marketing: 5 Million Reasons To Read This Post - 10/30/08 02:43 PM
The Knight News Challenge has re-opened for the third year, and is awarding $5 million in funding for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news and information exchange. Winning entries must have three elements: 1) use of a digital media; 2) delivery of news or information on a shared basis to 3) a geographically defined community.
In case you have not been following we've been working on a website to help build community for you the realtor.
When I read the outline I thought to myself, does this ever describe our project to a T?
So here's the deal... … (4 comments)

marketing: Make your own TV show for clients or other Agents - 10/19/08 09:20 AM
OK, you know I love the latest cutting edge stuff. So here it is. How about creating your own streaming TV show. We've all seen the YouTube video's, but this is a little different. This is a live broadcast (or recorded juke box style like I'm doing here) of you that you can use to create your own personal TV channel.
I'm impressed with how easy it is and can think of several ways that you could use it as an agent, and I cover some of them in my first attempt at a broadcast.
This is the link if you'd … (3 comments)

marketing: Steady Internet Traffic Tactics - 09/26/08 02:28 PM
Ongoing Link exchanges
Exchanging links with other sites will be a benefit not only to you but also to your peer website owner. Although straight reciprocal links are still useful, it's best if you can get into 3 and 4 way linking, so that you're not linking straight from one link page to another. Links in content like articles are considered higher value, so when possible it's best to submit articles to peer sites for inclusion on their blogs or in article directories.
Submit articles that are interesting to read Which of course leads us into a great way to … (8 comments)

marketing: Grow your business | Rich Shefren - 09/25/08 04:35 AM

If you don't already know who Rich Shefren is, then go check out his stuff. He's got several really good reports on how to grow your business quickly. It's aimed somewhat at internet marketers (this is not a realty course) but the skills he teaches are very valid no matter what you choose to apply it to.
The reports are free and they are well worth the read, follow the banner and check them out.
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marketing: 6 ways to drive more traffic to your website. - 09/14/08 08:28 AM
Although it is important to generate high volumes of traffic to a website, it is important for this traffic be targeted such that the people who visit your website are likely to buy the services and products you offer on your website. 
Since promoting your website can take some effort and money, you don't want to just anyone to visit your site. Instead, you only want people who would be interested in what you have to offer.  
This article outlines how you can build a steady stream of visitors to your website who are targeted and likely to bring you sales. 
Know your … (5 comments)

marketing: Sold for $10K over asking | Client testimonial - 09/09/08 05:38 AM

The following is sent to us by Rick Stonehouse, one of the first agents to be using our services.
Case Study: A recent sale in the Brix building, 3700 block of main. 
My “talking signs” attract attention and provide ALL the information a buyer needs. 
Recently I got a listing in "the brix" a building in Vancouver on Main street.
There were already 3 existing listings at $589,000/$588,000/$585,000 in the building that had been there for several weeks.
I listed mine at $579,000, with the talking sign, got competing offers after the first open, and sold for $10,000 more than asking. 
That was … (2 comments)

marketing: Find Clients by searching Twitter - 09/04/08 08:41 PM
In this example, I'm using another industry, but I'm sure you can be creative and think of ways to use this for your marketing.
How about searching for people on twitter that are talking about your city, or buying a home.
Get creative, these are direct leads that you can engage with directly.
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marketing: Marketing with Social Networks - 10 tips - 06/05/08 12:22 PM
This applies both to general marketing and for search engine optimization.  All of these sites let you link back to your site which adds to your page rank and Search Engine Results.
In no particular order, here are 10 tips on how to use Social Networking sites in your marketing.
Go where the people areThis seems obvious but should be stated. Use a social network that is busy. You want to go where other people are going to get the most effect from your efforts.
Optimize for best resultsDo everything you can on your page to make it stand out and … (7 comments)

marketing: Learn to use Streaming Video in your web marketing. - 05/01/08 05:57 PM
We are often compelled to use the internet for two main reasons.  These are, to either be entertained or to learn something from the information that is shared over the internet.  It is often discussed that streaming video is very easy and convenient for individuals to upload on to their websites and be viewed by others, but many people may wonder exactly why streaming video is easy to upload.  In order to understand precisely why streaming video is easy to upload, we need to look at the process that is performed when an individual is spending time trying to upload their … (2 comments)

marketing: How to use Delicious to create back links to your site - 04/26/08 07:50 AM
A while ago I posted a video on here about how to Skyrocket your google ranking using social bookmarking sites.
Since thing I've had a lot of requests for more specifics on how to do this and specifically on del.icio.us which is the biggest of the social bookmarking sites.
So with no further ado, here you are... how to use Del.icio.us to drive traffic to your site. It should be noted that since it's got "no follow" tags it severely diminishes the value from a search engine point of view, but that said, I've seen dramatic results with the right keywords … (6 comments)

marketing: Using Information Products in your Marketing - 04/14/08 06:32 PM
Information products are not just for the internet marketing geeks with the long sales letters.
You can also use information products in your business to build your brand, establish yourself as an expert and add value to your offering.
Creating a client zone that gives additional resources is an excellent way to add value to your clients and give them something more.
Here are a few other ideas for other information products that you can put together.
Information Product Ideas … (2 comments)

marketing: Vancouver Get Together For Active Rain Bloggers - 04/04/08 11:32 AM
Please see our website for details, but we're getting together to do a presentation on Power Blogging and SEO on Wednesday in Vancouver.
 
If you're interested in coming out we'll be offering door prizes of some of our ebooks : Squidoo for Realtors, Facebook Advertising and Blogging For Beginners - Each between $29 and $47 values.
 
AgentXL Technology Get Together 
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marketing: What should Real Estate Agents Podcast About - 03/22/08 01:02 PM
Click the link to listen to me talk about:What Realtors can podcast about? Podcasting is a great way to engage with your audience. Like any content, it's a great way to help your search engine ranking (although, google can only read, so remember to write good keyword descriptions about what your audio is all about.
Enjoy
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marketing: AgentXL Sneak Preview of Google Map Integration - 03/20/08 04:03 PM

 
We're just tweaking our google map integration in our new real estate marketing site AgentXL.com
 
Have a look at this agentXL screen capture video and tell me what you think? 
 
We have relaunched AgentXL as a web site solution for real estate agents.
There is a free trial that lets you install and configure your website by yourself.
If you would like help, we are available to configure it for you for a minor fee.
Please take a few minutes to install a suite at http://AgentXL.com
(7 comments)

marketing: New Ipaper - Just another way to get your name out there. - 03/12/08 12:15 PM
So here's the SEO tip:
Make a document that relates to housing prices in your area.  Or maybe it's about the contrast between mortgage rates and local land values.. whatever it is, use your keywords, have it be on subject.
You can do this with your word files, pdf's or other document formats and then put them on scribd.com
scribd.com is a new document sharing platform, you can also use it to embed documents on your website. 
See here where I've embeded my bait site report inside the page
http://yourfarmer.com/bait-sites
It means even if you can't publish to the web, you can upload a word file or … (3 comments)

marketing: Yahoo | Live - Grab your Keyword Subdomains for your SEO - 02/11/08 02:42 PM
>Most of the Yahoo properties have a page rank between a 6 and an 8.
So when a buddy of mine inside yahoo told me they were beta testing their new community service, I was the first to grab a community with my keywords.
In case you haven't got it yet, you want to be associated with a set of keywords all over the web.
If you are trying to placewell for "Strathcona Real Estate" then go grab those words in any page title, any profile name, and any subdomain or folder structure that you can.
SEO your site with a MySpace group, a Squidoo Page, … (5 comments)

marketing: Article Marketing Secrets Revealed - 02/05/08 06:36 PM
File this one either under SEO or under Marketing, either way it's a tried and tested way to get your name out there, get links back to your website and get more traffic to your site.
A very common way of getting backlinks to your site is by submitting to your articles to free article exchange sites.
For those of you that don't know google "Free Articles" and you'll find a ton of sites that let you take articles and republish them on your site, as long as you leave the "resource bar" attached. The resource bar is the bottom bit … (5 comments)

marketing: Branding with your Email Address | Little things that matter - 02/05/08 01:24 PM
I get emails from realtors (and other business people) that come from their ISP's address.  Even though they have their own domain.
This is a branding faux pas.  Take the time to set up a personal email ( you@yourdomain.com ) it looks so much more professional than you@aol.com or @comcast @telus ... it's just not pro.
If you like their service and you want to keep using it to collect email fine.  Set up a FORWARD ONLY in your email server or even at your domain registrar - most of them will let you set up forwards so you don't even need a … (4 comments)

marketing: Soft Launch of AgentXL - 01/21/08 05:58 PM

I'm working on a new project that I'd like to get some feedback on conceptually.
As you all know, I am a big proponent of link building.  As such, I though that a great thing to make would be a way for people to add their current feeds (like the one from your active rain blog), listings and other information to be able to build the number of backlinks to their site.
We are getting the profiles section ready, and the rest of it is more or less set up, just needs to start getting some members that are using it.
Obviously it's free … (10 comments)

marketing: Make Your Own Trusted Authority Site : Bait Site Marketing - 01/11/08 01:50 PM
For those of you that read my blog regularly you'll remember that I spoke about this concept in a previous blog post called "Bait Site Marketing".
I've been developing this concept more and more with a couple of other sites and clients.
Using more generic keywords to capture search engine traffic, and then diverting them to your site through careful content linking is a great way to add new traffic streams to your website.
I've done a little 2 page report that outlines the concepts and shows some screen grabs as evidence.
Have a read through and let me know what you think in the … (7 comments)