The Scottsdale Real Estate Files

In last week's adventures of Growth Leader Boy, discussion in the comment stream about the new product from Market Leader steered into the realm of traffic source. There was some question as to whether the traffic to the agent's site was the result of organic searches versus paid advertisement. I am pleased to announce that the answer is "yes."

Before I go any further, I would like to state the following caveats. For starters, unless you are an agent interested in reading up on the potential for growing your business through lead-generation, or are a Scottsdale homeowner eager to be mystified by my seemingly endless resources for finding you buyers (yes, you can touch me), you might want to skip this one. This is a test of the emergency buyer locating system. In case of bad market, break glass and collect viable leads. We will resume posting of our regularly scheduled consumer-based Real Estate info after this brief message.

For the inevitable questions to follow, no, I have not converted a lead to a sale yet. For that matter, I have yet to make face to face contact with a prospect as a result of my efforts. I do have an ever increasing volume of registered prospects, with many receiving listing alerts for properties that fit their parameters, so I feel pretty darn good about the likely eventuality of reporting success. I would hazard that the majority of the site visitors have listed their purchasing window as 3-6 months away, so this is proving, at least in my case, to be more of a long-term strategy than immediate. That's okay, I'll need business in the future, too. I envision a snowball rolling in from the wintry reaches of the Midwest, Canada and East Coast as we Arizonans welcome our frozen friends to our sun-drenched March pool parties.

Focusing on where the leads are coming from, the following stats were cut and pasted directly from the "Vision" portal of the site which offers the user several administrative tools. The links at top show some of the other functions. In this case, I was simply interested in tracking stats and determining from where my hits were coming. You'll notice the notation that this report only tabulates the organic traffic patterns. The colonel's secret recipe for paid advertisement stays in the bucket.

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More Info

	http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mls+4024589+&btnG=G oogle+Search&aq=1&oq=mls+	1	0
	http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3A* %3AIE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7SUNA_en&q=Ginger+Lin+	1	0
	http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS294&q =Scottsdale+Adobe+Ranch+Villas+HOA&start=10&	0	0
	http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS290US 290&q=JAY+SCOTT+rEALTY+EXECUTIVES	1	0
	http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4DMUS_enUS266US 266&q=mls+4060067	1	0
	http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLR_en&pwst=1 &q=john+mihlik&start=20&sa=N	0	0
	http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=active&rlz=1T4AD BR_enUS272US273&q=shawna+sexton+dpr+realty&s	1	0
	http://www.google.com/search?q=3034485+scottsdale+az&rls =com.microsoft:*:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-	1	0
	http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie= UTF-8&rlz=1T4DMUS_enUS296US296&q=mls+%234062	0	0
	http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8 &rlz=1T4DKUS_enUS265US265&q=Keller+Williams+	0	0
	http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8 &rlz=1T4DMUS_enUS296US296&q=mls+%234062507	1	0
	http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8 &rlz=1T4GGLR_enUS297US299&q=Nicole+Cline+McC	0	0
	Totals	11	0

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Growth Leader continues to funnel me prospects on a nearly daily basis. Stay tuned to find out when I will actually produce a sale and how many generated prospects it takes me to get there. Until that day comes, I will continue to break down the site, feature by feature, while juggling flaming swords on roller skates. You do not want to miss it! For more information on Growth Leader, be sure to click the icon so generously provided at the immediate southwest portion of your monitor. We know you have a choice in lead-generation review providers. We here at Slaybaugh, Inc. thank you for flying the friendly virtual skies with us.

Typically when Bob Stewart calls, I usually either screen it or pretend he reached an Asian laundromat.  I demand payment for the drycleaning, he swears at me, I threaten to call the police, he swears at me, I shout unintelligible Mandarin obscenities and he hangs up on me.  It’s a hoot.

For some reason or another, I took the call from the 425 last week in normal persona (granted, I use the term “normal” loosely). 

The one-time Active Rain community builder turned paid vacationer wanted to know if I would be willing to take part in a grand experiment to colonize the moon with sea monkeys.  It sounded cool, but I just put in a winter lawn that needs my attention and I don’t like the piped-in muzak they play on the shuttle.  Fortunately, he had an even more staggering proposal as Option B: 

Test out the new “Growth Leader” product from HouseValues.Com.

I couldn’t possibly turn it down. 

Why, you ask?

Not that my personal decision making is any of your business, but it sounded like it had some real lead-generation potential.  I have never worked with a lead-generation service and typically prefer to find my own clients, but given the current state of the market, I am amenable to trying new avenues.  As one who has always relied most heavily on repeat and referral business, I originally jumped into blogging and internet marketing as more of a lark than anything.  Now that we have to work twice as hard to drum up half the leads, I am plunging into darn near any dark alley where I hear a guy in an overcoat say, “Psst!”

Growth Leader is intriguing.  It is a personalized website tailored to an agent’s individual market.  The geeks behind the technology have SEO pretty well wired, and the site is sticky as all get-out.  In the coming weeks, I’ll relate my experiences with the product, and I’ll give it to you straight.  It features some pretty trick ability to track exactly what prospects are doing on your site along with a killer lead follow-up protocol.  I haven’t been playing with the site long enough to provide much analysis yet, but that will follow.  I will say that I've averaged nearly one registered prospect per day since I was set up, and it required absolutely no effort from me.  Phase 2 will be to track the conversion success rate.  All in all, I'm impressed to this point.

For a peak at what the site created for me looks like, you can see it here.

In a buyerless market, such as we currently have here in Phoenix, I would go to the ends of the earth for viable prospects.  Fortunately, I only have to open my laptop.

For the good, bad and ugly of my experiences, come on back.  I’m guessing I’m not part of the control group ;)

I swear to God, though, Bob, if you gave me a placebo, I’m going to burn this joint down.