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Five Things We Learned At RainCamp That You Can Implement Right Away

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Arch Telecom

RainCamp was different; specifically Ben Kinney was different.  Ben taught tools anstrategies that he actually uses; most of them are free.  These are the type of things that you can’t read in a book and no-one else is teaching.  Ben learned these techniques by trial and error.   Guest speaker, Marianna Wagner, a KW MAPS coach and Realtor® in the Denver area declared, “well you know I’m giving all my secrets to my competitors…”.  I’ve never heard a speaker say that before. 

Although we don’t sell real estate; we do provide applications that assist real estate agents to sell.  Over the years, we’ve sponsored many events, but Denver was our first RainCamp.  We learned many things, but these five you can implement right away and we did too.

 Five Things You Can Implement Right Away 

  1. Create one way links to your website.  To get your website to rank high on search engines you should focus on (in order of importance) links, page titles, keywords and age.  We’ve always linked our websites, but we used reciprocal links.  Ben taught us that a one way link is viewed by search engines as an endorsement while a two way link is not as highly valued by search engines; they are viewed as partnerships.
  2. Use single property websites but do not make the URL address specific.  Buyers search by area, not by address.  By making the URL “copper mountain homes” versus 123 Main Street you increase your website ranking power.  Then link the single property sites to your agent site and you’ll drag up your agent site.  We always promoted single property sites to be address specific.  The problem with that is once you sell the property, the site loses it’s value and you never get to “age” it; which is an SEO value.  .
  3. On the back of your brochure box flyers, offer other properties.  Ben uses our 800-call capture on his signs; a number that prospects can call to hear recorded information about the property and view pictures.  We suggested to Ben to not use flyers, to force the prospect to call.  Ben corrected us that if you offer other properties on the back page you increase your marketing leverage, smart.
  4. Your Blog is a Website.  The same rules for getting your website to rank high apply to your blog.  Your blog should be geo-specific, short (500 words), named after a phrase that would rank and have tags.  We always considered that people read your blog after they find your site; but the reverse is actually true.
  5. Mixed media is on the way so get prepared.  Mixed media, such as a video blog is already being indexed by search engines.  YouTube is using close captioning to rank their videos. 

 

As Ben said, “what got me here, will not get me there…”

 

Show All Comments Sort:
Catherine Chaudemanche - Edison & Central NJ
Metuchen Keller Williams Elite Realty / Middlesex County, NJ - Edison, NJ
Full Time, Informed and Involved- Results Driven

I use property websites and thought about not picking a 123mainstreet domain but something more general for SEO reasons (i.e cityhomesforsale....)....There are pros and cons.

Mar 18, 2010 12:01 PM
Arch Telecom
Arch Telecom - Austin, TX

Hi Kathy,

You cannot forget that the seller often likes for the url to be specific to their address.  Also, potential buyers will search the street address and it is important to control the information that they discover.

 

One solution is to get the 123mainstreet.com address to use during listing presentations and to pacify the seller and have it point towards a more established and SEO friendly url.

Mar 18, 2010 03:01 PM
1~Judi Barrett
Integrity Real Estate Services 116 SE AVE N, Idabel, OK 74745 - Idabel, OK
BS Ed, Integrity Real Estate Services -IDABEL OK

I really enjoyed Ben Kinney at Dallas. He had a lot of good information to share.

Mar 19, 2010 02:45 PM
Anonymous
Mariana Wagner

Thank you for the mention. I really don't mind sharing my secrets with competitors, for 2 reasons:

1. No one will really implement things the same way that I do, and even if they do ...

2. it only strengthens our business when more people are doing things better.

Mar 20, 2010 04:40 AM
#4
Arch Telecom
Arch Telecom - Austin, TX

Mariana,

I agree with both of your points.  It was nice seeing you in Denver and I'm sure we'll see you soon at another AR or KW event.

Mar 25, 2010 02:21 AM
Phil Leng
Retired - Kirkland, WA
Phil Leng - Retired

Hi Arch,

I have gone to several sessions with Ben Kinney.

Always learn a lot, and implement as much as I can remember!

Phil

Dec 16, 2011 11:30 PM