Comments on: Actively Searching for Another Zillow to Announce in March http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/ Seattle's Leading Resource for Real Estate Information Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:05:24 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Dustin http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2485 Dustin Fri, 03 Mar 2006 05:23:07 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2485 Max, I'm going to rearrange my feed subscription around soon so that it will be more obvious! But until then, the comment feed can be found here: <a href="http://www.raincityguide.com/feed/" rel="nofollow">www.raincityguide.com/feed/</a> Max,

I’m going to rearrange my feed subscription around soon so that it will be more obvious! But until then, the comment feed can be found here:

http://www.raincityguide.com/feed/

]]> By: Max http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2482 Max Fri, 03 Mar 2006 04:17:24 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2482 Dustin, due to visitors' frequent comments in the blog I wanted to subscribe to them, but couldn't find the comments feed... where is it? Dustin,

due to visitors’ frequent comments in the blog I wanted to subscribe to them, but couldn’t find the comments feed… where is it?

]]> By: Dustin http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2460 Dustin Thu, 02 Mar 2006 22:38:08 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2460 Ardell, You bring up some interesting points... For a while I had a HUGE category list on the side of Rain City Guide (I've used categories extensively!), but I found that almost noone was using these to find interesting articles. However, recently I've been moving away from categories in favor of tags. There are really two types of users that I'd like to serve well. One is a regular RCG reader and one is a newbie. A regular is probably just interested in finding the latest articles they can get that via <a href="http://www.raincityguide.com/feed/" rel="nofollow">RSS feed</a> or by coming directly to the homepage. The newbie is more likely to be interested a particular topic in which case I've added relevant tags to the bottom of every post (they are even in red!). My thought is that after they have read the current post, they can find information on more posts on a similar topic that might interest them. My experience is that a huge list of every tag really would be all that useful on the front page, but I may try to put some selected tags (like <a href="http://www.raincityguide.com/tag/buyer-information" rel="nofollow">buyer information</a>) in a prominent place in the future. I'm definitely open to suggestions! By the way, if you do want to see a huge subset of the most popular tags, check out the <a href="http://www.raincityguide.com/archive/" rel="nofollow">tag cloud I recently added to the archive page</a>. Ardell,

You bring up some interesting points… For a while I had a HUGE category list on the side of Rain City Guide (I’ve used categories extensively!), but I found that almost noone was using these to find interesting articles. However, recently I’ve been moving away from categories in favor of tags.

There are really two types of users that I’d like to serve well. One is a regular RCG reader and one is a newbie. A regular is probably just interested in finding the latest articles they can get that via RSS feed or by coming directly to the homepage.

The newbie is more likely to be interested a particular topic in which case I’ve added relevant tags to the bottom of every post (they are even in red!). My thought is that after they have read the current post, they can find information on more posts on a similar topic that might interest them. My experience is that a huge list of every tag really would be all that useful on the front page, but I may try to put some selected tags (like buyer information) in a prominent place in the future. I’m definitely open to suggestions!

By the way, if you do want to see a huge subset of the most popular tags, check out the tag cloud I recently added to the archive page.

]]> By: ARDELL http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2458 ARDELL Thu, 02 Mar 2006 22:14:25 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2458 I don't understand where you go for certain categories. When you hit "for buyers" at the top, you don't get the posts tagged with "buyer info". If I only want to see posts about real estate and not about Zillow, what button would I hit on the front page? I thought there would be a button for each category so someone coming to RainCityGuide.com can choose which posts to read. The only way I see that working now is if you hit Criag, for example, you can see all of Craig's posts. But a newcomer to the site would want to choose a category rather than a person, wouldn't they? I don’t understand where you go for certain categories. When you hit “for buyers” at the top, you don’t get the posts tagged with “buyer info”. If I only want to see posts about real estate and not about Zillow, what button would I hit on the front page?

I thought there would be a button for each category so someone coming to RainCityGuide.com can choose which posts to read. The only way I see that working now is if you hit Criag, for example, you can see all of Craig’s posts. But a newcomer to the site would want to choose a category rather than a person, wouldn’t they?

]]> By: 3 cents http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2457 3 cents Thu, 02 Mar 2006 21:46:20 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2457 Great Blog because of outstanding contributors, interesting dialogue. Continued success. (in a whisper: RC is more interesting than curbed (mr steele, please dont shoot ) Great Blog because of outstanding contributors, interesting dialogue. Continued success.
(in a whisper: RC is more interesting than curbed (mr steele, please dont shoot )

]]> By: Dustin http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2453 Dustin Thu, 02 Mar 2006 18:40:23 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2453 Also interesting, but not really a fair comparison, both the <a href="http://raincityguide.com/list-of-innovative-real-estate-search-tools/">Home Search Tools</a> and the <a href="http://raincityguide.com/for-buyers/" >For Buyers</a> pages got more hits than any of the blog posts with 1392 and 926 hits respectively. I say it's not a fair comparison because both of those pages have been up on the site for a while and score really well in a few key google searches (plus they weren't posted in February!). Also interesting, but not really a fair comparison, both the Home Search Tools and the For Buyers pages got more hits than any of the blog posts with 1392 and 926 hits respectively.

I say it’s not a fair comparison because both of those pages have been up on the site for a while and score really well in a few key google searches (plus they weren’t posted in February!).

]]> By: Dustin http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2451 Dustin Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:39:19 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2451 No doubt... I also noticed that the <a href="http://www.raincityguide.com/tag/real-estate-q-a" rel="nofollow">series of interviews I did with the top real estate bloggers</a> around that time also brought in a fair amount of traffic! No doubt… I also noticed that the series of interviews I did with the top real estate bloggers around that time also brought in a fair amount of traffic!

]]> By: Robbie http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2449 Robbie Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:32:33 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2449 I think the <a href="http://www.raincityguide.com/2006/01/04/the-future-of-mls-search-is-coming-to-rain-city-guide/" >announcement </a> of our <a href="http://listings.raincityguide.com" >search tool</a> probably caused a fair amount of traffic jump from December to January. I think the
announcement of our search tool probably caused a fair amount of traffic jump from December to January.

]]> By: Robbie http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2448 Robbie Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:27:20 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2448 Dang! When's your IPO again? ;) Dang! When’s your IPO again? ;)

]]> By: Dustin http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2446 Dustin Thu, 02 Mar 2006 17:17:43 +0000 http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/01/actively-searching-for-another-zillow-to-announce-in-march/#comment-2446 Ardell, The first chart shows that our traffic is pretty closely tied to Google searches... As Google sends more people our way, then our traffic goes up. So why has Google started sending so many people our way? It's because of you! No kidding. The great writers on the site have been getting links from all over the web and Google views these as "votes of confidence" in our site and its content. The more "votes" we get, the more traffic they send. More specifically, you asked about the January spike. I think December was a little slow because not as many people were looking for real estate information. If December was a "typical" month, I think the difference between January and December would have been smaller and more indicative of gradual (but consistent) growth. Ardell,

The first chart shows that our traffic is pretty closely tied to Google searches… As Google sends more people our way, then our traffic goes up. So why has Google started sending so many people our way?

It’s because of you!

No kidding. The great writers on the site have been getting links from all over the web and Google views these as “votes of confidence” in our site and its content. The more “votes” we get, the more traffic they send.

More specifically, you asked about the January spike. I think December was a little slow because not as many people were looking for real estate information. If December was a “typical” month, I think the difference between January and December would have been smaller and more indicative of gradual (but consistent) growth.

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