What gave you the idea for BrokerPulse?
Think for a moment where NYC mainstream media gets their news…from press releases, from events and other specialized sources. Many times, these sources are also publicly available — for example from press releases, and real estate individuals with access and knowledge of newsworthy events. Yes, real estate journalists do investigative work to look at the facts, ask important questions and usually try to get both sides of each story, but sadly, this is becoming less frequent as the advertising revenue sources for real estate newspapers, magazines and broadcast media have dwindled. It turns out that most stories are are actually given to them by real estate industry professionals who want to get the news out. At BrokerPulse we thought to ourselves, why not create a way for the Real Estate Brokers with the news, the sources, to get it out to one of the most exiting cities in the world without the middleman screening out all the good bits?
BrokerPulse had also noticed the way Real Estate technology was changing the way City Brokers got their news. Newspapers get lots of nasty black newsprint all over your hands and when compared with the internet, it’s so yesterday. There isn’t a story in a newspaper that wasn’t on the internet 12 hours before. While real time, cable TV is an endless parade of ads and foolish pundits that sound like an echo chamber for their ideologies. Only the internet and mobile phone revolution will enable People Powered News and let brokers see the whole truth, unfiltered. That’s our goal.
What is BrokerPulse?
Your first experience with BrokerPulse.com probably viewing a story someone had contributed, or you found our Front Page. We are a news utility — an internet platform that enables the hosting and distribution of Real Estate news in NYC. With BrokerPulse.com, you don’t need a web site, blog, or anything, just submit your story at the top of brokerpulse.com. It will get out through all the major search engines.
Can anyone post a story at BrokerPulse?
Yes. It’s completely free to post (except for promotional stories)
How do I post a story?
Just click on the “UPLOAD NEWS” or “UPLOAD MEDIA” button in the homepage.
What kind of stories can I post at BrokerPulse?
We publish almost any story by almost anybody, as long as it’s real estate news, commentary, gossip, analysis or opinion. The other criteria is that the stories can’t be commercially motivated in the news area.
What kind of stories won’t you publish at BrokerPulse?
We won’t publish anything that is misleading or untrue, libelous, contains gratuitous curse words, of a sexual nature and stories that are designed to incite violence or hatred of certain groups of people. If the story is old news, unless there is a new angle to the story, we’re probably not interested. We won’t publish materials taken from others without their permission. We use our judgement and follow our Terms of Service. Our viewers have young children in their homes and work in offices. If you can’t show a 12 year old child a story without being embarrassed, it probably doesn’t belong on BrokerPulse.com.
What kinds of contributors are you looking for?
All kinds. Mostly in the Real Estate field. We want people who have a passion for their stories, but we are particularly interested in contributors who have an inside track to information that might eventually be released to mainstream news organizations.
How can I submit my story?
You can post it yourself with our 24/7 real time submission tools, we can take your RSS feed automatically, or you can email your story to us (webmaster@brokerpulse.com).
I just posted my first story — why can’t I see it yet?
Your first story is subject to moderation by our editors, which can take up to a few hours, if they are busy. Once your story is approved, it goes on the site and into the search engines. Remember, news is about current events and has who, what, when, where and how.
Can I include links in my story?
Links to your web site are OK, and they can link back to your web site or to other stories or facts that help support your story.
Someone used my copyrighted story on your site; how do I get you to take it down?
Stories are posted by contributors and if you feel your story was inappropriately posted at BrokerPulse.com, use our Copyright link found at the bottom of nearly every page. We will promptly respond to your request.
Can I get a virus from one of your web pages?
You cannot get a virus from a web page – no matter what people that sell security software have told you. You have to download something and run it. Simply viewing a web page cannot infect your computer.
A common practice of virus distributors to trick you into downloading something is to display an advertisement which when clicked on claims it needs an Active-X control in order to run. (Note: this only effects Windows users.) Still unless you confirm this, it cannot infect your computer. All of our advertisers are legitimate companies and the ads are displayed via Google AdSense.
Another practice is to deliver an email message with an attachment. It may or may not open, but inserts a command somewhere in the operating system. We do not send email.
All of our content is screened and no external javascript is allowed.
The bottom line is a virus cannot enter your computer without your consent. People will try to trick you into clicking on buttons and opening attachments, but with a little common sense you can avoid them. Chances are you have not won the Botwanda lottery or a distant relative is not in need of an urgent telegram.
I don’t seem to be getting that much traffic back to my site from BrokerPulse, what can be done about it?
The first thing to check are the links back to your site….if you are tracking them, do they link back with a tracking code or URL, or do they just land on your home page? We’ve had people ask us this and upon investigation, they determined that their links back (created by them) were going to their home page, where they were not being tracked. You should also check your web sites log files for what’s called the Referral Log. This is a list of all the sites that sent you traffic. As for what can be done, you can add a link back to the top of your story and at the end. You should also consider putting a biographical note about your company, products, services or the individual who wrote the story.
Can I post one paragraph and a link back to my site to drive traffic?
If you have at least several hundred characters of the story and you are posting your stories by hand, this is OK.
