A few weeks ago I was contacted through ActiveRain by the web publicist for Barbara Corcoran's new book Nextville: Amazing Places to Live the Rest of Your Life.

You can read my review here, but overall I'd say it is worthwhile reading for any boomer not sure what they want to do in retirement or where they want to live. 

When things are slow like they are in most real estate markets, some Realtors take on second, even third jobs to help pay the bills.

I'm trying out a different idea that is a lot less painful, and so far has been pretty successful: Self-Publishing.

I'm not just talking about paper and ink books in a bookstore, though I've done that too. I'm talking about e-books. One thing I've found is that even in slow markets when people are not actually buying real estate, they ARE still thinking about it and researching it (mainly online) to find as much information as they can about it so that when the market turns and they are ready, they'll know everything they need to know. 

Here's where your expertise in your particular market comes in. If you could put together an e-book about everything someone needs to know about your market or a specific community, you might be able to sell this and make a little extra income.

 

 

 

I've put together a guide on The Villages Florida (For those who don't live in Florida, this is Florida most popular retirement community) and it is selling pretty well. It hasn't (and I KNOW it won't) replace my real estate income, but it has enabled me to pay a couple bills every month with the mooney I make from it. 

Of course there's a lot more that goes in to planning and writing and selling something like this, and I wouldn't say I'm the expert on any of that. But with a little research and some extra time at the computer, you could figure it all out and maybe make a few extra bucks.

And today, who couldn't use a few more of those?

Most alamode xsite customers already know Alamode is having a contest where xsite users can submit a video describing why they love their xsites and can win a $500 credit to their account and their video will be shown at NAR Convention in Vegas.

Pretty cool idea to get some customer testimonials on camera. Doesn't look like too many people have entered yet, but the deadline is not until Sunday the 12th, so  hopefully more people will enter.

If you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for? Don't need $500? Send it to me!

Here is my shameless attempt at a $500 credit xsites video. Don't miss the subliminal message a couple minutes in.

Brilliant if I do say so myself ;)

I use Google trends with Wordtracker when trying to figure out what keywords to use whenever I'm writing real estate copy for clients that will find its way to the web.

But I was just reading Aaron Wall's blog about SEO and he linked to an article about using google to predict where the real estate market is heading.

This looks like it could be a pretty cool tool to try and see where your own market is headed...if you were to take the time to do it.

Of course, it's just a tool. And no tool will "accurately" predict where the real estate market is heading. But it might be something fun to play with while we wait!

Let me know in the comments what you find out about your market.

 

 

Picked up an interesting client for my real estate copywriting business late last week. He now lives in Hawaii but he is selling his home in Bothell a suburb of Seattle and he's trying a "one-day, $100K off" sales strategy. He was covered in this article in Saturday's Seattle Times.

I was hired to write a press release for him highlighting the unique strategy he's using and the article in the Seattle Times. He is distributing this release to other local media outlets and through an online distribution service as well. I'm also trying to get Seattle's premier real estate blog interested in covering it.

I think my client is doing a great job at thinking out of the box and using the power of the media and the web to sell his house.

What other general media or online strategies have you used in trying to promote a quick sale?

What worked best?

Anything you tried but wouldn't waste your time on again?

Just posted a brief response to this weekend's most popular, most viewed, most emailed Wall Street Journal article "Is Florida Over?" at my real estate and travel blog for baby boomers, Boomers on the Move.

In my response I tell my readers to remember one thing: It usually pays to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing.

Any other rainers read the article? If so what were your thoughts?

Saturday, September 29, 2007 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of George W. Jenkins, the founder of Publix Supermarkets. 

Publix came out with a newspaper ad celebrating this milestone event, and reinforcing the philosophies (Publix's mission statement ) that Mr. Jenkins instilled in his business and in his employees.

I think that several of these could be applied to your real estate business, and I wanted to share those missions with you here:

• Passionately focused on Customer Value,
• Intolerant of Waste,
• Dedicated to the Dignity, Value and Employment Security of our Associates,
• Devoted to the highest standards of stewardship for our Stockholders, and
• Involved as Responsible Citizens in our Communities.

Rather than me telling you how to apply these concepts to your business, I'd love to hear what these "statements" mean to fellow rainers, and how you think they could be applied to the real estate business.

As you may have heard, you can now add a photo to your LinkedIn profile page.

I just made a quick video (Made with Jing) showing you how easy it is to do.

Click image to watch:

Now all your old contacts can see just how well you've aged! And vice-versa! 

@ All Things Florida Group:

 Just posted this to my blog before joining this group. Might be of interest to "All things Florida" members. 

Read: The New York Times of Florida Real Estate 

 Would love any feedback, ideas you may have, etc. Thanks!

 

 

Sorry for the link bait headline. And I certainly don't want the same reputation as The New York Times. But I am doing something with my Florida real estate website that The Times (and MAYBE real soon The Wall Street Journal) recently decided to do as well.

The New Media Money Formula: Free Content = $$$

My plan (ah, yes, well-laid plans) when I wrote and published Florida for Boomers: A Guide to Real Estate was to have a Florida Resources page on the book's companion website that would be password-protected and for readers only. What an incentive for people to buy my book, I thought. Essentially $20 for access to an online wealth of knowledge about Florida and Florida real estate.

This worked for a short time, but nearly everyday I would have people who hadn't bought the book (which contained the password) write me and ask for the password.

And I'd always write them back saying they needed to buy the book to get the password. I'm sure some of them did. But I also know others did not. It made me wonder, what if they had been able to see the breadth and depth of the resources available to them...maybe THEN it would have convinced them to buy the book.

The Magic of Reciprocity at work.

Well, following suit of the big boys mentioned above, I have "freed" the Florida Resources. Not only to make money off of my content, (I have monetized the pages using Google AdSense) but to sell more books as well. Plus, behind the password-protected "brick wall" I had in place before, search engines couldn't pick up the best of my content. So I'm hoping after my next couple robot crawls, I should see more organic search traffic.

As a side note: I've not only made the articles and other resources free, I've gone the extra step to start adding video tutorials as well. Been playing with Jing quite a bit. I like it, simple, intuitive. I wanted to use Camtasia but they don't make it for my Mac yet.

Anyone have any ideas for video tutorials that boomers heading to Florida might like to see?

I've got some other videos planned such as "Ways to use Zillow to get the best deal", "Using Google Maps to check out an area", etc.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.