Periodic tips and reminders to help focus your by-owner marketing and win your commission-free sale - from Canada’s by-owner web-site, www.privatelist.com.

THIS ISSUE:      Free Classifieds / Energy Costs

ARCHIVES:     www.privatelist.com/newsletter.htm

FREE CLASSIFIEDS

With 13 million adult Canadians now regular users of the Internet, your PrivateList display, combining a full-colour introduction to your property with clearly-written commentary and comprehensive "how-to" information, should be front and center in your private-sale campaign. But it’s just the start.

With your display online, your focus should shift to attracting as many prospective buyers to it as possible. Lawn signs, paid newspaper ads, word of mouth and highlight sheets all have a role to play in this numbers game; so do online classifieds.

While many of these services require re-submission every few weeks or so, lack any "how-to" resources and may not enjoy as wide (or as targeted) a readership as PrivateList, quite a few are FREE (or very inexpensive), and some even allow the posting of one or more photos.

Here are a few examples (quality varies). Book-mark your favorites, note their renewal dates on your calendar, then make sure they carry your classified ad - with its reference back to your PrivateList display - until your property is SOLD!

• NS Online: an easy-to-use form-based service that allows 30-60 day listings, including a link and a photo.
   
• Alberta Rose Free Classifieds: an easy-to-use form-based submission which provides an ad number and password. Includes one photo; ad stays online up to 3 weeks, then you re-submit.
   
• The Beaches: FREE Classifieds: a basic text-only service on a web-site based in the Beaches area of Toronto. Ads last 30 days.
   
• SaskNews Classifieds: text-only ads on a weekly e-magazine linking many of Saskatchewan’s community newspapers.
   
• In Vancouver!: basic text-only ads submitted by form. Postings must be re-submitted after four weeks, and are reviewed prior to uploading. NOTE: the home-page for this site provides links to similar pages for Whistler, Victoria, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and the Okanagan.
   

IMPORTANT: make sure that you include in your ads a reference back to www.privatelist.com!

The simplest way to do this: a statement "See us at www.privatelist.com" appearing somewhere in the body of your ad.

But for services that allow HTML code in your text, an actual link to your display is easier to use for prospects, and helpful in increasing our ranking with some search engines. In such cases,

1. go to the first page of your own display and use your mouse to highlight the URL (eg. "http://www.privatelist.com/clients/0j05001a.htm") that appears in the "location" or "address" box at the top of your browser window (if the box isn’t visible, activate it through your "View" or "Options" menu drop-down);
    
2. press Ctrl + C to copy the highlighted URL to your clipboard;
    
3. go the the page where you want to submit your ad and, if the form has a specific box where you can enter the URL you just copied, select it and press Ctrl + V to copy your URL into the box (making sure that "http://" doesn’t appear twice);
    
4. if the form doesn’t have a special box for the URL, simply type the following HTML code for a link into the body of your ad:
   See us at <A HREF="XXXX">www.privatelist.com</A>!

   then drag your mouse to select the Xs between the two quotes and press Ctrl + V to replace them with the URL from your clipboard.
    

5. Voilà!

(By the way, you can use the same Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V to copy the URL for your display into e-mails to friends, relatives and business acquaintances . . .)

Whichever technique you use, the point is to use these free services often to draw as many prospective buyers as possible to your display. So don’t limit yourself to sites from your own part of the country - use them all! In fact, why not use the search engines to find busy sites outside the country! (Keep track of them, as you’ll want to remove the ads once your property is sold.)

And do us a favor: if you come across additional sites that you like, please e-mail us their web address.

ENERGY COSTS

Did you know that it costs one dime to operate a 1000-watt baseboard heater for one hour - or to use the computer for four?

This tidbit was contained in a recent newsletter sent with their bills to customers of Nova Scotia Power. The brochure also provided some internet addresses that may be of use to anyone interested in cutting their power costs:

• a short list of energy-saving tips on insulation, ventilation, lighting, etc.;
   
• an energy calculator which provides instant estimates of the bi-monthly cost of a whole range of common electrical devices; and
   
• a series of PDF-format leaflets covering different aspects of home energy use.

FRIENDLY REMINDERS . . .

Are the thousands of dollars you’ll save by selling privately worth, say, an hour each week-end, spent reviewing your progress to date and mapping out your continuing campaign?

It’s important to maintain an active marketing focus until your property is sold. Therefore, each e-mail version of this newsletter ends with a series of reminders, tips and tools that lead to a sale!

To access these resources, press here.

©2000 PrivateList