One of our has launched a new blog - . Marv Strong is an early adopter - we know he will do a great job with his blog and we wish him the best of luck in this new and exciting endeavor.
If you are interested in the market - or the Brainerd real estate market in general - we highly recommend checking out - and don’t forget to bookmark it!
On the same note - we do have a couple of co-listed Prime Properties with Marv. Check out this 160 Acres of and this with a creek running through it.
As always - happy lake home hunting!
I got a call today from a salesperson at . He wanted me to sign up for a program to receive leads off their website. If I bought one zip code, the fee would be $129.95 a month, plus an 18% referral fee back to them for every closed transaction.
Here’s the pitch from ePERKS:
ePERKS is a combination of search directory and search engine for major services. As a result there are directory membership fees as well as referral fees for when a deal is closed. Pricing is uniform across the United States and there are 3 simple programs that encompass the service.
This program provides complete exclusivity to the real estate professional, as members of this program are made the sole representatives for their selected areas of coverage. No other program listings are displayed, as the Exclusive Ownership Listing supersedes and eliminates all other listings.
100% Ownership of Selected Zip Codes (no other listings)
Supersedes and Eliminates All Other Listings
$129.95 a Zip Monthly
$150 Setup Fee
19% Referral Fee (80% given back to consumer)
No Extended Contract
Month to Month Billing
Cancel Anytime
Backed by ePERKS Guarantee
They also had other programs available where I’d share the zip code with other agents, for lower fees of $59 to $89 a month. Another black hole designed to swallow your dough, but a shallower one, I guess.
I wasn’t particularly interested, but I thought I’d just look it up to see what some other bloggers were writing about the company.
The funny thing is, all I could find were “sponsored” posts. Posts that were bought or placed for payment in the attempt to jumpstart some viral marketing. Apparently, their PR department has been busy paying bloggers to “write” stories, most identifical to the other, culled from a press release to collect a quick $10 or $20.
Paid review:
Paid post: from Current World News
Paid Review on
Paid post: Rebate real estate brokers from
Does it work to pay bloggers to say nice things about your crappy lead-generation website? I would think a good PPC campaign would be a more effective way to reach customers, without losing credibility in the marketplace.
Disclosure: I wasn’t paid a dime for this glowing review.