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Reply.com Not On A Good Side of Contra Costa District Attorney

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:11:00 +0000

Many real estate agents familiar with Reply.com, might find the bellow piece of information rather interesting. The information is posted on BBB.org website on Reply.com profile. I will however put it here in it’s entirety. I don’t believe that $70,000 in fines will put a dent into Reply.com’s finances. After all Reply.com did file for IPO and once Reply.com’s stock starts trading there will be rivers of milk and honey flowing in San Ramon and surroundings…. Or something to that effect, unless the “IPO spoof” was really a “for sale” sign.

Enough said, here is what apparently took place in the beginning of this year:

On January 21, 2011 the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office entered into a Final Judgment and Permanent Injunction with Reply! Inc., Case no.: C11-00208.
Without any admission of wrong doing the injunction applies to Reply! Inc., its agents, employees, officers, managers, representatives, successors, and assigns when acting on behalf of defendant.
Reply! Inc. is hereby permanently enjoined and restrained from directly or indirectly doing the following during telephone solicitations of real estate agents for the sale of real estate leads (Leads).
a. Representing that use of Leads may result in an average or anticipated close rate, unless Defendant is able to produce data based on the experience of customers who have purchased Leads from Defendant supporting any such representation.
b. Representing that Defendant’s lead service can be cancelled at any time unless defendant also discloses: that written notice of cancellation is required; the period of time that will elapse before the cancellation is effective; and that, until the effective date of the cancellation, the real estate agent will continue to receive leads and be billed for such leads.
c. Representing that real estate agent will not be charged for invalid Leads or will receive a credit for invalid leads, unless Defendant also discloses the time limit within the request for credit must be received;
d. Representing that credit will be given for invalid Leads, unless Defendant also discloses that no credit will be given as long as the name and telephone number provided with the Lead are valid, even if the Lead does not respond to the real estate agent or does not want to be contact.
e. Representing that Leads are “valid”, “validated”, “good”, “screened”, “qualified”, “verified”, or words to that effect, unless Defendant discloses: (1) the validation, screening, qualification, verification or other such process is automated and as a result some Leads will have invalid names or telephone numbers, (2) even for such invalid Leads, the real estate agent must make a request for credit within the time limit for such request and in accordance with company policy, (3) Leads are not screened for credit worthiness; and (4) some Leads may not respond to the real estate agent or want to buy or sell real estate.
f. Representing that any Lead will actually be interested in buying or selling real estate, unless defendant also discloses that Leads are generated through Defendant’s websites and affiliated websites, and consist of people who are looking online for real estate information.
g. Representing that any leads consist of people who are seeking a realtor or expect to or who expect to be contacted by a realtor, unless Defendant also discloses that: a Lead is created when a consumer completes and submits a form on the Internet requesting real estate information; including home valuations, and provides a phone number at which they can be reached; and (2) Defendant does not guarantee that the consumer will actually be interested in buying or selling real estate or that the agent will make contact with the Lead.
h. Representing that the real estate agent may accept or reject Leads.
Reply! Inc. shall pay civil penalties in the amount of $40,000.00 and investigative cost related to this matter in the amount of $30,000.

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Outsource Your Press Release To A Pro

Vlad Zablotskyy — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:04:06 +0000

Many of my readers have probably ran into Janet Meiners Thaeler aka NewspaperGirl. If you did not meet Janet on Twitter, you probably have read her articles on Marketing Pilgrim. If you know Janet, you know she is an expert as far as press releases go. If you did not know that, you know it now.

So why I am bringing up press releases and (re)introducing Janet to you? Simple. I believe that press releases will be on the rise this year, considering economic factors. Long time ago (about 2 or 3 years), Janet, while still blogging on WordPress.com blog, wrote about her experiment with press releases. Comparing to PPC advertising, press releases delivered visitors to her websites at a consistent rate of 5 cents per click or less. Even back then you really needed to “babysit” and “sweat” over your PPC campaigns to keep the cost per click under 20 cents.

Janet got me hooked on PRWeb. My first $40 press release brought a 300% return on my investment during the first day of the press release going live. To make the long story short, I have never felt like I wasted money on a press release. PPC??? Well that’s another story….

There are however a few challenges with press releases. Not being a good writer with added difficulty of English as my second or third language, I never felt comfortable writing press releases. I certainly never scored highly as far as editorial review goes, probably just barely passed the scrutiny of PRWeb to get my releases published. Writing for my blogs is different. Most of you are very forgiving as far as my grammar goes. But press releases are different…

Slowly I came to realize that press release is something I will have to outsource. So to my surprise, when visiting Janet’s blog, I discovered that she is now offering Press Release Writing Services. Knowing Janet’s background in blogging, marketing and social media – there can be no better person to write my press releases. I am planing to use Janet’s services for my Interpreting and Translating Business. If you need a solid press release, you should consider her services as well. Don’t take my word for it. Read what Jeremy Shoemaker (aka Shoemoney) wrote about Janet’s press releases- a very powerful testimony testimony if you asked. Not trying to be mean to Jeremy, but it is good to know we can compete on the level of grammar. Similar Posts:

Top 100 Real Estate Blogs: Matrix Stats Fixed

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:48:56 +0000

After launching Top 100 Real Estate Blogs few months ago, Jim Cronin of Real Estate Tomato, had raised a question about Matrix Real Estate Blog and how the blog is ranked by our list. Jim’s concern had to do with what he claimed as unreliability of Alexa Rank:

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.Similar Posts:

New Jersey Association of Realtors: No To Rebates

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:25:34 +0000

Is New Jersey Association of Realtors behind the times? Or is trying to protect both customers and real estate agents? The Inman News had a story today about possible legislation by the New Jersey Real Estate Commission:

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.

As of now, cash rebates by real estate brokers is against the law in NJ. But New Jersey is not the only state prohibiting cash rebates. There are 10 other states that do not allow real estate brokers to offer cash rebates to customers.Similar Posts:

Are All Lead Generating Companies Full Of It?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:19:23 +0000

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.Similar Posts:

How To Determine The Value Of Feed Subscribers and Track Associated Goals With Google Analytics

Vlad Zablotskyy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:40:58 +0000

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):

<–REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR GOOGLE ANALYTICS CODE HERE–>

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.Similar Posts:

Should You Be Blogging?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:40:26 +0000

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:

Are you in the 21st century yet?Similar Posts:

Poll: Hourly Realtor Fee Agreement?

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:09:50 +0000

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:

[poll=5]

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.

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Content Spooling Network

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:57:38 +0000

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.Similar Posts:

Working With Hittail Suggestions: Short Guide For Real Estate Agents

Vlad Zablotskyy — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:57:21 +0000

Among all different statistics that Hittail is able to provide you with, what is listed under “suggestions” proved to be by far the most beneficial information. Working with the suggestions can help you dramatically increase the traffic from natural search results while saving you some money on PPC campaigns.

There are several things that can be done with Hittail suggestions in order to achieve the best results. For the sake of the argument I am going to presume that you have already installed Hittail code on your website or blog and there are already suggestions offered to you by Hittail. While every website will probably receive suggestions that are more relevant to your website, to make the example more vivid, I am presuming that one of your suggestions was “rentals in New York”.

Step 1: Create Content (Article) On Your Website That Will Contain The Hittail Suggestion
If your website permits to publish articles or you may even have a blog on your website, the first thing to do is to write an article about “rentals in New York”. If you are a real estate agent working New York such an article should not be that difficult to come up with. In fact you probably have enough knowledge and experience to write such an article on a monthly basis, maybe comparing the market condition specifically regarding rentals in New York. It is good idea if this suggested by Hittail keyword appears not only in the title of the article, but it is also found a few times in the body of the article as well as in the URL of the article. It would be also to your advantage if the key word is present in the title meta tag of the page containing the article.

Step 2: Write An Article For Article Directory Containing The Hittail Suggestion.
In one of the previous posts I have mentioned the importance of article marketing when working with Hittail Suggestions. In doing so I would advise to not submit an exact copy of the article you have created in the step one. Doing so will inevitable create what can be looked at as a duplicate content, which will not be into your favor as far as search engines are concerned. If you have no time for yet another article, you can consider modifying your original article from step one for the article directory of your choice. However you should be diligent enough to paraphrase your sentences so it does not appear like a duplicate of your original article.

Some article directories allow you to place links back to your website inside of the article. While others permit you to do so in so called “resource box” which generally appears at the end of your article. In either case it is an opportunity to gain an incoming link back to your website as soon as your article is accepted and published on of of the websites. When your articles are republished on other website, you will gain even additional incoming links.

When creating links that will point back to your website, it would be in your interest that those link use the suggestion offered by Hittail as the anchor text while linking back to your original article in step one. I know this may sound something like “and wheels on the bus go round and round….” But that is not necessarily a bad thing and may reinforce what Andy Beard calls a “link juice flow”. If you are new to SEO Andy’s article may be a little over the top, but I highly recommend to bookmark his article for the future. As you become more familiar with SEO, his article can help you in more than just one way.

Step 3: Increasing Number of Links pointing to Your Website Or Blog
Step number two on it’s own can increase the number of links pointing back to your website when other webmasters begin publishing your articles on their websites. However there are other ways to gain backlings to your website. Becoming active member of online forums can prove beneficial and can be used to gain some valuable links back to your website. After posting certain number of posts, some of these forums may offer you a privilege of including a signature along with your posts. I would like to underline the word privilege because it is very easy to show up at these forums begin leaving links. But doing so you will earn a reputation of a spammer. However if you earn some authority first among the members of the online forums, it may be more beneficial than an opportunity to have a link back to your website.

Afterthoughts
If you search the internet for information on how to increase incoming links to your website, you will inevitably come across websites that promote buying and selling links. While in the past this strategy worked, the search engines had become increasingly impatient with websites selling links. Personally I would discourage every real estate agent to buy links. There are other ways to increase incoming links without compromising the status of your website in the search engines.

I realize that not every real estate agent has a blog on their website nor do the agents have time to regularly write articles. However I am not stretching when I say that many real estate agents were skeptical about building e-mail lists just a few years ago. Today there are number of successful companies that help real estate agents with e-mail marketing.Similar Posts:

Hittail Is Helping Me Save $1,725 Each Month

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:55:01 +0000

Yea, right!!! – If that was your first reaction when you saw the headline for this article, do not worry you are not the first one. In fact when I recommended Hittail as must to have tool for every real estate website, I have received somewhat similar reaction by some one from SEO Web Design:

Erm… still requires money? The features work exactly the same as Google Analytics and Webmasters Tools. However, i think Google is far better because it allows us to set goals to track our landing page conversions, shows the query terms that your website appears in, search terms that get you visitors and much more. It is free and has no limits on the number of visitors. Isn’t it better? I don’t know, it is up to our friends here and i am just sharing. Cheerz

I am not going to argue that Hittail is better that Google analytics. However, it was Hittail and not Google who brought me through their “suggestions” to a point when I can say without slightest exaggeration that with Hittail I am better off by about $1,725 each month.

As they say pictures are worth more than words, so I have taken some snapshots from my Hittail Account to demonstrate to you how much Hittail really helped me. The images below are the snapshots from the “Keywords” tab. If you are using Hittail you can find that info just above the list of keywords under the “Keywords” tab. That info changes from day to day depending on the search hits to your website. As you will see from the snapshots below I am currently tracking 5 websites with Hittail. All of them are listed under the “free account”. All of the websites below, had virtually no natural traffic from the search engines wen I started to use Hittail.

Website #1

Website #2

Website #3

Website #4

Website #5

It is true, the figures in the above images are calculated on $0.50 per click basis. It is also true that if you optimize your lading pages well you can maintain $0.10 per click. However there are niches, including real estate, where even well optimized PPC campaigns can cost you a $1 or $2 per click. Sometimes even more. So at the end of the day Hittail’s calculation is not that much off after all.

One very important part that Hittail users may miss is that by using Hittail suggestions it is much easier to maintain those coveted $0.10 per click campaigns. Hittail has helped me not only to increase natural search traffic. It also helped me to keep my PPC nice and clean with hundreds of keywords at $0.10 per click.

Am I saying you should abandon Google Analytics? Absolutely not! Hittail and Google Analytics can work with different data providing different analytics and you can benefit greatly from both.

In my next article I getting down and dirty with showing you how to make use of Hittail Suggestions. So please, stay tuned and subscribe to my blog.Similar Posts:

Article Marketing Websites

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:28:01 +0000

To continue with the series of articles on how to use Hittail effectively to market your real estate website, I highly recommend to take a closer look at the article marketing websites and directories in the list bellow. Article marketing is an effective way to establish yourself as an “expert” in a particular niche or industry. Article marketing can also help you to gain inbound links from other websites and send your way some visitors. Out of the few dozens of really good article marketing websites and directories the directories bellow were chosen for two particular reasons:

Each of the website below has clearly defined category for real estate articles.
All four article marketing websites in the list below do very good job to market themselves which is evident by how they rank across the search engines and by the amount of traffic each websites receives.

1. EzineArticles- is probably one of the most popular article marketing websites. It is currently ranked at PR6 by Google and holds an impressive 696 position in Alexa’s ranking system.

2. Article Dashboard- is another PR6 article marketing website and currently ranked by Alexa at 11,899.

3. Go Articles- is another fast growing article marketing website. Google has ranked this website at PR3 while Alexa is ranking 8,358. Go Articles have integrated a widget from a social network called PlugIM which probably is bringing them additional amount of traffic.

4. Finally Content Spool. The founders of this website have come up with Content Spooling Network, which integrates the data from Hittail Plus account and offers very unique solutions in article marketing.

Each of the above directories have their straights and weaknesses. However if you use these websites in combination, you can achieve some impressive results. Article marketing does not cost you money (except if you decide to use Content Spooling Network) but it does require your time. Make sure to familiarize yourself with guidelines of each of the directory, it will save you a lot of time and spare you from frustration in the future.

Stay tuned for the future articles about Hittail and how it can help you to bring more visitors to your real estate website. Make sure to subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss any of the articles.Similar Posts:

Hittail Statistics Overview

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:21:24 +0000

In hopes that my previous post about Hittial, has generated some curiosity on the part of the readers of this blog, today I would like to just briefly write and explain a few things about statistics that you will see in your Hittail account.

Once logged into your account you will the following tabs towards the top of the page:

Depending what statistics you would like to see you have a choice to look at: My Hittial, Search Hits, Keywords, Suggestions and To Do list. I will write briefly about each and what to make of these statistics.

My Hittial is designed to “graphically” illustrate the so called “long tail” of keywords. Although the info from “My Hittial” is not as important, there is some useful information to be found there. Depending on how many keywords Hittail has analyzed, it gives general idea of how the flow of traffic is generated to your website or blog. Here is what Hittial had to say about this blog- the keywords and traffic associated with them:

As you can see Hittail analyzed 1300+ keywords that have generated traffic to this blog. Top ten of those keywords are responsible for only 22.9% of all traffic. While the rest of the keywords are responsible for 77.1% of all traffic. For me this information was an “eye opener”. Some of the top ten keywords are very competitive keywords for which this blog ranks quiet well in the search engines. The combined traffic from less important keywords found in the long tail is almost 4 times bigger comparing to the traffic from top 10 keywords.
Search Hits. If it was up to me I would name this tag “Life Hits”. Because that is exactly the kind of information you will find under that tab. It shows you the live hits to your website from both search engines as well as from other referring websites.
Keywords. The information in this tab is reduced only to keywords that were used across the search engines to find your website. The hits from other websites are filtered out.
Suggestions. Now we come to what I think is the most important info that Hittail is offering to it’s clients. Analyzing your website’s long tail, here Hittail offers your suggestions that, if acted upon, can bring your website to the top of the natural search results. For me as well as for many other bloggers and webmasters this information can be compared to a “gold mine of traffic”. However the keyword here is “acted upon”. If you just going to end up looking at these keywords and do nothing, you will be missing great opportunity to increase the traffic to your website.
To Do is the last tab were you can store Hittails suggestions for the future work. The To Do list is particularly useful when Hittail begins to offer several “suggestions” a day. When I initially installed the code on my website, I would act on every single suggestion. However over the time I have noticed that some suggestions from Hittail are the misspellings of the certain keywords. While a smart marketer can make use of those as well. I have become some what picky. When I have a choice to act upon a keyword or it’s misspelling, I generally chose to act on the former.

In the future articles I will be writing about using Hittail keywords in article marketing as well as press releases, so please stay tuned and subscribe to my blog.Similar Posts:

Blitzproperties.com Debuts in DFW

Vlad Zablotskyy — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:46:36 +0000

Plano, TX (PRWEB) December 29, 2007 — Blitzproperties.com (A Licensed Texas Brokerage) debuted in DFW this week with an overwhelming positive response. With the support of local DFW media companies, Blitz Properties will enter the market with a very aggressive marketing campaign for both agents and home buyers.

They feel that many real estate agents are being micro-managed by the established big brokerages. Many agents MUST attend Monday morning meetings as well as make hours of phone calls to friends and family asking for leads. Well the real estate industry is changing. This is why Blitz feels their business model will be ideal for the agent that is looking for a company presence in the industry along with a non-corporate feel.

Blitzproperties.com Debuts in DFW with an Overwhelming Success Among Real Estate Agents and New Home Buyers

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PPC In Real Estate: You May Be Wasting Your Money

Vlad Zablotskyy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:01:28 +0000

Pay per click advertising for real estate website may be the quickest way to bring visitors. It also maybe the quickest way to loose money. Bidding on keywords in real estate can be very competitive and may cost you $20 or more . If you think you are spending way to much money on the pay per click campaigns, this article may just give you some useful tips.

One of the major reason why the prices for particular keywords are so high has nothing to do with the actual “demand” for that keyword. Rather it has to do with website design itself. If we were to look what kind of websites occupying top positions for some of the most desirable keywords in the Google sponsored search results, you may notice that many of those websites are designed in flash. It is hard to imagine that such a website can pass Google’s scrutiny when it comes to the “landing page” quality.

Whenever you start a pay per click campaign, Google releases a bot that checks your page. As part of of that check up Google looks whether or not your lading page contains the keywords on which you are about to bid.

If you are a real estate agent or broker and have outsourced the maintenance of your website to some one, ask them if your website is created in flash or if there is extensive use of java-scripts in your website. If the answer is yes, you probably need to look for some one else to manage your website.

Another obstacle that you as advertiser can face is that in real estate transaction do not take place right on your website. Therefore there is no simple way to calculate your ROI (return on investment). If you have to way to capture your visitors by offering the a sign up for your newsletter.

Well, you might say, I am not sending any newsletters via e-mail. If it is true you maybe giving away leads to some one else. Most Realtors get into a habit of sending out quarterly or monthly newsletters. It is not so difficult these days to turn those newsletters into a format deliverable via e-mail. If you think that is a good idea, then you should incorporate some sort of sign up form on your website, and even place that form on every single landing page that you are driving traffic to via pay per click campaigns.

However managing big e-mail lists can be a task on its own, but that is a subject for another post.

Some times paying a higher price for the keywords is a “necessary evil” and there may not be a way around it. However if you pay the price without attempting to capture your visitors, you indeed maybe spending your money foolishly.Similar Posts:

Buyer Agency Agreements – An Overview

Vlad Zablotskyy — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:56:59 +0000

By John Siegler

More than ever before, real estate brokers are promoting the use of buyer agency agreements — a contract stating that the broker will represent the buyer as his agent and that the broker’s job is to find a suitable property for the buyer.

Because these agreements are legally binding and give the broker specific authority, buyers should fully understand their rights and responsibilities before signing on the dotted line.

These agreements are promoted as giving buyers a stronger level of representation due to the fiduciary relationship they create. Once the agreement is signed, the broker must champion the buyer’s interest every step of the way.

Three types of buyer agency agreements are used by today’s realtors:

1.Exclusive buyer agency agreement (or exclusive right to represent)

With this completely exclusive agency agreement, the buyer is legally bound to compensate the agent at the time when the buyer purchases any property of the same type as described in the contract. Regardless of whether he or she locates the property, the broker is entitled to payment. Even if the buyer finds the property on is own, the agent is still owed payment.

2.Exclusive-agency buyer agency agreement

Similar to an exclusive buyer agency agreement, this exclusive contract is between the agent and the buyer. But with this type of agreement, a limit is placed on the broker’s right to payment; the broker is entitled to payment only if he or she actually finds the property that the buyer purchases. Therefore, the buyer is free to locate a suitable property with no obligation to pay the agent.

3.Open buyer agency agreement

This is a nonexclusive agency contract between a buyer and a broker permitting the buyer to enter into similar agreements with an unlimited number of other brokers. Only the broker who actually locates the property that the buyer eventually purchases is entitled to compensation.

Before entering into a buyer agency agreement, there are some important considerations for the broker and buyer to discuss. First of all, the broker should make the same disclosures to the buyer that he or she would make to a seller in a listing agreement. The buyer should fully understand the three types of agency available and the parties rights and responsibilities under each of them. This means that the broker should clearly explain the specific services provided to a buyer-client entering into each type of agreement.

In addition, the matter of compensation must be discussed in detail. For instance, buyer’s agents may be paid a flat fee for services, an hourly rate, or a percentage of the final purchase price. In some cases, an agent may request a retainer fee upon signing the agreement, in order to cover the initial listing and promotional expenses. This retainer fee may be applied as a credit toward any fees due at the time of closing. A buyer’s agent also may be compensated by sharing the commission that the seller pays.

Buyer agency agreements provide agents a comforting level of reassurance that their efforts will not go unrewarded, motivating them to work even harder for the buyer. Of course, for buyers they must balance provide financial guarantees to agents against the risk of limited or poor performance.

John Siegler is a co-founder and CFO of Practice Technologies, Inc., creator of RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs.com gives you insider access to legal documents drafted by top Lawyers in the US. Search over 10 million documents and clauses for Free at RealDealDocs.com.

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