I recently attended a training held by Connecting Neighbors, a fantastic marketing program designed to position you as the Neighborhood Expert.

As you may know, only 7% of a neighborhood turns over in any given year. A Connecting Neighbors Website focuses on community involvement and is designed to appeal to the other 93% percent of homeowners not currently involved in a real estate transaction. Your Website becomes a hub of activity with subtle but consistent branding. Then, when the homeowner is ready to buy or sell, you--as the Neighborhood Expert--are the person that automatically comes to mind.

Connecting Neighbors Websites can have over 20 pages of content, including the following very popular pages:

- Free Classified Ads (statistically their most visited page);
- Community Calendar; and
- Local Merchants (this page allows for paid advertising, a great opportunity for you to have an additional income stream).

Members of your community can post items to the Website after submissions go through the approval process. Connecting Neighbors has staff that read every single submission to the Website. Approvals usually take around 24 hours.

In addition to the Website, the Connecting Neighbors program includes a monthly e-newsletter with content that is very appealing to your subscribers. Their statistics show it has a less than a 1% unsubscribe rate - amazing!

When you sign up with Connecting Neighbors, you are matched with a Neighborhood Marketing Coach. They will assist you with getting the word out to neighborhood residents about your site and helping it to become the online place to be in your community.

All in all, I was very impressed with the program and feel it would be a great tool in a real estate pro's marketing arsenal.