Over the past decade I have investigated various methods of measuring online traffic for the various web sites I've managed, and no single measurement seems to bear up to scrutiny. In fact, most do a pretty good job of contradicting each other.

This problem was highlighted last week with the publication of Internet Advertising Bureau’s report (1) showing that online ad spending in Australia had topped the $2bn mark (doubling over the past 4 years). Another recent report (2) predicted internet advertising will almost double again over the next 4 years to leapfrog newspapers and TV to become the number one advertising media.

The $2bn breaks down roughly to half in search/directories (so, mainly Google Adwords), a quarter in online classifieds (mainly real estate, cars and jobs) with the rest spent on general online display ads (skyscraper banners and the like).

With the growing dominance of internet advertising in Australia and throughout the world, it would seem important that we have a precise idea of the number of eyeballs visiting web sites (and which pages), something the internet was supposed to deliver far more accurately than traditional media ever could. All businesses, even the smallest real estate agency office, should know how many people are coming to its online shop window.

Every time a web visitor clicks onto a web site, their visit should be recorded in the log files on the server (unless there's some serious caching going on). Software (such as 'Smarter Stats') can be installed to interpret these and draw some pretty charts in real time, and send you daily/weekly reports by email so you can keep an eye on things.

Alternatively (and maybe as a double check) you can install Google Analytics code into your web site code, and let Google measure the traffic, as many people do. And/or for those with high traffic sites wanting third party advertising dollars, Nielsen tags are supposed to do the same thing. As long as the page with the code loads when the visitor trawls through the site, this should give you more or less the same result as log file reader software and tally with Google Analytics. Except it doesn’t – nothing like.

Even eliminating 'nonhuman' traffic (Google spiders crawling round the web indexing web sites) I get varying results (sometimes by a factor of 2 or 3) for unique visitors, page views and the like when I use these different measuring sticks. Why is this? I’ve asked many onliner marketers and ebusiness people and no one seems to know.

Why can’t we measure internet traffic accurately and with confidence?

End Notes

1. IAB Australia's Online Advertising Expenditure Report, compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers
2. “Internet Advertising set to Dominate”, Lara Sinclair, The Australian, 2nd August 2010

Photo - Gizmodo (Google StreetView guys)

At around 9.20am on Friday 2nd July, almost 11 years to the day since the company was first incorporated, aussiehome.com Pty Ltd was sold to REIWA.

In a good-natured signing ceremony, along with my cofounder Nick Streuli, who I’d met while we both completed our MBAs at UWA in the late 90s, I signed the final papers that saw REIWA take over.

Nick and I went off for a coffee afterwards to reminisce. What an 11 years it had been…

In March 1999, Lisa and I attended a ‘Night with Barry Humphries’ at the Regal Theatre. During the show, we were both dragged up on stage to eat a meal with Dame Edna, which had just been ordered from the Subi Hotel. A night neither of us could forget - it was also the same night Nick rang me with his idea for a 'local property web site'. 6 months later, I resigned my secure Head of Department job at Hale School. I remember the date – 9/9/99 - as Dame Edna might have said, “spooky!” Portentous maybe.

1999 was the Year of the Dotcoms. If you had an MBA, a dotcom idea and a pulse, people were interested (6 months later, they ran for the hills). While most e-businesses came crashing down to earth shortly after the Easter 2000 'Tech Wreck', aussiehome.com survived due to its loyal following of visitors and real estate agents and some calm advice from some key shareholders. As the continual shift from print to online took hold in the 2000s, so aussiehome.com developed web site design and hosting services, print publications and online databases, enewsletters and CRMs. We moved into seminars and training, social media and mobile/iphone applications.

There have been many bumps and dinks along the way, some close calls and some great moments. Only 7 months old, we won the Asia-Pacific IT Award for WA for Best Innovation in E-Commerce (beating much larger companies such as AdultShop.com and others). 2 years later they won the Best E-Business in WA and also the People's Choice Award for the most popular web site. In 2004, the company won its first national Award,  as a BRW ‘Best Start-Up' Business, and in both 2007 and 2008 a 'Smart Company Top 40' Award (the only company in WA to do so). I also won a Business News '40under40' Award and our wonderful IT & Systems Manager Amit Sethi won a 'Early Career' Award for Computer Science graduates.

We love to innovate – Nick always insisted that we ‘push the envelope’. We were the first company anywhere to put houses on interactive maps on the internet; the first company in Perth to offer virtual tours to the real estate industry; the first (and still only) site to have a professionally produced real estate TV show (many aussiehome.com clients have featured in it) and still the only site to have 'heat maps' and the ability to 'plot your home open route on a map'. [Goodness, I'm beginning to sound like Kevin Rudd listing all his achievements - sorry about that.]

We all share a lot of pride in our accomplishments. But most of all, we've had fun, and I want to thank all our staff (past and present) and of course our shareholders (who gave us a go back in 1999) and especially our clients who could have easily gone with someone else, but plumped for us and stuck with us. And of course Nick who came up with the idea and convinced me to do it in the first place.

I'm so glad all the aussiehome.com staff are coming with me. I get to run REIWA.com. We get to bring all our services (although most of the staff will still be based in our Nedlands office, and the aussiehome.com web site will continue, at least for a while).

Coming home on Friday night I told my 2 kids that I had just sold the business. My 6 year old boy piped up with “Does that mean you have no work Dad?”

“Oh no," I replied "I have lots of work to do.”

We all do. We are all working with REIWA.com now. We can’t wait. In fact, we’ve already begun.

Meanwhile – thanks for all your support. I have met loads of people over the years who have told me how they have loved using the aussiehome.com site.

I even met Dame Edna - thanks your majesty - you were there at the beginning. As you once said: "“Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.”

Now let's all go have some fun on REIWA.com ...

A lot of agents use email marketing. A few use it with stunning success. Their success always starts with an effective email strategy.

Here then are the eight must-haves if you want a highly effective email marketing campaign. They'll get you moving on the path to more sales.

1. Not on your list? Don’t send it. If a person isn’t on your list and you don’t have a pre-existing business relationship with them, don’t send them your campaign. It's called spamming. Not only is it against the law, it’s just plain bad business.  
2. Plan what you want to say. Any information that you send out to clients needs to have a purpose. Keep this in mind so you can stay on message. Self-serving waffle backfires does more harm than good. 
3. Include a plain text version. Some people may not be able to see HTML email so be sure to include a plain text version of your campaign.  Most good email marketing software includes this function as standard. 
4. Make it punchy. Short, sharp and to the point works on the internet. Don’t litter your email message with long, flowery sentences. People won’t read them.  
5. Check your spelling. Always spellcheck and proofread before hitting the send button. Something as simple as a spelling mistake can ruin the effectiveness of an email.  
6. Call to action. Include a clear call to action in the first two sentences of your email. Let the reader know who you are and what you want them to do.  
7. Keep punctuation out of the subject line. Punctuation trips up spam filters. Avoid using all capitals, exclamation points and question marks.  Especially stay clear of the dreaded !!!. It's a sure-fire way of being marked as spam.
8. Make the unsubscribe button easy to find. Provide a clear and easy way for people to be removed from your list. A link or a button works well. 

The trick with email campaigns is finding a routine and strategy that works for your business. Following the tips above will help you on your way, the rest is up to you.

Real estate web design has come a long way in the last decade (just have a look at the website Wayback Machine if you want some visuals). Web design trends, like technology, are constantly evo lving and the sites that make the most impact are the ones that have learnt to embrace them.

Here are seven trends that are currently shaping the best real estate web sites...

1. Social networking. Some people love social networking, some people hate it, but there’s no denying its popularity. The two main social networking sites are Facebook and Twitter. Both are free and both can help you connect with a broad range of people. When used correctly, social networking offers unlimited possibilities for getting your message out there and developing your brand. Join the conversation, don't stay out of it.
2. Blogs. Blogs aren’t anything new but there has been a marked increase in the number of blogs popping up on agency websites. They’re a cheap and easy way to get your ideas out to the public and to establish yourself as an expert in your local area or niche. For a blog to work it needs to be updated regularly, the content needs to be unique and it needs to provide information that visitors will find useful. 
3. Sharing buttons. Sharing buttons are the perfect way to push content from your site out into the social networking sphere and they’re becoming increasingly popular. Primarily used on blogs, these little icons are a convenient way for visitors to your site to share posts on networks like Digg, Twitter, Delicious and countless others. You'll notice some share icons on this blog post for example (the RETWEET button at the top, and the other share buttons below). 
4. Email list building. Interaction is the key to successfully buillding an email list. A lot of real estate professionals are seeing that an active, well maintained list means positive things for their business. Real estate websites are including opt-in boxes for newsletters, downloadable PDF’s and exclusive content like videos. Getting people to give you their email address should be one of the top priorities of your web site. 
5. Quality photos. While the days of point and click photography aren’t over, there has been a definite move towards showcasing properties using professional photographs. Great photos generate more interest and ultimately help to sell homes faster. The internet is a 'visual medium'. Less text, more photos please.
6. Unique content. Updated, interesting and relevant content keeps visitors coming back. We’ve noticed a lot of real estate sites are paying more attention to the quality of the information they offer. This quality content can include regularly updated blogs, e-newsletters, downloadable checklists, detailed property listings and the text that appears on each page. 
7. Online brand development. Real estate companies are investing more money than ever before to develop their online brand. Consistency is the key with businesses opting to create email signatures, e-newsletters, avatars and social media backgrounds that are inline with their brand. This online brand development also includes paying for search engine marketing (SEM) which is also on the rise. 

Real estate websites have changed a lot in the last 10 years. Hey, aussiehome.com has changed a lot in its 10 years! This change was brought about by the industry embracing new technology and wanting to develop better ways to help clients. We may not know what the next “big thing” in real estate web design is, but one thing is for sure - if you’re not making the most of your online presence you’re missing a big opportunity.

Let me first say that I own no shares in Facebook (more's the pity) and no real axe to grind either way in this tale. I just thought this might be of interest to anyone looking to brand and differentiate themselves effectively, potentially save some advertising dollars (who doesn’t want to do that?) try something new and maybe make themselves look pretty tech savvy in the process. It also has rather obvious real estate advertising implications...

Facebook Ads.

OK, I was initially sceptical of all Web 2.0, self-indulgent bloggers, twits and lamebookers. I’d heard all about alleged 'click frauds' last year (search 'Facebook click fraud' and you get 18 million results).

About a year ago I put up my first Facebook ad. It was easy to do, and I aimed it towards 35-55 year olds who live in Perth and sat back and watched the results.

Now 11 months have ticked over (long enough time to measure results I feel sure), the ad has been served up almost 22 million times (22 million!) to my target audience and it has cost me a tad over $3500 (or $300/month for 2mn views/month on average). I humbly show you the stats (screen shot of my Facebook Advertising account below) and invite you to pore over the numbers.  [Note: $ values are US dollars]

Being a business owner with a limited marketing budget, I have experimented with many things over the years (local papers, radio, billboards, cinema ads, car ads…) but the results of my Facebook advertising have blown me away.  I don’t know anywhere you can get potentially millions of directed ads 'served up' into your local market for this cost. It equates  to an average CPM (cost per thousand views) of 16 cents.

CPM for my various Google ads run at over 10 times that, and I can’t (as easily) send my ads to people on Google as determined by their age nor where they live. Moreover, all Facebook ads include a thumbnail image of my choosing. Google ads are mainly text based.

If you compare Facebook advertising to more traditional advertising (local papers, cineads, billboards and the rest) the latter tend to follow the old media rules of a 'shotgun blast at a target' approach, which is (literally) 'hit or miss' at best and (to stretch a tired metaphor still further) provides less 'bang for the buck'.

As audiences reach for their own divergent media, an advertiser can get lost in the choice, or use that choice to target people directly. I know of an experiment done by Perth-based internet marketing afficionado Peter Fletcher who targeted a Facebook ad to be viewed by ONE specific person. As Peter knew their profile settings, he could send up an ad on to their pages when that person next logged on to Facebook. The ad garnered 7 views and was clicked on once – by that person. You can’t get any more targeted than that! I’ve seen shorter Ad campaigns targeted at filling a seminar room and this has been their only marketing spend (about $50) to fill a room of 100 paying $200 a ticket. (That’s a pretty good ROI). No need for brochures, mail outs, email campaigns. Grab people where they are, and who you want to grab.

Moreover, you can run as many ads as you like, set a daily budget (you never go above it), determine your cost per click, pause and delete the ads whenever you want. You can send ads onto Facebook pages of people living in different cities and countries in different age ranges. Enter your credit card details and it gets billed automatically, with notifications of amount spent. You are in total control, can view the results and adjust your ads and settings whenever you like.

Over 6.6 million Australians are on Facebook. 300 million globally (75 million in the States). 1.6mn over the age of 18 are on Facebook in Sydney, 1.4mn Melbourne, 885,000 in Brisbane, 562,000 in Perth… (To check these stats yourself and research further, go to 'Advertising' in the footer on Facebook and click 'Create an Ad' – under 'Targeting' you can play with the variables).

What surprised me at first is that more people over age 40 are on Facebook  than under age 20. It’s a myth that this thing is for kids. And 90% of Facebook users are active (login more than once a week) and 50% login daily. Often 2 or 3 times a day. Do you think these people are interested in real estate?

A few caveats at this stage. You’ll notice that my ad had 22 million views and 'only' 6000 or so clicks. A pretty poor 'click thru rate' (CTR) you might say (a miserable 0.029%). However, that was deliberate. Being a penny pinching sort of guy I adjusted the settings to maximise possible views (which are free). I was doing it as a branding, differentiation and “getting your name out there” exercise. (You can also set them up to get traffic to your properties, profiles, home page and pay per views if you wish.)

The real estate advertising applications are obvious

- real estate reps can put a photo of themselves, a brief heading and 135 characters of text, and link the ad to their own profile page
- individual properties can be put up (as a normal part of every marketing campaign) linking to their individual pages on the agency’s own sites
- Auction campaigns with standalone web sites or individual pages within sites
- Simple branding ads sending users to your home page, or better yet, some specific landing page (competition, offer, new blog post…)
- Ads linking to your Facebook page to drum up ‘fans’
- Use these ads for recruitment of staff (e.g. you’re looking for a property manager and can using age, interests and possibly gender targeting)
- Setting up these ads as a normal way of doing things could make you look extremely tech savvy with your vendors and other clients

It would seem something to (at least) consider; but if all the above is true (and I have probably missed most of the advantages others can see straight away) is this the future of targeted advertising – if not on Facebook, but on social networking sites in general? What does this mean for traditional media who rely on local advertising?

Facebook.com is already breaking even on this advertising stream. I believe they are going to earn a mint from this, in the same way Google did from Adwords. I have reduced my Adwords spend and moved the money to Facebook. If more and more do the same, what will this mean for Google?

[this blog was originally posted by me on Business2.com.au today]

In a sign of the times, and what must have been a difficult decision, REIWA (The Real Estate Institute of WA) has announced that today's Homebuyer magazine will be the last.

A fixture in the home buying scene for three decades, this full colour weekly glossy real estate magazine has fallen victim to the perpetual and inevitable shift of advertising dollars from print to online.

As REIWA President, Rob Druitt, noted "Closing the Homebuyer is like losing an old friend, but the reality is that more agents and most of the public are now using the internet to list properties for sale or to search for homes to buy."

aussiehome.com would like to salute the Homebuyer and REIWA (has any other Real Estate Institute published such a thing for such a sustained period of time?), and hold the publication with some affection (we get our copy sent to us every week). Some aussiehomers used the Homebuyer in the past to look for property, and some even advertised in it (those who had a former life as real estate agents).

Homebuyer, R.I.P. ...