Another example of how wildly poor the reporting from Alexa is… Miller Samuel’s Matrix - arguably a top 10 most trafficked RE blog has you posting an Alexa ranking of: 545,538. The data is so far off as a relative measure to reality. I’m telling you, it’s got to go.
However, after taking closer look, it became apparent that our list did not rank Matrix even in the top 100 blogs not because of Alexa. Technorati rank was the biggest problem. For a long time, Technorati had no rank whatsoever for Matrix. With the help of fellow blogger and internet entrepreneur, Andy Beard, the Technorati fixed rank for Matrix. Although our list still lists Matrix at 100+ position, I can see it rising to the top of the list with the next update.
The conclusions I can draw from this experience is that not too many bloggers are really concerned with Technorati “authority”. Besides ranking on the lists that factor that authority to rank the websites, there seems to be no obvious reason to care. However if you have submitted your blog to the list, check if Technorati is reporting these figures for your blog. If not, you can contact them to see if your blog was banned for over pinging.
If you are using WordPress, consider using Ultimate Smart Update Pinger plugin. This plugin will prevent your WordPress to over-pinging Technorati as well as other services.
The New Jersey Association of Realtors is opposing legislation that would allow real estate brokers and agents to provide cash rebates or other gifts to buyers and sellers.
Members of the state’s Real Estate Commission, a regulatory agency that enforces licensing law in the state, has considered the legislation but hasn’t yet announced a position….
….While officials at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division have taken action to oppose bans on rebates in several states, New Jersey Association of Realtors officials contend that the offer of rebates can actually be harmful to consumers.
One thing is clear, a crappy lead generating company will not be able to survive in the face of new social media. One day one blogger will write about your services and his blog will open a can of warms.
I can’t help myself but wonder if there is any good lead generating company out there. Or all they all full of it? Again, I am not talking about the crappy companies that promise to give you hundreds of leads each month, just to scam you out of your money without delivering on their promise.
What I have in mind are the companies that would not charge you a penny unless they provide you with a lead that eventually converts into sale. No sale would mean a not qualified lead and therefore you don’t have to pay a penny for it.
Many of my readers here are familiar that I am an affiliate marketer. While there are different business models within affiliate marketing, at the end of the day my pay is based on my performance. If I send a visitor to Amazon.com and he or she does not by anything, I do not get paid. If I send a visitor to Lending Tree and he or she does not fill out a certain form, I do not get pain. In other words in order for me to get paid, I need to perform- not just promise. What do you think would happen if I asked Amazon: “I promise to send 100 byers each month to your website. Would you pay me $10 per each buyer?” Well Amzon may agree to pay me $1000 the first month around, but I doubt they would go along with my crap month after month, unless I have sent them 100 buyers each month. Well, people at Amazon and other companies were smarter. You can make money with Amazon, but only if you deliver the goods.
I have heard plenty about one crappy lead generating company. But I also believe that not every lead generating company is worthless. If you have come across a good lead generating company, please share it in the comments. I would be more than happy to write about such companies.
If you write a blog, it is safe to presume that you want other people to read it. Unless of course you have blocked the search engines and are allowing only certain people to see your blog. From what I can gather when it comes to the real estate blogs, most of us would like our blogs to be read. In fact some of us have set a goal to turn first time visitor to our blogs into regular one or even a subscriber. In fact in some other niches, the value and the influence of a blog is determined by the number of subscribers.
In real estate, blog can also be responsible for the growth of your business. In fact, many real estate blogs are highly monetized digital “properties” on the internet, while others contribute to the successful real estate transactions outside of the Internet. In either case the subscribers to your blog may have something to do with the dollars in your pocket at the end of the day.
In this tutorial, I will show you one way you can track a specific goal (lets call it “subscriber goal” for the sake of the argument) using Google Analytics. If you are not familiar with Google Analytics but are serious about your online marketing efforts I strongly suggest opening an account. Learn as much as you can about what Google Analytics has to offer, it will only benefit you in the long run.
Before I get into technical part, which will require some minimal knowledge of HTML, I would like you to sit down a determine following. Think about the past month. How much income (preferably net income) can you contribute directly to your blog? Now divide that amount by the number of subscribers- the result will be used in Google Analytics as “goal value”. For example if your net income was $1000 and your blog has 265 subscribers, dividing $1000 by 265 will give you $3.77- when setting your gaol at Google Analytics you will use this amount to indicate your “subscriber goal”.
Setting The (Subscriber) Goal In Google Analytics.
If do not have an account with Google Analytics, you might want to register first and implement the tracking codes in the template of your website.
In order to track your subscriber you need to know who many people had actually clicked the subscription button or link. However, I highly discourage against placing Google Analytics tracking code int the feed of your blog. Also, if you are directing your visitors to your blogs feed at FeedBurner, you may not be able to implement the tracking code even if you advanced in programing.
In order to capture these statistics you will need to implement what is known as a jump page. You can do that by using a simple text editor such ad Notepad. Create a file a name in subscribe.html. Then copy and paste the code below, but make sure to replace few lines of that code with your own info (explained below the code):
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL=YOURFEEDSURL" />
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" />
</head>
<body>
<–REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR GOOGLE ANALYTICS CODE HERE–>
</body>
</html>
Make sure to replace YOURFEEDSURL with actual URL of your blog’s feed and the line that says to replace it with Google Analytics Code.
Upload the file (subscribe.html) into the root directory of your blog. The meta refresh in the “head” of this HTML file will redirect users to your blog’s feed wile Google Analytics will capture necessary data.
Login into your Google Analytics account. In the dashboard area you will see the list of your websites in the table called “Website Profiles”. Then click “Edit” link for the blog you are about to implement a “conversion goal”. You can set up up to 4 different goal for each website. If you followed my instructions in creating the jump page and uploading it to your server, your conversion gaol configuration should look like this:
Note that 3.77 is the result of calculation we did dividing your net income by the number of your existing subscribers.
I know that it sounds some what complicated. But it is not as hard as it looks and the benefit of having these statistics measured should supersede any fear of tackling Google Analytics and a little bit of HTML coding.
Depending on the popularity and traffic to your blog you can see results within day or two. However to have more accurate statistics, you might need to wait longer than just one day.
Here is an example of how this is working for my website:
The figures in “Per Visit Goal Value” column offer me clear idea how much I can pay per each visitor and still profit if I were to strike advertising deals with the referring websites and blogs.
Warning: The above describe method should only be used in conjunction with other statistics. It maybe that some visitors may not actually subscribe eve after clicking the subscription button or link. You will also need to factor in unsubscribe rate and never ever use the gross income in calculating the goal value. Being very conservative when assigning the goal value will shorten the range of the error margin. You should also be conservative with your subscribers numbers, it’s better to err on the side of lower number of subscribers.
Talking to many friends and former colleagues in the real estate industry, I come to conclusion that generally blogging is misunderstood and therefor underutilized in the real estate industry. Unfortunately many still associate blog with MySpace pages - something that 13 years olds do. But when you look around you might be surprised to find out that many leading companies across different industries are using blogs. I have chosen following video to explain first of all to all my friends in real estate what blogging is. If you are reading this from your e-mail or a feed reader, chances are you will not be able to see the video, so please come and visit my website:
Most of the real estate agents in the United States work for a commission- which means they do not get paid unless a property is sold. This of course can translate in endless hours of showing properties to clients who are not serious in purchasing a house. The work that real estate agents perform, in other industries can translate into $100 per hour or more. How do you think real estate industry would look if there was some sort of “hourly fee agreement” for using your services? People have no problem paying their doctors, accountants, lawyers and other professionals hourly fee. Why is real estate different?
I personally think an hourly fee agreement would accomplish two very important things:
It would change the attitude of clients. People tend to value more the services they pay for.
It would filter out serious buyers or sellers from those who are “just shopping around”.
What do you think? Feel free to leave comments as well as participating in the poll:
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If you are not an real estate agent, you are welcomed to participate in the above poll as well. It would be great to know your feedback.
Not so long ago Content Spooling Network came up with a great solution for Hittail users. The video below explains the product:
If you could not watch the above video, the Content Spooling Network is a solution for article marketers. Content Spooling Network allows you to submit your articles to variety of article marketing websites simultaneously, it offers “ghostwriting” services in case you do not have time to write the articles. But most importantly now it has integration with paid version of Hittail Puls account.
Being a huge Hittail fan, I knew I had to try Content Spooling Network. At the time they offered a 21 day free trial of their product. While I found product to be very innovative, I wish people behind Content Spooling Network would learn a thing or two from Hittail:
Offer a free version of the product or at least extend the length the trial period to 60 or 90 days. I believe that the 21 day trial is two short for an average website owner to notice any results. And if he decides to use the “ghostwriting” services, the 21 day trial can turn into an expensive adventure.
Pricing. I think more users would consider using Content Spooling Network if the monthly fee was let say $5.99 per month (or even free). If, with $29 monthly membership, you would like to submit 4 articles while using ghostwriting services to create 16 variation of 4 original articles you are likely to end up paying well over $60 per month for Content Spooling Network solution. If Content Spooling Network would consider a free version of their services, one of the way to defray costs would be to increase the price of ghostwriting services.
I see the value of the service provided by Content Spooling Network. However while considering my experience (which I think is above average) in article marketing, I have canceled my account with Content Spooling Network. But my decision is not final, and I still would recommend to look into what this company has to offer. Especially if you want to outsource article marketing. Do not forget to subscribe to to their blog where you can find more information about their product.
May 7, 2008
However, after taking closer look, it became apparent that our list did not rank Matrix even in the top 100 blogs not because of Alexa. Technorati rank was the biggest problem. For a long time, Technorati had no rank whatsoever for Matrix. With the help of fellow blogger and internet entrepreneur, Andy Beard, the Technorati fixed rank for Matrix. Although our list still lists Matrix at 100+ position, I can see it rising to the top of the list with the next update. 
Posted in Articles, Top Real Estate Blogs 
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