Real Estate Marketing Blog

The Recession is Upon Us

"It's now clear that we have entered what we anticipate will be a mild recession, running through the first half of this year, and there are substantial downside risks to this economic scenario," said David Seiders, of the National Association of Home Builders, in a statement today.

What a load. Seriously, I found this story over at Inman. Recession or no recession. Who cares? Sellers sell. If you buy into this Internet Kumbaya load that you do not have to sell you will be looking for a job soon. And now you get this thing they call a recession. I love labels. They imply so much. Just another excuse.

Get out and start selling. I am meeting with a buddy of mine in the morning. He is a broker owner. He told me recently that he is going to start actually getting out there and selling. His office isn't cutting the nut. So he knows he can go out and sell.

Deals are being done. The only thing that has changed are the rules.

Web 3.0 Just a Patent Away

A dirty secret is worrying web engineers across the world.

Because of the utter explosion of Social networks and 2.0 type sites like Facebook, MySpace, You Tube, and not to mention the proliferation of blogs, and blog communities, well the web is simply running out of space and bandwidth. This despite Moore's law of space doubling every 18 months. Justin Bateman of the Internet Institute's WSA said in a recent interview:

"We simply are not keeping up with the webs growth. There are 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That's about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day. We either find a way to expand or we will need to limit Internet use and IP distribution. Serfs Internet simply cannot serve us in the new Century."

This found its way into Congress just recently as Representative Colingsworth asked for a preliminary investigation, calling this "the silent crisis haunting the World Economy."

So it seems that not only is there a skinny pipe and space problem, but as Bateman says, we are running out of ip numbers. This has been an issue for years. And it has been thought we would have to increase the ip addressing system from its current aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd to an additional "e block". Apparently this will still not be enough as Bateman eludes. 

For the non-technical you can think of the Internet IP system like an addressing system we live by in the real world.  State.County.City.Home address

However, Johan Lee a mere teenager from the University of the Urkrain has devised a way that literally doubles, maybe even triples the capacity of the web. OVERNIGHT! The patent is pending.

However, news leaks from First Day of the Fourth Month Magazine says that Johan's system is simple. He has found a way to "ghost" the net. Creating a Virtual Pipe, a Virtual storage system, and those pesky ips. He simply reverses the numbers.  Web 3.0 is almost here.

The Magazine has gotten its hands on the original schematics submitted by Johan to the ultra secretive Ukranian Patent office. And displays them in the April online issue this month. There is a very large section showing how this plan will forever change the way real estate is marketed. It promises to make SEO a thing of the past.

Perfection

New England runs the longest winning streak ever in the NFL

During the Holidays I usually break away from my own personal strict rules for blogging. Which is to keep the blog in a strict context of marketing. And today is no different. However....

Wisdom From A Top Blogger

Ariana Huffington recently spoke to a group of students about the Internet. Whether you agree with her politics or not I like watching her because in no time at all she has built one of the largest web portals on the net.

"Everybody's so overloaded," she said, explaining that our "inner lives" are failing to be nourished in this digital age. Also, added Huffington, "we are an incredibly sleep-deprived society and we're paying an incredible price for it."

I thought this next quote particularly interesting in selling real estate today:

"Fear trumps everything," she insisted. "If people are afraid and you make them feel safe, they'll buy anything."

Fire Relief Resources

Relief Efforts to help the victims:

• Beach Cities Health District is collaborating with Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach to collect clothing and household items on behalf of Goodwill Industries. Checks made out to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund also will be accepted. They can be earmarked Southern California Wildfires, San Diego Wildfires or Malibu Wildfires.
• Starting today through Sunday, anyone may drop off items in good condition or make donations at the Hermosa Beach Fire Department, 540 Pier Ave.; Marine Avenue Sports Complex Hall, 1635 Marine Ave., Manhattan Beach; and Beach Cities Health District back parking lot, 514 N. Prospect Ave., Redondo Beach.
• Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores, which donated $250,000 to the Red Cross, will accept cash donations at 208 locations statewide.
• A list of hantional Relief ORganizations can be found here: www.networkforgood.org
• Volunteer time thru www.helpindisaster.org. Do not just show up.
• www.redcrossla.org
• To donate to the Salvation Army, go to www.salvationarmy.com
• The Governor has set up a hotline for businesses interested in making bulk donations to people displaced by the fires. The number is 800-750-2858. It will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. by officials from the governor's Office of Emergency Services. Information is available at www.oes.ca.gov.

Good Deeds:

Rebecca Chambliss a Realtor in San Pedro coordinated a relief caravan to bring supplies to volunteers working with the many horses and other animals abandoned in north San Diego County.

Bay Area families open their homes to fire evacuees

I would love to post more news of people helping these victims. If you know of any links or stories post them in the comments. If you know of any other relief organizations list them in the comments.

Southern California Burning

As an Angeleno I feel I must make mention of the single largest fire emergency in California's history.

Fully 1 Million people have evacuated their homes. Many of those do not have a home to call home anymore. People are living in their cars and stadiums like Qualcomm and Del Mar Race Track .

Google interactive Fire Map-find out the current status of the blazes

I get Questions:

I guess this question was was asked in order to test my Googling skills:

Aloha Tim,

I’m interested to know what is the percentage of women vs. mean in real estate?
In Hawaii it’s pretty obvious that there are more females in the industry then but I not sure
Whats the percentage?

Opportunity Knocks Twice

About 6 months ago I endorsed a program called Stompernet.

At the time it was backed by Andy Jenkins and Brad fallon, two extremely successful online marketers, fully knowledgeable in SEO and ecommerce stratgies and tactics.

The program was $800 and too pricey for many. But fully worth it. I have been part of this program and have watched Stompernet hire a faculty of teachers, many of which I have paid huge dollars to get their advice.

It isn't just for ecommerce either. They have Realtors that have used their new found knowledge to dominate their marktplaces.

Here's the deal with stomper net:

They are pening their doors again today.

You can either sign up today for full price and I'm sure receive some killer "fast action" bonuses...

Or you can join the email waiting list today and be first in line when they open up their $1 trial offer in a few days; joining the email list does not obligate you to join the $1 offer, it just puts you in the front of the line.

You really should do one or the other...

I highly recommend their teachings and always enjoy their content.

$1 trial offer (no committment to even pay the $1) click here:
http://www.stompernet.net/jvp/aw.aspx?B=9&A=41

Full price offer - get in today before it sells out again - Click here:
http://www.stompernet.net/jvp/aw.aspx?B=10&A=41

We have lost one of the greatest marketers

Gary Halbert, a man who was a living direct response legend has passed.

Another legend, John Carlton said,

..And he truly was a great man. He single-handedly changed the nature of modern direct response advertising… and through his teachings, spawned three generations (and still counting) of rabble-rousing entrepreneurs and marketers who continue to force the business world to bend to their will.

I never knew him. But he was one of the great legendary marketers that inspired me to do what I do. He was on my list of people I want to meet. That will have to wait now.

Halbert could write a sales piece, and it was so purposefully unassuming, that it immediately took your guard down. It would be only a matter of minutes that you would be pulling for you wallet. As Carlton said about him, he experienced life with a passion and thru his trials and tribulations (he had many), he turned Grey Clouds into Silver and Gold.

From The Ultimate Swipe File:

One of the many striking characteristics of Gary as a marketer was his knack for attacking a giant sized market with the precision of a surgeon.  Take his: 'How to collect social security at any age.'

I have a few of his works that I treasure. Including a how to succeed in DR Marketing manual that he wrote from prison to his son Bond as his legacy. He was no boy scout, and anybody will tell you he should not have been there. But he turned rocks into diamonds in ways that many of us online marketers will never know, but should appreciate.

The King Of Copy's wit and genius can be experienced at his body of newletters here.

"Spam Killer?"

Have you ever heard of Spam Arrest.

The idea is that you sign up in a websites form and that person in order to send you email has to fill out a captcha in order to send you, what you requested.

Personally, I think this is ridiculous to force someone to do this, especially since you have requested the information.

But, hey it works and in the end all is well.

However, Earthlink also has what I shall dub, a reverse double opt in.

Every time I send out an email blast to my list I inevitably get about 20 emails that say:

I apologize for this automatic reply to your email.

To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved before hand.

If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form (see link below). Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience.

Click the link below to fill out the request:

http ://theurl.com

The link takes me to a page that looks like this: