“So the bringing of two robots (new best friends) together is the end result of an effective CA REALTOR? And then we get robots in the mail to reinforce that message?”
“Exactly” was their response.

I’m still not sure how this curious campaign is supposed to help spread the intended message, but I’m doing my part since I know my son will love the little guy.
Thanks C.A.R.!
The curious box:

 
 

The post Thanks For The Robot, C.A.R. appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Normally we reserve our blog for blogging advice articles, but I thought I would take a quick break for a little shameless promotion. Please forgive us, and enjoy the smattering of real estate blogsite examples we have thrown together.
From now on, we’ll be adding to this gallery as we launch new websites. The examples shown are just a small percentage of the several hundred live sites we have manage.
If you would like to see have us design you a site worth showcasing, just let us know!

The post Have You Seen Our Pinterest Page Of Real Estate Website Design? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Have you been working hard on your real estate website (or social media profile) and not getting the results that you expected?

Well we have a special free webinar planned at tackling our fans biggest question of them all “What’s Wrong With My Website?”
When: Tuesday, October 4th at 11am PST / 2 pm EST
How Long: 90 minutes or more!
How Much: $0, Zip, Nada! No Strings Attached and No Sales Pitches
Where to Sign Up: What’s Wrong With My Website? Webinar
Why You Should Attend: You’re probably used to hearing, “You get what you pay for” and most free training that I have attended has been worth what I paid.  This class is different because veteran bloggers, Jim Cronin and Daniel Bates will be giving up raw, honest feedback on real examples of real estate blogs.
We might make you laugh, we might make you cry, but more than anything, we hope to make you think about how you have been doing things on your blog and how might try things differently.
Those that submit a question will get the most our of this webinar, but everyone that attends will walk away with ways to improve their efforts.
Why This One Will Be Different: In previous free classes by the Real Estate Tomato, we have tried to answer as many questions as possible as quickly as we could to make everyone happy.
This time we’ve decided to tackle bigger questions and will really be digging into the websites and researching the content before the class  to try to offer the best advice that we can to a few lucky attendees, while still putting things in a light that makes these examples applicable to all who attend.
One Last Thing: In addition to this class we have also packed the Tomato University calendar with some really great training for the month of October.

The post Wondering What’s Wrong With My Website? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Learn the Basics from the Masters

When: Tuesday, July 12th at 1pm PST (4pm EST)
How Long: Two (solid) Hours
How Much: $40/person
Where to Sign Up: TomatoUniversity.com

This is a two hour course that will walk new bloggers through the basics of blogging on the WordPress platform.

Why is it special? We normally do not train the basics of using WordPress here on Tomato U – reserving these topics for our Real Estate Tomato Website Packages.  Our main focus on TU is generally on marketing techniques, assuming that most of our audience is already somewhat familiar with the platform.  Well… popular demand has shown us otherwise – so we are trying out this intense, 2-hour, everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-using-WordPress class with the intentions of adding it to our regular quarterly calendar.

The class will include in depth discussions on the following:

• Creating and Editing Posts & Pages
• Article Styling
• Finding, Sizing & Placing Images
• Creating and Managing Links
• Understanding Categories & Tags
• Sidebar & Widget Control
• A WordPress Plugin Primer
• Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Development of Writing and Topic Strategies
• Basics of Real Estate Blogging.

Due to the limited length of the class, and not wanting to completely overwhelm our students some of the advanced topics will be limited in their depth.  Many of these advanced subjects are expanded upon in other Tomato University classes.
Please note, this class does not include instructions on installation of WordPress and we will assume that you already have a site set up.
If you do not yet have a WordPress based website, please contact us and we’ll help you get started.
PS – We have also just posted a new class covering the basics of HTML in blogging.  A little familiarity of the code that governs the styling of articles, links, tables, and images can go a long way.  Check it out too!

The post Special Class Announcement – WordPress Basics For Real Estate Bloggers appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Onsite SEO: Optimizing Content For Your Real Estate Blog

“This is an excellent class for new and seasoned blogger’s. I have been blogging for 2 years now and it was a super refresher course for me on a few things I forgot. Daniel has a great deal of knowledge and experience and I would recommend it to anyone.” ~ Rick Smenner

“Daniel gives a very detailed and easy-to-understand class on on-site SEO. Because of the experience with his community blog he lays out exactly what is necessary and walks you through the steps to increase your traffic. I personally appreciate the depth of what he covers. He clearly knows the material and is willing to share all of his knowledge. I have taken a few Tomato courses and find his sessions so helpful in taking my blogs to the next level.” – Melissa Riley

Offsite SEO: It’s Not ALL About Content

“A+ Instructor, A+ Class Content. Every Tomato U member should listen to Danial Bates and take his Offline SEO Class. Give a very “necessary” overview and lay of the land explanation of how search engines (Google) thinks, ranks and hands out the valuable “Google Juice” or love that all of our business sites need to compete. Daniel is a wonderful teacher, communicator and experienced search engine guy, that has actually tried and tested all of his recommendations. Don’t miss this class AGAIN! Thanks Daniel for your valuable information and resources you shared in your OFFLINE SEO class today. Have become one of your raving fans and will contact you for some 1-on-1 training today!” ~ Nannete Circo

Google Analytics: Tracking Visitors To Increase Sales

“The class was very informative, learn a lot of new information. The class was taught with a clear outline and accomplished it’s agenda. Professor spoke slowly and clearly, used examples to better explain. —- This was my first webinar and everything went so smoothly I was nervous that it wasn’t going to. I was able to take notes as well as follow along to what was going on, on the screen” ~ Patricia Flynn
“Really happy I took this class. Daniel was correct to focus on those aspects of Analytics that were relevant to the RE business and to warn us off those that did not apply.” ~ Jerry Hollerbach

Guide To Superior Hyper-Local Blogging

“Daniel did an exceptional job in his hyper-local blogging class. He was clear and concise and his powerpoint was superb. You could tell that he had full knowledge of the subject and was very willing to share. Attending this webinar gives me great incentive to sign up for other Tomato courses. Well done! Lot’s of great ideas from an experienced person.” ~ Melissa Riley
“Daniel’s knowledge of hyper-local blogging is extremely helpful. Appreciated the instruction on iGoogle and how to choose keywords also. The graphic on the areas we should concentrate our hyper-local blogging is a keeper. I always learn something new and valuable.” ~ Lori Cain

Introduction To Social Media Marketing On Social Networks

“Daniel was a great presenter. He did a very organized presentation and obviously had a lot of experience in the area. He also was honest about what he did not have experience with. It was a great overview of using social media. While there was not a lot of new information for me, I did pick up some very valuable tid bits that will be of great use.” ~ Karl Burger

Facebook Fan Page Marketing For Real Estate Agents

“I’m so glad I waited to take this class with Daniel before setting up my Facebook business page!” ~ Donna Hamaker

Facebook Advertising: Building A New Audience

“I followed the steps outlined by Daniel in the class and doubled the size of my old facebook page in one day. 5 days later and I have over 600 active fans and am so pleased with the results of his class” ~ Marty Van Diest

The post Tomato University Line-Up for the Month of February appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Last year we launched the first of it’s kind Real Estate Broker Blog.
Because of its innovation and wild success, Beth Butler, the Broker responsible for the project, has been asked to speak at Inman Connect in San Francisco this summer.

Her topic: “How One Broker Is Making Group Blogging Work”

Here’s a quick overview of the EWM Project’s current stats:
-14 Offices with 750+ Agents
-400+ agents have posted since launch last year.
-100+ post regularly (a few times a month)
-10,000+ Posts to date
-Easily 100’s of Leads Generated (sales, leases, listings, press requests)
-Dozens and dozens of Sales
-60 Percent of Inbound Traffic from SE’s (read: Google)
-1000’s of Daily Hits
Well, from all that we learned over the last year, designing, developing and managing this massive project, we’ve found some room to make improvements.  In fact, we learned so much, that the entire approach has changed enough for us to call the product the Real Estate Broker Blog 2.0.
Besides Beth’s Company Blog (http://blog.EWM.com), there are very few successful Broker Blogs on the internet, and the reasons abound:
1. Price: The development of an office-wide, comprehensive and organized blogsite is quite the project.
2. Getting Agents to Blog in the First Place: The Benefit, The Commitment and The Education.
3. Providing a Win-Win Solution for the Agents’: Agents aren’t going to just blog for the Good of the company.
4. Security and Moderation Control: Brokers are responsible for the content that is published to their site.
And then, there are other challenges that are sure to develop:
1. Agents come and go… what then?
2. Future Customization for Broker and Agents: Upgrades, Designs, PlugIns and Functionalities.

Well, we’ve solved all the above and more!

With one package product, we are now providing Real Estate Brokerages (large and small) with the following:

1. Full Featured Custom Company Blogsite

a. Custom Design from Scratch
b. Unlimited Content Pages and Lead Generation Forms
c. State of the Art Company Blog
d. Integration of Broker IDX
e. User Friendly Content Management System (CMS) for In-House Editing.
f. Open Source Platform
The Company Blogsite plays two roles.  First of all it is a full blown real estate broker website, housing pages about the company, its agents and services, as well as it’s lead generation forms and IDX MLS searching tools.  And secondly, it is the destination for a re-syndication (republishing) of all the content written by the agents on their personal blogsites.  This creates greater exposure for the agents’ blog articles, and establishes the company blogsite as an enormous cumulative resource.

2. Unlimited Agent Blogsites

a. Personalized For Each Agent (Domain Name and Appearance)
b. Unlimited Content Pages and Lead Generation Forms
c. State of the Art Agent Blog
d. Integration of IDX
e. User Friendly Content Management System (CMS) for In-House Editing
f. Blog Content Re-Syndication to Company Site
g. Full Custom Design Upgrade Option
h. Open Source Platform
Every participating agent now can manage and customize their very own blogsite.  Each site is both independent and yet still tied to the Company Blogsite through re-syndication.  When an agent blogs, the article first posts to the agent’s blogsite and then in a truncated form on the Company Blogsite.  In an effort establish some element of competition, there are also a limited number of agents’ avatars showcased on the Company Blogsite.  The order is determined by posting frequency: the agent whom blog most frequently will grace the Company Blogsite homepage most often.
Each Agent Blogsite can be hosted on its own domain name, separate from the Company Domain.  This establishes independence in search engine results; articles driving search engine traffic to a unique address, separate of the company.  Each Agent Blogsite can also be completely custom designed to separate itself from the standard Agent Template Design.

3. Company Intranet Blog and User Management

a. Private Intranet for Entire Company
b. Full Featured Internal Blog
c. RSS & Email Notification Ensuring Company Participation
d. Unlimited User Management
e. Simple Agent Blogsite Creation
f. Moderation Security
g. Open Source Platform
Having a Private Company Blog gives every member of the brokerage an opportunity to be involved in the “company conversation”. Announcements, News, FAQ’s, Training, Sales Stats, Opinions, Support, Referrals, and Advice are just a sampling of topics that will be published, discussed, and archived for everyone in the company.  At the end of each day, every member of the company can be notified via email (and RSS Feed) of that day’s new conversations, ensuring participation and accountability.
The Intranet also acts as the access point for Company Administrators to access the Company Blogsite management tools as well as for the Agents to access their Personal Blogsite management tools.
Agents not wishing to maintain an Agent Blogsite, custom or standard, will have the option of contributing directly to the Company Blogsite as an author.
We have several Broker Blogs for you to poke around on:
www.EwingSIR.com
www.CBCoastalAlliance.com
www.StarRealEstate.com
…and many more.

So how have we overcome all those challenges above?

1. Price.

What used to be an investment well into the tens of thousands now starts at 5k.
Price will increase depending on education, number of participants, pages of initial content, initial design skins needed and other potential programming and organizational needs.
Because the Agent Blogsites are essentially an independent entity, each agent can make the small investment for their blogsite, alleviating the cost to the brokerage.

2. Getting The Agents To Blog

When the company is blogging as a community, it creates so many benefits to the agents that it would be hard to believe that most of them wouldn’t want to contribute.  Blogging success is all about quantity, quality and frequency.  Multiply the efforts of one times dozens and every contributor wins.  And, where there’s success, more and more effort will be made.
EWM is a perfect example of this: 400 of their agents have blogged since the launch last year, and 100’s blog regularly.
Regarding the Education: We are known as The Real Estate Blogging University because of our renowned Intense Personal Training Courses.  Each client can take advantage of our personal training to learn the skills needed to put blogging at the center of their online marketing effort.  Just as important, however, is the use of the Internal Company Blog for continued and archived blogging education.  Tomato provided resources such as video tutorials and libraries of written training, coupled with blogging agents and admin advising each other, creates an environment that makes it easy for any new blogger to get ‘the hang of it’.

3. Providing a Win-Win Solution for the Agents.

The relationship between broker and agent is a unique relationship, twisting dependence and independence.
By allowing the agents to develop their own Agent Blogsite, under their own domain name and with the option of investing in a custom design, Independence is established.  The content is property of the agent, as is the domain and any custom design.  Any success in the search engines is theirs as are the leads generated by their articles.
The Dependence is in the re-syndication of content to the Company Blogsite.  Publishing as a community will make the the whole company stronger.  Dependence is also found in the Intranet where they are perpetually part of the company conversation.  And finally, while they are “plugged in” to the system, the company admin maintains the right to moderate any published content.

4. Security and Moderation.

Brokers can no longer ignore the power and success that some agents have themselves earned through their blogging efforts.  Active agent blogsites are out-performing company websites by a laughable margin.  Yet there is still great hesitation to embrace the blog as a company marketing strategy.  Fear of lawsuits and liability as a result of reckless blogging agents has them figuring the effort isn’t worth it.

The reality is, however, that agents are going to blog, on their own, with their blessing or not… so why not create a best-of-both-worlds environment?
So, how to harness the power of blogging as a company without putting oneself in the line of fire because of what the agents are posting?
First of all, with the Real Estate Broker Blog, the company admin has the power to moderate any post that is to be published on the Company Blogsite.
Also, because the Agent Blogsites are to be seen as the property of the Agent, the broker has removed themselves from being directly responsible for the content published by the agents.  The relationship is such that the Agent is using the blogsite just as if they had set it up on their own, and simply re-syndicated the content to the company site for greater marketing exposure.

5. Agents Coming and Going…

For agents that decide they want to join the blogging party and get started with their own Agent Blogsite the process couldn’t be easier.
Company Admin can generate an independent blogsite in a few clicks.  From there, customizing it for the agent (hosted domain name, bio and other pages, headshot, categories, RSS and email feeds, IDX integration, and basic training) can be done in around an hour with our staff.
For agents that are leaving, for whatever reason, they can ‘unplug’ their user profile from the Intranet and from re-syndicating their content to the Company Blogsite.  If they have invested in a custom design, they can continue to use the custom site, for it is theirs.  If they are using the standard template then they will need to re-skin the blogsite so as to not reflect affiliation with the company they are leaving.  Because they own a custom domain, the site can either continue to be hosted with us, or move elsewhere.

6. Future Customization for Agents and Brokers

As new versions of the core of WordPress MU are released, upgrades will be installed for FREE “across the board” bringing every site in the system up to the latest in blogging technology and functionality.
Given that each site is essentially independent, the following can be accomplished with each site, depending on each agent’s need.
-PlugIns can be activated for each site separately.
-Each site can have it’s own Custom Design.
-Agents can invest in personal, one-on-one blog training.
-Widgets and other sidebar customizations (stat tracking programs, for example) can be added to agent’s sites independently.
Every element of the platform, although customized and modified by The Real Estate Tomato, is recognized as an Open Source platform.  Click to read more about Open Source and why it is the best solution in this rapidly changing industry.
This latest incarnation of the Real Estate Broker Blog has been inspired by, and is utilizing a modified version of the exact same core platform as The New York Times, The Wall St. Journal, eBay, the NFL and Harvard Law School.
If you want to learn more about this Exclusive Product: The Real Estate Broker Blog, drop us a line.

The post The Real Estate Broker Blog 2.0 – Plug In To The Solution appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

In order of appearance in the list from Sellsius:

Teresa Boardman
Kris Berg
Missy Caulk
Diane Cohn
Ines Hegedus-Garcia
Maureen Francis
Kristal Kraft
Laurie Manny
Roberta Murphy
Sharon Simms
Rhonda Porter
Frances Flynn Thorsen
Congratulations Ladies!
*Update (10–16–07)
Our good friend, and master blogger, Oliver Muoto over at VFlyer has taken the time to interview the Dynamic Dozen. Listen in.

The post Sellsius Real Estate Blog Announces Their Top 12 Women Real Estate Bloggers For 2007 appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Flattered.
Honored.
Thrilled.
Proud to be listed among such heavyweights on the RE Blogos.
Here are Inman’s Top 25 Real Estate Bloggers:

— Broker and Agent Blogs

Teresa Boardman
St. Paul Real Estate Blog
Ardell Della Loggia
Founder, SearchingSeattleBlog
Marlow Harris
Founder, 360Digest
Doug Heddings
Founder, TrueGotham
Noah Rosenblatt
Founder, Urbandigs.com

— Community/ Multi-Author Blogs

Dustin Luther
Founder, Rain City Guide
Greg Swann
Founder, Bloodhound Blog

— Mortgage Blogs

Morgan Brown
Founder, Blown Mortgage
Todd Carpenter
Founder, Lenderama
CR and Tanta
Bloggers, Calculated Risk
Paul Jackson
Founder, Housing Wire

— Housing Economics

Jonathan Miller
Founder, Matrix

— Industry Commentary

Kevin Boer
Founder, 3Oceans Real Estate
Joel Burslem
Founder, Future of Real Estate Marketing
Patrick Kitano
Founder, Transparent Real Estate

— Marketing and How-To

Jim Cronin
Founder, Real Estate Tomato
Joseph Ferrara, Rudolph D. Bachraty III
Co-Founders, Sellsius Real Estate Blog

— Local Blogging

Jonathan Butler
Founder, Brownstoner
Adam Koval
Founder, SocketSite

— Company Bloggers

 
David Gibbons
Director of Community Relations, Zillow
Glenn Kelman
CEO, Redfin

— Journalist Blogs

John Cook
Reporter, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Writer, John Cook’s Venture Blog
Peter Coy, Dean Foust, Chris Palmeri, Maya Roney
Reporters, BusinessWeek
Bloggers, BusinessWeek’s Hot Property blog

— Bubble Bloggers

Keith
Founder, Housing Panic
Patrick Killelea
Founder, Patrick.net
Blogger, Reality Parser

The post Inman News Ranks Real Estate Tomato A Top 25 Most Influential Real Estate Blogger appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

(Please note that we have since launched a newer version of the Broker Blog.)

Are you are real estate broker seeing the power that individual agents possess through blogging, thinking, we could own the search engines for this area if we could just harness the efforts of our agents?

…Then suddenly, you realize that you have the following challenges holding you back:

– Can’t risk the liability of agents posting freely.
– Don’t have the resources to get the team to see the value and embrace the effort.
– Don’t have the tool for agents to post content into the current company site.
– Recognize the nightmare in organizing the presentation of so much content.
– Don’t have the IT team to support such a project.
– Don’t have the resources to train the agents to blog effectively and consistently.

Making announcements about our company’s product is not the normal M.O. here at the Tomato, but when you’re about to make history, you need a soapbox, and what better platform than our own?
On August 21st, at EWM Realtors in Miami, FL, we soft launched a first of it’s kind real estate broker blog. The list of features and the possibilities that they have immediately afforded EWM are more than exciting, they are ground breaking.

Beth Butler was faced with a challenge.
How do I gain dominant exposure in the search engines for as many as 70 Greater Miami neighborhoods… and not spend a fortune doing so?

SEO companies were quoting her staggering figures to write Search Engine Optimized pages for each community.  The results we not going to be 100% guaranteed and it could take as much as 6-9 months to begin to see results.  By then the SEO company would have their money and have moved on.

Since she joined ActiveRain this April, Beth had been watching blogs rise as a powerful tool to gain nearly instant exposure in the search engines for all levels of search terms and phrases.

The light bulb went off! If a single real estate blogger can earn success in the Search Engines just through blogging, imagine the success EWM will achieve with a good percentage of an 800 agent office blogging their brains out.  With agents specializing in each community and real estate niche in the Greater Miami area, we’d have thousands of pages of local real estate content in no time.
Just as ActiveRain has been able to leverage the blogging of many to increase their dominance in the SE’s, EWM as a blogging group would gain similar exposure for their agents.
Beth called the Real Estate Tomato and asked if we could develop a tool that would allow her company to blog it’s way into dominance in the search engines.

3 months later, we launched such a tool.

Massive Public Facing Blog

Unlimited Blogging Accounts for all agents to participate.
Unlimited Neighborhood Environments (categories) for pinpoint organization of huge amounts of local content.
Neighborhood Sorted Sub-Categories giving the visitor the information they want, without the clutter.
Subscription Feeds for all levels of organization: Neighborhood, Sub-Category, Individual Office and/or Individual Agent content syndication
Custom Design to incorporate the EWM look and to showcase the best real estate tools available to the consumer

Internal Private Blog – Intranet Alternative

Internal Dialogue for agents and managers to communicate freely
Well organized categories for Company Communication such as:
Announcements (as a company and by office)
Sales Production by Office
Resources
Forms
Training Docs
Legal Docs
Meeting Minutes
and dozens of other Intranet style features.
Subscription Feeds for all categories independently for instant updates.
Blogging Support: Training, Wiki and Video Tutorials

Moderation Chair

Posts are run through a Moderator before being posted live.
Moderator Role:
Approvals
Suggestions
Edits
Deletions

So now, just one week after the soft launch here are the stats.

Just over 100 EWM bloggers have produced about 700 posts.
Their pace is staggering, and going to be a challenge to maintain, for sure.  Nonetheless, if only half that group posts half their current pace, EWM is still looking at flooding the search engines with as many as 700 new pages of content about the greater Miami area and real estate market.
Given the expertise and focus of the local Realtor, this quantity of content surely puts those proposed SEO packages to shame.
To follow Beth’s commentary on her revolutionary effort and to learn what “Blogerating” is check out her ActiveRain blog, and be sure to read these articles:
My Life as a Blogerator – Real Estate IS Blogging
Star Date minus 1 – Journey into the Blogosphere
Will Top Producers Blog?
Why Blogging is like a Sales Meeting
Opportunity Time – Can a Company Blog Replace Floor?

The post The Real Estate Broker Blog – Bigger, Badder, Better and Beyond appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

4:27AM, PST. The phone rings.
“I just picked up the paper and you wouldn’t believe what’s hanging out of it,” my mother excitedly states.
“What?” I grunt.
“I’m sorry to wake you, I thought I was going to get the machine.”  “You won’t believe where the Globe put your logo in the paper, it’s hanging right out of the front page!”
In what we hope not to be the peak of our mainstream media exposure, this Sunday, The Boston Globe offered a headlining piece on Real Estate Blogging.  Paul F. Roberts penned a timely article entitled “Brokers In Blogsville.” 
You can read the piece in full on Boston.com.
The Real Estate Tomato was not only mentioned (and quoted) along with 8 other pillars in the real estate blogosphere, but we also got some pretty nifty brand exposure!
Also included in the article:
CondoDomain
St Paul Real Estate Blog
Bring The Blog
Stephen Meltzer
Future Of Real Estate Marketing
Inman Blog
Boston Real Estate Blog
Transparent RE
This is definitely an honor and highlight that has inspired another year’s worth of Juicy Content.
Was this forehadowing?

The post Real Estate Tomato Hangs Out With The Boston Globe appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.