Take a look at your own website sometime. Pretend you are a prospective buyer or seller. So does your website make the cut? Ask yourself these simple questions;

1. Where do your eyes go first - When someone visits your website you only have several seconds to make the sale. The first thing they should see is something that will keep their interest.
2. Is it clear what your website is about right away? - You need to make sure you are clear to your prospects what your website is about. I know your sell Real Estate but if you specialize or have a niche make it clear.
3. Look 'Above the Fold' - You need to make sure your important information is in the area of the screen you do not have to scroll to get to. This should be clear and concise.
4. Are your services clearly defined? - Did you tell your audience who you are and why they should use you?
5. Where's Your Call to Action - Does your website have clear call to action forms? Request more information, CMA, School information, dream home forms. These should be all on your website and clearly visible in the appropriate areas.
6. The look! - People are visual. Are your colors and images pleasing? Don't skimp here. Looks are important first impressions. Don't clutter your home page with your name and phone number and how great you are. Put some relevant information that your audience wants to see and establish you are what they need.
7. Social Media - Do you have Social Media links on your website? Social Media is quick becoming a huge way to gain business for REALTORS®. Real Estate is all about making connections with people. Social Media is all about making connections with people, so Social Media has a huge potential to bring you business.
8. Listings - Let's face it people come to your website to see real estate so you need to have inventory to show them. If you website does not have IDX listings you are missing out on all of those ready for results buyers. These are the people who if they don't see you have something to show they move onto the next website who does.

So take a 15 minute break and check out your website and see if it has what it takes!

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RE/Advantage specializes in Real Estate Website Design, IDX Solutions, and Internet Technology. We have been working with the Real Estate Industry for over 10 years so we understand what makes a site work for you and your buyers and sellers. After all we have been developing real estate web sites, Internet tools and marketing strategies since 1997. No one provides a more comprehensive, well-thought-out site and tool set for your Internet presence. We provide you with not only the tools to manage and customize your site, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing we are here to help if you need us.

Social network giant Facebook announced today it will be rolling out what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called a "modern messaging system," according to several news reports. Of note I said messaging system, not email. This new roll out contains a new twist on how we think of email and conversations. Here is what the talk around the water cooler has this new messaging system doing. I stopped by Joel Seligstein's blog post on the subject and he had this to say.

1. You decide on how you want your messages; e-mail, chat, Facebook messages or SMS text messaging. YES everyone will get a @facebook.com email account as well.
2. It seems wrong that an email message from your best friend gets sandwiched between a bill and a bank statement. It's not that those other messages aren't important, but one of them is more meaningful. With new Messages, your Inbox will only contain messages from your friends and their friends. All other messages will go into an Other folder where you can look at them separately. If someone you know isn't on Facebook, that person's email will initially go into the Other folder. You can easily move that conversation into the Inbox, and all the future conversations with that friend will show up there.
3. Conversation histories - Messages will be in one place no matter how they are sent. You can see everything that was discussed in one neat little place.

Zuckerberg stressed, "This is not an e-mail killer. This is a messaging experience that includes e-mail as one part of it," according to tech blog TechCrunch.

For example, an e-mail could be received as a text message and vice versa. "People should share however they want to share," said Facebook engineer Andrew Bosworth. Want to learn more try these links out for size. The Facebook Message Tour Joel's Blog Post This is a real exciting venture if it works they way they are explaining it. I can't wait to try it out and kick the tires. So tell me what you think.

This type of infection is nothing new. You unknowingly get infected with a rogue Anti-virus/Antispyware lookalike application. They pop-up all kinds of warning boxes that LOOK like a real anti-virus warning, enticing you to visit their web site to pay for the software needed to clean the virus off your computer, using your credit card, of course. These type of infections can be particularly troublesome to remove.

Well, a new one is out in the wild, and it is unusually genuine-looking. It is commonly referred to as Win32/FakePAV, and imitates Microsoft's own "Security Essentials" anti-virus software. Once your machine is infected, a series of warning boxes will appear on your screen that look a lot like the same boxes Microsoft's own software displays. It then informs you about one or more (false) infections, and instructs you to click a link to purchase and download a rogue scanner. That scanner is, of course, nothing more than more infected software.

But it says "Microsoft"...

The most troubling thing about this particular rogue app is that it looks so much like genuine Microsoft software, that many users may be easily fooled into believing it's really from Microsoft.

"It LOOKS like Microsoft, and we can ALWAYS trust Microsoft, right? And Microsoft tells me this is how to fix my computer, so I guess it's safe to download this"

And that's EXACTLY what the malicious developers of this app are counting on. The general public thinking that it looks just like Microsoft, so it must be safe. Remember, very few if ANY legitimate security software will run a scan then display a dialog box informing you to visit their site and pay some amount of money to purchase software to remove the threats. First, the software you end up downloading does nothing more than further infect your machine. Then, of course, you have the problem of your credit card being in the possession of some unknown company.

Best ways to avoid it

• Keep your anti-virus software up to date
• Keep Windows current using Windows Update
• Avoid purchasing anything from websites that look suspicious. If it looks to good to be true, it probably is
• Only use your credit card on web sites you trust
• Anti virus software will never scan your computer and ask you to pay for a utility to get rid of an infection
• Stay familiar with the brand of anti-virus software that you have installed on your computer. If you receive an alert from an anti-virus program you have never heard of before, it is most likely a rogue lookalike infection

So why is a blog about Internet Technology for the Real Estate Industry writing about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Well sometimes when things are passionate enough, mean enough, or is worthy enough, it is OK to go off topic.

Breast Cancer for me has a whole new meaning when it hits close to home. My sister was diagnosed and is currently battling this horrible disease. Bev and I are best friends and I cannot image a world without her. The old saying "It only happens to the good ones" certainly holds true here. Because in my book, there is not a better and more caring person on the planet.

I often reflect and try to make some sense of this whole situation and why people need to go through this. I guess that is one question that will never get answered. But what I can do to deflect some brain cells off that horrible reality is to try and make a difference.

So I thought I would dedicate this post in getting more people aware of Breast Cancer.  If enough people know and care about the issue I am sure someday we can conquer it. I believe that one day, breast cancer will never steal another year from anyone’s life – and we will live in a world with less breast cancer and more birthdays.

This year in honor of Bev we formed "Team Bev" and I am walking in the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event on October 24th at Bergen Community College in Bergen County NJ.  The fact you are reading this far means you do care about the issue so please join in the fight.

So what can you do?

1. Stop over at the American Cancer Society Making Strides Website and read about the issue
2. If you live in the New Jersey, join Bev and walk for the cure. Join Team Bev here
3. Stop over at Team Bev's Facebook page, 100 fans in 30 days!
4. Make a donation to fight Breast Cancer
5. Just spread the word.
6. Leave a comment of encourgement here for Bev and all the other wonderful women affected by this disease.

Together we can make a difference!

Resources about Breast Cancer:

• National Breast Cancer Awareness Month Website
• American Cancer Society
• National Cancer Institute
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute
• BreastCancer.org
• Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

If I had a penny for every time someone told me that! Where are my leads? I have been consulting with Real Estate Professionals for over 10 years and the single most resounding issue whether it be an issue with a website or print media is lead generation. It's an important topic and one that every Real Estate Agent should take seriously. In reality you should be more concerned with lead conversion over lead generation but granted both are important. To be successful though you need to fully understand both.

The Problem:

Expectations from website owners that a website will generate leads with little or no effort, whether that efforts comes from the website owner or another source.

Foot note on Lead Generation: For the sake of this post I will concentrate solely on lead generation via the Internet and more specifically via your real estate website and or real estate blog.

Mistake #1: This issue accounts for 99.999999999% of all the problems with lead generation.

Here is the issue: I have a website/blog so stand back and let the leads come pouring in. Sounds silly, I think everyone thinks they are doing some sort of work on their website or maybe not. In realty most Agents feel that their website should self generate leads without much effort. But I can tell you without a marketing plan ALL websites and/or blogs will fail at some point.

Mistake #2: Do I need to spend a ton of money on getting a marketing plan? The answer is NO. Everything you pay a consultant to do YOU can do yourself, if you have the time. Some of my clients do a combination of both. But the bottom line is you either do it your self or pay someone to do it for you. It is no secret that the Internet and sites such as Google LOVE content. And they love ever changing and evolving content. So what's the hang-up? Some of it might be procrastination, some of it might be the sheer desire not spend money or time and the wish that something just might happen. Some people just think getting a website is enough.

The Resolution:

1: Write up a Online/SEO a marketing plan

a: Budget. You need a budget no matter how small it may be. Decide on how much time you can spend each week on your website/blog and also if you choose to augment or completely pay someone, decide a budget for that.

b: What should be in my marketing plan?

1: Spend 1-2 hours per week adding/changing content on your website

2: Write approximately 1 NEW blog post every week to 10 days (Don't forget to syndicate these posts)

3: Spend 30 minutes per day on Social Networks (ie Facebook, Twitter, ActiveRain)

4: Devote time to long-tail keywords. This should be over and above other content writing. Over time long-tail keywords become important.

5: Consider buying PPC ads on Google or Bing. You can start small and measure the results

6: Install Google analytics or another site statistics application and look at how your traffic is coming in. Analyze the keyword phrases and demographics.

7: If you have no time for the above, then pay someone to do it or split the tasks up between yourself and a consultant.

8: Have the tools to attract your buyers. IDX search, good content, call to action forms, and a well thought out and professional website or blog. Unless you are a web designer leave it up to the experts.

So now that you have this plan in place what's next? TIME, that is what is next. This does not happen over night. It takes a few months to build up your content presence on the Internet. But remember to write keyword rich content. Sure you can write about anything and some fluff is good too, but you need to be writing good quality and keyword rich posts on your expertise and market. Even after a few months it might take even more time if your results are less than expected.

And during this time remember to analyze your results through your statistics application.

I did a test no too long ago where I stop posting articles to our company blog for 4 weeks. Not only did my readership fall, so did the leads, and after 4 weeks we were down to ZERO leads from our blog. Once we resumed writing we got a lead 3 days later.

Fresh content is one of the best ways to entice your potential audience in. Become an expert and you'll even gain better results.

So what about lead conversion? Well once you get those leads you have to draw on the old saying, "You can bring a horse to water but you cannot make him drink". A good SEO marketing plan will bring the leads in but if you exercise poor follow-up and conversion practice you would have wasted all your time. Act quick and be precise on how you do it. Poor lead conversion is the 2nd most common mistake and a lot of agents blame their websites for it. Make sure you have all the tools in place for lead conversion. A good contact manager. Go out and get an IDX search for your website from your local MLS. If you have the inventory you give your buyers a reason to stay on your website.

I think the bottom line is that you indeed must do some work here and the work needs to be consistent. Patience pays off so hang in there.

If you need some advice on your website, how to get IDX or perhaps how to get this off the ground please let me know. I would be happy to take a look.

 

 

One of the newer spins on social networking is location-based Social Network. There are a few companies such as Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla that have a long-established stronghold in this area. But Facebook has a tremendous user base and has the potential to overtake it's competitors if they do it right. And last week, they launched their version of location-based social networking called Facebook Places

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How Do I Get It?

Currently, Places is only supported on the iPhone, or any other touchscreen mobile device that can access touch.facebook.com. Sorry all non-touch screen phones need to wait until FB releases a version to support you. Places will appear on the main menu of the Facebook iPhone app. if you are using touch.facebook.com, just tap the PLACES tab.

The Basics

The most important feature of location-based Social Networking in the "checking-in" feature, which uses the GPS feature of your mobile device to assist you with identifying your location and checking-in, which publishes your location so others know where you are. But other than letting others know where you, what's in it for you? Well, Forequare has an added feature called Badges. The more you check-in, the more badges you collect. If you are the person to check-in at a location most frequently, you are declared the "mayor" of that location, making it like a game. Some business even reward their mayors and other frequent visits for their frequent check-ins

The Facebook Twist

Facebook Places will also revolve around check-ins. What's different is that you most likely already have a large friend following on Facebook, so you don't have to re-establish those friends in order to check-in. And thankfully, it looks like Facebook may have learned from their previous mishaps with security. You are in complete control of what you share the and the people you share it with. When a friend tags you through Places, you are given the choice as to whether or not your friends can check you into places. You can even disable this feature completely. Unfortunately all of these security settings are un-configured when you start using Places -- you must manually configure them yourself.

How Can The Agent Leverage This?

Facebook has always been such a great way for an Agent to make contact with people. Facebook is a very efficient way to gather a following based on the community. Build a Facebook following built on a Fan Page or targeted posts and you will begin to have people interested in you for your in depth local knowledge. Now let people follow you around via community places and even your listings.

Playing Nice

Rather than trying to destroy it's competition, Facebook appears to be cooperating and even encouraging 2-way communication with the leaders. Through their Graph API, they are enabling Foursquare, Yelp and others to share check-ins in both directions. All of these features are still in beta with select partners. Time will tell if the information-sharing pays off. I suppose Facebook is banking on making location-based Social Networking more popular by making it a native feature within Facebook, as well as cooperating with those who invented it in the first place. Time will tell if this effort pays off. These services were no where nearly as popular as Facebook. Maybe that will change now that Facebook has entered the game and is providing 2-way check-ins with the other players in the market.

Today's post is about back links. Just like any an SEO enhanced web page back links are also important for your Press Release. Creating back links within your press release is a very important SEO tool but there are a few points to keep in mind when creating these links:

1. Guideline to writing a release is 1 link per 100 words

2. Release should be between 400-650 words at best (so 5 links are ideal)

3. What should these links include?

• Your company name should appear in the content with a link back to your home page
• Link a targeted keyword or key phrase to a “deep internal” page in your website
• Link a broader keyword or phrase to your home page as well
• Always include a fully qualified URL at the end of your release (ex. http://www.readvantage.com/)

Creating back links within your press release is a very important SEO tools but there are a few points to keep in mind when creating these links:

1. Guideline to writing a release is 1 link per 100 words

2. Release should be between 400-650 words at best (so 5 links are ideal)

3. What should these links include? - Your company name should appear in the content with a link back to your home Page

- Link a targeted keyword or key phrase to a “deep internal” page in your website

- Link a broader keyword or phrase to your home page as well

- Always include a fully qualified URL at the end of your release (ex. http://www.readvantage.com/).

Next up on day five is where to post your releases and we'll sum everything up.

Read Day one of five here

Read Day two of five here

Read Day three of five here

On Day 3 I want to talk about tools you can use to help you with keywords and LSI keywords. Here is a list of tools you can utilize through Google to find the perfect keyword(s), keyword phrases and LSI keywords.

1. Google Adwords – use to search for related keywords https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal For example: I ran a search on the broad keyword – IDX. Adwords gave me results of similar keywords and the popularity of each. This way I could focus on keywords that are adaptable to my content and press release but are not necessarily too competitive.

1a. LSI - there is a second chart on the adwords result page for “secondary keyword results” which can be used in LSI (latent systematic indexing). These are keywords that are related to you keyword or key phrase and help Google identify and associate your content with search results from clients.

2. Google Wonder Wheel – provides a visual representation of ideas for different phrases that Google associates with your keyword(s) or phrases.

3. Market Samurai – shows you search indexes and rankings of keywords and phrases. This is a great tool to find out the “power houses” that use your keywords to see if you can match their success or go further than the companies that are doing well with your keyword(s) or phrases. www.marketsamurai.com\ Rule of Thumb: Keywords with search results under 1 million are ideal, below 200,000 are considered ‘slam dunks’ in internet marketing. You want to choose keywords that will produce high traffic with low competition.

Read Day one of five here

Read Day two of five here

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RE/Advantage specializes in Real Estate Website Design, IDX Solutions, and Internet Technology. We have been working with the Real Estate Industry for over 10 years so we understand what makes a site work for you and your buyers and sellers. After all we have been developing real estate web sites, Internet tools and marketing strategies since 1997. No one provides a more comprehensive, well-thought-out site and tool set for your Internet presence. We provide you with not only the tools to manage and customize your site, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing we are here to help if you need us.

Now all that's left to do with your press release is to decide where you are going to submit it for all your intended clients to view. Make sure you choose a site that will give your release maximum exposure - here are some sites I suggest:

http://free-press-release.com/

http://www.pr.com/

http://real-estate.dbusinessnews.com/

http://www.malebits.com/

http://www.prweb.com/

http://realestaterama.com

Bringing it all together:

There are 5 technical parts of a press release:

• Title - Include the keyword phrase in the title
• Summary - Give a synopsis of the press release in one to two sentences using secondary keywords
• Body - Writing subjectively and in the third person, also remember to give the details of your news
• About the Company - In two to three sentences give your company credit from a third person point of view. Make sure to include contact info and a link to your homepage in the summary as well
• Press Contact – Make sure you designate a person or group to consistently update and release press release on a regular basis as well as designate contacts to funnel leads that come in from press releases

Why it is important to run press releases:

There are plenty of benefits of SEO press releases if you do them correctly:

• Back-links from credible press releases increase the ranking of your website or blog for your keywords
• Visibility in search engines for both your press releases and website/blog
• Ranking in Google News and Yahoo News
• Tens of thousands of headline impressions across hundreds of blogs, websites, and news sites that run RSS headlines

If you have any more questions please feel free to contact RE/Advantage directly for one on one consultation and training (877) 791-4825 or sales@readvantage.com.

Read Day one of five here

Read Day two of five here

Read Day three of five here

Read Day four of five here

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RE/Advantage specializes in Real Estate Website Design, IDX Solutions, and Internet Technology. We have been working with the Real Estate Industry for over 10 years so we understand what makes a site work for you and your buyers and sellers. After all we have been developing real estate web sites, Internet tools and marketing strategies since 1997. No one provides a more comprehensive, well-thought-out site and tool set for your Internet presence. We provide you with not only the tools to manageand customize your site, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing we are here to help if you need us.

Press releases foster a non-confrontational, not too 'sales pitchy', avenue to expose the benefits of your business, products and services to your client base. Over the next 3 days I am going to dive into press releases and the tools you can use to create productive releases and newsletters. Google offers many free services that REALTORS® can utilize to find appropriate keywords and phrases to use in press releases and I will be examining these over the next few days - so keep informed and follow along!

The brainstorming and pre-planning needed to create a successful (whether driving traffic to your website or selling a product) is the most important step in writing a press release. In my mind, the second most important step is selecting your keywords or key phrases which will be discussed further in the next 2 days.

Here are the three main key points to follow when you are ready to start your press release:

1. Choose a goal
2. Use Google tools to select keywords and phrases
3. Then craft the release to fit your goal

SEO Triangle Keep in mind that the SEO Triangle has three points and ALL factors must be taken into consideration for a web page, press release, blog, or any electronic marketing medium to become successful in your line of business.

1. Optimize your web page: this will be important when you are inserting back links into a release or blog article
2. Identify and optimize the keyword and key phrase you intend to use
3. Back links: DO NOT use “click here” as your back link, use keywords instead to enhance the SEO of your release, webpage or blog

Important Tips

1. Your headline or title should contain your keyword(s) and if possible a LSI* (latent systematic indexing) keyword.
2. Your first few sentences should contain your keyword(s) AND at least one LSI* keyword at minimum!
3. The body of your release should not necessarily be ‘keyword’ rich, again when referring to a press release. You should instead just freely write and let the flow of words encompass your product or goal of the release.

*Latent Systematic Indexing (LSI), in my own words, means latent (behind the scenes) systematic (the way something words) indexing (a system or way of finding something easier). So with that, LSI keywords are words or phrases that are synonyms to your intended keyword(s) or phrases, that Google reads as added information to enhance the SEO of your release.

Next I will write more about the Google tools that can be utilized to create the best keywords and keyword phrases for you business press releases and newsletters. If you are not an RE/Advantage blog follower yet, simply scroll halfway down this web page and click the "Subscribe Here" button on the right hand column.

Read Day one of five here

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RE/Advantage specializes in Real Estate Website Design, IDX Solutions, and Internet Technology. We have been working with the Real Estate Industry for over 10 years so we understand what makes a site work for you and your buyers and sellers. After all we have been developing real estate web sites, Internet tools and marketing strategies since 1997. No one provides a more comprehensive, well-thought-out site and tool set for your Internet presence. We provide you with not only the tools to manage and customize your site, but the peace of mind that comes from knowing we are here to help if you need us.