With the newspaper ad model, results are fairly straightforward. You pay your money up front and you get exposure. The newspaper doesn't take any responsibility for your ads. It is your job as the advertiser to attracting consumers away from your competitors through ad size and placement. The hook of your ad is up to you, and that is determined by the writing and design skills of your advertising team and your business model. This is where branding matters, along with other variables such as how much you want to spend on your ads to consistently get premium positioning.

If you want to spend less money, you can simply pay by the word for a classified ad.

Either way, you are paying for exposure. There is no expectation that the paper will provide qualified leads, and real estate advertisers don't expect more than the paper says it can do -- which is to provide exposure.

So how is getting exposure different on the Internet?

The Internet is a relatively new medium that the real estate industry is still trying to get its arms around. It has two distinct differences from print advertising. With more robust ways to promote people and properties than the flat print medium offers, the pressure to build costlier attention-getting lead generation visuals is high. Tools such as websites, virtual tours for listings and professional e-mail programs are now considered by most marketing experts to be entry-level.

And, unlike newspapers which dominate local advertising choices as the only game in town, the Internet has numerous ways to advertise real estate professionals and listings: