Real Social Results » Tricks of the Trade

Real Estate Virtual Assistant says Blogging Is A Waste Of Time!

Suzanne Roy — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:58:27 +0000

Real Estate Virtual Assistant says Blogging Is A Waste Of Time!

However, there is an “UNLESS” missing here…

And the “Unless” is the key to transforming your wasted time to massive changes in your traffic, leads, and sales.

As a Real Estate Virtual Assistant who specializes in working on Realtor’s websites and blogs on a daily basis, I know the many secrets that makes a blog work for your benefit and what makes them a complete waste of time, space and effort. One of the secrets that is so obvious it almost hurts, is where your blog is hosted. Do YOU know where your blog is hosted? This is a basic question that I would say many (dare I say most) Realtor’s would be completely unable to answer, but is VITALLY IMPORTANT!

“But“, you ask, “how can I tell whether or not my blog is hosted on my website?”

Right now, go to your website where your blog is being posted and see if it says either:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/blog (or something similiar), or
http://www.yourwebsite.com/blogger.com (or another blogging platform such as wordpress, blogspot etc.,)

If it is the former, then GREAT! You have your blog hosted on your own website. If it is the latter, then you’re in dire need of some changes, and quick!

Hosting your blog on your own website is so important because without your blog being hosted within your own website, the search engines are not going to be driving traffic to your website, and therefore you won’t be getting increased traffic, leads or sales. The attachment is not there between your unhosted blog page and your website, so search engines such as Google do not correlate the two as having anything to do with one another.

Hosting your blog page on your website costs just pennies (about $50/year through GoDaddy) and is an absolute must. So if you aren’t sure, go to your blog right now and see what your url says.

For more information on blogging and how you can make yours work for you, check out my previous post on “Top Tips for Making Blogging Worthwhile“.

Top Tips for Free (But Highly Profitable) Advertising Online Videos

Suzanne Roy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:29:17 +0000

Top Tips for Free (But Highly Profitable) Advertising Online Videos

What a great experience the first ever Virtual Real Estate BarCamp was on November 17th, 2009! With almost 2,000 attendees and 27 speakers, it was a huge hit! The feedback I have received has been amazing too and I am so thankful that I was able to provide some useful, time-saving tips to so many people FOR FREE!

But, in case you missed it, or you would like to review what was covered during my webinar, please view the videos below. There are three 5 minute videos that cover each section that was discussed.

And don’t forget to join my Fan Page on Facebook to learn more tips on how you can advertise online for free!

Top Tips For Advertising Online For Free 1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc_-AYvBo1w

Top Tips For Advertising Online For Free 2

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba1iPzAX96A

Top Tips For Advertising Online For Free 3

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSMGE0Ur3s

Virtual Assistant Tip of The Week – Opening Multiple Browser Tabs Automatically

Suzanne Roy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:23:17 +0000

Virtual Assistant Tip of The Week – Opening Multiple Browser Tabs Automatically

Here’s a quick virtual assistant tip for the week – would you like to save time? Sure you do! Watch the following video clip to see how to set up your browser to automatically open up all your most visited websites with one click!

Do you have a question about how to complete something that seems so simple but just can’t get it to happen? Please complete the form below and let me know – for this virtual assistant, if there’s a will, there’s a way! You can also click here for more Tricks of the Trade.

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Top Producer Help ~ Getting Great Leads Fast with Stealth Websites

Suzanne Roy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:40:08 +0000

Top Producer Help ~ Getting Great Leads Fast with Stealth Websites

Stealth Websites.

It’s one of many ways of getting great leads fast through Top Producer’s Market Snapshot product.

But, what exactly are Stealth Websites and what do you do with them to get great leads fast, you ask? A stealth website is a website that is solely to generate leads, usually via a keyword dense phrased website url (such as “LexingtonHouseValues.com”) which is also nothing to do with you, but all about what the website url suggests.

Today’s home buyer and sellers are attracted to simplicity and to the point websites – so the more simple the stealth website the better. Stealth websites are created to answer the need of the consumer and give them what they want, and at the same time provide you with what you want – Leads!

The next step with stealth websites is to implement Google Analytics to track where your leads are coming from. This will give you insight into traffic originality and any further steps that you can take to hone in on where the majority of these leads are originating.

The great thing about getting great leads fast with stealth websites is that the cost is very affordable – you are simply paying for the domain name registration of the site and the hosting of the site – all can be done at www.GoDaddy.com or any domain registration company site. Domain names usually run around $10/year and hosting is just a couple of dollars a month.

You may be wondering how these leads will find your stealth website. This is where the keyword dense phrased url comes into play. “YourTown”HouseValues.com, “YourTown”HomeValues.com, “YourTown”HomesForSale.com, etc., will see lots of traffic within a short period of time. By visiting www.wordtracker.com you can research and find which keyword phrases would be best to use for your stealth site.

For more Top Producer helpful hints, check out my other blog postings.

Top tips for making blogging worthwhile

Suzanne Roy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:42:19 +0000

Top tips for making blogging worthwhile

There are many aspects and tricks of the trade when it comes to being a successful Real Estate Virtual Assistant. One of them is using tools that are available online at zero cost to you and your clients! A favorite tool that fits this description is an online program/tool called Photobucket. This is a great tool that I use almost daily when creating eye-catching blogs for my real estate clients.

Blogging is an ongoing project that I have been completing for many of my real estate clients for the past few years, and is becoming more and more popular as the months and years go by. Real estate virtual assistants are able to complete hundreds of blogs on behalf of their real estate clients by blogging about dozens of different topics just as easily (if not faster and better!) as the real estate client themselves including:

Local Events
Neighborhood Information
Community Spotlights
Area Attractions

One aspect of blogging is the content and making sure to have backlinks to other web pages within the real estate blog and website, while making sure that the blogs are easy to read – first written for the reader and second for the search engines!

Don’t forget to add bookmarks to websites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, etc., which will provide you with amazing incoming links from high ranking sites into your website – the difference this simple addition to each blog that you write is staggering! It’s a must-do in my books!

Another aspect of blogging that is important is being pleasing to the eye and including some “interactiveness” to the content. To do this I have utilized several online programs, one of which is Photobucket.com which allows me to create slideshows of pictures. An example of how I would do this is when I am highlighting a subdivision within one of my real estate client’s market area and I include a slideshow of photos of several of the homes within the subdivision currently for sale, some photos of the amenities (if applicable) and also of the surrounding area and attractions.

Here is a sample of a Tulsa Real Estate blog slideshow which I created in about 2 minutes using their online program – simple, effective and eye-catching.