One of the hottest online trends is video content distribution.  What began with YouTube is now progressing into fully-branded online television by companies big and small. 

In fact, I consult with one such media platform provider.  They specialize in creating custom-branded, cost-effective online portals that allow user-generated content, contests, downloads, streaming broadcasts and more. 

While you likely don't need or want to be able to run contests and offer downloads through a robust content distribution platform, the future (and perhaps present) viability of your real estate business will be greatly impacted by your online video offerings.  Producing video is a must, but it's not the whole story.  As you formulate and execute a web video strategy, you should consider the branding pros and cons of utilizing large real estate websites, YouTube and other portals and/or your own web home. 

Obviously, YouTube and better-known real estate websites put your video content in front of the maximum number of eyeballs. But limiting your reach to platforms beyond your control which don't exist to exclusively promote your work, can dilute your brand and ultimately result in lackluster online lead-generation.

The best online video distribution includes a presence on high-traffic portals and custom-branded offerings that make you and your properties the star.  Don't just settle for YouTube, Active Rain, Realseekr and friends.  List your offerings on those sites and prominently feature on your own web home a video portal that shows video property tours and staff intros. 

Be sure that these videos are easily passed on via email and able to be added to MySpace pages and other social media platforms.  You could even go the route of investing in your own custom platform ($1-5K), which can include in-video advertising and custom-branded media players that can be spread across the web. 

Again, posting videos on famous portals alone will not generate the maximum ROI.  After all, it's not your Tube is their Tube. You will likely be lost in the 60,000 uploads YouTube receives a day and you'll begin wondering about all the money you spent for those video property tours. High-traffic websites and custom-branded video will maintain your brand and spread your listings.

Online video is the wave of the present and the future.  Dive in with a strategy that maximizes audience and strengthens your image.  If you're not sure where to begin, drop me a line.

I know, I know.  What do Subway restaurants have to with real estate? 

Just trust me and take this opportunity to learn from others' successes. Check out this incredibly insightful article on Subway's sales strategy and think about how you can position your business in these turbulent times.

As a marketing consultant, I spend a great deal of time scouring the net for good web design and so much more time fixing poorly fashioned websites. Unfortunately, most business websites are dreadful, featuring obnoxious color schemes, too much text, tacky background art, and lots more. This in spite of the fact that 75% of people admit that they judge an organization by their website.

The good news is that simple fixes can make a world of difference. Whether your site should come with a warning label or only requires a simple face lift, you might consider the following:

1) Direct the reader's attention to the things you most care about. This doesn't mean flashing text or animated gifs. But you should use headline text and other simple means to highlight what matters most.

2) Pictures tell the story. Use them wisely. Think about your product offerings or specialty and highlight them through quality pics & graphics. Note: quality is absolutely essential. Blowing up your small, low-resolution pics will make you seem cheesy and clueless. If you're focused on foreclosures and short sales, show visitors shots of the buying possibilities.

3) Color. Wonderful Color. Whether you're the Monet of web design or you don't have a clue how to "paint" your website, you can create a look that's inviting not intimidating, warm not overbearing. One easy solution is to Google "Kuler." From there you can download a free desktop application that acts as a color wheel with great palettes from design professionals. Heck, I even use them!

4) No Manual Required. I hate installing ceiling fans. What should take ten minutes almost always takes an hour to figure out. Now think about your website. Can visitors easily find property listings, local facts and contact info? Why not? What about brief intros to your various services with links to dedicated pages for each? Organize information in an intuitive manner that requires the least number of clicks.

5) Don't Steal. Be inspired. One of the best ways to become a great writer is to read incredible writing. The same is true of great web design. If you want your site to propel your real estate business, then check out the websites of businesses. AM Design (www.amdesign.com) does amazing work. No, I don't work for them. No, you shouldn't simply "borrow" their designs. But I encourage you to use their work as inspiration for your own online offerings. A lot of their stuff is based in Flash and other programs you may not be able to afford and may require expertise you don't have. But you can still learn from their great design and think about what's achievable in your context.

This is the just the beginning. But following these tips will get you on the road to a visually-vibrant, user-friendly website. Remember, 75% of folks will judge you by your online home. A few simple fixes will help you pass the test.

I love learning about a wide variety of businesses and ministries. Not only do I get bored easily, I also find others' successes and failures to be profoundly instructive regardless of what I'm currently slaving away at.

Sometimes though, insights are lurking not around the corner but within my own organization. Check out this great post on The Consultant Within.

You likely have folks within your business that came from other fields, utilized different technologies, and found solutions that you've perhaps never considered. Next time you're stumped, seek out these talented problem solvers who've successfully sown in a variety of soils.

On a completely different front, this great article from Fox Business chats up commerce in the "recommendation age." The key thought: don't miss the chance to participate in and encourage online conversations about your organization. These discussions are happening with or without you.

No, you shouldn't become as obsessed with what's being said about you online as a teenaged girl vying for prom queen. But you shouldn't fool yourself into believing that virtual ratings and dialogue won't impact your business success.

Want proof that you're living in the recommendation age? Look closer at the next news article or blog post you read online? Those "digg it," "fave it," "seed it," and other buttons at the edges of the post allow folks to recommend or bash the content. And tens of millions of web watchers depend on such ratings to choose businesses.

Embrace the recommendation age. If you're not sure where to begin, drop me a line.

One of my biggest frustrations as a sometime web designer and full-time marketing consultant is the near-universal tendency of real estate pros and others to spend all of their web budget on a killer-looking site that few people outside of their family & friends ever see. Optimizing your site to be picked up by the major search engines, especially Google, is just as important as building a fabulous web home.

Before I dive into quick fixes for your website search rankings, let me say that search engine optimization (SEO) is not just about adding a couple of things to your site and watching it zoom. You must feature a solid amount of content people actually want, organized in a way that's easy to navigate and keeps people coming back for more. That said, and no offense to the SEO pros reading this, you can make some simple changes to your website that will make it pop in search engines. How do I know? Because these changes have done wonders for me.

1) Page title. Check out the top navigation bar in Internet Explorer or Firefox the next time you visit one of your favorite websites. It doesn't just list the organization name, it describes the business. Keep your title to just two or three key phrases that people are most likely to use when searching for your kind of website or real estate that you sell, then list your company name.

2) Description and meta tags. For those of you who don't know, meta tags, often in the form of keywords, feed information about your website content to all the search engines and crawlers that visit you. I can't tell you how many times SEO experts have d, "Meta tags are dead!" If that's the case, why do all of the best-optimized websites still use them? List the keywords that describe your business such as "Orange County real estate, luxury homes Tampa or buy Boston Condo." As with your page title, the trick is to use keywords and phrases that people are most likely to punch in when searching for your website.

3) Label all your photos. You do have lots of high-quality photos that show off your properties, don't you? Use alt tags to label all of your property photos. Search engines don't read photos, they read text. And alt tags give Google and friends something to chew on and that text will pop up if your photos don't load. Consider tags such as "Three bedroom new construction in South Tampa," or "property listing for beautiful Huntington Beach condo."

4) Make your site contagious. Offer ways for people to subscribe by email, mobile, rss reader, and whatever else and be sure to include means for people to forward your page to friends by email, text message, etc. "Viral" websites get linked to more often, which leads to hire search engine rankings. And you absolutely must include buttons for folks to Digg your blog posts and add them to Delicious, Newsvine and others. Check out our Bluetooth marketing blog and scroll down to the end of a post to see the buttons we use. Which brings me too...

5) You like me. You really like me! Links are a great way to boost your search engine ranking. In search engine-think, if other sites like you, you must be important, especially if those sites are thought leaders. If you partner with other real estate service providers, be sure to swap links with them. And if you have a blog, list it on all the major blog search engines (put in a Google search to find them).

Hopefully these tips will greatly improve your site's visibility and reach. (For quick fixes to your website itself, check out this recent post.) If you implement these changes and they work for you, I'd love to hear about it.

I know what you're thinking. If I hear about one more "green" marketing scheme, I'm going to puke all over Mother Earth. But take a deep breath, wash out the little bit of vomit that welled up in your mouth just now, and think about Bluetooth advertising.

In the short time I've been doling out marketing tips and posting about Bluetooth advertising on real estate forums, several brokers and agents have contacted me from all over the States. These folks are naturally looking for ways to set themselves apart and sell more homes in a tough real estate climate.

In addition to the very real results that it brings, Bluetooth advertising also offers a low-cost way to truly "go green." How? Because sending virtual tours, property info and more via Bluetooth could significantly reduce your print advertising needs & paper use.

Not only will this save you money, you can hook new clients and perhaps pick up some friendly local press by letting them know about your use of "eco-friendly" Bluetooth marketing. This is real waste-reduction and smart marketing, with low startup and monthly costs to you.

Interested? Check out our Bluetooth blog.