So are you tired of just writing sentence after sentence in your blog? If you are your readers might be as well. After all we are in the new era of the web were bandwith is high and people have high speed access at home and at work so why would we only just write text? The answer is you probably shouldn't be just writing. So we thought we would give you 5 great resons to use multi media in your blog.

1. It adds a visual impact - nothing adds impact like a great picture. After all a picture is worth a 1,000 words right? So why not throw up a picture of what you are talking about. If you are talking about the benefits of improving a kitchen maybe a nice before and after picture.


2. Video says it for you - That's right a little video never hurt anyone. In fact you can upload your video to http://www.youtube.com/ and they will host it for you and give you the html to put in your page. We put up video on our Long Beach Home Blog so you can see a sample of what to do. That clip took about 40 seconds to record, 2 minutes to upload to youtube, and another 60 seconds to copy and paste the HTML they gave me into the blog. So for under 5 minutes I think it is worth it.


3. Sound is a great way to introduce your blog - we put sound on our blog as well using some easy to use software by in InstantAudio.Com. This software is great and is easy to use. By the way we use it to describe our properties on our regular websites as well.


4. Others aren't doing it - Want to be first? That's right many people aren't yet adding pictures, sound, and video to their blog. This makes you stand out among all of the other blogs that are available for a user to select. After all you are competing for readers and what better way to improve your blog by adding something that no one else will do.


5. Your readers want it - so if all of the other reasons don't convince you to do it your readers do want it. People want more out of websites and blogs than just plain text. They want entertainment with their information so give it to them!

In case you also are thinking we don't practice what we are asking you to do we have some video for you as well!

We hope that convinces you to add some multimedia to your blog. You can always check out ours for ideas at http://www.homeofthequeenmary.com/ and another great one we like is http://www.raincityguide.com/.

Labels: BLOG, internet marketing solutions for real estate agents, real estate agent website, real estate blog, real estate internet marketing, real estate internet marketing solution

As real estate professionals we want to select a Real Estate Contact Management software that makes our lives as easy as possible. Our business is not to be a technology expert but to make sure that we can do real estate. So with that in mind we thought we would cover several real estate contact manage software packages and let everyone know what we think and what we recommend as our top selection.

• Act! For Real Estate - Now this is available from sage software and can be found at www.Act.com. So what do we like about this product? We previously had our entire team on this software. It was relavtively affordable for software and you didn't have to pay monthly for it. It was fairly easy to use and keep things straight. What we didn't like is synching all of our data among our team. If we weren't a team it would be fairly easy to use. We didn't like having to install the software ourselves and trouble shooting problems. The cost for the real estate version is almost $370. The non real estate version is the one our team used and worked well. You may not need to upgrade this product every year which does provide some costs savings.
• Top Producer - We like this software as our TOP choice for Real Estate Contact Management Software. We put together video tutorials on this project at www.OnlineRealEstateSuccess.com in the resources section. This product is about $35.00 per month for the basic package which is what we run. The yearly cost is $420 so it is more expensive than Act but we believe it is worth it. The solution is hosted online so you don't have to be your own IT staff. Tech support is 100% free and they have tremendous up time. Having FREE tech support for your real estate contact management software is amazing! We recommend them highly and receive nothing for it!
• Agent Office - This product is used by many real estate professionals. They have 30 days of free tech support and it is available for $329. This product is available online for download. You can get more information at Agent Office. It's benefit is it works with the BlackBerry without additonal fees. A nice product but not our top choice.

Remember when you are looking for a real estate contact management software that you need to make sure that you understand the software and that it works for you. So take the free trials and see which one you like best!

Labels: contact management software, internet marketing solutions for real estate agents, real estate contact management software, real estate software

The Internet is all about buyers they say. Well it is true that buyers do look quite a bit and the National Association of Realtors® does state that over 75% of buyers now begin their search online. This number is only going to increase until it reaches as close to 100% as humanely possible.

Remember your real estate marketing online is about attracting the kind of client you want to work with. So if you want buyers provide information that buyers want. If you want to attract sellers than you have to give them what they want. So here is a little story we thought we would share with you.

Last night I went on a listing appointment. We received a direct call from one of our websites on Monday booked an appointment for Wednesday and signed the listing contract that night. In fact we beat out 2 other top agents in the area who send postcards, take out ads, and farm in the area. The sellers called us though after the first two agents didn’t deliver a consistent online message. The seller went online and called us! No CMA request, No direct e-mail, just a direct call.

So how did this come about? Well this happened because we give lots of information away for sellers. A free seller section, free tips (hint we wrote our own content not standard content), and lots of other free goodies for sellers including an Instant CMA tool that they don’t need us to compile information for them.

So 3 tips to make sure sellers can contact you easily:

1. Have a complete seller section – make it easy to find and preferably have a very obvious link from the first page.
2. Make your phone number obvious – I know that this is one we keep repeating but many websites don’t make it easy to call.
3. Respond quickly – For live calls preferably you answer them and don’t let it go to a phone system. Have a dedicated line if you can so it doesn’t have to go through the main receptionist at the front desk. We have a direct line for local callers and a toll free line that goes right to our team.

These 3 tips will make sure that you not only get the appointment but will set the stage so you can get the listing! We hope this helps you succeed and get more listings from your website!

Labels: internet marketing solutions for real estate agents, marketing real estate web site, real estate internet marketing solution, real estate marketing online

It always amazes me that people don't have anything new to add to their websites. They wonder what they should do what marketing they should do for their real estate career. Often the easiest thing is right before their eyes or it is already in the mind. Real Estate Marketing online should focus on the content.

Now this may sound obvious but it isn't always the case. We speak literally hundreds of times a year before different groups of Realtors and most can tell us everything that is going on in their particular market but yet none of this is available on their websites. So we just wanted to cover a few tips on real estate marketing that works online that might not work easily in other mediums such as magazine ads, flyer's, or radio.

1. Neighborhood Information - This is one of the easiest things to put on your website because you already probably know a whole bunch of things about the neighborhood you farm in. Post this information to a neighborhood blog. You can get one for FREE at www.blogger.com. We recommend getting your own personal domain from a company like www.TopAgentDomains.com.
2. Statistics - Some MLS systems generate this in easy reports others you have to run reports manually. Customers want to know the average days on market, list to sales ratios, how many homes are available. You mine as well be the source!
3. Event notices or news - This is easiest to do with a blog. Post that there is going to be a work party cleaning up a park, that a street is being worked on, that a church is doing a fundraiser. You can literally become the source for information in your neighborhood.

The three tips above will help keep your website fresh and more importantly keeps your real estate marketing at the front edge of the Internet. If you can even do a post or two a week you will be ahead of 98% of all other real estate professionals who think they are doing real estate marketing better than you are! Good luck and we hope that this helps you succeed online.

Labels: internet marketing solutions for real estate agents, real estate internet marketing, real estate internet marketing solution, real estate marketing, real estate marketing online

Often times we get people asking us about different Internet Marketing Solutions for Real Estate Agents. There are 100's if not thousands of choices out there. The hard part is determining which one is going to work for you. We can say with near 100% accuracy that every company, firm, or individual that approaches you about their solution will have a testimonial on how their package has worked for one of their clients. They key is will it work for you! So in order to determine what is the best real estate Internet marketing solution we thought we would give you the 5 things we recommend you look for in a solution so you can determine if it is going to be a good fit.

1. Will you use it - This is the biggest reason to reason not to purchase a tool. If you can't see yourself using it the way you are being told to you it is probably not the tool for you. Remember to ask questions about if the marketing solution can be used a different way in a successful manner. If you are told yes ask to speak to those agents who are using it.


2. What is the ROI (Return on Investment) - If this question cannot be answered or you get answers like "It is about branding" or "It all depends" then we would recommend shying away from it. Agents who have read our e-book (which is free) and is available at http://www.onlinerealestatesuccess.com/free_E-book.shtml see returns on investment from 8 to 17 times return. Most agents who take our recommendations in the FREE courses we provide average at least a 10 times return on money they spent.


3. Ability to cancel at any time - Any tool that you buy should allow you to cancel at any time. This means the person is confident in the product that they provide. They should provide you with a Guarantee on how it will work if they don't allow you to cancel.


4. The person selling it should have used it - It is always preferred if the person selling it to you has used it and successfully so that they can show you how to do it right.


5. They support it - If there is no support, either online, phone, or in person we would recommend not signing up for the product. If they just give you a box of software and tell you to go at it be wary. They should at least have a comprehensive online help to make sure you can get started.

While we didn't put it in our list we recommend speaking to other agents about how the real estate Internet marketing solution you are about to choose has worked out for them. Ask them to tell you what they don't like about it, what their problems have been, and if they are still a client and why. Remember it's your money and spend it wisely. You can often find many free sources of help or very inexpensive help. Also know that there are some great tools out there and if you use them as instructed, believe they will work, and do how you are recommend you can make it work if it fits your personality! Good luck and if you have questions don't hesitate to write them and we will see what we can do!

Labels: internet marketing solutions for real estate agents, marketing real estate web site, real estate internet marketing, real estate internet marketing solution, real estate marketing online