Free Video Channel for Real Estate Listings
Published January 26, 2012 | 
We can all agree that videos make great advertisements. Whether it’s for a property, an event or even showcasing your real estate skills, videos have surpassed still pictures and even slideshows in helping market you and your listings online. YouTube has become the second most used search engine (behind Google and in front of Yahoo! and Bing) on the internet today. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a place to upload the video of your client’s real estate listing without having it compete with cats playing the piano, stunts gone wrong and startled baby faces? Well, there is. It’s called Property Tube.
Property Tube was created exclusively for private sellers and renters as well as professional real estate agents and offices as a marketing platform for their properties. They give exposure of your clients’ properties to a world-wide audience. All you have to do is take any video you’ve created or had created by a professional and upload it to your free Property Tube account like you would with a YouTube video. In just two easy steps, you can map the location of the property, upload the video, add a catchy headline and provide details of the property in question, including adding a link back to your website or blog right in the description.
Just like YouTube, you can even create your own real estate channel. Keep your data base updated on what’s happening with your office, what’s going on around your neighborhood, new listings that need to be seen to be believed and general real estate news that everyone can use with your own branded real estate channel. This is a great way to engage an audience and keep them asking for more. And all this is absolutely FREE!
If you don’t fancy yourself a cinematographer, don’t fret. Property Tube can help you find a videographer near you to shoot an amazing, professional quality video. However, anyone with a Flip camera and some imagination can put together something truly special on Property Tube.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is just about priceless. And, with Property Tube, your priceless video can be advertised to millions of potential buyers all across the world for FREE! Just think of Property Tube as the YouTube of real estate listings.
Customize Your WordPress Site for FREE!
Published January 12, 2012 | Creating an interesting, interactive website used to cost thousands of dollars a year. Even if you went the “do-it-yourself” route, you ran the risk of looking like many other real estate sites out there by using the same old limited freebie themes. However, websites have come a long way, baby. Most real estate professionals are ditching their old expensive websites for a hosted WordPress site. They are much more affordable, offer a wide variety of plugins and widgets to completely customize your site, and, most importantly, they are completely user-friendly. Even computer novices can look like geniuses with WordPress.
Theme Shock is a great program I have found to help my real estate clients create a truly impressive WordPress site. Through Theme Shock, you can download your own free bundle of WordPress themes to use on your hosted site. Each free bundle includes your choice of 99 different WordPress themes (you can use 10 different ones at a time for free), 750 free high quality icons and more. For a fee, you can download the premium Shock Bundle. This includes 102 Premium WordPress themes, icons for Android and iPhone, credit card icons, social media icons, logo templates and so much more. The following are just a few examples of Word Press sites using Theme Shock my clients are currently using:
Don’t delay. Stop spending thousands of dollars on your real estate website. Get Theme Shock now and make a true impression on future clients. Just let me know if you need any help getting started.
Don’t Forget Anything Ever Again With Evernote
Published September 15, 2011 | 
Everyone seems to living a “hurry up and GO” lifestyle. Multi-tasking has become a common way to get through our daily lives. That is especially true when it comes to the life of a real estate professional like yourself. But, when you multi-task, you run the risk of forgetting some important information that you really wish you had later. There is a new real estate tool I have found that I believe can help you remember every idea, snapshot, memo and more for retrieval at any time. Don’t forget anything ever again with Evernote.
Evernote was created for any busy person living the on-the-go lifestyle. With Evernote, users can save notes, clip interesting web pages, store photos and even keep pdfs on file. It is easily accessible through your desktop, laptop or smart phone as well, making it totally portable and user-friendly anywhere you need it. If you have tons of paperwork and want to keep it organized, you can take a photo with your smart phone or scan it into your Evernote account at your home or office.
With your free Evernote account, you can create as many files (or “notebooks”) as you want. Add as many notes, photos, web page links, scanned documents and pdfs as you want to any notebook as often as you want. You can add tags to each file for easy reference. With their Web Clipper download, you can even “clip” parts of different web pages and send them to your Evernote notebook whether you use Windows, Firefox or any other web browser. It’s also available as an app on your iPhone, iPad or Android smart phone for your convenience.
Make a separate notebook for buyers, one for sellers, one for foreclosures and short sales, etc. You can include a checklist of information each new real estate client will need to have on hand that fits their particular profile (maybe a checklist of information a buyer will need to have on hand, what a seller needs to do to get their home ready before listing it or what a homeowner can expect when buying a short sale). Voila! You have an instant marketing package to send to any client.
Create an individual notebook for each client that includes their wants/needs listed to help you stay organized. When you do a broker’s open or caravan, take photos and upload them to specific clients’ notebooks so that you can share them with your clients later. You can also save any emails sent back and forth between you and your client in one area.
Evernote makes it easy to share with anybody and everybody, too. Simply go to the notebook you wish to share, click the “Share” button and choose whether you want to post it on Facebook, Twitter, send it through an email or get a link to share in another way. You won’t ever forget anything ever again with Evernote!
Stand Out from the Crowd
Published September 5, 2011 | 
Just as curb appeal is important when selling a client’s property, the image you put forth is important when selling yourself to potential clients. You don’t want your site, blog or advertising material to look like everyone else’s. You want to stand out from the crowd to keep your name on the tips of potential clients’ tongues when they want to buy or sell a property in your area. One way to do this is by using colorful icons to capture the attention of visitors to your website or blog.
Find Icons is a fabulous website I came across recently. It offers more than 308,000 different free icons available for download instantly. When I’ve look for icons in the past for my real estate clients, I’ve typed in what I’m looking for on Google and had to sort through tons of different sites to find just what I wanted. Then, I had to make sure they were free to use. With Find Icons, you can search by theme (ie, “real estate”, for example) or individual item (such as “home”). Change your social media icons at the holidays or to to fit your mood. Whatever image you want to project, you will most likely find something that fits here.
Whether you want to be serious, playful or simply need a change from time to time, Find Icons can help you stand out from the crowd. Whenever you find yourself in need of help with your online real estate image, just contact Second Self. We are always ready and willing to help you make the best impression possible for your real estate business.
Posted in Free Resources, Information, Real Estate Assistance, Uncategorized | 
custom icons, standing outFree Online Computer Classes
Published September 4, 2011 | I am a big believer in educating yourself to get a leg up on the competition. This is as true in the real estate business world as it is in your regular life. Since so many homebuyers turn to their computers to search for their next home purchase even before contacting a real estate professional, it’s a good idea to have at least some knowledge of how your computer works as well as gain knowledge on what you can do to make your clients’ listings stand out. Hewlett Packard, one of the largest computer companies in the world, offers some valuable free online computer classes that you may want to check out at their HP Learning Center.
Hewlett Packard is a wealth of information for real estate agents. Their Microsoft Office and Adobe classes teach
you how to work with Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Photoshop. Their home office classes will inform you about creating an interactive marketing brochure, designing unique business cards, constructing and printing high quality marketing materials and even online social networking tips. Their basic business classes offer information on editing videos for your real estate business, how to get started on Facebook and Twitter, networking basics and even how to build your very own web page. Their digital photography classes are a must for real estate professionals, since the first impression most buyers will have of your clients’ listings involve photos. Learn more about how to compose a shot before you take it to make the most impact, how to solve some common photo problems, scanning photos into your computer and how to touch up/edit photos using Photoshop.
Whether you’re a big corporate company or work out of your home, the HP Learning Center can help you build a better real estate business with their free online classes. Take advantage of all that Hewlett Packard has to offer today. Don’t feel overwhelmed, though. If you still find you need help with your real estate business, feel free to contact our team at Second Self Virtual Assistance. We’re always here when you need us!
Publish Your Real Estate Blog on Kindle
Published August 18, 2011 | 
Electronic readers, like Kindle, have become popular ways for people to view their reading material. They give you the opportunity to carry your entire library with you at all times, giving you a variety of things to read. Now, you can publish your real estate blog on Kindle for free.
After you have created your free account, you simply add your blog feed, type in a title, tagline, keywords and brief description (for SEO) and verify your feed, Kindle will automatically update your blog feed several times throughout the day. That way, readers are guaranteed the freshest content possible. Unlike regular RSS feeds that only show the headlines for blog posts, Kindle posts the entire text and most of the images for each real estate blog post. This can be much more enticing for readers (and potential real estate clients) to pursue reading your blog further.
Another aspect of publishing your real estate blog on Kindle is that you have the opportunity to sell your blog through monthly subscriptions. Since Kindle automatically offers your blog as a monthly subscription to its users, they handle all the advertising for you. This may be a way to bring yet another source of income into your household.
If you're interested in getting more exposure to potential clients as well as bringing in some extra income, try publishing your real estate blog on Kindle. Get your blog into the hands of readers now!
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