Our former site & the request by NAR to c&d use of the domain got a bit of attention yesterday around the blog world, complete with news coverage by Inman News. I’d love to tell you it was a fantastic article (it really was a fantastic article) and you should go read it, but if you’re not subscribed and paying a fee, you’ll see this:
NAR requests name change for RealtorGenius blog
Blog creator considers future options for Web site
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Inman NewsSUBSCRIBE NOWand gain immediate access to this article, the full Inman News archives and more!
Now, I would also love for our content here at agentgenius.com to be so prized that I could charge hard cash for you to read it, but honestly, anything I might say is probably already being thought of and written about by another blogger across the country. My point is- newspapers cost money, no one wants to pay to subscribe, so they moved the content online- great! Thing is, no one wants to pay for it online either!
A deeper question to be asked is, if you are getting revenue from advertisements, then why are you double dipping on pay-per-subscription? I have all of the respect in the world for Brad Inman and his team at Inman News, and read the blog like an addict on the pipe, and I would probably read the news stories at the same pace if it didn’t require a marital (access to my credit card) commitment.
Inman is not the only news service that is guilty of pay-per-view news- biz journals is also guilty, and that is so annoying, but I pay it because I absolutely have to. I suspect in the very near future they will move to content levels that are free and charge for premium services. I hope the same of Inman- I promise to click every ad on the page, Brad!
Now, some of you might be saying I’m just being cheap, but with the credit crunch, the bursted bubble, lender meltdown, interest rate squeeze, and every other negative headline related to real estate dragging down the market, I’m just lookin’ for a bone! How about the Sunday poor agents special subscription extravaganza, Brad? =] I know it won’t happen, but hey, someone had to ask!
(the NY Times can’t even give that stuff away)
john harper
October 8, 2007 at 3:37 pm
I subscribed to Inman when I went to Bloggers Connect. I then started receiving 6 to 8 promotions a week for Bloggers Connect, a daily newsletter, a weekly newsletter recap, and a couple of other things,
What I noticed was that the ads are more plentiful and center stage than the stories. I reworked my preferences to reduce the amount of Inman trash and now just get the weekly email.
I do not think I will renew my subscription. I would rather pay a higher registration fee and not be inundated with commercialization