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Friday, April 14, 2006
Toral: Real estate selling online
By JANETTE TORAL
Digital Filipino
ATTRACTION. If there’s one sector that has benefited from the growth of the Internet, it would be the real estate sector. Online, you can now see websites, like AboitizLand.com, selling Cebu properties to Filipinos based here and abroad.
It is also a value-added attraction for investors who wish to purchase a property through their companies. I must say that the real estate sector is one of the mature sectors today, which is not afraid to undertake online advertising. Take the case of Sunstar.com.ph. At the home page, you’ll find several real estate companies advertising their properties. Note that this is not unique to Sun.Star, other online publications almost have the same advertising pattern, too.
In my e-commerce training two years ago, I had a student from Bohol, who maintains a portal that showcases the island. Through her website, she was successful in selling properties in Bohol that really made her take the business seriously.
Fortunately for companies, high-traffic websites online provide targeted eyeballs that are much more strategic compared to traditional billboards at almost the same cost.
A P60,000 to P150,000 monthly billboard can allow your Internet ads to be seen worldwide in major publications and even social networks. Of course, what attracts people will depend on the marketing message your ad carries and the level of customer service that you provide to site visitors.
Real estate companies should embrace the Internet and maximize the advantage it brings. It is not enough that you have a website. It must gel and even be integrated with your traditional marketing plans. If the intent of the site is to sell properties, one must feel that desire the longer they stay in your website.
Another industry benefiting from the Internet is the gaming sector. It is no secret that Internet gaming is the savior of most Internet cafes. Without it, a lot of them would have closed shop by now due to cutthroat pricing. Because of gaming, the number of Internet cafes is no longer enough to accommodate the growing number of gamers.
One of the drawbacks here though is the cost of maintaining such a hobby. Apart from paying for your Internet connection, you also need to purchase a gaming card. Two to three weeks ago, I encountered the site e-Games.com.ph of IPVG. It offers a play for free model, where it generates revenue through item selling. Today, e-games.com.ph claims to have the second largest gaming subscribers in the country because of its free2play model.
Note that gaming can’t be just discouraged. For those into information technology, one factor that needs to be noted is that there are companies, which are on the lookout for expert online gamers, as they see them as possible candidates for highly creative application development and design work.
There are individuals who also now make a living by being a professional gamer. This is where they play and sell their characters for a fee so that one will not start as a beginner in the network. Another is to charge a fee for playing the client’s character in the online game.
Janette@digitalfilipino.com
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 13, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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