Almost every real estate agent has the dream of being able to make a living selling homes over the internet. And why not? Over the long term, it can provide your best return on investment.

So, you have a great looking site, it's fully optimized and is top ranked on all of the search engines, drives a lot of traffic - and you can't get even a nibble on one of your listings.

I see a ton of agent web sites that show only a few pictures of each listing - and the pictures are usually poor quality at that! Why so stingy on showcasing your listing?

The internet is a completely different animal than print media and other forms of marketing - and so are your customers. For example, print media has the drawback of being a perishable item (people throw away the newspaper of the magazine) and you are limited by size and space contraints (or $$$ to showcase a listing in print).

On the internet, you have tons of server space and endless web pages to include dozens of pictures for each of your listings. Use it!

When you visit the home to take photos, arm yourself with a good digital camera, wide angle lens, tripod, and lots of Compact Flash Card or Memory Stick storage for your photos. Take at least 50 or 60 photos of the home. Get creative with your shots to not only highlight the rooms and features, but to give your web site visitors the feel of the home. If you have to, move furniture around to create the feeling of space in the home.

When you get back to the office, go through your photos and pick the best 15 or 20 (or more!) to put on the web site. Adjust or edit the photos as needed (size, compression, brightness, contrast, hue, etc. - you can do most of this with the software that comes with the camera).

Above all, before you visit your listing you must practice with your camera under different lighting conditions. Use your home or office as a test sample. Remember - with a digital camera you can erase whatever you do not want to use. You can even get in the habit of bringing your laptop to the photo shoot so you can download the pictures right away and see how they look on a computer.

Photos that capture the attention of your web site visitors are the first step in getting them to take action and contact you about a home.

Coming soon - painting a picture with words.