Sep 17
2012
Real Estate Outsourcing
Written by Chris Adams | posted in Tech Tip Tuesday, Technology | 1 Comment
If you’re not outsourcing, you should be. There is no way you can be doing EVERYTHING and still be efficient, let alone make any money. Outsourcing especially makes sense for tech related items, prospecting, and any number of menial tasks such as data collection. Here are some great items to outsource, and do so at a significant cost and time savings to yourself.
What Can You Outsource
- Craigslist posters/manager
- Social media managers
- Email managers (i.e. drip email)
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Be careful not to hire spammers, unlike other outsourced initiatives, you won’t see the results of these efforts until everything is set in stone (i.e. after the fact), which could mean your website getting blacklisted from the search engines
- Search engine marketing (i.e. PPC)
- Graphic designers and artists
- Creating specific images for your website, blog posts, etc.
- Content creators
- Writing blog posts for your site
- Writing guest blog posts
- Writing content for your social media profiles
- Website design and creation
- Be careful who you choose – we see people pay for junk all the time!
- If you are on a budget, consider installing the WordPress CMS on your server and then choose a theme (i.e. website design), prices for themes usually range between $0 and $200
- A lot of hosts can install WordPress on your behalf, or Page.ly installs WordPress automatically
- If you need your theme customized, consider hiring an outsourcer for that task
Where to Outsource
Outsourcing sounds like an easy enough concept, and it is. There are a great number of sites out there where you can find HIGH QUALITY freelancers. These are the most used, and overall best places to use.
oDesk.com
- When you submit a request you tend to receive a lot of interviewees, which gives you a lot of options
- Option to bill things on an hourly basis, which is great for long term projects, and allows you to pay the freelancers upon completed work
- Not many American freelancers to choose from, most are from India, Philippines, etc.
- oDesk.com
Guru.com
- More native english speaking freelancers to choose from
- Projects only, no billing by the hour
- Some freelancers will require 25%-60% upfront before starting
- Guru.com
Elance.com
- Projects only, no billing by the hour.
- Elance.com
99Designs or crowdSPRING
- Great place to find graphic artists, website designers, logo designers, and other graphics focused freelancers
- If you want to build a custom website for less than $1,500, either of these 2 sites are great choices
- 99designs.com
- crowdSPRING
Choosing the Right Freelancer
Knowing what you want to outsource, and finding the people is the easy part. Choosing the best freelancer can be a bit of a trick. Expect some trial and error, but that’s 100% ok. One of the great things about outsourcing work online is that there are plenty of freelancers to choose from, and getting up and running with a new freelancer takes just a few minutes. So if you feel like you hired the wrong person, it is easy and quick to move on. With that being said, here are some indicators of success, and good questions to ask your freelancers to minimize the chances of choosing the wrong freelancer.
- Do not base your decision off the tests that a freelancer has taken, these tests tend to be a very bad indicator of future success
- The best indicator of a competent freelancer is previous work history, and their ratings from other users
- This is a double-edged sword because the more experience a freelancer has the more they charge
- To get the most cost effective freelancer, hire someone who is fairly new but has work experience that meets your request very closely
- Be wary of freelancers who have a lot on their plate (i.e. working on a lot of other projects)
- Find someone with the experience you’re looking for, but only working on 1-3 projects additional projects
- Ask about their school schedule and any upcoming final exam periods
- Cheaper is not always better
- Some freelancers will charge 1/2 rate but end up taking twice as long or more to complete the same amount of work
- Don’t be afraid to fire a freelancer, it is a better usage of your time to find someone who can complete the work, instead of having to train them
- Weekly reports
- Always request the freelancer provide you with a weekly report on the activities they’ve completed thus far
- Requesting bids for a project
- Allow for at least 3 days for bids and applications to come in
- Some of the best contractors we have worked with were found later in the process
- Hire multiple freelancers for the same project
- This won’t work in every case (i.e. coding a website), but for most other tasks this works great because it allows you to test out a few freelancers to sees which one understands and the work and finishes the work quickly
- Should you find a freelancer that doesn’t understand the work, is unresponsive, or otherwise not a good fit, it is easy to discontinue the project with virtually zero downtime
- If possible, do the work yourself before hiring a freelancer
- Why? Because it will give you a better idea of the freelancer’s performance and efficiency
- Sometimes this won’t work because you’re requesting work to be done such as web programming, design, etc. If that’s the case, be very picky in your selection of a freelancer, only choose someone who has plenty of verifiable history
Aug 1
2012
DIY Realtor SEO Guide #10: Article Directories
Written by Chris Adams | posted in DIY SEO Guide | 0 Comments
Article Directories Overview
- Time Commitment: 1-3 hours total
- Projected Exprenses: $0
- Freebie: Email us for the giant list of 175+ real estate related article topics
- Click here to download the printable check sheet
Action Steps EXPLAINED
1. Setup Accounts on these Article Directories
- EzineArticles.com – Author Guidelines (click here). Why use EzineArticles.com? Because the site has a PageRank of 6 and Domain Authority Score of 93.
- ArticleDashboard.com – Author Guidelines (click here). Why use ArticleDashboard.com? Because the site has a PageRank of 5 and a Domain Authority score of 87.
- GoArticles.com – Author Guidelines (click here). Why use GoArticles.com? Because the site has a PageRank of 4 and a Domain Authority score of 91.
2. Decide What to Write & Write It
- Put together a list of 6 article topics
- Having trouble thinking up topics? Email us for our list of 175+ real estate related topics.
- Write 6 articles, 1 for each of the next 6 weeks
- Can this be outsourced? YES! The entire process, or just the writing. Click here to find out how to outsource and where to outsource.
3a. Post the Articles
- Week 1: post 1 article to EzineArticles.com
- Week 2: post 1 article to GoArticles.com
- Week 3: post 1 article to ArticleDashboard.com
- Week 4: post 1 article to EzineArticles.com
- Week 5: post 1 article to GoArticles.com
- Week 6: post 1 article to ArticleDashboard.com
- The standard article review turnaround is 7-14 days. This is from the time you submit the article to the time the editors of each article directory approve your article.
3b. Add Links to Each Article
- Don’t forget: The whole reason you’re posting these articles are for the backlinks (and a little bit of traffic) so don’t forget to include links to your website in each article you submit.
- Each article directory allows you to include 2 links back to your website in the “Author Bio” section. Have 1 link point to the homepage, and 1 link point to an interior page of your website.
- The anchor text for each link should be one of your keywords.
- You may be wondering, ‘Why not just post all my articles to one site?’ Because the key to a good link-building campaign is diversity of links. Having links from these three different sites helps to accomplish link diversity.
4. Apply Content Promotion Strategies
- Apply the Content Promotion Strategies to the blog post you commented on.
- Click here to learn more about these strategies and how to implement them.
Jul 15
2012
DIY Realtor SEO Guide #9: Guest Blogging
Written by Chris Adams | posted in DIY SEO Guide | 1 Comment
Of all the strategies that we have discussed thus far, guest blogging is one of the toughest, but simultaneously extremely valuable. Not only does guest blogging provide some great backlinks to your website it will also bring over a good amount of traffic as well.
Guest Blogging Overview
- Time Commitment: 4 hours/month
- Projected Expenses: $0
- Freebie: Huge list of 100+ real estate bloggers that are open to guest blog posts (email me for a copy)
- Want the printable check sheet? Leave a comment on this post below!
Depending upon the guest blog for which you write, you could see anywhere between a few new visitors to thousands of visitors in one day. These visitors in turn may convert into clients, and may like your content so much, they link back to it from their website, or become repeat visitors.
Action Steps EXPLAINED
- Start guest blogging once your own blog has two months worth of blog posts (i.e. around 4 posts).
- Why wait? Give the traffic that is brought over from the other blog a reason to bookmark your blog and link back to your blog. If they don’t see any blog posts on your site they may never come back.
1. Become a Guest Blogger for
- WannaNetwork.com: click here for the guest blogger guidelines and contact form
- BiggerPockets.com: click here for the guest blogger guidelines and contact form
- Becoming a guest blogger for BiggerPockets is different than creating a Member Blog (as outlined in the Content Promotion Strategies)
- P.S. We’re not affiliated with either site
2. Encourage Relationships With Other Bloggers
- Sign up with MyBlogGuest.com (click here) to encourage other bloggers to provide you with free guest blog posts on your blog
- Finding Potential Guest Blogs on MyBlogGuest: Find bloggers interested in receiving your guest posts by going to the “Looking for a guest for my blog” section of the Forum and contacting those members interested
3. Find Blogs to Guest Post On
- Email me for a copy of our huge list of real estate blogs that are open to guest blog posts
- Pick at least 24 real estate blogs from the downloaded list
- Email or call the blog owner using their contact form or email address if available. What should your email say? Click here to view a couple email templates and tips
- Email us for our giant list of topics
- Most bloggers are going to want articles that are very focused to their audience. Sometimes the blogger will give you some topic hints, other times it’s up to you to read through their blog to find topics and ideas.
4. Guest Blog Post Creation
- Create and post on a different guest blog every 2 weeks for 12 months
- The article should be at least 400 words in length (some bloggers require more)
- Guest blog posts need to be of the highest quality – an article so good you would be tempted to post on your own blog
- If you are a skilled writer then you should write these yourself, for everyone else, we recommend outsourcing the writing ( click here to learn more)
- Include an image along with the guest blog post. A great place to find free images is Flickr Creative Commons (click here). These images are free to use, but make sure you give the original photographer credit either by linking back to their Flickr profile or adding a caption to the photo.
- Keep a spreadsheet of all the URLs of your guest blog posts (this will help with Action Step 4)
5. Apply Content Promotion Strategies
- Apply the Content Promotion Strategies to the guest blog post once it has been accepted
- Click here to learn more about these strategies and how to implement them
Jul 1
2012
Guest Blogging Email Tips & Templates
Written by Chris Adams | posted in Online Marketing, SEO | 1 Comment
The Email Pitch
Pitching to a blogger is identical to anything else that can be “pitched” – just because it’s online doesn’t mean you’re not dealing with people. Because of this, the same offline rules apply for the online world. Trying to get the guest blogging opportunity is the same as trying to close any other type of deal. Here are 3 sites that provide pertinent information on pitching bloggers.
- Best: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/9-tips-to-pitch-your-blog-successfully/
- Better: : http://www.dailyblogtips.com/how-to-craft-the-perfect-e-mail-pitch/
- Good: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/10/30/how-to-pitch-to-bloggers-21-tips/
Email Pitch Templates
Feel free to use the following templates but here are 2 quick rules:
- Add your own voice
- Mix things up, don’t send every single blogger the same cut-and-dry template
Template 1
Hello,
My name is __________ and I am a real estate agent in ________ (city, state). If you are interested in getting a unique real-estate related article for your site, just let me know – I would be happy to do it for you.
You can see a sample of my writing here: __________ (your blog URL) and a few other places if it matters.
Anyway, just let me know if you would be interested in having a unique article contributed to your blog – I would be excited to get the chance.
Best Regards,
_____ (your name)
_____ (your phone number)
Template 2
Hi there,
My name is _____ and I run a real estate related blog, __________ (your blog URL). I’ve just found __________ (bloggers website URL) a couple of days ago and really think it’s well put together. I was hoping you’d be interested in a guest post about _______ (topic). I’d promote my guest article by posting links to it on my social media profiles as well as linking to it from my external resources page.
Please check out my site and let me know if we can work together.
Best Regards,
_____ (your name)
_____ (your phone number)
Jun 15
2012
DIY Realtor SEO Guide #8: Your Real Estate Blog
Written by Chris Adams | posted in DIY SEO Guide | 0 Comments
The process of building backlinks to your website is great, but you’ll also need to be doing something on your site as well to keep the visitors coming back on a consistent basis. Which means you need a blog. A blog is intimidating, especially knowing that you’ll need to be creating new posts on a consistent basis. But don’t let that hold you back, check out the action steps below to help you start and maintain a blog.
Overview
- Time Commitment: 1 hour/week
- Projected Expenses: $0
- Want the the printable check sheet? Leave a comment at the end of this post!
Action Steps EXPLAINED
1. Write & Post 2 New Articles Each Month
- Write the first 2 articles ASAP and post a new article to your blog every 2 weeks
- Continue writing two new blog posts each month
- Make sure you are posting the articles to your blog and not an ActiveRain blog or anything of that nature, otherwise you will not be building up your website
- Can this be outsourced? While we don’t recommend outsourcing your blog posts it is not out of the question, click here to learn more about outsourcing.
- I don’t know what to write about: Email me for the giant list of topics.
- I’m not a good writer! You might not be a Shakespeare, but many people are interested in your unique perspective (especially prospective clients).
- I can’t spell or my grammar sucks! You have colleagues, friends, parents, siblings, cousins, children, etc. Send them a copy, ask for a review of the spelling and grammar.
2. Apply Content Promotion Strategies
- Apply the Content Promotion Strategies to the each blog post you add on your blog.
- Click here to learn more about these strategies and how to implement them.
Jun 1
2012
DIY Realtor SEO Guide #7: Real Estate Content Promotion Strategies
Written by Chris Adams | posted in DIY SEO Guide | 3 Comments
Writing consistent blog posts is no easy task, and with the glut of content swirling around the internet at any given moment, it would be nearly impossible to stand out, unless you have help. That’s why Red Tiger training is so important. The following Action Steps will help you help yourself.
What makes this approach awesome is that it serves dual purposes. Not only will it help in getting backlinks to your site (i.e. SEO) but it will get your content in front of a wider audience (i.e. more traffic to your site).
Content Promotion Strategies Overview
- Time Commitment: 3 hours/week
- Projected Expenses: $0
- Want the printable check sheet? Leave a comment below!
Apply these action steps…
- Every time you add a new blog post on your blog
- Every time you add a new blog post on a guest blog
- Every time you post a new article to an article directory
- To the blog post where you left a new blog comment
Action Steps EXPLAINED
1. Join Realtown
When creating an account follow these general guidelines: be honest, use your real name, a picture of you, and a brief bio. If you already have an account then don’t worry about creating a second.
- Click here to join and create an account with Realtown
- Once you have the account verified and have added all your details, click “Create Blog” on the right sidebar
- Give the blog a title (hint: use your keywords in the title)
- Give the blog a description, keep it short and succinct (1-3 sentences)
- It might ask you to login again, that’s normal
- Once logged into the blog entry area, click “Edit My Blog Profile” on the left and add your website’s URL in the Website Address field and save the changes
- Then click “General Settings” on the left and fill out the following fields: Meta Keywords, Meta Description, Entries Per Page, Recent Entries, and set the “Privacy Default for New Entries” to Everyone (don’t forget to save!)
2. Join Trulia
When creating an account follow these general guidelines: be honest, use your real name, a picture of you, and a brief bio. If you already have an account then don’t worry about creating a second.
- Click here to join and create an account with Trulia
- Once you have the account verified and have added all your details to the “Edit profile” area, click “Blog” on the left sidebar
- This is the area where you will add new entries
3. Create accounts on Facebook and Twitter
Most everyone will have an account on both platforms, but make sure of the following:
- If your Twitter account is strictly for personal use, create a new account geared for your business
- In the following steps we’ll be using your Facebook Business Page, so make sure it is setup (click here to set one up)
4. Post “teasers” to your blogs on Realtown and Trulia
- What’s a teaser? A 3-5 sentence excerpt that gives a brief synopsis about an article but points the reader to the full article which is located elsewhere (kind of like a movie trailer)
- What will the teaser be about? It will an excerpt of: (a) your new blog post (b) your new guest blog post, (c) an article you posted to an article directory, or (d) a blog comment you left on another blog post
- What’s the purpose? To drive traffic back to the original article, and to add backlinks to the original blog post (or original article)
- Add 1 link after the teaser that links back to the original blog post (or original article)
- Add 1 link after the teaser that links back to any page on your website (i.e. home page, contact page, MLS search page)
- Realtown specific directions: Click “Add New Entry” on the left sidebar to add your teaser
- Trulia specific directions: Click “Blog” on the left sidebar to add your teaser
Don’t copy and paste the original blog post over to any of these accounts, otherwise you risk duplicate content penalties with the search engines.
5. Attach a Link to Your Facebook Business Page Wall
- Copy the URL of: (a) your new blog post (b) the guest blog post, (c) an article you posted on an article directory, or (d) the blog post where you left a blog comment
- Sign into Facebook and navigate to your business page
- Go to your “Wall” click the “Link” icon, and paste the URL into the field, then click “Attach”
- While it’s not required, your can add a comment about the link
- Finally, click the “Share” button
- That’s it – very easy and simple to do
6. Tweet on Twitter
- Tweet the link to: (a) your new blog post (b) the guest blog post, (c) an article you posted on an article directory, or (d) the blog post where you left a blog comment
- Directions: How to Tweet on Twitter (click here)
- Don’t get banned! Click here to learn how.
May 15
2012
DIY REALTOR SEO Guide #6: Advanced Content Promotion Strategies
Written by Chris Adams | posted in DIY SEO Guide | 1 Comment
With the advanced content promotion strategies we will take advantage of some of the biggest social media sites on the web. These sites have the potential to bring in enormous amounts of traffic and really help our your SEO, but also require some more time on your part.
- Time Commitment: 3 hours/week
- Projected Expenses: $0
Apply these action steps…
- Every time you add a new blog post on your blog
- Every time you add a new blog post on a guest blog
- Every time you post a new article to an article directory
- To the blog post where you left a new blog comment
Action Steps EXPLAINED
1. Create Accounts on These Sites
When creating these account follow these general guidelines: be honest, use your real name, a picture of you, a brief bio, and consider keywords in the account name. For example a Posterous account with a keyword in the account name would be: shortsalespecialist.posterous.com. If you already have an account on any of these accounts then don’t worry about creating a second.
- tumblr.com (click here)
- wordpress.com (click here)
- digg.com (click here)
- stumbleupon.com (click here)
- reddit.com (click here)
2. Post to WordPress.com and Tumblr
- Post a 3+ sentence excerpt about : (a) your new blog post (b) your new guest blog post, (c) an article you posted to an article directory, or (d) a blog comment you left on another blog post
- Add 1 link after the excerpt that links back to the original blog post (or original article)
- Add 1 link after the excerpt that links back to any page on your website (i.e. home page, contact page, MLS search page)
- Directions: How to post to WordPress.com and Realtown (click here)
Don’t copy and paste the original blog post over to any of these accounts, otherwise you risk duplicate content penalties with the search engines.
3. Bookmark on Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit
- Bookmark the URL: (a) of your new blog post (b) of the guest blog post, (c) of an article you posted on an article directory, or (d) of the blog post where you left a blog comment
- Directions: How to Bookmark on Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit (click here)
- Don’t get banned! Click here to learn how.
May 1
2012
Posting to WordPress.com, and Realtown
Written by Chris Adams | posted in Online Marketing | 0 Comments
How to Post to WordPress
- Go to WordPress.com, in the upper left corner, enter your login details
- Once logged in, hover over “My Blog” near the top left corner and click “New Post”
- Add a title
- Add the 3+ sentence excerpt (or any other content)
- Upload any images or videos (only if needed)
- Assign it any “Categories” or “Tags” (see the right sidebar)
- Click the “Publish” button on the right sidebar
How to Post to Realtown
- Go to Realtown.com and login (upper right corner)
- Click “Manage My Blog” on the right sidebar (it might ask you to login again, that’s normal)
- Click “Add New Entry” on the left sidebar
- Add a title
- Enter a URL title (remember, don’t use any spaces)
- Add the 3+ sentence excerpt (or any other content)
- Add any tags, if needed
- Click the “Add New Entry” button at the bottom of the page
Apr 16
2012
Don’t Get Banned
Written by Chris Adams | posted in Online Marketing, Social Media | 0 Comments
If we could just ignore these sites we would, but we can’t. These social media websites play a part in how search engines rank your site, and can bring a tsunami’s worth of traffic to your site in one day.
But users on these sites hate spam and will often perceive self-promotion as spam. If they think you’re spamming their network not only will they cancel your account but might even ban your website from ever appearing on their site in the future.
What do we mean by ‘self-promotion’? That is, promoting content that provides you with a direct benefit of some kind. It’s not that self-promotion is outlawed, but heavy self-promotion will get you into trouble. Sites like Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon may ban your website outright, but Twitter generally doesn’t take such a hard stance. Instead you’ll notice a lack of followers instead for over self-promotion.
Follow These Steps to Keep you account from getting banned
- At the broadest level, be an active member of the community (at least somewhat)
- Promote two pieces of someone else’s content every day (i.e. digg it, stumble it, reddit, retweet it)
- Keep at least a 10:1 ratio, 10:1 meaning promoting 10 pieces of content that is not your own to promoting 1 piece of content that belongs to you
Here’s What We Do
The best way to get involved in these social media spheres (as well as any others) is to integrate them into your daily workflow. Here’s how we integrate them into our daily routine:
- Wake up, grab some coffee and breakfast
- Spend 1/2 to 1 hour checking news from our RSS feed aggregator, or other online services (like reading the morning paper)
- Whenever we come across a good story/article, we do a couple things to it: we digg it, we stumble it, reddit, and retweet it (the actual process only takes 1-3 minutes)
- We end up doing this to 3+ articles each morning
- In addition, we head over to Digg.com, and Reddit.com – pick out one article from their home page and leave a quick comment on it (takes roughly 7 minutes total)
- We repeat the entire procedure at the end of the day too.
- With out routine as outlined above we usually only promote 1 of our content pieces every 2-3 days.
Make the process painless
Want to make this as quick and painless as possible? Download the AddThis add-on to your Firefox browser – it allows you with one click to digg, stumble, reddit, and retweet. It’s one of our favorite and most used Firefox add-on.
Apr 9
2012
Bookmarking on Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon
Written by Chris Adams | posted in Online Marketing, Social Media | 0 Comments
How to Submit a Bookmark to Digg
- Go to digg.com and login
- Copy the entire URL you want to bookmark
- Paste the URL in the “Submit a link” box near the top of the page
- A new drop down will appear with the details of the URL
- Edit any of these details if you want, but it’s not required
- “Choose a Topic”
- Click the “Digg it” button
- Want to make it even easier? Install the AddThis Firefox Add-on (click here)
How to Submit a Bookmark to Reddit
- Go to Reddit.com and login
- Click the “Submit a link” button on the right sidebar
- Copy the entire URL you want to bookmark
- Paste the URL in the “url” field
- Click the “suggest title” button
- Select any tags, if needed
- Enter the captcha
- Click the “submit” button
- Want to make it even easier? Install the AddThis Firefox Add-on (click here)
How to Submit a Bookmark to StumbleUpon
- Go to Stumbleupon.com and login
- Click the “Favorites” tab near the top of the page
- Click the “Add a site” button (on the right)
- Paste the URL in the “Url” field
- Add one or more tags in the “Review” field
- Click “Add a site >” button
- Want to make it even easier? Install the official StumbleUpon Firefox Add-on (click here)
