Archive for the ‘BLOGGING BOOTCAMP’ Category
Make Your Blog A Workhorse!
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008Blogging – one of the most powerful internet tools available today, some would even say THE Most. What started as a simple means of journaling or making social commentary has become a major workhorse when it comes to generating traffic and business. But, as with most workhorses, this particular Clydesdale requires a lot of care and attention: grooming (need to stay on top of moderating those comments, archiving old items, etc.), exercise (you need to have fresh angles and approaches on a variety of topics to keep ‘em coming back), feeding (you must continually post new material)… We won’t get into mucking out the stall right now.
However, the rewards you can reap from a properly run blog are bountiful indeed! Especially when you consider that you don’t necessarily have to do it all yourself – simply find a virtual assistant who knows all the tricks to train your blog and keep it running in the right direction.
For your consideration, read the following blog posted by Kevin Tomlinson:
Unique Ways to Drive Traffic To Your Website
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008It seems that when people talk about driving traffic to their website, they immediately focus on two methods – Pay Per Click, and Search Engine Optimization. While these both work, they are only two of a number of ways to send new visitors to your site.
The problem with Search Traffic
With both Pay Per Click and Search engine Optimization, you rely on people seeking you out. You simply wait around for someone to type the exact keyword that is going to show your website and hope that the user clicks on your link. To me, this seems like a pretty passive way to get traffic. Why not take a more active approach? Instead of waiting for the traffic to come to you, why not go to them?
Groups of Your Target Audience
Did you know that there are currently over 18K groups (groups not people) centered on Real Estate in Yahoo Groups. And this doesn’t even include Google Groups, MSN Groups, etc. Now remember, these groups are not too fond of people who go in and try to “hard sale” their services. Instead, they are looking for Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). With this in mind, simply go in with the mindset of being the resource of information. They will quickly see you as a Trusted Advisor.
Linking Up with LinkedIn
Groups are not the only social hub for your target market. LinkedIn is another place to become a SME to your target audience. Even if you target audience is the luxury market. In fact, LinkedIn states that “Every one of the Fortune 500 companies has at least one executive on the LinkedIn network.”
But Social Networks is only for Teens!
I know what some people may thinking. “You Tube, Facebook and My Space are only for teens!” Right? Not really. Actually “Over 40 percent of luxury consumers visited a social networking site, such as Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, etc. in the past three months.” And since we are talking about the luxury market, there are even Social Networks for specifically for those jetsetters.
Get Creative – Land More Clients
The key is to get creative and use the power of social networks to catch your target audience early on in the game. For example, “Over 90 percent of luxury consumers used the Internet in support of their travel planning” (think 2nd home or relocation). Now, imagine you are on these travel websites submitting reviews of the best 5 Star restaurants in the area. Oh, and you just happen to subtly work in your background and profession to validate yourself. “As a Realtor in CityName, I frequently take my clients to [Restaurant name]…” Suddenly, the luxury home owner looking to buy a vacation home now has a trusted resource who didn’t try to hard sell them but was the information resource.
Can Potential Clients See You on YouTube?
Vacation seekers and people looking for 2nd homes and investment property frequently use sites like Flickr and YouTube to see images and video of the area before visiting. When they do a search on YouTube for keywords like Raleigh Real Estate, do they see your or your competition?
The only thing constant about the internet is that it’s always changing. With so much information available, people will continue to use their peers and social networks to not only find information, but trusted information. Will you actively pursue this gold mind of new business or continue to wait around for people to find you?
Your Online Optimization Plan for 2008
Saturday, December 1st, 2007As the year quickly draws to a close, many people use this opportunity to think about the marketing plan for the upcoming year – and for good reason. Technology travels so fast that last year’s “cutting edge” marketing may be already out dated, especially when you think about your online marketing. So with this in mind, I thought I would share a few online marketing strategies to look out for in 2008.
Identity Optimization
People are relying on more and more on “Online Peer References” to hire service professionals. Websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and other online networks allow peers to easily share their sphere of influence. So how does this help you?
- Brand Awareness – You now have your name in more places
- Trust Transference – They trust you because their peers trust you.
Action Plan: Join LinkedIn and start building connections, participate in their Q&As. Write Recommendations for others, encourage them to return the favor.
Additional Sites of Interest: LinkedIn, ClaimID, Naymz, Ziki, Spock, ZoomInfo, etc.
Association Optimization
Like Minded people usually cluster in groups. It doesn’t matter if the common thread is geographic, demographic, or physiographic. With this in mind, begin to spend time visiting sites that not only attract your target market, but also attract you as a real estate agent. You would be amazed at how many unique marketing ideas you can pick up by seeing what other agents are doing in their market.
Action Plan: Join ActiveRain. Search for sites that attract your target and start to engage with them. Become a trusted advisor for a targeted online community.
Additional Sites of Interest: MySpace, Eons, Squidoo and various local social communities.
UserGroup Optimization
This is very similar to Association Optimization but is even more targeted. For example, did you know that there are currently over 17,000 groups (groups, not people) about Real Estate on Yahoo Groups alone? But remember, people in these groups can smell a sales person a mile away. The concept here isn’t about selling, it’s about proving that you are the expert about a topic and watching sales gravitate to you!
Action Plan: Seek out UserGroups that relate to your local real estate market. Begin to participate in these groups by sharing helpful tips and advice.
Additional Sites of Interest: Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, Trulia Voices, Yahoo Answers.
The Tip of the Iceburg
The strategies outlined above, coupled with blogs, online videos, and new social networks will continue to play an even more important role in 2008. And while this only encompasses a handful of online marketing techniques; I hope it does get you thinking creatively about your online marketing strategy for 2008.
Happy Holidays!
Brad Carroll
Blogging Tips and Advice
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007I recently took part in a Blog Q&A session with Coach Ken Goodfellow. Below is a recap of our discussion.
Coach Ken: It seems like Blogging is getting a lot of media attention lately. What is your advice about starting a blog.
Brad: Blogging has many benefits from both Search Engine Optimization and attracting new clients. Search Engines love it because it’s fresh and unique content. Site visitors love them because blogs are geared around information and not about hard selling. The other good thing about blogs is that there are great opportunities out there. NAR just released a statistic that only 5% of Realtors are blogging. This means that there is a wide open opportunity to become the expert in your area. And search engines and site visitors are not the only ones that pay attention to blogs. Traditional media are relying more and more on “bloggers” for quotes and expert advice. This allows you to truly be seen as the area expert.
Coach Ken: I know that for most real estate agents, time is an issue. What kind of time commitment does it take to be a successful blogger?
Brad: Blogging does take time. But like all marketing strategies, you have to weigh the cost (money or time) against the return on investment. Imagine if an agent had a chance to speak in front of hundreds or even thousands of potential buyers and sellers. Most agents would probably jump at the opportunity. That is exactly what blogging is all about – being the expert for hundreds of your readers. And don’t forget about the ancillary benefits. One of our clients has only been blogging for a few months. He already has over 5,000 websites linking to his blog. Including places like the Miami Herald, New York Times, Inman News, and thousands of other blogs. On many of his keywords, his blog site actually outranks his main website!
Coach Ken: Does he write all the content himself? Obviously it sounds like the payoff is there – but what about people who may not be the best writers or people who simply don’t have the time.
Brad: He does write all the content himself. In the blog world there is a phrase you hear repeated quite often. “Find your Blog Voice.” You don’t have to be the best writer. But you do have to be a good communicator. Luckily, being a successful Realtor pretty much requires you to be a good communicator. You don’t have to be able to write poetry, you just have to find your style (blog voice) and do what feels comfortable to you. But I do realize that not everyone can or wants to write. Even then, you can get pretty creative about keeping your blog updated.
Coach Ken: Give us a few ideas.
Brad: Sure, Ghost writing is one example. That simply means having someone write on your behalf. When you’re doing this, be sure that the ghost writer knows you enough to convey your personality and style. Remember, your readers will begin to learn your style. They will expect that same style when they see you face to face.
Another idea is to draw from the resources in your preferred partnerships. Negotiate a win-win situation for both parties. For example, have a mortgage broker write a monthly blog on interest rates or something related to the mortgage industry. It’s free advertising for him and it’s unique content for you.
You can also link up with other businesses that are not necessarily related to real estate. Interview business owners about how great it is to live/work in your area. Interview local politicians, school board members, builders, bank owners, CEOs, etc – they will jump at the opportunity to have free exposure and build “good will” in the community.
Get creative and do anything to find unique content. If you have a team, have a buyer agent do a “Day in the life of” post. Let consumers see what it’s like to be a Realtor for a day. This is a great way to soft sell the many things you do to earn your commission!
Coach Ken: Okay, let’s say these agents want to start a blog tomorrow. What options are out there? How do they know the best route to take that is going to have the most impact on their search engine optimization and ultimately their business?
Brad: Scalability is the key. What I mean by that is you want a blog platform that is going to grow with you and be easy to use. That’s such a key ingredient. The reality is that if your blog is not easy to use, then you will be less likely to keep it up. There are a lot of companies that have proprietary software platforms for blogs. But unfortunately you are locked into their system and do not have a lot of growing room. The flip side to this is free blogs. While these are good to use in your total online marketing presence, they should not be used as your main blog. Personally, we use the WordPress platform for all blogs that we build. It’s great because it’s low cost to implement and it gives you tons of flexibility and growing room.
Coach Ken: I want to go back to something you mentioned earlier. You used the phrase “online marketing presence.” Can you touch on that? I know some people think that their online marketing only consist of their website. Can you talk about that for a moment?
Brad: That’s a great point. It used to be that easy. Put up a website and watch the leads pour in. But now days that simple strategy is being harder and harder – Let me give you an example, most people think that Search Engine optimization (where your site appears in the search results) is just based on the content on the site. If I have a site about real estate widgets then all I need to do is have a website about real estate widgets and I will be at the top. But your site’s content is only one of many factors. Google and other search engines take many things into consideration including how many websites are linking to you (and I don’t mean just link farms) as well as credibility, age, amount of content, and a host of other factors. And search engines are not the only ones looking beyond your website. The whole Web 2.0 craze has people relying more on places like social networks to get the information that they need. You want to be where those people are and ultimately point everything back to your main website. You want your website to be the ultimate authority on a subject. It’s only then will you see rankings in search engines. Imagine this – You have a circle in the center of a piece of paper that represents your website. Now think about lots of smaller circles around scattered around the piece of paper. Each of those smaller circles represents other websites. They could be the chamber of commerce, MySpace, Active Rain etc. Each of those smaller circles needs to point to your main website. They basically need to say “Yes we have some information about real estate widgets but the ultimate resource on real estate widgets is this main flagship website. You can see an example here.
Coach Ken: So are there particular websites that help you build an online presence?
Brad: Yes, hundreds of them. But remember, its quality not quantity. Most people make the mistake of just throwing up a ton of duplicated content on lots of different sources and then say that this strategy doesn’t work. I actually wrote a post about that on my blog the other day. Again, it’s all about thinking creatively. If you have a blog, then you have a good chance at being quoted in your local newspaper. Newspaper websites are reference websites and therefore are great links to your website. You can upload content to MySpace, YouTube, ActiveRain, the list just goes on and on. Michael Russer and I recently wrote an eBook about this exact subject. It’s called the Real Estate Website Accelerator. It breaks down how to drive traffic to your site using these and other sources.
Blogging Boot Camp Winner Announced!
Friday, October 12th, 2007
Congratulations to John Daly, a Nevada City Real Estate agent, for winning the Blogging Boot Camp contest. Okay John, now the hard part begins!
Stay tuned as our first order of business is to develop a blogging strategy and create/design the blog. Don’t worry, we will be documenting each step right here on Mr Internet News. This way, you can put these same strategies to work in your own blog. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest.
Free Blog Giveaway
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007Mr. Internet News in cooperation with Dakno Real Estate Marketing is sponsoring a blog and coaching giveaway.
One lucky winner will receive a free custom designed blog and 3 months of One-on-One coaching with me and my team at Dakno Marketing. Over the course of those 90 days, we are going to show you how to turn a blog into a lead generating online authority. We will include topics such as:
- How your blog can boost your search engine rankings
- How to find untapped streams of qualified site visitors
- How to find people who will write for your blog without having to pay them a dime.
- How to boost your traffic using Social Media Marketing
- How to get what you want by giving it away
- How to find you “Blog Voice”
Why Blog?
Imagine if someone gave you a call and ask you to speak to a few hundred people who were looking to buy a home in your area. You would probably jump at the opportunity. After all, you would have the chance to show hundreds of “potential clients” that you are truly are the expert in your area. That’s exactly what Blogging is all about.
Who Should Enter?
Anyone who has been thinking about starting a blog or anyone who has started a blog and wants to ramp up their traffic and leads. While there are creative ways to keep your blog updated with little work, we are looking for someone who isn’t afraid to put some time into becoming a successful blogger.
Contest Dates
We will accept entries until October 10th. The winner will then be announced right here on October 12th.
Everyone Wins
Even if you don’t win the contest you still get the knowledge. That’s because we will be keeping everyone up-to-date on each step along the way. Just look for post tagged with “Blogging Boot Camp.”
