Never Worry About Broken Links Again!
Published May 17, 2012 | 
Search engines hate broken links. Your real estate website or blog will be dinged if search engine spiders come across a broken outgoing link while crawling your site. Maintaining the integrity of all links associated with your site can mean the difference between ranking high with search engines or plummeting to the murky waters at the lower rungs of the ladder. Not to fear, though. Never worry about broken links on your WordPress site again!
I’ve been a strong advocate for real estate professionals utilizing WordPress sites for their businesses for quite some time now. One reason is because you get access to some great plug-ins to really make your site rock. The Broken Link Checker plug-in is easy to install, simple to use and does exactly what it says…checks for broken outgoing links on your site. The Broken Link Checker will automatically monitor all of the pages on your site, including posts, comments and your blog roll to make sure all links used work properly. When a broken link is detected, you will receive an alert on your WordPress site’s dashboard, in the plug-in widget itself and via email. The checker even notates when photos go missing from any page or post on your site (another big “no-no” with search engines).
The Broken Link Checker gives you the option to make broken links appear differently in posts as well as stopping search engines from following any broken links found on your site. You can edit broken links from the plug-in page itself rather than having to go directly to each individual page or post where a broken link is found to manually fix each one. Configure it to fit your preferences and needs.
You don’t have to worry about broken links on your WordPress site ever again. With the Broken Link Checker plug-in on your side, your real estate website will continue to climb to the top of the search engine rankings. This is another great tool for every real estate professional to have in their arsenal. When you need help getting your site to the top, please contact Second Self Virtual Assistance. We are that second “you” everyone needs when life gets too busy.
No More Shoeboxes!
Published April 19, 2012 | 
I know that the 2011 tax filing season just ended, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start planning for next year. Organization is key in just about every aspect of your life. This has never been more true than when it comes to your real estate business. As a busy real estate professional, you’re always on the go. There are meetings to attend, clients to meet with, lunches to go to, open houses to prepare for. The laundry list of things a REALTOR® has to deal with seems to be never-ending. Instead of stuffing your shoeboxes with receipts for the accountant to sort out next year, put together an on-the-spot expense report directly from your cell phone with with Xpen$er.
Whether your employer pays for your expenses, you foot the bill yourself or you have a combination of both, Xpen$er creates a user-friendly, easy to submit expense report using your iPhone, Android, Blackberry, voicemail, IM, SMS, Twitter or email. With the voicemail option, your phone doesn’t even need internet capabilities to send the information to your Xpen$er account. Capture images of your receipts on your phone, attach them to the appropriate expense, set your tags and the image stays with the line item on your expense report. You can always upload the image to your Xpen$er account using your laptop or PC later. You won’t have to keep piles of receipts in those shoeboxes anymore. That’s eco-friendly AND ultra-convenient!
Xpen$er makes organizing your real estate business expenses simple and easy. Set up separate reports per client, per project, per trip or by date. Import your bank and credit card statements so you can access the information anytime. Export your report to your boss or accountant with ease. All Xpen$er reports integrate with QuickBooks, Microsoft Dyanmics, Quicken and FreshBooks. The reports are easy to follow, completely customizable and fully itemized with copies of receipts to back up the expenses, making approval of your business expenses happen much quicker. You won’t have to wait for weeks to get reimbursed from your employer anymore. Also, when you call customer support at Xpen$er, you get a real live person on the other end of the line instead of having to push buttons to get through a long automated list.
Get rid of that old shoebox full of receipts and get organized now with Xpen$er. Record your expenses as they happen. You have enough paperwork to deal with in the real estate business. Go paperless, become more efficient and let Xpen$er do the work of keeping track of your expenses today. For a limited time, they are offering a free 30 day trial. If you like it, you can continue the service for just $9 per user per month. Of course, when you need help organizing your online business, Second Self Virtual Assistance is always here for you.
Working Your List
Published March 30, 2012 | 
Contact lists are a real estate professional’s best friend. Evolving and expanding your list means money in the bank. Keeping in contact with current and past real estate clients is just as important as building a new customer base. You’ve already built a rapport by working with people currently on your contact list. As a REALTOR®, not only do you need to create a good list of contacts, but you must also work your list.
Like any good relationship, consistent communication is a necessity with business contacts. Otherwise, you will simply fall off their radar completely when it comes time for them to sell their current house and buy a new one. For example, I have a client who sold a couple their house a few years ago. The couple loved the agent and was very happy with their home. However, she didn’t understand the need to keep in contact with them. The couple went to the same church as she did. So, they saw each other socially every week. Imagine her surprise when one of these happy previous clients came up to her and said “You’ll be happy to know that we listed our house with Agent XYZ.” Her thought was, “Why would I be ‘happy’ to hear that? Why wouldn’t you use me?” Even though they saw each other every week, their clients associated her more as a fellow worshipper rather than a real estate agent and she lost out on the listing.
Whenever I speak to anyone, I ask them if they would be alright having me send them a weekly newsletter. It goes out every Tuesday and includes information I think my customer base would benefit from as well as a link to my weekly blog post. I send out a new newsletter every single week without fail. I can’t tell you how many people I have heard from who talked with me but went with another Real Estate Virtual Assistant because they promised them the moon AND the stars for a real steal of a deal just to have them come back to me later on because that “deal” really wasn’t one. The reason they come back to me? My weekly “contact” with them. My name in front of their eyes every single week.
It’s incredibly important to give your real estate contacts some bit of information that they can consider valuable. Sending them a commercial about how great you are and the services you provide won’t cut it. Most people “tune out” during TV commercials (unless it’s the Super Bowl). It’s the same with an email. Instead, give them real information they can actually use. They will begin to associate this helpful information with you, making you the first person they think of when it comes time to buy or sell their home. And with the viral impact of social media, if your contact sees this as valuable information that needs to be shared with others, they might post it on their Facebook or Twitter accounts to share with their social circle, who can in turn share or retweet it with their social circle and so on and so on. Your newsletter could reach someone via social media that you had no direct contact with…that is, until they pick up the phone and hire you.
Creating a contact list means nothing if you don’t work that list. Consistent contact in which you provide valuable information can help promote you and your brand in a subtle but meaningful way. Soon, you’ll find your phone ringing off the hook while dollar signs begin ringing in your head.
Instagram for Real Estate Pros
Published March 23, 2012 | 
You’re a busy real estate professional on the go. You’re negotiating a deal for one client, getting an open house ready for another, just received a call from your next possible client who has just moved into the area and needs a home ASAP and are on your way to meeting up with colleagues for a power lunch at a new restaurant you’ve heard nothing but raves about. What if I told you that you could squeeze marketing into all that at the same time? With Instagram, you can share photos to your Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and other social media accounts right from your iPhone!
Instagram is a free app available through your iPhone’s App Store. You can sign up for an Instagram account directly from the app. Simply add your email address, choose a username and password and you’re good to go. Once your account has been established, you will need to add the social media accounts you wish to share your photos with. In addition to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, you can post to your Flickr, Posterous and/or Foursquare accounts. That means you can share a photo you take instantly from your phone to as many as six different social networks all with the touch of the screen. That’s a real time saver! There’s even a little bit of photo editing software included if you want to tweak your pic slightly before sharing it.
Of course, as with all social media tools, you will want to create your own sphere of influence to reach as many people as possible. That can be done either by searching and following Instagram users you find interesting, adding people from your contact list or simply contacting your Facebook and Twitter friends. It’s easy!
Right now, the Instagram app is only available on your iPhone. However, Instagram recently unveiled a prototype of its app for Android phones at SXSW in Austin. It’s set to launch soon, so keep an eye out, Android users. The next time you want to show off a new listing, invite people to an event you or your company is throwing or find the best coffee house in all the land, whip out your iPhone, click on the Instagram app, take your photo and share it with the world. Instagram is just another tool that should be included in a successful real estate professional’s arsenal.
Create Your Own Real Estate App for That
Published February 9, 2012 | Apps have become all the rage with smart phone users. In fact, app use has virtually exploded over the past few years. Want to stream radio on your smart phone? There’s an app for that. Want to keep up with your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts while you’re on the go? There’s an app for that. Can’t live without playing Angry Birds while waiting in line for your morning latte? There’s an app for that. There’s even a nap app that you can download to help you achieve the optimum level of power napping. I kid you not! Want to offer current and potential clients the opportunity to view listings in your area online with just the touch of a button? Well, now you can create your very own real estate app for that!
Smarter Agent offers a fully customizable app to brokers and agents. Whether your customer uses iPhone, Android, Blackberry or another smart phone, you can create a real estate app with your own unique brand. With the Smarter Agent app, smart phone users can access your listings as well as all listings located on your MLS. When an interested party wants more information about that particular listing, all calls will go directly to you…even if the listing is not yours. What a great way to increase your clientele!
For a fee, Smarter Agent creates an application downloader that you install on your website. Visitors to your website can then access your app directly from your site. They will also create a custom text code that allows your clients to download the real estate app to their phone, regardless of which kind of smart phone they use.
If you’re interested in finding out how you can create your own real estate “app for that”, visit Smarter Agent now. Bring your real estate business into the modern mobile technological age. Don’t be left behind (they don’t make an app for that)!
Google Analytics – The Times They Are A’Changing
Published December 1, 2011 | 
Google Analytics helps you track how your real estate website is working on the internet, including advertising, social networking, video and other applications. Recently, Google Analytics announced some new and exciting changes to customer accounts that take your website tracking even further. In addition to the amount of visits, average time spent on your site and bounce rate, Google Analytics now offers real time tracking (much like the Google search engine itself), multi-channel funneling, mobile reporting and flow visualization.
Real-time tracking allows you to see what’s happening with your site at this very moment. Google Analytics updates your information continuously throughout the day so you get results almost instantly. And all traffic is broken down into visitors who have visited your site through direct contact, an organic search, a referral or a campaign. That way you can see which method is working and which may need a little tweaking.
With the multi-channel funnels, you can view the various ways website visitors are turned into actual clients. The Top Conversion Paths report will show exactly when a visitor first accessed your site (whether it be via a paid advertisement, organic search, an email campaign or other form), which pages were accessed, in which order they were accessed and when they initiated contact with you. This can help point out how your real estate clients are finding you and which campaigns are working the best. It may be that the paid search isn’t the best deal. Or, perhaps your SEO needs some improvement for those organic searches to come up.
Through the mobile reports, you can find out how your real estate mobi site is doing. With smartphones getting increasingly smarter and more accessible, many potential real estate clients are using their handheld devices to access the internet. Learn how your website visitors are finding you on their mobile devices as well as which devices are being used most often. This can help you optimize your mobi site for that particular device.
If you need to actually see the pathway to understand how this all works, Google Analytics has come up with something specifically for you. With the flow visualization chart, you will have a visual depiction of just how your real estate site is performing online. See how a potential real estate client finds, navigates and interacts with your site.
I’m really excited about these updates to Google Analytics. The times, they are a’changing. And Google Analytics is changing along with it. Let me know if you need any help with your Google Analytics account, website, mobi site or blog. We at Second Self are always here to help.
Communication is Key with Clients
Published November 3, 2011 | 
Every successful real estate agent knows that communication is key with clients. This is true whether your client is a buyer or seller. With sellers, in particular, there are a few specific ways you can keep your clients “in the loop” on what’s happening with their listing. An informed client is a happy client. Happy clients refer you to other potential clients and everybody wins.
Follow-up After a Showing – This may seem obvious, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. Whether via email or a personal phone call (whichever your client prefers), informing them of how the showing went in a timely manner helps alleviate some of the stress they are feeling during this important time in their life. Take lots of notes during the showing and ask important questions, such as what the buyer/agent liked most/least about the home, what they think needs to be improved on, how many other homes have they looked at and how does this home rank in comparison to the other homes they’ve seen. When you take this feedback to your client, they can get a more realistic picture of how their home looks to potential buyers. This can help both you and your client tweak your marketing plan to accommodate.
Sign Up for Google Alerts – Most of today’s homebuyers begin their home search online. So, it makes sense to follow what is being said about your clients’ property and where it is being seen. Setting up a Google alert for the property’s address takes only a couple of minutes. You can receive the alert as often as you want, but you may only want to share this information every other week or so with your client. You don’t want to overwhelm them with too many alerts. This will show them that you are always keeping an eye on their listing because they are very important to you.
Analyze Online Listing Performance - Smart real estate agents understand the importance of posting your clients’ listings online. But, it’s not enough to just post and syndicate these listings. You need to know how these listings rank in search engines, who is viewing them and which portals they are viewing them most (ie, Trulia, Zillow, Craigslist, etc). Most listing sites provide an in-house report that will allow you to track how your listing is doing on that particular site. Do a weekly update to see where your clients’ listing is getting the most viewings so you can, again, tweak your marketing plan to take advantage of the traffic. When you present your findings to your client, they will see for themselves that their listing is never far from your mind.
When you deal in a customer service-oriented business like real estate, you quickly find that communication is key with clients. Word-of-mouth is still a very powerful and effective advertising tool. Keep your clients informed and they will be more than happy to pass along your name to their friends, families and coworkers. Then, they’ll tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends and so on and so on…
Slideshare Goes Social
Published September 22, 2011 | There has been a lot of talk about the new updates that Facebook has rolled out recently (hello blue tab “Top Story” and new layout). I haven’t decided yet whether I like or loathe it. I’ll have to let it marinate for a while first. Whatever your feelings are about it, there’s a reason Facebook seems to be kicking Google+’s little booty. Social networking continues to be a great tool for real estate professionals to integrate their business savvy in a social arena. Now, one of the best information sharing programs available online has joined in on the social networking bandwagon. Slideshare has gone social.
When you log in to your free Slideshare account, you will find that you now have a newsfeed (like Facebook) that shares what your friends have recently uploaded, comments on your presentations, Slideshare’s feature presentations, who has been looking at your profile recently and when someone in your friend network follows someone new so you can check them out for yourself. Your friends will be able to “favorite” your slideshows that they like, which then gives you exposure on their network of friends, extending your slideshow’s reach even further. By having the ability to view and read commentary on what your friends are looking into, you can determine whether you feel their friends are worth following as well, thus building your social network through Slideshare.
As we are all well aware of, social networking has become a mainstay in our personal and professional lives. If utilized properly, it can be an exceptional tool in your real estate business. Now that Slideshare has gone social, you can use your Slideshare presentations to an even bigger advantage in building your real estate business. Contact me now to find out how you can harness the power of social networking to create a strong presence for yourself and your business online.
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!
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