Mark's Blog

JUST WHEN YOU REALLY STARTED TO HATE WINDOWS VISTA....IN COMES WINDOWS 7

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:32:48 -0500

JUST WHEN YOU REALLY STARTED TO HATE WINDOWS VISTA....IN COMES WINDOWS 7

In July, Microsoft finally sent the next evolution of the Windows Operating System, Window 7, to manufacturing. It is expected to be available on October 22. Microsoft has high hopes that Windows 7 sets straight all of the problems that Windows Vista had, while at the same time, adding features and improving usability. In many ways, Microsoft appears to have hit the mark. Boot and load times have improved, especially on systems with multi-core processors. The Quick Launch toolbar has been replaced with the ability to pin applications to the taskbar for easy access. And Jump Lists, which organizes your most recently used documents with the applications that they belong to. But, oddly enough, while offering so many user interface improvements, Microsoft has chosen to NOT provide a simple email application with Windows 7. Outlook Express began it's life way back in Windows 95, and has been with us all the way through Windows XP. Windows Vista introduced us to the next incarnation of email from Microsoft -- Windows Mail. But, in Windows 7, Microsoft removed email altogether from the operating system. You can, however, still download Windows Mail, along with Windows Movie Maker and Windows Photo Gallery, as part of the free Windows Live Essentials download pack. As with any new Microsoft Operating System, things always seem to go better on a FRESH install of the operating system, instead of an upgrade. Windows 7 will require you to have at least 1 gigabyte of memory, but realistically, you should have at least 2 gigabytes. Memory is cheap. Microsoft has streamlined the many confusing Vista editions, offering Windows 7 in only three available editions -- Home, Professional and Ultimate. Most new computer systems purchased today come with a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released.

For more information about Microsoft Windows 7, visit the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

JUST WHEN YOU REALLY STARTED TO HATE WINDOWS VISTA....IN COMES WINDOWS 7

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:19:37 -0500

JUST WHEN YOU REALLY STARTED TO HATE WINDOWS VISTA....IN COMES WINDOWS 7

For more information about Microsoft Windows 7, visit the Microsoft web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

7 Days to Better Your SEO | Day 7: Website Submission

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:54:00 -0500

Day 7: Website Submission

I am going to end my 7 part series to a better SEO with site submission. It a simple concept, yes, but one that is often overlooked. While some companies out there offer a free submission service to hundreds of sites I prefer to at least manually submit to the major search engines myself. Also the other 100 or so they speak about comprise of less than 2%-5% of the total searches and are not worth your time. Focus on the ones that count.

Website Submission

Submitting your website to search engines is very important for obvious reasons but sometimes is not as easy as it looks. As a REALTOR you need to consider 2 types of search engines. Mainstream such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing Portal sites such as the Real Estate Library and REALTOR.com Submitting to the major engines is not always as simple as it seems and finding the other smaller focused engines might even be more challenging. Here are some instructions to submitting to the Major Search Engines:

Google- Google is pretty straight forward. Just navigate to this page and then choose what you are submitting; website, sitemap, or local business information

Bing- Bing is Microsoft's newest search engine. If you want to submit your site here you first need a Microsoft LiveID. If you do not have one you will be asked to create one. To begin go to the submission page. In order to complete the submission process Bing requires authentication to ensure that only the rightful owners are provided with information about their websites.

There are two ways to prepare your website for authentication, both of which rely on your adding an authentication code on your website.

1: Bing provides a custom XML file containing your authentication code that you can save to the root folder of your website.

2: Meta tag authentication - They provide you tag containing the authentication code that you add to the section of your default webpage.

Yahoo- To submit your website to Yahoo go to this page. You will also need a Site ExplorerID which you can sign -up for when you submit your site. Here are some real estate portal sites you might also consider. I do not endorse any but they are a good way to get a relevant link. Some of these sites charge a fee for inclusion.

Real Estate Specific Sites

The Real Estate Library - Contains all the tools that real estate professionals and clients need. We currently have more than 100,000 resources essential to building your career and keeping it on track.

Zillow- Zillow.com is an online real estate service dedicated to helping you get an edge in real estate by providing you with valuable tools and information.

Trulia - Trulia is a real estate search engine that helps you find homes for sale and provides real estate information at the local level to help you make better decisions in the process. They also now have a Agent directory.

REALTOR.com- Of course everyone knows this one. All REALTORS who are NAR members are already included in directory but they do have ways to enhance your presence.

Linking

Before I close this series I also want to emphasize the importance of linking. Getting quality inbound or reciprocal links is also a very important aspect of any good SEO campaign. Probably the most overlooked aspect when you are trying to do your own SEO optimization. Quality links can be as important in terms of SEO value as content sometimes. Try searching for other websites and blogs that would be associated with your keywords by preforming searches on the major engines listed above. These websites are already indexed by the search engines so by linking your website to some of these can give you some important relevance rankings. Also it can serve as an alternate path for the search engine bots to find you if your site is new.

Linking to other websites

If you find a really nice site that is using your keywords or perhaps is in your industry, make contact and ask for a link. Inbound links are the best but most of the time you need to settle for a reciprocal link. Maybe a builders website in your market would be a target for a reciprocal link. Perhaps an inbound link from a mortgage company you work is also another idea. However you do it, links are important. Google says so very clearly. The more relevant inbound links you have the more relevant Google will consider you.

Blogging

Be a contributor on related blogs. When you make comments you can also enter your website address. Now you might have heard a lot of blogs have a no-follow attribute when you enter your website. This is true, but not all do and the worst case scenario is that you are getting your name out there and adding to your sphere of influence and building creditability.

Article Writing

If you have the time Article Writing can be a very rewarding experience. There are many sites that allow you to submit articles for inclusion on their site. These articles then have a section about you where you can add an inbound link to your site. These articles are then used in other sites giving you the credit and link back. Some examples of article sites are; EzineArticles, GetMyArticles, Go Articles, and The Real Estate Article Directory. So give some a try and see what results you get. The important thing to remember is that this is an ongoing process and you should always be working on your SEO. I hope you enjoyed this 7 part post and check back as I will continue to bring you other tips on website development and optimization.

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RE/Advantage specializes in Real Estate web site design 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.

Move over Netbooks...here come the CULV's

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:04:07 -0500

Move over Netbooks...here come the CULV's

Most technology-aware consumers have heard of "netbooks"... the ultra-light, ultra-small, and ultra-cheap laptops that have been on the market for some time now. The appeal of these devices is their incredible light weight, small dimensions, and cost. However, when it comes to computing power, they often leave a lot to be desired. Most of them operate on the low-power Intel ATOM chip. This makes these netbooks great for surfing the net, checking email and performing basic computing tasks. But most of us need to do more with our portable computing devices than browsing web pages.

Enter the CULV Laptops. Based on "Consumer Ultra Low Voltage" processors from Intel, these laptops are also small and light-weight, but offer more powerful processors under their hoods. The new low-power laptops will be more suited to running mainstream applications (though still not as good as traditional laptops), and will have very good battery life. Lenovo, Acer and HP are among the first to have CULV-based laptops shipping already. If you travel frequently for business, or are a mobile professional looking for a lightweight computng platform with enough power for your daily tasks, a new CULV laptop may be just what the doctor ordered. Pricing on these new laptops has been seen as low as $449, making them an even more attractive computing option for consumers today.

7 Days to Better Your SEO | Day 6: Links

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:39:50 -0500

7 Days to Better Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Day 6: Links

Any good SEO strategy should include link building. Link building is based upon the concept of Link Popularity which is a concept I explained in a past post. When thinking about links you should consider these types of links. I ordered them in the level of importance.

Inbound Links - Someone links to YOUR website but you do NOT link back to theirs.
Reciprocol Links - Both websites link to each other.
Outbound Links - You link to another website but the other website does NOT link back to you.
Internal Links - Links on your website that links to pages on yourown website.

Inbound Links

Certainly the hardest type of link to get but search engines like Google weigh these heavily. Why? Because if a website links to only you and you not back, the search engines feel that you must be an authoritive source to have an inbound link. But keep in mind if you have a real estate website in Florida and a pizzeria in Dallas, TX links to you the relavance ranking Google will give you is most likely quite low. However the same Pizzeria in your market area would bwe more relative and certainly a ne wdevelopment in your town even more. Here are some ways you can build your inbound links. Some are fairly easy to do while others take some effort. After all if no effort was involved everyone would do it. Remember that the Internet is based on content and the success of the Web is built upon the proliferation of accessible information. If you build a website with information people want, they will come. If you build good content people will then want to link to it. But always be mindful of not getting into link spamming or placing links on sites that practice the same. So what are some of the ways you can build some good inbound links.

Place your links on directories
Join social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Active Rain, etc.
Write articles in enzines
Create pages in hub sites such as Squiddo or Hubpages
Use Yahoo or Google news
Embed links in video's you post to YouTube
Use Microblogging such as Twitter
Of course set up your own Blog

Linking Another interesting way to get your links out is allowing people to easily bookmark your pages. Services such as "ShareThis" provide code to put on your webpages which visitors can click on and book mark your webpage on major social media sites. Write good content and people will bookmark you. Press Releases Press Releases are another great way to get your links out. Services such as PR.com allow you to post a press release for a reasonable fee. When you create a release you can then add your link. They also offer a free service but you do not get the luxury to add your link. But even the free release will be picked up by Google News and be broad-casted. Google Alerts Try setting up alerts on your keywords and when you get hits, examinene the source and then comment on the sites if you can. Much of the news comes from Blogs so you can then comment on the Blog. Good relevant comments will ensure the Blog master will publish your comment. Relationships Don't forget the simple ways too. Within your profession you have established relationships with Mortgage Brokers, Appraisers, Home Inspectors, etc. Why not ask for a link to you on their website. The very least is you can get a reciprocal link on a relevant site. Link building is a evolving process and you never really stop trying to build links. Even if you participate in social networking, blogging, etc. on a regular basis you will begin to see your link count go up. Remember good content is the key for good link building. Have a site that becomes an invaluable resource and build upon that.

Reciprocal Linking

While not as important as a good inbound link, never the less having multiple reciprocal links will also help you build link popularity. Keep them in your market area and try building links with local businesses, complementary associates such as Inspectors, Appraisers, etc.

Outbound Links

Outbound links are obviously the easiest to get but getting good ones are a bit harder. Building quality outbound links to good authoritative sites will help the search engines see where your relevance is. Also by linking to these sites you will provide useful information to your viewers as well. Remember you should get permission.

Internal Links

Internal links help the search engines know what is important to you. By links Allendale Homes to a page on your site titles allendale-homes.html and then having that page discuss Allendale homes will establish a clear path for the search engines to see how important that keyword phrase is. The moral of this post is, build links, keep building them over time. Make them authoritative and of value. Links help boost your SEO and they also provide your viewers some enriching related content. Good luck.

Up on Day 7 is Site Submission.

RE/Advantage specializes in Real Estate web site design 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.

7 Days to Better Your SEO | Day 5: Headings

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:19:43 -0500

7 Days to Better Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Day 5: Headings

Day 5 brings me to discuss Headings. To maximize your SEO you need to use these properly. A heading in HTML is simply a title or a subtitle. By placing content inside a H1-H6 tag the text displays bold and larger than the body text. The lower the number the larger the text typically. Here are what the H1-H6 tags might look like. If you have a WYSIWYG editor you will usually find a drop down menu with the default selection as "Paragraph" which is regular body text, followed by Headings 1-6. You also may find other attributes like Preformatted or DIV. We will save those for a later dicusssion.

H1 Tag

H2 Tag

H3 Tag

H4 Tag

H5 Tag

H6 Tag

The way the Headings look is really for the benefit of the reader, but the Heading value is for the benefit of the search engines. Headings are weighted higher by search engine crawlers than standard content. The added benefit is they are one of the most simplest things you can do with your HTML content that can give you a small boost towards search engine optimization. You can use headings tags from H1 to H6 and each will signalfy a level of importance from H1 being the most authoritative to H6 being least important. Heading tags are very simple to use. The difficult part is determining what to put in them. Let's look at the following example: <h1>Real Estate in Fairfield, NJ</h1> Very simple, right? Heading tags are very easy to add, but you should keep them reserved for important keywords and keyword phrases. Heading tags are also hierarchal. Consider the following example: <h1>Real Estate in Essex County</h1> <h2>Fairfield Real Estate</h2> Your most important phrase being Real Estate in Essex County with the second most important being Fairfield Real Estate. I like to think of Heading tags a lot like an outline. Your second-level tags should relate to the heading above. You use the h2 tags to further sub-divide described in the h1 tag. You then use the h3 tags to further divide the content in the h2 tag above and continue as far down as you need it. However I rarely need to go beyond a h3 level. Since Headings are used to show importance you also want to consider what you are going to use them for. Remember we want to draw out the attention of your keywords here. Now take this example: General Keyword: New Jersey Real Estate Micro Keyword: Pascack Valley Real Estate H1 Heading: Top Pascack Valley Real Estate Agent

Some Useful Tips When Using Headings

Header tags should contain your target keywords along with any other descriptive text relevant to the content of the page.
Search engines give more importance to Header tags as compared to other text on your page.
Use your most targeted keyword phrases in heading tags on your webpage.
Add highly relevant keywords in your headings.
Analyze the relevancy of your keywords and place most important keyword in your h1 tag.
Think about the layout of your page with the h1 tag being your most important keyword and make the keyword phrase targeted, not generic.
Your h2-h6 headings should break down the information to the higher heading above. So a h3 heading should relate to its h2 heading.

Here is how one might see how the headings are used in a webpage. h1 h2 h3 h4 h2 h3 h2

Next up Links.

Video to go - Flip it into your Pocket

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:49:47 -0500

FLIP Video - High Definition movies for under $200 In case you have not heard about these products, the FLIP Video line of small, handheld, and ultra-portable high-definition video recorders are all the rage. Available in different colors, the FLIP video recorders allow you to record standard definition or high definition video (depending on model), using an ultra-portable unit.

It is very easy to use, has up to a 2 inch LCD viewfinder, simple to use "Press to record" button, and recording times up to 2 hours. Once you have recorded your video, simply plug the FLIP into your computer, and the included software will walk you through uploading your video directly to YouTube in a few easy clicks.

This is perfect for REALTORS who wish to do video walk throughs of their listings, and post them to YouTube for free. The software also allows you to add music and text titles to your videos. REALTORS can easily create their own YouTube channel to contain walkthrough videos of all of their listings. For more information on the FLIP line of video recorders, visit their web site here: http://www.theflip.com/. Several magazines and blogs such as USA Today, and Time have written articles about them. The easy of use and pure affordability make these little video camera's will make it a sure hit for any Agent wanting to record a tour. Plus the size easily fits into your purse or pocket.

7 Days to Better Your SEO | Day 4: Good Content

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:04:03 -0500

7 Days to Better Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Day 4: Good Content

I apologize for not getting this post out on Monday but I re-wrote it several times.

When a REALTOR needs to write content two important factors should immediately come to mind. Community and real estate advise. The former will build good local content and the latter will reinforce your role as a professional. You might have heard the phrase "Content King" when talking about writing good content. If your site is the most authoritative site for its subject matter, you will not only draw interested buyers but in all likelihood rank well in the search engines. I wrote a similar post a few months back "Writing Good Content" where I focused on structure. Today I am going to take that a bit further and talk about conceptual ideas when thinking about writing your content.

Keywords

One concept I spoke of was the importance of "Keywords". This is the first commandment of good SEO content. When you consider which keyword phrases you are going to use, consider what your expertise is and what is the target market you are trying to attract. If you specialize in Condo Buyers in Miami, FL, then you need to maintain this idea throughout your website. Too many people try to be master of all and wind up in the search engines eyes, the master of none. So when considering keywords think like a buyer orseller would.

Keyword Considerations

Let's use the example of "Condo's in Miami, FL" as our basic concept for our website. Now in thinking of what to write we know that our main keyword phrase needs to appear in the web page. If it is not there the search engines will never know it is important to you. Your goal is to convince Google, for example, that you are the most authoritative site for Condo's in Miami, FL. Another consideration is making your keywords as specific as possible. Going after highly targeted keywords not only will bring you more qualified prospects but will also be easier to achieve favorable results with. The big franchises invest a substantial amount of money on keyword phrases like Floria Real Estate, so competing with them is futile. The more precise phrases like Shadow Cove Condo's Miami FL is a very specific phrase and also contains your main keyword phrase of Condo's in Miami, FL.

Keyword Frequency

Keyword Frequency refers to how many times your keyword appears on a page. You can ask 10 different SEO experts on the optimal amount and you will get 10 different answers. Some even believe that this is not even important anymore but I think for the average non SEO professional writing content it is a good rule of thumb to use this as a guideline to ensure you are focusing on your keywords. The other issue us that Google prefers one amount while Yahoo another. So in my opinion to offer the best chance of success without creating multiple pages for each search engine I would like to see your keyword and keyword variations repeated on your page 10-13 times. That is also based on a 700 or so word page.

Keyword Prominence

Keyword Prominence is how early or high up on a page your keywords are found. I absolutely like to have my keywords in my first H1 tag on my page and also have it again as far forward in my first sentence.

Word Stemming

Word stemming is a term that refers to the ability to use all variations - singular, plural, verb form as well as similar words to be returned for a given search query. So for you the above example the word "condo" when searched by Google would also return some of these stems; condos, condominum, condominums, etc. So by using the logic of the stems you can further enhance your own keywords.

Keyword Placement

So where do you want to place keywords? Here is a list of places where your keyword should be going.

Certainly use them in your Meta <title> tag(s).
Use your Keywords in the Meta <description>.
Use them in your Meta <keyword>. The jury is out on if this is really very important anymore but since it is a supported HTML Meta element, can't hurt.
Keywords are important in your header tags; <h1> or other headline tags.
Use Keywords when possible in your links <a href="http://yourrealestateoffice.com">keywords</a>.
Use them in the body copy for sure.
When possible use Keywords in alt tags.
Using your keywords in a URL or site address is also a good idea, e.g., http://www.keyword.com or http://www.wesitename.com/keyword.htm.

What Keywords do I use?

Here are some suggestions;

Think about your service area from a community perspective. If you specialize in the Pascack Valley, NJ area, include pages on the town communities, lifestlye, market reports, local business, etc.
Keyword on competitors websites.
Visible page copy on competitors websites.
Try searching Google and see what the results return.
Use an online tools like: Google Keyword Tool
Pay attention to stemming for your keywords - Particularly to what the root word is and what Google considers to be a match for that word when optimizing pages over time.
You can do brainstorming to identify correct keywords for your site.

Writing the perfect content is not easy but once you understand the placement and usage of keywords and phrases you can then write solid, readable and friendly content for your readers. Remember Content is King and if you write good quality and ORIGINAL content you surely will have some degree of success if not for a outstanding website.

7 Days to Better Your SEO - Day 3: Sitemaps

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:39:33 -0500

7 Days to Better Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Day 3: Sitemaps

Today I want to talk about Site Maps. A Sitemap is basically a list of all the pages in your website. They are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages in their sites that are available for crawling. Sitemaps are not “Site Indexes” and people sometimes use the term interchangablilty. In reality a Sitemap categorizes from top to bottom while a Site Index sorts and stores web page information alphabetically. These are usually web pages that you have on your site and list all the pages. They are also good to have as they serve the human purpose first allowing people to easily find pages and the search engines will crawl them as well. Sitemaps or Site Indexes are important to use if you have a site that uses a lot of Adobe Flash or any medium that a search engine would have trouble indexing. They also stand in as a navigational aid by providing a summary of a websites content at a glance.

A new concept was put into action in 2005; Google introduced their idea of XML Sitemaps. The XML Sitemaps (approved by MSN, Yahoo, Ask and Google) let the major search engines receive updates when the content on a web page is edited/updated. Web crawlers usually discover pages from links within the site and from other sites. Sitemaps supplement this data to allow crawlers that support Sitemaps to pick up all URLs in the Sitemap and learn about those URLs using the associated metadata. Using the Sitemap protocol does not guarantee that web pages are included in search engines, but provides hints for web crawlers to do a better job of crawling your site. A newer feature of these XML Sitemaps is that it can summarize how frequent a specific website is updated and can store the last time the content on that website was updated.

Site maps were introduced because the complexity and amount of websites that are added to the internet everyday is far beyond what it was even 15 years ago. The search engines were even skipping over websites because there was just too much information to process. Now Google, MSN, Ask and Yahoo can find information faster and with more efficiency.

So now the question is how do you build an XML page for the search engines. Luckily there are plenty of programs out their what will do that for you quite easily. Some are free and some cost a nominal amount. Just go to CNET's Download.com and search the term "sitemap" and you will find plenty. I have used SoftPLUS GSite Crawler and SiteMap Pro in the past and they both work very well. GSite was free the last time I checked and you are encouraged to make a donation to support the future development while SiteMap Pro was $59.

Before I close I want to just touch 2 terms I referred to in this post.

Metadata is simply "data about other data". It is used to describe information about the information you are using. For example for Sitemap maps, certain metadata may describe when the page was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup language. The term extensible is used to indicate that a markup-language designer has significant freedom in the choice of markup elements. Simply put it is a format that a programmer (or program) uses to create a sitemap or other files that use the XML protocol. Then the search engines in this example will understand how to read the file since they know how to read the XML protocol.

I will be back Monday with Day 4: Writing Good Content

7 Days to Better Your SEO - Day 2: Anchor Text Optimization

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:54:30 -0500

7 Days to Better Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Day 2: Anchor Text Optimization

Anchor text (or links, link label or link titles) is the highlighted or hyper linked (clickable) words or phrases in the content of a webpage. Used properly it can tell a search engine what the page is about and gives useful information to the readers of your content. This hyper linked text is used to define the subject matter of the content on the web page and amplify the target or landing page URL for the keywords appearing within the anchor text. Anchor text can appear all throughout your website and finding the perfect sentence structure to link is easy if you follow these simple instructions. STAY AWAY from using words like “click here” or “read more” as anchor text. Keep your reader enticed; use a format similar to this instead.

We can help you create the perfect professional website; curtailed to your specific needs as a Real Estate Expert!

-------- Instead of --------

We can help you create the perfect professional website; curtailed to your specific needs as a Real Estate Expert! Please click here.

Anchor text is so important to the relevance of a web page’s SEO whether it is to an internal or external link. So take fifteen minutes to go through a web page you manage and correct that futile anchor text. Believe me you’ll be happy you did! By linking relevant keywords in your anchor text you tell the search engines the keywords are important. The search engines bots will analyze the text of the anchor and what is clicks to. So hyper linking to a phrase like "Fort Lee Condo" instead of "Click Here" you are helping define your keyword target to the search engines. When you are thinking of what to hyperlink, think of your SERP (Search Engine Result Pages). A SERP is the listings of web pages returned by a search engine. So what do you want your viewers to type into Google for example to yield your SERP. When using anchor text you want to link together related SERP's to help define your target keywords. If I was an Agent specializing in the Fort Lee Condo market, my related internal pages might be as follows;

A page on the Fort Lee Condo market
Sold data in Fort Lee by month
A page on lifestyle of Fort Lee
Anchors to a Fort Lee Condo IDX search
A page on Fort Lee schools
A external link to the Fort Lee town website
Maybe links to Fort Lee business, community, etc.

Now I understand in the real world your anchor text cannot always be perfect, but that is part of the fun of the whole SEO process. If it was easy everyone would be doing it. Now as I said search engine bots like Anchor Text. The inclusion of important keywords in the anchor text can make a big difference in the final ranking of your websites pages. Most search engines give weight to the anchor text on your pages and by taking some time to properly use them can make a significant impact on your site SEO. So take a look at your own website and see where you can make some changes. Good luck. Next up on Day 3 will be Site Maps.

Here is Day's 1 post - Title Tags

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As experts in Real Estate web site design, RE/Advantage understands what makes a site work for you and your visitors. 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.

Text Messaging? $1300 please...

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:32:13 -0500

Text Messaging? $1300 please...

Today, cellular text messaging is more popular than it's ever been. But what most people don't realize is exactly how much they are paying for this convenience.

The maximum size of a text message is 160 characters. And the average cost to send a text message is 20 cents (unless you have an text messaging bundle option on your cellular plan). 160 characters equals 160 bytes. This means that text messaging equates to approximately $1300 per megabyte. Compare this to your $30 a month IPHONE data plan, or your $55 a month Blackberry data plan that each allow 5 GIGAbytes of data (5 gigabytes is 5,000 MEGAbytes). You can see why text messaging is a cash-cow for cellular companies.

But there are ways to control this cost. Almost all cellular carriers offer a text message bundle that you can add to your plan that gives you a select number of text messages (sent and received) per month for a flat price. This will lower your cost per text message considerably, provided you stay below your bundle limit. Some bundles also offer unlimited text messaging -- just make sure that you actually NEED unlimited text messaging.

Otherwise you are just wasting money. The word "unlimited" is often very enticing, and offers peace of mind. But if you only send and receive 100 text messages in a month, it is much more cost-effective to choose a 100-200 text message bundle rather than the unlimited bundle.

Another new option, if you have a Blackberry device with a data plan, is to use Google Voice. The Google Voice service (still in Beta) allows you, among other neat features, to send text messages to any other cellular phone by using your phone's data plan, COMPLETELY BYPASSING your cellular text messaging service, and the outrageous 20 cent per message charge. You just need to have a Google Voice phone number (currently available by invite only), and the free Google Voice Blackberry Mobile app. You can read more about it, and request an invite here:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-voice-mobile-app-for-blackberry.html

Should the cellular companies start worrying? Let's hope so. Maybe they will start charging reasonable rates for text messaging.

7 Days to Better Your SEO | Day 1: Title Tags

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:25:35 -0500

7 Days to Better Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Day 1: Title Tags

Over the next week I am going to write about some key concepts any Agent should be thinking about if they want to enhance their website for the search engines. Commonly known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a process by which you tailor your content, links, and images to maximize your exposure to the search engine indexing bots to gain better positioning. The first concept I want to go over is the Meta Title Tag. The Title Tag is required in all HTML and XHTML documents and specifically is used in the following 3 ways;

Defines the title in your web browser
Displays the title in certain search engine results
Displays the title when you add a favorite

These simple words are one of the most important factors in any good SEO plan. Even merely fixing the title tags on your web page could generate a comparable difference in your search engine rankings. When creating title tags you want to keep in mind the “main ideas” throughout the content of your website. So many people will just put "Home", "Buying", etc. as a title tag. This is a waste of a good oppurtunity to get keywords to your viewers. I also see people overloading the keywords in a title tag for example; real estate, homes, MLS search, nj, bergen county REALTOR. The first phrase "real estate" yields 487,000,000 results. Maybe 1% is your target market and getting to even the top 50 might be a difficult task. When considering a title put a location qualfier in your title for example; Bergen County New Jersey Real Estate or Find homes in Leonia New Jersey. Don't forget the titles are also ad copy for the search engines, they are the bolded results that appear when you search so good and well thought our titles are critical. So lets see an example:

You have a Real Estate company – we’ll call it “Green Realty”. They specialize in condo foreclosures in Northern New Jersey

A title tag you may want to use would look like this: “Green Realty Northern New Jersey Condo Foreclosures” This way potential clients that are interested enough to search any one of those words or phrases will come across your web page resulting in higher search engine rankings and a better chance in marketing their property. You DO want to stay away from “copy and pasting” content from your website into your title tags; especially avoiding too many words like “the”, “and” and any other filler words. An acceptable amount of words per title tag would be around 10 - 15. Putting too many words really specifies the title your web page and it will be over looked by the search engines because a simple search for “Northern New Jersey Homes” may not match “Homes in Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Sussex Counties”. This also applies to the contrary - a search for “Northern New Jersey Homes” may not pull up a web page with a title tag “NJ Homes” that is not high enough in its results for a potential client to see. If you really want to get more specific on the title tag length, lets look at Google and Yahoo who are the most prominent search engines around. Google will only display the first 66 characters of your title, while Yahoo will display 120. When writing your titles, consider where your titles will be cropped and try to make the most sense out of the lengths above. If you are really going to get granular you should consider your first 64 characters for Google and put your first set of keywords there and then your next 54 characters for a secondary set of keywords for Yahoo. Here is a another spin on the above title using character length. Green Realty Northern New Jersey Condo Foreclosures Specialists - Get a free New Jersey Relocation Packet Up to the hyphen is 65 characters so in Google the title will appear like this Green Realty Northern New Jersey Condos Foreclosures Specialists -... However in Yahoo your title would appear like this Green Realty Northern New Jersey Condos Foreclosures Specialists - Get a free New Jersey Relocation Packet By designing around these limits you can not only gain some more space for additional keyword content but also control what appears on the results and ultimately what people will see.

My next post will about Anchor Text and how to make the best use out of them.

Social Networks

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:07:13 -0500

I recently had a conversation with Megan, a new consultant at my office about the importance of Social Networking. I had asked her to write a post on her experience and what she has learned. Here is what she had to say.

I've recently learned the importance of social networking through out the Real Estate industry. While working hand-in-hand with my boss I have come to see why blogging and using Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites has grown in popularity since a year or two ago. Many people, especially Real Estate agents/offices use these social networking avenues to appeal to a younger generation - one that is utterly technologically driven.

For example: by using Facebook a real estate professional can become "fans" of a Board and/or MLS, as well as, recent and previous clients that has a profile on Facebook. From there the friends or "fans" of those individuals/Boards and MLSs can see that this specific agent has connections and popularity - therefore the knowledge to help buy/sell a property.

Blogging is also very important avenue in SEO (search engine optimization), which is also the important aspect of social networking. There you can interact with other agents or people by blogging about your ideals, opinions and/or views on this ever changing economy!

Take a look at these statistics: (http://www.realtor.org/library/library/fg006)

It is said that 84% of home buyers today have used the computer to help purchase their home!
Actions taken as result of using Internet site:
- Drove by/viewed a home - 73%
- Walked through a home viewed online- 57%
89% of Real Estate offices said “Yes” our company does have a website – so why not capitalize on that! Plug in to the social networking sites and link them to your website. That way people can get from your social networking pages to your website and vice verse!
The top places where REALTORS® place their listings are REALTOR.com, their broker's website, their own site, and their local MLS site.

Again social networking is extremely important in becoming successful in the real estate industry. So try it! Here are some sites other than AR that you can try out. AR is certainly my favorite and has taken the industry by storm.

http://www.facebook.com/ - Social Networking Site

http://wordpress.com/ - Blogging Platform

http://twitter.com/ - Micro-blogging Platform

http://youtube.com - Yes video is a form of social media, give it a try

Municipal WiFi – Coming to a city near you?

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:37:36 -0500

Municipal WiFi – Coming to a city near you?

More and more cities across the United States are deploying their own wireless networks to offer public safety personnel and public works employees remote access to their municipal data network. The added benefit is that there is often dual-band equipment installed that enables the town to set aside space for free wireless access to residents. Through the use of small access points mounted on top of light poles, traffic light arms, and other structures, cities have enabled their employees to save time and resources by remotely accessing the municipal network in real-time, instead of the employee having to travel back to his or her office to upload or work with their data. Some municipalities offer completely free wireless internet access to their residents and manage the infrastructure themselves. Others have opted to lease space on their wireless networks to ISPs, who will in turn charge a fee for access to the network. For the busy agent, this means you have more access to your MLS and information you need. It's nice to see the ever expanding access to your information. Whether free or not, it is clear that the freedom of wireless internet access is in great demand, and the number of locations where public wireless internet access is available will continue to grow – maybe even to a city near you.

We met Giuseppe Rossi

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:03:20 -0500

While I am not sure everyone may know Giuseppe Rossi but for those of you who do not, he is a soccer player for the Italian National team. But the interesting thing is he grew up here in the USA. He was born and raised in Clifton, NJ and at the age of 13 left for Italy to play in the Youth Leagues. He followed his dreams and they came true as he grew into a man. He is hoping to play for Italy in the 2010 Word Cup.

My daughter is an avid soccer player and on Sunday in a soccer tournament in Philadelphia she had the chance to meet Giuseppe. He was in the states for the summer and was watching his little cousin play. What a nice role model he was. With all the attention and the fact he was trying to watch his cousin play, he had the courtesy and class to still be attentive to all the fans. He was down to earth and had no problem talking to us, signing autographs or being in a picture or three.

It is nice to see such positive role models in the world. G - good luck in the 2010 World Cup!

Writing SEO content for your website

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:20:19 -0500

Writing quality content for your website is one of the most effective ways to enjoy a successful on line presence. This success comes not only in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimized) content but good quality content shows your visitors you are an authority. Once you become an authority people will see you as a source of information. In terms of search engines, they are basically looking for the website that has the most relevant content to the keyword phrase someone types in. Search engines are concerned with 2 major factors; Content and Links. In terms of links, inbound links help to build your worth in terms of how many people want to link to you. The more people linking to you (and you NOT back to them), the more authoritative you become as the search engines see you as an important presence on the Internet. Reciprocal, Outbound, and Internal links help tell the search engines what is important on your site. Content on the other hand tell a search engine who you are and what is important to your website.

Keywords

Before you can build quality content you need to know what your keyword(s) are. Put it another way, what are people typing in to find you. One keyword might be 'real estate', while it is about your business, it is a very broad keyword and would be difficult to achieve good rankings with. The more precise your keyword phrase is, the more success you are likely to have. So 'Allendale New Jersey Real Estate' might be a better choice. Google among others have keyword research tools you can use to help you along. Here is one such Google tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Now that you have an idea of your keyword phrases you need to build them into your content. the biggest mistake I see is people trying to build too many keyword phrases into a page or a website. Start small, I feel your entire website should not cover more than 3-4 keywords and each page should not contain more than 2-3 keyword phrases or variations. Too many will simply dilute your content and search engines will have a hard time determining what is important on your site and your relevance will fall sharply. Keyword prominence is the percentage of your keywords to the total amount of content on a page. Your keyword prominence should be around 7% but never over 10%. So 7% of the total content of your page should be keyword phrases. You can purchase tools such as webposition to determine this.

Meta Data

While meta tags are not widely used, they are still worth putting time into. The meta title is important as this will transcribe to the top of your browser tool bar and when you get indexed the meta title and meta description still play a role is some search engines.

Paragraph Headings

While building your content use paragraph headings. You know the H1-H6 assignments you can give to text. This helps the indexing by allowing you to organize your content in relative importance. H1 being the most important text on your page. For example look at the text below. Luxury Real Estate in Bergen County is my H1 text which tells a search engine this is the most important text on the page. It is followed by regular paragraph text. I then have Vallhall Pointe which is a H2 tag which tells a search engine this is not as important as an H1 tag but more important than my paragraph text. So by using this methodology we can control what is most relevant. It also serves to help a reader understand your content better but organizing it into digestible blocks of text.

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Luxury Real Estate in Bergen County

Buying a luxury home in Bergen county. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras laoreet bibendum enim, eget porttitor nulla malesuada a. Quisque tincidunt viverra erat ut vulputate. Pellentesque et dui libero, a dapibus ante. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Morbi nunc dolor, auctor ac fermentum in, pharetra eu quam.

Valhalla Pointe

This is one of the most sought after communites in sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras laoreet bibendum enim, eget porttitor nulla malesuada a. Quisque tincidunt viverra erat ut vulputate. Pellentesque et dui libero, a dapibus ante. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Morbi nunc dolor, auctor ac fermentum in, pharetra eu quam.

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So get out there and begin writing. One thing I want to leave you with is that your content should be constantly evolving. To keep updating it regularly and adding as you go along. Search Engines LOVE sites that have fresh content all the time.

Talk It Up!

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:04:20 -0500

So why am I writing about the $8,000 Federal Tax Credit for new home owners? Well it's simple - I see very few Agents publicizing this on their websites.

With all the bad press the media is writing about you can use all the positive PR you can get. So go on and post something about the credit and also the great mortgage rates that are out now. Leverage the tax credit for a new home buyers article. Don't forget article writing is always good for SEO. Need an image to use, go ahead and take mine. Good luck and get writing.

Twitter and StalkDaily.com Worm

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:30:51 -0500

By now most of the Twitter users probably heard Twitter was hit with a potentially harmful virus.

For those who did not see the posts around the net here is what basically happened.

Twitter profile pages are being infected with cross site scripting (XSS) attack. What this really means is that Twitter profile pages are being compromised by hidden javascript. When you visit an infected profile page, this script runs and infects your Twitter account. The script then send Tweets out to your followers to visit StalkDaily.com. The virus also inserts itself into your bio pages, allowing your bio page to become a host to infect others.

StalkDaily had said they are not the orginator of the attack.

If you are infected do the following:

1. Go to your Twitter account settings and switch your bio back to the normal setting.

2. Clear out your cache and cookies from your browser.

3. As a precaution, change your Twitter account password.

Twitter was pretty fast on knocking this down and posted this their status page:

Earlier today we were informed of a malicious site that was spreading links to StalkDaily.com on Twitter without user consent via a cross-site scripting vulnerability. We've taken steps to remove the offending updates, and to close the holes that allowed this "worm" to spread.

No passwords, phone numbers, or other sensitive information were compromised as part of this attack.

Internet Data X(Exchange) - Do we really need it?

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:52:07 -0500

I talk to a lot of REALTORS and in my conversations, the topic of IDX (Internet Data Exchange) or as some call it Broker Reciprocity frequently comes up. The first question I always seem to get is "Well do I really need it?". From my point of view the answer is YES.

But why do we need to share our listings?

I think the first thing that comes to mind is the fact Agents have been sharing listings for many years already. The whole spirit of the MLS is cooperation and the foundation is the sharing of listing information so the buyer can have the broadest array of data to make the most informed decision. The big old book of yester-year has now been replaced by online listing data. This is the next natural progression of how we share listing information.

With that said, the typical buyer that comes to your website is looking for online listing information and if you are not supplying it, someone else will.

So what does that mean?

Well Generation X and beyond are have grown up on the Internet and want to see listing data at their finger tips. Take Website A - Lets say this Agent's website is in New Jersey. We'll call him John. Now John is a hard worker and has 3 active listings in Oradell and the surrounding towns. His office has 10 more on top of that. Now Sally was surfing the Internet and found John's site. She is looking for a home in Oradell and John has 1 of this own and 2 from the office. So Sally has 3 to choose from. Now mind you, their is actually 20 active listings in Oradell right now. Because Sally wants her information online and we know that because:

…73% of home buyers used the Internet as an information source

…74%of Internet home buyers drove by or viewed a home they saw online

…23%of Internet home buyers found their agent online

…24% of buyers first found their home on the Internet

…22%of FSBOs used the Internet to help sell their home

**Source: realtor.org

So because Sally knows she can find more listings elsewhere she will probably click back to google and look at the next website. Now if she had IDX on her website she would have been displaying all 25 active listings, the same amount of listings as REALTOR.com What compounds this is when someone finds her on lets say Google and searches her site for a listing out of her marketing area (like maybe 15 miles away in the Northern part of the county) and finds NO listings. Adding IDX would yield all the IDX listings inthe MLS and now Sally has a reason to stay.

I think you are getting the picture here, right?

Now I dont want to mis-lead you into thinking that IDX brings you leads, all IDX does is help you retain them. You still need to do your marketing and have a well maintained website. The typical IDX add-on costs from free to a high price of around $40 per month. So for a high of $420 per year it is an overall small investment in your marketing budget. One referral in a year can fuel your IDX investment and then think about what one sale could do. Any good website today can benefit from IDX listings from both the perspective of getting a new lead as well as being used as a client retention tool. So if you MLS offers this type of solution, give it a try. Don't know how to get started, click here, to view our IDX solution and how to deploy it on your website.

Template or Custom - What's your choice?

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:01:20 -0500

I have been reading a lot about template driven websites lately and the fact that in today's market you need a more SEO friendly website. You know the ones, the same look as the others and you are limited on what you can do. I am sure you all know these and many of you in fact might have one. We in fact have a product that does the very same thing. These sites are attractive as they usually have a very little start up cost.

But now a days the merit for custom sites is becoming significant and Agents are now looking for websites that are more SEO friendly as well as more customizable. Agents want to stand out, have greater degree of control and have more integration with controls such as blogs, listing data and 3rd party applets.

So what are the pro's and con's to a template driven website?

Pro's

1: The most significant pro for a template website is the price. Typically you have a very low or no start up fees and only a small monthly fee.

2: Sites are usually simple to use because you usually have fixed and limited parameters to work around.

Con's

1: Most template sites are SEO un-friendly. They have long URL's like www.yourdomain.com/page.asp?id=23445&pageid=45655, while a much friendlier URL might be www.yourdomain.com/page.htm.

2: Little or no flexibility in page and structural design.

3: The "template" look.

So does this mean you need to look at a custom site? Well maybe - but you have another option too. Semi-custom sites blend the economy of a template and the customization of a fully customizable site. This can be done because you begin your website with a design that is already in place and because a lot of the work of building the structure is done these site are generally less expensive than a fully customized one.

So with this semi-custom approach you can get some of the cost benefits of the template sites but ALL the benefits of a fully customized site. Take a look here on some of the features you can get . Semi-custom sites are a great alternative in today's economy and with these site you don't have to worry about loosing any of the advanced features like IDX, flexible design, custom look, lead management, etc. A semi-custom site designed right can look unique and preform just as well as a custom site costing thousands more. So if you are considering getting a new website or perhaps giving an existing one a face-lift, try taking the semi-custom plunge.

Did You Know …

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:13:31 -0500

The next time you think about your website marketing strategy or perhaps if you actually need a website, check out what NAR says in a recent survey.

...73% of homebuyers used the Internet as an information source

...74% of Internet homebuyers drove by or viewed a home they saw online

...23% of Internet homebuyers found their agent online

...24% of buyers first found their home on the Internet

...22% of FSBOs used the Internet to help sell their home

**Source: realtor.org

Get out and join the conversation.

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:06:19 -0500

I wrote a post a few weeks ago on why we should comment on blogs. The blog I maintain is very relevant to the Real Estate industry so the moral of the story was to take sometime and begin to comment. I even offered a reciprocol comment. Well out of the 1,200 people who read the post, only 6 commented. Not such a good statistic. Kinda tells the story of exactly what I have been saying for a while. Most Agents are not taking full advantage of blogging. I get to meet many, many agents and this comment resonates, blogging takes too much time. But then again, anything worth while in life is costs you time or money.

Gaining links from blog commenting is a great fringe benefit. The link is the reward for posting a good relevant comment. Well not all comments become links but...Commenting is the other half of why we blog, we blog to join the conversation. Those comments complete the circle. Again blogs are all about engaging in the conversation. The conversation in the form of comments builds the links, the links expands the conversation. It is this full circle relationship that will provide you success as a blogger.

So get out their and comment. By the way commenting on lots of blogs besides the AR community helps expand your sphere of influence. So get out there.

Visit my blog REALTORS on the Internet.

Get Out Their And Comment

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:50:44 -0600

Gaining links from blog commenting is a great fringe benefit. The link is the reward for posting a good relevant comment. Commenting is the other half of why we blog, we blog to join the conversation. Those comments complete the circle. Again blogs are all about engaging in the conversation. The conversation in the form of comments builds the links, the links expands the conversation. It is this full circle relationship that will provide you success as a blogger.

So get out their and comment. By the way commenting on lots of blogs besides the AR community helps expand your sphere of influence. So get out there.

Visit my blog REALTORS on the Internet.

Former TSF Academy player Nikki Krzysik is drafted to play for Chicago in the Women's Professional Soccer League

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:28:22 -0600

Local Clifton girl and former TSF Academy player is drafted Chicago.

During the summer of 2007, Nikki Krzysik was part of the TSF Academy Super-20 Women's Team.

On Friday, January 16 Nikki Krzysik was the #13 draft pick for the Women's Professional Soccer League and was selected by former Iona College and Arsenal Women's Team (London, UK) Coach Emma Hayes as Chicago Red Stars 2nd pick. Nikki is a native of Clifton, NJ and TSF Academy Director Mark White has known her since she was 13 years old. "Even back then it was obvious Nikki was going to be a special player" White said. "She was training with other good players, including Yael Averbuch (WPS - Sky Blue, #4 draft pick) and showed a desire to improve her game in every department." Nikki's hard work has seen her represent the US National Team at the U17, U19, U20, U21 & U23 levels and now she has taken another huge step in her development by being part of the WPS for its inaugural season. "Nikki is not only a great player, she is also a wonderful person" White continued, "She often visits TSF Academy to meet our younger players and to talk about her experiences at the University of Virginia and with the National program. I am sure she is going to be a wonderful ambassador for the program, and will gain many fans across the country.

My daughter plays for TSF and had the oppurtunity to meet Niki. What a role model for the girls and it's great to see women's soccer growing in the U.S.

Good luck Nikki!

Why Should We Comment On Blogs?

Mark Menzella -We build websites for Realtors (RE/Advantage) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:33:43 -0600

I get asked all the time by my clients; "Why should I comment on blogs"? Well the answer is simple - Social Networking is built upon collaboration. The whole basis for Blogs and Social Networks is to build interactive conversation. The whole dynamic of the blogging world is to have casual conversation on topics you have in common. These conversations for some can lead to a business relationship later on. Blogging does not necessarily lead to instant leads, but it builds credibility. And the credibility you gain later leads to business.

But their is another plus side to commenting. Commenting on someones blog also brings you an inbound link back to your blog. If you remember my post a previous post "Link Popularity" I spoke of the importance of good linking.

So by commenting on other blogs you bring these inbound links back to your site. Also by commenting on relevant blogs, your inbound links will be considered by most search engines more important in your link popularity.

So the next time you are on a blog, leave a comment. Remember comment on all types of blog. Don't limit yourslef to only AR. Get your self out there. You'll be suprised on how many people will enguage you back.

You can check out my blog at http://blog.readvantage.com, feel free to comment. I'll do the same for you.