RealTown's RealTalk

I would like to email news articles, and other information pieces, to my prospect databases. My problem: I cannot find a source which permits me to download in an acceptable format (eg .pdf). What am I doing wrong? Even Realtor.org lacks such materials. The "handouts for consumers' are downloadable, are .pdf, but are intended to be printed not emailed. Are there such sources? Is this even a good idea?JimC

Jas Comeau

Canmar Realty

619/250.6682

JimC@JamesComeau.net

Christina,

I've made it a "rule" that I never, ever agree to sign up for something over $100 without sleeping on it.

I've had salespeople call me about their great programs and after some banter I ask them to call me back the next day or so. Guess what? They never do! Which confirms my impression.

Many of these companies use our online information from our websites or profiles and then call us. I think that in this day and age you have to research what these companies really do.

Back in 1988 HH was promoting a slick EGO brochure for mucho dollars. At that time I was doing a much cheaper brochure in Navy/red ink that my local printer could run off for about $100 for 200 brochures. I used those brochures and didn't find any benefit...no more "deals" because of it. So, I stopped all EGO, ME-ME advertising and marketing.

Today's consumers want to know what you will do for them. It's all about THEM...not you.

 

I recently held an open house and listed it all over the MLS and internet. I also did the newspaper ad. Interestingly enough for me, ALL my traffic came from my signs! I had directed traffic from 2 directions (nearby busy streets) with signs facing each direction and 2 theme colored balloons tied to each. I think I had 10 signs in all out there. It took about $10 for the balloons and maybe 20 minutes to set them up. At the end of the day I had 4 or 5 visitors (good for my area) and a listing presentation for a neighbor.

Another agent in my office did the same, and she also found that the majority of her traffic came from signage, then the internet and then the newspaper. It seems that people are not sitting at home drinking coffe planning to go see open houses and wondering where they are. They are out there living there lives and when they see a sign the "swing in" to satisfy thier own curriosity (buying, selling, decorating)

Christina Catalano said:
"I wanted to jump in here and share my negative experience with
Search Engine Optimization from YellowPages.com.... I just want to
make sure that no one else makes the same $3360 mistake that I did."

Christina,

If I may provide some insight, with the intention of helping you
avoid this in the future. I seriously doubt that YellowPages.com
offers genuine SEO services. Their service is likely just
pay-per-click advertising, marketed as SEO. What exactly did they
promise to do for your money?

I will repeat this again, as I have many, many times here in RT...The
best defense that an agent has against wasted SEO money is to
self-educate on the fundamentals of SEO. Know what you need to know
in advance, and then buy what you need, and demand to get it, from a
vendor that will deliver it. I really do not know how to stress this
enough.

You cannot buy "top rankings". With SEO, you buy one of two things
(or a combination of these): Verifiable links to your site from other
sites, and SEO page optimization/content generation. That is what is
called "positioning yourself to compete". The more thoroughly that
you do both of them vs. your competitors, the better chance you have
of ranking well in search.

I will readily admit that the WWW is a very unforgiving marketing
environment to business owners who are not familiar with it. I just
happen to be very experienced in the various aspects of Web
marketing. It's a place that I thrive. Others do not, and I fully
understand that.

Nevertheless, it is ALWAYS the site owner's ultimate responsibility
to make a website perform well for their own business. In the old
west, the Colt 45 was the great equalizer. In the new age, a
well-ranking website can put a small business over the top, vs. giant
competitors who are flat-footed. I see that daily.

To put it simply, there is a new paradigm at play in the real estate
market, revolving around the use of the various capabilities of WWW
to generate leads. Much of that activity is related to search
rankings. It's a rich vein. Agents who apply themselves to the task
of sorting it out in their favor enjoy the benefits. Those who do not
may find themselves at a distinct disadvantage, or worse, having
spent precious resources on solutions that were not structurally
sound.

The SEO world is full of shenanigans. I have reviewed dozens of agent
sites where the agent has spent money on SEO services, and got little
or nothing much to show for it, in terms of tangible links or
optimization. In virtually every case, this was due to the fact that
the agent did not know what they were purchasing, and they did not
demand performance against an established set of verifiable,
deliverable benchmarks. In nearly every case, they purchased
undefined "SEO services".

This does not have to be the case. For over a year, we have been
offering RT readers free instructional, generic SEO information for
any agent willing to read it and act upon it. It takes about one hour
to get through it. One hour. Any agent that applies the concepts
presented within it to their Website, or demands compliance to it
from their SEO service vendor, will go a very long way to protecting
themselves from multi-thousand dollars in wasted investment.

Here's a multi-page document that was specifically written for real
estate professionals, using real estate examples:
Search Engine Optimization Basics For Real Estate-Related Websites
http://www.domaindrivers.com/seobasics-realestate-main.htm

I hope it helps.

Also, you can create your own optimized pages easily with our new
landing page tool, here:
http://www.domaindrivers.com/pagegumbo/pagegumbo-test.asp
http://www.domaindrivers.com/pagegumbo/pagegumbo.asp

The first link is an "example" page, and the second is a live tool
that you can use at anytime. The tool forces agents to put more of
the secondary real-estate related keywords on their pages.

Best regards,

Dirk Johnson
Partner - Operations
DomainDrivers LLC
djohnson@domaindrivers.com
703-406-4698
http://domaindrivers.realtown.com
We're an approved RealTalk/RealTown vendor:
http://DomainDrivers.InternetCrusade.com

I would like to email news articles, and other information pieces, to my prospect databases. My problem: I cannot find a source which permits me to download in an acceptable format (eg .pdf). What am I doing wrong? Even Realtor.org lacks such materials. The "handouts for consumers' are downloadable, are .pdf, but are intended to be printed not emailed. Are there such sources? Is this even a good idea?JimC

Jas Comeau

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Here is the place to start: http://Lowes.InternetCrusade.com