Internet Advertising

[cyndy4re]

What are the most efficient ways to advertise on-line? I know that this question is a very general one but my question is especially pointed in how you can track responses. Some feedback?

[krolfe]

In my opinion the most efficient way to advertise online is through a website. Once you have established a website, start to work your way up on the search engines. Good Luck!

[cyndy4re]

No offense but I really don't like how that "Good Luck" sounds... :)

[krolfe]

None taken. I didn't mean to sound the way you took it. I meant it in a "I hope you find the answers that you are looking for from your post" kind of way. Good Luck just doesn't take as long to type.

[cyndy4re]

So that makes when anyone searches for "Minneapolis Real Estate" they get on top of the list?

[RobM]

Thats an interesting concept that I had not heard of before...renting...I wonder how much money they make a month on this type of business plan

[Sean McAlister]

Thats an interesting concept that I had not heard of before...renting...I wonder how much money they make a month on this type of business plan

A boat load:)

Best wishes to all
Sean

[CGjerdetu]

Cyndy
The best long term strategy seems to be to get as many results as you can naturally or organically in the search engines. If you have a newer site or one that isn't currently ranking well you can work on the rankings while temporarily doing some pay per click advertising. This way you are still sending people to your site and hopefully they will continue using your site.

[cyndy4re]

Thanks Carolyn, looks like I have to learn to be an Internet Guru first, then sell some Real Estate... hahahaha...

So, as many websites possible... all linked between them would grow my Search Engine rating, correct?

[krolfe]

[quote=cyndy4re;29892]looks like I have to learn to be an Internet Guru first, then sell some Real Estate... hahahaha...
quote]

The way things are going, I think that would hold true in many professions.

[CGjerdetu]

Cnydy

I never thought I would spend as much time as I am learning about SEO (search engine optimization) HTML, web design, etc. There seems to be only a couple of choices if you want to get leads from the internet. Either learn to do everything yourself or pay someone else to do it or a combination of doing what you can and paying for some work.

[RobM]

Thats pretty much it in a nutshell...Luckily for me, I have an engineering background so most of this is easy for me...just time consuming. And since I am a listing agent, I find it much easier to explain to my clients the benefits of listing with a technical person, than not. It has worked well for me so far...just wrote $6 million in listings Friday and will be writting another $5 million this Friday.

In additon, I have been teaching some of the techniques to other agents in my office. It has gotten very popular and the room is typically filled beyond capacity.

Listings are still KEY to this business!

Good luck

rob

[cyndy4re]

Found this post on a Photography (For Real Estate) Blog. Seems like a very good idea. Just what I was saying a couple of days ago. Yes, I'm a photography buff

I might need help sooner than I thought... The good news is that I have a client !!! :) Nothing big... but hey, It's my first listing!

yey!

[iamsudhi]

If you consider search engine traffic to be the main source of traffic then it can take months of hard work to get to the top. You must develop a search engine friendly website have hundreds of quality backlinks must update your site regularly with latest news and useful contents to go and stay on the higher spots.

For immediate traffic generation you can consider paid advertising like PPC and cheap ezine ads. That will guarantee traffic but you must have something really good to offer so that you can derive some good ROI.

[MAAOnline]

Search Engine Optimization seem to be the most lucrative but it seems to take so much time and effort.

[cyndy4re]

SEO looks like the way to go. But It's not for me. I have to find someone to teach me. Information online regarding the subject is way to much. No idea where to start.

[Malok]

SEO looks like the way to go. But It's not for me. I have to find someone to teach me. Information online regarding the subject is way to much. No idea where to start.

2 ways to do SEO:

Time. Lots of time. To figure out what you need to do - and then to do it.

Money. Lots of money. To pay someone else to do it.


Its going to cost some combination of one, the other - or both.

[carlam]

The internet is here to stay and plays a very important role in our business. It can be very expensive to pay for a website with all the bells and whistles and very time consuming to do on your own.

Have a web presence, target your area, and get back to the basics in real estate. Referrals are always key to our business.

[tina.anderson]

Even if you know how to build a website yourself, I would suggest outsourcing it to someone else and letting them handle all of the marketing of it as well. It would be ideal to have them do full search engine marketing for you, but this can be expensive, so the most important thing is to have SEO (search engine optimization) done on your site to increase it's organic rankings on the search engines such as google and yahoo.

[castlelady]

I don't know how any realtor can stay in this business long term without having their own website and continuing to look for ways to improve it. I think you have to learn enough about SEO so that when you look to hire someone to help out - when you don't have time to do it - you will understand what they are telling you they'll do for your site. Otherwise they can just make up anything and you won't know any better. It seems pretty hard to find a good seo company that does everything correctly. If anyone has any recommendations or good experiences with a company - I'd love to hear about it.

[sanath1978]

Give a try to new distributed viral marketing system. Highly relevant and efficient advertising to forum, blog, classified ad and other types of sites. Guaranteed ROI. Drive large number of visitors to your website in a short period of time. This is not a pay per click system.

[castlelady]

I don't understand what you are talking about. Can you elaborate?

[misch.chief]

Obviously, getting your site to No.1 in Google for your desired, high traffic keyword is the ultimate goal, but this can a very long, up to a year, if at all! the market is packed full at the moment and you have to be very clever about how you go about it. While you are waiting I would use Google AdWords if you ahve the fund because if you do that properly you really can get a brilliant ROI.

[adamwealth]

Agreed. SEO, or getting your site to the top of google can be costly, and take a lot of time. And really, who wants to wait to make money? Using Google Ads is a good start since they'll post only on relevant webpages.

[adamwealth]

Thinking more about it though, I'd say step two is building a relevant affiliate program that can help you generate some concrete leads. You'll still have targeted ads, but people will have opted in to hear about those ads, and any response will be or at least should be concrete.

[TimuM]

What are the most efficient ways to advertise on-line? I know that this question is a very general one but my question is especially pointed in how you can track responses. Some feedback?
SEO generates more quality traffic than the other internet marketing systems...and you are not limited with search engine traffic with a professional SEO campaign...You will get additional traffics through links, articles, etc etc..

[Orlando MLS]

Seo is the best long term solution for your website. You should start working on that immediately for the long term.

In the meantime, try pay per click. Post on craigslist - that gives terrific results. If you don't have listings, ask some of the agents in your office for permission to post their listings on both your website and craigslist. Also post to sites like Trulia, Yahoo & Google real estate.

It'll take you about six months to get out of the Google sandbox if you have a new site - but that should stop you from getting bundles of traffic and business from other real estate websites around.

Once your SEO kicks in, you may or may not decide to back off on the PPC.

Keep at it and it will reap huge rewards for you down the track.

[JHill]

A little redundant but I agree with the SEO. Yes it takes time, and yes it can be frustrating but the rewards in the long run are WELL worth it.

Google LOVES fresh content. Content is king. Keep adding to your site on a regular basis. Adding in a blog is a great way to keep fresh content as well.

Just set aside an hour a day to add something new into your site.


To your success

[misch.chief]

Joining an online advertising company like tradedoubler can sometimes work, so you have a banner on an industry related site. As well as this, MIVA PPC can produce "some" results and its very cheap!

[kuzmanin]

Steps to success:

1. Register relevant domain name.
2. Create a nice site - SEO friendly
3. Invest in PPC compains - adwords is the best one. It can brings you a lot of targeted users for litle money. Ensure that you advertise in google content newtork. Start with minimal bids!
4. Keep site up to date.
5. Invest in links to your site - it can be outsourced. Do not spend more than price of the site.
6. Be patient - time works for your rank.

Good luck.

[Jim]

Cyndy
The best long term strategy seems to be to get as many results as you can naturally or organically in the search engines. If you have a newer site or one that isn't currently ranking well you can work on the rankings while temporarily doing some pay per click advertising. This way you are still sending people to your site and hopefully they will continue using your site.

I agree with Carolyn.

However, there are some things you can do before you have a site as well. Post on craigslist under services (real estate). You may also want to look into setting up a blog on Active Rain or other networking sites.

[Huntman1]

If you advertise online, you will have to dedicate a certain amout of time submitting your site to various posting sites. Link swapping and a bunch of other tasks.

Do you want to sell real estate or market a website?

Just a thought

[Codythebest]

Or you may take 10 minutes every morning, just after checking your email, by posting here and there. make a list of where to advertise, choose a couple of site and do it every day for few minutes. At the end of the day, you'll get a decent advertising for little time.
Advertising online is way better than networking...

[erobbins]

In my opinion the most efficient way to advertise online is through a website. Once you have established a website, start to work your way up on the search engines. Good Luck!

couldn't have said it simpler myself. start by creating a website, do email blasts, and find out where your target demographic is!

[milot]

i agree that you must have a website and that seo is a good long-term strategy. be careful to not get caught up in trying to build a site for the search engines and focus on delivering good content.

search engines love websites that are full of content (that means text... not all that flashy moving image stuff) and will come back and index your site more often the more you add content to your site.

web searchers are also looking for content. that's why everyone turns to the internet - to find information. the more information you put on your site, that more beneficial and attractive your site will be to visitors.

probably the best way to accomplish this is by creating a blog. check out wordpress.com where you can set up a blog for free.

where most folks get stuck is in creating content but this is actually pretty easy. just comment on current happenings in real estate, give your views on it. talk about how to help a home sell better, etc. it may be tricky writing at first but gets easier over time.

try it... it makes search engines happy, web searchers happy, and you too. it's win win win :)

[Huntman1]

couldn't have said it simpler myself. start by creating a website, do email blasts, and find out where your target demographic is!
What do you mean by email blasts? We don't want to get into trouble with spam.

[GoGlobe]

On dollars and time. You could spend 20 hours a week trying to build and market a variety of websites (ok, more than 20 hours) or you could choose one website and focus. You could also pay for advertising or hire someone to do SEO for you. Depends on what your goals are!