I just fired up one of Zillow’s new Agent Premier sites and poked around.
It’s pretty impressive stuff.
I run a number of WordPress multisite networks for Real estate, and at a glance, Zillow’s done a really good job of offering a really functional wordpress install, with great design options, idx integration, and of course, easy bloggy wordpress content creation…
Out of the box.
In a few minutes.
For Just $10 Bucks A Month!
But Of Course These Sites Won’t Get You Leads (Yet)
Look, for the price Zillow’s agent premier sites are a fabulous deal. You’ll instantly have a site that’s probably better than what you’ve got going now.
But you’ll still be missing 3 very important things.
- A Traffic Generation Strategy
- A Core Lead Capture Element [Your IDX Search doesn’t count, nobody will trade an email address for what they can get for free on the Z 🙂 ]
- And a Consistent Follow Up Strategy
You can find good help and layer these things on.
And Zillow can make implementing a modern (post 2007 real estate lead generation strategy) easier by looking into these 2 feature quick requests.
- Add a “below post” widget area so folks can link out to a lead generation squeeze page, or include some kind of opt in form… (for something, anything other than a property search.)
- And/Or include a totally blank page template so folks can build their squeezes on the fly.
There are also some minor things missing like Facebook commenting, advanced SEO options, and other minor stuff that can be added via a plugin here and there.
But otherwise… for $10. You kidding me?
I maybe sorta wanted to not like it…
But geez… we all have to admit. Zillowpress is pretty nifty….
Nathan Crooks says:
I also tried Zillowpress out as. Thought it would be an improvement to the idx that one of my current WP sites had to offer (I run three). While it was very smooth and simple to set up, in the end I decided to cancel the site.
Pros:
1. Beautiful site, no “Ugly Realtor Face”, with 27 tabs on the sidebar
2. Smooth, simple to navigate,
3. Cheap.
Cons:
1. Imported IDX slideshow photos were grainy.
2. Once the default photos are deleted they are gone forever, support could not bring them back.
3. No leads.
I decided to integrate the IDX search from eEdge into my original WP site instead of buying a Diverse Solutions plugin (Free with ZillowPress, and $99 setup+ $29/month for third party WP sites).
I use and recommend Gorilla Themes http://nathancrooks.com/
If you are looking for top tier support, talk to the guys at Retechulous. http://heykansascity.com/ They are second to none
July 19, 2012 — 7:36 am
Sean Purcell says:
Ryan, what does Zillow gain from all of this?
July 19, 2012 — 11:24 am
Don Reedy says:
Ryan, isn’t Zillowpress like “Sleeping with the Enemy?”
Why purposely start with a site whose ownership wants to usurp your data so that it can remain in first place in the Google sweepstakes?
Are you saying that Zillowpress is good….really, or are you just playing nice?
July 19, 2012 — 11:40 am
Ryan says:
Sean — Don’t know… maybe the ability to upsell into their other ad offerings. Plus… this sets the stage for them to start doing more marketing training and coaching, perhaps with a monthly fee.
There’s also the ability to offer extra features as upgrades…
Don — Data Schmata. It’s not your frakking data! 🙂 I’d love to see Zillow become the National MLS. Then agents can get back to focusing on USP’s and how to offer real value, instead of obsessing over seo… (so so 2007 🙂
And yeah, I build wordpress multisite platforms all the time… and I think Zillowpress is really well done. Not playing nice… just being objective.
July 20, 2012 — 3:02 pm