Using Trulia.com to generate more business
When we first started blogging on Active Rain, we immediately saw the importance of having a presence and profile on other sites as well. We learned a lot about this through subscribing to blogs by Bill Gassett and Justin Smith (2 highly recommended blogs to subscribe to) .
One of the sites that we have had success with is Trulia.com . Trulia has become one of the premier consumer sites - it has a wealth of information for consumers and it also provides tremendous resources for realtors too such as setting up a profile, adding listings, having a blog and much much more. There is also a lot of info regarding statistics and analytics. If you have not checked it out, do so !
In any event, as an example, we just picked up a listing in our area due to our answering consumer's questions on Trulia voices. Trulia voices has an extensive network of questions from consumers and answers from real estate pros. It was on this forum that a seller contacted us to list her property in Port Richmond. She was looking for something specific in an agent and found it in The Somers Team ! Not only that, we sold her property for her in less than 45 days !
In addition, we have also received several leads from Trulia due to our presence on their site. With that in mind, we of course will continue to post blog entries there (see our Trulia blog ) as well as answering questions ! It looks like we have answered 311 questions ! Wow - I guess we have a lot of answers !!!
If you are interested in buying or selling real estate in the Philadelphia area, contact Chris and Stephanie Somers at 215-400-2612 or thesomersteam@yahoo.com
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I have used Trulia, For the most part it's great... some of the properties in this area it has a hard time locating due to Route addresses... Other than that it does a good job... Thanks for sharing
Chris and Stephanie~ I have looked at Trulia and signed up too. Great for you to get business out of it! Congratulations! Vickie
I have only gotten "lookie loos" from Trulia. It has not proven to boost my business and I have over 200 answers and a few blogs. I am glad you had better luck.
I like Trulia as well and have received emails (no clients yet) from my Voices participation. I also like being a Zillow All Star. By being an all star, your profile stays at the top of the page as the people search for info and homes. You get to be an all star by claiming your listings and posting pictures, very easy......thanks.
Chris - Not as much as I should. Ironically, I did post two of my posts originally written here on AR over there just today. I've implemented Trulia but nowhere near how much I should be. As this year ends and a new one emerges, I plan on changing that.
I have a spot on Trulia and comment on "Trulia Voices" I've been on AR for 1.5 months, and on Trulia for even less, about one month I suppose. Recently I met with a realtor that saw a post of mine on Trulia Voices. It was about various first-time buyer programs and grants, etc. He liked my post so much he emailed me and we met to brainstorm and share ideas. So I didn't get a "direct lead" yet, but a good referral partner is head-and-shoulders above a lead so I am very happy.
Thanks for this information, and glad that it's working for you. Am off to check this all out.
I've had some success through my participation on TruliaVoices as well (and have seen you there), and prior to that ZillowDiscussions.
Zillow is truly the wild-wild west, and Realtors are not particularly welcome. Trulia is much more Realtorcentric, but still has many Realtor detractors, but Trulia does a decent job of moderating that keeps it from getting out of control (Zillow could learn a lot from Trulia's example).
AR seems to run entirely the opposite direction... Mostly Realtors (Inspectors and Lenders), and very few laypeople. Not as "exciting" as Zillow and Trulia, but interactive and fun, and I've already had some success here on AR, and the googlejuice is worth it's weight in ARGold.
Caron - you bet. I think it is useful to see here what is working and to see other folk's experiences.
Vickie - Thanks ! It is great to get that extra business from some of these sites !
Betina - I think patience is a virtue. Of course there is the intangible benefit too that is hard to measure. In many cases, that intangible beneft is huge.
David - my wife Stephanie has spent more time on Zillow than I have. It is on my list to check it out. Sounds cool to be an all-star there !
Christopher & Stephanie,
Thanks for the post. That's it, I'm convinced. I am opening a Trulia account today, along with Twitter!
I've submitted listings to Trulia but have not done much else. I didn't even know they had a blog - but as per your example - you can just cut and paste your own Active Rain post right into Trulia!
Jason - I hear you. It is hard to keep up with all these sites and what not. What is nice about Active Rain is for the most part we can see what is working best for a lot of other people and what not. It seems that other people really like Trulia in addition to ourselves as well.
Steve - That is a great story. Is great that not only that leads can come from this, but through networking, meeting a terrific referral source which could amount to many many leads. That is awesome.
Li - There is a lot to check out. I try to check out one or two sites a weekend and add to each of them that we have a presence on. The great thing about Active Rain is that we can have our blog posts syndicated to other sites.
Alan - Active Rain is the best !!! AR rocks !! I need to check out Zillow more about that "wild wild west" . The interaction can be cool between the consumers and the pros on Trulia. I had a lot of consumer comments on my post " Can we gag the media ? Or hang the DJ ? " and was curious where the consumer comments came from ? On Trulia the comments are a lot less from any blog entry but there is more consumer interaction too so that is good as well. I think it is important for a top realtor to have a strong presence on all of the top sites... at least that is what I am learning. ~ Chris
Never heard of it 2 years ago and it is my number one search engine on one of my communities. Thank God. Maybe realtor.com will take notice one of these days. We have yanked all of our ads out of realtor.com. There party is about to be over in a few years.
Great blog.......
William - sounds good ! I think you will be happy with both Trulia and Twitter ! Twitter can be a lot of fun - am still trying to figure that one out a little bit more. It is nice to get your Active Rain blogs posted there - is super easy as it is set up in our AR settings.
Margaret - You are right ! It makes it easy. You can also put links in there back to your AR blog. There are so many sites out there I guess it is important to focus on the better ones and have Active Rain be the main one : )
Tim - That is pretty cool that a site has grown that much that quickly. Realtor.com used to get much more monthly money from us. I still pay to get our listings enhanced there but not really sure what benefit we get. I was going to subscribe to more services this past year but am glad we did not do that. I do know that Realtor.com has really expanded though some of their offerings so maybe they will stay in the game after all.
Chritopher and Stephanie:
Are you writting different blogs then activerain or posting them there also.
Richard
Thanks very much for the post. I have my own blog/web site, and have just recently opened up a blog on activerain and wordpress simply because they each rank so high when googling my keywords. I found that I can easily rank highly on both sites, due to so few bloggers in my area. There's so much to learn, though!
Congratulations on your success. I think we are good at what we enjoy and you have certainly found your niche. Good luck to you.
Chris, the blogs on Trulia haven't really "Taken off" yet... it's the Question and Answer area that's more active. And don't say I didn't warn you about Zillow.
Something else to look at. I'll have to check it out.
Michelle
Richard - Posting some Active Rain blogs on other sites for more exposure. If I were writing different blogs (which some people do I think) I dont know when I would have the time to sell real estate : )
Melody - Sounds like a great plan ! With that, you should control page 1 of Google !
Terrylynn - You bet. It is great to continue to learn and move foward even when you are already an expert ! There is such a big pie out there - we just live to carve out our piece : )
Chris & Stephanie thank you very much for recognizing my blog as being worth while to read. As you know from reading I don't mind sharing the wealth of all the best places to be on the net and to increase your SEO potential.
Trulia is not bad. I have had an account for a very long time with them. I have answered a few questions but probably should spend a bit more time there. Good to hear you got a listing...that's fantastice!
Bill - you are welcome ! Your blog has been a wealth of info for us as well as your advice - your knowledge of internet marketing as well as your online presence is very admirable. We are glad that we gave you a reminder about Trulia ! : ) Our goal is to follow in your footsteps as far as being number 1 on Google with a variety of different sites (Active Rain, Topix, Outside-in, Trulia...etc) !
Hey Guys - Trulia is becoming a popular destination site for home buyers and sellers... I'm there too! Great advice for all...
Debbie - You are welcome ! I like the Trulia site a lot. I was on Zillow and added some coments - like a prior poster said it is the wild wild west !!!! Am glad you are at Trulia too !
Thanks for the tip; quick question...is there a way for Trulia to "alert" you when there is a question specific to your area? I just clicked over there from your post and went to my area and saw a new question.
Cindy, Yes we receive emails from Trulia when there is a new question specific for Philadelphia. I forget how we set it up but I believe is pretty straight-foward. Is a nice feature.
You're making the right steps to move forward in your market Christopher and Stephanie. It's great to hear that you were able to get a lead and a prospect out of trulia's blog. Continued success in all your online markets.
btw: Bill's expertise in marketing is definetely much appreciated by us as well. Thanks Bill! We'd feature you but we already did long ago.
It was interesting to read your post on the value of Trulia. It has been highly recommended to me by a few people as well. It seems like the biggest challenge is where to spend your time and how to spend it when posting and commenting.
Castellum - Thanks ! We have been working hard to expand our online presence and our goal is to be dominant player in Philly ! We are moving foward fast in that direction !
Michael - Good point. I have found that the hours can go by quickly back and forth between the sites and blogging and all... Prioritize is key in this world as far as time is concerned. At least this way we can focus on the sites that generate the most traffic AND business !!