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20 words you shouldn’t use:
- 100% free
- Act now
- Amazing
- As seen
- As seen on TV
- Be your own boss
- Buy
- Call now
- Compare
- Consolidate
- Don’t delete
- Double your income
- Earn extra cash
- Free
- Hello
- Not spam
- Satisfaction
- Winner
- You’re a winner
- Work from home
According to Wikipedia, a blog (an abridgment of the term web log) “is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.”
To create your blog, use popular providers like blogger.com, a popular publishing tool from Google; worldpress.com; or any of the hosts of other providers
Steps to success:
- Do your homework.
Before you get started on your own, spend some time bookmarking and reading your favorite blogs. Take note of tones, sentence structure and topics the authors use. Reading other blogs will get your brain thinking in the right way, and will help you in generating your own ideas.
- Be interesting to get readers interested.
While you should use other blogs as inspiration, it’s important to find your own style. Don’t expect to be a top-ranked blogger at first – you’ll put unnecessary pressure on yourself. It takes a few posts to find your rhythm, but once you do, ideas and the perfect ways to convey them will come naturally. Quick, short entries keep people interested and engaged. Write like you speak – blog entries are supposed to be personal, not perfect. Have a sense of humor. Pose questions in your entries and allow for feedback. Don’t focus exclusively on your brand – that’s what your company Web site is for. Your readers don’t want to be sold to. Instead, use your expertise to make recommendations and provide helpful information to your general audience, which will lead to more sales in the long-run. Write from your customer’s point of view and not your own.
- Step outside the computer screen.
Use your blog to extend your businesses public relations efforts. Look for ways to connect with your readers in person – either by speaking at an upcoming Chamber meeting or monthly industry gathering or guest speaking at a local university, trade show or workshop. You can mention your engagements on your blog to give readers a chance to meet you in person. Promote your blog and expand your audience by mentioning it during your speaking engagement, which will lead to spikes in traffic to your blog and long-term growth.
- Stay on the radar.
Realize that blogging is a commitment. Allot a specific amount of time each day to posting on your blog or commenting on others’. Make an editorial calendar for yourself, or simply keep a list handy to jot down ideas when they come to you. Stay consistent and post entries regularly – at least two to three times each week. You’ll lose readers if you don’t. Post entries when most people want to read – during the weekdays.
- Be an active participant.
When you read other blogs, be sure to leave feedback if you have an opinion. Comment or expand upon something the author mentioned, tell how you could use the information or give an example of how a specific suggestion the author mentioned has helped you. Commenting encourages conversation, helps you generate ideas for your own blog and leads readers to check out your blog (don’t forget to leave the URL!).
When you create a PSA to submit to radio stations, make sure it is effective, compelling and informative.
The radio station’s promotional manager will screen for the following criteria:
- Non-commercial message in nature
- Non-political message in nature
- Non-controversial message in nature
- Serves a need, addresses a problem or is of community interest
- Doesn’t compete with the station or its advertisers
- Acceptable quality of production, technical standards and engineering
For example, a health care organization can submit a PSA to promote pool safety, or a realtor can generate a PSA which provides money-saving tips for first-time homebuyers. If the announcement is catchy, informative and timely, the announcements will likely get aired.
Other important points to remember are to make sure your scripts are the appropriate length and to distribute them to the radio stations in a timely manner. Most PSA’s are either 30 seconds (55-65 words) or 15 seconds (40-45 words). Make sure you distribute your PSA’s, allowing 3-6 weeks of lead time before you expect the announcements to run. Also, keep in mind that unless you have the PSA professionally produced, each station will want to record the announcements using their DJ’s – they will not air PSA’s recorded by other stations.
Five ways to get noticed
- Know your competition.
Just as a sports team wouldn’t go into a game without first studying their competition, neither should you. Get to know the top five ranked real estate Web sites in your area and determine how yours stacks up against theirs. Realize what they’re doing that you aren’t, and think about how you can improve to mirror their success.
- Get smart to what people want.
People want information instantaneously, so your Web site must provide that if you want to succeed. Make sure your Web site includes listings. People don’t want to take the time to “call for more information” – but they will call if they see a listing they like. Update listings daily or weekly – people will learn to come back if they notice frequent updates. Include lots of resources for people wanting more information – include links to articles about home buying and selling, mortgage tutorials and area information. Visit www.armingyourfarming.com/articles to find interesting articles to publish on your site. Use your Web site to generate leads by including a contact form.
- Submit an article to an industry publication.
A great way to circulate your name and add to your professional portfolio is to write an article for an industry publication. The Home Buying Institute (homebuyinginstitute.com) accepts quality articles from real estate professionals and allows for hyperlinks at the end – a great way to lead people to your Web site. EZine Articles (ezinearticles.com) also allows for submissions.
- Do things you don’t have to do.
Send congratulatory notes to community members who have received awards or honors. Send thank you notes to potential clients after you meet with them. Follow-up with former clients to see how they are enjoying the home you sold them a year ago. Little things go a long way, especially if they’re little things you don’t have to do.
- Don’t underestimate the power of a yard sign.
Yard signs are probably the most basic piece of real estate marketing, and certainly one of the most important. They’re economical, since unlike other marketing collateral, you can use them more than once. They also help in name recognition and driving traffic to your listing and are easy and relatively inexpensive to produce. Make sure that your signs include your Web site as well as your phone number.
What do employees spend the equivalent of two full work days doing each year?
According to ClearMyMail, an anti-spam company in Britain, American employees spent the equivalent of two full work days every year sorting, downloading, reviewing and discarding unwanted spam email messages. With approximately six seconds spent per each message received, small businesses who include up to 10 different e-mail accounts can count on approximately 160 hours of lost work time. Employees end up wasting valuable time trying to sort junk email messages from legitimate ones. Using an anti-spam software in your office will reduce time spent and money lost.
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