Real Estate Internet Marketing - Beyond the Hype

P.S.

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:53:27 -0600

I know probably nobody else has followed up on this previously mentioned recommendation, but since you are rockin on Active Rain I thought I would throw you out a reminder to sign up for the referrals program and to check into the available referrals now and then. It seems like there is a fair amount of activity going on in this space and it would be a great way to extend your Activerain sphere.

Best Regards,

Thanks for the Invite

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:46:57 -0600

Lynn,

Joined your group. Thanks for the invite.

Great job on the blogging by the way. You are really rockin. I hope it is starting to pay off for you in terms of generating industry contacts. You have overtaken me on the points so I better jump back in and catch up. :-)

On another note, I noticed that there was conversation about Occidental and the "cute white church". Just so happens that my parents got married there. Small world.

It was good to see you last night and catch up. Thanks again for all the books and diapers and such. We really appreciate it.

Best Regards,

Sean

www.eternalunltd.com

sean@eternalunltd.com

seantaylor29@yahoo.com

Posting Mini-Listing Tours into Your Blog - VERY COOL!

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:41:27 -0600

How did I post this cool looking property listing advertisement into my Blog?

This is so easy you will laugh. Since I am pressed for time I will place the basic instructions below.

#1. Go to www.postlets.com and create a new account.

#2. Create a free listing ad.

#3. Copy the HTML code available in the "Mini-Postlet" section into your blog using the HTML format.

That's it!

If any of you have trouble loading your mini-listing tour just submit a comment to this post. If I get enough requests I will submit an expanded version of this blog with visuals later next week.

Placing Video & Photos into Your Blog - Follow-Up

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:05:49 -0600

Since writing my previous blog post, "Placing Video & Photos into Your Blog", I have received several inquiries asking how I got these screen shots (with comments) into the blog. Below is the answer.

PRINT SCREEN BUTTON:

The secret to printing, manipulating and posting screen shots from your computer is simple.

#1. Push the "Prnt Scrn" (Print Screen) button on your keyboard. Pushing the Prnt Scrn button will copy whatever is showing on your computer screen.

NOTE: Some keyboards require that you push the "Prnt Scrn" button in combination with the Alt or Shift button to capture a screen shot.

#2. Next step is to paste the copied screen shot into your favorite graphics program (e.g., publisher, photoshop, illustrator or paint).

#3. Manipulate the image of your copied screen as you see fit.

#4. Save image as a JPEG or GIF.

#5. Upload your new image to your Google/Picassa account; see my previous blog "Placing Video & Photos into Your Blog" for details.

#6. Use the appropriate HTML code to reference this new image in your blog post; see my previous blog "Placing Video & Photos into Your Blog" for details.

Placing Video & Photos into Your Blog

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:41:39 -0500

HOW DID I POST THE VIDEO AND PHOTO ABOVE INTO MY BLOG? READ BELOW FOR ALL THE ANSWERS!

Embedding Photos and Video to your Activerain Blog

Unfortunately embedding photos and videos in the Activerain environment is not an easy task. However, with a little patience and trial and error, you should be able to master this fairly quickly. Please note that there are numerous alternative methods for loading videos and photos to your blog. The following methods are the ones that I found easiest to master.

Essential Tools:

1. Computer w/Internet connection

2. Active YouTube account

3. Active Google and Google Picasa account

4. And if you are planning on shooting your own videos, you will need the following:

*** Video camera or digital camera with video capability

*** Video cable to transfer video or photos from camera to YouTube or Picasa account

Getting Started:

Before you do anything else, sign up for a FREE YouTube and Google Picassa account:

YouTube:

Your FREE YouTube account will be used for storing videos on the web.

Go to http://www.youtube.com/signup?next=%2F& to sign up for your YouTube Account.

(Just follow the instructions when signing up. This should be self-explanatory.)

Google/Picassa:

Your FREE Google/Picassa account will be used for storing Photos on the web.

Go to https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount to sign up for your Google Account.

(Just follow the instructions when signing up. This should be self-explanatory.)

Understanding the Environment:

Before launching into this next level blog posting expedition, you should first understand the basic principles of posting Video and Photos to a Blog.

1A. Create your own Videos and Photos: If you are going to create your own video or photos you will need some equipment. You can use a video camera or digital camera to take both photos and videos. It is my experience that for the purposes of the web, you can use a quality digital camera for shooting both photos and videos. Make sure the camera has video capability before purchasing.

1B. Copy Videos or Photos: There are millions and millions of photos and videos on the web. If you are planning on using a video or photo from someone else make sure you ask the owner of the photo/video before using. Re-distributing the photo or video could be copyright infringement.

2. Load Videos to YouTube and Load Photos to Google/Picassa:

Once you have created your video/photo, you need to upload them to a website so that your video/photo will be located at a physical address on the web. This is important as you will see in step #3. Please see that attachments below if you need further assistance here.

3. Drop Video and Photo HTML Code into Your Blog Post:

The last step is to place the appropriate HTML Code into your Blog Post. The key thing to understand here is that your blog does not actually contain the video and photo. Rather, the blog pulls the video and photo information from a remote web source and displays that referenced video/photo within the blog. Thus step 2 was required to ensure that your video/photo had a web location for you to reference in this step #3.

VISUAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR LOADING PHOTOS AND VIDEOS BELOW

Now that you understand the general principles behind posting Video and Photos to your blog, below are detailed step-by-step instructions for you to use. I hope these instructions help you improve your blogging.

LOADING PHOTOS TO YOUR ACTIVERAIN BLOG:

LOADING VIDEOS TO YOUR ACTIVERAIN BLOG:

Live Chat - Liveperson Rocks!

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:04:29 -0500

Having recently gone through the trials and tribulations of purchasing and testing several trial versions of four different live chat technologies, let me save all of you the trouble by suggesting that you go with Liveperson. Although the technology is substantially more expensive than the other providers ($70/mo/seat rather than $25/mo.) the benefits are numerous and measurable.

Liveperson offers extensive back-end lead profiling and visitor tracking that is unmatched. It also offers enhanced cross-platform reliability and most importantly allows for PRO-ACTIVE CHAT INITIATION. That's correct, you can pro-actively initiate a live chat with a website visitor. Furthermore, this pro-active chat initiation can be automated and based on a number of flexible and programmable rules/scripts like "time on site", "click-through activity", entrance to particular pages, etc.

If you haven't already considered pro-active chat, no worries. I am doing the testing for you. Just sit back and subscribe to my blog and tune it for the results of this new use for live chat.

That's it for now.

Sean Taylor
Domaine Real Estate
sean@domaineRE.com
www.eSonomaHomes.com

Keyword Research - Essential Online Business Strategy

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:38:39 -0500

The Value of Keyword Research:

Today I would like to discuss the true value of keyword research. While most people either do not perform keyword research or consider it an “optional” exercise in developing their Internet Business Strategies, I consider keyword research the foundation of all internet business strategies.

Many successful brick and mortar business owners spend ample time and resources, prior to investing in their entrepreneurial efforts, in an attempt to better understand their customers, their competition and industry trends. Doing so is a necessary strategic exercise that helps them minimize costly mistakes; especially for those new to an industry or location.

Would you build a widget factory, manufacture, package, distribute and sell widgets without understanding how many customers are seeking widgets? Without knowing how many other companies are selling widgets? Without knowing what price customers are willing to pay for your widgets? Of course not! Why then do most business owners who are interested in doing business online do just this? Rather then first spending some time and money understanding their online customer and competition, they build their widget factory (website), market and sell their widgets (pay for Google and Yahoo advertising and SEO efforts) and then look astonished when their efforts do not result in sufficient widget sales.

Service providers for developing internet business strategies are disjointed:

When a company makes the decision to do business online, their first business action is to build the company website (their factory). They hire the services of a website designer who is focused on developing a website to meet their client’s needs. They ask the customer how they want the website to look, what content they are going to place on the site and what marketing materials they have to guide the design process. The website designer and client enter into this collaborative process blind to the competitors they will encounter and blind to the clients they have yet to identify. Bottom Line - Without a firm understanding of your online customer and competition, investing in a website and online advertising is an unnecessary risk that can lead to disappointing sales results.

Keyword Research:

Performing keyword research is the first step in rectifying the above mentioned strategic miss-steps. Start by getting familiar with the standard keyword research tools available to get a feel for doing keyword research. The following tools are free and easy to use:

Google Keyword Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Yahoo Keyword Tool - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

SEO Book Keyword Tool - http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

WordTracker Keyword Tool - http://www.wordtracker.com/index.html (free trial only)

Start with Root Word Structure: A helpful hint to guide you in your preliminary keyword research is to start by using root word structures rather then highly targeted keyword phrases. Yes, I know this goes against conventional wisdom but let me explain.

Our offices are located in Sebastopol CA. In my initial keyword research I started by using the root words “Sebastopol”, “Sonoma County” and “Northern California” rather than targeted keywords like “Sebastopol Real Estate”. Starting with these root structures allowed our company to quickly realize that there were very few people using the word “Sebastopol” in their real estate searches for real estate in our area. It turns out that most users were using wider reaching terms like “Sonoma” or “Sonoma County”. We also discovered that there was substantial interest in real estate in adjacent cities like “Santa Rosa”, “Healdsburg” and “Petaluma” all of which were generating 5-10 times as much traffic as our small town of “Sebastopol”.

“What about conversion rates?” you ask: You may be inclined to think that targeting these terms would result in a lower conversion rate given the less targeted nature of these keywords. You would be correct. However, the largely magnified exposure and large increase in interested buyers has resulted in a huge increase in business while our cost per visitor and cost per conversion still produce a high ROI on our marketing dollar investment.

Check for Misspellings:

Many of these keyword tools will offer you misspellings of your targeted keywords. Identifying these misspellings and incorporating them into your SEO and PPC efforts is a step many of your competitors have likely not taken and will result in very affordable and targeted traffic to your website.

Shotgun Strategy - Track Your ROI:

After your initial keyword research you may be inclined to optimize your website with your new set of targeted keyword phrases. This would be a mistake. Remember, when performing your initial keyword research you are “estimating” the value of any given keyword phrase. It is important to track your conversion rate over time to determine the REAL value of any keyword. Start with a large number of keyword phrases in your PPC campaigns and then give your efforts some time to determine which keyword phrases are generating business. Only then should you invest time and energy optimizing your website for these lucrative keyword phrases.

Best Regards,

Sean Taylor

sean@DomaineRE.com

http://www.esonomahomes.com

htt://www.DomaineRE.com

Tracking Invites to Groups? Any Suggestions?

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:08:28 -0500

Tracking Invites to Groups? Any Suggestions?

I recently started a group and invited at least a dozen people to join. Unlike inviting people to join AR, I have yet to find a method of tracking invites and acceptances within a Group. Any suggestions or solutions out there? Any help would be much appreciated.

IDX Solution Statistics – Your Visitor “Return to Site” Statistics May Be Misleading

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:44:32 -0500

If you or your team spend any time validating, scrubbing, filtering, ranking and contacting internet leads, in an attempt to turn these leads into closed real estate transactions, you need to read this blog post.

The Challenge:
Here at Domaine Real Estate, we get approximately 400 new registered (VIP) leads per month and over 1600 returning registered (VIP) leads per month visiting our website. Although we are ecstatic about this volume of leads we are constantly put to the task to leverage this volume of opportunity into business revenue.

To manage this large volume of leads we use a variety of multiple sorting methods that hierarchically rank and weight data types such as return visits, saved properties & saved searches. These sorting methods allow us to prioritize our contact efforts on those leads that offer us the greatest conversion potential. Several of our sorting methods have, to date, placed the greatest weight on return visits; e.g., number of return visits and timing of return visits. Leads with greater return visits get higher priority in our lead management efforts.

The Discovery:
Recently, I decided to take an in-depth look at the return visits statistics for our registered leads within our IDX solution. What I found was very disturbing.

Within our IDX solution we have the capability to view individual return visit statistics of our registered leads, including the date of return and the length of visit. When viewing this data I discovered that a large # of the recorded return visits were either 0 seconds or 1 second in length. For example:

Return..............Length
Date.................of Visit
09/01/06..........03:07
09/02/06..........15:46
09/03/06..........00:00
09/05/06..........00:01
09/07/06..........00:00
09/08/06..........00:00
09/10/06..........00:01
09/12/06..........00:00
09/20/06..........03:50
09/21/06..........00:01
09/24/06..........00:00

After much discussion with our IDX provider it was determined that these supposed return visits were not return visits at all but rather were views of property watch e-mails. Apparently, when a VIP lead opens a property watch e-mail to view the listing, a return visits session is recorded. If the user does not click on the listing the return visits is recorded as a 00:00 time. If the user clicks on the listing but does not choose to re-enter the site as a VIP member it records a 00:01 return visit.

I then took a snapshot of our previous months VIP leads and viewed the return visits statistics for all VIP leads with more than 200 return visits records. In most cases, a majority of these return visits were 00:00 and 00:01 records.

Conclusion:
This new information demonstrated that our previous prioritization of this statistic, in determining which returning registered leads to contact, was no longer valid. A refinement of the use of this statistic must scrub out all 00:00 and 00:01 records to arrive at a true understanding of a VIP’s behavior.

How Does This Relate to You?
Good question! It just so happens that during this discovery process I have been investigating alternative IDX solutions and have inquired as to the handling of this statistical dilemma. It turns out that other IDX providers have the same problem.

Apparently this is due to the inherent nature of the recording of a property view. It appears that inherent within the design of these IDX solutions is a tie between the viewing of property information and the apparent action of returning to the site; a mistaken assumption but an assumption none the less. Thus when a user views a property through a property watch e-mail the IDX solution mistakenly records a return visit.

If there are any programmers out there that can better explain this relationship please feel free to elaborate. For the rest of you I would highly recommend taking a deeper look at this data relationship to ensure that you are not mistakenly relying on faulty data. For myself, I plan on taking a deeper look at all of the registered lead data types

Best Regards,

Sean Taylor
Domaine Real Estate
(707) 494-6008

IDX Solution Visitor Statistics – Your Visitor “Return to Site” Statistics May Be Misleading

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 14:21:12 -0500

Hello Everyone,

As the founder of the MostHome Customer Blog I thought I should get the “Blog Ball” rolling. However, before I get started I think it is important to offer some fundamental definitions/terminology around internet lead activities specific to MostHome & Domaine Real Estate.

MostHome:

Valid Lead – A lead that has successfully pasted MostHome’s pre-filtering and verification process to ensure the contact information is valid and the lead can be contacted by e-mail or telephone.
Qualified Lead – a Valid lead that has been further qualified by MostHome as ready, willing and able to work with a real estate agent.

Domaine Real Estate:

IDX Solution - Domaine Real Estate uses an IDX Solution called 1ParkPlace.com
IDX Lead Registration Point - We have configured the 1ParkPlace IDX solution to request user registration after the user has viewed the basic information on a listing, but before the user sees the detailed information on the listing. The user may bypass registration and go to a limited view of the detailed listing information. User is forced to register if they want to see detailed listing information such as listing photos, VT or agent remarks.
IDX Registration Terminology – Our IDX Solution defines registered leads as “VIP” leads.
Definition of “Return Visits” – VIP leads that re-enter the IDX solution to view, compare or save properties and/or perform searches, etc.

Now, back to Blogging:

I’ll start with a very interesting topic that has been top of mind for both myself, here at Domaine Real Estate, and Michelle Taylor the eTeam Services Director at MostHome.

As a new MostHome customer, we arrived at MostHome’s doorstep with over 3,000 registered (VIP) leads; none of whom had been contacted by phone or e-mail. With approximately 50-80 of these VIP leads returning to our website daily, the MostHome eTeam is attempting to qualify these leads as they re-entered the IDX solution.

The Challenge:

With over 300 new VIP leads per month and over 1600 returning VIP leads per month, the eTeam first prioritizes the new VIP leads but does not have the bandwidth to make multiple contact attempts on all of the 1600 returning VIP leads. Thus the eTeam captures, filters and then ranks the returning VIP lead data (e.g., # return visits, # of properties saved, # of showing requests, etc.) in an attempt to determine which of the leads offers the greatest qualification/conversion potential. To date the Return Visits statistics has been the primary data type used to rank these returning leads; leads with greater return visits get higher priority in call backs.

After a month of marginal success on qualifying returning VIP leads, I decided to take a stab at creating my own VIP lead sorting system to try and improve the eTeam’s success rate on lead qualification.

The Discovery:

I decided to first take a look at our VIP Return Visits statistic as this was the primary data type used by the eTeam to filter VIP leads. What I found was very disturbing.

Within our IDX solution we have the capability to view individual VIP Return Visits, including the date of return and the length of visit. When viewing this data I discovered that a large # of the recorded Return Visits were either 0 seconds or 1 second in length. For example:

Return Date Return Length

09/01/06 03:07

09/02/06 15:46

09/03/06 00:00

09/05/06 00:01

09/07/06 00:00

09/08/06 00:00

09/10/06 00:01

09/12/06 00:00

09/20/06 03:50

09/21/06 00:01

09/24/06 00:00

After much discussion with our IDX provider it was determined that these supposed Return Visits were not Return Visits at all but rather were views of Property Watch e-mails. Apparently, when a VIP lead opens a Property Watch e-mail to view the listing, a Return Visits session is recorded. If the user does not click on the listing the Return Visits is recorded as a 00:00 time. If the user clicks on the listing but does not choose to re-enter the site as a VIP member it records a 00:01 Return Visit

I then took a snapshot of our previous months VIP leads and viewed the Return Visits statistics for all VIP leads with more than 200 Return Visits records. In most cases, a majority of these Return Visits were 00:00 and 00:01 records.

Conclusion:

This new information demonstrated that our previous prioritization of this statistic, in determining which returning VIP leads to contact, was no longer valid. A refinement of the use of this statistic must scrub out all 00:00 and 00:01 records to arrive at a true understanding of a VIP’s behavior.

How Does This Relate to You?

Good question! It just so happens that during this discovery process I have been investigating alternative IDX solutions and have inquired as to the handling of this statistical dilemma. It turns out that other IDX providers have the same problem.

Apparently this is due to the inherent nature of the recording of a property view. The IDX solutions assume that when a user is viewing a property that they must have already returned to the site; a mistaken assumption but an assumption none the less. Thus when a user views a property through a Property Watch e-mail the IDX solution mistakenly records a Return Visit.

Michelle Taylor was quick to act in modifying MostHome’s lead filtering and scrubbing methods and we hope to get back to you with some improvements in the lead qualification process in the next 30-60 days.

Hope that helps some of you out there. Looking forward to hearing your stories or suggestion

Best Regards,

Sean Taylor

Domaine Real Estate

(707) 494-6008

Testing

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:03:22 -0500

Testing

Predictive Lead Behavior

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:01:41 -0500

Hello Everyone!

I thought I would kick off this think tank slash collaborative brain storming experiment with a topic that has been top of mind here at <a href="http://www.esonomahomes.com.">Domaine Real Estate.</a> and with Michelle Taylor, the Director of eTeam Services at <a href="http://www.mosthome.com.">MostHome.</a>

Predictive Lead Behavior

To date, the MostHome eTeam has used a lead ranking system used to prioritize the eTeams call backs on returning VIP or Registered website leads. This system considers a number of lead behavior data, the most important of which is the number of times a VIP/Registered lead returns to the website (Return Visits).

In an attempt to offer up an automated prioritization sorting and ranking system for the eTeam to use, I decided to first take a close look at the Return Visit statistics. LOW AND BEHOLD, I found a major glitch. I discovered that Property Watch e-mails, sent to and opened by VIP leads, are logged as Return Visits; even if the VIP lead chooses not to sign back into the system.

Once the problem was identified I returned to the system to determine how drastically this affected our perception of a VIP leads value. It turns out that a large % of Return Visits, by those VIP leads with 100+ return visits, are really property watch e-mail click-throughs.

After lengthy discussions with the technical support of my IDX provider, I was told that this could not be changed due to the integration between their property listing information and the rest of the system pages.

This is a MAJOR problem as the MostHome eTeam has used this VIP lead data type as the highest prioritized data type in lead filtration. Due to our inability to fix this data field Michelle and the eTeam have since modified their approach to lead filtration when using our system.

NOTE: There is a definite possibility that your system may have the same problem and your data results for Return Visits is skewed. Have your technology lead take a look at this information and correct as soon as possible.

Looking for Link Exchanges.......Any Takers!

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:42:11 -0500

Hello,

Looking to exchange links with other high ranking realtor/broker websites throughout the country and especially here in California. We have a high ranking site for real estate here in Sonoma California. If you are interested in exchanging links please respond.

If your interested in continually exchanging links, go to the following two Active Rain Blog Groups.

http://activerain.com/groups/linkexchangeforseo
http://activerain.com/groups/CAlinks

Best Regards,

Sean Taylor
Domaine Real Estate

Looking to Exchange Links.........Any Takers!

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:31:20 -0500

Hello,

Looking to exchange links with other high ranking realtor/broker websites. We have a high ranking site for real estate here in Sonoma California.

If you are interested in exchanging links please respond.

Best Regards,

Sean Taylor

Domaine Real Estate

eSonomaHomes.com

TESTING

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:23:23 -0500

TESTING

testing

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:21:36 -0500

testing

Take Control of Your Listings!

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 19:57:05 -0500

For those of you considering taking advantage of the new XML feed tools that allow you to automatically distribute your listings on portals like Craigslist, Trulia, Yahoo and Google, you may be in for a bit of a surprise. Your local MLS may be highly resistant to allowing third party XML feeds of YOUR listings. That’s right…..you heard me. Your MLS provider may be telling you what you can and can’t do with YOUR listings; whether you like it or not.

Here in Sonoma County California, our BAREIS MLS board is much tighter on their IDX/MLS data distribution policies than other boards around the country but this is changing fast. MLS boards are trying to prevent other more agile and nimble technology companies from swooping in and grabbing their secret sauce. What’s that secret sauce…………YOUR LISTINGS!

The real question is, who owns the listing data?
Isn’t it the brokerage/agent who spends time and money developing a sphere of interest to attract the seller/listing in the first place? Isn’t it the brokerage/agent who has and maintains the relationship with the seller? Isn’t it the brokerage/agent that is spending time and money to list, market and prepare the home (and the seller) for the ultimate sale of that property? Why then should the MLS boards have ultimate say in how, when and to whom that listing information should be distributed?

If your board has not already jumped on the “No More Third Party Feed” bandwagon, I would suggest getting your XML feeds in place as soon as possible. For the rest of us, good luck!

Sean Taylor
Domaine Real Estate

Take Control of Your Listings!

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 19:35:42 -0500

For those of you considering automated feeds for distributing your listings on important digital portals like Craigslist, Trulia, Yahoo and Google, you may be in for a bit of a surprise. BAREIS is highly resistant to allowing third party XML feeds of YOUR listings.

Although it is common knowledge that the board at BAREIS is much tighter on their IDX/MLS data distribution philosophies than other boards around the country, the inability for individual brokerages to control the distributions of their own listings is disturbing. Who truly owns the data? Isn't it the brokerage or brokerage Realtor who has the relationship with the seller? Isn't it the brokerage that is spending time and money to list, market and prepare that home and seller for the ultimate sale of that property. Why then should BAREIS have ultimate say in how, when and to whom that listing information should be distributed to?

It is a question that we should all be asking and addressing directly with our BAREIS board.

Sean Taylor

Domaine Real Estate

707-494-6008

Sean@DomaineRE.com

Predictive Lead Behavior

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 18:59:49 -0500

Hello Everyone,

Predictive Lead Behavior

Best Regards,

Sean Taylor

Domaine Real Estate

Sean@DomaineRE.com

707-494-6008

This is a test

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:10:09 -0500

This is a big Testing Blog

Take Control of Your Listings!

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:09:37 -0500

It is a question that we should all be asking and addressing directly with our BAREIS board.

Sean Taylor

Domaine Real Estate

707-494-6008

Sean@DomaineRE.com

Predictive Lead Behavior

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:55:06 -0500

Test

Predictive Lead Behavior

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:53:28 -0500

Hello Everyone,

Predictive Lead Behavior

Best Regards,

Sean Taylor

Domaine Real Estate

Sean@DomaineRE.com

707-494-6008

Predictive Lead Behavior

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 15:29:43 -0500

Hello Everyone,

I thought I would start off this "Think Tank" experiment with a topic that has been top of mind betwen myself here at <a href="www.eSonomaHomes.com.">Domaine Real Estate.</a>, and Michelle Taylor the Director of E-team Services at <a href="http://www.mosthome.com.">MostHome</a>.

Tracking and Measuring Predictive Lead Behavior

To date, the eTeam have used "Return Visits" as a primary data in prioritizing lead follow-up. With this in mind I thought it would be interesting to take a relevent sample of our VIP leads and create a new multiple sort weighted ranking system to improve the eTeams filtering/prioritization methods. I started this process by first digging deep into our "Return to Visit" statistics to see what I could find. LOW AND BEHOLD, I found a number of inconsistencies and gross overstatements within our "Return Visits" data.

Here is what I found

VIP leads that received and opened a "Property Watch" e-mail were logged as a "Return to Site".

I found that a very high % of the "Return Visits", for those customers with 100+ visits, were really just property watch e-mails being looked at by the client. For those of you on the 1parkplace.com system, or any other hosted IDX solution, I would highly recommend that you take a close look at this issue. After speaking with our IDX provider they looked into the problem and decided that there was nothing they could do to as the property data was tied into the pages of the site that when reviewed trigger the "Return Visit" function. You may find that you have the same problem.<br

Since this discovery, Michelle Taylor has been working with the eTeam to modify their analysis of the "Return Visit" statistic to ensure proper prioritization of the returning VIP leads.

I will chime back in with the results of this change once I hear more.

Best Regards

Sean Taylor

Domaine Real Estate

sean@domaineRE.com

(707)494-6008

Interested in Expanding Links

Sean Taylor (Domaine Real Estate) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:02:00 -0500

I am interested in exchanging links with other well ranked California Real Estate websites. Any takers? Let's get the ball rolling and boost ourselves up the SEO ladder.

Best Regards,

Sean Taylor