From CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS REO LENDER CANNOT REQUIRE BUYER TO PURCHASE TITLE INSURANCE FROM ANY PARTICULAR COMPANY No seller can require that the buyer purchase title insurance from any particular title insurance company. This rule pertains to transactions involving a federally-related mortgage loan for one-to-four residential units as defined...
How important is link scultpting? Apparently the LA Times thinks so. Notice all the red marks on their internal links? These have the rel="nofollow" attribute.
What is the nofollow attribute? It was originally a plan from Google and the other engines to stop comment spam. Simply use the attribute in your blogs comments and the links are rendered worthless. Technically you place the attribute in your link html as so: a href="http://www.url.com/" rel="nofollow">anchor text </a
It was not too long before us SEO's figured out that this was a quick and dirty way to do what Leslie Rohde taught me years ago in his book Dynamic Linking. This technique was extremely complicated for most as it employed javascript links that were not able to be followed by Google.
Now with the nofollow attribute the same can be accomplished without the hassel of javascript. To see if a site is running nofollow on its links simply install the firefox plugin called Search Status.
It means Death Grip! That's probably a secret you want to keep to yourself lol.
.. from medieval times when, if one fell on hard times, one solution was to seek to mortgage a property you already owned in order to get cash.
From Websters:
mort·gage Pronunciation: ˈmȯr-gij Function: noun Etymology: Middle English morgage, from Anglo-French mortgage, from mort dead (from Latin mortuus) + gage gage — more at murder Date: 15th century
From American Heritage Dictionary:
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English morgage, from Old French : mort, dead (from Vulgar Latin *mortus, from Latin mortuus, past participle of mor, to die + gage, pledge (of Germanic origin).
For a few years now, looking at backlinks thru Google using the link:http://www.url.com query was all but a waste of time. Much like putting any credence into the Google Page Rank bar.
So thank goodness for Yahoo. And in fact, they put together a nice little tool over there called Yahoo Search. But alas a recent post has confirmed my own suspicions. The tool ain't all its cracked up to be.
It is in fact a bit inconsistent and as this post points out just plain wrong at times.
Yahoo site Explorer shows the following stats for my blog site.
Indexed Pages: 3,673
Crawled Pages: 580
Known Pages: 3,673
Hosts linking to Site: 153
On click of the Indexed Pages link it shows me only ONE page indexed.
I use to have 220+ backlinks and 631 indexed pages till May 16th 08 and then it dropped to 0 the next week onwards.
Currently it shows 800+ backlinks and ONLY 1 indexed page whereas my blog contains 2370 pages till date.
This brings me to a couple points I would like to make:
Remember these engines have zero incentive to help us to figure out their positions. So do not be at all surprised when this tool goes away or becomes useless lke Google's green bar or link query.
Yahoo search allows you to check how many pages of your site are indexed in Yahoo. (see pages). It alos allows you to discover how many links you have coming to your site or just on epage. It also will allow you to not count your own links from your own site. Additionally, you can download the report as a TSV.
A story in the Register portends to expose Google's willingness to manipulate its own Algo generated results with people generated editorial.
..technology utopians began to herald Google as the conduit for a new form of democracy. Google was only too pleased to encourage this view. It explained that its algorithm "relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. "
For now that data is not being used to change overall search results, she said. But in the future it’s likely Google will use the data to at least make obvious changes. An example is if “thousands of people” were to knock a search result off a search page, they’d be likely to make a change.
But this is not anything new. Google has always used its human power to correct huge mistakes in its algo. However, it has also always preferred to see manipulations and tricks as algo errors and something that needed to be fixed not by its people but by its algorithm.
More interesting however, is the shift of journalistic power from the papers to Google as reporters follow Googles lead instead of leading the news:
...it's becoming all too clear at The Telegraph, whose online business plan seems to be centered on chasing hits through Google by rehashing and rewriting stories that people are already interested in.
So who is creating the news then? The Register says in the end it could be Google leading to a very Orwellian news feed.
This is a tale of tails that include blogs and traffic. You have heard the pitch all over the web.The pitch is the promise of traffic just from writing anything. Implied in that is the lack of a need for any "SEO" because of a magical phenomenon called the long tail.
That ain't workin thats the way you do it
Money for nothin and chicks for free
Dire Straits(not Sting as Jeremy corrected me)
We all love free and free is all over the net. The long tail theory is a phrase that has been co-opted by the blogging and SEO industry to explain non voluminous key phrasing as a possible strategic advantage. It also can produce higher lead conversions if used properly.
Cliff notes on the long tail:
From Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine who like Seth Godin and other web pioneers has flipped common web paradigms on its head. He wrote the infamous Long Tail Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More book. As well as his most recent Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business (try to wrap your arms around this one).
The Long Tail can be thought of as the 80/20 rule or Parettos Law ( I know all these rules. Don't you feel like in school again). Paretto noticed that 20% of the Italians control 80% of the land. That is, a small number of things have a larger impact. In sales 20% of agents do 80% of the sales. This notion permeates across all contexts of nature. Here is a terrific example of the 80/20 rule in sales.
Anderson noticed pre-internet that the brick and mortar stores were limited by the most sought after inventory. An inefficiency in distribution. In other words, Virgin Record Stores could only inventory the most in demand music choices. While niche or less in demand items could not be kept in inventory as their simply was not enough demand to justify the expense of stocking them on the shelves.
Anderson reminds us that the web allows niche songs to be sold because inventory is only stored once and digitally at that! (A newer example of the long tail going wild in music check out my Blip station.) "The Net has infinite shelf space". Thus making it possible for fans of Jazz musician Joshua Redman to purchase music. (never heard heard of him before huh? He has a fan base online that justifies his existence economically).
So the free Google traffic pundits soon co opted the Long Tail idea and applied it to search traffic. The Blogging Industry vendors soon saw this as a great sales pitch and have sold the Long Tail as the fast track to easy traffic. The sales points have centered on little competition means easier (not easy) traffic. That is true of course only if you have lots of pages with these words. And these pages are positioned in the engines.
Easy Real Estate Traffic
First of all lets look at Short and Long Tail as it applies to real estate web sites.
Short Tail keywords could be:
Long Tail keywords could be:
When searching "Homes For Sale on Felbar in Torrance, CA" in Google two pages of results show up. No competition.
The challenge is that there is no volume either. In other words very few if any people are searching.
So Anderson uses examples of Wallmart as an example of short tail and Rhapsody Music as long tail. But even Rhapsody has very measurable volume for its long tail words. A long, long tail for Rhapsody would be Rhapsody Music Everlong Marty INXS
In real estate the long tail words above simply will not be found on most keyword finder tools. Because truth be told, the local real estate searches are more like long, long tail.
Free Keyword Tools
Where is the Scale or Why the Long Tail Ain't All its Cracked Up to Be In Blogging?
So long as agents are writing or even paying people to write in their blogs then the whole idea of long tail blows up. That is manual labor and is not what Rhapsody is doing. For long tail efficiencies to work we must have scale. Think your IDX.
The long tail theory is important to know in reaction to the cheap storage of the net. But as I have pointed out, the theory does not fit perfectly into most agents business structure. The challenge is to be able to create meaningful content efficiently. So long as you and I write meaningful pieces such as this one (if I may say so myself), then the idea of scale is way off in the distance. Without scale, where is the long tail? In your mind saved for a future post.
Interesting fact: The majority of searches (67%) are made up of one to three keywords. However, 82% of searchers said that they are likely to enter a few more words when they cant find what they are looking for in a search. Phrases of four or more words are often used to deliver the targeted results that most searchers aren't seeing with broader-based search terms. These terms can offer you higher conversion rates at a lower cost per click, so it makes sense to have a stable of long-tail search terms, rather than relying on a few big money, high-volume search terms. Again, if you can achieve scale.
Just Ask....
HouseBlogger started off way back in 2004 proclaiming that the web was best suited as a DM tool for real estate agents. DM means Direct response. 
Which implies that you start with a slippery chute that starts with traffic & finishes with the outcome of a lead & then sale.
What might that chute look like?
Without some sort of DM strategy a website is nothing more than a digital brochure and we all know when someone asks for your card or brochure in the real world, your paper is usually headed for the round file!
Ask. Many real estate agents see their leads double when they just place a registration out front.
How do you create this with all your social web pages lie Twitter, Facebook and the like? They are merely webpages are they not?.. and they can serve to bring your peeps back to your call to action.
President elect Obama has been heralded before on HouseBlogger for his net savvy ability to get the grassroots to come out and vote. Now, politics is always a polarizing issue so please put away any bias you may have and please come with me as we appreciate his marketing ability. Because thats really what matters is the marketing and how we can mimmick superior online marketing of others for our purposes.
Obama took his original website and changed it to http://change.gov in an attempt to keep the buzz happening. The site recently released a new application that to me kind of shows the limits and also the manipulations that are possible with social media.
The newer system is a Digg.com like system whereby visitors can vote and deny commentary. I will let Politico.com explain what has happened:
President-elect Barack Obama's Transition today launched "Open for Questions," a Digg-style feature allowing citizens to submit questions, and to vote on one another's questions, bringing favored inquiries to the top of the list.
It was suggested when it launched that the tool would bring uncomfortable questions to the fore, but the results so far are the opposite: Obama's supporters appear to be using -- and abusing -- a tool allowing them to "flag" questions as "inappropriate" to remove all questions mentioning Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from the main pages of Obama's website.
The Blagojevich questions -- many of them polite and reasonable -- can be found only by searching words in them, like "Blagojevich," which produces 35 questions missing from the main page of the site.
"Given the current corruption charges involving Blagojevich, will 'serious' campaign finance reform that takes money completely out of politics through publicly funded elections be a priority in the first term?" asked Metteyya of Santa Cruz, California.
"This submission was removed because people believe it is inappropriate," reads the text underneath it........ Community reporting systems like this are often vulnerable to abuse from committed partisans -- YouTube has wrestled with a parallel problem -- and the only solution is conscious efforts to remedy it.
Some call user generated content and the new media the Democratization of the web. Maybe, but it also can be a giant propaganda machine. Intended or otherwise.
Other interesting articles:
The Webs Influence and Social Web: A New Thing?
Pat Kitano on Social Media Podcast
Social Distortion
Interview With a Social Media Pioneer
Twitter
The Obfuscation of the truth.......& The Orgy of Free:The CIA owns part of Facebook?
From politics, to markets, to opinion. The web can and does influence.
The web is a syndication machine as distributed computing allows networks to talk with one another with ease. It is what has given us Google and their huge computing power. It is what RSS is about.
This ability to manipulate the perceptions of the crowds is what I alluded to in my early 2008 http://www.positiveonrealestate.com mission as a way to take back the news and in fact change perceptions thru multiple syndications.
Pat Kitano (listen to our social media interview/podcast with Pat Kitano) is employing similar techniques by getting "armies" of micro bloggers. What I would call at its core content publishers that are building pages of juicy content to drive traffic to their home base.
As a SEO professional, I think I could add some strategies that would help them get social traffic and organic as they can coalesce, but will often have to be received independently.
Another way of thinking about this is to employ the social networks as a propaganda campaign.
Does this stuff work? You bet otherwise how can stupid rumors like the Yahoo Microsoft be passed off as news this past weekend:
The Times of London reported that Microsoft may acquire Yahoo’s search business for $20 billion dollars. While the Times report included detailed information, named parties, including Velocity Investment Group founder Ross Levinsohn, said there is “No truth to it.”
So how does one go about propagandizing the web? Stay tuned and sign into http://www.realestateguerilla.com as we are about to open it back up for more membership spots.
How can this web propaganda work?
Ask Obama. Or any politician of late. The Dems have done it especially well online the last two elections.
Why is it that buyers won't buy, even though all indicators are that the market has hit bottom (notice my own pre supposition here? This is used allot in propaganda)? The web can rapidly deploy ideas or memes that spread across multiple channels and change perceptions and beliefs. Exactly what you want as a marketer.
Pownce, one of many alternative Twitters, is now about dead. Six Apart, owner of TypePad (which powers HouseBlogger) just purchased them. And it seems they will disolve it into the Vox ap.
This is the problem with new media. In a reccessionary world of reluctant investors and no revenue, the idealism of the Social Web is getting full court pressed to survive. It will be interesting to watch to see who is gobbled up and who survives.
Much like those of the Dot Bomb times, I believe many aps will be bought for the technology and names. For those poor souls who invested their time into Pownce? Tuff luck hombre.
This is why I tell anyone who will listen to spend most of your time on building your brand on YOUR own URL. Use the other stuff to attract people into your URL.
Meanwhile, catch me Tweeting at http://www.twitter.com/timokeefe
Happy Thanksgiving to all the HouseBlogger readers and friends.
God Bless! and enjoy your time and please do consider for all that you have to be grateful. Thanks....
Last Saturday the team I Coach of 8 to 10 years olds played one of the most inspirational games I have ever watched. There was tears of grief in the stands and tears of joy for our side.
In what was one of the most grueling games I have ever watched, my El Segundo Eagles won the PCC Championship for the Mitey Mite Division.
I am the dude closest to the pole.
So why would I write about my team on a marketing blog? First off I am breaking my own rules and taking that rare moment of indulgence. While I am at it may I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving?
This team won a game that was won on pure desire. Heart. In other words it took three overtimes to win this game. I kid you not only were the teams and staffs drained, the parents and fans were wiped out.
I have not experienced this kind of noise on the sideline since my days of playing in College.
Three overtimes is not easy and I for one have never been put into that kind of pressure cooker as a player or Coach. Imagine 8 and 9 years olds. These kids on both teams got experience that will serve them for ever.
In a way the students taught the teachers(Coaches and Parents).
Yah we adults face a world currently that seems a bit bleek. It is the Over Time on some of your business futures. Taxes are due and some of you haven't had a deal in awhile.
Kevin Hogan discusses the current Survivor show on NBC as a game of will. Much like my football players victory, this show is a battle of "who wants it more?"
Hogan compares success to a rocket:
The fact is that she broke the earth's gravity and that took a LOT of fuel. A TON of energy. But once you have momentum, once you have established the ability to control the self, amazing things happen.
Like the team I Coach who paid dearly in sweat and practice all season, constant improvement is necessary for success that most will say is easy and instant.
As Woody Allen says,"The secret to success is showing up. How many ever do actually show up and are present when faced with adversities? Honest assessments of self are necessary for growth.
Todays market is crazy. But I promise someone in your marketplace is succeeding right now as I write. Someone is tearing your market up. Transaction City! Why can't it be you?
Much like 8 and 9 year olds who frankly may not know any better than to give their best effort...Why can't it be you who gets the deals? Or are you too adult to keep persevering?
In the Pre internet days of the last real estate recession, an old pal of mine Phil Gilboy went head to head against his Multiple Listings Service. It seems ole Phil was looking for new and exciting ways to prosper during a down market and he started a new phone service called something like 1-800-cal-lmls (I made that up as I cannot remember the exact number).
Well the Westside MLS came down hard with their legal beagles claiming infringement. Except one thing was wrong. The ones owning MLS as a trademark are Major League Soccer. They eventually let Phil do his thing.
Now besides this legal issue of who owns what. The real issue of course is why would an entity that Phil helped support attempt to take away his right to make a living?
The Realty Associations of course have a long history of this type of dumping on the ones who brought them to the dance.
At the dawning of the World Wide Web, NAR made a desperate plea for higher fees to help fund Realtor.com. If the site was not built it was argued then that Microsoft and others would take over the MLS. The site made by NAR for its reason for being was built to much fanfare. It quickly sunk from the notion of protecting the MLS and into a new revenue stream. Thus charging its members to participate in the site built on their behalf.
Ironically, a few years later and now we have Trulia who many in the public might argue is the defacto online MLS.
This whole issue was brought to the forefront of late as a Florida MLS has not only used the traditional means of regulating their members, but many bloggers believe that they have gone so far as to compete with the very people who pay them for help in their business.
This story begins with a Realtor who owned a domain with the word MLS in it, some strong SEO and link juice. And then a Multiple Listings Service who in this authors opinion went to extreme measures to use their power.
Who is the Realtor? Marc Rasmussen of Sarasota, Florida. The URL was TheSarasotaMLS.com, and the Board? None other than the Sarasota MLS.
Archive.org show the url going as far back as Sept 2003. So why now in 2008 would this Association feel that they could impose an ethics violation?
According to RealEstateWebmasters:
Article 12 of the National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics".
".. the NAR adopted a new stance on the use of the acronym "MLS" in a Realtor's domain name – basically stipulating that "at their discretion" MLS boards could adopt new policies prohibiting the use of MLS in a Realtor's domain. In my opinion, the NAR did not practice any measure of responsible due diligence before adopting this addition to the COE and it was extremely poorly received by its membership as evidenced by the extreme negative reaction by the Realtor / webmaster community as a whole.."
John Allen a Sarasota Realtor and competitor, defends Marc Rasmussen. He turns the issue on its head when he asks if the Sarasota MLS is going to claim ethical violation for the use of their name in the website The Sarasota MLS.com. Then Allen asks about the SAR owned domain Time2BuySarasota.com:
"No one from SAR ever asked me for permission or if it was ok with me. It was obvious that they were trying to feed off of my unique name and wide brand exposure. They have used it in all of their marketing efforts including print, TV and online. I have used BuySarasota.com in all of my marketing efforts for years. It is MY brand. I even have a Florida Trademark on the term..."
Allen then reports perhaps the most disturbing part of this story:
"..SAR decided to do a 301 permanent redirect from Marc Rasmussen's old domain thesarasotamls.com to their website sarasotarealtors.com. "
A quick lesson in SEO
When a website puts a 301 redirect onto their server, it essentially says,"hey Google, you know everything that was over there (thesarasotamls), well it is now here (sarasotarealtors).
That act would in effect take the value of the website as seen in Google's eyes and other engines, and attached it to the SAR site. Thus Rasmussen's blood and sweat and dollars of the past 5 years went into building the value of SAR and their website.Some 2000+ links and a very aged website is now attached to the SAR site.
And what did SAR have to say in response?
The CEO was quoted in the RealEstateWebmaster comment section "in the best interest of the membership of SAR and of the public that SAR protect its rights in the trademark."
When discussing legal issues all the posturing can prove anyones point. As the law always serves the ones with the most money and lawyers.
My Rant and Personal Opinion
So if we may, lets get back to the world of right and wrong. SAR is paid to support its people. If they thought that Marc owning his URL is wrong then they have had 5 years to have a sit down with him. They didn't need the legal muscle of NAR to make their point.
The skeptic in me feels like they have just discovered SEO and link juice.
Shouldn't Marc at least be paid for his old domains value? Is the 301 just a little sneaky? Why if they wanted the domain so bad for its trademark don't they use it, instead of 301'ing it? And why are they apparently scooping up URLS as John Allen says when they are not in the marketing game? Or are they?
Certainly SAR would be hard pressed to claim they bought Time2BuySarasota.com to protect their trademark. Again who do they represent themeselves or their members?
SAR took a domain that not only had value in a search engine's eyes, but they also took a domain with a revenue stream.
If that is how the Association helps its members and what NAR calls ethics then the industry has a much larger problem than this recession. Because this problem will be the industries ultimate demise. Thats my opinion and I am sticking to it.
Alex Perriello, CEO of Realogy, gives advice to Realtors on dealing with the times:Be positive, persistent, And tell people houses are selling, there is not reason to sit on the fence.
SmartMoney magazine says are in line for a rebound: Seattle Raleigh Des Moines Philadelphia Denver, Colorado Birmingham, Ala. Salt Lake City The Boom then gloom markets as they call it: Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix.California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. The article states that when you take these states out of...
The following was inspired by an email thread that went back and forth between myself and the President of a Web Design House. the project mentioned is in the very beginning stages of an SEO project that we are fulfilling for one of their clients.I thought you might find this of interest.....
At the start of a project brand increases because of linking. Often times a client thinks that this was built in, when in fact some of it may have been but Google does not necessarily care about your brand. They care about mentions and citations of your brand. Google cares only what links to the references of your brand across the web on your site or not. As your links increase to your pages of your site, your brand references (keywords) within your analytics should go up.
So what you get last month in your original, pre-seo campaign "brand traffic" spreads out to larger derivatives of that word and more searches as it gets links to the pages with brand words. And links that carry those branded words in the anchor text increase. In the case of brand it usually is not very competitive if at all, so a few links can really get the brand out there.
Reputation Management
This by the way is what reputation management is about. One can easily
steal your brand by creating pages about your company on many web pages. It can even be done anonymously on free sites. Its easy to do because
there is 0 competition for it until someone actually does it.
The idea being that you can get crowded out totally or partially from the SERPS (search positions) for your own name!Thats why it is important for companies to do more socially and thru syndicates to populate the web with references to their brand.
By the way we often will get an agent site to come up higher in the SERPS than a broker site online (if the broker is not our client). Its very easy if the broker isn't working for in bound links.
This reputation thing is not as bad as it is hyped up to be yet. I have seen few attempts by malcontents but not done very well. But I do think it will be a major problem down the road not just in the real estate business. But I see this playing out in how news and politics can be perceived.
For a glimpse of the future and managing reputation and perceptions,
study how the Obama and McCain campaigns have run their online
marketing for the past election.
Election Special: Whatever You Do, Do Not Vote For This Candidate
Even McCain used online Video masterfully. Obama used the web better than any one politician or business yet.
Confessing Your Sins Will Get You Traffic!
A site can be SEOd all day long, but if it does not have links it does
not fully or even in some cases partially exist to Google. On many
templated real estate sites there is not much one can do as far as
onpage optimization.
So how does one get high rankings?
Links. Links make up for the sins of the site. They are the absolution from the priest called Google.
So right now a month into the project what we see is a start of a wider span of brand words. And even a small start at seeing real estate search words giving traffic.
We can do that by comparing the search strings from last month before
the SEO launch to now. This month is almost double brand based visits.
(names changed to keep the client private)
The list is longer (width) and many words are getting more visits compared to last month.
ie. TOTAL BRAND visits are double last month
27 century 21 franchise name
26 url.com
19 century 21 franchise name realty
14 franchise name
6 century franchise name
6 www.franchise name.com
4 city century 21
4 century 21 in state
etc.....
Today's vote is historic. And I assure you that no matter who you voted for,your guy in some way manipulated you. Once you found yourself making your choice, most people will defend their choice logically. Although as we know in sales 101, we buy for emotional reasons and justify with logic. 
.
Some interesting lessons for us online marketers have been revealed of late by political experts.
Mark Nagaitis, CEO of 7 Billion People, said ???This analysis demonstrates how the design of a website and the use of language can influence the effectiveness of that site in communicating the desired message. Too many web designers underestimate the power of language in reaching the complete audience, not just their base.??? Key findings from the analysis include:
The Gopac knows this and as such shows us some interesting language patterns that politicos should use:
Use the list below to help define your campaign and your vision of public service. These words can help give extra power to your message. In addition, these words help develop the positive side of the contrast you should create with your opponent, giving your community something to vote for!:
Optimistic Governing Words
share, change, opportunity, legacy, challenge, control, truth, moral, courage, reform, prosperity, crusade, movement, children, family, debate, compete, active(ly), we/us/our, candid(ly), humane, pristine, provide, liberty, commitment, principle(d), unique, duty, precious, premise, care(ing), tough, listen, learn, help, lead, vision, success, empower(ment), citizen, activist, mobilize, conflict, light, dream, freedom, peace, rights, pioneer, proud/pride, building, preserve, pro-(issue): flag, children, environment; reform, workfare, eliminate good-time in prison, strength, choice/choose, fair, protect, confident, incentive, hard work, initiative, common sense, passionate
Contrasting Words
Often we search hard for words to define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. Remember that creating a difference helps you. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.
decay, failure (fail) collapse(ing) deeper, crisis, urgent(cy), destructive, destroy, sick, pathetic, lie, liberal, they/them, unionized bureaucracy, "compassion" is not enough, betray, consequences, limit(s), shallow, traitors, sensationalists, endanger, coercion, hypocrisy, radical, threaten, devour, waste, corruption, incompetent, permissive attitude, destructive, impose, self-serving, greed, ideological, insecure, anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs; pessimistic, excuses, intolerant, stagnation, welfare, corrupt, selfish, insensitive, status quo, mandate(s) taxes, spend (ing) shame, disgrace, punish (poor...) bizarre, cynicism, cheat, steal, abuse of power, machine, bosses, obsolete, criminal rights, red tape, patronage.
How can you use these lessons to better your online marketing?
David Bullock has interviewed the Obama Social Media team and says:
..the key is to look beyond what the world is evaluating (politics) to ferret out what this campaign can teach us as we grow and expand the reach of our businesses.
... in My Head
Years ago my College Football Coach, Tyrone Sperling, an ex USC footballer introduced me to one of my favorite Lines.
"Opinions are like *******, everybody has one."
Ty was a special man. He definitely did not follow the herd and was more interested in results than opinion.
Over the past month I have participated in, and witnessed a number of website critiques thru email, at Inman, and Top Ten Lists. A recent list by Real Trends and 1000 Watt made me wonder what criteria might prompt them to rank a real estate website higher than the other.
The title is called: "The Top Ten Real Estate Brokerage Websites in America." Here
The report lists some pretty "cool" websites with "neat" features. However, as a web marketer my siren went off when someone claims superiority over anything else without some sort of attempt at supporting evidence.
So to read the reports intro I see that ???The Top Ten Brokerage Websites in America??? are thus so because:
" ..a detailed examination of the corporate websites maintained by the 500 largest brokerage companies in the Unites States as established by Real-Trends??? annual RealTrends 500 list. Every website was reviewed based on several criteria including Real Trends 500 companies franchisor websites in this report as their basic requirements place them in usability, content, features, and design. ...The results are placed in the context of a larger discussion of brokerage Websites, which notes that good brokerage websites are few and far between. The report offers reasons why this is the case, and suggests a pathforward. ... The websites discussed within this report stand out as excellent examples of how a real estate brokerage company can use the Web to connect with its marketplace, drive business and enhance its brand equity."
Huh? Says who?... and based on what? So if they are really the top ten at usability, content, features and design, then how is that defined and really how meaningful is that?
The implication being that these are good things without explaining why. I thought the title said the Top Ten. I assumed it means they are the best. Which in business means they make money. Otherwise the fuzzy dictates of design can only be opinion, subject to context and identity.
Jerry Maguire Where Are You?
When did a good business tool mean anything other than it makes the business money? Which would have been in my humble opinion the better place to start this report. And just because these are big brokerages does not mean their site makes an acceptable ROI.
If in fact the discussion centered on the almighty dollar then the criteria would have changed from usability to commissions. Not far from commissions would be number of leads and lead capture. Further down the slope would be lead followup and conversion to appointments and to sales. These have a much higher attachment to a home sale than does usability. All those elements as defined by the report are in the end meaningless unless surrounded by the context of dollar generation. Otherwise it is nothing more than a beauty contest.
Where is Substance Over Style?
The reports title implies that these real estate websites are successful at generating leads or sales. Are they? I cannot tell from the report. We can get some idea by looking at compete.com or alexa.com. But that is only a guessed measure of traffic. Anyway at best just an implication of success. Because we all know traffic is only one of the steps to a successful website. So are these sites successful? The best I can gleam from the reports criteria is that they are successful at achieving high 2.0 design standards.
Unfortunately, that does not put food on the table. In the real world the salesman that comes back to the office wearing his $2,000 Armani suit and Double 00's for sales is soon to be interviewing for a job. While the C&R special guy who comes back with leads and sales will be a rising star.
The Best Free Analytics...
Ask yourself, "is your site making money?" If your answer is yes, then you indeed on your way at least to having the best website in America.
It is so easy to take your eye of the ball online. Its like a centipede wanting to cross the
road and worrying so much about her 33rd right leg stepping lock step
with the other 100 legs that the goal of getting to the other side is
soon forgotten.
Its similar to the calls I get where folks ask me "how can I get more links?" 'Why do you want more links' I ask. " To get a higher ranking in Google", they say. 'And that will get you what?', I ask. Taking them to the end goal is the purpose of this dialogue as often most people forget that they are looking for a sale.
I am not picking on this report per se. These types of articles are everywhere and I recently hammered on a site that was offering out as a study what would otherwise be huge marketing data. Only problem was that the data was created by a small survey on their site. That is sampling that any 1st semester Stats student would say is dirty.
So my complaint is the implied value of the title. Perhaps a better title would be the "Top Ten Designed Real Estate Websites". Not as sexy. And perhaps the authors sell design, I am not sure. So maybe that is what makes a Top site to them.
Again, the website critiques at Inman are at times illuminating but often miss the point, eventually slipping into personal opinion. Which in the world of free trade is meaningless.
However, one of my business mentors once told me that "my business may have been born from a spirit of entrepreneurialism and dreams of personal freedom. However, any business has a sole purpose to make money. Period. And anything, including idealism and personal taste is meaningless without profit."
So I would ask you that when reading any one claim on the net, to remember why you are interested. And then to ask, "how can doing this make me money?"
Thats my opinion and I am sticking to it. Everyone has one...but I betcha I'm right ;-)
Links are like a healthy addiction. And if you are to survive in the online marketplace you need lots and lots of links. 
Injecting Links!
But links are like the U.S. Dollar (especially lately!). The Treasury keeps printing dollars and what happens to the value of the dollar? It goes down. Simple supply and demand right?
So if Google bases its valuations of link value on who links to who link to who links to you (ad infinitum). And that is related to how many total pages are on the web. Then we have to consider the fact that the minute you get a link, its value has diminished almost instantly.( If only fractionally). Just last year there was close to 1.5 blogs created a second! So your links over time diminish in value. Thus, your linking must continue on a consistent basis.
Therefore linking is an addiction you should never quit if you are to succeed online.
Get Your Link ON!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Off Page Equity?
Huh? Have you ever thought about what that means? Going back to its roots, SEO meant to optimize a page so an engine like Alta Vista would like it and rank it higher than the next guy or gal. Words like density, proximity, metas all were part of optimizing a page.
Then along came Google at a time when the web was getting more and more tangled. Meaning it was ginormous!
Realtors started building two and three websites in some cases. And non Realtors-SEO guys like me were building real estate websites for affiliate money.
So what makes your site any better than your competitors?
So what makes your website so unique? Every website has this stuff to some degree or another. And honestly can we expect a machine (Google, MSN/Live, Yahoo) to act human and judge the quality of your website? Seriously what makes your site any better than the next agents? And honestly do you even want a machine actually judging what you offer?
So the engines in all their wisdom have come to rely on links to your real estate webpage to act as judge and jury.
Oh sure they have other quality scores to make sure your stuff matters over the other gals stuff. But when the main main SEO levers are in place, links are everything. I even know people who have made blank-empty pages rank high in the engines by just linking to them.
So ........Get Your Link On!
With CNN in the background I hear an "expert" explain that Wall Street is based on "fear and greed. And fear is a much more powerful driver for investors."
What does this have to do with real estate?
Its about confidence.
Mommy Congress and Daddy Bush have asked Granddad Paulson to give the markets a "loan". Seems we all overspent a little too much over the past few years and need some help to get by."Rock a bye Baby, it will be OK".
Its also an election year. I ran scared when I heard one candidate say in an interview he has "a little something for everybody". But this bailout package eclipses any "giving" our candidates could ever promise.
So it is a confidence issue. Confidence game as in con job. We all know granddads loans are really gifts in the real world. With low interest and no due date.
However Government money comes from two places. Taxes or they just PRINT MORE.
So my point is to not think that our parents in DC are going to help. As I implied in a recent post. Prospecting and selling will take care of you and yours.
The reporters are all whining this is the biggest meltdown ever. On the same broadcast I heard at least a couple misrepresentations of the AIG bailout. Puleeze. Aren't you tired of people explaining this thing after just learning the meaning of LIBOR a few days ago?
They will overhype. However, they also over hyped the run up. Good for goose I guess. But, it is time to take matters into your own hands.
Online we can cause geometric attitudinal change. This blog alone is syndicated all over the place. What are you doing online? Are you making good things happen in your market? Isn't it time?
Financing ran the last market. What about now?It is is still about financing. The agents who know financing will not only survive they will position themselves to dominate their markets as this thing turns the right way. Pre-1980 agents had to do all kinds of creative deals. Pull out those old sales training manuals.
Assumptions, carry backs, wrap arounds. Get comfortable with these ideas as it may be your way to transact as banks freeze your deals. Oh by the way, when you are the only one who knows how to get a house financed, the "will you cut your commission?" question quite insulting.
The only ones that will create real confidence in the real estate market is YOU.
Many know that a search for home is different than homes (plural).
However, did you know that a Capital letter can show a unique result in Google?
Upper Case S:
Lower Case s:
So a few nights ago I came home from football practice (I volunteer as a football Coach) with my oldest son to find the door of my house wide open. As I looked inside I saw a man I did not recognize chatting with my wife.
As it turns out it was a Kirby vacuum salesman and he had my wife sold. He had talked her into believing that our Dyson was worthless and we really needed his super high powered carpet machine.
His offer had all the elements going for it. Lifetime guarantee, and well, it shampoos and actually picks up the dirt. Soooo. Long story short I had to ask him after he was done selling me on how he canvasses.
He and his team doorknock....All day and into the night.
Now I don't know about you, but I have always thought doorknocking a bit beneath me. Back in my house selling days I was a Mike Ferryite and a couple of his Superstars was Daryl and Kim and they walked neighborhoods all day long. I thought that was stupid. They sold lots of properties, I struggled (until I started working expireds).
I then met an agent years later at a barbecue in the same town as Darryl and Kim. Long Beach. And that is all he did. Doorknock and he was doing deals. More than most.
When the Kirby guy was at my house it was smack dab on the darkest day of the recent bailout talks. He told me he sold 4 Kirbys that night. Ranging in price from $1600 to $2200.
Sales professionals don't starve. They prospect and they sell.
It will get better, sooner than later!
This sounds like the mom telling her son that the swelling and welt on his face will go away minutes after just getting pummeled by the school bully.
Nevertheless, we see some positivity even while stock plunge.
The U.S. economy will recover from the current recession in the second quarter of next year, assuming the credit squeeze in global financial markets improves gradually, according to a survey of 48 economists released Monday. And social media man and market watcher Patrick Kitano just wrote a post claiming that capitulation means we have hit bottom.