Duluth on AOL
By Beverly on Aug 17, 2009 in Media Watch
The Duluth housing market is being featured on the AOL homepage right now. It’s time to buy a house, according to this headline.
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By Beverly on Aug 17, 2009 in Media Watch
The Duluth housing market is being featured on the AOL homepage right now. It’s time to buy a house, according to this headline.
From back in June…
http://www.fox21online.com/news/duluth-housing-outlook-one-countrys-best
AOL homepage?
If the markets so good here, why can’t I sell my very nice house in the best neighborhood in town (across the street from baci)?
Isn’t this like when you visit yahoo and you get an ad for singles in Duluth? That, by far, is my favorite cheesiest gimmick.
Whatever happened to the old snake oil guys?
As a Realtor it is good to see this news for our city. The only problem I have with this story(and US News & World Report) is that they don’t give any reasoning for their choice.
Where is the data to back up this list?
It is called Geo Targeting. The news will be directed to you based on your location, they try to make the news interesting to you based on your location so you stay longer and read it. They then get longer sticky analytics to help sell ads to the advertisers. That is same reason they list homes for sale in Duluth at the bottom of the AOL article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo_targeting
I find geo marketing of singles ads to be a little creepy, even more creepy when you see that on sites like facebook they target stuff to your gender, family status, age, even religious/spiritual affiliation. When people say these sites are free, they mean we don’t pay out in money, but we do pay out in “data” which includes privacy.
BUT, I don’t think this one is geo marketing. Not even the ads at the bottom of the article. If you follow the link/address here
http://realestate.aol.com/homes-for-sale/top-markets-for-the-next-decade?pg=1
You will see that the Duluth pic is on “pg=1″ and the ads correspond, click forward or back and you get different ads. Further, I think that people in other markets truly are dumbfounded at the quality of housing here, the large variety available, and the fact that no one is buying.
This prediction could be true if Duluth builds in enough or attracts enough employers in the moderate to high wage paying business/industrial/fill-in-the-blank sectors over the next generation. Otherwise we might be sitting on a housing glut for some time if no one can afford even a “really good deal” on a house or condo.
I considered whether I was being tricked by an ad when I posted this, but I don’t think it was an ad. It seemed to be a story about housing markets in the country, and Duluth was the one featured in the photo. I was struck mostly by how nice the photo made our city look.
Yes, I don’t believe this was geotargeted. It’s the article that appeared to everyone -- they’re not THAT slick, and Duluth did indeed show up on the list in question.
I’ll take my house going up by $50k over the next 10 years, sure. Not astronomical, it sounds realistic and sustainable!
if the value of my house goes up by 50K in ten years, we’ll be moving to Grand Marais that much sooner!
This would be a great housing market if we had a more favorable job and business climate. More investment in tourism would help the housing marketing, too.
davids… yer livin’ across from baci!?!? You’ve answered yer own question. That wop would scare the pants off dean martin … er when dean is wearing pants that is … which aint as often as we’d like… I’m still trying to figuer out he gets them legs through the lampshade like that…probably baci taught him.
Where you moving to DavidS?