Do you Zlog? Let me define Zlogging on Zillow.com for you.
Zillow solicited listings this past fall from Realtors and announced the Zillow Real Estate Guide (formerly known as the wiki). I was a huge critic of the practice of posting listings because I felt their intentions were disingenuous. I did notice a cool “back door” to their changes that could promote the businesses of Realtors and loan originators. That back door was the Zillow real estate wiki and I saw it as an opportunity to use Zillow as a personal weblog. So, a Zlogging I did go.
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The above is an excerpt from
Do You Zlog? Making the Zillow Real Estate Guide Work For You
BloodhoundBlog features extensive coverage of yesterday's announcement from Zillow.com:
- A broad overview of the new functionality and its implications (this post)
- Zillow.com’s press release announcing the new software release
- A podcast with Director of Community Relations David Gibbons
BloodhoundBlog contributor Brian Brady will also be covering the story at these sites:
BloodhoundBlog has published more about Zillow.com than any other weblog or publication.
but it's getting closer to the top of the pile!
and what a pile it is. Your experiments with the long tail via Verrado are astounding, T
The Zillow bouncers..LOL!
Funny how you and I switched stances from the beginning. I remember being for and you were against. I spent two hours trying to enter a listing and said "fuggetaboutit" and never came back. Maybe I will have to check it out :)
Brian,
Is there some reason you and Greg are writing multiple articles on this Zillow thing? Is it a contest :)
Is there some reason you and Greg are writing multiple articles on this Zillow thing?
One would think that, huh? I can't speak for Greg but I got excited about the practical marketing applications of it. I think originators can really leave a mark on Zillow with its new features and gather business...OR...
chalk it up to playing with a new toy right after Christmas.
Brian,
What the world needs is a "For Dummies" level tutorial on posting to Zillow's Wiki err... Real Estate Guide.
Some things are just not self-evident there for me. For instance, after creating a new page -- I'm not seeing the way to link the page back into its appropriate categories.
Later Edit: Here's an example for everyone to follow along ...
Go to http://www.zillow.com/
Click on Real Estate Guide, scroll down to Popular Catagories, Click on Local Real Estate, then click on California and you'll end up here http://www.zillow.com/wikipages/Local-Real-Estate---California
First off, I'm thinking that gal in Tahoe has posted inappropriate content - since it a blatant advertisement for her firm. But I went ahead and added my community under hers and a link to a test article I posted. (Yeah, I was logged in as Bob when I did it, so deal with it. :-)
But it seems to me, I should have a way to create a sub category under California for my community --- Like neighborhoods in Localism --- can I not do that, or am I missing something?
Zillow's wiki had <nofollow> tags on all it's links... I wonder if the new features will include nofollow tags as well. If so, it's obviously pointless as a blog.
BTW, I'm featuring this post on our group: Online Marketing
Justin. I don't understand the techspeak.
wiki had <nofollow> tags on all it's links
What does this mean?
Hey Brian,
The <nofollow> tag is sometimes attached to links on websites, and it is basically a way to tell search engine spiders not to follow that link. Thus, it won't count as an incoming link (in theory not giving you the SEO benefit). Here are a couple of my articles that talk about it: http://www.hismove.com/blog/index.php?s=nofollow
My point was, that if they continue using the nofollow tag with this new service, their blogs will be pointless in regards to the SEO benefit.
You're right, Justin. I don't think they allow spiders to crawl the Guide. Posting to Zillow is pointless for SEO; it also shouldn't hurt you for dup content.
I'm assuming that Zillow becomes, as Greg Swann puts it, it's own eco-system. In fact, I'm now convinced that RE.net got smaller with Zillow taking a bigger chunk of the RE.net pie. Is that fair? Well, no...BUT...
...it is what it is. I think a sound online marketing strategy incorporates SEO for RE.net AND a presence on Zillow.
Great! Something new I have to investigate to maximize my business.
How do you guys expect me to get any work done with you coming up with so many great suggestions?