Santa Clarita Abhors an Advertising Vacuum

By Jeff — Jeff Wilson

I swear, if there’s a technology or old-world media venue that’s popular or visible, Santa Claritans will find a way to advertise in it.

Just last month, the upstart and highly popular SCVMomsBlog.com website stopped allowing people to post blog entries instantly. Instead, moderators of the website have to approve the posting before it goes to the front page of the site. Why? Jackie and Andrea told users that there was spam on the front page.

Now if you’re like me, you associate spam with automated email messages trying to sell you on sex, viagra, gambling sites, or get rich quick schemes. But that’s not what was on the home page of SCV Mom’s Blog. No, the problem appeared to me to be that local realtors were abusing the blog system and posting full color posts (ads) for homes they were trying to sell.

Just like they do on YouTube and several other video sharing websites, which has totally ruined my ability to search for news-worthy SCV videos.

I’m sorry SCV Realtors, but no one is Googling for the stupid condo you’re trying to sell in Newhall. No one cares to view still camera shots with a cheesy music track on YouTube. Stop it!

But it’s not just the Moms or cranky bloggers who have to deal with certain Santa Claritan’s desire to promote themselves relentlessly.

No, the problem is especially acute on Facebook, where many public and private organizations who I’m “friends with” feel the need to barf all over my News Feed page with what are essentially advertisements:

Sorry Awesometown, but I'm going to Hide You

They’re starting in on twitter too, which just a few short months ago was too geeky for SCV business interests to understand, but is now, sadly, becoming more mainstream. I guess we’ll have to go IRC fellas.

And in the real world it never stops either. We’ve taken bus ads to the next level in Santa Clarita; we don’t just put little signs on the side of the bus, we coat the entire damn thing in 45 foot long advertisements. Those gigantic billboard ads are so old school; the new hotness is to hang banners from every light pole in town, that way you can’t possibly miss the Taste of the Town event. Oh and don’t get me started on paseo advertisements!

And if, by some miracle, you miss all those ads on your favorite website, on the commute home, while walking your dog, or while you’re Facebooking, you still get hit by the adver-tainment magazines when you go to the mailbox.

But not on SCVTalk. We are ad-free damnit. And proud! And it’s going to stay that way if I have anything to say about it.

PS: The above should be taken in the style it was intended: a humorous rant. I don’t begrudge people trying to make a living. But seriously realtors, stop abusing local websites, ok?

Comments (12)

mikeApril 29, 2010 at 12:11 pm

agreed!

lvogelApril 29, 2010 at 12:22 pm

Totally agree! I’ve ‘hidden’ several of these,um, ‘friends’.

JustAnotherRealtorYouLove2HateApril 29, 2010 at 12:40 pm

The “PS” made everything better for me. I agree, places like Mom’s blogs are NOT a place for advertising anything other than what’s allowed, or relevant to the conversation there. YouTube is NOT a local website. If you’re finding real estate on YouTube you must be doing some pretty “broad” searches, i.e. “Santa Clarita.” Narrow your search, and you probably won’t be bothered as much, if your inclined to feel such a way. And homebuyers DO indeed “Google” for the “stupid” condos trying to be sold in Newhall. I know. I make a living selling homes here, and 90% of our clients find us via the Internet with all sorts of wacky SCV related real estate searches on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. They like photos, videos, and crapy music to those home tours. When you’re buying a home, it’s an exciting time, so you tend to forgive the cheesiness and quality of the ad JUST a bit more than someone who’s on the sideline that doesn’t care about real estate. People who haven’t searched for a home in years because they have been busy renting may not realize that. I know no one wants to go back to the day of finding a home via black and white Newspapers or trusting their Realtors taste in homes. No photos. No Video. Maybe us Realtors should turn back to the archaic magazines, postcards, and mailers of sorts, spamming your real mail box, like Carpet Cleaners do with their coupons, would that be more preferable? =) Thanks for allowing my humor-less rant. – Just another SCV Realtor who loves his job and the new world of Social Media & Advertising. I still Love SCVTALK BTW. Keep on doing what you do.

townbeetApril 29, 2010 at 2:59 pm

We will “Never give you up” NickelDime

NateApril 29, 2010 at 7:32 pm

I agree. More rants Jeff. I view Spam as any unwanted advertisment. I have an uncle that forwards every crazy conservative conspiracy theory, I view that as spam. I appreciate scvtalk. So Jeff, John and yes Timmy too, Great job fellas.

JustAnotherRealtorYouLove2HateApril 29, 2010 at 1:27 pm

Nickledime, I didn’t suggest I defecate “all over the Internets,” you did. But I sure as hell wouldn’t get on someone in any other industry for pumping their content to the “Internets,” either. I’m savvy, I know how to avoid it if necessary. Search results are great in that you can narrow them, if you must. I only post real estate related content into real estate related forums myself, or open forums, SUCH AS YouTube. SO don’t get me wrong. I agree spam is bad and real etsate can be spam as with anything else. We just have diff opinions on how much is too much and “where.” Thanks for your opinion, and sharing it.

NateApril 29, 2010 at 7:41 pm

There is a right way and wrong way to adverise, Jeff and John are talking about the wrong way. Some SCV Realtors / business owners need get some respect and quit taking every oppurtunity to plug their products and services for free using websites that are not designed to be free advertising. Reminds me of the early web with ads that tried to trick people into viewing their ads. It does more to piss people off then to actually sell them something. You want to advertise, quit making it look like a blog and tricking people into looking at it. Pay Jackie and Andrea to advertise your product. Quit being a dishonest freeloader.

JustAnotherRealtorYouLove2HateApril 29, 2010 at 1:52 pm

Sorry, I failed to let you know I picked up on that. I was having fun saying it like GW, back at yah. If I don’t come back to respond, it’s b/c I’m busy flooding the internet’s’ with useless content. Take care ND.

Jackie/SCV MomsApril 29, 2010 at 3:06 pm

LOL! While this is amusing, it’s not true. I wake up to 10-15 drug-pushing blog posts every day and constantly delete new spammers. While posts about curb appeal and short sales may annoy some, we don’t moderate posts unless they are truly offensive. But I love that you are so up on our stories and practices, Jeff! You’re going to LOVE the show on SCVTV we taped today with the one and only Frank Ferry. See an example below… Subject: You have a new blog post to approve on SCV Moms Blog Reply-To: do-not-reply@scvmomsblog.com You have a new blog post “Buy Cheap Speman. Take Speman Free Delivery” to approve on SCV Moms Blog

JeffApril 29, 2010 at 3:08 pm

So Jackie, you let realtors post homes for sale on the front page? I know I have seen that on there. I love your site, I’m just trying to shame those who would abuse its format

John AdamsApril 29, 2010 at 4:00 pm

Lets face it, I Do Think At A Certain Point You’ve Made Enough Money

Jackie/SCV MomsApril 29, 2010 at 6:33 pm

Yeah Jeff, we don’t keep it from happening. However, we’ve been lucky in that some of our realtor members realize that building relationships is more important than just posting homes for sale. That being said, we have a huge re-launch happening 7/1. The site will be a hybrid of editorial and community with more content created by our team of writers and experts. Stay tuned for your invite to our private launch party 6/16!

mikeApril 29, 2010 at 12:11 pm
agreed!
lvogelApril 29, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Totally agree! I’ve ‘hidden’ several of these,um, ‘friends’.
JustAnotherRealtorYouLove2HateApril 29, 2010 at 12:40 pm
The “PS” made everything better for me. I agree, places like Mom’s blogs are NOT a place for advertising anything other than what’s allowed, or relevant to the conversation there. YouTube is NOT a local website. If you’re finding real estate on YouTube you must be doing some pretty “broad” searches, i.e. “Santa Clarita.” Narrow your search, and you probably won’t be bothered as much, if your inclined to feel such a way. And homebuyers DO indeed “Google” for the “stupid” condos trying to be sold in Newhall. I know. I make a living selling homes here, and 90% of our clients find us via the Internet with all sorts of wacky SCV related real estate searches on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. They like photos, videos, and crapy music to those home tours. When you’re buying a home, it’s an exciting time, so you tend to forgive the cheesiness and quality of the ad JUST a bit more than someone who’s on the sideline that doesn’t care about real estate. People who haven’t searched for a home in years because they have been busy renting may not realize that. I know no one wants to go back to the day of finding a home via black and white Newspapers or trusting their Realtors taste in homes. No photos. No Video. Maybe us Realtors should turn back to the archaic magazines, postcards, and mailers of sorts, spamming your real mail box, like Carpet Cleaners do with their coupons, would that be more preferable? =) Thanks for allowing my humor-less rant. – Just another SCV Realtor who loves his job and the new world of Social Media & Advertising. I still Love SCVTALK BTW. Keep on doing what you do.
townbeetApril 29, 2010 at 2:59 pm
We will “Never give you up” NickelDime
NateApril 29, 2010 at 7:32 pm
I agree. More rants Jeff. I view Spam as any unwanted advertisment. I have an uncle that forwards every crazy conservative conspiracy theory, I view that as spam. I appreciate scvtalk. So Jeff, John and yes Timmy too, Great job fellas.
JustAnotherRealtorYouLove2HateApril 29, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Nickledime, I didn’t suggest I defecate “all over the Internets,” you did. But I sure as hell wouldn’t get on someone in any other industry for pumping their content to the “Internets,” either. I’m savvy, I know how to avoid it if necessary. Search results are great in that you can narrow them, if you must. I only post real estate related content into real estate related forums myself, or open forums, SUCH AS YouTube. SO don’t get me wrong. I agree spam is bad and real etsate can be spam as with anything else. We just have diff opinions on how much is too much and “where.” Thanks for your opinion, and sharing it.
NateApril 29, 2010 at 7:41 pm
There is a right way and wrong way to adverise, Jeff and John are talking about the wrong way. Some SCV Realtors / business owners need get some respect and quit taking every oppurtunity to plug their products and services for free using websites that are not designed to be free advertising. Reminds me of the early web with ads that tried to trick people into viewing their ads. It does more to piss people off then to actually sell them something. You want to advertise, quit making it look like a blog and tricking people into looking at it. Pay Jackie and Andrea to advertise your product. Quit being a dishonest freeloader.
JustAnotherRealtorYouLove2HateApril 29, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Sorry, I failed to let you know I picked up on that. I was having fun saying it like GW, back at yah. If I don’t come back to respond, it’s b/c I’m busy flooding the internet’s’ with useless content. Take care ND.
Jackie/SCV MomsApril 29, 2010 at 3:06 pm
LOL! While this is amusing, it’s not true. I wake up to 10-15 drug-pushing blog posts every day and constantly delete new spammers. While posts about curb appeal and short sales may annoy some, we don’t moderate posts unless they are truly offensive. But I love that you are so up on our stories and practices, Jeff! You’re going to LOVE the show on SCVTV we taped today with the one and only Frank Ferry. See an example below… Subject: You have a new blog post to approve on SCV Moms Blog Reply-To: do-not-reply@scvmomsblog.com You have a new blog post “Buy Cheap Speman. Take Speman Free Delivery” to approve on SCV Moms Blog
JeffApril 29, 2010 at 3:08 pm
So Jackie, you let realtors post homes for sale on the front page? I know I have seen that on there. I love your site, I’m just trying to shame those who would abuse its format
John AdamsApril 29, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Lets face it, I Do Think At A Certain Point You’ve Made Enough Money
Jackie/SCV MomsApril 29, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Yeah Jeff, we don’t keep it from happening. However, we’ve been lucky in that some of our realtor members realize that building relationships is more important than just posting homes for sale. That being said, we have a huge re-launch happening 7/1. The site will be a hybrid of editorial and community with more content created by our team of writers and experts. Stay tuned for your invite to our private launch party 6/16!