Home : Blogs : Michael Klijanowicz - Relocation Specialist - Baltimore & Harford County : Michael D. Klijanowicz - Baltimore County & Harford County Real Estate Agent - WWW.ISELLMDHOMES.COM

I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

I am doing a training class for newer agents in my office this evening and have not yet prepared an outline for tonights class! There are many many reasons for this, mainly because I have been busier than ever this month with 3 sales already, oh yeah that's right, I also have a six week old at home!!!

Anyway, The topic is, "INTERNET ADVERTISING!" Obviously I always tell them about ALL of the great benefits of ACTIVE RAIN as well as all of the sites that they can advertise their listings, open houses, etc... BUT, I was thinking this morning about what else to add for the class and thought that my fellow AR comrads could be of assistance in helping me with this. I plan on printing out the comments from this post and sharing it with the class tonight to show them just how beneficial the Active Rain community is (PLEASE DON'T LET ME DOWN!)

If you were teaching an internet marketing classs, what information would you consider to be a top priority? Please help............................

Posted by Michael Klijanowicz - Relocation Specialist - Baltimore & Harford County on 01/24/2008 09:46 AM

Comments (12)

training, new agents, internet advertising

Originally posted at: Michael D. Klijanowicz - Baltimore County & Harford County Real Estate Agent - WWW.ISELLMDHOMES.COM: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

12 Comments on I NEED YOUR HELP!!!

JAN

2008

Another thing, just to let them know how important AR is- I have only been on for a week, but I have been working my buns off. I got up in points and went and googled baton rouge real estate agents. At the bottom of the google page there it was "Localism- Top Agents" and there I was *tear*. With hard work and dedication, agents can use AR to their own benefit. I think that if they understood that it's more than just a forum of information and that it can get your name out there, everyone and their mother would be signing up!

Michael, thanks for your time this morning. Here are some things you MAKE SURE you cover for them. (I am not going to explain all of these fully being you know a lot of the info).

Website - Get a site, optimize it. Add plenty of local content pertaining to real estate trends and listings (both sold and active). Get active links to resources and trade links with friends/colleagues. Don't make the website all about YOU. Please keep it about your marketing plan and what you can do for your client. PUT YOUR DOMAIN NAME EVERYWHERE YOUR NAME IS, INCLUDING YOUR VOICE-MAIL.

Leads - SEM and SEO - Search engine marketing if done correctly is a great way to generate qualified traffic and generate leads from people that are actually looking for what you provide. Search engine optimization will help get your ranking up over time so that you can get more traffic and repeat the process of generating leads.

Branding - Consider Return OF Investment carefully. Purchase banner ads where people are actually looking for listings and agents. It does you no good to show your face on a site that faces are not looking at on a regular basis.

Directories - get on local Internet directories. There are plenty of free ones and a couple of paid ones that I would highly recommend. Yahoo and MSN in particular are very good directories.

Blogging - be careful. Blogging is a wonderful way to give and get knowledge, but don't get caught up and forget that you can get lost in blogging and forget how to market yourself in other ways.

Listings - (sorry for the plug...) Tell them to put their listings on all popular sites, including Homes.com, Realtor (they should be there already unless they want to upgrade), Yahoo, Google Base, Oodle, Bargain Network and YES - CRAIGSLIST!

I would highly recommend letting them know the difference between generating leads and purchasing leads, and how the difference in those can make or break a career.

As far as everything else, you are welcome to send them to my site for advice or products that encompass all of those things. :)

Have a great class, hope that helped.

Lindsay and Jamie thanks for your comments. Lindsay, I think I accidentally deleted your first comment by mistake. I apologize, but would appreciate it if you could post your first comment again!

Thanks!

New agents - have them work on writing simple craigslist ads - 3 sentences about the property with a 4th tag sentience saying "for full details, photos and address contact Joe Agent at 555-555-5555."

There are hundreds of things agents can do to market effectively on-line, but for a new agent getting well placed, well written free ads to pull leads will be the most helpful.

Michael, one of the things that has gotten me in with ActiveRain and created the following that I have is my diversity in what I write about. Be creative and put some thought into what you are about to do.

Oh dear, let me think if I can remember what I asked.

What is SEO?
How important is blogging?
How do I apply SEO with my blog and my website?
What can I do to get my website up in search engines?
Does joining forums and groups and different sites make me more viewable?
When I blog and I have two or three different places that offer blogs (website, AR, etc) Do I copy and paste the same information or do I write different info on all of them?

Thanks to all of you that have contributed to this, my class is in about 2 more hours, so any last minute advice would be great!

I would let them know that there are so many venues on the Internet that are FREE. In regards to websites I would advise them to sign up for a Point 2 Agent site to start out with. This site is free but you can also upgrade your membership to add more content if you would like. I use the free version and am very happy with it. When you sign up for Point 2 Agent you can participate in the agent handshake and the agent referral system. You have the ability to post your listings for free and they will be syndicated to all of the realtors in the handshake program. What a great way to market your listings and yourself. It is imperative to purchase a domain name and brand yourself- put this brand on all of your marketing. Go Daddy is a great place to purchase your domain and transfer it to your new website.

The most important site that I would encourage Realtors to invest in monetarily is of course Realtor.com. as this is still the number one site for consumers searching for homes on the internet. This is the only site that I would personally pay to list on.I would encourage agents to utilize as many free on line listing sites as they can. Postlets.com is a great one which will also syndicate your listing to some of the main Real Estate Search Engines out ther like Trulia, BackPage, Google Base and many more.

Please view my website for a plethera of free online listing sites and much more information regarding internet marketing and Real Estate, including the top 20 most popular Real Estate Sites.

Many Blessings,

Lori Sargent

Atlanta Realty Connection

www.AtlantaRealtyConnection.com

Real Estate Support and Virtual Assistance for Agents and Brokers

One more thing- In regards to postlets.com.... When you post your listing they give you the html which you copy and paste to Craig's List. This makes your listing post like a flyer on Craigs List and is very professional and contains your information, etc..

View here for an example as this is what you post on Craig's List... Pretyy nice, huh..

I hope this information helps you...

Lori Sargent

Michael,

I would encourage them to get the e-PRO certification. Also, please tell them how big Activerain is going to be!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought postlets costs money, but THANKS! I will definitely re-investigate that one. Also, it is funny because I do everything you do, I have a FREE Point 2 site (haven't needed to upgrade yet), use godaddy for my website hosting name, and also use craigslist! ANYTHING FREE IS DEFINITELY WORTH A SHOT!

Mike,

How BIG Active Rain is going to be? OR HOW BIG ACTIVE RAIN ALREADY IS!!!!!!!!

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