Have you ever used something for free and thought, "WOW" the internet is so cool, you can use all kinds of stuff for free. Have you ever really worked hard at something that was free only to have it taken away?
Well that is what has happened today for a lot of agents.
They woke up this morning to:
"2009 promises to be a positive turning point for the economy... (for us)"
"This year we will focus on dramatic speed and stability improvements... (we're running out of money and our user population is dwindling)"
"we have added 10 Senior Software Developers to our Point2 Agent team. (in keeping with new economic policy to speed recovery by hiring more people in questionable ways)"
"effective March 9, 2009, Point2 will no longer be hosting any free Standard accounts. (we get to keep your content though)"
"Point2 hopes never to find itself in the position of sacrificing service quality for paying members because of its support of free accounts. (Luckily, we just stuck it to those vagrants! - oh, wait.. )
"we are offering a number of immediate benefits to coincide with this change. As of your first payment: (one is a bribe and the other two are standard features...)"
Just for the record:
- I'm not a avid user of Point2
- I'm not the most savvy internet guy in the world, maybe they have something special.
- Yes, I see the irony of posting this blog post on a FREE site....
- The stuff in ( ) is me trying to be somewhat humorous
Seems like they probably should have done this at a time that agents had money to spend on a premium website. Never been a fan of Point 2--lots of talk but not much sizzle, and nothing that an agent could do themselves with a day or two of training. There is a reason it is, WAS, free.
Joshua... I've been a Point2 user for quite awhile. This is the first I've heard of this. And although I'm a professional user, I reckon I'll have to consider what I might do next. Thanks for the "heads up."
I have a professional site with Point2 and have had a lot of success with. I have gotton a whole lot more leads with point2 for the money than any other re websites.
No more free accounts? just when I've been toying with adding one. Oh, well....
Joshua,
I gather you're not a big fan of Point2 LOL. Thanks for the update.
Bill - If you are already paying then... it's no big deal to you. As, they won't be wasting time supporting those losers for free anymore.
Doug - It's a great template based site, especially for Remax agents who don't seem to have a good site "out of the box."
Jennifer - I don't have a problem with Point2 at all, the cancelling free accounts makes business sense, but I found the letter they sent about it to be a bit ... fony... (Funny and Phony)
Joshua - Call me one of those losers I guess, because I have been using their free site. Being someone with limited web development experience, it has provided me with a lot of training to understand more about websites, SEO, etc. I think it was good training for me, and now I am ready to spend money on developing a superstar web site.
I just didn't like the way I was made aware of the change from Point2. I actually wrote a post about it on my blog the day I receive the email from Point2.
I tried the Point2 professional account, but went back to the free version. Found no significant advantage, in the additional benefits vs the free account. Point2 does do a good job with SEO when promoting listings, but I have never gotten a lead from them that actually went to closing. So I will retire my point2 account.