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Tag: RE.net (page 1 of 1)

November 1, 2010

Developing The Perfect Content Map For Your Real Estate Blog

by

Las Vegas Mortgage Blogger

Author website

Regardless of the recent debates about whether or not a real estate blog should be considered a solid foundation for a single agent to develop a realistic business model on, there are still many benefits of publishing content on a site you own… provided everything is organized properly.

I follow the CopyBlogger school of thought for designing strategic landing pages to ensure my target audience gets the exact information they’re looking for when they hit my sites for the first time.

While I do feature categories and tags in non-prominent areas of the footer or custom sidebars, I try to keep my main informational points of interest flowing from the top down in order to respect the time my readers have to spend online.

Homeowners and new buyers can easily get overwhelmed with the hundreds of details they may need to be aware of when it comes to the mortgage or real estate process.

One simple answer can easily lead them to five other questions that they didn’t know they needed to be asking.

Designed with the big picture in mind, your blog can effectively lead someone through their fact-finding mission in a painless and strategic manner.

Obviously, articulating this complex home buying thing in a manner that non-industry people can understand is great way to build trust with your potential clients.

Agents are obsessively consumed with “Personal Branding” to the point where buyers have to invest valuable seconds of their life on a site sifting through awards, testimonials, twitter feeds and media interviews before they can find a page that actually addresses their real needs and concerns.

However, I feel industry blogs have come a long way in the past five years.

But, we need to get better at focusing on homeownership education if we’re truly going to impact a positive change in our local real estate markets.

Here’s an example of my Mortgage 101 section, which has significantly increased in stickiness since I took out the sidebars and customized the page layout to serve as more of a site index with a purpose.

My ultimate goal is to be able to send borrowers and agents to my mortgage blog without Read more

October 31, 2008

Introducing RE.net’s Hottest Bloggers Contest

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

In an effort to increase subscriptions and ad revenue, I have devised an ingenious new contest to identify the hottest bloggers on the real estate net. If there is one thing we can learn from People Magazine and the Republican Party – substance is secondary – most important: there is nothing that a “hot” headshot and $150,000 or so bucks can’t do to increase popularity and a list of the sexiest “insert your own category”.

Let’s put those bloglogs to good use! Start scanning your Twitter followers – clearly there are some hotties in the mix. Why not nominate a few – heck, why not nominate yourself?

Content you ask? What content? Kids – this ain’t about what you say or think, it’s all about how you look – and Billy Crystal nailed it – “it’s not how you feel, it’s how you look – and you look marvelous!”

You want to drive ad revenue to you site? Listen – sex sells. Adorning your blog with the “Hottest Blogger in the RE.net” will drive the kind of subscription traffic you’ve been longing.

Oops – gotta run – my stylist just called. She’s bringing over Armani for my photo shoot. I’m doing a series of new headshots for my avatar. We’re going to shoot a few – you know – the “too hot to handle” look – the “come hither” look. I’m banking on the “I’m too sexy for my content” look.

Money in the bank.

March 19, 2008

Biz 2.0: Super Real Estate Companies

by

Real Estate Broker

Author website

When I first started in real estate my goal was to own a big operation after getting my broker’s license. A quintuple bypass changed my plans and I now operate a boutique operation, small, profitable and simple. I spend my extra time doing things I enjoy like golfing, reading and writing.

But I haven’t stopped thinking about big. It’s my belief that most large RE companies don’t fully exploit the advantages of being big, with access to resources largely going to waste in offices run from defensive modes with key players protecting turf rather than striving for excellence and market domination. Internal competition has been a weakness of big RE companies, along with the lack of talented employees with broader skills than RE skills. There’s a time and place to compete and there’s a time and place to bring talented individuals together to co-operate.

All companies and all offices differ, but from what I’ve seen much is missing. Big doesn’t have to mean slow, stubborn and infected with in-fighting and politics. I admit, I have idealistic binges that sometimes border on drunkenly naive, but I also know what people working together can accomplish — I’ve witnessed it through personal involvement and I’ve read the stories of companies who’ve achieved excellence through new ways of thinking, co-operation and a dedication to talented people given free reign to think, act and innovate. I also have no knowledge of the sophistication involved with large franchises, but I know that even independent offices with 50 to 100 agents can develop 2.0 systems that drastically improve their ability to compete.

It starts at the top with leadership. I should say enlightened leadership. Fearless and open-minded leaders are rare; hell, most everything I’m about to describe is rare — that’s what makes it special, and that’s why great companies achieve the largest market share in their line of endeavor. Good leaders are an amalgam of psychologist, priest, coach, cheerleader, protaganist, antagonist (questioning his/her own leadership), hero(ine), visionary and sage. That’s asking a lot, but good leadership demands a lot. From Alexander the Great to JFK to Lee Ioccoca, the styles are different and the scope greater or less, but the key elements of Read more

March 8, 2008

Real Estate Web 2.0: Epiphany — Thanks To Kevin Kelly

by

Real Estate Broker

Author website

Reading Kevin Kelly’s post again created a fire storm of epiphanies as I relate his generative points to RE web 2.0.

http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php
I will take his ideas and twist them a bit to meet my purposes. First, the ideas of “copy” – in a sense all RE sites are a copy of one another — plenty of listings to look at. What makes one more valuable than the other is the “generatives“. I see the free copy stage as the beginning, but just the bare beginning – bang bang bang, site site site – popping up here, there and over there. Now we are entering the generative stage and this is where it gets interesting, where winners joke and losers yell “DEAL!”.

Kelly listed eight generatives, with the first being “immediacy“. This is a little vague, but to me it’s related to constant innovation, getting ideas out to the consumer, and being the first to experiment with new ideas. One thing I liked about my website provider Point2Agent was its “immediacy” with press releases coming out on a regular basis of new ideas and functions and plans. Now it’s lagging, and whoever achieves immediacy will outshine them. There’s a lot to be said for being there, being present, being vital and creative. Zillow is doing a great job with immediacy, and lately Homegain has shown a gift for immediacy. As for my own site, I need to “be there”, be vital.

The next generative is “personalization” and this is something I’ve written about ad nauseum. To me, it’s the Big Key to success with Web 2.0. Adding value by personalizing your offer opens the great door that few go through. Kelly writes:

“It is deeply generative because it is iterative and time consuming. You can’t copy the personalization that a relationship represents. Marketers call that “stickiness” because it means both sides of the relationship are stuck (invested) in this generative asset, and will be reluctant to switch and start over.”

Nothing is truer. Once the generative process of personailzation begins, a relationship is borne between provider and user. It’s time consuming, and this is what makes it valuable. It’s one of Read more

Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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