Image via Wikipedia

It was a LOT of fun.  As a first time organizer for this type of event, I had a few concerns.  My biggest one was that the attendees wouldn’t feel comfortable asking questions… which was not a problem.  Their questions allowed us to better tweak the information to their needs.

So, here are some random notes from Monday’s Lunch & Learn…

GoDaddy is great for hosting domain names.  Several of us are using them for that purpose… but for hosting actual websites, they aren’t so great.  A couple of the hosting companies that were mentioned were HostMonster (affiliate link), BlueHost (affiliate link), and GreenGeeks.  One of the advantages of these host (as well as many other… there are a LOT of hosting companies) is that they offer “one-click script installations”.  Through services like Simple Scripts, you can install WordPress VERY easily, without having to understand things like FTP and creating databases.

Blogging does NOT have to be time consuming.  Randy mentioned shooting short videos or pictures at local venues (parks, restaurants, city hall, etc) and posting those right from your phone.  I mentioned video blogging… if you can knock it out in one take, you can post a 3 minute video (try to keep videos short) in 5 minutes.  However, when you launch, you really need to have 10-12 good posts on the site.  After that, it does NOT need to be updated every day.  Updating a few times a week should be enough.  I would say that you should update as many times as you can while keeping your post quality high.

Image via CrunchBase

Use Landing Pages.  These are pages that are designed for readers from a particular ad or search to land on.  Give them what they want… don’t make them search around your site to find it.  People won’t search, they will hit the back button.

Have a CLEAR ‘Call to Action’.  What is the purpose of the site/post/ad?  Have you told the reader EXACTLY what you want?  Do you want them to sign up for the email list?  Do you want them to call you?  Do you want them to honk at Green Ford trucks?  Tell them exactly what you want, and make it as easy as possible for them to do it.

If you can’t measure it, it isn’t happening.  You have to know what posts are working to bring in traffic, what posts are working to convert traffic to leads, what ads or outposts bring in traffic, which search terms are most effective and who is looking at your blog.  There are several ways to accomplish this, including Google Analytics and Clicky.  Google Analytics is free and VERY powerful.  I use Clicky (which also has a free level) because I like the interface more.  The more advanced version of Clicky (affiliate link) allows real time tracking of traffic.

Search yourself.  And aim at the right target.  There are two points here.. the first one is that you need to pick a target and then seek to dominate it in the search engines.  And in order to really do that, you need to see the Google RAW search data.  You can search through Goosh.org and see the basic search… not the one that is influenced by your habits.  Secondly, you need to pick a target that you CAN dominate.  Face it, you aren’t going to be able to dominate “Atlanta Real Estate”… but you might be able to control the search for “Midtown Atlanta Lofts” (and no, I don’t know anyone offhand at the brokerages on that search).

Once you get WordPress, there are a few plugins you HAVE to have.  WordPress Editorial Calendar, Back WP up, All-in-one SEO and ShareThis are on the list.  There are several more, but these are a great start.

Image via Wikipedia

WordPress (self-hosted) might be the best option, but it isn’t the only option.  Posterous, Active Rain (not really an affiliate link, but I will get points if you sign up through here…) and WordPress.com are all valid choices.

• Posterous is really cool.  You can email almost anything there and it will be a blog post.  Videos, pictures, text, pdfs.. whatever.  And it will push it out the Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, FaceBook and other places.  It is very easy and quite powerful.
• Active Rain has a great community.  Just reading blogs there is better than a lot of CE classes.  There are some sharp folks there, and between the knowledge and connections (both local and national) that you can make, it is well worth the time.  It is also a great option to dip a toe into blogging.  The basic platform is VERY powerful for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and the posts will do quite well if they are public-facing.
• WordPress.com is good because it is a valid way to learn how to wander around in the admin panel and learn the rest of the back-end functions of WordPress.  It is very similar to the self-hosted version of WordPress.

There was a LOT more.  It is hard to believe that we were only there for 90 minutes.

And you can learn all of this and a LOT more at rebarcampAtlanta2011.  It is coming up on October 28th, 2011 at the Mansour Center in Marietta, GA.  Tickets are only $10 until September 30th, and just $17.50 after that ($25 for registration the day of the event).  If you are a real estate professional, it’s the best $10 you can spend… and even at $25, it is a bargain.

Related articles

• Site traffic: Posterous vs. WordPress.com (halfblog.net)
• GoDaddy coupon: 31% off any order (9to5toys.com)

Image via Wikipedia

On Monday, September 26th, I am hosting a “Lunch & Learn” at the NAMAR (Northeast Atlanta Metro Association of REALTORS®) offices in Duluth.  We will be talking about blogging for real estate professionals.

As part of the discussion, we will be covering a variety of topics, time permitting.  Among them…

• Blog Platforms
• Active Rain
• WordPress.com (remote-hosted)
• WordPress.org (self-hosted)
• Posterous
• Other platforms
• Content Creation
• Coming up with Topics
• Video
• Focus
• Details
• Conversion
• Plug-ins
• Hosting Companies
• DiY?
• Social Media Outposts
• Analytics

With only about 60-75 minutes to get it all done, there are a LOT of things to talk about.  We also want the specifics of the session to be determined by the people that show up to ask questions.  There is a good chance that we aren’t going to hit all of the individual bullet points.  In effect, we are going to take enough information to fill a three hour CE class and condense it down to around an hour.  Not only that, but we are going to allow time for discussion.

In order to make sure that the information gets out, I will be posting up follow-up posts AND hopefully kick out a mini-eBook… for free.  If you aren’t able to attend the NAMAR Lunch & Learn, it should still be a good resource… but if you ARE able to attend, it will be a great extension of what we talked about.

One last thing…  We are calling this prebarcamp.  If you aren’t familiar with rebarcamp Atlanta, check it out here.

Related articles

• Cha cha cha Changes… (lanebailey.com)
• WordPress.com or WordPress.org? (wpdrivenbusiness.wordpress.com)
• 52 Types of Blog Posts that are Proven to Work (problogger.net)

So, what do you think?

by Column Five Media via

Related articles

• How to Make a More Effective Banners (naldzgraphics.net)
• Self-Serve Ad Creation Platform Canned Banners Debuts Free Ad Sharing Feature (prweb.com)
• You Are More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash or Win the Lottery than to Click a Banner Ad (thedenveregotist.com)
• Most Effective Ways to Monetize Your Blog without Banner Ads (skyje.com)
• Taking the Time to Design: The Importance of Optimized and Data-Driven Banner Ad Design (isocket.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Do you hound over your site statistics?  Do you look at them to see where your traffic is coming from and which sources are the most fruitful?  If you aren’t, you should be. 

If you are using your website to attract business, you HAVE to track your traffic.  Just at with a traditional store, you track ads to see which ones are effective, with internet traffic you have to see which outposts and stratigies bring the traffic to your site.  you also need to track the quality of different traffic sources…  When people come from site “X”, are they sticking around your site or bouncing?  Does your search engine traffic bounce?  If you are selling a product or service, which sources provide sales or leads?

There are some great tools out there to accomplish these goals and know more about what is actually working for you.  Google Analytics is free and VERY powerful.  Personally, I use Clicky Analytics.  I find it easier to navigate and understand.  They have a free and premium level.  I have included an affiliate link.  Either of these tools will let you drill down to see what the traffic on your site is doing.  With Clicky’s premium service, you can literally follow an individual user around your site to see exactly what they are doing.

Just like with a traditional store, knowing what your customers want helps you to provide it.  Analytics provide the data about what your site visitors want…  And you can’t optimize for search engines without knowing what searches people are using to get to your sites.

Related articles

• What to Do with Your Google Analytics Data (singlegrain.com)
• Get Social Data Through Google Analytics (tjantunen.com)
• Beginners Guide to Google Analytics: Part I (problog.weddingwire.com)

REtechSouth

After every conference and seminar, there comes the real challenge… implementing all of the VERY cool things I’ve learned, while living in the real world. Setting up client searches, responding to inquiries, dealing with the family, making sure everything that should be on track is on track… they all get in the way of rolling out 3782 changes to my websites and social networks.

I have found that I need to take a little time… and then I need to dive in. Diving in comes next. I have pages of notes, some vendor material and a list of websites and ideas. I have mind-mapping software on my computer… and it needs to get used.

For the last few weeks, I have been unhappy with much of my web presence. I have a great IDX, but I am not getting the most out of it. I have good Page Rank, but I don’t have the level of conversion I feel I should have. My traffic is decent.

And I focused on the sessions at REtechSouth that I thought would help me fix that…

Plenty of sessions to focus on, too…

If you weren’t at REtechSouth, you should have been.

In addition to the incredible information that was presented, the connections that were made and the fun on the exhibit hall floor… there was also the opportunity to hang out with my friends. There are a lot of folks I have been lucky enough to meet from all over the country. And there were some that I was able to meet (in person) for the first time.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Where do we go from here? (lanebailey.info)

During our hour or so, we talked about several aspects of a broad Social Media Plan, from strategy to measurement.  As promised, here is the outline with some bonus information added…

Social Media…

Define your Goals…

1. Meeting people – That is how we do business…
2. Increasing brand recognition – Keeping our brand in our customer’s mind…
3. Reputation management – Google Alerts and other tools to see what people are saying.

Develop your Strategy…

1. How are you going to engage? – Lurk and Learn
2. Where are your clients/customers/prospects? – Match site and consumer demographics to find the right places to be.

Deploy your Tactics…

1. Which sites will you leverage?
   1. Twitter… Like a broadcast media mixed with a giant cocktail party.
   2. LinkedIn… The button-down professional site. Online resume.
   3. FaceBook… HUGE social networking site with over 300,000,000 users.
   4. FaceBook Fan Pages… Create a FREE presence on FaceBook.
   5. Blogging… Centerpiece of a social networking strategy.
   6. Flickr… Photo-sharing and syndication.
   7. Local Forums… Possibly one of the best ways to interect with a target market.
2. What tools can you use to streamline your social networking time?
   1. AtomKeep.com – Profile management tool on multiple platforms.
   2. Posterous.com – Interface that allows content syndication on multiple platforms.
   3. Tweetvisor.com – Twitter interface that allows toggling bewteen Twitter accounts.
   4. TwitterLocal.net – Tool allowing you to track a location based feed in Twitter.
   5. TwitterFeed.com – Pushes Blog posts and other automated content to your Twitter stream.
   6. Twellow.com – Search tool for Twitter allowing users to be found based on interests and location.

Determine your Effectiveness…

1. Analyze your results…
   1. GetClicky.com
   2. TwitterAnalyzer.com
   3. Google.com/Analytics/
   4. FaceBook Business Dashboard
2. Compare your results to your Goals…

Tweak your Strategy and Tactics…

If you haven’t heard the statement, it is summing up the “Ready, Aim Fire, Aim Fire, Aim” menality.  Basically, spending forever making the plan, and then never following through and actually “doing” the plan.

And then…

There is the opposite side of the coin…  “Ready, Fire, Aim”.  That doesn’t work, either.  You can’t do the plan before you make the plan…

But in the middle…

There is a balance where we analyze AND act.  And this is about the analytics.

We all have our favorites.  I personally like Clicky Analytics for my website.  I like the way the data is presented.  They have a free level, and it is a great alternative to Google Analytics.  And GA is a great option as well.  In either case, the idea is to see where traffic is coming from, what search terms are being used and tune your content accordingly.

Another great tool in the box is HitTail.  It is a site that you can use to track your searches and see what material might be good to write about in the future.  In fact, it even offers a “To Do List” for future blogs, based on the previous search volume.

And you are likely to be surprised…

I know that I am often a bit shocked at which posts gather the most attention.  On ActiveRain, and LaneBailey.com, on LilburnDwellings.com.  in each case, I see posts that I don’t expect have great traffic.  I see other posts that are never stellar… until looking at 30 days, or even 90 or more days worth of data.  I have a post that has over 10,000 views, but it is never on my most viewed list for the day… or even the week.

Other posts have to be looked at OFF the grid.  I have a post that garners a reasonable number of views, and few comments… but people call me about that post.  Obviously it speaks to them.

So…

• Plan
• Write
• Analyze
• Adjust
• Write some more
• Analyze
• Adjust
• Repeat.

And don’t worry that your plan is different than my plan, or Midori’s plan or even Mike’s plan.  We are all different people.

from GwinnettGarageGuy.com