MS operating systems are being overtaken by free ones like Mozilla Firefox and Chrome

Also established portals get more UV’s yet they want to get their revenue from agents and developers. so third party and affiliation is the way forward no brainer
use what you have.free listing would increase stock on site

also customer services could handle the accounts by dropping sales dept saving could be diverted into innovation and marketing work.
sales dept salary cost is even keel to amount of revenue form the subscription and ppl revenue

unless a big rethink is taken by the big portals LISTING FREE twhich is the way forward

there will be more portal closures revenue for dividends will also fall…. and google will continue to grow its realestate section

tom

Look at MS operating systems and now Mozilla Firefox Chrome etc all free who will be wiping out MS OP systems 12 – 24 months.

News Int / Guardian media all have sold of their property portal assets because subscription based model is just not viable anymore.

UTUBE TWITTER FACEBOOK social networking (more free sites coming) which continue to grow are all free subscription and seen continued phenomenal growth and all make money from other advertising streams.

Paradoxically you all pay other websites to list your marketing campaigns
Who are all free to join and use.ie jobsites et al

The big property portals are just very lazy and want to keep charging for outdated model that is just not working.
Dividends will continue to fall if overhaul is not embraced.

Reducing your sales force on subscription and ppl
and delegating customer services department the job of with the accounts would save enormous amounts of money immediately.

Drive those savings into tech innovation and other marketing work

Oddly enough the total salary of sales force compared to income generated on ppl and subscription revenue is even keel in this market

Auto uploads and account management

You’re all fairly established sites so going free would bring in more developer and agent stock.

Staring you right in the face – you all have more end users i.e. uv’s then agents and developers so why are you not capitalising on this with third party and affiliation? No Brainer

and yet you all insist in generating the bulk of your revenue from agents and developers ppl and subscriptions

You’ve all have bought so much to the online property industry so come move with the times wake up and smell the coffee or Google and the likes will overtake at break neck speed.
R

Dont blur the line with growth rates V real growth. Lots of the free site are quoting massive % in real terms are still growing more slowly than the big guys…..10% of 1,000,000 is still a hell of a lot mote than 20% of 200,000.

PS – Why so anti on the pay sites? in most cases they still deliver many more leads than the free sites at a fraction of tradition media.

There are over 20 websites in Australia and over 30 in the UK and the other countries conntiuning to grow globally in numbers daily

The momentum is growing for listing free properties unless the big portals go free like Google you have no chance keeping agents and developers who you all wish to continue to pay, who are also going bankrupt as well as the portals.
Record traffic great, but it does not translate to income generation. Also acquiring bust websites to generate indirect traffic is really scrapping the barrel……..
FREE FREE is the way forward developers and agents – refuse to pay and use Google and free sites.

Boycott your subscription and ppl big property portal

Big Property Portals Web sites Must Must look at other ways to generate money for their own survival .
Unless they do not Google and free sites will become more and more attractive more agents and developers will be migrating every day and more big web sites going bust or being sold for peanuts

Look at PPW Free Free which is far superior to Inman subscription pay model.

In most markets it will be a long long long time before we see a free to list service at number one…in many of the established markets they have already missed the boat. Thats my point.

Defiantly not saying free to list doesn’t have a strong place in our industry but again, good luck knocking off the rightmoves and realestate.com.au’s of the world.

Free listing will continue to grow and become more sophisticated at a fraction of the cost with quality content at the cost of big websites as more code and main mainframe infrastructure from Google Firefox Mozilla made available to programmers . Who are in abundance -working at a fraction of the cost from all corners of the globe.
You are so wrong if you think pumping cash into these big portals may help them like the past 10 years. This business model does not work anymore in such a fragmented market.

The market is completely saturated with subscription and ppl sites. Developers’ and Agents can simply take organic growth and put their listing on all the free listing sites and it’s still better than paying

globrix – luv in the city and telipo in the uk / redfin of the us- are a fraction of the ever growing free sites with many more to come

Agents and developers DO care if they have to pay

Users just want quick acessable information on property , there is NO Brand loyalty or experience in todays cyber world.

Users Don’t Care if the portal cost alot to set up and how many US$ AUS$ £ and Euros have been poured down the plug hole – that’s the portals business models problem Deal with it…
:- /

maybe the pill is bitter to swallow for some even is free PPW is free and a great site with low set up tech costs
its simply the truth
muttons dressed as lambs do not tally anymore
Trevor

This post was mentioned on Twitter by PortalWatch: Google Maps Highlights Real Estate: http://bit.ly/1SwRFS…

If not, the dominant players is most market places are subscription businesses and will continue to be for a long time.

People who think the free model is the answer everywhere clearly have no idea of the expense in running a major portal or the consumer behavior that supports them.

Consumers dont care if an agent pays a membership or not. They want quality content (not just MORE listings) and a nice experience. From what I have seen, most of the free sites just dont have the cash to develop great sites or hire good people.