The recent failures of many real estate-related dotcoms prove that business environments change very quickly. At Realty Times, we made many of the same mistakes that some service providers are making now, but we were small enough and early-in-the-game enough that we were able to make positive corrections in our business model and survive. Now we can proudly say that we finally became profitable early this year, and after four years in business, we are now the largest real estate news service on the Internet. But it wasn't easy. So, I can tell you that we've learned a thing or two about creating a business model that serves the online real estate industry.

As I head off to the N.A.R. convention to see the newest, latest and greatest Web innovations, I'll be meeting many of you for the first time, as well as seeing old friends who have hung in there and lived to tell about the black holes of Internet profitability. I hope each and every one of you has the killer app that the industry can't live without, and that Realtors will become the Internet specialists, thanks to your technology, we always hoped they would. But the industry is still a long way off from migrating completely to the Internet, and there is still a lot of trouble to come. So I hope your business plan includes a lot of patience and to borrow a line from comedian Jeff Foxworthy -

"You know your real estate dotcom is in trouble, if...."

• you started as a b-to-c, switched to a b-to-b, and are wondering when the time is right to go back to b-to-c;
• it takes more than one minute to explain what your company does;
• you are still swapping links to build content;
• anyone on your staff uses an AOL e-mail address for business purposes;
• you think selling books for Amazon.com will pay off;
• you idea of market research is lurking on RealTalk, property.com, or OneRealtorPlace.com;
• you think your technology is supercool and will sell itself;
• you believe that if you build it, they will come;
• the only way you'll survive is if your next round of financing is successful;
• you are waiting for Realtor associations to embrace your technology;
• your CEO, CFO, or COO has left the firm for a better opportunity;
• you are blaming lack of revenues on Realtors' failure to understand the Internet;
• you either lie about your user statistics or refuse to publicize them;
• your business plan is waiting on distributing your content on Palm Pilots and cell phones;
• you are exercizing your options and you owe money;
• you think "first mover advantage" is a truck with two muscle men;
• nobody at Realty Times has ever heard of you;
• you think sending out press releases is going to bring you customers;
• you spent your last thousands for a booth at the N.A.R. trade show;
• you think a N.A.R. endorsement is what you need to implement your plan;
• you are directly competing with Homestore or HomeAdvisor;
• you think the DOJ investigation of Homestore will make any difference, and;
• you don't know that there are two ff's in Wolff.