Cultivating Crops in 2009

Over the last 16 years in the real estate business, I have really enjoyed meeting new people and keeping in contact with many of the friends I have made. Early on in my real estate career, I learned that “farming” was a term often used by successful agents, denoting an area, sphere of influence, or specific demographic that fits ones needs personally or professionally. In the “old days” farming mainly referred to door knocking, direct mail and making sure your farm heard from you a certain number of times per year.

Today, new farms have cropped up all over the internet. Terms like niche marketing and hyper-local blogging have become quite effective. Over the past couple of years, I have studied many different types of web -based and social networking options to better serve myself and my clients. This has allowed me to grow some great new relationships as well.

While I enjoy keeping in contact with past clients and feel that they are the back-bone of my career, it is fun to cultivate new crops via niche markets. For me, one such niche market has been homes near the light rail line in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa. I have found this to be fun, interesting and mutually beneficial to myself and

to many people. So far, the seeds for this niche have been planted strictly on-line, but the response has been quite positive. In the near future, we plan to further attack these areas using a combination of new technologies and some “old school” cultivation. In fact, I have been actively seeking out real estate and mortgage professionals that will be a good fit in helping with this harvest. It is a new year, rates and prices appear to be bringing people back into the game. This truly is a great time to be in real estate, I just don’t care what the media wants to say… Our crops are planted, the growing season is upon us!

SEVRAR / BlueRoof360.com Tech Conference Schedule

Many of you have asked and so here is the line up for the day.  This is a pretty solid schedule at this point but please forgive us if we have to adjust things at the last minute!

8:15 - Registration Opens - Register online at www.SEVRAR.com - Non-Members and to order lunch please use this form.

8:45 - 9:15 - Palo Verde 1- Dean Naughton - Kickoff Speaker

9:30 - 10:15 - Theater - Jeff Raskin - Virtual Office
Palo Verde 1 - Mike Garland - Technology Threats to your Business
Palo Verde 2 - Greg Drezza - Free Virtual Tours

10:30 - 11:15 - Theater - Chip Lambert - LinkedIn Essentials
Palo Verde 1- Joeann Fossland - Blogging
Palo Verde 2 - Greg Tracy - Website Strategies

12:00 - 1:00 - Palo Verde 1 & 2- Jack Peckham - Keynote Address

1:15 - 3:00 - Theater- Jack Peckam - Real Estate Technology

If you are coming for the Keynote Address - please use this form to order lunch with your registration

1:15 - 2:00 - Palo Verde 1- Chirs McKeever - Social Media
Palo Verde 2 - Jay Thompson - Blogging

2:15 - 3:00 - Palo Verde 1 - Bill Austin - Social Media
Palo Verde 2 - Kathy Lunak - AAR Transaction Management

3:30 - 4:30 - Palo Verde 1 - Panel Discussion - Paul Pastore - Moderator
Jack Peckham, Chris McKeever, Jay Thompson, Joeann Fossland, Kathy Lunak, Craig Tracy, Bill Austin, Sarah Bonert (Zillow.com)

ALSO THROUGHOUT THE DAY WE’LL HAVE THE FOLLOWING ONE ON ONE DISCUSSIONS GOING ON IN PALO VERDE 3

9:30 - 10:15 - Serach Engine Optimization - Matt Jackson
Twitter & Other Social Media - Nick Bastian and Calie Waterhouse
General Computer & Software Questions - My Computer Works

10:30 - 11:15 - Tablet Computers- Jeff Raskin
Blogging - Jay Thompson
Twitter & Other Social Media - Nick Bastian and Calie Waterhouse
General Computer & Software Questions - My Computer Works

1:15 - 2:00 - Technology Tools- Joeann Fossland
AAR Transaction Management- Kathy Lunak
Blogging- Shailesh Ghimire
General Computer & Software Questions - My Computer Works

2:15 - 3:00 - Social Media - Chris McKeever
Blogging - Shailesh Ghimire
General Computer & Software Questions - My Computer Works

ARMLS WILL BE DOING ADVANCED FLEX MLS TRAINING THROUGHOUT THE DAY!

ARMLS Training in the Cholla Rooms

9 - 10 - Custom Views and Q&A

11 - 12 - Business Cards, Flyers and Q&A

1 - 2 - Personal Preferences and Q&A

2:30 - 3:30 - Wireless FlexMLS and Q&A

AS IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH - WE’VE GOT A TEAM OF TECHNICIANS THAT WILL BE READY TO DO A “LAPTOP CHECKUP” FOR FREE!

There will be lots of Tech Vendors there as well to get you up to speed on the latest stuff!

Don’t miss this event! SEVRAR Members Sign Up Online at www.SEVRAR.com

Non-Members please sign up with this form

Bloggers - Please feel free to cut and paste to RE-Blog this post. THANKS!

Do You Know The Power Of A Link?

The power of linking is underestimated by most bloggers. Google puts a lot of importance on links that are coming into your blog and those that connect one post to another post on your blog. The latter is called internal linking.

You don’t want to have a lot of outbound links. If you get too many outbound links the search engines will view you as a resource site and not a content rich site which determines where in the search you will end up.

DO NOT buy into link farms. These can be very dangerous and have you thrown into the ‘google sandbox’.

There is a lot that you can learn about SEO but the 2 most important things are writing good content with proper keywords and inbound and internal linking.

I advise that in every 2 paragraphs ideally you should have one link pointing to another page or to somewhere else on that same page.

Most of us do not fully utilize and optimize our blogs with internal linking strategies. Here are some ways in which you can more fully use internal linking in your blog posts.

In case you do not know how to add a link to your post, it is very easy to do:

Use Anchor text for all your links. This is one of the most important and easy SEO things you can do with your blog and website. Your anchor text should be keyword rich. Use the keywords you want to be found for in your anchor text.

What is anchor text? When you type in your post, ‘Click here to search all Wellington Florida Luxury Homes For Sale ‘ that is anchor text.

Now I would click on the link image on the toolbar and add my URL into the link box, ‘http://www.Wellington-luxury-homes.com.

Then when someone clicks on the text that I wrote like the above text, Click here to search all Wellington Florida Luxury Homes For Sale it will go to my website. When you add the link, the anchor text will be in blue font color. That tells people that if they click on the words they will be going to where you linked those words to go to.

Do not use the name of your website and write your whole web address in your post because then you are not fully optimizing using your keywords. I see a lot of posts where the whole address is right in the post and the URL is not keyword rich. Like for instance: http://www.anyrealtyinnowheretown.com. Those words should go in your link box but not in the post itself.

Use keywords in the text part.

Also when you are using links internally make sure you do not use shortcuts to certain pages within your site. Type out the entire URL within your page you want your visitor to go to. If you are sending them to another post use the URL of that post, don’t send them to just your profile page unless that is where you want them to go.

• For each post concentrate on only a few longtail keywords per post. Don’t try to go and rank for every keyword in one post. Target those specific keywords and learn how to use them effectively throughout your posts.

• When you are using internal linking add it throughout the body of your post rather than just listing all the links in a row. So in each paragraph add words that are a part of what you are writing about and turn those words into links. Linking within your page adds more relevance  and internal value to your link.

• You can go back to some of your older posts and add internal links to some of your newer pages of relevance. This way you add some valuable link juice and give it some rank boost.

If you would like to learn more about SEO and how to implement these strategies you can click here to read about my SEO To The Top Webinar.

SEVRAR / BlueRoof360.com Technology Conference - January 27, 2009!

Hi everyone…

I wanted to let you know about the SEVRAR / BlueRoof360.com Technology Conference on the 27th of January 2009!

We’re holding it at the Mesa Convention Center in Building B and we have some FANTASTIC people lined up to speak!

Jack Peckham - Founder and CEO of the Real Estate Cyberspace Society (www.RECyber.com)
Greg Tracy - REALTOR and Founder of www.BlueRoof360.com
Joeann Fossland- GRI Technology Instructor and Business and Life Coach - www.Joeann.com
Chip Lambert- LinkedIn Master Instructor from www.IntegratedAlliance.com
Bill Austin- Social Media Guru & the 3rd most linked person in Phoenix on LinkedIn www.azhttp.com
Jay Thompson- Blogger Extraordinary - www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com
Chris McKeever- NAR Center for REALTOR Technology - http://www.realtor.org/technology
Jeff Raskin - Microsoft Expert - http://technologyforrealestate.net/
Kathy Lunak- AAR Transaction Management - http://www.aaronline.com/TM/

In addition, ARMLS will be doing training all day long on the following topics

Custom Views and Q & A
Business Cards, Flyers and Q & A
Personal Preferences and Q & A
Wireless flexmls and Q & A

If that was not enough you will get the opportunity for one on one time with experts in:

Blogging
Twitter
LinkedIn & Other Social Media
Search Engine Optimization
Tablet Computers
Technology Tools
Transaction Management

Also be sure to stop by and see our very own Arizona rep Candace Robinson at the Diverse Solutions booth.  Diverse Solutions will be offering some training in conjunction with ARMLS.  For those seeking an outstanding SEARCH MLS page to diversify your online presence and make a better search experience for your consumers be sure to stop by and see the great offer that DS has for you!

SEVRAR Members and Non-Members planning on attending the Keynote Address should Sign up with this form so you can order lunch (the address is over the lunch hour 12:00-1:00).

As always, SEVRAR Members who don’t feel they need lunch can sign up at www.SEVRAR.com

Our Keynote Address by Jack Peckham is over the Lunch Break so please DON’T FORGET TO ORDER A LUNCH when registering!

Thanks to our sponsors for keeping this event FREE to EVERYONE!

www.BlueRoof360.com
www.SendOutCards.Com
www.REALTOR.org
www.ORHP.com
www.magnustitle.com
www.DiverseSolutions.com
www.Zillow.com
www.HWA.com
www.VisitMyLuxuryHome.com
www.mycomputerworks.com
www.ARMLS.com
www.Superlative.com
www.DynamicPageSolutions.com
American Title Agency

Bloggers - you have my permission and are encouraged to CUT AND PASTE this article into your own blog!

Ethics and your blog

I’ve never seen anyone write a blog post regarding ethics as it relates to a real estate blog.  Given that REALTORS^® all subscribe to a code of ethics and all all licensed, this seems a little strange, but perhaps it’s because being ethical on a blog isn’t well understood.  Or perhaps it’s because those that are ethical are saving their finger pointing for a time when they might find it useful.  Who knows.

At any rate, I thought I’d run down a few things that I find grossly problematic in the RE.Net, and pass along a few pointers that will hopefully keep the finger pointing away from you.

For the most part, it is pretty easy to be ethical on your blog, and in the past I’ve seen very few gross violations.  The violation I’ve seen the most often, however, is when a REALTOR publicly bashes another REALTOR^® during a heated blog war.  The pre-amble of the Code of Ethics clearly states that:

Realizing that cooperation with other real estate professionals promotes the best interests of those who utilize their services, REALTORS^® urge exclusive representation of clients; do not attempt to gain any unfair advantage over their competitors; and they refrain from making unsolicited comments about other practitioners.

Make a special note of that last important component:  “they refrain from making unsolicited comments about other practitioners.”  If you engage in a blog war, and start making derogatory remarks (whether they are true or not!) about your fellow REALTOR, in my opinion, you are making unsolicited comments, and you are committing an ethics violation.

The point of this was made clear to me, when I recently attended an ethics class taught by my broker (John Foltz) and Bill Gray (Arizona School of Real Estate & Business), in which they belabored this point, giving as an example: If you meet someone that is a client of John Doe REALTOR, you cannot tell this client, “Oh, I know John…did you know he was recently contacted by the police regarding …”.  Even if this police contact were true, you provided this info about John Doe in an unsolicited manner, for the pure purpose of discrediting John Doe, to put yourself at an advantage.  Bringing this to our blogs, I don’t think there’s any doubt that nearly 100% of our blog visitors are not soliciting specific information about a different REALTOR, when they come.  Given that, if we post derogatory comments, which are now surely unsolicited, in my opinion, we are committing an ethics rules violation.

So, if there aren’t at least 100 other good reasons not to engage in a blog war, let this be #1 on the list.  Personally speaking, my membership to my association, or even the fine associated with an ethics violation, is absolutely not worth whatever could possibly be gained, by getting involved in a blog war, and calling out the merits (or lack thereof) of your fellow REALTOR.

Another ethics violation that I’ve (fortunately) seen on the rarest of occasions refers to SoP 1-9 and keeping confidential client information confidential.  I know that I am constantly on the lookout for good blog content, but good blog content cannot be the confidential information provided to you by your client, even if it’s critical to “tell the story”.  If you need to use confidential information to tell the story, this will be a story you don’t tell on your blog (or anywhere, for that matter).

Perhaps the most common ethics violation I see is with regard to Article 10.  Actually, that’s an exaggeration (something that Article 2 says to avoid), but it’s close enough to the point I want to make:  Article 10 says we will not deny our “services to any person for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.”

The consistent problem I find on the vast majority of blogs is the lack of a fair housing logo on display.  The Arizona real estate commissioner believes this logo should be on every page and visible without scrolling.  Let me repeat that, in case it didn’t sink it.  Visible on every page without scrolling the browser.  Where is your fair housing logo?  Do you even have one?  Is it in the footer, where you have to scroll waaaay down to the bottom to see it?  Here’s an idea:  move your fair housing logo to the header or the top of your sidebar.

And finally, harkening back to the preamble of the Code of Ethics:

REALTORS^® can take no safer guide than that which has been handed down through the centuries, embodied in the Golden Rule, “Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

LinkedIn LIVE! Training and Networking Event

Hey everyone…

I’ve been very fortunate to be involved with a company called Integrated Alliances, the leader in online social network training for LinkedIn® and soon other networks for serious professionals.

I’m sponsoring two FREE events on 7 January 2009:

At 3:00pm is an hour long discussion on LinkedIn® with tips and tricks from the Founder of Integrated Alliances and Social Media Guru, Mike O’Neil.  This will be at the Fidelity National Title office in Tempe on the corner of Rio Salado Pkwy and Mill Ave.

For full details on this event and to pre-register visit:  http://Essentials.BleedingEdgeTech.com

At 5:00pm the second event is a LinkedIn® Live! networking event being held across the street at Monti’s Steakhouse - La Casa Vieja.  LinkedIn® Live! events are opportunities to meet people and network.  And we all know that the business of Real Estate is about being in front of people!

For full details on event and to pre-register visit:  http://Live.BleedingEdgeTech.com

Come for one or both…if you aren’t sure if you can come, put it in your calendar and come if you can!

See you there!
Rob the Tech Guy