This guest post was written by Chicago Lofts specialist, Mert Sahinoglu.

Real Estate professionals spend many hours on many different wireless connections.  Here are three branding opportunities for both private and public internet connections.

Wireless Home/Office Internet Connections

For your office create two connections:

1. Secure password protected for office use only.
2. Wireless hotspot public access.

Add a signal reinforcement device to make sure that the signal can be received well outside your office. Name both channels with your website domain name(s) (especially the public one). Branding your wireless hotspot is a great goodwill gesture that will remind them of your brand every time they turn on their computer.

Bluetooth Phones

Agents who use Bluetooth phones should name their Bluetooth profiles as their domain names. Especially in crowded public locations; people who have similar Bluetooth connections scan for other Bluetooth profiles frequently. 

Public Computer Connections

If you ever visit an Internet café, a university or a library public computer; turn the default home page of all browsers on the computer to your website. There is nothing like free advertising for your real estate site in a public Internet access area.

Online marketing is a great way to to attract prospects.  But, it’s certainly not the only way.  Take a look at eight creative ways to get new clients invented by real estate professionals across the U.S.

I particularly like the innovative way to make open houses pay off, and a filling approach to establishing yourself as a neighborhood expert.  And, if you’re a dog lover, you could benefit from caring about man’s best friend — and his roommates.

Pick one of these 8 fun and potentially profitable real estate marketing strategies and try it this month!

The Point2 Agent IDX is now available – sooner than I thought it would be!

Here is an excerpt from an email I received today:

Agents
Point2 IDX: $29.99 per month. 
Point2 IDX + MapTracks: $59.98 per month.

Brokers
Point2 IDX: $59.99 per month.
Point2 IDX + MapTracks: $109.98 per month.

It gets even better!  Right now as a special introductory offer, Point2 is waiving the setup fee. That’s right, a $0 set up fee (regularly $199 – $499 USD) for Point2 IDX.

This offer won’t last forever – only till July 31st, 2010.

—————————–

That pricing is, as promised, very attractive.

If you want to know whether the Point2 IDX covers your MLS, check out the home page at Wolfnet’s website, MLSFinder.com.  There is a list down the left column of that page that lists all the MLS organizations that are included.

If you’ve never had a 3rd party IDX MLS search, you should know that there are rules and paperwork involved in obtaining any vendor’s search.  What a surprise! 

Some MLS organizations restrict access to an IDX search to brokers only.  Other organizations allow either an agent or a broker to display an IDX search on their websites. 

All MLS organizations require paperwork to be completed so that they can keep track of who and where their MLS feeds are being displayed, even if  that display is coming from a third-party vendor like Point2.

If we can assist you in taking advantage of the new Point2 Agent IDX, call 888-716-2418 or send an email.

Do people in your target market spend time on Craigslist?  If you’re marketing $1million homes, I bet they don’t.  But, if you’re not sure, it would be worth finding out.

I was interested to see a recent article on BAN about an agent who is using Craigslist to generate up to:

• 990 unique visitors to his website
• 40 leads
• 5 appointments

And, all that was in one week!

Now, that may sound too good to be true, but I wouldn’t discount the possibility.  One of my clients is doing something that is generating an amazing amount of business for him.

His system is propietary (he’s keeping it a secret), but it sounds like it may be related to the approach Josh Schoenly describes in the BAN article. 

I’ve seen my client’s traffic stats for his real estate website, so I can objectively verify that whatever he’s doing is quite amazing.

Do you think you should give it a try??

When you think about all the things you could use to get your business name out in the marketplace, are you forgetting about the things you use most?

The things you use most are those items that are always with you.  Things like your cell phone, your laptop, your camera, and maybe even your Flip video camcorder.

Those items get quite a few “impressions” every day.  By impressions, I mean that every time someone sees one of the tools you carry with you, that’s an impression.  So, if you aren’t branding your portable tools, you’re missing an opportunity for increasing your visibility in the marketplace.

But, you can solve that problem!   Just visit the website at SkinIt.com.   Select the device you want to brand, then click the “Create Your Own” tab at the top of the page.

SkinIt has a pretty sophisticated do-it-yourself program that will lead you through adding images from your computer to custom lettering.  Once you’re happy with the design, add it to the cart, and you’re ready to go.  Naturally, if you’d like us to do the design for you, just let me know.

What you receive is a set of full-color adhesive-backed prints with instructions on how to mount the print on your device.

So, go out there and put your branding on all those portable tools, and take advantage of all the impressions you don’t even think about as you go through your day!