Real Estate Internet Marketing

Google Adwords Don’t Work For Real Estate

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:26:51 -0500

For those that have read our posts before, maybe this comes as a surprise, after all we are major supporters of paid online advertising. My revelation that ads don't work comes after speaking with agents all across the country. One of the most common items I hear is that they want traffic to their websites, but it can't be with Google Adwords because it "doesn't work".

I have to admit that I was shocked that this was one of the most consistent answers. After all 95% of Google's 21 billion in revenue in 2008 was made from Adwords, but apparently it doesn't work for every industry (real estate must be the exception). Just as I was crafting my notes to write a letter to Larry Page and Sergey Brin I thought it best that I dig a little deeper into the conversations I was having.

The reason that Google Adwords isn't working for most real estate professionals isn't Google's fault, it's how it is being used by those in real estate. The flexibility of the system is what has allowed many online marketers to make millions and also allows many to waste the same amount of money.

Here are three of the most common mistakes that real estate agents (and many others for that matter) are making when they are doing their paid advertising on Google. Avoiding just the following 3 items will save some serious frustration and money.

Pointing Ads to your Home Page - The home page of your website is not nearly focused enough to be able to convert that great traffic into leads. Take time to point your ads to detailed pages within your website that make it easy for the visitor to volunteer their information. When you stop pointing your ads to your home page you can easily see an increase in your overall ad performance by 50% or more.
Bid strategy - Although being number one in real estate is great, being in the number 1 advertiser position seldom pays off. At the top position you generally pay the most and often get the impulse clicker who want take any action on your website. Place your bids that place in your ads in positions 3-5 and watch how your clicks turn into leads.
Keywords - Keywords are at the foundation of how you write ads and bid on them. The problem for most advertisers is that too many keywords are grouped with each ad. Taking time to group ads with just 8 keywords will increase your click through rates and lower your costs...yeah!

Google Adwords is certainly one of the best ways to get targeted traffic to your real estate website, enabling you to have leads every day. We certainly don't want you to be part of the group that says "Adwords Don't Work" because when done correctly you can get highly motivated clients for less than a cup of coffee.

For those who have had success with their Adwords advertising, we can't wait to hear some of the other lessons you have learned that have saved you money and keeps the leads flowing.

To your success.

Related Must Reads:

Reach 200 million users on Facebook?

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:23:02 -0500

Minus the question mark at the end of the title and this was the subject of an e-mail that I recently received. I wonder if anyone else here on ActiveRain received it?

Facebook and the other applications involved with Social networking are here to stay and seem to be getting some of the very same buzz and reactions that blogging received just a few years ago. Just as with any "new" tool online it takes some consideration before jumping in and seeing how you can make it a part of your business.

Adding Facebook as a part of your business can certainly bring you balance. Having a balanced attack for your real estate marketing strategy is essential to avoid the swings as applications and users change habits. Balance means including everything from social networking, blogging, SEO, and your website into your total online presence. With balance you will give yourself the best chances to reach your next customer.
Back to that e-mail that I received, here are just a few items to consider.

Do I need to reach that many people? - Maybe if I had a nationwide product that applied to 200 million potential buyers it could work. For many products their niches don't apply to the entire group of users on Facebook so why spend the money to try and reach all of them.
They are missing the point - One of the great aspects about marketing on Facebook is you can do demographic advertising. No longer are you tied to just marketing on a keyword, you can actually market to a specific group of people who would have a need for your product.
How would you use it for real estate? - I am starting to see some real estate professionals advertise on Facebook. I am unfortunately seeing a lot of bad advertising techniques (hint: a focused landing page is still better than sending them to your home page) and not a great deal of focus. If you are going to use Facebook advertising for your real estate business, consider advertising to a group of people that live in a city that commonly relocates to your area!

Facebook is definitely proving it is a huge application with many raving fans. It can certainly be a strong part to a complete online real estate marketing strategy, but be careful with how you spend your advertising dollars. Just because someone suggests that you can reach 200 million users doesn't mean it is the best thing for you.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what you want out of your advertising efforts on Facebook.

Related Post:

Embrace the "Work" in Social Networking

Why Should Someone Be In Your Social Network?

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:39:12 -0500

I was in San Diego this past weekend with my family. Most of my family throughout San Diego was able to come to my parent's house to catch up and enjoy a great sunny day. We chatted about a little bit of everything and one of the topics that came up was twitter. We did dive even more into social networking but we spent a bit of time speaking about twitter.

I think one of the best questions that someone asked was from my godmother. She is always up to speed on the latest technologies as she is a teacher in San Diego. She asked one of the best questions about social networking when she simply asked the question:

"Why would someone do twitter?"

I thought it was an awesome question. For many, especially in real estate, they are jumping onto social networks, like twitter, with little thought of "why". Let's take a look at a few items to consider for those who have jumped into twitter and maybe those who haven't yet got on board yet.

Why would someone want to follow your 140 character updates?
How can you add value to those in your network with your updates?
Who are you going to follow?

I really don't think that social networking will be for every real estate agent, especially for those that don't answer the above questions. When considering the option of diving into social networks like Twitter (or any of the others for that matter) it's important to consider your approach to social networking.

After all, you wouldn't create a real estate website without a strategy would you? Just because getting onto the social networks is easy doesn't mean it's something that you should do. It's important to consider your approach to social networking for real estate before you ever start.

In addition to the above three questions consider the following:

How much time can you dedicate to your network?
How are you going to grow your network?
What do you want to get from your network?

When you consider doing social networking for real estate it's important to set goals and consider how you can add value to your network and how your network can help you. Even though it is incredibly easy to get started take a few moments to consider how you can maximize your activities.

As real estate professionals we often have 100's of things to do each and every day. Adding 1 more activity that isn't going to bring us business or improve our business is just a waste of time. So rEmbraeally, what's your plan with your social network?

Related Must Reads:

Google Made Changes, What Are You Doing About It?

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:00:52 -0500

By now, I am sure you have noticed that Google has made a few changes to the results they are displaying. In case you hadn't had a chance to see what they rolled out, on the 24th they announced on the Google blog 2 major changes. Those two changes are:

Extended Snippets - The descriptive information displayed below the title of the result, referred to as a snippet, will be extended for longer searches. When a user is digging deep with a long search Google wants the user to be able to find the information they are really looking for. Providing more in-depth snippet text will allow the searcher to review the results in more detail before clicking. In some cases this has doubled the decriptive text to over 50 words.
Related Search Suggestions - Google wants to help you find the information you are looking for by suggesting additional related searches. This can mean suggesting an additional 8 related search phrases. No longer will users have to guess on what else they might need to search for, Google can just tell you what you need... :)

Ok, so the changes are there, what are you going to do about it? Aaron Wall provided some good insights on his blog and here are some action items that we can take immediately to make sure we stay ahead of the competition.

Extended Snippets - Google can only provide additional snippet information if there is enough content on your website. The focus on quality content on your real estate website or blog should continue to be the focus. Short pages that are 200-300 words may not give enough real information for Google to look at. Putting together longer, more detailed pages (400,500,600+ words) will allow Google to digest more of your content and be able to display it to the user on those long searches. Also, don't forget the obvious like Meta Description text, although it doesn't really help for improving your results, I have still seen it picked up and displayed in the snippet text so make sure to fill it out on each and every page.
Related Search Suggestions - This one is a gold mine! This is keyword research in the most obvious and public view. Run the searches that you are used to showing up on in the top 10 and then click the related searches. Look to see if your website still shows up in those related searches. If you are already showing in the related searches, then you are in good shape, and if not, then you have some homework to do. If you aren't showing up, look to add some pay per click in those related searches so you don't miss out on any traffic. For the long haul look to see where you can fill in more content on your website and grab some additional links to increase your authority.

Google is always going to be making changes, the real key is if you are going to keep your total online presence up to date to remain competitive. Whether you are running a real estate website, blog, or more than 1 of each, it is important to be aware of the changes and then take action where you can to stay ahead of the curve.

What other changes could you be making to stay competitive with the latest changes that Google made?

Related Must Reads (outside links):

Real Estate SEO is Just like Getting Your Car Detailed

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:39:21 -0500

I got my 4Runner detailed just last week. I really like getting a car detailed. When they do the full detail such time is taken to ensure that every part of the vehicle is clean. They don't just wash and vacuum, no everyone can do that. They take the time to apply clay bar, wax, polish applying each as necessary and ensuring the paint comes out looking like a mirror. The imperfections that were stuck in your paint from driving around town are now gone and your car has the look as if it were fresh off the show room floor. What a treat!

As I was watching the gentleman do the detail, I noticed that he paid extreme attention to different areas of the vehicle. As he would make laps around 4Runner he would often stop, notice an imperfection, apply a compound of some sort and polish out the imperfection. He did this process for about 2 hours until he felt it was ready to show it to me. I went around the vehicle myself and was pleased that so much of those awful scars came out!

No, this isn't a post about auto detailing, how does it relate to your real estate SEO efforts? I was thinking that our websites and blogs aren't too much different than our vehicles and sometimes we need to put the attention in of a good detail.

We can go around and around our websites fixing imperfections to get them looking even better than new! After all a website that has been "detailed" gets better attention from the search engines and your visitors.

Here are some items to tackle to get that website looking like it's ready for a show:

Looking for imperfections - Look through your website and see where the problems are. Don't take action on them on the first pass, just write down a list so you can go back to polish those spots. Making a couple passes through your site will allow you to see different problems each time. It takes a bit of effort and you may end up with a lengthy list, but you will know where the problems are located.
Use different compounds and waxes - Not all of the problems on your website or blog will be able to be fixed in the same way. Take time to understand each issue so you can apply the appropriate fix. After all if a page is doing well organically, getting lots of visitors, but no conversions, then don't change your page titles, look at your Calls to Action first. Make sure the changes you make will be an improvement for the right problem.
Get ready to show it to someone else - When you have made your changes diligently (yes set a deadline to make these changes) share the results with someone who has seen your website before. Does it look fresh to them? Can than see that the smallest of details have been addressed? Sharing it with someone else will give you accountability and maybe even help you find some areas you missed.

With the search engines getting more and more advanced your real estate SEO efforts are going to come down to the smallest of details. It's ok if you miss them on the first run through, but taking time to detail your website and blog every few months will help you to gain greater exposure to your next customer.

Related Must Reads(going to my outside blog for these):

How To Make Money From The Visitors Who Don’t Contact You

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:24:54 -0500

When you focus on getting people to visit your website there are plenty of challenges and expenses involved. Even when you focus on SEO, you are putting countless hours of work in to get people to visit your website and you certainly want some rewards for all of that work. The obvious main benefit is getting people to contact you for helping them with real estate help, but what about those people who don't contact you? Wouldn't it be nice to make money off of those people who have just used your site for information?

Keep the focus on Conversions

There are many ways to make money from your real estate website. The primary goal should be one that focuses on generating leads from your real estate business. When you take the time to add other revenue streams to your real estate website it means not taking away from your primary business of real estate.

Before you start to add these aspects to that can generate revenue for you, ensure that you have a good understanding of what your current conversion rates are at currently. If you are currently hitting 7%+ conversion rates then you are doing good and are ready to consider making money from those who aren't converting into contacts.

Generating Revenue

When you decide to make the leap to generating revenue there are many different directions to go. Here are two different ways that you can tackle to generate some extra revenue.

Google Adsense - This is one of the most well known programs to generate revenue easily from your website. With Google Adsense you can place small ads on your website and Google will display the most relevant ads based on your content. You can see how these ads are displayed on our Long Beach homes website. We have placed them at the bottom away from the core content so if someone clicks on it, they really must not have wanted any help with their real estate goals :). Don't worry about your competition showing up either as you can filter which ads are allowed to be displayed on your website.
Amazon - Amazon has one of the most widely known affiliate programs. You could display books related to home ownership or even common things that your visitors might purchase when they move-in to a home. Amazon gives you many different options for making money so you can choose the ones that will work the best for your audience. For maximum results, don't just display the product images, but provide your insight into why someone might need the product.

You may never make a killing on using Adsense or implementing an affiliate program, but it certainly can help you to offset some of your spending. As long as you monitor your conversion rate to make sure you aren't taking away from your core business the extra revenue can be a wonderful way to help pay for server bills or offset the money you spend on pay per click advertising.

Related Must Reads(goes to my outside blog):

Discover How You Are Found In the Search Engines AND What Actually Makes People Click

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:35:04 -0600

As you are working away with your real estate SEO efforts it is common to type in some searches to see how your efforts are resulting in new rankings. In fact, it really is exciting to see what progression you have made. Maybe you couldn't even find yourself in the SERPs before and now you actually show up on page 2, yeah progress!

When you are performing these searches (yes we are certainly all guilty of them) it only gives us one aspect of the problem. You see when we are typing these searches there are a few limitations:

We are only running searches that we can think of
It takes quite a bit of time to run these manually
We don't know if people are actually clicking on us

It is fun to see our website show up in the results pages, however, when we really focus on the results of people finding our website, then we can take a moment to dig a bit deeper.

Google Webmaster Tools

If you are using Google Webmaster Tools already, great! There are many different tools to look at and in this post, we want to examine just one aspect. Examining this one area will give us the opportunity to see what searches we are showing up on and find out if people are actually clicking away when they see it.

When you are in Webmaster Tools, select the website you want to look at, then go to Statistics à Top Search Queries. This will show you where your website appeared in the results (top 20 queries anyway) and then the right hand column will show you the top 20 queries where someone actually clicked to visit your website.

The interesting part is that the sides share some commonality, but in general, have some very different results. Items that I look at each time I review this report (which is probably too often) are the following:

Am I showing up on what I am anticipating?
Can I improve page titles or descriptions on pages on the pages that are showing up, but not receiving clicks?
Can I improve the rankings of the pages that aren't at number 1?

Thankfully each link on the page runs the search in Google so you can not only see your result in the search engine, but also see which page is the one that is being found. This way you can go back to each page and see where you can make improvements.

This report is updated frequently so you can revisit and track the results over time. The best part is that it is FREE. When you consider that this tool is free and lets you easily the results side by side, it just can't be beat. Have fun and take a look at how your real estate website is showing up in the search engines and what people are actually clicking on!

Related Must Reads:

(these go to my outside blog today :) )

Google Is Looking At You

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:16:19 -0600

Ok, so they don't have cameras mounted on our computers (yet) but they are doing some great research on eye movements in relationship to search. If you had a chance to check out the post last week on Google's Blog it really is interesting and gives you some good things to think about.

The Research

The great thing about Google is they aren't just sitting on their hand counting all of the money from Adwords, they invest in a all sorts of new technologies. The eye research was looking to "see" where people's eyes looked when they first viewed the search results. I don't think it is any surprise that the focus of people's eyes went to the top of the results.

Furthermore, the researchers tested the addition of thumbnail images in the search results to see if it would help people find more relevant information. It did help people find the information they were looking for with minimal distraction. Good right?

What Do We Do With This Information?

This research revealed other conclusions for me. More than just the focus of people's eyes it shows where we can focus our efforts of search engine optimization.

Get to the top - If you watched the videos on Google's Blog post you noticed that the eyes did not stray far down the page. This could have been because of a limited about of search results returned, but really it appears that people don't want to scroll too much.
Images help - Images are being indexed so make sure to provide images on your site that help describe your product or service. Real Estate is a perfect example that we should be providing images on our neighborhoods and maybe even diagrams of the home buying or selling process.
Put keywords in your Title Tags - The keywords are displayed in bold and definitely attract the user's eyeballs. Make sure to focus each page on a keyword for maximum impact.

So we don't have to be on the most cutting edge of the research to take action. Google is spending big money on research to find out more on how people search. At the end of the day we have to focus on providing the MOST relevant content to our next customer so Google can continue to reward us by sending visitors our direction.

Related Must Reads:

6 On Site Methods To Improve Your Website

Where do I start?

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:31:57 -0600

As many of us have been marketing online for our real estate businesses for years we often forget that we had to start with a single step. That single step was filled with many different emotions. Thinking back, I was excited, nervous, and not altogether sure what would happen, I just new that in order to succeed in real estate it meant being online.

As 2009 is into full swing, and the community here is off to another great year of sharing, I just wanted to reach out to see how everyone started their journey online. One of the really great things about marketing online is that you truly get to choose something that will best fit your personality.

Now for those newer to technology, maybe it is a little scary to take that first step, and that is why I want to share (and hopefully get some great sharing from everyone else) about what the very first step could be. The operative word being "could", because the first step will be different for everyone.

Getting started with your marketing online is easier than most people think and sometimes that's the biggest problem (too easy usually leads to poor planning).

Here are a few ideas on that first step to take.

Writing Content - It doesn't have to be fancy, it can just be on paper (or Microsoft Word) to start. Write out 10-15 pages about your city and neighborhoods so you can build a foundation of solid content. This content can be used for a blog or website, or maybe even an article.
Blog - Ahh, the mighty real estate blog. There are some great ones here at AR, and all over the internet. Before taking that first step into creating a blog, try reading around the blogosphere for a week. Seriously visit blogs all across the country and read some posts. If you get frustrated reading them for a week, remember that you won't just have to be reading, you will have to be writing and writing often to get results. If that first week just flies by and you can't wait to read more, maybe you have found a great first step.
Real Estate Website - Yes they still exist and still can lead to serious business. Before pulling out that credit card though, do research on the different web vendors out there. There are many that specialize in the real estate industry, but look carefully at some of the top performers online (checking traffic, rankings, etc) and see who they are powered by. That will give you a start, but remember, buying a Ferrari doesn't make you Michael Schumacher, and so you need to be prepared for the journey ahead of learning how to "drive" your website.
Pay Per Click - Crazy I know, but if jumping into the world of online marketing means you should be prepared to invest in marketing for targeted traffic. Even the top SEO guys (see Aaron Wall's Blog) mention PPC as a way to get targeted traffic, so it's definitely ok for the rest of us :). PPC is a great way to compliment some of that fresh content you have put up in a website or a blog. Even if you don't have content built yet, you can still look at tutorials and read book (Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords by Perry Marshall is a winner) to see if PPC is for you.

There are tons of other first steps to take. Maybe it's just taking a training course to learn more about websites, blogs, etc., but the point is to take that first step. I know the first month our website was launched, late 2003, we didn't get hundreds of leads pouring in (month 2 was 7 leads and we were thrilled) so we all start from somewhere.

I can't wait to hear more about the steps you took.

Running a series over on our blog about some great lessons learned when I was at a tech mastermind. Be great to hear your thoughts on it.

Learn Internet Marketing from Top Performers in Puerto Rico

Don't answer questions, just ask them

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:52:58 -0600

It's nice that 2009 is off and running. I know the AR community is experiencing success all around and it's good to see :). I have heard a few agents complain that buyers are just looking for deals or just want to see a few homes and then don't purchase. For some reason these same problems seem to exist in every market. I thought some sharing would be in order to turn those problems into appointments.

We really need buyers to understand the benefit of coming in for an appointment (in fact avoid the word "appointment" at all costs). It would be easier if buyers instantly trusted us, came in for an appointment, pre-approved with our preferred lender, and then bought a home that afternoon just because we told them to do so, but sadly that's not reality. Well it could be reality, if we know what to say to empower our prospects with the right information and lead them to the conclusion that they should arrive at.

Control the call

The first step to helping your buyer prospects "see the light" and realize they need to meet with you before viewing properties comes in the very first phone call. It is essential that you control the call and put yourself in the driver seat. This may sound odd at first because you will feel that you aren't being "helpful" but it really works.

Here are 3 tips to focus on, for that first phone call:

Understand you won't meet at a property - Seriously, when you pick up the phone you need to have the mindset that you will not rush out to a property to meet them. You are going to get them to come into your office so you can maximize their time and help them to find more than 1 property that could meet their goals. If you understand this before you pick up the phone it's easier to stick to. So on that first call you need to go for the appointment.
You don't answer questions, you only ask them - First and foremost don't answer their questions. You need to ask them qualifying questions to see if you actually can help them. They ask "what's the price?", you tell them you need to look it up and ask them another question like "Have you just started looking?". Put yourself as the interviewer and you are in the driver seat.
Provide 2 times to meet - It's easier for a prospect to come in to meet with you if they have options. Since you are going for an appointment give them options that are easy. Don't give an open ended question like "what time works for you?" because they will have to think too much. Give them specific options like "Would a Tuesday at 5pm work better or maybe a Saturday at 10am?". This way they just have to pick one, much easier, and it will dramatically increase their ability to agree.

Honestly following the above 3 tips will lead to more appointments than you can handle. Remember to practice your scripts before the call and the calls will go a whole lot easier. Now, start dialing, control those calls and start booking more appointments. I can't wait to hear how they go.

Being in the Google Top 10 Means Nothing

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:31:09 -0500

That's right, for all that work you put in optimizing your pages over the most competitive keywords, it means absolutely nothing. It doesn't matter if you are #1 and there are 3,000,000 more people behind you in the SERPs, it just doesn't mean anything at all. In fact it may give you bragging rights around town and may even feel good to say, but what is it actually doing for you?

Before Matt Cutts and the other powers to be at Google stop reading (at least that is my wishful thinking that they are reading) here is what I am talking about.

What is your actual business?

I see post after post by misdirected bloggers and other real estate agents claiming they are #1 on this term or in the top 10 of that term. But the last time I checked, you don't get any money for your placement in the search engines. Neither Google, nor Yahoo, nor even MSN pay you for just showing up, but yet everyone keeps bragging about their positions.

Let's get real

The reality is that it doesn't matter how well you show up in the search engines if you can't show up at the closing table. We have two main points of conversion that we really need to focus on.

Convert Traffic into Leads
Convert Leads into Commissions

Convert Traffic into Leads

This is a popular topic and one that warrants many posts, energy, and effort to truly master. Whether you are running a blog or a website, it must convert that traffic into something of value. For those in the real estate business, it is generally in the form of leads. We need those visitors to volunteer their information so we can have the opportunity to connect with them. You can have the great results in your market and even be flooded with traffic, but if you aren't getting people to give you their information you have a BIG problem.

Look at each and every page (or post) and make sure you are taking the opportunity to make a call to action so you can convert that traffic. If each and every page has a lead capture opportunity you are headed in the right direction. If you are just providing information then you are Wikipedia and they take donations, so you might want to rethink your strategy.

Convert Leads into Commissions

This is where the real rubber meets the roads. Leads are nice, but they don't pay the bills. You need to turn those leads into commissions and here is where most agents are failing. In fact, especially for those bloggers out there, when you talk about your leads, why don't you talk about the appointments and escrows you are actually getting as that is more valuable than the lead count.

There is nothing "technical" about converting leads into appointments, it is the skill one has over e-mails and the phone. Most of the companies out that pitch technology out there fail to mention that you might need to talk to a consumer to get their business (crazy thought). The best way to improve this part of your business is through mastery of buyer scripts and objection handling. A little bit of practice can ensure you aren't the one talking about leads, but the one that is talking about how many escrows you have going.

Keep the Focus

Being in the real estate business means largely that for your living you are helping people purchase and sell property. Having a website or blog that is at the top of the search engines is great and should be a goal to shoot for, but don't lose your focus and think your work is done when you hit #1 in Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

Make sure to focus on the practical results of how people you are actually helping to achieve their goals in real estate. Track your appointments each and every month so you can make sure that hard work you are doing for your blog and real estate website are getting you to those numbers that you set at the beginning of the year.

Original post was posted at: http://www.internetrealestatesuccess.com

Convert those leads with the right scripts

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:12:27 -0500

Many of you here in the AR community have been extremely supportive with our BLOG. After writing quite a bit about generating traffic we also heard many times that many have a challenge with converting leads from their website and blog, so we are sharing more about how our team converts leads into commissions each and every month.

Using Scripts

So do real estate scripts really work? They do if you have the right scripts so you want to make sure that you have the ones that really work.

If you aren't sure whether you have scripts that will take your real estate business to the next level we have a free call coming up all about Buying Scripts.

We want you to convert 91.5% of the prospects you talk with to appointments. We have a free call coming up that you will want to attend if you are planning on working with any buyers in this or any real estate market.

The information of this call can be found at:

www.BuyerScriptsCall.com This call is going to fill up fast so make sure that you visit for the information and call in to the number early to reserve your spot.

The call is going to take place Wednesday August 6th at 10:00 am PST.

If you can't make the call, we would love to get your feedback on some of the latest posts we have put up regarding objection handling and converting leads! - check it out at: http://internetrealestatesuccess.com

6 On-Site Items to Improve your SEO Efforts

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:12:36 -0500

I was inspired to write this post by our moderator Israel. Just two weeks ago he had nt out an e-mail regarding SEO. The part that caught my attention was the following:

"SEO as you know it is just about dead..."

After a few e-mail exchanges with Israel I can see what he is saying. If you think you will dominate in the search engines by luck and throwing up random content, then yes, you certainly will be dead. Agents across the country seem to make the SAME mistakes on their websites and they will have a rude awakening soon if they don't take the time to look at each and every page on their websites.

In that vein, here are on page factors that you can control so you can keep your real estate SEO efforts moving in the right direction.

Title Tag - I still see websites where the same title is used on each and every page. This should be short (160 characters is good) and include a powerful keyword that the content of your page is focused on.
1. Example: Condo for Sale Phoenix, use Free MLS
Heading Tags - Using appropriate heading tags like <H1> or <H2> can help a user to see important words on your page and help the search engines recognize that this is important. Try putting a key phrase in a heading tag and watch the changes! The Search engines understand what H1 and H2 so give them what they want :)
Quality Content - This was another point that Israel brought up. I agree, there is too much "canned content" out there. Take the time to communicate your expertise by writing about your area. It doesn't have to be long, 350-400 words is a great looking page, especially if you put a nice picture there. Writing quality content, with powerful calls to action, about your area will bring you some great buyers and bring the search engines through your website.
Hyperlink Text - If you want to maximize your results, ensure that you hyperlink key words. For example, instead of "Click Here to find more Long Beach Condos" try "Click to find more Long Beach Condos". Not only is this easier for your visitors to understand, it helps the search engines determine what that page it is going to is all about.
Metatags - Although some of the search engines (i.e. Google) do not place a high level of important on Metatags, Yahoo and MSN still do pick them up. Ensure that they are filled out with the keywords that are appropriate to the page and try to avoid keyword stuffing.
Alt Tags - These tags describe the pictures and are very easy to do! Matt Cutt's of Google has said that Google will look at these and is indexing images so it can't hurt.

So, take a look through your website and see what you can fix. If you go through each and every page and make sure your pages speak to your visitors you will notice a HUGE increase in contacts. Make sure that each page has a clear goal. Have fun and I can't wait to hear your success.

If you want more posts on marketing for your real estate business, visit our blog at Internet Real Estate Success :)

The Bridges Brothers hit the Road for a Tour of the South Bay Area

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:10:38 -0500

As some of our readers here we teach at different real estate offices and we have a 5 office tour this week. The best part is they are free sessions that you can attend. If you want to learn more about improving your lead generation on the Internet then try attending one of these sessions. Although we are being hosted at Keller Wililams Training Centers it is open to everyone. Believe me it's a friendly bunch so please feel free to come on by :)

If you are really a glutton for punishment we are having an 8 hour all day seminar on June 27th from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm.

Where are these events taking place? Well you get your choice of 5 different locations up in Santa Cruz, San Jose, and Palo Alto from June 25th-26th and our 8 hour all day event on Lead Generation for Real Estate Professionals is on the 27th in Santa Cruz.

To attend simply show up to the office location at the set time and we welcome you there. All sessions happen to be at Keller Williams offices but all are welcome and we are covering how to improve your website regardless of your brokerage affiliation.

Free 1 Hour Sessions

6/25 - Wednesday

10-11 a.m:

Keller Williams Santa Cruz
1414 Soquel Ave, Suite #100
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

1:30-2:30 pm:

Keller Williams Carmel
26200 Carmel Rancho Blvd
Carmel, CA 93923

6/26 - Thursday

10:00 am - 11:00 am

Keller Williams Silicon Valley
2542 S. Bascom Avenue, Suite 100
Campbell, CA 95008

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Keller Williams San Jose-Gateway
180 Great Oaks Boulevard
San Jose, CA 95119

3:00-4:00 pm

Keller Williams Palo Alto
505 Hamilton Ste 100
Palo Alto, CA 94301

All Day 8 Hour Event (Yes You are Stuck with James and myself for 8 Hours)

Keller Williams Santa Cruz
1414 Soquel Ave, Suite #100
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Investment for 8 hour course - $99
Sign up for the course online ahead of time at www.OnlineRealEstateSuccess.com/Seminar

We hope to see all our bay area friends at the class and look forward to seeing you at the free seminars. If you are a member of the blog or have purchased from us in the past please stop by and say hello we would love to see you there.

You can see our Original Post at:

http://internetrealestatesuccess.com/2008/06/20/the-bridges-brothers-hit-the-road-for-a-tour-of-the-south-bay-area/

Find Out What is Wrong with Your Website

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:27:12 -0500

Have you ever noticed that just getting someone to tell you the answer to a question that you really want the answer to is difficult if they think you might benefit? I don't think people do this on purpose but if you have ever been chatting with a fellow realtor and asked them a question about HOW they do their business they suddenly get real quiet. You can't help but think to yourself "there is enough business for all of us why won't they help me".

We know the ActiveRain community is all about helping one another to succeed. On May 21st my brother and I will be doing a live website tune-up call. In this call we will be going over an agent's website in our own area and telling him how he can improve his website to generate more business. We know there is enough business for all of us so don't just listen in but participate in the call at 2pm on May 21st 2008 and find out mistakes that you are making on your website and how you can improve them.

Details of the call can be found at:

http://www.instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=2895510

Don't be late as we start on time and you won't want to miss this one.

Internet Real Estate Success featuring Interviews with Jim Cronin and more..

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:31:19 -0500

Although we have had a little bit of a break from posting here to AR, we have been working away on some great new content to share. We have put an entirely new face on our Blog dedicated to helping real estate professionals online. Can't wait to get your feedback - check it out at www.InternetRealEstateSuccess.com

Now, we figured just a new face and some new posts might not be enough to get everyone excited about marketing online so we got some of the best in the country to share their thoughts on everything from blogging to real estate SEO. Here are some of the interviews that we have posted and some that are still to come this month.

Interview with Jim Cronin - Top Blogger Jim Cronin shares his thoughts on blogging and becoming an expert in your market. He also shares some cutting edge ideas that the Tomato is releasing soon.
Interview with Dustin Luther - The founder of RainCityGuide and his new blog 4Realz.net shares is thoughts on everything from the right products for real estate professionals to how to build a powerhouse blog that is a lead generating machine.
Interview with Ryan Lash - With over a decade of experience as a Search Engine Marketer, the founder of YMarketing.com, shares his insights on what real estate professionals need to do to have a successful real estate website. He also shares how you can do your own SEO work or what you need to look for if you are going to hire it out.
Interview with Tony Clark - The co-founder of TeachSells.com and www.SuccessFromtheNest.com provides insight into how you can take your online business from just starting to roaring. Listen as he shares the experience of coaching people all around the country to success.

With these interviews and some great new posts we hope you find the information can take your business to the next level. Love to hear your feedback on the posts and if you subscribe to receive the updates you can get the latest real estate internet marketing advice delivered right to yoru e-mail.

To your success online!

Harvesting Your Seller Crop Part 5 of 5

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:18:54 -0500

Here is the final part in the 5 part series by Joey Bridges. If you missed part 4 we put it up on our Blog - (How to create a seller farm - Part 4 of 5)

Farmers don't get paid for their crop until they have harvested and sold it off. In other words they don't get paid until the job is completely done. 90% of the way isn't enough for the farmer to get paid and they know that and you need to know that about real estate business. Have seller real estate leads are great but if you don't harvest them then you will have wasted all of your effort for someone else to reap the rewards.

Remember the last post in the series, How to Create a Seller Farm, we discussed how you can create different points to get seller leads from your blog and from your website. So after you have earned their trust through your posts, your real estate website content, and the tools you have on your website and blog you need to harvest them.

The best way to harvest them is to have them let you know when they are ready. Now this is not a trick at all. Experienced farmers know exactly when their crops are ready. They can tell by the weather, the air, the touch of the earth or tasting the crop that it is time to harvest. Too early and it will be a bust and not work and too late they, like you, will get nothing and many months of hard work will have been wasted. So how do you get sellers to tell you that they are ready? You do this through some simple communication steps and most simply asking them! Now you might think this is crazy but remember the worst thing you can hear if you have grown your crop correctly is "I am not ready right now.".

Let's look into some ways to get the sellers to let you know they are ready to harvest.

Real Estate Statistics- I of course have mentioned before how real estate statistics are a great way to communicate with your community. The important part is in these posts is to pose the question "Are you looking to sell within the next 45 days and you want to know where your home fits in with all of this stastics? Fill out the market evaluation form for an estimate of what your home is worth today!" People answering this call to action are motivated and looking for an answer for an immediate problem.
Make a post about how your market evaluation report helped someone - Be careful not to say how wonderful and amazing you are but if you recently helped someone from your blog tell the story of how the information helped that person decide what they were going to do. Even if that wasn't listing at all. Again at the end of the post make a call to action for those who need help within the next 30,60, or 90 days.
Talk about the buyers in the market - Many sellers don't want to list in "tough" markets because they fell their won't be any buyers for their home. Mention how properties are moving, how buyers are having a problem finding a "good" property. Again make a call to action for sellers who have "good" homes and want buyers for it. No seller will ever turn down an agent who already has willing and able buyers.
Send market updates 1 a quarter to sellers who have inquired in the past - some sellers, like certain crops, look like they are ready to harvest at times and are not. The key is to stay in touch with them. E-mail or mail them a quarterly update of the value of their property. Remember they may not be ready at that moment but they may know someone who is and they will be happy to refer their friends who has diligently kept watch over the value of their asset.

They key is to make sure that sellers know you are a ready to assist them on their time frame by reminding them of what you are doing. Also note that some move up sellers disguise themselves as buyers so keep that in mind as you are following up with your buying leads.

Don't worry about if you harvest a few bad crops and nothing pans out. All farmers have a few rotten apples and a few bad crops. The great farmers know that this is rarity though and not the rule so you just have to keep farming.

The start of this series can be found in the related posts section below titled "How to Create a Digital Farm". It is a 5 part series on learning how to create your own digital real estate farm.

How to Harvest Your Buyer Crop - Part 3

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:43:18 -0500

Today's post is part 3 of 5 in the series by Joseph Bridges

Once you have your buyer farm growing daily, weekly, and monthly the important part is to make sure that you are the one that harvest this crop. This is where the difference happens between those that are successful farmers of buyers and those that aren't. I mean after you get traffic to your website and start getting buying leads to convert it can become overwhelming. In fact it can happen where you just focus on adding new buying leads to your pipeline every single day. The only way you will get paid though is if you make sure that those buyers are harvested by you and you alone. In order to make sure that this happens there are some simple, yet often overlooked, things that you can do to make sure that you are the one reaping all of the rewards from the crop that you have worked so hard to nourish through the days, weeks, and months since they first were planted into your system.

5 Key Steps to Have a Record Harvest

There is no such thing as communicating too often as long as the information is relevant.
- Some will say that you can overload people and they don't want to hear from you. You are better off over communicating with some to make sure that you are answering their questions.
- Make sure that the information is related to what they want. For example if they are a seller send them seller related information and if they are a buyer send them buyer related information. Recipe's and sports schedules are not relevant to either process.
Ask Questions
- Some people don't know what to ask you so you have to ask them questions. Some questions to e-mail to people are:
  - When would you liked to be moved in?
  - What kind of payment were you targeting?
  - Is this your first home?
  - Did you want to buy a home or a condo?
- Questions are the key to making sure they know that you care about them and their goals. Remember the process is about them and not you.
Answer their questions
- This might sound strange but if you e-mail a list of questions and you get more back you need to answer them so they know that there is someone on the other end of the e-mail sending messages to them.
Communicate in different ways
- Make sure you communicate in the methods that they prefer:
  - Through the website you set-up for them to see listings
  - Through direct e-mail
  - Call them if they gave you a phone number and leave messages
  - Through mailings if they gave a mailing address
Understand it is a commitment
- There will be people who you can "harvest" right away in as little as 2-3 weeks but there will also be those that take 9 months. Understand this and make sure you continue to follow-up with your leads. Some will never get harvested while others will bear fruit immediately. The key is to follow-up with them constantly using systems in order to make it efficient for you.

Communication with your crop is the key to have a successful harvest. When done correctly you should be closing transactions each and every month. You should always have someone new to harvest. Keep in mind that while some leads will never be harvested they may refer others to you that will bear fruit immediately. So keep at it and keep communicating with them. Use tools to make your communication as efficient as possible. Your harvesting tools are e-mail, both personal and bulk, the phone, mailings, and your blog or website. Make sure that they know you are there and ready to help them on their timeframe.

The Buyer Farm, Part 2 of 5 on How to Create a Digital Farm

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:21:57 -0500

Today's 2nd post of the 5 part series was written by Joey Bridges

This is the very first part of the farm that I believe every real estate professional should have. I know that many may stop reading because they think I am wrong. Some are saying:

Focus on listings they generate buyers
I don't want to work with buyers
Buyers take too much time

To those who would like to use those excuses you are excused from the rest of this post. For those who want to have as much business as they want and want to challenge themselves to think differently about buyers please read on and enjoy domination in your area.

Step 1

Understand that no real estate transaction can be completed without a buyer.

I think many real estate agents, especially those that focus on listings forget that we need buyers in order to sell listings. You in fact have to have 2 parties in a transaction in order to make it work. So let's make sure that we have buyers.

Step 2

There are plenty of great ways to generate buying leads affordably without a listing.

If you don't have a listing at the moment don't worry because you can still get more buyers than even the top listing agents in your city. You just have to have the desire and need to serve.

Step 3

Understand that buyers have different needs then sellers.

Buyers can take more time or they can take less depending on your process. By the way you don't have to show them 50 homes if you make sure to tell them why they don't need to see 50 homes. For more on that answer check out the buyer scripts at http://www.onlinerealestatesuccess.com/.

Step 4

It's now time to create your very own buyer farm.

We aren't going to talk about harvesting your buyer crop (yet) we will take care of that in the next post. Right now we just want to talk about how you can create a place that buyers want to come to and give you their information.

Give them what they want - When you were looking for your first home what did you want? You wanted listings and you wanted them, if at all possible, without having to speak to a real estate professional.
Area information is key - Anyone can offer them listings but how many agents will actually tell them about the area those properties are in. Less than 1% of all agents have more than 7 pages about the area they work in. Most agents only have a website that has 10 basic pages and 3 of those will talk about the awards they won!
Make it easy - if a buyer can't find the information they want quickly then they will move on to your competitor. Make sure your website has clearly labeled the access to the MLS, the areas that you serve, and it is obvious how they can get a hold of you if they have a question.
Give them a reason to sign up with you - offer an item of value (not a report that everyone has). Maybe it is a list of homes that you will send them that qualify for down payment assistance, maybe it is a list of condos with pools, maybe it is a list of new construction projects that assist first time buyers. Just give them a reason to give you their valuable information in exchange for your valuable information.

Now that you know how to create a digital buyer farm are you ready to make sure that you can harvest some of your crop? I hope so. In the next post on "How to Harvest a Buyer Farm" we are going to tell you how to make sure that all of those real estate buying leads don't go to waste and continue to work for you day in and day out.

Related Posts:

How to Create a Digital Farm

How to Create a Digital Real Estate Farm – Part 1 of 5

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:01:45 -0500

Many Realtors® have heard the tale of the real estate agent who made it and continues to sell homes every month because they are a "farmer". Now most of us aren't real farmers. If you aren't planting crops to take to market you aren't a real farmer. In this first part of "How to create a digital farm" we are going to exam the flaws in the current training and methodology of farming as most real estate professionals have been trained. Over the next several weeks we will then cover how you can create your own digital farm. We will show you how you can create a "buyer farm" and a "seller farm". In fact you will see that these are two very different "crops" that you can take advantage of and make sure that you grow carefully. If done correctly you will have as many real estate leads for both buyers and sellers that you will never have to worry about another crop ever again.

Let's think about the current "real estate farm" theory for a moment. The idea is you send enough postcards, flyers, or direct mail pieces to a certain area and eventually people will remember you and call you when they need help with real estate. There are a few problems with this strategy:

The cost - direct mail is expensive and postcards are not that much cheaper. Flyers are more cost effective but it can be difficult to find a company or person to distribute them and doing them yourself takes you away from doing other marketing.
The time - It can be weeks, months, and some say years before you reap the full rewards of your farm. You need results today!
Picking an area - this can literally be the make or break part of picking a farm. There are several items to consider: how many homes or condos in the farm, what is the turnover ratio, are there a dominate player in the area that I have to be concerned about? Make a mistake in judging your area and you may spend ALL of your hard earned money and get zero results.
What to send them - If you manage to pick the right area and can get the cost low enough you still have to make sure to send the right items out to them every month and make sure it gets to the printer in time so that you can get it distributed.
Lack of tracking - You can't be sure who is reading your material and who is just throwing it away. Everyone could be reading your material or no one could be reading your material you just can't be sure.
Limited to a small geographic area - let's face it you will only be able to farm an area that is limited in size in scope for cost reasons and to make sure that you demonstrate your expertise to that area.

So what if you could create a farm that was able to make you a dominate player in your area in months and not years? What if you could create this farm without having to outlay thousands of dollars in printed materials? What if also you could create a farm that was working for you 24 hours a day 365 days a year? If you knew who was reading your material and you had their information without having to have a company get it to you would that be valuable? How about having people call you instead of you calling on them? The answers to these questions lie in creating a digital farm. Over the next two weeks we will be posting on how to create your very own digital farm and how you can use it to be the dominate agent in your area. We are going to investigate how you can create your own "buyer farm" and your own "seller farm" and how the Realtor® of tomorrow needs both these farms in order to survive today and thrive tomorrow.

Future Posts in the series

How to Create a Buyer Farm
How to Harvest Your Buyer Crop
How to Create a Seller Farm
How to Make sure your Seller Crop Gets Harvested by You

Subscribe and get More Instant Information available at:

www.InternetRealEstateSuccess.com

5 Ways to Succeed at Real Estate Pay Per Click

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:02:34 -0500

Todays post was contributed by Joey Bridges

Real estate pay per click advertising is hated by some and loved by others. I personally love pay per click advertising. I believe that taking out paid ads on Google, Yahoo, & MSN is a fantastic way to generate instant, targeted, and focused traffic to your website. In fact I think there is no better way to generate immediate results then to take out these small ads.

If you have ever taken out a classified ad in a newspaper and enjoyed getting calls to a phone number then you will enjoy real estate pay per click advertising. It is the modern day version of a classified ad. In order to have a successful implementation of pay per click advertising there are some definite rules you will want to follow.

Set a daily budget - If you can't afford to spend it make sure that you don't! Google has the ability, as to the other engines, to limit how much is spent in a day. If you can afford $1 a day (like I recommend starting) then put in $1. Don't assume that "Google won't spend it".
Don't pick obvious key words to advertise on - It is easy to pick the keyword of "Santa Monica Homes". That isn't creative and someone typing that in may or may not be looking for a home to buy or sell at the moment. These words will also be more expensive than a phrase like "Santa Monica CA Homes For Sale".
Offer something of value - People are looking for something. You just have to figure out what they want. It is easier than you think though. Are you offering them something of value? Are you giving them the information that they crave? If you match what they want they will click. Free Foreclosure List, Free home list, free list of condos, free market value of your home are great items that home buyers or sellers would be looking for.
Track & Monitor your results - Paid search offers instant feedback. You will either have people clicking on your ads or they won't be. For the early going you will wan to check in at least once a day to see how your ads are performing. Are you getting clicks? What are your clicks costing you? Are you getting leads?
Be Patient - just because the feedback is instant don't expect the results to be instant. Now trust me they will be pretty instant such as 24-48 hours but they may not be within an hour or two. Once you receive the lead the rest will be up to you!

Real estate pay per click is one of the great ways to generate a constant steady flow of quality leads to your website. I recommend starting with pay per click advertising with Google and starting slow. While there are many companies that offer services to real estate professionals to perform pay per click services I believe that no one cares more about your advertising than you do. Take the time to learn more about real estate pay per click advertising and how it can benefit you.

Why Real Estate Blogging Will Die

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:48:41 -0500

Today's Post was written by Joseph Bridges

Will real estate blogging die? It highly depends on how everyone in the real estate profession treats blogging. There are those out there who do blogging so well they set the standard for the industry. There are great blogging coaches out there who give great advice on how one should blog. But there are also scores of individual agents, companies, and so called "experts" who are giving poor advice and those that are doing it incorrectly that all those in real estate could suffer because those doing it poorly will drive customers away from one of the greatest tools of our time for real estate.

Now truth be told I don't believe that real estate blogging will die but I do believe that the more real estate professionals who do blogging incorrectly will make it more difficult for those who care about delivering high quality content to their customers.

So what is blogging done correctly? I believe that blogging is about delivering high quality relevant information on the topic or topics that you are writing on. In real estate this means delivering the most up to date, accurate and relevant information to the consumer. It is not about the agent, the lender, or the company. It is about informing the customer about what is happening in their market.

How are people doing blogging incorrectly that they will cause huge problems for the rest of those who are doing it correctly? Well let's get into a list of what I see going on out there.

Template content - there are some large companies, no need to name names, that are giving their reps, agents, owners, etc large amounts of "approved" content and telling them to just post it daily, weekly, etc and they will be blog experts. Now the search engines should catch this kind of thing and will not reward them with a high placement but will cause consumers to sift through more irrelevant information and will cast a dark shadow on some.
Self promotion - this is the worse part of real estate blogs that some agent, lender, or owner feels that a blog is just a press release of how great they or their company is. Now posts every once in awhile with a great story about a customers experience are fine but commercials every week are not.
Poorly written content - now I am not going to win a literary award anytime soon but some even fail to grasp the great tool of spell check.
Blogs that aren't kept up to date - real estate blogs should have at least 1 post a week so that the consumer can count on reliable information. Now this one may only undo those who aren't keeping theirs up to date but I still believe it shows a lack of dedication in the industry to provide reliable information to the consumer.

How do we change the tide? I believe by continuing to deliver relevant consumer focused information that we will keep consumers aware that real estate professionals at all levels of the business care about providing them information. The consumer will reward us with their business. Let's make sure that those who are blogging focus on the consumer.

6 Reasons To Update Your Blog Every Week

What are website visitors doing on your website?

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:36:56 -0600

Understanding visitor behavior on your website is of imperative performance if you want to make sure that your website keeps working for you. After all instead of increasing the number of people that are coming to your website, why not just increase your conversion rate of the people that are already there? Improving your conversion rates by just small percentages can have a tremendous impact on your business.

Many people view looking at reports as boring, but truly this is where you can see how your visitors are interacting with your website and then you can take action to improve the results. So, what are some tools you can use to see what's going on? Let's take a look:

GetResponse - It's not only a direct e-mail drip campaign tool. From the reporting features you can see how many people are reading your e-mails and how many people are unsubscribing. This way you can see if your headlines are working! WOW
CrazyEgg - Crazy Egg is a great tool that is actually FREE (for tracking of 4 pages) and can show you what people are clicking on your individual pages. Think of it as an enhancement to Google Analytics as you get specific information on the keyword information on a click by click basis. CrazyEgg tests live so you will be able to see your reports updated throughout the day.
Google Analytics - Formerly urchin, this software is amazing and they continue to upgrade it. Detailed keyword information, tracking of goals, and more. Definitely a must have. You can track all of your websites from one source and comparing your reports to different time periods is very easy.
ClickTale - See how a visitor is behaving on your website. You will literally see a playback of the mouse movements. We have used it to see if pages were too long or if the links we had on pages weren't obvious enough for people to keep on clicking throughout the site.

Taking the time to put in these tools and monitor them will help you to maximize your conversion rates. Remember you don't want to take just one look at the data, look through the different reports so you can get a really good understanding of how visitors are arriving at your website and what they do once they arrive. Take it step by step and test your improvements on each and every page. Have fun!

The Number 1 Tip to Improve on Google

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:03:20 -0600

Today's post was contributed by Joey Bridges

How can we really have 1 tip that will improve your Google Ads when it takes more than 1 thing? Well there is of course more than one item you should focus on but this is one of the most overlooked tips that can change what Google thinks of your ad which determines what you pay. It is always about paying as little as you can for the highest ad position you can get on a page that you want to achieve. After all who wouldn't want more for less right?
The Google Quality Score is a key factor in determining how much or little you will pay up to your max bid (we will cover later how you can see how Google Rates your ads ). For now I want to get into a tip that will increase your ads performance by 10%,20%, or over 35% that most overlook.

I am talking about placing the keyword that you are advertising on in your headline of your Google Ad.

"Placing the keyword you are advertising on in the headline of your Ad is the single biggest way to increase your CTR (Click Through Rate) and lower your costs that you can do." - Joseph Bridges from an Interview I did with James on Google Adwords

Let's look at a couple sample ads and see what we are talking about. I typed in the search phrase of "Santa Monica Condos" in Google. So out of 11 ads available how many ads had the search phrase of "Santa Monica Condos in their Headline"? Only 3 of the 11 choices on the screen had them and two of them are listed below.

So why does adding the keyword in the headline work? Well it attracts your potential visitor immediately. In fact the visitor notices that the word or phrase they typed appears exactly in your ad and that leads them to click on your ad and visit your website.

Doesn't this mean you have to have more ads and smaller ad groups? Yes this does. That is why you want no more than 20 words per ad group so that you can keep the keyword or phrase appearing in the headline of your ad. Start checking your ads and make sure you have your keyword or phrases in that headline!

Other great posts and information at InternetRealEstateSuccess.com

Dominate the Search Engines from Offline resources?

James and Joseph Bridges (Keller Williams Realty - Global Trust Team) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:25:38 -0600

Achieving success and dominance in the search engines is a topic that has many real estate professionals eager to change their website or BLOG. In fact, it is hopefully the reason you started reading this post!

A recent study performed by Jupiter Research stated that 68% of searches on search engines were generated from offline sources. With 68% of online searches being generated from offline resources, it makes you consider what is the source of all of these searches? Understanding the source of these searches can help us to develop our content and online strategy to enable us to satisfy all of these people who are originating from different mediums.

So what is the source of these searches? Here are some places where searches have been inspired from:

Real Estate Magazines - Yes, even though we are online crazy, many people still pick up publications like the Real Estate Book. In fact we have been advertising in our local real estate book for over 3 years now which has helped us get our information to more online sources. The real estate book actually has a good online presence and distribution as well.
The Real World - Sound obvious? Let it be known that as people drive by new developments or particular areas in town they may not pick up the phone and call their local Realtor® (truly shocking I know ). They may go home and then type searches into Google and Yahoo® until they find the information they are looking for.
Billboards - Billboards along your local freeway may be annoying but people still read them. I am certainly not encouraging anyone pay for a billboard, but you can tailor your online efforts along with that builder (who participates of course :)) who has the budget to take out those billboards.

So the real key is what are you going to do with this information?

If you know that a new builder is coming into town putting in new home models and putting up billboards, take the time to write about it! You can create new BLOG posts and new pages on your website about that builder identifying that you can guide buyers through the process of choosing the best model for their needs!

Having a half page or full page ad in your local Real Estate Book, Harmon Homes, or other magazine can have online benefits! Speak with your local representative to ensure you are taking advantage of the latest tools available. Many of them have feeds to major services like Zillow, GoogleBase, etc, so find out what you have access to.

So mastering success in the search engines may not always be about linking strategies and keywords (although it sure helps). Remember the real world comes into play so think about how your world is changing everyday and make sure your online presence is up to date to grab the latest new customers!