Everyone’s talking about goals. What about your brand?
January 06, 2012 | Kara Calderon
With a new year comes a new goal. Most agents simply want more leads, more listings, and to make more money. All of that is fantastic, but if you're struggling with "what's next" maybe it's time to revisit the basics...your brand. Your brand is simple. It's who you are and what you do—in the way you’ve chosen. So it’s important to take the right steps when building it (or revisiting it), then you can get back to making your goals for the year. Here are a few ways to get started:
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Write a mission statement. O.K., so this doesn’t have to be all sappy and that you want to help every...
The easiest form of SEO - Building a better website
January 03, 2012 | Shawn Smalley
Happy New Year! With each new year comes a new set of resolutions, most having to do with their website and how to get higher rankings. So this series (yes, a series) will focus on just that.
There are a lot of myths about how to “optimize” your website for search engines. Notice I put “optimize” in double-quotes. Here’s a truth that will make some paid SEO companies shake in their boots: The real trick to SEO is just building a better website in general. That’s it. Nothing technical, nothing “behind-the-scenes” you have to install or tweak, and your website is just a platform for you to...
Is e-mail marketing dead?
December 22, 2011 | Kara Calderon
Actually it’s not. Ever wonder why you get so many e-mails from some of the biggest retailers around? It’s effective and inexpensive.
Regardless what you may think about “too much e-mail” or “getting spammed” the fact is (like it or not)…e-mail marketing is here to stay. Now, what you do with your e-mail marketing is up to you. Use it to only feature new listings, generate more referrals, provide home improvement tips, or….all of the above. The bottom line is you need to keep your name in front of your potential and past customers every chance you get.
So if you don’t have your marketing plan...
New Virtual Tour for Agent XSites
December 01, 2011 | Matt Krodel
When we originally designed the XSites Virtual Tour in 2003, the web was kind of a dull place. Many people still had slow dial-up connections, low resolution CRT displays and a browser that would seem primitive by today’s standards. To make up for all those limitations, we implemented a really nice Flash-based virtual tour that (at the time) was cutting edge and gained us a lot of fans.
Now that high speed connections and high resolution displays are the norm, we’ve rewritten our Virtual Tour to take advantage of today’s mainstream web technologies to give your buyers and sellers a better...
The most wonderful time of the year
November 10, 2011 | Kara Calderon
This is my fifth Expo and I've learned a lot over the years. Therefore, I wanted to share my 5 best tips to help make your trip (and Expo) a success.
1. Take comfy shoes. Ladies this is directed at you. The show floor is HUGE! Add in walking to classes, the hotel, and everything else there’s lot of walking…so put function over fashion and bring your comfy kicks. I recommend insoles too.
2. Have a plan. Between CE classes, speakers, and the show, you’re time is spread thin. ...
