Taking Your Blog from Boring to IRRESISTIBLE in a Few Easy Steps

As active bloggers most of you may know that just simply presented posts, Times New Roman – font size 12, may draw in a few readers but is it really the audience you are striving to reach? Why not give your blog posts a little “face lift”.

Blog your Keywords – this not only helps with the SEO value of your blog but also may keep those impatient readers from leaving your blog within the first minute of opening your site. Recently I read an article that stated, “Online readers will spend around 96 second reading online content before moving on”. By using bolded keywords you can grab the attention of your readers before they decide to move along.

Tagging – by tagging other websites or articles that are applicable to the content of your blog, you not only help with the SEO value of your blog but  also offer your readers more resources than just the content of your post. If you are writing about a community you have listing in why not link that community’s recreation and town sports page. Become a reliable source of information for your readers with compressive content and additional “extras” that will keep your readers coming back for more!

*Read more about tagging and SEO on a previous article from Re/Advantage.

Don’t be Afraid to Use Images or Videos – you can easily increase your sphere or influence by simply adding images or videos to your blog posts. As a Real Estate professional you can use YouTube.com to embed a video into your blog or find cheap/free images that can be cut and paste right next to your content. For example if you write a quick post on an open house you have listed – why not create a virtual tour on YouTube.com? You can use a video camera or make a slideshow of pictures you’ve taken from that home and make a video that would be PERFECT for your blog post. That why you will entice your readers to stay at your blog, spark their interest with a video or presentation of pictures for that open house and boost the SEO of your blog site – three birds with one stone!

Here are some great sites to get cheap/free images:

www.istockphoto.com (paid)

www.fotolia.com (paid)

http://imageafter.com (free)

http://everystockphoto.com (free)

http://freepixels.com (free)

Use Your Social Media/Networking to Entice New Clients

(Blog what they want to hear about!)

From recent newspaper articles and television broadcasts, many who have been following the “$8000 tax credit” know that President Obama has signed off on the bill approving an extension of the $8,000 New Home Buyer Tax Credit until April 30th 2010. You can read more from this article I found: http://www.savingtoinvest.com/2009/02/15000-first-home-buyer-tax-credit-in.html

Since this is big news in the Real Estate community why not capitalize on this subject and write a quick blog post or Tweet about it to all your followers? Bring your clients to you! Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL – all the big search engines are being used daily to search for more information on this tax credit by potential buyers and sellers so why not use that to your advantage. This way you can narrow down the traffic to your website or blog to those truly interested in getting more information from you, generating a lead.

**If you have been following the Re/Advantage Blog you should also know that since this topic is getting so many hits, by using the keywords “$8,000 New Home Buyer Tax Credit” in your SEO or blogs you can certainly generate some additional website traffic.

Facebook Versus Google

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I recently read an interesting article by Alex Salkever and Sean Parker. I have added my commentary below their article.

When I read his article he discussed how Facebook could actually hurt Google. He and a tech entrepreneur by the name of Sean Parker believe, in short that businesses that connect people are worth more than businesses that collect data.  Facebook will effectively connect people whereas Google will not.

One of his supporting reasons about Facebook is that a search is increasingly a social act. When he and his wife and were searching for a new pediatrician, they did a Google search and a Facebook inquiry. Google brought up a bunch of links on sites of varying quality that purported to rank physicians. His Facebook query got him some excellent recommendations from people he knew. He was more comfortable with Facebook’s suggestions, because they came from people he knew. A Google search gave no guarantee of whether the information is current, nor of the motivations behind the strangers who provide it.

He believe for the first time, social media has made it convenient to tap the collective wisdom of your crowd, and people who know your crowd, to get recommendations for just about anything. Sure, you could blast friends with an email for advice in the past, but no one would dream of constantly bombarding lesser-known acquaintances for such information. By tapping into this new and powerful form of search, Facebook can also tear off a significant chunk of the value of the act of searching. Past wisdom was that people on Facebook weren’t receptive to ads. When he was looking for a pediatrician, he might’ve bitten on an ad for local practitioners. In searching both Google and Facebook, the latter became more relevant, so he spent less time conducting research on Google. He felt more comfortable that my own network would help me find the right information.

None of this means Google will completely suffer as Alex says.  He often disagrees with the answers he gets back from my social search. And the act of indexing the Internet is hugely valuable for providing a baseline of information. Google beats Facebook in many respects: Google (and other search engines) are insanely valuable for mapping and plotting directions among almost any locations.

And Google clearly gets the social web; Google Wave puts the company squarely into a form of social networking and, by extension, social search. Google is also quietly building up social tools to overlay on top of its search engine. Google has access to millions of desktops using its software toolbar: a potential Trojan horse for a broader social network play. So don’t write Google off.

Nevertheless, Parker’s presentation is compelling and seems to mirror key changes in how people are using and perceiving the Internet. If I go a day without using Google, it doesn’t bother me much. But I can’t go a day without Facebook: the social connections keep me tuned in.

With my eyeballs and my attention come opportunities to make money. Connection, not collection, is the value generator. I will keep using Google a lot to search for information — it’s a powerful and useful tool — but increasingly, it takes a backseat to social media and the wisdom of crowds.

I agree with the value of Social Networking applications such as Facebook as does the authors from the column above and it the importance to marketing. If I am looking for a real estate professional I have always been inclined to get the recommendations from friends versus a list on Google.

8,000 tax credit

So why am I writing about the $ 8,000 Federal Tax Credit for new home owners?  Well it’s simple – I see very few Agents publicizing this on their websites.  With the press dishing out so much negativity about the housing market right now, you can use all the positive PR you can get.  So go on and post something about the credit and the great mortgage rates now.  Leverage the tax credit for a new home buyers article.  Need an image to use, go ahead and take mine.  Good luck and get writing.

IDX – Do we really need it?

I talk to a lot of REALTORS and in my conversations, the topic of IDX (Internet Data Exchange) or as some call it Broker Reciprocity frequently comes up.  The first question I always seem to get is “Well do I really need it?”.  From my prospective the answer is YES. 

But why do we need to share our listings?

I think the first thing that comes to mind is the fact Agents have been sharing listings for many years already.  The whole spirit of the MLS is cooperation and the foundation is the sharing of listing information so the buyer can have the broadest array of data to make the most informed decision.  The big old book of yester-year has now been replaced by online listing data.  This is the next natural progression of how we share listing information.

With that said, the typical buyer that comes to your website is looking for online listing information and if you are not supplying it, someone else will.

So what does that mean?

Well Generation X and beyond have grown up on the Internet and want to see listing data at their finger tips. 

Take Website A – Lets say this Agent’s website is in New Jersey.  We’ll call him John.  Now John is a hard worker and has 3 active listings in Oradell and the surrounding towns.  His office has 10 more on top of that.  Now Sally was surfing the Internet and found John’s site.  She is looking for a home in Oradell and John has 1 of this own and 2 from the office.  So Sally has 3 to choose from.  Now mind you, there is actually 35 active listings in Oradell right now.  Being an typical Internet user Sally wants her information online and she wants is NOW.  How do we know that?

…73% of home buyers used the Internet as an information source

…74%of Internet home buyers drove by or viewed a home they saw online

…23%of Internet home buyers found their agent online

…24% of buyers first found their home on the Internet

…22%of FSBOs used the Internet to help sell their home

**Source: realtor.org

So because Sally knows she can find more listings elsewhere she will probably click back to google and look at the next website. 

Now if John had IDX on his website he would have been displaying all 35 active listings, the same amount of listings at REALTOR.com for example.

What compounds this is when someone finds him and searches his site for a listing out of his marketing area (like maybe 15 miles away in the Northern part of the county).  In this case he might have zero results while an IDX search might yield 50 or more results.

I think you are getting the picture here, right? 

Now don’t think that IDX brings you leads, all IDX does is help you retain them.  You still need to do your marketing and have a well maintained website.

The typical IDX add-on costs from free to a high price of around $40 per month.  So for a high of $420 per year it is an overall small investment in your marketing budget.  One referral in a year can fuel an IDX investment, think about what one sale does.

Any good website today can benefit from IDX listings from both a “perspective new lead” benefit as well as using it as a client retention tool.

So if your MLS offers this type of solution, give it a try.  Don’t know how to get started, click here, to view our IDX solution and how to deploy it on your website.

Should we comment on blogs?

I get asked all the time by my clients; “Why should I comment on other blogs”?  Well the answer is simple – Social Networking is built upon collaboration. The whole basis for Blogs and Social Networks is to build interactive conversation.   The whole dynamic of the blogging world is to have casual conversation on topics you have in common.  These conversations for some can lead to a business relationship later on.  Blogging does not necessarily lead to instant leads, but it builds credibility.  And the credibility you gain later leads to business.

Their is another plus side to commenting. Commenting on someones blog can also bring inbound links back to your blog. If you remember my post a previous post “Link Popularity” I spoke of the importance of good linking. 

So by commenting on other blogs you bring these inbound links back to your site.  Also by commenting on relevant blogs, your inbound links will be considered by most search engines more important in your link popularity.

So the next time you are on a blog, leave a comment.

Why not start here and leave me one.