All posts by Duncan Wierman

eBay, List Building

Do you want to know how to collect leads from eBay?

Do you want to know how to collect leads from eBay?

and … At the same time, save 72% on the listing fees? Keep reading and I’ll tell you how! I just finished a detailed video explaining how. Plus, I show you an example that is live on eBay right now! I have already received traffic, sales, and newsletter subscribers. I also explain how to generate leads using another little-known method. Join now to get the latest cutting edge techniques to build your business.

Continue reading Do you want to know how to collect leads from eBay? →

Lead Generation

How to Make Classified Advertising Work

Classified advertising is a cornerstones of the Real Estate business. The classified ads are the place where many of us began to look for houses to buy when we first started out. I know I did. I opened the local  newspaper and looked for the ads that hinted at motivation. This was something I had learned from a book and tape program from a late night tv guru.

Unmotivated Sellers

I called the first few ads and soon found out several things about this method of procuring properties. The first thing I learned is when someone says they are a ‘motivated seller’ it means absolutely nothing. The people I spoke with who actually were selling their home this way were definitely not motivated (having a need to sell). The second thing I learned from calling the ads is that most of the ads that said ‘motivated seller’ were either placed there by Realtors or investors. The Realtor is just trying to pull in any and all calls for their ads and the investor is trying to do the same.

The bottom line is I kept going and called hundreds of ads over the next month. I was very diligent about it and shrugged off all the rejection. I finally realized that there had to be a better way to find the houses. That?s when I realized that I needed to be the selling  through the classifieds not the guy trying to buy there.

Classified Advertising for Investors

There is a great way to buy houses from the classifieds though. It is to get the truly motivated sellers calling you. That is by placing ads in the classified section of the newspaper letting people know that you buy houses.

So the first question you ask is?

"What should my ad say?"

My answer to that is really simple.

I BUY HOUSES

Now the reason I print it that big is not to imply that you take out a full page ad and spend thousands of dollars. It is merely to impress upon you that you have to get your message out, and your message is that you want to buy houses.

I often see people who get so caught up in making their ad perfect that they don’t ever get their ad in the paper. The bottom line is you have to say that you buy houses and that’s it. The person who is looking at the Real Estate Wanted section is someone who is looking for people like you. The person who starts calling those ads for the most part does not care what they say. They just start at the top and dial until they get to the bottom. The main thing is to get your ad in the paper.

Fishing for Motivated Sellers

My father and I took fishing trips every year and I always had to have the perfect lure on my line and would change a dozen times a day. All the while, my father was catching fish with the same lure all day. He always told me you cant catch any fish if your line isn’t in the water! In the same spirit, you won’t buy any houses without an ad in the paper! You will buy way more houses with an ad than you will without one. So just get something in there and make it better as you learn what works best for you. In the meatime, the most powerful thing you can do is to make a call and place that first ad.

Now, that being said, I will give you some pointers on your content. The main things I try to place in my ads are my hook, my service, their benefit, and a catalyst.

Hooking the Seller

Your hook is something that you will use to make you different. It can be something as simple as a nickname or your hobby or anything. You just want something that people will remember and something that will make them want to call you first.

A couple of years ago I became a father for the first time. I placed ads that said "New Dad buys Houses". I got incredible response from the ads. About every other person that called asked about my new arrival. Some asked if it was really true. Others just asked about the baby. And still others talked about their first born. Now you say whats the point? The point is that having your first child is a very happy memory that everybody remembers. The average person attaches a  great deal of pleasure to the whole process of having their first child. Now, this person is looking through the paper and sees tons of houses that say "We buy houses" or "I buy houses" or whatever and then they see something different; something that they personally have anchored a great deal of past pleasure and happiness to, who do you think they are going to call in this time of distress?

Think about their situation. They are about to lose their most important possession-their home. If I were in that position, anything that made that call a little easier would make a huge difference. So, if you can think of a good ?hook? that people relate pleasure to then you will have one step up on the competition.

The other reason you need a hook is just for credibility and differentiation long term. Nobody can tell one we buy houses ad from another because they are so similar, but if your ad is different enough that people notice it then you are in. For instance, there is an investor around here who places all of his ads like this: "Family Man Buys Houses". He has that in all of his adverising. Now the person who needs to sell looks at the ads one week and sees all the ads but doesn?t call. Next week, again they see the ads but do not call. It goes on like this for a while, and when they finally do call they call the ad that they recognize from all the weeks of looking in the paper. Unless they memorized the number, they don?t recognize most of the ads from each other because there is no hook, but they see "Family Man buys houses" and it stands out. First, they see that he has had his ad in the paper every week. This gives him credibility-he?s a pro. Second, he has a hook that hopefully puts people at ease. He didn’t choose "Jerk buys houses" or "New Investor buys houses" but again something that people attach positive connotations to- A Family Man.

So, without beating this horse any further, get a hook. Make it positive and memorable.

Service to the Homeowner

The next thing your ad needs to say is what you can do for the seller. Obviously, the ad will convey that you buy houses, but you want to add a little detail about what you are looking for. There are a lot of things you can say:

  •  All Cash Offers
  •  Make Your Payments
  •  Take Over Payments
  •  Debt Relief
  •  Cash in Hand
  •  Pay top dollar
  •  Quick Close
  •  Close in 9 Days
  •  Offer on the Spot
  •  Guaranteed Offer
  •  Solve Problems
  •  We want to Help
  •  Stop Foreclosure

Also, you can put the situations that you are looking for in the ad.

 Foreclosure
 Tired Landlord
 Out of State
 Lost Job
 Bills piling up
 Inheritance
 Divorce
 Behind on payments
 Need Repairs
 Transferred

These are not all of the things to put in the ad just some examples. You get the idea. The reason you put this is twofold. One you want to weed out the guy who just thinks you want to pay him cash and top dollar for his house. You still get some of these calls, but it really cuts them down if you let people know in your ad what you are looking for. The second thing is that if someone is in one of these situations and sees it in your ad then they are more likely to call because the fact that you have dealt with their problem before alleviates a little of the fear of making that first call.

Lastly, you want to get the seller’s benefit in the ad. This is similar to your service, but it is like looking at your service from the sellers eyes. It is a very important thing to do because if they see the benefit that they desire in your ad then they are likely to call. Some benefits include:

 Get on with Your Life
 Get rid of that unwanted Rental
 Save your credit
 Get a fresh start
 Sell your house fast
 Don?t make that payment anymore
 Move by Friday
 Cash to you now
 No more tenants
 No more Mortgage payments
 Stop the Calls from Bill Collectors
 Catch up your payments
 Rebuild your credit

These are but a few. You can think of the benefits that you offer. You never know what a person is looking for. If your ad hits the benefit they want and their need is strong enough then they will be calling you shortly!

Call to Action

A Call to Action is something that invokes action. The catalyst is something I try to put in all my ads just to try and let them know they need to call sooner rather than later. Some good catalysts include:

 Call Today
 Its Not Too Late
 Top Dollar if you call by?
 Don?t Wait!
 The longer you wait?


 Placement

One last thing. Like I said earlier, a lot of people are going to just start at the top of the list and work downward. So, it is always helpful if your ad is at the top of the list. The first person to actually answer their phone will often buy the house. Therefore, you should begin your ad in such a way that you will be on top! Some papers place the ad near the top if you begin the first word with a special character like an asterisk or a dollar sign or any other special character. Others just do it alphabetically. You get the idea. Now that we have all the ingredients, here are some ads that I run weekly just so you see how it all fits together.

A New Dad Buys Houses! All Cash Offers or Take over Payments. Stop Foreclosure and put cash in your pocket. Call Today! 555-555-5555

$ELL YOUR HOUSE TODAY!!! Guaranteed OFFER. Close in 5 Days. All cash or Make your Payments. Top Dollar if you call by Monday! 555-555-5555

$top Foreclosure! Its not too late! I can save your credit. I solve problems. Foreclosure Specialist. Call Today.555-555-5555

$ELL YOUR HOUSE FAST!
Divorce? Relocation? Foreclosure? Tired Landlord? We love to solve problems! Call Today 555-555-5555

Where do I run my Ad?

Again, my answer is simple?

Everywhere!

The more ads you have running, the more calls you will get from motivated sellers. I live in a suburb of a large city. There are literally a dozen local newspapers around the city, and one large metro paper that has a viewership of 1 Million people! Now where should I be advertising??? The answer is in every paper I can afford. I was speaking with a friend the other day and he told me about a new investor who really decided to go for it. This guy placed ads in thirteen papers!!! Now he had to pay for these with his credit cards. That?s a scary proposition, but he was committed. He just bought a house that he stands to make $50,000 on after splitting the profits with a money partner! Now, I know most people can?t start out placing 12 ads a week, but you add more papers as you are able to afford it. In our area there are three main types of newspapers. There is a ?Thrifty Nickel? type paper, a large metro paper, and several smaller local papers.

The thrifty nickel paper is a great place to advertise because it is usually very cheap to place an ad but brings in some great calls. I get calls every week from the ad in the thrifty nickel.

The smaller papers are usually fairly inexpensive to place ads in as well. These papers are good especially if you want to specialize and buy houses in only one area.

Then there is the large paper. It is more expensive, but it is worth it. I buy houses all over town. If I can drive to it in under an hour I will buy it. So, the large metro paper is where I need to be. If you are going to go for it in this business, you have to be in a paper like this-if there is one close by. You will be losing houses every month if you aren?t.

Power of Consistency

There is one thing I would like to say about classified advertising. If you want to make it in this business long term, you must keep your ads running. I often see new investors having trouble and saying they aren?t getting the calls from motivated sellers. When I ask them about their ads, they invariably are running them inconsistently. I ask ?What does your ad say?? and they say ?well I think it just expired the other day? I need to call and renew it.? You don?t get results from one week of advertising. You don?t get results from one month of advertising. You need to set up a  campaign that you can sustain for several months. Consistency is the key. If your ad is there every week then eventually you will get the calls.

Bang for the Buck

The thing you must do in the beginning is figure out where you get the most bang for the buck! You have to see what you can afford then way the options. It is better to run an ad everyday in a smaller paper if you can only afford to run it sporadically in the larger publications. The bargain paper in your area might be an alternative as well. Just make sure you always have that ad running! Also, the ad should be the length that offers the best rate. Often this is three lines. So, you are wasting your money if you have a six line ad with wasted space. You would be better off running another three line ad in a different paper. Earlier I spoke in depth about what your ad should say. You don?t have to say everything in every ad though. Just choose enough to fill three lines in each ad.

Testing Your Advertising

The last thing I would like to say about advertising is that you should always be varying your ads and trying to see what works best. Sometimes I run ads that focus more on preforeclosures. Sometimes I focus more on tired landlords or other times I just talk about selling fast and putting cash in your pocket. In any case, I run all kinds of different ads and I always ask which ad someone calls from so that I can find out what motivates people to pick up the phone! No matter what your ad says though, keep it running. Remember, you can?t catch any fish without having your hook in the water!

The last bit of wisdom I can give you about your classified ads is always run them with your cell phone number. Never, Never, Never run the ad with a voicemail set up to take the calls. You want to talk to the motivated sellers firsthand. In the large metro paper I spoke about earlier, there are often thirty to forty ads in the Real Estate Wanted section. This however is deceptive, because if you start calling the ads often four out of five of the ads is set up to be answered by an answering machine or voicemail. If you actually answer your phone in this business you have the upper hand on seventy five percent of the guys out there. Just answer your phone and get it under contract before the other guy ever checks his messages.

Private Money

Use OPM to Build Your Wealth

Real Estate Investors Can Use OPM to Build Their Wealth
By Richard Desich, Equity Trust Company
www.trustetc.com

The most common stumbling block to investing in real estate is not having enough cold, hard cash to act quickly to participate in the hot deals. What if you could create a hassle-free, never-ending supply of money to do all the deals you want? What if there were no red tape delays from big money lenders? What if you were finally in control of your own destiny? It would be just like tapping in to your own “private bank”…

The private bank is one the fastest growing concepts real estate investors are using to execute more deals than ever before.

The Private Bank Concept is simply borrowing money from an individual (not a financial institution) for real estate transactions.   I call it using “OPM” (Other People’s Money) to build your wealth, but it is a win-win situation for both parties.

An investor can borrow money from someone else’s IRA to do the real estate transaction and pay the IRA back an amount of interest that is agreed-upon in advance.   Since IRAs are an exempt entity, interest earned on the money loaned is tax-free or tax-deferred, depending on the type of IRA.  

The Private Bank Concept is of appeal to both the seasoned, hands-on real estate investor (we will call him the “funds seeker’), and the investor who prefers hands-off transactions (we will call him the “silent lender”).   The funds seeker has an opportunity to make a high percentage rate of return on a real estate deal but either does not have enough money to pay for the whole property or does not have all the funds for the repair or rehabilitation.   The silent lender just wants to make money and not do any physical work.

How do you use someone else’s retirement plans to fund your deals?

The first step in creating your own private funding sources, independent of banks and other institutional lenders, is to cultivate your friends, relatives and business acquaintances, especially those with substantial retirement plans.You will have to show them how they can earn excellent rates of return by lending you their IRA money, secured by your real estate transactions.  You will demonstrate that the returns in your deal(s) will be much better than their retirement plan assets can earn if deposited in banks, and a much more stable and predictable return than they can achieve by investing in common stocks or mutual funds.   That should not be difficult to show.

What do your private bank partners get?

By using their existing IRAs and pension funds, investors in your private bank can earn aggressive rates of return, secured by real estate, with no taxes on the income gain or sales profits. This can result in a phenomenal internal rate of return that, in turn, compounds tax-free within their retirement fund. Meanwhile, this has produced no negative effect on their current lifestyle or cash flow.

What do you get?

You get the opportunity to build your assets rapidly, by multiplying the potential number and value of deals you can do. It will also have the effect of attracting more investors to your deals. And, if you want to grow your own retirement account, you can reciprocate with your investors to assist them with their own real estate investing.

An example of The Private Bank Concept at work:

A case study from our files illustrates how one of our clients (we’ll call him Bob) put the Private Bank Concept to work. Bob is a real estate investor who had the opportunity to acquire a property for $100,000.   He knew that this property was easily worth $150,000.  Mary was unhappy with the low fixed-income investments that the IRA custodian she had been using restricted her to.   Bob knew that if Mary transferred her IRA to Equity Trust Company, the funds would be available for him to borrow in his private bank.

Bob told Mary about the property he wanted to buy and Mary agreed to loan Bob $105,000 from her IRA ($100,000 for the house and $5,000 for the repairs).   Bob and Mary agreed that he would pay her IRA back in one year with 10% interest, all due at the time of payment.  After receiving Mary’s IRA investment from Equity Trust, Bob purchased the house for $100,000, put new carpet in the living room and planted flowers in the front yard.

A year later, Bob put the house up for sale and sold it for $150,000, just as he thought he would.   He paid Mary back the $105,000 plus the $10,500 in interest he owed her.  Mary made 10% on her money, tax-free in her IRA, just for letting Bob borrow from it for a year.   Impressively, Bob made $34,500 on the deal and didn’t use any of his own funds.

That is why private banking is so popular – both parties involved in the investment can make huge profits.

Your four-step plan to unlimited investment money…

  1. Find and negotiate a good deal – try to achieve, at most, a 75% loan-to-value ratio, so you’ll be able to give your investors safety for their investment. Build in enough gross profit to pay someone 10, 12, even 15% for the use of their money. Leave yourself enough time, through a contingency clause, to find your first money source.
  2. Present your deal to friends, relatives and business acquaintances who have, or want to have, a retirement plan IRA or pension plan. Offer them a good rate of return for the use of their money. Explain that their loan will be secured by a mortgage on real estate, with a good loan-to-value ratio. Put yourself in their shoes, give them a rate that you would like to have if someone was presenting this deal to you.
  3. Contrary to what some brokers or bankers might say, you are allowed to do these types of transactions in an IRA. If you are told by an IRA custodian that you cannot invest in real estate or other alternative assets, what they really mean is, you can’t do that with them.  To enable the operation of your private bank, all that your financial friends need to do is to transfer or deposit their funds with Equity Trust Company, an IRA custodian that knows how to handle the paperwork for investments in real estate, notes, tax liens, options, and other alternative assets.
  4. Once the retirement accounts for the investors in your deal are all in place, your “private bank” is available to make loans and participate in other creative real estate transactions. To initiate the activity, the IRA owner(s) must simply submit brief paperwork that documents the desired transaction.

That’s it! The start of your own “private bank”! The only limitation to the amount of money you want or need is your expertise in finding good deals. The funding will already be in place.

About the author: Richard (Dick) Desich is the founder and chairman of the board of Equity Trust Company, the nation’s leading self-directed IRA custodian, and has been involved in the securities business for over 35 years. Equity Trust Company is an NASD/SIPC member firm with tens of thousands of clients in all fifty states, specializing in alternative asset investing (such as real estate, options, and notes) for IRAs.

Mr. Desich is nationally recognized as a pre-eminent authority on non-traditional investing in IRAs. He is also the author of Proven Wealth Building Secrets for You and Your Children, the how-to book on purchasing real estate in IRAs.

Email Marketing

AutoResponders – A Must Have To Automate Your Follow

Your one-stop guide to choosing and using email autoresponders to enhance your website!

Setting up and using email autoresponders on your site is an easy way to make repeated contact with your visitors. Studies have shown that more than 60% of a site’s visitors who eventually end up buying a product or service don’t do it on their first visit. Email autoresponders are one way to make your site “sticky” — encouraging your visitors to return and make that purchase!

Continue reading AutoResponders – A Must Have To Automate Your Follow →

Lead Generation, List Building

Lead Capture – How To Increase Your Conversion Rates – Part 4

“How To Really Make Your Lead Capture Page Sizzle”

Trust…  It can be the biggest killer on any lead generation campaign or it can be your best friend.  In order to really succeed with a lead capture page your prospects simply have to trust you and the message you put out…

How can you do develop trust with a lead capture page?   It’s really not that hard… The first thing we can do to spice up a lead capture page with a little more personal appeal is to put a picture of yourself on the lead capture page.

A nice warm picture, maybe you’re on vacation somewhere or just sitting at your desk at your home office.  It really doesn’t matter. We are just trying to attach a face to the page.

If you really want to take it a step further we could add an audio presentation as well.  A short 1 minute audio introducing yourself, your opportunity and letting them know how to proceed by directing them to fill out your form for more information either on the right, left, above or below wherever you may have placed it.

When a prospect lands on a lead capture page that showcases the individual alongside their product or opportunity it lets the prospect know that you aren’t afraid to share this with others and you are confident and believe in your opportunity.  Your confidence will rub off and the prospect will submit their contact information because they trust you and want to learn more about your offer.

When you phone a lead that has submitted through a more personal type page there is no mystery to them who will be calling.  They are actually expecting your call and to hear specifically from you!

This is about positioning…  As a prospect wouldn’t you like to see this personal approach more often?  Wouldn’t you like to deal with someone who has positioned themselves as a leader and someone you can trust?

 

Lead Generation

Website Traffic?

Let’s have a little discussion about TRAFFIC, today’s hot topic.
 
Traffic is always on any internet marketers mind.  Everyone wants traffic…Traffic this….Traffic that….How to get more Traffic.  Today we are going to clear up some things about Traffic, and bring you to an understanding that not all traffic is GOOD TRAFFIC.   
 
** Where Can I Get The GOOD Traffic
 
The biggest Traffic mistake someone can make is assuming that more Traffic is better than less traffic.  This is simply not the case and we are going to tell you why. 

Traffic comes in many forms, PPC Search Engines, natural traffic, bulk traffic, blogs, forums, content networks, offline advertising, and media driven events.  All of these channels can be profitable, but you need to understand a few things first.
 

1.The only good type of traffic is relevant traffic.   As mentioned yesterday, it is important to have a relevant website visitors are looking for.  We’ll guess what, it goes the other way as well.  It is important to choose traffic that is relevant to what you are promoting  on your website. 

2.Free traffic can be high quality.   There are several ways to obtain free traffic that will drive highly qualified leads and potentially customers to your website.  These include natural search listings (through SEO), forums, blogs, a focus groups.
 
3.All traffic is not the same.

Traffic within Google differs from traffic in Yahoo!, which differs from natural search listings, which differs from email traffic, which differs from…I think you get the point!!  Don’t treat all traffic the same, because it will not produce equal results.  Some engines produce more qualified traffic (such as Google), that will convert very well.

Now that you know a bit about Traffic, we’ll get into the INTERESTING part!  Tomorrow you will learn how you can get started and instantly increase your website conversions in minutes – No Joke…
 

Blogging

Case Study: Zero to 1000 – Using A Blog to Create A Buyers List

This is the a ” Zero to 1,000″ case study outlining how a Blog was taken from non-existence to over 1,000 unique visitors per day in just under six months.

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Before we set up our blog, a foundation needed to be laid. A set of tangible goals needed to be outlined in order to measure the success of the site and create a road map. The target demographic was studied in order to give them what they wanted. For this particular blog, a knowledge tank investing in real estate articles relating to private money lending.

Setting Goals

From that, the ultimate goal of the site was created: to provide knowledge to private money lenders. The secondary goal was to highlight the what type of deals are in the market , and promote real estate ventures. The primary goal was to give them something of value in return for a email address. In this case, well-written information and news. Remember, if you give people what they want, they’re more likely to give you what you want.

Creating Milestones

Once the goals were outlined, we needed to decide how to meet them. Thus, we crafted milestones to gauge our progress. The milestones included the number of posts per day, number of newsletter subscribers, the number of daily traffic, and eventually average income per day. The milestones were laid out in first month, third month, and six month increments. The thing about creating milestones, though, is being realistic and remembering that they aren’t etched in stone. They are meant to step you up to your ultimate goals.

First Month Milestones

The first month milestones were having at least one post per day, to have at least 10 newsletter subscribers and at least 100 unique visitors. As you can guess from the above, the first month was the honeymoon period; getting used to blogging and finding a rhythm. Having smaller goals to meet on the day to day basis removed a lot of the stress from blogging which made it more approachable and less overwhelming. If you’re constantly worried about how you’re going to meet your 10 post per day quota, chances are you won’t even make a single post per day.

Third Month Milestones

By the third month, a rhythm should have been developed and it was the right time to start bringing in the visitors. So, the ante was upped. In the third month, the goal was to have an average of 500 unique visitors, at least 100 newsletter subscribers, and at least three posts per day.

Sixth Month Milestones

Finally, the by the sixth month, the blog should have fallen comfortably into place and on a clear path to achieving each goal. The sixth month mark is usually when you can start to gauge the true potential of a blog, and adjust your goals as necessary. With that, the sixth month milestones were to have at least 300 newsletter subscribers, to maintain the average three posts per day and include weekends, and to have at least 5,000 unique visitors per month. Looking over the outlined milestones, you can see that it we were fairly conservative, but not so much that there would be no challenge or growth. The actual idea of outlining the milestones was to gradually work up to the ultimate goals of the blog. Success doesn’t happen instantly and the last thing you want is to burn yourself out in the first few weeks of being online. In the second part of the case study, we’ll go over the milestones individually and how we worked to achieve each of them.

Now lets take a  deeper look into each of the milestones, how we hoped to achieve them, and what we experienced.

Meeting The First Month Milestone

The first month was mainly focused on getting used to blogging regularly. Because this was my mentor students first blog, we decided it would be best to ease him into the process instead of diving in head first. Had he jumped right in, without carefully inspecting the waters, he may have bumped his head on the bottom of the pond. Initially, he worried about where he’d find news to post, especially for such a narrow niche and demographic. The problem was finding it for his specific demographic. My advice: when you can’t find it online, look off. Consider looking for investment news in offline sources and compiling it all in a central location (the blog).

Develop The Rhythm

So, my client mentor student starting writing blog entries. The blog was populated with about two month’s worth of content before it was officially launched to the public. Call this cheating if you want, but I call this careful preparation. By building the content before anyone was there to see it removed some pressure and allowed the marketing and growth after launch to come naturally. As my student found more sources for news (television, magazines, radio, contacting local news agencies, and later, reader submissions), his blogging naturally increased to daily posting. First milestone achieved.

Getting The People

Once the blog was unveiled, it was time to start bringing in the visitors. To do that, we started with submitting to the top blog directories and updating the ping list for some quick traffic and back links.

The directories were specifically chosen because they’re more highly trafficked and can pass a high link value. Then it was on to focusing my efforts on submitting the blog to niche specific blog and website directories. (The blog was submitted to five additional niche specific directories.)

To find niche and demographic specific directories, use the wonderful power of Google. Map out the keywords you wish to use and append ‘directory’ to it in your search. Review the website to make sure it’s reputable. The last thing you want to do is build links from bad neighborhoods to your blog.

And the yield from this carefully planned effort? In the first official live month, the blog had 325 unique visitors. I’d say we met our first month milestone. Mistake to avoid: Placing your newsletter subscription box out of site. Place your newsletter subscription box where people will find it. When the site started the newsletter box was not clearly highlighted Even though we still received the milestone ten (actually 13) sign-ups, once I moved the box to the upper left corner, sometime in the second month, the subscription rate shot up about 275%. In the next part of the series, we’ll have a look at the third month milestone and what we focused on between month two through the end of month three.

So the focus has been on building up content, getting used to blogging, and building a readership. Initially, the two months prior to launch was used to develop content, then at launch, the site was submitted to various web directories, and finally, after there was an established blog, we began marketing it via press release, networking, link building, and commenting at other weblogs. This section (IV) will cover the 6th month milestone and how we accomplished them. Sixth month milestones:

  • Three hundred newsletter subscribers
  • Average three posts per day
  • Average 5,000 unique visitors per day

Getting the Post Count Up

Blogging daily wasn’t a problem. Such a momentum had been built, its easy to maintain. Being a busy person, always on the go, a majority of posts are pre-loaded to publish in the future. While this creates a fair share of future dated entries, its suggested to also sprinkles some current blog entries in there (breaking news, scooping a story, and so on). It also helps greatly that his average blog entry is usually less than 100 words.

Advice: If you want to get your post count up there, blog early. First thing in the morning, find some news to blog about and queue it to publish throughout the day. Also, concentrate on writing shorter, more concise, blog entries. Finally, start with a single blog entry every couple of days, then work your way up to multiple times per day (if your niche warrants it).

Breaking the 5,000 Unique Visitor Barrier

Well, that barrier was already broken within the third month because of a well-placed mention on a few authority web blogs. The key now was to maintain the readership and grow the traffic from that. We knew an onslaught of traffic was heading our way, so we hunkered down and prepared to make some of those readers permanent readers. We added a newsletter subscription box to the post linked to and added a special note asking readers to subscribe via the web feed. Thanks to some well-placed links, the targeted traffic grew and with that surge came more people recommending the sites to their friends. Remember: people talk. That talking leads to the blog being linked from various websites (without a request). Another way we built up traffic and readership was to take the advertising offline.

After checking out a few trade magazines that catered to the target demographic, approach the publishers and asked for a trade in advertising. Advertise the magazine online and the magazine could advertise the blog offline — match made in heaven. At the end of the 6th-month mark, the blog was receiving – steadily – 1,000 – 1,500 unique visitors and 3,000 to 5,000 pageviews per day. It started with an idea. That idea grew into something amazing is less than half a year and (as we crawl into the 8th official month online) the site has gone up to 2,000-2,500 unique visitors per day with little additional effort. The hump is the third-fifth months. Those are the months you need to build your momentum and after that, it’s like cruising downhill. The key is to maintain. As long as you continue to blog regularly, participate in the community, get his readers involved, and give them what they need, the traffic will continue to grow.

SUMMARY

In the beginning, prior to launch, we developed content and acclimated my client to blogging. Once the blog officially launched, it was submitted to various web directories and once the blog was established, we moved on to marketing via press release, networking with other bloggers, link building, and showing our virtual face throughout the blogosphere. Finally, we moved into building up the newsletter, ramping up the posting on the blog, and building / maintaining the readership.

This final section of the case study will deal with more of the specifics to starting, launching, and maintaining a popular blog.

Understand the Difference Between Demographic and Niche

A demographic is a certain set of people grouped by commonalities and a niche is a specific topic of interest.

Middle age White men, middle-aged Asian men, people 35-70 years of age — all of these are demographics. The people who you will be catering to. You can narrow your demographic requirements as much as you want, but you must be careful not to exclude too much of the group.

Probate, debt relief, divorce, tired landlords — all of these are niches. The topics that you could essentially write about.

The idea is to choose a “niche topic” for a specific demographic. For instance, you can write about wholesaling, or you can write about government grants for first time home buyers 25–35 demographic or housing grants for single young women. When you select your topic and demographic, stick to it. Don’t try to please anyone else, otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for a world of hurt.

Start With What You Know and Enjoy

The fact is, my client was already a part of his target demographic “middle age men of x income, seeking good returns for retirement: this made it much easier to get a sense of what they wanted and how he would approach writing about it.

Of course, you don’t need to be a part of the demographic to cater to them, however, it would take more work. If you decide to stray outside of your demographic, make sure that you know someone (better if you know a group of people) in that demographic who can help you out. Every culture has its sore spots, so it’s important to be aware of them before you set out.

You should also familiarize yourself with the publications for your demographic and niche. Not only could they prove a useful asset for information, but they can also prove to be a powerful ally in the future, should you play nicely with them.

Incorporate Keywords Whenever Possible, But…

After reading a few of my client’s entries and realizing he wasn’t optimizing his post titles well enough, I suggested that he start using the hot keywordsin the title.

Keywords can be integrated into the title without being overdone. Just keep in mind that keywords are important, but not so important that you lose sleep over it.

Fixed Post Length Rarely Matters

On this particular case study blog, the average post word count is less than 100. Yet, that doesn’t deter his readers or the search engines. In fact, for his particular niche, it aids in getting more readers and links to the blog.

Depending on your topic, the shorter the post, the better. That may seem contradictory to what you’ve been told, however, consider that you’re mainly writing for people and not the search engines. People are busy and more likely to read an entry that only takes a few minutes as opposed to a novel.

Chances are, if your post is especially long, people will bookmark it to read later and guess what? They’ll either forget and simply decide against it. Always keep your audience’s needs before the search engines’.

Of course, you’ll want to integrate a few lengthier posts in between the quick nuggets, but you still want to keep them manageable (less than 1,000 words). These posts will actually serve as food for both your readers and search engines. They will be what gets the people hooked and the regular, short posts will be what keeps them hooked.

Editing Does Matter

In the beginning, I would go through each of his posts after he published it and play executive editor. Basically, I’d fix any grammatical mistakes or spelling errors and send him a note about it so he’d be mindful of it in the future.

This may seem pedantic, but there was a reason for the madness. Using proper grammar and spelling shows a level of professionalism and care placed in the website. Even though the style of the writing was casual and jovial, it still came across as well-written. Eventually, this lead to him being offered a deal to blog from some other well-established blogs (think b-list) and write for a magazine (which he declined).

Don’t take this as an opportunity to sweat the small stuff; you’re prone to make mistakes every now and again — it’s called being human, but make sure you keep it to a minimum and if, later on, you spot something that’s out of place, don’t be afraid to make it right.

Comments Come Later

Blogging may seem like a lonely gig in the beginning, if you have comments enabled but no one leaves any. But, you shouldn’t despair because comments come as traffic increases. Actually, only about 10% of a blog’s visitors will actually leave a comment with a majority of the comments left by blog stalkers (diehard fans).

You may be wondering why you should go through the trouble of making your blog seem as though it’s well commented and that’s because it appeals to advertisers, believe it or not, and it entices others to participate. A blog with no comments can seem like a ghost town and no one enjoys being in a ghost town — they can be downright spooky. On the other hand, a well-commented blog gives off the effect that it receives a lot of visitors (even if it doesn’t) and has more of a theme park feel.

In time, the comment count should increase naturally, especially if you actively get your readers involved.

Newsletter Marketing

People subscribed to his newsletter because they don’t know (or care to know) what RSS is. Plus, it was actually one of our goals for the site. As a result, the newsletter subscription has been steadily growing.

At this point, maintaining the momentum is like cruising downhill. It’s a matter of keeping up the posting on a regular schedule (if you’re going to be cramped for time, pre-publish and postdate).

Also, don’t think it’s time for you to start slacking off when it comes to networking with other bloggers and members of the media. It’s actually the perfect time to start. Building these relationships while your blog is established, yet still growing, means more opportunity for collaboration.

Let me finish up by saying that amazing blogs don’t happen overnight. I can tell you how to do it until I’ve passed out from lack of oxygen, but unless you actually do it you won’t see any results.

Put the time and effort into it, then your blog can also grow. Enjoy what you do and it will show.

Although this is the final entry in the case study, if I missed anything or if you have questions, you’re still more than welcome to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.

 

 

 

Email Marketing

The CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers

Contacting Your Email List for the First Time

 

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site. A “transactional or relationship message” – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. CAN-SPAM also gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators, as well.

What the Law Requires

Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:

  • It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
  • It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
  • It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.

 

  • It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

Penalties

Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.

Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules described above, but also:

  • “harvest” email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email
  • generate email addresses using a “dictionary attack” – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations
  • use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email
  • relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.

The law allows the DOJ to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial emailers who do – or conspire to:

  • use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it
  • use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message
  • falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages
  • register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant
  • falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.

Additional Rules

The FTC will issue additional rules under the CAN-SPAM Act involving the required labeling of sexually explicit commercial email and the criteria for determining “the primary purpose” of a commercial email. Look for the rule covering the labeling of sexually explicit material in April 2004; “the primary purpose” rulemaking will be complete by the end of 2004. The Act also instructs the FTC to report to Congress in summer 2004 on a National Do Not E-Mail Registry, and issue reports in the next two years on the labeling of all commercial email, the creation of a “bounty system” to promote enforcement of the law, and the effectiveness and enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act.

 

 

 

 

April 2004

Probate

Purchasing Property From a Decedent’s Estate

2 Comments

Purchasing Property From a Decedent's Estate Frequently, the property of a decedent is sold rather than distributed to the heirs. There is sometimes a need to raise cash or pay taxes, or, more often, property will be sold so that the sales proceeds can be split among several heirs. In any event, estate sellers are often very motivated to sell, and motivated sellers can mean bargains to careful buyers.

There may be unique procedures that must be followed when an estate sells real property. These procedures depend on how the decedent's estate is being handled. There are three common alternatives:

1. The property is held in trust.

2. There is (or will be) a probate proceeding.

3. The estate is subject to the Independent Administration of Estates Act. Trust Property You can usually determine whether a property is held in trust by determining who the record owner is. If title is held by a trustee, the property is held in trust. For example, if title was vested in "John Smith and Jane Smith, Trustees of the Smith Family Trust," the property would be trust property.

On a person's death, trust property passes according to the terms of the trust and a probate proceeding is not required. If the decedent was named as the trustee, the successor trustee will be the person identified in the trust agreement as the successor (or appointed by the court if there is no named successor able to serve). The trust agreement is a private document and is not required to be filed in any public record either before or after a person's death. It may be difficult to ascertain who the successor trustee is.

A letter addressed to the property (assuming it is residential property) will usually be forwarded to the successor who is in the process of winding up the decedent's affairs. Although a trustee's power may be restricted by the trust agreement, a trustee will usually have the power to sell trust property as if the property was not held in trust. No court approval of the sale is required, although a trustee may seek court approval to protect against later claims by a beneficiary of the trust. The subject of court approval, if desired, should be addressed in the real estate purchase agreement.

Occasionally, you may encounter a property that the seller claims as trust property, but does not stand of record in the name of the trustee. In setting up estate planning trusts, people often fail to fund the trust by actually transferring property to the trust. So, while people may intend property to be in trust, they fail to take the critical step of actually deeding the property into the trust. These properties are not trust properties and they cannot be transferred by the trustee. If you take a deed from the trustee, you will not be able to secure title insurance, and in fact risk losing the property if there is an heir entitled to inherit the property. In these situations, check with the title company to be sure title insurance will be available, and, if not, what they will require to insure title. There is a summary procedure for property worth $20,000 or less.

The only other alternative will be a probate proceeding. Probate Proceedings The representative of an estate has the power to sell any asset of the estate by either a private sale or public auction. Real estate is almost always sold at a private sale where independent bids are solicited by the representative prior to any sale. The key feature of a probate sale is that, unless the personal representative has authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, all real property sales must be returned to the court for confirmation. Until the sale is confirmed, neither the personal representative nor the buyer can enforce the sale. However, a written bid cannot be withdrawn once it has been accepted by the personal representative subject to court confirmation.

At the time of the confirmation hearing, other prospective buyers may make offers to purchase the property that exceed the offer being returned for confirmation. Where a higher bid is made at the confirmation hearing, the court is not required to confirm the sale to the higher bidder. If a written offer is made by a responsible person in the minimum amount required in excess of the offer being returned, the court must accept the highest offer if it is to accept any offer, but the court has the discretion to reject the highest offer and order a new sale.

When comparing bids, the court cannot consider the net amount to be received by the estate. The amount of the bids must be considered without reference to any commission owed by the personal representative and without reference to any condition of an offer that a commission be paid by the personal representative. Estate property may be sold for cash or credit. Where this is a credit sale of real property, the unpaid balance must be secured by a mortgage or deed of trust on the property. There is no statutory requirement that the security be a first deed of trust; it may be subject to existing liens and such other liens as are approved by the court.

There is no requirement in the Probate Code that there be any minimum down payment. Court rules in some counties may require a minimum deposit. The prospective buyer should check the local court rules to determine whether there are any local requirements applicable to sales. For example, some court rules provide that a sale will not usually be confirmed where the buyer assumes or takes subject to existing financing if the estate is subject to contingent liability.

Finally, one of the mandatory findings that a court must make before a private sale can be confirmed is that the price is at least 90% of the appraised value of the property. The valuation date of the appraisal must be within one year preceding the confirmation hearing. Probate properties must be appraised by probate referees. While the referees are generally knowledgeable, their appraisals are usually less rigorous than that of fee appraisers. If the appraised value is set too high, a supplementary appraisal can often be obtained using as evidence the arm's length offer from a third party. Independent Administration of Estates

Most California probates are now administered under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. When the procedures of this act are followed, many of the procedures for court confirmation and overbidding can be avoided. When the personal representative has full authority under the act, the property may be sold at public or private sale, and the procedures related to court confirmation, including a sale at not less than 90% of the appraised value do not apply. The personal representative must give notice of the proposed sale to persons interested in the estate. The notice must set forth the material terms of the transaction, including the sales price and the amount of any commissions. If any person objects to the proposed sale, the representative cannot make the sale without the prior approval of the court. The failure of the representative to give the required notice will not affect the validity of the title in the hands of a bona fide purchaser of the property who relied in good faith on the representative's authority. The buyer has no duty to investigate whether the representative has given the notice in the proper manner. The representative's authority to act under the Independent Administration of Estates Act can be confirmed in the representative's letters of administration (the representative's authorization from the court) or from the court's file.

Dealing with property owned by a trust or probate estate may present opportunities for the real estate investor. There are, however, additional procedures that the investor should understand. Failure to follow the correct procedures may lead to title problems that can significantly affect the value of the property. The foregoing has been prepared for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information is summary in nature and does not address any particular situation. Readers should not act upon this information, but should instead seek professional advice.

 

Lead Generation

5 (Basic) Ways to Promote Your Real Estate Business

With the introduction of new products and the growth of the purchasing power of the people continually escalates, it can be said that the advertising industry became fully energized. That’s why even with the dawn of the new technology, advertising still continues to dominate the business world. As most business people asserts, business can never succeed without advertising.  And so, in the real estate business, advertising remains to proliferate with more ways that could increase productivity.  GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEAD "READ":  REAL ESTATE INVESTING IS A MARKETING BUSINESS!  I cannot say this enough.

"Market for Motivated Sellers, Hungry Buyers and Private Money … everything else can be done by monkeys!"

However, for those who still don’t know how to maximize the potential of advertising in increasing their real estate sales, here are some  basic internet ways to brood over:

1. Web site listings.

Real estate businesses may consider the benefits of advertising their products or services online. In this manner, they could even increase their market share by accessing those who cannot be reached by simple ways of promotions and advertising.

People behind the real estate business may choose from the different web site listings available in the Internet today.

2. Search engines registration.

Real estate businessmen may also opt for the sear engines that are available in the Internet. With a reasonable amount, real estate businesses may promote their products online and may get more exposure through search engines. Two of the most common search engines are Google and Yahoo. So, if the business is listed at these sites, chances are they’ll reap more profits than they could imagine.

3. Banner ads.

Banner ads are those ads that appear on top of a certain sponsoring website. It contains the business’ name and the hyperlink that connects the customer to the business’ site.

In this way, real estate entrepreneurs may take the chance of increasing their exposure online by letting the people know that they exist.

4. Emails.

Real estate businesses may also resort to this kind of advertising. Though, special considerations should be made when constructing emails so that it will not be categorized as spam.

Also, to maximize the use of this advertising technique, the real estate business must also have an email list of their potential buyers.

5. The basics.

It still pays to be traditional. In fact, one of the best ways to advertise a product is to use the traditional method of advertising – the print and the broadcast advertisements. There are people who would rather see the ads on television or in newspapers than online.

But whatever type of advertising a real estate business use, one thing is bound to help them boost their sales and profit. It just needs the skill to decide which would go best with the business.

I will be releasing the MrRealEstateWizard Marketing Course in February that will take you from basic to super advanced techniques to DOMINATE and RULE your business niche.  Stay Tuned.

Tips and Tricks

How to choose a great domain name for your websites

Choosing Good Real Estate Domain Names

One of your very first steps is securing the perfect Web address, also called your “URL” or your “domain name.” One often underestimated part of a real estate investors online marketing campaign is the domain name. A good domain name can play a major part in the success of your web site.

You’ll use it as a domain, as a page title, in your logo, and possibly in the design. A name is much more than this, though. Your site or business name will be:

  • the way in which people find your site
  • the way they will refer to it and, most importantly
  • what they’ll remember when they leave

If you don’t believe this, think about it for a moment. You want to buy a book on the Web. You don’t go to a search engine and type in “books”; you go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble Similarly, when you have a good experience on a site, you might say to your friends “I found great book prices at Amazon.” Users who visit a site they find especially valuable will bookmark it so they can return to it easily.

Whatever the name of your site — and however you promote it — it’s vital to realize that the name is going to be a major part of your success. You’ll want to capitalize on your site name and use it on all your printed materials.

Much like a logo or slogan identifies a brand or business, domain names also provide an online identity for any business. A domain name is the virtual street address that your customers will go to when they are looking for your company’s resources. If you do not have a discernible home for your company on the Internet, it is likely your customers will quickly find one of your competitors instead

Choosing a domain name that represents your brand is essential, and using domain names to unify a marketing strategy can boost exposure and sales. For brand consistency and online presence, you may also want to grab a domain name that matches your current marketing slogan, product, or campaign theme. It is possible for customers to remember a slogan or phrase before they even realize what company it relates to.

What IS A Good Name?
So now you understand the importance of your site’s name, how can you ensure that you pick a good one? The first thing you must think of, obviously, is domains. There’s no point in having a great name for a site if you don’t have the domain, so the Whois databases are the place where you’ll do your research. Remember that there can only be ONE person or entity who owns a particular domain name. Once you decide on a domain, you must register it so that it cannot be used by anyone else. Domain names are available on a first come first served basis.

So, what makes a good domain?

  • Good Extension
  • Short As Possible
  • Easy To Spell
  • Descriptive
  • Include Your Name or a description of your business
  • Include Keywords

Good Extension
If you believe the spam which arrives in your mailbox every morning, dot-ws is the new dot-com, dot-us is the new dot-com, or dot-tv is the new dot-com. But the reality is simple: there is no new dot-com. Whatever develops in the Internet industry, the dot-com domain extension will always be synonymous with the top Web sites. If you’re surfing around looking for a site, and you know its name, 9 out of 10 times you’ll try dot-com.

So, for the Web site owner who wants their site to be found, the rule is:  get a dot.com name.

Short
I’ve mentioned length before, but it’s important to understand why short domains are so good.

Firstly, of course, they’re easier to remember. Anyone who has tried learning “Hamlet” quotes will tell you that a word is easier to remember than a phrase. Two word domains are probably fine — three at the most, but if you have a really long domain it will just be confusing, especially if the words aren’t capitalized.

A simple name will also:

  • roll off the tongue more easily in conversation,
  • look more professional and
  • have less chance of being mistyped by potential visitors.

Easy To Spell
Ever heard an ad on the radio in which the Web address for the company is spelled out to you? The lack of good domains over the past few years has lead many companies to secure what might be regarded as “nonsense” names. If you find yourself spelling your site’s name to people, you’ve got it wrong.

If you want people to remember you, they must be able to remember your site as a word. Again, words are easy to remember. This immediately outlaws the use of “unnatural” spellings, of course, so don’t replace S with Z under any circumstances!

Also, be careful about double letters. Take CyberRadio2000, for example. Their domain uses a double R, as you might expect, but there is an uncertainty there. The two Rs together look a bit strange if written without capitalization, and a good name will not force the user to assume anything about the name. Of course, if you really must have a double letter, the best solution is to buy both versions of the domain, but it’s not ideal.

Avoid using dashes (hyphens) in your domain name wherever possible. It’s a great way to find a good name that hasn’t been registered, but can make your domain even harder to remember.  If you choose multiple domain names, dashes CAN be a good thing, however – it separates important [searchable] keywords. (see “Keywords” below). But don’t ever use a hyphenated domain as your primary marketing domain, as it will only be mistyped more often than not.

One more thing. Avoid using the number 4 for the word FOR. You might think it’s cute, but again, it can lead to confusion. You are trying to be professional here, not cute. If you insist on being ‘cute,’ get the domain with the FOR spelled out also, as people most surely will mistype it.

Descriptive
A good site or business name will describe exactly what the site is about. Consider the “real world” example of the Royal Mail in the UK. In an infamous marketing move, the company was renamed Consignia. Now, what does that mean? If I said the name Consignia to you, you wouldn’t associate it with letters and parcels. In fact, Consignia has since discovered this, and renamed themselves, “The Royal Mail Group”! It just goes to show that, though a “made up” corporate name might be flashy or cost a lot of money to create, it is not necessarily your best option. Such names don’t make it immediately obvious what you do, and surely that’s the whole point of a name.

Of course, many companies have succeeded using a non-descriptive name: “Egg”, the online bank; “Google.com (search engine); and “Amazon.com”, the online bookseller. How did they make these names successful? Through huge marketing campaigns designed to establish brand awareness. But surely it’s better to have an instantly-recognizable purpose than to have to spend millions to tell people what you do?

REALTORS® have it fairly easy in this respect. The words “realty”, “real estate”, and “property” can be combined with your service area to produce a domain name that fills the bill perfectly. What could be a better domain name for a broker in Seattle, Washington than to have the domain “SeattleRealty” or SeattleRealEstate” or “SeattleProperties”? It not only conveys the company but also tells users exactly what the site is about. Be sure NOT to use the trademarked name realtor® in your domain. It can only be used in tandem with your personal name, but NOT with a locale or city name.

Using Your Name
If you’re an agent and want your personal business site, one obvious choice would be to use your name as your domain name. Although using your name says nothing about what your site is about, it will be easy for your clients and prospects to remember. Another idea is to register your name, then have it set up to point to your real site. This way, prospects can find you either way.

Keywords
An interesting use of domain names for SEO Purposes has now begun to appear: keywords. Put keywords as part of your domain – even using a ‘dash’ to separate them (i.e., Boston-homes.com, Boston-real-estate.com). However, only choose this strategy for secondary domains after you have chosen primary domains.

Sites I have worked on have achieved very high search engine rankings by having a search term as their domain. With no real technique for obtaining high rankings as easily on engines like Google, this could be just what real estate Webmasters are looking for.

Finding A Name
Now that you know what to look for in a name, it’s time to start the search! You might already have an idea of a name you could register, but unless you are very creative, you’ll probably find that it’s already been taken (unless, of course, you’re registering a company name which isn’t comprised of generic words).

USE THIS LINK TO FIND DOMAIN NAMES AS FAST AS YOU CAN TYPE

http://InstantDomainSearch.com/

Register Your Domain From Below Site.

Once you decide on a domain for your site, you will need to register it. The registration process locks your domain name so that no one else can take it.  I have had the best luck with www.MyRealEstateWebDomains.com  (GoDaddy’s Reseller account)  The price is right, and customer service is excellent.

Remember that your domain name registration must be renewed every year to remain viable on the Web. When you receive a renewal notice, do it immediately. Forgetting about renewing your domain name will allow it to expire. After that, it again becomes available to anyone who wants it.

ARE YOU STILL STUCK?

When you get set up in this business, you need to feel very good about the company you have created – you need to feel that essential ownership. Creating a business can start with naming it as it builds excitement and you can have some fun with this. You’re going to need to do some brainstorming, so if you don’t consider yourself to be creative, then ask someone for help that is. Start with 5 ideas and you can further refine them…

Ask Yourself The Following About Each Idea: 

  • What does the name make you think of? Commercial or residential? Does the name suggest that you are a hobby investor or emerging real estate investing business? Maybe you like dogs, but if you named your business “Black Dog Properties” for example, it has a much less professional tone, and it could backfire and make people think you sell dog houses or are a dog sitter for example, not that you buy/sell residential homes.

  • Are you stating the nature of your business in the company name? Does it contain the word “homes,” “properties,” or “investors” in it? An example of a business name that does not state the nature of your business would be “Lakeside Investments” or “Smith Holdings”. Neither one gives a seller or buyer a clear idea that real estate is your core business. I had a hard time with this because I wanted to get creative but realized that the further I went, I was no longer explaining what the company did in the title. You want to be easily remembered, and a good way to do that is to name your company something people think of and relate to without any doubts on what your core business is.

  • Is the name specific enough? Add descriptive words, so you get, “Wholesale Property Store” or “Best Deal Homes in NY”…those words can work well in a business name.Most people will be searching for “Manhattan real estate” or “Manhattan properties”. Furthermore, once they’ve visited your site and moved on, it will be much easier for someone looking to relocate to Arcadia, CA to remember the name ArcadiaHousesForSale.com or WeSellArcadiaHomes.com

    The best domain names should be descriptive and serve to identify your target market. Ideally, it would also contain keywords that potential clients would search by. This simple change will help improve your site’s search engine rankings dramatically.The words “Real Estate”, “Properties”, or “Homes” can be easily combined with the locations you serve, creating a domain name that is both descriptive and contains the highly important keywords. An excellent domain name for a helping distressed homeowners in the city of Oakland, CA would be www.WeStopOaklandForeclosures.com.

    Although many of these names may already be taken, you could try using the names of smaller neighborhoods you serve instead of the larger metropolitan area. In the case of the Oakland example, you could try using the communities of Rockridge, Claremont, or Lake Merrit in your domain name.

  • Is it too broad or generic? A name that is too generic may be “Texas Properties”… this will lead you to have all kinds of Google results that won’t take people right to your business “Texas Properties” is a generic search term like “Italian food”. **Another problem with names that are too general is that the domains are usually not available any longer, or you have to buy them from the domain owner for sometimes thousands of dollars (if it’s popular).**

  • Is your name included? Some people jump to include their personal name –first, last, or both – in their real estate investing business name. It makes logical sense, doesn’t it – your company, your time and energy behind it, your future real estate investing empire…right? No…not necessarily…I received some great advice that you do not want to include your personal name in your business for a few reasons. You don’t necessarily want to be that visible. Having your personal name in your business name could potentially make you more vulnerable to liabilities, (tax, insurance, lawsuits). Also, in some cases, you can risk seeming like you have an inflated sense of “self-importance” even when that is certainly unfounded.

  • Other helpful considerations: Something to keep in mind that helped me through this process of naming my business was planning for consistency through my domains. I wanted my main website and my squeeze page domains to be uniform to make again it easy for people to know what I do. (Just a reminder, “squeeze pages” are the sites that are designed to build your buyers and sellers list by offering visitors a free download – usually a report or eBook – in exchange for the visitor’s name and email address.)An example of consistency through your main site domain and your squeeze pages would be “Wholesale Property Shop” as your business name, then getting the domain “wholesalepropertyshop.com” for your main site well as “sellatwholesaleshop.com” and “buyatwholesaleshop.com” for squeeze pages.

 Another option is to register more than one domain name or even have more than one website. By having more than one domain name and website, you can target each smaller community and establish yourself as the expert in that area. 

While the availability of domains which follow all of these rules may have become limited, try to follow as many of these rules as possible.

USE THIS LINK TO FIND DOMAIN NAMES AS FAST AS YOU CAN TYPE

http://InstantDomainSearch.com/

DOUBLE CHECK AGAIN! CRITICAL

1) Always use “.com.” If yours is a serious business site in America, avoid using domains ending in “biz” or “info” or any one of the scores of new top level domains. Your business will have little credibility if you do so. You can consider registering a “.net” domain, but since most people are familiar with “.com,” it is better to stick to convention. The exception is if you are running a business in a country other than the United States. Consider using your country code. As a listener from Zurich, Switzerland pointed out “Australians will want to see “.au,” the Swiss want to see “.ch” and so on. People in other countries are very familiar with their local TLD.”

2) Don’t make your primary domain too long. Even though 67 character domains are a reality, exactly how many of your users will want to type a domain name like ” www.buymyterrifichomestoday.com “?

3) Avoid using hyphens in your domain as a primary domain. Domains containing hyphens are difficult to remember, spell and pronounce. I have a client who registered “Homes-A-Z.com,” which I advised against. I told them they would get tired of telling people about the dash.   *** You can buy the hyphenated version as an optimization tactic later.

If you register a domain containing hyphens, make sure that you also register the corresponding domain without the hyphens or numbers. Once you do that, you can simply redirect visitors from the domain without the hyphens to the domain with the hyphens.

4) Try to register a domain which contains a popular keyword for your investing niche.This will help your people remember your domain name better. Furthermore, for searches engines, a higher ranking will be given to those Websites which contain the keyword in the title. And according to Google and Yahoo’s instructions, the title should always be the official name of the site. Thus, if the domain name contains a keyword, you will be able to include the keyword in the title which will improve your ranking in Yahoo!.

5) Don’t register a domain containing the digit “0” in it, unless it is going to be part of a recognizable word (like 1000 or 2000). This is because of the digit “0” is often confused with the vowel “O.” If you feel that you must register a domain with the digit “0,” make sure that you also register the corresponding domain containing the vowel “O.”

6) Try to avoid using domains that contain ‘2’ for “to,” ‘4’ for ‘for,’ ‘u’ for ‘you.’  People will easily get confused. I advise against this totally, However, if you must register such a domain, register the expanded form of the domain as well, i.e. if you are registering “FirstAid4Foreclosures.com,” also register “FirstAidForForeclosures.com.”

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How to Find Real Estate Keywords That Will Help You Rank High In Search Engines

Here is one advanced tactic to see how much traffic you can anticipate for the keywords you use in your domain. We will use this tool again when we start using Google Adwords to display adverts when people search for solutions.

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

Step 1: Input your main keyword into the field provided. Let’s say that you are targeting a phrase: “sell house.” Input that phrase into the field. Then, check the “Use synonyms” box, fill out the captcha field and hit the “Get keyword ideas” button.

Step 2: Google will now give you a list of about 200 keywords that are related to your main keyword. Once you are there, you will have to do the following: In the top right corner right above the keywords results area, there is an option called: “Match Type.” Click on that option and select “Phrase.” Now, all of your keywords will have “quotes” around the keywords.

What that means is that the number of search results Google gives you are the results for the actual phrases people searched. For instance, for a phrase “sell my own house,” Google will show you the number of times people search that exact phrase, “sell my own house.” They didn’t search for “sell my house” or any other combination of that keyword. They searched for that specific phrase.

Why would you want to do that? Well, you want to use the phrase match to drill down on a more accurate number of searches for that keyword.

Step 3: Go through the list and hit the “Add Phrase” link to add keywords to your selected bucket of keywords. All you do now is just hit the “Add phrase” link, and you’ll add all of the different keywords you want to use for your business.

Now you have a list of keywords that you can utilize in your real estate business. But how competitive are those keywords? There is a simple and quick strategy you can use to see what kind of competition the keyword phrase has on Google.

Step 4: Here’s what you do. Just copy the phrase, with quotes, and head over to google.com. Now paste that phrase into the search box and the number of results you are going to receive will give you an idea of how competitive that phrase is on Google. Obviously, the smaller the number of search results, the better.

See the below screenshot below where I have inserted some domain name suggestions as exact keywords along with a small daily Adwords budget.  As you can see from the results that these keyword phrases would NOT make great domains names, that will get ORGANIC traffic.

trafficestimator

 

 

Now That You’ve Brainstormed And Have Some Solid Candidates, You Should Do The Following:

  • Visit your State’s Secretary of State website – This will give you a way to check whether or not someone in your state has already filed a business under that name… essentially whether or not the name is taken. Some states Secretary of State websites are not the exact place to check this – so I suggest you Google “business entity search, MI” or the state that you live in. I tried it for a few states and each time I did, it showed me the right link to enter the business name someone is considering.

  • Visit the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office website – this link will be sure you are not infringing on any other business’s federally trademarked rights to a specific name   http://www.uspto.gov/
    Click “Search Marks” under the “Trademarks” box. Under “Select a Search Option” click “Basic Word Mark Search (New User)”d. You will see the box enter your desired business name and then hit “submit query.”

  • Search Google & Other Search Engines – Google your proposed business name – see what comes up. Sometimes people don’t register their business before starting a website, so it’s a good way to check and get an idea of what is already out there around the names you’ve brainstormed about.**There are tools to search for available domains like “domainsearch.com” and “bustaname.com” but I recommend going right to “www.MyRealEstateWebDomains.com” where you can see what’s available and then be able to purchase the domain all in one place.**