I’ve been accepted as a beta tester for Ether’s pay-per-call technology. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see my previous post on Ether. It’s pretty neat stuff. You can set prices to per minute, per hour, or per call. You can also choose different rates for the initial time period and the extended call time. For example, you can setup your call to be $100 for the first hour, but only $50 for each hour following. Call Me!
Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Real Estate Domains for Sale
I’ve been sitting on a few domains and have decided to put them up on the auction block. They were picked up for various reasons. Most have not been used at all, while a few are gently used. However, I can guarantee that the domain will be in mint condition on delivery. 
If you’re looking to expand your real estate web presence, check out these domains. I also have some area specific domains (most are in the Northwest) so contact me if interested.
- AllPropertyListings.net
- BuyerDreams.com
- HorseLotsOnline.com
- InvestmentCashFlow.com
- MakeAnOffer.at
- MakeOffer.at
- MoreInfo.at
- MyGuideToRealEstate.info
- NothingButRealEstate.net
- Real-Estate-BlogSites.com
- Real-Estate-Directory.ws
- Real-Estate-Guide.ws
- Real-Estate-Podcasters.com
- Real-Estate-Technology.net
- ValleyFSBOS.com
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Postlets for Classifieds
Posting real estate listings to multiple classifieds can sometimes be quite a chore. Postlets (Thanks Dewita) is a great free way to simplify that task.
With “just a few clicks” you can create and post a classified ad for your property to places such as:
And you can do all of this without knowing any HTML. Follow the instructions and you’re good to go. Try Postlets out and let me know how you think it could help your business.
House For Cell
A new real estate marketing trend, using technology, is SMS. So how can you use text messaging to market real estate? Well, with another acronym of course! CSC.
SMS is your basic text messaging sent, typically, from one cell phone to another. CSC is “Common Short Codes” that allow you to send a text message using only five digits instead of dialing a long 10 digit number.
Let’s put some feet on this…
SMS for real estate
A real estate agent lists a property for sale with MLS number 789. He puts up a sign in the yard with a rider that says:
Text “MLS 789″
To: HOUSE (46873)
For Instant Home Info
When a prospective home buyer sees this message, they send the text message. Within seconds they will automatically receive photos and detail about the home directly to their phone.
Got the idea?
This real estate lead generator is similar to the 1-800 recorded listing messages that would capture incoming phone numbers. The added benefit is that the number is shorter, easier to remember, and more efficient than listening to a pictureless message.
Getting started with short codes
If you go directly to the short code source, you’ll spend $500 per month for a randomly generated short code and $1000 per month for a “vanity” code. …And that doesn’t include the software to automatically send real estate listings!
For the lower budget and those without a dedicated programming team, there are a number of companies that can get your real estate short codes up and running in a matter of hours. The services offered vary, but this is what you’re generally looking for.
- Customizable info request text (something like “MLS 789″, “JOHN 1″, etc.)
- Automated responses to home buyers
- Phone number capture (lead generation)
These are a few companies that already work with real estate agents.
I don’t have personal experience with any of these companies. However, House4Cell appears to offer the best service at face value and seem to be the only one that offers photos. If you know of other companies or are already using a service like this, I’d love to hear about it!
A Map for Nosy Home Owners
My next fun project is underway. What is it? A map… A comprehesive, mashup for searching and finding real estate in a particular area.
The Map Challenge(s)
So what is a comprehensive map? This cool little map [application] will need to allow home searchers to do the following (I’m also open to any additional suggestions!):
- Enter specific home search criteria such as number of bedrooms, bathrooms, price, neighborhood, or sale status.
- Visually identify new and recently sold listings
- Toggle and visually identify property types such as land, multi-family, and single family.
- Toggle landmark visibility such as schools, hospitals, and gas stations
- View complete property detail without going to a new page
- Calculate and display average prices, days on market, and list to sell ratios
The challenge of creating this interactive map is not so much the complexity, but rather the difficulty in obtaining accurate up-to-the-moment data. I’m unable to obtain an IDX feed or RETS access. And even if I did, the feed doesn’t include sold information or geocoded listing information. There are also some very stringent [and mostly political] rules that restrict what data is actually “public”. Therefore we are working very closely with the broker to be sure that we stay within these rules.
The Map’s Purpose
As I mentioned in the title, house seekers and home sellers are nosy. (I’m one of them, too. I’m just privileged to have access to all of the data.) They all want to know the same questions:
- How much did that house across the street finally sell for?
- How much is my house worth?
- Which areas have the highest appreciation?
- What’s selling now? Is it a buyer’s or seller’s market?
I’m sure you could add to this list. The interactive map will, at least its purpose is to, help people get these answers quickly and easily. And for those wondering, yes, it’s partly a marketing ploy to be the best information provider in the area.
Map Development
I’m still evaluating the best ways to create this real estate map including the big three APIs (Google, Yahoo, and MS Virtual Earth). I’m also reviewing existing map applications to see how they solved issues like limited screen real estate and excessive listing data.
Which real estate maps do you like? I’d love to hear from you!
Google Blacklist Paranoia
Now that people are becoming more familiar with Google’s ability to blacklist a site, there seems to be a mild paranoia that lurks whenever a site isn’t in the Top 10. Although search engine placement is “easy” it’s still a lot of work, not to mention time consuming. So maybe you just need to put more work into establishing good content and good backlinks.
Still paranoid?
SEO Junkie offers a free Blacklist Checker to help you to determine if your site, or any site that you link to, is banned by Google. It’s a handy app and it sure beats doing the searches manually on Google.
Blacklist Checker: Reverse Engineered
Well, I haven’t really done this and don’t intend to. However, it seems that the software does a series of searches on Google to determine whether a site is indexed and calculate its Page Rank. It crawls through your site, with some options, and runs the same check for any of the domains of your outbound links.
SEO Junkie’s software is simple, straight forward, and gets the job done. Check it out!
Prevent a lawsuit and get up to web standards
Web standards are the wave of the future. And if you don’t jump on board, you better jump ship. You’re at risk for lost visitors, lost reveneues, and even potential lawsuits.
The downfall without web standards
Many small businesses do what they can to get by and create a website using the easily accessible software that they’re comfortable with. This typically includes software such as FrontPage, Publisher, or some canned web template software from their hosting provider. Unfortunately, these types of programs are usually the worst when it comes to maintaining web standards.
When a site does not conform to standards, you immediately limit your potential visitors. You’ll have issues with accessibility and compatibility. And with all the new web-enabled devices out there, you want to be sure that your site works on all of them.
- Accessibility
- Accessibility is a website’s ability to be easily accessed by those with disabilities. According to the WAI,
Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.
- Compatibility
- Compatibility is a website’s ability to be correctly rendered across multiple browsers, operating systems, and devices.
Benefits of Web Standards
Web standards says to create a site that is accessible to all no matter what. This is ideal, however, there are many more reasons to get rid of your table-based layouts (With standards, tables should only be used for tabular data). Here are a few more benefits to moving your site to web standards.
- Future Proof
- New browsers are being developed with web standards in mind. You won’t have to recode your website to accomodate the new stuff. And as standards are refined, upgrading your code becomes much easier.
- Cost Effective Cross-Compatible Everything
- Standards-based websites will be immediately viewable by any up-to-date browser. Your content will be available to visitors no matter what browser, operating system, PDA, or smart phone someone uses. This all happens without having to develop different versions of your site (although you still can!)
- Improved Search Engine Indexing
- Although it’s arguable, standards can help with higher search engine placement. By using web standards, robots are fed exactly what they want—highly structured content.
- Lightning fast design changes
- Content and design remain separated. This allows for site-wide design changes to happen with a simple change of CSS. The CSS Zen Garden is an excellent example of how CSS can be used to create different designs (colors and layout) using the same content.
Standardize your website
It’s always easier to have standards compliance when you’re starting a project from scratch. But we don’t always have that luxury. If you’re ready to make the leap, here’s what you can do.
- Verify proper HTML tag usage. HTML tags are for developing document structure, not font sizes or layout. It should be common sense… Use header tags for headings. Use list tags (ol, ul, dl) for lists. Use tables for tabular data and not layout.
- Separate design from content. An standalone HTML document (without CSS) should be only content. It should not include fluffy images that are irrelevant (i.e. background images and borders). Images that are pertinent, such as a product’s image on the products page, are considered part of the content and should be included.
- Test, test, test. Use validation services to check your code for accessibility, coding errors, and more. This will help to ensure you have content that is available to any visitor, including search engine robots.
Do you need more help in identifying how your site can improve? Rather have someone else do the work? Hire me!
Do you have other tips or links that maybe helpful? Please comment below.
Holiday Website Makeover
Are you tired of your website’s look? If you are, your visitors might be tired of it too! Time for a makeover!
Have you ever noticed how Google will change its logo to match the day’s current or historical event? For example, throughout the 2006 Winter Olympics, their logo changes according to the popular Olympic event of the day. Yesterday, the Google logo sported a half-pipe and a snowboarder (maybe Shaun White?). This little changing logo has created enough buzz around my peers that I’m certain, it’s at least one way to attract new visitors on other types of websites.
Website Thematics
A North Central Idaho Real Estate team (Higgins Team) makes simple color and graphic changes to celebrate relevant current events, holidays, or seasons. These changes keep the site fresh for visitors and also helps to maintain a personal touch on their site. During the past few months, they’ve changed their color scheme to celebrate Fall, Winter, Christmas, New Year’s, and Valentine’s Day. If you visit their site enough in the next few weeks, you’ll be able to see their designs for President’s Day, St. Patricks Day, and Spring.
Although the changes may seem drastic and time consuming, they’re not. Because their site is standards-based they can easily change their whole site by using a different external style sheet. They’re only changing site colors and their banner graphic, so the effort is minimal.
Like most marketing tactics, you’re experimenting. You need to experiment with different (and minor) changes to determine which ideas will turn your website into a lead generator and cash cow. In the case of the Higgins Team, the experiment has evolved into an important routine. Why? Lots of new visitors who become buyers. Their website traffic has increased 36% during a time of typically slow activity.
There are other factors that contribute to their improved numbers including excellent search engine marketing. But this is just one more thing that you can do to keep those repeat and referrals coming to your website.
Publicizing Your Blog
1,000,000 unique visitors a day–Is it possible? Of course! Publicize your blog by getting listed in, or pinging, these services. Did I miss a good one? Let me know via comment or email.
The Good Commenter
One of the best ways to develop community with your blog and drive traffic is to comment on other bloggers’ posts. If your web site is about real estate, comment on real estate related blogs. If it’s about local events, attractions, or recreation, find similar type blogs. Make sure your comments are meaningful to the post and valuable to their readers.
Another way to comment is to discuss another person’s post (in your own blog). Be sure to link to their post. Depending on their settings you may get a trackback listed on their page. If your post is good, you might even get some link love.
Blog Directories
This list is updated as new directories are found. Submit your feed to these directories/aggregators to generate new subscribers. Be sure to use your market’s keywords in your blog title to be easier to find.
*Notice: Switching providers. This list will be updated.
Blog Ping Services
These are services that notify aggregators and search engines that you’ve updated your blog. Pick the services and sites that are the most relevant to you. For example, don’t submit to a podcast service if you don’t podcast!
*Notice: Switching providers. This list will be updated.
Validating Your Blog Feed
Have you validated your feed lately? (Reminds me of “Have you hugged your pet lately?”). If you haven’t, you’re not alone. The majority of new bloggers probably don’t even think about it. But if you really want to be sure to get your latest market information out to your subscribers, be sure your feed is valid!
A valid feed means that the code is syntactically correct. If it is even the dumbest RSS aggregators and news readers (I’m referring to software here, not people!) will be able to view your feed. Okay, so what happens if it’s invalid? Well, it depends. Some readers (again the software) are smart enough to figure things out. However, others will show gobbledygook or worse, nothing at all. Do you use the ever popular FeedBurner? Their service will simply stop reading your feed.
Validating your feed
The easiest way to check if your feed is valid is to use a feed validator. Who would’ve guessed? You can go to one of these sites and enter the URL of your feed.
My feed is valid
Great! But don’t think you’re done. With every post your feed may become invalid if you are using some kind of WYSIWYG editor. A common issue is funky tags due to Microsoft Office. You’ve probably seen it. Copy and pasting will result in new tags like:
<o:p>your content</o:p>
No there is no “o” tag in HTML. MS Office apps have a tendency to add their own formatting including non-HTML tags.
My best advice? Learn HTML. My next best advice? Get Blogger for Word
Have you encountered feed validation issues? Comment to share your experiences.
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