To say the Bugatti Veyron is a car would be like saying the statue of Liberty is just a statue.  This super car has ridiculous stats.  It hits 60 mph in just 2.5 seconds and has a top speed of 253 mph.  Of course along with that super performance comes a super price tag of over $1,600,000.  In the December issue of Car And Driver, they cover this vehicle in all it’s glory.  Besides it’s freak show performance, I found it interesting that the car gathered so much attention. No matter... 

As you grow your online presence one of the big goals is to get a visitor to stay longer so they can see the true value in your real estate blog or website.  Better yet, they stay longer, see the value, and then contact you for help!  The real trick to keeping visitors on your website and blog is to provide an experience where they are enriched and don’t feel like they can’t find the information.  How do we do this?  One of the ways we that we can keep visitors staying and interacting... 

 This past weekend I was helping my wife search for a new-used car.  As I am the designated “car guy” of the family I was happy to pick up the cause to look for a vehicle.  The used car market is pretty soft so I was definitely hunting to find a deal.  After searching through a few websites I felt like I easily could have been searching for real estate.   There were a few problems that I ran into while I was searching:  Different websites returned different available vehicles... 

1000Watt Consulting is an organization that has released some stellar reports in the past and this one is no different.  Their study of Real Estate Broker websites produced some interesting analysis and some great calls to action for change.  I think when the magnifying glass is applied to websites across the country, as they did in this report, it is a great opportunity to see how some brokers are making real strides to connect with their next customers and how sometimes the smallest of changes... 

As you start generating leads online, you will find that people will be requesting information on a variety of topics.  Some of the things they may request information on are: A particular neighborhood An condo complex An individual listing Information about loan programs The best agents working leads from their real estate websites and blogs will follow up on these requests.  Some people will provide phone numbers while others a simple e-mail address.  All are worth following up on as you never... 

Whenever we are helping real estate professionals learn more about the topic of making their websites stand out among the thousands of competitors in their local market, we always talk about content.  Differentiating your website with content is one of the MOST powerful ways to demonstrate market expertise.  Besides putting up content about cities and neighborhoods, we get asked “What about school information?”.  Joe and I always take a moment before responding because there are complications... 

One of the biggest challenges that agents run into when developing their websites is what to put on that first page.  Before you get out that 8 x 10 glossy photo we thought it might be helpful if we gave you a method that both visitors and search engines will like.   Keeping that first page of your real estate website simple and making your visitors aware of the areas you cover will create visitors who stay longer and give the search engines an easy way to know what your website is about. Look... 

I was watching Jurassic Park last weekend and oddly enough it reminded me of real estate. These powerful animals roamed the earth for millions of years, yes with some evolution, but with little change.  Eventually, as we know, the dinosaurs became extinct.  Sadly, I don’t think there is a John Hammond out there working on bringing them back either.  Some died in the tar pits while others could NOT adapt to an environment that radically changed. We have been experiencing some radical change... 

It’s a beautiful occurrence that happens just every 4 years.  The best of the best from around the world come together to find out truly who will be an Olympic Champion.  The events are thrilling, often nail biting, and your emotions swing with every passing second as you root for champion in the hopes that they get the Gold. No matter what sport you enjoy watching one of the great aspects about the Olympics is that of the stories of each athlete.  The journey to the Olympics is not one... 

Although 2008 has thus far been a challenging year for many real estate professionals, one of the best aspects is that everyone has been forced to look at actually doing some marketing (I know crazy to think that you can’t do 15 sales a year by showing up to an open house for an hour on a Sunday, but I digress).  For many agents that has meant entering the world of online marketing. As real estate agents we are often drawn to the instant fix.  Just “buy this now” and you will...