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Category: Weblogging 101 (page 3 of 7)

January 22, 2008

Housevalues.com Invades Activerain.com: Guerilla Warfare Needed

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Housevalues.com invested close to $3 million in Activerain.com. I chuckled about the irony of a lead company paying for leads, yesterday. I also reported that the Active Rain community was politely swallowing this shocking news. You see, for 18 months, the little purple pill has always been, “If you blog it, they will come” (‘they’ meaning customers).

Jon Washburn’s community press release generated comments like this one, posted by Ann Cummings:

Congratulations on the funding. Like others, I’m no fan at all of any lead generation companies. And I’m glad to read Mike Nelson’s comment above about this not being that kind of opportunity for them nor an advertising opportunity for them. That was a concern of mine when I saw this announcement over on BloodHound earlier. Thanks for the clarification, Mike.

I hope this funding allows you to bring all kinds of great positive things to AR and Localism – that would be terrific indeed!!

Ann

No surprise there. Ann’s a nice lady and adopted the cautiously optimistic attitude I would expect from her. She’s hoping for the best but ready for the worst (if it happens).

Later, demons were exorcised by some (understandably) jaded members who felt that Housevalues “took” their money by promising a product that failed to deliver. On cue, the Housevalues advocates expressed their opinions. Greg Nino from Houston said:

House Values or any other lead generation company is the current future. In case anyone needs to be reminded, the Internet is where prospects turn into dollars and sense. A lead that comes from your computer or how it gets in you contact management system is a mute point. What does matter is that House Values has been instrumental in launching careers for some and sadly not able to spoil others.

I have concern for anyone outside my market who claims Internet leads are either a waste of time or a waste of money. Effort being left out because that is what usually is for the typical naysayer. If your in my market carry on with your thoughts. I Read more

January 4, 2008

Keyword Jammed Posts are Polluting the “RE.net”

by

Incipient Real Estate Broker

Author website

Fair warning — opinionated rant ahead.

Yesterday someone I’m working with on a real estate blog sent me a link, and asked me:

Is this kind of writing – a blog stuffed full of key words – a good thing?

The blog post in question contained 19 references to “YourCity Realtor” or “YourCity State real estate”.

And no, I’m not going to link to the specific blog. My intent isn’t to point out one particular blog, but rather the practice of “keyword stuffing” that I see becoming more prevalent every day.

Reading a 557 word post that contains 19 references to “City real estate” is a painful excrutiating process. I can only assume that writers who do this think they are “doing SEO” on their blog posts.

Google is smart. It doesn’t need to see “Phoenix Realtor” (for example only) nineteen times to figure out your post is about a Phoenix Realtor. Once or twice should suffice. Better yet, write multiple posts with your choice of keywords scattered about.

Maybe the folks who practice this style should step away from the keyboard and and ask themselves this question — Am I writing for the reader, or the search engines?

Search engines don’t buy houses. Yeah yeah, I know — you have to be found in search engines to get readers. But there is something called balance people. You can be #1 in the universe for your chosen search term, but if people get to your site and see an obvious attempt to shove YOUR CITY REALTOR!! in their face over and over and over and over, said people are quite likely to run away screaming. And they won’t be screaming your name or running to the phone.

This particular blog was designed by the Real Estate Tomato team. No I am not here to bash Jim Cronin or the Tomato. For the record, I have a great deal of respect for Jim. He is very open and shares ideas freely. And the Tomato produces some of the most visually stunning blogs on the planet. They also provide extensive training to their clients. I’ve never taken the training, so Read more

January 4, 2008

The Todd Kaufman Problem Is Your Problem, Too

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I’ve been saying this ever since I started marketing on social networks:

PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE, PEOPLE!

Just look at this mess! Now, egos are involved so we’re now at a point of mutually assured destruction.

The digital divide. I’m talking about the importance of bridging the digital divide, next week. This debacle is yet another example of how dangerously potent misinterpreted information, transmitted on the internet, can be. The simple act of pressing ten digits can initiate a REAL connection. Try it with a commenter and you’ll be surprised with the result; you’ll make a friend for life.

Let me tell you my story:

I started writing here, last Christmas. I was having dinner, right before New Year’s, and checked my e-mail on my new, bad-ass cell phone…incoming Bawld-Mail; it was Jeff Brown. Rather than Twitter, e-mail, or comment on a blog post, I called him. That call was worth about 40 grand.

I’ve moderated a group on MySpace, for Realtors, since 2005. Before Active Rain came along, it was letting me peek at 4-5 loan opportunities a month. Active Rain? More profitable than the Jeff call. Christine Forgione chuckled about my yellow postcard but she knows who I am.

Ten digits. Ask Laurie Manny what happened when she put MLS search buttons on her blog. The phone numbers came streaming in…begging for help. No tweets- ten digits. Ask Rhonda Porter what happened when she closed comments on her weekly mortgage rate posts. The calls started coming in.

Unfair? Opaque to the consumer? Are we trolling to trick people into becoming leads when we insist on taking the conversation off-line? I don’t think so.

The phone call separates the wheat from the chaff, the signal from the noise, the serious from the frivolous. When attacked, on my home weblog, I offered a three-way call, to explain my math. The drive-by commenter scurried away, too important to deal with the likes of me. His attitude was that he wanted to win a blog comment war, not educate nor be educated.

Do you want to be even MORE powerful in your on-line marketing efforts? Try to set up a meeting, like investment guru Read more

December 29, 2007

Unchained Social Networking: Setting Up a Facebook Profile

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I was a latecomer to Facebook. I was an early adopter of MySpace and, as a marketer, still prefer the open access to user data MySpace provides. Facebook profiles are “closed” to the public unless you have a “connection”. As a user you may love that but as a marketer it’s a little bit annoying.

Facebook is better for social networking with contacts and/or friends than MySpace. They encourage independent developers to create applications for Facebook users. Facebook is much more “geeky” inasmuch as you can customize your profile with widgets while MySpace does not. It is a great resource for pure “pull” marketers; we (if you are playing my game) are not pure “pull” marketers; we gently push people.

Facebook’s closed access reminds me of the original LinkedIn gated access feature. LinkedIn realized that the gated access feature inhibited utility so I suspect that Facebook will ease it’s restrictions in the near future.

Once in, the applications ARE terrific. You can throw sheep at your friends, “poke” them, and do other adolescent things if you wish (but we don’t care about them). Some of the useful professional applications for our kind are are RSS feeds to a blog, CribFinders, etc.

Let’s get started. Go to www.Facebook.com

1- Click the green “sign up” button

2- Let’s stick with the personal profile. The “business” profile has limited reach. Fill out your name AND “at a company” in the drop down menu. This is important because you may have a greater reach across “networks” if you work for a large franchisor, like Keller Williams. Use your professional e-mail address; that determines your access. Fill out your password selection, birthdate, and captchka, and hit SIGN UP.

3- Retrieve your confirmation e-mail and click the activation link.

4- Use the “Find Friends” link and import your address book. It’s safe; they don’t e-mail your friends nor store that data. You control the invitations. When you’re finished, click “next”.

5- Populate the profile information. Entering your company data and alumni affiliations are important to future networking capabilities.

6- Read more

December 27, 2007

Unchained Social Networking: Setting Up A LinkedIn Profile

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

LinkedIn is the first social network I joined. I received an invitation in 2003. Back then, the network was dominated by tech types networking for jobs. I set up a profile and was BLOWN AWAY by the rich user-provided content. I was a National Sales Manager, in 2003, and new to San Diego. I used LinkedIn to connect with loan originators (to recruit) and potential clients (the refinance craze was underway in 2003).

Unchained Rule #1 of Social Networking: Bridge the Digital Divide

Jeff Brown is a master at this. If Jeff makes a connection, on the internet, he does some homework (click through to a blog, Googles their name) to see if there is potential synergy. Jeff then calls them and introduces himself.

I did the same thing in 2003. I keyword searched, on LinkedIn, to see if I could find Villanova alumni, Knights of Columbus, and independent stockbrokers in Southern California. The first two were affinity groups and the latter was my ideal referral source. I Googled the potential prospect’s name and found contact information for them. I called and introduced myself to them IN A NON-THREATENING, LOW KEY manner. The responses ranged from annoyance to acceptance, heavily laden with surprise. Most tech people were communicating through the “gated-access” approach that was the signature of Linked In. I had more success than failure with my “digital bridge” call. If you’re polite and professional, most users respond well.

Okay, let’s get you set up. Click here to get to the start page. This will open in a new window so you can follow along with my instructions.

1- Click the yellow “Join Now” button at the bottom of the page.

2- Fill out the contact information. Use your primary, professional e-mail address. Click the “Join LinkedIn” button.

3- Fill out the user survey for how you might use LinkedIn- click “Save Settings”

4- Start building your network three ways:

a- import your e-mail contacts (extremely safe and they don’t spam anyone)

b-“Reconnect” with past colleagues through a company Read more

December 23, 2007

Technology is a TOOL Not a Solution

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

There is a formidable conference, next month, that entertains the marriage of technology and real estate. I’ll be sharing the stage with one of the guys who started the whole RE.net, Dustin Luther. Kris Berg, Jim Duncan, Dan Green, and Jay Thompson, all giants in this space, will be contributing to the collective conversation as featured speakers.

Technology and real estate brokerage is an extraordinary marriage that is approaching its 10th or 15th anniversary, amid a misunderstood and sometimes tumultuous relationship. If you attended one on Dustin Luther’s “Relevance on the Internet” seminars, you might remember his history of the courtship. Dustin explained that the tech guys saw the large margins in our businesses as an opportunity to profit off of market inefficiencies. Of course, when they got their heads under the hood they found that the engine runs a little differently than they thought.

Online mortgage lending seemed to be the easiest way to disintermediate my kind. My kind responded with an explosion of product offerings that made the consumers beg for a helping human hand. Today, as the popularity of the 30 year fixed conforming loan is rising, the opportunity to disintermediate, once again, seems imminent. The need to “de-commoditize” your service offering, as a mortgage adviser, is more prevalent now than ever before. The banks and government are conspiring to limit consumer choices and do away with my kind in a cartel-like affront not seen since James Fisk and Jay Gould tried to corner the gold market, in 1869.

Advise and timely execution is all an independent mortgage originator has to offer, right now. Our “wholesale access” to residential real estate capital is dwindling and the information advantage we hoarded is being liberated by the transparency of information technology. Yet the very tool that contributed to our demise, information technology, can be the most important weapon in our arsenal as we fight our way to survival.

Success in this game will be a migration towards the concept of fiduciary from the bonds of functionary. If the consumer values you as Read more

December 19, 2007

Web 2.0 — Fashion, Fad or What?

by

Incipient Real Estate Broker

Author website

Last week Marcie Geffner, a real estate reporter in Los Angeles, penned an article for Inman News titled, “Web2.0: Where’s the beef?” (unfortunately, now behind Inman’s subscriber wall).

In her article, Geffner points out that, “an overly heavy reliance on blogs, social networking and video as a business strategy is a questionable proposition since no one has demonstrated that Web 2.0 works as a marketing tactic.”

Granted, there has been no large scale study or analysis of the success (or failure) of “Web 2.0” in real estate. I can attest from my personal experience that blogging has resulted in numerous prospects and more importantly clients — ie: closed transactions that resulted in food on the table and shoes on the children. Many other agents reading this have similar experiences.

However, many would also be quick to say, “I’ve blogged my ass off and received nothing.”

Is blogging/Web 2.0 the answer to all real estate agent’s woes? ARDELL, arguably the “Godmother of Real Estate Blogging” is on the record as saying that she believes that “all agents should blog”. Normally Ardell is spot on in her thoughts, but I have to respectfully disagree with her on this. Blogging is not a panacea, nor is it the right tactic for every agent. Yes, blogging’s Web 2.0ness results in transparency, it allows agents to see things from the consumer’s perspective and it is, bar none, the best way for an agent to demonstrate their personality and expertise to the masses. But blogging is hard work. Writing is an excruciating process for many. I happen to love blogging, I’m sick that way, but many people will despise the time and effort it requires.

That doesn’t make them any less an agent than one who does blog. Just as my refusal to door knock, cold call, or “farm” in more traditional methods doesn’t make me any less an agent. We’re just different, with different approaches.

I can’t begin to estimate the number of times I’ve been asked, “how many prospects/clients/closed deals have you got from blogging?” And I can’t answer that question. Yes, I could prove quantitatively SOME of the results. Read more

December 6, 2007

Dancing on bridges? Watch as a master masters the steps

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I mentioned Dancing on bridges earlier tonight. This is one of my favorite posts, and, I think, my best explication of how weblogging works as art.

Richard Riccelli is never less than stunning at anything he does, so it’s no surprise that he should write so well at his new weblog. Go see the man at his best. And, to think, he’s just getting started…

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November 29, 2007

Sex and Real Estate Brokerage

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Shaun Mc Lane sells real estate in Orlando. No, strike that. Today, Shaun does not sell real estate in Orlando; he will be opening his own real estate brokerage in December.

Tuesday, Shaun experimented with a racy Web 2.0 offering. He posted a video asking if sex sells. The video was a short slide show of bikini-clad women, in various poses. Should you click through, you’ll see that it isn’t “Betty Grable in a cheesecake” pose. It is a more prurient collection of photographs typically seen on MySpace.

Wednesday, Shaun’s broker laughed about it and asked him to remove the post from his website. Shaun called her bluff and was handed a pink slip. Shaun is claiming independent contractor status, because he pays his own marketing costs, and is visibly irritated with the decision. He’ll be “going it alone” which may have been his intention all along.

Similar controversy gained national attention when Wendy Heath posed with her bulldog, in a bikini, on a billboard in Long Beach, CA. Wendy’s strategy:

“I wanted to set myself apart and kind of shock the shore, and, you know, drive people to my website and increase my business,” Heath told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. “There’s many, many real-estate agents in our area, and it’s hard to break through and set yourself apart. … I am absolutely amazed that one billboard could cause so much attention, but I am absolutely elated.”

Competing female REALTORs dissented:

Well, as a fellow realtor, but also someone with the body to do exactly what she did, I think she took the blonde-bimbo way out. If we, as professional real-estate agents, have to result to using our scantily clad bodies to gain clients, maybe we need to look inside ourselves at what we are lacking professionally. There are many tough real-estate markets nationwide, but when we tear down the image we are struggling so hard to display (which is that every real-estate transaction benefits from the experience and knowledge that only a professional realtor can provide), we essentially lose all that we have worked to achieve. Read more

November 21, 2007

Dancing With Who Brung Me

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

The first rule of organizations; he who speaks, volunteers. Actually, that’s the first rule of small, nimble organizations…guerilla units…we read Sun-Tzu and pounce on opportunities.

I’m jazzed, stoked, amped-up and psyched about the Guerilla Web Marketing Conference in May. We’re talking about Web 2.0 or for real estate agents and mortgage originators. Now, how do I promote it so that this place looks like this, in 2010?

First Campaign: Facebook.

Viral. That’s the gal who brung me to the dance.

October 10, 2007

Web 2.0: Catching a virus at the local dance

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

 

Pardon my gushing: I adore the Bloodhounds. It’s a honor, and yeah still a shock, to see my goofy real estate picture on the contributor’s panel, but I sometimes wonder what unique thing I can bring to the Bloodhound table. I’m not a top producer, I’m not the world’s most opinionated blogger, I’m not a big thinker, I’m not the funny Bloodhound, or an expert in my field, and I’m not Grumpy, although I have shown signs of being Dopey. Alas, I’m past the age of being either cute or perky, I’m not a geek, or even a new guy. But none of this matters anyway, as I do despise labels.

What do I bring to this table? Since there is a bit of anarchy here, I could bring whatever I want to the table, but in the end I’m gonna shake what my mama gave me and dance with them what brung me. Today I’m bringing hyperlocal blogging.

Somewhere someone is reading this who is a new-ish Realtor, learning the business, and learning blogging, and working in a bit of a broken down market. Am I the only real estate agent in this situation? Hardly, although I am the only Bloodhound in this situation. Am I speaking of you? You are working to set yourself apart, to improve your odds of lasting in this business, and wondering how to work it in your market? This post is for you.

Greg’s advice for local RE weblogging has always been to remember the people we write for, who are not neccessarily the people who comment, and certainly not the other Realtors who show up on MyBlogLog widgets. He also advised me to find local bloggers and link early and link often. All this advice is beginning to pay off for me, and in the Bloodhound spirit of sharing, I’m here to encourage the other hyperlocal bloggers to stick to your Be-the-Community guns.

In my neck of the woods, few people know what a blog is, nor do they care, and that disturbed me at first as I had some niggling thoughts about using a blog in Dayton to generate leads. On occasion, it was tough to hear about thousands of hits per day to some blogs, and still keep my Read more

September 11, 2007

How to be a Successful Originator For About $25,000

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Blogging for business is NOT the most efficient use of your time. Your time is better spent mining your database. This is a topic near and dear to my heart; my database is a mess. Had I properly maintained it these past 7-8 years, I’d probably be retired today. If I employed the 33-touch system, suggested by Gary Keller,  I’d not be hunting for the next batch of loans. I certainly wouldn’t be, as one online marketing vendor called my strategy, “puking all over the internet” , sifting through inquiries, to find serious borrowers.

That is not to say that blogging doesn’t have it’s place; it does. As Greg suggests, it is an excellent way to connect “viscerally” with your database. Creating a cozy community may be the focus of my online marketing efforts once I practice the “Law of the Broom” and clean house. This is not a reversal of my claim that keyword-rich text gets search engine results; it most certainly does. Blogging for your customers, employing a few basic keyword search terms, can attract more like-minded people which makes your business proposition more efficient (READ: I want more people that are just like my best clients). By playing to your strengths, you can hit more balls out of the park because you’ll start seeing the same kind of pitches.

Enter someone like Ray Cobel. Ray runs an outfit called Cobel Target Marketing. I met him on Active Rain and realized that he knows a helluva lot about mining databases. Ray has agreed to let me interview him for a podcast, to be hosted here on Bloodhound Blog. I’m still working on my questions so you can e-mail me if you have one for him.

I have some advantages as I start to apply the Law of the Broom. I’ve been in business for some twenty years, thirteen as a loan originator. I have a lot of people’s name in the computer, on business cards, or on cocktail napkins from Durant’s or the Poseidon. Read more

August 13, 2007

Real estate weblogging to create the kind of relationships that lead to closed transactions, repeats and referrals

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Sorry, Michael, but sometimes plumbers gotta talk about pipes. This is Teresa Boardman writing at The Real Estate Tomato:

In my humble opinion it isn’t about how many people read me. It is about who reads me and why. It is about speaking directly to the clients you prefer working with. A ton of leads can mean a ton of work and little business. Some of my blog readers are exactly the kind of person I want as a client and others are not. Not all leads are equal. The type and quality of the content does have an impact on the type of leads a blogger attracts.

I think this is dead-on. By pursuing real estate weblogging with a long-term strategy, you can grow your business in the way you want it to grow.

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August 4, 2007

“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see. That — and no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm — all you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is Joseph Conrad’s preface to The Nigger of the “Narcissus”:

A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line. And art itself may be defined as a single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect. It is an attempt to find in its forms, in its colours, in its light, in its shadows, in the aspects of matter and in the facts of life, what of each is fundamental, what is enduring and essential — their one illuminating and convincing quality — the very truth of their existence. The artist, then, like the thinker or the scientist, seeks the truth and makes his appeal. Impressed by the aspect of the world the thinker plunges into ideas, the scientist into facts — whence, presently, emerging they make their appeal to those qualities of our being that fit us best for the hazardous enterprise of living. They speak authoritatively to our common-sense, to our intelligence, to our desire of peace or to our desire of unrest; not seldom to our prejudices, sometimes to our fears, often to our egoism — but always to our credulity. And their words are heard with reverence, for their concern is with weighty matters: with the cultivation of our minds and the proper care of our bodies; with the attainment of our ambitions; with the perfection of the means and the glorification of our precious aims.

It is otherwise with the artist.

Confronted by the same enigmatical spectacle the artist descends within himself, and in that lonely region of stress and strife, if he be deserving and fortunate, he finds the terms of his appeal. His appeal is made to our less obvious capacities: to that part of our nature which, because of the warlike conditions of existence, is necessarily kept out of sight within the more resisting and hard qualities — like the vulnerable body within the steel armour. His appeal is less loud, more profound, less distinct, more stirring — and Read more

July 29, 2007

There’s no place like homepage: Insanely great Guerrilla Marketing tactic for locally-focused real estate weblogs

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From ProBlogger:

I met a blogger recently who had a blog with a very local focus. His Guerrilla Marketing Tactic was to do a deal with three internet cafes in his area to make his blog the home page on all of the computers. In return for this he gave them some free advertising on his blog. The same blogger made a similar deal with the local library who also made his blog the home page of their public internet computers. This worked particularly well for him as his blog was on his local area.

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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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