GETTING THE MOST OUT OF CRAIGSLIST

Steve Small, CEOYield Technologies, Inc.

April 30, 2009

AMLI Residential (www.amli.com) CIO from 2000 through 2007 Owns luxury apartment communities throughout the US Wholly owned by Morgan Stanley Prime Property Fund

Yield Technologies, Inc. (www.yieldco.com) Global management consulting and technology services

company. Focuses on various revenue management and marketing

solutions. Licenses certain AMLI technology

Steve SmallPRESENTER BACKGROUND

Craigslist Overview

Local classifieds and forums for 450 cities worldwide - community moderated, and largely free.

Jobs, housing, goods, services, romance, local activities, advice - just about anything really.

9 billion page views per month

#7 in terms of English-language page views.

More than 30 million people each month use craigslist, including more than 25 million in the US alone

eBay acquired 25% of the equity in craigslist from a former shareholder in August of 2004

Ad Listing Challenges…

Our teams were spending a considerable amount of time just loading ads to the site.

It was a challenge to maintain fresh content and quality ads.

Little visibility (quantitative nor qualitative) into the success of our postings.

Lack of integration between craigslist and our enterprise software solutions (Yardi, RealPage, MRI, etc….).

Global Perspective

People and process first; Technology second.

Install business transparency.

Feedback business results and metrics in real-time.

Make it easy to for customers to do business with you.

Invest in your Internet presence.

Take a disciplined statistical approach to how you allocate effort and cost.

KEY ASPECTS

Transforming the Enterprise

Is it Actionable?

Is it understandable to the organization?

Can everyone participate?

Yield Optimization is about actionable ways to improve marketing, product mix, customers, and business processes.

YIELD OPTIMIZATION

Craigslist Initiative

Which ads are more effective in a particular market? Fancy or simple ads Short or descriptive More pictures or fewer Community focus vs. unit focus

When is the best time to post?

Which product types is the market most interested in?

Measure - Deliver an in-depth analysis of ad listing statistics and metrics to prove the value of this marketing venue.

GOALS – BUSINESS PROCESS

WHICH CRAIGSLIST AD WILL SELL THE JEEP?

Craigslist Initiative

Dramatically reduce staff time required to post.

Generate consistent and high-quality ads.

Integrate with the property management applications.

Provide content management.

Make it easy – robust help, training, and deployment.

Comply with the letter and intent of craigslist Terms of Use.

GOALS - MECHANICS

Craigslist Ad Components

AN AMLI APARTMENT AD

Title Template

Unit Types and Specific Units

Contact Information

Apartment Descriptions

Apartment Features/Amenities

Community Descriptions

Community Features/Amenities

Alternate Contact Method

Community Photos

Unit Photos

Craigslist Ad Components

ANDY’S CONDO

Title Template

Unit Types and Specific Units

Contact Information

Apartment Descriptions

Apartment Features/Amenities

Community Descriptions

Community Features/Amenities

Alternate Contact Method

Community Photos

Unit Photos

RentSentinel

RentSentinel is a content management and analytics system - the User posts and enters the captcha.

Post manually using cut and paste – Traditional method used by Postlets, Vflyer, etc.

Post using self-publishing email RentSentinel creates ads and manages the self-publishing

email for the user

Post using a craigslist account RentSentinel logs the user into their craigslist account and

creates ads – no confirmation email necessary.

3 WAYS TO POST …

Use the Content We Already Have

SYNCHRONIZATION WITH MAJOR PROPERTY MGMT SYSTEMS

Dashboard for Managing All of Your Ads

Posting using the Ad Wizard

You can Edit Ads before Posting

Content Management System

Make it Simple and Easy

AMLI 535

Month New Prospects Phone Calls VisitsPercentage of Total Visits

January- No RentSentinel 16 5 14 23.08%

February-With RentSentinel 39 9 27 47.62%

FIRST MONTH RESULTS…

What Days are Best to Post?

AMLI 535

Look at Views and Leads in Real Time

What Days are Best to Post?

ANDY’S CONDO

When are our Ads being Viewed?

ANDY’S CONDO

When are our Ads being Viewed?

AMLI 535

When should we Post?

AMLI 535

When should we Post?

ANDY’S CONDO

What Products are in Demand?

Where are our Customers coming from?

Distance Band Report

June 01 Release Features

Craigslist login account becomes primary posting method.

Ad timing recomendations.

Enhance ad content and building capabilities.

Syndication of additional sites: FrontDoor Google Base HotPads Oodle Trulia Vast

June 01 Release Features

Amenity builder – ad editor interface to online sources describing community area amenities.

Dashboard to rank community’s success relative to the overall portfolio.

Indexed ad content – correlate success of posts to content.

Which ads are more effective in a particular market? Fancy or simple ads Short or descriptive More pictures or fewer Community focus vs. unit focus

WHICH CRAIGSLIST AD WILL SELL THE JEEP?

www.RentSentinel.com

Value Proposition

Save time – create high quality craigslist ads with minimal effort.

Simple deployment – just login.

Immediate payback - De minimis cost per lead.

Create an adaptive marketing process rather than settling for a point-in-time goal.

www.RentSentinel.com

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF CRAIGSLIST

Steve Small, CEOYield Technologies, Inc.

April 30, 2009