RealTown's RealTalk

Google wiil continue to be a huge influence on website traffic development strategy for the forseeable future. Unless you are winning that game, that is not the best news.

Fortunately, social networking sites (SocNet) have emerged as a niche alternative. Certainly smaller in overall scale, but viable, nonetheless.

Here's why...some percentage of people online are regularly visting various SocNet sites, such as YourTube, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

They might just use the SocNet search box for a query, instead of a Google/YAHOO/MSN search box. Just to see what comes up in within that "community". For instance, they might just see what comes up for "Las Vegas Real Estate", in YouTube.

If a video is actually a genuine real estate tour of vegas, then it will also get seen. If it is also entertaining, it'll get ranked well.

Those who take the time to post well-configured content and tag it accordingly, using smart keyword selection and some good planning, will likely do well with traffic generation from palces like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, etc.

Each SocNet site has it's own functionality, capability, and target market. For years, kids looking for the next great band on MySpace were not really attractive to the real estate business. All of that is changing, quickly. Even the "college kid" sites are now catering to the business community. Follow the money, folks.

All of this certainly adds another "layer" to a potential website marketing mix. That layer includes the cost of 'getting there'. Nothing much is free on the Web. Standing on the sidelines waiting for someone to "fix it" on your behalf is an unlikley outcome. But it is a welcome alternative to just gaming Google rankings, or paying Google PPC money.

Those of you have been a bit frustrated by the requirements of search engine optimization might find a more straightforward place to operate on the SocNet sites, and without much competition, (yet).

Apparently, web marketing is fragmenting, just as Google is locking itself into a stranglehold on general search traffic. Yes, Google owns YouTube and the other big media companies trying to grab their corner of the SocNet world. But YouTube also operates in its own environement, while "feeding" content to Google itself.

This also puts forward a new set of requirements. Those who address them with determination will likely win these micro-skirmishes. These SocNet sites are hard places to "fabricate" success using tricks and gaming. Maybe it's a bit less mysterious than SEO, for most business owners.

These SocNet sites are now becoming a genuine source of leads of traffic. Which makes things a lot more interesting, as we go forward.

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

Dirk: Have you looked at http://www.naymz.com ?

Have a great day!

Best regards,

Paul Silver
Focus Professionals, Inc.

Paul Silver said:

Dirk: Have you looked at <http://www.naymz.com>http://www.naymz.com ?

Thanks Paul. I will add that one to the list.

As I said, the marketing opportunities on the Web are very fluid, and
they becoming very granular. To reach people in a particular
community, you have to get involved with that community.

Having a tool to do just that is our goal.

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

Hi Dirk,

I also recommend LookupPage - a new service that helps users create a strong, professional and trackable online presence by generating a search engine optimized web page focused around the user name.You can check it out if you like :-)

Mike

Mike Cohen wrote:
I also recommend LookupPage <http://www.lookuppage.com> - a new service
that helps users create a strong, professional and trackable online
presence by generating a search engine optimized web page focused around
the user name.You can check it out if you like :-)
_______________

Mike, this is an interesting idea but, I think, fairly useless. As long
as a real estate agent's site contains his or her name and city
somewhere in the text, chances are excellent that the search engines
will find it. My main issue with LookupPage's approach is that few
people search for real estate by an agent's name; they search by "city
state real estate" or "city state homes for sale".

Suzanne

--
Suzanne Hathcock Stephens
Point2Agent Design Partner
http://www.SuzStephens.com
360-666-0881

Thanks for the article. Very helpful and informative.

Mike said:

"I also recommend LookupPage - a new service that helps users create a strong, professional and trackable online presence by generating a search engine optimized web page focused around the user name.You can check it out if you like :-)"

Mike, here's another great search engine that combines Google, Yahoo! and MSN searches into one. This service is not new (Dogpile and others have been around for a long time), but they have a much better way of straining out the wheat from the chaff.

The site is called Scour at Scour.com. It just scored as one of the best websites of 2008.

My Best,
Randy Eagar, CRS
WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com
(800) 277-1316

Hi --

Peter G. Miller said:
"In the early Fall I had a period of two weeks or so when
OurBroker.com received no traffic from Google. I cannot begin to tell
you why this happened and I don't have any idea why the site was
suddenly back in Google's good graces. ..To me, it IS about Google
and it is about Google to exclusion of just about everything else."
 

Hi Peter,
 

As an old school SEO guy, I know exactly what you are saying. I have
seen that, many times.
 

As to Google, you were "bouncing" (my term) in the rankings. It
happens to most sites, but it happens less to old, established
sites. There is apparently little rhyme or reason to a lot of the
bouncing, except that your site was probably in some kind of
re-evaluation mode at Google. Maybe you added a lot of links quickly.
Maybe you modified some strategic pages in some way. Maybe none of
the above, and it was just your time on the chopping block. :)
 

Bouncing is becoming "normal". It also strikes fear in most business
owners, when they realize that Google DOES exert a enormous amount of
control over their traffic, and your subsequent income.
 

I think you have missed my point. I totally agree that top Google
rankings are valuable. But there are just ten listings on the first
page of results. Someone is going to get the short end of it. When it
happens, then all hell breaks loose.
 

One way to protect rankings is with multiple sites. If you can get
one site to rank well, then why not ten? Each site has to be unique,
though. It's insurance, if Google rankings are the be-all-and-end-all
of your business model. If I were wholly dependent on Google rankings
to survive, I'd certainly build more than one site. Anything less is
a suicide strategy. Again, bouncing is now the "norm".
 

My point was this...another alternative is to start immediately to do
things that wean your site off of a total dependence on Google search
rankings. Because if you bounced recently, it will likely happen
again. What's more, as competition heats ups, some people will simply
NEVER match the "establishment" of older, well-ranking sites. I have
been warning about that outcome for YEARS, but not many people
listen. The time to optimize is NOW, not two years from now.
 

Each business is different. The non-Google methods that work for you
may not work for an agent. But if an agent gets involved with
locally-focused SocNet sites, or creates a decent YouTube tour of
their community, and tags it properly, or uses Facebook and LinkedIn
effectively and locally, then they are positioning themselves to get
some traffic that is independent of Google search.
 

Again, there is no doubt that Google is a powerful beast. But that
does not meant that you either win that war or quit. Life without
reliance on Google rankings alone is a life that does not live on the
edge of success or failure on a daily basis.
 

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

Exactly, Ladies and Gentleman:

If I want to find a classmate, I go to Reunion.com, a Hotel, Expedia or Hotels.com, etc..

As the natural progression of this new market progresses, it becomes far more powerful, for instance, to become the moderator for the right Community on Realtowns coming Community platform, which will eventually rank for tall searches out of reach for the small, than to rank in Organic search on Google for an obscure search that nobody searches for.