BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Category: Flourishing (page 34 of 38)

Thriving as only a rational animal can

March 2, 2009

Daisy-chained source-tracking with the Universal Contact Form

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

One of the features I built into the Universal Contact Form last night is source tracking. This is Direct Marketing 101 — know where your efforts are producing the best returns.

So to invoke the form with source-tracking, you would just do this:

http://www.domain.com/UniversalContactForm.php?source=CLad2

In this case, we’re assuming that the source of the click into the form is a Craigslist posting.

Same thing, but as a unique form:

http://www.domain.com/UniversalContactForm.php
?action=Relocation&source=CLad2

(I had to break the line at the question mark to make it fit. Here and below, these should be seen as being all one line.)

In reality, though, you’re not going to want to go directly to the form. You’re going to want to hit a landing page that has the form as its call to action. And, in light of that, you’re going to “include” the form in PHP.

Alas, the variables passed from the URL in your Craigslist ad will be lost. You can’t live without the action variable, but you already know what to do about that: Hard code it.

And that’s essentially what you’ll do with the source variable, as well — except you’ll soft code both variables by passing them through.

So you invoke the form like this:

include ("http://www.domain.com/UniversalContactForm.php
?action=$action&source=$source");

The action variable is being received into the PHP variable $action on the way into the landing page, and source is being received into $source. When you do the “include,” you are transferring to another variable space, so you need to pack up the two variables and ship them along as you go.

But having done that, the form has access to them, so it behaves just as you want it to. You can daisy-chain like that as many times as you need to and the form will still receive the variables.

March 1, 2009

Building an even more universal Universal Contact Form

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’ve talked before about the idea of a software universe — where the set of actions possible in a given software configuration is so large that you can come up with tools and techniques never anticipated by the developers.

We went through this last fall when we started playing with WordPress Multiuser — and I ended up with my “featured listings” database running out of two Scenius scenes.

I’ve been enthralled all week with the idea of web-based forms that can talk to — and drive — my Heap database. I want to revise every form we have to work the Heap way, and I have a zillion ideas for a zillion new forms.

In consequence, today I rewrote my Universal Contact Form for the fourth time.

What I wanted was something I could use in many circumstances, in pursuit of many objectives, without creating one-off, manually-edited versions of the form.

For one thing, I want to play with “Gooder Group”-style ideas in a big way, and that will require a bunch of unique forms. So I built a form that I could make unique by editing parameter files, rather than by editing and re-editing PHP code.

Here are the major changes:

1. Any headlines or text setting up the form are now outside of the form and are your responsibility. The form begins with the anti-spam disclaimer and ends with the “submit” button. Everything else is up to you.

2. The behavior of the Heap-specific initialization file now includes optional menu-selected landing pages. Kudos to Scott Cowan for this wonderful idea.

3. The form behaves differently based on the contents of the Heap-specific initialization file.

4. It is now possible to invoke custom configurations of the form via the calling URL.

5. I added optional source-tracking.

Taken altogether, this change to the Universal Contact Form permits you to create as many unique variations of the form as you might need.

But: That’s all just chatter. Let’s see it in action:

Register here to get your own copy of the newer, even more-universal Universal Contact Form

< ?PHP include("http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/UniversalContactForm.php?action=Register&source=BHB"); ?>

Play with it. Work with it. Let me know if you can break it.

February 24, 2009

Quietly going about our business

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

We go about our business, most of us, very quietly, with an attempt at dignity. One foot in front of the other, moving forward, striving, reaching, yearning to be the best we can be. We want to provide for our families, do right and do well for our clients. We want to put our heads down on our pillows at night, satisfied with the day’s work, and wake up the following morning excited to do it all again.

We don’t, most of us, want to be rock stars in the blogiverse. We want, most of us, to be appreciated for what we can offer, allowed to give freely without grief, and left to go quietly about our business.

I don’t agree with everything written on real estate blogs, and I don’t much like some of it, but the people who read these national blogs, the people I meet at Unchained, and the real estate professionals who email me to share their own triumphs- these people are inspiring. They are just like me, quietly going about our business, picking up information like sponges, moving forward, learning, striving, laughing, loving- just people, just real estate agents (without big hair).

I’m disturbed by the idea of a NAR Social Media Director, when I think about it. But the thing is, I don’t think about it. I don’t care. I don’t wish the new SMD any ill will, I don’t wish them anything at all because it really doesn’t matter to me. By the way, I’m going to call this position The SMeD, just because it makes me giggle.

So The SMeD will have a job to do, but none of it matters to me because I have my job to do, and as Greg points out, “All we have to do is keep doing what we’ve been doing — and keep getting better at it — and the Boojum under the bed will be gone forever.”

I’ve always believed this, and it’s always proved true. Anything that we have given power to, in our own minds, can easily be dethroned, defrocked, destroyed, by doing exactly what we do so Read more

February 24, 2009

The Butcher, The Banker, The Candlestickmaker

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help but to think that it’s deja vu all over again.  Is it really 1980 again?   Congress appears to have stolen a page from the Conservative’s play book – but with a twist.

It seems trickle-down economics applies as much to government spending as do tax cuts to the rich, yet with the latest infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the most powerful corporations – America’s largest banks and insurance companies, we have yet to see much of a trickle – less a drop.

TARP did in fact keep the economy dry.

Perhaps the irony of it all – to me at least –  is that the so-called “Socialists” also see virtue in starting at the top – fork over billions to the most powerful to get the engine running again – the proof is not quite in the pudding pie, Georgie.

From my perspective, the deluge is starting at the bottom.  My email has been flooded with comments from my condo association regarding the complications my neighbors are facing in the sale of their condo.  Economic circumstances are hitting very close to home – my neighbors, one of whom is a fellow Realtor – directly below me in my building – is in dire need of selling their home.  Our association has a first right of refusal clause which deems FHA financing impossible.  My neighbor has been soliciting the board and fellow owners that an amendment in our bylaws is required to make the sale of their home possible to more buyers.

I was amazed at some of the comments from fellow neighbors concerned about the “quality” of potential buyers who only qualify for 3.5% down – I could only chuckle thinking that some existing owners were able to buy with 0% down 3 years ago.  Where’s there equity now?

One neighbor argued that we want to prevent a short sale – moreover a foreclosure – from impacting the values of existing homeowners.  I’m pretty sure he didn’t read The Chicago Tribune on Sunday – there was an article about the substantial increase of foreclosures Read more

February 23, 2009

Taking little teeny steps toward single-property web sites on little teeny mobile web browsers on little teeny mobile phones

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Little Teeny Eyes by Tom Digby

Oh we got a new computer but it’s quite a disappointment
‘Cause it always gave this same insane advice:
“OH YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY EYES FOR READING LITTLE TEENY PRINT
LIKE YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY HANDS FOR MILKING MICE.”

So we re-read the instruction book that came with the computer
But it kept on printing crazy stuff that reads
Like: “YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY EYES FOR READING LITTLE TEENY PRINT
LIKE YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY SHOES FOR CENTIPEDES.”

So we got an expert genius and he rewrote all the programs
But we always got results that looked like these:
“OH YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY EYES FOR READING LITTLE TEENY PRINT
LIKE YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY LICENSE PLATES FOR BEES.”

Then we tested each resistor, every diode and transistor,
But our electronic brain just raves and rants:
“OH YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY EYES FOR READING LITTLE TEENY PRINT
LIKE YOU NEED LITTLE BRANDING IRONS FOR BRANDING ANTS.”

Now we’re looking for a buyer for a crazy mad computer
That will only give out crazy mad advice
Like: “YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY EYES FOR READING LITTLE TEENY PRINT
LIKE YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY HANDS FOR MILKING MICE.”

So I got spammed yesterday for yet another piece of vendorslut crap. TextMyMLS.com will send a SMS text message containing details about your listing to a mobile phone-using prospect who requests information from you. The text message can also include photos if the prospect’s phone supports them.

What do the text messages look like. Look up and you will see a demo screen, as seen on my iPhone. That’s 100% to scale, y’all, and, no, you’re not getting old. These message might look good on other devices, but on the iPhone they’re useless.

There’s more, of course. TextMyMLS.com is a stealth lead-capture system. When the prospect “texts” for more information, the TextMyMLS system pages the Realtor with the prospects phone number — which is transmitted without the prospect’s knowledge or consent. In addition to the text about the home, possibly unreadable, the prospect also gets spammed with information about the Realtor. And then, of course, the poor punter is stuck having to fend off sales calls for the next 90 days — Read more

February 21, 2009

In the world of internet marketing, Realtors and lenders have to know how to solve their own on-line marketing problems

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Cathleen encouraged me to take exception to Jeff Brown’s most recent post, and, by the time I was done, I had a whole new post.

Quoting from Jeff:

If you honestly believe your income is higher with you spending time changing your own hi-tech oil, then continue along that path — it’s obviously working for you. On the other hand, if you think putting yourself in front of 50 more serious prospects a year might be more productive for your bottom line, AND that would make you happy, you may want to modify your approach.

This is a false dichotomy.

First, you do not have to change your own oil, so to speak, but if you don’t know how to change your own oil, you are at the mercy of every money-hungry automobile service writer on the planet.

Second, assiduous hi-tech marketing, going forward, is the best path to belly-to-belly appointments. This could our best year ever in volume of sides (not, alas, volume of dollars), and much of it — and all of the multi-home buyers — came from our web presence. There is room to be impressed by lo-tech success stories, but the two details left out are these: Buyers and sellers are increasingly shopping on-line, and the cost-per-conversion of old-school lo-tech marketing is comparatively very high. It’s not how much you make, it’s how much makes it all the way home.

Third, as should be obvious from everything I talk about, the kinds of chores Realtors and lenders need to keep a fat thumb on are those that would be too costly, too onerous or too error-prone if done by vendors.

As an example: Cathy and I made more than 1,400 engenu pages last year. The end result is work product that was done faster and made a much better impression on our clients than trying to communicate by other means. This stuff knocks the socks off clients, which I consider to be our most important sales function in everything we do. But those pages also put 1,400 new, permanent breadcrumbs on the web, so that other clients can find us in the future. As Read more

February 20, 2009

What’s the best way to deliver the Heap-specific universal contact form? With a Heap-specific form, of course.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I’m not too dumb, I’m sure. Just dumb enough. When I released the Heap-specific version of the universal contact form, for some reason it didn’t occur to me that I could build a version of the form to deliver the product.

This omission I do hereby correct:

If you want a copy of the Heap-specific universal contact form — guess what? Fill out the form:

< ?PHP $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/SendTheFormForm.php"); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0); curl_exec($ch); curl_close($ch); ?>

It’s a pure geek thrill, but everything that happens after this is automated via Heap, untouched by human hands…

But I am always a sucker for the implications of my epiphanies, howevermuch they might be delayed.

So: This kind of thing would be ideal for that “Send for our free Relocation Guide” appeal.

Brian: Sign up for our free on-line webinar and find your way into our database funnel. And after the event, as the first of many, many touches, we’ll send you a free link to an iPod-ready version of the webinar so you can review the material while you work out.

By linking a PayPal button with a smart email client, I’m thinking you’ve got a hands-free on-line business using Heap. You can bet I’ll be playing with all of Unchained’s PayPal buttons.

I know there are walls we’re going to run into with Heap. Some we’ll surmount by being clever, but others are going to require growth in the feature set of the product. But I like the games I’m able to play so far.

February 20, 2009

If I could show you how to leverage your marketing efforts to get tens of thousands of dollars worth of added value, added reach, added impact and added sales — would you be willing try on some new ideas?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Pre-script: Here’s one of the secret benefits of working at BloodhoundBlog: If you screw up in really interesting ways, Direct Response provocateur Richard Riccelli will phone or email to tell you what you’re getting wrong. I’ve recast this post in response to a very instructive voicemail from Richard.

 
I had an email from Matt McGee — I had had it around Christmas, too, but Matt was kind enough to send it again. I’m going to deal with it as a colloquy.

Cari and I were chatting last night about Unchained ’09 and we’re both curious about the way you’ve been describing it on the blog:

We’re not going to tell you how we work. We’re not going to show you how we work. We’re going to work with you, hands-on, step-by-step as we overhaul your marketing strategy from the ground up.

Can you provide some more detail on what you mean there — the stuff about not teaching, but doing? For example, if Cari’s there, she’s not going to be able to (nor does she want to, nor will I want her to) FTP in to her main web site or her blog and start rewriting pages, updating page titles and other SEO stuff, tweaking keywords, etc., on the fly.

Why wouldn’t she want to know how to do this? It’s easy to do, more unfamiliar than arcane, and we’re going to be right there, talking about what to do, how to do it — and what to do if something goes wrong.

BloodhoundBlog was less than a month old when I first wrote about the skills Realtors will need to compete in the age of the internet. We each of us should know how to do these things, both to solve our own problems, when we need to, and to make sure that hired vendors aren’t ripping us off. A big part of the work I have done here since then has been talking about the kinds of tasks Realtors and lenders can and should be doing on their own — to control costs and quality and simply to make sure these jobs are getting done Read more

February 20, 2009

Marketing to the Music

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

It has been over two years since the Washington Post decided to have a little fun with people going to work.  In January of 2007, they asked Joshua Bell, an internationally acclaimed virtuoso, to play his violin at an entrance to the D.C. metro during rush hour.  It was conceived as a social experiment regarding the appreciation of art.  You can read the full story here.  I bring this up, not as a lover of classical music (I am woefully ignorant), but as a lover of people.  What we do and how we do it – the way we interact with actual life – this I find incredibly interesting.  I also find a great deal of practical use.  Take this story for instance:

Joshua Bell is considered one of the greatest musical artists living today.  His violin, hand made by Antonio Stradivari himself in 1713, is a musical masterpiece worth over $3 million.  For his “subway” performance he chooses Bach’s Chaconne, said by those who should know to be one of the greatest pieces ever written: emotionally powerful and structurally perfect… it is also considered one of the most difficult pieces anyone can play.  So there’s Joshua Bell, who a few nights before had sold out Boston’s Symphony Hall (where tickets in the parking lot start at $100),  playing possibly the most difficult and most powerful piece of violin music ever written on one of the rarest and most perfect violins ever made.  What do you think happened?  He made less than $100 in tips, a couple of people slowed down to listen, one gentleman stopped for almost 3 full minutes and over a thousand people rushed by without a glance or a moment to listen.

Actually, that’s not entirely true.  Some listened… some listened intently.  But they could not stop.  They were pulled along against their will even as they craned their little necks.  Children “heard” the music.  Children “saw” the man.  Children “knew” they were in the presence of something.  They knew this because Read more

February 16, 2009

Piling onto Heap: I’ll trade you a big bunch of CRM development ideas for an affiliate link click-through

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

If your contact information is on any of the BloodhoundBlog Unchained interest lists, I spammed you last week with a form email that pitched the then-upcoming Seattle Unchained preview as well as the still-upcoming BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix event.

The form letter was sent out as bulk email from the Heap CRM software application, and I played a few games with the software: The letter asked recipients to click on a link that opened a web-based form that in turn solicited them to complete and update their contact information — not just name and email but also phone numbers and snailmail address. That form in turn fed its input back to Heap, in effect semi-automatically scrubbing our Unchained database.

The response rate is over 25%, so far, which is just astounding to me, but the essence of the thing was to put Heap through its paces. As I discussed a little while ago, I want a highly-programmable CRM solution that I can use to automate our databases. Heap seems to be the best solution for the work we need to do, as a compromise between power and cost–per-user.

I’m going to be talking about everything I do with Heap, going forward. I’ll make the tools I build with it available, starting with a new version of my universal contact form that will not only create new contact records within Heap but will assign those contact to the appropriate drip email campaign.

After that, I want to build code that will do a truly robust round-trip contact scrub, because I’m thinking you can get people who really want to do business with you to tell you anything you might want to know.

For now, I need some help from you:

If you are signing up for Heap, I’d appreciate if you would use this link. I will get credit in Heap’s affiliate program. We’ll donate the affiliate fees to charity, but with each new sign-up, I will gain clout with the developer. As always, I’ll be sharing every new idea I come up with, but if we can demonstrate that wired real estate professionals are a significant portion Read more

February 9, 2009

How bad can the weather in Seattle suck? Come see the Bloodhounds this week and find out

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I have been in Seattle in the late Summer, an idyllic time of year when it barely rains twenty inches a day and when the Banana Slugs start to think about snuggling up with you for warmth. I have been on Mount Rainier on Labor Day — playing in the snow.

(People say “ray-near,” but it should be pronounced “rainy-er.” I live among a bunch of mountains, but not one of them suffers from excess precipitation like Mount Rainier.)

Brian Brady and I are in Seattle later this week. We’re flying up to do a BloodhoundBlog Unchained preview, then we’re hanging out through Friday for REBarCamp Seattle.

The weather in Phoenix actually sucks right now, but, by state law, I’m forbidden to disclose just how badly it sucks. But our sucky weather is utterly nothing compared to what I have to look forward to later this week in Seattle:

Water freezes at 32 degrees. That never happens where I live, in North Central Phoenix. It can happen once or twice a Winter out in the sticks, but in town ice is something we buy at the supermarket to make Irish Whiskey more refreshing.

My plan is to go totally gnome, comfortably numb, in-to-it like an Inuit. A vast and cumbersome leather overcoat, with a sweater, a scarf, maybe even a hat. To understand how big an exception this is for me, right now I’m wearing a tee-shirt and shorts, no shoes, no socks. And I’m sweating.

Totally gnome for my presentation, too. Everything we do at Unchained is going to be hands-on, learn-by-doing, but I can’t count on being able to do that in Seattle. Instead, as with The Way of the Farmer from last May’s BloodhoundBlog Unchained, I’m going to go through a lot of hard-headed, practical stuff that you can take home and deploy at once, if you like — if you take good notes.

It seems likely to me that I’ll be sneezing and sniffling, too. I moved to Arizona from North Andover, Massachusetts, which makes Seattle look like a tropical resort. For the life of me, I cannot remember how I used to survive Read more

February 5, 2009

Ask the Bloodhounds: What do people want on a real estate web site?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Jim Flanagan of Flanagan Realty has a nice-looking Coldwell Banker site. But he sends along this question, which I’m passing on to the brilliant minds who read, write and comment here:

What does today’s real estate consumer want in (on) a real estate brokerage’s website? You may have answered this before but I have not been able to find the “list” on GOOGLE.

It’s an interesting question. Even if you have the secret sauce, how do you enhance that initial moment of engagement? Rephrased as a more metrical question, how do you cut the dreaded bounce rate?

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January 31, 2009

Ask the Bloodhounds: “What are your top recommendations for a Realtor just starting out in today’s market?”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

An email from Nicole Ford, a newer agent working on the Gulf coast of Texas:

Hi Greg,
 
I’m a new agent (started in July) and have recently started reading the Bloodhound Blog. First, I want to say thank you for providing such an incredible resource. Second, I have a question that I’d like to ask of you and all of the other incredible writers (and readers) on your site: What are your top recommendations for a Realtor just starting out in today’s market? What are the most important things that I can be doing to guarantee my future success?
 
I realize that I have picked a very difficult time to start as a Realtor, but I’m convinced that once I weather this storm and become successful now, I can look forward to a great career in the future. I also believe that a positive outlook (even in the toughest times) can be a tremendous asset.
 
Thanks in advance for any thoughts and advice that you share. I look forward to reading (and contributing to!) your blog in the years to come.
 
All the best,
Nicole Ford
 
South Padre Island Realtor
NicoleFord.com

I’m interested in answers to this question from all perspectives. I get the impression that Nicole has things more together than most new agents, but some sincere advice for beginners will be welcomed, I’m sure, by the ninety-and-nine folks who didn’t have the guts Nicole exhibits by asking the question.

So what should a new agent do to keep body and soul together in this market?

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January 29, 2009

The rest of the real estate industry might be Pinocchio — false in every particular — but nothing prevents you from being genuine

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Real estate is the most unbusinesslike business in the history of business.

I don’t want to defend that statement comprehensively, because it’s late and I’m tired, but I can offer some data points.

When we sat down with Greg Tracy, I argued to him that licensing inhibits the kind of competition for reputation that we expect and depend upon when deciding which restaurant to go to, for instance, or which auto mechanic to use. Instead, in real estate, after 90 hours of nonsense classes, we say, “Here’s your license, kid. Get out there and wreck someone’s finances!”

I met with a new buyer client on Wednesday, and we had a wonderful time cataloging all the things Realtors and brokers would do if residential real estate were organized like any other sort of business.

What kinds of things?

If real estate were a real business, Realtors would market the damn product, instead of engaging in two or three acts of rain-dancing and then waiting — for months or even years — for the rain to come.

If real estate were a real business, Realtors and brokers wouldn’t be so transparently mercenary about using, abusing and burning through their clients. One of the huge benefits of real estate weblogging is that Realtors are openly discussing the tricks they deploy to strong-arm their “leads.” In no other business do vendors have such contempt for consumers.

(Incidentally, although I say this all the time, apparently no one believes me: Consumers read industry-focused weblogs. When you admit that you do certain things to “force people to call,” you’re not telling them anything they didn’t already know about the real estate business.)

If real estate were a real business, commissions would be divorced and incentives would be aligned to put the agent and the client on the same side in negotiations. The longer the real estate industry delays in reforming its practices, the greater the opening it offers to vendors offering a better or cheaper alternative to traditional real estate.

I love it when I really get to talk to my clients, because I conceal nothing from them. We do well by doing good: This is Read more

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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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