The Mortgage and More Blog

Archive for the ‘marketing’ Category

Today is a very exciting day as Sell Buy Rent Online has launched ahead of schedule.

As you may be wondering what SellBuyRentOnline.com is exactly here is the mission statement:

Expertly optimized website that is designed to centrally locate and/or search properties around the world.

As the world has shrunk thanks to both travel and the internet a Realtor’s® client is not necessarily limited to the local shop owner from Main Street anymore. In today’s world your next client could just as easily be the shop owner from half a world away. From vacation homes and second homes to rental and commercial property the only limit listing agents have is their exposure to that wider audience. Sell Buy Rent Online is designed to provide that exposure. Simply click the image to the right to visit Sell Buy Rent Online today. The value of SellBuyRentOnline in terms of exposure for your listings will far exceed the annual $25.00 (USD).

SellBuyRentOnline.com Launches Ahead of Schedule is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

If you , you are not alone. In fact Twitter is probably the fastest growing social media that has ever hit the World Wide Web.  The term social media still holds some of the negative stereotypes associated with that term. But thanks to Twitter much of that negative image is beginning to diminish; think about the flow of information during the recent populist uprisings in Iran earlier this year that came via Twitter Here are some statistics from Business Insider that were released almost a month ago at Twitter’s developers conference.

• Twitter has 105,779,710 Registered Users – Just how many people do you think see that billboard, park bench, or phone book add that you PAY top dollar for?
• Twitter is adding 300,00 Registered Users A Day – Approximately the entire population of Albany, New York (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
• Twitter gets 180,000,000 Unique Visitors – Some perspective, Brazil, the 5th most populated country in the world, has an estimated population of 192,000,000 (Source: Brazilian Official Population Clock)
• Apps are important because 75% of traffic is outside Twitter.com – PREP recently added TweetMeme alongside TwitMe to the available integrations to further the ease of use of Twitter by members
• Twitter receives 3,000,000,000 (BILLION) requests a day (Roughly the number of Tweets read per day) – This is roughly the same number Google receives per day (Source: Search Engine Land, Feb. 23, 2010)

WOW! These numbers may seem incomprehensible because they are so large; the upside to that…because they are so large, there is room for everyone at the ‘Twitter Table’. It would be very short sighted to view Twitter as people only talking about ‘…just washed the car’ or some other type of status update. Twitter is now a megaphone to what is going on in your community or around the world! Though Facebook still commands the spotlight in the social media arena, Twitter is the rising star that will continue to draw that spotlight to itself.

Again I ask: You Tweet, Who Knew?!? So dust off that Twitter account you created months ago and get to Tweeting. It is time for you and your business to shine.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

YOU Tweet, Who Knew?!? is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

When it comes to landing pages for your site, there are quite a few options. The three main ones that I have encountered are Static, Blog, and Flash. Personally, I hate Flash pages as a landing page, but for the purpose of this article, I am going to keep my personal feelings to myself. With that said, over the last year that our online real estate network has been in existence, we have moved from the Blog Page being front and center to a static page. When we create a new account for our members, a static landing page is standard in our membership fee of $150 per year. So, to get back on track, lets take a look at the three types of landing pages mentioned in this article. A huge advantage to having this type of page is you can actually build a sitemap of your site in a format that is user friendly. When I say “sitemap” I am not referring to a standard sitemap, but instead, an article that links people to the things that they want to find on your site. Also, you can focus on keywords for your site easier.

Static Pages

Typically, a static page is one that remains the same (see image to the right). While you can change the content fairly easily, it usually remains the same. One advantage of this is that the page is cached in the world wide web and typically opens quickly. Static pages can be created easily and saved in databases as html files. The common use for static pages for blog sites is to give the appearance of a CMS (content management system) feel or type of site. This is what is commonly referred to as a website.

Blog Pages

A blog page is common in sites that are built using WordPress, Blogger, Vox, and others (see image to the right). Blog pages are pages which generates a list of your most recent posts or articles and places them on one page. While all of these platforms have a different layouts and functions, the blog pages are typically set to function in the same manner. Posts are kept in a chronological order that you can click on and go to the individual article. The big disadvantage of having this page front and center is that if you are away for some time and do not post, it is apparent to everyone immediately.

Flash Intro Pages

Flash into pages load animated content first while loading the main content in the background. The main problem with this type of page is that NOT everyone has a Flash Player on their computers. Even though that might sound prehistoric, it is a fact. In the end, if they can’t load it, they can’t see it. While Flash pages can be pretty and can also take the site to another level, if no one can see it, then it is as dumb as having a Picasso and leaving it in the closet. For this very reason I think it is bad to have this as your landing page. Another disadvantage to having flash is when people are using dial up (yes, it still exists) then it takes forever for that page to load. Regardless how people are connecting to the internet, they all want a FAST experience. Flash does not offer that.

In closing, the type of landing page that you chose is basically up to you. Your web site developer should be able to expand on this subject more, but I hope that I have provided enough for you to make an informed decision.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Landing Page – Static versus Blog versus Flash is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

Marketing properties with a listings blog just became easy. Imagine walking into a listings presentation appointment armed with the ability to have your client’s property reach the top of the search engines quickly. The great thing is, there are no black hat tricks used to accomplish this. Another great thing is, you do not have to log out of one site and into another to post to this additional blog. Everything is done on the same platform and is almost seamless.

One of the things with Postlets and VFlyers is that they require more room that what is typically on a page. To make sure that we have enough room for this to set up properly, we just remove the sidebars all together. Therefore, the property is front and center and is getting all of the attention that it requires. Also, once a property is listed in PREP, it does not take long for it to climb to the top of the search engines.

Now, before many of you ask why “categories” or “tags” cannot accomplish this, let me explain this; neither of these are indexed by the search engines. If they were, the bots would crash any network once they started to crawl them. So, having the additional blog gains the ability to have ALL the listings found in a search in one spot. It also allows for ALL the listings to be ‘index, follow’ and this is huge as it will increase your SEO.

As with any additional blog add on, there is a one time charge of $100. Once that fee is paid, it will take a couple of hours to be setup. If you have questions, please call us at 865-951-0522 or email me.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Marketing Properties With A Listings Blog is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals All rights reserved. ©

©2010 Positive Real Estate Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

Blogging is NOT the future of real estate; it is the NOW. Before someone thinks that I mean that blogging is the only thing that you should focus on, that is far from the truth. With that said, if you are not blogging, then you are missing out on the success that millions are enjoying. Is it hard work? Well, yes. Anything that brings proven results requires us to work at it. If it did not require work, we could charge $150 a month for our online real estate network as opposed to the $150 a year and people would still flock to us.

Since I started blogging in 2007, I noticed that I was able to reach more potential consumers than I could through normal means. Print adds were not working, not to mention how expensive they were. Leads just seemed to never pan out when we bought them. However, all that seemed to change when I started growing as a blogger. The reason was not that I became a great blogger; rather I was able to put my message in front of a larger audience at one time.

Blogging can change the way that you communicate with your potential consumers. Having the ability to reach more than 350,000,000 people with the click of one button has to be appealing to even the skeptic. There is no print add out there that could deliver a tenth of that number that I am aware of. Think of it this way. Major companies are setting up social media departments just for this very purpose. If it works for them, then it can work for you.

Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) can help you achieve the recognition you and your business deserve through our highly versatile and search engine optimized member websites, lead capture, and visitor friendly layout. If you are a professional who works in the real estate industry or one of the related fields that service the needs of the real estate industry then this real estate network can be just what you need to take your business to the next level. If you have questions or would like to join CLICK HERE.

Blogging is NOT the Future of Real Estate is a post from: Positive Real Estate Professionals

For those of you that do not know, my days and evenings are spent marketing Positive Real Estate Professionals. I love what I do and I do it well. I get to talk to all different types of people on a daily basis. Some are bright and cheerful and some are all about doom and gloom. Having them all over the spectrum is what makes my job so fun. With that said, the most common thing that I hear daily is “I have not done any business since ‘Fill In The Blank’ .” My question in response to their statement is simple; “What have you do to generate business?” The answers that I receive are just as all over the spectrum as the people that I deal with. It is this particular question that I want to break down and look at in today’s article.

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Over the last several months I have been pushing the fact that you need to “Brand your blog”. When I started up R & D Art, this was something that I originally did with my very first customer, Fred Chamberlin. However, his blog did not scream Oregon and did not scream Fred Chamberlin. However, that fact has now changed and whether you are look at Eugene Loan Guy or FHA Loans Oregon or No Money Down OR – WA – CA or even FHA/USDA/VA and Conventional Mortgage Loan News, you get the same thing when it comes to layout. Believe me, there aint anyone out the that has this look to their blog and that in itself speaks worlds to the branding of Fred Chamberlin, your Eugene loan guy.

The thing that I was forgetting about while I was out doing this for my customers was that I had not even branded myself. To take it a step further, I had create a faux pas. I had two very different blogs with 2 very different reads yet 2 very similar names. The first blog that I had was called The Mortgage & More Blog. This blog was hosted on a real estate network similar to Positive Real Estate Professionals called ActiveRain. Soon I realized that I should not be depending on making my Internet presence existent by using the one site and I wanted to branch out. In branching out, I decide to keep the name but use a different variation to that name. The thing was, the difference in the name did not seperate the difference in what I was writing and the sites did not match at all.

At the beginning of this year, I decided to start segmenting the two very different blogs. As of yesterday, the A/R blog is no longer know as The Mortgage and More Blog. This was the first step in making a seperation of the blogs and a seperatation of the branding. If you see the header below, you will understand that the first blog in question is no longer based on the mortgage industry . For that, I have decide to change the name and with the help of Fred Chamberlin, we came up with the new name, Today’s PREP = Tomorrow’s Sales.

Now, with that out there, this site will now be the one and only The Mortgage and More Blog and will be branded just as that. The mortgage part of the site is easy to figure out. The more portion of it is a little more vast as the site will entail movies, travel, Real Estate Industry related articles, and much more. I do not want it to seem like it will be a catch all blog, but it will have various topics, with most of them pertaining to the financial, marketing, and SEO.

Hope to see you around these parts more often.

Do you use your email signature to it’s fullest potential? If this question seems strange to you, then you really need to stay tuned to this post. Over my 20+ years in the working industry, I have always look for the smarter simpler way to do things. When it comes to promoting my websites, I can not think of an easier thing to use in promoting those sites than emails. The bottom line is that you send and receive emails daily, so why not kill two birds with 1 stone?

First off, for those of you that are still wondering how you might do this, it is very simple. All you have to do is set it up in your “signature” and let the rest work for you. It will look similar to the one that is on the right side of this article. Now, you might be asking how this is free promotion. Well, that is the neat part of this whole thing. Whether you realize it or not, your emails are typically read. Some of them are even forwarded. That very profess might happen over and over again. The bottom line to it is that there is a multitude of people that will have the chance to see that very signature.

Having all of those people reading your emails is a great thing. Now, imagine tapping into that resource and having those same people visiting your website. All of this can easily be achieved just from using the power of your email to it’s fullest potential. So, let’s visit that question one more time. Do you use your email signature to it’s fullest potential