That's not an accurate assessment. In addition to entertainment, many people use youtube for learning purposes. If you want to learn how to get a mortgage, there are videos on youtube about that subject. If you want to learn how to clean up your credit so you can get a better interest rate, there are videos on youtube. If you want to get some tips on how to sell your house, there are videos on youtube.

In fact, if you want to sell your house, you can get a decent amount of local traffic from youtube. If you doubt it, go to youtube right now and type in your city, along with the words "Homes For Sale" and see what comes up...

I typed in Canton GA Homes for Sale and got some listings that had as many as 400 views. Now, it's not thousands of visits, but in order for them to see that video, they had to of typed in some terms related to homes for sale in the Canton Georgia area.

If you want to learn how to plant flowers or stage your house, there are videos on youtube for that.

So what's the lesson here? Present educational materials on youtube with your url on the video and description. If you live in a small booming town, make a video about your town with some of the hotspots and a little history to educate people about your town. If you're an agent, then make sure to mention that. Someone who lives in Texas, may be interested in moving to Canton GA, and it's possible they'll find your video on youtube and you could very well end up with a client because of that video.

Another thing... Google is starting to index these videos into their regular search listings. So if you have videos posted, you can end up being shown in a google search. For instance, type in home inspector marketing and you'll see a video clip at the bottom of google:

http://www.google.com/search?q=home+inspector+marketing

You get the same results when you type in: night guards, which is a product for those who grind their teeth:

http://www.google.com/search?q=night+guards

I got both of those videos on the front page of google and it didn't cost a thing...

So, videos are very relevant and if you're in a very tight niche (or small city), it would be wise to post videos about those cities on youtube and other small cities in your area.

If you don't do it, someone else will, so you might as well take advantage of it, and it's FREE, and it's targeted.

Interview local merchants, film local parks in the city, if there is a festival going on, get some clips. Upload them to youtube and the other video directories. Become the authority of your city. People use the internet to research the area they're thinking about moving to, and if you're that agent, you'll get the business.

Youtube is not just for entertainment purposes. The smarter marketer will exploit youtube and make a fortune from it by generating leads, customers, and sales.

I know this because I've done it myself, and have done it for my clients.

One of my sites have over 100,000 members (active). And 95% of those active members came from youtube.com

Here is one of my videos, viewed nearly 1,000,000 times... collectively, all of my videos (i have others under different accts), have been viewed millions of times, and my videos send prospects to my site who end up joining and buying a ton of products from my site... All because of a free lead generating video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hQhdK8l6CuY

Youtube is FREE, it can bring you targeted traffic, both local and non-local traffic. My home inspector client generates inspections from youtube on a regular basis, and last I checked, he only did inspections in the Atlanta area ;-)

Cartess

I am really questioning the benefit of myspace. Since everything is no follow you don't get serp. All you end up with is half naked women asking to be friends. I don't think myspace is a serious marketing tool. Now I can be wrong!

I agree, you do not get SERP but it can be a good source of traffic if you do it correctly, just try to join related groups.

Facebookis much better in terms of business as you can have multiple business pages, and because of its more professional feel there are not so many teens(in most countries). so you get a much more targeted market

Very nice post.

I would like to add that when submitting articles you have control of most of the page relevancy that links to your website which is its biggest advantage on many other activities and perhaps that is one of the reasons why article marketing is so effective.

In addition when combining social bookmarking with article marketing the effect is much bigger. It means that bookmarking your own submitted articles will increase even more the value of your link back to your site.

repa (RealEstateProArticles)

These are good way of using the internet to get more traffic. Howver several non-internet method are not included. Placing your web address on yard signs and business card can yeild very good results.

Bloggin
content writing
article submission
social bookmarkings/pligg
link baiting

Craigslist. But now its over saturated.

On http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/youtube.com,

Seems that Google is #1 and youtube is #4. That's very close!

Does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of videos can be placed on youtube to help get traffic to your own site?

I know listing walk-throughs are one subject, anything else, maybe topics on my area?

Where would I place a link for people to get to my site from watching the video, in the video or in my profile?

[quote=Jon Huther]

I know listing walk-throughs are one subject, anything else, maybe topics on my area?

[/quote] You can do video dairies of your business to help people get an idea of who you are and what you are about. Most people provide tips on commonly ask questions, you just have to get creative when you are using creative methods.

Great post! I hadn't thought of using You Tube to do videos of the areas I work in, but I think that would be very useful to people who are thinking of moving to a particular area, but haven't visited it yet.

I can use my Flip Video, which I absolutely love! It's small enough to carry with me in my laptop bag and the picture and sound come out pretty good.

Thanks for the tips!

Once you get your You Tube video up now you need a way to get it in the search engings with your targted real estate relevant keywords. I have several 1st page rankings in Google go check out this service that I use at www.trafficquicktips.com

Question: how much time do you spend working as opposed to promoting your business online?

Try this list, it ain't updated some website might not be working at all.
* stickam
* brightcove
* fireant
* iFilm
* videobomb
* YouTube
* eyespot
* dailymotion
* metacafe
* blinkx
* myfilmz.net
* Ourmedia
* Peerflix
* videobomb
* Videoegg
* Vimeo
* vSocial
* Revver
* SevenLoad

I would like to add 1 more idea for driving traffic to your website. The social network, LinkedIn is a great way to get traffic to your page as well. It is specifically designed for professionals to connect together. What the real value to real estate agents is that they can connect their entire database of contacts through the site and then be able to see the friends of friends. Why would this be helpful? If you create a LinkedIn profile, it is instantly searchable. In fact in just a few weeks, anyone searching on your name in Google will find you because of LinkedIn. This can be extremely helpful since your site is linked from that page and adds to your relevancy scores in Google and other search engines.

If you really want to do it right, you can even start a group and invite friends and their LinkedIn friends to join. Last tip, once you create a profile identify yourself in your description like this "helping real estate buyers buy homes in (insert county, city you work in most here), and connecting owners selling homes in (insert county, city you work in most here) with real estate buyers" - this is a way to get the search engines to associate the most common search in real estate "buy homes in X" where X is the city name.

Ok one more since I am new, when you close a home or even when you engage a new client, make sure to invite them to LinkedIn with you. Then you will be able to connect with the people they know and increase the opportunity to find a buyer or seller through their recommendation of you.

I hope you find this helpful.

Basically, you can use YouTube to rank high on Google. Some people do go on YouTube to search for homes because they want to see some video footage. If you target different cities in your area, people will find you. I get a lot of calls off videos I made last year. I only made a few in my city. I can show you guys how to upload your videos to about 9 or 10 different sites at one time. I'm actually in the process of setting up a place where agents can go get training on internet marketing. If you'd like to get invited, send an e mail to deriktutt101@gmail.com