Several years ago I heard the formula for success in entrepreneurial business straight from the lips of a multi-millionaire.
The steps were clear and without need for interpretation:
1. Clear Goals
2. Hard Work
3. Unwavering Focus
Recently I was asked to make a similar list as to what it takes to be successful as a real estate blogger.
The good news is that it is much easier than making your first million.  =)
The bad news is that I need to provide a little description with each item to prevent misinterpretation.

1. Determine Your Ideal Audience and Consider Their Needs

Not unlike having “Clear Goals” it is crucial to know who you are blogging to and why.
I have written about how to determine/define the ideal reader many times, but while I am making lists…
a. Who do you want/enjoy to work with?  Seriously.
b. Where do they want to live?
c. How much do they want to spend?
d. Family?  Career?  Hobbies?  Politics?  Education?  Name?  Gender?  Age?  etc.
Now that you can picture them, ask yourself two simple questions:
What anxiety about real estate keeps them on the computer at night?
What questions are they asking you?
If you write about these, I promise they will find you and will read your blog.

2. Create Measurable Actions and Results

Failure creeps in when you fail to see progress.
First of all, set specific goals for your writing pace.  My recommendation is that 2-3 times a week is the minimum.
If you track this effort, you are more apt to maintain the pace than if you just write when you feel like it.
Secondly, set up traffic measurement tools like Google Analytics.
Knowing how many people visit, what they came looking for, how long they stay and what they experience arms you with the insight to make intelligent writing decisions.  Watching these statistics grow with every article you write is not only satisfying, but it is the fire you need to maintain the effort.
Tip: Keep data tracking simple.  Don’t get lost in the analysis.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle.

3.  Market Your Content.

There are just two ways your audience will find your content if you fail to market it.
Either your articles appear as results in the search engines, or they have subscribed to your feed and are notified of new content.
It is up to you to gather new eyeballs and grow your reach.
Here’s an incomplete list of ways to drive quality traffic to your articles, with little effort:
-Facebook Fan Page, Twitter and LinkedIn Status Updates.
(tip: When adding the link, write something compelling that draws attention to the value of your article)
-Social Bookmarking to Digg, Reddit, Delicious, NewsVine or the like.
(tip: These services require an account, and your topic and headline writing ability will determine your success)
-Email Database Blast
(tip: Instead of blasting your base with every new article, compile your best content into a monthly blog update encouraging subscription to your feed.)
-Ping Your Articles.
(tip: Most blogs already ping, but submitting your site to Ping-O-Matic extends your reach in the SEs)
-Make It Easy for Others to Share/ReTweet/Bookmark the Content on Your Blogsite.
(tip: Participate in a group that ReTweet or Share  your content to a great audience of your target readers)
-Syndicate (repost or feed) Your Content to Other Websites to Which You Have Access.
(tip: ActiveRain.com is a good place, as is your static real estate website, should you have one)
-Add a Feed of Your Headlines to YourEmail Signature.
(tip: Use Feedburner.com)

4. Locate Effective Calls-To-Action.

Once you attract the audience, you’ll need to direct them into an action that gets them closer to doing business with you.
Create clear and actionable buttons/graphics/statements that get the attention of your ideal reader, and only your ideal reader.
In order for CTAs to work they need to be limited in their number so as to be noticed and have the maximum effect.  Consider the 2-4 things that your ideal reader needs to know that you (or your website) can do for them, and place visible action graphics that stand out for these items.
And for Pete’s sake, try to be unique, and yet still to the point.
Bonus tip:
Post a visible message on your desk, “Did I do anything that improved my blog today?”
If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.

The post Simple Checklist for Blogging Success. appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Today’s offering is a guest post from Tomato client and real estate blogging guru, Ben Roberts of Exit Pro Realty.
Thanks for the effort, Ben!
—
Readers of The Real Estate Tomato come in one of three flavors…

1. They’ve got a RET blog and are always reading and improving their skills.
2. They don’t have a RET blog and are considering making the investment in their online presence.
3. They stumble upon the Tomato and are in awe of the fresh ideas within these juicy posts… leading them inevitably to numbers 2 or 1.  🙂

I can say this of course, because I’m a guest contributor. Regardless of who you are or what you want to glean from this blog, you come for information.
How can I bump up my internet presence?
What should I do to differentiate myself from others in my market?
How can I convert more website visitors into prospects and sales?
How do I blog for business?

A Frenzied 5 Creative Ways to Use A Tomato Blog to Demolish Your Market Competition

1. Neighborhood Pages and Posts

I like Teresa Boardman’s AR post on Hyper Local Photos as Bait.
Great idea there so I’m not going to touch on it here. Local content gets people that buy locally to your site… duh. Make neighborhood pages with information on home values, history, amenities, events, and homes for sale. Don’t kill visitors with information though.
The Real Estate Tomato’s support and tutorials can help you learn to embed neighborhood Google maps with schools and places of interest that give a visitor lots of information without the overload.

2. Market Data Aggregation

Whoa, fancy words. Aggregation is “the collecting of units or parts into a mass or whole.”
Doing Market data posts is good, great even. I’m starting to see a lot of people do it. Unfortunately, many people are going about it the wrong way and wasting a lot of their time.
Posts are great, focusing on individual cities, neighborhoods, price ranges, or property types are great. Now how do you organize all that hard work? You probably just stick them in a category labeled ‘Market Data”, “Home Prices” or something similar.
How about showcasing all that hard work!?
Create a page that gives visitors an introduction to your area of expertise, the markets you serve, and then aggregate the data into meaningful groups. Now, when someone wants to know ‘how the market is do’in,’ you can tell them to head to www.YourDomain.com/market or some such jazz and impress the pants off of them.
It makes the time and effort you put in much more visible and distinctive to the public.

3. Custom Landing Pages

Speaking of being different… Why wouldn’t you want to be able to speak specifically to a specific target audience on a specific subject in a specific way, specifically?
Very few people use them so maybe there’s a reason I just haven’t been let in on yet, but I think it’s just a matter of being ignorant.
Any time you can speak to a targeted audience you better speak to them… specifically. That means creating landing pages for different people that visit your site. You should start with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and any other social network you use that people visit you from with any regularity. Then add landing pages for any neighborhoods or cities you farm.
When you send out correspondence you can put your website address as www.YourDomain.com/neighborhood so that you can speak directly to those people with specific language and specific calls to action. It will increase your relevancy and your conversions from visitors to clients.

4. Custom 404 Marketing Page

Huh? I thought that’s where people went when they type in the wrong address.
It is, and you can use that fact to your advantage in a couple of ways.
Check ’em out.
The Easy Way –
Modify your 404 template/page to reinforce your personal brand and help visitors find their way to the information they were interested in. Here are some cool ones as organized by Smashing Magazine.
There’s a cool plugin for that called AskApache Google 404. I don’t know if it’s RET approved but they can hook you up with it or something similar. It takes the address the person typed in and does a custom search based on that information, giving them a list of likely relevant pages that they meant to go to in the first place.
Now that’s useful.
The Cool Way –
I have to give credit where credit is due. Ryan Hartman at ReTechulous actually came up with this a while back and I’ve been implementing it for about a year. Thanks to Chris at RET for helping me with the programming.
Start by embedding a video of your awesome home marketing strategy (you have one of those right?) on your 404 page.  Make sure you have it auto-plays so it starts right when prospects hit the page.  Make it snappy, cool, whatever. Just make it you.
Now… Send out postcards to a high turnover neighborhood in an area you work and set up a label system so that you can customize each card to say… Now they’re curious. What the heck could this crazy Realtor have on the Internet about MY property?
You get it? You create one page that looks like an infinite number of custom pages to individual homeowners. You could use this for lots of other marketing ideas. It increases the conversion of postcard campaigns ten-fold. FYI, It would probably be a good idea if you put a contact form right below that video.

5. Aggregate Local Twitter Content with HashTags!

Want you’re blog to be the local go-to for local info?
Use twitter hashtags in your area and figure out a way to get them on your blog.
I just embedded (using an Iframe) a Twub on a page and called the page that hashtag name. If you use Twitter and don’t get hashtags you need to do a little studying because they’re super useful. I’m sure the Real Estate Tomato also has other ways of getting hashtag content on your blog as you can get it through an rss feed.
Again, this would be great as an additional source of neighborhood content for a neighborhood page.
Just a thought.
This is just a few ways I’ve used my personal Tomato Blog to differentiate myself from the pack in my market and I can tell you that it has worked.
Keep churning out good content.
Keep it interesting, relevant, and timely.
Every month I have more traffic on my website than the two largest real estate companies in the region… combined.
I’m only saying that because these two companies are large traditional offices with old school traditional websites. The largest used to have a Pagerank of 6 and has just recently hit a 4. Think their methods are outdated? In a market where every dollar and minute counts, shouldn’t you be spending your time on marketing channels and practices that get you more business? I
‘m confident in saying the RET knows their &#%* and teaches willing clients how to do it right.
Designs come and go, good training endures and rewards the student.
That’s what the Top Tomato taught me.
If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.

The post A Frenzied 5 Creative Ways to Use A Real Estate Blog to Demolish Your Market Competition appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Denny Oh, Tomato Graduate out of San Diego, CA, sent me a link the other day letting me know it would make for good blog fodder.  So I challenged him to make it happen, and he did

Organic Search Placement – Why Real Estate Agents NEED It!

By Denny Oh
As I was deleting (notice, I didn’t say reading) all my emails this morning from my inbox, I saw one from RISMedia that caught my eye – Why Organic Search Placement is the Best Form of Advertising You Can Have. Granted, it’s a pretty boring, not to mention lengthy, headline, but it obviously worked.
Since I use blogging as my primary marketing tool, I figured I’d take a look.  The article didn’t really point out anything new, but it did reinforce what I already knew and it also motivated me to blog more.  The author, Mike Parker, shared something he learned from his first boss that really made a lot of sense…”The problem with advertising is that there are unlimited places to spend money on advertising but only limited monies to spend.”  And since many of us are going over our yearly budgets, I, like many of you, can surely relate to this.
Blogging – we all know we should be doing it, but do you really understand why?
Here are a few key points that made a lot of sense….

People have Become Desensitized

As Parker points out, people are “bombarded with advertising messages” and are blasted with ads everywhere they go – on TV, the radio, newspapers, online, etc.  As a result, consumers don’t pay attention to the ads and simply “edit them out.”  Here’s where Organic Search Placement(read – blogging) comes into play.

Let Them Come to You

If you try and capture everyone through your advertising, chances are, you’re going to be extremely disappointed. With Organic Search Placement, you, the advertiser, are targeting a specific buyer/market.  By blogging about specific neighborhoods, or buildings, etc, Parker states that you’re catering to “the buyers personal search for the exact thing the buyer is looking to purchase.  It is a totally passive advertising strategy – bringing them to you.”
This is the key – have them contact you. By blogging, you’re not throwing tons of information at people.  Unless they subscribe to your blog (which means they want to read your posts), they’re typically only going to find your site from a search on Google, or whatever other search engine they use.  This eliminates the issue of them being flooded with information that they’re not looking for.  They’ll only find your site/info when they are looking for it.
For example…if someone is looking to find some information on the Grande South floor plans in San Diego, they might Google “grande south floor plans san diego.”  If they did, then they’d find that my blog comes up at the top of their search.  They don’t care who I am, but they do care that I have information on the Grande South and its floor plans – I’m not emailing them about the Grande or it’s floor plans, yet, they’re coming to me.

Blog a Ton

The article states that “if you have exactly what they want, 81% of the time, they will buy it from you.” Parker also indicates that 81% of Internet buyers will stick with the first agent they pick and that 92% of Internet home buyers choose their agents from a major search engine.  I’ve found that the more I blog, the better search results I get – duh.  But what I didn’t realize, is how much of a snowball effect this has.  For example, look at how someone got to my site – Google this – “office buildings in san diego owned by BOSA.”
Now I don’t know of any office buildings owned by BOSA, but because I have a lot of content about BOSA, Google recognized me as a authority and placed me at the top of the results.  My point is, blog a lot and be specific – become an authority.

Get Help

Chances are, if you’re reading this post, you’re already a client of the Tomato.  If you’re not, you should be.  I’m not a Tomato employee, nor am I getting paid to write this.  I’m just another happy customer that is literally, living off of my blog. Since I started my blog about a year ago, I’ve closed multiple deals from it and am currently working with several clients as a direct result of it.  I can honestly tell you that this is by far the best tool I have, in terms of marketing.
Good luck!
—
Thanks Denny – we love having you on the Vine.
Denny Oh is an exceptionally professional Realtor in the San Diego, CA area.
His website:www.SanDiegoh.com
Voice: (858) 243-2092

The post Organic Search Placement – Why Real Estate Agents NEED It! appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

As I head out of town for the week, thinking I really need to get an article published, our new friend Jessica Donovan from Real Estate License Direct swooped in with a guest post, on a topic that I have hardly covered: Podcasting.  So lucky you; instead of having to wait until I get back with enchanting stories from the turquoise coast of Bermuda, Jessica is holding down the fort with this sweet post.
Thanks Jessica!

Warning: These Simple Podcasting Secrets Increase Blog Traffic

By Jessica Donovan
What if someone told you that you could increase your blogs traffic, subscribers and exposure with little to no work and without costing you a single cent, would you be interested? Listen, if hearing all of that wouldn’t peak your curiosity, you may need to reconsider your means of generating new clients, because that would have the rest of us doing some extreme acrobatics that our bodies were just not built to handle!
All jokes aside, your blog needs exposure to be successful. It’s the simple truth, without having some sort of exposure whether it be through the Internet and/or real estate communities, your blog will not flourish and grow up to be a big blog. Now, now, relax a bit, there are a lot of ways to gain exposure, in fact a lot of them are covered right here on The Real Estate Tomato, but have you given any thought to gaining more exposure through the extremely hot podcasting universe? Well guess what, you can gain lots of exposure, even more targeted traffic and loads of new subscribers by simply clicking a few buttons, setting up some free accounts and instantly converting your plain old blog into a podcasting machine!

How to Turn Those Plain Old Blog Posts into Popular Podcasts

How can we not love the Internet, or more specifically, all of the great tools the Internet places at our disposal! There are actually a couple of very good and free blog to podcast conversion services, so please allow me to cover each one:
Odiogo – In my highly experienced yet humble opinion, the Odiogo “post to podcast” service is the best option available on the market at this time. This free service allows you to not only turn all of your future blog posts into podcasts, but it will also convert all of your past posts as well by utilizing the incredible power of rss feeds. Their service uses a unique text to speech program that allows listeners to “tune in” on your articles and listen to what you’re writing about.
Once installed on your blog, Odiogo will automatically add a listen or play button above your posts giving readers the option to sit back and listen to each article. Odiogo will also give you free, detailed download statistics for your podcast channel along with the option to embed ads in your podcast channel to make a little revenue from those visitors. Best of all, the service is available on a variety of popular blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and more.
Talkr – While this service is extremely similar to what Odiogo offers, I just don’t feel that their speech program is of the same quality, in other words sounds as good. Though they do offer a very nice user interface, again with detailed reports and customized submission to the iTunes service, which is really nice. The account is free to setup and only takes a minute, they will also produce a complete rss feed for your site that includes the mp3 podcast files for users to listen to at their convenience.
One nice thing about this service is that all of the features can be hosted completely off site for you, meaning that you can serve podcasts from your blog through Odiogo and use Talkr as a second means for additional exposure without the two conflicting in any way. I do suggest that you take a look at Talkr’s free podcast service.
Premium Option – If you have the extra money, you might also consider going with a premium blog to podcast service such as AudioDizer, which offers some very intriguing distribution and advertising packages.

What About that Exposure You’ve Been Selling

Ah yes, exposure! Well here is the great thing, by simply setting up your free accounts on the two services above you are already receiving more exposure to your blog.
Your new podcasts will be listed in their directories for people to find you by category or search term, all they have to do is click play.
Also, as I mentioned above, Talkr will submit your podcast to iTunes which is excellent exposure and you can’t beat the price but with a little leg work your sites exposure can double, triple, quadruple and even more, by submitting your podcast feed to the hundreds if not thousands of podcast directories available online.
I know, I know, busy agents don’t have the time to go sniffing around for free podcast directories, it needs to be easier than that. Great, because it is much easier, here are some great lists of free podcast directories, just find the ones you like and submit your podcast:

• Where to Submit Your Podcasts: Best Podcast Search Engines and Directories
• Podcast 411
• Podcasting Tools

That list of sites should keep you busy for a little while, of course if you run out you can always search Google for even more directories that will accept your podcast

Is There Anything Else I Need to Know About Podcasting

Everything above should just about wrap it up. Although you might want to consider publishing full feeds on your blog before setting up any of the services above. Publishing partial feeds will only allow for partial podcasts which may turn away potential listeners, so do them and you a favor and switch over to the full rss feeds.
Welcome to the Vine, Jessica!

The post Warning: These Simple Podcasting Secrets Will Increase Blog Traffic appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

The next day, there was a great article on InmanNews.com that gave an editorial overview of our panel.
Feel free to check it out, there’s a nice jump in the comments as well.  I love how they quoted me for the title:

Ending the Cycle of ‘Realtor-on-Realtor Action’

“Real estate is a business of content. You don’t really have a product,” Cronin said. “Essentially the entire transaction has to do with your opinions, your expertise, your ability to answer questions.” And that, he said, is a key to connecting with consumers — whether it’s online or offline.

The post Miss Out On Inman Connect 2008 SF? – Taking Your Real Estate Blog To The Next Level – The Panel appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

About a month ago I received, in the mail (yes, the kind with real letters, bills and magazines) an envelope with 3 items in it.
The first was a a New Blog Announcement, something like a Baby Announcement: It’s a BLOG!
The second a business card showcasing the Blog Address and contact information for Michael Bergin and Virginia Amos (on the reverse), proud new owners (and authors) of GWSleptHere.com.
For those not “in the know” – GWSleptHere is embracing the common local claim to various local destinations in greater Alexandria, VA, that the Father of our nation, President George Washington, slept on the grounds.
The third item was a a faded $1 bill likeness (you know, the one with George Washington on it) offering a quick and easy was to receive a $5 Starbucks Gift Card:  Subscribe to GWSleptHere.com.
I found the marketing idea so clever and fun, that I immediately went and subscribed to make sure I was one of the first 50. I’m sure his local audience got their announcements days before me, given that I live 3000 miles from Alexandria, VA.

Fast forward to yesterday.

In the mail, as promised, I received my $5 Starbucks Gift Card, along with a very nice, handwritten note thanking me for my subscription, and to our team for doing such a wonderful job on their new blog.  So, not only have Michael and Virginia earned my (and many others’) subscription, but they also get a huge shoutout from the Tomato!
I’ll ask Michael to give us an update in the comments as to how many he sent out, the investment and the number of subscribers they have earned with their campaign.
So, if you want to read a real estate blogging team that really has the hang of blogging for business, go check out GWSleptHere.com, and be sure to subscribe to their feed.

The post A Clever and Effective Way To Gain More Real Estate Blog Subscribers appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Thanks to the recent frequency and quality of guest posts, I’ve had the pleasure of taking a little time off from shouldering the content on the Tomato.  Keeping in stride, we have another treat for you.  Todd Carpenter, ubiquitous RE.net participant, and owner and author of the globally appreciated mariah.com (a web 2.0 real estate network of websites), just emailed over this solid piece weighing the value of blogging for Search Engine exposure.

Writing Your Real Estate Blog Primarily to Google is a Squandered Opportunity.

By Todd Carpenter
What’s the difference between a blogging expert and a real estate expert?
Blogging experts may or may not understand how the real estate industry operates. Take, for example the theory forwarded that, for the sake of superior Google search results, bloggers should not write about their community. That instead, they should stick to posts that are only about real estate itself.
You’ll get no argument from me that a real estate blogger should blog about real estate. Blog about your listings. Blog about your open houses. Blog about market conditions. Blog about foreclosures. You’re a real estate agent, of course you should write about real estate.
Blogging this way and you’ll get search engine traffic. However, blogging only about real estate means leaving much of a blog’s marketing power at the table.
Some experts scoff at the idea of blogging about the community, or local businesses, or even writing a restaurant review. These topics may not drive in large numbers of web driven leads, but let’s face it, you can BUY Internet leads. You’re not in the Internet leads business. You’re in the real estate business.
Step away from blogging for a minute and think about how successful real estate agents market in the real world.
Referrals are key to driving a successful real estate business. I’ll take one referral from a real live human over a hundred from Google. Referrals from past clients are very powerful, but you can use you’re blog to create a referral stream from people you’ve never worked with before.

Referrals from other local businesses.

Writing a review of a restaurant has very limited SEO value. It’s a value to you’re readers, but that’s not the best reason for doing it. Any time you put someone’s name in lights, there gonna be impressed, and they’ll want to return the favor. Writing a restaurant review endears you to the owner of that business. You’ve just grown your sphere of influence, and all it took was a few kind words on your blog.
On lenderama, I let mortgage vendors write their own reviews. On Denver Modern, I feature the listings of local real estate agents, and feature local businesses. All of this is useful to my readers, but I also do it to connect with my peers in the industry. You can just as easily do this at the local level with restaurants, dry cleaners or even skateboard shops.

Proving that you’re a community expert.

For the longest time, most real estate web sites allowed agents to TELL consumers they are experts for a certain location. Blogs let them PROVE it. I could write a blog about Houston real estate (I live in Denver). I could get it to rank in the search engines. What I can’t do is prove that I’m an expert on Houston.
Blogging is as much about closing leads as it is about generating them. Proving that you ‘re the expert on this community is how you set yourself apart from the competition that merely states it.

Developing a regular readership.

While some experts will tell you that hardly anyone will regularly read a real estate blog, they’re basing this opinion on the feedback they get from real estate bloggers who only blog about real estate.
Why do you send out community newsletters? Why do you send out football schedules and refrigerator magnets?  Communicating to your client and prospect base is the cornerstone of real estate marketing. Blogging is the ideal tool to take this proven marketing technique to the web. But for the same reason you include football schedules in your marketing mailers, you have to include interesting topics in your blog. If you create an interesting place to visit, readers will follow suite.

Tying it all together.

When it comes time for an avid reader to list their home, where do you think they will look first? When it comes time for an out of town buyer to choose a relocation agent, will they choose the one who said they knew the community, or the one who proved it? When a local business owner has the opportunity to refer an agent to one of his own customers, don’t you think the agent who featured them on their real estate blog might be at the top of their list?
When it comes to structuring your blog, look to the way you market in the real world. The key to building a successful blog is mixing lead generation, business referrals and avid readers into one big marketing monster. There’s simply no reason to leave half the upside a blog can offer at the table while chasing search results that will probably come to you anyway.
—
Thanks for your contribution to the Vine, Todd.
Todd Carpenter is a Realty Tech Consultant and creator of a network of Real Estate Sites at mariah.com.

The post Writing Your Real Estate Blog Primarily to Google is a Squandered Opportunity. appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

When I started the Real Estate Tomato, in June of 2006,
I had one reader, me.

Before the first month was over, I was averaging 30 unique visitors a day.
Within 2 months it was 135 unique visitors a day.
How did we get out of the gates so quickly?
We did it in part, with an old friend: The Email Database.
To make a business blog a successful marketing strategy, you need to have an audience of potential clients.
Having been a consultant for online real estate marketing for 6 years before starting the Tomato, I had a mighty database of real estate agents, lenders, industry professionals and friends.  If I was going to regularly write articles about leveraging the internet as a marketing tool for real estate, then this was the audience I would want to be paying attention.
So I shoved it down their throat.
Well, not exactly.

Email Marketing For Bloggers

My strategy was to comb through my list of about 1500 names and whittle it down to around 300 or so that would not mind that I started sending them articles I had recently written.  I chose friends, newer clients, and clients with whom I had worked very closely with.  I left out older clients (both in age and date acquired), acquaintances and those names I couldn’t put a memory to.
Once I had this list of choice contacts, I sent them an email announcing the launch of my brand new, curiously named, real estate marketing blog.  In that email I informed them that I had taken the liberty to subscribe them to a bi-weekly (2x a month) email blast of the articles that I publish each month.  I made it clear that they had been hand chosen based on our relationship, and my understanding that they would appreciate my efforts to educate them on the art of internet marketing.  I also explained that they could easily unsubscribe from this free service by either contacting me directly, or clicking an unsubscribe link at the bottom of this and all future email blasts.

No one unsubscribed from the first email.

I scheduled the first email blast to go out after my first week of posting to the Tomato.  The email that went out was branded with the Real Estate Tomato logo and included 3 parts.
1. An Introduction to the Email Blast.  This reminded them of my good intentions with the blast, and described what followed.
2. Headlines and short Excerpts of the posts that has been published to the Tomato earlier that week.
3. A Reminder that this is a Free Service that they could either Unsubscribe from with one click, or actually Subscribe to the Instant Feed that would have them access to new articles as soon as I pressed ‘publish’.

I was able to track the effectiveness of these blasts and observed:

1. I was losing about 5 subscribers every 2 weeks.
2. 20–25% of the subscribers were clicking through to the articles mentioned in the email blast.
3. Many were coming back for visits between email blasts.
After 18 months, this database has been “readjusted” to 171 subscribers. A little more than half are left from the original list.  No one has unsubscribed over the last 7 months, and the click-through rate is a steady 22%.  That works out to only about 75 visits a month from my original friends and clients email list…which may seem less than significant, but I know better.
45 people from that original database chose to receive the Real Estate Tomato articles instantly by unsubscriubing from the bi-weekly blast and subscribing to the Instant Feed.
What originally started out as an effort to gain some readership, participation and feedback on my new blog has now had an entirely different, beneficial consequence: Branding. Branding is the art of getting in front of eyeballs with the intention of making a lasting impression and establishing a connection to a product/service.  216 (171 + 45) of my friends and past clients (pre-Tomato) know exactly what I do for a living, who it affects, and how to take advantage of it.  This has lead to countless referrals, new clients, and even inspired some older clients to jump on the blogging train.
Today’s real estate agents are notorious for maintaining huge email databases.  I have clients that have lists into the several thousands.  Setting up, operating and analyzing the exact tools I have used to kick start my blog’s readership are not only easy, they are absolutely free.
Zookoda: “Zookoda is an email marketing application designed specifically for bloggers.”
…and another option:
Feedblitz: “The Next Generation of Email Newsletter”
So, if you are are just starting a blog, or you have yet to leverage your email database with a blog blast newsletter, I highly recommend using Zookoda and/or Feedblitz to build a target audience of established fans.
PLEASE NOTE: Abuse of this tool by spamming lists of unsuspecting recipients will cause both you and these services harm.  These applications are designed to be Permission Based Marketing Tools.  My efforts to notify a handpicked audience of my intentions, and their subscribing options may to some still seem like it toes the line of spamming.  I made a great effort to only include people that I knew would not consider my new marketing effort as unwanted or intrusive.  I advise you to be just as selective.  Being labeled a spammer can undo all your efforts, regardless of the intentions.

The post Starting A Real Estate Blog? Grab That Email Database, Let’s Get You Read appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Because the clients we work with have such a positive experience with their blogging, they commonly express the concern that they would prefer us to not educate others in their geographic areas of focus.  Sometimes they ask in jest, other times they are actually dead serious and willing to pay for exclusivity.
As unwise as this is from a business growth standpoint for us, this is not the reason I discourage this manner of thinking.  Below are 7 arguments in favor of the growth of the real estate blogging community, in your town.  And, selling more custom blogs and training is not one of them.

1. Coke Needs Pepsi.  McDonalds Needs Burger King.

Why?  Because the consumer should not be discouraged to get more of what they want, just because they can’t have their preferred product.  Coke can’t be in all places at all times.  So Pepsi is there to provide the thirst quench.  Just as McDonalds can’t be on every corner, BK is there is fill the void.  This keeps the consumer perpetually satisfied.
The consumer still prefers Coke over Pepsi (or vice-versa), but in a time of need, is at least able to get more-or-less what they are looking for.
Your Blogging Audience will react in the same manner.  If you get their attention with relevant, interesting and regular content, you will earn a fan.  For those days when you are not there, the consumer wants to be able to continue to satisfy the their need for local real estate blog content, at the same time, wishing it was yours.
Sure you risk losing them to another neighborly blogger, but only if you put out an inferior product.  Trust your fans.  Let them go, and be confident that they will come back to you when you publish again.

2. Build Win-Win Relationships

Show an interest in your neighbors real estate blog, and they and their audience will show an interest in yours.
This is such a foreign concept for many agents that have been fighting for client loyalty for so many years.  But the truth of the matter is that it is precisely this reciprocating effort that will be the difference between a good blogger and a great blogger.
Initiating conversations in emails and in the comments of your peers’ blogs will both establish the recognition of your name and your blog as well as help you earn their trust and their visit.
Bringing local Realtors and their audience to your site to contribute to the discussions on your platform is the reward.  But, you’ll need to make the first (or many) effort(s) by playing nice on theirs.
This is certainly another instance of:
Keep your friends close, and your enemies competition even closer.
Pay it forward.  It will come back to you.

3. Blogging Is Not For Everyone.

Although there may always be more agents then ready-to-act buyers and sellers at any given time, there will always be fewer bloggers.
I can’t imagine more than 1% of agents in an area becoming truly active bloggers.  In an area like Chico where there are no more than 500 active agents, it would surprise me if there were ever to be more that 5 very active bloggers.
So, if that’s the case, you’ll have to admit that the arena is quite small.  It would be best to acknowledge and encourage each other, as opposed to making the effort to deny that they exist.

4. People Gravitate Towards The Unselfish.

Acknowledging the resource that others offer shows confidence in your own message and service.
The air with which you treat others is a huge part of your personality.  People gravitate towards the unselfish.  Your worth grows in your acknowledgment of others’ worth.  Being the central connector has all roads leading back to you.

5. You Are Delusional To Think That Your Audience Is Only Reading You.

Have you not noticed that once you uncover the world of blogging, you immediately look for more and more writing to consume that meets your interests and needs?  For some it even gets to the point where you get information overload and need to shed all the noise and just get back to the best and preferred messages.
Aim to be a preferred messenger.

6. Larry Bird Needed Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson Needed Larry Bird.

..and the NBA needed them both.
Competition keeps you sharp and keeps you driven.
But, most importantly, it keeps the audience interested.
Imagine running a race, by yourself.
Now imagine that same race with a few others breathing down your neck.
You run harder, they run harder, and the crowd shares in the emotion.

7. Learn From Them.  Be Inspired By Them.  Disagree With Them.  Compliment Them.

I’m certainly no plagiarist… but I can tell you that if my posts aren’t inspired by the questions from, and conversations with, our clients, then it is a safe bet they were inspired (at least in part) by a blogger I respect.
Observe the ideas that you see your peers blogging about and improve on them.
Find the holes in arguments and then bring the more refined message to your audience.
Help yourself stay on top of local topics by tuning in to your peers.
Acknowledge a great article, then add your two cents.
Traditionally, real estate is a dog-eat-dog industry.  Blogging can be and should be a refreshing divergence from this attitude.  Embrace your neighbor, and it will only make you better.

The post 7 Reasons Why Your Local Real Estate Blogging Peers Are Not Your Competition appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

No one is denying that there has been a shake-up in the real estate industry.
Empty cubicles, where there once was a waiting list, tell the story better than I could.
A thinning of the herd is always a positive thing for those staying put, but the bottom line is that there will always be more agents in the field than ready-to-act buyers and sellers.
So we ask, what are you doing to ensure that you are a ‘stayer’ in 2008?
There is common saying that I can’t see being much more appropriate than now: Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Along with this national ‘shift in the market’, that has many agents looking for a new career, there is another ‘shift’ that will certainly lead to the frustration and demise of many seasoned and novice agents alike.

The Digital Divide.

In 1997, an agent having an online identity was the exception and today it is the rule.
Unfortunately, today 99% of these online real estate identities have been rendered mostly useless.
The typical agent’s website is a glorified digital brochure with it’s only useful tool being the ubiquitous home search button.
So the rhetorical question becomes: Of what use is a canned real estate agent website to today’s ready-to-act buyers and sellers?
Your challenge: Today’s internet user (real estate related) is looking for Right Now Answers to their Right Now Questions.  They are looking for and expecting Perspective and Insight from a changing industry.
Being a huge fan of Wired Magazine, I am going to lift one of their standbys in order to illustrate how the industry is failing to meet the expectations of the internet user and what can be done to improve the effort.
Introducing the Expired, Tired and Wired when it comes to the online presence of a real estate agent.

Expired:

Personal Domain Names
It’s not supposed to be about you.  Its supposed to be about what you are doing for me.  Using your name as your domain name already gives me the feeling that I am about to land on a site where you tell me all about your designations, awards, hobbies, pet’s name and top it all off with a Glamour-Shots headshot from 10 years ago.
The Intro Page
No Content = No SEO
Why are you making me click twice to get into your site?
Please tell me that you aren’t still using flash to welcome visitors.  That’s so 2001
The Canned Welcome Message
Your message has been used on 1000’s of sites.  Google ignores it.  And so does everyone who comes to your site.  Terrible first impression.
Local Links: Weather, Schools, Chambers…
If I wanted to check the weather do you really think I am going to think of your website?
Link Exchanges
First AdvancedAccess got nailed, now just recently it was RealEstateWebmasters.  It’s SEO gaming, people.
Free Reports
At least you aren’t charging for dated advice that you didn’t write, and probably never even read.
Canned Drip Marketing Campaigns
“Spring is here.  Time for a little Spring Cleaning”  – I just threw up in my mouth a little.  This type of useless marketing sucks.
These are just as bad as the free reports you didn’t write/read.  Worst part?  You are sending them to me and I never even subscribed.
Featured Properties
Is this as discriminating as it sounds?  This must make your other sellers feel like their properties aren’t as important.  Just send me to where I can see all properties.
Sounds On Your Site
Please, no songs, no sound effects, no spoken intro messages.
People like to choose when they hear sounds, especially when browsing at work.
More Than 10 Buttons in your Navigation
How many choices are too many?  Some things are just too obvious.

Tired:

Home Value, Property Request and Pre-qualification Forms
With all the above working against you when it comes to being resourceful destination for your visitor, do you really think that you are going to have people filling these out?  Not a chance.
Mortgage Calculators
Why don’t I just make up a number?   It will probably be just as accurate.
If I knew exactly what the rate was that I was qualified for, don’t you think I would have also already gotten past the ‘what can I afford’ stage?
Personal Logos
Leaning on your name is pretentious.
Framing anything other than your 3rd Party IDX Solution
Your site must be less than adequate if you are concerned I may not come back to it as a superior resource.

Wired:

Descriptive, Catchy, and/or Memorable Domain Names
Been here once?  Bet you never had trouble recalling it a second time.
Try these: RainCityGuide.com, PortOrangeJuice.com, UrbanDigs.com, ArlingtonDirt.com, RealEstateSnippets.com, and FocusOnCrofton.com
The Blogsite in Place of the Website

• Fresh, Relevant Articles based on your clients’ concerns and questions replace your ineffective Welcome Message.
• Categories loaded with descriptive articles covering cover the topics of interest to your visitor replace Irrelevant Local Links.
• Natural SEO and Inbound Links generated through participation in the RE.net replace Link Exchange Gaming
• Solid Real Estate Reporting that you stand behind replace Dated and Ignored Free Reports.
• Blog Email Blasts and Feed Subscriptions replace Canned Drip Marketing.
• Lead Generation forms are now suddenly more effective because you have used the above to build trust, relationships and loyalty.
• You know I could go on and on

Participation in the RE.net
Embrace your fellow agents in the online community.
The friendships, alliances and networks that you forge in this dawn of social media will payoff much faster and more frequently than establishing yourself as an online island.  Read your competition’s peers’ blogs, comment on their posts, encourage them to fight-the-good-fight.  This effort will earn and attract traffic to your online presence. You can even twist this into a “keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer” sentiment if you needed to.
Social Networking
This movement is more than a fad.  It is the reality you are going to find yourself behind with if you don’t get involved now.
Take the time to participate in a few, and grow your online reach.  I spend time working with Linkedin, ActiveRain, Facebook.

Staying Ahead Of The Media
Before blogging it was virtually impossible for agents to counter the media and their claims.
As the nation braced for the “resettling” of home values, for lack of a better phrase, real estate was caught with its pants down, and unable to curb the media frenzy.
When it comes to the perception of your potential client, you are not just competing with the agent next door; you are also competing with perception set by the local and national media.  Right now, there is plenty of money being made in real estate, just not in commission checks and equity.  The doom and gloom are great lead-ins to the 11 o’clock news and selling the Sunday paper.
Having your voice in the ears and eyes of your past, present and future clients will continue to have you being seen as their trusted resource for real estate consulting.  The news may not always be good, but building an audience that trusts your perspective is the goal.
—-
So, this whole article was originally inspired by conversations we had with many dozens of agents… and although we could have just ended it a sentence ago, the intention of starting it would not have truly been accomplished.
You see, over the last year, we’ve received several hundred inquiries to our site, looking for more information on taking advantage of the services we offer.  Recently, we personally attempted to re-contact every inquiry that did not end up becoming a client.  Hard to believe I know… but there were a few :).  What our team found, was a strong portion of those that never acted, still haven’t.  They are hanging on to their “Wait and see” mantra.
If you were to jump into a real estate career today, would you be volunteering for more floor time?  Organizing mass-mailers?  Sitting in others’ open houses?
Well, that’s what we are hearing over and over again as the Safe Strategy.  Agents are still willing to try and ride out the storm with more and more of the same old, same old.
The other alarming uncovering was the many stories of seasoned agents whom, with as many as 12-15 years in the industry, just 12 months ago were on cruise control, are now scrambling to get their business back on track.

Is Playing It Safe Really The Safe Play?

Or would you be making an effort to pave the way for your voice to be heard in the arenas where it is being sought?
Let’s look back at that Safe Play:

When the industry was healthy, it seemed that to generate a relationship with a potential client, all one needed to focus on was placing oneself in front of those looking to buy or sell.  The media was either positive or indifferent.
But in 2005–6, things changed. The media got involved and ran with the story of a housing bubble. Ellen Renish, speaking for NAR on the topic said “What happened to us is the media.”  Stories about a real estate “bubble” and its potential to burst caused consumers to “not do anything,” she says. “And nothing happened. The bubble stories really stopped things for three months,” Renish said. “It was pretty scary.”
What was most compelling about this situation in 2006 was the inability for agents to counter the media and their claims.
And then the bottom did fall out.  Predictably, the media kicked up their reporting in full swing.
Earlier this month, RIS media held a round table discussion on the topic.  Ron Peltiercommented “The media likes to create sensationalism, but the fact is we’re going through a national correction….There are only local stories, and they’re more relevant.”  Well yeah!  Of course… it is local.
The challenge is, real estate agents, for the most part, are not geared to “talk” local.  If agents are to counter the media, they need to COUNTER the media.  Fight words with words.  But just how do you do this when your marketing is based on recipe cards, newspaper ads and a clickable brochure with a home search?
With the media covering real estate more now then ever before, do you really think people are going online to just look for homes?  They are looking for knowledge and wisdom.  Simply put, your template website doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of offering them what they are looking for.  They are looking for PERSPECTIVE and INSIGHT not for links to the zoo or a free report on the 10 steps to getting your house ready to sell.
The gap of the Digital Divide is only widening.

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