The Hidden World of Real Estate GhostBlogging Content (aka "PLR")

A Long Tail, Short Tail Tale

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 09:13:21 -0700

All of us know that it would be nice if our pages could rank up at the top of the search engine result screens, but since we consistently see the nationals’ paid links up there at the top, putting too much time into the project seems likely to be mis-allocated attention. About the only real news that came out of the Google’s “broad core algorithm update” a few months back was the sobering tidbit that Google changes its algorithm not just often (as in every couple of months) –but, actually, something like twice a day! This was uncovered by a previously-uncelebrated Google pronouncement from 2012: “…we launched 665 improvements to search in 2012.” So much for tricking Google—or any of the serious search engines—in any way. The cats lurking next to the SERP cheese are definitely not sleeping. Any black hat SEO tricksters who weren’t pounced upon in the morning will be supper for sure by afternoon… So what’s a Realtor to do? ActiveRain bloggers definitely are on the right track by posting fresh local commentary as often as possible on their sites. It still seems to be the only foolproof non-cost prohibitive way to attract new real estate-minded internet searchers. And if the SEO gurus whose statistics point to the advantage of long tail vs short tail keywords are right, just add your territory name before, after, or in close proximity to the search terms your post is emphasizing. At least THAT's straightforward enough! SHORT TAIL EXAMPLE: “homes for sale” LONG TAIL EXAMPLE: “Middlebury homes for sale” or “homes for sale in Middlebury, Ohio.” -------------- Mitch Claymore is Editor of RealtyPLR.com, suppliers of original blog posts to too-busy Realtors. Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Real Estate Blogging: Never (really) 'Nuff Said

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:44:26 -0700

Our helpful friends at the NAR often champion ActiveRain's mantra about the indisputable importance of regular blogging, so when I happened across this yesteday in Realtor.org'sDaily Real Estate News (their own blog) it was bracing— it is, after all, what we work to provide our Realtor subscribers:"Organic search traffic: Content plays a big role in how your site ranks in search engines. “Producing more valuable content will help boost your domain authority, which is a measure of how likely your site is to rank highly in search engines, and producing targeted content helps you rank for specific keywords,” writes Forbes columnist Jayson DeMers. “The combination of these effects will lead you to higher organic search traffic, which is a measure of the number of people who found your site through search.” You can find your organic search results on Google Analytics under and Acquisition tab."Great—as far as it goes. Realtors want Google and Bing to love their sites, and to direct their searchers to them, but with every fresh entry there's a bonus that's every bit as commercially important. Once a new client hits that site, if they are greeted with a post that's dated to show it's no more than a day or two old , that visitor gets exactly the impression wanted: they've found the local site that's the most live and active--authored by an agent who is all over web tech! (Thanks to Stewleonards.com for the very 'fresh' image).Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Agents Risk Becoming Irrelevant? Right on, Dusty Baker!

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Mon, 09 May 2016 22:54:14 -0700

This morning, Rainer Dusty Baker wrote a telling “Biggest Reason Many Real Estate Agents Are Becoming Irrelevant.” It was right on (if you haven’t read it yet, do!). Its action point was that being on social media is now the only way to stay ahead of your local competing Realtors. The goal is to be atop Google when people think about who their next agent should be. The three ways to do that, per Baker, is to have multiple websites point to you, constantly update your online presence with NEW (his caps!) material, and have that material contain the right keywords. We furnish brand new insightful, relevant blogs three times a week that cover the second two requirements. All you do then is point to them on your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts (like, “Just posted a juicy take about "How to Find a Fixer” that links to that morning’s blog). Your blogs are shepherded and edited by our Ivy League graduate editorial staff (so the idiom is purely American English, not the kind of strange, slightly foreign-sounding language you get elsewhere). They deal with the universal topics your next clients are searching for, customized with your own town name (it’s yours exclusively, so no other local competitor will ever post the same stuff). We send them to you to simply copy and paste into your blog space…so your time can be spent telling everybody what’s new today!We’ve been doing this for our Realtor subscribers for more than four years now. Come check us out: five minutes later, your first blog can be online!Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

We Asked Ourselves the Same Question

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 02:37:34 -0700

Doesn't it seem like every community has someone — a broker or salesperson — who just is the one who seems to have the Internet figured out. Certainly that's what happens in small towns. Their name pops up whenever anyone queries about real estate in the community; their blog and their home page shows up more than anyone else’s whenever a search for ‘listing agents’ or ‘homes for sale’ (or anything else about local real estate) is being looked for. The question we asked ourselves is HOW do they become what seems to be the local expert? Especially since there are many other equally experienced agents around. Do they spend all day on their Twitter and Facebook accounts? Do they pay hundreds (okay, realistically — thousands) of dollars for Google Adwords ads? And how do they have time to do the actual job of a REALTOR® when they spend all day fussing with the Internet? It’s clear that web pre-eminence goes to those with the most recent information about real estate queries — but only when the search engines ‘trust’ a source. Search engines don’t ‘trust’ fly-by-night sites. The top-of-the-page winners are sites that consistently present valid information, not sites or blogs that are quickly abandoned (that ‘bounce’). How does a practicing REALTOR® have time to consistently present updated information that is engaging enough to hold new visitors' interest for a minute or more, week after week, and month after month? The answer is by forming a kind of coop with others to share the expense of a staff of researchers and writers, and then blogging with content that’s fresh and not widely available. Of course, they add their own hyper-local, purely personal posts whenever they have time. But busy pros know that when they get busy, the blog — and the website — have to go by the boards. But since subscribers need no more than 5 minutes to customize each article for their community (they get to reserve their territory’s name, like “Elk Grove” or “Miami Beach,” and as long as they subscribe, are the only ones allowed to use it to customize their blog posts), they always have time to blog. That’s all it takes for them to become their community leader — the local REALTOR® who has the Internet figured out!Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

It's Staylight Davings Time!

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:53:10 -0700

For those of us who always feel a little creeped out when it’s pitch black outside long before we head home (even when work ends early), it’s worth losing an hour’s sleep in order to nudge the sunset back a little. They say Benjamin Franklin thought the idea up, and I don’t doubt it. Anyone who, like Ben in his Poor Richard days, scribbles away the daylight hours in cramped little rooms with only a dictionary or two for companionship, applaud messing with the clock if it means we won’t have completely wasted what little daylight there is. Just when it seems as if the long winter won’t ever peter out — voila! — the TV, radio, and bloggers all chime in to remind us it’s time to spring forward. I’m glad it happens on the most appropriate day of the week, Sun Day: it’s only fitting for an institution like Staylight Davings Time. Strange, though, how almost everybody mispronounces it. ---------------------- If time saving is a constant issue, and more and more often a week passes when you find yourself too busy to blog...my team is here to do it for you! Mitch Claymore is the Editor of RealtyPLR, leading ghostblogging service for real estate and mortgage professionals too busy to blog as often as they’d like. Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

News Flash for a Desert Island

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:20:42 -0800

ON MONDAY, every Realtor® who has spent the last four years stranded on a desert island would have been astonished by the news! It came in the form of a release from the National Association of Realtors® and Google, who announced the results of a wide-reaching joint study. It was of interest primarily to the castaways, since every working professional in the real estate industry who has not been cut off from civilization already knows the conclusion: Online real estate searches have been growing in volume! The number of real estate searches grew 253% over the past four years. And James Bond goes after the bad guys, hobbits are attracted to gold rings, and the national debt has been growing a bit. Busy real estate pros won’t have time to plow through Monday’s study, but as a time-saver, here are some nuggets: · Buyers rely on search engines and general websites when they begin their search. · Buyers rely more on mobile applications more toward the end of their search (equally startling, they probably use the same mobile phones to talk with people who aren’t in the same room with them). · 90% of homebuyers searched online during their home buying process. I might add, the sun has been tending to rise in the east (though there is increasing evidence that it isn’t setting there). Google has a Head of Real Estate, Patrick Grandinetti. He concluded that the real estate industry would be smart to target homebuyers “where they look for and consume information.” That would be online, on “relevant websites” and the like. The CEO of Realtor.com agreed with us that the Internet can be used to connect Realtors with home buyers (you can check us out at www.RealtyPLR.com to see how we go about it). But if you’re one of those out there on a desert island, maybe not so much. Mitch Claymore is Editor of RealtyPLR, the confidential ghostblogging subscription service. Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Like Your Own Private Label Wine; Here are This Week's Blog Tips

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 01:35:07 -0800

RealtyPLR's weekly “ghostwriting” blog service is a little bit like a jarred pasta sauce --one that mom doctors with her special touch before serving. Or a private label wine produced with your name on it. The articles are the quickest way to get blogging and stay blogging ... the key to attracting the leads that lead to real business. Here are this week’s tips from our editor: Advantages and Pitfalls for Mortgage Co-Signings Editor's Note: “Buy a home” is a heavily coveted search term. We’ve combined it here with the niche topic “mortgage co-signing” to help attract potential first-time home buyers (or their property owning parents!). Take advantage of both search terms here and geo-code both. Squeezing More Profit from Your Home Sale Editor’s note: Every seller loves the word “profit”: if you have a hot tip or unique facet to your marketing plan, this blog is a great place to brag about it! Don't Let Rental Property Manage You Editor's Note: With rental rates on the rise nationwide, investment properties are a hot topic these days - and with that topic comes property managment. Take advantage of the interest with this article aimed at attracting serious potential investor clients. In the Wake of Home Foreclosure Editor's Note: "home foreclosures" combined with your geocoded territory name are common searches -- even for web readers who are only interested in the state of real estate in your area. BTW, any ActiveRainer interested in subscribing to RealtyPLR gets a free 30-day trial: Try It Now! Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Blog Tips for RealtyPLR subscribers this Thanksgiving Week!

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 01:14:36 -0800

RealtyPLR subscribers should have received this Monday's brand new PLR articles to use in your holiday blogging this week. Here are four tips for extra credit: 1.ThanksKitchenis a season-specific blog aimed at SEO term “real estate listings.” In case you'd like extra customizing: This blog could be used to highlight your support of your own local non-profit. Substitute your local charity’s pitch, leaving out the national Red Cross. You can link to it to your charity to add SEO for you AND your cause! 2.REO – Bankers’ Codeaimed at high target value search term “REO.” Extra customizing: Check your local MLS for current REO data in your central zip code, then insert one or two of your local statistics. 3.Interviewing for Remodels brings in the“home values” SEO search term. Extra customizing: If you have a great contractor to recommend for an interview, why not add a line or two to the end of this blog as your personal endorsement?Don’t forget to link directly to his or her company website; your vendor will greatly appreciate it -- and your blog will benefit from added local SEO juice! 4.Virtual Toursfocuses on keyword phrase “virtual tours.” Our research points to “virtual tours” again scoring as a high-flyer in the most-trafficked recent searches (if virtual tours are not part of your marketing already, this may not be an article for you – but based on what we learned in Orlando at the NAR convention last week, you might want to consider adding it!) Extra customizing: If you do use virtual tours in your marketing, add hyperlinks to one or two of your virtual tours. Be sure to mention the address (street, town, state) specifically for GEO-coding bonus points! That's all there is to it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Any ActiveRain users interested in subscribing to our services can get a free 30-day trial: Try It Now! Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

EMDs Get Punched by Google's Panda

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:26:38 -0700

THE PANDA in question isn’t nearly as cute and cuddly as the ones you see contentedly munching bamboo leaves. This is the one that is the code name for Google’s active algorithm – the top secret code the search engine giant uses to determine what list of pages appear when users type in ‘houses for sale in Kalamazoo’ or ‘listings in Peoria.’ This Panda has attitude: it can maul an innocent website it doesn’t like in a flash. It is good business practice for Realtors® to avoid offending the Panda. In fact, you’d better try to feed it whatever it wants! The perpetual problem is trying to figure out what it does want. Its dietary preferences are fickle. A few weeks ago, it started turning up its nose at one of its previously tolerated morsels – the EMDs (Exact-Match Domains). EMDs are the www dot NAMES that exactly duplicate a query: if, for instance, you have named your site ThreeBedroomDoubleWidesInTucson dot com, you knew Google might reward you with a high ranking for a query with exactly that term. As of the beginning of this month, it turns out, not so much anymore. According to Matt Cutts, the public spokesman for Google’s algorithm lab (think of him as Panda’s keeper), this is just an incremental step in that direction. It’s like Penguin – another of Google’s bestiary (the one that pecks away at spam and bad links). Through it all, you who post and blog with real content -- articles that please actual humans (the kind the staff at RealtyPLR.com send you every Monday) -- don’t need to fear the latest Panda update. You are still as likely as ever to be a favorite snackable. Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Cutting Off Your Nose (to spite your Facebook)?

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:09:12 -0700

YOU DON’T HAVE TO LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA to make your peace with it/them. But just turning your back and walking away from it/them isn’t a very good idea either (hence my title). Unlikely as it seems to anyone over the age of 30 -- illogical as it may seem -- the social media advocates are truth-tellers: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and their cousins are POWERFUL marketing tools that fetch actual authentic bite-the-nickel OMG it’s real! real estate business. ActiveRain itself is a social medium, although its value explains itself better than something like a Twitter -- which at first glance seems not much more than a barely grownup version of Junior High School texting-gossip. After the recent dry spell, years when just keeping the doors open has been such a challenge, rare is the agent who willingly overlooks any opportunity to cultivate business. So if you are a broker or agent who is canny enough to tune into the blogosphere, yet at the same time are actively avoiding the rest of social media, the chances are good that you feel awful about it. You probably don’t even want to think about it. The thought, pure waste of time probably occurs whenever you think about getting involved. For those who may have missed it, a recent Realtor® Magazine piece had a wonderfully energizing take on how to handle the whole issue: (http://realtormag.realtor.org/technology/feature/article/2012/03/spend-only-one-hour-week-social-media) . Author Tarbox focuses on an approach that’s remarkably similar to what we at RealtyPLR concentrate upon. It can be summed up in a single basic precept, though it can be presented every which-way: · Jealously budget the time you spend creating online outreach…or · Don’t let the screens suck you in…or · Treat the Web like the pet wildcat it is...or · You be the Boss (else soon it will be sending you out for coffee)! If you’ve been avoiding social media but wish there were a way you could put it to work, take heart. Just decide how many minutes you’re going to spend, go grab a timer from the kitchen (don’t use the computer alarm -- you’ll wind up ignoring it) and stick to your guns. That’s the time you’ll give it. Not five minutes more. Don’t try to master any of it at one sitting. Just wade in now, come back later. When the timer tells you it’s time to get back to business, pay attention to it. And keep in mind, feel good: you have been doing business! Mitch Claymore is Editor of RealtyPLR, the confidential ghostblogging subscription service. Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Now Here's a Shocker: "Thanks, Google!"

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:47:23 -0700

I never thought these words would come out of this keyboard, but OhMyGolly, thank you, Google! />Thursday before last, the Wall Street Journal spilled the beans on what Google has been up to for the past two years -- and how it fits into the ‘next generation of search’. It hasn’t been announced officially, but the Journal reports that ‘millions of sites’ that rely on Google’s current page-ranking results will be affected. That’s every real estate shop: all of us; everybody; the whole shebang; period. ">Details are, as usual, under wraps -- but what Monolith of Mountain View does acknowledge is the shift from the current keyword-based system to one based on ‘Semantic Search’. The WSJ’s simplest explanation is that the new Google search method will “figure out which to show in search results…by examining a Web page and identifying information about specific entities rather than only look for keywords.” Semantic Search refers to the process of understanding the actual meaning of words, while Keyword Search rates a website based on the words it contains. If you’ve ever chuckled over a perplexing blog or article that doesn’t seem to make much sense, one that repeats phrases like ‘home sales’ over and over in awkward sentences, you probably recognized it as a way of gaming the system. The problem always remained that actual flesh-and-blood readers (clients) couldn’t help but be driven away by the less-than-scintillating wit thus produced. ActiveRain bloggers -- whose entries always make semantic sense -- should be cheering (especially those who are also RealtyPLR subscribers). Their sensible contributions are certainly part of what Google has been quietly amassing: “hundreds of millions” of entries of people, places and things and the semantic sense they make. It couldn’t be better news for those who continue to post content that people care to read on topics they seek…as opposed to only tailoring page titles, URLs, tags, etc. in a dubious SEO game. We’ll keep a close eye on the results as the “next generation of search” ramps up and the Google experience changes dramatically. But in the meantime, a simple, “Thanks, Google!” should do nicely.Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Me Like Eucalyptus!

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:11:54 -0800

But who doesn’t? Whenever I fall for a blog title like the above, as often as not I’ve already whizzed past it while speed-scanning for something else. But if there is such a thing as latent curiosity effect, I’ve got it. The chances are pretty good that a few moments later I’ll be thinking, ‘What th??? and go back to see what the heck this is about… Koalas? An obscure Aussie dance craze? No matter what it turns out to be, I probably won’t be able to resist going back to find out. So that blog’s author wins the first big battle: the one for eyeballs. Which is what prompted this discussion: it's about creating titles for real estate blog entries. It is said that blog authors fall into one of three categories: those who blog to entertain themselves, those who blog to entertain others, and those who (like us) blog as part of their marketing strategy. We blog first to attract attention, then to establish and build relationships. Since we are local, we can't match national firms who can mount expensive TV and print campaigns which do little more than repeat their brand name with some positive association (an association which sometimes can be amazing in how little it has to do with what they are actually selling). In residential real estate, the odds of gathering the kind of eyeballs we want with a title like Me Like Eucalyptus is remote. For us, a great real estate blog title may incorporate the curiosity factor (or the surprise factor), but that’s only half the assignment. It needs also to connect in a real way with our customers’ hot buttons. Examples might be “Home Sales Hit Apple!”; “[town name] Realty Dervish Whirls Clockwise”; “The Movers Blocked My Escape Route!”… or just about any curious title that touches on some aspect of listing, buying, selling, moving in or out – the issues that are floating close to the top of prospective clients’ consciousness. While it’s not always easy to lasso a wildly improbable blog title and tie it into a meaningful blog entry, when you succeed in doing so you have a true real estate blog title champ: one that's both informative and memorable. “Home Sales Hit Apple”, for instance, might deal with the prospective home seller’s need to become their own William Tell by keeping their eye on the target -- buyers who appreciate their property’s unique features; “Dervish” might be a tongue-in-cheek way of announcing recent closings; “Escape”, could chronicle a recent client’s moving adventure. Me Like Eucalyptus? Did I ever tell you about the time I was living near the beach in Southern California? A doctor friend from back east insisted on taking home some leafy branches from my back yard. I'd always thought those trees were just sort of smelly, but he told me… Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Google's Newest Eye-Opener: More Than Just Caffeine

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:53:24 -0800

Yup. It’s the Freshness Algorithm, announced late last year on the official Google website. It’s one of the 500 or so changes they make every year to keep everyone coming to them first whenever they search for anything. In case you haven’t had that first cuppa yet, that was no misprint. 500 changes a year, They have buildings full of bright techies working day and night to keep us all off balance. Last year they finished perfecting their “Caffeine Web Indexing System” which they modestly described as allowing them to “crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale.” If you have a web site, in 2011 you’d already noticed how well it works: if your site isn’t updated regularly, it’s been sliding sliding sliding… In case that wasn’t enough, in November Google went a step further in their push for up-to-date relevant results: it’s the Freshness Algorithm. It looks for the ‘latest news’ for every search query. I hope you’re sitting down. They say it will begin to yield more results that “might only be minutes old.” Of course, harried real estate web owners can choose to ignore the announcement. (They can also move to a nearby desert, find a sand dune, and stick their head under it). Or they can glue themselves to their computer and just keep posting new blogs until the electricity is cut off, which will eventually happen since they’ve been too busy blogging to pay the electric bill. Or they can subscribe to a high quality Private Label Rights service, and use it to painlessly keep their web and blog pages at the top of the Caffeine/Freshness results. If that’s the choice, we here at RealtyPLR.com will of course be delighted, and possibly you will be, too – since so few realtors are even aware that the fresh content competition has gotten so –– caffeinated. P.S. The free trial month is still in effect! Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Is your real estate blog just slipslidin' away?

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 02:08:56 -0800

I hear it all the time, and it sounds awfully familiar. It used to happen to me, too – I’d make a new years resolution nailing down exactly how diligent I was going to be in keeping my blog and site fresh fresh fresh, and then…I bet you know what happens next… Life happens. Business happens. Everything else in the world rains in, and when the floodwaters recede, chances are most of us are left with blog sites with an ancient posting date right there for all to see. The message that sends comes over loud and clear. Last entry four months ago. Might as well say “Dead as a parrot in a Python skit”. Who wants to read a blog that’s four months out of date? When your blog is headlining Labor Day grilling notes but Santa is ringing his bell outside the mall entrance, count your readers and your blog among the dearly departed. Potential clients who used to stop by to catch the latest on your local market will have given up. Your hard-earned SEO juice has gone bad in the fridge. You can almost see the cobwebs hanging off your byline; wrinkle your nose at the musty aroma… Enough! It’s almost the New Year, so what better time for everyone to begin anew! I for one have long since determined to make it a hallmark of 2012 to put major effort into rewarding every visit to my blog (and my home page, my tweetperch, etc.) with new material. And whenever the inevitable happens and I can’t steal the hour it usually takes to create a worthwhile entry from scratch, instead of just giving up I know where to find some newly-minted Private Label Rights material that lets me skip straight to a final edit in five minutes flat. In case anyone else finds themselves avoiding eye contact with their own real estate blog because the last post coincides with the Grand Opening of the Great Pyramid at Giza, take heart. RealtyPLR was founded by real estate colleagues who recognized that this is a universal problem in the Internet Age, and they put some elbow grease into developing a low-cost solution: http://www.realtyplr.com. So how is it that I, a writer/editor, could ever have fallen into the same inertia trap as everyone else? Must have something to do with this year’s massive changeover from monthly to weekly releases of new articles. Just ask the cobbler’s children. I believe even they had to make up a nursery rhyme before their father would do anything about their bare feet problem.Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Am I Just Imagining This? Or Can Google Adwords Get a Bit Pricey?

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:38:08 -0700

Let's try and keep this just between you and me...(we wouldn't want any of this to get out to the other brokers and agents who are trying to corral a lot of search engine traffic). Is anyone else listening? Good! Here's something I'm beginning to suspect. It could be that some Google AdWords campaigns might get a little costly. In fact, that might even be deliberate! I know it sounds crazy, but just stay with me on this. Here's what I've detected. When you go to the trouble to build a terrific site -- including a home page that is artfully constructed to feature the keywords that will match many potential clients looking for your specialty in your area -- and then to design a Google AdWords ad that features the very same keywords, and then to add those exact same keywords to your campaign...after a while, you might occasionally note that the amount you are asked to bid in order to have your ad appear on the first page is sort of...well, costly. And sometimes you'll also notice that it isn't because of landing page quality or loading time -- it's costly because of 'relevance'. And since it couldn't possibly be more relevant (since all the terms are in perfect harmony, and since your firm has been doing business for years and nobody in your office has ever been sent to prison), you may check out what Google says about this, and conclude that the reason it costs so much is because the general public isn't clicking on your ad much. You may also sense that the reason they aren't clicking on your ad much is BECAUSE THEY CAN'T SEE THE DA**ED AD BECAUSE IT'S NOT ON THE FIRST PAGE! Sorry. I don't mean to shout. The good news is that you can eventually cure this by paying an exhorbitant amount to get it to appear on the first page where people can see it, so they can click on it. Then it will become relevant enough to Google so that they will not have to charge you so much anymore. That is, after you've paid them whatever they want for however long they tell you to. They'll be the judge of that. Another way to go: practice yoga, and let the material world go. Or take a few deep breaths and redirect your attention to building organic (unpaid) traffic. You may think I've got an ax to grind by the second recommendation since it's what we do. That would be hard to deny. Ommmmmmmmmm...Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Charlie Sheen: Top 5 Lessons We All Can Learn

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 01:03:25 -0700

Charlie Sheen is still on the road, headed to Houston to milk the last ounce out of what for most of us would have been an extremely humiliatiing series of personal embarrassments. The top-rated TV star may be an abhorrent example of personal deportment, but man! does he know how to wade headfirst into a tsunami, grab hold of the first uprooted lemon tree he sees, and immediately set a new record for promoting lemonade futures. There are many, many lessons to be learned from Charlie's last 60 days, and I'd love to hear everyone else's personal favorites. But here are my current Top Five, in reverse order of importance: When faced with reputation destruction, don't wait - jump on the offense, become a victim, refuse to take its lying down, etc. In all matters, holler at the top of your lungs. It's more interesting. Not only is there no such thing as bad publicity, sometimes you should make matters worse to increase the benefits. Never -- absolutely never -- pass up a free media opportunity, and as soon as public interest starts to cool, dream up a new even riskier manuver. When dreaming up your next blog post, don't shy away from tried-and-true cliches. Go ahead, use a celebrity name to attract attention -- where's the harm? (And while you're at it, stop worrying about using that trusty old "Top 5" ploy. I know I can't resist reading them.) ( ;-) MitchMitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Supermarket COLA's Got Me Thinking...

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:53:39 -0700

Every time She sends me to the market to pick up the missing ingredient, I'm struck by the difference between the official COLA inflation numbers and the unofficial experience I have when I check out prices on the cola aisle. The COLA/cola disconnect has some repercussions for our business, too. When people learn to distrust the official inflation numbers, it can't help but make them wary of the economic projections based on them. Over the past few years we've become all too aware of the exquisite sensitivity of real estate markets to economic policy, and of economic reality to both. If more effort is given to bringing the two colas back into harmony, common sense tells us some extra fizz will also return to the market!Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

PLR: We've Got It Exactly Dackwarb

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 06:36:33 -0700

Of all the definitions of who we are, I like this one best: in the real estate SEO world, we are the ones who've got it exactly backward. While everyone else is struggling to make their site and their blog so appealing that the world will create links back to their content, we're the outfit that bends over backwards to make sure nobody -- and I mean NObody -- does anything of the kind. At the end of the day, if we're batting 100 we've been linked to by absolutely no one. We may not send companywide emails about it, but the warm glow of fulfillment is definitely there when we pack up shop and head home; and we're not kicking the dog when we get there, either. In Private Label RightsLand, we encourage our subscribers to pretend they've never heard of us. When they find they can no longer resist sending us a glowing testimonial, we mask their identities (we've grudgingly lowered our standards a bit, and now let slip their intitials and state). It's not that we're overly modest or anything: it's more like protecting the value of what we provide. We think of it the way Presidential speechwriters do: if the audience senses out that the words coming out of The Man's mouth aren't precisely what's going through his head, the work wasn't up to snuff. So to our staff, getting ignored is like getting a pat on the back. We'd relish being the wallflowers at the Real Estate Search Engine Awards Ball. And when we walk in the door, being the ones whose name nobody remembers is reward enough! Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Your Territory Is Your Ace in the Hole!

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 02:01:31 -0700

The large amountof otherwise productive time spent in pursuit of high placement on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) is done for good reason. Strong SERP placement is the virtual equivalent of "location location location" in the real world. Or having yard signs on corner lots all over town. Only unlike our traditional storefront or signage placement choices, we can't count existing competitors within an X-mile radius so we can do intelligent budgeting. On the Internet there may be thousands (or hundred of thousands) of existing competitors, with more thousands apt to make an appearance out of nowhere. That's why it's so important to structure the fresh content for both blog and site with location as well as searchword relevant phrasing. If your territory is Umato, ID, you want to be the leading source of fresh content about real estate, homes for sale, etc. in Umato. We're always here to help, of course -- but even if you are able to spare the time to research and create the two or three fresh articles a week that will keep you on top, you definitely don't want to be competing with the big dogs of real estate search. But that's okay - a sizeable percentage of the web populace tilt local, and appreciate content that zeroes in specifically on their area of interest. The search engines definitely agree. In short: Own your territory. It's easier than you think!Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Brand Top-of-Mind: Something to Think About?

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 02:59:57 -0700

The marketing experts talk endlessly about 'brand top of mind', a likeable term that explains itself. Because my day is spent dealing with things webical, I make it a habit to pause when I hear the beep that signals an enote dispatch from practicalecomerce.com, the foremost periodical in the field. This morning, the lead article is about ideas for generating unique content, now seen as doubly necessary in light of February's Google 'Farmer' update. Without quoting Armando Roggio's entire article, it reports that early data suggests Google users are getting better results, but that the changes have reduced traffic to sites that "simply don't have a lot of unique, 'value-adding' content." It offers suggestions for web marketers "who sometime struggle to find new content ideas". At the core is the connection between unique and entertaining web content and brand top-of-mind recognition. We all hope to establish our personal 'brand' as the first thing that darts through the minds of our area neighbors when they think 'real estate'. But it's equally a meat-and-potatoes issue for the wider internet audience, who don't live here. Yet. Having a handsome, professional-looking site reinforced by up- to-date coding is an utter necessity, of course. But to achieve that 'top-of-mind' status, there's a next step: differentiating your site above all the other handsome, professional-looking local sites. Google has apparently figured out the differentiator it thinks web users are looking for: so why not provide it? Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Tail Is Wagging Google!

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 08:21:11 -0700

This is a tale about a tail -- and it's no short one. Last month, when Google's main Spokesgoogler Matt Cutts reemphasized the search giant's renewed efforts to help "higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries", he wasn't talking about searching for monkeys. The "long tail" in question doesn't belong on some long-tailed macaque: it's a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) term, This kind of "long tail" is what you key in when you google something like "houses for sale in Dubuque, Iowa" instead of just "houses for sale". The longer a search term is, the longer its tail...and this is the second time in less than a year Google has led us to believe they want to zero in on long tail search results. This is no monkey business: it's vitally important to our websites, our industry, and ultimately, sales. You may question exactly how Google is going about adjusting its formulas, but I don't think this particular 900 pound gorilla is kidding when it puts in print that it's working overtime "to reduce rankings for low-quality sites - sites which are low-value add for users" or which "copy content from other websites".[ Official Google Blog.] In Google's words, when an online user searches for "houses for sale in Dubuque, Iowa", they want to come up with "sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on". And those sites better have more fresh info than just today's version of the MLS listings, because it has to be "original". We might call this Google's ‘monkey see, monkey do' penalty. This is great news for anyone who has time to research, write and post thoughtful analyses and in-depth reports...at least a couple of times a week. Google will be delighted at your effort, but only when you keep it up month after month. Of course, if you also have the notion of running a real estate business at the same time, that might not be such good news (not by coincidence, RealtyPLR can help in this regard, but that's a shorter tale). Anyone who has had the delightful experience of hearing "Google has you on top" knows how important paying heed to the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) can be. It means phones ringing and appointments queuing up -- especially if the other agents in town are only monkeying around.Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Laptop Video & Food for Thought

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 02:31:07 -0700

I finally have to admit surrender. After years of successfully avoiding watching any TV or movies on cramped computer screens, I've found myself increasingly having to do so -- usually after forgetting to record a show on the DVR. People like me have a fondness for BIG screens, not tiny monitors. But lately I've come to notice how many pieces of view-worthy video are only available on the web, especially the short, controversial (frequently hilarious) ones. Real estate web impresarios, there is a lesson here. Not that video is utterly essential - I don't believe that's true. The well-made residential tour is a powerful tool, for sure, but usually only after its site has been found. The lesson I take is the same one that drove some to accept the demands of the web seriously earlier than others. It's the lesson that -- like giving in to laptop video or tweets in the afternoon -- embracing change means keeping a sympathetic eye on the shifting communications landscape. That landscape is where we find our marketplace and our clients, young and old. And who knows? When we make a habit out of keeping pace with the front of the parade, we might look around and find that we just became a leader!Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~

Betting the House (on Google)

Mitch Claymore (RealtyPLR.com) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 04:46:15 -0700

Nothing against games of chance -- I enjoy a hand of blackjack now and then as much as anyone does. I even used to enjoy an occasional tug on a one-armed bandit (but that was before they turned them all into ATMs). Nonetheless, since I never bet enough to make it feel even slightly dangerous, you wouldn't call me a true gambler. That puts me in the same category as 95% of the rest of America. That's probably why it is so maddening for anyone with their own real estate web site: suddenly they find themselves in what seems to be a high stakes game of Wheel of Fortune. They've invested in a quality web site, hung out their shingle, and then they discover that maybe they'll turn up on the first page of Google or Bing search results...or maybe not. Sometimes YES!, sometimes NO!. They can pay big bucks to get into the Paid column on the right (but lots of potential clients ignore the paid ads). It's not Google or Bing's fault that they come off like the croupiers at Monte Carlo. They're in the business of bringing people to sites that have the latest info on what they're searching for, and that means avoiding crooks who are out to cheat the system. So last month when Google announced major changes to the top secret formula that determines who wins (the ‘big algorithmic improvement'), a lot of folks in the know did the SEO equivalent of rolling their eyes, because when Googlers significantly change their formula, the LAST thing they do is to specify what they are changing to the people who want to trick them. It would be like Caesar's Palace explaining a better way to count cards. So, what do site proprietors and bloggers do when they're involuntarily chained to the tables inside the Casino de Internet? Basically, play it straight: keep your site and blog up-to-the-minute with real content that targets potential customers' search queries, avoid tricky mechanical code maneuvers (the search engines will disregard them anyway), and provide the kind of professional service that makes web word-of-mouth a definite positive. Mitch Claymore Editor-in-Chief RealtyPLR.com LLC www.RealtyPLR.com ~ You Work. We Blog. ~