As the Atlanta home inspector’s wife, I often go to several different networking groups per month.  And this is the thing that I noticed about doing all of this.  I meet several people at these groups, but I never really really find out what all they do.  I know a lot of realtors also and work with several of them on a regular basis, but I got to thinking, do I know what their specialty is?  One of the reasons that I got to thinking about this is, this past week we had a client that had a need for a structural engineer, an electrician and a termite guy.  Luckily I knew just the guys to help with two of the items and I knew who I could call to get the third item handled. 

Another thing that got me to thinking about this was another story.  I went to lunch with a couple of lady friends over a week ago and one of them was saying something about the fact that she needed to find someone to help with her website, they have one up but it is nothing to brag about.  Well she continued to talk about this problem for several minutes and I finally asked her ” do you not know that I build wordpress websites?”  The look on her face was priceless, no she didn’t know and yet we have been friends for quite a while.  All she knew about me was that I do the marketing for our home inspection company.

How many people do you know and how can you begin to build your own network of people who you can recommend to others?  It is simple, start with those people that you use on a regular basis, add them to a reference sheet and if nothing else be prepared to hand it out to those clients who have questions.  People don’t forget those people who help them out on a regular basis.  You can be the “Go To Person”!

If you need a great website built be sure to check out some of my wordpress websites I’ve built, this website and several others have been built or maintained by me.  And several have great google rankings.  Don’t know what I mean by Google Rankings check back soon, I’m going to be doing a post on it also.

Just wanted to take time and say

I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day.  Remember to send that someone special a card today. 

Did you know that at www.followuprobot.com you can chose from several real cards, write your own message inside or leave the preprinted on there or both and with your own handwriting and then they print it, they stuff it, they stamp it and they mail it.  All you did was type it.  Go to www.followuprobot.com and try sending one on me today!

David and Bonnie Lelak here from IHI Home Inspections.  I recently wrote an article titled “Are you advertising here?” In it I talked about how Youtube is one of the highest searched websites out there now.  Most people don’t realize how powerful video is and how much Google loves it and those that do realize it, are not using it to it’s fullest potential.  There are tips and tricks to using Youtube and video just like writing your blog.  I have learned so many and then I just spent last week learning even more.  While I was surfing around on the web I found the following article on how to get started with video.  It gives you some great information. 

Online Videos For Your Real Estate Website or Blog
by Peyman Aleagha
 http://www.realtysoft.com

Just when you think you’re catching up with technology with a website or blog, you find that there is now a requirement for video on your site. 

It’s not a legal requirement, but one of demand from the consumer and your site visitors. Video on the Web has mushroomed, with YouTube alone hosting almost 100 million videos from 3.75 million user channels. Then there is Google Video, Yahoo Video, Vimeo, and a dozen others in the mainstream.

Not just the Internet, but also mobile technology is moving rapidly. Videos are becoming very popular on cell phones as well. The iPhone is changing the way that the cell phone is utilized. And, what percentage of your real estate customers come from out of your area? They need information about the area, attractions, natural beauty, parks, schools and more. But, they also want to SEE what all of this looks like. Photos are great, but video rocks!

Don’t fret, though. The same rapidly advancing technology that makes video a demand item on your site also makes it easy and inexpensive to do. We aren’t just talking about listing videos for virtual tours. We also should have video of all of the area’s features that make it unique and a great place to live and work. What you need is a camcorder and some video editing software,neither of which must be very expensive.

One of the easiest to use video editing software solutions is absolutely free, and it is probably already on your PC if it’s operating with Windows XP. Windows Movie Maker will take your still photos or motion video right from your camera or camcorder, or off your hard drive. You can add voice-over and music, titles and credits, and even fancy transitions between photos or video clips. Other solutions with more capability are all over the Web, and at prices from $39 to hundreds. It’s all up to you and your requirements.

A higher end software product is Camtasia Studio. Many of the training videos you see or purchase are done in this software. The latest version produces videos in all of the common formats, but the default is MPEG 4, which gives you high definition video with smaller file sizes than the other formats. The smaller file size lets the video play through with fewer of those annoying pauses while the download catches up to the playing. This software will also produce an iPod video format directly.

What about a camcorder? You can spend a lot of money, or you can do a very credible job with less than $150 for the high end “The Flip” video camcorder. It’s really easy to use, produces 640 x 480 video, and has one really great feature. It is called the “flip” because a button flips out a USB connector to plug directly into a computer. Even better, the on-board software will send the video up to YouTube directly, bypassing your hard drive if you want. It will even let you add music in the process. Most of our videos are done with the Flip video, it’s fast, fun and easy to use. 

OK, we have a camcorder, and we have editing software. Where do we put our videos?

YouTube — This is the gorilla in the video world. And, it’s free, so very popular. Your videos will get a lot of exposure on YouTube, and you’ll begin to get followers who will subscribe to your “channel” to see your new ones. Once the video is up, you can get “embed” code to place it right into your website or blog.

Google and Yahoo Video — Both of these major players have free video sites as well. Together, they don’t even come close to the plays that YouTube boasts, but they get traffic, so you want to upload your videos there as well.

Vimeo — This is a newer and free service. Vimeo has a nice presentation, and it offers HD quality. They don’t take commercial videos though, so don’t put listing presentations up. They will pull them down. However, if you don’t put promo stuff in your area videos, they should be fine.

Tubemogul — This isn’t a video production service, but a great tool to get your videos uploaded to multiple services at one time and track the views. You start a free Tubemogul account, and give it your logins to services like YouTube, Google, Yahoo and other video sites. Then you upload your video, title and describe it just once, and TubeMogul uploads it to all of the sites at once. It gives you graphs of daily views, and you can even give your listing client a link to keep up with the views of their home videos.

Have fun, don’t spend a lot of money, and make your site visitors happy with video.

As part of the Atlanta home inspectors team, I go around to different real estate offices and I was speaking to an agent the other day who is having a wonderful career.  She is closing sales and generating new business and leads like crazy.  Things are definately rocking and rolling right along for her.  I was nearly floored when she that she just does not have time to follow-up on all these leads.  But then, if you’re a business that is generating leads on a regular basis then we all suffer from this problem at one time or another, right?

Can you imagine how much business is slipping through your fingers because you don’t have time or simply don’t have a system in place to keep in touch or follow-up?  Does this sound like you?

Needless to say, if you did realize the importance and the business you could be missing then perhaps we should talk…

What I would like to know is do you have a marketing plan in place, a place where you can see your plan layed out, a system in place for lead generation, follow-up and keep in touch? Do you use an easy to use email system that keeps you in front of your clients?  Do you do this consistantly?  Is it part of your marketing plan?  And do you feel that you don’t have time or that these tasks are taking up time from other tasks you could be doing?  How much of this have you automated?

For more information on any of these systems, how they can help you get ahead of your competition, or perhaps how to implement them into your small business practices, contact me or let’s get together and start making plans now to be extremely busy in 2010. 

Call me today at 404-788-2580 and let’s talk! I look forward to helping you any way I can!

There are so many different ways to stay in touch now days, including different social media platforms. Even large Fortune 500 companies are jumping on the band wagon of Twitter. Now days you have to stay in touch with the consumer and you have to do it online and offline. I love Facebook and and Ping.fm to stay in touch online and of course email is still an option!  Are you using all the tools out there to keep you in touch.  Are you connecting with your clients and their friends on Facebook?  Are you posting video testimonials on YouTube?  Are you blogging about your day and your business on your blog?   Do you send out Thank You notes to your clients, referral sources and those you meet? These are just a few of the places that you can get connected through.  Put something to use today, you’ll be glad you did. 

I am the wife of a busy Atlanta home inspector and I do most of the marketing for our home inspection business.  I am constantly online learning about SEO, social network marketing, blogging, Google adwords and anything relating to the internet.  I teach classes and tele-seminars about blogging and social media.  I am part of an Internet Success Marketing Mastermind group and love helping people in general.  You can follow me on Twitter and on Face book.

As the Atlanta home inspectors wife I am constantly looking for different ways to market freely or cheaply, so when I ran across this great article on Twitter and I wanted to share it with you.

5 Tips for Getting More From Twitter

As the Atlanta home inspectors wife  one of the ways I have helped our business is by blogging.  I have been blogging for almost two years and to be honest, I too have run out of ideas.  When I ran across the following post talking about how to come up with more content for your blog I couldn’t beleive how simple it was.  He listed two main points. 

1. Sit down and brainstorm article ideas, just write down the titles, that’s it!

2. Look through your list of titles and then create your blog, of course write down new ideas at the bottom and always add to your list. 

That was it, that was his two ideas, and so simple.  I would encourage you to stop by his blog, Next Level Blogger, and check out the full article, it’s good stuff.  I am often out and think of an idea for a blog, and I will record it in my phone notes, if I don’t it’s gone as quick as it came.  I notice a lot of the time that the ideas will come and it is not the most convenient time to write the blog, having a list of ideas can save you tremendous time.

I am the wife of a busy Atlanta home inspector and I do most of the marketing for our home inspection business.  I am constantly online learning about SEO, social network marketing, blogging, Google adwords and anything relating to the internet.  I teach classes and tele-seminars about blogging and social media.  I am part of an Internet Success Marketing Mastermind group and love helping people in general.  You can follow me on Twitter and on Face book.

I ran across this really great article in my inbox and could not have said it any better.  It really brings into perspective how you should treat people that follow you, and a lot of times I see people treat theirs animals better than they treat their friends or themselves.  Sonia writes some really great articles and I love it when her stuff hits my inbox, I know I will always get a nugget or two that I can use.  You should check her out also, but for now here’s her article below. 

Do you want a wider audience, more subscribers, better conversion to paying customers, fanatically loyal readers, and enviable word of mouth?You can have all of them by keeping one simple piece of advice in mind: Treat your readers like dogs. If you want to teach your dog to sit, how do you go about it? Any good trainer will tell you that the smart way is to give him lots of rewards and love every time he sits when you say, “Sit!” It doesn’t take long before he’s waiting eagerly to see what other kinds of instruction you might have. Would you like him to shake hands? Fetch your pipe and slippers? Take out the trash and wash the dishes? Positive reinforcement makes an ally of your dog. You’re in the same pack. He wants to do things for you. He’s happy and you’re happy. How to treat readers like dogs Every time a reader does something you like (read a post, subscribe to your blog, open a message in an email newsletter, etc.), you want to give that reader a reward — a cookie. (When I say “reader,” I also include podcast listeners, video watchers, etc.) That’s what I call “cookie content,” and it has three characteristics. 1. Cookie content makes life better Cookie content makes the reader’s life better somehow. It might be a funny image, a useful tutorial, or just a really good low-carb dessert recipe. But in some way, large or small, cookie content makes the reader glad she took a few minutes to consume it. Reference and how-to content make great cookie content. Inspiring, funny, or heartwarming content can work too, if you’re good at it. If your readers print out your content so they can refer back to it, or bookmark it on Delicious, you’ve got it right. 2. Cookie content can be used right away The 60-Year Plan for Getting Moderately Well-Off doesn’t tend to make for good cookie content. 10 Things You Can Do This Weekend to Repair Your Credit does. No, you don’t want to overpromise quick “magic bullet” schemes. But cookie content isn’t about the long term and it’s not about hard work. It’s about fast, simple solutions that people can use right away. It’s fine to talk about the longer term too. But be sure you have enough quick cookies in your content to keep things palatable. Your readers have enough complexity to contend with. They’re not looking for more in your content. 3. Cookie content tastes good Cookie content is highly readable. It brings the reader pleasure. It’s often entertaining. It’s well organized, which makes it digestible. Cookie content uses your best writing skills. Not to show off how smart and talented you are, but to make the content more delicious for your reader. Easy reading is damn hard writing ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne Training your readers In a crowded email inbox or RSS reader, cookie content will tend to attract your reader’s attention first. You’re literally training that reader to consume your content, because the content is beneficial and appealing. Each time she reads your work, she feels better. It doesn’t take long for you to become a pleasurable habit with that reader. (Even better, you’re 100% fat free.) Does this mean you never get to promote yourself? Not at all. You can make high-quality offers regularly (and should, if you want to make a living). Just be sure you’re including enough cookies to keep your reader’s attention and interest. You probably don’t want to create content that consists of nothing but cookies. That can give even the most self-indulgent reader indigestion. But include enough that you’re always training your audience to open your email, read your blog posts, and pass along your special reports. You’ll find that the more you reward them, the more they reward you. About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.

Thanks Sonia for another great article and more great information that I can use.  I hope my readers can use it as well.

Are you feeling creative and able to write several post in one day but don’t want them all published one right after the other.  Watch the following video and find out how to delay your post a few days or even a year.   

Need customized help, contact me today and let’s get started on your next marketing project.  Need to know how to start a blog, I can help!  Need to learn how to use social networking to build your business, I can help!  Want to get started on Facebook, I can help! 

Call 404-788-2580 to set up an appoointment today!

I ran across the following information over at Prep (Positive Real Estate Professionals) which is a site that I have been using now for quite a while to help drive traffic and create link backs to my own sites.   I was impressed with the job that these guys do already, but after reading this, I’m blown away!  So here’s the information:

when we were discussing putting a blog together for the Arkansas Realtors® Association (ARA), one question popped up from time to time — “Why don’t we host the blog ourselves?”

Some thought was given to hosting a blog on our ARA site, but we tried that once and it didn’t go over to well for want of traffic. That, folks, was the primary reason for making the decision to go with Positive Real Estate Professionals (PREP) — a growing real estate community that has spent the past few months helping people who make a living through real estate (agents, mortgage bankers, etc.) set up blogs and drive traffic to them.

Our little ARA blog opened about halfway through Monday and I feel compelled to share some traffic counts. From Monday through Friday, 1,866 unique visitors visited The Arkansas Realtor and we’ve recorded an average bounce rate of 18.98 percent.

Let me explain what all that means. The unique visitors count represents individual visits. If someone visited the site 30 times in the same day, only one visit would be recorded. So, 1,866 indviduals have made it to our blog over the past few days. That’s impressive and that 18.98 percent bounce rate is outstanding.

A high bounce rate, see, would mean that people are looking at the blog then quickly moving on to something else. If you have a low bounce rate, that means that people are sticking around and reading the content posted. A bounce rate below 40 percent is considered fantastic, I’m told, and this blog whips the socks off of that. Hopefully, that will continue.

What PREP has done for us is not only drive traffic to our site through social networking, but help get traffic that is meaningful. The PREP folks have found ways to get people here who can use the information we post. We don’t have to worry about promoting articles through Digg, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc. because the folks at PREP take care of that for us.

Of course, I am impressed at how excited our ARA members are about the blog and know that a lot of them have visited, too. The support from Arkansas Realtors is always appreciated and, in fact, we at the ARA wouldn’t be pursuing this project if we didn’t think it would benefit our members.

So are you ready to get started driving traffic to your own listings and your own website, then follow this link

http://positiverealestateprofessionals.com/membership-request-form-bonnie-lelak/ 

And get started today!