The Likeability Guy Blog

Are You Happy To Hear From Me?

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:24:35 -0500

Hi Mom

Every time I call my mom she answers the telephone as if she doesn’t know it’s me calling. I know she knows it’s me because she has caller ID. And now, she knows that I know that she knows it’s me calling. Are you still following me?

Even that doesn’t stop her from pretending that she doesn’t know who I am when I call. She does this with everyone.

When she picks up the telephone she’ll answers in a very pleasant voice and introduce herself. “Hi, this is Rose.”

Then, as soon as I identify myself by saying, “Hi mom, it’s your favorite son.” She’ll light up and kick her enthusiasm up a full notch or two.

“Hi honey, how are you?”

It makes me feel good to know that my mom enjoys hearing from me. She makes me feel special.

And mom if you’re reading this, it would make me feel even more special if you said, “Hi Bob, how are you?” Just so I know that you know I’m your favorite

What I find really interesting, is that when I visit my mom I notice that she does this with everyone who calls, even my sister Just kidding sis.

This Was A Big Mistake

Throughout my life as a customer service speaker, trainer and coach, I’ve taught people to answer the telephone with a big smile on their face. Looking back, I wish I had not done that, and here’s why.

If you always answer the telephone with a great big smile on your face and a song in your heart, that might leave a favorable first impression, but it’s not going to win friends.

The way to make each and every caller feel better about themselves, and better about you, is to perk-up and sound excited as soon as you identify who’s calling, not before. And just for good measure, do it with everyone who calls. Bankers are people too! Aren’t they?

Thanks for the lesson on likeability mom. It’s served me well.

I love you,

Your favorite son, Bob

The Likeability Guy | Bob Sommers

The Anatomy of an Apology

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:59:54 -0500

"Everyone makes mistakes, but it's how you handle yourself after you've make the mistake that will give you the reputation for being a mouse or a man."

The Likeability Guy | Bob Sommers

It Was A Busy Time

Years ago I was responsible for running the largest customer service training company in the country, Sommers Communication, Inc. We were presenting thousands of workshops every year throughout the country and in order to keep up with demand, I had to quickly interview, hire and train dozens of professional speakers.

Our workshops were extremely successful, thanks to the quality of our speakers and our evaluation process. After each program, the audience filled out an evaluation, and the speaker was responsible for sending the evaluations back to our office in Atlanta using overnight mail.

4.92

With over two dozens professional speakers on staff, and 2,000 seminars evaluated, their scores averaged 4.92 on a scale of 1-5. If you know anything about the public speaking business, you know that these numbers are phenomenal.

We also paid each speaker a substantial bonus for every program where they received an evaluation score of 4.8 or better. This is where the trouble began.

After each program I made it a point to talk to the person responsible for hiring us to speak to their staff. Almost without exception they would go on and on about how funny and inspirational the speaker was, and how impressed they were with the quality of the material presented. The problem was it happened, “almost without exception.” Let me explain.

There’s Always One Exception

With one exception, the verbal feedback I received correlated perfectly with the audience evaluations. One of our speakers however, was sending us bonus worthy evaluations, but the meeting planners didn’t seem as praiseworthy when I spoke to them in person. There seemed to be a problem. Why didn’t this speaker’s evaluations match the feedback from the meeting planner? I had to find out.

Well, we caught him red handed doctoring the evaluations. When I confronted him with the illegal and immoral aspects of what he had done, (remember, we paid him thousands of dollars in bonuses he did not earn) he became defensive. So here’s what I did.

Now What?

I terminated the conversation and asked him to write a letter of apology to our staff in Atlanta. These were the people he had tricked into believing that he was an exceptional speaker, worthy of their strong recommendations. He made fools of us all.

I told him that if his apology was honest and sincere, that we would give him another chance and not demand he repay the bonus money or turn him over to the ethics committee at the National Speakers Association where he was a member.

I also told him and that everyone in our office had to agree that his apology was sincere before we took him back. If even one person had a problem with his letter of apology, I would terminate our agreement immediately. Here’s what happened.

Three Days Later

Three days later we received a letter from him. In it, he promised that he would never tamper with another evaluation, but his apology was neither honest nor sincere. He never apologized for what he had done nor did he acknowledge the harm he had caused our staff and our customers. The office unanimously rejected his apology and he was terminated on the spot.

I did not ask for the stolen money back and I did not share what happened with the ethics committee at the National Speakers Association. In retrospect, I probably should have done both, but I didn’t.

Here was a man who had an entire office of people who he lied to, tricked and stole from, all willing to give him a second chance, and he blew it. All he had to do was offer a sincere apology, but he refused to do so. His letter was composed of nothing more than excuses for why he had to do what he did, and it cost him his job and his reputation. What could he have done differently?

Five Step Apology Process

I’m sorry
Here’s my understanding of how I hurt you
I will never do this again
I want to make this right by …
Please forgive me

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing I want you to notice in the five step apology process is that there is no place to offer an excuse or provide an explanation! The moment you make an excuse (of course no one calls it that) or give your "reason" why you did what you did or said what you said, you make your entire apology null and void.

The key to an effective apology is really quite simple.

"Apologize unto others as you would have them apologize unto you."

Don’t you think the use of the word “unto” makes this look much more official?

BONUS Lesson

So, does apologizing make people like you more? The answer is “yes,” as long as you provide a sincere and honest apology. What you have to understand is that people are going to like you more or less based on how you make them feel. That's not to say that you should go out of your way to intentionally hurt someone so you can aplogize later. That would be stupid, with a capital STUPID.

If you make excuses or try to justify why you did what you did, you’re projecting the message that whatever your reason, it was more important than the person you hurt. In doing so, they’re going to like you less and trust you less. Why? Because they know that under the same circumstance you would do the same thing.

If you apologize using the five step process listed above, you’re letting the person you hurt know that you made a mistake. They can walk away knowing that under the same circumstances you would respond very differently and put their feelings first.

Conclusion

The next time you hurt someone, apologize. Apologize with sincerity, apologize immediately and apologize from your heart. Make things right and let them know that you were wrong and you will never do it again, and mean it. You will be shocked at the results.

If you have a personal story to share about either giving an apology or accepting one, please share it with the Active Rain Community in the comment section below.

The Likeability Guy | Bob Sommers

Trash Your Competition: Bad Idea

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:54:05 -0500

I tend to follow marketing people on Facebook as well as ActiveRain, and for the most part they do a great job promoting themselves as experts in their field. Every once in a while however, someone uploads a post that does more harm to their reputation than good. Let me give you an example.

Talk Trash

Recently, one of the marketing people I follow uploaded a post trashing a competitor. She didn’t name the competitor, but she made a big deal as to how unqualified this individual was with respect to teaching a certain subject. It was clear that her intent was to promote her credibility as the expert while trashing the expertise of her competition. Bad idea. In doing so, she lowered herself in the eyes of many of her followers.

This Was My Intent … Really

I’m certain that if you asked her what her intent was with the post, she would tell you that she wanted to warn people not to fall pray to unqualified service providers. Problem was, that’s not how the post came across to me or to most of her readers. It read as though she had an axe to grind with this individual and this was her way of trashing them while promoting herself as the guru.

Now, if you were to read the comments her followers made concerning her post, you would think that she is a goddess who can do no wrong. Unfortunately, the only people who commented on her post where her acolytes who gave here a false sense that what she did was OK. It wasn’t, and here’s why.

Reason 1:

When you’re the recognized expert in your field, people hold you to a higher standard. They don’t expect you to verbally hammer the little guy, even if you don’t call them by name. They will see you as a bully with a big stick. It’s the equivalent of the President of the United States getting on national television and telling the American people that the union or the management of a specific company is evil and greedy. Name calling at that level is just not done.

And they believe that if you’re capable of bullying someone else, you’re certainly capable of bullying them. There’s a reason people cheer for the underdog when the person in power is abusing it.

Reason 2:

When you talk about or write about how bad someone is, you’re associating yourself with that story. I, for example, will always associate this marketing person with this specific Facebook post. If her intent was to tear apart her competitor and built her reputation at the same time, she could have asked one of her acolytes to post the message for her. Had she done that, she would have successfully stabbed her competition in the back while looking totally innocent. P.S. I don’t suggest you do this.

Reason 3:

No one likes a complainer. Complaining about someone else is a sign of weakness and vulnerability. It is not what you expect from someone who is at the top of their game. It does not instill confidence in your capabilities. People will always wonder why you are more concerned about your competition than you are with your own capabilities.

What’s The Solution?

If my marketing friend was really concerned about her customers getting screwed, she could have conveyed that message while building her reputation as a likable problem solver at the same time. Rather than slam her competitor, she could have posted a warning in the form of a tip. For example.

To my Active Rain friends.

Here are a few tips to help insure that you’re getting the very best value for your money when you hire someone to (fill in the blank.)

Check their credentials

Check their references

Check their reputation

Check bla bla bla

In doing these four things, you will not only protect yourself against fraud, but you will find a service provider that you can trust. If a service provider is reluctant to provide this information, run!

Conclusion

Now, that’s a much better way to provide a warning without complaining and without bullying the underdog. Just as importantly, you shouldn’t be talking trash about your competition even if you are the new guy on the block. It doesn’t wear well on anyone.

We like people who we associate with good feelings and we don’t like people who we associate with bad feelings. Make sure that every conversation you have and every post you upload to the Internet encourages people to associate you with good feelings. It will not only improve your likeability, but it will build your reputation as the expert in your field.

If you would like to read more about how to be immediatley more likeable, please join the Likeability Guy at http://www.BobSommers.com

Are You Avoiding Me?

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:52:15 -0500

News Flash!

If you've ever asked someone if they've been avoiding you, they have!" Most people won't tell you that of course because they're trying to be polite. They'll tell you that they've been busy or that they didn't receive your message or some other white lie, but they won't tell you the truth. And the truth is, "Yes," they have been avoiding you and here's why.

Avoidance Mode

We go into avoidance mode when we anticipate an unpleasant experience. We put off seeing the dentist in anticipation of physical pain. We avoid firing an unproductive employee because we don't want to deal with the emotional issues and guilt. We ignore telephone calls from certain people because we don't enjoy talking to them. We're a community of people who would rather avoid and lie when we get caught, than have to deal with an unpleasant experience. We like people who make us feel good about ourselves and we don't like people who make us feel bad. When you ask someone if they've been avoiding you, they're going to lie. It's easier for them to make a lame excuse and spare your feelings, than it is for them to confront you with the truth. Unfortunately, in doing so, they will feel bad about themselves for lying, and like you less in the process.

Help Me Feel Good About Myself

If you want people to like you, you must help them feel good about themselves and you can't do that by putting them in a no-win position of either having to lie to you or hurt your feelings. Here's the solution. Start with the understanding that the person you've been trying to contact has not gotten back to you for one of three reasons.

They never received the message that you were trying to contact them.
They're too busy to get back to you.
They don't want to talk to you.

The most important thing to understand, no matter what the reason, is that no one is going to call you back if they're anticipating a negative experience. Why do you think people avoid talking to creditors, stalkers and relatives who are always asking for favors?

They Aren't Returning My Calls

If you've tried to contact someone two or more times without hearing back from them, here's what I suggest you to do.

Try to contact them using another medium. If for example you've left two telephone messages, try sending them an email or a letter through the mail. There is a chance that they don't know you're trying to get a hold of them.
If you write an email or leave a message on the telephone, let them know what you want to talk about and ask them to get back to you by a certain time. If they don't respond, they've either been kidnapped by Somalian pirates or they're avoiding you.
If you get the feeling that someone is avoiding you, here are your choices.

- Make it easy for them to get back to you. Don't force a one-on-one conversation. Write a letter, send an email or ask someone else to convey your message for you.
- Give them a pleasant reason for getting back to you. I'm much more likely to contact a creditor if he or she tells me that they can help me keep my car rather than telling me they're going to send the repo man if they don't hear from me by Friday.
- Ask yourself this question. If roles were reversed, what would I want the person who is trying to contact me to do? Then do it. If you're truthful, you may not like the answer, but you'll have a much better understanding of how you're making the other person feel.
- And finally, drop it and move on with your life. If you continue to try to make contact with someone who doesn't want to talk to you, they'll see you as a stalker. Get over the fact that not everyone is going to like you or want to talk to you. Like Yogi Berra said, "If the fans don't come out to the ball park, you can't stop them.

Final Thoughts

If you've ever asked someone if they're avoiding you, they are.
Don't put anyone in the position of having to lie to you in order to spare your feelings.
Make people look forward to talking to you.
Not everyone is going to like you or want to talk to you and that's OK.
You don't have to know why someone is avoiding you to live a happy, productive life.

If you would like to learn more about how the role likeability plays in your life and in your sales, join me, Bob Sommers, the Likeability Guy at www.BobSommers.com

Thank You Notes That Really Mean Something

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:06:28 -0500

I fully intended to sit down this morning and write an article on likeability when my day was interrupted by the mailman. Up until that time, everything was perfect. The article was titled and mind mapped (which is a right brained way to do an outline) and anxiously awaiting to be organized into an entertaining piece of classical literature. But as I mentioned above, the mailman interrupted my day.

Among the bills, marketing postcards and fan mail was a note addressed to me from Darbee Fisher. Darbee is a real estate agent for Keller Williams here on Maui. I met her for the first time ten days ago when my son Josh and I went to their office to teach the agents how to generate leads using advanced blogging techniques. Knowing that Josh was a full time Internet marketer and computer repair technician, Darbee hired him to repair her computer.

Here’s the note I received which was addressed to Bob and Susan Sommers

April 9, 2009

Dear Bob and Susan,

I just spent a good part of the day with Joshua, and what proud parents you deserve to be! Not only is he smart and good looking, but he is also one of the most respectful people I have ever met and he has absolutely the best manners of anyone I have ever met! It was pure joy to work with Josh and you can bet that he will be the first person I call when I need help and I will recommend him as often as I can!

With Aloha,

Darbee & Dr. Bob

I don’t know how long it took Darbee to hand write this note, but I do know that Susan and I and Josh will remember it and cherish it for a long, long time to come.

To read the entire post, please go to the Likeability Guy

Internet Marketing Association of Hawaii is On-Line

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:56:42 -0500

The Internet Marketing Association of Hawaii officially launched on Sunday, February 1, 2009. The association is made up of local business owners and their marketing staff, Internet marketing experts, web designers, students, entrepreneurs and others interested in learning how to market their products and services from Hawaii on the Internet.

The purpose of the IMA of Hawaii is to give local business owners on each island the resources they need to acquire customers over the Internet. Some people join to learn how to use local search to generate foot traffic to their retail store, while others learn how to target a worldwide market. Some of our members are do-it-yourselfers, while others joined to access local resources who can help them implement their Internet marketing plan.

Membership is free and offers something for everyone.

    * Weekly Internet Marketing tips, tricks and techniques.
    * Local Hawaii and worldwide search techniques.
    * Access to local technicians and professional Internet marketers
    * Access to local web developers and designers
    * How-to Internet Marketing videos, podcasts and articles
    * Seminars, workshops, webinars and more.

If you have a real estate business in Hawaii, you'll want to join the Internet Marketing Association of Hawaii.

A special shout out and thank you goes to Sydney Smith and Cynthia Conrad at Coloriginals who designed the Internet Marketing Association of Hawaii header.

The Likeability Guy | Bob Sommers

On Maui or In Maui

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:59:51 -0500

Over the course of the past few years I've spent a lot of time talking to and working with real estate agents here on Maui ... or is it in Maui? Well, if you're a local you would say, "on Maui" if you're from the mainland you would say, "in Maui" So what's the big deal?

The big deal is this, if you're trying to attract home buyers from the mainland and you're building web pages and blog posts using the term, on Maui, your customers are going to have a very hard time finding you in the search engines. If you use the term, in Maui, you're going to sound like an outsider to your local real estate friends, but you're going to attract all the mainland visitors to your website.

It pays to pay attention to the words and phrases your customers and potential customers are using to find you. This is not the time or a place to correct them. Drop your local pride and attract the 99% of the home buyers from out of town or off island who don't know the local protocol.

There are some wonderful keyword tools available to do this research. You can find my list of favorite keyword tools on Recognized Expert

The Likeability Guy | Bob Sommers

Free "Article Marketing For Professionals" Video Program You'll Want To See

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:54:40 -0500

If you've ever wondered how the top real estate websites get to the top of the search engines and generate thousands of visitors every month, wonder no more. The Likeability Guy | Bob Sommers

Recognized Expert just created a step-by-step video program that shows you how to do just that through article marketing ... and it's free.

If you do nothing else, watch the first video. You'll be hooked.

Article Marketing Video Guide

Introduction to Article Marketing	9:24
How Article Marketing Works	4:41
Writing Articles That Get Syndicated	6:40
Formatting Tips That Increase Readership	4:36
Article Guidelines You Must Follow	4:37
Intermission	0:43
Article Title Tips For Massive Traffic	4:29
Test Your Title For Traffic Potential	5:00
How Description Text Gets Readers	6:39
Using The Author Block To Get Traffic	9:24
Creating HTML For Your Author Block	3:07
Where To Submit Your Articles	3:34
Submitting Your Article For Mass Distribution	1:21

Video Marketing At Its Best

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:51:01 -0500

Over the past year I've been producting a workshop on the Top 10 Ways To Get Customers To Your Website. One of the newest and most effective way to do that is through Video Marketing. It will throw your website and blog to the top of the Search Engines Results Pages. Better yet, it has the ability to promote you and your service unlike any other tool.

A mortgage lender friend of mine just sent me a video produced by an Active Rain member. It's one of the best marketing videos I've seen to date. If you want to see how video marketing is done correctly, check it out at Recognized Expert

Why Google Blogger?

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:06:40 -0500

My son Josh and I just completed a set of 110 Google Blogger Videos demonstrating how to use every tool available in Blogger's arsenal. It is the most comprehensive Blogger video program created to date. But why Blogger and not Wordpress?

Blogger is quite simply the easiest blogging platform on the planet. You can have your own blog up on the Internet in less than four minutes without the help of a technician. It's that easy.

Blogger is spam free. I have over 20 blogs with Google ranging from Likability Marketing to Farming a Community with Blogger. To date I've not received a single piece of spam. Not one.

Blogger is completely free. There are no monthly fees and no set-up fees. Sure there is a "free" version of Wordpress but you pay for "free" by allowing Wordpress.com to place Google Adsense ads on your site. That's not necessarily a bad idea except for the fact that you don't earn the revenue. It goes to Wordpress.com. With Blogger you have a choice. If you want ads on your site you can certainly add them and earn the revenue.

Blogger has some really cool templates. And if you don't like the templates offered by Google you can get some additional cool free templates from sites like FinalSense. I must admit, there are some great templates for Wordpress as well, but not on their free site.

Blogger has a very good help community. If you want even more help you can go to our new Blogger forum and get your Blogger questions answered even quicker. There are very qualified people ready and willing to help at Google and TakeOnTheNet.

Blogger vs. Wordpress
I like them both. We started with Blogger for the above reasons. In the near future we will put together a series of videos on Wordpress and I will write an article entitled, "Why Wordpress and Not Blogger?" Both blog platforms are great. You can't go wrong with either of them.

One of the great features of Wordpress is how easy they make if for you to convert your Blogger blog to a Wordpress blog. It takes about six-seconds. I use Wordpress to back-up the content on my Blogger blog. If you know how to create a blog on Blogger, working with Wordpress is a snap. Thank you Wordpress.

Learn to blog

TakeOnTheNet.com

Peter Montoya is a Genius

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:36:04 -0500

Peter Montoya is the author of the book, “The Brand Called You.” He believes, as do I, that the primary step toward building a successful business relationship is to build a personal relationship at the same time. He is so good at doing it in fact, that he was able to develop a relationship with me over the course of just three days … before he ever knew I existed. Here’s how he did it.

I first learned of Peter Montoya at the Boarders Books store near my home. As I was browsing through the business section looking for an interesting guest to interview for my marketing show, “The Brand Called You” jumped off the shelf into my hands. “If you want to influence how people see you,“ Peter wrote in Chapter Four, “you must tell a story about yourself that makes the reader come away as if he or she knows you.” I was hooked.

I walked to the checkout counter with Peter’s book in hand. Over the next three days he answered hundreds of question I had concerning personal branding. He also made dozens of suggestions as to how I could incorporate those ideas into my business. His answers were straightforward and simple; yet somewhat foreign to the way I had been doing business most of my life. Early on for example, he suggested that one of the best ways to build a bond with a potential customer was to share something personal. Could something so simple and contrary to everything I believed about business really make a difference I wondered?

A few days later I called Peter on the telephone to ask if he would like to be a guest on the Recognized Expert Marketing Show. Within three seconds of him answering the telephone, I had the answer I was looking for. Here’s what happened.

Bob: Hi, may I speak with Peter please?

Receptionist: Certainly, may I tell him who’s calling?

Bob: Yes. Please tell him Bob Sommers is calling?

Receptionist: Of course. Just a moment Mr. Sommers.

Peter: Hi, this is Peter Montoya.

Bob: Peter, buddy, this is Bob Sommers!!! How are you?!!!

Peter: I’m fine. (silence) I’m sorry Bob, do we know each other?

Bob: (After realizing that Peter Montoya had no idea who I was.) Oh Peter I’m sorry. You don’t know me. I just finished reading your book but I feel like I’m calling one of my friends. How embarrassing.

Peter: Please don’t be embarrassed Bob. If anything you’ve just given me a great compliment. It sounds like the personal branding I wrote about in my book worked just as I intended. Thank you.

You bet it worked. It worked so well that for the first five minutes we talked about his mom Denise, his brothers; Mathew, Mark, Luke and John; his wife Lynn and his two dogs Maxine and Molly. We laughed, we joked and chuckled at our similar experiences growing up Catholic. And all the while I was getting more and more comfortable with him because we had these things in common.

Study after study shows that we like people who are like us? The thought process goes something like this. If I like me, and you’re like me, I must like you too. From there it’s an easy transition to; if I trust me, and you’re like me, I must trust you too.

Had Peter not taken the risk to tell me, his reader, something personal about himself, our conversation would not have been the same. Peter made it easy for me to start and carry on an intelligent conversation by giving me the fodder about himself that I would not have had otherwise.
It is so easy to divulge something personal about yourself on your blog or website, but most Realtors don’t do it. They don’t do it because they think it isn’t appropriate. My own experience tells me they’re missing a great opportunity.

Writing about yourself isn’t for your benefit; it’s for the benefit of your customers and prospects. I implore you to make it easy for them to know you, like you and trust you. Take a moment and tell the world something about yourself that makes you human. That’s where relationships … and sales begin.

Bob Sommers
Fireman, radio Talk show host, husband, father, Pisces, Mizzou, 49, The Simpsons, Atlas Shrugged, near death survivor, 1 night in jail, Maui, dreamer, root beer, CCR,The Green Mile.

Slide Show Software Without Advertising

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 01:13:04 -0500

I love this software. It's simple and produces great interactive flash slide shows without the advertising that accompanies all the free slide show software. Place your mouse over the photos and watch what happens. You can even make the photos clickable links directing customers back to your website from your blog.

If you use slide shows to promote your homes, I think you're going to enjoy SWF&Slide Pro. For the one time fee of $69, you can make as many slide shows as you want. You can even upload them to Google for free and have them play on your website, blog or even on a page you create with Google Page Creator.

The software is available from Vertical Moon for both Windows or the Mac for $69

Learn to blog with Google Blogger

21 Reasons Why You Want to Prospect With A Blog

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:43:43 -0500

In the future, the most successful real estate agents will dominate communities with the help of the Internet. Success will not be based on the size of a marketing budget, but on the level of the relationship. There is no easier or more effective way to build relationships than with the help of the Internet. Consider Active Rain.

Here are 21 reasons why you can dominate a community with a blog.

Communication
The tool that makes a community website stand-out is its ability to allow potential home buyers and sellers to easily communicate with you and each other. Blogging software including Wordpress and Blogger, the free website tool from Google, gives everyone in the community the opportunity to participate by making comments and posting to your blog. And as you know … communication creates customers.

Ease of Use
Building and maintaining a community website couldn’t be easier. If you know how to get on the Internet and make your way around a word processor, this will be a piece of cake. You will be able to duplicate everything you see at MauiMeadows.info without any help. Honest

Fun
At first I thought building a community website was going to be work, but I quickly found myself enraptured with every article I created. If you enjoy writing and creating value, you’re going to love the time you put into your community blog.

R.O.I.
If you’re talking in terms of money, you can not find a better return on your investment. Why? Because the cost to create and host your community website is completely free. That’s right, it’s free. You can’t say that about postcards, TV, print advertising or radio.

Relationship Building Capability
A community website is all about building relationships with the people in the community. It allows you to easily communicate with homeowners through your articles, the comments section on your site, email and even over the telephone. A community website done properly is a hive of activity … with you at the center.

Pass-Along / Send to a Friend
How many times have you come across a great website or article and forwarded it on to a neighbor or friend because you thought they would find it interesting? How many times have you done that with a real estate postcard or print ad?

Ability to Know What Your Neighbors Are Thinking
Wouldn’t it be nice to know what your neighbors are thinking when it comes to their thoughts on home pricing, home selling or the value of their home? It’s easy to do with a simple poll on your community site. All you have to do is ask.

Demonstrate Your Technical Marketing Skills.
You don’t have to persuade homeowners in the community how you use the Internet to sell homes, show them on your community site. Use things like slideshows, Google maps, narrated video tours, full property websites with Postlets, printable brochures and more ... all of which you create yourself. Let your site do the selling for you.

Reciprocity
Reciprocity is a psychological principle used in selling every day. If I help you succeed, you will want to help me succeed in return. Use your community blog to promote the people in the community you’re farming. They won’t forget you when the time comes to sell their home.

Time to Market
If you’ve ever produced a postcard campaign you know the value of getting your information out to the community quickly before the situation changes. With a community website you can get your information out in less than an hour. That’s fast.

Free PR
Advertising is expensive. PR is free. The local media is much more likely to do a PR piece on your community website than they are on your real estate business. And every time someone goes to your site it’s another opportunity to sell them on your service.

SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. When you create a community website, search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL are very likely to push your community site to the top of the search results page. That means when a potential home buyer looks for information about your community, they are very likely to find your community site. Real estate websites can’t compete. This is a huge bonus.

Sell Advertising Space on your Community Website
This may be something you’ve never considered, but it’s worth looking into. Once you’re community site is up and running with the majority of neighbors subscribing to it, you can easily sell advertising space. Hint: Don’t sell ad space to another real estate agent, no matter how much they offer to pay you.

Ease of sending home buyers and sellers to your website
Homeowners don’t read postcards and jump to their computer and go to your website. It’s too much effort. It’s much easier to click a link to your website once their on your community blog. It’s as simple as clicking their mouse button.

Longevity
TV spots and radio ads last for a few seconds. Newspaper ads, postcards and real estate reports might last for a day. Magazine ads last for a week to a month but an ad on the web lasts forever. When you have your own community website you can advertise your homes until they sell.

Marketing Costs
If you've ever attempted a postcard campaign you know it can be expensive. You must pay for the copy and design, paper stock, printing, postage and the mailing list. TV, radio, newspaper and magazine ads can be even more expensive. The cost to create and publish a community website on the other hand is absolutely free. Here are some ways you can get the word out and market your community blog.

Reaching Home Buyers
When you farm a community with postcards and real estate reports you’re only reaching potential home sellers. When you build a community website with Google Blogger you're not only farming for home sellers in that community, but home buyers who are interested in moving into that community. If you want to target home buyers for a community, create a website about that community

Status
Traditional farming techniques position you as a salesperson. When you host a community website and take the opportunity to share home selling tips and home improvement ideas along with real estate reports and home listings you’ll quickly be viewed as the real estate authority in that community. Home buyers and sellers would rather work with real estate experts than salespeople. Become the expert.

Interest level in Your Marketing Piece
The majority of neighbors are not interested in receiving a postcard about a home you just sold? They are however interested in learning about an up-coming neighborhood meeting or event, a crime alert, the status of a hot community issue, the local real estate trends and home improvement tips. When you farm a neighborhood with a community website you are giving your target market what they want … including real estate related topics.

Tracking
The extent to which you can track a postcard campaign is limited to how many postcards were delivered and how many people responded. The things you can track with a community website and blog are limitless. For example:

•    How many people looked at your community blog?
•    Who looked at your the community blog?
•    What pages of your community blog received the most attention?
•    What pages of your community blog received the least attention?
•    Where did your community blog visitors coming from?
•    What time of day or day of the week did they visit your community blog?
•    What topics did they comment on?
•    What was their opinion on each topic?
•    Did they tell-a- friend about your community blog?
•    How did they find your community blog?
•    When are they planning to sell their house?
•    Who requested a home valuation?
•    Who requested a real estate report?
•    Who followed the link to your real estate website?
•    And much, much more

How could you use that information to sell homes?

Branding Opportunities
As I mentioned earlier, if you want to brand yourself and your company you have to get in front of your prospects frequently ... and frequently can be expensive especially with postcards, reports, print ads and radio/TV spots. On the other hand you can get in front of your prospects as frequently as you like at no cost to you with your community blog. Best of all, you’ll be branding yourself as the community real estate expert rather than just a real estate salesperson looking for business.

If you want to learn more about how to use Blogger to create a community blog, please visit our website on How to Build A Community Blog with Google Blogger

Five Reasons Why You Do Not Want To Farm A Community On Your Website

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:26:49 -0500

Farming a community using a blog is a great idea. It's free, it's interactive and it's something you can do while you're sitting at an open house or doing floor duty. But, under no circumstances do you want to farm a community using the blog software on your website. Here's why.

1. Website Contamination

When a search engines look at your website, it looks at all of the content before determining the theme of your site. If your website is highly real estate thematic, it is more likely to place high on the search engine results page for real estate related keywords and keyword phrases. This is why you want to keep the content on your real estate site related to real estate. If you use the blog software on your website to farm a community, you will contaminate your site with content that has little to do with real estate. This makes it more difficult for the search engines to determine the theme of your website, which in turn could keep your real estate related web pages from showing well on the search results page.

2. Link Love

Search engines reward pages on your website when they have lots and lots of relevant links pointing to them. These links can come from other pages on your website or from pages on other websites. It is much better to have links come from pages on other websites. The reason for this is simple. Google and the rest of the search engines want to provide searchers with the most relevant content when they search for information. One of the ways they do that is to identify how many links are pointing to a particular page. Each link is considered a vote of confidence. The more links pointing to a web page, the more value Google gives that page. The more relevant the site providing the link, the more valuable the link. And a link from another relevant website to your website is more powerful than a link to your website from your website. So if you can get search engine credit by linking from your community blog (which is not on your real estate website) to your real estate website, do so. Of course you want the link to your real estate website to come from a real estate related blog post. That's just good SEO.

3. Unnecessary Risk

The primary benefit for using a blog to farm a community is the ability for homeowners and neighbors to communicate with you and each other. The tricky thing about allowing interactivity on your blog is that you never know what your readers are going to write. If you allow people to comment on your real estate blog, you're opening the door to both content contamination and a potentially damaging comment for the whole world to see. Not to mention, do you really want another real estate agent critiquing your advice in front of your business prospects?

4. People are Leery

If you lived in the community of Maui Meadows, which website would you be most likely to join: MauiMeadows.info or DaveTrebusheRealEstate.com/mauimeadowsblog? If neighbors get the slightest hint that you're trying to trick them into joining your real estate blog ... they're gone. Don't take that risk.

5. Limiting

Most real estate agents sell in more than one market. Just because you aggressively farm the community of Maui Meadows does not mean that you won't list or sell a home in the Wailea Golf Estates. If you choose to farm a community on your real estate website, you run the risk of turning-off potential customers who don't live in the community you're farming. Save your community blog (or blogs) for a seperate site.

For more information on how to use your own free blog to farm a community for home buyers and home sellers, visit us at http://VisOnTheNet.com

Little Bobby Sommers

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:56:00 -0500

I'm going to take a risk. I'm going to tell you a few things about myself that I normally don't share in general conversation. It's not that I'm embarrassed or that I'm trying to hide anything, it's just that these are things about me that don't come up in conversations with people I affiliate with on a business or professional level. And that's sad, because the few things I'm going to tell you about myself will give you a better understanding of the person whose posts you've been reading than you could learn about me in 5 years of general conversation.

Born in St. Louis Missouri into a Catholic family and community.
Had a father who was fiercely independent. His mantra was, "if you choose to work for someone else, you will never be paid what you're truly worth."
Went to engineering school and discovered after reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" that I wanted to learn how people worked rather than how cars worked.
Started my own customer service company and retired to Maui with my family when I was 38 years old.
Spent a night in jail for being drunk and stupid when I was 19 years old. I also discovered that I never want to spend a night in jail again.
Read, "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand and it moved me.
Read "Black Like Me" and it moved me.
Read "Oh The Places You Will Go" by Dr. Seuss and had a better understanding of life.
Quickly discovered that being a father and having a family was the greatest joy in my life...and still is.
I frequently get swimmers ear even as an adult. Very painful.
I don't like snakes
I am a vivid dreamer and find that this is where I find the answers to my most pressing concerns. Every night.
My best friends are the friends I made in grade school.
I fell though the ice on a frozen lake when I was nine years old and it completely changed the way looked at life...and death
I am often accused of asking a lot of questions. I do that because I'm uncomfortable with silence and I like to learn about people.
I am often accused of not talking about myself. Even though I am interested in what others have to say about themselves, I often feel that they are not interested in me. Talking about myself makes me feel uncomfortable and that is one of the reasons I am talking about myself to you.

There you have it. Things about this author you never knew, and never thought you would know. But why would I tell you these things about myself? As I said above, it is a risk for me to talk about myself. Maybe you feel it's inappropriate to publish a post like this on Active Rain. Maybe you're offended by something I told you about myself. Maybe you feel closer to me. I would love to know what you think. How does it make you feel when someone divulges personal information about themselves to you?

I think we will all learn something from your comments as to whether this is a risk we should be willing to take on our own blog posts and in our dealings with customers, prospects and friends.

Prospecting with Blogs

Watch Your Wallet

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:03:21 -0500

Scammers prey on the weak and the ignorant. They have an uncanny ability to spot a patsy from a mile away. Are they targeting you?

Yesterday I received a call from a search engine optimization company guaranteeing that they could get my website on the front of the search engine results page for 100 search terms (first red flag). According to the salesman, no other SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company had the capability to do what they did because they had a special association with Yahoo (second red flag) and they had their own 30 step proprietary program that no other company could duplicate. (third red flag)

"That's amazing," I said, with the enthusiasm of a boy who was about to learn where the family treasure was hidden from his dying grandfather . "Tell me more."

Bingo! He tagged me for a sucker and openly told me one lie after another. But it wasn't until I asked if he needed access to my website to accomplish this amazing feat that I realized the depth of the scam. Had I not know any better I could have easily been persuaded to invest in their special today only price of $2,500 for six months of service.

"This is the best part of all", he said. "We don't need to access your website. We make a copy of it and post it on our server where we work on it. Then we direct all the traffic back to your website." (forth, fifth, sixth ... red flag)

After a few seconds of letting this concept sink in, I was only able to come up with 54 reasons why this was a very, very bad idea. Not only will it destroy my credibility with the search engines, but the moment I stop paying, all the SEO work I paid for is gone. I would have paid them $2,500 to do SEO work on their duplicate of my website. Hmmmm!

It's important to learn the signals of an SEO scam artist and run like hell when you see them coming. If you want more information read, What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?

If you've ever had a bad experience with a black-hat SEO firm, please comment below. Let's help our Active Rain readers keep their hard earned money in their pockets. Just say No to bad SEO.

Prospecting for Customers on the Internet

The Biggest SEO Mistake Realtors Make On Their Home Page

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:34:43 -0500

I've been critiquing real estate websites for some time now with respect to SEO and usability and here's what I found. There are three common mistakes most every Realtor makes on their website and it is costing them business. Lots of business. I would like to talk about the first of those mistakes in this post.

Google and the rest of the search engines look at each web page on your site individually. They also look at all the pages cumulatively and try to determine the theme of your site, but that's for a future post. Google is looking for a variety of things on your web page to determine its page rank or value. One of the biggest factors Google is looking for has to do with the ratio of links pointing to your site compared to the number of links leaving your site.

If you have more links pointing to your home page than you have leaving your home page, the search engines will tend to see your site as an Authority site. If you have more links leaving your home page than you have coming into your home page, Google will to see your site as a resource site. Now, this is a very general description of a very complicated algorithm, but you get the point. You want more links to your site than you want leaving your site, because in the real estate world, Authority sites rule.

Problem: Most real estate websites have dozens of links leading away from their site and few links coming into their site. This is very, very bad for search engine optimization. But there is a bigger problem.

The sole purpose of your home page should be to direct your visitors to pages within your website. Whether those pages are MLS pages, sign-up for my newsletter pages, get a free evaluation on your home pages ... it doesn't matter. The very last thing you want to do on your home page is give your visitor the opportunity to leave your site. Period.

I know you may have participated in link exchanges with other Realtors or you have a template site or you have a link to the ePro site or to one of a million other sites, but don't do it. Just say, "No". It is killing your chances to rank high on the search engines.

Here are the top three sites for the search term, Maui Real Estate. I am not sending you to these sites for any other purpose than to see how they have removed all external links, and how they've benefited from doing so. You should do the same.

www.kathryntubman.com/

www.mauirealestate.net/

www.mauisales.com/

If you want to see how many links each of the top 3 Search Engines see coming back to your site go to www.linkpopularity.com Don't be concerned if you see few if any links from Google. They see, but don't always show you how the links go to your site. The current top site for "Maui Real Estate" is www.MauiSales.com Google shows 92 links to that site MSN shows 4,407 and Yahoo shows 3,308. Those are some good numbers.

Real Estate Search Engine Optimization

What Ann Landers Can Teach Us About Marketing

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:20:11 -0500

For nearly 50 years, Esther Pauline Friedman dispensed advice to readers in a daily column that ran in more than 1,200 U.S. newspapers. She started her career with the Chicago Sun-Times with absolutely no journalistic experience by dispensing usable advice in a friendly manner. In a very short time she became popular with her fans and was able to parlay her popularity into a very successful business. You know her as Ann Landers.

You can get the same results by offering your customers (soon to become fans) the same kind of helpful, timely information that they actually look forward to receiving ... and best of all you don't have to do it yourself. Once you get your community blog up and running everyone will want to participate.

The key to creating a successful community website is to provide meaningful information to a targeted market in a timely manner. "The System - Farming With Blogs" will show you how to do just that. If you would like to see an active community blog visit the Maui Meadows Community

6 Reasons You Want To Farm With A Blog

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:04:31 -0500

Up until a few years ago, the only way to farm a community was to send postcards and real estate reports through the mail. Not only was that method time consuming and expensive, but you had to compete with every other real estate agent who was doing the same thing. Fortunately, technology has made it possible for any real estate agent to farm a community using the Internet. It's fun, free and once you get started you can do it in less than 15 minutes a day from your home or office.

Branding When you farm a neighborhood by creating an interactive community website, home owners have an opportunity to know you on an entirely different level. They can hear you speak, watch you on video, read your articles and communicate with you through their comments. A community website allows them to see you as a friend and as the real estate expert in their community.

Interest At any given time 10% of a community may be interested in selling their home. At the same time 100% of the community is interested in what's happening in the community ... and that includes real estate. If you want to reach 100% of the community 100% of the time, you can do it with a community blog.

Cost The cost of creating and mailing your blog to 500 homes is $0. The cost of creating and mailing postcards and reports to 500 homes is more expensive. Now multiply that number by one mailing per month or one mailing per week. How many communities could you afford to farm at the cost of $0 per mailing?

Effectiveness The only thing that really matters is your ability to persuade homeowners to hire you when the time comes to sell their home. Who do you think a homeowner is more likely to hire: an agent who sends them one real estate postcard a month, or an agent who they see, respect and communicate with on a regular basis through the community blog?

Relationship Nothing creates conversation like an interesting community blog. One of the greatest features of a community blog is the capability for homeowners to contact you immediately through the comments section. You can't do that with a postcard or report.

Home buyers This is the biggest benefit of all. When you farm a community in the traditional way, the only people you're farming to are the people in the neighborhood with a mailbox. When you farm with a blog you are farming to people world-wide who are interested in moving to the neighborhood. This is the best reason to farm in a buyers market.

For more information on how to "Farm With Blogs", please visit www.VisOnTheNet.com

Free Slide Show Program

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:48:48 -0500

This is one of my favorite slide show programs from RockYou.com. I like the technique and the ability to choose to show slides either with our without music. This is a slide show of my family and friends at the beach on Fathers Day. It's a tradition. It's also a simple way for you to get to meet my family. Have you considered adding a slide show to your website that has nothing to do with real estate ... but everything to do with the person who sells the real estate? Just an idea. If you want to see examples of 6 different slide show programs please visit. TakeOnTheNet.com and click on the slide show link.

It's Never About the Wedding Cake

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:55:12 -0500

My wife Susan and I rarely sit down and watch TV together, but when we do we have an unspoken rule that allows us to enjoy the experience. If she sits down first, we watch what she wants to watch. If I sit down first, we watch what see wants to watch. Simple, eminently fair according to Susan and always an experience.

Last night we were watching a show about a wedding cake competition. A wedding cake competition for crying out loud. The premise of the show was to determine who among the five bakers was able to create the best cake which was to be judged by the happy couple who would be serving the cake at their wedding.

To start, I had no idea that a wedding cake can cost well into the thousands of dollars. Holy cow ... thousands of dollars. This just turned into a serious competition. Through out the show we watched the couple walk from station to station talking to the bakers, expressing their thoughts and wishes for their cake. Now remember, the winner of this competition was going to sell their cake for thousands of dollars. The losers were going to go home with $15 worth of eggs, milk, butter and flour. Game on!

I am not a professional wedding cake judge. I really don't know what makes one wedding cake better than another. I would probably base my decision of which cake offered the best financing. What I am a good judge of however is how likable each contestant was, and here's what I discovered.

As far as I could tell all the cakes looked great. One was as pretty as the next. The only significant difference I noticed was in the interaction between the couple and the people eager to see a $5,000 check written in their name. Now you would have thought that all the people who were trying to sell their cake would have treated the couple like customers. You would have been wrong. And just as I had expected, the baker who was the least likable was the first to be eliminated. And the person who won the competition was the most likable. No surprise here.

Did you know that the presidential candidate who had the highest likability rating with the American people has won the general election for every election since Kennedy won in 1960? So, if you believe the statistics, getting elected and winning wedding cake competitions is not about the issues or the cake, it's about being liked. But what makes someone likable? Here is my definition.

If you want to be liked by others, (and who doesn't) you must like other people first. And the way to do that is to help people like themselves when they are in your presence. It's that simple. If you can do that you will never have to worry about using any tricky likability techniques.

Unfortunately, most of the wedding cake competitors did not understand that winning is not about creating just a beautiful cake; it's about creating a beautiful environment where the customer feels liked, appreciated and competent about expressing his or her opinion.

I would love to hear how being likable has impacted your success as a Realtor.

VisOnTheNet.com

Become The Real Estate Expert In Any Community In Less Than 60 Days

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:48:49 -0500

Imagine becoming the recognized real estate authority in the community of your choice and building that reputation in less than 60 days. Now imagine doing it without spending a dime on marketing in a neighborhood that is presumably entrenched by your competition. Sound impossible? It's not!

The Problem Entrenched Competitors with An Unlimited Marketing Budget

You want to farm a community but you don't have the money to spend on expensive postcards and reports. Besides, the bigger real estate companies seem to be entrenched in the neighborhood you want to farm and they have a marketing budget that goes on forever. How can you compete?

The Solution Don't Compete - Start a New Game

Americans are an interesting people. We're most likely to do business with the people we know, like and trust than we are with a company that spends thousands of dollars advertising their service. We're also 100 times more likely to hire a real estate professional based on our feelings about them than on any other factor. Why do you think it is so much easier to sell a home to a friend than to a stranger?

So the questions you should be asking yourself are, "How can I quickly build a strong relationship with the people in the community I want to farm? How can I help them get to know me, like me and trust me ... and want to hire me to help them buy or sell their next home?" How can I create an environment where home-buyers and sellers will contact me, rather than me having to contact them? It's not as hard as you think ... you just need to think differently.

The best way to build your reputation and demonstrate your expertise is to host a community website with information the neighbors can't wait to get their hands on ... including information about your real estate service. Here is an example of a community site where the real estate agent who is doing just that. MauiMeadows.info

If you're interested in this subject, please visit my blog at FarmingWithBlogs.blogspot.com or check-out our 4.5 hour Farming with Blog video training program at VisOnTheNet.com

Opportunity Missed

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 06:11:04 -0500

Everyone has their own little idiosyncrasies, like counting steps or washing their hands or trying to memorize pi to the 10,000th decimal point. At least I think they do, don't they? And, even though I've never admitted this before, I too have my own idiosyncrasies.

From the time I was a little boy I would subconsciously ask myself this question when I was with someone. "Do I like this person more or less now than I did a minute ago?" It was not until I was an adult that I realized that everyone asks themselves the same question. Maybe not as frequently as I do, but they ask just the same. That leads me to last Saturday.

Last Saturday afternoon my wife and I invited one of our friends and her new husband over for lunch and a swim. Now it's important to keep in mind that this is my house and my swimming pool, and I'm proud of it. Just like you're proud of your property.

As soon as they arrived my new guest jumped into the swimming pool and popped out of the water rubbing his eyes. "This chlorine water is horrible" he said. "It burns my eyes. I have a saltwater swimming pool and this is never a problem with my pool."

Sixty seconds had passed and I concluded without hesitation that I liked him less now than I did a minute ago. But why? What did he do that caused me to feel this way? Well ... he insulted me by implying that I was either stupid for having a chlorine swimming pool or that I was incompetent for not taking care of it properly. I don't think he intended to imply that I was stupid or incompetent, but he did. And I thought less of him because of it.

Here's one of the many rules of likability that real estate agents seem to miss. When you make a negative comment about any aspect of a persons property, you're causing that person to think less of you. Period. Your intent in is meaningless.

OK, stop right there before you say a word. I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking that the homeowner "needs to know" what is wrong with their property so that when the time comes to price and show their home they're not disappointed . Maybe that's true. Maybe they do need to know. But know this; when you tell a homeowner how "stupid or incompetent" they are for (fill in the blank) they will be answering the question, "Do I like this real estate agent more or less now than I did a minute ago?"

In Persia, the king would reward the messenger who brought him good news and kill the messenger who brought bad news. You're clients are doing the same thing on a psychological level. So what's the solution.

Some things are best left unsaid. I did not need to know how my guest felt about my pool and maybe your client doesn't need to know how you feel about their pool either.
You don't have to be the one to break the bad news. Let your customers read or hear the feedback directly from the people who attended the open house. Better their heads role than yours.
Be diplomatic. What you think is a piece of junk could be the same thing your customer perceives as their finest piece of art.

Farming With Blogs

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:42:01 -0500

I still can't figure it out. There are at least 50,178 real estate agents who know how to create a blog on Active Rain, and few if any are using their blogging skill to build their business. I read article after article from some amazingly knowledgeable real estate professionals about real estate in every city in the country, and guess what ... I'm really not that interested. Why? Because I'm more interested in my wife and my children and my family and my friends and what's going in in my neighborhood. I'm interested in what's going on in MY WORLD and that's what I want to read about and talk about.

We are so focused on SEO, keyword density, link building, page rank and .... it goes on and on. A few years ago none of these terms existed. Today, we're persuaded that our business success is hinged on them. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are all playing a game of follow the follower and it's killing us. Let me explain.

What if, just for a moment we put all of that SEO stuff behind us? What if blogging was not about everything I just mentioned above? What if it were about making friends and building community? Consider the crowd at Active Rain. Isn't that exactly what they've been able to do with us? And guess what? They're doing it without SEO, page rank, etc. They're successful because people like you and me want to make friends and participate in a community. We want to stay in the loop. We want to be in the know. We want to love and be loved. WE WANT TO BELONG. Once again, consider Active Rain.

Imagine if there was a community blog in your neighborhood where all the neighbors talked to each other. A blog where you could read about your neighbors, learn about upcoming garage sales, high school football games, neighborhood issues like street lights and speed bumps. Now imagine if your community blog were hosted by the people who operate Active Rain. Yahoo! (even that word has a different meaning) Better yet, imagine if your community blog were hosted by you.

Take what you've learned from your Active Rain experience and apply it to building your own neighborhood community blog. Start a blog with free software from Wordpress or Blogger and build your own "Active Rain like" community, but make it about the things your neighbors would find interesting. I believe when god created the blog, this is how she saw us using it.

For more information about Farming with blogs, please check out our site at www.VisOnTheNet.com

Fish Where the Fish Are

The Likeability Guy |Bob Sommers (Sommers Communication) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 05:10:31 -0500

I love Active Rain. I don't think there's a better place for non-real estate people to learn what real estate people are all about. Amoung other things, I teach real estate agents how to generate real estate leads. So participating in Active Rain and reading what you all have to say to one another gives me insight about you and your industry I could not get in any other way. Thank you.

I do find it interesting however that so many Realtors spend so much time blogging on Active Rain when they could be farming for customers with their own community blog. It so simple and yet so underutilized. Other than building relationships with other real estate professionals and learning about the industry and having a ball of fun and ... thousands of other great reasons to be on Active Rain every day, why haven't you used your blogging skill to fish where the fish are? It's so easy to do.

Anyone can create a free blogging account with Google or Wordpress and start their own community blog. A blog where neighbors and people interested in moving into that neighborhood get as excited to talk to one another on your blog as you are on Active Rain. The difference is ... this is where the fish swim and buy and sell houses.

If you want to see an example of a great community blog, take a look at http://www.mauimeadows.info/ This is a site we created to show real estate agents how they can farm a community for both home buyers and sellers with a free blog from Google. You can use any blogging platform you choose,just pick one and run with it. My point is, you already know how to fish, so pick-up your rod, leave the bait shop and go fishing. The fish are waiting for you.

If you're really interested in learning how to Farm With Blogs we've created a 2-CD program showing you how to do it right. Please check out our product at http://www.visonthenet.com/store/farming-with-blogs.html