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

 

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!

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.

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!!!”:

I read a blog on here a little over a week ago about a website called vFlyer. When I read a fellow rainers blog about an item that can be beneficial to us others I always try to research it and try it out for myself before I make any comments on it. Well I have to say I LOVE vflyer!!!
…
Ok, sorry that this blog is soooo long, but I cannot express how wonderful vflyer has been for my business and there was so much information I wanted to put in here. I hope that more of you use it.

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

Thanks, Missy Caulk! .. posted about vFlyer a few days ago and I signed up and built some flyers to put on craigslist. WOW oh WOW is all I can say! I got a legitimate buyer prospect who is looking to buy a home in Charlotte NC, inside of two hours after posting the vFlyers. Maybe it’s just luck, or maybe my listings stood out from the crowd with this cool tool.

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

My realtors all love the vFlyer service and the new features focused on real estate make it even better! Prior to vFlyer, I had to post listing on a myriad of real estate sites, but now vFlyer streamlines the process. Its one of the best services I’ve used.

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

I love vFlyer and use it in my blog. I send the link to people to view my listings. It’s a great tool for all sorts of applications.

and Maureen Henry, our first vFlyer Star, comments:

My favorite thing about vFlyer are the Widgets! I also love being able to change and customize my vFlyers whenever I need to - you guys make it so easy.

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!

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

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”.

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!

Every once in a while we like to identify and recognize vFlyer Stars– users who are active supporters and advocates of vFlyer in their companies, industry communities, or organizations.

Maureen Henry, who runs a successful home stagging company in Rockland County, New York, has the distinct honor of being our first vFlyer Star! Maureen is an avid vFlyer user as well as an active blogger on ActiveRain. A vFlyer pro, Maureen confessed to me that:

Thanks Maureen! We appreciate your support.

	Name: Maureen Henry Company: Rockland Home Staging See vFlyer | See Blog How I use vFlyer: I use vFlyer to post on Craiglist, announce upcoming events, and email flyers to potential clients. What I like best: My favorite thing about vFlyer are the Widgets! I also love being able to change and customize my vFlyers whenever I need to - you guys make it so easy. Usage: vFlyer Star Badge

If you think you or someone else you know should be recognized as a vFlyer Star, let us know by sending an email to blog@vflyer.com

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

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

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!