Reply Needs to Pull Its Head Out
Reply.com has launched a new site; ConnectWithLife, which taps APIs from Oodle (for listings) and Zillow and Cyberhomes (for valuations). For mortgage quotes, it has a cobranded Bankrate landing page.
The site is a mess. I’m not even going to waste the energy it would take typing to review what’s wrong with it.
In my opinion, Reply! is a case study of a direction-less enterprise; it took $17 million in VC funding last year (see Reply! Launches… And Falls Flat On Its Face) and still hasn’t figured out what the heck it’s doing.
ConnectWithLife just looks to me to be a slapped-upped attempt to pacify investors so the cash-burn party can continue.
But don’t fear, “coming March 2008, Reply.com will forever change performance marketing with a revolutionary new platform”.
Can’t wait.
(h/t Realty Thoughts)
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Incredible Agent | Jan 2, 2008 | Reply
I couldn’t agree more. I can’t figure out what they’re trying to do with this.
Jay Thompson | Jan 2, 2008 | Reply
Blech. Top right corner asks, “Are you a real estate agent? or a car dealer?”
Thanks for that…
Two clicks in and I was lost and confused. And I like to think I generally have a clue.
John | Jan 2, 2008 | Reply
A great start to ‘08! One of the worst real estate site launches I have seen - looks like a 1998 design and terrible functionality to boot! Way to go Reply…
Andrew | Jan 2, 2008 | Reply
this is a classic example of a VC looking at the individuals over the idea/concept rather than both. i have no clue who is leading this company but this shows that idea/concept carried little to no weight. This is crap and will never gain traction. online real estate is a very different beast and this shows they don’t have anyone on board who understands the space - online/offline.
Jim | Jan 2, 2008 | Reply
Is the “future of real estate marketing” really a bunch of attention-hungry sycophants bashing others to make themselves look good? I’m referring to both the author AND the three commenters who decided that commenting on this drivel would be a great opportunity to also market their own websites (Andrew, Jay Thompson, Incredible Agent, I think you know who we’re talking about here). And commenter John, I totally agree with you that it would have been an extremely poor decision to market YOUR website along with your knowledgeable and insightful comment.
Joel, as an employee of Inman News, you should be ashamed of yourself (you won’t be, of course). The writing you’ve done on your personal blog is very good, but this is complete trash. Seven sentences and an incomplete phrase–not your best work.
You end up sounding like a former employee or competitor with a chip on his shoulder; not that you are one, but you certainly come off that way.
Inman News does the concept of news a disservice by allowing what amounts to a seven-and-a-half sentence rip job under their copyright (”Copyright Inman News 2007. All rights reserved.”).
Be wary, readers. I would take a quote from this site’s “About” page to heart: “Everything written here is entirely of our own opinion. Those opinions may very well be based on incorrect information and may be completely and utterly clueless and wrong.”
Obviously working for a “news” organization has not taught you the first thing about reporting: check your sources. Better yet, HAVE sources. I would be willing to bet you failed to verify the veracity of any of the limited attempts at factual information incorporated in this attack.
Case in point, your reference to when the company received that particular round of VC funding was erroneous, not by months, BUT BY YEARS. Now, I was able to verify that information on their website in approximately 30 seconds. You failed to do so AT ALL.
I also noticed the following quote on this site’s “About” page, and wondered if you follow the same supposed code of ethics with regard to your own posts:
“To ensure content and discussions are informative, respectful and lawful, we reserve the right to delete comments that are:
* Personal attacks, libelous comments, misstatements of fact.”
Joel, I’m sorry to see you take such a malignant stance. Perhaps you should follow the insipid words of the headline to your post, and pull your head out (since it was okay for you to use it, I certainly hope you would allow me the same leeway).
And to subsequent readers of this blog, I humbly suggest you now consider the source (or lack thereof).
Joel Burslem | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
Jim - You’re right, this blog is my opinion and has never purported to be anything else. I’ve corrected the mistake on the financing.
marc | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
And you sound like a Reply! employee, founder, and/or investor, Jim. It’s clearly a critique. FOREM is Joel’s opinion/editorial and not the news articles produced by Inman News. Everyone who reads FOREM knows that except you, apparently.
Furthermore, Joel was unknowingly being kind to say they received $17 million in funding “last year”. The fact they received it two years earlier and are still in an unfavorable position (according to Joel) only strengthens his critique.
Jim | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
Not an employee, Marc. Just interested in the industry as it relates to what I do for a living (I choose not to market MY business in connection with this post, as I do not subscribe to the notion that all publicity is good publicity).
Well aware of what FOREM is supposed to be. However, I also know the difference between a critique and an outright hateful rip–something you, Marc, apparently don’t know. As a matter of fact, I believe Joel admits as much in his post: “I’m not even going to waste the energy it would take typing to review what’s wrong with it.” Then why write about it in the first place. There’s no value in your post, Joel. It is a pure and simple teardown.
Well-thought-out, constructive criticism from a supposedly unbiased third party would be a breath of fresh air, compared to what was actually written.
By the way, Joel, are you going to admit you were wrong if you discover your final-sentence sarcasm is misplaced? I tend to doubt you will, but I would like to be proven wrong.
marc | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
Jim, I see criticism in Joel’s review and can feel Joel’s disdain for the product, but nothing “hateful”. Besides, Joel is criticizing a business entity…not a person or ethnic group.
On the other hand, your opening remarks are quite personal:
Sounds rather hateful to me.
Finally, your anonymity has nothing to do with a refusal to “market” yourself. By your own admission, revealing your identity would not be “good publicity” because your comments are shameful.
John | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
Jim, you are far too opinionated and invested too much time writing your post to not be a Reply employee. I understand though, if I spent countless hours launching a garbage site like that, I would be upset too when the most read blog in my industry (and its readers) started bashing it.
Andrew | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
The website is slow, maybe it’s going through some stress testing because of the FOREM post. The “Homes For Sale” form on the homepage doesn’t work either. It defaults you to Alaska search results, regardless of what city, state, and zip you enter into the Location field. I have to admit, a nice single family home for $549k in Anchorage looks pretty tempting considering the median price of a home is $610k in Hawaii.
Andrew | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
Just wanted to differentiate myself from the other Andrew in this thread. I am an Online Marketing Manager for Prudential Locations in Honolulu, HI. Marc, I like your passion, but can you get them to fix the homepage at least?
Jason | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
This is the worst thing I have seen from Reply. I also cant believe Reply has their staff defending it on this blog. Maybe if they spent that time into actually improving the site we wouldnt be having such a negative topic here. The site is from the mid 90’s love the design NOT!!
Jim | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
Three quick things and one longer response, then I’ll leave you to this post.
1) I will reiterate that I am not an employee of any of the businesses mentioned on this website (Reply, Zillow, Yahoo, Realtor.com, etc.). Simply whiling the vacation time away and enjoying the collective passion.
2) Andrew from Prudential actually had some constructive criticism, or at least was able to point out some initial faults without resorting to teardown and bashing.
3) John, vacation is a time when I can relax and read whatever I want, and not focus on what I do everyday. I’ve enjoyed peoples’ passions being bared. It’s entertaining, at the very least.
4) Mr. Dugger, there is no shame in my remarks. I don’t feel I have said anything that I would be ashamed to say in person to those I people and companies I referenced. I have a feeling very few of the commenters on this post would be willing to say the same things, were they face-to-face with anyone associated with the target of this post’s attack. I fail to see criticism in Joel’s post–only thinly-veiled (or completely open) hateful statements regarding a website and a company. Plus, several statements that come off as factual, yet have little to no basis in fact. Does Joel KNOW what was done with the round of funding he to which he refers? Does he know if the company has, or has not, received additional funding? Is the website in question a large or small part of the company’s business? Interesting questions, but none answered by this post. Statements about things like “cash-burn party” and “I’m not even going to waste the energy it would take typing to review…” are not fact, nor are they what one might consider legitimate opinion, but they are certainly degrading. Can you really disagree?
Well, it’s been fun debating over the veracity and worthiness of this post, but it’s time to get back to enjoying what little vacation I have left. Back to work on Monday. Enjoy the rest of your week!
mike | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
I think Joel has accidentally made a terrific example for people with blogs. When you have your own voice and opinion, you will find an audience, maybe even an audience that will stand up for you. Not every one will agree but that comes with it as well.
I like Joel’s information and until I came here I didn’t know that Reply! was changing. If you want someone to report the news without an opinion, then a blog is not the place to be.
For my own opinion, which is why comments are here, connectwithlife.com is a bad mushy name.
I wish that people (Realtors) would stop posting listings on these new sites. The should be posting based on what they think is the best. Everyone is trying to take a piece of the MLS pie but it won’t work. There is Coke, Pepsi and then RC (which I hate). RC has a dreadful piece of the market.
Most markets can handle only two really big players. Supporting these “New” listing options just scatters the listings. Try to find FSBO Listings on the web. There is a myriad of places and all have different results. In the end it doesn’t help them and doesn’t give an alternative to the MLS which is the main issue of the DOJ.
Thanks Joel.
Incredible Agent | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
@Jim. Are you saying connectwithlife.com is executed well? It seems to me that someone pushed the wrong button and they accidentally made their Alpha version live without any testing or feedback. They are either under staffed, don’t know what they are doing, in a hurry for some reason or are just plain screwing the pooch.
Personally, I don’t know anyone who would disagree with what Joel posted. I looked at the site before Joel posted this and his assessment reflected mine perfectly. It may not be in depth reporting…but this is not the NY times or even Inman News. If you came here looking for either, you need to keep looking.
Also, I encourage you to not be anonymous. I assure you; no one will think you’re promoting yourself.
Brian Bowman | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
Joel – while I appreciate your thoughts on Reply! Inc., you have missed the point with ConnectWithLife.com. Let me shed light on its purpose, the platform we will launch in March, and Reply! as a business.
Reply.com was founded in 2001 as a lead generation and performance-based marketing company. We launched Reply! Home Valuations in 2006 both as a payoff for our lead generation processes and to build a consumer destination offering proprietary home valuations and automotive research tools. After running our own real estate home valuation tool for 15 months, we realized the “valuations feature” had become commoditized when several companies began offering automated valuations.
When Yahoo, through a partnership with us, launched their meta-search solution (see http://realestate.yahoo.com/Homevalues), it became very clear that the solution was no longer a differentiator. Given the focus of our core business (lead generation), we decided that, rather than owning a system similar to what has already been developed by Zillow (and other great companies), we are better off making the solutions available through partnerships. As stated, our targeted focus continues to be on our core business, where we generate the majority of our revenue.
Our intent with ConnectWithLife is not to compete with Zillow, Cyberhomes, Trulia or Edmunds on offering the best consumer experience. The site was built as a payoff for a consumer that has generated a lead through our sites or our affiliated sites. In fact, no consumer will ever need to enter the site from the home page. They are directed to a customized page automatically generated on ConnectWithLife.com based on the lead they will generate. This is only one site in a portfolio of many sites that we own and operate and will probably never advertise.
Given that you are making and publishing assumptions about our financial performance without having access to our books, I find it valuable for your readers to know that as a performance-based online marketing company Reply! has a thriving, profitable and diversified lead generation business. We continue to make tremendous progress during arguably the worst mortgage and real estate downturn in years. Without hesitation, we are very proud of our tremendous achievements. Please note that in October 2007, Deloitte and Touche recognized Reply! as one of the Top 50 fastest growing technology media companies in Silicon Valley.
As our focus has always been performance-based marketing, we see a tremendous opportunity in the evolution from CPM to CPC to Cost-Per-Lead. Clearly a click does hold the same value as an intentful consumer who has provided a phone number and requested to be contacted by a merchant or a local service provider.
In March, Reply! will offer a platform that will make the process of buying a lead as efficient as it is today for a merchant to buy clicks through Google or Yahoo. We believe it is time that businesses go beyond the click and only pay for measurable results. That has always been the promise of online marketing and we look forward to making that promise a reality for a larger number of advertisers on the web.
I look forward to further discussions with you.
Brian Bowman
Chief Marketing Officer
Reply.com
Joel Burslem | Jan 3, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the comment Brian - would love to chat with you more about what Reply is doing.
Jay Thompson | Jan 4, 2008 | Reply
“AND the three commenters who decided that commenting on this drivel would be a great opportunity to also market their own websites (Andrew, Jay Thompson, Incredible Agent, I think you know who we’re talking about here)”
“Jim” - Uhm, why in the world would I want to market my own website on this blog? The odds of a consumer interested in Phoenix real estate finding a link to my site in a comment on FoREM are astronomical. Trust me, I know who and where to market my site and this is no marketing attempt. I read Joel’s post, I went to the site, and I thought it was awful.
And I’d have no problem telling anyone from reply.com exactly what I think face-to-face. Maybe I’ll see someone from Reply at Connect next week and do just that.
Did you GO to that site Jim? Can you honestly tell me it is a well executed product?
Ryan Cain | Jan 4, 2008 | Reply
Come on. The connectwithlife.com site is a complete mess and a horrible consumer website plan. Reply is going in circles with all the VC money.
The company seems to have completely moved 1 step backwards with this so called connectwithlife web site. The other site seemed to have direction and seemed to be on a good path.
Im not sure what these guys are doing but I don’t expect much from this new thing they are talking about. From what I understand they have pissed off nearly every agent in the country with their poor quality leads and direction less approach to this industry.
If connectwithlife.com is what I just visited then why should anyone believe that the industry will be “revolutioned” with their products. They can’t even walk in the same direction for 5 minutes and their current execution leaves a whole lot to be desired.
Besides there are plenty of lead exchanges online and they have the same effect on agents.
VCs should go back to the drawing board
Colby Fitch | Jan 6, 2008 | Reply
Anonymous Jim, please go back to vacationing. Joel, call ‘em as you see ‘em. Your review was justifiably short. I, too, don’t have the time or desire to point out the obvious flaws Reply! is currently strapped with. Nor is it our duty to provide the Reply! management team with a clear and cost free business model analysis. Ah, ok, a couple freebies:
1. The price range search spread for “Homes” is only $25K. Works for car searching I suppose.
2. $17M in VC dough and countless focus groups has resulted in an overwhelming biz op…Homes & Autos online together at last (tap it ’til it goes dry fellas’). How did I miss this, it’s echoed throughout homes all over the world, “Honey, while were on this incredible site let’s buy a new car and a house to park it in. They make it so easy, let’s see what else we can buy from them”. One hint, people need pets too! Oops, adding pets is a bad idea. I just realized the “online person-to-pet compatability feature” had become commoditized when several companies began offering automated valuations.
3. I can understand having some site flow issues, but the content isn’t even there.
However, we all goof up a bit and I think we should collectively give Reply!/ ConnectWithaWife another chance. This new launch is gonna be great!
Can I start standing in line now to not be there in March?
Open Season!
Colby | Jan 6, 2008 | Reply
Cruise on over to RealTown. They coincidentally began a Reply! thread yesterday. Please don’t tease the brokers referring to it as ReplyRealEstate. If you do I will have to call the folks down at the Internet on you.
http://realtalk.realtowncommunities.com/SEO-LeadGeneration/
GoodThought | Jan 8, 2008 | Reply
ConnectWithLife.com, a division of Reply! Inc., is the portal for consumers who want to get smart about important life-stage decisions, such as buying or selling a home, purchasing a car, and more..
In March of 2008, Reply! will launch a new platform that will make the process of buying a lead as efficient as it is today for an advertiser to buy clicks through Google or Yahoo. We believe it is time that advertisers go beyond the click and pay only for measurable results. That has always been the promise of online marketing, and we look forward to making that promise a reality for a larger number of advertisers on the web.
Cash Back Real estate | Jun 29, 2008 | Reply
What type of real estate service? buyer leads?