Google Analytics has a new option for adding statistics to your site and I have it working on my Active Rain account. When you are on the final page, or you are editing your analytics in case you have already tried it out. There is a tab at the top of the "code" section that says New Tracking Code (ga.js). Copy paste that code into your "My Settings" Blog Description section and you should see results in the next 24 hours. If anyone had any issues please report them here so we can try and solve them together! Yeah!

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

I may be obsessive but where are my statistics? I tried installing analytics into my AR BLOG and it just doesn't work, if anyone has gotten it to successfully work please let me know. I am obsessed with my analytics and I use them to determine where my time and money is best spent. I spent the last day pouring over all of my analytics which I do once a month and learned all kinds of things, like what pages I totally wasted my money last month and pages that I thought should never get hits skyrockted. Since my analytics is also tied into my click throughs and adsense it shows me where I am doing a good jog and where I am remiss. I don't think I need to tell you all of this you already know.

So if I can not use Google Analytics on AR then is AR providing similiar analytics that I can use? Anyone know of anything? Anyone want to start a petition to get AR to fix the google analytics problem, tell us how to fix it, or provide their own? Who's with me, someone grab some torches I'll get the pitch forks. No Earl that is a shovel...

How are you hosting your images you place in your BLOG? Do you host them on your own web server or does AR have an area where you can upload images?

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

Everyone these days are talking about Going Green, which I am completely supportive of, there are even classes in my market center about Green Living and Green Building. I subscribe to Green Living Magazine. I went to a Rain Barrel workshop and support local CSAs and on and on and on. So we are all doing our part. It is like Earth Day from the 90's on crack.

What about just totally going off the grid? I checked today and there are 15 million results when you do a search on Google for, off the grid. Some of those sites are way out there for me, but some are not so. It no longer brings up the images of desparate uni-bombers looking for attention, it brings up images of peace loving hippies aging and tired of living the life of insanity we have all come to know and love. So what do you think do you think you could live off the grid? According to one of the sites perused this morning 250k new people a year move off the grid and most of those people provide the utility companies with green clean renewable forms of energy through wind turbines and water sheds. That trend according to a different website is increasing at a dramatic rate. I would put those sites here, and I do feel I am being remiss for not doing so, but honestly I have read so many today that I cannot find the site where I read the statistics. My apologies to those sites and all the hard work they put into them.

The reason I bring all of this up is that I had a client walk in my office today and tell me they want to purchase farm land, 30 acres, outside of the city county restrictions and want to build there own renewable resource home and live completely off the grid. In TN there is still plenty of land like that. I was so fascinated by them I started reading. Who knows maybe next year I will be Blogging with my laptop running off my own windmill.

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

I have witnessed sheer panic the last two days in the market center where my office is located. The network went down and there is hair all over the floor. The "tech guy" in the office just left, I don't know if he will ever come back. The technician from the hosting provider just peeled out of the driveway he muttered something about having to fix the problem from his office, I think he was just scared. 76 frothing Realtors where about to take his head off. Still no network. Me I am saved because I have an AirCard. :)

Do you have a backup plan?

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

For the first time in four years I am sharing an office space. I recently moved my license to a Keller Williams office closer to home, so also had to move my office. Which is not the first time nor have I had an office with KW for four years. I moved to a smaller branch and I like it alot over here. I am not sure about sharing the office though. It might be a good thing for me though, maybe then I will stop talking to myself. :)

What about you do you share an office? If so how is that working out for you? When and where do you do lead generation? If not, would you rather share an office with someone? What if they were the top producer in your office?

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

O.K. Everyone's website has the big three: CMA, MLS, Contact Information. Ok so the Big Two and a call to action and some way for them to contact you. Since everybody has that and most people have neighborhood information, schools, local contact numbers, and pretty much everything you have in your out-of-town buyers packet. What are you doing to stand out from everyone else?

For my part, in my family we have decided to home school our children for two reasons. We control what we teach and it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg. I would rather send my children to boot camp than public schools, and private schools aren't much better they just cost more. So what I am doing, and what occurred to me last night as an Aha! moment is I am adding home schooling information to my website as a resource. It seems that the groups we belong to need to know the state laws on home schooling, what groups are available, etc... So I have that as part of a future niche since I am trying to source all of my materials at the moment.

I am looking for more ideas to stand out on my website. We have cross marketing, we have created a brand image, we are getting a lot of hits, but very few lead conversions. It is almost like I need teaser text or to give away a door prize to the millionth visitor. Any thoughts?

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

I just wanted to put a call out to any Mensan Realtors who may be about. Speak up be heard. I would love to chat. I am the Local Member Coordinator for the Middle Tennessee Chapter, and would like to hear from other Mensan Realtors who may be about and how their careers and lives have been impacted by being a Mensan, or is it just another networking group or a forum for intellectual stimulus. What SIGs are you apart of? Have you ever been to an AG? RG? Hell FG?

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

I just had to post about this, I think I must be either the worst or the top 100,000 businessman in the world. I have had two client interviews today for my technology company. One of them was a fellow Realtor and another was just a guy wanting to be a millionaire doing something he loved. So I have a couple of documents and a price sheet that I give to people who are prospective clients and I have lost more clients because of that document than anything else and they love me for it.

My Realtor friend that wanted a website and then 9 more websites came to me today and said Chris I need this done now. So out come my documents, and I knew she was coming so I went and did some research and found her an alternative company to use. So I go through my presentation and we discuss everything and at the end of I say, well Friend of Mine, what do you think, and I get the blank stare. Then I say that is what I thought which is why I found someone else who is better going to fit your needs at 1/16 of my costs. Yeah I have a friend for life, and I am out $3500, plus referral business, plus maintenance and hosting, which all in all equates to about $10,000 a year.

My client this morning, I had to practice tough love, and I basically told him that it would be better to keep his hobby as a hobby than try to run it as an internet business. I would have made a lot more money, but he would have been bankrupt in a year and I would not have been happy about it.

So why do I sabotage myself, I guess you could call altruism, but it is mostly because it will never be a Win-Win situation. I will make a little money they will spend time spinning their wheels and every month that they have to write me a check they resent me a little more, and really if you can't create a Win-Win situation for everyone neither of you are going to prosper. Which ties nicely into the customer service side of being a Realtor. Always create a Win-Win even if it costs you the instant gratification of a paycheck, it will be alot better for you in the long run.

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

Do you use your scripts? Do you have any? What about all of the training your company provides do you use that> For my part I want to use the scripts but have not spent enough time role-playing or practicing them for them to naturally flow from my brain and not sound Scripted, which is by far the worst thing you can sound like. I spoke with my mentor the other day and he told me to practice my scripts and then he told me to pick one of two things from the MREA book to focus on this year. If you do not have the MREA book and you want to know what it is e-mail me and I will be glad to tell you all about it, since I have read 3 times already and am working on a 4th time. I am also working on a review of the book on my personal BLOG but it is not ready yet, its way toooooo long.

The other activity I get exposed to is training and I have done a lot of training, I have trained so much I took a time blocking class so I can manage my training. It is all good stuff though and I love it so much that I have offered to teach the classes myself, since you retain 95% of what you teach. Do you find training to be a hindrance or a benefit? This week I would say I took a little too much training. I feel like I must be going on vacation on Monday because I have been working like a fiend all day today. I am not going on vacation on Monday, but I did have to categorize my to-do lists into sub-categories so I could accomplish something this week. :)

Some of the classes and training power sessions I have been involved with lately have been a little repetitive, and I have heard the same things repeated over and over again in the same way. It is almost like when you were in grade school and you learned math, then the next year you spent half the year learning only the stuff you covered the year before and so forth. So I have heard about my sphere of influence a dozen times this week, and 8x8, touch 12, touch 33 ad nauseum.

Having said that, that is what I love about the business of Real Estate. What other business can you start where the franchise fees are so small? They give you model to follow, plenty of support people to help you learn and prosper, train the 'ell out of you, and then help you through the day-to-day details. My tech company I have spent the last 15 years with and just now have a business model that is expanding mostly based on the business practices I am learning while developing my real estate business.

I know you missed me, so I will try to post more often, especially since my training classes are winding down. I will put up a post about it soon but feel free to check out our new market site. Call Bellevue Home If you are in the Nashville, TN market it will make a lot more sense to you, but hey it is a global presence you never know who is wanting to relocate. ;)

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com

I don't know about you but after that venti six-shot white chocolate mocha made with soy, you know the $8 cup, of coffee I get in the morning while I am lead generating in my local coffee house just has me pinging off the walls. I feel like I have more energy than the sun and am burning twice as hot ready to go!!!

So off I go..I go to my appointments and then I go preview houses in my target market. Lots of houses, I am really trying to get to know my inventory. I also show a lot of houses in the same area. Then as I look at house after house, and I see that as is monnicker like a badge at the end of every other listing I realize the sub-prime practices are only part of the problem. Sellers have gotten lazy. It was so easy to sell a house in the past few years that they still feel they can put a house on the market with crushed beer cans in the closet and stained furniture in the middle of the floor. I saw one where they left the dog in all day and the dog was definitely in all day. The house wreaked and I actually had a client, who like myself is allergic to dogs, and there was no mention of a dog in the listing or when I called the showing service. We left without previewing the house at the client's request, quickly.

Some of these are extreme examples of course, I have only run into one dog. Others are simple things like the client is still living there and they don't feel the need to straighten up before they leave so the house can be shown. Others are more blatant with the laissez-faire attitude of I have a house and it will sell for what I want it to sell for regardless of the as is statement. There is a house just down the street from where I live and it is painted neo-goth, lots of blacks and reds everywhere. One room as, cheaply, nailed up tin on the door with a black room and red trim, and black lights in the ceiling fan, with its custom paint job. The house is listed at premium price for the neighborhood and it has been on the market a little over six months. I know the guy that owns the house from the neighborhood, a decent guy, and he asked me why I thought his house wasn't selling and I told him, I am not his agent so I could be politely blunt , and his only response was well maybe I should drop the house by $2500 and offer a paiting allowance. I gave him a courtesy nod and knew he would never get it.

The random house or two will always be extreme examples, but I haven't walked into a nicely staged home under $300k in so long I have to wonder if it isn't more the sellers that are causing the issues than the mortgage industry. It is just time to step up the game a little, which is why I am including home staging tips, design consultants (with a good rate), and the top ten things I can do to help my home sell quickly list in all of my listing packets and presentations.

-cem

Chris Mitchell
http://www.CallNashvilleHome.com