The summer Sunday morning in Avila Beach was covered in a coastal haze, which had no dissapointing affect since that was perfectly normal for summer days on the Central Coast that turn out to be picture perfect by noon. This day was no different, and after pitching the shade tent for the babies in the family (which consist of infants and adults) and firing up the bar-be-cue, a great day of relaxing on the grass by the waves was well on it's way. Before long, the over-cooked burgers had been devoured and the over-cooked shoulders covered up, with even a few non-babies taking refuge from the sun under the shade tent. It's a good thing Avila Beach has great sidewalk shopping as well, where a host of local artists and craftsmen sell their creations along the boardwalk next to the waves. This is where the rest of our beach Sunday was spent before heading home.

On the way back to reality (another beach town a few miles down the road we call home), a stop at the Avila Valley Barn for frozen ollalieberries and ice cream made for a sweet cap to the day. The freshest in-season fruits and vegetables around, along with homemade sweets and treats, filled the bins and baskets as we walked through the barn trying to demonstrate restraint as the sweet aromas swirled through the air. Suckered out of $15 by the cutest little redhead and blonde boys I've had the pleasure to be called "Auntie" by, I not-so-reluctantly paid for the light-up wand thingies from the toy area of the barn on our way out. I didn't want to leave, partly because the day had been a slice of paradise, and partly because I knew that every step I took out of the barn was one step closer to Monday!

Avila is a great place to spend a weekend in the summer, but there are lots of other places in SLO County that are worthy of "Sunday Status"... where's your favorite?

"Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits."

- Thomas Edison

I don't need to mention that the real estate market is not exactly "hot" right now. Everyone knows that; homesellers know it, buyers know it, the guy at Starbuck's knows it, and real estate professionals definitely know it. So I won't mention it.

But I will mention the fact that there is quite a lot of complaining going around about it. Sentiments like "Woe are we" and "It's his fault" might serve as some sort of release for those who feel frustrated, and understandably so. We want to know how we got here, we want to know who's responsible, and we want to feel a bit sorry for ourselves and the state we're in - that's natural. But let's not stop there.

In the meantime, let's search out ways to get around the current roadblocks, like Olympic Northwest Mortgage did in their recent blog post. So what if you don't agree with every suggestion that is offered up - that's not the point. The point is to get creative, get thinking, get marketing, get busy! There are many, many, many ways to get around the slump.

Even if you are not creative, hate video, and just don't do Twitter, there are still so many ways stay above water. Are you on Facebook? Do you create single property sites for your listings? Do you blog regularly? Do you use Squidoo and Hubpages to further promote your listings? Do you make sure you rank well in Google? The list of opportunities is endless!

So get out there and hustle while you wait for your market to bounce back!

I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing syndication to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer syndicated professional profiles, blog widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members. I would be happy to discuss our services or answer any questions - just contact me here!

Everyone loves free stuff. After all, why pay money for something you can get without forfeiting any of your hard earned cash? I am not the first to say this, and certainly will not be the last, but FREE always has a cost - maybe not a direct monetary cost, but a true cost nonetheless.

For example, do you use a "free" internet service to promote your listings? If so, you may be surprised at all the little extras that "free" comes with. Like competing advertisements on your listings, limited features and usability, and unnecessary time consumption. It makes no sense for a business to give away their services without getting anything in return... there is always a return.

How many leads, what amount of sales, and how much money might you be losing from visitors who click away from your listings to visit a competitor's advertisement? It makes no sense for you to let competitors advertise in your area, yet this is what you may be doing by using a "free" site or service.

Oftentimes, businesses or services will provide free features with some sort of purchase or membership. While this isn't purely free either, they are tools that are available to you at no extra cost, whether you use them or not. The monetary cost to you is disclosed up front, so you know exactly what you are paying for -- this type of "free" is great and should be taken advantage of!

Be sure to research where you put your time, effort, content, and listings, and evaluate the value of your free service. If it is an acceptable cost, you may have found your spot! If not -- if you are losing leads, sales, traffic and credibility -- then get out of there fast. Run away and place your assets where they will pay you back.

TRUE VALUE is always better than FREE.

I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing distribution to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer blog profile syndication, widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members.

"Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment, and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing."

- Thomas Edison

You are guilty of it and so am I. In fact, probably everyone who has ever made an effort to advance their career has been guilty of it. Wasteful, ineffective, and unproductive busy-work. That's exactly the type of work you produce every time you do something yourself that can be done more quickly and easily by someone else. For example, posting your property listings online - how much time do you spend?

"Wait!", you say, "But I save money when I do it myself. I could pay some service to do it, but why on earth would I do that if I can do it just as easily myself?" Well, if you truly can do it just as easily yourself, then have at it! But can you really?

At ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, busy professionals (ahem, you) can create a quality online property listing in 15 minutes from a pre-designed template. And the icing? The listing is automatically posted to over 30 online directories within 24 hours.

So for $12 bucks a month you can spend next to no time at all to promote your listings all over the internet, where over 84% of buyers start their home search.

Or for goodness-knows-how-many-hours you can do it yourself for "free".

How much do you make per hour? How much is your time worth? Are the things you've categorized as "free", really free?

Take a bit of advice from Mr. Edison, and remember, "seeming to do is not doing". Use your time wisely.

I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing distribution to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer blog profile syndication, widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members.

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

- Thomas Edison

If  you are just tuning in, this post is Part 3 of a 5 week series on how to "motivate and help real estate professionals think outside the box and try new things" with their marketing. Using quotes from the great American inventor, Thomas Edison, my goal is to inspire you to reflect on your current strategies and consider trying new ones.

So back to my title, "Your Great Idea is Worthless". I mean it, and ol' Edison's got my back on that. How many discussions, meetings, thoughts, or casual chats have you been a part of where a seemingly "great idea" was present? Did it ever come to pass? The answer to that question depends on whether or not anyone took action to make that idea a reality. An idea, no matter how inspired, no matter how original, no matter how potentially life-changing, will not amount to anything if effort is not applied. How many ideas have you had that were never realized because you let them just hang out in your head?

Now, not every idea you have is going to be great. There is nothing wrong with being reasonable, and weighing the potential pros and cons of something before investing time and money into it. That is different from doing nothing at all. But I challenge you to take a risk and give that inspiration a try! Post #1 in this series, "The Difference Between Permanent Failure and a Bump in the Road" addresses the fear that sometimes comes with trying something new.

Remember, just putting an idea into motion isn't enough, that's not the "perspiration" that Thomas Edison spoke of. You need to commit to it, work at it, and give it a chance to succeed. What great ideas have you had? What ideas have you heard of, that sound like they're great? Will you let them remain worthless, or become genius?

I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing distribution to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer blog profile syndication, widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members.

"I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent."

- Thomas Edison

Sounds simple, right? We all have needs; we need a car, we need a mobile phone, we need a faster way to travel, communicate, and do business. Our needs are what have driven technology and advancement for centuries. So the question is, do you know what your clients need? Let's hope so, because oftentimes, they haveno idea what they need! Remeber, you are the experienced professional, and first and foremost, your clients need you. Now, what else do they need?

With recent reports showing nearly 85% of homebuyers searching the internet for homes, you definitely need to market listings there. Are you? Do you utilize listing syndication, single property websites, blogging, search engine ranking, the MLS, and all of the other internet tools at your disposal?

Also, with technology advancing at a rate faster than ever, are you connected in all the ways you should be? Do you use blogs, mobile features, and virtual tours? Do you know what a "widget is? Let's hope so, because these are the things that will not only allow you to keep up with your competition, but to also stay a step ahead.

Remember, in order to give your clients what they need, you need to know what that is. Best of luck in your search to give people what they need!

*Many of the tools listed above are offered at ClassifiedFlyerAds.com.

I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing distribution to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer blog profile syndication, widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members.

**First, let me apologize for the delay in posting this. My younger brother got married this weekend, and the onslaught of family from all over the country got the best of my time. The rest of the series will be posted on Fridays, rain, sleet, snow, or out of town visitors ;) Now, on with it...

"I have not failed. I've just found a 10,000 ways that won't work."

- Thomas Edison

Some people get a thrill from new experiences; new challenges, and the prospect of the unknown have an invigorating affect on them and inspire action. For some others, however, the prospect of "new" is one of fright and anxiety, something to be avoided at all costs and with all effort.

Why? Why are most people so afraid to try something new? There are many possible reasons which, in part, probably depend on the person's past experiences, influences, and innate personality. I'll make the argument that most people are reluctant to try something new because they are afraid that they could fail. Notice I didn't say that they were afraid that they would fail, just that they could fail. The mere fact that there is a possibility of failure often deters people from even trying. What a tragedy!

In a recent post by marketing expert, Seth Godin, he proposes:

"The object isn’t to be perfect. The goal isn’t to hold back until you’ve created something beyond reproach. I believe the opposite is true. Our birthright is to fail and to fail often, but to fail in search of something bigger than we can imagine. To do anything else is to waste it all."

So I propose this:

Don't let the fear of failure keep you from trying something new. 
Instead, expect that every now and then you will, as Edison puts it, "find ways that don't work". When you experience those "bumps", reflect upon them, learn from them, and use them build confidence and do things better the next time.

Is there something you've been wanting to try in your real estate marketing campaign, but have been holding back because you weren't sure if it would work? Try it! Don't let the fear of failure, or the fear of others perception of you, or the fear of anything hold you back!

The next post in this series will be called, "The Power of Providing People with What They Need", is inspired by the second of my favorite Edison quotes, and will be posted this Friday.

I'll leave you with this video of the song "Dream Big", by Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband:

I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing distribution to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer blog profile syndication, widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members.

In a tough real estate market, agents and realtors need to have an edge when trying to market listings. It can be argued that this edge should be present in any type of market climate, and that is a very good argument indeed. But what better time to start?

While Classified Flyer Ads offers several tools to help real estate professionals obtain that marketing edge, one of the most innovative and sought after tool is the single property website. Put simply, a single property site uses a property's physical address as the website url. For example, if your client lives at 723 Mulberry Lane, the website address for their listing would be www.723MulberryLane.com.

There are three major advantages to having a single listing website:

1) It makes you look good. Your clients will be impressed that you provide a website that is dedicated exclusively to their property for sale. Impressed clients make for great word-of-mouth advertising.
2) It makes the property look good. With the listing placed on an exclusive website, homebuyers will notice the professionalism be encouraged to see the property as valuable.
3) It makes the property accessible. The single property website url can be posted on the sale yard signs and marketing materials for the listing. Any onlookers driving by or recipients of the listing flyers can easily browse the website for photos and info about the property.

At ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, single property websites range from $8.99 to $19.99 and come with your branding, local area information, maps, school data, and more. Members can simply choose the single property site add-on after creating their online flyer. No additional setup is needed!

I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing distribution to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer blog profile syndication, widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members.

I really loved Darren Rowse's (ProBlogger.net) recent post entitled "What Thomas Edison Can Teach You About Blogging", in which he recounts 11 notable Edison quotes that can inspire blogging success. With potential influence in many different areas of life, these sayings got me thinking about how they could be applied to Real Estate and marketing one's business or oneself (which is my area of interest and, coincidentally, my profession). So I've decided to write a short series on the top 5 Edison quotes that I think can help professionals market themselves, their listings, and their business.

The quotes that Rowse referenced are quite inspiring in and of themselves, but even moreso because of the person who originally said them. Thomas Edison overcame arguably the toughest kind of adversity; people telling him that he could never do what he set out to do. In addition, he failed several times in all of his ventures before ever producing something that was popularly accepted. The harsh combination of nay-sayers and actual failures should have crushed him - but it did not. One of my favorite Edison quotes really exposes his persistent spirit and unwillingness to give up or give in:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

What a great perspective - so simple, and still, so profound. This quote will be the topic of my first post in the mini-series entitled, "The Difference Between Permanent Failure and a Bump in the Road."

I will be discussing the tools that are offered at ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, as well as basic inspiration, that can motivate and help real estate professionals think outside the box and try new things. I'm excited to get going, and the first post will be this Friday, with the rest following each Friday for the next 5 weeks. Hope to talk to you there!

I work in marketing and communications for ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, focusing on tools and internet technology for real estate professionals. Our most popular tools offer competitive search engine placement and online listing distribution to over 30 real estate directories. We also offer blog profile syndication, widgets, and virtual tours - free to all subscribed members.

At ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, we recently implemented a feature to help eBay store owners promote their stores and products online. This prompted me to get more familiar with eBay and do some research (I didn't want to be the only clueless one in the office!). So there I was snooping and poking and lurking my way around eBay, when I stumbled across the 'Real Estate' category.

Now, Classified Flyer Ads has been providing eBay posting html for real estate flyers for a long time, so I knew in my head that eBay listed homes for sale. But seeing it in action just struck me as surprising. There were homes for auction bidding as well as "buy it now", commercial properties, residential, land and more! Wow, do people really look for homes on eBay???

The reasoning side of my brain started to kick in and I start asking myself all sorts of qustions, like:

"Do serious buyers search eBay for real estate?"

"Do real estate agents commonly list there, or is it mostly FSBO?"

"Is eBay an effective venue for selling real estate?"

Mostly all of the listings had several bids on them! I must say, I learned something new today, and am more and more intrigued as I go...

Have any of you had any experience with listing, selling, or buying real estate via eBay? I'm so curious now and would love to hear your stories!!