EFA: Resources: Editorial Rates

EFA: Resources: Editorial Rates So, for my copy-writing, editing friends, here's the scoop on what typical editors charge for their work.

Selling Homes in the Winter

Selling a home in the dead of winter can be challenging, so says Dana Dratch, for Bankrate.com in this article 13 Tips for Selling Your Home In Winter  http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13108472 . With tips as simple as turning the thermostat up a couple of degrees, to present the house as a warm welcoming space, and using booties, which suggests the homeowners are meticulous, here you'll find a wealth of information. 

People who are shopping right now are serious buyers. Help your sellers to understand winter buyers NEED a home, ask them to make their homes a refuge from the chill of winter. Homes seem smaller with all of the plants and pets indoors. Your sellers should be made aware of how their home presents to a potential buyer. And it's up to you, the professional REALTOR to bring it to their attention.

Table of Contents: Authority Rules Report

Table of Contents: Authority Rules Report I subscribed to CopyBlogger and this series of articles is excellent, pertinent, content rich, and must be shared.

How'er you doing? With Google, I mean... really. How'er you ranking? If SEO plays any part in your business, you'll want to read this Authority Rules Report. I haven't finished it yet, but I already know it's solid.

Have you thought about Blogging? If you can write -- you can blog. Select a forum and get started. I choose Blogger, Google's offering to the Bloggesphere for a couple or three reasons: 1. It's free. 2. It's user friendly great for beginners. 3. There's a platform that uses your Google Toolbar to publish Blog Posts from any site. 4. I figured Google would give a little more credibility and ranking to their own bloggers. And yeah that's more than three reasons, but that's why I choose Blogger. And I love it, I do, but for business... maybe I should have gone with Hubspot or WordPress. Finding CopyBlogger and subscribing to it has been a huge help.

How to Combine Your Facebook Profile for Both Business and Pleasure | Social Media Today

How to Combine Your Facebook Profile for Both Business and Pleasure Social Media Today

Have you got personal friends and business friends on your Facebook page? Have you ever noticed an option "lists" when you're friending someone? This article tells how to use Facebook lists, so you don't send personal things to business friends and business things to your personal friends.

You do not have to create a second page! Use lists and keep one profile. socialmediatoday.com has published this lovely blog post by Paul Sutton to tell you, and to show you with YouTube video, how to do it.

Surviving real estate's 'win-lose' game | Inman News

Surviving real estate's 'win-lose' game Inman News Fascinating! I thought I was going to read an article about creating a win-win and ended up learning the secret to life!


Sharing this interesting piece, by Bernice Rice, CEO of the RealEstateCoach.com this morning is my pleasure.

And while you're there check out their blog: realestatecoach.com/blog/

Features Week In Review

Features Week In Review You might have missed it. Maybe you were busy with a client and you weren't paying attention. Not to worry, Mashable is posting: Features Week In Review, and they'll give a brief rundown on tools of the social media trade. With articles like "33 Social Media Resources You Might Have Missed" you'll surely want to drop in.

Is Attraction Marketing Effective? Try A New Approach! « Renegade Professional News

Renegade Professional is a group and I subscribe to one of their newsletters. Is Attraction Marketing Effective? Try A New Approach! « Renegade Professional News This article speaks to selling the dream.

When I bought my house I represented myself. I paid full asking price.... Buying a home is an emotional thing, I shouldn't have represented myself, I wanted the house! A buyer's agent could have distanced me from the negotiations and might have worked out a better deal.

Only investors buy houses thinking: I'll buy this house, Only art investors buy a piece of art. Regular folks are buying a dream and this article addresses that beautifully. Attraction marketing is about not chasing the customer, it's about being found, thereby leading the customer to you.

REALTORS® CONFERENCE & EXPO - videovote (The National Association of REALTORS®)

Why go to NARdiGras this year in New Orleans? See what these five winners of the video contest have to say in their home/video casts that could be titled, "Why I want to go to NARdiGras in 2010" REALTORS® CONFERENCE & EXPO - videovote (The National Association of REALTORS®)

I have to cast my vote for Haley Weaver of Columbus, OH. She was entertaining as "The Weave" and made the best video. I love the part where she's trying to sell Reel Estate from a street stand. Even with all of her enthusiasm, you know, she's wasting a her time, energy, and effort, by not targeting her market. I think the speakers at NARdiGras can help her with that. Don't you?

Got Gmail?

Here's another reason to get a Gmail account, if you don't already have one. Google is adding voice technology to Gmail, and they're launching phone call integration! Save your minutes! Using your headset and a computer you can make phone calls. Scroll down to watch the video at Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/08/25/google-voice-gmail-2/#Google-Press-Conference-3

Hmmm...

Congratulations RCBOR Winner Jody Key

Jody Key with Washburn Real Estate is the winner of a Professional Services ad in The Real Estate Book of the Southern Foothills and Mountains, Volume 9 Issue 4. Look for Jody's ad in our book on stands September 1st.

The Real Estate Book for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store

The Real Estate Book for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store "Search Millions of homes for sale across the U>S> and around the world while on the go. Search by location and find detailed listings with photos. directions and agent information. Call of email the agent directly from the home listing o...."

Hansel & Gretel and the Map to Consumer Behavior

These days, the article explains, the customer, rather than following a designated path is using multiple streams (print, Internet, digital, social media) to get real estate information. Enjoy Hansel & Gretel and the Map to Consumer Behavior

If I Were a Realtor

Chris Brogan writes If I Were a Realtor and shares some ideas, and these ideas are worth sharing. Thanks Chris, for a lovely post. I agree, if I were a REALTOR I'd be taking your advice, heading out with my camera to shoot some pictures and post them in my blog. Oh wait, that's what I'm doing.

Olgivy Method for Effective Real Estate Print Ad Design

This is a down and dirty article, that tells how to write a print ad. It's short and sweet. Olgivy Method for Effective Real Estate Print Ad Design Everyone who has to write ads needs to read this, print a copy and look at it BEFORE writing your next ad copy.

I wrote an article Why Do You Advertise, this piece tells you How to Advertise.

Tech Support, Manuals & Troubleshooting for Consumers

At FixYa you'll find solutions to lots of problems. Volunteer experts reply to questions from people trying to set up watches and cameras, to owner's manuals for F150 Pick up trucks. If it's a computer problem, you'll find plenty of help here. Check them out: FixYa.com and here's a handy little link: Tech Support, Manuals & Troubleshooting for Consumers

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

I started futzing around with social media months ago, with no clear purpose except to learn how to use Blogger and Facebook, LinkedIn and Wordpress. Then I made a sale directly from facebook, then another, then a referral, then another. Mistake? Not hardly. We're still people, no matter the technology, we prefer to do business with people we know or think we know. Go figure.

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

View more presentations from Olivier Blanchard.

LoopNet - #1 in Commercial Real Estate Online

LoopNet - #1 in Commercial Real Estate Online If you ever accept a commercial listing, as a listing agent, I urge you to pop over to LoopNet and set up an account straight away -- if you don't already have one. LoopNet pushes your listing (free of charge) out over the internet. For a few $ they'll do a whole lot more. You owe it to your sellers to check into LoopNet. Now, would be nice.

25+ Upcoming Social Media & Tech Events

25+ Upcoming Social Media & Tech Events Mashable is one of the few sites I follow with great interest. What's the latest, who's doing what, with what -- oh really! Here you'll find a lot of information on a lot of topics, but it is, of course, all to do with the Social Media Events.

Interior Design Tips to Help Sell Your Home - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com

Interior Design Tips to Help Sell Your Home - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com Here are five great ideas from Interior Designer Tonya Hillukka.

This is a great piece to share with your sellers and to cover with them. It gives you, their REALTOR, a way to broach the tricky subject of a house that needs some elbow grease. If you cover this article, while you're in the home, you can let Tonya's article be the heavy.

"Mr and Mrs Seller, I was reading this article and I thought of you, like most young parents your children have a lot of toys, and it's difficult to keep them in one place, but like this article says...."

I like it.

Degrees, Schools, Online Courses and Careers - Over 20,000 Articles

Degrees, Schools, Online Courses and Careers - Over 20,000 Articles Want to go back to school? Are the lack of a few classes holding you back? Now you can go to school, in some cases, for free. Online. Look at the offerings under OpenCourseWare and see free online training.

Appraisers in 'HVCC hell' | Inman News

Appraisers in 'HVCC hell' Inman News

"HVCC was a misdirected attempt to do good for the public, and in effect ended up costing buyers a lot more for inaccurate appraisals from (mostly) out-of-town appraisers who didn't know the local markets but allowed the lenders to glean more fees for questionable cheap appraisals." So says Inman News in a post that's certainly worth while reading.

Winner of the June RCBOR Drawing

Congratulations, Tim Vickery of Properties Unlimited Commercial Division. You have won a Broker's Choice or a Professional Services ad. Your advertisment will appear in the Volume 9 Issue 2 book scheduled to hit stands July 5/7. Look for Tim's ad and tell him, you saw it here.

Eyejot - the easiest way to send video

Isaac Allen with Exit posted this on facebook tonight, (July 1st, 2010) and how handy will it be to be able to send a video message. I made a recording right away and emailed it to see how it works. If it's as easy as it appears to be, everybody should check this out, right away. Eyejot - the easiest way to send video

ActiveRain University

Activerain offers free training for real estate agents. Here's a link to the Active Rain University Calendar. I've taken some great classes with Brad Andersohn and Steven Graham. Highly Recommended. ActiveRain University gets three gold stars.

Mortgage Loans, Rates, Home Buying, Selling, Foreclosures

Peter Miller wrote a compelling piece that appeared in the Real Talk Digest on 7/1/2010. It was so interesting I checked out his website at Ourbroker.com. There were more articles, and, so I thought I'd share Ourbroker, with our brokers. Mortgage Loans, Rates, Home Buying, Selling, Foreclosures

CONFESSIONS OF A REAL ESTATE JUNKIE/INHERENT QUALITIES | The Real Estate Book Blog

The Internet is a cheap fast way to promote your listing. When you read CONFESSIONS OF A REAL ESTATE JUNKIE/INHERENT QUALITIES The Real Estate Book Blog you'll see that at The Real Estate Book the research that's done regarding real estate advertising is not biased, rather it's quite expansive. Take a quick run through this section, you'll see different sorts of advertising compared in a cohesive and coherent manner. Take your time, then if we can help you, by all means let us know.

Become a Web native | Inman News

Become a Web native Inman News Gahlord Dewald penned this piece, "Become a Web Native" and it's sure to be a hit with my followers. Web Native or Bolt on Web Services? If you're in real estate or work with REALTORS you are going to work with the Internet. If you don't, you are going to .... Well, don't make me say it, you know.

How Real Estate Pros are Using Social Media for Real Results

How Real Estate Pros are Using Social Media for Real Results If you've wondered which social media sites you should hang your face on, look no further, this article mentions all the big ones.

Dirty Dancing - Time of my Life (Final Dance) - High Quality

Travelin' Joe's Guide to North Carolina Golf Courses - Courses & Travel - Golf.com

What a handy link: Travelin' Joe's Guide to North Carolina Golf Courses - Courses & Travel - Golf.com

FYI... GOLF the acronym stands for: Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden

Tuesday Tactics: Online Edition | Free Help for Real Estate Agents

If you are in real estate, and you haven't signed up for this newsletter, you might want to have a look at this. Tuesday Tactics: Online Edition Free Help for Real Estate Agents

Real Estate: A Good Investment to Whom? | Matthew Ferrara & Company

In this post Matthew asks a timely question: Real Estate: A Good Investment to Whom? Matthew Ferrara & Company Our children aren't staying in one place long enough to make purchasing real estate practical or affordable, and it doesn't make the sense for them that it did for us. Hmmmm, the face of real estate may well have changed -- forever.

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Quality links to your site

Sometimes it's hard to find good links, but, puff, puff, puff, here's one for today: Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Quality links to your site

Open House Mobile Application | Free Help for Real Estate Agents

Open House Mobile Application | Free Help for Real Estate Agents Foursquare for Open Houses - REALTORS host a meet up! Who would have thunk it?

Room in Focus: Entryways - LogHome.com

Sellers often don't appreciate the value of a first impression. Maybe you could share this article with them if they're interested in going a little BEYOND curb appeal. Room in Focus: Entryways - LogHome.com The second a buyer steps in the door, they're either turned on or turned off. Make sure your sellers understand.

The Neat Company - NeatReceipts & NeatDesk Scanners | NeatWorks Scanner Software

Here's a cool tech tool for you. Need to store digital files? This scanner, scans, stores and files digitally. Go paperless. The Neat Company - NeatReceipts & NeatDesk Scanners | NeatWorks Scanner Software

More Important Than Your Business Plan

Rich Levin writes a great article for real estate agents, and a MUST read for agents who are working without a plan. More Important Than Your Business Plan

Consistant efforts yeild consistant results. They might not be the results you want... but let's save that topic for another day.

Print Magazines Have Never Stopped Selling - Josh Gordon - Blogs Sales and Marketing @ FolioMag.com

Print Magazines sell! So says Josh Gordon, from Folio MediaPRO Magaxine & eMedia Publishing Professionals Group News Print Magazines Have Never Stopped Selling - Josh Gordon - Blogs Sales and Marketing @ FolioMag.com
The consistant visability and predictability of regular print publications like The Real Estate Book creates loyal customers.

Viddler.com - The best way to watch and publish your videos

Viddler.com - The best way to watch and publish your videos Here's something you might enjoy, viddler. Straight from your webcam to the video, oh boy. Viddler has analytics and all the cool tools you'll want to use.

Great for video blogging, too.

Seth's Blog: The wrapper matters

Seth's made my blog morning, again, in an article that's fast paced and enlightening, Seth takes us from print, to video to podcasts and beyond. Nice work Seth. You can read his piece and subscribe to his blog, too, here: Seth's Blog: The wrapper matters

Cres Insurance Services Inc.

High cost of E & O getting you down? Contact CRES for a quote, they also offer general liability, risk management and Workman's comp. Cres Insurance Services Inc. For Firms and Individuals.

12 Steps to Transform a LinkedIn Profile Into an Always-on Networking Hub | Mitch Meyerson:Mastering Online Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing Coaching

Are you using LinkedIn? Here are 12 Steps to Transform a LinkedIn Profile Into an Always-on Networking Hub Mitch Meyerson:Mastering Online Marketing and Guerrilla Marketing Coaching

The Work Buzz

The Work Buzz

This is a great page to bookmark if you or someone you care about is looking for work/ What's trending across the country? New things like employment agreements NOT to use the company's name on facebook or Twitter. What's not? Discussing your previous employer, careful, careful... And some good practical advice: Never let 'em see you sweat.

These are things you knew already, but did you know of the 431,000 jobs, created in May 2010, 411,000 of those were for the US Census? This leaves us with a private sector increase of 41,000. At least it's an increase.

Zosh

Zosh Zosh for iPhone, a print, sign and fax app. Unbelievable! Smart phones are absolutely amazing these days.

There's a neat little demo of this app here. The learning curve just got steeper, but what a payoff.

www.Store.RealEstateBook.com site - new advertising options | The Real Estate Book Blog

www.Store.RealEstateBook.com site - new advertising options | The Real Estate Book Blog

Finally a site for REALTORS! You may direct order online upgrades, advertising and print materials like postcards, here, all online all the time. And they're offering internet upgrades - and one great deal - it's free (and you know how I like free). Enhance your listings online, free for 30 days.

Yeah - TREB.

Thank you NCI.

Best iPhone Real Estate App for Home Search - Real Estate iPhone App from Realtor.com®

Best iPhone Real Estate App for Home Search - Real Estate iPhone App from Realtor.com®

REALTOR.com and the iPhone application -- what a great team.

Blackberry? Not yet:(

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1671074/what-do-you-do-when-the-appraisal-comes-in-low-

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1671074/what-do-you-do-when-the-appraisal-comes-in-low- When an appraisal is low - is there anything a REALTOR can do? You can ask for a reconsideration of value. Here's what you need to know.

This week's strongest links to interesting media | The Real Estate Book Blog

This week's strongest links to interesting media The Real Estate Book Blog Dan McCarthy's recent post -- interesting for you REALTOR's.

73 Ways to Become a Better Writer | Copyblogger

73 Ways to Become a Better Writer Copyblogger
CopyBlogger 101 with Johnny B. Truant (not his real name)

I keep promising myself to set up a blog just for things I'd like to have on file, but then I don't and drop them into Karen's Corner where they aren't entirely appropriate. But this one works - if you've been thinking about starting a blog and want to study up on it - here ya go.

You're welcome.

Advertising As Part of Your Marketing Plan

What do you want to accomplish with your ad?

Print advertising serves more than one purpose. The days of using print to fling a few listings into the marketplace are over. How can you use your ad to accomplish more than one objective?

by Karen D. McCall

Why Do You Advertise?

Branding
Impressions
Attract Buyers
Attract Sellers
Drive Web Traffic
Generate Leads

Branding. The purpose of branding is to make you, and or, your company stand out. We want you to be memorable. Certainly everyone who knows you will recognize you in your ad, they might mention that they saw your ad, and they might tell a friend about you. The point of branding is to be remembered: you can brand yourself as a real estate expert, brand yourself to a community, brand yourself to a firm.
Here’s a very good article about Branding Basics by Laura Lake:
http://marketing.about.com/od/brandstrategy/u/brandbasics.htm

Impressions: Print advertising is an inexpensive way to deliver impressions. If you buy a box of business cards, let’s say you get a deal: 1,000 for $25.00, you still have to hand them out. We do that for you. We’re going to print ~20,000 books and deliver them to more than 500 locations in 4 counties where your potential clients will pick them up in what’s known as permission based target marketing. This is different from other forms of print advertising where your ad is distributed to all of their subscribers who may or may not be interested in real estate. When advertising in the newspaper, for example, as much as 90% of your advertising is directed to people who aren’t potential home buyers or sellers. Our books are picked up by the target market, the end user, the consumer. Your customer.


Buyers will pick up a book; they’ll see you in print. Your ad must convey to them “Here’s a knowledgeable, successful agent.” Buyers want to work with agents who can afford to advertise and who can blame them? Buyers want information and they want a real estate agent who can help them find and buy a home.

Sellers will pick up a book, they’ll flip through it. Who do they want to list with? What about your ad will appeal to them? Can they readily imagine seeing their home advertised under your header?
The point of advertising to buyers and sellers is to “find a need and fill it” as Zig Zieglar said so often. Use your advertising to make the phone to ring. Get some leads coming in and work those leads. Advertisements are your introduction to Buyers and Sellers: your ad goes out ahead of the handshake.

Driving Web Traffic: When I went to Atlanta for TREB (The Real Estate Book) training they gave me a homework assignment. I had to select a client for a case study. One of my firms was experimenting with ads at the time which made them a perfect test case. In class, I was challenged to Google what I thought would be a potential buyer’s search phrase, I typed: Rutherford County real estate for sale. Google returned 98,000 hits and my client was not on the first three pages. Today, I ran the same search, Google returned 152,000 results, my client is not in the first 5 pages.
At TREB we not only host your listing in our system, we send your listing to 30 online partners. Each of those partners has their own SEO (Search Engine Optimization) engineers. They’re all chasing web traffic, they have their own marketing plans, and they all drive internet leads to agents. Your specialty is real estate. Why spend hours typing your listings into multiple search engines? Why spend hours trying to come up with your own tags and key words, when you can optimize your time and effort by focusing on your specialty and letting the SEO staff work for you?
Hands down, the best way for a prospect to find your website is to type your address into their web-browser. And if you’re watching your analytics you’ll know what’s driving your web traffic. You have to get your web-site’s address into your prospect’s browser window. An ad can do that for you.

Lead Generation: In 1978, The Real Estate Book founders committed to generating the most leads for the least amount of money than any other kind of advertising media. In print and online we drive traffic to our customers. We are committed to helping our firms and agents use their advertising to accomplish their objectives.
We do that by having the best distribution. We create the largest audience for our customers both in print and online. We rank higher in the search engines, than any of our competition, we get more hits and route more web traffic. The http://www.realestatebook.com/ is on the front cover of ~9 million books every month. We direct 45,000 internet leads every month. Our SEO team drives traffic directly to our clients. A larger audience equals more exposure for you..

If you aren’t getting calls your ad isn’t working. If your marketing program is not generating leads you need to find out why. When you’re advertising you should expect a return on your investment. See the, Income Marketing Approach.
http://blog.realestatebook.com/2009/11/11/income-targeted-goals-set/ The Income Marketing Approach shows you the relationship between your ad and your business. It gives you the formulas you need to use your ad to generate leads and return your investment.

Remember the adage “If you don’t plan to win, you’re planning to fail”. If your marketing plan isn’t working as well as you’d like, if you don’t have a marketing plan, I hope I’ve convinced you to give it some thought.

Perhaps it is better to try and fail, than never to have tried at all, and maybe it is better to advertise by flinging listings into the marketplace, than not to advertise at all. “Cast thy bread onto the waters” the Good Book says. If you’re not sowing you can’t expect to reap, but sow at the right time and place. “Right Now, millions of home shoppers are searching online. Will They Find Your Listings?

THE END




Resources:

The Power of Print by Rebecca Chandler
http://blog.realestatebook.com/2010/04/20/the-power-of-print/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRealEstateBookBlog+%28The+Real+Estate+Book+Blog%29

Attention Listing Agents: Steve Jobs offers some pointers:
http://kdmccall.blogspot.com/2010/05/presentation-pointers-from-worlds.html

What’s the difference in advertising and marketing, Advertising vs. Marketing, by Laura Lake
http://marketing.about.com/cs/advertising/a/marketvsad.htm

Branding Basics, By Laura Lake, About.com Guide to Marketing
http://marketing.about.com/od/brandstrategy/u/brandbasics.htm

$$$ Expect to see a return on your investment. $$$
Income Based Approach to Real Estate Marketing.
http://blog.realestatebook.com/2009/11/11/income-targeted-goals-set/


Advertising is only part of your marketing plan.
Your real estate marketing plan will contain everything from soup to nuts: Pictures, Flyers, Postcards, Talking Houses, Virtual Tours, Name Badges. Magnetic Signs, Business Cards, Stationery, Blogs, Social Media, Email Marketing, Signs, Magazines, Telephone Books, (in print and online), SOI, Professional Groups: Linked In, MLS, Website, Newspaper and Print Advertising…

Income Targeted. Goals Set.

Income Targeted. Goals Set.

Why do your own spreadsheet when you can get it here?

Scroll down to the bottom of the above link, when you get there, and sign up for your own media kit. I mean it, Excel worksheets and all. Everything you need in one spot. Take advantage of the professionals and designers at corporate.

Presentation Pointers From the World’s Greatest Presenter- Steve Jobs

Presentation Pointers From the World’s Greatest Presenter- Steve Jobs


Listing Agents take heed. Here are five tips from the World's Greatest Presenter, so look sharp and pay attention, sharpen your pencil... copy and paste this into your word processor, print it, you'll want to memorize this.

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-5 Fixes to Gain More Clients

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-5 Fixes to Gain More Clients

It's not unusual to hear me say, Marketing is Marketing I don't care what business you're in. And it's true, for the most part. Real estate practitioners do need a little different approach to marketing. This REALTOR Magazine article, in case you didn't read it in this month's issue, was written for REALTORS.

I'm working on an article about why REALTORS advertise and about how to approach each ad with a target in mind. A tailored approach has always worked better than the shotgun approach. But when you read that 48% of buyers bought houses their agents found for them last year, and that - that figure is down 36 percent from year before last because buyers are bringing houses they're interested in to the attention of their agent.... Well, seems like you'd want to know about that.

Mail Merge by Email Using Word and Outlook

And here's how to mail merge a Word Document with Outlook. All sorts of useful videos are turning up today.

Word 2003 Tutorial Merging Labels Microsoft Training Lesson 23.1

What to do when you have Word 2003 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEveYvPR-2w

Microsoft Word : How to Create Labels From Excel

Note to self: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWIbkxl8oLE

How to Use Excel, to Word to create mailing labels.

Free File Hosting, Free Video Hosting, Online File Hosting. Large Files and Images up to 5GB - YourFileLink.com

Free File Hosting, Free Video Hosting, Online File Hosting. Large Files and Images up to 5GB - YourFileLink.com This is a fast way to save a file, they say.... I don't know about saving one, but I just downloaded a huge file and it was pretty fast. Need to share a large file, perhaps this is your ticket. Don't you just love free web 2.0?

Seth's Blog: How to send a personal email

Seth's Blog: How to send a personal email Writer, speaker, marketing genius, entrepreneur, inventor of the Squidoo Lens, and more, Seth Godin, spells it out in no uncertain terms. This could have appeared under the title 14 Things You Need To Know About Email, but it doesn't. That's marketing.

Mike Klingler Leading the Internet Marketing Revolution 5/10/2010 - Kevin Mastaw on Blog Talk Radio

Mike Klingler Leading the Internet Marketing Revolution 5/10/2010 - Kevin Mastaw on Blog Talk Radio Founder of Renegade Pro and Marketing Merge tells his story. Mike built a MLM downline for 14 years, and then he found a better way. 2500 people have registered for his latest webinar.

'Lessons from the animal kingdom'

'Lessons from the animal kingdom'

Harvey Mackay sends lovely newsletters to my inbox and this one is absolutely the "Cat's Pajamas" as my mom would have said. Love it, love it and you will, too.

Just think what an oyster can do with a grain of sand.

Are You Missing Out On A Valuable Social Marketing Platform? « Renegade Professional News

Are You Missing Out On A Valuable Social Marketing Platform? « Renegade Professional News What makes someone want to do business with you and not your competitor?

Renegade Professional has articles that address this topic - read it here.

Using HP Recovery Manager in Windows 7 - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Using HP Recovery Manager in Windows 7 - HP Customer Care (United States - English) OK I'm caught - I tried to email this link to myself on a different computer, since my endeavor was unsuccessful I am now attempting to add a link to Blogger. Now I can get to this link on another machine and the link will remain as long as my Blog is online.

Blogger can be a really awesome way of saving information so you can access said information from anywhere.

But another reason to run a blog.

And now, to the business of creating a Recovery Disc for my new laptop.

17 Easy Steps to Brilliant Blog Posts | Copyblogger

Build it and they will come.

Isn't that a greaat line? It's from the movie, Field of Dreams.

And that's where it's going to stay, in a movie, in a made-up pretend world because, as any blogger knows, you can build it to the sky, and have no audience.

So, here's a lovely blog for you from Jill at Copyblogger 101.


17 Easy Steps to Brilliant Blog Posts | Copyblogger

Jill reminds me that there has to be a point to all your blogging - I've been collecting free stuff for REALTORS and sharing it - but without a call to action.

And what is it I want you to do?

Well, I want you to stay in business. If you stay in business and need to advertise your business, and you'd do business with me, or at least let me tell you about my business, unless you tell me to mind my own business, which is my businss cause my business IS keeping you in business. You see?

In a nutshell, I'd love to help you with your ads, which I am quite good at.

How to connect your PC to TV with HDMI

Lets Hook our PC to our TV with an HDMI cable from Amazon! see Woot.com for the best deals on things like HDMI cables. Thanks Joe.

Squidoo : About Squidoo

Squidoo : About Squidoo Have you heard about Squidoo? Ever heard of Seth Godin? The Purple Cow? No? Well, you owe it to yourself to look into this page: About Squidoo.

The great thing about Squidoo? It's Free.

Coupons

Coupons

Go to the website, type in your zip code and voila here are your coupons. That's easy enough. And these days, it's good to have a resource for on demand coupons.

Real estate listing marketing, single property website, syndication

Real estate listing marketing, single property website, syndication Here's a link to Real Bird. Build your single property websites here and get started free. For real estate professionals only! Real Bird Listing Publisher. Say you saw it here.

YouTube - bandersohn's Channel

YouTube - bandersohn's Channel

I sat down with Brad Andersohn's Active Rain Webinar this week and learned some nice You Tube tricks and tips, but I also learned how to find and post video links to your website, blogs and social media sites. So, let's see if what I learned works!

What is a Short Sale? - Sam Miller Real Estate

What is a Short Sale? - Sam Miller Real Estate A Re/Max Stars Realty agent in Ohio, has put together this great Blog article, along with a video by one of my favorite real estate trainers David Knox.

One of the hardest things a Realtor has to do today is to give the seller the bad news: What's owed on the mortgage exeeds the value of the home. Now what?

Another 11 Little Secrets « The BrandBuilder Blog

Another 11 Little Secrets « The BrandBuilder Blog

Olivier Blanchard shares his secrets and this piece is not so much about social networking as much as it is about being healthy, savvy and flexible all 'round. Blanchard says: "Do your job, hit your targets, kiss the right rings, and you'll make it." and adds, "Go where no one has gone yet, and once you've made some headway, call out "hey, this way!" If people follow, you'll know you're on the right track. The path starts with finding your own voice."

Social media will give you the tools you need to build a space in which you may call "hey, this way!" and begin branding yourself and your work. You've got to start somewhere, why not start by setting up an iGoogle Page and subscribe to a few blogs?

Matthew Ferrara & Company, Real Estate the Next Generation

Matthew Ferrara & Company, Real Estate the Next Generation

"Can you tell me where you buried the statue that has protected your equity during the greatest recession in a century?" Here's one and you'll find other questions you might want to ask your sellers. And while you're talking about sellers, Matthew has some interesting insight into this phenom, namely the home owner, who might buy and sell a few homes in the course of his/her lifetime, while you, dear agent, are out there every day working full time on the behalf of home owners who are lucky enough to have you as their representative.

Ferrara travels with Brainchain, a real estate training program, and they're coming to a town near you. Well, maybe not near us, but close enough... we could drive.

Facebook | Golden Valley

Facebook Golden Valley Golden Valley's got a facebook page. Join the fan page and follow the fun.

Google Tools for Real Estate Professionals

Google Tools for Real Estate Professionals The new Web 2.0 makes it possible for us non-technophobes to put up great looking sites. Google is one of my favorites, here you'll find a link that shows which of Google's vast array of tools you might want to incorporate into your real estate business.

The Home Seller’s April Fool’s Joke

The Home Seller’s April Fool’s Joke When it comes right down to it, selling real estate is all about marketing. And if you think your clients aren't conserned about what you're doing to market their home.... If you're working hard for your seller, you can show them you've got their home online, you're advertising in print, you've posted as many pictures as your MLS allows....

UK digital prints - photo wallpaper UK - photo on canvas

UK digital prints - photo wallpaper UK - photo on canvas Rainow Zoom "We Print Everything on Almost Anything" Canvas prints, Acrylic Glass, Photo to Wallpaper, Tile Murals - Prints on Tiles!, FROM YOUR PHOTO.

Did you ever take a picture and think, wow, it sure would be nice if I could do something with this? Now you can. Check'kis out.

Find Size of a Home Lot or Plat of Land

Find Size of a Home Lot or Plat of Land This was posted on Free Help For Real Estate Agents, Oakley Sign's wonderfully helpful agent site. In Rutherford County we have a GIS and so can use the measure tool to calculate lot size, and that may be how this site is pulling information. Still, I can see where this might come in handy and is certainly worthy of a post. If you haven't signed up for Oakley Sign's Free Help For Real Estate Agents you might want to do it right this minute.

The three rules of effective real estate marketing

The three rules of effective real estate marketing This Viral Housing Fix

"Think about it," Dan McCarthy writes. "If 54 million people are searching real estate web sites, but only 308,000 homes are sold in a month, that means that a lot of people are going to be looking at listings -- and seeing a realtor's personal information -- without taking action. Being a frequent and visible presence in their search is going to benefit a realtor."

Dan's going to tell you three things: 1. Place your listings everywhere. 2. Stand out from the crowd. 3. Network -- in person and digitally.

And I don't care where you are, I don't care who you are, the fact is, when people get ready to call a REALTOR, they're going to call the one who most readily comes to mind. This week I wrote an article, I'm going to run in this month's newsletter about impressions and branding and TOMA (Top of Mind Advertising), which was big, back in the day. Calls to mind ads like Wendy's, "Where's the ----" (Beef)," "What spells relief?" (R-O-L-A-I-D-S) and things like "Golden Arches" and Andy of Mayberry and the whistled theme song, The Fishing Hole. We don't remember the words, but we sure know the tune.

TOMA marketing is about just that, being recognized, and as my cousin at Duke says, "It's not enough to be hungry and in line at the trough anymore, it's important to be first."

Basic Social Media Strategies for Real Estate

Basic Social Media Strategies for Real Estate Rebecca Chandler has some great strategies for integrating and implementing Social Media into your Real Estate Business. From setting up your Facebook Personal Profile all the way to creating your Facebook Fan Page. If you haven't started yet, you should. And friend me: http://www.facebook.com/kdmccall it's not as hard as it looks.

Wise Agent - Real Estate Marketing - Contact Management - Transaction Management

Wise Agent - Real Estate Marketing - Contact Management - Transaction Management

This was in my latest Internet Crusade's Talk Digest, I popped over to the website and thought, wow, if I was still in real estate I'd sure give this a try. I was a Top Producer Subscriber, and this looks like a very similar CM application for about 1/2 the money. There's a free trial, so why not?

Simply Home

Simply Home

I was delivering books in Columbus at Derbyshire and saw one of these monitoring stations mounted and installed in their office. What a good way to monitor homes - but better than that - what a great way to keep an eye, or an ear, on a loved one.

"Simply Home"
"When you can't be there. SimplyHome's unique and discreet system of sensors provides in-home support when a family member or caregiver can't be there. A SimplyHome system can enable you to live with confidence in the continued independence of your loved one in their home."

They have no idea I'm blogging about this - I picked up one of their brochures. I think it's a great way to use technology to improve our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

Welcome to your notable world | Evernote Corporation

Welcome to your notable world Evernote Corporation

Uh, oh. More notes for me? The veritable horder of notes, stickies, 3X5's, business cards, palm entries, bookmarks, Favorites, online stickies, WindowsLive, facebook.... Just what we need, a place to stick more notes. I can think of -uh -well, never mind.
I have lots of places to keep up with notes including lateral drawer file cabinets, notebook binders, file card boxes, cd's, floppys, thumb drives, a back up hard drive, Bankers Boxes! I keep up with way too much stugg, but....
If you need a way to keep up with your notes, your clips, dots and jots, and pictures, and parts of emails and webpages, well Evernote may just be the bees knees - or so Gert says.

And free. We like free.

Microsoft Windows Error Reporting

What can be more frustrating than to lose the page you're on, sometimes more than one page when you get an Explorer shutting down message. Problems with a slow browser? Using Internet Explorer? Find troubleshooting solution by Microsoft here, along with some things you might want to try.
Microsoft Windows Error Reporting

Some of these links are as handy as a pocket on a shirt. You're going to love this one.

More Cool Tools for Free

Stopwatch

Ever need to know how fast a web page loads? There are things you can do to make your web page or blog load faster, but don't you need to see measurable results? Well, here ya go. I believe they've thought of everything.

The Official Travel & Tourism Website for North Carolina

The Official Travel & Tourism Website for North Carolina

Anxious to know what's going on this spring in North Carolina? This site posted by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development is a fine place to start. Here you'll find some awesome links, lovely lodging, special attractions and a wealth of information laid out and waiting to meet your inquiring mind. Have fun.

The Official Travel & Tourism Website for North Carolina

The Official Travel & Tourism Website for North Carolina If you want to know what's happening in NC, this is a great place to start. You'll find the best links in the state here, courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Commerce, Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development.

Spring Cleaning for Your Business: REALTOR® Magazine

Spring Cleaning for Your Business: REALTOR® Magazine by Tracey C. Velt

Website need freshening, listings need panache, database half dead? Find ideas and inspiration in this straightforward article brought to you by REALTOR magazine online.

CutePDF - Create PDF for free, Free PDF Utilities, Save PDF Forms, Edit PDF easily.

CutePDF - Create PDF for free, Free PDF Utilities, Save PDF Forms, Edit PDF easily.

Ever need to create a PDF on the fly? Sent an email and gotten a note back saying, "Our programs are incompatible and I couldn't open it." With CutePDF Writer from Acro your problems are over. The freeware works seamlessly with my existing problems. Download your CutePDF Writer, install it, then when you need a PDF - go to the document you need to turn into a PDF - select print from the file - instead of selecting your regular printer, select CutePDF Writer, and hit print. A window will open and ask you where you want to save the document. I usually save fresh PDF's on my desktop and file them after I send them out. But whatever method you use, you'll love this program

And the pro version's available for less than $50.00. I haven't tried it, yet, but if you do, let me know how it goes, will ya?

Life Coach Martha Beck's Tips for Managing Your Tech Life - Oprah.com

Life Coach Martha Beck's Tips for Managing Your Tech Life - Oprah.com

Gert and I thought this was just the Bees Knees. In addition to emailing it to myself, I emailed it to select friends and posted it on facebook.

Managing your life in the new www ? Maybe more like saving your life in the new www.

Martha, you're the best. Thank you for this timely and insightful article. And thank you O for making it so easy to share.

Have You Created an Impossible Business?

Have You Created an Impossible Business?

Marketing Guru from About.com (and if you haven't subscribed, you should), CJ Hayden talks very seriously about business models that need a bit of tweaking. I couldn't help but think of real estate, after all, I paid for my ads in the Real Estate Book, my REALTOR.com account, my REALTOR expenses including two boards, my USAMLS website, my Visual Tour, my Top Producer, my RE/MAX, and while I was making a whole lot of money, I was spending a whole lot of money. Not to mention TIME. The question is: Is that necessary?

Look at what you're doing in your business, is it necessary?

I'm still running that KDMcCall.com site....

Local Travel Bureaus - North Carolina Resources

Local Travel Bureaus - North Carolina Resources Fall Creek Land Company posted this great link on facebook, thought I'd pass it along. This is great information for REALTORS and developers to share with their out of state clients.

The Income Based Approach to Real Estate Marketing

The Income Based Approach to Real Estate Marketing This program will reach REALTORS how to find their ROI numbers. If you're not making money with your advertising, you're doing something wrong. Your advertising should net a return.

iGoogle

iGoogle iGoogle, i do, i do, i do, and so should you. And the Google Toolbar is... AWESOME.

I was having a technical problem... one of those afternoons spent online with Microsoft tech support in India - where it is HOT today, and by the way, India is one of the hottest climates in the world - and no, I didn't know that. But I don't mind talking to tech support in India, those people are smart. Not only can they work remotely on your computer, they can speak to you in English while they're doing it. Ask about your children. Now, really, I'm super nice to those folks, I can't begin to do what they do.

But in uninstalling a corrupt Silverlight file and reinstalling it, along the way I lost my Google toolbar, but the good thing is, I didn't loose it forever - I downloaded a new one, it's back and it's running and I'm thrilled to PIECES. And it seems to have saved my settings. Apparently I locked them in to my Google universal settings. (see far right on tool bar, little green ball with pull down - pull down and make your settings universal).

PCHell does not make for the most delightful day, but some unexpected things happened, as they often do, while I was searching for help. I found PCHell.com where I spent a good bit of the morning, in PC Hell, not necessarily at PCHell, if you know what I mean. PCHell has some super information like How to Keep Your Computer Up to Date and Ten Steps To Troublefree Computing and I can happily report some of these things I already do and while we all should, well... 'nuff said.

But I digress - the Google Toolbar is easy and fun, if you Blog, if you share items on Twitter, or Facebook, try it, you'll be glad you did.

And yes, it's too bad we don't have a tech support call center here in Rutherford County, but we don't exactly have a highly technically trained workforce here, now do we? See if anyone from Foothills Connect and ICC might hook up with my facebook friend, who runs call centers in India, maybe we can get something going. But I digress.

Seth's Blog: Shiny objects

Seth's Blog: Shiny objects: "Shiny objects
If you're a hunter, are you wasting your gift chasing shiny but ultimately worthless objects?
And if you're a farmer, are you wasting your resources by planting and nurturing a crop that's fashionable but without real value?
It might be fun to win a Grammy or dominate your category in terms of market share, but what's it worth if it doesn't support the actual goal?
Marketing is more powerful than ever. We have more leverage than ever before. Which makes picking your milestones and your goals more critical than it has ever been.
Posted by Seth Godin"

You can subscribe to Blogs and develop a mashable site, easily using the features available in Explorer 8.

I spend so much time in the frenetic online world that this blogpost resonated with me and made me ask...am I spending my time wisely?

Are you?

Internet Explorer 8 CE Continues

Episode 41: Developing Better User Experiences with Internet Explorer 8 with Jon Box : Deep Fried Bytes Technology Podcast

What a powerhouse Internet Explorer 8 is! Listen to the experts as they discuss this amazing new browser.

Site Map

Site Map You can pop over to Microsoft anytime you want with this link and see what's up, what's new, or simply review. It's here, by all means, check it out.

Image Re-Sizer for Vista

Yes, Virginia, there is a re-sizer for Vista. You can download it here. http://www.vso-software.fr/products/image_resizer/image_resizer.php

VSO has several programs available: Screenshots, Photo on Web and more.