Most people know that one of the things that will help you rank higher in the Searches, is to have links pointing to you.

Here are 6 of my Favorite Tips!1.   Complete your profile and include a link to “content” (not just the website URL) in the Profile Section. Great places to do that would include:

• Yelp https://www.yelp.com/signup
• NeighborCity http://www.neighborcity.com/member-registration/
• Answers.com http://www.answers.com/

2. Complete your profile and include a link in Website, Blog Site Contact information to Content (not just the website URL) Just because the Profile Section says what’s your WEBSITE doesn’t mean that you can’t link it to a page that highlights GREEN HOMES (if that’s your specialty). Places you should have your business profile would include:

• Merchant’s Circle http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/landing/signup.html
• About Me is site that also allows hyper links in the profile section https://about.me/

3. Write short posts with links pointing to your content on other relevant sites. You can blog on Merchant Circle, Trulia Voices, Posterous for free and link from there to your other content back on Activerain / and/ or your website.  Adding links to the content that is important to you helps!

4.  Put Hyper-Links in your Email Signature. So many people just have a string of website listed under their name… how long would it take for you to put “Learn More About Me!” under your name?  What if you had some KILLER information about First Time Home Buyers and you added “Learn more about THAT!” under your name.  People will definitely click FASTER on a hyper link directing them to relevant information than just a website URL (how boring!)

5.  Add Hyper-links to content and INSIDE your website from your Activerain Profile. I’ve been told that you might lose points if you go back and update your profile… but if it doesn’t really tell the STORY of who you are, and link people to more information you’ve written, it’s a chance I’d take!

6.  Use Bookmarks to add links to your content. It’s time consuming, and I don’t suggest that you only add every page you write to Stumble Upon… but there’s value in having a great collection of information on a certain topic – like Green Building.  If you are not utilizing the Activerain Outside Blogs for creating a place for people to find information you think is important about a specific topic – try adding links to the articles from one or more of these:

• stumble upon http://www.stumbleupon.com/sign_up.php?pre2=nav_join
• delicious https://secure.delicious.com/register
• digg http://digg.com/register
• technorati http://technorati.com/account/signup/?destination=/

I’m sure you have great ideas for Link building - please share them!

If you have questions about building your real estate blog as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Let’s Connect!

I read a review recently highlighting HootSuite, TweetDeck and Seesmic.

These are great free tools that also allow you to schedule messages, and they have phone apps that are pretty user friendly as well. They all function in a similar “Column” fashion – so it really comes down to which one works best for you.

Seesmic just came out with a new desktop version that sports over 40 different plugins and apps including Youtube and Ping.  This could be useful if you are really maximizing something other than Facebook and Twitter.

TweetDeck is a desktop site (meaning you must download it on your desktop to use) that will send you little notices every time something is updated.  So every time a new tweet comes out that mentions you, a little bird appears in the top right portion of your screen – no matter what program you are in.  This can be handy… and annoying.

Hootsuite allows you to set up multiple users to your accounts – and if you have an assistant, or you have multiple people managing your brokerage profile or Fan Pages (for instance) it can be very handy!  It is web based, meaning there’s nothing to download – which can be nice if you are using notebook and don’t want to waste valuable space.

These are some of the BEST tools for monitoring Twitter – and if you are NEW to Twitter, I definitely recommend that you set yourself up on one!  If you are using one of these… or maybe something different, I’d love to know what you’ve found!  Here are some Twitter Basics to help get you started!

If you have questions about building your real estate blog as you build your real estate business, give me a call!   Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I’d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter?  Let’s Connect!

So many people are considering their 2010 performance – what worked, what didn’t… and how they are going to make a change in 2011.

1. Are you wasting your time in front of the computer?

I think Thom Abbott was the first person I saw who used the term “monkey brain.” He was referring to the fact that it’s so easy to sit down at the computer to look for leads, create blog posts, generate links… and all of a sudden you are reading an article that has NOTHING to do with generating leads, or creating posts or ANYTHING that is going to help your business!

How many transactions did you close in 2010 from Twitter, Facebook, and Blog Posts? If you didn’t close at least three transactions, chances are that unfocused computer time is a money-waster. The challenge with online marketing is that it takes time to learn WHAT is effective. In 2011, consider working with a company, or an office, or a mentor that is already creating leads online. If you are the only person in your office who KNOWS this activity can work… you need to look for a more tech savvy group.

2. Be a specialist, Pick a Niche for your marketing

Most top producers focus exclusively on two or three niches where they specialize. Common niches include geographical farms, new homes, estates, relocation, etc. If you are still trying to be everything to everyone, you are probably wasting money by spreading yourself too thin.

Do you REALLY want more listings right now? Is all of your marketing geared towards Sellers? But be careful about WHAT Niche you pick! One friend of mine decided last year to be the “Golf Course Specialist.” Why? Because the houses cost more! Does she play golf? No. Does she know why a house on a Tee Box would be better perhaps than one closer to the Pin? No. Focus all of your efforts on no more than THREE niches that you CAN be an expert in for the best return.

3. Do you have a productive farm and social network?

Have you closed at least four transactions from your geographical farm in the last 24 months? If not, it’s time to do more face-to-face follow-up or to replace this activity with something that is profitable. When you go to all of those Chamber events, are you talking to the same 4 people who don’t have the possibility of sending you any leads? Are you gathering cards and putting those folks in a drip campaign?

Be honest: Are your networking activities generating leads? If you network to generate leads, look at how many transactions you closed in 2010 from your networking activities. If the answer is “none,” you need to openly solicit leads (i.e., stop being a secret agent) or dump this activity because it’s both a time- and money-waster.

4. Create Better Systems!

Even BAD leads can generate business! Do you HAVE the drip campaigns in place to follow up with leads? When was the last time you really looked at your database to determine who you should contact on a regular basis? Spend your time and money on the people who refer you business and stop wasting time and money on those who don’t.

TIP: I keep all leads forever but I keep them in a different bucket. After two years, I delete them from my group that gets the most attention from me. I place these people on a specialized campaign. It’s hard enough coming up with content to fill up a 2 year drip campaign and nearly impossible to come up with enough content to fill “forever” so I place them in a group that has no actual drip emails attached. This group gets all of my holiday emails and monthly newsletters that I write as I go. That way they are still receiving at least 12+ touch points per year and the content is more relevant to them and less likely to get you blacklisted. I share home tips, what’s happening in the market and I ask for their business or a referral. Just because a “lead” didn’t use me the first time around, doesn’t mean they wont use me the second time around or share my name with a friend.

5. Spend Money and Time Wisely!

It’s my experience that each agent is different. Think about YOUR strengths. Do you naturally network well? Then look at the Meet-up Groups in your area! Build on what you do well. Spend YOUR time on the activities you are good at and stop worrying about what someone else says you should be doing. Has your website produced more than one closed transaction in the last year? Are your listings current? Can potential sellers find you easily on the Web? If you answered “No” to any of these questions, upgrade how you are marketing on the Web.

A great strategy is to hire a virtual assistant to handle this for you. If you hate Web marketing, spend your Web marketing budget where it will produce better results – hire an assistant who can work 6 to 8 hours a month!

2011 is going to be a GREAT Year for those agents who are in the right working environment, who are FOCUSED on doing those activities that are actually generating leads, and who are DISCIPLINED in their approach to their Real Estate Practice… and it’s gonna’ be HARD for those who just aren’t in it all the way.

If you have questions about your creating leads from your real estate blog, or how to get your Listing seen by more eyeballs – call Josh Harley, Fathom Realty, 214-228-0301. I”d love to help you, and learn more about what’s working in your market! Are you on Facebook and Twitter? Let’s Connect!

I use Acrobat and at first, I was signing documents in Acrobat by creating my own digital signature and then attaching an image to the signature. Adobe Acrobat will use the signature image anywhere you place the digital signature so everything will look normal when it is printed. While this works, it is a LOT of work to setup. First you have to generate a public and private key and then import them into Acrobat, etc, etc. In addition to being a lot of work, it can be a little confusing when someone is looking at the PDF file.

While I love the digital signature idea, I just don’t know enough REALTORS who could actually use it. So what other options do you have? There is another feature in Acrobat and Nitro PDF called “stamps”. This is a way to stamp parts of the document with an image like “Confidential”, or “Sign Here”, etc. Simply select the stamp and then you can go through your document just like you would with a rubber stamp.

The best part about the stamps feature is that you can import an image file and use it as a stamp. If your signature image has a transparent background, then it lets you sign on a line without covering it up. Here is a step by step process for creating a signature image file using Acrobat. The process is very similar in Nitro PDF. All you need is a piece of paper, a permanent marker, a scanner and your PDF software.

1. Using a black Sharpie permanent marker, sign your name on a white piece of paper. Make it larger than normal (1/3 of the page) to ensure the signature looks clean and crisp.
2. Scan your signature into Adobe Acrobat: File > Create PDF > From Scanner > Grayscale Document
3. When it is done scanning the signature and processing the image, you may find that Acrobat rotates your signature a little. This only happens if your signature is like mine and has a slant to it. To combat this, draw a straight line above the signature and another straight line below the signature and rescan the signature.
4. Now you will need to crop the image so the image only contains your signature: Document > Crop Pages. Here you will use the “Margin Controls” to shrink the box around your signature and the hit “OK” to close the Crop Pages dialog box.
5. Save your signature as a PDF file: File > Save. Don’t forget where you saved the signature.
6. To import your signature as a stamp, go to Tools > Comment & Markup > Stamps > Create Custom Stamp.

That’s it! Now to use your signature, go to Tools > Comment & Markup > Stamps > … and pick your signature stamp. The one downside to this method of scanning and creating a signature is that the image will always have a white background. If you are an advanced computer user and know how to create an image with a transparent background, then you can use that file instead. Now your signature can be placed in the document and look as though you actually signed it.

I am using Adobe Acrobat 9 but this tool exists in most of the older versions. As I mentioned earlier, Nitro PDF has this option and that software costs half of what Adobe Acrobat costs. I hope this tip helps you save time and make your life just a little bit easier. Do you have any great ideas for signing documents? Please share them with us below.

Email updates are okay but they are not as personal as a phone call. If you are only sending email updates then your clients may feel that you are impersonal. Phone calls are important to help you connect with your clients. The problem is, what should be a 5 minute phone call can easily creep into 20 or 30 minutes. If you are working with several clients at a time then it’s difficult to find the time to call everyone.

So what do you do? You want to be more personal and create that connection but you don’t have time. At one point I would have told you to make the time or else you can forget about growing your business to any substantial level but now I simply tell my agents to Slydial.

Never heard of Slydial? Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know about them until a few months ago either but it has become an integral part of doing business. Slydial is a free messaging service that connect you directly to someone’s mobile voicemail. Simply put, you call into a central number, enter a client’s mobile number and leave your voice message. When you hang up, your voicemail will show up on their cell phone as if they missed your call. Pretty sly, huh?

Now, I do NOT recommend using this service every time. It should supplement your voice communication, not replace it. Hearing your voice will help your client feel more connected than an email would but can never replace a real conversation for solidifying the relationship. With that little disclaimer in place, visit Slydial.com and give them a try. You’ll be happy you did.

Their free plan requires you to listen to a short advertisement before leaving your message which isn’t bad. Their paid plan is only $0.10 per use or unlimited for $2.95 per month. They even have mobile apps for the iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

Ditch the doc and use your email signature instead. Many email apps like MS Outlook allow you to create multiple email signatures. Once you create your default signature, go back and create all of your canned messages. Then when you open an email, just select the alternate email signature and KABOOM, there it is. Sorry for yelling, I was going for effect. I personally have around a dozen canned messages set up as signatures in Outlook.

Don’t have Outlook? What about Gmail? Gmail offers a great plug-in called “Canned-Messages” which can be found under Settings inside of the Labs tab.

Not using Gmail? Then if you’re using Firefox, you can install a very cool plug-in called WiseStamp. This is a great plug-in for Firefox that allows you to create multiple email signatures and better still, it works with Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and many other webmail systems. Read my article on my “Top Firefox Plug-in Picks”.

Not using Firefox??? … Wow, then I don’t think anyone can help you! Not hating on IE or Safari, just loving on FFs capabilities. I do not know many web developers not using Firefox which should say something to you.

Do you have any great ideas for sending canned/pre-written emails? What about other creative ideas for using email signatures? Please share your ideas!