As I've written about before, a long time ago I went through a "blue-funk". I had just broken up with a woman that I had been dating, but I was the dumper, not the dumpee....So, I didn't think that was really the problem.
At the time, I was just getting my mortgage banking career going and while it was a difficult market, I was actually doing pretty good in it, all things considered....so, again, I don't think that was the problem.
It other words, there really wasn't anything to whine about, yet here I was whining. I was able to keep myself pulled together during my workday, but at the end of the day, I would find myself in a hurry to get home and to put Stevie Ray Vaughn's "The Sky Is Crying" on. I would sit in front of my stereo and cry my heart out!
The pisser was that I really didn't know what I was crying about! Well, long story short, I did a bunch of reading and started going to "Adult Children of Alcoholics" meetings and through these activities and a lot of soul searching I figured out that what I was bummed out about was all of the hurts that I had experienced growing up in a dysfunctional home.
Over the years I hadn't allowed myself to grieve these losses and while there wasn't anything going on right at that moment to bum me out, that all of the anger and grief that I had not allowed myself to feel had chosen that moment to come welling to the surface. Finally figuring out what was bothering me, was one of the keys to getting over it.
Two of the other keys were figuring out that in order to be truly a happy person, that I had to start accepting reality as it was, not as I wanted it to be and that I needed to learn the art of forgiving. Not that I've always done as well as I could in these two areas, but over-all since this blue funk hit me back in the late 80's, I've been a pretty happy person ever since.
Anyway, the reason that I'm writing about this topic again is that the other day I read a post here on AR where quite a few members were whining and crying about lead generation companies and how they are nothing more than parasites on the real estate industry. It was obvious that there was a great deal of anger built up that was directed at these companies and while I can understand why a real estate agent would be angry at these companies for "stealing" their real estate clients and then selling them back to them as leads, I feel that this anger is misplaced and unhealthy!
The reason that I think that their anger is misplaced and unhealthy is that they are failing to "accept reality as it is, not as they want it to be!"
It's true that these lead generation companies put a lot of time, effort and resources into putting themselves between the agents and the public and they do an excellent job at it. It's also true that after snagging a minimum amount of information from the potential client that they charge a lot of money to the agents that utilize their services for this information and little else! Furthermore, it's also true that a lot of these lead generation companies mislead the customers into thinking that they are doing more than simply collecting their information and selling it to whomever will pay for it. All that said, that's the reality of the situation!
There isn't a whole bunch that you or I can do about it! But as I learned a long time ago as the result of my blue funk, being pissed off and carrying that anger around with you won't do you any good!
It's far better to accept reality as it is and to put your energies into working around or through this reality. If they are beating you at the SEO game, you have a choice. You can continue building and marketing your website in order to compete with them. Or if this doesn't work, you can put your energies into other ways of getting to these potential clients BEFORE they click on one of these company's websites.
Is It Even Possible To Compete With Such a Well Financed Competitor?
I'm here to tell you that it is! One of the first things that I learned here on AR was a bit of wisdom that Karen George mentioned in one of her posts. She said something to the effect that if you could get to be the number one ranked website if you simply built the biggest website dedicate to that particular market. I believe that she used the term "Chicago Real Estate" as her example. She said that if you built a site with enough content to be the biggest site for that term, that you would rank as number one....ie that content was king!
I wonder how many of the agents that were whining on that post that I referred to above (I didn't link to it because this is a fairly harsh critique and I didn't want anyone to think that I was personally attacking the lady who wrote it), only have basic 5 page electronic brochure types of web pages.
When I read Ms. George's post, I took it to heart. My goal is to add a page a day to my website. I haven't been living up to my goal, yet by doing what I've done, I've raised my web site's google ranking for "st. louis real estate" to a point where I'm on page two of a google search. Other than content and some other poor attempts as SEO, there is no other reason for my site to have made the gains that it has. It's not a state of the art site, I don't buy back links and I don't really pay to market it. Ms. George is right, Content is King!
So, yes. It is possible to compete with these guys, but it takes a concerted effort consistantly applied over time! So, stop your whining and start your writing!
***Note: The agent who wrote the article that I am referring to has given me permission to link to it. Click here if you would like to read it too.
R.B. "Bob" Mitchell
ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.
Bob Mitchell is president of ValueList Real Estate Services, St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company. If you would like to find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program, please feel free to visit our web site at valuelistre.com
;)
;)
Hi Bob! I want to stop by and say this is a great post but that would be cheesy even though it is true! Hope all is well in your part of the world!