Archive for June, 2008
There’s been a poll in the left column on this blog for quite a while. The question related to the amount of business people are getting from their websites. The answers came out like this:
- 60% got Very Little or No Business from their website
- 30% got the Majority or Almost All of their business from their website
- 10% got about Half of their business from their website
Based on a suggestion from Jennifer Malok, who sells Kentucky Horse Farms, there’s a new poll in the left column right now. Jennifer thought it would be interesting to find out what people do to make their website turn into a lead generator. I thought that was a great idea.
So, if you have a real estate website, please take a few seconds to answer the poll. I wish there were a way to link the answers to the previous poll with the answers to this new one. I’d bet that most of the 60% who got little or no business from their website will, if they’re honest, have to choose the last alternative in the current poll.
But, even if we won’t be able to make that correlation, it will still be interesting to see where the most effort is spent on Internet Marketing. I tried to include as many possible responses as I could think of. If you notice a category that really should be included, let me know.
Whimsical Wednesday: Y’All Come Back…
· CommentsI’m a mimic. I can’t seem to help it. It just seems to sneak up on me and I don’t even realize it.
It’s not that big of a problem, except if people think I’m making fun of them. For example, if I’m talking to someone from England, I start to sound rather British – Austrialian, I ooze toward sounding like an Aussie. And, Southern, well you get the idea.
This was brought home to me the other day. I attended a local meeting of a service organization. I was with this group of people for a couple hours. They’re a great group of folks and I enjoy their company. At one point, though, one of them said teasingly, “She’s from Michigan, although you’d never know it to talk to her”.
And, I thought, “Oh great! I must be doing it again!”
Actually, I come by it very naturally. My mother was the same way. My family has a famous story about my mom and her accents. Your family has famous stories, right? Those moments in time that define your relatives and that you never let them forget?
I was a teenager, and my parents had friends named Claire and Sy. Or maybe it was Cy. Don’t know if I ever knew what it was short for, maybe Cyrus?
Anyway, Claire and Cy were from the South, and Claire especially had a pretty distinct Southern accent. We all teased my mother because whenever she was with Claire, my mom became Southern, too. But, one particular day stands out in the annals of our family history.
Mom was upstairs getting dressed because she and Claire were going out somewhere. I was downstairs and heard my mother’s voice calling to me.
“Kathleeeann, will you get the doah? Clay-aire is pullin’ in the drahv-waaay.”
And, we talk about that day whenever famous family stories are discussed. I mean, really! Claire hadn’t even gotten in the house yet, and my mom was already “metamorphasizing” into a Southern Belle.
Actually the word is metamorphosing, but I don’t think it’s really as descriptive.
So, to anyone who is British, Australian, Southern, or who speaks English with an accent different than mine – let me apologize in advance. I’m not making fun of your accent . . . it’s a hereditary defect.
Securing Your Domain – Part II
· CommentsAnswers to questions about domain names – Part Deux
5. I tried to move my domain name to another account, but they’re telling me I can’t do it!
The only rule you have to follow is this: You can only transfer a domain name to another registrar once every 60 days. So, the most likely reason your move request was denied is that you transferred the domain before – within the past couple months. Just wait until the 60 days are up, and you can transfer the domain without a problem.
6. The .com domain name I want is already taken – should I purchase a .net or .org version?
I don’t suggest buying a domain that isn’t a .com. The .com names are so common that many times people will use that suffix without even thinking about it. To make matters worse, real estate domains are usually geographically-oriented. Why does that make it worse, you ask?
Let’s say that WeddingFlowers.com is taken, so a florist buys WeddingFlowers.net. If someone accidently types the .com version, the odds of them instantly recognizing the error is very high. If they’re looking for flowers in San Francisco, they’ll notice if the site they land on is based in Toledo.
But, if AtlantaRealEstate.com is taken, and you purchase AtlantaRealEstate.net. . . if one of your prospects types the .com version, you’re sending them right to a direct competitor’s website.
7. I got a message telling me that ICANN wants me to confirm my contact information. Is this a bogus email?
No, it’s probably for real. ICANN stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. That’s the organization that governs the Internet in terms of domain names. I certainly don’t envy them that task! It’s got to be like herding cats.
Every year, ICANN requires that domain registrars contact their customers and request that the customers confirm their contact information. If you’re not sure if the email is valid, don’t click on any links in the email. Just go to your registrar’s website – you should be able to locate a link or button to reach the ICANN information.
8. Should I buy an existing domain?
The only time it makes sense to pay much money for a domain name is if the name has been in use for a good period of time. If the name already has traffic coming to it, you will get a jump start in terms of search engine rankings.
The thing to watch out for are the “cyber squatters”. Those are people or companies who purchase domain names just because they think they’d be valuable to someone in a particular line of business. They never use the names, they just ”park” the names at a registrar. A parked domain is just held by the registrar because every name has to be someplace. A parked domain is not crawled by the search engines. So, unless you really want a specific name that is for sale, my advice is to just think up another name.
If you have other questions, post it in a comment!
Securing Your Domain – Part I
· CommentsThere have been quite a few questions asked recently about domain names, so I decided to answer some of those questions here.
1. From an SEO standpoint, does it really matter how long a domain name has been in existence?
Yes, it really does. If you have a domain name that has been on the Internet for a while, think hard about changing it just because you find a better name.
2. Do keyword-rich domain names improve SEO?
Having keyword phrases in your domain name might have some impact on your SEO, but don’t make decisions just on that issue alone.
3. Which registrar should I use to purchase my domain name?
Once you’ve established a lead-generating website, your domain name is critical to your business, and you need to be very careful about how you manage your domain names.
- Open one registrar account and purchase all domain names through that one account.
- Make sure you keep track of the URL where you established your domain account, and the username and password to login to your domain registrar account. It may sound silly, but there’s nothing worse than not being sure how to get at your account.
- Make sure you keep the contact information in your account current. If you change your email address and miss important notices, it could cause real problems.
- Set your domain names up for automatic renewal. You’ll get an email notice announcing when the domain comes up for automatic renewal, and you’ll be able to make a decision at that point. Better to disapprove the renewal than to end up not renewing a critical name in time.
- Choose a registrar that has a good reputation. I have always been happy with the domain registration services provided by GoDaddy, and you’ll find a lot of good comments about them online.
- Choose a registrar that has a flat fee for registration and all the common things you might want to do with your domain, for example, changing the DNS Servers, redirecting the domain, etc.
- Don’t purchase a domain name through a vendor. Your domain names are too critical. Set up your own account so that you can access it whenever you want.
- If you did purchase a domain name through a vendor and you leave that vendor, you’ll probably need to move the domain name to your own account. Most vendors use domain registrars that specialize in bulk purchases such as Melbourne IT. Those registrars aren’t typically set up to handle individual owners and you’ll find it extremely expensive to keep your domain with that bulk registrar.
4. Do the search engines care how long my domain name is registered for?
Yes, they do. Domain names are cheap – if you plan to stick with a name for the foreseeable future, purchasing it for 10 years is not a silly thing to do.
5. I got a renewal notice in the mail – why didn’t my registrar just send me an email?
Your registrar would send you an email. Be careful of renewal notices you receive in the mail. You can end up moving your domain name to a different registrar without realizing it!
Any mailed renewal notice I’ve ever heard of is a sneaky way used by some registrars to steal domain names from competitors. If you read the renewal notice carefully, you’ll probably find something in very small print that states that the notice is not an invoice. They don’t happen to mention that they aren’t actually your registrar. If you send money to pay for your “renewal”, the registrar that sent you the notice will transfer your domain name away from the account where you left it.
There were more questions than I thought! Part II comes out tomorrow!
A New Twist on the Real Estate Search Site
· CommentsBelieve it or not, there’s a new real estate search site on the Internet. I do wonder how many more times I will end up writing that sentence. It seems to me that there are enough home search sites on the Internet. The fact that new sites are starting up on a regular basis shows how strong the demand is for real estate information on the Internet.
The latest entrant is RealSeekr.com, which hit the ‘Net in the middle of May. This site is run by Grant Freer, the CEO. Freer is also a real estate broker in Florida. The site’s claim to fame is that it combines a social network with a real estate search site.
Like Roost.com, RealSeekr is getting listings from its broker partners. Right now, they have about 1.6 million listings from brokers in 20 states, and they have plans to expand quickly. Looking the site over, I noticed that there are currently 15 agent members.
The site offers blogging opportunities, but it looks to me like the blog is set up as a community blog so I didn’t see an opportunity to set up and rank your own blog posts like you can with an ActiveRain blog. The site is in Beta right now, but this is how Greer describes the objectives they’re working toward:
“We focused on three important objectives with our initial release:
1. To present a comprehensive property database, with accurate and detailed listing data. Data includes enhanced content such as video tours, audio tours, additional photos, keywords, descriptions and more, with a lightning quick, easy to navigate search interface.
2. To drive traffic to our database of property listings, participating broker and listing agent sites, by optimizing all listings for search engines, for increased views which generates greater home buyer interest and greater results for home sellers and real estate professionals.
3. To provide an interactive community, social network and marketing destination for everyone to directly engage and communicate in real-time with one another using a variety of technologies, in a fun-filled, friendly, informative environment.”
RealSeekr bears watching. Maybe the combination of social networking and real estate search will become the standard in the future. If you haven’t established a lead-generating website for your business, sites like RealSeekr give you the opportunity to stay visible on the Internet.
Internet Marketing Poll Update
The latest results on the poll in the left column as of this date show the following:
- 60% of respondents get very little or none of their business from the Internet
- 30% of respondents get the majority or all of their business from the Internet
- 9% of respondents get about half their business from the Internet
The numbers show that the majority of agents who have had a website for a year or more get very little of their business from their website. The rounding algorithm seems to have misplaced 1% of the responses.
If you’ve had a website for a year or more and you fall into the “very little or none” category, perhaps today is the day you need to get serious about your Internet presence. Do it now before the first page of all search results end up being populated by real estate search portals!
