BLACK FRIDAY WORDPRESS SETUP AT A MAJOR DISCOUNT! + MUCH MORE!!!!

Have you been on the fence about setting up a WordPress site? Don't have the time? Keep putting it off?

Now is the time to get off the fence and take action! 

From Now Until December 5th:

I Am Offering Full Wordpress Setup + 20 Pages Of Fully Optimized Content

For $999 Just $497!!!!

 That's 50% Off!

This includes:

• 20 Pages Of 600-700 Word Highly SEO Optimized Community Content Written By My Professional SEO Writers ( $600 Value)

• 1 Uniquely Designed Header (Normally $99)

• 1 Uniquely Designed Call To Action (Normally $97)

• Genesis Framework ($59 Value)

• StudioPress AgentPress 2.0 Theme ($44.95 Value)

• Installation Of My Preferred Plugins For A Better Blog ($99 Value)

• IDX Integration If You Want It (Highly Recommended!) This Includes dsIDXPress Or IDX Broker

And as a special bonus to ensure you know how to use your website properly. 

I will be throwing in free coaching and training! 

You Get:

• 5 Hours Of Training (Normally $100 An Hour!)

• 5 Hours Of Coaching (Normally $100 An Hour!)

That's a total value of $1,999 for just $497!

Get Your Wordpress Site With 20 Pages For Just $497 Now!

Contact me at Chase@PursuitTroop.com or give me a call at 435-760-7473 for more details.

Still not sure?

Here are some recent client testimonials:

I found Chase on AR because I kept asking my current website person to "help me move forward" with my site.  I felt stuck until I got ahold via AR of Chase.  He called me back immediately.  Chase is very professional in his approach.  He presented me with several written options regarding cost to me vs. what he does for that money each month.  Chase is always available.  Phone calls, e-mails..always returned and questions answered promptly.  He attacks his work with a sense of humor.  He's created a very user friendly site for me that is pushing me into the forefront in my area.  I would recommend him to anyone!

- Kimberley Joy Kelly

Before I hired my son Chase, my business was sputtering. I was getting desperate and I needed to find a way to attract new clients. This was in 2008. Since then, I have opened up my own brokerage, hired 4 buyer’s agents, and I closed more transactions in May 2011 than I have ever closed in a single month before. All of this because of the amount of Internet exposure my company is getting. I don’t know where I would be without my SEO magician Chase! My company would never have happened. Thanks Chase!

- Lisa Udy

Chase was superb in providing us guidance in getting our new website up and running! We were previous users of a template website, so starting from scratch with a self-hosted website was a novel experience! His step by step process for getting the tools available for him to establish the framework was very easy for us to follow. He provided guidance for possible service providers, IDX solutions, etc. He was ALWAYS very responsive and right on the mark with advice! We HIGHLY recommend using him to get your custom website created!

- Liz & Bill Spear

Chase I just wanted to drop you a note to say how impressed I am with your SEO knowledge and how to get a website to rank well in Google. SEO for Real Estate is certainly a competitive field and your expertise clearly shows. It is always great to compare notes with you on what works and what doesn’t with online marketing. Keep up the great work my friend!

- Bill Gassett

My personal website was out of date, needed to be re-invented and I had no idea where to begin. Chase helped me complete the process by providing format and layout insight, targeted direction, as well as excellent follow up. Chase made an overwhelming project seem like nothing more than a moderate learning curve. Whenever I have a new question, I can count on Chase to provide quick, concise feedback. I highly recommend Chase… he will exceed your expectations.

- Ron Monson

Want to see an example? Here you go: http://kimberleyjoykelly.com/

Kim hired me at the start of October and we've already created over 130 pages of content since! She writes, I optimize. However, for you, I will kick start your WordPress site with 20 community/neighborhood pages thrown in!

I will also teach you how to write, optimize, add photos, videos, IDX searches, and post to your site. I will be available by email 7 days a week 365 to help you with your site. I will be available by phone with one weeks notice when you need it! (Normally 24 hours turn around!)

Get Your Wordpress Site With 20 Pages For Just $497 Now!

Contact me at Chase@PursuitTroop.com or give me a call at 435-760-7473 for more details.

Can't Afford $497 Right Now? Don't worry...It gets better...

The Genesis platform, home to the new AgentPress 2.0  theme, is having a sale until the 28th of Nov. Right now you can get 25% off anything StudioPress Offers! 

If you can't spend $497 now, you can at least get the Genesis Framework and the AgentPress theme at a major discounted price until Monday November 28th at 7pm Pacific Time! Here's the details:

Using the code THANKS at checkout (don’t forget that), you can save 25% off of anything you’d like at WordPress design shop, StudioPress.

1. Get the Genesis Framework + StudioPress 2.0 Theme for only $75. (Normally $99!!)

2. Snag The AgentPress Theme By Clicking The Banner Below: 

All you need to do is use the code THANKS when you check out and you'll save 25% on anything and everything at StudioPress.com.  

This deal ends promptly at 7:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011.  Hurry up and claim your new WordPress theme before the code expires!

Contact me at Chase@PursuitTroop.com or give me a call at 435-760-7473 for more details.

Hold On...There's Even More!

In order to use StudioPress you have to self host it. That means you have to pay for hosting. Well guess what! HostGator is having a massive Black Friday sale on their hosting plans. I personally use HostGator for all  of my WordPress setups.

This sale will start at 12:01 am on Friday morning and end at 11:59 pm. It's a one day sale ONLY so don't forget to check back here on Friday for the details. If you want me to remind you, leave a comment and I will email you Friday to remind you to get the hosting. Hosting will be 50% off which is just $2.48/month!

Contact me at Chase@PursuitTroop.com or give me a call at 435-760-7473 for more details.

Disclaimer: The banners contain affiliate links. I get a small amount of money if you purchase through my links. If you do this, just send me an email at Chase@PursuitTroop.com and I will personally setup your blog with your hosting for using my links. How's that for a fair trade? You buy through my affiliate links and I'll setup your framework for free!!

Hey Activerain! So as many of you know, I haven't been active here lately and my son, who many of you may have heard me talk about, is going to be taking over for me. He just setup his AR blog here: Chase Green. Feel free to check him out and welcome him to the community. He will be able to help you with SEO, Social Media, and internet marketing. Many of the things I have talked about on my blog are a direct result of him and I working together to learn about internet marketing. 

I will be reposting many of his posts here to keep my subscriber base updated on new marketing techniques and blogging ideas. His first few posts are going to be about Wordpress and setting up IDX to help you generate more leads. I think you will be pretty happy to have him taking over for me as he is extremely intelligent and a great person. So, thanks AR for keeping up with me, and I hope you have a great time learning from Chase! :)

I like to read a lot of stuff on SEO and I always find it funny when others say don't do this, or don't do that when they themselves have never tested it.

For this reason, my son and I have, over the last 3 years, setup our own "dummy" sites to test what actually works and what doesn't. Many people are so scared of "blackhat" SEO that they never take action. Well, I'm here to tell you, don't be afraid, just be smart. Here's how I test SEO techniques using dummy sites.

Step 1. Buy A Domain Name With A New Registrar Account

Google has access to domain registrar data. For this reason, if you want to test a blackhat/greyhat site, you need to make sure you buy the domain name with a totally different account than your normal account. It's also very important to make sure your registration data is private.

You can do this with Godaddy's private domain registration by following that link. It costs more (11.99) to register a private domain, but there will be no way for Google to know that you are the registrar of the domain name, which will protect your other domains from any backlash.

Step 2. Do Not Use Any Google Services With Your New Domain Name

Google has many services that can gather information about a website. It's important to keep your dummy site out of Google's services. This means no Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Adwords, or Adsense with this site. You can install a different analytics program such as GetClicky or Statcounter to see your traffic. 

Step 3. Don't Interlink Your Dummy Site With Your Other Sites

Remember, you want this site to be completely separate from your main website/s. Do not link from this website to your other websites/blogs and don't link from your other websites/blogs to your dummy site. Also, don't post the same content as your other sites/blogs on your dummy site. Keep your content SEPARATE!

Finished!

That's it. You now have a dummy site you can test SEO on and not have to worry about any damage being done to your business or main websites. You can buy links, write spammy content, write duplicate content, buy Facebook likes, or anything else. If you see someone saying something works in SEO, you now have a test site to try it out first before you do it with your main websites. Instead of taking the next SEO "Guru's" advice on what does and what doesn't work, you can TEST and be the guru yourself. 

Disclaimer: I do not, in anyway, condone blackhat SEO, but I do like to try stuff for myself. If you are new to SEO, don't even think about trying this method. You need to learn how to do whitehat SEO first! You can learn what is expected in the SEO game by reading Google's very own Beginner's Guide To SEO. 

Don't have time for whitehat SEO? My son, who has been doing SEO for me for the last three years, is now offering SEO services to Realtors. Check out his website here: http://pursuittroop.com/.

I've been on AR for a little more than 2 years and during that time, I've found some pretty great ways to generate online leads. I've also seen many agents on this network who don't have the necessary tools to generate a sufficient amount of leads to make a dent in the online lead generation world. This guide is for those agents.

First off, let's define lead generation. I see a lead as a potential buyer or seller who needs some sort of follow-up or convincing that you are the right agent for them. In order to get the chance to talk to that lead, you must first generate them. There are many ways to generate a lead, but for this guide, I want to talk about generating a lead through the use of an IDX property website.

What's an IDX property website?

IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. It means you have data that you receive through a shared feed. An IDX property website is a website that allows you to display other properties listed on your MLS that are not your own. Want to see an awesome IDX property website? View mine here. This website has 1000's of properties listed by every single agent in my MLS. Pretty cool right? I think so. Don't have a lot of money to spend on an IDX website? Get a Wordpress IDX site from my son for cheap. You can see some possible templates from his Utah Web Design page. You can see an example from Bill & Liz spear, he setup their site just the other day. 

Why Do I Need IDX To Generate Leads?

An IDX website is a valuable resource for one reason. Buyer's looking to view properties online can view every property they will ever need on your IDX site. Instead of just showing you're own listings, you have more to offer. This extra incentive to stick around on your website is a value proposition. And, if you know anything about generating leads, you know that you have to offer something of value to interest the potential prospect to use your services. 

How Does IDX Generate Leads?

If you go back to my website and click on two separate properties, after you click the first one, the second time it will require you to create an account in order to view more. Now, there's been a large debate on whether to force registration or not, but I fully believe that forced registration is the key to successful online lead generation. Some agents are adamantly against forced registration, but instead of a back and forth argument of why u should or shouldn't force registration, I want you to make up your own mind by viewing actual data. 

Forced Vs. Non-Forced Registration

There's a great study that was done by real estate agents at BarkerHdeges.com on using forced registration vs. not. Here are the last three posts on actual data of leads generated, conversion rates, and some nice commentary by other real estate agents who switched to forced registration after non-forced wasn't giving them the results they wanted. Week 6 Week 5 Week 4 - This study shows the amount of leads gained with a forced registration vs. non-forced is quite dramatic. 

Driving Targeted Traffic To Your Website

In order to generate leads online you have to have targeted traffic. Targeted traffic is key to generating the right leads who could potentially turn into a valuable client. Any other traffic is, basically, worthless. I have many funnels to generate traffic to my website and I wanted to share with you my full strategy of traffic generation. 

Blog For Real Estate - Are you using your AR blog to generate real buyer's traffic? There are a lot of real estate agents here on AR who are not. People may disagree with me on this front, but I truly believe that real estate agents should blog about real estate. Leave the local journalism, restaurant reviews, and such to the experts who dabble in that sort of stuff.

• If you're serious about generating leads with your real estate blog, blog about real estate related topics only. Search engines rank sites with laser like focus at the top of their results pages. A blog that tries to be both real estate related and the local town hall is confusing to search engine robots. With the recent Panda update, it's more important than ever to stay focused. So how should you write blogs to generate targeted REAL ESTATE traffic? 

Formula For A Successful Lead Generating Blog Post 

1. Keyword Rich Titles - Using keywords in your blog post title is critical to success. But don't go overboard. Each blog post should have one main keyword set to focus on. And don't use clever titles, just be direct. Search engine users want to scan a title and know exactly what the article is about, so be stick to your stated subject.
2. Keyword Rich First Sentence - Reinforce your posts title in your first sentence. Your first sentence should make people want to read your next sentence. Add your keywords into the sentence and let them know the benefit you will offer them if they continue to read on. 
3. Give Them What They Came For - Stay on topic and don't ramble. People want information and they want it now. Keep your post precise and make it easy to digest. Separate long paragraphs with bullet points, break up big ideas into small paragraphs, and don't forget to add pictures and graphs to make your content more appealing.
4. Finish Strong - Finish your post with a call to action. If your post is about a new condo development, point the reader to your IDX page with those condo listings. This tactic is precision business blogging with a purpose. You give a potential lead expert information, (Hook) - Send them to your IDX page with listings (Line) - And follow up to gain trust. (Sinker) Want an example? Here's a post I wrote on The Most Expensive Houses In Utah that has been rather successful in generating luxury home buyers. 

Website Promotion - Promoting a website has two channels: Online and Offline. Online promotion can be done through blogging, social networking, pay per click ads, article marketing, blog commenting, press releases, and syndication.

Have you ever been told that Google will penalize your site for this or that? Most of the time, when your site disappears from the rankings, it's been filtered not penalized. A filter is very common and easily overcome if you know what to do.

A penalty is something that takes more time depending on the severity of the infraction. However, if you have a penalty, you can still get back on your feet if you fix the problem and let Google know what you did to fix it. If the problem was removed from your site correctly, Google will usually allow your site to resurface after a certain amount of time. So what's the difference between a filter and a penalty, and how do you fix it? 

Google Penalties Vs. An Algorithm Filter

A penalty can be both manually done by a Google engineer (usually done with a spam report filed by someone) or algorithmically by Google's secret ranking sauce.

Common penalty situations include:

• Doorway pages or hidden text.
• Buying links or selling links.
• Excessive reciprocal linking.
• Over-optimizatized anchor text.
• Link schemes & cross linking.

As real estate agents, most of these don't apply to us as I think most of us don't even know how to do most of them! In fact, Google penalties are rare for the average website, and usually a site owner knows exactly what they did to deserve it.

However, many real estate websites are suffering from filters from some common SEO mistakes. Things like keyword stuffing, duplicate content, and over optimization, can cause a filter. An over-optimized site, or a keyword stuffed page, is filtered by Google's algorithms automatically, and can be overcome if you fix your pages using these guidelines.

Over Optimization Filter Vs. Manual Penalty

The most common filter applied to real estate websites is the over optimization filter. This filter will drop a page to the bottom of the search results. You can often tell a page has been filtered if you notice a page previously ranking in the top 10 suddenly drops out of the search results or towards the bottom.

A manual penalty is applied by a Google engineer and is site-wide. Your entire website will be bumped back usually around 3 to 4 pages. If you continue to do the tactics that imposed this manual penalty, your site could be banned from the index entirely. Let's talk about each of these and how to fix them.

Overcoming the Over-Optimization Filter

I've seen this myself on websites I've run. It happened after I wrote a couple of new pages. They initially were in the top ten spots and a few days later they completely disappeared.

I was baffled so I went studying to find out what happened. Turns out, as I was new to SEO, keywords stuffed in every nook and cranny aren't such a good thing! 

Here is a great video by SEOMOZ on the over optimization penalty: On Site Over Optimization

How To Test Your Website For An Over-Optimization Filter

• Did a few select pages disappear from the search results?
• Is your website still indexed? (Test this by typing in site:www.mywebsite.com.)
• Are your pages using excessive keywords in the title tags?
• Are your pages using excessive keywords on page?
• Are you using excessive keywords in the URL? (Example - www.mysite.com/real-estate-listings-for-sale-city-state-homes-properties-foreclosures-short-sales-waterfront.com)
• Abuse of H1, H2, H3 tags? 
• Excessive interlinking using unnatural anchor text. (Used Cars, Used Cars For Sale, Used Cars For Sale City, Used Cars In City, etc...)
• Does your website have a massive amount of navigational links? (Usually anything over 100 is bad.)
• Is your content on multiple websites or not very unique? 

If you feel your website is participating in any of these practices but you don't have a problem with a filter it could be a number of reasons. You may have some strong in-bound links off setting the filter causing your web page to be above the threshold.

• Clean up the title tag. Each page should be optimized for one to two keywords, anything over that can get you're page filtered. Example: Keep your title tags under 70 to 80 characters and only use the most specific keywords that describe the page.

• Have someone who knows nothing about SEO read your page. Did it seem natural to them? If not remove excessive keywords and clean up your page for a user, not a search engine. 

• Are your URL's filled with keywords? Recent data released by SEOMOZ on rankings and correlations show that the more characters in a URL, the lower the page ranks. You can see the full study here: Search Engine Ranking Factors - Keep your URLS's short and to the point!

• You shouldn't really have more than one H1 or H2 tag on a page and keep your H3 tags minimal if possible.

• Use internal links wisely. I've heard from multiple sources that you should keep internal on page links under 10 if possible. That means you shouldn't have a footer on every page with 100's of links pointing to every keyword you can imagine. 

• Try to keep navigational links below the 100 mark. Matt Cutts says that anything over 100 could be excessive. I don't think this is a huge factor as there are millions of sites breaking this rule. However, if you can remove a few links that you don't think are necessary, it won't hurt you.

• Remove all duplicate content or add more fresh and unique content to a page that is struggling to bounce back. Sometimes you just need to add some more content for a page to bounce back from this filter. If you have duplicated content, remove it or rewrite it to give the page a fresh look.

Overcoming A Manual Website Penalty

This penalty is a site-wide penalty meaning your entire site's rankings will be dropped by four to six pages depending on the your previous rankings and the severity of the penalty.

This penalty is applied by a Google engineer due to a spam report or because your website was reported. (Usually by a competitor!) These problems are usually one or more of the following:

• Hidden text or hidden links to deceive search engines.

• Cloaking Or Re-Directs - Serving different pages to bots and users for rankings.

• Using automated tools to check rankings or to send queries to Google.

• Loading pages with spammy and irrelevant content including spun machine articles.

• Creating multiple domains with similar content for interlinking and link schemes.

• Excessive reciprocal linking or three way links schemes.

• Selling or buying links to manipulate search engines.

To overcome this penalty you'll have to clean up your website and file for a re-inclusion request. This is done through Google Webmaster Tools. Before you file a request, you have to fix the problems that cause the penalty. You should know if you've been handed a manual penalty as these tactics are fairly brazen. 

Sorry for the long post, but if you feel your pages aren't ranking like they should, you're probably over doing it on the SEO front. Refrain from spamming keywords, using duplicate content, heavy internal linking, and over use of anchor text. If you follow these simple rules you shouldn't have to worry about any kind of Google penalty or filter.

Hey folks! (Yes, I stole that from Broker Bryant!) I've been really excited by all the SEO banter going on lately here in the rain about what works and what doesn't. People claim things but they don't back it up with real world results, so I am here to show you how to create a neighborhood landing page on your website that converts traffic into clients with proof! :)

I don't know how your website works and what not, but in order to create effective neighborhood landing pages, the most important aspect is to have an IDX. IDX allows you to display properties from your MLS from other agents. If you don't have a website with IDX capabilities, you should definitely look into getting one, they are amazing! (P.S. Make sure you can customize the IDX searches, otherwise it's a waste of time.)

First Step - Determine the neighborhood you want to target.

For me, I have  created well over 100 neighborhood landing pages on my Logan real estate website. I create pages for every neighborhood in Logan, the area I serve, and a small bit of information related to the area. Want some examples? Here you go:

Hidden Village & Sumac Drive Homes In Logan

Park Avenue & Parkside Estates Homes In Logan Utah

Let's break this page down so you can get an idea of everything that I did to convert leads. Now, you are at a disadvantage if you don't have an IDX to display listings, so again if you don't have IDX, go get it right now!

Second Step - Keywords are crucial to being found in Google. 

The first thing a searcher who was looking for this neighborhood in Google sees are the keywords they expected in the title. After the title there is an initial paragraph with more keywords and a little information about the area as well as some long tail keywords such as "waterfront", "quiet neighborhoods" and "Logan River." There's more keywords in there and I'm sure you can find them, but let's keep it brief. After the initial paragraph the next step is to provide the goods.

Just below the initial paragraph there are the listings. We introduced our page, had our initial keywords, and now it's time to give the searcher what they really want. Listings! This is easily done with my website through the custom IDX builder. Again, people searching for neighborhoods want to see listings. And, if you notice at the bottom of the initial paragraph, it asks them to read below if they want more information. Some people want to read more about the area, while some people just want listings. This page gives both types of people what they want.

Step Three - Provide more information for those who want it.

You'll notice a lot more keywords that could bring in a potential searcher as well as information on the neighborhood. Below this I also have schooling information and real estate statistics over the last 5 years for those who are analytical. This page has it all. Targeted keywords to bring in the initial search. Listings for those who want to see properties. Neighborhood information for those who want to learn more about the area. Schooling information for those with kids, and of course statistics for both the analytical type and sellers who are looking into the neighborhood. 

Final Step - Make your contact information easy to find & use a call to action!

There are three ways for someone to contact me on this page for more information. First at the top of my website is my phone number.

Next they can visit my Contact Page which is displayed at the top of the page. After the initial paragraph there is a small sentence asking them to contact me if they have questions like so:

And just below the listings I have a small box that asks them to sign up to bookmark favorites, setup listing alerts, and save their searches. 

Secret Lead Generating Sauce - Forced registration.

My IDX gives me a couple of options for people looking at listings. I can make them sign up for an account after looking at any number of properties. After testing non-forced vs. forced registration, I have determined that forced is better. You may not believe so, or it may not work for your market area, but in my market forced registration works. I allow my visitors to see one property before it asks them to sign up. Want to see the proof? This is 6 months of lead generation with forced registration:

This is small potatoes compared to some of the mega agents out there, but hey it works for my setup. You won't see many agents showing, out in the open, their lead generating techniques. This is because they are scared to show you due to not having anything to show, or they think it's all a big secret. I say phooey! Show me what you do and I'll decide if it works for me. Well, this is what I do, and it works for me. Setting up neighborhood landing pages is easy and it generates leads.

If you're struggling to generate online leads, create more neighborhood pages, and make sure it's easy for people to contact you. You need to offer something of value (Cough IDX, Cough) and people will sign up on your website. If you have questions about IDX and setting up neighborhood landing pages, leave me a comment or send me an email if you want to keep it private. I would love to help!

How many times have you read or heard someone tout that blogging is great for SEO? I would say I hear it about 3-4 times a minute! LOL - Anyways, why is blogging so great for SEO? To all of you that say it, can you explain it? I'll try my best here and if you have anything else to add, please leave me a comment and an example of how you walk the walk.

Content Is The Lifeblood Of SEO

Blogging allows you to update and add content very easily. If you're new to SEO, your first lesson is to understand that without content you can't rank. Want to rank for a subdivision in your area in Google?

Well, you better have some content related to that subdivision. Adding a blog post detailing the subdivision, local amenities, restaurants, and such will help with SEO. So rule #1:

Blogging is great for SEO because SEO is all about content!

Walking the walk - Here are some examples of subdivisions blogs I've written that rank well:

• Deer Crest In North Logan - Google It!
• Pheasant Run Subdivision In North Logan - Google It!
• Homes For Sale Near Lundstrom Park In Logan - Google It!
• Quail Bluff Homes In Logan Utah - Google It!

I've been on ActiveRain since January of 2009 and the other day I was going through my past posts reminiscing about the good ol' days! I haven't been as active here on ActiveRain as I have more priorities that take precedence, but I thought about all the new people that have joined ActiveRain since I started who could benefit from some older posts I wrote and I would like to share them with you. Here we go!

My First Blog - Oh my! I have come a long way since my first blog. I still remember the cold sweats and the worry that no one would like me. It was terrifying to say the least! But, I knew that if I just tried it, it would be over after just a click of my mouse.

If you're sitting on the sidelines thinking you're not good enough or you have nothing to write about, stop it right now, and write your first blog. Seriously, leave right now and go write a post, I'll wait...

One Of My Most Helpful Posts - When you get into blogging, it's extremely important to know how people are engaging with your content. The easiest way to get this data is through an analytics program. I searched far and wide to find an analytics program that runs with AR and found GetClicky.

It's a great program and you can finally see how people are finding you in the search engines and how long they are staying on your blog. Anytime I talk to a new member I always refer them to this post so they can see the results of their hard work updated in real time! 

Want More Google Juice? - Aww, this post brings back some good memories. When I first started out I was extremely excited to blog but I couldn't understand why some people's blogs were outranking my own. So, I quickly learned that in order to gain traction in the results pages, it was important to market my blog correctly. I took what I was learning and put it into a simple post on why links are so important to an SEO strategy. If you're new to blogging and SEO, this post is very basic, yet can be a core building block for your blogging success. 

Who's Stealing My Content!? - Ever have someone steal your content? If not, it will happen, I can guarantee it. So, I hit the streets of the Internet to find something that would help me find those pesky little content theifs, and I came across a simple tool called Fairshare. This tool scour the Internet and anytime it comes across content similar to yours, it will notify you through an RSS reader. Bam! You now can go all Lenn Harley on those little buggers and sleep well at night knowing your content is protected!

Are You Syndicating? - Blogging for business is all about gaining exposure through online communication in order to attract potential clients. The more places you place your content, the more chances you have to gain new eyeballs and possibly a new friend, or better yet, a new client! This post gives you a little help on finding new places to attract a different audience, get some links, and become a blog rock star. If you've followed through on the four previous steps, it's time to up your game, so get to it!

Taking On The Internet Crazies - After blogging for a while, you're going to end up making someone upset or come across someone with a different opinion than yours. Sometimes, due to the nature of the Internet, they will remain anonymous and call you out in your comments. Taking care of these situations is a delicate process and should be nipped in the butt as soon as possible. This post gives you a few things to think about on the way you handle this situation. Don't give up on blogging because someone was mean, move on, and keep your head up!

Taking It To The Next Level - As time goes by, you'll be astounded at the number of ways people will find your blog. Analytics data is a gold mine and should be used to target new verticals every chance you get.

This post describes how you can use your GetClicky analytics to come up with new posts and new ideas on how to target a new demographic. After blogging for a while, you'll sometimes struggle to write a post. Use that time to check your analytics and expand on a previous topic to increase your market share. It's easy!

Join The Party Don't Be A Loner - Ever wonder why some people get so many comments on their blogs and people mentioning them around the blogosphere? It's simple. They engage others through comments, emails, tips, helpful hints, expertise, and networking.

I can't tell you how many people, since I started blogging, that I have reached out to for one thing or another. Just as in real estate, in order to increase your popularity and social graph, you need to network with like minded people. This post gives you some ideas on how to start building your online social sphere, now get to it!

Clean Up That Wall Of Text My Eyes Are Bleeding! - Although my first blog was short and sweet, it was a bold wall of ugly text! No pictures, no bullet points, and it wasn't built to be scannable by an Internet reader. I quickly learned from the ActiveRain experts that in order to increase readership, it's important to make your content sexy! Videos, pictures, and small easily-scannable paragraphs are crucial to a bloggers success. If you want people to read your blog, give them something they can digest easily. Trust me, people on the Internet are fickle readers. If they can't get the message quickly, unless they are your die hard fans, they will leave never to return again!

Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone -  Real estate statistics, neighborhood reports, my day sucked, yadda yadda, blah blah blah, ICK!!! This post describes ways you can excite your readers and how stepping out of your comfort zone when blogging can be a great way to break through the glass ceiling. Want more readers? Teach them something amazing. Want more clients? Make your blog the best resource for everything they would need to know about your town. This post gives you some ideas on how to kick it up a notch, do it, I dare you! 

Have The Real Estate Blues? Try Something New - My team and I put a lot of work into this post to detail 101 ways you can jump-start your real estate career. It was a fun post, but I will probably never do it again. 101 ideas? Yikes that was hard. However, if you're struggling in your real estate career, blogging is a great step, but you also need to step up your ofline. Over my career, I have learned a lot of great ways to make my business a success, and I wanted to share them all with you. So, if you're looking for some new ideas, this post has tons! 

ActiveRain is a great place to learn from the best bloggers and real estate agents in our industry. Everything detailed in this post was sparked by something I learned by trying new things and jumping into the party. Please, if you read this post, take something from it and implement it today. Have fun blogging and remember, everyone had to start somewhere so get to it.

This story is amazing and I just had to share. So, I met some great buyers over the Internet a couple of weeks ago and have been showing them homes. They found a home they really liked so we submitted a very reasonable offer. The home was a lower end home priced at $124,000 and we submitted our offer at $120,000. We felt confident we would get the home as there was another offer, but it was low.

The other offer was from a buyer who wanted to remain anonymous so we had to go in blindly. Well, I got a phone call today from the listing agent saying that we lost the home and they were going to accept the other offer. I was about to get upset as we would have increased our offer, but before I could get a word in, he told me to just listen to why they took the other offer.

Turns out, the lender of the other buyer, when sending the pre-approval letter to the listing agent, left the buyer's name on it. The listing agent passed the letter on to his sellers and it turns out the sellers knew who the buyers were. The buyers were the homeowners neighbors.

The offer they submitted was at $100,000, which was $20,000 lower than our offer! The buyer wanted to remain anonymous due to the the low offer they submitted. They didn't want to offend the sellers as they knew each other. But, the seller, once they saw who the buyers were, decided to accept it with no questions asked. But why? 

Well, the seller recently watched the movie Pay It Forward. Turns out, the buyer is an Iraq War Veteran who, as you might imagine, is having a tough time readjusting after returning home. So, the seller knowing that the buyer was who he was, accepted an offer $20,000 less than ours and said it just felt right. And, the kicker...they have to bring money to closing to make the deal happen!

They are willing to bring money to closing in order to help a Veteran buy their home. I have never seen anything so selfless in my life. When I called my buyers and told them the story, they were a little heartbroken to lose the home, but they were extremely happy for the buyer. Who could stay mad at a story like that?

Anyways, we will be looking at some more homes later in the week, but dang, what an amazing story. What about you, do you have a crazy story in the real estate business that just blew your mind? 

Hi Everyone! I am currently holding a photo contest and the pictures are absolutely amazing! The contestants are friends and past clients that have sent me their favorite photos of our amazing Cache Valley. Anyways, I thought I would share the photos with you and give you a chance to cast your vote for your favorites! 

CAST YOUR VOTE HERE: Cache Valley Photo Contest Enjoy!

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Thanks to everyone who participated! Please place your votes by visiting the Cache Valley Photo Contest