Real estate educators and real estate agents often ask me about  the value of producing personal brochures and I tell them, "Don’t waste a lot of money on printing stuff – you’re going to find more consumers online than ever before." 

Take a careful look at your web site. If money is burning a hole in your pocket, I’d suggest a few quick investments and you’ll probably get some better results:

1. Get a blog rolling on your web site; You can get a free one at RealTown.com and link it to your site; blog entries generate traffic from people who can hire you, as well as students who can refer you or simply attend another paid course with you.
2. Consider whether or not you need a web site design upgrade -- a little less text, some description with those pictures, maybe a little more narrative about your services.
3. Get some video on your page, pay someone to produce a video for you, then cut it into some 30 -90-second spots. We’re adding an entire library of spots to our site (next revision coming soon!) and while it’s a little expensive, VIDEO will definitely sell you better than a PAPER brochure. Nobody is a better marketer of you than you! Plus sellers who may wish to hire you but have never seen you before will appreciate a chance to glimpse your online video performance as an indicator of your abilities. Regardless of your marketing audience, nothing sells better than video.
4. Develop an e-newsletter. It does not take a big investment to get an account at Constant Contact and you don’t have to make a HUGE newsletter – just something that keeps you “top of mind” in your prospective consumer’s inbox; drive them back to your blog and site. And Constant Contact is great because you don’t pay by the “email” – you pay by the subscriber for unlimited monthly mailings!
5. Produce a CD. Finally, if you “REALLY” want something to handout, then refer to #2 and get your video clips and links to your web site and some audio or video testimonials from classes onto a CDROM. http://www.discmakers.com/ is great and their Business Card sizes http://www.discmakers.com/products/CardDiscs.asp are $765/500 cards. Pretty good!
6. Oh, one MORE idea: buy some Google Adwords – traffic for your site. Dollar for dollar (or click?) you may do better than postage and mailing brochures.

Now, I gotta go take a Valium. Printing! I almost had a heart attack!

(Matthew Ferrara is CEO of Matthew Ferrara & Company, a technology organization that delivers training, consulting and technical support to real estate companies worldwide, including their new "Support on Demand" REALTOR help desk service available at 866-316-4209 or www.matthewferrara.com.)