The Mortgage and More Blog

Archive for the ‘paying it forward’ Category

When I originally wrote the first post, I really thought that more people would get involved in this particular type of article. However, I have come to realize that people like the three that actually did respond are few and far between. This is one of the things that make each and every one of them even more special. So, without further ado, here are the winners.

Laura G

Naoma Doriguzzi

Lin

Now, for the prize. Each of these winners will get a bumper sticker to help promote their own website. I will detail it how they want. This is my way of helping to pay it forward. Thanks for the participation.

With the economy the way it is, people ca always use a littl pick-me-up. Last week, a friend of mine, Lin over at Duck and Wheel with String, presented her readers with a challenge. I was all to eager to accept her challenge and jumped right in the mix. Well, frankly, I did so not expecting to win. I was expecting to write an article on her kindness though and put out a challenge to my readers as well. However, now that I did win, I have to come up with something very good as a give. So, with that said, lets get down to the nitty gritty of how this works.

I am formally issuing the challenge to all of my friends and readers alike. If you would like to accept this challenge, all you have to do is identify so in the comments section. At this time on Wednesday, I will write another post with 3 winners on my challenge. The winners will then receive an email from me as well identifying them as the winner. The prize will be a bumper sticker designed promoting your website. Once designed and printed, I will mail it off to you. Also, if you win, then you also are agreeing to hold a challenge of your own.

The rules are simple. The challenge is meant to bring a bit of cheer to a deserving soul. Please join in on this challenge and lets brighten the world today.

Back in October 2008, I had an inspiration to create a Real Estate Industry based website called Positive Real Estate Professionals . The site was originally built to be able to combat the negative media and their attacks against us as a whole. Since that time, my business partner and I decided to take the site from a single user platform to a multi user platform and develop it into a Real Estate Network. On April 1, 2009, we launched the network platform and began accepting new members. The membership request is not a long process. Once you fill out the form, we basically verify you are who you say you are and work for who you say you do. Once that is verified, we then send you a recurring invoice for $100 and this covers your 12 month membership. The invoice will then be sent again prior to your expiration of the first year.

Membership is restricted to professionals in the Real Estate industry. This includes but not limited to Realtors, Brokers, Loan officers, Lenders, Lead Providers, stagers, title companies, builders, Real Estate Attorneys, re molders, escrow agents, Home Owners Insurance Companies, and more. As long as you are connectted to the Real Estate industry, we are interested in you.

The members of this site will be able to have their own blog site. For an example, you can look at Oregon Real Estate Queen or FHA/USDA/VA and Conventional Mortgage Loan News or Sandy Noll… Real Estate & More for examples of the way the pages set up. We also have forms like a Relocation Form, Property Watch, Target Interest Rate, Comparative Market Analysis, BPO Request Form, Title Order Form – Purchase, Title Order Form – Refinance, and a FHA Short Refi form. We have more forms that will be available, but these are just the tip of the iceberg and can appear on your site as a page or we can link them up. Either way, there is never a need for your readers to leave your page to fill anything out. On top of this, if you are a Realtor, we can connect a MLS property search onto your site so your readers can also search properties without leaving. All of these features, while able to connect Real Estate Industry professionals to one another, are geared to make the visitors / readers’ experience while on your site as streamlined and informative as possible.

Over the last month I have been working on increasing my site views. One of the ways that I decide to do this is by joining a website know as EntreCard. I was hoping to find some EntreCard success like I had heard about from others that had joined. It is a great idea in that it helps to draw traffic to your site by you going to others participants sites. I do not really think that this is revolutionary or even unique as much as I think that it works because the people themselves work at it. I got the idea for this post after reading a post called Outside the Rain that was written by my business partner, Rich Dansereau, on his blog called Rich’s Blog.

The way that EntreCard works is quite simple really and takes a level of commitment from the people that join. It is not a “Get a ton of traffic” type site that you join and it just happens. You have to stick with it, do it daily, and then it will work for you. When you initially join, I will tell you that it is better to create your own “drop card” such as the ones that you see here. It is better to have your own because it shows a level of commitment. The goal is to attract people to come to your site and drop their card on your site. This is typically done by visiting their site and “dropping” your card. You can also get your card on someone else’s site for a 24 hour period by “purchasing” ad space. There is no exchange of money as everything that is earned here is in the form of “EC” of EntreCard credits.

Over my time on the site, one of the things that I have notice is the lack of “working it”. I have seen people sign up today only to be gone tomorrow. I have seen people sign up today and never even participate with one single drop. As I said before, it takes a level of commitment. In most cases, it is about 45 minutes a day to top it completely out. Once again, that will be based on your computer. All in all, for me, it is the best 45 minutes that I can spend at this point. I have increased my views for about 50 to 75 a day to 200 to 275 a day and it is still climbing. My goal is to get the site recognizable and have people visit it on a regular basis. And even at that point, I think that EntreCard will still be right for me because it can only bring me more new viewers and readers.

As for the cards that are displayed here, these are the top 10 websites that have visited my site through entrecard this month. I just wanted to recognize each one of them. I hope that you will take some time to check out their sites. Each of the cards have been linked to their websites. I have also listed them each below and added the links for easy access too.

Kevin on KEZ
Generate free money and traffic for your Blog
Blogging Buddha
Athletic Alley
The Nonsense Blog
Diet Recipes Blog
The house that Koen & Claire (re)built.com
Soap Sushi Bath & Body Boutique Blog
Simply Shiny
My Pictures of Montana