Real Estate Marketing Blog

How to Survive in this Real Estate Market

I wrote yesterday about how I would get homebuyers and homesellers in the recession of the 1990's.

What I forgot to mention is that I went after Expired listings because they were a natural for my approach. The reason they expired was because no one was telling them the truth. I would call them, show up at their door, leave Fed Ex boxes and much more to get the homesellers attention. They were ready and more motivated by the time I got to them.

I want to commend the Tomato for his post : Looking For Ready To Act Buyers? This is a very nice compilation of ideas to blog prospect for buyers.

A New Traffic Generator

I just posted a new video for you to check out.

I discuss a few problems that I see with technology today as it relates to time.

I also give you a great way to to leverage actions you are already taking to create a massive traffic surge.

Integration Key to Lead Generation..

That is the point of a study outlined on the front page of BtoB.

"Excelling at lead generation takes more than putting in a new CRM system. It takes integration throughout the organization".

This is sage advice that is seldom followed in the many real estate brokerages across America. Although this study dealt in areas outside of Real Estate, it is still true in our industry nonetheless..

Their loss should be your gain.

Now I am a Dinasore

Well, I have been called Fred Flintstone, and now a "dinosaur mentality on steroids".

Seems Joe Zekas over at postingforleads.com has me figured as a modern day Buddy Holly trying to sing Nirvana. It seems that the internet is too sophisticated for selling. (are you tired of the metaphors already?)

Its a nice dialogue where even a self professed investor chimes in with his opinions.

If it Ain't Making Leads, Then its Just an Expensive Brochure

Blogging, Websites, lead capture vs open MLs.

I can't tell you how many times a day I hear an agent or an "expert" espouse the virtues of the empowered consumer and that it really is a benefit to leave the MLS open VS forcing them to opt-in.

The biggest excuse is that the consumer will just move-on to another website.

Hmm. Lots of responses come to mind for that one:

"Whose fault is that?"
The MLS has systematically been given away by NAR itself and boards since the beginning of the net.
"So what"
Serious people do not mind giving away some personal information for the data they want. Blogs are growing at a blistering pace where anyone with a thought can publish. Do you want to see the future? Just go to MySpace. What a mess of disjointed and frenetic text. Remember the line, "57 Channels and nothing on?" Yah. The net is Cable TV on Steroids.

The future of the internet is paid content. People, will not mind paying for content from sources they trust, because they want the information they can trust. When you have a medium where anyone with Frontpage and some time can start a business, it makes it more time consumptive to get what you want. Thus, people do not mind giving their information.

I have driven millions of consumers to my own and my client websites. They all get a phenomenal lead conversion rate.

Real Estate Control Freaks

At the end of the day, a forced opt-in is about control.

Control over your business, your website and your future. The money is in your list of prospects that come from your blog, your website and IDX VOW websites.

Control is from you communicating your message to an opt in list. It comes from knowing the point of your real estate blog, or your realty website. In my opinion that is to gather names. Lots and lots of names. So that can talk with those names on your terms.

Thank You For Your Information

As Online Marketers it is crucial to understand that nature of the internet search.

By its nature of the internet searcher is to research online and buy offline.

Read that again.

By its nature of the internet searcher is to research online and buy offline.

This is evidenced by recent studies showing that 87.3% of consumers say they regularly or occasionally research products online before making a purchase in a store. This isn't real estate but human nature is human nature.

Our jobs as online home marketers is to respect that the serfer is using your data with the overt or covert intent of purchasing offline. And to jump in their path and say I have the info you wish to research, and your name and email is the minimal charge of admittance.

Here is the irony. They couldn't buy the home from you online anyway. So the purpose of the real estate website is to start a courtship that is instagated via the lead registration.

Predictions for Online Real Estate 2006

Get the insider track on 2006
....online real estate marketing predictions

Happy New Year! everyone. I just posted my predictions for the new year. Check it out.

Reasons to Compete

A blog is a website.  To an SEO expert, a page is a page is a page.

So why does a blog seem to do so well in the engines compared to a regular website?

It doesnt!

"Blasphemous!" I can here the Blogger world cry out. But the fact is, it is true. I have a buddy who I consulted with a couple of years ago. He ran a not very impressive looking, yet very profitable mortgage application website.

I told him all about the reasons a blog could help his traffic. I told him about RSS, Syndication, Natural Linkages, Content, etc.

So he basically added hard coded articles (content), and archived his articles (posts). He even hard coded syndication into the site. He added content to his website. He never did build it into a blog. Or did he? What is the difference? Long story short he is taking some time off from his hard work after selling the site for more than most people make in 5 years.

A page is a page is a page.

There are many reasons the engines love a blog. The same reason they love a regular page.

However, even if you don't buy my reasoning. Understand this.

"The number of Blogs has been doubling every 5 months for the last 3 years" CNET, Oct 2005, referring to a Technorati quote.

Thus, competition is here and getting more fierce. The same competitive tools are necessary to compete on a blog as is neccessary for a conventional realtor website. And those tools after content, are off page optimization called Link Equity.

Spider Juice Technologies offers one way link programs without the ugly link trades that lose their value the minute you stop trading.

We offer one way links that help get your conventional or blog website the link equity needed to compete in a competitive marketplace. We can also consult with you to help you use your current blog to benefit your existing site. Contact us at 310-533-9145

SEO Marketing

There are people in this world that sit around and track web visitor eye balls. The motivation is acutally quite useful to you and I.

If you know where visitors like to peek at first. You will put your most powerful message there.

A joint eye tracking study conducted by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it.com and eye tracking firm Eyetools has shown that, during a search, the vast majority of eye activity focuses on a "golden triangle."

After using Google search result pages, researchers found that visibility dropped quickly in the organic rankings, from 100% for the top listing, to 85% at the bottom of the "above the fold" listings. Visibility fell below the fold, from 50% at the top to 20% at the bottom.

They also found that side-bar sponsored ads, that the top ranked results received much more in the way of both eye activity and click through than did those that followed. About 50% of participants looked at the top ad, while only 10% looked at ads in the 6, 7 or 8th position on the page.