the top 100. If not, you have some work to do.
The list will be updated once a week, so if you see N/A next to your blog, it means it was added after the last update. Just bookmark the Top 100 Real Estate Blogs and come to look at it one week from now. Finally I hope the list itself will bring you a visitor or two.
And now, without further ado, I present you with the first edition of Top 100 Real Estate Blogs:
March 25, 2008
Posted in Articles, Google Analytics, Internet Marketing, Statistics 
Fir of all I would like to take time and thank every blogger and blog that linked to my original post announcing the list or to the list itself:
Now I would like to respond to some criticisms. While I tried to respond to some of it personally on the blogs offering their feedback, I think t is important to gather the criticism into one place. I have tried to counter the criticism I found so far, but I have decided to include the criticism or rather my response to what I see as trends in criticism of our list. I tried hard to respond to particular posts personally, however it doing so I mark all the criticism with hope to improve our list or or to respond to something in a greater detail here on my own blog. 
GR Rank*
content rss
