We just made our inaugural post on the new istew blog. istew.com is a new service we will be launching soon to cover the Twin Cities real estate market…pretty exciting stuff. If you are a metro area real estate professional, you may want to take a look and apply to become an exclusive istew affiliate.
The Twin Cities is one of the most wired metros in the country, and we look forward to connecting great real estate professionals with web savvy house hunters in the metro.
Archive for April, 2007
istew.com – coming soon…
Monday, April 30th, 2007Needle In A Haystack
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Today we are looking at two large lakes in South Central Wisconsin – Lake Petenwell and Castle Rock Lake.
Castle Rock Lake is 16,640 Acres with a max depth of 30 feet. It is the fourth largest lake in Wisconsin and home to several species of fish including Walleye, Muskie, and Northern Pike. If you are looking for Castle Rock lake property – we invite you to visit LakePlace.com – you will find virtually every property available on the market.
Lake Petenwell is the 2nd largest lake in Wisconsin. It is 23,000 Acres with a maximum depth of 42 feet. Like Castle Rock Lake, it is home to Muskie, Northern Pike, and Walleye. Both of these lakes are man made and perfect for sailing, water-skiing, and boating. Both of these lakes are located in Adams County Wisconsin. If you would like more information on Lake Petenwell properties, please feel free to contact us or shoot us an email!
Happy Lakeshore Hunting!
Zillow Project – Day 14
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007I wish I had more time to dedicate to this blog, but things have been extremely busy around here. The lakefront property buying season is just getting started here in Minnesota & Wisconsin and it is pretty crazy. Anyway, here are the running stats…
Total Impressions: 767
Total Clicks: 5
As you can see, we had quite a few views since our last update, but unfortunately, no additional clicks.
A few days ago I mentioned that we would be spicing this experiment up…and we will be…but not until we get caught up on some other things. Please be patient & have a great day!
The Zillow Project – Day 12
Monday, April 23rd, 2007What a weekend! Sorry I did not get a chance to post our weekend stats – I had a very busy weekend.
Here are our running totals:
Views: 681
Clicks: 5
As you can see, the clicks are starting to come. Our first click was last week and it took about $4.00 to achieve it. But now, with 5 clicks and 681 views, our cost per click has come down to $1.32 per click. Not bad considering that the zip codes we chose are probably the most expensive zip codes in the state of Minnesota – our Zillow EZ Ads are pointed at the Lake Minnetonka real estate market.
Check back tomorrow for the updated stats. We have come up with an idea to make this project a little more interesting – I will fill you in on the details soon.
The Zillow Project – Day 8
Thursday, April 19th, 2007We’ve got a click!
It took eight days and 432 views – but we finally got that click we have been waiting for. It always feels good to get that first one out of the way.
As you can see, our running tally is 432 impressions and 1 click. We will keep you posted throughout the entire $100 Zillow EZ Ad campaign.
BTW – I apologize for posting this so late in the afternoon. It is my eighth anniversary today and I promised to play my wife’s favorite sport with her this afternoon…shopping.
Have a great evening!
The Zillow Project – Day 7
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007Quick post today – here are our Zillow EZ Ad running stats…Total Impressions: 382
Total Clicks: 0
Another 56 views over the night…but still no clicks. Check back tomorrow to see how we are doing.
The Zillow Project – Day 6
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007Yesterday I asked the Zillow team to stop by and explain some things for us…and they did. Dave G. from Zillow explained:
” I can answer your question about your ad not showing up on every page.
When you buy EZ Ads, you specify the number of views your ad will get and the duration over which we should show your ad. From your reports, I’d guess you purchased 1,000 views over one month. That will represent some fraction of the available page views in the Zip codes you have targeted. We try to serve your ad more or less evenly over the duration you selected – so we space out the ad views according to the fraction of available impressions you’ve purchased.
In future, if you’d like your ad to show up more often, you could either;
a) buy more impressions,
b) choose a shorter duration (1 wk vs 1 mnth)
c) target fewer zip codes.”
I very much appreciate Dave taking the time to give us this information – like I said in the past, the Zillow team is great!
After reading Dave’s information, I logged into my Zillow account to make the changes…unfortunately, the user panel does not allow me to make these adjustments. I will have to run a new spot or cancel this ad and then create a new one (unless I missed something). One suggestion to Zillow would be to allow advertisers to change anything they like, whenever they like – it makes our lives easier when you implement my golden rule – The Path of Least Resistance.
Anyway, on to the numbers for today…
EZ Ad Results – Day 6
Total Impressions – 326
Total Clicks – 0
According to Dave from Zillow, the LakePlace.com ad would receive more impressions if I shorten the run-time…again, the Zillow userpanel does not allow me to change my run time…so I will have to think of something else.
As far as the click-throughs go, I am not surprised at all by the number. 326 views and 0 clicks is not disappointing, it is the norm with CPM advertising and to be expected. But to put this into perspective (good or bad), I could have paid $3.26 to Google, Yahoo, or MSN and guaranteed myself a click.
Please keep in mind – we are still in the very early stages of the Zillow Project and we will have to look at the long-term results to really get a good idea of effectiveness.
Check back tomorrow as we await that first click!
The Zillow Project – Day 4 & 5
Monday, April 16th, 2007Happy Monday!
If you have been following the Zillow Project on the Pine Needle Lawn – you know that I was not able to write a post yesterday. The wife had me doing some work around the house that I had been putting off for quite some time – I also had to help my daughter with a presentation (about LakePlace.com) that she will be giving to her economics class today. Needless to say, Sunday was very busy – I hope you had a great weekend and I apologize for not giving you our stats.
We are now 5 days into our $100 spend. Here are the numbers.
EZ Ad results – Day 4 & 5
Total Impressions: 269
Total Clicks: 0
There you have it. A reader also made the following comment:
“I typed in some zip codes in the Lake Minnetonka area and never saw your ads.”
I noticed the same thing. Our EZ Ad is not showing up every time someone looks up the zip codes we purchased – instead, Zillow shows an ad for EZ Ads many times. I am not sure why this is happening. If Zillow is watching, it would be great if you could let us (and our readers) know how to make sure our ads will show up in our target zip codes.
Check back tomorrow for day 6 results!
Zillow Project
Saturday, April 14th, 2007I just created a new category for our Zillow Project so you can more easily follow our progress in your RSS Feed Reader. (Should have done this from the start)
The Zillow Project – Day 3
Saturday, April 14th, 2007We are now three days into our little Zillow EZ Ads experiment. Our total spend thus far has been $1.85 – out of our $100 pre-purchase.Here are the Zillow EZ Ads results – Day 3:
Total Impressions: 185
Total Clicks: 0
As you can see, our EZ Ad was triggered 73 times in the past 24 hours (up from 21 displays of our ad on Day 2).
I will be back tomorrow with the latest numbers. Hope you are having a great weekend!