Real Estate Marketing Blog

How to be All Things To all People

What is Google?

Is it email? Is it an advertising service? Is a classifieds service? Its a search engine you say? Are you sure?

In Google's most recent offering to be everything, they are now offering Google Websites, amongst a whole smorgasborgh of digital delights.

I predicted long ago that this would happen, and frankly it is another sign that the company is lost. They are/were a great search engine. But there isn't any money in that.

So they copied Overture and made a better pay per click system. And Billionaires they became.

That part is understandable. But webhosting?

You see MSN offered the same thing, and Google struck back with their own freebie.

Here is an idea MSN. In order to destroy Google, just start making ridiculous offerings and Google will make double your ridiculous offering.

The challenge is that media is splintering into more and more sub groups at a record pace. On the web, we tend to start wide with our loyalties, then as we become more savvy we stratify down into communities or sub topical attentions. So some are drawn towards websites while someone else might enjoy blogs. While another may love the podcasting thing.

As the engines try to speak to all these splinter markets, they are not speaking to their main market. Search Engine users. This is very typical of Giant corporations.

While Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are sipping Mai Tais, their company which grew under the mantra of "Don't be Evil", recently agreed to censorship in China. Big Bucks can make any company forget its core values.

Google can afford to drift, you and I cannot.

Focus deep into your market. Go after niches. And be the expert for that niche.

Few companies are willing to to do that. Eventually the warm and cozy affection is replaced by cold corporate guidelines.

You don't have to do that. Be niched and you can be one of the few businesses in your prospects day to day life that actually is personable.

Instead of having a blog that is all about real estate. Why not have a blog that is all about Your Neighborhood Farm real estate?  Be the Source. Why not have a website all about a small Retirement Village in your Town? And you have all the HOA minutes and resources that would be useful to this Senior Market?

Then go build another niche that speaks just to them, personally.

Your Listings Video a Crime?

It was about a year ago at a Carl Galletti Conference in Las Vegas (Carl is an expert direct response marketer), that one of the presenters came onto the pulpit and explained to everyone how that if they use mp3 audio ontheir website, that they are are violating a license and that they owe money to the inventor of that technology.

Anyway, jump forward to 2006 and a patent has been granted to a relatively unknown California Web-design firm for an invention its creator says covers the design and creation of most rich-media applications used over the Internet. Balthaser Online Inc, the patent holder, says it could license nearly any rich-media Internet application across a broad range of devices and networks.

Meaning that all these new videos that many of us are posting can equal a payment to the patent holder.

"How broad is the patent? Here's what the patent abstract says it covers: A host computer, containing processes for creating rich-media applications, is accessed from a remote user computer system via an Internet connection. User account information and rich-media component specifications are uploaded over the Internet for a specific user account. Rich-media applications are created, deleted, or modified in a user account, with rich-media components added to, modified in, or deleted from the rich-media application based on information contained in a user request. After creation, the rich-media application is viewed or saved on the host computer system, or downloaded to the user computer system over the Internet. "

Balthaser says he will probably sell the patent rather than try to enforce it himself.

This is the kind of stuff that goes on in the wild wild West called the net.

It seems copyright and trademark law is all screwed up when it comes to the digital age.

Just look at Google's caching system.  Is this an infringement on my content? Who told them that they can house my data on their computer? Who say that they can crawl my pages with spiders for that matter? And even if I use protocols to ask them to stop crawling my site, they will still come.

Of course, we all accept this intrusion because they bring us our web lifeblood- traffic. But the engines and other web entities seem to have redefined what is right and wrong as far as copyright. And hey let's not even get into Big Brotheresque Privacy issues.

I am far from an attorney. But it seems that the engines have paved the way for more and more people to just turn a blind eye to what would otherwise be a major lawsuit in the world of brick and mortar. Will Balthaser make any money from holding video technology users hostage. Doubtful.

Should he? I have no idea. And I bet none of us want them to. And that is the way it goes in the wild wild West.

1st Question

Well, I get questions periodically. I welcome you to ask your question by sending us an email or posting a comment below. And if I chose your question you will get a free link at realtyblogger.com. If it is OK to post your blog and name I will. Just let me know.

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Tim, I just started my own real estate blog.  I hope to use it in conjunction with my current marketing.   Any tips to find content?  Any suggestions?  I really appreciate it and I think your blog is great.
Best, XYZ (named removed becaus eI do not have permission to list the name)

Answer:

Hi Judy-

I am glad someone new is blogging.

Personally, I think a realtor blog should focus locally. There is no way that your blog is going to have any meaning if you tackle the whole Valley.

I would focus on a neighborhood/development/farm.

Be the source. Use it as your way to farm from outside mailers to your blog. You can't do that for the whole Valley. Be personable. Be authoratative. Take a stand. People will repect your convictions.

Noone stands for anything anymore. Thus, you will stand out from the crowd. Also, you can post HOA minutes, and local Zoning changes. etc. Be a real estate advocate.

In the past to do this was a bit cheesy as you couldn't create the visibility like today. But now if the issue warrants it you can even interview neighbors, film an important scene that is involved in your issue, and video blog it. You can even start a petition with your site as the goto place.

You can take current meta events like national interest rates going up, or the so call bubble and either agree or disagree.

We are at a place right now whereby blogs are new. They will get more competitive. So why try to be everything? Capture marketshare at the local level.

Current Realtors who use blogs to stand out Nationally or Broadly are fooling themselves into thinking that they will own share for long. Once the money is proven to be large enough, the Players will come like todays Homegains, Zillow's and so forth. If they take spots ten thru 1 for a search term, then you don't.

So why fight them for broad leads anyway. Entrench into your niche whereby you can fight and win.

Hope that helps.

Tim

Zillow Overdose

I just found the source for all Zillow, all the time.The guys at Real Town have a whole blog page set up with reader feedback on everything wrong (in their opinion) with Zillow.

Some Thoughts On Persuasion

I experienced some interesting lessons in persuasion personified lately. So I thought I would pass them along to you.

The other day my wife tells me that she is going to buy flowers for the two kids teachers.

My cheapo-kneejerk reaction was to say, "don't spend more than about $20 each". She replies immediately, "It isn't like I am going to spend $60 each for goodness sake".

I remember my brain going into a wierd spin and agreeing with her without any choice.

What she did of course (unbeknownst to her) is deframe my point of reference thru a psychological technique that is used in sales all the time. Tony Robbins calls it "Comparing and Contrasting".  We see marketers use this pricing structures all the time.

And another distinction was a telemarketer calling me today for a survey about the state of the business climate from a small business persepctive. I told her, "I work too many hours as it is, I really don't have time".

It then struck me. Most small businesses that are doing well will probably not have the time to take the survey. So the only people that do answer will be small businesses that think the state of the business climate is bad.

Again as to take from Tony Robbins, and I paraphrase, "The power of the answer comes from the question."

Real Estate SEO & Traffic

Real Estate SEO: all Traffic is not Created Equal
Did you know that your website can rank number 1 for the phrase "Your City Real Estate", and still be a miserable failure? Read on....

So the telemarketer calls you, and you being the internet expert, the conversation goes something like this.....

On Zillow.com

Wow! I have started to comment on this great marketing campaign, but I actually deleted the post yesterday. I didn't want to beat a dead horse. But it is a story that won't die as they eclipse 63 stories on Google news.

I was going to go on a rant by asking the questions what is so new about this service? Other than its free (for awhile ;-) anyway). The public has always been able to get this data for nominal fees or like I have had access to it thru my many title friends. So is it the packaging that must be so appealing?

And as any Realtor, or Ex Realtor like myself knows, the data from the public record sucks.  So there, I went and said it! Man I feel better :-)

Well, I have seen the same conclusion on numerous real estate industry blogs and newslists.

Like myself, most of these writers and bloggers have plugged in their own address into Zillow and got the wrong information. Either too many bedrooms, too little or too much square feet because of remodels. Some commentators are reporting values up to a third too shallow.

Man, if everyone followed the public records, we would have a bubble burst! ;-) The Realtor data, ie the MLS is where the most accurate data is served and as of yet I have not seen that married. (Realtor.com/NAR there is your future business model hint for the week.)

Dustin took what I just rambled about and said it in a couple sentences.

Over at Venture Blog, they quote Zillow.com President Lloyd Frink on user feedback and poor results:

"As for improving the Zestimate accuracy, we have lots of good ideas there. Many of these relate to improvements in the core algorithm we use to calculate the Zestimate. Others have to do with getting more and better data on individual homes."

My math may be a bit rusty, but you can call it an algo adjustment or any fancy name. But a guess, is still a guess.

Maybe it would help if they had the real sale prices. They don't, and they probably won't, unless they do a deal with NAR.

Even, then it is a poor guess because only an expert like a Realtor can offer expert opinion, which a machine cannot give.

I believe the lesson here is that you can get terrific exposure and create positive public opinion with phenomenal marketing. Zillow is great at marketing so far. They have created a buzz. But they have not built a better mousetrap.

Pay Per Click Best at:

A survey of 1,200 advertisers last November found that 71% said the ads on Google were effective for them. That compares to 62% who said the same about Yahoo! ads and 49% who said MSN Search ads were effective. This according to a study released last week by research firm Outsell. At the same time, the Outsell study found that those marketers who favored Google as "extremely effective" had smaller marketing budgets than those who said the same for Yahoo! and MSN ads: $3.7 million on average among the Google fans, versus $4.6 million average budget for the Yahoo! and MSN aficionados.

Real Estate Commissions

Real Estate Market Goes Up Commissions Down, Criticism up

In a recent Real Estate Journal they comment on the paradoxical growth of commissions per sale, the huge influx of new agents, ripping off the public, and  the relative low overall earnings per agent. I comment here, filed under real estate licensees.

Real Estate Attitude

When I first started this real estate blog, I wrote about the so called real estate bubble.

That was almost 2 years ago and comments came in about the real estate market crashing down.

2004 was a record year. 2005 was another record. And I doubt this year will be a record, but all indications are that it will be a good year for homeowners.

Oops. Let's define good. As I use the word above I am talking about appreciation.

To you the Realtor, perhaps it might get a but tougher. Only because there is a less robust market coupled with a swollen Licensee pool. In California for example, there is currently 1 licensee for every 75 people!

That means more competition. It doesn't mean that the market sucks.

I mention this, because I was a washout of a real estate recession here in Los Angeles in the early 90's. The economy sucked, and the sales volume sucked. In my market prices dropped 30% in one year!

Today, more people own a home than ever before in the history of the U.S. Rates are still historically low. Unemployment is at historical lows. And the economy is rocking and rolling according to newsweek.

I know sales is often about having a great attitude. And Congratulations have to go out to an industry that has more people than ever in home ownership. And remember it is pretty hard for a real estate recession/depression to happen when an economy is surging forward.

I guess, I feel compelled to write about this, because naysayers have been waiting longer than I have been writing this blog to trash real estate. Just to say I told you so. So I just wanted to keep the focus on the good stuff.

So in my best Vince Lombardi voice, "Go sell A house!"