1. E-Newsletters. .....Sending e-mail to clients is one of the most effective ways of using the Internet to market your services. It can trigger an immediate response. If the client is interested, he or she can reply quickly and easily. It’s unobtrusive. The client can read it when convenient. And it’s cheap. It doesn’t matter if you send 10, 100 or 1,000 e-mails. The cost is the same to you. It’s included in the flat monthly fee that you pay your ISP, Internet Service Provider.

You can subscribe today to some terrific newsletters. Most are free. A year from today there should be dozens more, as companies move to the (cheaper) web for distribution of their traditional print communications. Check out Real-E on Metropolitan Washington DC, REdirections on real estate lending, The Right Trac on retail leasing, and eSPACE CONNEXIONS on Canadian real estate.

Some of these newsletters don’t have web sites. You subscribe by sending e-mail. So the best way to contact them is by clicking the newsletter title on the PikeNet Newsletter category "hit list." You’ll automatically go to a web site or an e-mail address. Use Category Search at PikeNet and click the Newsletter category.

http://www.pikenet.com/cgi-bin/pikenet/?F=sel_cat&S=ALL%09%09&CONTINENT=ALL

2. New and Notable. .....7501 Wisconsin Avenue is a major office development project by Farr-Curtis & Associates, Ltd. in Bethesda, MD. This is a well done marketing site. Check it out. ….. Le 1000 de La Gauchetière has launched a very attractive site for its 1.2 million square foot office tower in Montreal, Canada. …..Cadillac Fairview Shopping Centers has created a gateway site for consumers to access information on all of its Canadian shopping centers, an interesting move by a landlord to use cyberspace to support its physical tenants. Note that each center has its own unique URL!

Landis & Staefa provides building facilities management solutions for commercial properties. Although graphically intensive, this is an outstanding design for a real estate related web site. ….. Equity Title Company provides title and escrow services for Santa Barbara County, CA. ….. Chr. Hjorth Commercial Property Consultants offers services throughout Denmark. ….. Berlin Office Space is a new listing service which features a database of nearly 14 million square feet, the result of overbuilding after reunification in Germany. ….. For hyperlinks to all the sites mentioned above, go to:

3. PikeNet Traffic Increases. .....Use PikeNet to market your services--buy a banner, enhance a link or sponsor a PikeNet Dispatch.

http://www.pikenet.com/advertising.html

Traffic was up 16.5% to almost 12,000 visitors during September. Advertising views rose 20.5% to about 36,000 banner impressions. The average time of each visit to PikeNet was almost 8 minutes. Browser breakdown: Netscape 52%, Internet Explorer 42%, Other 6%. Operating Platform: Windows 80%, Macintosh 4%, Others 16%.

4. Web Success. .....One of my mantras is that the web is not about technology, it’s about communicating with people. And what better way of "making a connection" to a potential client than posting your picture and a short bio? Just ask Hans Hansson of Starboard Commercial in San Francisco whose site features an excellent directory of Starboard’s professional staff. A tenant needing space saw his picture and bio on the net. He chose Hans because he went to the same college. That’s a connection.

http://www.pikenet.com/cgi-bin/pikenet/?F=success/success05

5. IREM--"Mission Possible: Real Estate Research On-line." .....The Journal of Property Management, published by IREM, featured an interesting article with that title in its November/December 1996 issue. Although not all of the web sites mentioned are still accessible, it is still timely and relevant. "Your mission, gentlemen, should you chooses to accept it, is to research a mixed-use building in Grand Rapids, Michigan. You have 72 hours and, of course, a limited budget. Good luck." Check it out.

http://www.irem.org/edwards.htm

6. Knowledge Base: Driving Directions from an Airport? .....How many times have you arrived at an airport, rented a car and then tried to figure out where your client was located? Now you can use MapQuest to get driving directions and color maps in just a few minutes--before you leave home. Are you flying into Chicago’s O’Hare and need to visit Kensington Realty Advisors? Check out the example I’ve posted in the Knowledge Base.

http://www.pikenet.com/cgi-bin/pikenet/?F=questions/question024

7. Subscribing. .....If you would like to be subscribe to this free Dispatch, please send e-mail with the word "subscribe" in the title to Peter Pike .