For some reason HotPads is dropping in traffic the past few weeks.

The data you see is real, it is not an estimate because they are a Quantified Publisher – see how it says “directly measured” in the lower right corner.

Anyone want to take bets that Hotpads will stop Quantifying their data after this?

It seems like Inman News loves the guys over at HotPads. HotPads has been quoted on several news stories this week and this one is about them entering the for sale market.

Am I a little jealous that they get quoted all the time and I don’t – sure I am! Perhaps Hotpads blog is so much better than mine.

This is a good thing for me because it dilutes HotPads core business and I am guessing they will not be good at any one thing.

From this site:

“HotPads Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based online apartment rental marketplace, has raised $2.3 million in Series A funding, according to a regulatory filing. No institutional backers were listed.”

I just don’t get it. Why do they need 2.3 Million dollars! Wow, what is going on in my industry? And how did they talk investors into giving them that much money?

I looked over at the HotPads blog but I didn’t see anything about this on their site.

On HotPads you can list for free. So my question is how do they plan on paying their investors back if they are giving it away for free? Do they plan to go with a Zillow business model where provide ads on their site?

I gotta think that I must be missing something here. Those investors that handed over that kind of cash surely know more about the online rental industry than I do.

My business plan is to keep my company as small and lightweight as possible. I guess I am going the opposite direction from many other companies in this industry.

I had a phone interview with Glenn Roberts over at Inman News back in October. He wanted to interview me about my free property mapping tool I had just released for property managers.

I must admit I was really nervous and was a babbling idiot on the phone and must not have said anything of any value because he didn’t quote me at all. I remember hanging up the phone and saying to myself, “I really blew that one!”.

Then I noticed today that Glenn Roberts had interviewed Doug Pope over at HotPads and provides some nice quotes on a blogging piece that Glenn has done. I have been extremely impressed with Doug Pope’s marketing skills. He has scored a Washington Post, New York Times articles as well as having their own Wikipedia page.

For those who have not read my bio on my About Dave page, I come from a engineering background and marketing has never been a strong skill for me.

So basically I am jealous that Glenn Roberts is giving HotPads all the attention and not me. Glenn if you are reading this – I would like another chance!