Blogs: Quick and Easy Tips to Increase Readership

Writing and publishing a blog is a lot of fun. It allows the author,using articles photos, and videos, to creatively  develop their online personality. Many bloggers develop an intricate and detailed online personality only to be disappointed at the lack of interaction with their online community.

Here are a few words of encouragement. Whatever you do, don't give up! Try these easy steps to develop a long term group of faithful followers who interact with you through your blog.

• Post - Quit waiting for the perfect article. Take the idea you have and express it. You can always go back later and expand your idea by posting more detailed information. Just Post it!
• Distribute - Make sure your blog posts are shared throughout your online media sources. Remember to use your blog as the hub and sources like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and others as the spokes. These  other social media communities will help you draw in more readers to your blog.
• Engage - Ask questions in your posts. When your readers comment, it is important that you respond. Listen so you can interact. Do this by setting up notifications to your phone or email (or both) so that you are immediately notified when someone comments on your post. By  responding to their comment quickly, you can create a real time conversation.
• Adjust - Analyze and tweak as you go. Watch your statistics and and analytics so you understand what interests your readers most. Post on subjects that have high interest and comments. Stop posting on subjects that have little to now interest.

Enjoy developing your blog and your online community. Keep your blog fresh by updating it frequently. You'll be glad you did!

How do we interact in 2011?

To reach consumers it is necessary to understand how people interact today. More than likely, people meet online with 1 in 5 marriages originating from an online introduction. With the likelihood of personal interaction initiating online, a strong, widespread, dynamic, and planned online presence is a must for a real estate professional to grow a successful and productive business.
An online prospecting campaign must include a substantial amount of Facebook. Successful campaigns that create a measureable return on time and dollar investment usually include use of both the personal profile and a business page along with facebook ads.

Recently Facebook incorporated Facebook generated lists to help organize friends into manageable groups. Lists allow individuals to post status updates to specific groups of people allowing a great opportunity to target market. It would be beneficial to post an open house for friends in a specific geographic area. But it may be considered spam to others who live far away from the open house. Lists also allow facebookers to review or watch posts from specific groups of people. Many people today have more Facebook friends than they can interact with. Lists allow people to streamline friends into smaller lists. The smaller groups let posts move slower down the wall so it is easier to pay attention and interact with friends.

Share

Seven things you need to do to engage your Facebook followers

This is a no-brainer, but were you aware that people buy more when they are engaged? Though I can't source this, some statistics show that consumers spend 20-40% more when they are actively engaged with the salesperson or company.

Do you know why? ...Because buying and selling is emotional

We must move away from one-sided tightly scripted messages to a free form of dialogue with consumers. Creating dialogue and engaging your consumers means you have to know who you’re attracting.

• Ask Questions - Brainstorm a list of questions your followers will find engaging
• Keep it simple and fun - Use videos and photos to attract followers
• Keep an editorial calendar - Plan your posts around themes.
• Create a content grid – Organize your posts into categories: Real Estate, Local Interests,
• Personal Interest, Your website
• Reply to every Like or Comment - Simply, “Thanks for the likes” will suffice.
• Reply to every Share - People want to know that you’ve seen them.
• Measure your success with analytics - Use the basic Facebook analytics or more detailed Hootsuite or Google Analytics to measure your traffic.
  

Share|

Questioning techniques can simplify the buying process

How did their real estate agent know that they all wanted their own shrub?

Helping people buy requires learning about the buyer's motivations and needs. Some of these have nothing to do with the number of bedrooms and square footage.

Learning to ask the right questions will help the buyers get what they are looking for. Open-ended questions allow the consumer to explain and describe more. The real estate agent can learn alot from open-ended questions.
Open-ended questions that start with

• How
• What
• Why
• When
• Who
• Where
• Describe
  

Closed questions have their place too. Use closed question to get definitive postions from buyers. Closed questions may lead specifically to a yes or no answer and include words like:

• Do
• Are
• Is
• Have
• Could
• Would
• Will
• Can
• Did

When qualifying buyers and sellers, it never hurts to SLOB them!

• S How soon do you want to move?
• L How long have you been looking?
• O Have you made any offers?
• B If you found the right house today, would you buy it?

Share

Setting goals gives you a roadmap to success

The second part of Jim Rohn's discussion with Vic Johnson of Goals 2 Go about goal setting is below. Jim hits home with explaining why listing goals, both short term and long term, is necessary. Simply put, crossing something off your list everyday makes you feel good.

Having daily goals and clearly understanding what you will do each day helps you become effective in both your business and personal life. Don't go to bed without tomorrow's list done!

Share|

Just a few choice words

Just a few words from Jim Rohn to start the day:

Skills: Don't wish it were easier; wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom.

Growth: Don't join an easy crowd. You won't grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to perform and achieve are high.

Change: We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.

Activity: The few who do are the envy of the many who watch.

Success: Success is what you attract by the person you become.

Share|

You can't hit a your target if you don't know what it is

Setting goals is like going to the dentist. Everyone has to do it but most people don't like it. So, we put it off as long as we can....sometimes years. If you can afford to do that, I guess it's ok. If your career and financial stabilty is dependent on your goals, then it's not!

Jim Rohn, on more than one occassion had a few things to say about goals. Watch part one of Mr.Rohn's interview with Vic Johnson of Goals 2 Go entitled, "Becoming the person you need to be to achieve your goals."

Share|

Prospect to Urgent Consumers

The key to prospect identification is URGENCY:

• TIME is the key criteria for determining who is a prospect
  
• Categorize your prospects by WHEN they want to move
  
• Question for motivation using time based questions:

1. How soon do you plan on moving?
2. How much longer will your home meet your needs?
3. At what point would you consider seeking the services of a sales person?
   

Bring information to customers who you know want to move. Focus on using active propsecting methods attracting those with an urgency in the buying or selling desires.

FSBOS

Expired Listings

Open House attendees

Referrals

Good News Bads News

Cold calling this group can be more difficult because they don't know who you are. - Bad News

Cold calling this group can be lucrative because they are ready to make a move. - Good News

Key Concept - If you need business right now then you’ll need to take the initiative to actively prospect the groups that are urgent now and develop relationships by making cold calls and make them warm.
Share

How you succeed depends on what you're willing to learn

Jim Rohn called Self Development "Working harder on yourself than you do on your job."

Mr. Rohn shared a story told to him by Earl Schoaff: "To be successful you must have an appetite for learning. Pursue learning in a manner in which it will help you to grow and change. Become a real searcher for knowledge. What you think about is like the sail on the sailboat. No matter how the wind blows, if you’ve got a place you want to go, you can’t arrive there by cursing the contrary wind. You arrive there by adjusting your sail. That’s your thinking, your ideas, and information. If you are short on that, it will cause you difficulty in the future."

When setting goals, more often than not, you'll have to overcome a obstacle in order to achieve your goal. Usually that requires meeting new people or learning new information. Embrace this challenge enthusiastically by listing the hurdles you'll need to overcome to be successful in reaching your desired outcome. These smaller successes will lead you toward your ultimate goal.

Share|

Filling the Funnel

Real estate opportunities are in each relationship we have. Whether in a first encounter with a consumer or with a long time friend, all people need a place to live. Not only do all people need a place to live, many people invest in real estate. Some invest in residential rental properties, while others purchase residential properties to rehab and then sell for profit. Both of these residential transactions, in addition to the lease opportunity, may include at least one real estate agent. This limited approach in real estate does not include any commercial transactions or development though each is attractive income generation options.

The question that comes in mind when considering all the opportunities to generate an income helping people buy, sell, lease, or develop
real estate is, “How do I find people who have a need in real estate?”

The word used to find people to work with is called prospecting. It is how real estate agents come into contact with consumers who have an interest in buying, selling, or leasing real estate.
The goal in prospecting is to find as many consumers as possible who are interested in transacting real estate. Reaching out to friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and others is like filling a funnel. The more prospects that are placed in the funnel through prospecting, the more likely a steady stream of income flows out the bottom of the funnel. The income level is dependent upon the volume of the flow and usually the dollar amount of the transaction. Assuming though a constant dollar amount of the transactions, the only way to increase income then is by increasing the number of transaction which is dependent on the amount of prospects reached. Reaching more people to make more money sounds simple. Yet many real estate agents fail at an alarmingly high rate. To have success, real estate agents need to have a plan about how to make contact with consumers and then follow their plan.

There are many ways to reach consumers to fill an agent's prospecting funnel. When creating their plan, agents can choose their prospecting methods by determining which are their favorites and their own strengths.
Share|

Four Sales to SUCCESS

I was trained to look at each contact with a prospective client as a SALES opportunity. Don't try to do one sale before you have completed the sale before it.

The first sale is the initial phone contact with the prospective client . . . Sell the Appointment. Don't let them make you do your presentation over the phone. Give them enough info that they want to hear more. You want to give your presentation face-to-face.

The second sale is your Presentation . . . Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak. If you want to meet them in their home or office, ask for a specific amount of meeting time . . . I usually ask for 30 minutes because it is not too much time out of their schedule and yet it is enough time to make a quick evaluation of their interest in your presentation.
• first 10 minutes is the "ice breaker"
- If you know them already, talk about something you have in common
- If they are new to you, look around the room quickly to see what they are interested in . . . pictures, trophies, golf clubs in the corner, fish tank, etc. . . . and ask about that. They will want to talk about their passion and that will loosen them up.
• next 20 minutes - your presentation
• last 10 minutes - wrap it up and set up next appt. . . . when you reach the end of the 30 minutes, look at your watch and tap it with your finger and say, "Well, our time is up, so I will . . . (reaffirm what you agreed to for the next meeting). Many times, if the client is really interested in what you are saying, they will say, "No, you don't have to leave yet . . . I want to hear more about . . ." (or something like that)

The third sale is the Close . . . this may take more than one meeting.

The fourth sale is to get Referrals . . . if they liked what you did for them they will give you 2 or 3 referrals. If they cannot think of anyone, don't tell them that you will call them back. Have something to prompt them with. You can interchange the questions or come up with new ones.
• Friends - Do you have any friends who have outgrown there current house and are talking about buying or building another one?
• Neighbors - Have you heard any of your neighbors talking about getting transferred?
• Relatives - Do you know any of your relatives here in Houston or Texas or other states that are thinking of selling their house or buying/building a new one?

Guest Blogger David B. Atkins is a Sales Associate with Coldwell Banker United, Realtors in Houston, Texas and owner of Bulldog Shipping

Share

You Can't Manage Time

We all complain about not having enough time to work, play, work on a project or have a family life.
4 Things You Already Know – Now Commit to Them
Time wasters to watch:

TURN OFF THE TV – if you love sports, have a favorite show, enjoy a news program – watch THAT one, then TURN OFF THE TOOB. This is one of the all-time time wasters – we know it – yet we listen to the same news over and over, same weather forecast, even get caught up on classic movies we’ve seen 5 times and get sucked in to professional poker. You know how to use the remote – now commit to it.

INTERRUPT THE INTERNET– I’ll just check my emails, oooh- there’s a link to a YouTube clip, hey- I wonder if that comedian made any other clips…next thing you know you’re surfing the hours away. Don’t get distracted – allow yourself some recreation, set a timer, then LOG OFF.

SCHEDULE YOUR FAMILY TIME – and reading time, creative thinking time, and keep it like you would any other appointment. Otherwise you’ll look back on your month and notice you’ve given your business the attention it needs, but not your other desires. Your job will always compete for your time – you get to choose when to say yes (TURN OFF THE INSTANT MESSAGE CHIME ON YOUR PHONE).

IMPORTANT OR URGENT– When I’m working on a report and someone comes into my office to ask me an urgent question, I get to determine whether it’s important or urgent, not them. I learned early, and well, in real estate, people can portray an item to be urgent, when they are really kicking tires, or don’t intend to turn that offer in until they come back from a two vacation. Buyers and sellers can do the same thing. Ask a lot of questions so you can assess, be firm, and redirect others from demanding your attention.

Six Steps to Increase the Success of Open Houses

Follow Up is a vital component if you want to have a successful business. Many of the customers you come in contact with at open houses won’t be ready to buy or sell right now. If left alone, most of the people you meet will work with someone else to meet their real estate needs if you do not remain fresh on their minds and show that you understand their needs and can meet them. Follow up so when they are ready to make a move, they’ll choose you!
Use a contact management system – Whether it is on paper or electronic, a contact management system should include not just contact information like phone number, email address, and physical address, but also a contact log that shows date of contacts, conversation notes, interests, and other information that will help the customer reach their goals.

Listen to others – There are many sales coaches and trainers that have exceptional dialogues that can help you determine what to say when you contact potential customers. Taking the opportunity to learn from others can save a lot of time. Listen to the greats: Tom Hopkins, David Knox, Floyd Wickman, or others make following up easier.

Plan follow up time – To maximize your success and reach income goals, plan your follow up phone call and email times. Do not allow other activities encroach on this time. Follow up phone calling is a true income producing activity. Keep the time sacred on your calendar by treating it like an appointment.

Ignore success – Many agents make calls until they get an appointment. I disagree with that approach. Make a certain amount of calls each time you call or call for a predetermined amount of time no matter how successful you are.

Use a call flow chart – Every call you make should follow essentially the same pattern.
Start by establishing rapport or reconnect. Use the information you gathered from previous conversations to re-engage the customer.

Probe for more information by asking questions. Your questions will depend on the answers you receive from previous questions. Take a lot of notes!
Close for an appointment. Whether a buyer or seller prospect you’ll need to meet in person at some point.

Set the stage for the next contact. Whether you plan to meet in person or just agree to the next follow up conversation, let the customer know what they can expect from you.

Much like all prospecting activities follow up phone calls will begin to produce results over time. Occasionally you’ll get lucky and successfully close for an appointment your first call. Often, it will take multiple contacts to gain the level of trusted advisor. Be prepared to go the distance so you can close more business through a consistent regimen of follow up phone calling.

Enough About Me…Now I Want to Hear What YOU Think About ME

Selling is Just Shared Enthusiasm
An old saying worth repeating, "Give your customers what they want and they will come back, over and over." Better yet - they will tell their friends and family. Selling is really shared enthusiasm, says Dan Miller, career coach guru.

Oh! Let me Tell You About This Place!
When you eat at a great restaurant or watch a fantastic movie- you can’t wait to tell others about it! You are selling them on it. If you love what you do and believe you can give your clients the best customer service – you will sell yourself, and others will sell you.
If you can sell:

• Quality service
  
• Positive personality


• Ability to communicate clearly
  
• Get the job done

People can’t wait to tell others about YOU!

Goobers and Viruses
My wife’s computer got a virus and searching for a solution, I asked one coworker her experience and she said she had just paid $400 to get rid of it. I found one online who claimed they were cheaper than the “GooberSquad” and quickly booked them. A disaster – I fired them and got my money back.
Then my friend, who had overheard my wife and me talking, came over and insisted we use this indiscriminate little company in a little strip mall. I would have never gone there on my own. They surpassed my expectations of just fixing the computer – my wife kept asking them every time they called to update her– "Are you sure it’s still $64.95?" We would use them again because of their customer service and are telling others we know about the low price and great service!

Simplify and Package the Sale

Revising a wordy article this morning I took a break to read Chris Brogan's blog post this morning titled, Simplify and Package the Sale. After reading it I simply deleted better than half the words in my post. I looked to simplify my message so the consumer could hear what I had to offer. Thanks Chris. I can save a lot of typing and words now.

Brand Your Passion

Do what you’re about! Brand your passion and be patient while you’re doing it. Gary Vaynerchuck at Web 2.0 Expo September 2009 had a bit to say about brand equity. According to Vaynerchuck, building brand equity takes four things:

Passion

Love what you’re doing. If you believe in what you’re doing then you’ll have passion for it. Think of it this way, you don’t have to sell something if you believe in it. Selling, according to Dan Miller, is only shared enthusiasm.

Hustle

This is the most important word EVER! You can work a regular bill paying job so you can have money to pay your bills and position yourself now to succeed by working harder than your ever have. People come home from work every day and then spend hours tinkering in their garage or watching television until they are exhausted. Imagine what you could produce by spending that time on what you really want to do every day for the rest of your life. Work at night for yourself. If you’re working on what you feel passionate you’ll be energized and have plenty of time to accomplish what you set out to do.

Knowledge

This is a business. You need to know your stuff. The game isn’t changing. The game has already changed! The old groups no longer have control over information. The days of the real estate agent having the listing book and controlling all the information are long gone! We now see 24 of 25 major newspapers losing readership every year. Television and radio don’t control information either. Content and information is shared everywhere by everybody. You have to get yours out there. In the old days you had to have mainstream media to build your brand. Not anymore. Nowadays if your content is good then you can get talked about and build your brand recognition.

Transparency

Care about your community by listening to your community’s needs and then do something about it. If you for a half a second don’t believe in what you’re selling or you don’t believe in yourself, then get out. If you are doing what you love then people will see it.

Build your brand by getting talked about by people in your community. Your niche needs to hear from you and about you every day. Some people get lucky and they are an overnight success but their success can be short lived. Work hard knowing you and your business can succeed. And, have patience. Building a career brand takes time.

Setting up a Google Analytics Account

Setting up a Google Analytics account should only take a few minutes. Like most things when you are working on your own on the internet, nothing is as easy as everyone else says. I have used the Google Analytics help site more than once not only to set up my account but also in making it find my blogs and websites. One of the most benficial help pieces I have found, however, has not been on Google at all. It was on Youtube. This video shows step by step how to set up a Google Analytics account. Googgle Analytics for Dummies? I think so. I watched it more than once. Though the audio is not so hot, the content is great. Wrttnrd, the maker of the video, has several Google Analytics "How to" videos. I think all of them are "should watch" level videos.

Have You Ever Used Google Analytics?

Google Analytics has given me the ability to accumulate statistics about my blogs and websites in one place. I can view statistics of hits on particular posts on any given day. I can also see average time on sites and bounce rates. Google Analytics helps me set up goals and track benchmarks completed toward the goals I've set.

For real estate agents using internet marketing as a part of their overall marketing plan, Google Analytics helps determine the effectiveness of reaching my target group of consumers. Google helps Analytic users by holding seminars throughout the country. The seminars range in levels of knowledge to help best meet the participants' needs. The schedule of seminars is on the Google Analytcs site. They're called Seminars for Success. The Analytics site also has a help menu to guide first time users through setting up accounts and a trouble shooting section for those of us who never seem to get things right the first or second or third times.

Google Analytics has helped me formalize my internet marketing campaigns from a haphazard shotgun approach of marketing to a specific set of actions designed to reach specific consumer groups. I can watch and analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of my marketing plan, making changes to continually improve online marketing and time use.

Just Dive In!

Dive into the unknown
Originally uploaded by aknacer

When you go to the beach or to the pool, how do you get into the water? We've all seen those who test the water before getting in; first a toe, a short pause, a step or two reaching shin deep. This process goes on for a while until finally they get completely in the water.
What about the opposite scenario? Have you seen the person who, without testing the water temparature, throws all caution to the wind takes a running dash and with a huge splash completely submerges himself in the water? Crazy, huh?
It's like the person who plans to plan to prospect. Whether it's a geographic farm, a sphere of influence campaign, or a system to contact expired listings, just dive in.
There'll be things that don't work exactly right but it won't matter. Jim Weichert's proven open house system doesn't have a 100% success rate. Instead, Jim Weichert encourages agents to look for success in doing the activity. Floyd Wickman uses different words to describe activity: "Great results are the sum of small things, done well, repeatedly."
Just dive in!

Pssst...It's the Systems!

Marty Rueter, President of Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, wrote an enlightening account of recent visits to two different Waffle Houses. (Waffle Houses? Yes, Waffle Houses!) Marty’s experience describes the systems that Jim Weichert perfected and Wayne Murray sought when becoming a franchise office of Weichert Realtors.

Enjoy this well written article.

I had my first BAD Waffle House experience recently. Toni and were driving down I-65 from Nashville and stopped at our favorite
breakfast stop on a Saturday morning. I should have known
something was awry when no one greeted us as we entered –
Maybe they didn’t see us, I thought to myself. The waitress at the
register finally promised she’d be right with us.
It wasn’t an abnormal Saturday. There were sojourners there like us but locals also -- enough to
warrant two cooks. It took about ten minutes to get some water (“the decaf was still brewing”) and
another ten minutes to place our order (still no coffee). We watched and waited ... and waited,
expecting to hear the whir of the egg beating machine that makes Waffle House omelets so fluffy (still
no coffee). The cooks seem frazzled, overwhelmed. The wait staff chit-chatted, idly watching the cooks
trying to keep track. Finally after consuming thirty minutes with still no decaf, I interrupted our
waitress and asked if she had called in our order yet. “There are two orders still ahead of you,” she
responded, “We’re very busy.....”
I’ve been to hundreds of Waffle Houses all around the country, and studied (admired) how they
operate. They have a marvelous SYSTEM for offering tasty, quick, hot food (albeit high cholesterol).
There was no SYSTEM in this particular Waffle House; no automatic greeting, no “condiment code” to
keep track of multiple orders (I’ve seen as many as fifteen cooking at a time), no system for having
fresh hot coffee ready to pour. I noticed the cooks weren’t wearing sanitary gloves. The posted health
notice was 87. Starving but frustrated, we walked out, much to their disinterest.
Toni still wanted her coffee. I wanted an omelet. So a few miles down the interstate, we stopped at
another Waffle House, this time dubious of our next Waffle House experience. “GOOD MORNING!”
two staffers called out. “Coffee?” one asked us right away. And within nine minutes we were inhaling
two delicious omelets with extra cheese and our second cup of decaf. A real Waffle House!
I relayed our disappointing experience to Kim, our Waffle House waitress in Pensacola, FL. “Must be a
franchise.” she responded matter of fact. “We’re trying to get rid of them. They’re costing us business.
They ignore our way of cooking, always skipping steps like our ordering code, and skimping on the
fresh coffee. Why would anyone franchise with us if they’re going to ignore our proven methods?”
“Beats me?” I said, unfamiliar with the problem.
“They’re not a real Waffle House like this one,” Kim shook her head. “They’re just making pretend.”
“And failing,” said I smugly.