I came across a pretty interesting website a little while ago and mentally filed it to share it on thise blog when I had a spare moment. Unfortunately my filing system got a little astray and it was not until I got a marketing email from a print company promoting their expensive ebrochure product that I remembered. With Yudu you can create it yourself and its free.
Yudu is essentially a free digital library allowing you to share eBooks, magazines, and other documents as well as photos, music and podcasts and bookmarks and add them to your own library.
Basic features are available for free with a “Plus” version available for just $270 a year which allows you to do such things as enhance your publications with video clips and MP3 files and edit your published documents; change the background colour, add more web and email links and more.
You can link, or embed individual documents into your website and upload documents in PDF, Word or Excel files. You can even embed your whole library or just tagged items into any webpage as well.
I have received a few different things utilising Yudu recently so it appears to be getting a good audience pretty quickly. Click the logo to view a quick and dirty demo library I have created to show you the ability of Yudu.
The uses for this sort of system in our industry are pretty vast but here is a few that come to mind:-
- Interactive Pre-Appraisal Kit.
- Online Marketing Plan Presentations
- Library of Printed Newsletters
- Weekly Property Ebrochures
I have created an online directory of different software solutions for Australian real estate agents at www.australianrealestatesoftware.com and will be adding this to it over the weekend.
10 Comments
Maria
Hi Glenn,
I am pretty sure that YUDU plus is about
Glenn Batten
Maria, my figures were not a mistake. The $270 a year was in AUD.. but as this blog’s primary audience is Australian Real Estate Agents I did not need to do $AUD270 because it is our local currency. Thanks anyway though.
snoop
A lot of work to be done here!
Also try and avoid being a pr billboard
Lets see some objective analysis on some of these products .
Some of the marketing speak is just that.
The problem with software players in real estate is they reach a point where they cant scale up support and service so most are run by enthusiastic amatuers,that grew up from being web devs in the late ninetys to creating software.
Most have little more than 1-2m rev.
Agents need to be mindful where they bet their business.
Its a marketplace thats almost as crowded as the portal space.
Glenn Batten
The article I posted was to bring the site and their services to everyones attention and suggest a few uses that agents could use the service for. Obviously your not an agent so that part of the article is not as relevant to you. If by bringing it to your attention you want to know more than I am offering.. your going to have to do your own investigations for more info on the solution, at least for now..
“A lot of work to be done here!”
Snoop, This blog often highlights software initiatives that would be suitable for real estate agents without doing indepth analysis or commentary (I can provide links if you really want) Peter and I have both brought to readers attention things we come across that might be of benefit. Of course we have both delved deeper in other cases where we have the experience and opinion to document.
You said there is a lot of hard work to be done. Not entirely sure what you mean. If its a reference to some indepth analysis you feel is lacking I cant do anything about this, I dont have the experience to comment from other than the demo library I made for everyone to get a feel for it..
If your meaning hard work with Yudu to create things thats not entirely true. From creating an account to the uploading the library took about 7 minutes. What may take people some time is creating marketing material to upload, but thats not really Yudu’s issue.
Everything we create is saved in pdf format for various reasons such as salespeople handing windows cards to prospective buyers to emailing owners copies of advertising, signs, etc etc. We also have guides produced by head office. So in our case at least the content is already in place and all that we would have to do is upload it to share it. There system appears very simple and easy to use.
Yudu is not real estate software exactly so I dont see the angle your getting to because I as a user dont care whether they raised 1 million or 20 million, as long as it works.
“try and avoid being a pr billboard”
If I promoted my products on here I could understand your comment but by highlighting somebody else’s product that has a benefit to the target audience of this blog, and which I have no connection with I don’t understand it.
This blog attracts real estate agents and those associated with the industry. You are not an agent so could there be a conflict with Yudu and what you do?? 🙂
Sal Espro
Glenn,
Gave up after waiting 10 minutes for the site to open. I’m in the country at the moment so may be speaking for a lot of country agents here as well. Also hope the materials once created and sent-out by agents don’t suffer the same download fate for country folk on dial-up (and believe me, there are still heaps given the Telstra anti-broadband debacle!)
Ps Think you were a bit titchy with snoop – which I’ve noticed you can be sometimes when people don’t agree with you – I think everyone’s opinions should be taken on their merits.
Sal 🙂 Phew! Hot here (46.4C!) – hand me another mint julip!
Glenn Batten
You always give me a smile Sal. For some reason you like think of yourself as the local bouncer telling people how they come off yet you are one of our most opinionated regular posters yourself 🙂
I am simply sharing information and just like everyone else on here I am allowed to express an opinion, even express it in the comments section of an article I posted. It’s great that Snoop takes “ownership” in this blog and issues instructions to me on how I should post. Thats actually a good thing and not something I took offense at in the slightest. As has been explained to you already in recent times, it is very hard to read emotion, tone and hidden meaning into the written word.
As to the broadband issue, or non issue for country agents, that certainly is going to be a problem but so will many other sites that more urban agents can access. That of course is a limitation I reckon they are well aware of and take into consideration in all of their choices relating to business online.
Sal Espro
It does get a bit squeezy in here sometimes, doesn’t it Glenn.
As an old codger, I actually thought I was past all that tho’.
I would like to think I’m more of a kindly grandpa than a bouncer, I would hope 🙂
Ralph
I suggest http://www.issuu.com as an established online publishing tool. Basically same idea as yudu but better. Also, http://www.scribd.com.
Fiona Stewart
If you use Yudu Pro as we do, you negotiate your fee and you link straight from your website to your document without ever sending traffic to yudu.com.
I believe we are the only Australians to be clients of this emerging industry leader. Believe me we’ve experienced all the teething problems that they have, and still are… Still you can’t know their innovation. Without them we’d be back to glue and sticky tape.
cheers,
Fiona
Brian Critchfield
I might be able to be of some assistance. YUDU has actually been around for about 8 years (under a different name up until several years ago). We have been a bureau service from our inception, which means we take traditional publishers and convert their publications into digital editions. We created a tool that allowed us to do this in-house and then decided to share that tool with the public for anyone who wanted to self-publish.
Real estate agents around the world happen to be one very large segment of users on YUDU because it is a simple and easy way to create digital publications and gives you a WOW factor when dealing with clients. Also, since 90% of house hunters these days shop for information online first, it can set you apart from the competition.
Someone mentioned Issuu and Scribd, who are two very good companies. However, the main difference between what YUDU offers and what these companies do is we offer the ability to enhance your publication with multimedia (audio, video, and Flash animation) and also have an eCommerce engine for selling publications. Those sites are great for your basic converting of documents to digital publications. YUDU is a community of experts.
In fact, one of the reasons we are so popular among agents is our multimedia capabilities. Imagine creating a brochure for a property that not only included great photographs, but sweeping video footage, interactive floor plans, and more – all in a flip-style publication.
We would love to hear more of your feedback and help in any way we can. You can e-mail us at social.networking @ yudu.com. Happy selling!
Brian Critchfield
Community Specialist
YUDU Media