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.

Free advertising that works! is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site

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.

Great article about treating your readers like dogs. is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site

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!

How to edit the publishing date on your blog post is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site

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! 

Want traffic, need traffic, don’t know where to start? is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site

I help teach an open lab every week here in the Canton area and this Thursday I met a wonderful lady, with a wealth of information to share.  Kathy Drewien.  While browsing around her site I found this information on what to do “When Your Mom wants to be your Friend on facebook”  and it lead me to another post which gave you some great step by step instructions on how to set up your friends list and why so go visit “How to Friend Mom” and set up your list today. 

Need help getting it setup or understanding it give me a call.

Facebook – great information on how to use list is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site

As the Atlanta Home Inspectors wife I love learning about the latest technology, tho YouTube is not new or even remotely new.  As our primary marketing person, I look for different ways to market our business without it costing us an arm and a leg, and in today’s market, we all need cheap.  One of the best ways that I have found is to do our own YouTube Videos.  I found the following press release just the other day that confirms my ideas that YouTube is huge.  YouTube is now one of the largest places being searched on the Internet.  Are your clients able to find you there?

 Press Release

“Are you advertising here? If not… You should be!” says the Atlanta home inspectors wife is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site

I wanted to post this out there for all who wish to know about it.  This is a Free  Tech Lab  that has amazing information and helpers available  to do hands on help at every session.  Sponsored by the Women’s Council of Realtors Cherokee Chapter.  I know for a fact that they have a video class coming up in the next few weeks, that will not be free as a matter of fact you need to be a member of WCR to attend.  This video class will take you from the beginning stages of doing a video to the final stages and will be worth CEU’s for Realtors.

So Join us for L.A.B…..”Leading Agents Beyond” tech training on the latest software that helps REALTORS maximize their productivity and success!! HANDS ON…bring your laptop!

DATES/LOCATIONS:
Cherokee Association Training Center
1600 River Park Blvd., Ste 104
Woodstock, GA 30188
Thursdays 11am-1pm
3/26, 4/2, 4/23, 5/7, 5/21

Outfront Education Training Ctr.
2205 Riverstone Blvd Ste 107
Canton, GA 30114
Tuesdays 9-11am
3/24, 4/14, 4/28, 5/12, 5/26

Shawn Graves-WCR Education Chair is the main contact person and coordinator for these classes and has shared a ton of valuable information all ready.   This is a great time for all of us to learn LOTS!!!
I know this morning Shawn went over several things in FMLS including how to pull special reports, how to locate several items in GAMLSPRO and he has a wealth of information to share every time.  I was happy to share with several people different things about Facebook, Twitter, and blogging.  Are you there getting your share, don’t get left behind, just because there isn’t a charge don’t think these labs are not of value.  Several people are already taking advantage of these free labs, don’t miss out! Put it on your calendar!

Women’s Council of Realtors Tech Labs are FREE and Open to all is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site

As the Atlanta home inspectors wife, I was constantly searching on the interent and through websites for information on how to build our Atlanta Home Inspection website and how to be found on Google.  Below is a great article by Shayne Harris that explains some great tips on how to drive traffic your way.

Home Inspectors Wife shares “7 Steps to Driving Prospects to Your Website” is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site

Last night I was looking around for some marketing information and also looking

 for ways to increase David’s presence on the web and found this really neat site called 

It is a place that allows you to keep in touch with those who are following you just simply by texting your twitter account and all those who have an account instantly know what’s going on with you. It also puts your information on their twitter account so when the search engines and spiders are doing their thing, it finds your name and websites. 

I thought about several great ways to use this, just in my family alone.  Say you’re going to be late you can text your whole family with one message and let them know, or you’re running late to a meeting, one Text can let everyone know. 

Plus it’s just alot of fun!  Go to www.Twitter.com and Check it out.

Bonnie Lelak

The Home Inspectors Wife

www.askthegeorgiahomeinspector.com

Great New Tool For Those who love to Text Messaging is a post from: The Atlanta Home Inspector's Wife Marketing Site