Real Estate Websites Internet Marketing Information

Did you know that the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, Passed during the Bush Administration in 2007 will expire after 2012?

Via this act, lenders forgive a sellers debt ballance after a foreclosure or short sale occurs and provide IRS Form 1099-C to the seller, proving cancellation of the debt.  Currently, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act relieves the seller of any tax liability from debt forgiven by the lender, in regards to the Short Sales and Foreclosures; provided the homeowner lived in the home and the loan was the original loan. If this expires, then it will make it much more difficult for Real Estate Professionals to put together foreclosure and short sale deals.

Many of my clients have shifted their business to create success in this market and are working with foreclosures and short sales, as part of their business plan.  Check out http://www.AbqForeclosureDeals.com  and http://www.rickoconnorgroup.com and http:// www.EugeneBankOwned.com to see examples of how clients are doing this on the internet.

You may not work with these types of properties, but a halt in short sales and a slow down of foreclosure sales will still affect your business; as these properties will remain in the "homes for sale" inventory. If this law expires, short sales will become impossible, bankruptcies will increase and many of your clients will have no way out.  So every Realtor should contact your Congressman and Senator and plea for them to extend the act beyond 2012.

I'm posting an email from a client, so readers can see what's possible when you choose the right, professionally managed Pay Per Click Advertising Campaigns for your web business.A happy client sent this email last week. Real Pro Systems PPC Manager partnered with client, Rob Zwemmer, to achieve a very specific lead generation goal so that he could hire 2 new Buyer Agents. If you aren't getting more than 500 leads a month from your web business, then read on.

Rob's Leads Report For The Month Of February

Email Me to learn How YOU can generate hundreds of leads with your Real Pro Systems Web Business

OR TEXT ME at 920 475 1549; OR Tweet me @RealProRick.

I'm sure you've seen and heard comments from Real Estate Agents, concluding that Pay Per Click(PPC) advertising is a waste of money and time and stating "I'd rather be #1 on Google...." Pay Per Click advertising or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization(SEO) really have 2 different, complimentary roles. It's really about immediate, short term lead generation vs long term search engine positioning strategies and a potential for future traffic & leads.

Now SEO should always be your long term goal when creating real estate content on your website. Nevertheless, Google lists only ten real estate websites on the first results page for FREE. Search results for any given keyword or phrase are dynamic, changing and produce no guarantees. Have you ever noticed the results number at the top of the Google results page? I've seen results in the millions. I'll discuss SEO in depth, in a future blog post; for now let's agree that it is a LONG TERM STRATEGY, that may or may not give you the results you need to create a reliable internet revenue stream. If you're already on the top 10 list for your most important real estate phrases, then great! If you're not, then you're with all the other real estate agents who should consider PPC, Pay Per Click, Marketing.

The reason PPC doesn't work for some agents is that they are experts at selling real estate, but not experts at managing online advertising campaigns. In many cases, agents simply don't know the best practices to use to create real prospects via this strategy. Many agents study how to start up their own ad campaigns, but few take the important steps to create individual lead capture websites, forms or direct interaction that converts their PPC dollars into closed business. You must ATTRACT, ENGAGE & CONVERT your visitors!

Many agents simply send visitors from a PPC Ad directly to their home page. If that visitor arrives and doesn't immediately see what they're looking for via a visitor-friendly format, or simple 1 click options, they "BOUNCE"/LEAVE. You paid for them to get there but didn't generate a lead. Success means getting them to leave their contact information. Professionally managed PPC from Real Pro Systems does this successfully by giving the visitor something they want. Stealth/Unbranded site's, forms and quick search widgets, offer free services that visitors want; like 1 click MLS results, "homes by email", or "bank owned homes", so they're willing to give you valid phone numbers and email addresses to get it.

Once they sign up for a free service, then you need to stay on their mind, until they're ready to act. Automated listing emails, automated drip campaigns, newsletters, social media & blog posts can help you do that. If you don't regularly touch them with information that helps them, those visitors will keep surfing the web and keep looking at other real estate sites until they become a commission check for your competitor.

If you like this post & want to discuss Professionally Managed Search Engine Marketing Strategies. Contact me

Did you know that over, 30% of more than 4 billion mobile devices are smart phones? Experts claim that by 2014, more people will search the web from their mobile devices than from their desktop. Are you willing to miss out on all these people? I know, Iknow… most smart phones can access your current website, so why do you need a mobile site?

Many businesses don’t, but REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS DO. More and more buyers are searching for homes from their phones. Picture a couple with iphones in front of one of your listings. How will you engage them? Here’s how…

They can take a flyer out of the box, or simply scan your rider to use the QR code, generated by your Real Pro System; and immediately view that listing on your mobile website. Unlike many industries, real estate is uniquely local; meaning buyers & sellers are searching for local agents.

Did you know that half of all local searches are launched from mobile devices? So, buyers and sellers looking for homes, agents or local real estate information are as likely to use their mobile phone to find you as they are to use their computer. How easily can they find you and your listings on their mobile now?

Also, search engines treat your mobile website differently than your main individual websites. How is that? Mobile sites are in their own “mobile” category. In fact, Google has a completely separate index for mobile content. Since there are so many fewer agents using mobile sites, the index is a lot  smaller than Google’s regular website index; making it noticeably easier to get a higher ranking in mobile. The mobile web today, is similar to how the normal web was for your site10 years ago. It’s a new frontier with a small percentage of individual agent web sites and most of the sites are not very competitive for the terms you want to rank for.

Just like the Google website index you’re used to, the longer your mobile site is out there, the better chance you have for it to rank high. For those of you who I helped get started on the web in 1997, you know what I mean. Your mature domain names are still helping your Google rankings today. Taking this into consideration and accepting the fact that in a few years, virtually EVERYONE will be searching from a mobile device; don’t you think you should  start your mobile website now?

Sure, smart phones can exhibit your regular website, but in many cases, that rendering is poor. Your normal website is optimized for a computer screen, usually 1000 pixels wide. Mobile devices are more like 300 pixels wide. As a result, viewing a regular website from a mobile device, can cause a lot of frustration and inconvenience for the user as they have to scroll, zoom in, zoom out and manipulate their screen to find the content they’re looking for on your site. Anything that frustrates buyers and sellers on your website is likely to lose them.

I recently read that consumers are 51% more likely to purchase from retailers that have mobile-specific websites. In essence, if someone is searching on their mobile phone, they’re more likely to become a client if you provide them with a mobile website. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as real estate agents are in a service industry. Today it’s not about having a website. It’s about engagement. How do you attract and engage buyers and sellers online now? What’s systems and strategies are you using on your website, blog, social media and mobile site. A good online marketing plan must create trust with users by making it easier for them to find what they are looking for. If you engage them on their terms, then you can convert them into clients, creating a internet revenue stream, that grows your bottom line.

You’re faced with a choice, similar to what you faced years ago, when you were considering your 1^st website. Get a mobile website now or get one later. It isn’t a matter of “if” you’ll get a mobile website... It’s a matter of “when”.

Friend me on Facebook or Follow me on Twitter @RealProRick

… One Vendor, One login, One  Complete Internet Business

WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD OF REAL ESTATE

EVERYONE USES THE WEB

·         The Internet Has grown 14% since 2009 & has 1.9 Billion users worldwide

·         As of December of last year, there were 255 million websites & 152 million blogs

·         77% of US Consumers will use online information to influence their purchasing decision

PEOPLE LIKE TO CONNECT

·         Facebook has overtaken Google as the most visited site with 175 million users logging on daily

·         65 million access Facebook using their mobile device

·         30 Billion pieces of content are shared each month

·         If Facebook were a country it would be the 3^rd most populated in the world

PEOPLE LIKE TO TWEET

·         Twitter marketing jumped from just 3% of businesses in 2008 to over 50% now

·         Micro Blogging is now the most widely adopted social media tactic

·         25 Billion tweets were sent in 2010

PEOPLE LIKE TO SEE

·         3 Billion photos a month are uploaded to Facebook

·         84% of internet users view videos online

·         2 Billion videos are watched online every day

Top 10 Questions You Need To Ask:

1.       How are you using video & video email?

2.       Does your Facebook Business page promote your listings, generate leads & drive people to your website?

3.       Is your blog integrated with your website domain so that each article gives your site google juice?

4.       Do new listings & blog posts tweet out to your followers?

5.       Does each listing have a sub level domain so Google indexes more web pages for your domain?

6.       Can you easily customize IDX searches?

7.       Do your featured listings automatically populate from the MLS and automatically create a unique QR Code?

8.       Do you have separate, unbranded sites delivering warm leads with real email addresses and phone numbers?

9.       Does your contact & sales pipeline management system help you convert leads to business?

10.    Do your automated, drip emails and blasts help you close business?

I’ve been helping top agents make more money on  the web since 1997. Contact me to set a brief appointment. We’ll roll up our sleeves, analyze your current web business and help you make some important choices; so you can spend more efficiently and create the internet business you deserve.

TEXT: (920) 475 – 1549  Click Reply or Call me, to set an appointment.

Easily add video to email, web pages & your integrated blog. VIEW THIS VIDEO SAMPLE >>>

Are you using video to promote your services and listings?  If not, you're missing out on an awesome marketing opportunity! Video offers you an amazing, inexpensive, medium for connecting with consumers.

Best of all, RPS Video is simple and easy for even the most technically challenged agent to use. We’ll be your techies, so you can focus on selling real estate.

Video is hotter than ever on the web right now, and if you aren’t using it, other agents have an almost criminal marketing advantage over you.

Why?

·2 billion videos are viewed EVERY DAY on You Tube

·200 million videos are viewed daily on cell phones

·Agents using VIDEO on their domain create a 50 X better chance of ranking on page 1 of GOOGLE

·73% of homeowners are more likely to list with an agent who uses VIDEO

·ONLY 0.8% of Realtors are using VIDEO!

In 1997, when I began helping agents set up their 1^st website, only 10% of the agents set up a website, but those clients are happy they made that choice. Today's consumers DEMAND agents to become video savvy! Much like the early days of websites…If you won't provide the medium they want, they’ll simply click to find an agent that will.

Video is not as difficult as you think, so don’t give in to the fear. In fact video cameras are affordable, easy to use and with a little effort, you can easily master, simple editing software to create engaging videos that people will watch, share and learn from.

ASK ME HOW YOU CAN HAVE VIDEO.

Text: 920 475 1549 Call: 541 743 8517

Extra, Extra read all about it? …GOOGLE REWRITES SEARCH ALGORITHM. This will have a major impact on Real Estate Agents, as Google begins punishing websites that:

• copy & paste content                                                                                                                              
• publish duplicate/canned content on multiple websites                                                                        
• publish 'short shallow' blog posts  

You've seen this content on many sites in different ways. Here are a couple examples. Most template providers set up hundreds of realtor websites with exactly the same pages, content and links. Unfortunately, this encompasses 90% of agent sites out there.  Look up multiple agent sites from your provider. Are we talking about your website here? Also, Agents outsource copy writing to VA’s or overseas writers for $50 -$100 a month to publish syndicated or general copy to blog articles. I know an agent who’s paying $500 a month for 10 hours of writing.                                                                                                                                                                       

So called SEO companies guarantee #1 Google rankings with their 'secret' SEO strategies.  They’ll charge you $3,000 or more for a one time, “set it and forget it “strategy; that typically uses suspect  link building strategies. Some SEO consultants and commodity providers will promise SEO but will only deliver commodity level, useless, content  that’s so general, most consumers and agents won’t read it or don’t need it. Worse yet, because the content is shallow, general and not truly unique or local, it doesn’t really help on Google.

If you hire someone locally or online to provide high quality, professionally written, content, with an SEO focus; you’ll spend about $100 an article. Real Pro Systems has a professional SEO/Content management staff that provides high quality copy writing services that meet the highest Google standards, at affordable rates. RPS can take this all off your plate, so you can experience awesome results, while focusing on SELLING REAL ESTATE. In addition, Google loves video content. The NEW RPS Video application let’s you easily add video to any web page, blog article or email.  What does this mean for you?

RPS websites are built to the latest search engine standards with search engine friendly architecture. At RPS, your on site blog, IDX listings and community pages are ALL sub level domains that increase the number of pages Google indexes. In addition, Google sees personal video as truly unique content. So, when you add video ‘unique content,’ to your search engine friendly RPS web pages or to unique, high quality “onsite blog” content, you increase the probability of Google ranking you higher.

The Google Evolution means shortcuts to search engine rankings no longer exist.  You must regularly add compelling, unique content; like community pages, tag based listing pages, blog article’s and video. As Google continues to evolve, the #1 challenge Realtors face is creating compelling, unique content for their websites. Agents are not webmasters and most don’t have the time to perform the tasks required to insure their search engine success. So, what's the easiest way to create unique, compelling content that Google favors? Find out in my next article or contact me. I’m happy to guide you or answer any questions. Rick.headley@realprosystems.com

What Happens To Your Leads ...

After You've Assigned Them?

As you know, the foundation of your business starts with leads. I'm sure you generate your leads using a variety of methods. Some successful strategies include a branded website, stealth websites, blogging, convergence marketing, multi – media strategies, social media and e-mail farming. As a successful business leader, you already know that without leads you don't have a business. However, without lead conversion you don’t have a business either and that’s where RPS Platinum is unique.

Currently, do you know at a glance, what your agents are doing with the leads you’ve generated? What is your process for managing a lead?  How do you manage converting:

• A lead to a prospect?
• A prospect to an Active Opportunity?
• An Active Opportunity to a Pending Deal?
• A Pending Deal to a client/closed piece of business?

Lead generation is NOT enough. You need to manage leads separately from prospects to increase conversion rates. You also need well crafted, automated email messages in place to incubate those leads who aren’t yet ready to become actual prospects; so you can begin a dialog and promote leads to prospects. You have to get those people who have found you to interact so they find what they really want and so you become the “perceived” real estate and community expert, in their mind. For those in your sphere, who already know, like and trust you, you need to touch them regularly with important information to increase your referral business.

I’ve been helping top agents create successful internet businesses since 1997 and the most common challenge I hear from agents is “I don’t have time to….” Actually, Every agent begins with the same 24 hours, how they manage that time is really the issue, isn’t it? What if you had a single place to log in, to manage:

• your leads from all your online sources?
• your marketing ROI & cost per lead?
• your own and your agent’s sales pipelines?

RPS Platinum is an all in one system, that gives you complete insight and control over your sales pipeline, revenue forecast, and your business. How much time would you save if you had a single screen dashboard view of your entire sales pipeline, incubation, predicted revenue and closed business?

More importantly, the RPSPlatinum System lets you inspect what you expect  from your agents at every team meeting; adding accountability to your lead generation & sales process, to close more business.                                             

Top Agent and Broker Websites  

http://www.nateshomes.com  http://www.knoxcountyohio.com/ http://www.olympiahomes.com/   http://www.prudentialjackwhitevista.com

Top Agents who use RPS to create more business with their existing website

http://www.janacaudill.com    http://www.twincitiesusa.com/     http://www.allysonhoffman.com/     http://www.jameykramer.com

Top Agents who have created new & improved success by replacing their old websites with a Real Pro System, turn - key internet business                      RPS Techs use a specialized, custom process to migrate your URL & content from your website, to maintain and/or improve your SEO.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              http://www.knoxcountyohio.com/   http://www.yosthomes.com    http://www.thecrockettteam.com    http://www.johncjones.com   http://www.onlyorly.com   

WHERE'S THE SERVICE?

Given the current real estate market, economic slowdown, consumer job losses, high real estate inventory and other uncertainties, it's no wonder that Realtors are cutting costs where ever they can. Commodity web service providers and discount website companies are the beneficiaries of this mentality.

However, when companies compete solely on price, you should expect to deal with certain inconveniences such as; long delivery dates for new websites and changes, a lack of knowlegable, helpful customer service professionals; long telephone hold times; and extended, delayed email responses.

It's no sercret that we now live in an increasingly impersonal world. Try getting a live person on the phone at any major web vendor or service provider. Over time, we've been slowly programmed to deal with automated phone systems and the Internet. When you are lucky enough to reach a human being, you're usually referred to another department, which requires that you repeat the process.

Many customer service reps, when you can locate one, seem indifferent to your problems, unless they're sales reps working on commission. Many are not that knowledgeable about their products or services; not to mention the real estate industry, your real business, or marketing needs. Therefore, it's very refreshing when you finally connect with a truly professional client care rep, who exhibits a genuine interest in "helping" you with your business; without trying to upsell you on the latest, greatest addition to hide your problem.

Do you remember the last time you found someone in customer service, who was motivated by helping you make an intelligent, informed business decision to improve your bottom line?

Thankfully, top real estate professionals, (like CRS, Cyber Star and Star Power members,) still value their time and value personalized service, from their own dedicated client care rep.  These "valued customers" like to be greeted by name -- where client care professionals: 

• remember their preferences
• know their business goals
• are knowledgeable
• make them feel appreciated

Top Agents Appreciate Top Shelf Service

and tell their friends about it.

Real Pro Systems is a prime example of a business that grew by putting the customer first. Real Pro Systems was created by 2 top real estate professionals who understand how important customer service is to professional real estate agents.  To this day, Real Pro Systems seeks customers' input to continually evolve as a real estate business solution. The new Platinum solution is a great example of how customer needs help create cutting-edge systems and marketing success.

It's really not rocket science. We simply treat our customers the way they want to be treated. We know that turning ordinary clients into valued customers and nurturing our valued customer relationships, ensures growth and stability for our clients and our business, now and in the future.

Summary: Does your website ensure you maximum search engine visibility?

How do buyers and sellers find your website?   “MARCO”….”POLO”

I’ve been helping Top Producing Real Estate Agents create profitable online businesses since 1997. Traditionally, I warn clients of the challenges of search engine optimization for template sites, in the ever changing Google Universe.

One of the primary problems with most template websites is that they come with “default” or “built in” content. Default content hurts your site for two reasons:                     

1. Stock info, doesn’t speak to your target audience or local market.
2. Common content found on other Agents websites, will cause search engines to discount the value of your content and website; thus, killing any possibility for top search engine ranking.

Most real estate website templates are horrible, when it comes to search engine optimization. This is especially true for older technology and designs. Many companies that call realtors and offer “Special Pricing Today Only” use older architecture and frames that hurt the SEO power of your websites.  Think back:

• How did you purchase your template website?
• Does your site use framing?
• Did your site come with “default” content, so you didn’t have to create your own?
• How old is your sites search engine architecture? When did you purchase it?

Frames and stock content really help the company who sells you the template, because their staff doesn’t have to do much to get you started; so the company can sell it to you at rock bottom prices. You don’t spend much money, but you also don’t get any help succeeding on the internet.  In fact, if you have a template site that isn’t getting found, then you probably purchased it from one of the well-known names in our industry, who provided you with a website built with pages that are invisible to the search engines.

Here’s the real truth about real estate template websites … and this comes from 12 plus years experience marketing top agents on the web:

Typical website templates  hurt your SEO , because of the way the templates are structured and used.

A template is simply a pre-built website that you can customize with your own content, logo, color preferences, etc. So, from an SEO standpoint,you need something more than a basic, template website so you can easily and strategically create your own, unique, content. Real Pro Systems websites are well designed and offer easy editing so you can easily customize your website and publish compelling content, video (etc...). As far as search engines go, Real Pro Systems websites aren't  much different than building a custom website.

I’ll stress that again. A custom-built website and a Real Pro Systems, search engine friendly website, are equal in terms of search engine ranking / SEO potential. Real Pro Sytems provides well structured. search engine friendly websites, then the rest is up to you.Here’s the difference when you’re trying to create search engine ranking, visibility and search-driven web traffic:

• If you start with a well designed, architecturally sound, real estate website and fill it with your own custom content, and a dynamic blog; then, there’s no limit to accomplishing successful search engine rankings.
• However, if you start with a real estate template website that comes complete with default content from your provider and frames to bring in content from other websites; then you’ve limited your success before even getting started.   

The key is to start with a well-built site that is also search engine “friendly,” and then customize it with your own content, branding, videos, photos etc. This means, you could have a professional real estate website up and running in less time, for less cost, and with search engine potential similar to that of a custom website. However, also remember that low cost, commodity providers need to use framing and default content to keep the price down. In short, caveat emptor…..”buyer beware,” because you only get what you pay for! If you want to dig for gold, you can’t use a plastic spoon.

Also, make sure you’re not just buying the look only. Sure, you want a nice-looking, modern website; but don't just get a pretty template site, make sure it’s:

• Easy to add pages, menus etc…basically easy to customize (for somebody with basic HTML skills)
• Built with modern, up to date, web coding techniques
• Professional appearance
• Search engine “friendly” structure, coding, etc.
• New Content gets resubmitted to the search engines
• Clearly worth the price

So let’s sum it up…

• Not all websites are created equal
• You get what you pay for
• Some templates are horrible for SEO, while customizeable websites, like REAL PRO SYSTEMS are awesome for SEO
• Avoid default content and framing
• Investing in the right website, staying away from commodity templates and using the site properly saves you time, money and frustration
• You can’t go wrong with REAL PRO SYSTEMS internet business solutions, because they avoid the pitfalls listed above; giving you a modern professional appearance with a search engine friendly website that's clearly worth the price.