If you haven’t had a chance to grab this week’s issue of Crain’s Chicago Business from your local newsstand, be sure to read Rental Boom Sparks Another Boom: Online Listings right here . Featured with Chicago-based Domu, Apartments.com Senior Vice President and General Manager Kevin Doyle weighs in on the future of online rental listings, noting the challenges with driving traffic to a great website.

This post was originally written by Kerry Sugrue, former Social Media Specialist at Apartments.com. 

Walking into the exhibit hall at NAA is like walking into a Home Depot.  It is such a huge, loud space with numbered aisles and busy people running all over the place.  With so much happening, exhibitors have to find a way to grab people’s attention, and they have gotten creative!  Companies have karaoke, video games, signature cocktails, full bars, matching outfits…and even kitties! Read More

This post was originally written by Kerry Sugrue, former Social Media Specialist at Apartments.com. 

We arrived at the National Apartment Association Education Conference and Expo yesterday in the very hot Las Vegas!  This is my first time in Sin City so I was afraid that the lights and spectacles would distract me from really absorbing this whole experience, but I can honestly tell you that they have not.  It has been quite the opposite!  All of the industry experts, booths and events have distracted me from Vegas! Read More

Hailing from coast to coast, the nation’s most fabulous roommates have each made a case for why they are America’s best in the 3rd annual Roommate of the Year Contest! Now that all the entries have been reviewed and the finalists have been selected, Apartments.com is asking America to help weigh in on which lucky roommate will win the Grand Prize of FREE Rent for a Year plus $10,000!

Help decide who will be named the next Roommate of the Year! Check out who is competing for the ultimate roommate glory and remember to read the judging criteria before casting your vote. Read More

This post was originally written by Brandon Hollembeak, Product Manager – Advertising Products & Services

I’ve written before about the importance of having an overall mobile strategy, not just individual campaigns. However, through many conversations regarding how to actually execute that, I feel there’s a clarification that needs to be made to that post that might seem contradictory at first, but will help explain the best way to accomplish it. Read More

With new construction cut in half and the housing market still down, the demand for rental units has increased, while the supply has stayed the same. This situation has put the rental market in the hands of landlords across the country. Apartments.com spokeswoman, Tammy Kotula, was recently interviewed by MSNBC for their article Renters Are the Next Victims of the Housing Market. In it she gives some sound advice for both renters and property managers, encouraging both parties to discuss the option of committing to a longer lease to lock into a more affordable rate. This option will save the management company, as well as the renter, money in the long run.

Have you noticed an increase in the number of renters asking for extended leases at a lower cost?

This post was originally written by Ken Shafer, past SEO Manager for Apartments.com.

This is the first edition of our Got a Minute video series.  We are going to be tackling topics in about a minute with videos from experts at Apartments.com.  Today I am going to show you how to get reporting for groups of keywords in Google Analytics.

Let’s say you’ve been focusing your recent SEO or SEM efforts on the city in which your property is located, so you may be buying Chicago-related keywords.  Or perhaps you’re focusing on the property name itself, so you buy keywords like “ABC Apartments.”  I personally know that phrases containing the word “goddady” have driven traffic to my site in the past, so I used that term as our example in the video below.  You are going to want to know how these SEO and SEM efforts have impacted traffic to your site.  By following the steps in our video you can highlight traffic driven by a particular keyword or phrase. Read More

This post was originally written by Kerry Sugrue, former Social Media Specialist at Apartments.com. 

Summer is in full swing, which means your residents are deciding what the perfect combo is for a day at the pool: 90 degrees, cute new cover up, the Oprah Book Club pick and a bottle of perfectly flavored summertime beer.  Before they get ahead of themselves, remind your residents that having glass at the pool is not safe for anyone. We want to make your job a little easier, so here is a complimentary MyMedia notice, “No Glass at the Pool”, for you to use to communicate with everyone in your apartment community. Read More

Looking for ways to convert your website traffic into leads? To learn five key tactics you can begin implementing today to ensure your website is performing at the highest level, delivering measurable results and—ultimately—more leases, read the article “Online Attraction” by Apartments.com VP of Product Management, Chris Brown, featured in the May 2011 issue of Units magazine.

Want to participate in a more in-depth discussion on the topic? Join us at NAA in Las Vegas on June 23rd at 9AM as Chris Brown and Chief Marketing Officer of Princeton Properties, Sarah Greenough, present “Building a Better Mouse Trap: Capturing Prospects with Your Website.” Click here for more information on the session and be sure to follow the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #educonf11D1. Read More

We are happy to announce the latest moves in the Apartments.com sales team!  Big congratulations to Mary Ellis and Brian Henry, our newest sales directors, and to Rick Carbon for taking over a new region: the west. To provide even more support to all of our valued customers, we have increased our sales leadership across the country into three regions.  By strengthening our team at the top, we will provide our customers with superior service to answer their advertising needs.  Meet our sales directors…

Rick Carbon, Director, Sales
Region: West
Contact Rick Read More