3 Keys to Successful Internet Marketing for Realtors

Attendance is limited and we are expecting this free webinar to fill up fast. The webinar will be held on Friday, July 23, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM CDT. Simply follow the link below to sign up.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/625296259

At Agentopolis we define Internet Marketing Success as, "The right number of the right people finding your website and doing business with you." In the early days of the Internet almost everybody with a business had a website built for them. For most of these sites, no consideration was given to getting the website to rank high in Google and other search engines for relevant searches, i.e real estate, homes for sale, mls listings, etc. More importantly, even less attention was given to local searches like, Minneapolis real estate, Minneapolis homes for sale, Minnesota MLS listings, etc.

As the Internet continues to change and evolve, more and more local real estate agents are discovering that with a little work, they can get their own site to rank well in Google. The trick is that there are only 10 spots on the first page of the Google search results and statistics show that if you are not on the first page, you are probably seeing little if any traffic to your site, which makes your site a bit of a waste of time and money.

The purpose of this free webinar, "3 Keys to Internet Marketing Success for Realtors" is to teach real estate agents about some of the more important aspects and strategies necessary to get your site highly ranked in Google and get your visitors to do business with you.

In this free webinar you will LEARN:

• How to find the 5 best search terms that home buyers are using to find real estate in your area.


• How to organize the content on your web pages to get high Google rankings.


• How to find great free sources for links back to your site.


• How to spy on your competition and see exactly why they are ranking above you in Google.


• How to make it easy for your visitors to share your listings with their family, friends and social networks.


• How to build a list of local home buyer leads.


• How to track your progress and make sure you are moving up and getting more leads.

Who SHOULD attend this Webinar:

• Anyone Realtor who is wondering how the #1 ranked agent on Google in their area got there.


• Real Estate Agents who want to become better website marketers


• Any Realtor who isn’t on the first page of Google for local real estate searches.


• Anyone who hasn’t added or changed content on their web site in the past 30 days.


• Anyone looking for a way to rank higher than their competitors in Google and other search engines.


• Realtors who are just getting started optimizing.


• Real estate agents who are frustrated with their current internet marketing efforts.


• Anyone looking for an easy to follow process for search engine marketing.


• Realtors who are tired of paying someone else for search engine optimization and it’s not working.

Attendance is limited and we are expecting this free webinar to fill up fast. The webinar will be held on Friday, July 23, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM CDT. Simply follow the link below to sign up.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/625296259

What Does It Take To Be a Top 100 Real Estate Agent?

A high number of closed deals looks great to a real estate sales manager but what really matters to a home buyer or seller? Client recommendations are one of the more relevant indicators of a successful Realtor. How do I know that the Real estate agent that is highly ranked because he/she sold 75 houses last year didn't make life a living hell for all their clients. Repeat and referral business are also indicators of a successful agent.

If you really want to do your do diligence, you ought to ask for 1-3 references that you can speak to. Fact is most people won't take the time to do that because at some point many home buyers and sellers don't see a lot of differentiation between agents. The bottom line is they simply need to buy or sell a home without a ton of stress.

This is why Agentopolis ranks agents agents by number of recommendations. For busy people it's a lot of work to stop what you're doing and take the time to recommend your real estate agent. For those agents who truly provide memorable service, it's far easier to get past clients to take the time to recommend them. So agents are ranked by # of recommendations versus average rating. It wouldn't make sense for an agent who has only one recommendation with a "5" to be ranked higher than an agent who has ten recommendations with an average rating of "4.5"

Finding a Real Estate Agent Just Got A Little Easier

Recently Agentopolis made some changes to it's site to make it easier for people to find a real estate agent. Now, from the site map, you can quickly access Realtors by clicking on links by state and by some of the larger cities in each state. For Example, California real estate agents, Florida real estate agent, or by major metros like Minneapolis real estate agent, Los Angeles Realtor or Las Vegas real estate agent. In addition, Agentopolis will be posting video tutorials to help real estate agents and Realtors better utilize their free listing in our real estate agent directory. Stay tuned for more changes as Agentopolis ramps up for the future of real estate marketing.

For free access to MLS listings in most US cities, for information for first time home buyers, visit http://www.firsthomeguy.com/.

New Lead Sources for Agentopolis Featured Agents

Agentopolis also owns and runs a couple of other niche real estate web sites, www.mlsmaps.com and www.firsthomeguide.com . Fortunately for us and our featured agents on Agentopolis, the traffic on these sites is also picking up, contrary to what one might think after reading all the news about the housing industry. When we get a lead from these other sites, we forward them on to our Agentopolis agents, unless there was a client agent on the other site in the same area.
In the past ten days I have been able to forward three leads on to our featured agents. We received two "request to find a home" leads from First Home Guide and sent one to a Tacoma, Washington Realtor, and the other went to a Lynchburg Virginia Realtor. We also received our first "request for market analysis" lead, similar to a "House Values" type lead, to a Wichita Kansas real estate agent.

We are excited about these leads as this is a new business for us and it is starting to take hold which means more exposure and leads for Realtors on Agentopolis.

Recent Google Searches for Realtors

In order to help real estate agents get a better idea of some of the different ways consumers are looking for agents on the web, I thought I would share with you some of the most recent Google searches from the web analytics of Agentopolis. Agentopolis is seeing a growing trend in consumers simply typing in agents names in different combinations in order to get the agents phone number or contact info.
To see the results for any of these searches, simply copy and paste them into Google.

remax canton ohio bartolone

"marsena dixon"

Sonia Hodgin, prudential

lori millard

Dawny Corsaut

floridagreathomes.comcast.net

"daniel c asleson"

"gary mccoy" +realtor

top 100 real estate agents in san antonio tx

larry@newhomesexclusively.com

Nelson Sumner realty listings

rosekeyser@ comcast.net

www.kathyberger.com

www.northwest-wisconsin.com

shelly executive realty milford massach

margaret bouldon realtor, 49230

Jacky Waggoner Realty, Birmingham, ALabama

tracey, anderson , realtors, massachusetts

There are many more everyday. Let me know if you find this information helpful or interesting and I can continue to share from time to time.

What's The Big Stink About Real Estate Commissions?

It kills me to see real estate agents or anyone else for that matter getting beat up about their compensation plan. All this talk about the commission structure being antiquated and in need of revision is insulting. All this talk about how the internet has changed the game and given the consumer more control over the process, hence agents should be charging less is intriguing but definitely requires closer review.

To say that ALL agents are worth the full commission would be a lie, but it is also a lie to say that every doctor, lawyer, or mortgage professional is worth their industries average fees. I don’t see this as an industry issue but more of an agent issue. The question isn’t whether or not real estate commission rate are too high, the question should be, “Where can I find an agent who is worth the money and how will I know?”


Listing agents
Good listing agents are worth their weight in Gold! I think it is far more difficult to be a great listing agent than a great buyers agent because, at least in today’s market, it is easier to find a home than to find a buyer. Above average listing agents need to be;
1. A marketing geniuses, both online and offline,
2. An expert in staging,
3. An expert in negotiating and
4. They need to be experts in the markets they serve so they can price the home correctly in order to balance the sellers financial and timeline needs.

The best testimonial a listing agent can get is, “They sold our house fast and at full price!”


Buyer’s agents
It costs money to deliver the best home search technology to their buyers. A good buyer’s agent, someone who is definitely worth the commission, must provide a buyer with at least these three components;
1. Access to technology to help the buyer find the right home, (idx broker reciprocity mls site)
2. Superior negotiating skills and
3. Superior knowledge of marketplace. (i.e. city, neighborhood, schools, etc)

The best testimonial a buyers agent can get is, “The found exactly the home we were looking for and got the sellers to drop the price!”


It is critical that every agent be able to answer the question, “What is my competitive advantage in the marketplace?” or “What do I do as a listing agent or buyer’s agent for my clients that totally justifies my compensation?” When you can answer this question in a way that is relevant to a home buyer or seller, compensation will never be an issue.

At the end of the day one of the best ways for any agent to prove their value in their market place is with agent recommendations/testimonials. I’ll be the first to admit that I hate asking for testimonials, even when I know I have exceeded expectations, so before anyone goes off on me about how this is an unfair measure of value because not every agent is comfortable asking for them, let it be known that I am not saying it is easy. Agentopolis tries to help address this concern by being online and making it easy for agents to simply email their past clients with a link and a simple request, versus having to call each one and ask. (Although the top agents tell me that this call for a testimonial is where they generate a number of their referrals)

Threats by Refin, Zillow and others to change the Realtor profession into that of a hourly wage factory worker makes great news stories but I for one don’t think it will create a wholesale change in the industry. The bottom line is that the internet is changing the way people buy and sell homes but the fact is that the Human Side of Real Estate is not going away anytime soon. People will continue to do business face to face with people they like and trust so my advice to consumers is find a great agent to help you buy or sell your next home and be glad you are only paying 6 or 7%.


One of the advantages to using a recommendation such as Agentopolis’s system is that because of the way we have set it up, only one recommendation is allowed per verified email. (see recommendation process) This prevents an agent from giving themselves 25 glowing reviews. Yes it’s true that every agent can give themselves at least one glowing review with their own email, but that is why we made each recommendation worth 1 point and rank order agents in total number of points. Any agent can get one glowing review from a client but only an experienced agent who consistently exceeds expectations can generate a larger number (see Agentopolis Top 100 Agents)

Real Estate Agent Income Numbers from NAR
Median income was $47,700 in 2006, down from $49,300 in 2004, which had also had declined from 2002. Members license as brokers earned a median of $73,700 last year, while sales agents earned $34,600. During the last two years, NAR membership increased 23.2 percent.
Realtors® in the business for two years or less earned a median of $15,300, while those with three to five years of experience earned $44,200. For six to 15 years, the median was $64,600, while members in the business for 16 years or more earned $76,200.

Clearly Realtors are not getting rich off the public. Once again, what’s the big stink about real estate commissions?

The "Long Tail" of Real Estate Agents

I recently completed the book by Wired editor Chris Weber, "The Long Tail". As a result, Agentopolis realized there is a "long tail" of real estate agents that has never been made available to consumers. With over 1.3 million agents to choose from, how does a visitor decide which agent is best for them and in fact wouldn't it be safe to say that everyone of these agents is different from every other in a way that is relevant to some home buyer or seller somewhere?

Before Agentopolis came along, the only way a home buyer or seller could search for an agent was by city,state and buyer or sellers agent. But when you look at most of the major metro areas in the US, you find that even when you drill down to a city like Minnetonka, Minnesota, you still have to filter through 458 real estate agents. So how do you decide?

In the old days, before the Internet, a person might use the Yellow Pages to find a Realtor. This worked great for agents who's last name started with "A" as users of the Yellow Pages had little reason to look past the first page of listings as there was no other information to help a user discern one agent from the other. Also, because of the costs to both the publisher of the Yellow Pages and to the agent for advertising in it, this dinosaur of a directory only gave the consumer access to a very small subset of available real estate professionals in their area.

Agentopolis and the Internet have seriously changed that by making a free listing available to every real estate agent who is still in business. (about 20% of Realtors quit the business every year). Initially we simply offered home buyers and sellers a complete list of EVERY agent doing business in their city or market. While we thought we had done a good job of exposing our visitors to the long tail of real estate agents, after reading Weber's book, we realized that we were missing two important pieces of the puzzle, a way to drill into the data/directory in a manner that is important to the visitor (micro niche), and a relevant way to help visitors differentiate between the abundant choices.

We have begun to solve the first issue by increasing the number and type of search criteria a visitor can use to find exactly what they are looking for. We are in a state of evolving in this area as we continue to get feedback from both Realtors and consumers as to what they are looking for in an agent. The initial role out of this is going to feel awkward because never before could a home buyer or seller look for an agent based on social criteria like gender, religion, and sexual orientation all in one place. Agents aren't sure how much information they want to disclose about themselves and consumers are still deciding what criteria they want or need to search by. Through this process, Agentopolis will continue to revise our optional search criteria to better reflect the needs and wants of our agents and visitors.

We are responding to the second issue by allowing visitors to recommend a realtor and give them up to a five star rating and leaving comments and these recommendation are visible to the visitor. This way, when your search brings up 275 agents who, by your search criteria, all look the same, the visitor has additional relevant information to help sort through all the possibilities. In addition to recommendations, the agents have the ability to post, as a part of their free listing, any information about them that may help a home buyer or seller feel confident in choosing them. Most agent are including things like their years of experience, awards, training, results, hobbies and interest to position themselves as the best choice for our visitors.

Going forward, Agentopolis will continue to monitor and respond to the needs of the real estate agents and our visitors in order to insure that Agentopolis is the most useful real estate agent web site on the Internet. Feel free to respond with any questions, comments or ideas you think can help us achieve this goal.

Agentopolis passes 10,000 verified real estate agents in directory

Agentopolis has recently blown past the 10,000 verified real estate agents mark and as of yesterday we had over 10,400 confirmed realtor listings. All this in a little more than 60 days. The feed back we are getting from real estate agents all over the country is they love the site as it is the easiest way to find an agent on the web and the free real estate marketing features we offer are currently unmatched by any other site on the web. If you haven't updated/verified your free listing on Agentopolis yet, simply visit www.agentopolis.com. We invite your feedback as we are striving to be influenced by the needs of the real estate agent community because that is who we serve.

Agentopolis in The News

Agentopolis, the Internets largest open real estate agent directory with over 1.4 million real estate agents, will deliver it's first national press release Wednesday, February 7th. We will be referring to the real estate agents ability to be ranked first in their state and city simply by have the most client recommendations. The best agents will be raised up by their best clients. In addition to our ranking system, Realtors will be able to include any information that they feel will help consumers choose them over the other agents listed in their state and city. These features are just two of our free real estate marketing tools designed to help the agent get more Internet exposure and more phone calls.

Agentopolis does not require any information from the consumer, instead we give them access to all the information available on each agent and let them contact that agent directly. We do not get between the agent and the home buyer or seller and we DO NOT charge a referral fee to the agent like many of the other existing real estate agent websites. Agentopolis believes that a good real estate agent is indispensable to the real estate transaction.

For more information about our free real estate agent marketing or to find a real estate agent or realtor in your area, visit http://www.agentopolis.com/.

Profile:Charlotte North Carolina Real Estate Agent

I had an opportunity today to speak with a top producing North Carolina Real Estate Agent. Her name is Jean Bridges and in addition to having many years of successful real estate sales, she also has a very good handle on the Internet. Visit her web site at http://www.jeanbridges.com/ . She and I spent some time talking about search engine optimization and we discovered that according to Yahoo search, Charlotte North Carolina real estate gets searched 8,075 time a day. I had no idea that Charlotte was such a hot real estate market. Anyway, if you are looking for real estate in Charlotte North Carolina or any of these surrounding cities; South Charlotte, Myers Park, Dilworth, Eastover, Lake Norman, Huntersville, Lake Wylie, Ballantyne, Union County, Weddington, Waxhaw, Marvin, Bridgehampton, or Ft. Mill, SC, I highly recommend that you give Jean a call. She is licensed in both North and South Carolina and she ranks in the top 1% of agents nationally.

Here are a few links to help get acquainted with Charlotte;
• Charlotte Newcomers' Guide• Charlotte Weather• Charlotte Traffic• NC Dept. of Motor Vehicles• Mecklenburg County• Union County

You can find Jean and other top ranked real estate agents at http://www.agentopolis.com/ .

Who is Carole Jacoby in Fresno, California?

I had a wonderful conversation today with a woman who had more spirit, and energy, than just about any other real estate agent that I have spoken to in the last 60 days, and I have spoken to hundreds, believe me! I have been taking calls for Agentopolis, www.agentopolis.com a new web start up that allows real estate agents to list themselves for free, and is adding new agents at the rate of over 100 new agents per day. Carole has a great web site, www.carolejacoby.com and she is a digital wonder. If you search on Google for Fresno Real Estate, she comes up number 3! Not bad for a web rookie. Here's the deal, I explained to Carole that she could also be listed first, and for free on Agentopolis, just by getting more recommendations than anyone else. She had 0 recommendations as of 3pm today, CST, and she said that she would be first in all of California in no time, to which I answered, "great, let's see what you can do" Well, it is 11pm, CST, and I happened to login tonight to take a look at the California listings on Agentopolis, and sure enough, Carole is tied for the number 1 position out of over 172,000 agents in all of California, with 9 recommendations already. Way to go Carole, when you set your mind to something, you get it done!

What's Agentopolis All about?

I received a call from a real estate agent in Georgia today saying she had found our site and read about the free real estate agent marketing that we offer but she had to ask "what exactly is Agentopolis?". Sometimes it is easier to answer that question by telling Realtors what Agentopolis is not.

We are not like many of the existing real estate agent marketing sites that sell an agent a territory by zip code, city, or county for a ridiculous amount of money each month on the promise of so many leads. Then this company goes out and tries to attract visitors who may be interested in buying or selling a home or are interested in finding a real estate agent. These sites "pimp" the consumer for their email and phone number and turn around and send it or sell it to their participating real estate agent in that territory.

One of the many problems with this model is that Internet visitors are entitled to and are starting to expect the right to choose who they want to work with versus who these sites are trying to force them to work with. The Internet is about open access. Give visitors reams of relevant information and let them decide. The big advantage with this approach is that when a consumer picks up the phone and contacts a real estate agent, they are INTERESTED in speaking with them. Agentopolis is to real estate agents what Linux is to programmers, open source. That means it is free and useful to both parties and it assumes that both the realtor and the consumer are smart enough to come together and do business without the aid of a pimp.

Agentopolis is "the human side of real estate". Let the people choose!

Visit www.agentopolis.com and see the future of real estate agent marketing.

Agentopolis gives birth to a blog

Agentopolis is proud to be entering the world of blogging thanks to Google and Blogger. Our web site, www.agentopolis.com , a real estate agent directory, is home to over 1.3 million real estate agents. This blog will give them a voice. Agentopolis will invite our members to participate in this communique in order to bring the most relevant and current information about real estate in hundreds of cities across the US to the millions of home buyers and sellers that use the Internet to help them in their real estate transactions. Feel free to comment or question at anytime as we hope to be your guide and trusted friend as you navigate through one of the biggest events of your life, buying and selling your home.

We look forward to serving you!