I know you love to hear the stories! In fact, this is way too many to efficiently handle.

I trust that all is well. 

Jason

Action: Used a postcard template from our marketing gallery to create the add for the local newspaper.

Results:314 Seller CMA requests in the first 24 Hrs. (definitely more will follow)

Cost: Just under $4K

Business problem: Too much business to handle!

John Jones

www.JohnCJones.com

There are time saving benefits to an integrated IDX as well. Since integration means that your listing information is pulled directly from the MLS to populate your site it means no more loading listings to the MLS and then entering them a second time on your website! Are you tired of setting up visitors on recurring searches day in and day out? IDX integration automates the process of setting up of recurring searches, so you don't have to!

To learn more, click here.

Real Pro Gold comes with your own integrated agent blog.  No need to go out and purchase or create a separate blogging system, you can turn on your own blog with a click of a mouse.  Use your blog to establish your local expertise, personalize your business and enhance your search engine optimization. 

How Does Blogging Help My SEO? Search engines are continually searching for new content to index and one of the fastest ways to add unique, fresh content to your site is by using an integrated blog.  The more often search engines find new content on your site, the faster they will come back next time and the higher the ranking in the search result.  Blogging is a fast, easy way to help you with your organic search rankings.

Site Map Submission Service We submit your website’s site map to the search engines after each blog post.  We submit to MSN live, Google, Google blogs, Ask.com and Yahoo! 

Blog Directory Pinging Service In addition to submitting your site map we also send out an electronic signal, or ping to several blog directories to let them know you have a new blog post to index.  We ping:  Ping-o-Matic, Feedburner, Technorati, Weblogs and Twingly.

Need Help with What to Write? We know that coming up with things to write about on your blog can be almost as challenging as writing the blog itself; which is why we have included a list of 100 topics to blog about build right into the Real Pro Gold admin panel. 

Do You Tweet? Since Twitter has become more popular as an online social networking tool in the real estate industry, we thought it would be nice to integrate your blog and your Twitter account. Just click a box and your new posts will be posted to your Twitter account. 

To have an effective email campaign, you need to know your target audience adn a few other key elements. If you you already have a grasp of the benefits of email campaigns, this call can serve as a great review. If you would like a better understanding of the value of email campaigns, this cal will be well worth your time.

Click here to listen.

Enjoy.

The property description goes here. With each property you have the ability to upload 27 photos.  The Google map feature also incorporates satellite and hybrid views. Click the map property link on the left to see this work. You can also upload plat maps and disclosures as well as add virtual tours.

Showing feedback is another feature that comes with your Real Pro System. It is easy to request feedback by email from the agent that views your listing. When a showing agent receives your request, they will be taken to a page to rate your listing. See sample.

Once the showing agent rates the property you can send your seller a report of the feedback.  Click here to review sample report.

The property description goes here. With each property you have the ability to upload 27 photos.  The Google map feature also incorporates satellite and hybrid views. Click the map property link on the left to see this work. You can also upload plat maps and disclosures as well as add virtual tours.

Showing feedback is another feature that comes with your Real Pro System. It is easy to request feedback by email from the agent that views your listing. When a showing agent receives your request, they will be taken to a page to rate your listing. See sample.

Once the showing agent rates the property you can send your seller a report of the feedback.  Click here to review sample report.

As a SEO professional you rarely find a website provider that takes in the full spectrum of their clients’ needs including those of the search engines. Real Pro Systems does just that.  I provide SEO services for the real estate industry, and Real Pro Systems hands down offers the best value for the industry's needs. I've seen real estate website providers that actually hinder their clients search engine rankings. Real Pro Systems has taken SEO friendliness to a whole new level.  The architecture and customizability make it my platform of choice. I can get my clients better search engine placement by using Real Pro Gold or Real Pro Silver, which means better ROI for the client.  Lee West, SEO Professional Services.

Today I spoke with a client of ours that said, since he has used Lee to optimize his website, he is now #5 on Google for the number 1 search phrase in his area.

Great job Lee.

The property description goes here. With each property you have the ability to upload 27 photos.  The Google map feature also incorporates satellite and hybrid views. Click the map property link on the left to see this work. You can also upload plat maps and disclosures as well as add virtual tours.

Showing feedback is another feature that comes with your Real Pro System. It is easy to request feedback by email from the agent that views your listing. When a showing agent receives your request, they will be taken to a page to rate your listing. See sample.

Once the showing agent rates the property you can send your seller a report of the feedback.  Click here to review sample report.

You may have heard the term “Stealth Website”, but you may not be sure as to what it is exactly and how you would use stealth marketing or stealth websites in your business.

A stealth site is simply a site that offers a service or information that a buyer or seller is searching for. If you ask yourself, “why do buyers and sellers go online?” The answer is surprisingly simple; to start the information gathering process.

Seth Godin, author of the book “Permission Marketing”, explains the marketing concept of giving valuable information and asking in exchange for contact information. The concept of stealth marketing follows that ideology. When a buyer goes online, they are looking for listings or conversely if a seller goes online, they are seeking the value of their home. If you are going to have any chance of getting the buyers/sellers contact information, you need to first offer them what they are looking for and in exchange, they may be willing to give you what you are looking for, i.e., their contact information.  Once you have their contact information give you both a means, either an email address or a phone number and a legitimate reason to follow up.

Most agents attempt advertise these offerings on a website that not only offers these services, but is also filled with other information such as buyer and seller tips/reports, area information, links to schools and usually highlights the agents/teams many qualifications. What is wrong with that approach? Well, nothing if the buyer or seller knows the agent or is ready to talk with an agent. In the mind of the buyer or seller just looking for area listings or a home valuation, this type of website can deter them from leaving contact information and making a request because they are simply not ready to engage with an agent. They are thinking, “if I register on this website, I’m sure that agent will call me.”  So they leave the site and you’ve lost the valuable opportunity to capture and cultivate that lead.

Stealth marketing or using stealth sites helps agents to lower the barriers of entry so that agents can make a connection with a prospect at the beginning stages of the transaction process when they are seeking information.  Real Pro Systems provides a unique web strategy by creating consumer centric websites that allow you (the agent) to target a buyer or seller by advertising for the services the agents has to offer. If you would like to see an example of a buyers’ stealth site visit www.rpshomesearch.com.

Benefit 1. Buyers and sellers can easily identify “what’s in it for them”

Benefit 2. There is not a lot of information required. The buyers or sellers fear of being contacted is all but alleviated.

Benefit 3. The buyers and sellers get what they want, information and the agent gets an opportunity to turn an internet lead into a client!

I love the way top producing agent, Mike Parker of Huff Realty in Northern Kentucky, explains the concept of stealth sites.  He talks about with marketing you have a front door, side door, and back door. He uses this analogy to explain that the front door is your agent branded website, buyers and sellers looking for Mike Parker. The side door is a website used to capture clients looking for homes and not an agent (the stealth site approach). The back door would be a buyer or seller looking for general information could be community info, schools, parks, etc. This content could be on your branded site as well as in your blog. Ah yes, blogging… very important, but we will save that topic for anther time.

The property description goes here. With each property you have the ability to upload 27 photos.  The Google map feature also incorporates satellite and hybrid views. Click the map property link on the left to see this work. You can also upload plat maps and disclosures as well as add virtual tours.

Showing feedback is another feature that comes with your Real Pro System. It is easy to request feedback by email from the agent that views your listing. When a showing agent receives your request, they will be taken to a page to rate your listing. See sample.

Once the showing agent rates the property you can send your seller a report of the feedback.  Click here to review sample report.

I narrowed it down to my top five favorites in no particular order. I hope you find this useful.

- The move advocate www.moveadvocate.com
The offer a personal assistant to your clients that research, coordinate, and manage all the details associated with moving. The best part.... it is a free service. They get paid by their business partners which are name brand moving companies. Contact Mickey Matteson

- PreVisite www.previsite.com
These guys get the WOW factor. With the click of their camera you can take one photo and capture an entire room, upload photos online and automatically create a virtual tour. No stitching or distortion. Contact Angela Marshall

- EcoBroker www.echobroker.com
With the trend of going green, EcoBroker offers a certification program as well as a ton of information related to going green. They have an extensive list of Green products and other useful information. Contact Linda Besler

- Aspen Grove www.aspengrove.net
I can't quite put my head around their offering, but if you need help with managing REO properties, it may be worth researching. Contact Aisling McElligott

- Arch Telecom www.archtelecom.com 
Arch offers IVR systems,as well as a list of FSBO leads. They offer FSBO leads within a 50 mile radius of any zip code. You can also see if the FSBO's are investors, real estate agents, or assisted FSBO's. This could be a good complement to our FSBO system. Contact Michael Underwood

If you work properties in markets that differ markedly such as investment property vs. vacation property, REOs or even rentals, this can be especially important.  Consider grouping them together by category, and then creating a specific sub-menu entry that brings up only that group of properties.

Instead of one “Featured Properties” page and menu, you could have a top-level menu “Featured Properties” and then sub-menus that appear and describe groups of properties; rentals, vacation homes, luxury homes, condos, and the like.  Each of those sub-menus can then point to a page or list of just those properties.

Your site visitors will find this far more intuitive and easy to navigate.  They can easily key in on just what they are looking for.  This may sound hard to do, but it is very easy to set up in Real Pro Gold.  I created a tag for rental listings. Under my menu item “properties for sale” you will find a dropdown item for rentals. Any property I tag “rental” will appear on the page. See for your self.

The property description goes here. With each property you have the ability to upload 27 photos.  The Google map feature also incorporates satellite and hybrid views. Click the map property link on the left to see this work. You can also upload plat maps and disclosures as well as add virtual tours.

Showing feedback is another feature that comes with your Real Pro System. It is easy to request feedback by email from the agent that views your listing. When a showing agent receives your request, they will be taken to a page to rate your listing. See sample.

Once the showing agent rates the property you can send your seller a report of the feedback.  Click here to review sample report.

Jim Markland

 We are focusing on transitioning  Mayes Harris Realty from the traditional realtor marketing programs to taking advantage of the many web marketing tools available today.  The Inman News webinar sponsored by Real Pro this week provided us with many great ideas, and confirmed similar ideas presented to us at a recent Star Power program here in Charlotte.  Thanks so much for your help in getting us started with Real Pro. 

 Tom Ingram

Simply defined by Wikipedia, Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is “the process of improving volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via ‘natural’ (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. 

Now what does that mean?  Search engines like Yahoo, MSN, Google etc offer information at our fingertips, all we have to do is tell them what we are looking for.  Your goal is to get more people to the pages of your website that provide the information they are looking for.  The closer your website is to the first page of the results they return, the better chance you have of being found online when someone is searching for what you offer. 

Optimizing your site is the process taken to improve your positioning without using paid advertising.  There are a handful of things that you can do on your own without having to pay someone an arm and a leg to do for you.  Here are a few:
• Making sure your site is “visible” or “crawl-able” by the search engine spiders that determine page rank.

• Being clear on your search term strategy.  What search terms are you expecting your website visitors to search on?

• Choosing page titles, meta-tags, meta-descriptions and keywords that are relevant to your business and relevant to the content on the page.

• Adding fresh content to your site regularly, continually giving the robots “fresh reading material.”

• Establishing inbound links relevant to your site’s content.

Now understanding all of the ins and outs of SEO is much more complicated than that but there are some very basic things that can be done to help with your positioning.

Real Pro Systems knows how important optimizing your web site is.  We have built our sites on a search engine friendly architecture, provided built-in tools to set your page titles, meta-descriptions and key words, provided an integrated blog, and provide initial site optimization at no extra charge!