Job vs. Business

First of all, you can’t possibly have a massive improvement to your business if you don’t have a business.  The vast majority of real estate sales professionals have a “job” they work for rather than a business that serves them.  It’s a huge distinction that is lost on even some of the industry’s top producers.  It doesn’t matter how much money you make, it is how it’s made that matters.

As the figure below shows, there are only three things to consider for any business (whether it’s real estate sales, manufacturing widgets or building skyscrapers) Lead Generation, Lead Conversion and Business Support.  These are known as the three phases of the business cycle, and every successful business follows them.

How you handle each of these phases will determine the extent of your business success.  For the sake of this article we are going to assume that your core competencies of Lead Generation and Conversion are well handled.  Our focus instead will be the Business Support phase of the cycle.  The way most agents handle Business Support literally guarantees they become mired in the job of selling real estate, rather than having the benefit of a business doing the heavy lifting for them.

The Three Most Expensive Ways to Get Things Done

The biggest factor that holds sales associates back from truly having a business that serves them, is how they handle all of the myriad details that need to be done outside of their selling activities.  Here are the three most expensive mistakes most agents make when dealing with these issues (listed in order of most expensive on down):

1. Not Do It At All – in their well-intentioned attempts to do everything themselves, they become so overwhelmed that the detailed items start falling through the cracks and their lead generation / closing activities suffer.
2. Do It Themselves – one of the biggest limiting beliefs in real estate sales is that if you want to have “total control” and have things done right, you have to do it yourself.  Just for laughs, tell that to the CEO of any successful company and see their reaction.  Remember, any time you do something outside of your core-competency, you end up paying top dollar for amateur results.
3. Hire an Onsite Assistant – this may actually work if you are naturally gifted manager and motivator of people (which the most salespeople are not).  However, you are still paying way too much for what you need done.

There is a fourth way however, that allows you to focus on what you do best, brings in the most money and costs you the least.  It is the way I’ve run my businesses for the last 15 years and have taught 10s of thousands of REALTORS to transform their business…

Virtual Outsourcing – Business Support On Call

Imagine being able to hire talent to accomplish nearly anything you need done, that you don’t have to train, motivate, provide office space, equipment or benefits, and you only pay for what you use.  That is the payoff of using virtual assistants and consultants.  It is the only way I’ve found that is accessible to every real estate sales person of any experience level that truly addresses the Business Support phase of their business cycle in a practical and profitable way.

Keep in mind however that working with virtual assistants and consultants is not at all like working with a traditional onsite assistant.  In fact, if you treat them that way it is almost guaranteed to fail.  The process of finding, evaluating, hiring and working profitably with virtual assistants and consultants can be a bit involved.  So to avoid the inevitable overwhelm that would result from my attempting to insert all that material here, I’ve created a separate PDF download for you that covers the following topics in great detail:

• On-Site Assistants vs. Virtual Assistants
• Ways Virtual Assistants Can Support Your Success
• How To Find And Hire The Right VA For You
• Five Critical VA Interview Questions

To download this free document, just go to www.Facebook.com/OnlineDominance and click the “Cool Tools” tab at the top of the page.  There you will find a number of free resources including the special report “ePRODUCTIVITY – Earn More, Work Less & Enjoy Life!“.

Case Studies

Here are just a few examples of REALTORS who have incorporated Virtual Outsourcing into their business and never looked back:

• Dave Fletcher, The Fletcher Group – uses a virtual transaction coordinator to handle the many 10s of millions of dollar closing each year.  Here’s the best part, she only charges Dave if the deal closes!
• Chris Coveny, Royal LePage Performance Realty – found a skilled virtual writer to research and post on his blog for a fraction of what his time is worth.
• Roman Pavlik, Pavlik Luxury Real Estate – found several VAs to keep his listings up to date on his Website on a daily basis.
• Sven Andersen, The Andersen Team – uses a team of VAs to handle every aspect of his listing marketing coordination, which of course frees him up to bring in as many new listings he wants without breaking a sweat.

It is no accident that all of the above (and many, many others) have a business that serves them, instead of being a slave to a job.  If you truly want to have a business where you can earn more, work less and enjoy life you need to focus on what you do best and outsource the rest.  Virtual Outsourcing (i.e. using virtual assistants and consultants) is the most viable and affordable way to accomplish this available to all REALTORS of any skill and experience level.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.

Don’t Bother Calling a Web Designer

Roman Pavlik, the owner of this Web marvel is a member of my ULTRA eTEAM Alumni and is frankly one of the most coachable sales associates I’ve ever met.  Instead of hiring the best Web developer he could find, he spent the first four months planning and outlining every aspect of his site www.DowntownLivingMiami.com from the perspective of his target market.  Once he had his written site plan completed (and fully vetted by me and the rest of the ULTRA eTEAM) then and only then was introduced to the best Web developer I know of.  With a written plan in hand (including most of the copy produced by a professional copywriter) it was relatively easy for the designer to manifest Roman’s vision for his site.

Hot Seat Wunderkind

During our Tuesday evening Live Group Coaching sessions we will occasionally have what is affectionately known as a “Hot Seat”.  This is where a sales associate volunteers to have their site evaluated by me and the group live during the session.  For most it is an extremely useful exercise on how to improve their sites dramatically.  The video below is a recording of the recent DownTownLivingMiami.com site’s hot seat session.  In this particular case it was a struggle to find any way to improve this site.  Check out the video and you will see why (and you will also see which criteria I use to evaluate sites.)

(NOTE: it is strongly suggested that you play this video full screen to see all the details being discussed.)

Nothing is Ever Perfect…

You are probably wondering why this site is referred to as “nearly” perfect.  Well, if you watched the whole hot seat session video above all the way through (it’s about 71 minutes long) you will have seen and heard about “constant refinement”.  There is no such thing as perfect, only a constant state of refinement to continually improve a Website’s ability to generate business and differentiate you from your competition.  By the way, Roman’s is the first of several “nearly perfect” Websites we will be highlighting here and during our future live Hot Seat sessions.  These others will also be coming from my ULTRA eTEAM Alumni.  You will find that their sites are just as impressive and unique as Roman’s but for different target markets.

The moral of the story here is don’t even THINK about contacting a Web designer before you do your planning and outlining first.  To do otherwise you are inviting much frustration, financial pain and ultimately ending up with a business Website that is anything but perfect.

Facebook vs. Google

Facebook is huge with close to a half a billion members and continuing to grow rapidly each month.  What makes the advertising potential so great however is that by the very nature of the data found in “personal profiles”, Facebook has amassed incredible demographic and psychographic information on its members that is the envy of even companies like Google.  This information includes personal likes, dislikes, affiliations, interests and so on.  It doesn’t stop there however because Facebook also has the ability (and the necessary funding) to cross tabulate their internal member information with purchased third party data like magazine subscription information, group membership affiliation, etc which allows them to further refine their targeting ability.

When Google serves up ads to users of its search engine, the ads typically are targeted based only upon the search query because that’s limit of Google’s knowledge about that particular consumer.  Whereas when Facebook serves up ads to members, it knows far more about the member and can show ads (on the right side of the page) that are tremendously more targeted and hence more likely to convert. And Facebook ads can leverage built-in “social proof” to add credibility and increase conversion rates since your ads can show who else of the viewer’s Facebook friends have interacted with you or your services.  Also, the amount of time an average member spends on Facebook eclipses even the most avid searcher on Google.

Like Google Adwords, you can pay for Facebook ads either as Pay-Per-Click (PPC – recommended in most cases) or per 1,000 impressions (CPM).  The process of setting up, managing and tracking your Facebook ads is very straightforward.  And frankly, no one does a better job of explaining it than Facebook.  Just go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising to review the steps and best practices. (TIP: Facebook suggests ad pricing to best reach your defined ad target.  Let’s just say they can be a bit biased about this.  Experiment using PPC values that start out about 10% less than suggested and then continue to lower your bid amounts until you see a significant drop off in impressions.  This strategy can save you a lot of money!)

Now let’s take a look at all the ways you can use this high-powered advertising rifle to grow your business…

Hyper-Targeting for Hyper-Growth

The ways in which you can use Facebook advertising to grow your business and differentiate yourself are limited only by your imagination.  The following came out of a recent brainstorming session with my Online Dominance students.  To help organize these ideas, I’ve broken them down into categories:

• Win New Listings – show your prospective sellers how you can advertise their listings on Facebook and receive literally thousands (if not tens of thousands) of impressions.  Chances are very good that none of your competitors are doing this and it will help you stand out considerably.
• Sell Targeted Listings – if your listing is unique or fits a particular profile (e.g. Florida waterfront property) you can create an ad that is shown only to those who would likely have interest in this including “snow birds” from other areas that have a proven track record of purchasing this type of property.
• Property Tours – advertise just about any kind of tour you can imagine (the more out of the box the better) to targeted Facebook members in your area.  Here are just some ideas that came up for this:
  • Riding horse property tours
  • Bicycle property tours
  • Waterfront property tours ending in a wine-tasting party
  • Luxury high-rise condo bedroom tours
  • Boat tours of waterfront properties
  • Golf course / property tours that include short presentations by the golf pros at each course
  • Foreclosure property tours, or pre-foreclosure tours (with the permission of the owners of course.)
• Seminars – either in person or Webinar-based.  There are tons of possibilities here including:
  • Investor seminars
  • Foreclosure / Short-sale seminars
  • Invest with IRA funds seminars
  • First-time Buyer seminars
  • How to get around today’s mortgage maze seminars
  • How to prepare your home for sale seminars.
• Community Involvement – you can advertise your community involvement by getting local people to participate.  For example:
  • Charity food drives
  • Client appreciation parties
  • Neighborhood block parties
• Irresistible Offers – if you Website has irresistible offers, using Facebook ads is a powerful way to drive targeted traffic to take advantage of them.

Advertising without targeting is just taking shots in the dark.  Your chances of actually hitting something are pretty slim.  Advertising without the ability to measure your ROI is just throwing money at something and hoping it sticks.  Neither are a viable way to grow business profitably.  Facebook on the other hand offers a convenient, inexpensive way to hyper-target your advertising dollars and almost instantly measure the results.  And the good news for you is that very few real estate professionals have even started taking advantage of this potential.  Now is your chance to grow your business in a way that will have your competitors guessing and you smiling, all the way to the bank.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.

Today’s consumer is looking for a relevant and competent business person, not just a real estate agent.  To be in business the basic first step you must take is to have plan of action to realize your vision. Here is your chance to discover how to create a workable plan for your business faster than you thought possible.  This Tuesday (4/20/10) from 7:00pm – 8:00pm EDT we are hosting top industry speaker and consultant Jon Cheplak as he delivers a no-cost (and nothing to buy) Webinar on “How to Create Your Killer Business Plan In 5 Minutes Flat!“.  (CLICK HERE to register now —we expect a very full house…)

Here is what he will cover:

• The six critical steps to a successful business plan;
• How to benchmark your current business;
• How to analyze your current market for opportunities;
• How to develop strategies and tactics;
• How to implement your plan and measure results;
• And, how to automate much of the business planning process.

SPECIAL BONUS: Just for attending the event you will receive a FREE online automated business plan.

DATE & TIME: Tuesday April 20th, 2010 — 7:00pm – 8:00pm EDT

REGISTRATION: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/281829840

Jon Cheplak has 20 years in the business first as a highly successful agent, then growing and managing very large multi-office brokerages and now the CEO and founder of several ground-breaking companies that serve the real estate industry.  He also happens to be a close friend and colleague of mine as well :0)

Congratulations! You just launched your brand new Website loaded with the latest bells and whistles.  And, you can hardly wait for it to start cranking out new business while you sleep (hey, the vendor promised that would happen!)  Sorry to curb your enthusiasm, your Web marketing journey isn’t over, it’s just getting started…

Measure, Test, Refine

Let’s assume for the moment that your site has tons of new traffic coming to it on a daily basis.  Believe it or not, that is not a hard thing to accomplish.  What is much more challenging however, is getting your visitors to convert to new business.  That’s why it is important measure their behavior when on your site and consistently test additional ways to engage them and then refine your site to optimize conversion.  And, this is an ongoing process that should take place ideally on a quarterly basis.

For example, something simple as changing the words from “Featured Properties” to “Best Buys” made a huge difference to Realtor Jim Dolanche’s site in terms of click through rate.

He never would have known unless he tested it.

Measuring What’s Hot and What’s Not

Imagine being able to sit over the shoulder of your visitors and see exactly how they interact with your site.  Measuring site visitor behavior is very different than visitor statistics and is crucial to understanding how your site does or does not engage people who land there.

CrazyEgg is a service that generates “heat maps” of your site pages showing you where people click and how often.  The brighter the spot, the more people clicked on that particular spot (see example heat map below).

CrazyEgg shows where people are clicking (the lowest form of engagement) whether or not there is a clickable link there.  In one snapshot you get an immediate and rich sense of what your visitors found interesting and just as importantly, what they didn’t.  For just US $9/mo you can measure the behavior of up to 10,000 visitors/mo on up to 10 pages of your site (prices current as of this writing).

Once you have measured your visitors’ collective behavior it is time to start testing alternative text, graphics, offers and even layout to see if these changes significantly improve your site’s ability to convert casual visitors into serious clients.

The ABC’s of A/B Testing

To effectively test changes to your site you need to have a way to randomly serve up both the current and changed versions of your site and then measure visitor behavior on each.  This is known as A/B Testing (or Multivariate Testing when making more than one change at a time), and is a very powerful way to consistently improve your site’s conversion performance.

There is good news and bad news about the A/B Testing process however.  The good news is that Google has a free A/B testing service call Google Website Optimizer that is very feature-rich and lets you test any changes to your site and statistically measure the differences in conversion, time spent on your site and visitor satisfaction.  The bad news is that it is so sophisticated that you will need the help of a knowledgeable Web developer and/or SEO person to set up the tests and measure the results.  One last caveat; your site needs to see several thousand visitors per month in order for test results to be statistically significant.

Consistent Incremental Improvements

Once you have completed visitor behavior measurement and A/B testing part of the refinement cycle, it is time to implement the changes you have determined will enhance your site’s conversion potential and start measuring all over again.  Ideally, you want to repeat this cycle 3 – 4 times a year.  Think of it as polishing your Website.  It just shines that much more brightly with each treatment.

Websites are not “launch and forget” marketing weapons.  They need to be consistently refined and course corrected if you want the most bang for your online marketing buck.  If you focus more on the Web marketing journey rather than the destination, you will have a lot more fun and more business to show for it.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.

The Kindle Killer

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my Kindle –it has changed the way I read books forever.  However it was only a matter of time before someone developed an innovative new “passive” screen technology that blows the doors off Kindle’s E-ink nearly static gray-scale screen.  Qualcomm appears to be that company as they plan to launch their Mirasol e-Reader in this coming Fall.

It incorporates a revolutionary new screen technology that uses ambient light to reflect a full range of colors using the same principles that nature uses to produce breath-taking colors in a butterfly’s wings.  Because it uses no backlight to illuminate the screen it uses very little energy.  In fact, Qualcomm claims that it will use even less than Amazon’s Kindle.  In addition, this screen will show full motion video as well.  Check out the YouTube demo below…

Now imagine having your For Sale signs incorporate this kind of screen (powered by a single solar cell).  The only problem is you’d have to post an armed guard just to prevent people from stealing them :0)

Minority Report Minus Tom Cruise

Remember those cool virtual screens with floating images that Tom Cruise manipulated with special gloves?  It was all Hollywood smoke and mirrors back then.  However, the MIT professor the producers hired to come up with a futuristic computer interface for the movie has started a company called Oblong that went ahead and actually created this way of working with computers.  And they gave it a really consumer friendly name: g-Speak Spatial Operating Environment –now there’s a mouthful!  The following video can do a much better job of explaining what this is and how it works.

Some Fortune 500 companies are already using this technology and eventually it will find its way to you and me.  When it does, virtual tours will never be the same!

A Power Plant In Every Garage

If you happened to watch the 60 Minutes show this evening (2/21/10) then you witnessed what could end up being the birth of a whole new energy renaissance.  It highlighted the work of a Silicon Valley company called Bloom Energy that has figured a way to make inexpensive and compact fuel cells that work using most fossil fuels (like natural gas). During the interview, the founder of the company estimated that homeowners could have one of their fuel-cell systems installed to replace the grid for about $3,000.  That’s a whole lot less than solar and it works 24/7, day and night, rain or shine.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I got excited when “Cold Fusion” was announced in the ’80’s.  This time it’s different.  First of all, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr is behind it with about $400,000,000 in venture capital (not exactly chump change even by Silicon Valley standards).  And major companies like Google, eBay, Wall Mart, etc. have been using these systems for months to inexpensively power their operations.  Bloom Energy is planning a major unveiling of this technology to the general public this coming Wednesday (2/24/10).  This is something I wouldn’t miss.  Talk about a green-jobs boost to the economy!  This could be one of those innovations that is a game changer and help us out of the current recession.  Let’s hope anyway…

First, let’s look at the numbers.  Douglas launched his Modern Homes fan page in September of 2009 which means he started with, well… 0 fans.  The week before Christmas he had over 20,000 fans.  As of this writing (approximately seven weeks later) he has 51,054 fans.  Now just to put this into perspective, take a look at the fan base numbers of these famous brands (both real estate specific and general consumer).  NOTE: all the fan counts shown below are as of the time of this writing.

Not only is Douglas kicking the social media butt of every major real estate brand, he is also besting several multi-billion dollar (and otherwise highly popular) consumer brands.  And he continues to add about 1,000 new fans every day.  Now before go into the details of how he achieved such incredible results and what it has meant to his bottom line, let’s first make sure we are the same (fan) page…

Personal Profile vs. Fan Page

There are two primary ways you can represent yourself on FaceBook:

1. Personal Profile – everyone who has a FaceBook account has a profile page.  This is your “home base” for all your friends and family to connect with you in a personal way on personal (i.e. not business) matters.  FaceBook Terms of Use prohibit the use of Personal Profile pages to be used for commercial purposes.  This is why Facebook created this next category of page.
2. Fan Page – sometimes referred to as your business page. This is where you try to attract and interact with people who are part of your target market or at least connected to it in some way.

To create a Fan Page, just go to www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the simple steps.  Once created, Facebook will give your fan page an innocuous looking URL that no one would ever remember.  However, once you have at least 25 fans, you can get your own URL that is tied to your brand.  Get your friends and family to become fans so you hit your 25 fan threshold as quickly as possible.  Then go to NameChk.com to see if your intended name (i.e. brand name) is still available as a vanity URL on Facebook.  If so, grab it immediately (and consider getting the same one for Twitter and YouTube while you are at it).

Fan Page Caveats

Don’t expect people to become your fans just because you ask them (other than Mom, Dad, Cousin Jane and Uncle Fred of course).  People become fans only because they perceive value in doing so.  If you make your fan page about you or your business, you have already lost the race.  Your fan page has to powerfully and engagingly answer the question “What’s in it for me?” from the perspective of your potential fans.

The key point implied here is that by definition, a vibrant growing fan base is highly targeted.  They all share similar needs, wants, fears and desires.  In other words, they represent a very specific niche or target market which your fan page powerfully satisfies and engages.  If you look at Modern Homes, you will see that it is both highly targeted (to people who love modern residential architecture which is Douglas Newby’s specialty) and incredibly engaging through the use of exquisite photos and refined commentary.

Assuming you have created a branded fan page that is targeted to a specific niche, let’s now see how to grow that base of raving fans as quickly as possible…

Growing Your Fan Base

In the beginning you will probably want to use FaceBook ads to grow your fan base to a thousand or so members before you expect to see viral action.  Modern Homes primed its fan base pump this way until it hit about 2,000 members.  After that it took off on its own.  Facebook ads are similar to Google Adwords in that you can pay-per-click.  Facebook ads can be highly targeted geographically, demographically and for interest based upon keywords.

Here are several ways you can grow your fan base without spending money:

• Send emails to your clients and prospects suggesting that they become a fan;
• Place a “Become a Fan!” Fan Page widget on your Websites and blogs.

Exploding Your Fan Base

While these methods may add marginally to your fan base, don’t expect rapid growth this way.  The key to explosively growing your fan base consists of two parts: 1) make sure you have something of extreme value in the eyes of your target market, and 2) well, it will have more impact if I demonstrate it for you —just go to www.FaceBook.com/OnlineDominance and click the “Cool Tools!” tab at the top of the page and you will instantly see how this second part works.

Raving Fans = Raging Business

You are probably wondering at this point just what all those fans are doing for Douglas Newby’s bottom line.  To help answer this I went to Brad Carroll, CEO of Dakno Real Estate Marketing.  While I coached Douglas about focusing his target marketing on his Website, Brad and his team showed him how to leverage that focus using social media and actually help him to set up his fan page.  So I asked Brad (who is also one of the top SEO experts in the industry) how a 50,000+ highly targeted and engaged fan base can impact Website traffic. Here’s what he said: “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in traffic to his site. In fact, last month alone saw an increase  with over 5,000 new unique visitors to his main website. Almost all of that new traffic is directly related to his Facebook strategy. And since every new fan is basically a new link to his fan page, we’ve seen his Facebook fan page significantly grow in search engine credibility. His Facebook fan page now appears on page one in Google for many of his targeted keywords. There are very few online marketing strategies that can produce numbers like that in such a short amount of time.”

And here’s what Douglas Newby had to say when I asked him how the Modern Homes fan page affected his business and his credibility as one of the top experts in modern residential architecture: “There has been a dramatic increase in the number of buyers contacting me about modern homes for sale or potentially for sale because they appreciate me sharing their passion for modern homes.  The motivation and satisfaction of Facebook.com/ModernHomes— goes beyond the increase in business.  It creates a global conversation about modern homes which further provokes my interest and knowledge about both modern architecture and the people who love modern homes.”

It’s a Brave New World

When a lone Realtor can absolutely blow the doors off the social networking efforts of every major real estate brand and outperform many multi-billion dollar brands, you know it’s a different world.  The keys to social networking success are: a) select a target market for which you are passionate; b) create a consistent brand identity and value perception for that market; c) build the fan base aggressively; and d) have an ongoing “conversation” with your fans to keep them engaged.

Never has there been an opportunity such as this for individual Realtors to break out above the crowd and noise in the real estate sales industry.  This is low-hanging fruit and it’s yours for the taking.  All you have to do is pick it.

Here’s an innovative way to post compelling content to your blog in just seconds that will also help propel your site to the top of the search engine results.

Photo Blogging: Cell Phone to Blog Post in 90 Seconds Flat

Photo blogging is a way to leverage what you do best every day, look at properties and use your cell phone, to create fresh search engine relevant content for your blog even several times a day.  Here’s how it works:

STEP 1 – Snap a cell phone picture of a listing in your market area

STEP 2 – Compose an email with the address of the listing as the subject line and just a sentence or two describing the property.

STEP 3 – Send the email to a special address that once received will instantly post your subject line as the blog post title, insert the photo and follow it up with the descriptive text as the main body of your post.

There you have it, about 90 seconds total (unless you are all thumbs like me, then figure 2 minutes).  And what is really cool is that you haven’t broken your daily routine to do it.  And no more staring at a blank computer screen trying to figure out what to post while you could be out, well… looking at property.

Now at this point you are probably thinking “Awesome, I can do that!  Ahhh, what’s that special address I need to send these emails to?” As you might have guessed, there’s just a little bit of set up you have to do before you start photo blogging yourself silly…

Getting Started

The first thing you want to do is set up a free account at Posterous.com.  Once set up, you will be able to send your cell phone posts to post@posterous.com and it will “know” who sent it (it also works with email sent from any device, including your computer).  Now if this is far as you go, Posterous will automatically create your blog and handle updating it via your emails.  However, if you want to maximize your “Google Juice” that a frequently updated blog can give you and have a look & feel that is consistent with your brand, then there are a few other things that you want to do:

1. Create a sub-domain from your main Website domain that points to your photo blog.  For example, if your main site domain is “LuxuryMountainHomes.com” then you may want to set your photo blog URL as “photoblog.LuxuryMountainHomes.com” with links to it on every page of your site.  By doing this, search engines like Google will attribute the new photo blog content to your entire site.  And since you used the property address as the post title, your site’s relevancy for your market area increases with every submission.
2. Have your Web designer modify the look and feel of your Posterous blog to be consistent with that of your main Website.

By doing the above, you now have a way to constantly be adding high-relevancy blog content to your site throughout the day, day-in day-out without breaking a sweat.

IMPORTANT: if you already have a blog with more traditional content, be sure to make your photo blog separate from it.  Not everyone subscribed to your current blog will want to receive your photo blog posts throughout the day.

Remember, the main benefit of a photo blog is quickly and easily adding search engine relevant content to your site on a regular basis, not necessarily to inform a reader base.

From $250K to $600K Average Sales Price in Just a Few Months

Walter Burns is a condo specialist with Weichert Realtors in Hoboken, NJ.  Thanks to his social media efforts (a large part of which is his photo blogging) his average transaction prices have soared from $250,000 to over $600,000 in short period of time.  You can see his photo blog by going to http://photos.livingonthehudson.com/.  You will notice that in addition to his photo blog he has a traditional one as well, both of which are seamlessly integrated into his main site www.LivingOnTheHudson.com.  If you examine both, you will see that the frequency of his posts to his photo blog is far greater than his regular one.  And for good reason, it’s so darn easy!

Whether you are brand new to blogging or a seasoned social networking pro, photo blogging is one tool you should be using on a daily basis.  If you can take photos and text with your cell phone, you can photo blog.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.

Harvesting Great Ideas via Bubble Charting

The quickest way to turn off your creative flow is to try to make a list of ideas.  Why is this so bad?  Because by its very structure a list has an enforced priority (i.e. 1st item, 2nd, and so on…), which causes your mind to evaluate ideas rather than just let them come out.  Ideally you want a way to capture your ideas as quickly as they appear without interruption or judgment getting in the way.
Bubble charting is a very simple mind-mapping method I learned in a writing class 25 years ago that has absolutely transformed how I generate ideas and organize my thinking.  It is so powerful that I use it many times each week to help me run and grow my business.  Here’s how it works:

1. Take a blank piece of paper and draw an oval in the center.  Then put the name of the topic in this oval for which you want to generate tons of ideas;
    
2. For each idea you think of (never mind if it’s any good or not –remember, no judgment at this stage of the process) simply put it anywhere on the page and draw an oval around it an arrow from it to the central topic oval;
    
3. When you have ideas that relate to other ideas just do the same as in step 2. above except draw the arrow so it connects the two ideas.

When you are done, your page might look something like this:

In the real world however, if you are using pencil and paper, or a white board, it is more likely to look like this:

It’s not about being “pretty”, rather getting as many ideas (good, bad or otherwise) out as quickly as possible.  While paper and pencil or white board is fine for bubble charting exercises, these mediums don’t make it particularly easy to edit, share or even store your creative work.  Thankfully there are tools available that make the bubble charting process much easier and even “pretty” when you are done!

Bubble Charting and Mind-Mapping Tools

I never thought a computer-based mind-mapping tool could ever replace the ease and free flowing nature of paper and pencil —boy, was I wrong!  After using some of the tools mentioned below my bubble charting / mind-mapping capabilities have exploded with additional speed, ease, sharing and storage for future use…

• MindGenius – (www.MindGenius.com) this is my absolute favorite mind-mapping tool, and unfortunately it is the most expensive (over US $200).  This is a PC based software that you download and install.  Once you get the hang of it you will be able to generate bubble charts and mind-maps at lightning speed.  By exporting your mind-maps as images or PDFs you can easily share them with others.
   
• MindMeister – (www.MindMeister.com) similar to MindGenius but is Web-based instead and much less expensive (there is even a free version).  However, this particular solution is a case of “you get what you pay for” as it is a bit clunky and slow when generating mind-maps —not a good thing when ideas are flowing like the Mississippi.
   
• LovelyCharts – (www.LovelyCharts.com) this is a very elegant and well designed Web-based flow charting and diagramming solution that can easily be adopted for bubble charting.  In fact, we use this in my company when bubble charting ideas for our students.  And with a free version, the price is right.
   
• Virtual-WhiteBoard – (www.Virtual-WhiteBoard.com) this is the least elegant of these tools since you have to literally draw your bubble-charts manually.  However, what makes this particular solution unique is the ability to have real-time collaboration among different people each of whom can add to the bubble-chart with everyone seeing the results.  Once again, there is a free version of this service to try out.
   
• MicroSoft Office 2007 – both Word and PowerPoint give you the ability to create “smart charts” that resemble bubble charts.

The above are just a few examples of the many computer-based mind-mapping tools that are available to you.  However, the key to using a computer-based tool to help you bubble chart or mind-map is that you don’t want to think about how to use it during the process.  With this in mind, MindGenius is the hands-down winner.  You simply type your ideas, and it creates the mind-map for you.

Whether you bubble chart / mind-map with a pencil and paper or use a sophisticated software tool, you can greatly enhance the results by inviting more people to the party…

Throw a Brainstorming Party to Generate Tons of Ideas

By adding more people to the brainstorming process you will have access to ideas, solutions and strategies that you could not even imagine otherwise.  But like everything else, there is a process to get the most from your group brainstorming without it turning into a fat-chewing session:

• Gather a group of friends & associates who truly want to help you (30 minutes max)
   
• Assign one person as the “Recorder” (i.e. will create the bubble chart as the ideas are voiced)
   
• Provide plenty of beer / wine and pizza (lower inhibition lubricates the creative process —just don’t allow anyone to drive home under the influence however!)
   
• Give the rest of the “rules” to your group:
  • Keep a rapid fire pace
  • No editing or criticizing! (nothing shuts down a brainstorming session faster than this)
  • The more “out of the box” the ideas are the better.

You want to make the above process fun and fast-paced.  By doing so, you and your group will likely generate more ideas in just a few minutes than you could do by yourself over six months!  And remember, not all the ideas will be good.  In fact some will be quite awful.  That’s okay, because you can always edit the ideas and select the best ones after everyone goes home.

Speaking of “ideas” here’s a clever one that one of our students came up with to use social networking to help him brainstorm an idea.  He simply went on Facebook and started a “contest” for all his Facebook friends to come up with the best ideas for a particular problem he was working on.  In short order, the ideas just came flying in and he didn’t even have to buy beer or pizza.

Innovative ideas, when properly implemented, is what typically sets one person apart from the rest of the pack.  Using the methods described above you will have an endless supply of great ideas to choose from.  And once you have them the only thing left to do is brainstorm how you plan on putting them into practice…

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.

Postlets.com – One Click, Many Destinations

Postlets.com is perhaps the best known listing syndication resource for the residential real estate industry that also happens to be free.  Once you set up an account you can enter in as many listings you want via user-friendly forms.  The information you enter includes descriptive text, photos and external links.  Once entered you can choose a listing Web page theme (there are 10 in the free version of Postlets) that best fits your particular listing.  Each theme will automatically enter your photo and contact information from your account settings.

Postlets helps you distribute your listings online several important ways:

1. Syndication – upon submission, your listing information will automatically be posted on twelve different online classified ad databases and search engines including GoogleBase, Trulia and Zillow.
    
2. Manual Posting on Classified Sites – Postlets creates a Web page from the listing content you entered and the theme you chose.  It allows you to easily copy and paste the HTML code from the Listing page into sites like Craigs List, eBay etc.
    
3. Widgets – these small applets can be put on your Website, blog, Facebook etc. that will allow visitors to instantly see the entire listing Web page for each listing you have uploaded into Postlets.  (NOTE: Postlets hosts each listing Webpage for free).

That’s a lot of online territory Postlets helps you cover with just a few clicks of the button.  And Postlets will even allow you to insert your Google Analytics code in the HTML code so you can track visitor statistics for each of your listings.  Postlets also offers a Pro version ($10 or less per listing depending upon the number you have) offers greater features, eliminates 3^rd party advertising from the listing Web pages and may, in some circumstances, allow automatic upload of listing info from your MLS.

So what’s the downside?  Well think about it; if you have a lot of listings it takes a lot of time to load, annotate and post them even with the help of a great tool like this.  We’ll cover how to handle this particular issue after we look at a few other syndication options…

ListingsToLeads.com – Craigslist Supercharger

Putting your listings on Craigslist can be a powerful way to generate buyer inquiries, if your posting can standout head and shoulders from the rest of the crowd.  ListingsToLeads is a service similar in approach to Postlets except that it allows you to create a richer listing template.  The templates can be customized with your brand and they provide room for more calls to actions (very important if you want the visitor to actually contact you!) and links back to your own site.  Once again however, this is technically not syndication to Craigslist because you must manually copy and paste the HTML code of the generated listing page into a Craigslist add.

Currently ListingsToLeads works only with Craigslist, however they claim that properly positioned using rich Web-based adds will greatly increase your listing to inquiries ratio over sites like Trulia and Zillow.  Pricing for ListingsToLeads is similar to the Pro version of Postlets.  However, your account does include access to live weekly training about how to leverage the subtleties of having your listings standout on Craigslist.  And, if you are a broker looking to automate the process of generating a unique Craigslist Webpage for each listing you may find that ListingsToLeads can upload all your listing data directly from your MLS.

Other Ways to Syndicate Your Listings

In addition to the methods above, there are several other methods of syndicating your listings.  For example Website template vendor Point2Agent.com provides syndication of listings manually loaded into the agent’s Point2 site.  In fact they claim to have the largest syndication network in the real estate industry with full statistical reporting of visitor traffic to each of your listings.  Not bad for a $9.95/mo Website.  Also, it appears to be a trend that some MLS’s are providing syndication services as well.  So check with yours to see if this service is available.

Getting your listings to as many points of online viewing as possible certainly doesn’t hurt.  However, this is only half the battle if you want this effort to really pay off in a higher inquiry-to-listing ratio.

How to Syndicate Listings For More Business With Less Effort

If you really want listing syndication to generate business for you then don’t bother doing it yourself.  What DOES work is hiring a VA who understands the various syndication services and how to position each listing so they stand out from the crowd and never go stale.  This means creating great copy, lots of professional looking photos and constantly paying attention to the statistical reports so your various listings can be tweaked for maximum inquiry generation.  This is not an easy job and it takes ongoing commitment and focus to really pay off.  If you try to manage the listing syndication process yourself you are only inviting frustration and the loss of revenue that could have been generated if you were out selling.

Listing syndication is a wonderful thing.  However, like everything else online, there are no silver bullets to help you stand above the crowd.  If there were, then everyone would start using it and soon no one would stand out.  The only way for your syndicated listings to really do their job of generating inquiries is to have someone constantly work to keep them fresh, eye-catching and the descriptive copy compelling.  Otherwise your listings will be just so many waves on the sea of homes available online.  There may be thousand of those waves, but they’ll all look the same.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.