by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
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.
The results were astounding. My personal weblog received 6-7 times the traffic within the first 2-3 days of my Zlog post and I received a call about a loan for a home in Mexico. I took it a step further and started posting “teasers” on Zillow in order to drive the traffic higher. It wasn’t completely altruistic nor within the spirit of the Wiki. I was caught red-handed by the Zillow cops and gently coaxed into more corrective behavior. My more toned down Zlogs were still driving traffic to my website while providing useful information to a consumer.
I walked in the back door, was thrown out by the Zillow bouncers, and invited back to the party through the front door. It was that defining moment that caused me to realize that Zillow has juice. If I can provide useful consumer content, they can deliver hits to my weblog. That seemed reasonable enough to me.
This latest announcement from Zillow, comprehensively analyzed by Bloodhound Blog, provides an amazing opportunity for the Realtor or loan originator to promote their practice on a national and local scale. Greg Swann explained how the practitioner can “mark their turf” in a zip code to gain expertise in the consumers’ eyes by farming via the Zillow Q&A feature. I will show you how to generate referral business by establishing expertise on a national level by Zlogging..
Understand that Zillow is extremely consumer centric and is striving to deliver content that has little or no sales pitch to it in the Real Estate Guide. You must pick topics that are relevant to Zillow’s audience and add value to the community. Nobody like the dinner guest that passes out cards to your friends and neighbors with the sole intention of selling whole life insurance to them. That is what I was doing on Zillow this fall and that was just rude. Instead, write 200-400 words on a topic that hasn’t been covered. Ed Brophy provided a nice example of a good Zlog post today.
Some topics that you might cover include: quality of life issues in a certain neighborhood, material differences in real estate law between certain states and yours (escrow vs. lawyer closings), who traditionally chooses vendor services in a real estate transaction, and other pertinent local issues.
Close your Zlog post with a discreet byline, highlighting your name with a link to your home page or weblog. That will be in good taste and still drive an acceptable amount of traffic to your home site.
Morgan Brown says:
I am constantly amazed by the quality, scope and depth of the information presented here. The forward thinking that is exhibited on an ongoing basis makes me feel like a beginner every day and it makes me excited about our industry and the people involved. Great post Brian! I’ll keep drinking from the fire hose!
April 4, 2007 — 7:26 pm
Derek Burress says:
Brian, email me using an email address that you actually check. I need to ask you a quick question.
Also Greg I sent you an email last night as well.
April 4, 2007 — 8:07 pm
Brian Brady says:
I just tried you, Derek. You are welcome to call until 1AM EDT at 858-699-4590
April 4, 2007 — 8:29 pm
Drew Meyers from Zillow says:
Brian-
I’m glad you are finding the real estate guide so useful. I do want to point out something – we feel strongly that attribution for wiki content is not a necessity. A wiki thrives on collaboration over time, which tends to lead to objective and resource-based content. Attribution for wiki content on Zillow is in the page history as well as links from your profile page to all the articles that you edit.
When viewing content on wikipedia, you’ll notice there is zero attribution front and center to the end user. If someone is looking for public attribution for their work, they are better off writing a blog post than creating a wiki page (since others cannot edit their content on a blog).
April 5, 2007 — 7:48 pm
Brian Brady says:
Drew nicely disciplines me here with this comment. READ: No blogging on the wiki…oh well. Zlogging is out. And I so loved that term.
April 5, 2007 — 11:48 pm
Ed Brophy says:
Brian:
You’re not alone I got slapped on the hand for Zlogging too. Unfortunately what I saw as a good way to pick up some business and give the public finance options on the homes they may be interested in was a no, no according to Drew and his gang.
Although I did notice there were a lot of homes that are on the market in my area that didn’t show up for sale on Zillow so, I posted asking price and tried to grab a few pictures from the MLS. Wasn’t able to do that do a PC melt down.
I still would like to run my “alternate” idea by you. I’ll be in SD Friday and Saturday, in class in El Cajon Saturday until 5 or so.
April 6, 2007 — 12:46 am
Greg Swann says:
> tried to grab a few pictures from the MLS
This is certainly a copyright violation. The claims about the public nature of MLS listings turn on white pages versus yellow pages copyright issues. Courts have ruled that the white pages are not protected because they are no more than a compilation of facts, enatailing no significant creative effort. (I think this is specious, FWIW. No one else did the work to compile those facts.) The yellow pages are protected because of the creative effort. Even if the material facts about a home compiled in an MLS listing are not protected — which is not a matter of case law now — the photos and Realtor’s remarks surely are.
OTOH, the reflected light that strikes your camera’s lens from a public street is factual. IOW, the exterior elevation photos you snap from your car window, assuming there are no people visible in them, are yours to do with as you choose.
April 6, 2007 — 7:46 am
Ed Brophy says:
Greg, you bring up an interesting point which has been challenged out here in Palm Springs. Realtors typically take the photos from expired listings and post them in their newly acquired listing. The local MLS ruled that because we pay fees to use the MLS we are entitled to use any and all material published in our MLS regardless of who took what picture or wrote the listing copy.
Furthermore US Copyright laws require that there be some type of copyright disclosure present, such as this one I use over on my blog “Copyright &169; 2007 The Brophy Chronicle All Rights Reserved” to protect the work. Not only is it present at the bottom of my blog but, I place it at the end of all articles.
This has been an issue over on AR, because people have copied others posts. Some courts have ruled without the copyright disclosure it’s technically all up for grabs.
April 6, 2007 — 9:25 am
Greg Swann says:
YMMV.
April 6, 2007 — 9:32 am