Are you wondering the question, “What is IDX?” Well, in the real estate industry, it is one of most important tool set a real estate agent can have in their arsenal.  It is a seemless integration with the multiple listing service an agent is subscribed to. It allows website visitor to search a real estate website for homes, condo’s and more. It stands for Internet data exchange.  It is imperative to have the right real estate website design company to help you determine how to integrate the IDX properly. Not only that, the website must be designed to compel the visitor to fill out a web form so that they can be email dripped upon.

Don’t waste your time offering an IDX solution if you don’t have your visitor sign up. You need to ask for their name, email and phone number. Why a phone number? Because there are many instances where agents have had 100’s of leads with emails yet could not convert them.

A few years back, it was looked upon as a bad idea to offer your website visitor an IDX solution. Today, it is the contrary. Your potential home buyer is now more savvy and know what they want. It’s a good thing to offer an IDX solution or they’ll go somewhere to find it.

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Postlets.com is an excellent way for you to get exposure for your real estate properties.  Postlets as well as a few more aggregators publish to some of the best vertical markets like Craigslist, Trulia, Googlebase, propsmart and other well known places where buyers search for properties.

If you are a real estate agent, you must use postlets!  It’s a mandatory tool in my eyes.

And here are some other real estate syndicators:

• http://www.classifiedflyerads.com/ : An excellent syndicator. You’ll get maximum exposure for your clients.  It’s a great tool to capture your prospective seller.  Check out who the syndicate to: ClassifiedFlyerAds syndications.  
• http://www.vflyer.com/main/Guest.jsp : The strengths of Vflyer:  Market distribution, email distribution, pdf and print output, embeddable widgets. sms and mobile flyers and more.

Each one has their strengths.. preview them and let me know what you think. 

Now, if you are looking whether or not postlets has an API feed, at this time, I see they don’t. But correct me if I’m wrong. The point of view I’m coming up with is if a CRM can connect to the above syndicator.  RSS feeds are available on these systems if you wanted to manage changes on your RSS reader.  You can also do some great things and build the pages into your real estate website design.

In the next upcoming month, we will discuss vflyer vs. postlets vs. classifiedflyerads. All in all, use one of these syndicators. Your sellers will love you!

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Joomla and Wordpress platforms are clearly some of the “top” platforms installations to use moving forward. The question is now.. How do you integrate the two installations to get that punch you need. Well, first, you need to make sure the Joomla setup is search engine friendly. Don’t have a web site design team build you a site with no search engine friendly mambots. You will never get the search engines to crawl it effectively. ( Bottom line.. learn what you need or your design team may never build in these extra components.) Yes.. stretch your knowledge because your Internet marketing presence is your key to success.

Joomla and Wordpress are awesome platforms to use. If you are looking for a web site design team, you must ask yourself, ” What CMS are they considering to build my site on?” Then ask youself, ” Do they have experience building a Wordpress blog with the most popular plugins?” You see, the Wordpress blogging platform is like plain vanilla out of the box. You need to add the chocolate chips. One Wordpress plugin we use is, All in One SEO. Another one is feedburner feedsmith. There are many more however.

Now, Joomla and Wordpress installations are a little tricky to install. A professional website design team, however, can make this happen for you. I figure, leverage the strengths of others. Don’t try to do it yourself, if you are a real estate agent, for example, sell homes! Don’t make websites.

With that said, you can go here to find the best Joomla plugins and the best Wordpress plugins and let your website designer build these in.

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There are a lot of things to consider when thinking about your website design.  The first and most important thing is: What do you want the website to do?  Is this going to be an ecommerce website (where you are selling goods or services), a business card website (for promoting yourself or your business), a lead capture website (to build your business), or is it going to be a combination of these.  Just remember, the days of having a website just to have a website are over.  The technology is too powerful to just let sit there.  There are so many opportunities to make money on the Internet that while you are in the midst of designing your website you shouldn’t ever stop thinking about “How is this going to make me money?!?”  Keep that in mind and you’ll find a lot of your questions are answered before you even have to ask them.
So where to start?
When thinking about your new website design remember that you are an individual and differentiation is what drives customers.  You don’t want to look like another site (especially if they are in a similar business) because you want to stand out from your competition.  You want something unique to stick in the prospects mind so that when it comes to them laying down their credit card, they think of you first.  You also want to be true to yourself.  If you like pink don’t be shy about having some on your site, just remember, keep bright colors in moderation.  You don’t want to end up making it look like some cheap website design.  You want a professional website design look and feel, this will help inspire trust.
Balancing price and functionality.
Affordable website design is out there.  So is the best website design for you.  These two things do not always go hand in hand.  Don’t get caught in the trap of getting a cheap website and thinking that it’s going to make you a ton of money.  I’m not saying it’s impossible, but like the old saying goes:  “You get what you pay for.”  On the other hand, don’t get stuff that you don’t need just because it looks cool.  Having some flash animation on your site looks very nice, but it can’t be read by the Google spiders and they’ll often pass right by your site because of it.  If you’re looking for as much SEO as possible, stay away from flash.
Stick with what you know.
If you’re a dynamite real estate agent, don’t try to create your own website design.  Would you counsel a web designer to be their own Realtor®?  Find a real estate website design company that you can trust, give them as much information and background on what you’re looking for as you can, and make sure, above all else, that your communication with them is clear and consice.  They probably are not mind readers, make sure that if you want something included that they know you want it included.

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I have noticed that there are several customer relationship software applications on the web. Some are “online” based while others are run locally off your computer.

The first thing to consider is which way to go with your lead managment software. When determining your crm for your small to medium business, you will want to consider a few factors.  I have listed a few here:

• Ease of Use.
• Does it have an automated lead manager that captures leads off the Internet.
• Can you have all your employees on 1 central CRM.
• Can you distribute leads to your employees/agents/contractors yet never lose that lead.
• Does the system alert you when an activity must be completed.
• Can you be part of a lead sharing network where you can get paid for the lead you have shared.

So, first and foremost…let’s get this clear.. Do not trust your locally installed CRM software.

• Why? Your computer can crash. Even though you may back up your computer, things can go wrong.
• You’ll have a hard time sharing your content without having to do an elaborate sharing network within the company.
• You can’t work from your home unless you pay for a vpn service.

So, in my humble opinion, an “online” based crm software application is the only way to go!

Now, here the positives and negatives of an online based customer relationship managment software:

• Positives: Can get to it from any computer.
• Positives: You can link to other strong platforms though an API.
• Positvies:You can share lead information easier with your team.
• Negatives: If your Internet is down, you can not get to your data.
• Negatives: All the feature sets for an online version takes longer to build and therefore some local based applications have more built in feature sets.

In weighing the pros and cons, it is clear that to move forward in today’s Internet marketing, you need to be able to have fast access to data. That is why I am a proponent of an online crm marketing.

Now, for example, a real estate crm software as well as a mortgage crm is very necessary due to the fact that most buyers are now starting on the Internet before they choose an agent.  There are several great crm marketing software applications available. One that we built from users experience is the Masterdigm CRM software system.  Interested in CRM consultation? CRM consultants are but a few but feel free to fill out a crm consulting web form to get the latest updates in the CRM world.

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Automated email marketing is definitely an important tool to have in your arsenal. In reviewing the different systems out there, here are some factors you will want to consider when choosing your automated email marketing system.

1. Is the email provider “white listed?” If they are not whitelisted, you will not want to choose them.
2. That documents can be attached to the automated email drip campaign. Sometimes you may want to attach a .pdf to the email and its important to have that functionality available to you.
3. Open rates: Its important to be able to determine not only if an email was opened but also what links in the email were most clicked on.
4. Ease of Use: Many automated email marketing solutions seem to have been built by engineers without ever asking the user for their input. If you can’t figure it out within a day of using it, then “run”. It’ll never sink in!
5. Compliance to the CAN-SPAM Act. You want to make sure that their is an unsubscribe at the bottom of each email.

Some system I’ve found useful are the following:

• iContact
• Aweber
• GetResponse
• Masterdigm Email CRM

All of the above are excellent email marketing solutions. Masterdigm CRM is also not only an automated email responder but is also top of the line customer relationship manager thus giving the capability to email drip, send birthday responses and send automated direct mail letters.

Have any questions, feel free to fill out our automated email marketing quote page.

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Top drip email marketing system tips.

There are a lot of drip email marketing tools out there that have drip email marketing campaigns built in, the biggest question to a novice is “So what?”

Secrets to a good drip email marketing system.

The finest hammer in the world makes a terrible torque wrench. My suggestion to you is to go with an drip email marketing service as opposed to a drip email marketing software package you download.
The drip email marketing services have the huge benefit of working 24X7X365, whether your computer is on or not, it’s working for you.
Drip email marketing software only works when your computer is on and most of the “automated” processes aren’t very automated!
The feature I hear the most requested out of such a system is automated drip email marketing campaigns with templates. Basically put, most people want an out of the box solution. The reality of the situation is though, your drip email marketing system really should be as unique as your business. The best possible chance you have of being heard is to differentiate yourself, what ever you do, don’t fall into the template trap. I have a Realtor friend that was asking me about real estate drip email marketing campaigns and how effective I thought they were. My response to this question is if the drip email marketing campaign is targeting a selection of people and the marketing is handled well, you should see a 4% – 8% response rate, but on the first two pieces in the drip email marketing campaign you’ll be lucky to see a 1% response rate. It’s a fundamental of marketing, it takes saying something over and over before people finally hear it. If your drip email marketing campaign isn’t getting the results you were hoping for, the don’t be afraid of changing it up. A good drip email marketing campaign should allow you to make changes to the campaign on the fly, this shouldn’t cause a disruption to all the clients in your drip campaigns.

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Looking to build the best lead capturing page?: Then you are on the right track. There is no doubt about it! To have a highly effective lead capturing landing page will dramatically improve your Internet marketing dollars! You must spend money on a compelling lead capturing systems to make money. (We will discuss A/B split tests due to its criticality)

So first of all, I want to discuss landing pages that capture leads. Landing pages that are used in pay per click must be highly compelling. And put this in the back of your mind, “you must manage that lead when it does come in!”

First question for you: What lead capturing software do you use? Are you converting those leads? Are you having to do double entry? Does your send out letters? Let me help you with what I’ve learned and experienced. ( hands on experience – to answer these questions)

Now, pay per click (PPC) is what it sounds like.. You pay per each visitor that clicks on your site. Now, this can be very expensive… if not done properly. Or it can be a great source of clients for your future revenue. But you’ve got to do it right!

Let’s discuss how to optimize your landing page and convert that client to dollars. Then at the end, I will initiate a discussion on what systems will email drip, send out letters and keep in constant contact with your client.

Landing pages are for the human aspect and not for the spiders. These pages are merely window dressing to you main site. That means this.. make it very graphically appealing. The landing page(s) should be one page or a few pages but point to one particular action. This action is typically to fill out a web form.

So, let me start off with a bullet of information to discuss on lead capturing:

1. Compelling content: Are you a great writer? Do you know how to persuade visitors to respond? Well, let me give you some insider access: Use words like these: you, love, discovery, today, good, great, proven profit, guarantee, safe, comfort, results, passion, sleek, unique, savvy, free, convenient, low cost, tested in your sells copy. When you do this you hit the psyche of your visitor. You see, it’s not about you, its all about your visitor.
2. Color scheme: Creating a lead capturing page is not so difficult as long as you follow a few key principals. The most important thing is the background color.. Don’t get too funky… stay with the traditional black font on white background. It’s been tested time and time again. It has the best conversion rates. And, limit your page to 3 colors. If there is too many colors, you may lose your visitor. Remember, your main focus is to have them do the action step you need to have them do.
3. Design and layout: Keep it simple! Have a Headline that captures their attention. For example: ” The 10 things you need to know about surfing in big waves!” That’ll make someone want to continue reading.. Have the web form right in the hotspot of your site. Typically on the first leaf of the page. See this web site design company for a one lead design.
4. Some type of offer: Are you offering a solution? Then make an ebook. But, offer the first solution should be for FREE. Having the ebook is a great upsell.
5. Delivery: If you are going to offer a free service, information, etc.. then you need to have that product in their hands within moments. You must strike when the iron is hot. Masterdigm CRM software offers a trigger based email campaign solution that will do just that.
6. Split testing: After you design the lead capturing landing page, you will want to build another web site almost identically, except a different sells copy. Your objective: To beat out your previous websites conversion rate. Make sense? Then once you find the best lead capturing web site, create another split test and try to beat that one. (tricks of the trade)

Well, I help this helps your marketing efforts. Come back won’t you? Sign up for my blog.. I will blog on technology topics that will make you money!

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By far the cheapest form of Marketing is using an email drip marketing solution. Email Drip systems have been around for awhile. The successful players have been using it for years.

Now, let’s start get started. Let’s start off by answering the question: What is an email drip campaign and how can you use one effectively?

Well, it’s like this: When you have a client, your number 1 objective is to maintain constant contact, right? With an email drip software solution your dreams come true. You are always in contact with them. Until they opt out of course. Email drip campaigns will automatically put your client on a campaign based time interval that you choose. Now, the reason why you want to use companies like, Masterdigm, iContact and a few others, for example, is because they are either whitelisted or have no tolerance for spam. “White listed” is a word that signifies that the server has been blessed by the big wigs of the industry allowing your email to go into the “inbox”. If not, your email can go to either “spam” or “junk mail”.

Now, I believe that an email drip campaign is of the utmost importance, but you need to build an infrastructure around it. This is where email drip campaign providers have fallen short. You see, it’s one thing capturing a lead, its another to incubate ( email drip) and its another thing to close it and make that lead a client for life. How do you do that? Anyone?

Well, today, I would like to take a moment to explain the email marketing campaign and CRM in the Flagship product (Masterdigm)..pronounced “Master Dime”

Here is a list of features Masterdigm can do for email marketing! But Masterdigm is not only an email drip campaign solution, its a customer relationship manager (CRM). Check this out:

1. Ease of Use: If the system is hard for you to use, you will NEVER use it. Masterdigm was designed by users for users!
2. Masterdigm Email drip campaigns are based on triggered events. For example, when your client buys from you it will automatically kick off a pre-designed marketing campaigns in your behalf.
3. Email campaigns are built for lead capture: What does that mean?
   • Your first step could be sending out an email.
   • Second step is to make a phone call.
   • 3rd step is to send out a letter.
   • 4th step is to complete an action step, and you are reminded on each and every step.

   You see, unlike other email drip systems, Masterdigm integrated all the crucial steps into the ultimate drip campaign system. This way, 1 month later, you will be notified by your campaign that a phone call is needed! (This is Awesome!) If you are looking for an email drip campaign, you need to have a full solution to beat your competition.

Here is a partial list that I feel will benefit you to know and to secure as the way of doing business. ( more blogs to come)

1. Lead Capture web sites that instantaneously capture and post the information in your central CRM database. ( You never have to double entry a lead again)
2. Hidden fields in the lead capture web form. Now you can have hundreds of web forms on different sites and still maintain where they came from and what they wanted. You can create a report on the type and source of lead.
3. Automatic drip campaign. Once you establish the visitor is a potential client, you can automatically enter them into a campaign by one click of a button.
4. When a lead is opened, Masterdigm will send back a signal letting you know it was “opened” ( Nice)

There is nothing better than knowing whether your client is viewing your email or not. Its even more important to maintain the conversation history of the client as well. That’s what Masterdigm does well! It has integrated multiple platforms into one so that you no longer have to use several control panels. What does this mean? It means speed! What does Masterdigm stand for? It stand for Mastering Paradigms! The system helps you master your Paradigm.

Next Blog to follow is how Landing pages can dramatically change your business for the better and how to use Pay Per Click to your advantage.

( We like iContact as a side by side solution to Masterdigm)

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Web site designing is fairly simple, building a CMS website that is graphically pleasing AND produces traffic is not. With respect to real estate or any other industry for that matter, a Joomla website layout is the step in the right direction. A real estate web site designed with an IDX platform is one step better for capturing clients. When visitors first arrive, they are most interested in viewing properties. An IDX solution fulfills that criteria. You see, today, there are hundreds if not thousands of web site designers out there. The question is, “what should you consider when choosing your real estate web site designer? ” Well, the simplest answer is a “well-rounded” design team who knows Graphics, SEO, PPC and blogging at its fundamental core.

So, one of the most important things is the user-friendliness of the site, i.e, the graphical user interface (GUI). If your visitors have a hard time surfing your site, they’ll move to the next. Simple as that!

Joomla has various real estate modules that help to make a real estate website very user friendly. Feel free to check out some Joomla real estate sites we have made. For example, if you are looking to have a real estate web site designed, then you will want to make sure that navigation is set up correctly. The top and side navigation should be designed with “thought provoking keywords” to excite the user to drill into the site. How do you know if they are drilling down? With

You need to have the site designed around the user experience, not the other way around. If not done properly, your site won’t work. It will be “Dead on Arrival!”
The second most important thing is search engine optimization. Was the site initially laid out with with search engine optimization in mind? What does this mean? What should be considered? At the end of the day, your site must always be optimized! Optimized for the “Eye” as well is for the Spider.
So here is the dilemma, how do you balance these two most important factors?

Simple! By having a checklist that has been designed to give you, the website owner, hands on knowledge of what it takes to build this type of site. I have a put together a document called the “33 things you need to know when choosing your web site company.”
Here is a partial list of things to You need to consider.

SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY SITE

• What type of CMS should be used? (What does this mean?) Joomla, Drupal, Plone, DotNetNuke or what other open CMS system?
• How many mambots will be considered being used if the site is made with Joomla?
• Is the Title, description, H1, H2 tags, etc. set up to show properly on the search results?
• How is the bottom navigation designed? With Keyword rich metatags?
• Is their a site map? (What is a site map?) (Why is it a powerful tool?) and much more.

You see, it’s just not a website anymore, it’s a bundle of technologies assembled in tandem to bring traffic.

VISUALLY APPEALING SITE

• Is the site commanding the visual space on the first leaf?
• Was it designed with an eye heat map in mind?
• Did your designer use the proper colors that compel the user to react?
• Is the site easy to navigate?
• Do you offer them something?

In real estate, offering a real estate IDX platform solution works. It works great! (There are several real estate IDX solutions out there, however, so you need to pick the right one.Now, that you have that Joomla real estate web site designed, what do you do next?

GENERATE REAL ESTATE TRAFFIC!

Now, they say content is king! I would agree! It’s the king of capturing “long tail” keywords. Long tail is simply a set of keywords that were used in a search. An example would be the keywords associated with the keyword phrase “orange county real estate”. Long tail keywords maybe something like this. “ I want to buy a foreclosure in orange county real estate.” It uses the keyword phrase, “orange county real estate”. Now, by designing a page around this keyword phrase, you may be more apt to capture the highest organic position for that phrase. Of course you want to make sure there is even traffic for that keyword, but this the concept.

So, when building your web site, already have your content as your main objective in mind. This is strategically important for your success!

CONTENT WRITER

They say there is no such thing as a good writer, just a good “re-writers”. The concept holds a lot of truth in the SEO and content writing arena. It takes several times to really optimize your message for your visitor and the Google bot.
Real Estate Web sites work best when they are non-branded. What I mean is this. A site that is user centric instead of company centric. When you offer information, you become the guru of the industry.

Stay tuned.. I want to hear your thoughts. Join me and blog with me, won’t you? It’ll be a great awakening for building your Internet Marketing world!

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