Apr. 30, 2007 - Sponsorship and Affiliate Programs

As you know, we have both a subscription and an ad-supported service (vFlyer Personal). The subscription-based service is ad free (yet another good reason to upgrade) while the ad-supported service isn’t. With the mobile release behind us, vFlyer Personal will soon support the ability of service providers (such as financial services companies, printers, i.e.) to sponsor pages on the service. For more information on sponsorship opportunities on vFlyer Personal email us at: sponsors@vflyer.com.

This week, we began piloting our affiliate program to select few partners. vFlyer is working with value-added resellers, consultants, training organizations and other trusted advisors through our vFlyer Affiliate Program. This program allows our partners to earn commissions on the referrals they make. We’ll let you know when these two programs have official launched but if you are interested in participating in the pilot please email us at: affiliates@vflyer.com

Apr. 29, 2007 - Thanks for the Press

We have always admired Brad Inman as a visionary and entrepreneur! In fact, we reached out to Brad shortly after starting vFlyer to seek his advice, so naturely we were flattered when Brad blogged about us last week on the Inman Blog (“Traction”):

Jeff Bernheisen of West Title and Escrow wrote on his blog:

Kristen Nicole of Mashable.com points out that:

Michael Foroobar of Venture Beat concurs adding:

And Vivek Puri of StartupSquad concludes:

We would like to thank Brad, Kristen, Michael, Vivek and the many other folks who covered our mobile launch for their kind words!

Apr. 26, 2007 - New Home Page Design and Demo

Those of you who logged in today probably noticed that we have redesigned our home to better reflect vFlyer expanding value proposition and better communicate the cost and time savings associated with using vFlyer as well as our rapidly growing set of services including marketplace distribution, email and SMS distribution, PDF and print output, embeddable widgets, and mobile flyers. In the next couple of weeks, will in announce additional delivery end-points (as we like to call them). Those new to vFlyer feel free to check out the new video demo at the bottom right of our home page and sign up today.

Apr. 26, 2007 - vFlyer Mobile, Mobile Flyers and SMS

vFlyer Mobile, Mobile Flyers and SMS/Text Messaging flyer distribution. Now both sellers and buyers who are on the go can get more out of vFlyer!

Using vFlyer Mobile, users can access, view and distribute their flyers directly from their mobile phone or PDA as well as email or text message prospective buyers with links to their mobile flyers (either from their mobile phones or from the vFlyer service). Mobile flyers are simply mini-versions of your flyer designed specially for mobile phones and contain just summary information as well as photos, pricing, maps and directions, contact information.

You can try vFlyer Mobile for yourself by simply going to http://www.vflyer.com/mobile/Login on your wireless device! To access text messaging, login into vFlyer, click on your flyer and then click the Email and SMS tab.

For more on vFlyer Mobile including demos and examples visit the vFlyer Support Wiki.

Apr. 24, 2007 - What Our Users Think About vFlyer

We love our users and it’s always great to find users who love vFlyer. Laura Reed of Center 21 Alamo in Clarksville, TN, writes on her blog post title “VFlyer...Gotta Love it!!!”:

Leigh Brown of Charlotte, NC, writes in her blog post:

Don Lantier, real estate broker and principal of Donald J Lantier Realty, based in Atlanta, GA, a long time vFlyer customer comments that:

Linda Davis of RE/MAX Realty Group in Gales Ferry, CT, comments in response to our Craigslist enhancements post:

and Maureen Henry, our first vFlyer Star, comments:

We would like to say a special thank you to Laura, Leigh, Don, Linda and Maureen! We appreciate your support and thank you for getting the word out. If you have a great vFlyer story, or know someone who should be a vFlyer Star, let us know!

Apr. 21, 2007 - Reasons to Upgrade

We are always making it easier for users to upgrade their accounts and take full advantage of what vFlyer has to offer! And the list of reasons to upgrade continues to grow.

• No vFlyer toolbar on your Flyers
• No vFlyer header on your forwarded emails
• No “Get Widget” link on your widgets
• No ads on the vFlyer service
• No ads on your flyer’s secondary pages

In addition to other enhancements such as:

• Increased number of flyers in your account
• Bulk upload support
• Embedded video support
• Customizeable gallery
• Enhanced Seller Profile on Gallery
• More photos on flyers (25 vs 15)
• Craigslist template with larger (and more) photos
• Premium Widgets
• Premium Templates
• Access to professional services
• Real-time online help

Apr. 21, 2007 - Web 2.0 Expo Panel - Earlier this Week

Earlier this week I spoke on a panel on Media 2.0 at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. The panel focused on how Web 2.0 was transforming media companies was moderated by Forrester Research’ s Charlene Li. I was only there for the day but Realty Thoughts’ Erik Hersman, who always has great insight, summarized some of his thoughts on the conference in his blog post “Web 2.0 in Real Estate”.

Apr. 19, 2007 - vFlyer to Speak at Real Estate Connect

The list of speakers for InmanNew’s Real Estate Connect SF 2007 conference have just been posted. Both Oliver and myself are slated to speak at the conference. I am speaking on August 1 at 8am in the morning:

Wednesday, August 1, 8:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
New Technologies to Enhance your Website: APIs, Widgets and More

and Oliver will be speaking on the same day at 1pm:

Wednesday, August 1, 1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Pump Up the Volume with Widgets, Blidgets and Other Doo-Dads

If you are going to be at the show, be sure to stop by and say hi. We always love to meet with and hear from our customers!

Apr. 19, 2007 - vFlyer Professional Services

We sometimes get asked what our professional services group does. Here is a quick run down for all those interested in the types of professional services we provide:

• Custom template development: Creating custom branded look-and-feel flyer templates or flyers with added features
• Custom widget development: Designing and developing custom widgets, usually branded for the customer
• FeedExpress^TM integrations: Building integration with 3rd party feeds and other data import projects
• Data entry: Manual data entry or cleanup for small accounts
• Co-branding: Implementing co-branded or private-labeled versions of the vFlyer service for large brokerages and other partners
• Custom reports: Designing custom reports, usually for FeedExpress^TM customers

Surprisingly these services are used by both small and large customers. You can always contact our professional services team by email at pso@vflyer.com

Apr. 18, 2007 - Interesting REALTOR and MLS Technology Trends

As part of our market research we recently ran across some very interesting survey information released by the NAR. The NAR in its 2006 Technology Survey (PDF Version) found the following:

• Internet ranks third in generating leads, behind referrals and repeat clients
• 56% of REALTORS^® spent >$1,000 on technology
• 30% of REALTORS^® spent >$2,000 on technology
• 16% of REALTORS^® and 28% of brokers spend >$1,000 annually on their websites
• 71% of REALTORS^® had a personal web site, a 129% jump since 2002
• Survey showed a clear connection between technology spending and Internet leads
• 40% of REALTORS^® spending >$5,000 on their website had >60% of their leads coming from the Internet

The NAR 2006 MLS Technology Survey shows the following:

• 73% of REALTORS^® are uncertain who in their firm receives leads from their MLS public website
• 73% of REALTORS^® received no leads from MLS public websites
• 81% of REALTORS^® received no sales from MLS public websites leads
• 63% of respondents said their MLS provided a public website for consumers
• 63% of REALTORS^® felt that a MLS public website competes with their own sites
• 43% of REALTORS^® didn’t view a MLS public website as a benefit
• 35% of REALTORS^® believed MLS public websites reduced the value of the REALTOR^®
• 50% of REALTORS^® felt that most value use of mapping information was a visual display of the property and driving directions
• 71% of MLS respondents said their MLS data was available via wireless devices
• 39% of REALTORS^® said they accessed MLS data from a wireless device
• 35% of REALTORS^® said they accessed wireless data several times a day

Obviously there is a lot more information contained in the surveys but here are some of our key takeaways as they relate to vFlyer and our partners:

• We need to continue educating REALTORS^® on how they can better integrate vFlyer as part of their online strategies in areas such as website integration, lead generation or lead distribution
• The general sentiment shared by REALTORS^® in the survey in regards to the MLS public websites is good new for distribution partners like Trulia, PropSmart, Oodle and Vast and demonstrates ongoing opportunities in our combined efforts to do a better job of generating leads for REALTORS^® that actually end up in their inbox
• Mapping and wireless/mobile features are important to REALTORS^® and at vFlyer, we will continue our investments in those areas
• Internet-based lead generation continues to be one of the most important drivers of REALTORS^® technology investments and that should continue to be the focus of our products and services
• We need to help REALTORS^® understand how they can use vFlyer need to generate more referrals and repeat clients which are the #1 and #2 sources of leads

Apr. 16, 2007 - Open House Flyers

Not everyone knows that when a flyer is published, a PDF version of the flyer is automatically created. Users can easily download, email or print the PDF, and in fact, more and more vFlyer real estate customers are using vFlyers for their open houses. One of our users recently pointed me to “Open House Flyer – Ideas to Maximize This Simple, Useful and Inexpensive Real Estate Tool” with some great tips on open house flyers. According to Michael Trust of Michael Trust Realty:

To maximize the effectiveness of an Open House flyer, here are a few tips that Trust gives:

• Print the flyer on light colored paper. This makes them look less cluttered and helps them stand out. In vFlyer, you can use a theme with a light background. You may also want to clone your flyer if you want two different versions: one for online distribution, the other for offline distribution (PDF).
• Print good quality colored photos on your flyer. Photos should show the best views of the property; front, foyer, living room with fireplace and so forth.
• List the basic information on the flyer. Make sure to fill in all the basic information that vFlyer asks for such as number of bedrooms, bathrooms and other important features and attributes.
• Include the words “Open House” as well a the date and time in the title. Another reason you may want to clone your flyer and have another version of your flyer that you use just for open houses.
• Always run a spell check before printing the flyer. Luckily vFlyer does that for you.
• Include the realtor listing information with at least two phone numbers and an email address. This gives people the option of using either phone or email to reach you!

Apr. 5, 2007 - Posting to Craigslist gets Better and Easier!

We released a couple of new features in our latest release that make posting to Craigslist better and easier! First of all, we have introduced an Enhanced Craigslist template for business subscribers. We have had many requests from users asking for more (and larger) photos in Craigslist so we’ve added that feature in the new template.

We have also made other user interface enhancements on the posting page that make it easier and faster for you to use, including putting all the information you need on the same page. You can see a demonstration of the posting process in this flash Posting in Craigslist video tutorial by yours truly. You can also watch this and other vFlyer videos on YouTube.