More and more property portals are still appearing.
I keep banging on about it, but who needs more of them, the industry; the consumer? Neither!
I also keep banging on about how portals have lost sight of the end user so it is very encouraging to read brand strategy from a company that is 11 years old and look at why they called their site daft.ie.
Eammon from daft.ie (Ireland's leading portal) commented on a property portal watch tongue in cheek post about crazy portal names that their name was very much customer focused and intentional. The post raises two very important points:
1. It speaks volumes when we can look at the industry and comment on literally hundreds of portal names and pick out the crazy ones for entertainment value.
2. We need to create brands/awareness/usability for the 'demand' side of the market, the consumer! Portals spend too much time looking at the 'supply' side of the market, the agent. Indeed, look at what Rightmove are up to, spending millions on building on brand awareness. They don't care that they annoy the hell out of agents because they know they can capitalise on their brand and drive more traffic to their agents. Thus cutting off traffic to the hundred and one new portals.
If Rightmove had the balls to create a free to list or performance based model would the market really need any other portals? (before I am lynched for being pro Rightmove please read this again and think about what I am saying - I don't think they have the balls in any event!)
Anyway, that's enough banging, anyone would think I worked for enormo (the porn company?!)
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8 comments:
Merry Christmas! I am with you on this. There are too many portals, and it's becoming too much for the estate agent trying to choose between the free, CPL and pay each month models.
But the most important thing to look for in a portal is the traffic. There's no point listing where the home movers don't look. So lets not confuse the poor agents and keep telling them to pick the freebies. They need the facts.
Free models sound fab right now, but that's not the way it works, they'll start making agents pay for depth products. Which is bound to happen with Globrix. NEWS can't possibly keep funding a site that doesn't give them anything back.
I do like your blog. Actually it's one of my favourites but how many property portal blogs are too many?
I couldn't agree more and thanks for the kind words. Have a look at our comments in juicy red apple.
You can never have too many property blogs :)
Happy Christmas
Hi folks, big fan of your blog posts and follow on RSS! Just read your recent post about property portals and I must say that having worked in the industry for near on 10 years, I think it is excellent that agents, and home movers have much more choice when it comes to searching for their dream home. Agents can certainly benefit from free to list sites, especially considering Rightmove continue to make unilateral decisions to increase their exorbitant subscription fees to fund a £10 million marketing campaign. The introduction of sites such as Nestoria (a favourite of mine), Globrix and Zoopla help to keep the market competitive and fresh with loads of new ideas. Anyway, just thought you might like a heads up, I am afraid I am too working on a Property Search Portal which is dedicated to lettings. Please go easy on us when we launch in 2009! :) Keep posting.
Agreed with Jonathan, we need more competition out there with the portals. Its great to see a few new ideas rather than just copying the Rightmove model.
Thanks Jonathan. looking forward to the portal. I know of a few lettings portals coming in 2009. Will you be free etc? Can we have a preview :) ?
Hi Property Owl, we will offer a free to list portal for our customers however, the challenge in offering something unique is always going to keep us on our toes.
I will let you know when we go live. PS, I have added you as a favourite on our blog page!
PPS - thanks to Investment Property for your input on this topic!
Regards,
Jonathan
Thanks Jonathan. Have a look at Juicy Red Apple which is a network for estate agents and all in the property industry. There are some lettings portal guys in there that you may be interested communicating with.
I have to say, I stick with the portals I have seen round for some time. They have the best positioning on the search engines as they have been set up a while and their brands are more well known.
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