Let's assume you want a list of area residents' e-mail addresses to establish your online prospecting "e-farm". Let me just say that buying any so-called "opt-in" list for this purpose is about the quickest way to turn your e-farm into online fallow ground. The reality is that any e-mail sent by you will be perceived as spam unless you obtain explicit permission from each intended recipient.

However, there is a powerful way to have local residents enthusiastically share their e-mail addresses. And in the process you create an e-farm from which you consistently harvest a whole cornucopia of new business.

The Power Of Community

Imagine if you were to create and moderate a Web site that was dedicated entirely to a particular neighborhood. One where residents could get to know each other better, share wants and needs, schedule neighborhood events, share pictures, find people of similar interests, etc. One that is designed to foster the sense of "community" using the power of the Web and e-mail.

Creating community and providing information that is focused on just them will cause whole neighborhoods to share their e-mail addresses. As sponsor of this kind of site, you will get the benefit of being known as the neighborhood "facilitator" that helps make good things happen. This is a low-key, yet powerful way to gain exposure, stay in constant contact with your neighborhood e-farm, while often getting first shot at new listings or sale opportunities in the area.

Instant Online Communities

Fortunately, you don't have to create these neighborhood sites from scratch. There are at least two vendors that can help you put one up for your particular neighborhood in just minutes. They both offer protected territories, which means that once you are "in", no one else can use their product for the same area.

Connectingneighbors.com is the better known of the two. Its version of a neighborhood Web site is more of a multi-paged, Web-based neighborhood newsletter / bulletin board that allows community members to upload recipes, calendar item, classified ads, etc.

As sponsor of the site, you have your picture and contact information on every page (not always a good thing - it's about them, not you!). With their "Premier" version, you have full control and add your personal message at any time and recent neighborhood listing / sold information. You also have the ability to manage other sections of the site as well.

Community members do have limited ability to contribute their own content. However, the design of the site does not do a particularly good job of creating a highly interactive community. For example, people are able to upload recipes but the site never discloses who the kind person was that shared it. For this reason these sites are more accurately described as community newsletters / bulletin boards. As of this writing, a Premier site will cost you $599 to get started and $39.95 a month to maintain. Click here to see an example of a live Premier Connectingneighbors.com site.

As good as this might seem, there is another way to create a far more interactive and dynamic community based site.

Instant Community Intranet

Neighbors.com is a comprehensive Intranet that allows members of a community to login and interactively engage with other members of the community. Interactive elements include ongoing chat "forums" on many different topics, community calendar, document section (for downloading documents of community interest - i.e. HO meeting minutes, etc.), classified ads, services (typically provided by the younger members of the neighborhood), and an innovational "Activity Match" service that lets you instantly find others within your community with the same interests.

In order to take full advantage of all the site has to offer (including the ability to contribute to it), community members must register as an approved member. Each member has the ability to control all their settings including contact and login information, e-mail preferences (HTML or Text-only), and opt-in check boxes to receive e-mail whenever:

1. A new member joins the community (to welcome them);
2. Someone posts an ad in the classifieds section;
3. A property in the community goes up for sale;
4. Whether to be included in the Activity Match personal interest matching service.

This all contributes to the feeling that the site is just for community members and is special. It also provides you, as the exclusive sponsor, with some incredible marketing intelligence.

As sponsor of the site you will have your picture at the upper left side of each page (with a link to your site). Also, you can post your listings and even moderate real estate forum discussions within your community. In addition to a high level of interactivity, you have access to a wide array of reports and valuable statistics as to who logs in and when, what e-mails were sent out, new member signups, etc. These reports are critical to the success of your community site since they provide hard evidence as to how it is being used by members. Also, it is a powerful source of new business as it give you a bird's eye view of what's going on and exactly who's doing it in every neighborhood you sponsor. Click here to see an example of a live Neighbors.com site (click the "Guest Entry" button to the right on the splash screen to get in).

All this power, flexibility, and interactivity comes with a price however. A typical Neighbors.com site that covers a 300 home community will run you about $1,900/year (USD) and can go higher depending upon the size of the community you want to serve.

People Connecting With People

Creating "community" is really what the Internet is all about and goes way beyond sending e-mail to a list of names. As a societal species, we are "hard-wired" to connect with others. As human beings we crave and need it to live full and meaningful lives. By providing an online venue where people within the same community can easily and powerfully make those connections, you become its "facilitator". As such, you will be rewarded commensurately both in new business and truly getting to know your neighbors just a little bit better!

Article Resources

Connectingneighbors.com - provides affordable exclusive territory community newsletter / bulletin board sites.

Neighbors.com - provides exclusive territory comprehensive community Intranets featuring high-levels of interactivity and usage reporting.

NOTE: Mr. Internet, his company and staff receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors or service providers. Investigate any products or services found on the Net thoroughly to your satisfaction before using them at your own risk.