Real Estate Web Design

Addicted to Internet Networking

Some call it social networking, business networking or just plain social networking. Regardless of what you call it, it is networking and it is taking the internet by storm. I have always said that for real estate agents, the internet is your “internet farm”. It is one of many ways to generate new business, establish contacts and increase your business.

For much of 2005 and 2006, most people looked at the internet as only a lead generation vehicle. With the advent of myspace.com, facebook.com and other networking websites, people are starting to realize that the internet has multiple faces. Even as I gave this advice to many clients, I did not take my own advice. It seemed to me a great avenue for people whom were good communicators of the written word, but very difficult for those who were better at speaking, not writing. (ie…real estate agents).

I now believe that internet networking is not just for those who can write. It is for everyone who is looking to build or increase their business using the internet. For example, in the online real estate world, networking websites have taken hold in 2007. The top sites are Active Rain, Wanna Network and Real Town. These sites don’t require you to write lengthy articles to gain exposure. You can but it is not necessary. They are networking sites where you can share information, exchange stories or just keep up to date on the the world of real estate.

Now these networking websites are not new. What they are is an extension of various forums of communication which have been available on the web for many years. What makes them different is that they offer multiple forms on communication under one URL. For example, in the past there were bulliten boards which were used by die hard internet geeks to communicate. These still exist today. Then came forums like the real estate forum, which were user friendly places to communicate with other real estate professionals. Now people are singing the praises of blogs which are an additional tool to provide people to communicate. Now tie all these forms of communication together, and add the ability to connect with others whom have the same interests and you have the boom of social networking.

So the next question to ask yourself is, how do I take advantage of internet networking. As a real estate agent, I would recommend the following:

• Install a blog on your website and commit to updating it at least once per week. This serves as 2 purposes. First, it allows you to communicate with clients on a weekly basis without having to call them on the phone each week. Second, it increases the overall content on your website which will allow you to generate more traffic to your website.
• Sign-up and participate in these online networking groups focused on the real estate industry. They are listed above but again they are Active Rain, Wanna Network and Real Town.
• Sign-up and participate in some of the older forums on the web. My preference would be the real estate forum which is owned by Site Tutor. We have over 10,000 members and an active community posting between 50 to 100 comments each and every day. (My shameless plug)
• Lastly, look into some of the general social networking websites. I have found great success using Linkedin for my general networking and Facebook for my personal networking.

We are at a time during the year when business historically is slow, so why not take some time and try some of the websites above. I think you will find that after a couple of hours of researching these websites, they won’t seem as daunting and for some like me, they become very addicting. Good Luck and Happy Holidays.

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Real Estate Internet Marketing Quotes

I found these quotes about internet marketing and thought I would share them.

– Almost three quarters of all home buyers consider a real estate agent’s response time either a “very important” or an “extremely important” factor in their decision when choosing an agent to work with. Nine out of ten Internet home buyers say the same.

– Forty-seven percent of home buyers who use the Internet to select an agent and 43 percent of non-Internet buyers say they select their agent because the agent is either the first or the quickest to respond to his or her inquiry.*

   * All statistics from California Association of Realtors' annual Internet

    vs. Traditional Buyers Survey.

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The Economics of Online Marketing

In the last post, I outlined the economics of building a website. In this post I want to now outline the economics of online marketing. Hopefully, from the last post, you have decided that you want your website to be an lead generation vehicle and have taken the time and made the investment to build a custom website.

The next step is to then outline your online marketing plan. This will include some of the online marketing tools below, but will depend on how much time you have to dedicate to your online marketing efforts in addition to how much money you have to invest in this form of marketing. One of the first questions you must decide is how much money to earmark toward your organic efforts and how much to earmark toward your pay-per-click campaign. As a general rule, you should allocate about 20% of your online marketing budget toward your organic efforts and 80% toward your PPC campaign. Over time, these percentages will flip flop with 80% toward organic marketing and 20% toward PPC but this will be a general shift over the course of the first two years. **It is important to note that the cost of developing the website is a separate item when creating an online marketing budget.

Second, It is VERY VERY important to understand that all the calls you receive from all the sales people promising results are products or tools. They are NOT the secret to success. In most cases, these companies are offering a service which offers either very little value to no value at all. The internet is still the wild wild west and as such most companies as attempting to take advantage of a real estate professionals lack of knowledge.

If you are a Site Tutor client, always feel free to email or call for advise if you come across a sales pitch which you want to explore further. In most cases I will know the company or the type of product they are selling and let you know if it makes sense or if it is a scam. There are ocassions when there is something new I have not yet heard about and If I haven’t heard of the product, I will research it for you and get back to you with my review and recommendation.

The TRUE SECRET to success on the internet is to utilizing multiple online marketing techniques. Investing too much in any one technique exposes you to a tremendous amount of risk. The search engines are constantly changing and at any given time, they could change their algorithms and if your marketing is too invested in a strategy which they no longer consider as part of their algorithm, you can loose all your business overnight. So, now that I have written a huge caveat about internet marketing, there are a number of techniques which are well established and I believe that by utilizing these, you will be on the road to building a solid long term business on the internet. These techniques include the following:

• Additional content development – Unique content is the King of the Internet and also the easiest way to differentiate your self on the internet.
• NetworkingOnline:
  • Just as you network offline, you should continually network online. This includes:
    • Forums – You should participate in 2 to 3 forums on a regular basis. Site Tutor owns and manages the real estate forum, and is a good place to get your feet wet.
    • Social Networking Sites: On the success of my space, social networking sites which are industry specific are gaining momentum and I believe will become a powerful marketing tool in the years to come.

• Directory Submission – Careful directory submission will help expose your website to the search engines and generate additional traffic. These include top general websites in addition to popular industry specific directories
• Article Development – Writing articles which are submitted to industry specific websites and article submission services.
• Press Releases – Most companies release information about their companies. If submitted via internet services, this can be a powerful tool in regard to your online marketing.
• Pay Per Click – Bidding for Placement in the search engines. Although this can be very time consuming, if handled correctly, it can also be very beneficial.
• Blog posting – Consistently writing on your website blog and having 1 to 2 external blogs. Each Blog should focus on different areas and be hosted on an industry specific hosting platform. Keep an eye out for our real estate forum blogs which are expected to launch in the fall of 2007.

In addition to these tried and true methods, the internet is a constantly changing beast. New techniques are being developed and tested on an ongoing basis. It is always a good idea to read the online industry magazines to keep updated on the latest marketing techniques being tried on the internet.

Now, what will all this cost you? Well…………..Unfortunately, many of the techniques above are an issue of knowledge and manual labor. As a result, unless you are going to spend a minimum of $5,000 per month on any of the above methods, it makes more sense for you to undertake these efforts yourself. Now you may think I am crazy, but a majority of the calls you get selling you a service are actually tools which cost very little to manage. If a company was to actually contact you to provide you with the services outlined above, they know it would cost them at least $1,000 in labor costs alone. Then they need to add in all the associated costs with running an established company and so to make money, they would need to charge $2,000 to $3,000 per month and most small to medium sized businesses can’t afford this investment on a monthly basis.

I know that is not what you want to hear, but lets deal with facts. The small businesses who have been successful on the web to date have learned and implemented the techniques themselves. Large companies can afford to outsource these efforts, but even as they become more knowledgeable, even the big companies are bringing these programs in-house to maximize their investments.

That is why we at Site Tutor don’t offer a full search engine marketing management plan. Since the focus of our business is to serve small to medium sized businesses, we focus on teaching our clients the process through our consulting services. We know what it takes to be successful and we know that our most successful clients manage their own online marketing campaigns.

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