The Sarasota Association of REALTORS, more accurately it’s leadership, have decided to attempt to take one of it’s members websites away. There is a lot of background to this story and REW’s Morgan Cary has done a good job summarizing it here:
As you read Marc had already agreed to redirect “The Sarasota MLS .com” website and stop advertising it. This was a good compromise as the redirect would allow Marc to retain some of the authority (in the eyes of the search engines) that he spent 5 years building up while there was no chance that some half whit might think that he was actually the Sarasota MLS even though the site clearly stated otherwise.
This wasn’t enough for those sitting on the board. Why not you wonder? In my opinion those on the board have been outranked by Marc for years and are abusing their powers to steal Marc’s domain. With Marc out of the way it will improve their chances of gaining leads for their own websites.
This abuse of power can not be ignored.
Please make sure to follow the recommendations of Morgan as to how you can help fight the Sarasota Association of REALTOR and Article 12.
Here are some ways you can help support us:
Send a letter / email to SAR...
…(the Sarasota Association of REALTORS) asking them to listen to reason. Feel free to reference this post in any communications. If enough of us express our concern towards this kind of behavior, perhaps they will realize the potential far-reaching implications of this situation and choose the better part of valor, and avoid a very public and potentially very embarrassing scandal.
Send a letter / email to NAR…
…(the National Association of REALTORS) asking them to please reconsider their position on article 12. I think one of the most serious “unintended consequences” of their decision was that predatory REALTORS / Associations use the decision out of context in attempts (like this one) to cause irreparable harm to another member’s livelihood and earned search engine positioning (which, by the way, has nothing to do with the words being in the domain name).
Send emails to your peers:
Send a blast email to your contact list (your peers or anyone else who would care to stand up for someone’s rights). The more awareness we can create, the more likely it is that we can apply enough pressure to the Association to convince them to listen to reason.
Write a blog post:
Syndicating quality content on the Internet is what we do, and it is one of the most effective ways to reach the millions of readers who would be appalled by this situation and be willing to help. Linking to this blog post and others like it will assist it in generating exposure in the search engines which will add additional exposure for the cause. Also through sharing different takes on a united perspective – perhaps SAR will find enough compelling comments and decide to settle and let us keep our redirect.
After taking time to send off the couple of emails to voice your opinion here is a little more reading on the topic.
More info about Sarasota Association of REALTORS vs REALTOR
Sarasota Association of Realtors - The real Cybersquat
Sarasota Association of Realtors takes down it’s own member!
Sarasota Real Estate
Sarasota MLS Attacks Its Own Member
The SAR Pokie
Sarasota Association of REALTORS slaps one of its own
Sarasota Association of REALTORS needs reputation management
Don’t cross the SAR
Great that you’re spreading this. Another way to help is to donate to Marc’s legal expenses so he can win some case law in an ACTUAL COURT and dissuade this from happening to many others.
Not to link drop but I do want to share, so it’s a tinyurl:
http://tinyurl.com/62dd7c
knox