This new widget and the mortgage rate widget are my two favorite widgets Zillow has available. This new one is really cool and helps get a local blog, rich local info.
Via Drew Meyers (Zillow):
It seems home values are on everyone's mind right now -- partly due to Obama's Housing Plan and the fact that mortgage rates are low and refinance activity is skyrocketing. Consumers are interested in market data and with the new Home Values Widget agents, brokers, and bloggers can instantly add up-to-date neighborhood, ZIP code, or city market information to their web properties (for free) by copying and pasting some simple html code. You can see an example of our new home values widget on the top of the right sidebar and I've embedded it in this post below. Whether you specialize in real estate in Boston, Washington DC, or Miami, or live on the West coast and focus on San Francisco, Seattle, or San Diego -- we have a solution for you. In fact, the Home Values Widget works anywhere we have a Zillow Home Value Index. All widgets also include our free co-branding technology to keep you top of mind should someone click through to Zillow from the widget. For those who want or need more flexibility regarding your integration, the same neighborhood home value data is available via our API (here is an example API integration on Banks.com). I was on Twitter Wednesday night and decided to find some early adopters by tweeting the news of a new home values widget. Here are the geeks that I found that were among the first to install the widget: If you have installed the widget, please leave a comment with a link to where we can see it. If there are other widgets that you'd like us to build, please let us know what they are. We have some ideas as to what we think would be cool, but your feedback is invaluable.
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Thanks for the info. I am going to try them out. Although I still have not figured out how to put widgets on my active rain blog.
Thank you Sara, I'll check it out!
This is good widget to have Sara. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Sara - looks like a good widget - when I went to my Zillow profile, I noticed that I don't have a link to my blog and nowhere to add it.
Only a website link? Not very progressive - some sites allow us to add several - or am I missing something?
Virginia - when you edit the first portion of your profile, you should see an option for your "website link." Also, edit your profile's "About Me" section - Zillow allows you to add unlimited (good) links in that section - take full advantage of it.
Thanks for the heads up Sara, I just added a widget for my 5 primary towns to my outside blog.
It is a great widget, and I've already had a seller talking about it. Thanks for the reblogged link love - you guys are the greatest!
Thanks for this useful information. I'm not sure all my clients are going to like watching their home values decline! ;-)
Thanks for the information. Especially about being able to add my blogs link to me Zillow profile.
Hi Sara - Thanks for the information on another tool. I'll check it out and see how I can use it on my web site.
Question for people. Zillow has some nifty tools, but do we want to drive them to Zillow or try to make them stay in our sites to search for properties and information. I certainly dont have an answer for this, but is there an value in there widgets when they are trying to draw traffic away form you site?
Especially if it is posted in an iFrame I beleive search engines don't pick it up... any ways i don't have an answer, just looking to see what other people think the value is.
Kevin - Good question. The purpose of any widgets from any company is that you are getting free site content that helps make your site stickier, or more of a resource. The hope is that because of the info you provide people will stay on the site longer or come back more frequently. Often the widgets provide enough info within them that people don't have to click off. I believe our click thru rates are typically in the single digits.
With respect to Zillow widgets, they can be set up so that if someone were to click from your widget to our site, a top bar with your branding and contact info stays on Zillow throughout the user's experience. All you need to do is make sure you have a free acct with Zillow, which you would if you were using the widget. So if they did click off, they are constantly reminded where they started.
Sara- Thanks for the response. Ive always wondered about it.
Sara...just a suggestion, but you ought to define all your blog links to "open new page" so one doesn't lose your blog in the process of traveling around Zillow.
That's very nice. Several nieghborhoods in my city don't register.I was looking for something more like this, http://www.homegain.com/webtools/home-value-widget, that is a little more specific and can drive traffic.
Any chance?
Joel Weihe
Joel-
Which neighborhoods/cities are you trying?
The Home Gain search boxes you reference drive traffic straight to Homegain rather than give the consumer any content while still on your website. Zillow also has a similar search box that can be seen here.
Drew,
Perfect, thank you very much. I didn't like the Homegains widget, just was looking for something like it and now I've errr you've found it for me.
Again, Thanks
Joel