I want to dispel any notion that just because I work at HomeGain and I do consult my clients to utilize Buyerlink for their pay-per-click campaign, I’m a “one-size-fits-all” brute that can’t take honest criticism. 
I will be the first one to admit that HomeGain.com’s Buyerlink, or any of its other programs for the matter (Agent View, Agent Evaluator, or AIMS), is not a generic, one-size –fits-all solution for every realtor out there. That would like saying the Atkins Diet Program will work for every single overweight person. Simply not true. I’m open to constructive criticism so let’s delve a bit deeper into the logic behind this agent’s argument.
The realtor’s argument is summarized in the following order:
- HomeGain is at the top search engine results on Google for just about any “city, state real estate” keyword combination because HomeGain spends big dollars to make sure they it stays at the top of Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc
- HomeGain’s BuyerLink is a program where HomeGain redirects
website traffic from their website to a real estate agent’s websites for a pay-per-click fee
- The HomeGain site advertises that you can search for homes. Consumers click on the search for homes button, then they click on their state, then their metro area, and finally they click on the town they are interested in.
- Suddenly, the consumer finds themselves on a completely different website, a real estate agent’s IDX search page.
CONCLUSION:
6) They are hijacking the real estate agent’s website content and listing 
search functions and selling them back to agents at $0.75 – $1.50 per click.
This realtor was on such a good start, making some valid objective points, but then unashamedly abandons logic to fumble to his malicious conclusion.
If HomeGain.com attracts millions of visitors a month because we have put forth great effort in our Search Engine Optimization Strategy, built key strategic partnerships with over 300 affiliate partners, and manage a fine-tuned Search Engine Marketing campaign, and then connect these consumers directly with Real Estate Professionals through our Buyerlink program, are we guilty of Hijacking?
His logic would not hold even in Judge Judy’s court of law. If we extended his reasoning to its logical ends then I could argue that even he himself as a realtor is a middle man “hijacking” buyers and sellers who could conduct a transaction by themselves if they really had enough time to worry about all the legalities and details and save 6% while they are at it!
Heck, using this line of reasoning, we should perhaps start picketing outside of Costco and Walmart. They leverage their multi-million dollar budget to aggregate consumer products in quantities and prices that no individual 
consumer can get and pass that on to their members for a little mark up. Sounds eerily similar to HomeGain’s Buyerlink strategy, no? Perhaps we should churn our own butter, grow our own vegetables, make trips to Wall Street to trade our own stocks, buy cars directly from Detroit, you get my point.
All sarcasm aside, a world with no middle men simply does not exist. While waxing eloquent about this “idealistic” marketplace may make great blogging material, but it is utterly futile in practical application. In a free market capitalistic economy, or what is left of it today, there will always be technology vendors that provide TOOLS to empower agents to run their business efficiently and productively.
Can HomeGain’s Buyerlink be used as a TOOL for a realtor, which if yeilded correctly can great return on investment for realtors? 350 transactions good enough for you?
To be continued…
Online Reputation Management- Project HomeGain Buyerlink
April 17, 2009
In the current uber connected online climate, where just
about anyone with a keyboard and internet connection can be a source of information (a la Wikipedia), celebrities are not the only ones who need to be concerned about “Reputation Management.” Any viable business needs to be aware of their reputation in top search engines like Google and Yahoo.
There’s nothing more painful than the experience of 
performing a google search for your own company’s name, or one of its flagship products, only to find that the highest organic results are blog rants from a furious consumer who thinks you are the worst thing since Kevin Costner’s Waterworld. Unfortunately, there is no way to “unapprove” those comments no matter how incredulous or unreasonable they may be. As you will discover, I speak from personal experience…
I was performing a google search for my own beloved 
company’s program, Buyerlink when, to my unpleasant surprise, the second organic result was a blog post written by an agent on Active Rain entitled, “HomeGain Buyerlink –You’re fired”. My stomach turned into a knot and I felt like one of those poor contestants on the The Apprentice, who just heard those fateful words from Donald Trump.
In a mad fury of research I managed to find some techniques that would hopefully deal with this rogue review of HomeGain’s Buyerlink program. I found some amazingly practical and easy ways to help with HomeGain’s Reputation management, such as creating multiple profiles on social media outlets and piggy backing off of their SEO value to bury negative comments. However, 
every single source of information unanimously agreed on the value of providing rich new content via blogs for the google bots to gobble up. So I’ll be starting a series of posts in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully I’ll be able to aide in HomeGain’s Reputation management with more informative posts on Buyerlink in addition to sensibly addressing and refuting this agent’s conclusion about HomeGain’s Buyerlink product. Stay tuned!
Finger Licking Good Marketing – online real estate marketing lessons learned from KFC
April 13, 2009
Kentucky Fried Chicken has taken its “finger-licking-good” show on the 
road, literally. The iconic purveyor of America’s ultimate comfort food, ridiculously greasy deep fried chicken, has committed to fill 350 potholes in Louisville, KY. The only catch is that Colonel Sanders will be legally allowed to graffiti on the ground “Refreshed by KFC” stenciled drawings (KFC assures the citizens of Louisville that it is street chalk, so it’s not permanent).
Whether you assess this as a brilliant, pioneering marketing move or a just further perpetuation of unwelcomed, annoying, and invasive marketing techniques (a la the flashing banner ads of the early 2000′s) there is a lesson to be learned.
No, don’t go to the city council and ask the mayor if you can fix the potholes
in your market area in exchange for your advertisement spray-painted on the ground…
In essence, KFC is providing goodwill services for citizens of Louisville that will benefit thousands of people and are getting some well-deserved press in the process. People tend to appreciate acts of goodwill and usually have a favorable perception of them. Some consumers even consider this a decisive factor in whether to patronize one business over another! In the world of real estate marketing, it’s essential for realtors to be involved in some act of goodwill that conveys to the consumer that they are more than just commission hungry salespeople.
One way I’ve seen realtors do this recently is by becoming Ecobroker 
certified. Going Green is not just a buzzword but a movement that is being forged in the forefront of consumer’s minds, as more and more Americans is thinking greener about their purchasing decisions. When you become Ecobroker certified, you don’t just get additional letters at the end of your name on your stationary (although that is cool and I’m jealous), but you’re communicating to your clients that you are a person who cares about the environment and can help them make important decisions that are consistent with their commitments to environmental awareness.
While news stations will not be lined around your office to cover your Ecobroker designation and it won’t be nearly as entertaining as seeing Colonel Sanders fixing potholes, it will provide a competitive edge as a realtor in a much more subtle and non-ostentatious way.
Will going green produce actual generate the kind of green real estate 
agents are looking for? That is yet to be seen. Will the 350 potholes that KFC “refreshes” in Louisville produce more chicken sales? Well, perhaps it’s not a fair comparison because the 350 potholes will cost KFC effectively nothing -according to an inside informant KFC will “allegedly” fill the potholes with the grease left over from their deep-fryer, which anyone who has had left over chicken from KFC could tell you is not a bad idea =)
