October 2009

The Debate is More Than Just Forced Registration

Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 4:13pm. 343 Views, 1 Comments.

I think this site and the discussion that it will encourage is about more than just forcing registration; it's about how we use the Internet to market ourselves as real estate agents. One of the things that is unique and special about Internet marketing is the unprecedented degree to which marketing ideas can be tested and measured. Since I think it is fair to say that most real estate agents hope to profit from their Internet marketing efforts, it seems to me that we would all want to maximize the bang for our buck that we are getting.

Now if anyone can demonstrate using meaningful statistics that it's possible for an agent to generate more business from not forcing registration on their website, then I would love to hear about it and see what you are…

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Week 2 Data is in for the Forced vs Unforced Test

Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 5:24pm. 224 Views, 0 Comments.

We have posted the week 2 data for our Forced vs. Unforced Test.  To view this weeks results, check out our post at: http://www.barkerhedges.com/blog/data-post-october-15-2009-forced-vs-unforced-registration-test.html

The results this week were a little curious.  Here are a few highlights:

• The overall traffic was higher on our Unforced site, but the lead volume was noticeably LESS.
• Traffic on the Forced site was nearly identical and the lead volume was just slightly less.
• Our overall conversion rate on the Forced site was over 300% higher than the Unforced site.

We will continue to post our results every week on our blog through the end of the year.  For those of you that have been following along, let us know what you think!

-Matt & Brandon…

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REW Blog post - Forced vs. Unforced Registration Websites

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 3:35pm. 1107 Views, 7 Comments.

Matt just kicked off a discussion over at REW Blogs regarding his test and results so far and also invited others to join in.

You can read the full blog post and it's comments here: http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/mattbarker/8618/show/ or just click this link.

Remember - the more participants we have, the more valid and accurate this test becomes. If you want to submit your stats please leave us a comment - and we'd be happy to post your results as well as attribution to your site. 

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The first data is coming in - Barker Hedges Reports

Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 2:29pm. 248 Views, 1 Comments.

Matt Barker has just posted regarding his first set of reports (one week) of data. You can read about the finding at this post

Some high level stats: 

• Forced registration produce double the "valid" leads of non forced registration
• Unforced registration produced more page views per visitor
• Unforced registration produced a lower bounce rate
• Forced registration produced a phone in / unforced did not

For the full report on the first weeks numbers go to permalink - http://www.barkerhedges.com/blog/data-post-october-8-2009-forced-vs-unforced-registration-test.html

I would be interested in receiving your comments here once you read the post - I am sure Matt and Brandon would love a comment on their blog as well.

Game on!!!

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