The Baby Steps of Blogging -Getting Started Blogging

1. Read Before You Write

What I always advise real estate professionals interested in getting started blogging is to go out and read other real estate blogs. You’ll have no trouble finding them. Just Google “real estate blogs” or type in your market followed by “blog”.

Reading other blogs will give you a sense of the topics discussed, the presentation, and the various writing styles of bloggers. The more you read the more you will know what folks are saying, and how they’re saying it. Some bloggers write short posts, others expound into treatise length. Many use images and video, some do not. Some are heavy on facts and figures, others heavy on opinion and their experiences. When done right (and I use that word loosely), the blogger’s voice -— their personality -— comes through the writing.

And that’s what you should strive to do -— find your voice and get it out there.

Besides, reading blogs gives you the visceral feedback of what you like and what you think sucks. (Avoid the stuff you think sucks.) read more

Posted by Joseph G. Ferrara, Esq. on Jun 27, 2008 under Blogging and Social Networking, Guest Bloggers

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The 10 Dirtiest Email Words

If your email gets labeled as SPAM, it will not get read.

Many seemingly innocent and time-honored ad words are now considered SPAM words or add high SPAM “points” to filters which decide whether to toss an email. You may be using them in your e-mail subject lines without knowing it. Here’s a little help with that.

There are dozens of dirty words but I chose these as my top 10:

1. Free
2. Congratulations
3. Compare rates
4. Great offer
5. Order now
6. Guarantee
7. Amazing
8. Increase sales (started by another dirty email)
9. Dear friend (or your name)
10. Cash

Other SPAM triggers: read more

Posted by Joseph G. Ferrara, Esq. on Jun 18, 2008 under Best Practices, Guest Bloggers

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Max Back On Track

Max Motor Tour Resumes in Phoenix and San Francisco

Max has been hitting the road hard since returning from taking his first vacation as HomeGain spokes-gorilla. “I barely had time to enjoy my new home when I felt the marketing road calling,” said Max.

Max was recently spotted resuming his What’s Your Home Worth motor tour in San Francisco, CA and outside Phoenix, AZ with his driver, Hoke Wolliz.

“The San Francisco part of our trip was hectic as Max is a bit of a local idol and we did more parking than driving to give the fans time to take pictures of Max and get paw prints,” said Wolliz. “Once we hit the open road in Arizona, we had some time to relax and Max was able to kick back and enjoy some jelly beans and coconut milk.”

“Max remains unaware of HomeGain’s product release schedule,” said Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of HomeGain.

“While Max took the announcement that HomeGain was offering blogs to its Source4Sellers customers in stride, he did not react so well to the prior product announcement that HomeGain was allowing agents to post their profiles on HomeGain.com. “We’ve got another major announcement coming up and its probably best that Max stay on the road.”

Follow MAX

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Posted by Louis Cammarosano on Jun 17, 2008 under Max

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10 Smart Email Marketing Strategies

Email marketing is another tool to increase business and drive traffic to your website but the emails must be received AND read to have any chance of success.

Here are some tips to smart email marketing:

1. Craft a compelling “grabber” subject line

Like any news article or blog post, the most important part is the headline. Like a headline, the subject line is your first contact with a reader and, like all first impressions, it is critical to craft a compelling reason to open the email. It is even more important with email. Emails are competing with a lot of other emails the reader is trying to cull—the delete button has been humming already before it gets to yours. How will you avoid that death null?

The best subject lines are simple, direct headlines. News or how-to advice seem to work best. Come on ads are removed faster than a weed in Martha Stewart’s garden.

2. Use HTML rather than plain text

Photos are an important part of any story and help get your story across. So is audio and video. They are more interesting than the WOT (wall of text).

3. Use professionally designed email templates

These are usually spam friendly and allow you to customize and brand as you like. Don’t be vanilla. Add links in the message to different parts of your site and measure which attract the most clicks. read more

Posted by Joseph G. Ferrara, Esq. on Jun 16, 2008 under Best Practices, Guest Bloggers

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