Online Real Estate Technology

Wordpress Blog Platform

I’ve mentioned a number of times on this blog the number of women who are now using social media sites including blogs, to not only research business and products, but who are directly influenced by what they read or research on these networks. The influence of social media on the female internet user is often underestimated by business.

In the US, new research from SheSpeaks highlights that social media networks have become a must for women this year and social network penetration climbed from 58% of internet users in 2008 to 86% in 2009.

When asked about brand related activity on social sites, 80% of female users said they had become a fan of a product or brand directly from a social network. In addition, 72% had learned about a new product or brand, or joined a group around one. To me, one very interesting trend stood out, women were less likely to participate on Twitter with product or brand related activities.

Another interesting point is with actual purchasing of products or services, with one-half of female Internet users buying a product because of a social network. Purchases based on social networking sites and blogs both increased dramatically over 2008.

Users seemed more receptive to social network advertising than they were in 2008, with 9% saying that they always look at ads and often click through, compared with just 2% last year. Thirty percent look sometimes, versus 13% in 2008, and fewer users felt annoyed by ads or actively ignored them.

Brand Related Activity on Social Networking Sites

The ROI for business with a social media strategy that is well set up and planned is well worth the effort and the work put in, and with that in mind, I’ve been really inspired by this research, so much so that I’m prepared to help you get your blogging efforts set up and running for the month of January, I’m going to set up 10 free wordpress installs. No sales efforts, no push, all you have to do is drop me a comment on this post and tell me why you need/want a blog and how having a blog might benefit your business.

To Qualify:

In order to qualify all you need to do is buy one of my hosting packages for a period of 12 months, they are really inexpensive and won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Let me know if you’d like additional information on this.

This is what I’ll include -

• I’ll install and configure Wordpress for you. The self hosted version.
• I’ll upload and activate a theme of your choice for you so that your blog looks a million dollars.
• I’ll set up and install add-on software (otherwise known as “plug-ins”) to give your blog a bit of a boost. Things like Disqus commenting, Akismet Spam protection, Tweetmeme, etc.

This is what is not included:

• I won’t move content over from another blog. I’m setting up a brand spanking new blog for you in this case.
• You won’t get personal one-on-one blog coaching. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t sit down with you for some one-on-one coaching if you needed it. It’s not included in this Basic Install. If you’re interested in coaching, then please head over to  Mike Andrew Consulting
• You won’t get tech support. I’m happy to answer any questions that you might have if time permits.
• You’ll need to buy or already have your own domain name as the blog will need this. I’ll help you work out the best domain name for you but you will need to have it ready.

So there you have it, as I mentioned I’ll be happy to do about 10 of these installs so to qualify all you need to do is get writing and leave me a comment, if you already have a blog then please  send the link or recommend this to someone who doesn’t have a blog yet.

One of the dangers of moving blogs that have been around for awhile from where they’ve been happily resting  is loss of links and RSS feed subscribers. I’ve spent the most part of the weekend reparing broken links and trying to rescue my loyal RSS feed subscribers.

Well, I don’t think on the RSS front I succeeded, so all of my readers who would like to continue to get updates, can you please click on the headline animator on the right hand side of the blog or click on the link here to get the new RSS Feed.

My sincerest apologies for this, and I hope it doesn’t cause you to  much trouble.

Hi everyone, I’ve decided to have a clean out of this blog, it’s been around now for over 12 months and I felt it was time to clean it up and give it a make over. Whilst I’ve kept the same theme, I’ve deleted a few of the widgets and cleaned up the sidebar, so hope fully you won’t notice too much disruption to the blog. I’m hoping all the links will stay in place, but if you notice a broken link, please let me know by leaving me a comment.

The content is still all here and I’ll be adding some new stuff shortly.

Ciao for now

Great Words of Advice

Today whilst visiting a real estate office we got talking about social media strategies and why as a real estate office they should be working towards implementing a social media strategy, not just to farm new pastures, but also to help them in the optimisation of their web site. During the conversation we got on the subject of blogging, and why creating a blog would help their Internet marketing efforts.

Well I have to admit that over the last few weeks I’ve neglected this blog a bit as I explore new areas and work on my web site, so with a little bit of a guilty feeling, I’ve motivated myself to write this article, and you can probably guess what it is about, making sure you create and maintain a disciplined approach to blogging.

In my research I come across a lot of blog writers who after a period of time, and it’s often around the 12 month scenario, tend to get a little bit of writers block and lose interest in maintaining their blog, which is what happened to myself, and in a number of cases the blog gets abandoned altogether.

The Internet is full of abandoned blogs, left in the wilderness by writers who lose interest.

It’s not easy maintaining a blog on a regular basis, you also have to work hard at maintaining your audience and coming up with new content that appeals to your readers.

So today I’ve written a list of things that I will do to assist me in writing articles for my blogs and I’ve listed them below for you, if you are just starting as a blogger I hope they help set you on a disciplined approach and most of all don’t give up.

1. Set aside 1 hour each day to research for new articles – doesn’t matter what time of day it is, just DO IT! – Talking to other people also stimulates ideas for posts. Mornings I find are much better, I can sit in my pajamas and coffee and read.

2.Write when you get urge - A lot of times I’ll come up with an article idea and leave it till later, in most cases later never comes.

3. Create a list of topics and categories – Then write first about what you like or are passionate about. That way you’ll enjoy writing about your favourite topic.

4. Revisit your old articles - Some of these older stories can be updated and rewritten. As some of these topics are changing almost daily, providing updates on these old stories can generate new ideas.

5. Read other Blogs & Bloggers - This will help to create ideas as well, it gets the creative juices flowing and helps with topics and trends.

6. Subscribe to RSS Feeds - Make sure you get updates delivered right to your computer, and use some of these articles on your own blog. They help break up the style of writing and provide different opinions on topics. But remember, always credit the author of the article.

6. Commitment - Now here is the magic word, once you start you really need to be committed to your blog, so create that list.

That is what I intend to action from today, I put it up on my office wall so that every morning the first thing i see will be the list.

I hope that if you are just starting out, this little list will help keep your blog on track and if you have any additions to the list please share them with me.

Hi All,

Just to let you know that I’m now back after my US trip and will adding some new posts over the next few days. That will get the ball started again on this blog, so bear with me while i get my routine back in order. I’ll also be setting up some new blogs that will concentrate on particular themes.

So watch out for those over the next few days and weeks.

Red Widget - Is there a question?

Thank you all for the feedback you have given me on what content you would like to see more of in this blog, and with a count of 10 to 1, most of you would like to know more about search engine optimisation, setting up a blog and how to optimise your blog once you have it up and running, rather than more posts about social media. There appears to me to be a bit of burn out around social media, so for awhile, it’s a no go area on this blog.

With that in mind, I thought I’d write a follow up piece to my post last month on Internal Links – Create A Better SEO Result For Your Blog . In that post I mentioned the phrase “ranking for red widgets“, and I said I would qualify my statement in a later post. So, lets look at how to rank for any term you write about when blogging.

Firstly, you need to understand how the search engines work, they will return search results in the order of their perceived relevance to the search phrase requested. The more relevant your site appears to be to the search requested, the higher your site or page will rank.

Lets say you  wanted your page to rank for the term “red widgets”, and this applies to any term that you select that you want to rank for, then you need to think about how you will construct the page. If your page title is about red widgets, your keyword and description tags are about red widgets, your content is unique quality content about red widgets, your page displays images of red widgets and alt text and file names demonstrate that fact, you pick up links from other web sites pointing to yours about red widgets and you include some links to other web sites related to red widgets, does this then make you think that maybe the page or site will be highly relevant to the search phrase red widgets?

Give it a try next time you write a blog post on any subject. Think about how the consumer will search for the phrase or keyword that you use, but be very careful about over using keywords on your page, use them wisely and do  not over saturate the page, otherwise Google will know what you’re trying to do, and she won’t like you at all if you try that little game.

Feedback on Content

I’ve had this blog running now for over 12 months and what started as a bit of fun for me has developed into a great passion. The blog has been more successful than I would have imagined, when I started it in June of last year.

Successful, at least in the number of people who read my posts and visit the blog on a daily basis, so I thought I would ask the question of you, what information do you find the most helpful? What content would you like to see me feature or write about on this blog that helps you the most in your business in the next 12 months?

In checking out the popularity of my posts over the past year, some articles that I thought would be popular were not, whereas other posts on Blogging and SEO were very popular, so it’s clear to me that you prefer certain topics over others.  Articles on Social Media for example, have been amongst my lowest read posts.

So the question I put to you is, which of the following topics would you like more information on:

SEO

Technology

Internet Marketing

Social Media

Blogging & Podcasting

Copywriting

Video

Even if the topic is not listed above, let me know what content you would like and I’ll do my best to provide the information you find most useful.

I’ve been working on a social media strategy paper for a top real estate franchise group and it’s kept me fairly busy during the last couple of weeks and that’s the reason I haven’t been very active on my blog for that period. As part of that strategy, I’ve been looking at the impact of social media on brand building and especially the impact blogs have on the purchasing decisions of consumers.

Blogs, play a major role in influencing the purchasing decision amongst women in particular, and in a recent survey in the US, 85% of regular female blog readers said they were influenced to make a purchase as a result of a review or comment posted on a blog.  So with that in mind, if you’re the company that gets it right, you have a good chance of getting the sale, but what happens if you are on the receiving end of a negative review or comment. How do you protect your brand and how should you respond?

Your customers can now read, listen, discuss and research their purchasing decisions and you need to work harder at customer service than ever before, if you are finding negative or damaging reviews about you,your brand or service then use this as a wake up call. The world of social networks, business review sites and blogs has provided the disgruntled consumer with a voice.

Every employee in your company is now responsible for your brands reputation, and when you as a company, start to live up to your reputation, it becomes a lot easier to manage your brand effectively on line.

If you do find a negative review on any of the sites, resist the temptation to respond defensively and do  not allow any of your staff to respond, you could put the Streisand effect in motion. 

What can be used to deliver a negative can also be used to promote a positive, so use it wisely.  Remember it’s very hard to remove a negative comment or search engine result, but you can promote a positive, just like the company in this video has done. 

If you’d like any additional information on how to manage your brand effectively on line, please ask me, I’d be happy to help advise you and get you headed on the right track.

Social Media and Blogs Very Influential Communication Tool

As the first of my blog workshops is due to kick off in two weeks time, I thought I’d take a look at the impact that blogs have on the on line consumer. Sometimes as a writer, I often think about who will be reading this blog and whether the information I provide is of interest or help to the readers, and I think about who is reading and researching blogs like mine on the web.

New research available indicates that blogs are a very valuable source of information, and blogs are particularly popular with women according to research from the US. Blogs sit along side social media in popularity with 53% of the female online population who regularly participate in social media.

In terms of demographics, social media attracts a large number of Gen X&Y’s at 15.4%, with baby boomers not far behind at 13.3%. Blogs are also a powerful tool for companies to utilise to communicate with female on line users, women are more likely than men to make a purchase decision as the result of a recommendation or other customers experience reported about on a blog. In fact the figure is very high, with 85% of females surveyed said they had made a purchase decision from a blog post or the blog had had an impact on their purchase.

The other trend that stands out is the way social media usage is affecting traditional media, when asked the question about other media usage, 57% of the females responded they were reading less newspapers, 47% said they were reading less magazines and 36% said they were listening less to radio. This is higher than the general population decline in usage of traditional media in the US.

So the message for companies out there that have not yet embraced blogs as a corporate communication tool or blogging as a tool to engage and interact with the on line consumer, in particular the female market, is very clear.

Start a blog, communicate and engage the on line consumer and just as important, if you have a business, start to monitor what blogs and blog writers are saying about you and your business or brand, it could be costing you a lot in lost business, lost business that today you probably don’t know you’ve lost.

I just wanted to wish everyone who reads this blog, a very merry and safe festive season and I hope the man from the south pole brings you all you desire.

Thank you for your support throughout 2008 and I’ll be back from the 5th January 2009 with hopefully more interesting and helpful technology advice and information.

Till then stay safe and happy!!