Comments on: Consumer Source Interactive Owns Atlanta

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 02:25:40 +0000

It seems that Consumer Source’s strategy is to cross-post listings on their sites, which is an even more direct conflict with the Google Webmaster Guidelines against duplicate content:

http://www. rentclicks.com/display.asp?adid=7178732a-259a-497e-bade-cde2bed96552

http://www. rentals.com/Listing/Detail.aspx?listingid=103313216

Same content, different logo.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:41:18 +0000

Jackson,

If you get a chance and come back here with your experience using Houses.info

By: Jackson

Jackson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:18:47 +0000

Thanks for the tip! I will give house.info a try.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:30:26 +0000

Jackson,

For right now, I have no problem recommending one of the Primedia sites. I know I give the a hard time on this blog but I do have a lot of respect for them.

I might even try house.info first because they are free and have tons of traffic.

Dave

By: Jackson

Jackson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:02:27 +0000

Hi Dave,

I just saw your link from Danny Sullivan’s site – and I live in Atlanta. And I am trying to rent a condo in Decatur. I have chosen to go with Craig’s list because it is not only free, it has tons of listings. The problem with Craig’s list is that the ad only gets leads for maybe one day – and then it moves so far down the list no one finds it.
Obviously, you spend a lot of time in this arena so what is the best way to get the place leased? Are you saying that my money would NOT be well spent with consumer source? Where is the best place to post an online rental? I have about 2 weeks before I have to “eat the rent” if I don’t get new tenants.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:46:54 +0000

Jackson, Thanks for stopping by. You bring up a very valid point that I covered in this post. It is true that I don't have any listings in Atlanta yet, and yes I bet that this leads to a crappy user experience. But my site is much newer than the Consumer Source Inc sites and I do not have a sales teams that has some 40-80 people on staff. RentVine is run by one guy (me) and I only work on it part time. So give me a little time and I will get some listings on Atlanta once I hit a critical mass with traffic. Dave Dugdale

By: Jackson

Jackson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:59:40 +0000

It looks like these sites were just acquired by consumer source. I would think differently if they were running “shadow domains”, but that is clearly not the case. Each site is different with different code bases – php, asp, cfm, .aspx.

The backend integration of all of those sites would be an absolute nightmare and, I would imagine, very time consuming. Good luck with that!

As to the user experience, let’s be honest. I just looked at Rentvine’s listings for Atlanta. There are none – it’s just affiliate links. That’s a crappy experience! In my opinion, I don’t really care who owns a site – I’m looking for content. Those sites have content and listings, yours do not.

By: kelvin newman

kelvin newman — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:36:00 +0000

It’s an interesting strategy, I don’t think its nesc hugely bad for the consumer if each site is offering a distinct propersition and content, however if its justy several UIs for the same data less so.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 13:10:53 +0000

Dustin,

Thanks for stopping by. I have read your blog on occasion. I am glad you are enjoying my blog!

By: Dustin

Dustin — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 07:48:21 +0000

Dave,

I’ve put some time into studying the rental blog space lately and I’ve really been enjoying your commentary. You’ve definitely hit upon a unique niche and you’ve been filling in your commentary with some interesting data. Keep up the great work.