Need a super website?

We're having a little fun with our XL branding, thought I'd share this little video that I made

Thought it would be fun to do something a little more creative than "10 ways to rank better on google" articles - what do you think?

I made the video on Animoto this is done with a pro account, which removes their logo - pretty sweet if you ask me!

Learn Website Flipping

You've heard of flipping properties right?

This is the same thing, but for domain names

Buy a domain, get it ranked to the top of the search engines and pulling in leads, then sell it for a profit

I can hear you now ... "But I'm a realtor, not a web designer"

I'll give you the site and coach you through each step you need to do to get this site ranked well. You won't have to know any HTML or do anything technical.

You can use the same techniques that I teach you to get your OWN website to rank better while you're doing the course with me and get twice as much value

Watch this short video where I outline the concept for you

Money Back Guarantee

I'm so confident you'll make money at this, that I'll make you whole if you don't

Learn More

Find out more about this workshop and register here: Website Flipping Workshop

liveinstrathcona.com 639 UNION ST, Mount Pleasant VE, Vancouver, V6A2C1 2BR/2BA 2 Storey offered at $599,000 Year Built 1993 Sq Footage 900 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms 2 Listing provided by Sutton Grp-West Coast Realty DESCRIPTION Just move in and enjoy this front half duplex on one of the best blocks in Strathcona. Walk in your front door and you'll find the open plan living/ dining/ kitchen area with a 2 piece bathroom that's all been tastefully updated On the top floor is the master bedroom with vaulted ceilings and skylites and a second bedroom with a Juliet balcony and full skylit bathroom. In front garden is the perfect south facing patio just big enough to entertain or relax and enjoy a book and watch the neighborhood go by. You'll also have a single garage to park your car or turn into a little studio. This traffic calmed street is the Adanac Bike Route and is an easy ride downtown, to the seawall or to Commercial Dr see additional photos below OPEN HOUSE **OPEN HOUSE - SAT OCT 17 / 3-5PM**

This listing sold out very quickly for over asking price. It's another in a series of over asking price houses that Rick has sold in the area.

If anyone doubts that east van isn't a great market to get into, you're not looking at what is happening over here, both from a owner occupied level, or from an investment point of view.

No doubt about it, Strathcona Real Estate is HOT!!!

liveinstrathcona.com 817 E GEORGIA ST, Mount Pleasant VE, Vancouver, V6A2A4 3BR/4BA 2 Storey w/Bsmt. offered at $999,000 Year Built 9999 Sq Footage 2514 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms 4 Listing provided by Sutton Grp-West Coast Realty DESCRIPTION This beautifully crafted home a favorite of the '04 Vancouver Heritage Tour. Originally built over 100 years ago, this unique home has been completely rebuilt and restored with the utmost attention to detail, with City of Van permits. 2 + 1/2 baths, 2 beds up [easily could be 3!]. 8 foot ceiling on the ground level could be the perfect nanny or guest suite. Main floor is open concept with French doors out to the rear garden oasis with tropical plants, a large palm tree and a cabana style garage. Between the house and garage is a large concrete terraced pond that was inspired by Balinese rice paddies. Wood floors throughout with all the original doors and hardware. 17 skylites make this home bright. **SOLD!** see additional photos below

Is it time to update your web technology?

Are you ranking at the top of the search engines for your area?

Join Web Strategy and SEO expert Riel Roussopoulos as he walks through best practices for website technology.

• How to use on and off site blogs to improve your SEO
• Social Engagement tools, are your visitors engaging with you? 
• Social Marketing Automation 

 If you're looking for a platform that can help you grow your business online, you won't want to miss our live webcast.

For more info on times and dates.
Visit: Agentxl.com/live

This is one of those potentially contentious topics, but I'm going to wade in here.

I outsource a lot of my business.

There, I said it ... I am an outsourcing master.

I have 4 people that have worked for me full time for several years, and I've never met them.

I also routinely have between 2 and 6 temps that are doing "internet ditch digging" for me (link building, forum posting, list building... manual labor type jobs) on any given week.

Get out what you put in.

That old saying still applies.  While you might not have to pay as much for off shore workers, it doesn't mean that you don't have to manage them.  You need to still manage your business, it just means that many of the less desirable tasks are better outsourced.

Even internally, marketing is a good example.  Who wants to enter business cards that you just collected at an open, or a party?

Photo Copy them, have them data entered for a few dollars (I pay 0.15cents per card) and do something more constructive with your time than typing in names (like maybe compose the "nice to meet you, don't forget to check out my blog" letter you need to send once they've all been entered into your database).

There are so many things that I now outsource, I can't imagine what I did before.

If you're not outsourcing now, or don't feel comfortable with the idea, I encourage you to check out a new course coming out.

There is a $1 trial on right now with it, so it's easy to try it and cancel if you don't like it.

The guys teaching it are very experienced internet marketers.  I've worked with some of their other programs and have been very pleased with the results, so I'm confident that this one will be no different.

 

Learn More about outsourcing your business here

 

 

Seth Godin is no slouch when it comes to marketing and he published a blog post this morning that I thought really summed up what I've been trying to communicate with agents, but in a much more effective way.  (That's where the whole "internationally renown author and speaker" stuff starts to show I guess)

He speaks about the change of the relationship between marketers and audience, how it's moving from renting the audience from the media company, to owning your own publishing platform and audience.

He singled out real estate agents in particular in one of his analogies and here's what he said.

"Consider the local real estate agent. She can spend to run ads every week in the local paper, or she can use the same money to start a legitimate media channel, a digital magazine, say, one that cheers on the school and gives the local paper a run for its money. And oh yes, the only houses listed for sale are hers. It might take a lot of work and even some money. But what does she get? A platform forever."

Read Seth's Full Post Here

 

In an earlier post about the results of building a community network for Rick, I outline the growth effect that it's had on his business.  The interesting thing to note is that while the title is "40% Increase in Business, Not a Dime In Advertising" it's not entirely accurate.

As in most marketing, a catchy headline is good to get your message read.

In reality Rick has spent a ton on developing this platform and evolving the concept.  So while it's true to say that he hasn't paid any money to traditional media advertising, he's spent that marketing budget on building out his own platform with multiple income streams and in multiple communities.

Looking at the date, it's very clear that while the first year or so was nothing to get excited about, as we've continued, the revenue has also been growing at an exponential rate.

Clearly, the investment in building his own platform and connecting with the community will continue to pay off exponentially as the years go on.

Rather than his advertising ROI staying constant, year after year it costs less to market himself as he's moved from a "New Client Acquisition" model, to an "Inside list" model, where his clients are already on his list and part of his circle of influence and thus much more targeted and cheaper to reach than trying to acquire new clients through costly ongoing media buys (paper / ppc / bus ads ... you name it)

Looking to build your platform? We can help.

Talk To Us

 

I know what you're going to say ... I don't know how to use those video editing programs.

This is the simplest thing you'll ever try, you upload some stills or video clips, add any text you want and click GO...

That's it ... like you were ordering a margarita, this baby mixes it up for you like a pro, inserts all the effects and fades you want and spits you out a video, ready to upload to youtube with the click of a button ... and just as easy to put on your site.

Don't like it? Hit MIX AGAIN and get a different version... it's so sweet and you'll look like a real pro.

The best part is that you can download a DVD ISO (that lets you burn a DVD for your clients), how's that for standing out from the crowed.

There is a free version that limits you to 30 seconds and puts their logo on the player (see the example below) or for $250 per year, you can have your own "white label" version with no limitations or branding.

Click here to go play with their free trial now. You'll have a movie done in just a few minutes.

Easiest Online Video Creator. Seriously, try it ... I've paid editors hundreds of dollars to not do as nice a job as this software does, it's truly a game changer.

Those of you who have followed my development of the community marketing platform, know that it has not happened over night.

We first tried to sell the community sites to agents, but they are not ready for a full time content job.

Instead, after consulting with many of you, it became apparent that paying for leads was not a great model and that in general people prefered to pay a referral fee.

We came up with a hibred model.

There are many free benefits to being a member including getting leads directly from your blog and / or profile.

For paid members there are some SEO advantages and the ads get removed from their profile (no more competitors ads on your profile page). In addition they are then elligible to recieve leads from us in a round robin fashion.

Have a look at this slide show that shows the difference between the free and paid profiles.

Sign Up for a spot in our directory

Article Marketing

In this case, you write articles about things that you have a vast knowledge of, in order to give useful information to your readers.

Your articles must be very well-researched and very well-written, so you don’t lose your credibility. This will ensure that you get good targeted traffic to your website.

Forum marketing

If you want other people to get to know you, you should post in various forums. But pay attention to the forums you choose: don’t just post on any forum you find on the Internet, look for the forums in the same field as your business.

To get traffic from the forums, you need to set up a signature in your profile, which is nothing but a couple of lines of text, with a link to your site or the affiliates website. The signature will appear at the bottom of every one of your posts, so the more you contribute to the conversation, the more links you'll get and the more traffic you will get.

Of course, the more you focus on things that are related to your business, the more you'll bring targeted traffic to your site.

Free classifieds

Like with all marketing, some sites are good, while others are not.

Craigslist is of course the best known example of a free classified site that produces real results for people. Another one is the ebay backed kijiji which also gets a lot of traffic.

There are hundreds and hundreds of other free classified sites on the internet, here is my tip to you regarding them. If you can't make a link back to your site, it's probably a waste of your time.

Think of each ad you place as not only being for humans, but for search engine spiders too. More links back to your site, means a higher pagerank, especially if that link is your keyword. For me it's something like Web Strategy, which is what I want to rank high for on Google.

If you're getting a back link out of it, it's at least worth something to you, but in general you won't get huge results from placing ads on classified sites. As with anything, there are always exceptions, but make sure you test each of your traffic sources to see if it's worth your time to keep doing that in the future.

Email

Emails can be used effectively to get people visit your website.

Emails are inexpensive, and can give huge profits to online campaigns of marketing. Emails can be used to update the customers about your company, your product, etc.

But be aware: you are allowed to send them emails only if they asked for them (opted into your list); otherwise, your email will be marked as spam.

Google AdWords

For targeted traffic, Google AdWords is a great option for webmasters to use.

The keywords being used with AdWords are very important when you are targeting people to visit your site.

The keywords must also be relevant, and must be in relation to the product that is being sold.

Title tag

A blog must have an attractive title in order to get a good ranking in the search engines.

The title plays a vital role; it has to be catchy, not to general and it is better if it contains key-words. But remember one thing: even if you have a very good title, you will still have to write a good article. That will get your site good traffic.

Submission to directories

Though the submission of your blog to the various online directories is a monotonous job, it is very important since it goes a long way in increasing the blog popularity.

Every directory that you submit the link to, results in better rankings.

HubPage and Squidoo

Both of these allow you to focus on a specified topic, and write on it. Also, both of them permit you to bring RSS feeds, which means you can republish your blog on their site (good time saver, and lots of back links).

Tell-a-friend

You can place a “Tell-a-friend” script on the website, to make it easy for people to recommend your website to others and thereby get more traffic to your site.

Paid reviews

There are many freelancers out there, so you can surely pay someone to review your blog.

This is a great way of exposure for those who are new to blogging. And if you get to convince a well-known freelancer to review your blog, your traffic might grow spectacularly.

 

Many of the things mentioned in this article are made much easier using our Real Estate Websites For Real Estate Agents | AgentXL