Posts Tagged ‘cool tool’
The Instant and Free Way to Create Video Property Tours
Monday, August 30th, 2010
There are lots of ways to create video tours of your listings —most are not free or easy. Here’s a very cool and private way to do it that is free, fast and incredibly easy…
Smart Phone to Video Tour 1-2-3
The first thing you want to do is set up a free account on the Posterous photo-blogging service (click here for a previous post about the use of Posterous and photo-blogging). This just takes a couple of minutes and only needs to be done once. Now you are ready to create your video tours. Here’s what you do:
- Plan Your Walk-through – you want to keep your video tours short yet have great impact, this requires that you first think through what you are going to show and say as you show it.
- Shoot the Video – use your smart phone to do this and try to keep your hand as steady as possible.
- Post it Privately On Your Posterous Account – by sending your video to private@posterous.com Posterous will send you back a special link to your video up on your account site. This is a private posting so only your prospect will be able to view it.
That’s it! Now at this point you are probably wondering why I recommend that you keep this kind of tour private. First of all, shooting it with your smart phone allows you to complete the process in about 2 minutes and you can highly personalize the video by talking directly to them. This is incredibly powerful for relocating clients and prospects. By definition you wouldn’t want this kind of video to be seen by just anybody. You could certainly use your Posterous account to post publicly viewable videos as well. However, I’d spend more time and hire a professional videographer if you are going to show these tours to the world.
The method described above is perfect for 1-on-1 communications with prospects or clients that appreciate seeing properties they simply don’t have the time (or capacity) to view in person. It is free, fast, easy and will certainly set you apart from the crowd.
Brand Your Online Photos In Just Seconds
Monday, August 9th, 2010
If you use a lot of photos on your Website or blog each one can be modified in a very easy way that will protect them from being “borrowed” by your competitors and extend your brand every time a visitor looks at them. Here’s how it’s done…
Watermarking 1-2-3
Watermarking is the process of overlaying text on top of photo. Typically the overlaid text is just barely visible yet identifiable so it performs the job of marking the photo without detracting from it. Up until recently this was typically done with a program like Photoshop by people who knew how to use it (not many Realtors fit that description). Now there is a much easier and quicker method I just discovered that anyone can use to watermark their images in just seconds. It’s called WinWatermark Standard and you can download and use it for 30 days at no cost. However, once you use it you will not hesitate to pay the very reasonable $29.95 to keep using it.
Watermarking Best Practices
Watermarking by definition is supposed to be subtle, so you don’t want to go crazy with it otherwise it will work against you. Here are some best practice tips to help you get the most out of your watermarking endeavors:
- Watermark Text – consider using the URL of your Website as in the photo example above. This marks your ownership of the photo and extends your online brand.
- Watermark Size and Position – the size needs to be large enough to be recognizable but not so much that it takes away from photo itself. Same with positioning. If you watermark your images to primarily protect them from being used by others, then consider a 45 degree upward angle orientation in the middle of the photo —this makes it much more difficult for anyone to remove it. If that is not an issue then consider using a smaller one in the lower right side of the photo using normal orientation. IMPORTANT: whichever style you use to watermark your images keep it consistent throughout your site.
- Color and Transparency – suggest you use white text with about a 22% transparency. The amount of transparency you use for each image may need to be slightly less or more depending upon the image itself. Remember, watermarking needs to be subtle, not stand out and shout.
- Keep It Simple – WinWatermark gives you many options to style your watermarks. If you go overboard with styles your watermarks will be distracting at best and a turnoff at worst.
South Beach Condo King Kevin Tomlinson is a firm believer in watermarking and uses it very much to his advantage with all the custom condo images on his site. Every GoArmyHomes site we build out has the neighborhood photos watermarked as well.
If you are putting a lot of effort into your Website you may as well protect your investment. Watermarking lets you do this and extend your brand at the same time. That makes it a powerful tool that should be in everyone’s digital toolbox.
How to Publish Your Print Materials Online For FREE!
Monday, June 14th, 2010
If you have been in business for any length of time, chances are you have many print materials (i.e. special reports, articles, marketing plans, tips etc.) that would serve you better online. It used to be a bit of a problem (and expensive) to re-purpose these materials for your Website or Blog. Not any more, here’s why…
Make An Issuu Out of Everything
ISSUU (pronounced the same as “issue”) is a free online service that allows you to easily and quickly take any digital document (i.e. PDF, Word, etc.) and convert it into a very interactive online format that anyone can read directly within your Website or Blog. Your visitors don’t need anything other than Flash to view these documents and they look and act like a real magazine or report.
It only takes seconds to convert documents and you can then embed them (with the code provided with the document) into any Web page. See the example below of the PDF handout I’ll be using for tomorrow’s session with ERA Top Producers at their convention in Atlanta.
In addition to making your documents look better, the “Wow!” factor will help you really stand out. Perhaps even more importantly however, you can track statistics as to how many times a document was viewed down to the page level. This will give you a very good idea as to whether or not your material is perceived as valuable by the viewers.
Once you create a new account (no credit card required) you start converting to your heart’s content. However you can also search to see what other Issuu users have published (and selected to make public) based upon key words and phrases. Search for “Real Estate Marketing Plan” and you will see how some sales people have put this tool to use.
While this is a very cool and powerful way to display your marketing plans for sellers, some might (rightfully so) be concerned that you are educating your competitors. Well, there are a couple of ways around this. First, you can flag any converted document as “Private” which means no one can view it unless you give them the URL. You can go a step further like Mega-Producer Melinda Estridge did and also embed it in a password protected page that only prospective sellers can view.
Turn “Wow!” Into Closed Transactions
As I looked through several of the real estate examples I noticed something glaringly missing from each one –a call to action. Most squander the opportunity to engage with the viewer by simply doing the typical “Show & Tell”. If you are going to use Issuu to publish your reports and plans on the Web, at least take the time to think through how you can make it so engaging that they will want to contact you immediately.
To sum it up it’s cool, free and completely worthless unless you use it and include calls to action.
Skin Your Flip For Free!
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Unless you have living under the proverbial rock you already know the Flip HD mini-camcorder is the best thing since, well… camcorders. Now here is a way to brand your mini-cool tool that will not cost you an extra cent!
Another Way to Skin a Flip
Several months ago Brad Carroll, CEO of Dakno Marketing shared with our Online Dominance Live Group Coaching students a site called SkinIt.com. Allows you to put any kind of “skin” on your laptop, Phones, etc. Since you can skin anything with your branding look and feel, it is a great way to advertise and expand the reach of your brand (in addition to being a great conversation starter in Starbucks :0). And for about US $15.00 you can skin your Flip through this service.
Now when you purchase a new Flip you can have any design you want as a skin, for free (just go HERE to check this out). In addition to hundreds of design choices they have a very cool Pattern Generator that lets you to create one-of-a-kind patterns for your Flip skin. However, the real opportunity here is to upload your current branding art to uniquely distinguish your Flip and expand your brand awareness. These make particularly great closing gifts!
A couple of caveats however. This service is for flips you purchase through The Flip Store online and skins can only be applied to white models. If you already own a flip you want skinned you will need to pony up $15.00 and go through the SkinIt.com service. Either way, you now have no excuse to be running around with a naked Flip…
Copy and Paste For New Web Traffic
Monday, April 26th, 2010
I get asked all the time about how to prevent people from copying content off their Websites and blogs. Now there is a service that will have you hoping they will!
Copy Me —Please!
Tynt is a new free service that will track what is being copied off your Web and blog sites and help you drive traffic back to those sites as a result. After you set up your free account you are given a short bit of code to add to your Website pages you want to track. For blogs it’s actually much easier. It shows you (or your Webmaster) how to add the code just once and which will then cover every page and post of your blog (highly suggested).
Once your site or blog is loaded in this way any time someone copies and pasts an image or text from your site / blog and pastes it into theirs, a social networking site like Facebook or even an email, it will automatically include an attribution link back to where it was copied from. This provides a powerful and automatic way to build link backs that will drive more traffic to your site and raise its SEO positioning. Oh, there’s one more thing. You can even set Tynt up so that anytime someone copies and pastes your content online, it will generate a Tweet about it in your Twitter account.
Here’s a short video explaining the entire process:
So now instead of dreading that someone is “ripping you off” you can actually benefit every time they send a part of your work to their friends and associates. BTW, feel free to copy any part of this post and forward on to others, you have my whole-hearted permission :0)
DISCLAIMER: Always investigate any third-party products or services to your satisfaction prior to using them. RUSSER Communications, its officers, staff and consultants do not receive any compensation whatsoever from third party vendors and are not responsible for any damage or liability you may incur as a result of using products or services mentioned herein. If you do not agree to these terms do not use the product or service mentioned.
Plan Your Success In Just 5 Minutes Flat!
Monday, April 19th, 2010
Our industry continues to evolve into the space of “less agents doing more business”. There’s an interesting parallel you should notice: A very small percentage of agents have a written business plan they follow on a consistent basis.
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)
How to Conduct Virtual Meetings —For Free!
Monday, March 29th, 2010
What if you could connect with online prospects in real time giving them a tour of your area, listings or even financing options from the comfort of their (and yours) own home? In addition to saving them and you time, it provides a level of service they are not likely to see from your competitors. And now there is a way to do it at no cost to you.
GoToMeeting On Steroids
It seems like we use this kind of technology every day in my business. And until recently the tool of choice (for years) has been GoToMeeting from Citrix. This is a perfectly good option except that it costs about $49/mo. Then I discovered that Adobe has an online service called Acrobat.com that provides several online services including virtual meetings through its ConnectNow platform. The cost of the service depends upon the maximum number of people you need to be in your virtual meetings at any one time. If you can live with the limitation of three people (you and two others) then this service is absolutely free. Considering that in most cases you are dealing with a husband and wife (who may or may not be in different locations during a meeting) you are pretty much covered.
Like GoToMeeting, Adobe ConnectNow meetings allow you to share your desktop, give control to others in the meeting and allow them to share or give control to you. You can either use a conference line or your microphone and speakers for the audio. After that however, the similarities end and Adobe ConnectNow really shines, because:
- You (or everyone in the meeting for that matter) can use webcams to give the meeting a more intimate, personal touch;
- Use sophisticated drawing tools to annotate anything shown on the shared screens;
- Use a separate White Board for brainstorming purposes;
- Share files in a collaborative way.
You can have as many meetings as you want for as often as you need without additional cost (as long as you stay within the three person limit). Inviting people to your meetings couldn’t be easier since it involves just sending them a link whose address never changes. The only thing they need on their end to attend is Flash, which nearly everyone has installed anyway.
There’ More…
ConnectNow is just one of the useful tools available to you as a free Adobe.com subscriber. Similar to Google Docs, Adobe.com has a suite of tools that include an online word processor, slide presenter and spreadsheet along with the ability to convert documents into PDF. And because Adobe uses the Flash platform to deliver all of this functionality, you will find that everything you do, whether conducting virtual meetings or sharing an online slide presentation, has a powerfully elegant look and feel about it.
How to Get Started
Just go to Acrobat.com and click the “Sign Up” button in the upper right-hand side of the page. It is as simple as that! No credit card information required. I personally have been using virtual meeting services for years and can honestly say that Adobe’s ConnectNow service is extremely functional, and (perhaps just as important) easy and fun to use. Run, don’t walk, to sign up for this free service and see for yourself the power and possibilities this incredible free service holds for you and your business.
DISCLAIMER: Always investigate any third-party products or services to your satisfaction prior to using them. RUSSER Communications, its officers, staff and consultants do not receive any compensation whatsoever from third party vendors and are not responsible for any damage or liability you may incur as a result of using products or services mentioned herein. If you do not agree to these terms do not use the product or service mentioned.
Add Elegance to Your Site – For Free!
Monday, March 15th, 2010Who would think that a lowly mortgage calculator could add anything special to your site. After all, most sites have them -right? Not like this one they don’t, and here’s how you can get it for free!
If Apple Created a Mortgage Calculator…
Let’s face it, most of the mortgage calculators you find on real estate Websites are bland, utilitarian at best and offer little real insight about any particular loan. Not being content with the status qou and having this personality defect that insists everything on a site should have a purpose and reflect professionalism, I scoured the Internet looking for the perfect loan tool, and found it.
Since a demonstration is worth a thousand screen shots, here’s a live example of it below (watch what happens when you hit “calculate” and then put your mouse over the results):
Where to Get It
You can find the code for this calculator, instructions for customizing and inserting it into your site by going to http://www.mortgagecalculatorplus.com/order.php. Just be sure to only pay attention to the top part of the page (ignore the part about getting a rate quote widget towards the bottom). And remember, this tool is completely free to use and generates no advertising on your site whatsoever. Who says that elegance has to cost a lot? Now if we could just get a new iPhone for $1.50…
DISCLAIMER: Always investigate any third-party products or services to your satisfaction prior to using them. RUSSER Communications, its officers, staff and consultants do not receive any compensation whatsoever from third party vendors and are not responsible for any damage or liability you may incur as a result of using products or services mentioned herein. If you do not agree to these terms do not use the product or service mentioned.
The Future is NOW…
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Here are three new innovations that will change the way we live, work and power our lives.
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…
Explode Your Facebook Fan Page Base For No Cost
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Douglas Newby is one of my long-time students who had zero (0) fans for his FaceBook fan page last September (2009). As of the date of this post he has well over 48,000 fans, each of which contributes to his search engine rankings. Here’s how he did it and how you can explode your fan base without spending a dime. NOTE: if you already have a fan page and want to learn the secret of explosively growing your fan base for no cost without having to read this whole article, just go to www.FaceBook.com/OnlineDominance and click the “Cool Tools!” tab.
Personal Profile vs. Fan Page
There are two primary ways you can represent yourself on FaceBook:
- 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. While how you grow and manage your “friend base” is a topic for another post, suffice it to say it doesn’t even come close to helping your business as the next way.
- Fan Page – sometimes also 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. Now this next part is very important: The more targeted fans you have, the more Google will see you as being relevant and important in your field of real estate expertise. And this translates to significant gains for your search engine rankings. For example, Douglas Newby is essentially a one-man shop in Dallas, yet his site consistently out-ranks those of companies in his area with 1,000 or more agents.
To create a Fan page in FaceBook simply go to www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the simple steps. Now there are some things you might want to do jazz it up so it looks attractive and engaging. There are plenty of articles written about this that go into more depth (just Google “How do you create a fan page on FaceBook”).
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. This is crucial that you do this ASAP!! 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 on nearly every social media portal on the Net. If so, grab it immediately on FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube at the very least.
Growing Your Fan Base
Douglas Newby did something rather clever to build his fan base from 25 to about 2,000 in a short period of time. He simply created a FaceBook ad targeted to people on FaceBook who are interested in modern architecture. His ads were set up as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) which means if they clicked on his ad, they automatically became a fan. Keep in mind however, this method is not free and each fan you bring in this way costs you money. Once he hit the 2,000 mark, his fan page went wildly viral and started growing exponentially by word of mouth from his initial base. The reason his fan base grew so quickly after that is a) his content is extremely interesting to his target market, and b) there are millions of people all over the world that are interested in fine modern architecture.
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!” widget on your Websites and blogs.
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 and you will instantly see how this second part works :0)
You will find that taking the time to aggressively grow your targeted fan base will have a dramatically positive impact on your online bottom line. There is simply nothing more powerful in marketing than having a bunch of raving fans…
