For the past few summers I have worked for my parents who are both real estate agents. A large part of my job is marketing the listings that we have. One of the most cost-effective things we’ve done, particularly for rental properties, is advertising them on CraigsList.  CraigsList seems to be growing in popularity for online real estate searching, particularly in the rental market. it’s worked out really well for us because all it costs to advertise is the time it takes for me to post the ad and repost it each week if the property hasn’t rented. It’s also good for us because we can put photos in there as well as a link to our visual tour. In addition to being a big selling point in the real estate market, linking to the virtual tour allows them to land on our website and see who we are, even though you’re not allowed to advertise business services on the site. All in all, while i wont say it’s necessarily our best marketing tool, it’s definitely the most financially beneficial. If we sell or rent anything at all we’ve made money.

From the creator of Digg.com, Kevin Rose, comes his latest creation, Pownce.com. Pownce is a web community on which members share articles, links, photos, music and events with one another. Then, users can discuss what they’ve shared.

Without being a member I wasn’t able to delve really deeply into the workings of the site, nor was I able to find many other articles about it on the internet. Honestly, I don’t see what it does that numerous other sites already allow you to do. I mean, yes, it does give users an alternative to facebook and other sites that do similar things. However, the thing about members only sites like that is what on earth is the point of getting on the site if no one you know is on it. Maybe I’m just lazy or not having a complete web 2.0 experience, but I just don’t see why I would go open a pounce account when 95% of my friends are on facebook and there are still plenty of other sites that have more of a differentiated function that I don’t use yet.

While it may be financially viable, I just don’t see the purpose of pownce. It just seems to be following on the coat tails of bigger and better things.