You are probably familiar with Blackberry and iPhone smartphones but you may be completely in the dark about the up-and-coming alternative – the Android. Android is actually an operating system developed by Google and made available to phone manufacturers such as Samsung, Motorola, HTC and many others.
This review of the Samsung Captivate shows how impressive these phones can be. For business users the question is, how well does this phone perform your most critical business-related functions. We’ll address this question in future posts.
The first step in developing an effective SEM strategy is to choose the right keywords or search terms. As I explained in a previous post about keywords, Google runs on keywords. So it is your choice of keywords (search terms), along with aggressive keyword-centered promotion of your site that will build steady traffic.
You need more than one Target Search Term
Note: I prefer the term “search terms” rather than “keywords” because it makes it clearer that this discussion is about search-centred marketing.
Regardless of your business – and certainly if you are a real estate agent – it is tempting to assume there are just one or two search terms that you should concern yourself with. Read the rest of this entry →
As you get deeper into web marketing the importance of keywords will gradually begin to dawn on you. Keywords and keyword phrases are at the heart of how every search engine operates.
Why keywords are central to SEM
The way the search engines (SEs) work goes something like this:
- The SEs send out their “spiders” to “crawl” the web on a regular basis. They are constantly out there crawling away. As they go they analyse and digest the content of new and existing web pages. Read the rest of this entry →
If you know anything about online marketing you know the importance of search engines – especially Google. For the last five or six years Google has dominated the online search field. You cannot possibly be serious about online marketing unless you spend time getting ranked in Google. There are other search engines such as Bing, but in this series of articles I will use “Google” to cover all of them.
There are two main types of traffic you can get from Google – “free” (or “organic”) and “paid” (or “sponsored”). Trying to get the search engines to drive “free” traffic to your website(s) is called Search Engine Marketing or SEM. SEM involves different ways of trying to influence search engines – especially Google – to give you high ranking for searches done on your most important keywords. Read the rest of this entry →
“RVing is a more economical way to live. I’d cite the lack of taxes tied to home ownership: city tax, county tax, school tax. Also there are no association fees (for condos), water bills, trash pickup bills. The caveat however is that the RV depreciates in value over years while real estate typically has appreciated.” – http://real-estate-webs.info/?p=696
When you are just one realtor among many others in your community who provide almost exactly the same service it is important to be unique. If there’s nothing unique about you, chances are people see you as just another boring real estate agent looking for easy commissions.
Of course you can say “I am unique because I am a professional providing exceptional service.” But then all agents say that, don’t they? From the marketing point of view there is nothing unique about just saying “I am unique”.
Find a Unique Selling Proposition
Finding something unique to hang your hat on is what marketers often call creating a USP – a “Unique Selling Proposition”. Your USP is a feature of your business approach that will set you apart from your competitors, that you can build your prospecting approach around, and that you can use in your marketing so that your brand has a consistent and unique identity. Read the rest of this entry →
The Blackberry smartphone from Research in Motion (RIM) made mobile email a reality all the way back in 2002. And because of its entrenched status as the go-to messaging device for business it remains one of the most powerful players in the smartphone market.
But with the introduction of the Apple iPhone in 2007 and more recently, Android-powered smartphones, RIM’s dominance has been threatened. Some analysts are even predicting that RIM simply cannot compete because it has fallen too far behind and is stuck in a rut.
Apple iPhone 4
In fact, what has happened is that the market has been fragmented, with different phone makers appealing to different segments of the market. As it stands today Blackberry is great for business, but not so great for the fun and games most non-business consumers are interested in. The “app-happy” crowd just love their touch screen iPhones and Androids. And they’re not the only ones. Read the rest of this entry →
We think of BlogEasy as a kind of “wire service for real estate bloggers”. It provides you with original written content that you can use in your blog(s), and social networking (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
Here is a step-by-step description of how to use BlogEasy pre-written content.
Step 1 – Open the Program and log in. You have to use the id and password you used when you set up your profile.
Step 2 – Once you’re in, and you want to post a “BlogEasy Article”, click on the link that says “BlogEasy Articles”. This will take you to the list of prewritten articles.
We’re pleased to announce the release of AgentMapIt Gold – the newest version of AgentMapIt that includes a complete suite of tools for real estate agents. AgentMapIt Gold membership includes:
1. Your listing in the AgentMapIt Referral Directory
2. Unlimited use of Feedback – our showing manager and feedback system.
3. Unlimited use of BlogEasy – US and Canadian versions – giving you daily real estate related material for your blogs and social networking updates (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
4. Lead Machine – coming in Sept 2010 – an easy, effective way to generate leads.
For a limited time the first month is FREE. After the first month there is only a small monthly subscription fee.
Please note: Members who sign up during this introductory period will lock in the low membership fee of $29/month for as long as they remain members.
A “hyperlocal” blog is one that focuses on specific neighbourhood within a region. In a hyperlocal blog you publish material of specific interest to people in those neighbourhoods.
Why specific neighbourhoods or communities? Why hyper local? One reason for this is to gain search engine traction for those targeted communities. Keywords such as “Lakeshore Village Kingston” are much less competitive than “Kingston”.
But this is really a secondary reason for focusing on the smaller community. The truth is you will get very little search engine traffic from hyperlocal keywords, even if you dominate them in the search results. Read the rest of this entry →
