Real Estate Website Design Blog

It's Good to Know Nice People Still Exist!

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:40:10 -0600

It's fun to get caught up in contest, games and blog brawls. But sometimes, it's also good to take a step back and realize just how lucky we are. You see, myself and Bobby started helping Brian Chase - Charlottesville Real Estate Blog drum up some attention to his blog by encouraging him to enter the VarBuzz Blog Brawl. At first, it was all fun and games. But when we started brainstorming a new idea to drum up votes, Brian turned our ideas on it's heels.

Thinking About Those Less Fortunate

After Brian shot down some of our (admittedly) less than stellar ideas, he said "Isn't it amazing that our biggest "problem" is how to win a contest. After all, there are people out there who's problems are having enough money to purchase food for Thanksgiving dinner or toys for their kids to open Christmas morning . What if we could use this contest to help those less fortunate." Immediately, Bobby's eyes lit up. "What if we gave a buck to Toys for Tots for each vote!" We all agreed and put the plan in place.

Vote For Brian Chase - Do A Little Good

So Bobby and I were charged with the task of getting the word out - and that's exactly what I am doing here! So if you have an extra 10 seconds and want to help a child less fortunate, please take a moment to Vote for Brian Chase (Charlottesville Real Estate Blog) in the VarBuzz Blog Brawl. Then go over to Brian's Blog and leave a comment. For every person who votes and let's Brian know by commenting on his blog, he will give $1 per vote for Toys for Tots (up to a max of $200).

Help Us Get the Word Out!

I told Brian that I am going to do everything in my power to make sure we reach his cap of $200. So if you don't mind, please pass this along to your friends and family. Remember, each vote earns Toys for Tots another buck. And remember, it's one vote per IP address. So if you can manage to vote more than once (once at work, once at home), then tell Brian by leaving a comment. And thanks Brian for reminding us that with the upcoming holiday season, it's always good to take a step back and be thankful for how fortunate we truly are.

All the best,
Brad Carroll
Dakno Real Estate Marketing

Linda Davis, Kevin Tomlinson, Nik Nik, Dustin Luther, Phoenix Real Estate Guy, and Even Brad Andersohn Offering to Help Bribe People for Votes?

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:04:04 -0600

As some of you may know, VAR is hosting a Blog Brawl over at VarBuzz. It seems that some people are pulling out all the stops to try to win this thing. Given the first rule of the Blog Brawl is that there are no rules, Brian W Chase (admittedly with the help of Dakno Real Estate Marketing) has resorted to "name dropping" and sharing link love to try to win more votes.

So how valuable is your vote?

Apparently, Kevin Tomlinson has agreed to let you camp out in his $22M Apogee Penthouse listing and Brad Andersohn will teach you how to rock out with free Guitar lessons just for voting for Brian Chase! Want to see the rest of the bribes? Visit the Charlottesville Real Estate Blog for the complete list!

All in Good Fun

Okay so technically, none of these bloggers offered up these bribes / prizes (or even their consent for that matter) :-) but that’s just a minor detail right? Anyway, check out the post. And while you’re there, click over to the VAR Buzz Blog Brawl and cast your vote for Brian Chase A.K.A. Charlottesville Real Estate Blog

A Free Blog! No Really. We are Serious!

Since I doubt that Jeff Turner will be opening up a barber shop any time soon or Jay Thompson is going into the t-shirt manufacturing business, I don’t think you’re going to get anything from your vote other than a warm fuzzy feeling that you helped a fellow blogger. However, if Brian Chase makes it to the final round, I do plan on resorting to "real" bribery to help guarantee him a win. In the final round, a vote for Brian Chase (Charlottesville Real Estate Blog) will give you the chance to win a free SwiftBlog from Dakno Marketing! Stay tuned for details.

Want to Reach More People? Then Start Blogging Less!

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:09:18 -0500

Unlike some bloggers I know, it takes me quite a bit of time to write a blog post. I tend to slave over my blog post with research, creation of graphics, and gathering links. I was often frustrated when I saw other bloggers be able to churn out multiple blog posts a week with little effort. But the more I thought about this, I began to wonder if it's actually a good thing. Pat Kitano then confirmed this at Inman Connect when he talked about focusing on the quality instead of the quantity of blog post.

I tend to agree. The internet is all about information overload. We even see this on ActiveRain. With now more than 100,000 subscribers, it's getting more and more difficult to have blog posts stand out from the crowd. Instead of more content, I think it's time we shift to refining the quality of the content and then focus on getting that content to as many eyeballs as possible through automated content distribution.

Extending Your Blog Reach

If I am going to take the time to write a blog post, it's important that I get the most "mileage" of out my blog post. After all, it's all about return on investment. Right? That's where I think automated content distribution can help rocket the return you receive in your blogging investment.

Take the Ron Popeil Approach

I love automation. In fact, everyone in the office laughs at me because one of my most quoted lines is "Set it, and forget it!" If something in the office has to be done more than once, I am typically asking my programmer how we can write a script to automate that process. I think it's important to take this same approach with blogging. Now I realize that it's not possible to automate actually writing a blog post. (Don't we all wish!) However, it is quite easy to automate the distribution of your blog to reach more eyeballs.

What Happens When I Click Publish

Content distribution may be different for different people. But here is a quick example of what happens (automatically) when I hit the publish button on my blog...

Blog Post title automatically appears on the Dakno Home page (that links to the blog post)
Headline and link to the blog post appears on my staff page on the Dakno website (Thanks to the AgentBackdoor software)
Twitter post automatically goes out notifying my Twitter followers that I just posted a link (Yup, this can automatically happen without you having to even login to Twitter!)
New blog post notification populates to my FriendFeed account
New blog post notification on MyBlogLog profile
New comment on my Facebook profile page letting people know that I just wrote another blog post.
Email Blast to my email based Subscriber list with the content of the post
Link to the new blog post added in the sidebar of my ActiveRain Blog

Why is This so Effective?

By distributing your content to different sources, you are able to reach otherwise untapped market segments. For example, I may have one group of contacts that frequent Facebook. While another audience may be less tech-savvy and prefer to receive my updates via email. At the other end of the spectrum are those who would much rather receive a "tweet" than yet another email in their inbox. However, once automated content distribution is in place, I am now able to reach all of these different market segments and only have to originate the content from one source – my blog!

I believe that blogging can be even more effective as we begin to focus on quality content and then use automated distribution channels to extend the reach of that quality content to as many readers as possible.

To Your Success,
Brad Carroll

P.S. Ready to learn more about how to make your blogging efforts even more effective? Check out our 8 Week Blogging Webinar – BloggingBootcamp. ActiveRain members receive an exclusive $50 discount. Hurry, our first session starts Thursday August 14^th. Sign Up Now.

Does Your AcitveRain Outside Blog Have Any Authority in Google?

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:24:27 -0500

I have to be honest, I haven’t really been following ActiveRain’s Outside blog service. Mainly because we have been so busy refining our own real estate blogging product called the SwiftBlog (based on WordPress). But a few of my real estate clients kept asking me to look into AR's outside blog so I took a few minutes to dig in a little more. Below is my initial assessment.

A Quick Message to the AR gods (a.k.a. Disclaimer)

The information below is from my quick assessment of AR’s Outside Blog. If I have anything wrong or didn’t interpret something correctly, feel free to chime in and set the record straight. The intention of this blog post is to help educate, not to slam your service.

The Duplicate Content Issue

From the moment that AR’s Outside blog was released, everyone had questions about the issue of duplicate content. Now, we already know that simply having a few syndicated articles on your blog isn’t going to condemn you to "Google hell" but unoriginal content isn’t going to do anything to help your Search Engine Optimization.

I thought Bob Stewart did a good job of clearing this issue up in his post about Outside Blogs and duplicate content. The only problem is I don't see that ActiveRain is actually doing what he said they were. Let’s break this down a little more.

Bob states…

If you syndicate your post to your outside blog and you do not geo-target it, your outside blog will show up as the originating source. (since the post is not geo-targeted, it will not appear on Localism). Your syndication partner (your ActiveRain blog) will have a link back to your original content (outside blog)

Great! The only problem is that I haven’t been able to find this "link" to the outside blog.

Let’s use one of Missy Caulk’s posts as an example…

Missy has an ActiveRain Outside Blog at http://www.annarborundressed.com. She recently wrote a post titled Declaring the Value of What you are Worth? I checked and didn’t see this article on Localism so I am assuming that it's not geo-targeted.

According to the quote above, there should be a link at the bottom of her post on AR pointing to her AR Outside Blog. However, when I visit her post on ActiveRain I do not see any link that references her AR Outside Blog. In fact, when I search for that post title in Google, I see ActiveRain as the top result not her AR Outside Blog. To make matters worse, the direct link to the article on Missy’s Outside Blog doesn’t even appear in Google!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I have not extensively dug through all of AR’s post about Outside blogs. And perhaps I am just totally off base. But to me, it doesn’t look like AR’s Outside Blog has any authority. Combine that with the fact that you don’t have the option of posting only to your "AR Outside blog" and I have to ask - What’s the point of even having AR’s Outside Blog?

To Your Success,
Brad Carroll

**Update** I thought about this a little more and came up with what may be a workaround. You can actually write a post, send the post to your Outside Blog, then go in an immediately edit your post to include a link to your Outside Blog. Something as simple as "This article was originally posted on *Outside Blog Domain*" This may be enough to show Google that your Outside Blog should get the credit.

The Value of Connecting Face to Face - South Florida ActiveRainers

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:10:00 -0500

If you have read my Paperless Travels using an iPhone post, you know that I recently visited Miami. I typically don’t do much “on site” work, but EWM was in a pinch and Beth Butler asked me to come down and do some consulting. I have to say that it was great to finally get a chance to meet Beth in person.

Meeting Fellow ‘Rainers

While I was there, I also had a chance to meet another one of my real estate clients and fellow AR member Scott Patterson. We recently launched Scott’s Aventura Real estate website so it was perfect timing to meet him face to face and talk a little business. Scott and Zoila helped me scope out the area including Golden Beach and Golden Isles then took me to Devito South Beach, located in the middle of a landscape of Miami Beach Condos. Devito South Beach is the famous restaurant that Kevin Tomlinson blogged about on his South Beach Condo Blog.

The Miami Real Estate Guru

Speaking of Miami’s top luxury condo Realtor, since I was in Kevin’s backyard, we linked up before heading to the airport. Kevin gave me a quick tour of the South Beach Real Estate scene and was then nice enough to give me a lift to the Miami Airport.

The Virtual Meeting

Obviously the internet has made it very easy to conduct business with very little need to interact face to face. Tools like GoToMeeting, Instant Messaging, and Streaming Video has made the world much smaller. But, even I, a 100% tech geek, think there still is value in connecting with people face to face. I think that’s one of the reasons why I enjoy attending conferences like Inman Connect. It gives everyone a chance to put a face (not just a 10 year old photo) with a name. So, if you’re going to Inman, I hope I get the opportunity to meet you and say hi.

To Your Success,
Brad Carroll

And for my other Florida clients such as Tallahassee real estate blogger Joe Manausa, I hope to meet you at Inman!

Hidden iPhone Feature Discovered – I Had to Try it Myself!

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:11:16 -0500

I admit it. I am an iPhone junkie. The iPhone makes mobile surfing a breeze and the interface is so intuitive, even a 3 year old can use it. Seriously, I saw my son hit the home button, slide his finger across the screen to unlock, hit the photos button, then start thumbing through the photos. Of course, he is my son so I already knew he was a natural geek!

So, when EWM called me to come visit them in Miami and do some consulting, I knew my iPhone would make the trip with me. Before going to the airport, I jumped on the airline website, printed my ticket, and mumbled to myself about how antiquated a printed ticket seems to be these days! You see, anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely hate paper! So, just for kicks, I made a PDF of my ticket and emailed it to my iPhone.

Bar Codes and iPhones

When I arrived at the airport, I walked to the kiosk and proceeded to check my bags. Instead of pulling out the printed ticket, I simply waved my iPhone under the barcode reader and up popped my itinerary! “Holy Cow,” I thought to myself. “This actually worked!” Now for full disclosure, this wasn’t an original idea. I once read a blog post about people who scanned their grocery store discount cards and stored them as photos in their iPhone. So when checking out, they simply pull up the photo of the discount card instead of the actual card. But, even then, I was still amazed that the barcode reader actually accepted my iPhone!

With my bag checked, I proceeded to the gate. Continuing with my attempt to have a “paperless” flight, I showed the TSA guy my iPhone displaying my boarding pass and my license. Let’s just say that he wasn’t amused. He told me that unless I wanted him to initial my phone, I had to show him a paper ticket (still not sure what the whole point of them initialing your boarding pass is all about). Reluctantly, I showed my backup printed ticket and proceeded to the gate.

The Virtual Boarding Pass

So far, I was batting .500 with my quest for paperless travel. When my “boarding group” was called to board, I once again pulled out my iPhone and made my way to the gate. I was greeted with a “Boarding pass please!” and handed over my iPhone. The gate attendant looked at me with a confused look on her face. I replied to her with a “Just try it.” Reluctantly she did. She swiped the iPhone a few times convinced that it would never work. About that time, I heard a friendly “blurp” echo from the machine. She handed me back my phone and said, “Have a nice flight!” So, with the exception of the uber-friendly TSA agent, I was able to make it to Miami without a single piece of paper!

I now sit typing this post on my return flight home. Just like on my trip down, my return flight yielded the same results. Again, only the TSA agent wanted to see actual paper.

I can’t wait to see how this will continue to expand – especially now that iPhone 2.0 is close at hand. For example, can you imagine an application that uses GPS to track your travel plans? When you arrive at the airport, the iPhone automatically fetches your itinerary. As you walk up to the hotel, the iPhone pulls up your confirmation number.

But What About Real Estate?

These same principles can be applied to the real estate industry. Drive up to a house for sale, and the iphone pulls up stats on the home, comps of sold properties in the neighborhood and a scratch pad for you to jot down notes about the property. The possibilities are endless and the paper is non-existent!

Happy Travels!
Brad

Yet Another Meme

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:16:38 -0500

Like so many of you. I was Meme'ed. So here goes...

Who is your favorite musical artist?

I am a pretty avid music fan. I studied music in college (I know, what the heck was I thinking?) But, in all fairness, it was actually Music Recording Technology. As far as favorite musical artist, I would have to say John Mayer. He’s a great guitar player (although he makes the weirdest faces when he plays).

Who is your favorite artist?

Australian Photographer Peter Lik. I first saw his work when my wife and I were honeymooning in Maui. He shoots on Fuji Velvia film which gives amazing color saturation! His photos are absolutely amazing.

If you could meet anyone (alive or dead), who would it be and what is the most interesting thing about them?

I actually have a few…
Steve Jobs – He took a nearly bankrupt company and made it successful (and hip).
Bill Gates - Gates told his professor he would be a millionaire by age 30. He became a billionaire at age 31.
Henry Ford – We all know he was responsible for the moving assembly line - but that actually caused him problems. Every month, half of his workforce would turn over due to the boring work. In one day, he doubled everyone’s daily wage from $2.50 to $5.00. Suddenly, employee turnover disappeared. This was one of the critical factors that allowed him to double his company profits from 30 million to 60 million in just two years.

Who has been the person in your life that has had the greatest impact on you?

If my Mom or Dad is reading this, please read this answer.
Without a doubt it would have to be my Parents. They always encouraged me and backed every one of my harebrain ideas.
If my Wife is reading this, please read this answer.
Without a doubt it would have to be my wife. Stephanie is a pretty amazing woman. She is a stay-at-home mom to our two great kids. But, besides being a great mom, she is also a pretty incredible business woman. Much of our company’s success has been a direct result of her ideas and initiatives.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I think I always had the entrepreneur bug in me. In middle school, I setup a multilevel marketing system for selling candy. Yes. I was a candy pimp! I was always a fan of music and technology so Music Recording was an obvious fit. I had my 15 minutes of fame when I went to New York and had a 2 week working interview at Sony Studios with Britney Spears / Backstreet Boys producer Eric Foster White. Those two weeks made me realize that I didn’t want that life. I was offered the job but ended up turning it down.

If you could do anything what would you do?

I know it sounds hokey, but I am pretty much living my dream. I have an amazing family and own a successful business where I can use technology to help educate people and watch them succeed.

What is the most interesting piece of trivia you know?

You can use a phone’s dial tone to tune your guitar. The dial tone is 440Hz (The “A” note above middle “C”.) Just tune that to the “A” string on your guitar.

Bonus trivia…
The standard tuning on a guitar is E A D G B E. My mom (who taught me to play) taught me a sentence to help me remember – Elephant And Dogs Got Big Ears. Apparently she was a better guitar teacher than a grammar teacher!

What's your favorite game?

It would have to be college basketball. I’m 6’4 and live in ACC country so I have no choice but to love it!

If you could live in any point in history what would it be and why?

History? You mean that time before the internet? Now why in the world would anyone want to live in history?

When you look into the mirror, who do you see?

A taller version of my dad.

What is the most interesting job you have ever held?

I started a music lessons business where I taught piano and guitar lessons. I know. Not very interesting.

What is the worst job you've ever had?

I was actually an electrician one summer. Uhh, not fun!

What is your biggest missed opportunity?

Before blogging was “cool” a client came to me and told me he wanted us to create a blog for him. He kept telling me that “blogging is going to be huge.” Instead of listening, I told him that it was just a fad! What was I thinking?

I guess now I am supposed to tag more people. However, since I have been tagged so many times. I think this "meme" has plenty of traction without me adding more people to the list.

Thanks,
Brad

Too Many Comments Killing Your SEO? I Don’t Think So!

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:53:58 -0500

Typically, I try to avoid heated discussions about Search Engine Optimization - especially if it involves my competition. Most of the time, chiming in just adds fuel to the fire. But a number of people have asked for my take about the recent advice given by Mary McKnight concerning the number of comments in a blog post having a negative effect on SEO. So with that in mind, I decided to write a quick post to give my take on things. If you are not privy to the discussion here is a quick recap…

Mary basically said (paraphrasing) that lots of comments can alter the keyword density of your post and therefore can negative effect in your ability rank high in the search engines for that post. You can view the video below…

Jonathan Washburn then chimed in by leaving a comment on Brian Brady's Blog Post. In short, here is what Jon said…

Matt Cutts', head of Google Webspam team writes on his blog "I'd recommend thinking more about words and variants (the "long-tail") and thinking less about keyword density or repeating phrases."

Amongst SEO experts it is pretty much agreed that you should NOT be concerned about the keyword density on your blog post. Google's algorithms are very advanced. This MIGHT have been a concern 3-5 years ago, but not now.

I would have to second Jonathan Washburn on this one. Now Marry does make an interesting case about this. In fact, I brought up a similar point a while ago in a post about too many comments adding too many outgoing links. But at the end of the day said...

I have to believe with the amount of technology they have, they are smart enough to know that these are simply links from comments.

So let's dig into this in a little more detail about why I think Mary's concept is a non-issue…

Keyword Density is an Outdated Concept

Today, it's more about the site or page theme. Let me give you a great example. My company originally a video and marketing company that simply fell into the real estate web design niche. So while I was busy designing websites for Realtors, I didn't have time to redesign or change the copy on my company website. Because of this, my site was not centered around Web Design for Realtors. In fact, it did not even mention the phrase "real estate web design" once in the entire website! Yet I still ranked on page one for that keyword! Why? Because I had so many backlinks and real estate related websites linking to me. Now I am not suggesting that you shouldn't include your target search phrase, I am merely using this example to prove my point.

What is the Theme of Your Website?

Think Site Theme and Page Theme instead of keywords. Jon hit the nail on the head. Matt Cutts specifically talks about this (the infamous Linux Printer Post). The old way of SEO was to repeat a phrase many times. The new way (not really that new) is to think about latent semantics (synonyms and themes).

Comments Reinforce the Theme

If I write a blog post about blue widgets, then it seems logical that people will comment about blue widgets. So more comments will only reinforce the theme, not dilute it. Plus, if a blog is written correctly, it will spark the conversation. People will leave relevant comments. You, as the blogger, can then make additional comments to keep the conversation going on the right track. Sure, there will always be people who leave the generic "great post" just to get their points on ActiveRain. But don't you think a $133 Billion dollar company such as Google has refined their algorithm to know the difference between the post and the comments? I am not a programmer and I can think of a dozen different ways to easily determine that by simply looking at the code.

High Value Posts Equals Many Comments

Many comments typically translate to high value. Now I know that this is not a hard and fast rule, but think about it for a second. If I write a dog of a post, I am probably not going to get many comments. But if I write something of high value, then it will probably spur many people to leave a comment. Plus, many people commenting, means that many people have visited your blog. The more eyeballs that are looking at the post translates into a greater chance of other bloggers and websites linking to that post.

Just Test The Theory

While it would be difficult to do a true scientific test, you can do a general test of this theory by looking at posts with lots of comments and see if they show up in search engines. I did a few different tests and found that many of the top blogs that show up in search engines do have lots of people commenting. Now keep in mind, it's difficult to accurately test this theory since posts with many comments also typically received many backlinks (which only reinforces my theory of more comments translate into high value)

So with that said, feel free to comment all you want on this, and any other post I write. The more the better! If you want, you can even link to it! I won't mind. ;-)

To Your SEO Success,
Brad Carroll - Dakno Marketing

Removing References of your Former Real Estate Firm – Google Showing Old Information

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:14:11 -0500

One of our clients ran into a sticky situation the other day. They recently left a large franchise brokerage company and ventured out to start their own real estate company. Everything was going well until they received a letter from their former companies' lawyer stating that the real estate agent was still using the old company brand. He then referenced a few places online that still showed the old information. A quick search on Google confirmed that the search engine was ridden with references to the real estate agent and the old franchise.

Updating this information can be more difficult than you may think. After all, many of these references were from Social Networks, Directories, Internet Yellow Pages and more. To make matters worse, most of these sites were out of the real estate agents control so it isn't as simple as logging in and a company name and address.

But I Already Updated the Information

They also noticed that Google was still referencing information that had already been changed for quite some time. This is when they knew that erasing all of internet references to the former company in a matter of days wasn't just difficult, it was pretty much impossible. That's because it would take time for Google to show the new information. Ready to throw their hands up, they emailed me asking for help. They not only needed to give their lawyer a technical explanation of why they couldn't just snap their fingers and make the information disappear, but they also needed direction to clean up as many references as possible.

Why Not Turn It Into A Blog Post

I proceeded to write out some tips when I realized that there were probably many other agents that have encountered a similar situation. With this in mind, I quickly turned my email into a blog post. Let me give you a quick warning. It's not a quick and light read. But if Google is still showing references to your former real estate company, it can be invaluable information.

Here is a quick rundown of what the post covers…

Effectively searching the web for those old references
How to check every Word Doc, PDF file, presentation and web page on your website.
How scrapper sites grab your information
Online Yellow Pages
Keeping tabs on your link love
Google Cache
Outdated info in the Open Directory Project (DMOZ.org)

You can read the entire article on Erasing Traces of Your Former Real Estate Firm by visiting the Dakno Real Estate Marketing Blog

Tech Support and FAQs for ActiveRain Customizer

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:29:02 -0500

As I look through ActiveRain, I am amazed at all the great looking blogs that have been created in such a short amount of time. The ActiveRainCustomizer.com website has only been live a few days and already, almost 500 people have successfully customized their ActiveRain blog. And while the overall feedback has been great, there are a few people that have had difficulty customizing their blog.

Technical Support Options

Because this was simply a side project that I put together at no cost to the ActiveRain community, I am somewhat limited in the amount of time I can dedicate to free tech support. With this in mind, I have put together a Frequently Asked Questions post to help resolve some of the issues. If you are having problems customizing your blog, please visit the ActiveRainCustomizer.com FAQs Post on my other blog. I also address the various types of support that are available for your blog customization.

Click Here to visit the ActiveRainCustomizer.com FAQs

Also, if you have not already done so, I would encourage you to also subscribe to my Dakno Marketing Blog as we will also be using this blog to keep people updated on changes, bugs, etc.

Technical Support Resources

ActiveRain Customizer FAQ's

Video Tutorial from Brad Andersohn

Photo Tutorial from Jeff Turner

Brad Andersohn also contacted me and said that he would be happy to assist people who are having difficulty customizing their ActiveRain Blogs.

Thanks,
Brad

ActiveRain gives the "Green Light" on Customizing - ActiveRainCustomizer.com

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:56:15 -0500

ActiveRain Customizer Update

For the past week, I have been working with ActiveRain to move the ActiveRain Customizer from Dakno's servers to ActiveRain's servers. The ActiveRain Customizer website has been temporally disabled until the move is 100% complete. Rest assured that all blogs that have been "customized" will continue to maintain their design during this transition. Don't worry, the ActiveRain Customizer isn't going away. If anything, this move will allow us to offer even more tools to enhance your ActiveRain Blog (My Company is already cooking up a few new ideas). The AR gods tell me that they expect the Customizer to be down only a few more days. Stay tuned!

It’s here. Version Two of the Active Rain Blog Customizer - complete with ActiveRain's approval.

As many of you may know, I recently found a way to customize ActiveRain blogs. The original approach required knowledge of CSS and HTML. This led me to create the ActiveRain Custom Blog Generator. It gave users the flexibility to create customized ActiveRain blogs without having to edit CSS. While it did make things easier, it still wasn’t "Realtor proof." Incorporating images was cumbersome and there was no way to preview the new look of your blog. At first, I didn’t really think much about it. After all, this was just a side program I wrote over the weekend. And, trust me, I am not a programmer! But, the comments kept pouring in and more and more people were contacting me with questions – including the guys from ActiveRain. I called them back, nervous that they would be sending me a C & D. Their response was quite the opposite. ActiveRain loved the concept so much they wanted to partner on the project.

If You’re Going to Do It - Do It Right

Now that I had the okay from ActiveRain, I quickly began to think about how I could really make this a valuable tool. I reviewed all the feedback and suggestions from my blog and started developing Version Two of the Custom Blog Generator. Keep in mind, this new website is still in Beta. But, feel free to use it and give us your feedback. Below are a few new features that you will notice with the new version.

Your Own Control Panel

You now have the ability to "save" your design theme. This means if you want to make an edit to the design of your ActiveRain blog, you just login to your Customizer Control Panel and make the change. Your existing design settings are automatically loaded. When you have completed your edits, you simply click save. You no longer have to paste the updated code snippet into your ActiveRain Blog!

Image Uploading

One of the most requested features was the ability to upload images. The ActiveRain Customizer now does exactly that. You select a graphic from your computer and the system handles the rest!

Blog Color Preview

The ActiveRain Blog Customizer also gives you a real time color preview of your blog. This means that you can design your blog without having to continually go back and forth between your blog and the Control Panel. And remember, even if you decide to change a color later on, you can login and make the change. Your ActiveRain blog will instantly update with the new color – without having to paste in a new code snippet.

Let Me Know What You Think

I would love to get your feedback on the new version. In the coming weeks, we will be wrapping this project up and handing it off to ActiveRain. They liked it so much; they want to make this an official ActiveRain feature!

We are still calling this a "beta" version so let me know if you encounter any problems. And remember, if you want to stay updated concerning enhancements to the New ActiveRain Customizer, just click here to subscribe to my ActiveRain blog.

Thanks,
Brad

Customized ActiveRain Blogs for Free – No HTML or CSS Knowledge Required.

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:25:59 -0500

I recently discovered a way to customize an ActiveRain blog. I then shared the idea on ActiveRain and even wrote a tutorial on how you can do it. The problem was that it required "coding" skills and had a potential problem with a few pages on ActiveRain. So I went back to the drawing board and figured out a way to easily create a customized Active Rain blog without any CSS/HTML knowledge and without interfering with AR's "Blog Roll" pages.

The Active Rain Custom Blog Generator

I realize that for most of you, your job is to know about Real Estate, not Web Design. With that in mind, I created the Active Rain Custom Blog Generator. It requires no knowledge of CSS or HTML, you simply answer a few questions, and it does all the hard work for you!

No More HTML Editing

Another problem with the old approach was that you had to manually add HTML code to every post that you wrote! With this new system, you simply add one line of code to your sidebar, and every post you have ever written will have your customized style!

It Plays Nice with Active Rain's Blog Roll

When Bob from ActiveRain saw my fist blog post about customizing the Active Rain blog, he pointed out that there are certain areas of ActiveRain that shows multiple posts from different people. Under the old approach, if multiple people customized their blog, then it could "break" those pages. The new approach addresses this and plays nicely with these pages. This is because with the new approach, you don’t add anything to individual blog posts. I felt bad that ActiveRain would have to change their system in order to accommodate my old approach, so I am glad that the new one fixes this. AR doesn’t have to change a thing to their code.

I am still waiting on the official "okay" from AR on this but given their feedback so far, they seem to want to work out a way to keep this feature available to the AR Community. Once again, kudos to AR for being so open minded and forward thinking!

The Active Rain Custom Blog Generator is located here. Feel free to play around with it and let me know what you think. This is just the "beta" version. I hope to add more features and flexibility in the near future. If you want to stay updated of enhancements to the Custom Blog Generator, just click here to subscribe to my ActiveRain blog.

By the way, the design that you see on my ActiveRain blog was created using the Generator. I didn't write any CSS or HTML to achieve this look.

Disclaimer: This is not a feature from ActiveRain, I do not work for AR (unless they want to hire me) :-) and I am sure ActiveRain will not provide Technical Support for this. So proceed at your own risk. I am not responsible for anything that you do to your ActiveRain blog.

Thanks,
Brad

Totally Redesign Your Active Rain Blog - This is Amazing!

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:25:29 -0500

Update: April 6th at 6:30pm - I just rolled out a new approach that makes it even easier to customize your ActiveRain blog - and it plays nice with all of AR's pages. Click here for details

Update: April 5th at 8:30am - As many of you may know, I recently discovered a way to totally redesign your ActiveRain blog. At 2:30AM I was contacted by Bob Stewart of ActiveRain asking me to remove this post. As a result, I have removed all of the styling that changed the look of this post (see screenshot below). In their defense, he raised a good point. There are pages on ActiveRain that shows a number of posts from different users. If multiple users have these "styled" blogs, it could cause a mess.

I will be speaking with him today and hope to work out a solution that will resolve that issue. I will keep you guys updated. I have attached a screenshot below so you can see what is possible with your ActiveRain blog. Please comment on this post to encourage AR to leave this flexibility in place!

You can see live examples here and here. I ask that you not implement this until I have a chance to speak with Bob from ActiveRain.

Below is the original post

Guess What. You are still on the ActiveRain website! Take a look at the address bar.

It turns out that ActiveRain gives you amazing flexibility in customizing your existing ActiveRain blog! It’s just that no one has taken advantage of it. Ready to customize your own ActiveRain blog? I thought you might, so I wrote a detailed tutorial on how you can do it (for free). I posted the tutorial on my Dakno Blog

Click Here for the Tutorial on Customizing Your Active Rain blog

Link Bait? What Was I Thinking!

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:45:28 -0500

A few months ago, I was working late at the office. Earlier that day, I was consulting with a client and brainstorming how to build natural links to their real estate Web site. Now I always try to practice what I preach, so I later started doing some brainstorming of my own. What could I do to create "linkbait" to my my company Web site?

Link Bait? You Evil Doer!

Now, before everyone starts screaming about tricking people and "gaming the system" let’s accurately define what linkbait is. Some people think the term "Link Bait" means tricking people to click a link or some type of "bait and switch" technique. The reality is that "Link Bait” isn't a negative thing at all. Matt Cutts, a guru that works at Google, defines link bait as anything "interesting enough to catch people's attention."

Back to the Story

So now that we have that out of the way, let’s get back to the story. I started brainstorming a few different ideas to create some "buzz." Not making much progress, I went to the fridge to grab some liquid caffeine. Before I opened the fridge door, I noticed that someone had used the magnetic words on the fridge door to write some crazy sentence. I had a quick laugh and then the light bulb went off. What if there was a website with real estate related words that allowed people to create their own "refrigerator poetry?" Okay, looking back, I realize that it’s a pretty pointless idea. But, at the time, I thought I was on to something. I figured I could make it social by having the website continually update. In other words, multiple people could watch others move the words around and collaborate on these sentences. I went back to my computer and started building "The Real Estate Fridge." (I still can't believe I thought this was actually a good idea!)

The next day I took a fresh look at my new linkbait and realized that this was not the "next big thing." So what went wrong? Why didn’t "The Fridge" measure up?

Well, linkbait typically has a few common characteristics, and, unfortunately, I was missing some key ingredients. So, what is the magic formula that can get people buzzing about your linkbait? While there are no hard and fast rules for good link bait, there are some attributes that most link worthy pages possess. Let’s look at a few…

What Makes Good Linkbait?

Viral

Good Link bait shouldn't need much advertising. It should be so viral that it quickly spreads throughout the internet. After all, if people are not willing to tell others about it, then there’s little chance that people will link to it. Need an example? The guys over at 1,000 Watt Consulting have really perfected the viral aspect of their linkbaits. Their recent "I am not a lead" video is definitely viral.

Social

Most link bait contains some type of social aspect to it. In other words, it's something that connects people with other people. As much as I hate to admit it, the "Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World" contest is quite a good example of link bait that contains a social aspect! It quickly gets others involved and the competitive nature of people take over.

This is one aspect where the Real Estate Fridge had potential. The collaboration aspect where others can help create weird or funny "poetry" and actually watch the pieces move can be pretty entertaining. That is, if enough people were on the site at the same time.

Unique and Original

It seems to always happen. One person comes up with a really good idea and, the next thing you know, dozens of others try to copy that exact idea. These copycats don't realize that the original was, well, "original" and it’s that originality that makes it successful. Here is a perfect example. Some of you may remember The Million Dollar Home Page. It was a page put together by a then 21-year-old student in hopes of paying for his tuition to the University of Nottingham. The website received huge press. Of course, once the word got out, there were dozens of copycat sites trying to capitalize off the original's success. Heck, you could even buy the Million Dollar Home Page script and have a pixel selling site of your own within minutes. What these copycats didn’t realize is that the freshness of the idea is what made the first so successful.

Where Are They Now?

So where are these copycat sites now? Let's look at two clones that went after the real estate niche.

www.pickyourrealestateagent.com

www.bestrealestatebusinesses.com

Simple

While this isn't always the case, sometimes the most effective forms of LinkBait are simple in nature. Again, 1,000 Watt Consulting comes to mind. They created a simple page entitled Real Estate Web 2.0. It’s basically just a single page that lists a number of real estate websites that are taking advantage of "2.0" technology. It probably took them an hour to create. It’s one of those "why didn’t I think of that!" pages - simple but effective. I myself have referred to this page on more than one occasion to keep "in the know" of new real estate sites. That leads me to the next criteria.

Valuable

In the last example of the Real Estate Web 2.0 page, you noticed that I said I continually refer to the page. In other words, it’s a valuable resource – a resource worthy of linking to and telling others about (see viral above). This is where my real estate poetry idea fell way short. Watching people move magnetic pieces around on a virtual fridge isn’t very valuable!

Obviously, not every form of link bait is going to fit all of these criteria. And some of these factors are more important than others. But, the take away is this - It doesn’t have to be time consuming or difficult to be effective. Often, the simplest ideas attract the most link juice.

Brad Carroll

Dakno Marketing
A Real Estate Web Design Company

My New Baby Girl

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:58:50 -0500

There are a few things in life that I am very passionate about. At the top of my list is my family. Another passion is online technology. So when my wife let me know that we had a new addition coming, it was only natural that I connect the two together.

Your Going to Twitter What!?

I have never really gotten into Twitter before. After all, I honestly don't think there would be anyone out there with a desire to know when I go to Starbucks or what meeting I am late for. But when it came to the little one, my friends and family would want to be kept in the loop. Since I had no plans to "live blog" the event, I figured Twitter would be a great way to send quick updates with out it affecting my job responsibilities as Steph's Coach.

But We Want Photos!

Let's face it, text is good, but what people really want to see is photos! So I created a flickr account with the ability to send photos from my iphone with a few taps of my finger. The photos then get automatically pushed to the blog that I setup for friends and family.

It Worked

Throughout the night, I was able to push quick updates to Twitter. Our families could stay updated with a simple click. At 4:49am, i tweeted (is that a word?) that Megan was born. And quickly snapped a few photos and pushed them to the website.

My Dad is Such A Geek

And Megan, in case you are reading this years later. Yes. i have always been a geek and No. You may not date anyone until you are 35!

One More Thing...

Something that I just can't figure out that i was hoping someone could offer some insight. I am a pretty tall guy - 6'4. So how is it possible that Megan is not even a day old and she already has me wrapped around here tiny little finger! :-)

Thanks again for everyone's prayers and support. I am now going back to staring at my new baby girl!

Get Inman News for Free!

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:14:29 -0600

I keep meaning to join Innman News but I just haven't gotten around to it. I wonder if subconsciously it's the thought of paying for information in a Web 2.0 world. After all, it goes against, my philosophy of free access to information. Heck even the New York Times gives me free information.

A friend sent me an Inman News link. I clicked only to be faced with a page that told me to "JOIN NOW and gain immediate access to this article!" So I pulled out my credit card and was about to drop the $150 when I started thinking about Inman's SEO. I thought to myself, wait a second, Google doesn't have an Inman subscription yet they seem to see all of the great content.

Inman's SEO Loophole!

It turns out, Inman has a page for Google and a page for site visitors. Let me explain. Let's say you want to read about a Miami Realtor who is being sued for $25M. The link to the article looks like this...

http://www.inman.com/inmannews.aspx?ID=65991

Clicking the link forces you to "JOIN NOW" if you want to see the article. but a simple edit to the link removes that pesky JOIN NOW text and gives you full access to the article.

http://www.inman.com/inmanstories.aspx?ID=65991

You will notice that I simply changed the link from "news" to " stories." Ahh free content without JOINING NOW.

Keep It Legal!

Now remember, joining Inman News has more advantages than just having access to stories. Their signup page list them all (including the ability to reprint and conference discounts). Based on these "extras", joining probably still seems like a good thing to do. So I guess I will still drop the 150 bucks and justify the cost by the perks and convince myself I am still holding on to my Web 2.0 philosophy!

UPDATE! It looks like Inman wised up and closed the loop hole. But don't worry. It turns out that Inman has a few holes in their system. Instead of changing the link to stories.aspx, just change it to story.aspx.

http://www.inman.com/inmanstory.aspx?ID=65991

It’s Time to Rewrite Your Title Tags

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:26:26 -0600

The other day someone asked me. "If you could only make one edit to a website to achieve better search engine optimization, what would it be?" After clarifying that the edit had to be on the site (meaning link building wasn't an option) I responded by saying that tweaking the Title Tag would probably be the first place to start.

Since I am always on the look out for new blog topics, I thought I would pull together some information and create a post about Title Tags. I am sure the topic has been covered a million times on AR but I thought I would throw my two cents in.

I actually decided to publish the full article on my other blog so you have to actually click to read the article.

For all of those that just want the "take-aways" (and all the people who don't want to click), the main points are listed below.

Read the full article about Title Tags

Title Tags are more than just for SEO, they are also used to get people to click to your website.
Don’t keyword stuff your title tags
Try to make your title tag be a complete thought
Stay away from strict formulas when writing your title tags
Base your Title Tags off of Google Searches
Use synonyms to create a consistent theme throughout your website title tags
Avoid using your name and company name in your title tags
Don’t use superlatives in your title tag (Best, #1, Greatest)
Google skips over common words like “the” “in” “of” so don’t waste precious characters with these in your title tag.
Word order is important, put your critical keywords at the beginning of your title tag
Make sure EVERY page on your website has a unique title tag

Brad Carroll

Dakno Marketing
A Real Estate Web Design Company

End of Year Website Checklist

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:45:52 -0600

As the end of the year quickly approaches, it’s a great time to tidy up and tie off any loose ends. While you are busy trying to finish up your end of the year todo list. Be sure to make time to give your site an annual checkup. Here are a few tips…

Contact Information

Ensure that all of your contact information is still current on your website. Don’t just check the contact us page but all the other places your contact info may appear (including your footer).

Are You Still In Compliance?

Has your company changed their required disclosures or branding requirements? What about your board? Can you still use terms like MLS?

Outgoing Links

Outgoing links all too often become dead links, this is because sites may move content, redesign their site or remove resources. So be sure to check all those links that link to 3rd party sites. And don’t just check to see if the link works. Check to make sure the content is still relevant and that the site isn’t advertising your competition. Yes, it can happen. We saw that one of our clients was linking to the real estate section of the local online newspaper. When someone clicked on that link, there was a huge banner ad for their biggest competitor!

Test Your Forms

It’s always a good idea to ensure all of your forms are still working in proper order. Also use this opportunity to look at things like required fields and confirmation emails. You may want to also ensure that the form properly notifies you of new leads.

Are You Still On Target?

What about your title tags and keywords for your website? Are you still on target? Does your site still have relevant content for your target audience? Are all the resources on your site still up-to-date? Calendar of events, Local businesses, etc. nothing drives people away from a website like old, outdated content!

I know, as if you didn’t have enough things to do already! But remember, these small little things may be the difference between an out dated website and an online lead generating machine!

Happy Holidays!

Your Website Is Trying to Tell You How to Generate More Leads —Are You Listening?

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:36:09 -0600

When people ask about getting more traffic to their site, I usually ask, “What’s wrong with the people who are already on your site?” I say this because most of the time the answer to more leads is not more traffic —it’s better conversion.

Imagine, for a moment, a bucket with lots of holes in it. It doesn’t matter how much you pour into the bucket, it’s not going to hold water unless you patch the holes. Your website is the same as that bucket, only instead of leaking water, it is leaking cash. Without the right tools, it's hard to spot the holes so that you can fix them.

Using Analytics to Find the Holes in Your Bucket

Each site visitor leaves a footprint of their visit. This information consists of everything from how they came to your site, how long they stayed on pages, where they left, what town they live in, what type of computer they were using, and even the monitor resolution they have.

Why is this important to you? Because armed with this information you will be able to easily refine your site to correct errors, to make it more user-friendly, and to better customize it to your target market. For example, your stats may tell you that you have a large number of visitors from California using high resolution monitors and the very latest computers. With this in mind, you can create a section on your website geared towards affluent people in California that are planning to relocate to your area. There is even technology available that allows you to dynamically show a separate homepage to these visitors from California. (Stay tuned, that’s a topic for another article….)

Using the Right Tools

While there are many website statistics packages available for purchase, why not save yourself some money? A free product that I use personally, and is one of the most robust packages out there, is Google Analytics. But just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s limited. Quite the opposite is true, you can spend days reviewing the data and still not get though everything! Getting Google Analytics on your site is easy —just sign up, have your web developer add a few lines of code to your site, and you’ll be on your way to finding the "holes".

Now It’s Time to Start Patching

So what happens next? Now that you have all of this data, what do you do with it? First off, you shouldn’t do anything with it. After all, you’re a real estate agent, not a statistical analyst. Sure, it’s okay to keep up with “snapshots” of your site’s performance, but you will find yourself burning up countless hours if you get caught up in all the data. So what’s the solution? I recommend scheduling a quarterly, if not monthly, call with your web marketing company to have them review with you the results of your analytics, and to discuss their recommended action steps based off of the data. This is a key point. Don’t just talk about the stats; make the changes as a result. After all, analytics without action is simply a waste of time and money.

Here are a few key points to cover:

Discuss overall “snapshot” of the site - Are things trending up or down? Have there been any major fluctuations? Are these fluctuations related to other forms of marketing?
Define trouble spots - What areas of the site need improving? What is the problem? Why is it a problem? What can be done to fix it?
What is working? - What seems to be going well? Which of the calls to action are providing the most leads? Can we duplicate this on other areas of the site?
Implementation strategy - What changes need to be made based on the analytic data? What strategy is best to correct the trouble spots that were defined? Remember: Being armed with this information does you no good unless you implement the changes!
Results from previous changes - Has there been a change in the analytics since previous site corrections? Have those changes had a positive effect? Has it caused other problems in other areas of the site?

Watch Out for New Leaks

The only constant on the Internet is that it’s always changing. Your site visitors’ habits, markets and web trends are always fluctuating. But analytics with action can keep your lead bucket patched and full!

I Fell Off the Face of the Earth!

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:24:35 -0500

Well, not exactly, but the past two months have been a little crazy and has kept me away from my usual blogging on Active Rain. But I can’t complain because while things have been busy, all of the “stuff” keeping me away has been good things. For example: My wife and I found out that we will be having a girl in March! We already have a 2 year old boy so my family was glad that they will now have a little girl to spoil. Of course this meant that my “honey do” list skyrocketed when my wife started nesting! (HELP!)

Dakno also launched a new Blog for Michael Russer (a.k.a Mr Internet). In fact, we kicked off the new ePowerNews Blog with a free blog and coaching giveaway on the site. So if you haven’t already, go to ePowerNews and register to win a free blog and three months of blog coaching with me and my team. The deadline is today so act quick!

Unfortunately, one of my HTML coders left the company to pursue a new career. So I had to dust off my “coding hat” and help share the work load. And while it has forced me to stay on top of my skills, I quickly realized I would rather be spending my time writing blogs instead of writing code!

The other big task was the launch of Kevin Tomlinson’s new Miami Beach Real Estate website. This almost 300 page website uses some pretty amazing technology. If Kevin is okay with it, I may write a blog post that breaks down some of the backend technology and features that make this one of the most innovative real estate websites out there. I am sure you guys would enjoy reading about it.

As if things were not busy enough, my company has been working on two new products that we will be debuting in the next month or so - low cost real estate websites and blogs. So if any of you are interested in being a beta tester for the new products just let me know.

I know that most of you are probably thinking “Enough with the fluff! Start writing about Real Estate Web Design and Search Engine Optimization!” And that’s exactly what I plan to do. So stay tuned. I have built up quite a list of topics in my blogging absence.

Thanks,
Brad

Free Tools That Allow You To Spy On Your Competition

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:48:28 -0500

Before I jump into this post, let me first give you a little backstory of how this post came about…

It all started when I added a comment to a post about the amount of website traffic a site receives. The comment stream had a very good discussion on how to gage someone else’s website traffic. I threw out Alexa as one resource to compare websites. Admittedly, I have not done much reconnaissance on my competition but I have used Alexa in the past to compare sites. And while I would never trust the numbers (because even I know ways to exploit the data) I have used it to look at trends between two sites. That is, until Jeff Turner came back with an interesting post about Alexa.

He did an excellent job at explaining, and showing, Alexa’s shortcomings. He and I then got into a very fun and lighthearted exchange in the comments of his post. Then suddenly it hit me. This whole thing started because we were trying to determine how much traffic was going to someone else’s website. Obviously we can’t just ask for their Analytics login information. So with this mind, I started researching tools that are available online that will allow you to “spy” on your competition's website.

If you want to go ahead and jump right to the tools, click this link: 15 Ways to Spy on Your Competition. Otherwise, keep reading below..

Why Spy?

Keeping an eye on your competition is vital. Maybe they are capitalizing on a resource you are not aware of. Perhaps they just developed a strategic relationship with a local business. Or maybe they just hired New York’s top ad agency to market them. By using creative ways to monitor them, you can follow their strategy and let them keep paying the overpriced agency.

A Word Of Caution

Knowing how to make it your own is just as important as knowing what your competition is doing. You see, as long as you remain a follower, you will never overtake your competition. With this in mind, don't just copy what they are doing. But learn from others and then implement an online marketing strategy that is right for you.

Let’s Start Spying

There are many free tools available to “spy” on your competition. Some I have already covered such as Google Alerts. Other methods put the power of RSS to work. While other resources depend on information freely available on search engines.

You can visit my other blog to see the complete list of 15 Ways to Spy on Your Competition along with instructions on how to implement them.

Yeah I know, some people are going to probably fuss at me for linking out. But go easy on me. I have been putting so much stuff on AR that I have abandoned my main Real Estate Marketing Blog! Which sounds like a great topic for my next post - Finding the Balance between Your Active Rain blog and your Domain blog.

Until Then,

Brad Carroll

For those of you who just skimmed down here to look for the tools. Click this link: 15 Ways to Spy on Your Competition

See Your Site Through The Eyes of Google

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 01:48:40 -0500

When a web visitor views your site, they are immediately greeted with graphics, text, and possibly even videos or flash. Obviously, humans can quickly scan and read these elements and then determine what is important. Search Engines however see your site in a whole different light. While search engines are getting smarter and smarter, they ultimately rely on HTML code and content to determine what you page is all about.

Flash Killed the Search Engine Star

Many Real Estate agents like to use flash because it offers so much eye candy. The only problem is that while your music filled flash intro may be causing your site visitors to immediately supply you with all their contact information (please note the sarcasm) Search Engines just see a blank screen. Based off of some of the flash intros that I seen, I think Search Engines get the better end of the deal.

But this goes beyond just Flash intros. Many websites use Flash for important aspects such as menus, headers, and more. So how does Google see these elements? Let’s find out. Scott Patterson, a South Florida Real Estate Agent, was nice enough to let use his website as an example.

First, Through a Site Visitor’s Eyes

While his site doesn’t have much copy on the home page, it still contains important information such as the left hand navigation menu, his contact information and a couple of featured listings. Overall, it’s nice and clean. This is what the site looks like through the eyes of a visitor.

What Does Google See?

Using a handy little tool called the Poodle Predictor, it is easy to see what Google sees. No graphics, no flash, just good old content.
This is what the site looks like thought the eyes of Google.

You may be thinking “I don’t get it. There is nothing on that page.” That’s exactly the point. Google can’t see any menu or links! To put it in perspective, let’s look at another example.

Linda Craft is a Raleigh Real Estate Agent who has a site that’s a little more search engine friendly. Poodle Predictor shows that Google is able to soak up lots of content.

Is It Just The Amount Of Text?

If you visit Scott’s site and Linda’s site, you can easily see that Linda’s site contains more text. But keep in mind, just putting more text on a site doesn’t always mean it’s easy for Google to see.

Bad Code Killed the Search Engine Star

Let’s look at two pages with almost equal amounts of text. First, take a quick look at this page and this page. As you can see, they both have lots of content so you would think that Google would easily see both pages. But just look at the results.

The Pinehurst page using Poodle Predictor shows lots of great content. Great! Google should have no problem soaking up this content. View The Pinehurst Page Using Poodle Predictor.

The SV Home Team website shows… It shows nothing! Why? After all both pages have lots of content! Here is the answer. This page uses frames! This page has missed an opportunity for lots of exposure because the page is coded using a bad practice! But don’t worry. My company is already busy at work developing a new website for him – without frames. View The SV Home Team Using Poodle Predictor.

Every day search engines are getting smarter and smarter. But ultimately they rely on your HTML code and content to determine what you page is all about.

Check Your Own Site

Ready to see how your own website measures up in the eyes of Google? Simply go to the Poodle Predictor, type in your domain, and in the results click on the Diagnostics View link. If lots of good content appears, then good for you. If not, you may want to make some changes.

If you found this information helpful, please consider subscribing to my blog

To Your Success,
Brad Carroll

Disclaimer: It’s important to note that this tool is not affiliated with Google nor do they have any inside information. The tool doesn’t actually use Google’s algorithms to view the page. It simply views the content without stylesheets, JavaScript or plugins.

Optimizing Your Active Rain blog for Visitors and Search Engines (Part 2)

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 04:06:04 -0500

After such a great response from my blog post about optimizing your Active Rain profile, I decided to write this follow up post about how to optimize your Active Rain Blog.

Your Blog Title

It’s amazing how many people on Active Rain simply title their blog as “Bob’s Blog” or “Sue’s Blog.” The problem with this is that this is not very descriptive for Search Engines or Web Visitors. Instead, try to incorporate a keyword into your blog title. After all, this text will appear at the top of every post that you write. But don’t just take the simple way out and use the exact keyword as your name (If you don’t have a keyword in your Active Rain name, stop and read this first.) Instead, you should alter it slightly so it doesn’t look spammy. For example, My Active Rain name is “Brad Carroll – Real Estate Web Designer”. My Blog title is Real Estate Website Design Blog. Notice how I am using slightly different phrases. Matt Cutts of Google even discusses this in his latest talk.

So how do you change your blog title? It’s actually quite simple. Just click on the “My Home” link and then click on My Settings. Simply make the change and then click “update.” While you are in there, make sure you have a keyword rich description that accurately describes your blog.

Give Yourself Some Link Love

Active Rain gives you the ability to create a Blogroll in the sidebar of your blog. Simply click the “add/remove” link to manage the links in your blogroll. Be sure to capitalize on this by linking back to your website or other blog. Make sure you use descriptive keywords to help your website’s Search Engine Optimization.

Get More Comments and Views

When it comes to blogs, the name of the game is exposure. The great thing is that Active Rain gives you a sure fire way to have your blog post seen by thousands of people. The secret isn’t really a secret at all. It’s groups. You are allowed to submit your blog post to five different groups. Yet every day I see so many great posts lost in cyberspace because they were not submitted to any groups. For example, a few weeks ago I stumbled across a great post about SEO. As a moderator for the Blogging and SEO group, I am always keeping an eye out for helpful posts about SEO. I knew this was going to be an instant feature. But they didn’t submit the post to any groups! This person missed out on a great opportunity to get lots of exposure because they failed to tie their post to any groups. And because it wasn’t in a group, I was unable to easily find that post to link it here.

Find the Biggest Audience

Another common mistake is not submitting your posts to the most popular groups. If you want your post to be seen by the biggest audience, submit your post to the biggest groups. Don’t waste your time submitting to groups that only have a handful of subscribers. As I am writing this post, I already know that I will be submitting this to Blogging and SEO, Art of Marketing You, Online Marketing, Rain Making and AR Newbies. Do you think it’s coincidence that these are all some of the most subscribed groups on Active Rain? Of course not. I want the biggest audience! Now, with that said, be sure that your post is actually relevant to the group.

Nothing Beats Good Content

In the end, it’s not the title or the group that makes a good blog post. It’s the content. But good content combined with maximum exposure is a great formula for success!

If you found this information helpful, please consider subscribing to my blog

Until Then,
Brad Carroll

Optimizing Your Active Rain Profile for Search Engines and Visitors

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:00:26 -0500

I recently wrote an article that referenced Active Rain. Since then, I saw quite a few people join Active Rain. With so many of my clients and peers joining, I figured I should give a quick tutorial on how to make sure your Profile is optimized for Search Engines.

But, this post isn’t just for the newbies. Even if you are a veteran to ActiveRain, you may want to use this as a quick review to make sure you have covered all your bases.

Join Active Rain

If you haven’t already done so, I suggest you join Active Rain. But, don’t just dart off and join before reading this post. In your excitement to join you may overlook some important tips you should know before joining.

Think About Your Username

I wrote a post about selecting a username a couple of months ago. It’s important to have a good username because once you sign up; there is no way to change it. Select a username that is the keyword you are trying to optimize. For example, if you are trying to optimize for Sheridan Wyoming Real Estate, then make your username SheridanRealEstate. If you have already signed up for Active Rain, then keep this tip in mind as you join other social networks.

SEO Your Profile

After you have signed up, it’s time to jump in and create your profile. Profile Pages are favorable in the eyes of Search Engines. So there is a good chance your profile will rank well and get lots of views!

More than Just Your Name

You may have been tempted to simply enter your first and last name when you signed up. That’s the obvious process, but your name will be seen on every comment you make, every blog post and more. So use this as an opportunity to include another keyword. This is important - Don’t use the same keyword as your username. Using the example above, if your username keyword is SheridanRealEstate, your Name keyword may be Sheridan Wyoming Real Estate or even Sheridan Wyoming Properties. To do this, simply enter both your first and last name into the First Name field. Next, enter your keyword into the Last Name field.

200 characters About Them - Zero about You!

The next important aspect of your profile is your Description. This description will be seen on the individual area pages such as your City, County or State. This description should be consumer centered. Don’t, I repeat Don’t be tempted to write something like this…

I am a top Realtor in Ego County. I am the greatest agent. I have lots of awards, I can help you buy or sell because I have more experience than you! Call me so I can tell you more about how great I am!

Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme but the reality is that there are too many profile descriptions that look very similar to this! Instead, replace all the I’s with “You.” In other words, make it all about helping the consumer. Notice how many times the word “you” is used in this description…

Whether you are buying or selling a property in Sheridan, Big Horn or beyond, our goal is to provide you with the resources and tools you need to make a smart and stress free real estate investment.

Maximizing Your Profile Content

After you have created a “consumer centric” description, you will want to add content to your profile page. This is where I am going to disagree with about 90% of the profile pages currently on Active Rain. Write the profile in First Person! Write as if you are speaking directly to your client (like a blog post). It engages people and will yield a better response rate.

Change Those Headers!

I would also suggest changing the header text for each section. You can do this by simply going in and clicking on “rename section.” This is another great opportunity to optimize for those important keywords.

The Area Expert

Rename the first header section something like “Sheridan Wyoming Real Estate at its Best” (edit for your specific area). Then create copy that focuses on how great the area is. Remember, keep the copy centered on benefiting the consumer. If you have an external website, be sure to create a few links back to your website. For best results, link to internal pages such as your area information page instead of just your home page. One more thing! Don’t just go to Wikipedia and copy and paste information about your area. This copy needs to be compelling and original. If not, Search Engines will think, “Oh, this is just another copy of Wikipedia, no real value here.” If you don’t have time to do this, hire a copywriter. It’s that important!

Enough About Me, Let's Focus On You

Now edit your next header section. This is where you can talk about yourself and your services. Again, in terms of how how you benefit the client. Tie everything to benefits! Instead of “I have 20 years of experience,” try, “Having someone in your corner with 20 years of experience will ensure every detail of your purchase is handled smoothly.” Okay – probably not some of my best copywriting work but at least you get the picture. Feeling brave? If you are ready to toss aside the unwritten rules of writing a bio, check this out.

You can even try a question and answer format. This makes things very conversational. Kevin Tomlinsonhas a great example of this on his website. It’s a little heavy on the “I”s but, I love the conversational approach!

What Others Are Saying

Your final section is for testimonials. Again, rename the section to something more keyword rich. For example, “Happy Sheridan Real Estate Clients.” (A little hokey but you get the idea) When choosing testimonials, don’t just include the

We just love working with Ima Dagreatest. She is so wonderful!

Instead, look for the testimonials that account for specific events.

After a frustrating 3 months on the market, we changed Realtors and hired Alla Boutyou. She hired a stager and sold our home in 10 days and for $7,400 above the original asking price!

To Sum It Up

By integrating these tips into your profile, you speak more clearly to both search engines and your visitors. So go back and take another look at your profile. Who are you? “Ima Dagreatest” or “Alla Boutyou?”

In my next post, I will show you how to optimize your AR blog for search engines!

If you found this information helpful, please consider subscribing to my blog

Until Then,
Brad Carroll

Big Changes for the Blogging and SEO Group

Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer (Dakno Marketing) — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:17:50 -0500

I first joined Active Rain a few months ago. I quickly learned that in order to get the most exposure for your blog post, it was important to submit them to different groups. So I joined groups that I thought would be right up my alley. A few that jumped out at me were Blogging and SEO, The Art of Marketing You, Online Marketing, Rainmaking and a few more. I enjoyed reading the various featured posts and even had the privilege of having a few of my own posts featured. Each day I looked forward to seeing some of the spotlight posts from each group. Yet every time I ventured over to the Blogging and SEO group, I noticed the featured posts never changed. Additionally, I also saw a few posts that obviously didn’t belong in the group. It wasn’t until Maureen spoke up that it all started to make sense.

A Ship without a Captain

As it turns out, the founder of the group no longer participates on ActiveRain. Because of this, there really hasn’t been anyone keeping the group fresh. Maureen knew that the Blogging and SEO group was too valuable to continue to go unmanaged. She asked someone to step in and help moderate the group. Greg Fox offered to help. He also mentioned my name as someone who might be able to offer some insight. After giving it some thought, I agreed to help out.

So what’s in Store?

One of the first changes you will see is a new Group Graphic. I thought we needed something fresh and took the liberty of creating a new logo. Maureen, Greg and I will be working together to create guidelines for posting as well as laying out what would classify as a “featured post.” So, if you haven’t already, I would encourage you to join the Blogging and SEO group. And if your posts are related to Blogging and SEO, then be sure to publish that post to the group. After all, it could be one of our first features!

To Greater Success,

Brad Carroll