Google drops my website…or did they ?

Has anyone experienced this ? Its as if Google de-listed the site and then re-indexed it .

Just curious if anyone else has had a similar experience…….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should add that one of my other sites has a great many more views than this one..

Explore it at www.WilliamsburgsRealEstate.com

Tell me what you think.

Here is a recent snapshot of the traffic on it:

7 Principles for Drip Mail Campaigns that don’t suck

Like everyone else on Earth, I hate being on the receiving end of an email drip campaign.   Spammy, repetitive, annoying, often just barely better than a lottery-winner-notification from Nigeria, the real estate agent’s drip campaign can be the lifeblood of his business, or the death of it. After dozens of changes and experiments with my own campaigns, I offer the 7 most important things I’ve learned about drip campaigns for real estate: People hate HTML rich emails.  If your drip emails have lots of colorful HTML and banners, they might suck.  If you want people to read your emails, then keep them simple with no banners and pictures of your happy home selling face.  Nothing says “SPAM” like a colorful email that looks like it came from Best Buy.  People are more likely to respond to auto-responders if they don’t know it’s an auto-responder

Read the original post on Geek Estate Blog here
7 Principles for Drip Email Campaigns that don’t suck

Virtual Real Estate BarCamp

 

There is a second (FREE) Real Estate Bar Camp being live broadcast today starting at 12 noon.

If you want to learn from experts for free I encourage you to listen in on your computer.

There are three different series happening at the same time.

Below is a schedule for today’s webinars. Note times are PST

You can register here: http://virtualbarcamp.com/pages/about-vrebc/

You can listen in on one specific class without listening to the whole series.

Most of these people are tops in their field and extremely successful at what they do.

Bigger is Better !

Closr.it makes it easy for you to display images which can be enlarged to fill the entire screen (with one click) or zoom in to see elements in the photo (move your mouse around).  If you are in a business where images count, bigger is better. Try Closr.

Simply upload a photo and grab the code or URL for the photo widget.   The images can be shared with via email, social media, and more.

Display the images on your blog or website by cutting and pasting the widget embed code, as I did here.

You can also share the images on Facebook.

I like Closr. But, it would be great if you could upload more than one image to the Closr widget. or wrap the player in your own logo.

Here’s a sample: ( click the zoom and the enlarge to full size buttons)

Closr blog here.

You might also like:

Brighten Up Your Images

Can Images Enhance Blog Posts and Attract Readers or Are …

 

 

 

Do consumers use social media for searching ?

Nielsen has shared some interesting findings from its research on how Internet users discover content. The research mainly focused on how content is found through search, portals, and through social media.
"In a nutshell, there is a segment of the online population that uses social media as a core navigation and information discovery tool — roughly 18 percent of users see it as core to finding new information. While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure," says Nielsen. "And as social media usage continues to increase (unique visitors to Twitter.com increased 959% YOY in August) I can only expect this figure to grow."
If you were still questioning the possibilities of getting traffic from social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., perhaps this information will help ease your doubts. While the traffic may not always be as significant as what comes from search, additional traffic is additional traffic, and the viral potential offered by social networks shouldn’t be ignored.
The following graph from Nielsen shows how big of a role sites besides search engines play in actual searches for new information online.

"At the root of the changing nature of content discovery is the sheer amount of information that is available on the Web," says Nielsen. "If you want to learn more about the latest smartphone released into the market, your favorite search engine is sure to provide you with hundreds, if not thousands, of articles about the device. But with the increasing number of resources available, it’s difficult to know what you should believe or take at face value."
According to the firm’s findings, 26% of "socializers" or those who spend over 10% or more of their online time on social media, feel that there is too much information online. Nielsen says, "So are social networks replacing portals or search engines? Perhaps. Regardless, if we don’t understand and address people feeling increasingly alienated by the amount of information on the Internet, and the need for a human guide, yes, your favorite social network (or something like it) will become the next great content gateway."
Of course the search engines are built on a cross between human and mechanical elements. I’m all for social media, but I don’t usually have too much trouble finding the information I seek using search. If anything, I think the information overload simply stresses the need for the continued improvement in search quality.
Your friends may not have all the answers you seek. Furthermore, if you are asking people you don’t know, why would you trust them any more than search results?
Search and social media are not completely separate entities. Social networks have search functionality and search engines search through social networks. It’s all intertwined.
Do you think social media could ever replace search? Share your thoughts.

Real Estate Connect 2009

I just returned from the Inman Real Estate Connect  Conference in New York City Typically and affectionately referred to as a technology conference, but what it really represents is three exhausting days of information overload (four if you attend the pre-conference REBarCamp, an “unconference” in which the content is presented informally and often on the fly by the attendees).

Linear thinkers probably have a hard time avoiding implosion during the event. One minute you are hearing from industry thought leaders on the future of the brokerage model, then you find yourself getting an earful on the most innovative new web sites and web tools. Just when you are trying to get your head around Bob Shiller’s housing market and global economic predictions (yes, that Bob Shiller), Craig Newmark is waxing philosophical about, well, just about everything (yes, that Craig Newmark).  Gary Vanerchuk telling you to stop wasting your money on print advertising , among other things . Gary was the most entertaining speaker there Ways for agents to retool and for brokerages to retool, how to skin the social networking cat, subjects ranging from business fundamentals to big-picture conceptual — It’s all laid out in one glorious, overwhelming information buffet. If you enjoy order in your life, along with the little things like eating and sleeping, Inman Connect is not for you. But I am proud to say that I successfully demonstrated that life can be sustained on buckets of strong coffee, one (take-out) meal a day, and four hour’s of sleep each night.

For me, the whole point was to learn ways to bring more value to our business and ultimately our clients, and I wasn’t disappointed.

My head is reeling with three day’s worth of material yearning to be set free.

There has never been a better time for growth in the real estate industry. Just like exercise, we’ll know we’re on the right track if it’s uncomfortable, and it hurts a lot. The good news is that  very few agents will be willing to embrace change at the pace that the new consumer will demand…and, that is a perfect opportunity for a handful of highly committed companies and agents to leap frog to a new level.

I would highly recommend attending any of the Inman Connect conferences !

Technorati Tags: real estate connect,inman,2009

What to do in 2009

Agents

Guess what?  What ever you did to create success in 2008, won’t work as well in 2009.  You’re going to have to embrace new marketing methods, social media and technology.  You’re going to have lead, problem solve, create and communicate at higher heights.  You’re going to have to show up early and more often.  You’re going to have to over-deliver, follow-up more frequently and follow-through more faithfully.  Basically, you’re going to have to perform like a multiple personality super hero. 

The good news, fewer and fewer agents will be willing to invest the time, emotion, money, sweat and study necessary to thrive.

Any questions, feel free to contact me.

Happy New Year.

Blogging in the Future

If you want to keep your blog current while you are away on a business trip or vacation you can set the publish date for a day in the future.

I will be at the Real Estate Connect in NYC for the rest of the week. Every day while I am gone there will be articles posted to my blog that I have already written in advance.

In WordPress just click on the publish icon icon in the right upper corner. Change the date to the desired future date. That’s all there is to it !

Publish immediately Edit

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec, @ :       

Another great idead from Online Realtor Tips…

Happy Blogging !

Saving a thought for future blogging post

I don’t know if any of you are already doing this. One thing that helps me save future ideas for blogs is to put them into WordPress and save them as a draft.

I do it all of the time when an idea pops into my head I don’t have time to write a fully finished post/ article.  It goes right into my drafts and I don’t find myself a couple of days later going “What was that idea I had for a post?”

At last count I have 162 drafts saved for me to take my time and write/ edit/ add pictures, tags and post..

Don’t let those ideas evaporate before you save them as a draft.