Would you be my...could you be my...won't you be my neighborhood expert?!

Won't you be my neighbor?! Mr. Rogers had the right idea...get out there and get to know your neighbors! Help out, lend a hand, and get involved in neighborhood events. He made visits to local business owners and helpful neighborhood role models. Mr. Rogers always rallied his neighbors together. But what if Mr. Rogers doesn't live in your neighborhood?  And for whatever reason your neighborhood doesn't have that one person that can bring the community together. That's where YOU come in!

If you are already farming a specific neighborhood, or preparing to, I suggest trying a Neighborhood Newsletter. Whether you walk it or send it, neighborhood news is a great way to reach out and market to your farm. What better way to get connected with a neighborhood than to share what's going on and take part in the action.

Getting started with a format: If you are working on a tight budget, I usually suggest starting with a Publisher template. You can easily customize a Publisher template by including your logo and brand, modifying the colors to match both, and even swapping out the banner image with your own design. If you have access to a graphics designer or other marketing specialist, you could always pay for a custom designed template that you can then reuse each week or month.

Content to include:  The basics: your contact info and picture, industry or market updates, featured listings, comparables, local events, weather, interviews, etc. To find out what's going on in your area, visit local city Websites and blogs, check local papers and magazines, and visit local businesses. You'd be surprised how much info you can find on the bulletin board of your neighborhood Starbucks.  Start walking your neighborhood and introducing yourself to those you meet. Visit local parks and recreation areas and talk with parents. At home moms are a great wealth of information.  Also, drop by the local school offices, library and community center. All usually have monthly newsletters packed with local event dates and info for getting involved.

Leading the way:  Let your offline marketing lead consumers to your online marketing. Make sure that you highlight your real estate blog or Website in your neighborhood newsletter. You can also provide limited listing info in your newsletter (as a teaser), but then link to your blog or Website....or even a MarketSite. Hold a weekly or monthly contest. Provide a link to your blog/Website for your neighborhood readers to enter for a chance to win dinner at a local restaurant or wine from a local winery, etc. There are a great many ways here for you to tie in local business promotion, as well as to promote yourself as the local neighborhood expert. Be sure to print extra copies of your neighborhood newsletters for distribution at neighborhood businesses.

Delivery options: Of course, printing and walking your farm is the greatest way to get to know your market area. Face to face meetings give you the opportunity to make real connections. However, mailing or sending your newsletters via email can also be very effective.

So, take a tip from Fred Rogers and make the most of this beautiful day! Start by taking a little time to create a neighborhood newsletter.  If done correctly and sent consistently, your newsletter will be an invaluable resource to your farm, connect your offline and online marketing, and coin you as the neighborhood expert. Not bad for a day's work!

Easily Brand Your Online Single Property Showcase

Well, it's easy when you use MyMarketWare. We have expanded our selection of single property Website templates. Our current collection of branded single property Website designs include:

Advance Realty, Alain Pinel, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Previews, Coldwell Banker Residential, Crye Leike, Empire, Envirian, ERA, Exit Realty, Frank Howard Allen, GMAC, Intero, Keller Willians, Long & Foster, Lyon, Pac Union, Prudential, Prudential Fine Homes, RE/MAX, RE/MAX Collection, Real Living, Realty Executives, Realty Experts, Sotheby's & Weichert.

If your franchise is not present, no worries. We also have several non-branded (classic) designs, as well as commercial headers. To brand a classic design, select your color and design preference and then add your company logo. 

To get started creating a single property showcase for your listing, click here. It's free! Create a site and use it to win your next listing. Pay only when you publish a site and gain online exposure for your listing immediately!

MyMarketWare May Special…get the coupon code for ActiveRainers only!!!

I love the month of May! Not just because I get super spoiled for Mother's Day and my birthday...wait, yes that's exactly why I love May.  I actually claim the entire month for ME! I can do no wrong in May! Well, rather than hoarding all the treats to myself....I thought I'd spoil my rockin' rainer friends!

So, if you haven't tried creating a single property showcase for any of your listings yet....now is the time to give MyMarketWare a try! Our sites retail for just $39 each. But for the rest of May, ActiveRainers have their own coupon code discounting each site to only $32 each! The coupon code is "rainersrock". You will only be prompted to enter the code once you have created your site and are ready to PUBLISH.

If you are not already familiar with MyMarketWare, click here to visit and learn more. In a nutshell, we provide a premier single property Website solution coupled with a marketing blog. We give you a great way to market and syndicate all your listings, as well as support and marketing ideas. With MyMarketWare, YOU can easily create a single property Website dedicated toward showcasing a listing and the surrounding community. Check out  these top 7 reasons for using MyMarketWare:

(1)   84% of buyers on are online and 68% of buyers are just as interested in the surrounding neighborhood as the home. So, we know buyers are (1) online and (2) want home and community info. MyMarketWare showcases your listing and syndicates it online, as well as includes a wealth of community info based on the property address.

(2)   Sellers are greatly concerned over how long it will take to sell their home in this market. MyMarketWare sites will impress sellers and how that you know how to market innovatively.

(3)   MarketSites provide you with all the features and details that can best showcase a listing: add up to 100 high resolutions pictures, video or virtual tours, link to your blog or Website, auto links to over 70 area amenities, RSS feed, etc.

(4)   MyMarketWare provides support and cutting edge marketing tips on the MyMarketWare Blog. Check out the training tutorials and out helpful marketing solutions. Our videos can walk you through adding video and links to your site, as well as show you how to post your listings on Craigslist. More to come! We also have an 800 number for questions and online trainings available.

(5)   Cost is only $32 (with the ActiveRain coupon: "rainersrock") for a single site (domain and hosting is for one year).

(6)   NO RISK, create a free account and a site...publish only after you win the listing.

(7)   The MyMarketWare bottomline:

• Win more listings
• Gain exposure for them
• Distinguish yourself in your market

MyMarketWare May Special: Create a MarketSite for your listing for only $32! Use the ActiveRain coupon code: "rainersrock".

12 Quick Tips for Eco-Friendly Real Estate Marketing

You don't have to be inspired by Earth Day to make sustainable marketing choices! In fact, you can market yourself and your real estate business in several eco-friendly ways all year long! Here are 12 quick tips to get you started:

(1)   Start a real estate blog. Market your expertise, highlight listings, and develop a community online.

(2)   Send eNewsletters to your sphere with market updates, community and neighborhood info, etc.

(3)   Use recycled paper for print marketing.

(4)   Reuse paper in your office. Consider adding a recycle bin next to your office printer and reuse paper for   your own use (comps, prospecting, etc.).

(5)   Avoid printing large quantities of collateral that goes out of date frequently.

(6)    Send thank-yous via email or flash animated eCards.

(7)    Laminate open house signs (remove shoes, turn off lights, etc.) so they can be reused time and again.

(8)    Utilize social networks to share your message, brand, blog articles, etc. (ActiveRain, RealTown, Zolve, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

(9)    Become a paperless mobile agent with VREO Dashboard. Consider the referrals you can potentially obtain by providing great paperless service to your environmentally conscious clients.

(10)   Refill ink cartridges. Just bring them to your local office supply store and they will refill them for you!

(11)   Become an EcoBroker.

(12)  Marketing your listings online with MyMarketWare! Create a Website dedicated to your listing and syndicate to Trulia, Google, Yahoo, Propsmart, Oodle, Craiglist and more!

A few ideas for an Eco-Friendly Office:

(1)    Recycle old computers, mobile phones, printers, etc. Click here to learn more.

(2)    Use a water service that will refill a large water jug vs. buying bulk water bottles.

(3)    Caravan with others for Broker's Tours. Save $ on gas and act more sustainably at the same time!

Thanking Blog Commenters…Let Me Count the Ways!

I love shopping at Nordstrom. I usually find exactly what I'm looking for there. And if not, their helpful staff will find what I need and ship it to me for free. I've never had an issue returning anything either! And after every good dose of retail therapy, I receive a personalized thank you card in the mail. Now that's service!

I'm taking note (literally) of the exceptional service and appreciation Nordstrom provides to its customers. And I'm applying it to my bag of blogging goodies! If Nordstrom can take the time to thank customers for purchasing items, then I can surely thank my blog readers that take time to leave thoughtful comments.  Not the "great job" or "awesome post" kind of comments, but those rockin' ActiveRainers that take the extra time to give you some real feedback.  Here is my new comment thank you policy that I will employ here at ActiveRain, and at MyTechOpinion and MyMarketWare.

Thanking Commenters:

(1)    Reply back in a timely fashion to the thoughtful comments or real feedback made on posts. Same day is best!

(2)    Send a personal thank you email. (Very easy to do within the ActiveRain network!)

(3)    For those of you that have an additional Wordpress blog, use the Comment Relish Plug-in and set up your custom auto-email responder for all first time commenters on your blog.

(4)    Be helpful. If someone asks you a question, provide an answer, reference, or resource.

(5)    And make comments on your commenter's blog.  The best form of thanking someone in my opinion, is to return the favor. So give real feedback to others.

Now get out there are thank your commenters! Because what goes around comes around....and a little comment karma never hurts!

Brand Every Email with eStationery: 2 Great Options

Do you take every opportunity to brand yourself? What about every email? If not, you should. Branding every email you send with custom eStationery is great way to promote yourself, your blog, and ultimately, your real estate business.

If you're not already familiar with eStationery, just take a look at the example up top. You'll notice that it looks just like letterhead. The only difference being, that this eStationery header is loaded with live links! I link to my blogs and social networks. But I know many agents that link to not only their blog or Website, but also include a map link to their office. Some title reps I work with link to helpful forms, office locations, and even a direct link to open an order.

eStationery can also come in the form of an email signature. Both are advantageous to real estate agents and both usually include contact info, a picture, and live links. It just depends on whether you prefer a letterhead layout or signature layout. Estationery innovators are popping up all the time with new ways to send eStationery, new features to include, and new designs. Two great options for creating eStationery include InboxFX and Blogsigs.

InboxFX can brand your eStationery to match your blog or Website. The designs are professional and the functions are even better.  eStationery runs the risk of getting caught in spam filters and being truncated. With inboxFX, you never have to worry because it works every time! The InboxFX SMTP mail server will dynamically wrap every email with your custom template.  And Webmail users are good to go too! Click here to learn more about InboxFX.

Blogsigs will link your latest blog post to your email signature. This is a great way to immediately share your best industry info and local content from your blog. Blogsigs is currently available for Windows, Firefox, and Mac users.  To learn more about Blogsigs and to download for yourself, click here.

It's NOT MySpace. It's Just ActiveRain, Customized!

You may have noticed a slight change in my ActiveRain blog. I have redesigned it to match MyTechOpinion. I love consistency and it's a difficult task to brand myself cleanly among all the social networks and blogs I manage. So when Brad Carroll posted his AR Custom Blog Generator I immediately went to work!  Well, actually I turned my desk chair around and tapped Reggie until I could get him to fiddle with my CSS (get your minds out of the gutter). It's all tech all the time over here!

Anyway, Reggie has a bit of experience in the world of coding. I don't pretend to know what he does...but I definitely have an opinion about it. I sticky note him all the time with site maintenance ideas and improvements for our blogs and other online profiles.  At any rate, I think he did a fabulous job and I'm happy with the results. I will NOT be adding any music or rotating GIFS....this is NOT MySpace. It's still ActiveRain...just customized for NikNik.

Happy Spring: Chicks Love MyTechOpinion

Chicks love the NEW MyTechOpinion...and we hope you will too!

Just a quick announcement! After several late nights, MyTechOpinion v2 has launched! We have infused our new design with more real estate technology content, better article organization, individual author pages, and new social media tools and video.

Please stop by and let us know YOUR OPINION of MTO v.2! And Happy Spring!

How to Add Your Real Estate Listing to Craigslist

Trying to add your property showcase flyer to Craigslist? If so, watch this quick video for instruction. Click here to create your online property showcase at MyMarketWare. For more helpful marketing advice visit the MyMarketWare Blog. To view all the current how-to videos, check out the Training section at MyMarketWare.  If you have a question or a video request to help streamline your MarketSite user experience, email Nicole@MyMarketWare.com.

How to Embed Video in Your Online Property Showcase

Would you like to spice up your next online property showcase with Video? Watch this quick tutorial before getting started. Click here to create your online property showcase at MyMarketWare. For more helpful marketing advice visit the MyMarketWare Blog. To view all the current how-to videos, check out the Training section at MyMarketWare.  If you have a question or a video request to help streamline your MarketSite user experience, email Nicole@MyMarketWare.com.