Thanks for stopping by. I have read at least two reviews (TechCrunch and
Mashable) about http://www.rofo.com

Hopefully one day I will write my own (whatever that is worth) review of
your website. But I might need to ask you a few question if you don't mind.

I don't agree that they tried to compare their features to “Facebook”. As I pointed out, there is nothing there to resemble even close Facebook.

However it caught my attention as Facebook user. I thought it would be quiet intriguing to see how other companies could implement similar ideas.

I hope as they develop further they will be able to attract both users and builders. We'll see how they progress.

Thanks for stopping by and providing additional information about your
website. Yes the $25 is not that big of a price to pay. Especially if your
website can draw people like myself, who are not builders but home owners or
future home. It can probably provide good ROI for builders.

I agree this is uncharted territory. Considering economy, many home buyers
may welcome the idea of “zero energy” homes.

I have already created an account so I will keep track on “green builders”
in NJ. It actually gave me an idea about next few posts for this blog.

Maybe it would be also worth of shot to reach out to real estate agents as
well.

Good luck with your project. Also feel free to let me know about any
exciting new features you might introduce in the future, I will be happy to
share them here on my blog.

So a couple of points:

1) I know the article did not have a link to the actual builder search page. That was a mistake by our PR team and I am sorry for that. To see the program in action go to http://www.freegreen.com/Builder/Green-Builders…, choose a state or enter your zip and find a builder. Right now there are limited builders on the site as we are just beginning our marketing campaign (through NAHB and USGBC).

2) Right now builders can upload their own profiles, work portfolios, and price out our house plans. Users can search and contact them. I agree that this is no where near “Facebook” yet, but this is the internet and you need to launch and then build. Over 2009 we are going to add a number of tools to this program which will allow users and builders to communicate and create sub-communities. We are excited to make this happen, but as everything it will take time.

3) On the fee discussion above this is a very interesting topic that I have been grappling with. The internet (through facebook, myspace, youtube, etc.) has set up a precedent that you should create a great platform, get users to upload your content for you, and then make money off advertising because those users and their friends are now addicted to your platform. The reality is that this model (from a true business perspective, i.e. making money) has failed. Most of the sites listed above are not making profits even today. Heading into the worst economy in my lifetime, and building a platform in the hopes of ad revenue in the future is pretty scary to me. I think that the companies that will survive this downturn are companies that can produce cash not burn it. With this idea in mind I look to the examples of Ladders.com, Linked In, etc. These are professionally based sites that have some free components, and then charge for selected “Premium or Targeted” features. These companies are really making money these days. Advertising is a component of their revenue (as it is ours), but they have many other revenue streams as well. This idea of setting up a platform and then charging people to use it, is very new to the internet and I am sure that we will struggle through it at first, but over the next 5 years I believe that this model will be a winner.

4) If you buy my argument in point 3, then the key to making this work is to make the services you charge for amazingly affordable. $25 month for a builder to gain access to a tool which allows them to directly communicate with 1000's of people looking for their services is a bargain. You want to price these services so that any builder who see this says “$25 per month for that, no problem”. Then make your money off volume. At least that is the idea. We are actually pushing this model even further in December by setting up what we call Open Source. This is a place where architects around the world can post their own house plans, have their own profile, etc. Users will search these designs and rank them by votes and views. In a Open Source twist we are going to charge the designers $100 to post their designs. The concept is that they are getting a great web presence, huge notoriety, and access to tons of new clients. For this they should be willing to pay. Especially when you think about competitive marketing value they could get for $100 (about 400 clicks on Google). Also we are using the fee as a natural filter to keep useless design entries out of the program.

Well, I hope this helps, and thanks again for your time. I would be very interested in hearing your, or your readers feedback on this. We are a new company (April 2008) and are learning as we go along. As always I encourage everyone to head to the site and sign-up so that you can keep up to date on our progress.