The ARE-TEC Blog: All Things IDX, Website, and Techno-geek

More buzz today as Listing Router hits the new ActiveBlogs...

Basically, Listing Router is just a call to action for your readers, right?  It gives them the opporunity to search for homes, and if they type in your area on your page, then that person gets sent over to your IDX search.

So if we think about Listing Router as a call to action... how do we know if that's the best one, the most convincing way to persuade people to search for homes?  Because - certainly - we want to present this call to action, this opportunity for our site visitors, in a way that convinces them to use that feature.

In fact, on my own real estate business site, I've been testing my own IDX search, trying different headlines to see which makes people stay and use the search longest.  We had the original headline:

    Search Tucson Homes - Listings Provided by the Tucson MLS

and 3 different variations.  So far, this is the winner:

    Tucson MLS Listings - Search for a Home or Land Here

which makes people use the search longer than they do with the original headline nearly 75% of the time.

The loser:

    Search the Tucson MLS Below

actually makes people leave FASTER than the original headline.

So I'm curious: is that Listing Router actually effective at driving people to your listing search?  What percentage of your site visitors use it?  Could it be made more effective with a different headline, a different placement, a different call to action?  How does it perform compared to, say, a little quick search widget embedded in your post or sidebar?  Can you take what's given, and find out what parts of it work or don't work, and then tweak it to make it better somehow?  Can I make it more or less prominent, depending on the kind of information I'm providing in my blog alongside it?  How do I differentiate mine from everyone elses? 

Very curious. 

What's your experience?

I'm so excited. 

We just added the ability to send listings to Twitter and Facebook from our IDX. 

So the people searching for homes on your site - if you're one of our customers - can tweet about that cool new house they just saw. 

Or they can post a link to Facebook to tell their friends and family about that new duplex they purchased.

Or you can tell all your twitterpals about that lovely house you just listed, or link it easily to your Facebook wall.

It shows up with a link back to your search, of course, so anyone who sees your Tweet or Facebook link can click on it and it goes back to that listing ON YOUR SITE. 

How's that for sending traffic back to you?  And anyone using your listing search can do it, if they've got a Twitter or a Facebook account.  Can you imagine all the twitterfolk in your area using your IDX, linking back to you, every time they find a cool home?  Can you imagine how many other people will see those people tweeting and can click on that link and see your site?  Crazy opportunity.  Crazy sharing.  Awesome social media opportunities.

Seriously cool.

We're in a huge expansion phase right now.  Send me an email and we'll get started integrating into your MLS.

It's too late to get a free lunch, but don't let that stop you. REBarCamp takes place Tuesday, January 6th at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square, New York, 9am - 5pm. You can register here. You'll have to pay for your own lunch at this point, but given that the rest of the conference is free, that's a small price to pay.

What's REBarCamp? Well - an unconference. A gathering of people who get together on a specific day and time and share their ideas. It's the casual conference, the fun, open way to learn about cutting edge stuff in Real Estate. You can listen, you can interact, you can meet all nature of cool kids.

The schedule is made on that morning, but a few people have already pitched sessions. If you go to REBarCamp, you can hear:

• The Fabulous Altos Research boys talk about better marketing using real estate stats
• The bald-fabulous Jeff Turner, Roost's own Derek Overbey, and Mike Price of MLBroadcast talk about how to use video, from vlogs to video conference calls, and beyond.
• Social Ninja Todd Carpenter and the lovely Ginger Wilcox discuss how to use social media to develop and create offline relationships
• And lowly me, talking about how to better listen to and understand your site visitors by using some cool Google tools like the Website Optimizer.

If you're in the area, if you can GET YOURSELF THERE on that day - DO IT.  I promise.  Go.  Be wowed.  It's really that good.  RSVP NOW.

I'll be the dork talking about Google with Housechick on her nametag - hope to meet you there!