Peyman's Blog

WSJ & Lore Magazine - The 2009 Real Estate Top 400 Professionals

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:08:33 -0500

I was checking out one of our client websites today (Cathy Hoppough) http://www.cathyhoppough.com/ and all of a sudden noticed the following announcement on her website:

The Wall Street Journal and Lore Magazine just released their annual list of the top 100 Real Estate Agents Nationally. Cathy was ranked #1 in the state and #9 nationally with 487 transactions! Follow the link below to see the complete list on Wall Street Journal's website:
http://online.wsj.com/ad/top100individualsides.html

I followed the link and noticed another one of our clients George Saab (ranked #16 on the list) http://www.fairfaxcountyshortsale.net/.

I stopped checking the list after #20 but it feels great seeing 2 of our clients on the Top 20. We love working with winners here at RealtySoft.com and it feels great seeing Cathy and George making the top 400 list. Congratulations to both of you and I hope we see your name published again next year.

If you would like to read the entire article (How Some Agents and Brokers Beat the Recession Blues) click here: http://online.wsj.com/ad/top400agents.html

Cathy Hoppough Ranked # 9 on the WSJ List

George Saab Ranked # 16 on the WSJ List

Does Your Website Give The Results You Want?

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:26:00 -0500

The following story was published few months ago on RISMedia. I hope you find it useful!

Peyman Aleagha
President
RealtySoft.com

Generating sales from your website can be a time consuming task and may require skills you do not have. A new integrated approach to websites from RealtySoft.com may make it a whole lot easier.

A few as five years ago, the real estate professional that wanted their own website could look forward to lot of technology-intensive work. Now, thanks to advances in technology, it is easy to create and maintain a quality website. However, having a website does not mean it will produce sales. In fact, according to the 2007 REALTOR® Technology Survey, while two thirds of real estate professionals do have their own website, only one out of five were satisfied with the ability of their website to generate leads.

If I build it, why don't they come?

Unfortunately, many real estate professionals have contracted for a website under the assumption that having a website is enough. Like in the movie ‘Field of Dreams', the tendency has been to think: if we build it, they will come. Turn the website on, leads will pour in. Not so. Simply having a website is no guarantee that you will get visitor ‘traffic' to your site and traffic is a pre-requisite for leads. No traffic, no leads.

This was the experience of Nina Kashefpour, a sales associate for Century 21 Your Number 1 Realty Inc. "I had a website from the very first day I entered the real estate business. Frankly, it didn't help. Having a website alone was not a very effective tool and getting traffic to my site seemed a lot more complicated than building the website in the first place!"

Getting a steady stream of visitors to your website generally requires certain coordinated activities and skills. Activities such as syndicating your listings with online real estate search engines and classified websites, using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to improve the "findability" of your website, online and print advertising, and the coordination of your website to all your other marketing activities, all help. Unfortunately, all of that requires either skills, or time that a realtor typically does not have!

"In my real estate business, I'm busy; very busy. I'm always in a hurry, and it seems like I rarely have enough time to do the things I'd like to do for my website or Internet marketing program," says Ms. Kashefpour.

"Sticky" is tricky.

Visitors coming to your website do not necessarily add up to new leads. Once visitors do begin to visit your site, you have to find ways of keeping them there - of making your site "sticky." Web experts suggest that your site has less than 5 seconds to capture the attention of a web visitor. If they cannot find what they are looking for in that time, or if they find nothing else to hold their interest, they will leave. They will go on to browsing someone else's website instead of yours. Therefore, the content of your site has to be "sticky". It has to glue your visitors to your site to keep them from going elsewhere.

You can make sure your site is sticky by ensuring that the content on your site is updated frequently, has access to compelling information (real estate news, listings, community information, etc.) and by including content that is "actionable" - i.e. offers for services or information. Very few real estate websites have "actionable" or frequently updated content. This makes them "static" sites. Static sites are not sticky. But, once again, the time and effort necessary to make a site sticky, and to keep it that way, requires more attention, and sometimes more cost, than most realtors have available to give.

If I build it, if they come, and if they stick... then what happens?

Then you have to give your website visitor a good reason to contact you, and you must provide them with an easy way to give you the information you need to assist them. THEN, you have a true lead. The formula is simple: bring more traffic to your site, make your site as sticky as you can, make it easy to contact you, and you will get leads. And, if you want a high volume of leads, then do those things consistently and well.

"Who has time for doing all that fiddling with your website? I'm not interested in being a webmaster. I want to be a successful real estate agent."

An integrated approach to websites.

That was the frustrating part for Nina Kashefpour. "Who has time for doing all that fiddling with your website?" she complains, "I'm not interested in being a webmaster. I want to be a successful real estate agent." She began looking for alternatives and came across a real estate website technology company named RealtySoft. RealtySoft claimed to be able to provide a quality website and make it easy for the realtor to manage the site, keep it sticky and to get leads.

At $25 per month, Kashefpour was willing to try it. "The RealtySoft solution gave me the tools needed to turn my site into a true lead-generating engine," says Kashefpour of her experience with the company. The integrated website solution provided by RealtySoft made it easy to manage her Internet marketing. Every week, she updates her website with any new listings and then ‘tweaks' the community related information on one of the pages to boost her search engine rankings. "Generally, everything I need to do can be done in about 10 minutes," says Kashefpour. "The entire site is fully customizable including keywords, images, forms, and other content."

Once her changes have been made, RealtySoft automatically resubmits her site to all major search engines and automatically syndicates her listings with ten major real estate web online marketplaces including Google, Zillow and Trulia. The RealtySoft integrated website also solicits leads and uses ‘autoresponders' to automatically reply to queries that are received by her website.

Using RealtySoft's integrated approach has paid off well. Kashefpour now claims to get more than 35% of her business from her website. The NAR technology survey found that less than 12% of realtors get that level of business results from their websites.

Peyman Aleagha, founder and President of RealtySoft, the website service provider used by Kashefpour, does not find her experience surprising. "Her frustration with managing her web and Internet marketing is exactly what we've tried to confront," says Aleagha. "We've put everything associated with real estate Internet marketing into a single integrated package - website, listings, email, domain management, SEO, syndication - and it can all be managed from a single point, easily and quickly." The company also has recently introduced a free MLS®/IDX connection and will soon be adding a tool to their package to help real estate agents prepare online and print advertisements. "Our goal is to see that the agent or broker gets everything they need to market effectively, all in one place, managed through a single ‘control panel', and that they can get all that affordably," says Aleagha.

Putting it all together.

Internet and website marketing is complicated. Juggling listings, website content, lead capture forms, SEO, syndicating listings in other sites, and keeping up with Internet advertising, is not a small task. It is particularly daunting if these things must be performed separately. An integrated approach, like that of RealtySoft, may well be the only way to get good sales results from a real estate website and still have time left over to be a successful real estate agent.

IDX - If Real Estate is Location, Location, Location - Then Map, Map, Map

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:11:15 -0500

We all know that location is arguably the most important aspect of real estate. You won't be buying a home where you can't get to work, school or the other things important to you and your family. So, if location is so important, then it is only logical to assume that mapping, and lots of it, is going to be a valuable and important feature of your site.

Of course, we do want to use maps in our IDX results displays. Seeing the location of a home in relation to area sites, businesses, schools, and other important locations is critical. It would be hard to have too many map choices on a successful real estate site. The IDX mapping would of course show the homes that come up in the searches. The ability to zoom in and out to orient better is also a big advantage. But, are there other uses for maps on your site that your visitors would appreciate? There are, and they revolve around specialized mapping.

Sample RealtySoft.com Website Integration with Google Maps

Before we look at the types of maps that have been proven to make for happy site visitors, let's look at some of your best online mapping solutions that make it easy to embed maps into a website.

Google Maps & Google Earth - You can easily map locations with Google Maps on a public map, then take the code Google provides, and embed that map into your site. The visitor need not leave your site to wander through the locations they want. An added value of this hosted public map is that it will be found in Google searches with a link to your site as well. You can even put a video that will pop up and play in the bubble from a map pin.

MSN Maps - MSN Maps Live offers a lot of the same features as Google Maps, including birdseye views, satellite views and street level views of cities.

Okay, we know where to produce public maps at no cost, and provide very user-friendly features for scoping out your area. So, what type of maps will our visitors appreciate?

Shopping - When someone is new to the area, they may want shopping close to the home they intend to purchase. And, this shopping could be large shopping centers, specialty food markets, or department stores. Having a map dedicated to shopping would appeal to many of your visitors. They may not even be in your area yet, and they want to get a feel for areas with multiple choices of the type of shopping they want.

Parks & Outdoor Recreation - Recreation is becoming more important all the time. And cities that provide a great number of parks, hiking and biking trails and outdoor sports facilities are where people want to live. Selecting a home will many times be greatly influenced by how near the recreational areas are. Using the mapping services, you can even choose icons that indicate hiking, biking, etc.

Schools & Libraries - Though state and local government sites have maps, why send a visitor away from your site when it isn't necessary. Map public, private and secondary education locations. Get the libraries on this map as well. Knowing that their children can be educated and do research close to home is important to many buyers.

Museums, Art & Culture - This is a very popular map offering as well. Your site visitors will appreciate being able to locate art museums, historical and cultural venues, and entertainment locations. Get the music venues in this map. Let them know where the movie theaters are as well.

Restaurants & Fast Food - This is a big one. We're a nation that eats out a lot. Locating the types of restaurants they like is important to our site visitors. Knowing they can eat out near their home, with varied food choices, will make this map page a popular one on your site.

RealtySoft.com Free IDX displaying nearby Schools and other POIs

We're also doing some Search Engine Optimization with mapping. We get exposure on the large map sites. However, we also write some text for each of these pages. This text talks in general about the buildings, services and locations on that map. It's a pitch for the area, but also a lure for search engine traffic.

So, it isn't just the homes for sale that make location, location, location so important. Give them maps for the businesses and facilities that your visitors will be using in your city.

Biography:
Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides real estate professionals with affordable Real Estate Website Design, Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX & MLS Search solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com

Real Estate Website Gadgets - There Is More To It

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:52:47 -0500

When you're developing a real estate website plan, there are a great many things to consider. From a very broad perspective, there are two major areas of concern:

Site Look and Design - This is important, but don't place your planning emphasis in the wrong areas. You want a pleasing site, with colors and presentation that invites the visitor to stay a while. If you're working with a site design or theme vendor, they have probably researched visitor behavior, and their template and design choices likely are structured with this in mind.

A major area of design is the navigation structure. Well designed real estate websites make it easy for the visitor to get around, and to locate specific information they need. Part of this is your responsibility, though. Naming of links and buttons to clearly indicate where they will take the visitor is critical.

Content and Marketing Focus - You simply cannot short-change planning in this area. What are you trying to accomplish with your site? Most of our clients tell us that they want their real estate website to actually bring them qualified leads and business that becomes commissions. With that as the mandatory goal, you'll want to provide content on the site that is in demand by the real estate consumer, whether a buyer or a seller.

What do your customers want? Consider what they ask you about as your first hint. All of the questions you answer on a regular basis become your web page content topics. Statistics, information about the area's businesses, shopping, cultural activities, education and employment are all the subject of search engine queries.

Taking these ideas into account, you'll want to provide a lot of content that answers questions about real estate and your area. But, what else can you do to provide value to a site visitor that will make your site more "sticky?" You want them to "stick around." Widgets, or gadgets, are useful tools to provide added value and services to your visitors.

Think a bit about what a real estate site visitor is searching for on your website. Of course, they want to look at listings, but what goes along with that desire? Once they locate a few homes that are appealing to them, what else might they want to know?

The Calculator Widgets - Whether first-time homebuyers, or they've been around the block a few times, nobody has payment tables in their brain. There are a number of calculator widgets of value to your site visitors. There is the payment calculator, where they can enter the sale price, mortgage interest rate, and expected down payment, getting the amount of the monthly payment returned to them.

There are widgets for loan qualification, determining the visitor's purchase ability based on their income and expenses. There are loan amortization gadgets to show them how their payments are broken out to interest and principal over time. All of these calculators are not of value to every visitor, but one or more of them will be useful to many of your site visitors. They will appreciate their availability on your site, plus they'll stay longer.

Featured Properties - Let's forget for a moment the thrill of getting a buyer for one of your listings, with a chance to handle both sides of the deal. A featured property widget allows you to display your listings prominently on your home page or elsewhere, with images and basic information to prompt a click for more info. The real value here is to show a prospective listing client how you'll prominently display and showcase their home. It's one more nail in the lid of the listing presentation box.

Weather and News - You want to present yourself as the local real estate expert, but you also want to bring your visitors other real estate news, even from a national perspective. Again, everything they can find pertaining to real estate on your site is one more reason to stick around a while. For those who don't already reside locally, a weather widget is usually appreciated. If they are relocating from far away, they may return to your site regularly to see how the climate is in your area.

Language Translation - The Internet allows your site to be viewed by prospects world-wide. Don't assume that they all speak English. A language translation gadget will allow a European site visitor to read your site in their own language. They will appreciate it, and likely continue to visit your site until they make a decision to do business.

There are other widgets and gadgets, with more being made available on a regular basis. Always evaluate them in relation to their value to your site visitors, as your screen real estate is every bit as valuable as your area's real estate.

Biography:
Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com

My Dream Website – Tell Us Your Dream & Win a $10 Starbuck's Card!

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:54:16 -0500

RealtySoft will be introducing a new version of its Realtor websites this fall and we want to be sure that the content we provide for agent websites in this version will be the very best it can be. That's where YOU come in ...

Give us your opinions and get a chance to win one of TEN availbale Starbuck's cards!

1. Pick a website category that you would most like to see on your "dream website". (Please pick only one) :

A) Residential Real Estate Website
B) Commercial Real Estate Website
C) Rental Website for Realtors with a rental focus
D) Neighborhood Website (a website built for a specific neighborhood)
E) Single Property Website (a website built for a specific property)

2. Now, select what groupings of web pages you would like to have on your "dream website"?

These groupings would be what you would see on the website menu. For example, you might want groupings like "About Me", "Buyer Info", "Contact Me", "Local Resources" or others. (Please brainstorm 8 groups).

For example if you picked "Residential Website" as your website category your Main Page Groups might look like this:

My Dream Residential Real Estate Website:

Home
Properties
Communities
Buyer Info
Seller Info
About Me
Contact Me
Local Resources

3. For each grouping you created in Step 2, fill in the sub-pages you would expect to see on pages in that grouping. For example for page Properties you might create the following sub-pages:

2. Properties
      2-1. Search Homes
      2-2. View My Listings
      2-3. View My Office Listings
     2-4. View My Sold Listings
      2-5. ...

How to Submit Entries?

It's simple. Post it here on this forum. Your final submission should look something like this:

My Dream Residential Real Estate Website:

Group Name
Group Name
      2-1. Page Name
      2-2. Page Name
      2-3. Page Name
      2-4. Page Name
      2-5. ...
Group Name
      3-1. Page Name
      3-2. Page Name
      3-3. Page Name
      3-4. ...
Group Name
Group Name
Group Name
Group Name
Group Name

The contest starts June 9, 2009 and ends June 23, 2009. 10 lucky winners will be announced here on June 24^th. Winners will be contacted via email to arrange shipment of prizes.

Thank you and best of luck!

Peyman Aleagha
President
RealtySoft.com

SEO and PPC for Traffic - But There's More

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:22:27 -0500

The ultimate success of your business will probably be tied closely to your success on the Internet. Your website or blog is your storefront in a very big world. It's easy to get a dry cleaning customer if they pass your store every day on their way home from work. It's a lot harder to capture a real estate lead from an armchair buyer or seller clicking around the World Wide Web.

Just entering the key phrase "real estate" into a Google search yields a whopping 589 Million results! In your area, county, or town, there are thousands of web search results related to real estate. They're not going to drive by, so how do you stand out and get found? We all know that we need to continually work on SEO, and many pay to advertise with pay-per-click marketing. Those are fundamental and effective things we must do. But, what else can we do that's cost effective and will bring us more site visitors?

Signage - Whether it's yard signs, decals or magnetic vehicle signs, or our sign over the door of the business, they should all display your website address. They'll remember it, and go home to see what you have to offer on your site. In today's highly mobile world, phones are browsing the web, so they may visit your site from street-side.

Business Cards - You'll find that your website address and email address are now more important than your phone number on your business cards. They don't stop calling, but will go to your site for information that they'd rather get anonymously than with a phone call.

Printed Materials - This is everything in print about your company, and in your marketing. Your letterhead, signature blocks on email, newspaper ads, homes magazine ads, and promotional items. If it's in print out there with your company name, then your web domain should be there as well.

Social and Business Networking - I've mentioned in other articles about writing content for your website that comes from questions asked by your prospects and clients. If one person asks, there are many on the Internet searching for that same answer. If you are doing this, then there's another very valuable traffic generation tool right in front of you.

Many real estate professionals have recognized the value of the social and business network sites. They set up their profile and answer questions from consumers about real estate in their area. Too many of them miss an opportunity here though. Write the answer as a page on your site, or a post on your blog. Then, when you get a question on a social site to which that page pertains, place the link in the answer. You still answer the consumer's question, but you add value with the link, and you get a new site visitor. It's far better than just the generic link to your site with your answer, and they're far more likely to click on it to learn more about the question they asked.

The networking is intense at ActiveRain. Real estate professionals discuss virtually every topic related to the business of real estate, serving customers, and marketing. Leads are referred the customary way through this network, however, with the addition of the new Listing Router tool, ActiveRain routes site visitors to local real estate professionals who participate. When a visitor to a site on one side of the country uses a special search function requesting information in an area on the other side of the country, a local participating ActiveRain member will get that visitor routed right to them.

Let's talk about a few of these social and business sites and how you can use them to generate business and website traffic.

Myspace - This is the younger set, but many real estate professionals are making contact with first-time homebuyers here. As with any of these sites, don't hover and attack if you see the words real estate or home buying in a post. Be there as a helpful resource, and don't force yourself on other users.

Facebook - This site is growing very fast, and it is bringing in a great many business people as well as consumers. It's a bridge from the social to the business community, and can be an excellent place to establish yourself as the real estate expert in your area. Again, the value of these sites is placing yourself out there to be found when someone has a need. Be responsive but not forceful. Your knowledge will be appreciated when it's presented as helpful advice in response to their questions.

LinkedIn - Business is the main focus of this network. Comprised of industry groups, including several Realtor groups, LinkedIn is more for Business to Business networking. However, it's one you don't want to slight. Think about it. Referrals from other real estate professionals, mortgage brokers, title companies, inspectors and others can be cultivated with strong business relationships on this site.

Twitter - The short 160 or fewer character posts on Twitter started out to be just "here's where I am or what I'm doing" posts. However, business is using Twitter quite effectively. If you have RSS feeds available from your website or blog, you can feed your site excerpts to Twitter with links back. Once set up, you don't do anything extra for it to happen.

Those are the "big four" of networking, but there are other sites with more narrow focus. They all have some value, but you can decide which are the best to accomplish your goals.

The Ten Commandments of a Successful IDX Solution

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:23:16 -0500

The Internet is changing the way that Realtors do business and market themselves to such an extent that some will just not be around in a few short years. Survival of the fittest is the way of the world, and the fittest in real estate will be those agents and brokers who understand the new Internet consumer and how to engage them from first contact through a commission.

The very first contact that most of you with websites or blogs will have with a consumer will usually be their visit to your site to search for listings. And, you will probably never know that they were there. They come anonymously, and they want to stay that way. They want to find homes or land that meets their requirements and, on this first visit, they do not want to be contacted or to talk to you. If you ever want to talk to these people, ever, then pay heed to the TEN COMMANDMENTS OF IDX.

1. Thou shalt not underestimate IDX.
It doesn't matter whether it's a buyer or seller visiting your website or blog for the first time. Surveys have shown that 95+% of first time visitors for listing searches want to see all of the listings in the MLS, not just yours. Not having IDX will cost you huge amounts of future web-generated business. Again, no IDX, no leads, no business.

2. Thou shalt not make assumptions about your visitors.
Successful Web real estate lead generating site owners will all tell you the same thing. They have had clients tell them that the business came to them because other online Realtors dismissed, ignored or underestimated them. They were visiting the sites months before they were ready to talk to anyone, and the site owner didn't serve them well in this phase. Though they aren't ready to get into the car with you right now, they do not want to be ignored until you think they are a "hot" prospect.

3. Thou must take ownership of your IDX.
Do you think you've diverted a bullet, getting an IDX link for your web presence by linking out to your broker's site? Would you take every one of your walk-in prospects into your broker's office, introduce them, and leave them there to be served? Don't send your prospects off to be served by others by not having an IDX solution ON your site.

4. Thou shalt not secret away your IDX.
How does a site visitor get to your IDX search page? Don't make it a tiny button, or make them go through several clicks to find it. If you're doing PPC, bring them straight to the search page if that's the key phrase you're marketing. Make it a highly visible one-click link from your home page.

5. Thou shalt make IDX easy to use.
Web visitors are not patient people. They want to locate listings by characteristics, location, price, school systems, and in other ways. Make the search process easy for them to find homes the way they want to find them.

6. Thou should be generous with other information and tools.
If you were buying a home in a new area, what would you want to know? Give your visitors interactive maps, calculators for mortgages, gadgets for climate information, shopping and banking locations, and more. Give them easy access to information and tools to determine what it will be like to live in the home on the screen. And, lots of photos!

7. Thou shalt deliver.
Once a visitor has decided that your IDX search is a good one for them, don't lose them to another who makes it even easier to use. Give them the ability to create custom searches with their criteria and have new listings delivered to their email. This is the delivery that will keep them coming back and keep you on the top of their mind when the timing is right.

8. Thou shalt promote your visitors to management for leads.
Once these visitors are using your site and IDX, give them the ability to log in to manage their accounts, including multiple saved searches. This is great for them, but it's even better for you ... now you have that email address lead to market.

9. Thou shalt always be right there.
No matter what screen they are looking at, no matter how many homes they view, always have an easy one-click link to email you. When they are finally ready to ask a question and get personal, don't make them search around for contact information.

10. Thou shalt never sit still.
The most difficult target to hit is the one that's moving, and the Internet and your prospects are moving constantly. Use an IDX solution provider who understands this and stays on the leading edge of Internet consumer engagement.

There you are. If you can live by those 10 IDX commandments on your website or blog, success will be yours in online real estate business generation.

Make sure to check out RealtySoft Free IDX by visiting http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php . You can also check out RealtySoft's MLS Coverage Areas Here: http://www.realtysoft.com/mlscoverage.php

Biography:
Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design, Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com

Hits, Visits, Page Views – What’s Important?

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:46:10 -0500

As real estate professionals who want to make a success of our Internet presence, we should know some of the terminology. But, we should also know how to concentrate our time and efforts on what's important when it comes to tracking visits to, and activity on, our websites. These two goals go hand-in-hand when it comes to sorting out website traffic statistics. Let's look at some terms and see how we want to use these site traffic statistics.

Hits - This one has been around since the beginning, and you'll still hear a great many people say things like "How do I get more hits on my website?" The truth is, you really shouldn't look at hit count for any meaningful measure of what's happening on your site.

A "hit" is a file sent to a browser by a web server. If you have text and 10 images on a page, the stats will record 11 hits for every time that page loads in a browser. That's because each image is a hit. 20 images, 21 hits. As you can see, this doesn't tell us anything valuable at all. So, hearing someone bragging about 20,000 hits a day doesn't tell you how many visitors were there, or how many pages they viewed, only files downloaded.

Visits - Each time a user comes into a site, it is recorded as a visit. One user may visit a site several times in one day. In real estate, they may be coming in at different times of the day to search for listings. Obviously, the more visits your site gets, the more likely you are to generate business from it.

Visitors - There are a great many statistics measurement software and online solutions out there. But, they all definitely measure visitors, as this is a very important metric for your future success. Properly recorded, you'll only show one visitor count if the same visitor enters the site several times that day. The site will attempt to track the IP address of the visitor, or set a cookie on their hard drive to uniquely identify that visitor and not count them twice in a day. Their visits will get counted, however. So, one visitor stat may yield multiple visit counts.

Your goal is to use SEO (Search Engine Optimization), various forms of marketing, and maybe some PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing to continue to increase your visitors over time. If you're not growing the visitor count, you're not going to generate more business from your website or blog.

Page Views - This is another very important measurement of how effective your site is, and how useful it is to your visitors. It counts the number of pages viewed, and most will give you an average page views/visit in their statistics. This tells you if your site visitors are finding their way around, as well as if they are locating other information from your navigation that they want to view. Another word for this is "stickiness." Are they sticking around. You want lots of page views, and definitely a reasonable average per visit, indicating they are moving around in the site.

Another way some statistical tools report this is as "depth of visit." How deep into the site did the visitor go? You can see a graph of the number of visitors that only viewed one page, and another with those who viewed 20 or more pages, as an example. Watching these statistics, and trying to improve on them, means that you want to create content that visitors want, and give them easy ways to locate it and navigate to it.

One thing we need to remember as real estate sites with IDX searches is that many repeat visitors will be coming back over and over directly to the search page. They bookmark it, search for a while, and they leave without moving around elsewhere in the site. So, we shouldn't beat ourselves up if your average page views aren't growing like we want, but our time on site is getting longer ...see the next item.

Length of Visit - The statistics tool should also give you data as to how long visitors are staying on your site. Of course, the longer the better, as that means they're finding what they want. As mentioned above, many of your repeat visitors may only come to the site to search for listings. They have bookmarked the IDX search page, and they never leave it on most visits. That's OK. You'll see that the time on site is excellent, meaning they like your search interface.

You should always be tracking your site's performance with these statistics, no matter which analytical tool or software you choose. The goal is to grow the number of visitors, while increasing the time they stay and the number of pages they view. That's how you build a loyal audience who eventually become leads and commissions.

RealtySoft.com adds 15 new MLS associations to its FreeIDX service

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:21:24 -0500

RealtySoft now offers FreeIDX service for NTREIS, REGIONALMLS, MLSPIN, HEARTLAND, HBR, GHVMLS, MCAR, VBR, DUBUQUE, CRMLS, CHATTANOOGA, GACAR, CRAAR, SPARTANBURGMLS, HELENA

May 11, 2009 -- RealtySoft.com has today announced the integration of RealtySoft IDX with 15 new MLS Associations across North America. Listing data from the following associations is now available through RealtySoft's Free IDX program.

To find out more about RealtySoft Free IDX please visit: http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php
To see RealtySoft Free IDX Coverage Area please visit: http://www.realtysoft.com/mlscoverage.php
To Sign Up Please visit: https://secure.realtysoft.com/registration/step1.php?trial

AL - Alabama

MLS of the Shoals Area Association of Realtors (SHOALS)

AK - Alaska

Alaska MLS (AKMLS)

AR - Arkansas

Cooperative Arkansas Realtors MLS (CARMLS)

Jonesboro Board of REALTORS (JBOR)

Russelville Board of Realtors (RBOR)

CA - California

East Bay Regional Data (EBRD)

MRMLS Inc. (MRMLS)

Bay East Association MLS (BAYEAST)

Southern California MLS - CrisNet MLS (SOCAL)

Contra Costa Association MLS (CONTRACOSTA)

Sandicor, Inc. (SANDICOR)

Pasadena-Foothills Association of Realtors (PFAR)

Madera MLS (MADERA)

Merced County MLS (MCAR) NEW

CO - Colorado

Vail Board of Realtors MLS (VBR) NEW

CT - Connecticut

CT Statewide MLS (CTSTATEWIDE)

Massachusetts MLSPIN (MLSPIN) NEW

DE - Delaware

Trend MLS (TREND)

FL - Florida

Mid-Florida Regional MLS (MFR)

Gainesville-Alachua County MLS (GACAR) NEW

Naples MLS (NABOR)

Miami MLS - Miami-Dade County (RAMDC)

Pensacola Association of Realtors (PENSACOLA)

Miami MLS - Greater Fort Lauderdale (RAGFL)

Ft. Myers MLS (FTMYERS)

Miami MLS - Greater Miami and the Beaches (MIAMI)

Miami MLS - South Broward (SOUTHBROWARD)

GA - Georgia

First MLS (FMLS)

Georgia MLS (GAMLS)

HI - Hawaii

HiCentral MLS (HBR) NEW

ID - Idaho

Intermountain MLS (IMLS)

IL - Illinois

Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED)

Peoria Association of REALTORS (PEORIA)

IN - Indiana

Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR)

IA - Iowa

Cedar Rapids MLS (CRAAR) NEW

Dubuque MLS (DUBUQUE) NEW

South West Iowa MLS (SWIAR)

KS - Kansas

Heartland MLS (HEARTLAND) NEW

KY - Kentucky

MetroSearch (LOUISVILLE)

MD - Maryland

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)

MA - Massachusetts

Massachusetts MLSPIN (MLSPIN)

MI - Michigan

Grand Rapids Assoc of Realtors (GRAR)

MN - Minnesota

Regional MLS of Minnesota - NorthStar MLS (REGIONALMLS) NEW

Southeast Minnesota MLS (SEMARMLS)

MT - Montana

Helena Association of REALTORS (HELENA) NEW

NV - Nevada

Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR)

NJ - New Jersey

South Jersey Shore Regional MLS (SJSRMLS)

Trend MLS (TREND)

Garden State MLS (GSMLS)

Monmouth/Ocean MLS (MOMLS)

NM - New Mexico

Southwest Multiple Listing Service (SWMLS)

NY - New York

Brooklyn New York MLS (BROOKLYN)

Binghamton MLS (BINGHAMTON)

Capital Region MLS (CRMLS) NEW

MLS of Long Island, Inc. (MLSLI)

Greater Hudson Valley MLS (GHVMLS) NEW

Westchester-Putnam Mulitple Listing Service (WPMLS)

NC - North Carolina

Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. (CAROLINAMLS)

Triad MLS (TRIAD)

OH - Ohio

Northern Ohio Real Estate Info Systems (NORIS)

OR - Oregon

Intermountain MLS (IMLS)

PA - Pennsylvania

Trend MLS (TREND)

SC - South Carolina

Charleston Trident MLS (CTARMLS)

Coastal Carolinas Association of REALTORS, Inc. (CCAR)

Piedmont MLS (PRAR)

Spartanburg MLS (SPARTANBURGMLS) NEW

TN - Tennessee

Chattanooga MLS (CHATTANOOGA) NEW

RealTracs (REALTRACS)

TX - Texas

North Texas Real Estate Information Systems (NTREIS) NEW

Austin Board of Realtors - ACTRIS MLS (ACTRIS)

Highland Lakes Assoc. of REALTORS (TXHL)

Houston Realtors Information Service (HAR)

San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR)

VT - Vermont

Vermont Real Estate Information Network (VREIN)

VA - Virginia

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)

WA - Washington

Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS)

WV - West Virginia

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)

Huntington MLS (HMLS)

WI - Wisconsin

Northwestern Wisconsin MLS (NWWMLS)

AB - Alberta

Medicinehat MLS (MEDICINEHAT)

ON - Ontario

Toronto MLS (TREB)

ActiveRain’s Listing Router and RealtySoft.com Free IDX – A Dream Team

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:47:39 -0500

ActiveRain, since its inception, has proven to be an innovative force in real estate practice and marketing. It's no wonder that they've produced yet another innovative marketing tool that is set to take the real estate online community by storm.

The new Listing Router tool is not only an amazing idea, but a triumph of planning and cooperation between real estate agents and brokers from every area of the country. Let's look at what it does and how it promises to bring business to you from traffic to agent sites, no matter where they are located.

The search engine exposure of the ActiveRain platform - ActiveRain members know that the reach achieved by posting to their ActiveRain and Localism blogs is phenomenal. Many are getting the majority of their site visits from Internet searches, and these searches are on all kinds of keywords and phrases.

The "long tail" and non-realty topics - When a searcher comes to a blog with a key phrase unrelated to real estate, it's still valuable traffic. If they have searched on mountain hiking and come to an ActiveRain blogger's post about it in their area, it shouldn't be opportunity lost. They'll get the information they wanted about hiking in the mountains. What if they are interested in real estate in that area? Then they're at the right place. But, what if they are from a mountainous area a thousand miles away?

The Listing Router gets them to the listings they want - With the Listing Router in place, the searcher at the initial mountain hiking blog post can enter the area, town or city where they would like to find real estate. They'll be taken to the ActiveRain member's site who has signed up to receive these leads. So, John's great hiking article for the California mountains will take a searcher to the IDX search page for Mary's site in the Appalachian Mountains on the other side of the country.

How does it work?

ActiveRain members who sign up to participate in the program pay a small per-click charge to get that focused click to their IDX site. Remember, the visitor must enter the area or city, so they definitely want to search real estate in that area, as the line on the screen reads "Find Homes for Sale In ___________."

John isn't losing a client, as they were never interested in real estate in his area or they would enter his city. If they do, they'll go right to his IDX, and at no cost to John. However, since they want to look in another area, they'll be taken to the participating agent's IDX there. For John, there's a small piece of what Mary paid for the click, and he can accrue that money to buy his own clicks from other sites.

Why you need RealtySoft.com Free IDX?!

The value of this visitor who entered your area into the search box is huge. By doing it, they are telling you that they are interested in local real estate. They may be from yet another area of the country, not near you or John. All of this started from a hiking search, and now they are at your site looking for real estate.

How can you lose this customer who has crossed the country online to search for listings? Simply, don't give them what they want. And, it's more than just a list of homes for sale. It's all about a comprehensive IDX solution that's consumer-focused, here is some of the features:

	Display MLS Listings on Your Website 78% of home sales begin with an Internet Search and viewing listings is the #1 reason. Make sure your site can display them!
	Client Friendly Interface Your website visitors will find the RealtySoft IDX search solution easy-to-use, fun to browse, informative and intuitive.
	Advanced Listing Search Capabilities Your visitors can easily find listings by location, property type, price, number of bedrooms, bathrooms or other search criteria. It's easy!
	Search by Map Listings can be located and browsed via a convenient and familiar Google Map interface. Searching the MLS has never been this easy!
	School & Points of Interest Data Schools and other important community information (e.g. Banks, Restaurants, Airports etc.) is already indexed & mapped for your prospects.
	Visitor Can Save Their Listings & Searches Your website visitors can save properties they like or save the search criteria they're using in a profile within your website!
	Visitors Can Sign Up For Email Alerts Website visitors can sign up to automatically receive listings that match their search criteria on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
	Automatic Listing Updates Listing information is updated with your local MLS data every day to ensure that your clients get current listings and status.
	Interactive Client Login / Registration Area Integrated seamlessly with our Property Organizer to let your clients manage their property search on your website.
	Feature & Market Seller Listings Feature your own listings on your website and other popular search engines such as Google Base, Trulia, Zillow, Vast and ...
	Showcase Your Listings Showcase your listings automatically - Using your agent or office codes, RealtySoft IDX will automatically display your listings on your website.
	Easily Integrates With other Website Solutions RealtySoft IDX can be easily integrated into your existing real estate website solution using conventional HTML Code or Frames.
	Create Custom Search Displays Feature Sold, Pending, Open Homes, Residential, Commercial and other categories of listings on separate website pages.
	Complies With All MLS / IDX Regulations RealtySoft works closely with your local MLS insuring that RealtySoft IDX complies with all MLS®/IDX standards & regulations of your board.
	Customizable Look & Feel Choose from 2000+ high quality stock photos in over 20 different categories to make your site look its best.
	Agent Roster System (Broker Version) Agent roster page creates individual agent bios for each agent within your company, with agents personal listings, photo and more.
	Office Roster System (Broker Version) Office roster page creates individual office profiles for each office and conveniently maps it on a Google Map.
	Customize Your Own Listings Customize your own listings with links to virtual tours, photos tours, custom description, open house information, and more.
	Multiple Gadgets Mortgage Calculators, Contact Page, Schedule a Showing, Virtual Tours, Google Map, Points of Interest and more ...

What you get.

You get a visitor from John's site across the country, but they want a home in your area. They learn to respect your site's information, and they become a loyal repeat visitor for searches, just because your IDX solution provides precisely what they want. You get:

    - Their contact info from their account signup or automated alert requests - A LEAD
    - Their loyalty because no other site is necessary. Your IDX solution provides it all.
    - The ability to feature and showcase your listings in the IDX search ... an exclusive RealtySoft feature.

Don't hesitate. This is a far better way to spend a few PPC dollars than butting heads on Google's Adwords. Get the Dream Team of Lead Generation - ActiveRain Listing Router and RealtySoft.com.

MLS Coverage

RealtySoft Free IDX is currently available for the following MLSs:

AL - MLS of the Shoals Area Association of Realtors (SHOALS)
AK - Alaska MLS (AKMLS)
AR - Cooperative Arkansas Realtors MLS (CARMLS)
AR - Jonesboro Board of REALTORS (JBOR)
AR - Russelville Board of Realtors (RBOR)
CA - East Bay Regional Data (EBRD)
CA - MRMLS Inc. (MRMLS)
CA - Bay East Association MLS (BAYEAST)
CA - Southern California MLS - CrisNet MLS (SOCAL)
CA - Contra Costa Association MLS (CONTRACOSTA)
CA - Sandicor, Inc. (SANDICOR)
CA - Pasadena-Foothills Association of Realtors (PFAR)
CA - Madera MLS (MADERA)
CT - CT Statewide MLS (CTSTATEWIDE)
DE - Trend MLS (TREND)
FL - Mid-Florida Regional MLS (MFR)
FL - Naples MLS (NABOR)
FL - Miami MLS - Miami-Dade County (RAMDC)
FL - Pensacola Association of Realtors (PENSACOLA)
FL - Miami MLS - Greater Fort Lauderdale (RAGFL)
FL - Ft. Myers MLS (FTMYERS)
FL - Miami MLS - Greater Miami and the Beaches (MIAMI)
FL - Miami MLS - South Broward (SOUTHBROWARD)
GA - First MLS (FMLS)
GA - Georgia MLS (GAMLS)
ID - Intermountain MLS (IMLS)
IL - Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED)
IL - Peoria Association of REALTORS (PEORIA)
IN - Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR)
IA - South West Iowa MLS (SWIAR)
KY - MetroSearch (LOUISVILLE)
MD - Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)
MI - Grand Rapids Assoc of Realtors (GRAR)
MN - Southeast Minnesota MLS (SEMARMLS)
NV - Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR)
NJ - South Jersey Shore Regional MLS (SJSRMLS)
NJ - Trend MLS (TREND)
NJ - Garden State MLS (GSMLS)
NJ - Monmouth/Ocean MLS (MOMLS)
NM - Southwest Multiple Listing Service (SWMLS)
NY - Brooklyn New York MLS (BROOKLYN)
NY - Binghamton MLS (BINGHAMTON)
NY - MLS of Long Island, Inc. (MLSLI)
NY - Westchester-Putnam Mulitple Listing Service (WPMLS)
NC - Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. (CAROLINAMLS)
NC - Triad MLS (TRIAD)
OR - Intermountain MLS (IMLS)
PA - Trend MLS (TREND)
SC - Charleston Trident MLS (CTARMLS)
SC - Coastal Carolinas Association of REALTORS, Inc. (CCAR)
SC - Piedmont MLS (PRAR)
TN - RealTracs (REALTRACS)
TX - Austin Board of Realtors - ACTRIS MLS (ACTRIS)
TX - Highland Lakes Assoc. of REALTORS (TXHL)
TX - Houston Realtors Information Service (HAR)
TX - San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR)
VT - Vermont Real Estate Information Network (VREIN)
VA - Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)
WA - Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS)
WV - Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS)
WV - Huntington MLS (HMLS)
WI - Northwestern Wisconsin MLS (NWWMLS)
AB - Medicinehat MLS (MEDICINEHAT)
ON - Toronto MLS (TREB)

RealtySoft expects to have the following MLSs released in March/April 2009:

CA - Fresno Association of Realtors (FRESNO)
CA - Merced County MLS (MCAR)
CO - Vail Board of Realtors MLS (VBR)
CT - Massachusetts MLSPIN (MLSPIN)
HI - HiCentral MLS (HBR)
IA - Dubuque MLS (DUBUQUE)
KS - Heartland MLS (HEARTLAND)
MA - Massachusetts MLSPIN (MLSPIN)
MN - Regional MLS of Minnesota (REGIONALMLS)
NY - Greater Hudson Valley MLS (GHVMLS)
NC - Western NC Regional MLS (WNCR)
OH - Northern Ohio Real Estate Info Systems (NORIS)
TX - North Texas Real Estate Information Systems (NTREIS)
TX - Bryan-College Station MLS (BCMLS)

To find out more about RealtySoft.com Free IDX program please visit: http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php

To see MLS coverage areas please visit: http://www.realtysoft.com/mlscoverage.php

Social Networking and The New Real Estate Sphere of Influence

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:51:19 -0500

Actually, we're not just talking about "social networks," but business networking as well. The Internet has made dramatic changes in the way the world shops, locates information, and in how they communicate with each other. Of course, email is the elephant in the room. But, as we become ever more mobile and in a hurry, networking will become a many-faceted activity.

So, what do we mean by online or social networking? It's all about sending messages to one another in real time, and getting back responses quickly. But, it's also about introductions. We introduce our contacts to others, and they can introduce us to their network. It becomes an ever-growing circle, encompassing more people who in some way keep up with what we are doing or saying.

A large part of these networking services is information retrieval as well. It isn't just searching on Google, but also searching within a network for answers to questions, and sharing those answers with our circle of contacts. And, it seems that new services just keep popping up. The big names are:

• Twitter.com - This text and email communication tool has grown tremendously since it began. Leaving "tweets" as they are called, is placing short bits of information out via cell phone text message, RSS feeds or even voice to text conversion. It is used a lot to keep people who "follow" you posted as to where you are and what you're doing.

• MySpace.com - More for the younger set, but infiltrating older age groups as well, this is a social networking site for exchanging information, sharing music and just about anything else two people would like to share online.

• Facebook.com - Facebook is a lot like MySpace, only for an older age group. It is also used to communicate over distance, send messages, and share information with a social network.

• LinkedIn.com - This is a business and professional network of the first order. It is set up with a resume profile, connections to others in your field, business or company, finding employment and making deals. With more than 10 million users, it is a great place for a business person to network.

• Industry Specific - An example for our purposes would be Trulia Voices. Trulia is a real estate search site. The Voices segment allows consumers to ask questions to be answered by real estate professionals. The questions are frequently area-specific, and you can sign up to receive notices of questions in your area.

• and ofcourse our dearly beloved ActiveRain. Do I really need to explain that one?

As a real estate professional, you may just be getting a handle on a productive website or blog. And, thinking about signing up for and participating in multiple networking sites is the last thing you have time for. You'll need to make the time, as this is the future of your business. Instead of spending hours every week going to meetings and community functions to shake 50 hands and make contacts, you could be meeting and connecting with thousands online in the same amount of time.

• Consider your immediate and current sphere of influence to be your 1^st level connections.

• On these networks, your 1^st level connections can and will introduce you to their's, and you're building 2^nd level contacts, and so on.

• You soon make contact with consumers in the market to buy and sell real estate in your area. They use these forums to ask questions.

• At LinkedIn, you can network with title companies, real estate attorneys, other Realtors, movers, and other businesses that are real estate related.

There are some specific etiquette concerns when using these network resources. They may be free in most cases, but you shouldn't abuse them. A recent example that was publicized was a home buyer who asked a question on Facebook. They received dozens of "USE ME!" emails and contacts from real estate agents. They were not amused. These weren't productive answers to their question, but just hurled requests for attention, much like throwing a handful of business cards into a group of people.

Your goal in working within these network sites is much the same as it is in personal networking at the Rotary Club. Be friendly and around. When a real estate related question is asked, be there with a courteous and informative answer. Just keep doing it, and you'll build relationships over time that will bring you business. And, when consumers on these sites start to recommend you to their online connections, you've dramatically expanded your sphere of influence without shaking a hand or attending a meeting.

The Etiquette of Effective Lead Capture

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:14:45 -0500

It's been written around the Web that 90+% of real estate websites and blogs are not effective at their intended purpose. This is assuming that your goal for your site is the actual direct generation of business. If all you want is a billboard to place your listings and show to your listing clients, then most any site will do, and you really don't need to get into lead capture as a strategy.

However, that's a great waste of the potential of a real estate website. Believe it or not, you can generate listing client leads as easily as buyer leads with the right website and tools. The trick is to entice your visitors to give you their contact information, not steal it from them with black-hat techniques. The right content, a great IDX search page, featured listings, and special offerings is the way to go.

Though there are ways to do it, you never want a visitor to your site to automatically get an email because you somehow captured their address without their knowledge or approval. If you are capturing the contact information of a site visitor, it should always be with their full knowledge, and it should happen because they intended to give it to you. Usually, that will not happen with a simple "Please sign our guestbook" popup. Why should they ... what's in it for them.

You also do not want to make them jump through too many hoops to get to useful information or search for listings. It should be easy, and studies have shown that sites with a lot of useful information without login or requirement for contact information will get more traffic and page views. So, that gets them there, but how do we get that valuable email address or even a phone call? How de we get the visitor to the next level?

• A very visible email link on EVERY page.

• Your phone number on every page.

• If you use one, have one of the services "Call Me" buttons on every page that connects them from their phone to you.

• Special reports delivered via email. BUT! Every template website in the world has "How to make your kitchen show better." You need to do better than that, with useful locally-focused reports like "Negotiations in the YourTown real estate market," etc.

• Statistics, statistics, statistics. Buyers want to know what the market is doing. Sellers want to compare their home to what has sold recently. Everybody loves statistics if they're close to buying or selling real estate. You can offer useful general market stats for free, but offer in-depth stats and commentary as special reports by email. They'll give you their email address to get them.

• If your IDX limits the information fields, offer a widget or other way to sign up for more detailed listing reports, more like the ones you see when you log in as a Realtor. They send you the MLS numbers, and you send them back detailed listing reports.

• You might offer the in-depth statistics as a weekly or monthly email newsletter, rather than a special report. You just go into the MLS and generate a report of recent sold averages and that becomes the special newsletter with some commentary by you on your perceptions of what they mean.

Note the theme here. The Internet, and real estate even more so, is becoming very transparent, with great amounts of information freely available. If you try to force signup to get what they can get freely elsewhere, they'll end up elsewhere. Actually, this goes hand-in-hand with positioning yourself as the local area real estate expert. You do that by providing this special information and extended reports and statistics.

I mentioned buyers and sellers. Too many real estate professionals think that a website or blog is primarily to attract buyers, and they may not even like dealing with them. The fact is that a really good website will attract listing clients as well. If your command of market knowledge, and your reporting of statistics, shows potential sellers that you're on top of the market, they'll want you to list their home.

It's really not complicated to generate leads from a web presence. You provide information that visitors want, use marketing and SEO to get them there, then offer valuable extras to show you are the expert and to get that contact information.

Developing and Working a Niche Online

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:14:08 -0500

The most competition-intensive thing you can do with your website is to develop all of your content around keywords and phrases that are generic real estate, as "YourTown real estate." Virtually 95+% of your competition is doing the very same thing. Far from a negative, this opens up a great opportunity for you.

Wait, you say! I work residential real estate, so I really don't have a niche. Actually, you have several.

Single family homes
Townhomes
Condominiums
Foreclosures
Investors
First time buyers
Neighborhoods, subdivisions or areas
Relocations

You may not do all of these, but would you if you had the clients? And, each of these is a niche that can provide opportunities to create very focused content, with key phrases your competition isn't targeting.

If you look at the traffic statistics for a real estate site with high traffic, you'll be surprised at the search phrases that bring many of the visitors. It's called the "long tail" of search. Much more than "yourtown real estate," they're coming in on phrases like (assume "yourtown" in front or in back of most of these):

New homes for sale
Foreclosure homes
Condominium projects
Condominiums in town
Downtown condominiums
Building codes and restrictions
Subdivision locations
Land use restrictions
Homes for sale in
Land for sale in
Townhomes in downtown
Single family homes in
Home styles in
Downtown condo covenants

Fully customizable IDX Websites, such as this one from RealtySoft.com enables you to
personalize your website for your niche market!

(Full Disclosure: I am the founder and president of RealtySoft.com)

There are a great many more, and you can even combine some of those into others. The point is that you can spend your time and effort in creating content that's focused on these niche words and phrases. There will be far less competition, and you'll do much better in the search engines. You don't need a novel on these topics. Here are some example titles for SEO and short 300 or so word pages:

Denver Downtown Condominium Projects
Typical Denver Condominium Covenants
Denver Condo Covenants to Beware Of
Denver Condominium Sold Statistics
Price Trends for Denver Condos
Denver Downtown Condominiums Map
Negotiating for Your New Denver Condo

There's more, but you're getting the idea. By developing short content pages with these titles and the key phrases in the page, you'll be developing that niche with SEO, and your competition will be left behind in the long term.

We've only touched on the tip of the opportunity iceberg. Do the same for commercial, investors, foreclosures, short sales, and other specialty property types or types of transactions. Your site can develop several niches, each as a major page with sub-pages for each title and phrase. Why compete for the major words when you're able to get first page search positions for the lesser-used key phrases?

Let's talk about neighborhoods and subdivisions as a niche. Think of them as your farms, as this is a familiar concept in real estate marketing. Instead of post card farming a large subdivision, think of it as a sub-site on your website. It becomes a major page, with sub-pages for (again, subdivision name before or after phrases):

Covenants and Restrictions
Homes for Sale
Condominiums for Sale
Area Maps
Business and Shopping
Area Schools
Area Churches
Sold Property Statistics
History and Development

Again, you get the idea. While hundreds of your fellow Realtors are fighting for major competitive key phrases, you can "work the fringes" for neighborhoods and subdivisions. You will get very targeted traffic, as there are searchers wanting information specific to these neighborhoods.

If you want your website to actually bring you business, working the niche property and transaction types can be your best tool. Just getting away from the normal real estate site plan will help. You know, the site with about a dozen pages, with these buttons on the home page:

Search Listings
About Me
Buyer Information
Seller Information
My Listings

Take that site and compare it to one with some of these choices:

The Denver Condo Scene
Downtown Denver Living
XYZ - A Subdivision in Demand
Investing in Denver Area Real Estate
The Denver Foreclosure Market

These pages can take you to sub-pages with very specific focus on things we've talked about in this article. Trying to put too much information into one page is poor SEO strategy. Besides, if a site visitor arrives at your site on a search for "downtown Denver condo covenants," they'll be thrilled to come to a page that has that as the only topic. That's why Google and the other engines will give that page a good position as well.

Biography:

Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com

IDX - Make it Prominent & Easy

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:30:40 -0500

It would be difficult to find a real estate professional who doesn't understand the value of a website, and the need to have some type of MLS search displayed on it. Yet, a great many of them also complain that they get few or no leads from their websites.

First, if you're not using some type of analytic or statistics software to track your site's visitors and the pages they view, you may not even know where you need to concentrate for improvement. Once you know what's going on, you can do what is necessary to make it better.

How many people are visiting your IDX search page? How long do they stay there, as searches usually make it one of the "stickiest" pages on your site? Few of us would deny that we need to improve these statistics. But, how do we do that?

When I visit real estate websites, one of the first things I look for on the home or main page is the navigation link or button(s) to get to the IDX search page.

• Where on the home page is it located?
• Is it "above the fold?" This means high enough that normal screens would not require scrolling down to see it.
• How prominent is it? Is it lost in a lot of clutter?
• What does the button or link say? Is it clear that they will find ALL of the local listings with that one click?
• Will they get to them with ONE click?
• Once they get to the IDX search page, what's above the fold? They need to see quickly that they'll find what they seek there.

Let's dig a little deeper into the "prominence" thing on your home page. Though not related to IDX, how much of your precious screen space is taken up at the top by images or non-navigation items? Many people use notebook computers, and a lot of real estate sites waste up to a third of their usable screen space with images and things that serve no purpose and provide no value to the visitor. Choose a theme or template that provides good navigation that makes it easy to see where to click to locate what they want.

Where is your IDX search link or button in relation to the others? If your "About Me" button is higher, before the IDX button in the navigation structure, change it. Just get into the searchers' shoes. How many do you think sit down at the computer and say "I'll do a search to find out about a Realtor" versus doing a search to find homes? At some point, they'll want to know about you. But that point will never come if they leave because they didn't get to the IDX page easily.

Let's put it plainly ... your IDX page navigation button or link text should be the most prominent of all of your links or buttons. Their eyes need to move to it first. If you're paying for clicks with a Pay-Per-Click PPC account, many experts will tell you to take them directly to the IDX page if that's what your ad text and the search phrase were targeting.

Okay, we've managed to get them to our home page, and we get that click to the search page because our navigation makes our link for it the most prominent on the page. What then? Again, if you have too much header image space above the search entry area, they may have to scroll downward to do normal search criteria entry. Try not to create this situation. Web visitors are very quick to leave a page based on a few seconds of first impression. If it looks like they can do what they want easily, they'll stay.

Survey after survey, the numbers just keep increasing for real estate prospect use of the Internet. And, they consistently state that their main goal is to search for listings. At some point, they will want to look at statistics, read about you, and even ask for a special report. But, none of those things will ever happen if they don't find those listings first.

Writing Great Content for Your Website and Blog

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:59:56 -0500

Real estate is "location, location, location!" And, website or blog search engine visibility is "content, content, content." Don't get caught up in hiring SEO (Search Engine Optimization) "Gurus" who promise top search engine positions in a hurry. A few may be able to do some good, but the tactics used are almost always discovered by the search engines, and your positions suffer quickly.

Another problem with promises of position is what key phrases the positions are showing for. It is relatively easy to get top positions for phrases or key words nobody uses in their searches. It's like searching for your own name in Google. You'll find that you show up right at the top, but who is searching for real estate in your area with your name?

The search engines are constantly changing their criteria and algorithms. They are getting better all the time at locating the most relevant content for the search term entered. Part of that is your site's overall coverage of that term and related terms that they have identified. Google has created "related term" lists for "real estate." They are secret, but likely include terms like title insurance, deeds, surveys, etc. Your site will begin to gain attention from the search engines over time with your content. That's content about all kinds of topics related to your area and real estate. Write about:

YourTown real estate
Title insurance and binders
Homeowner concerns and insurance
Valuation of a home
Land use regulations and building codes
MLS home searches and how-to's
General area information
Schools and government information
The list goes on and on

What you want is an ever-growing body of content that is related to living in your area, and buying and selling real estate. Yes, it's a lot of work. But, your future income from the Internet is dependent upon it. Remember though that your customer is the site visitor, not the search engine. So, all content should be written for that visitor, easy to read, and full of information. Then, just try to work in your key words and phrases in page titles and in the text. Remember, visitor first, search engines second. If you don't do it this way, you may lure a visitor from a search, but they won't stay long enough to become a commission.

If you agree that you need lots of quality content, where in the world will it all come from? You don't have to write it all. You may not be able to or want to write any of it. Get an assistant with spelling and writing skills, hire a friend and give them your notes and ideas. Use freelancers from sites like eLance.com and Guru.com who are bidding to write real estate content. Those are all ways in which to get quality articles for your site. But, there are other ways, and they are free and you will do little or no work to get them!

Associations and Subdivisions - The average person is well aware of the value of Internet exposure, and subdivision or neighborhood association officers are no different. Especially if they have their own website, they are willing to write announcements articles about their association and neighborhood for you. The link back to their site is the lure, as well as spreading the word. Go out and network with them, offering to put up their articles, and to enter their announcements and events. They'll email them to you for insertion.

Business owners and vendors - This is a great resource for you. How many movers, electricians, plumbers, home inspectors, furniture store owners, home repair people and others can you contact. Virtually anyone who has anything to do with the home is a great resource for articles for your site. They'll write how-to's and advice for your site visitors, and they'll do it for a link to their site. If they don't have a site, they will do it for a mention of their business, phone number and email address. These articles will be full of relevant key words for a real estate site. And, your visitors will get good homeowner information as well.

Local government personnel - One real estate professional gets weekly emails from the town Public Relations person. They are full of announcements, town meeting notes, area promotional material and more. The beauty of it is that they are not on any website, so it is original material. He emailed permission to put them in his blog, and they said yes and thank you! He gets original material weekly for just the time it takes to copy and paste it out of the email.

Reverse networking and content to boot - The same real estate broker goes to a business every couple of weeks and offers to do a short 30 second video of their business with a profile. The owner is happy to provide brochure material or even to write the text in exchange for this feature on the broker's site. The chamber of commerce even announced this little service to their members! Using a free service, Animoto.com, the broker puts up snappy Hollywood production style videos like mini-commercials. The text is just more content. He also has met more business owners in a few months than he had in the two years prior!

See, it's not a task you should fear. Get out and start generating content that doesn't need to come from your fingers on the keyboard.

Biography:

Online Videos For Your Real Estate Website or Blog

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:36:41 -0600

Just when you think you're catching up with technology with a website or blog, you find that there is now a requirement for video on your site. It's not a legal requirement, but one of demand from the consumer and your site visitors. Video on the Web has mushroomed, with YouTube alone hosting almost 100 million videos from 3.75 million user channels. Then there is Google Video, Yahoo Video, Vimeo, and a dozen others in the mainstream.

Not just the Internet, but also mobile technology is moving rapidly. Videos are becoming very popular on cell phones as well. The iPhone is changing the way that the cell phone is utilized. And, what percentage of your real estate customers come from out of your area? They need information about the area, attractions, natural beauty, parks, schools and more. But, they also want to SEE what all of this looks like. Photos are great, but video rocks!

Don't fret, though. The same rapidly advancing technology that makes video a demand item on your site also makes it easy and inexpensive to do. We aren't just talking about listing videos for virtual tours. We also should have video of all of the area's features that make it unique and a great place to live and work. What you need is a camcorder and some video editing software, neither of which must be very expensive.

One of the easiest to use video editing software solutions is absolutely free, and it is probably already on your PC if it's operating with Windows XP. Windows Movie Maker will take your still photos or motion video right from your camera or camcorder, or off your hard drive. You can add voice-over and music, titles and credits, and even fancy transitions between photos or video clips. Other solutions with more capability are all over the Web, and at prices from $39 to hundreds. It's all up to you and your requirements.

A higher end software product is Camtasia Studio. Many of the training videos you see or purchase are done in this software. The latest version produces videos in all of the common formats, but the default is MPEG 4, which gives you high definition video with smaller file sizes than the other formats. The smaller file size lets the video play through with fewer of those annoying pauses while the download catches up to the playing. This software will also produce an iPod video format directly.

What about a camcorder? You can spend a lot of money, or you can do a very credible job with less than $150 for the high end "The Flip" video camcorder. It's really easy to use, produces 640 x 480 video, and has one really great feature. It is called the "flip" because a button flips out a USB connector to plug directly into a computer. Even better, the on-board software will send the video up to YouTube directly, bypassing your hard drive if you want. It will even let you add music in the process.

OK, we have a camcorder, and we have editing software. Where do we put our videos?

YouTube - This is the gorilla in the video world. And, it's free, so very popular. Your videos will get a lot of exposure on YouTube, and you'll begin to get followers who will subscribe to your "channel" to see your new ones. Once the video is up, you can get "embed" code to place it right into your website or blog.

Google and Yahoo Video - Both of these major players have free video sites as well. Together, they don't even come close to the plays that YouTube boasts, but they get traffic, so you want to upload your videos there as well.

Vimeo - This is a newer and free service. Vimeo has a nice presentation, and it offers HD quality. They don't take commercial videos though, so don't put listing presentations up. They will pull them down. However, if you don't put promo stuff in your area videos, they should be fine.

Animoto.com - This is a really fun video production site. It offers free videos of less than 30 seconds in length, with a nominal annual fee for longer videos, with no limit on the number you can produce. The difference with this site is that you will be uploading only still photos. The site, designed by Hollywood producers and directors, allows you to match music to your video, and the service produces a really amazing video with multiple transition effects and paces to the music. It is a little too fast for a listing video, but is great for action shots or local color.

Tubemogul - This isn't a video production service, but a great tool to get your videos uploaded to multiple services at one time and track the views. You start a free Tubemogul account, and give it your logins to services like YouTube, Google, Yahoo and other video sites. Then you upload your video, title and describe it just once, and TubeMogul uploads it to all of the sites at once. It gives you graphs of daily views, and you can even give your listing client a link to keep up with the views of their home videos.

Have fun, don't spend a lot of money, and make your site visitors happy with video.

Biography:

Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions. Find out more about RealtySoft by visiting RealtySoft.com

Being Frugal With Google – The Free Office Suite

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:29:42 -0600

Do you have any idea how thrilled the Monks were when the printing press was invented? They could put up the quill pens and get over the old version of carpal tunnel. As a real estate professional in today's Internet world, you should be ecstatic with the free tools available.

The suite of tools from Google just keep getting better. You don't have to be a tech geek to use them either. If you'll just take what you get from this article and implement it, you'll save hours of your time every week, serve your clients better, get more business, and be an email guru. Let's see what it's all about.

Gmail
Gmail can be your base email solution, no matter how many addresses you have, or how you want to brand yourself. In some real estate technology courses they are very emphatic about having an email address that promotes your site or brand. No problem, as Gmail will allow you to check multiple email accounts for your other sites. Your prospect or client doesn't even need to know about your Gmail address. The newest release even allows multiple email signatures, and it will reply from the same address that was checked to pull in the email.

Then there is the huge 7+ Gigabytes of free storage space for email. The labels and filters functions are so much better at filing away email than folders ever were! You can have a filter automatically label and file away emails when they arrive based on who sent them, keywords in the title or email and more.

The latest feature released is called "Canned Responses." For those replies that you seem to send over and over to answer questions, you just create a canned response template email. When you need it, you just pull it up as the reply and send it out with a click. There's lot more, but you're getting the idea. Get your free Gmail account today!

Google Calendar
With a new gadget just released, you can see your Google calendar agenda in the left sidebar when you're in Gmail. This calendar is easy to use, with the ability to track your tasks and appointments with multiple methods to remind you. You can get a text message reminder, an email, a screen popup, or a combination of all of them at the times you want! If you have a important phone call to make at a certain time on Wednesday, no problem. You may even need to make some notes before the call to make sure that you cover all you need to in the discussion.

You can have an email sent on Monday morning to remind you to work on those notes. On Tuesday you can have a text message sent to your cell phone to be sure that you are on track with notes and keeping your schedule clear for that call. Then that morning, another text message in case you've gone out, and a half hour before the call, a screen popup. Sorry, but if you miss it after all of this, you need a butler not a calendar.

Are you one who just can't seem to get the time or energy to get those events, meetings and tasks into the calendar to start with? Google calendar allows you to import an entire list of transaction tasks with due dates all at once. Get 50+ transaction coordination tasks in from your spreadsheet in a matter of minutes.

Maybe you just can't get the time to type in last minute appointments, or items that came up while you were out and about. Well, the calendar will also take voice entries from Jott.com. This low cost ($39/year) service lets you call in your items for the calendar. A typical call:

• You've speed-dialed the Jott toll free number and hear "Who do you want to Jott?"
• You say "Google" and wait for the beep, then
• "Meet inspector at Smith home next Tuesday at 9:30 AM."
• You hear "Got It."
• Back at the computer you see that the meeting is in the calendar with pre-set reminders already in place!

Google Reader and Alerts
This is an RSS news feed reader. It can keep you up to date with automatic receipt of your selected blog post subscriptions. If you want to keep up with NAR's latest technology news, there's a feed you can subscribe to. It will pop up each new post as NAR puts them out.

The really great use for this is the ability to get news about your area that you can use for ideas for website content or blog posts. Couple this with the Google Alerts service, which delivers web content to you based on key words and phrases you've set up, and you've got your own personal custom newspaper online.

iGoogle
Tie them all together now on one screen with iGoogle. It allows you to display all of the Google services on a home screen, plus choose from hundreds of "gadgets" to display news, RSS feeds, horoscopes or just about anything you can think of.

Check out the Google suite of services, because they work and they are FREE!

SMS Text Messaging for Real Estate

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:33:28 -0600

It's a pretty sure bet that you have a cell phone. What about text messaging, do you use it? If you don't, consider yourself in a very small minority. Nielsen Mobile surveys shows that by the second quarter of 2008, text messages had exceeded the number of cell phone calls by an impressive margin.

And, if you think it's all just teenagers who don't buy or sell real estate, think again. The facts show that every age group up through 44 years old sent more text messages than they made cell phone voice calls. And it was close on the 45 to 54 group. The plain truth is that text messaging is becoming a wildly popular way to exchange information. And, huge marketers and retailers are now doing text message marketing to bring in consumers. You can actually get a coupon text message and show it in a restaurant for a discount.

That's nice, but we're not selling burgers you say. True, but we are in a service business that is very dependent on making contact with our prospects and clients. And, we market high dollar products. If a burger sale justifies expenditures on SMS text message advertising, then why wouldn't a home listing? The good news is that there are uses in our business for this medium, and they can cost as little as nothing, zero, free.

How many people do you think drive by your listings every weekend? Do you use a brochure box? Is it empty every time you check it? Who took them, and what was their level of interest? Can you contact them again? How many wanted a brochure but didn't find one in the empty box? What if:

• Every person who drove by and had an interest could have text messaged a code to get price and other information?

• You never have to fill a brochure box again, AND you get the information out when they want it?

• You never print brochures but you end up with the phone number of the person who asked for more information?

• You could text that person again if the price is reduced?

All of this is currently available technology. You can get the basics for free with an account at 4info.net. There you can set up to text out your listing details from a sign rider code. And, you can even send out text alerts to subscribers of market news from your website or blog. Or, let them know when you list a new home. Now, 4info is free, so you don't get the phone number of the person who asked for the information, or a color website for the listing. Or, for another free solution for getting out sales data, new listings, or market alerts, you can use Twitter.com. It will issue text message alerts for you.

If you want to take it to the next level, another service at UGotItFirst.com will set you up to send text alerts from the yard sign, but there is more. You can also get their phone number, and they can subscribe to receive your alerts in the future. They also get a link to a color presentation on a website for the listing. Those who are web-enabled will be able to look at the home in all its glory.

The point is that SMS text messaging is wildly popular, and it's just getting more so. If you do not have a plan to implement it in your marketing, you're falling behind already. And, it's not just about texting out your listing data when they're in front of the home. It's about alerting your interested prospects of important market news or real estate statistics. You can place a box on your site where they can subscribe to get text alerts of price drops or other market news.

One Realtor in a vacation home market has a popular alert service to let interested investors or buyers know of values on the market. This broker realized that he was reading the Hotsheet every day, seeing some great price reductions on properties that weren't his listings. By subscribing for these alerts, the broker is free to send them out, though not his listings. These are bargain hunters who want to know about deals as soon as they hit the market. He reinforces his knowledge and value by choosing real deals, sending few alerts. But, they generate business precisely because they point out true value.

Start looking at how you might use SMS text messaging to bring your message to the new consumer. It is for all ages, and they appreciate the ability to tell you what they want and when they want it. And, if a buyer prospect is sitting in front of your listing and wants to know more, get the information to them in seconds as a text message and/or a link to full rich web content.

Biography:

Is IDX Necessary for Your Website? - Do You Need Air to Breathe?

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:19:15 -0600

Okay, the title is a bit dramatic. You would die without air, but you'll live through not having IDX. Your business may not though. We've all seen the statistics many times. More than 80% of those in the real estate market use the internet to begin their property search. They want one thing when they visit a website, to locate listings, lots of them, and lots of information and images for those listings.

Guess what! They're not typing in "john smith real estate for sale" either. We're not talking about YOUR listings. There is a place for them, and they have a definite reason for being on a site. But we're talking about millions of daily searches for real estate listing information. And, they're not looking for yours. They're looking for everything in the Multiple Listing Service.

The best way to serve your Internet real estate prospect is to give them what they want, and to make it easy to locate and to use. Let's get into their shoes for a little while and see if we can get a better idea of the critical nature of a good IDX solution. You're a branch office employee of a large corporation in their Des Moines office. You've lived there for a long time. They are transferring you to the corporate headquarters in Dallas, TX. You've never even visited Dallas. You need to locate a home. They are buying yours in Des Moines, but you want to handle your own home-finding in Dallas.

You have time, as the move will not happen for about three months. But, you need to get on the home location process, as you don't want to be renting in Dallas. The company is helping with relocation by paying for movers, but only for one move. You want to make a trip out there soon and locate a home, getting a purchase moving along right away. What a dream prospect you are!

You have an immediate need to locate and buy a home. Dallas real estate agents want your business. And, there are hundreds of sites competing for your visit. What are you looking for on them, and what do you want to do on the sites?

• Learn about the areas of Dallas close to corporate headquarters
• What are the schools like in each area
• Is shopping close by, as gas prices are getting ridiculous
• Lots of information on lots of homes in your price range in the areas you've selected

You don't want any pressure on you this early, so you don't want to talk to anyone yet. You want to spend your time in locating possible homes, printing them out, going over them with your spouse, etc. And, you want to know that you're not missing any home that's listed on the MLS.

Now, let's get back into our real estate roll. You have a great site, with information and links that give area information, shopping center locations, schools and their ratings, and more. And, you've got a page or links to your brokerage's 100+ listings. You don't have IDX, but they can call you for more information, right? Say bye-bye to this prospect. You may have helped them with your area information, and they may have loved your school statistics. But, they can get all of the listings on another site ... and they will.

The real estate consumer is more educated in the way that we work than ever before. They know what IDX is, and they know that it will get them to all of the listings. If you don't have IDX on your site, they're gone, gone, gone. If you send them to your main brokerage site from your individual site to get to the IDX, they're just as gone ... for you anyway.

So, you've decided that losing this great 90 day purchase prospect is just not a good thing. You go after an IDX solution for your site. Now, you're onboard, but are you on the right ship? Looking back at the types of information this hot prospect wants, is your IDX solution going to go all the way in providing it?

• Mapping, with home searches by map area
• Ability to geo-locate the areas near their employment
• Easy navigation from maps or property lists to full detail on each home
• Lots of high quality photos they can enlarge to view
• Search ability by school district, zip code, home characteristics, MLS number, address or interactive map
• Ability to go to home details without losing their search
• Print function for individual home brochure
• Email function to send to their spouse from work

RealtySoft.com Free IDX Solution Offers Search By Map Functionality

Ability to Geo-Locate Listings on Google Map

RealtySoft.com Free IDX Solution offers Easy Access to Nearby Schools and other Points of Interest

Easy navigation from maps or property lists to full detail on each home

Lots of high quality photos they can enlarge to view

Last but not least: LEAD CAPTURE!

There's more, but this is the very basic functionality you simply MUST HAVE to keep that hot prospect on your site until they are ready to talk to you. All of the search engine optimization and wonderful content you have worked so hard to produce is worthless unless they can look at all of those homes in a quality IDX solution.

If you don't have an IDX home search on your website, check out RealtySoft.com's Free IDX offering. It's free and it's great!

Biography:

Blogging As The Killer Real Estate Business Tool

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:09:38 -0600

Websites are not dead. In fact, it's a mistaken belief that a blog is not a website. It is just another way of organizing, updating and presenting content. A blog can be a part of your website, or it can stand alone and link to it. The key is to understand what a blog is all about, and how it changes the way in which your site visitors perceive you and interact with you.

What are you trying to accomplish with your Internet presence? Many would say that it is to showcase your services, expertise and listings. That's correct, but it doesn't go far enough, nor does it really address the importance of the Web to the average Realtor. What should we be trying to accomplish with our web presence?

•·         We want to be considered the "go-to" expert on local area real estate.
•·         We want our Internet presence to start a process that eventually creates a phone or in-person relationship with a visitor who wants to buy or sell real estate.
•·         We want our site to help us in the generation of listings by impressing listing prospects.

When visitors first arrive at your site, they are rarely ready for the "go-to." They want information about the area, real estate processes, and lots of listings to search (give them IDX). On these early visits, they do not want a phone call or email unless they ask for it. You need to give them the information they want, and gradually build trust for a relationship.

So, what's it going to take to get the first two goals realized? This is where the power of the blog comes in. What is so different about the weblog (blog) platform or structure that makes this possible?

1.       The content is easily entered by the real estate agent without any HTML or special web programming knowledge at all.

2.       The setup and structure places the content properly, requiring no page design for each entry, article or "post" as they are called.

3.       Search engines like regular fresh new content, which is the way blogs are posted. Search engines love the way blogs are structured and the way that they present fresh new content regularly.

4.       Web visitors aren't patient, and they are on a quest for information.   So, several smaller posts about topics like "What's a Title Binder" or "What's Covered by Title Insurance" will be precisely on target for their search, and they'll read it.

5.       You can keep the information fresh when things change, so content is easy to keep updated.

6. The "Comments" function of a blog makes it easy for your site visitors to interact with you and other visitors.

7. The RSS feed function puts out an update of your content as you place it ... a kind of press release. The world is informed every time you post new content.

8. Visitors who like what you write can subscribe to your RSS feed and receive every new item as it is released. This keeps them around until they are actually ready to contact you in a more direct and personal way.

9. Blogs and add-ons for features are set up to automatically work with social networking like Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn.

The major difference with Internet marketing has to do with differences in the way web consumers locate information and the ways in which they prefer to be contacted. Basically, they don't want a phone call early in their real estate research process. They want to be anonymous, gathering information at their pace until they want to talk to a Realtor. Any effort to hold back information to force a phone or other direct contact is going to cost you prospects. Give them information they respect, and they'll contact you.

The reason blogs work so well is that they PULL the visitors into doing business with you instead of PUSHing them to contact you on your terms. They allow the prospect to learn about you, even the personality you show in your posts and content selection. They learn who you are and how much you know by keeping up with your content. They WANT to contact you at some point.

Blogs don't change the basics. IDX should be in the site, and it's just as easy to integrate into a blog as it is into any other site. IDX is what your visitors want when they first arrive in 90+% of cases. They may get there on a search for "YourTown real estate sold data", but they will go from there to the listings search. They'll also learn that you know what you're talking about, because they found statistics about sold properties when they needed them.

Biography:

Why You Need to Give Your Real Estate Expertise Away

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:47:44 -0500

At its heart, real estate is a business of information. A Realtors job is to gather, understand and convey that information. It's what makes you an expert in the field. You can spend every hour of your working day processing information. You can know your market area cold, able to spew out even the smallest market detail in a second.

For a Realtor, the rubber meets the road when a hot prospect is interested in the information they posses. So what possible reason could there be to give away hard earned expertise for free? The biggest reason is that it's the surest way to build your business. What good is the ability to spew out the data if you have no one to spew it out to?

Being an expert and establishing yourself as an expert are two different things. When you establish yourself as an expert, you will attract prospects to you. In the community, the Realtors that get the business are the ones who have established themselves as experts. They've branded themselves as a trusted source of information. They did so by giving away their expertise.

Giving away expertise is a technique that has been used by internet marketers for some time. They call it the pink spoon. Attract interest in your product, you, by developing a giveaway that establishes you as an expert. It's a concept that Realtors can use to their benefit too.

Sharing your expertise with the community is how you develop your pink spoon. It's what will separate you from all the other choices consumers have when time comes to buy or sell. It's like this. When consumers look to participate in the real estate market they have limited sources with which to research realtors.

Consumers want and look for the best service they can find. But unfortunately they don't often have the resources they need to make the best decision. They may have a refrigerator magnet with a number, there may be a sign down the street they can check into and maybe they'll ask their family. But wouldn't it be nice if you were positioned in their minds as the local expert. Who do you think they'd call then?

If you've become aggressive in placing yourself in the local market, chances are your name will come up when consumers start to search. But being aggressive means more than putting your listings and name in the homes book once a month. Even there, your one in many Realtors consumers can choose from.

The trick is to stand out. The key is to find the outlets to stand out in. In real estate those outlets are mailings, advertorials, local newspaper columns and internet advertising campaigns. In each of these outlets you are marketing your expertise. You give away your information and knowledge so that prospects are naturally attracted to you when the buying or selling time comes.

But even if you do stand out, you still need to deal with the competition. And the competition comes in varying forms these days. In many markets there is tremendous pressure to lower listing fees. When I first got into the business the fee was traditionally 7%. Recently in my market it has become 6% and is heading down. It is becoming harder and harder for most Realtors to sell value for service.

You need to give ample reason to earn the higher fee. One way of doing this is to establish your expertise in advance. The way to do this is marketing. I'm talking specific marketing with the intent of building your value beforehand. This marketing comes by way of sharing your expertise with the community.

A good example would be the difference between a buffet steak house and a premier steak house. Sure they both sell steak, but which one has the higher value. Steak is steak at the end of the day, but the premier steak house has established itself as superior brand. They command more money.

When Realtors work in the community they face many marketing challenges. Among them are perceived depreciation of a Realtors value, increased competition and in some places stagnating market conditions.

In order to compete more effectively, Realtors must position themselves as experts in their field. The best way to do this is to give away targeted expertise in as many outlets as possible.

Why You Need To Advertise Your Real Estate Website

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:43:42 -0500

In the movie "Field Of Dreams" Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) hears voices from his corn field saying "If you build it, they will come". Kinsella thinks the voices mean for him to build a baseball diamond. So Kinsella plowed under a portion of his corn field, built a base ball diamond and waited for them to come.

If Kinsella were a Realtor instead of a corn farmer, his interpretation may have been to build a website instead. When it comes to the web, a lot of Realtors think just like Kinsella did at the beginning of Field of Dreams, they think just building a decent website is enough to attract clients and customers to it. "If you build it, they will come" they think.

They leave their web site traffic generation strategy to search engine hits alone. But in reality that won't work. Realtors need to advertise their websites to make them successful. While search engine hits definitely are in the cards, getting a page one search engine ranking takes some effort.

Page one rankings simply don't happen by placing a few search engine strings on a site. The pages you see search engines return on page one have some common characteristics behind them. They have been around a while, they have very high traffic patterns, they have a large number of external links pointing to them and generally speaking they have very high content quality.

Most Realtors can come up with good content, and having a website age for a while is no big deal. But the other two factors, high traffic patterns and large numbers of external links stop a local Realtor's web sites dead in its tracks.

The facts are that it's tough to get lots of external interest in a local Realtors site. Who in Ithaca, New York, much cares about the real estate market in Des Moines, Iowa? Each market has an interest in their local market to be sure, but that's the extent of it. For that reason the traffic patterns of a local Realtor's site are by default, local.

Small amounts of local traffic are not going to get the links and traffic needed for a page one search engine ranking. Not ever. Even with killer content and great copy the search engines are looking for too much other information that a local Realtor's site simply doesn't have. But that doesn't mean a local Realtors can't be trafficked. It just means you need to advertise for the traffic.

Advertising a site has its benefits. You control the type of traffic you get, you can customize your site to a particular campaign and you can tie your site into your overall advertising image. You can establish yourself as the local internet real estate expert by driving that type of advertising in your local market.

When you set up your site, you set it up with some specific market goals in mind. You wanted to educate FSBO's, work with expired listings and maintain a close relationship with your farm. In fact, the goal of your website has been to be your sales force when you can't be there to sell. If you've built your site to these specifications, then specific advertising that complements it will work nicely to expand your sphere.

A pay per click campaign that targets For Sale By Owner in your local market is bound to get you some well qualified hits and because it's local, it shouldn't cost too much. If you're unfamiliar with pay per click, it's simple. You buy a search engine string that will pop up a link to your site when the string is entered and searched. Pay per click rates depend on the demand for the search string. The lower the demand, the lower the cost.

Print advertising is an effective method for advertising your site too. You can easily target a campaign that is designed to capture email addresses using your web site. Something like this would be beneficial if you wanted to do an email follow up that sells your services even more.

Just like in the movie Field Of Dreams, they will come. But like Kinsella, you have to make it happen. Relying on the search engines as the sole provider of web site traffic simply won't work. When you build your website, you will still need to advertise it somewhere, somehow.

Biography:

What is Search Engine Optimized Writing for Real Estate?

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:28:21 -0500

When I first started writing for the internet I was mesmerized by the term search engine optimized (SEO) writing. I had lots of questions. What should my writing be for it to be search engine optimized? How do I make search engine optimized writing different than regular writing? How is search engine optimized writing different? What is search engine optimized writing?

I researched the search engine optimized writing topic for some time, and in this article I share with you what I've learned. I've discovered both good and bad techniques writers use for writing search engine optimized articles. I'll tell you about some of them. I'll also share with you what I've learned about how SEO techniques improve search engine hits.

In the end, you will find that learning to write search engine optimized writing is just like learning any other writing. You learn to write to your audience. But when you write search engine optimized writing, you write with a laser focus. In our example here, the focus is search engine optimized writing.

Search engine optimized writing (SEO writing) begins with a focus on keyword phrases. In the article you are reading now, I have chosen the key word phrases search engine optimized writing, SEO and SEO writing as major keyword strings. For minor strings I've chosen keyword stuffing, black hat SEO and white hat SEO.

Once the key word phrases are chosen, it's up to you, the writer, to weave them into a meaningful article. Weaving the words into a meaningful SEO article is important. It's here that most writers' trip when they begin to learn search engine optimized writing. They think that all they have to do is insert as many instances of the keyword's as they can. At its extremes this technique resulted in what has now become known as black hat SEO writing.

One example of black hat SEO writing is simply filling a web page with key words. At its worst, webmasters choose matching colors for the keyword string's text and the web page's background color so the two would blend. This masked to human users the hundreds of keywords stuffed in the page. Search engines, however, lacking the human eye, saw only the hundreds of text objects.

The logic behind this black hat SEO writing technique is that the multiple instances of the key words would trick the search engine to think the page was a high content page. Kind of a more is better thinking. It's called keyword stuffing. The more of the SEO keyword I have, the more the search engines will notice.

This SEO writing technique worked for a while. But the search engine programmers got wise to it and improved their algorithms to detect this type of SEO writing. The detection algorithms in use today pick up this technique in a hurry. If your site is found using it, the search engines will almost automatically delist your site's index. Quite the opposite of the effect intended.

White hat SEO writing on the other hand is written just like the article you are reading now. White hat SEO is search engine optimized writing at its best. It combines appropriate keywords, search engine optimized writing in our example, and highly readable content.

The content is the key. Content is always the key when it comes to the web. A well written search engine optimized article does the same thing any other well written article does. It informs and entertains. With SEO however, there is an added characteristic of search engine optimized writing.

A lot of times people will ask me "what should I know about search engine optimized writing." One of the biggest things I tell them is to look at how you lead into your strings. When I start writing an SEO article I ask myself "how many different ways will someone look for this string". Then I work to include these ideas into my search string.

Take a look back through this article and see how many different ways I framed the search engine optimized (SEO) keywords I've chosen to use in writing it. Notice how a lot of them would be actual queries someone would key in to a search engine. Framing your keywords is the first step to a page one search engine ranking.

Getting a page one search engine ranking is highly coveted. Everybody knows that. But it's debatable as to how much search engine optimized writing assists this pursuit.

At first I thought that search engine optimized writing meant an automatic page one placement with the search engines. It doesn't. What I found is that search engine ranking depends on multiple factors. Page content is only one. I've come to learn however, that content is very high on the list of criteria. So whenever you write, write well. If you follow that rule, and focus your writing as I have here, in time you will be rewarded with search engine hits.

Biography:

Using the Social Networking Sites to Build Your Real Estate Business

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:32:23 -0500

When the internet first gained wide spread popularity it was mostly a collection of passive web pages and chat rooms. The most interactive thing you could do was type in some text, hit send and wait for a response.

But the internet has taken a new direction again, and this time the buzz is about interaction. Web 2.0, the new social network trend in web sites, has already established itself as a staple of the web community. And increasingly, small businesses are finding ways to capitalize on the social networking sites too.

Social networking sites attraction for small businesses use is cost. Setting up an account on any of the social networking sites is free, but the range of services they provide rival the abilities of full fledged media advertising campaign. With a low cost video camera and a lap top computer any Realtor can become a community reporter and post valuable content on the web.

YouTube, www.youtube.com , has long been a destination for savvy web surfers looking for entertaining video clips. You tubes format, which is easily accessible from most any modern computer, allows users to transfer a video performance from a computer to the YouTube site. Once uploaded, the video is searchable by the YouTube community. It's in this searching that Realtors can find a marketing benefit to YouTube and other Web 2.0 sites.

Realtors know that today's real estate prospects and customers are using the internet in ways that are revolutionizing the industry. By the time a prospect or customer contacts a Realtor, they have been looking at real estate on the web anywhere from 10 to 40 hours. In some cases the research has been so extensive that the customers are better informed about a particular community that the Realtor.

But savvy Realtors are getting ahead of the internet information curve. Rather than having the internet take advantage of Realtors knowledge, Realtors are using their knowledge to take advantage of the internet. They are using the power of the internet to attract qualified prospects to them.

Placing your knowledge of a particular area on a high visibility social networking site can lead prospects to your door. But in order to do it you need to be willing to set yourself apart from the pack. You need to establish yourself as an expert in a particular area. It takes commitment and desire from you.

You see, the internet is filled with garbage and half truths. Lack of information is the biggest frustration most internet users have. Except for a few major sites, most of the information on the internet is trash, or it's flat out advertising. People are growing tired of that. They want the internet to fill voids in their lives. So any content that actually fills a void makes an impact. If that content is yours they'll remember you.

For YouTube in example; that means you provide a video that highlights the lifestyle and quality of living in a given community. Why not create a series of videos that capture what's great about living in your community. Like the old time Sunday morning house hunter shows. Except that it's you doing the producing. If you do this, and post it people will find it, and when they do, they find you.

The basic marketing concept you're using is the same as it has always been in real estate. Think like the prospect and then show them what they want to see. Realtors have been doing business this way for over a hundred years. It's the basic premise of real estate marketing. The difference is how you're getting your message across.

If you don't think you can make an impact using social networking sites, do this. Go out to YouTube and search anything real estate related in your community. You'll probably notice that there is not a lot going on. It's a gap. It's a gap you can fill easily and cheaply.

Using any of the social networking sites provides you with an incredible opportunity to carve out a market niche for your business. When you consider what it actually cost you to take advantage of what's available, it's hard to consider not using the tools to build your business.

Making Your Web Site Work with Your Print Marketing

Peyman Aleagha (RealtySoft.com) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:30:27 -0500

Every Realtor knows where to go to get the business. You farm, hit FSBO's, work expired listings and call into your sphere of influence. Part of the drill has always been to do some sort of mailing and follow up to each of these categories. But following up can be tricky.

Working FSBO's is as much about timing as anything, expired listings need gentle handling and working your sphere takes time. Sometimes it seems that you need to clone yourself just to keep up with it all. Your web site can help. If you do it well, your web site can be your clone. It can handle a lot of the leg work caused by your mail campaigns. But you need to tie the two together.

Websites offer the advantages of flexibility, versatility and 24 hour virtual access to you. When you can't be there, your website can, pumping up prospects with reasons to work with you. What a web site needs to do is extend your marketing. It needs to be there when that FSBO is frustrated and looking for help, and it needs to be there when that disappointed expired listing is almost ready to try again.

When you send out mailers to these market segments, tying your print to your website is as simple as telling the prospect in print that your website has some helpful information. Letting FSBO's know that you know how to help them sell, and telling expired listings that you know why their property didn't sell is powerful stuff. Let the print tell them what you got and where to go to get it, and let the web site deliver it.

For each of the market segments you work and mail to, your website should have an extensive section that covers it. In these sections you put all your best copy that has worked in the past. Here, you capture all your best dialogue and sales technique that convert prospects to listings and customers to sales. This makes the site an extension of you. Picture it as if you are standing on a front porch, trying to get past typical objections.

Simply put, the site needs to have some killer copy that sells for you when you can't be there to sell for yourself. In fact, you want your site to be your 24 hour a day sales partner. When a FSBO you've been working for the past two weeks gets frustrated at 2:00 am, you want him on your site. When an expired listing realizes they still want to sell, it's your site you want them to go to. When someone in your sphere of influence wants the latest sales and listing info for their area, you want them searching for it on your site.

You want your site to be a virtual you. There to follow up on the copy you sent out in your mailing. When that FSBO got your flyer in the mail today telling them you can help them sell in this troubled market, your website needs to back the claim up. And it needs to back the claim up in a way that positions you as an expert. The goal of the site is to pre qualify your prospects for you. By the time your phone rings from the result of your print and web campaign, you want the prospect ready to work with you.

The site needs to educate the prospect much as you would if you were working with them face to face. When you're dealing with an expired, you know that the biggest reason the property didn't sell is price. You also know that that's the hardest thing to get across to the prospect. But if you've set your expired listings section of your website up properly, you've given the prospect enough third party statistics that back up your claim. You've also educated them to your way of thinking about pricing along the way.

What your print campaigns need to do is let all these folks know that the answers they seek are on your site. The copy you produce in print needs to be the bait that entices prospects to your site. Without the print, they will likely never know that your site exists and that it holds the answers to all their questions.

Your print copy needs to cut through the clutter that comes in the mail every day. It needs to get the attention of the prospect, and it needs to get them interested in what you have to offer. Print copy, like any good copy needs to be written in a way that understands what the prospect needs, and then delivers it to them. Once it has their attention, it needs to get them excited about your website.

Print to web coordination is effective when a synergy is created that lead prospects to rely on you as the sole source of real estate information. You want the two streams to convince prospects that you are the exclusive and best source of information around when it comes to real estate.