BestoftheWeb Local-Business Listing allows contact information, hours of operation, consumer reviews, about us. Free
CitySearch- Directory of local services. Can create ads and set a budget. Citysearch has a Mobile App for IPhone, a mobile app forBlackberry, and Palm Pre.- PAID Set a Budget.
ZoomInfo- Create your business profile and have people find you for new business opportunities. You can also register here to be notified when you can list your company...an upcoming ZoomInfo feature. Free
Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate industry professionals.
If you need assistance with online marketing, offline marketing, social networking, or blogging contact Rebecca D. Levinson at #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@bloggingintherain.com.
5 Real Estate Take-Aways from PubCon Vegas 2009- Matt Cutts on "What Has Google Done for Users Lately?"
One of the best sessions I attended at PubCon 2009 Las Vegas was Search Engines and Webmasters-The Smackdown. It was a session featuring Matt Cutts of Google and Nathan Buggia of Bing discussing their views of search and their companies unique offerings in the search space. I was very interested in Buggia's confirmation that Bing is committed to capturing 51% of the search space and the reaction from SEO professionals in the room which seemed happy for the competition.
My main takeaways from the session were from Cutt's presentation on "What Has Google Done For Users Lately?" as it is the search engine that currently has 66.1% share of searches in the U.S.
Matt Cutts ran down a list of at least 10-12 Google offerings, but I am going to pare it down to those tools I believe most pertinent to individual real estate professionals and real estate companies.
Here are my 5 real estate take-aways from Pubcon Vegas 2009- Matt Cutts on What Has Google Done for you Lately?
1. Google Chrome- This is Google's browser offering. I have it installed on my desktop and though I still prefer Firefox, I like Chrome when speed is a necessity.
I use Google Chrome when I need to search through several websites.
2. Google Wave- A new way to collaborate and make better sense of the increasing inefficiency of email by communicating in real time. I am just jumping into Wave now, but Cheryl Johnson has been posting on Wave and is great at giving clear, easy to follow tech tutorials.
3. Google Social Search-Taps into the power of your network to keep track of what they are doing, researching, reading, and posting online. One really cool bonus is if you do opt to try social search you can search by your name or business to find information on the last time Google Indexed your stuff. Cutts recommended this over the popular search using "site:____". I logged into social search and found it be very useful for just this feature alone. If you do not want people to see what websites you have searched at any moment you can log out.
4. Google Speed Test- Please take note this one is important. The update for Google's Algorithms, Caffeine, will be coming after the Holidays. Cutts said in the session at PubCon that the speed of your website might be an important factor in this update (hint,hint) because search users care about speed. Of the 200 factors that Google uses to index and rank for SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) Speed isn't currently a factor. You can test your website's speed with Google's Speed Test.
Don't forget to test the speed of your blog too.
5. Google Dashboard- I'm gonna wrap with this one. When Cutts asked the question "How many people feel concerned about all of the information Google has on them?" a good 50% of the audience's hands went up including mine along with a laugh at the results and the question.
Here is one example. If you've ever used Gmail you will notice that the ads that show up on the right hand side have to do directly with the content in the body of your emails. If you want to know what information Google has been collecting on you Google has created a dashboard. It was more than interesting to see this information and I will be checking out my dashboard weekly now.
Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate industry professionals.
If you need assistance with online marketing, offline marketing, social networking, or blogging contact Rebecca D. Levinson at #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@bloggingintherain.com.
Week of 11/16/09- Real Skillz Freebie Picks- Free Online Reads and Real Estate Marketing Resources for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies
Create and Manage a Team-Authored Blog: 8 Steps to Reap SEO Gains
Subscribe to a free trial to Marketing SHERPA to read this article with great tips on how to create and manage a team authored blog. Team authored blogs make sense for real estate professionals who have time constraints and who want to add a level of depth to their content by adding the written works of ancillary service providers. A team authored blog also provides an opportunity to network with local businesses and offer them the opportunity to contribute local information to your blog.
The article discusses creating an editorial calendar, keyword lists, creating a goal for your blog, and how to set deadlines for blog posts.
13 Ways to Network Beyond Facebook and Linked In
A blog post on Connectodex on OpenForum about taking your social media marketing beyond two of the biggest social networks. Jantsch emphasizes the importance of using social networks that have strong connections and interaction to your advantage. There are five networks listed for small businesses that I believe would be especially valuable to real estate professionals.
Biznik-Online and offline social networking for small businesses.
IncBizNet- Real Estate Broker/Owners for Privately Held Companies can apply for membership to IncBizNet where they can publish blog posts, create free online press releases, write an online business profile, and apply for the Inc 500/5000 fastest growing private companies list.
A blog post from John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing that discusses Twitter Lists. I use a desktop application-Hootsuite- to organize my Twitter handles, streams, and searches, but Jantsch five reasons convinced me of why I should still use lists,
Monitor without following.
One button list follow.
Promote your lists.
Filtered by an expert.
Build a bigger following.
I recommend reading this post in its entirety. It's a quick and easy read and gets to the point of list building with Twitter
Thru You- Described as "Footage taken on YouTube by amateur musicians and mixed together." Take a listen to Thru You on YouTube It's clear that collaboration, passion, and mashups are valued across industries online.
Tweeting with a Purpose- A project pioneered by University of Wisconsin doctoral student Adam Wilson and adviser Justin Williams in whichWilson tweets by thinking via a cap outfitted with electrodes monitoring changes in his brain activity. For what purpose? Research for those with locked in syndrome- which "which paralyzes the body, except for the eyes, but leaves the mind alert". Slow going now at 8 characters vs. the 140 characters twitter allows but can you imagine with further research if Twitter ends up being a vocal outlet for those with Locked-In Syndrome? Now that's tweeting with a purpose.
Exploring Loyalty Programs and Their Many Benefits
An article by Mike Phillips on Website Magazine about creating loyalty programs. Phillips uses 93XRT Radio Station in Chicago (a radio station I grew up on in High School) as an example of how to create brand loyalty programs and keep visitors on your website through a members only portal. He emphasizes the two key elements of focusing on the user and focusing on the brand as critical in creating a successful loyalty program.
Think about the concept of SOI and referral business and a loyalty program will make sense for your real estate business. Phillips keeps reality in check by emphasizing that loyalty programs are not set and forget marketing strategies. Loyalty programs require maintenance and promotion. 93XRT currently has 12,000 plus Facebook Fans and over 3300 twitter followers.
Reading this article and touring the links of XRT's digital footprint can't help but make you think about your website offering and digital footprint for past clients who can refer business to you.
Real Skillz Freebie Picks- Free Online Reads and Real Estate Marketing Resources for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies is a weekly online newsletter provided by Rebecca D. Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant. If you like what your reading come join my business page on FaceBook.
Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate industry professionals.
If you need assistance with online marketing, offline marketing, social networking, or blogging contact Rebecca D. Levinson at #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@bloggingintherain.com.
How to Use the Power of Social Media and Local Businesses to Fuel a Local Charitable Online Marketing Campaign
It's the time to pay thanks and what better way for real estate professionals to become actively involved in their communities than to put the power of social media marketing to a charitable use online? Today I am going to use the GiveNGoble Campaign to illustrate how you can use the power of social media and your local business connections to power a local charitable online marketing campaign.
The Give'n'Gobble Campaign is Sherwood Oregon's annual 5Krun/walk and 10K run on Thanksgiving. The money and food raised during the run/walk goes to Helping Hands, a local food bank associated with the Oregon Food Bank. This year they have turned to social media to fuel their donations and WOM(Word of Mouth Marketing) and it has served the campaign well.
Here is what they did that you can emmulate to drive a local charitable online marketing campaign,
1. Bought a domain and drove traffic to a designated website for the charity
The website gives all the necessary information about the charity as well as an eye catching left hand side bar with 10 reasons why to participate and photos of the past year's events. It also includes a sponsor list, a map(would've been nice to see a Google Map also), a lists of sponsors (which are logos that link back to the sponsors websites) a form for volunteers, and a press release section.
I would buy a designated domain. Domains are pretty cheap to buy these days because domain dealers are currently holding an excessive inventory. I might even go with a .org instead of a .com. domain. If you are lacking time and resources to host and create a website, I would contact a local website provider and ask for a donation.
3. Created a Facebook Fan Page to drive online awareness and donations
Some of the most effective advertising through Facebook Fan Pages has been as a result of viral quizzes, contests,giveaways and strategic campaigns. A Facebook Fan Page should be part of any online charitable marketing campaign. It should include updates on campaign activities and behind the scenes action shared through notes. It can include polls on the wall about topics surrounding the campaign. I would include stats on how the contribution will directly help the charity from past experience if you have those stats or in general if you do not.
Tap into the viral marketing power of Facebook by reminding visitors to share the page with a friend. Add the Facebook FanBox to the dedicated website for the charity.
4. Twittering with a Charitable Purpose
Micro blogging the charitable event before, during and after makes sense. Create a separate Twitter handle and list it in local twitter directories like Twellow. Geofollow, and localtweeps. Think about how contributions will serve the goal of the charity and that is how you want to craft your message on your Twitter Page to create an empowering call to action.
The GiveNGobble Twitter Page makes a smart call to action by directing visitors to its Facebook Fan Page.
5. Blog the charitable event before, during, and after it is over
Blog your charitable event before, during, and after it's over. The blog should be built into the designated website to increase search engine rankings for your targeted keywords. Include links to the blog in blog directories and pertinent web pages.
Invite guest bloggers who are either sponsors, volunteers or participants of the event.
Here's a few things I would add to the online marketing campaign mix
Radio-If you have an Internet radio show include 3 spots for the event- Before to build awareness, the day of to kick start the even, and after to discuss the results.
Video-Launch a YouTube channel for the event OR include videos of the event on your YouTube Channel.
Generational Marketing-Advertise the event through online resources where you can get volunteers like college websites.
Document Sharing- Include any marketing brochures or applications on document sharing websites likeDocStoc andScribd.
Business Branding-Give your real estate business some credit by including a link on the charitable website/blog to your website or at the very least a business citation. You will get some natural business branding by writing a press release and in return getting mentions in local and possibly national news.
Savvy Linking- Create buttons for sponsor, volunteers, contributors, to put on their website that will link back to the charitable website.
Don't forget that a key to success of this type of campaign will be to partner up with local businesses. Pop by in person or call them on the phone to get their assistance and their support.
It might be a bit late to ramp up a charitable online marketing plan like this in time for Thanksgiving, but Christmas is still a month away and there are charities all year round. You don't have to wait for a holiday to get buzz going and give thanks by helping others.
You can use the power of social media and local businesses to fuel a local charitable online marketing campaign anytime.
One of my favorite sessions at PubCon Vegas 2009 was the Local Search and Mobile Optimization session. I have been following local search for the past five years from a marketing angle. Quite awhile ago I realized that the SEM field would have to address the needs of consumers. Consumers want to research andhave a need to find local vendors online.
The local online space is fascinating because it's a space where the national players can be beat. Here's a few tips to getting it done in the local search space courtesy of Pubcon Vegas 2009,
Local business professionals can use national platforms to promote their brands, products, businesses, services and interact with consumers by leveraging their online business profiles,optimizing them, and getting links. Do you have profiles on MerchantCircle, CitySearch,Local.com,TrueLocal,Yellowbot,Yelp,hotfrog.com,, Trulia,your city directory or BBB?
A good time to do that is now.
Local business professionals can create websites with local content and gain enviable SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rank. Do you have a website with content preferably fed from a blog built into your website?
A good time to do that is now.
Local business professionals can build relationships offline with consumers and local businesses. They can reach out and advertise to them locally in traditional offline venues like local newspapers and local radio spots. They can extend to them an opportunity to guest blog or interview them. They can work on a local link campaign to get their website links on local business websites.
A good time to do that is now.
Local business professionals can analyzeand track their referral sources from their website statistics, call ins, and walk-ins. In person or on the phone front office staff should be asking name, number, and source of referral. If online ask where and what keyword they searched to find you. This keyword research, whether online or offline is critical to local search success.
A good time to do that is now.
Local business professionals can register all of their street addresses on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. On their business profiles local business professionals should be as robust as possible by including coupons, pictures, hours of operation and video which Google ranks well on Google local. It's important to offer as much content as possible on these business profiles because consumers may not want to go to the link out to the business professional's website.
A good time to do that is now.
Local business professionals can search their keywords on theirand to their mobile phones locally and see who is coming up, take notes, and then take measures to make sure their businesses show up for those keywords.
A good time to do that is now.
Local business professionals can seek reviews from customers who they believe would complete reviews. Local businesses can also get Citations-a mention of their business name and address- on a website even if it isn't a link. Citations help boost local rankings.
A good time to do that is now.
Local search is exciting. It's a way for local businesses to win if they do the work. I just listed 7 items as your checklist. I must mention that two of the speakers on the local search panel were business professionals in service based industries- one was a chiropractor- they are getting business locally and have local marketing plans in place.
As Google increasingly adopts to user behavior and SERP is based on user behavior AND location isn't it time to consider your local search strategy?
It's Time to Think About Local Search and How You Can Make An Impact Online.
Week of 11/09/09- Real Skillz Freebie Picks- Free Online Reads and Real Estate Marketing Resources for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies
Fr.ee- A website where you can search for free things online
Key in your search query and this website will produce results for your free stuff. You can also sign up for an account and this website will allow you to suggest websites that provide free stuff. Pretty simple, pretty cool, and a pretty good opportunity for savvy real estate professionals who provide free data to consumers to share this online on a website where consumers are searching for freebies.
Why Slideshare Is An Uber Cool Way To Reach Out To Your Customers
A blog post from Neil Sequira of buzz factory that provides four easy to understand reasons why adding a slideshare presentation helps to increase the value of your online content . This method should be added to your real estate marketing mix.
They are on-demand viewing
They are very sharable
They show up well in search results
They are engaging & educational
Important to note that slideshare also is a way to mix up your content and provide visual learners with the information they are seeking via the method they are seeking to learn it.
Facebook Announces Roadmap for Developers
Read Write Web's Jolie O'Dell' blog post on Facebook's publication of a developer roadmap takes the guesswork out of seeing what direction Facebook is moving in and how to use Facebook for your business in the future.
Facebook is an extremely important part of an effective social media marketing strategy. The developer's roadmap should leave you with a good sense of what your next marketing move on Facebook should be.
Trulia's E-Newsletter from November 5, 2009
A good template you can use as a guide on how to create better timely content. There are two things that I want to bring your attention to on this newsletter that you can make over for your own newsletters and/or website content:
Question of the week section should be easy to pull from any phone calls or emails you have received.
The section about interest rates makes good space for you to insert a local advertiser. Make sure to add the proper disclaimers. Remember to respect privacy rights.
Make sure to keep an eye on national players in the real estate vertical who are seeking to blow out the local vertical. They are already working hyperlocal avenues and will provide you with fodder for your hyperlocal online marketing plan. Add them to Google Alerts and study and track their latest moves. Then pull out your local expert trump card and go to work.
Your local strategy is increasingly important in your SEO(Search Engine Optimization) and SEM(Search Engine Marketing) maneuvers. Studying national companies who are alredy doing this and realizing you can do it too is crucial.
You can read more about the importance of creating a hyperlocal marketing strategy here and here.
Real Skillz Freebie Picks- Free Online Reads and Real Estate Marketing Resources for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies is a weekly online newsletter provided by Rebecca D. Levinson, Real Estate Marketing Consultant. If you like what your reading come join my Business Page on Facebook.
Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate industry professionals.
If you need assistance with online marketing, offline marketing, social networking, or blogging contact Rebecca D. Levinson at #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@bloggingintherain.com.
True or False? The Breakdown of Three Online Real Estate Marketing E-Myths
I decided to pull a Snopes and bust out on the three E-Myths of Online Marketing. These are common concerns I have heard in seminars, one on one consultations, or through the readership of my blog. I hope this will allay some concerns real estate professionals have about online marketing.
1. " If I don't know all the web 2.0 tools I will be left behind and my real estate business will suffer."
False. A tool should be used to help you implement your marketing strategy. A tool should not be used for the sole purpose of "keeping up with the newest gadget". Here are three factors to consider before you use a new tool:
Does the tool save you time?
Can the tool make you money?
Will the tool provide you with insight/information that would have been difficult to obtain without using it?
Does the tool provide you with a way to achieve your goal that you couldn't have reached without using it?
If you answered no to all of these questions, step away before you let the aura of web 2.0 talk make you the tool unwittingly. It is a trap that traverses all industries.
2. "I need to be on all the social networks that are available to me."
True. You should be on all social networks that allow you to create a profile and that have either a heavy consumer concentration or b2b networking opportunities.
Why? Because you should take advantage of the best real estate available right now to marketers and that real estate is online. Would you prefer to have your real estate sign in one cyber yard, or would you prefer to have your real estate sign in the yards of all available real estate across the worldwide web?
If you choose the later option then follow these steps,
Alter your profile as needed to fit the needs of your online social networks.
Use a tool to check if your handle(user name) is available across social networks. I am an affiliate of Know 'Em because I think it does the job well. You can click on the banner to the right. To check on your user name availability on this website is a free service.
Secure your brand name in the online social networks where it is available.
Remain active in your networks by choosing three to update and have conversations on regularly. Choose to remain active on other networks by syndicating your updates using ping.fm and by feeding your blog posts to your social networks.
Be responsive to conversations by receiving notification of comments and emails within these networks via email and then answering these folks in a timely manner.
Measure which networks your traffic comes from and how your presence on these sites rank on the search engines. I have joined some niche social networks that within 24 hours have brought me page 1 or 2 Google results.
See what social networks are coming up for your keywords and join and become actively involved in them.
There is prime property in cyberspace right now with a pricetag of Free. If this same property existed offline what would you do? Take that same action oriented answer and move it online.
3. "I don't have time to market my services effectively online."
False.You do not have time to get engaged in all of the distractions of the internet. You must make time to get involved in all of the lead generating, branding, and prospecting opportunities that exist online. The best way to do this is to make a plan and then create a time frame for your activities that you can monitor and track.
Don't expect to get results without creating a marketing plan. Measure your marketing plan's effectiveness by analyzing important data which includes time on site, bounce rates, top referrers, and keyword searches.
Measure the conversion of your clicks, call in's, emails and walk-in's that are sourced from your social media marketing efforts.
Be consistent and achieve your marketing goals by,
Testing your marketing actions.
Keeping track of marketing trends.
Delivering on your strategy consistently.
Striving to reach your goals.
Creating new goals that will help you achieve a new level of successful marketing.
Your success in your online marketing will be a result of how you allot and manage your time to perform these marketing goals.
True or False? The breakdown of Three Online Real Estate Marketing E-Myths.
Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate industry professionals.
If you need assistance with online marketing, offline marketing, social networking, or blogging contact Rebecca D. Levinson at #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@bloggingintherain.com.
I Am Going to PubCon and Want to Bring Your SEO Questions with Me and Get Answers for You
Today it the last day I will be working from my home office for a week. On Monday I depart on a jet plane to Las Vegas where I will be attending PubCon, a conference whose focus is educating participants on Social Media, Affiliate Programs, Search, and SEO/SEM.
Along my journey I will be meeting up with the lovely ladies of Classified Flyer Ads, Misty Lackie and Candice Hidalgo. Classified Flyer Ads is a company I have worked with in the past and a company that I would personally recommend to any real estate professional. My list of recommended real estate vendors is not easy to make and I am happy to include Classified Flyer Ads.
If any of my readers or associates will be attending PubCon I would love to have the opportunity to have some meet and greet time. Just email me and let me know.
If you aren't going to Vegas I would like to present an offer to you. Send me your questions by commenting on this blog post and I will pack them up and take them with me to PubCon and find the answers for you. I will try to get as many answers as possible. All I need are your questions in the comments below.
If you want to spread the word about this open invitation to hunt down and retrieve SEO information, just reblog my post and let your readers know.
What kind of SEO/SEM Topics You Might Have Burning Questions About
To give you an idea of some topics, here are just a few of the sessions I will be taking,
Top-Shelf SEO: Hot Topics and Trends
Local Search and Mobile Optimization
Competitive Intelligence: Know Thy Competitor Well
I would actually like to share my tentative almost 99.9% for sure PubCon Itinerary with you,
Other topics include PPC advertising, affiliate marketing, twitter, landing page optimization, viral marketing and of course SEO/SEM tactics and strategies
I always have a thirst for knowledge and a willingness to share.
I am going to Pubcon and Want to Bring Your SEO Questions with Me and Get Answers for You. It's a daunting task but I am up to the challenge. Spread the word via reblog and send me your questions in the comments below.
Rebecca D. Levinson is a real estate marketing consultant with 17 years of experience serving real estate professionals. Real estate marketing services include
Blogging- See my Blogging Tune-Up Website for Details
Social Networking
Niche Marketing
Marketing Strategy
Branding- See my Branding Sanity Website for Details
Offline Marketing
Online Marketing
Special Events Promotion and Marketing
Holiday Marketing
Marketing Campaigns
Email Marketing (Content and Design)
Reputation Management
If you treat real estate as a business then Real Skillz is a desirable real estate marketing solution. Call #262-203-5231 or email rebecca@realestateskillz.com.
How To Cut Your Real Estate Blogging Time in Half and Re-purpose Your Content Three Ways with the Time Saved
One of the burdens challenges of being a content creator is providing consistently focused content that will be of interest to your readers. If you are blogging 3-5 times per week or more content creation can become difficult for many real estate bloggers. Now if you add in the creation of email marketing campaigns, strategic micro-blogging on Twitter or Posterous, newsletters, and generating additional content for your business peers this challenge can be dizzying.
This is where the value add of web 2.0 tools comes into play.
Problem: Generating valuable content in a timely and consistent manner for multiple platforms and purposes.
Solution: Use Gmail and WebNotes to help you collect, organize, generate, repurpos, and syndicate your content.
Here's How to Cut Your Real Estate Blogging Time In Half and Repurpose Your Content Three Ways with the Saved Time
1. Use Gmail to Collect and Organize Your Research
Add a folder to your Gmail account labeled "Research-Blog". Everytime you receive an email newsletter, a notification of a new blog post, or even a question that you could use from a consumer/prospect as content for your blog move a copy of that email to your "Research Blog" folder. If you don't do this right away, at the very least, star the email so you can move it your "Research-Blog" folder later.
If you find content outside of your email account no worries, just write a quick note by emailing yourself and include a link. I personally do this all the time and find it to be simple, quick, and highly effective. Mark the subject line of the email to yourself "Research-Blog" so you can move it to your labeled folder later. In both Firefox and Internet Explorer there are options that enable you to email links and web pages to yourself.
2. Open an Account at Webnotes and carefully sift through your "Blog-Research" folder
Use Webnotes as your "go to" research tool. It will allow you to highlight and add sticky notes to web pages, blog posts, and pdf's (Pdf's only if you purchase the paid version).
Register for an account with Webnotes. I choose the paid version because I review several pdf's a week, and download the webnotes toolbar.
Go back into your Gmail account once you have downloaded the webnotes toolbar.
Use the time you have allotted to read and research the contents of your Gmail "Research-Blog" Folder.
Open up each webpage that you will use as a resource to create your newsletter and use the Webnotes tool to highlight and annotate the document. You do this by clicking on highlight and sticky notes right from the Webnotes toolbar.
The more thorough you are with your note taking the quicker it will be to create your content. This is where the time savings will really come into play.
3. Generate your Content
Once you are done researching it's time to create your content. Go back inside your Webnotes account. You can get there by clicking "View My Webnotes" on your Webnotes Toolbar.
You will see a results page that looks similar to this,
Webnotes keeps the title and source of all of your notes including a hyperlink to the original source. It also records your highlighted text and your sticky notes.
Open up your blog editor and start blogging your post. If you took copious notes the advantage is three-fold:
Younow have a more conversational tone to write your post because you wrote the notes without hesitancy and in your own voice. You will also be able to check spelling, grammer, style, and switch copy around to have more of an active than passive voice.
You have written most of the content that you will need for your post minus a few tweaks and copy and paste actions.
You will be able to easily cite material correctly by giving proper attribute and you will easily be able to include helpful links.
4. Use the extra time you saved to work your SEO
Check for use of keywords frequently and effectively.
Tag your blog post with all appropriate keywords.
Take advantage of additional features (If you are in the ActiveRain platform or another social network) by adding your post to groups and taking the time to add your post to the proper ActiveRain Channel- an often overlooked feature.
Use Header tags properly.
Scan for visibility and make sure your images are aligned, crisp, and help to paint your story as well as marked with ALT tags.
Create a call to action on your blog posts.
5. Re-purpose your blog content in three ways with the additional time
a. Create an embeddable report
In webnotes you have the option of creating a report of your notes in html or pdf format. If you use the pdf format you can upload a copy to scribd or docstoc where people can subscribe to your notes and where they can be indexed on Google. You can also embed the report to Posterous if you have an account there or share it on your Facebook Fan Page or LinkedIn.
Announce your research to your database via email. You may include all of the content or just a few items in a newsletter to your database. There also might be some lefotvers-items when you researched that you did not include in your blog post- that could be perfect for content in your newsletter.
c. Twitter with a real estate marketing purpose
In performing Step #2 if you find a resource/link that could generate a conversation and you have taken the time to annotate and highlight thoughtfully share it with the your Twitter followers. There is a share button in the Webnotes Toolbar. Click "Twitter" and you are good to go.
Use Gmail, Webnotes, and the method above to cut your real estate blogging time in half and re-purpose your content three ways with the Time Saved.
Week of 11/03/09- Real Skillz Freebie Picks- Free Online Reads and Real Estate Marketing Resources for Real Estate Agents and Real Estate Companies
The Case of Modesty, In An Age of Arrogance-TIME
Arrogance is easy to find, but doesn't modesty provide a more valuable commodity? This article does reference technology and it made me think about the case for modesty in social networking and blogging. Modesty in Social Networking and blogging means to inform rather than induce fear and bully, empower rather than make others feel incompetent or a posture of superiority.
Great take away quote from this article as food for thought,
"Modestyin private life is attractive, but in public life it is essential, especially now, when those who immodestly claimed to Know It All have Wiped Us Out. The problems we face are too fierce to accommodate arrogance. Humility leaves room for complexity, honors honest dissent, welcomes the outlandish idea that sweeps past ideology and feeds invention."-Nancy Giggs, Time.com
Google's Eric Schmidt on What the Web Will Look Like in 5 Years
ReadWriteWeb has done a great job of excerpting video from Google's CEO Eric Schmidt at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009 on what the web will look like in 5 years and breaking down the highlights. There's an emphasis on the persuasion of user generated content, the increased demand of video, and the seamless use of multiple applications. Interesting to me was the comment that "Five years from now the Internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content".
Buckle your seatbelts for whatever the future holds for the Internet. All marketers and business professionals must prepare themselves to be flexible and ready.
Signs of Twitter's Business Model Emerge Via Bing, Google Deals
No nonsense article on the Twitter dealings with Bing and Google. I have seen the indexing of tweets on Google as well as on Bing. If you haven't started adding Twitter into your online marketing, it's time to engage.
Make it easy on yourself when you do and use an application that allow you to search, sort, group, and manage multiple handles(accounts) either here, here, or here.
Search Engine Marketing USA Marketing Overview- November 20009
By signing up for a free membership at econsultancy.com you can download their free report, "Search Engine Marketing Trends Briefing November 2009". It's loaded with useful statistics from authorities around the worldwide web. I was able to pocket these three take aways right away,
According to an iProspect survey, seven out of 10 respondents said they clicked a search result within the first page of results, while 92% clicked a result within the first three pages of search results. [Source: iProspect via eMarketer, April 2008] - Take Away: Visiblity is limited to the first three pages and that is why there is an emphasis on using longtail keywords because they give you a fighting chance to make it to the first three pages without breaking your bank account.
A study of 1.5 million search queries found 80% of searches can be classified as informational, 10% transactional, and 10% are navigational. [Source: Penn State via Search Engine Land, March 2008]- Take Away: A content driven strategy is the winner for online marketing. The content you provide must be useful and consistent.
Image search makes up about 5.7% of all Google searches, and "up to 15% of all search is image related" according to Eric Enge, President of Stone Temple Consulting. [Source: WebProNews, August 2009] -Take Away: Posting your photos and images and tagging them with ALT tags is important, people are searching for them and Google bots are crawling for them.
Also very interesting to me was a tidbit about Google's financials which were reported as $5.94 billion Q3 2009,
"Of this, Google’s financial statements show that revenues from outside of the United States totaled $3.14 billion, representing 53% of this amount."- There is money to be made outside of the United States online. If this is viable in your real estate market, have you incorporated a strategy to reach the international market as part of your online marketing plan?
Discussion- Time Magazine posted a Special Report-"The State of the American Woman". Talking points and a discussion on this Report will be posted on the Real Skillz Business Page will be posted today,Tuesday November 3, 2009. Bring your opinions to the Real Skillz Facebook Wall**
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quizzes, contests,giveaways and strategic campaigns. A Facebook Fan Page should be part of any online charitable marketing campaign. It should include updates on campaign activities and behind the scenes action shared through notes. It can include polls on the wall about topics surrounding the campaign. I would include stats on how the contribution will directly help the charity from past experience if you have those stats or in general if you do not. 
h Engine Results Page) rank. Do you have a website with content preferably fed from a blog built into your website? 
marketing strategy. A tool should not be used for the sole purpose of "keeping up with the newest gadget". Here are three factors to consider before you use a new tool:
create a profile and that have either a heavy consumer concentration or b2b networking opportunities. 
False.You do not have time to get engaged in all of the distractions of the internet. You must make time to get involved in all of the lead generating, branding, and prospecting opportunities that exist online. The best way to do this is to make a plan and then 
Las Vegas where I will be attending 
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