The internet is your #1 resource

**ham** · 08-10-2007, 11:59 AM

With the advent of the internet people looking to advertise their homes, cars, products etc.. are lucky. The Popularity of the net is such that you can literally reach millions with no leg work. I wouldn't neglect of course the old fashioned approach of placing ads in the paper, on billboards in local libraries or universities. The more places you can be seen the better, and that approach works even better online.
Placing as many ads as possible in the online classifieds is a great approach. I dont personally like the paid classifieds because simply there are too many FREE classifieds. You just have to know where to look. Google of course is a great tool to find these sites. Advertising on local sites should be the priority to increase focus on your niche Market. This increases local traffic to your ad.
A good place to start advertising online is always Craigslist.com, the mother of all classifieds. They have a local focus system and heavy traffic. Maybe a little too heavy though which can also be a problem. 90% of your searches should be for local classified sites such as Freemiamipost.com in south florida and posttree.com in san francisco. These sites increase your odds of being seen by locals.
The key is to be everywhere, to never rest until you start getting calls or emails or both.

**jaschoenly** · 08-22-2007, 08:37 PM

I couldn't agree more about free internet site, do you know of any others besides Craigslist and Backpage and the local one that you mentioned?

Best Wishes,

**ham** · 08-22-2007, 09:54 PM

I dont know any free classifieds by heart, but I always use google to kind of point me to the right direction. Im in Miami so the one I find that really is a one stop shop for local sites is Freemiamipost.com. It pretty much incorporates everything, it's fast to post ads and of course 100% free. But if course stick to Craigslist.org and the other popular ones. The beauty part is that you should pretty much place ads everywhere, that's the best strategy.

**imadrman** · 09-08-2007, 11:31 AM

Another cool way to get exposure if you have a website is to write and articule about current condition of the real estate market and post it in ezines. In the bottom of the ad place a link to your website. This does two things first is who ever reads the article may press the link back to your site. Second if the article is written well enough people use your article as content in their site which is also another link to your site. One well written article can produce a substantial amount of links back to your site. This may not seem very important but relevant links is what search engins use to rank your site. The more links you have the higher your website rank the more people view your site.

If you just want to get yor listing to the masses and don't have a website there are a couple of really good ways to expose your listing on the web. Craigslist is the best national want ads avalible. If you have a tight budget but want to get the most exposure for your dollar look to your local paper they will often have a web presence as well so you are getting double coverage. Then if you after that if you have any money left go to mlsemailservice.com because they are the cheapest of any email service on the net and send your listing through there.

So to recap
1. type an article about current conditions in real estate related fields post in as many ezines as possible with a link to your site
2. post on craiglist
3. place an ad in your local paper
4. if you still want more exposure place flyer on mlsemailservice.com

if that recipe does not get your lsting exposure than maybe re evaluate the listing budget or turn too alternate listing stratagies like lease option.

**professional-lists** · 09-08-2007, 01:39 PM

Many people use mailings as a technique. My company can provide you with contacts lists which will include email, address, and phone number for the same contacts. I can provide these by many various data points suchas: credit score etc...
This I feel is a great way to advertise because you have communicated with the same client 3 times, this exposure is the best kind because they feel like they know you.

My $.02
Tom Ryan

**imadrman** · 09-08-2007, 02:00 PM

Question Tom

No offense I am not trying to upset you but the original poster to this post was refering to the ability to getting more exposure for your listing and web site. I don't see the connection with buying a mailing list to getting more exposure to your listings and website. Your type of advertising seems more geared to finding clients to buy homes and towards refis not getting exposure for listings. I do use lists myself but it can get quite costly both in man hours and monitary. With good lists one can see good results but treat it like carpet bombing you expend a lot of resources to hit the target. The good news is once you do get clients from this method if you use great customer service you often get referals.

If I missed the connection my bad please explain, but to me it looked like you were plugging your lists to drum up business. If that is the case then start a thread talking about the benefit of lists in a marketing campaign. I am always looking for good data sources.

**professional-lists** · 09-08-2007, 02:37 PM

No offense taken, I have skin of steel! J

[SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]I understand that Ham was generating views to listing and ultimately the web site. I believe that sending the listing directly (via the mail) to recipients who one can see by the data may be in the market to purchase is a great way to get people viewing your site. If you mailer makes people curious and is enough to whet the appetite but not satisfy the hunger and you leave them with the URL many times they

**Jaysonnhs** · 09-09-2007, 10:49 PM

The internet has become, in my opinion, the #1 place to search for anything - especially new homes and cars. There will always be a place for traditional advertising mediums but the internet is here and it's here to stay. Our company recently did a little research to make sure we were on the right track (online advertising and targeting Realtors) and the findings were amazing! Internet use and internet use to find new homes is, and has been, drastically increasing for some years. The great thing about internet advertising is that it's (typically) less expensive than other forms of advertising so you can literally paste yourself all over the internet. For some, nothing is better than sitting at home searching for your next big purchase - no hassle - no commitments - you can leave when you want and come back at 2 in the morning. The internet is your #1 resource -

If you want the research our company did, shoot me an email or visit our website and email the info@ address you'll find in the contact us section. I'll shoot the findings to you.

My question is what happens when everyone starts optimizing and advertising on the internet with Google AdWords - Yahoo Search Marketing - I guess everything will just cost more

**creativeagent** · 09-26-2007, 06:24 PM

I agree that the internet is a great "tool" for promotion. But it shouldn't be the only tool you use. A good marketing campaign includes both online and offline advertising.

But since we're talkikng about the web, I think you'll get the best exposure (and Google search results) if you work within a niche. What does this mean?

Well, think about it. Who do you think would get the most qualified buyers and the best ranking in the search engines?

Agent #1 markets himself as the number 1 agent in the southern Florida. His website shows that he handles all of the townships within a 100 mile radius. His listings range from $100K condos to $500K residential homes. His slogan is "The Agent To Call When Buying or Selling A Home".

Agent #2 markets herself as the number 1 agent in southern Florida's beachfront properties. Her website shows that she handles properties up and down the florida coast. Her listings range from $500K to $1 mil beachfront homes. Her site has tips on boating, local resturants and vendors, tips on ocean recreation, and other points of interest. Her website also has a lot of keywords targeting people wanting to purchase beachfront property. Her slogan is "Specializing in Beautiful Beachfront Homes".

So which agent do you think would get the most leads for people wanting to live in Florida near the ocean?

Here's some other niche groups:
People with horses
Doctors
Senior Citizens
Boaters
Renters
Farmers
Investors
Newlyweds (first time homebuyers)
etc.

Now do I think you should ONLY specialize in a niche? Of course not. I think you should also have a general web presence, but you should pick a niche and become the local expert within that niche. This will definitely put you as number 1 in the search engines for those specific people.

**BSS2T** · 10-07-2007, 07:00 PM

I agree that the online classifieds can be a good way of getting exposure for any real estate website, but I feel it should be the icing on the cake, not the bread and butter.

SEO is really where its at. I've got front page yahoo websites all over the southeast, and send out referrals on a daily basis.

Hope this helps.

Brad.