Dot-coms in the black.

The commercial real estate dot-com is endangered, but far from extinct. And a sampling of survivors proves that the formula for success is still being tested.

"The companies that have succeeded have taken the 'pay to play' approach from very early on. I think this is what will ultimately happen in real estate online," says Guy Shanon, CEO and founder of Cityfeet.com, a company that connects landlords with tenants seeking less than 10,000 SF of space. Originally it was a free service.

"The revenue model that works best for us is similar to classified ads in a newspaper," Shanon says.

Cityfeet has partnered with several newspapers across the country, including the New York Times, to gain "name brand recognition" from the newspapers themselves, rather than starting from scratch in each market.

In the future, Shanon hopes to offer a network that will allow brokers to reach clients on a local level. He wants Cityfeet to become "the eBay of local real estate."

One exception to the "pay to play" model, however, is an outfit run by Yale and Henry Robbins. MrOfficeSpace.com features color photographs of hundreds of properties, as well as cpace specifications, building amenities, and local maps. The Robbins' brothers, who publish real estate trade magazines, call it an "enhanced listings" service. They claim that the information is updated every 21 days.

"Ours is the best application on the Web," says executive vice president Henry Robbins.

Responding to the question of how his technology stacks up to his competitors, Robbins says that "the difference is like night and day." He acknowledged one competitor, but hedged by calling LoopNet.com a "semi-competitor."

Members of LoopNet can list, search, market, and finance commercial real estate properties on the Internet, which cuts the members' marketing costs and speeds up the pace of transactions.

Both LoopNet and CityFeet charge a fee for usage.

"Cityfeet is a marketing site, CoStar is a research site, and Mrofficespace falls somewhere in the middle," says Peter Pike, head of online newsletter PikeNet. "A pure web-based business has a more difficult time than one with a bricks and mortar component."

Mrofficespace, for example, is really an extension of the Robbins brothers publishing firm. And CityFeet, by allying itself with daily newspapers across the country, is doing the same thing in reverse.

One source in the industry summed up the situation in this way:

"As an extension of an existing business [the dot-com] works fine. But on its own, these things will suffer."