Okay here is a thread for internet marketers. When I say 400 people a day contact me I mean that's how many are visting my website every day. Sometimes there are more, rarely less. This translates to somewhere between 2-5 people a day who contact me, while I am walking in the garden or lying in the sun.(JK but you get the picture). I don't do PPC or any paid marketing. I don't chase leads or drip email (spam) or call anyone, unless I am returning a call. Between 2009 and 2011 I have sold just over 100 homes, by myself with no assistants.

Pretty good Google Alabama Homes and/or Alabama Lake Homes

My website comes in around 7-5 and I have 200-300 leads come in monthly.

The long tail is were I really get the leads and to me they are the better ones.

I am to the point I refer most buyers out and just do listings.

So where is my cookie! lol just play-in, I am working on something real big and I hope to just do referrals from now on. I have 6 blogs of various nitches that will roll out in about 2 months and they will have around 5000 real estate related blogs- at which time once they start indexing I will see around 30-40 thousand more textural back links for what ever keyword I choose.

Once I bring them online they will generate with out any effort from me 24 new pages with back links every day. That's around 9,000 a year.

At which point I will sale the lead rights to an agent in that area. Then I will start again until I have 1000 websites -my cost to run the site $1.07 for the .info domain and my hosting for all is $97 a year

Example
www.homes4saleinthe.us
www.rec-homesforsale.info

Dan,

Is this you??

LICENSE HISTORY
Role Status Begin Date End Date
SALESPERSON ACTIVE 09/01/1992 06/03/2010
SALESPERSON INACTIVE 01/06/2009 06/03/2010
SALESPERSON ACTIVE 06/03/2010 Present

Says you were inactive from start of 2009 until mid 2010.I know the GREC sometimes gets things wrong though.

Not inactive in 2009 That's when I was with ReMax Greater Atlanta, who are currently in Bankruptcy

deepsea,

visitors mean nothing no conversion..no profit...
so lets get into details..

how long did it take you to rank 1 in google for your keywords

how many leads do you get per month..
not visitors...
how many deals did you do last year
how much income? gross? net?

alabama homes,

that is awesome

over 100 leads a month?
how many transactions did you do in 2010?
how much gross profit? how much net?

deepsea,
are you saying you doing 25-50 deals a year from seo and blogging?

dan,

yourpost is a lil misleading because..
in order to rank for any real keywords it takes a lot of on page and off page seo.

lots of backlinks..
so you must spend time energy and effort to rank..for keywords..

and visitors mean nothing..how many leads..?
how many deals?

alabama homes,

you paid $9,000 for that website..

so newbies reading this..know what we dealing with..

plus i see 1,000's of backlinks..

which must mean you spend some time on these forums getting

those 1,000's of backlinks..

all in all alabama homes..impressive seo..to rank for alabama homes..very impressive sir

care to say..
how many deals you did in 2010 from it?

dan,

care to share how you are doing 20-50 sales a year with just 5 active listings?

and no buyers?

400 people contact you a day and you only have a combined total 5 active listings?

Alabama Homes - Impressive to be on 1st page for broad keywords like Alabama Homes. What's more impressive is the site has a PR of 0 and still made it.. I could never do that here in DC, I'll need at least a 2 or 3 for some semi-broad terms and 4-6 for something like dc homes -- minimum. $9000 for a website with PR 0? Say it ain't so.

Realty4Atlanta.com - PR 1 and doing 50 deals/year off it? Now that's some motivation to get my butt in gear. I've been procrastinating because what I'm planning for my organic seo sites seems like such a huge undertaking to get to a 4 or 5 pagerank before I Figure I'll see any deals from it..

Visitors to websites is the same thing as making hundreds of phone calls hoping to get 1 or 2 leads.

I paid ZERO for my website apart from hosting. I never hid the fact that it takes a lot of work. I've been active on this forum since 2006.

I'd much rather spend time working on my website/blogs/seo than harassing people on the phone begging them for business.

I personally grossed about 25K over the median HOUSEHOLD income for my county last year. I closed 30 sides last year, including two transactions that were not on the MLS, and all but a few were internet generated leads...the others were floor time leads from the office or personal referral type lead. I ended up closing just around 5,000,000 in 2010 (counting the two that did not show on the MLS statistics). I ranked #17 out of over 400 "active" agents.

I won't have such stellar numbers this year because I pulled back quite a bit - last year saw me spending way too much time away from my kids and hubby running buyers around. I am going to refer more buyers this year than I did last year and am focusing on getting more listings. By next year I hope to be making as much money as I made in 2010 but with listings being sold, rather than running as many buyers around.

Right now I have 29 active listings, two more going on tomorrow, 2 in pending (one more is actually pending but we are keeping it active until contingencies are met). Another one may be pending within a week's time, and am entertaining offers on another one. I have another co-broke home in pending status (someone else's listing). I don't get every listing I go for but I do get most of them.

It's not misleading, obviously every method of prospecting takes work, there is no free lunch. I did spend a lot of time on SEO at first. I do some continual tweaking and backlink building, but it doesn't take that much time on a daily basis. No PPC at all. The trick is to optimize for longtails.

My definition of a lead is someone who calls or emails me and asks for an appointment. I do not pursue the visitors at all. I get between 2 and 5 every day. They have to be qualified like any lead you get. Once in a blue moon a day will go by where I don't get one. I deal mostly with buyers. I did 63 closed in 2009 but that was higher than normal due to investors who bought multiple properties. Of that probably 70% internet leads

I do get repeats and referrals. Since then I would say 15 internet closings in 2010, and 8 (closed and under contract)so far for this year. I recently quit working with the lower end investor buyers, and my average price point is 300K. I have averaged 33-35 closings a year for years Now the internet supplies around 50-60% of my closed transactions, in my early years, client parties, SOI and cold calling FSBOs and Expireds were the meat and potatoes.

Lindenmoe, I just went back and read the 6 or eight posts you made. Seriously, who is going to publish their gross and net income on a forum like this? Who said anything about no buyers? Most of my income is from buyers.

I have said it before and I will say it again. This is not a contest, you keep shrieking about how your way works and nothing else does. You are continually trying to prove that you are doing more, or making more money, than others. Nobody cares about that s#!t but you and Mike Ferry. I make the amount I want to doing the work I like to do.

deepsea,

i see your site is optimized for

atlanta georga real estate

but i cant find your site in the google reults
i also checked atlanta real estate
atlanta
homes for sale

and couldnt find your sites or names ranking ..in google search..

am i missing something dan?

dan,

thanks for your honesty and clearing that up..
15 deals in 2010 at 300k average is decent income from seo and blogging..

if i had those results from just seo and blogging i woulda kept doing it too..

now as you know i just pick up the phone..but
thanks for sharing that..

and at least you admitted seo and blogging is not overnight..

good stuff...

Longtails, neighborhood names, and no I am not going to share what they are specifically...

dan,

you should read my stuff again..

i never said nothing else works..
in the other forum i shared that..
most of my income is still from buyers ..internet based buyers..

from ppc,.and paid ads..
90 percent of my income still...

i just started mike ferry 6 months ago..

so i know that internet works because..

i have always made over 100k a year from just internet leads..
buyers are killing me and have become less reliable as a business model..
especially MY internet leads..not much quality...
I joined mfo so I can start getting rid of buyers and keep my samee income...
I never said just 1 way works..thats just silly..to say..

moist mt career has been internet leads and direct mail..

prospecting is new to me

300K is my average this year, 2010 it was lower, with the investors probably 100-150K range. I have had a website since 1998. The learning curve has been huge. It started jumping when I started learning about SEO in 2005.

deepsea,

thats awesome..congrats on the seo efforts paying off..

i ditched investors too..

they were dragging down my averages and wasting my time..

nobody I know ever says blogging and seo is overnight. Nobody. If they do then you know not to listen to them.

But Perky what about all those people who call me every week promising my website will be on the front of Google searches? It can be done overnight. Though I don't know how much any of those people charge as I get off the phone before that.

What's the best way to learn SEO, backlinking and optimizing for longtails? I'm looking for the fastest possible way to learn this...any suggestions? BTW, I don't know what 'longtails' means.

There are a million and one tutorials and blogs written for Realtors about how to "blog for business"

Start out on ActiveRain.com and look for Katerina Gassett. She has a gazillion posts about SEO and longtail keywords. There are actually probably a gazillion more posts by other people on ActiveRain about how to blog effectively for business. Another site to check out is realestatetomato.com (I think that's the url...if not, just google "real estate tomato" and you'll find it.

It's there if you are willing to look for it. Many people seem to just pooh-pooh ActiveRain because of its shortcomings, rather than use it for its strengths. It is actually a GOLD MINE of information, but you have to hunt for it and look for the best bloggers that give out useful information. Katerina Gassett is probably the best one on there with helpful info for bloggers.

Will do Perky, thanks.

Keywords are not single words they are phrases that people type into the search box on a search engine to find out information. "longtail" keywords are not the most obvious ones like "<your City> Real Estate" but the longer less frequently searched descriptions like "retirement housing in <your city>" or "condos for sale in <condominium complex name>. Less competition, easier to rank and more targeted searchers.

The blogging should be about everything real estate in your local market. The reason is twofold. First some people will read it and decide they want you to be their Realtor. Second the content and all of the semantically related keywords will convince the search engine that you have some authority and push you up in the rankings. Google knows all the other words that relate to real estate and if you use them NATURALLY in your blog posts, it will help you rank.

In order to optimize for these you need to write articles about the subject in an entirely natural manner. Do not repeat the longtail over and over, that will get you penalized. Use it once or twice in an article, or blog post, and write a really interesting and in depth piece about the subject. Do not copy anyone, Google can see copyright infringement in a microsecond.

It's is hard to point to a source and say here is the SEO for Dummies tutorial, Google tries to hide it's algorithm,and whenever folks start to catch on they change it. I would start to follow some of the heavyweights, Aaron Wall, SEOMoz, Search Engine Land, Matt Cutts (a Google employee), there are lots more of the SEO guys. Mostly they publish blogs and drop a lot of free tidbits.

I would never advise going with one of the companies that promises first page of Google responses. I would be very leery about spending money on SEO. There are a lot of fakers in that field.

Good advice too Dan. Thank you!

Great thread. Learning a lot. Thanks for everyone's input.

Not to hijack this thread, but perhaps you are putting too much emphasis on PageRank, particularly as its weight on algorithms is continually decreasing. I just searched for 'Georgetown condos for sale' (which is obviously a fairly affluent area and one that could lead to well targeted visitors) and found plenty of entries with what you may consider to be low PR.

I'd advise you to put emphasis on content (that $9K site is worth every penny due to its indexable IDX, which is one of the main reasons why it is ranking where it is). Take a look at this post ( click here ), perhaps it can give you some relevant insight.

I just want to second this opinion. It is a great place to go looking for information that applies to real estate.

The other thing I'd suggest is finding some free podcasts related to SEO on itunes. Download them and listen to them in your car. If you find the right ones they can be another gold mine of information.

I agreet that 9k is worth it because those guys are the best in the business...

thats assuming of course that you have $9,000 to spend up front that you dont plan on needing for 6 months to a year...

seo, blogging etc..is not a magic pill...
you still have to convert those leads..

according to the BIG boys..

marketleader.
rew
tigerleads and boomtown..

visitirs mean nothing..you need to convert visitor to lead..

then lead means nothing cause you must convert lead to appointment to sale...

the average is 1 in 50

so 1 in 50 internet leads is a sale.

now keep in mind most sites convert traffic to lead at 1-5%

unless you using rew, boomtown, tigewrleads, or other high converting websites...

usually blogging and seo converts at 1% if you do not force registratiuon...

its not a magic pill..its a numbers game...

I spent 0 on my website other than the cost for hosting per month and the $125 a year I pay my MLS provider for IDX. I designed my site myself. I taught myself how. It's not that hard. Just takes time and practice. While others are out harassing people with phone calls, I was learning how to put the right honey out to draw the right bees right to me.

I get many quality leads from my site - the people who email me (not just fill in a form) or call me on the phone are often VERY serious though some may be somewhat ignorant of our market here, so they may end up not buying, because they think we are in the 1950's for prices. LOL.

I have gotten listings, and have gotten great leads, thanks to my website and my blogging, and yes, even Facebook. I have many people set up on auto email alerts that have been there for a couple of years and STILL read every email that is sent. Those people are just in the hopper ready to pop as soon as they see "THEIR PERFECT HOUSE" come on the market. The folks who send me emails and who call me are very serious and frequently buy or list.

Of course I get leads that don't pan out...but I have more than enough business to keep my bills paid, my family fed, and have a little money leftover for pleasure.

Favorite 2011 Success stories:

In 2010, some neighbors came to my open house in a particular community. We chit chatted. They did not leave their names but they took my card. I guess they lost my card, because several months later (in 2011) they called me, telling me they found me again by searching for the community (NOT ME, the COMMUNITY...but they FOUND ME) on Google. They wanted to see a new listing in that community that just came on the market. I met them at the house, showed it to them, a few days later, they called and said they wanted to make an offer, and they would be selling their home as well (listing it with me.) We closed on their purchase and immediately got their home on the market.

We just closed on THAT a couple weeks ago. So, because I was lame and had an open house, and because I take great care to be found in Google, I closed two sides...total was over 500,000.

Next. Seller contacts me from my website. His listing expired; he found me when looking for agents who work in his community on Google. When I showed him my online strategy, he listed with me.

A few days later a man called me, telling me he was interested in looking at houses in my area and he found me on Google. Long story short, he is buying ^that house that I just listed...it was perfect for him.

Nobody but you, Lindenmoe, is calling internet marketing a "magic pill." Nobody but you is suggesting that it's "overnight success." If you look back at everything I ever said about blogging, I have said more times than you can count that you have to do it RIGHT, and you have to be PATIENT because it is not instant.

I do not pay for leads, I do not pay for PPC ads. Most of my business is SELF GENERATED, and not from my office or from my franchise.

gooor you..perky

if you can do 30 transactions a year and have 29 listings just from blogging..then thats awesome..

and lets just be honest ok..everybody including nar..and the title of this misleading post suggest its a magic pill...

blogging and seo are not easy..you have over 10k backlinks..you didnt get those overnight...

you also rank for long tails which is great...
but if you are in a major metro city like me...

it will take years for your blogging efforts to pay off even in longtails..

on page 1 in my market there is zillow,trulia,weichert,coldwellbanker and remax..even the smallest boutique firm on page 1 has 35,000 backlinks..
over 23,000 indexed pages,,i suspect they have an seo company..

I meant good for you..perky..just like Dan..

congrats on your efforts paying off..

if i could do 30 transactions all people who came to me that would be awesome...

but i dont..and would starve to death waiting for those efforts to pay off...
i have 3 small children and im the only bread winner...
funny thing is these darn kids dont want to wait 6-12 months to eat dinner..
those darn kids...lol

should have worn your raincoat

now you tell me? lol

I picked up a $22,800 check today. Known the client less than 30 days from first contact. Showed him one house. I don't hate buyers, no I don't.

The only check I ever received that was close to yours
was when I sold listing for $1,156.000.00, I worked
my [censored] of on this file for months. You mention you
have just upped your price point to 300k, something
is wrong with your math or your imagination has gone
wild. It's extremely rare to show one home to a client
and sell it same deal with 400 people a day calling
you. Are you a Craig Prospector paid informant?

My dad was in your boat, he worked from 7am - 11pm seven
days a week for years. A home just sold on his street for
1.8 million, so it did pay off but with a price. This thread
should read "I only show one home to each buyer for every
deal I do" or "Every home I show I sell" Think that's how
it reads in the Craig Prospector brochure, along with sitting
on the beach or staring at trees all day while 400 people
call you up and beg you to come help them.

hunter,

i time block my kids time like appointments wednesday 5-8pm and friday3-9pm i dont work..i take some sundays off too.. trying to find balance as the sole bread winner and dear ole dad..

i work from 7am-7pm mon tues and thursday..

Perky so are you going to eventually get your brokers license and go your own so you can keep it all??

I think it's great you love residential.I can't stand that side of it.

No matter what you focus on there are issues to overcome whatever you help to sell or buy.

Not 400 calls a day, 400 people a day come to my website, Hunter, I was very clear. My AVERAGE sold is 300K That one sold for 798K and some sell for considerably less than 300K. I didn't up my price point to 300K, that is what they have averaged this year.

I get kind of sick of people accusing me of lying. Unlike you and Lucky I publish my real name, so my statements can be confirmed by people in my area. It is very unusual for me to get a check like that, but with the internet lead system it is not unusual to sell the only house I show. Happens about 1-2 times in 10.

Well, the only way your ratio's make any sense
is if you are using this approach to your
showings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAeprWIOQqQ&feature=related

Not to get off the point of the thread, but you seem to put too much emphasis on backlinks. I'm not minimizing the importance of off-site optimization, but it's not the only factor weighted by algorithms. Provide useful content and the rest will fall into place.

By the way, I just searched for 'jersey city real estate' (sure, not long-tail, but that's obviously something you'd like to rank for), jerseycityrealestate dot net has 101 links, libertyrealestate dot com has 2,500 (as per Yahoo Site Explorer). It's only as impossible as you make it.

Best of luck.

Anyway, back on topic, although Dan's title to the thread may be a bit misleading, I think he seems to be forthcoming about everything else. Perhaps somebody in his market area can verify, if needed. He's not really making any outlandish remarks, nothing that many people in markets all across the US are replicating quite successfully.

I am actually going to start on my broker's license this year but I am not ready to even think about going out on my own. I'm content and happy here -even though many of my online friends tried to dissuade me from joining Weichert and instead going to the local Re/Max office. I love my broker and his partner, I like the people I work with. I know I could make "more money" somewhere else, possibly - but I like it here. A few years down the road? Who knows. There's no place else I'd rather be at this point in my career.

Yes, residential is a pain at times. LOL. I think I'd starve though if I had to do commercial - there are many commercial properties not selling. This economy is tough to start a new business. I'm content to stick with what I know even if it means dealing with goofball inspection issues and the like. lol

Hunter, I put this stuff out because people need to hear that there is more than one way to skin a cat. I think if your market in Canada hits the wall you may be happy if you started a website a couple of years earlier and have the option at that point to work with Buyers. In some parts of our country you either work with buyers or if you want to work with sellers your choices are REO's and short sale sellers. The retail seller's market has dried up in many US markets.

This really isn't a contest. I post this stuff to help people realize that there are other alternatives to propecting. I don't really care if you believe me or not. Just because some people can't make it work with a website doesn't mean that it can't be done.

Hunter, when you posted your attempts, calls contacts etc, I don't think you would like it if people challenged whether you were padding your stats. How about just discussing the various approaches?

I was just having some fun at your expense.

I'm planning to put up a web page next week, the relocation
lady I work for told me that if you don't have one you
are not legit in the public eye.

During our last recession I primarily worked with retirees who
had payed off their home. Agents joked about me that I was the
grandson that these retirees never had.

I've enjoyed your thread due to the fact that I'm learning
a lot about this stuff. I'm leary to jump in too deep due to severe dyslexia and a inabiltiy to write clear sentances.

This might prompt me to take some writing courses.

Maui, my title isn't misleading at all!

400+/- people a day come to my website and 4-500 go to my IDX. Some go straight to the IDX without going through the website. They come to my website and take a look around. just under 4000 registrations when I don't require registration. When they find something they like they call me to talk about it. A couple hundred a month. Plain and simple. I am not trying to quote exact numbers...just discussing a concept.

I think someone who comes to my site has as much possibility of becomming a client as someone who answers an unwelcome call during dinner and tells the cold caller to pluck a duck. They are both contacts. What happens after that separates the wheat from the chaff.

Nothing misleading.

Fair enough. Not about to argue semantics over such a minute issue. Either way, kudos to you for online presence.

hey Maui,

Dont you mean google puts too much emphasis on baclinks..lol,
and its not only provide useful content..
On page-On site optimization
like image tags,title tags, keyword density..play big factors
also no way you can devalue backlinks..you are in error my friend libertyrealestate has 23,000 pages all linking to each other for a total of 23,000 backlinks..
and jerseycityrealestate.net is a direct phrase url an emd...
exact match domain..
content, keywords and backlinks..oh and dont forget the age of your domain..all play a role in seo..right?

I agree with ya dan,

about somebody coming to the site has just as much chance of doing business with a raw cold call..

and after that conversion skills take over...

But did you say 100 people call you to discuss..real estate each month? thats unbelievaby awesome..all I get is dozens of emails..WOW!

No.



Internal backlinks? If it was that easy, then everyone would have tons of pages interlinked and call it a day. I'd rather have 100 links from 100 linking root domains than 1,000 from the same domain (specially if it's internal).

And what tool are you using to come up with 23,000 backlinks? I already quoted Yahoo Explorer and OSE has it as 4,346. Perhaps you have a better resource for backlink research that you wouldn't mind sharing.

And I'm not devaluing the weight of backlinks in algorithms, what I said that perhaps you are putting too much emphasis on it (sure, it's an important factor, but it's not the ONLY factor)



Sounds like already you know all about SEO. Best of luck.

One followed backlink from a site like the NY Times will be the equivalent of thousands of low level links. You don't need s lot of bscklinks, if they are from quality sites. It's not a numbers game, it's all about trust and authority.

dan,

i was thinking that..high powered backlinks are worth more..

but how does one secure high powered backlinks like..

edu., .orgs, ny york times etc..??

i know alot about seo,..but my implementation of it is very poor..

i have a hard time obtaining backlinks..and blogging consistent..pretty much the death kiss for blogging and seo..right?

Getting high quality backlinks is difficult. You have to have content that is worth of attention.You can start with in depth articles about the various aspects of the business on your site, or try to do guest blogging on other people's blogs. There are options for links from EDU websites if you are an alumni of a university. People join chambers of commerce for the links. If you can't find time to write the articles you can hire copywriters to write the articles.

If you become a resource for your area real estate info, news reporters may contact you for an interview, and then give you a backlink on their site.

Link farms are getting killed by search engines.Relevant fresh content for the keywords you want to rank for is critical.

There are a couple of posts on HomeGain that may be of interest. It relates to succeeding in a changing SEO landscape: click here and here . Search engines are continually changing/evolving, just 'backlinking' will no longer be enough as more emphasis is increasingly being placed on social metrics.

deepsea, dan, perky, alabama,

thanks for all those tips and help..seo, blogging is not easy to effectively implement as people think..it takes discipline to stay the course even when you dont see the results..for awhile...thanks for the tips..its good to see after all is said and done its worth it..

It is well worth it. The only way I got a leg up over my competition in my market, people who've been in the business longer than I've been ALIVE let alone an adult...is because I'm online blogging.

yeah, internet blogging and stuff is the great equalizer,..
my own efforts failed at it and thats why i was down on it...
its encouraging to hear you guys success..maybe i just have to wake up a lil earlier and get back at it...

here a start..lol
http://hudsoncountyrealestatechat.com

and you superstar bloggers better not laugh at it..lol..joking

any advice on a good wordpress theme for real estate or seo?
i wish i could afford that killer rew site..but not now...

I looked at your blog. It's OK for a start. IMHO you need to be a little more personal. Keep at it and you will find your voice eventually. I think of how I talk to people when I have them with me and write like that.

This is my wordpress blog:

http://www.pikewaynepablog.com I try to mix up listings with "other stuff." I didn't keep that one up to date recently, but I was posting listings on ActiveRain.

On ActiveRain.com I mostly post listings and virtual tours.

You don't need a fancy site. Buyers don't care. They want info. I just picked one of the free themes from Wordpress. LOL.

Use any of the themes from StudioPress. Great themes, Genesis framework with great SEO, and look great. Using my 2nd one right now.

perky, dan, bfisher..thanks..
bfisher..will look into that asap..
perky your sites look amazing cant believe you did that with free wordpress themes..my free theme looks like my 10 year old made it..lol
dan 750 pages indexed over 8,000 links ..holy smokes..
perky over 10,000 links..
you guys are like super bloggers i think i have 188 links..omg

i guess its all in the discipline..in adding content..and building links..and being consistent..
bfisher..your site looks awesome and,dan and perky..
where you guys computer programmers in a past life..?
looking you guys blogs..and then looking at mines makes me depressed,...lol
maui also has an awesome looking blog..

lindenmoe - how long have you been doing the cold calling thing now and how much success have you had so far being new? Taken or sold any listings?

lucky - have you ever broken down your cold calling prospecting into an hourly rate? If so how much do you make per hour? Forget the time for the appts. & servicing, if it were only prospecting..

Linden, I never even owned a computer until the late 1990s and until 2001, I did not have real internet service - I had dialup Juno service and it cost me a long distance call every time I wanted to check my email, which was mostly forwards from my cousin, some of those Yahoo Groups newsletters, and a homeschooling group I belonged to. I had no idea what search engines were. LOL.

Then in 2001 my husband bought me a real computer and we could afford to have real internet service - dialup for $10 a month. I met a gal on Yahoo New Message Boards (now defunct) and we became great friends. I showed her some of my pictures and she told me to learn how to use Paint Shop Pro (a poor man's Photoshop. Photoshop is to Nikon or Leica as Paint Shop Pro is to some generic camera. LOL) Then she encouraged me to learn how to design websites.

I couldn't grasp the tutorials I found online. It made no sense to me. So I searched up "LEARN HTML FOR KIDS" and found a site that an 11 year old girl made to teach other kids how to do HTML. And the rest is history. I then started designing websites for local realtors (one of my dear friends is a broker and he wanted me to make him a website.) I used Front Page.

I used all the "wrong" tools - I didn't have Photoshop, you're supposed to use Dreamweaver if you are a serious designer, you're supposed to know this and know that. Well, I didn't and I made do with what I had and what I could learn myself. I designed several successful sites and one of those sites, ugly as it is, is STILL online and is my biggest competition!!!! LOL.

So yes, I have somewhat of an advantage because I already learned this stuff but that was hard as well...I didn't pick it up naturally. It was frustrating. Then I had to learn how to blog and how that was different from regular websites. And now I'm also facing the fact that my old fashioned websites are probably going to be extinct soon and I need to move on - Wordpress is probably going to power my next website because I do not have the inclination or patience to relearn another web coding language at this stage of the game. LOL

I STILL use my old Paint Shop Pro for graphics and photo editing. I think my version is 5 years old or more. LOL. I don't care, it works, it does what I want, and I know how to use it.

Don't get sidetracked by all the tech mumbo jumbo that you need this or you need that. Break it down to the lowest common denominator - what do people - your buyers and sellers want?

They want info, they want listings, and they want an agent who they can relate to and trust to do an excellent job for them. Your blog and website can give your elevator speech several hundred times a day to people who want to hear it.

That's powerful.

Forums blur. Wrong thread! LOL

Mine is on Thesis now, but I am on the verge of switching to Genesis. Nervous about pulling the trigger, though.

you guys have been great about helping me figure this out..appreciate it much..
once i get it to look right..
any advice on a time schedule as far as
1.writing a blog post everyday..
2. grabbing some backlinks that get indexed..
i probably have to wake up an extra hour to write a post and do some backlinking..
before i start making my calls at 8am..
if i dont eat that frog first thing it wont get done..thanks guys..

I set myself alerts on google calendar to make sure I do the posting I have scheduled for that day. Monday being "Best Buy of the Week", Fridays "Neighborhood of the week", etc. I still need to schedule myself more each day to get on a strict schedule but just haven't done so yet.

Also Dan, I haven't worked with Thesis so I don't know how much different it would be, but I have enjoyed using Genesis and they have an amazing support forum for everything you can think of.

Lindenmoe, doesn't have to be every day. 2-3 times a week is good too. Consistency is a key and don't set goals that you can't reach.

bfisher,..perkey..
so would like monday..wednes..friday work
i have to be accountable for my business day..so i want to timeblock it..like an appointment with myself..uninterupted..
so it gets done...
like 7-30am..get post done..730-8am blog commenting on forums that allow backlinks in signature..monday-wednes..friday..
i struggle with accountability..
any of you guys wanna help kick me in the rear? lol

I don't believe in giving people a reason to nag me, so I'm not a good accountability partner... ROFL

hey perky..
lmao..i meant for you to hold me accountable..
like you could check my blog and say..
hey buddy its monday and no new blog post?
if its not there in 15 minutes..
im gonna drive across the stateline to nj..
and smack ya one..ya slacker...lol

First, don't write because you feel you HAVE to, write because you want to. Writing every day seems like it would be forced and the content would be reflective of that. Second, in regards to 'grabbing some backlinks that get indexed', if the link is worth having then it will get indexed without any additional 'work' on your part. When people give you advice to be consistent in your SEO efforts, it means that it is something that should always be a part of your work routine but not that you should force it into your schedule daily (i.e. don't do some now for 2 weeks then get discouraged and not do anything for the next 10 months).

some days you are going to get writer's block. What I would do is if you feel like writing every day then write a post every day you feel like it in Word or something, but only post to your blog twice a week. Then you can have a nice stockpile of blogs that will come in handy when you are pressed for time or can't think of something to write.

That's what I did at open houses when I was not entertaining visitors - I wrote blogs or brainstormed a bunch of blog ideas.

maui is 100000% right - if you FORCE yourself then you're going to make it a CHORE and it does not have to be a chore and it shouldn't be a chore. your enthusiasm for your business, your market, your clients, and your geographic region should come through in your writing and that won't happen if you see it as a chore and a hurdle to overcome.

My site is a blog but I don't blog that much. When I initially built my site I wrote a lot of articles about the various aspects of the transaction. I had a static non wordpress site back then. Now you would write those as blog posts but they serve the same purpose.

There are two ways to make it work. Both are valid.

The first way is post a lot of blog posts and have the clients decide that they want to work with you because they like the way you think. This way works for a lot of people.

The second way is to build a wordpress website, because Google loves wordpress, and then to write blog posts about the process at the beginning to give your website the semantic keywords that it takes for the search engines to decide you have enough authority to begin move you towards the top of the SERPs (combined with other factors like backlinks). With this approach you need to have an vigorous IDX that they can use to search for homes.

I find that most of the people aren't thinking they even need a Realtor, they just want to see houses. They call whoever the contact person is on the website when they find a house they like. The second approach is based on this idea, and is working to get the website to rise in the organic search results, to increase the traffic and thereby generate more of those calls.

Then it is not so important to post deep or clever posts every day or two, as it is to keep building backlinks and adding content. The content you add doesn't have to be just blog posts. It could be building specific pages for specific condo developments or neighborhoods. Or it could be publishing market stats for an area you service in a chart format.

You should use a wordpress website which is a "blog" but you can have a lot of static pages that are closed to comments which just highlight areas or specific listings or subjects like investing. You can simply make a page dedicated to unusual homes, or list condos approved for FHA loans, or lists of deadlines for filing tax appeals in different counties, lists of private schools etc.

just imagine if you cold called for fast results and blogged and seo everyday for the long term!!!

act gameplan,..using blogging and internet for long term..while pounding the phone for 30-90 day checks...
hey dan,
thanks alot buddy..awesome advice...
maui,perky,dan, fisher..all you guys appreciate helping me out..

No prob. Check your pm.