I like what Tim has to say for the most part, so today I’m giving you a link to watch his video for free on How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself.  This is a long video, but it has some good information on how to increase the traffic to your real estate blog.  Parts of the video are a bit too technical for me, and if they’re too technical for you too, just ignore them.

You’ll note that Tim uses Wordpress as his blog software.  That’s the blog software I highly recommend you use for your real estate blog.  If you want a reasonably priced Wordpress real estate blog created for you, go to www.sizzlingblogs.com.  Sizzling Blogs creates the best real estate blogs that look great and bring in a lot of leads.

One more thing I want to mention.  In my last post on real estate blogging, I told you about Matt Cutts, Google’s SEO guru and one of the most influential people on the internet.  You’ll notice that Tim talks about “Matt” in the beginning of this video.  He’s referring to Matt Cutts.  Oh, and by the way, Matt agrees with Tim that Wordpress is the best blog software to use. 

If you have any questions about the information Tim shares in the video, or anything else about blogging, just post a comment here, and I’ll answer fast.

To boosting traffic to your real estate blog.

Kathy Goughenour

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So, here’s the definitive answer on who the expert is on ranking well on Google.  His name is Matt Cutts.

Who is Matt Cutts? 
Matt Cutts is the head of the webspam department at Google.  I know that department name sounds odd, so let me make it easier.  He’s THE Google expert on search engine optimization. 

Cutts is Google’s direct line of communication to the public and he tells us exactly what Google want us to do – and how they want us to do it.  Sometimes his suggestions can be a bit vague, but usually he speaks in plain English that we average web users can understand.

Here’s a link to an article with Search Engine Optimization Tips for Bloggers from Matt Cutts.

Have questions about how to get your real estate blog or website to bring in more leads?  Ask them in the comments.  I promise I’ll answer you personally.

To boosting your real estate internet marketing leads,

Kathy Goughenour

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This is a marketing idea that I’m personally putting into action this year to generate leads for my own business.  So here’s the idea:  Self-publish a non-fiction book.

Did I lose you?  Give me one more minute to tell you how this will skyrocket your business.  It will:

1. Generate an amazing number of leads. Imagine having a book you’ve written on one of the most visited websites - Amazon.com.  Yes, when you self-publish a book using the method I’m going to recommend, your book will be on Amazon.com.
2. Educate people about real estate. I’m sure you’ll agree that a client who understands real estate and who knows what you do as a real estate agent is the very best kind of client to have.  What better way to educate them than through a book you’ve authored.
3. Provide proof that you are a real estate expert. Statistics show that of all the information products a book has the greatest potential to brand you as an expert and open doors that will boost your business into the stratosphere.
4. Become the very best gift ever to give to potential clients. Can you imagine pulling out a book that you’ve authored during your listing presentation and handing it to your potential clients?  It’s sure to impress.
5. Set you apart from other real estate agents. How many real estate agents do you know who have published a book?  I can’t think of a better way to differentiate you from your competition.
6. Supply you with another stream of income. When you self-publish, you get all the profits from the book, not just a royalty.  Who couldn’t use another stream of income?

I could go on and on but I think I’ll stop here.  If you’re interested in discovering more ways self-publishing a non-fiction book helps generate business, listen to this free interview Why Becoming a Book Author Can Change Your Life.

If you’re still with me, I’d like to recommend two ways you can learn how to write and self-publish a book:

• Least expensive figure-it-out-yourself method:  Purchase the book Publishize.
• More expensive, but more effective, coaching method:  Sign up for the 90-day Book Challenge.

If you want to start right away, sign up for the 90-day Book Challenge that starts on January 26.  You’ll be in the training with me because I’m already signed up.

If you need more time to think about it, check back in a month or so to find out when the next 90-day Book Challenge starts.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress of my book.  Please do the same for me with your book.  In fact, when your book is published, I’d love to promote it on this blog and do an interview with you about it.  So, let me know!

To creating your own extraordinarily successful real estate marketing materials,

Kathy Goughenour

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“You are an individual with your own strengths and weaknesses. If you’re a great speaker, you may consider doing teleseminars or in-person events to market. If you are a shy hermit who wants to stay behind a keyboard, those options may not align with your personality. For you, sending out newsletters or writing articles may be better marketing options. Don’t try and be someone you’re not.”

I’d like to add one suggestion to Susan’s idea.  If marketing your real estate business is important to you, and there’s a method you’d like to try that isn’t easy for you to do, consider outsourcing it.

For example, I know that adding video to my website and blog is a great idea.  But I don’t know how to do that and don’t want to invest the hours and hours it would take me to learn how.  Instead, I’m outsourcing the video creation process to a Virtual Assistant who is an expert at creating video.

Here’s another example.  Do you want to market your real estate business by blogging but don’t know how?  You can learn how for free by downloading my guide Blogging 101:  A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Building Business and Generating Tons of Leads Online.  Just fill out the simple form on that page (the form is on the right-hand side about halfway down the page).

If you already have a blog but are struggling to write the blog content, consider becoming a member of my Lead Booster Club.  As a member, you receive 20 pre-written, easy-to-customize blog posts each month for only $29.95.

To marketing your real estate business your way,

Kathy Goughenour

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Well, I’m giving you the very first task to add your real estate internet marketing to-do list.  Change your dates.

Anything on your website or real estate blog with a 2008 date will make your site appear old and outdated.  That’s why you’ll want to make sure dates appearing on your sites are current.

For example, if you display copyright dates on your web pages (which you should), make sure they read 2009.

Same is true with content containing dates.  For example, the phrase ‘New for 2008′ already sounds outdated - while ‘New for 2009′ sounds fresh.

Change these date references in your postcards, flyers, email drip campaigns, brochures, listing presentations - in fact, everywhere.

These small changes can freshen the look of your entire website - and keep your site from becoming stale.

To success with your 2009 real estate internet marketing,

Kathy Goughenour

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Unless you’re a very rare real estate agent, you have more time than money on your hands these days.  So, it’s time to start thinking about how you can best use your time to generate business, not only for this year, but for the years to come.

Read and implement Seth’s idea of starting your own local newspaper.  It’s extremely inexpensive (practically free) and will build your brand in leaps and bounds.

If you want to add real estate tips and articles to your newspaper (which is a great way to add value to your newspaper), consider joining my Lead Booster Club.  For only $29.95 a month, you get 20 pre-written real estate articles every month on hot real estate topics.  That’ll make the job of filling up your newspaper with great information easy and inexpensive.

If you have any questions on how to implement Seth Godin’s idea, post your question in the comment section.  I promise to answer!  And when you start your newspaper, be sure to let me know.  I want to blog about it here.

Seth Godin’s idea is only one of many real estate marketing ideas I’ll be sharing with you during 2009.  If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to this blog by simply filling in your email address in the top left-hand corner of this page and clicking submit.  You’ll automatically receive my tips in your email inbox… and it’s free.  So, take 30 seconds and sign up now.

To creating successful real estate marketing materials,

Kathy Goughenour

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“Whether they choose to distribute these content nuggets as articles, blog posts, postcards, part of a newsletter or ‘drip campaign’ tips, they’re easy to customize with the agent’s personality and local references,” says Goughenour, whose Lead Booster Club provides 20 content pieces a month as a benefit of membership in the program.  “With this timely, well-researched material on everything from saving money on home maintenance to pricing strategies for an economic downturn, an agent comes across as caring and knowledgeable – without having to spend time coming up with facts and ideas.” 

Goughenour is the author of Blogging 101: A Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Boosting Business and Getting Tons of Leads, which is available as a free download from www.leadboosterclub.com.

For the $29.95 monthly membership fee, Lead Booster Club members also receive articles on generating more and better leads, expert interviews on real estate marketing and publicity, and candid reviews of products and services relevant to real estate agents, in addition to the 20 customizable content pieces.  For more information on the program, real estate agents can visit www.leadboosterclub.com.

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You don’t blog enough.  But you want to.  You know all the good reasons – better Google rank for your real estate blog – the increased traffic to your real estate website – building a reputation with your readers.

But still, you’re so busy you don’t know how you’ll squeeze out another blog post.

This post is NOT going to tell you how to manage your time, where to buy real estate blog content, or even try to motivate you to write more.

I’m going to tell you to surrender.

Leave your real estate blog alone.  Go check your email.  Take the next message from a friend or colleague that you respect and admire, and invite that person to write a guest post for your blog.

You may even know about guest posting.  But something stops you from asking.

I have a hunch it’s one or more of these show-stoppers

• My blog is personal
• My blog will look inconsistent
• I may not like what my guest writes

If you’re sweating blog upkeep, you deserve a truth that will set you free.  The truth is — what may be holding you back is treating your real estate blog content like it’s personal. I’m going to challenge you to re-think these objections one by one.

Objection #1: My real estate blog is personal.  Rethink:  If you want your blog to increase in popularity, think of it as a team effort.  Marketing expert Seth Godin just described the “Death of the Personal Blog” in his blog. He observed that the top blogs (rated according to authority by blog search engine Technorati) are all maintained by teams of writers.  His point – to rise to the top, “your tactic needs to be to have a team of people doing the work” of posting very often.

Objection #2: My real estate blog will look inconsistent.  Rethink: Indeed, the voice and writing style may vary from post to post.  But if you consistently act in the best interest of your readers, that principal will unite everything.  Serving your target reader will keep your real estate blog feeling consistent, and valuable.  Don’t worry about the variety of voices.  Variety is the spice of life.

Objection #3: I may not like what my guest writes.  Rethink:  This is a great opportunity.  Feel free to disagree – with respect.  State your own view.  Congratulations, your next post topic has arrived, painlessly.

Re-casting your real estate blog as a team effort has all these advantages – and more you can probably see for yourself.  Such as –

• Your guest author may send friends to read your blog – more traffic for you.
• You may get an invitation to be a guest writer yourself.  Another chance to link to your real estate blog!
• You get more time to develop great high quality posts, because you take the pressure off having to write more often than is workable for you.

Thanks, Kathy, for giving me this great opportunity to be your guest on your Lead Booster Blog!  Wishing every reader a wealth of guest posts for the New Year….

Joanne Masterson
BlueJProjects Web Design

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What is your 2009 New Year’s resolution for marketing your real estate business?  Consider making yours the same as mine.  It will tremendously improve your online presence, make your blog readers happy, improve your search engine ranking, and generate more clients.

Want to know a super easy and inexpensive way to achieve the goal of adding 2 new posts to your blog every week in 2009?  Join my Lead Booster Club.  You’ll get 20 pre-written, easy-to-customize blog posts every month for only $29.95.

If only I had someone who was writing well-researched, professionally written blog posts for me!  I’d run as fast as I could to get them at $29.95 per month.

P.S.  One blog post done, only 103 more to go this year!

To keeping your 2009 marketing real estate business resolutions,

Kathy Goughenour

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Publishize is Susan’s ninth book. In it, you’ll find all her best self-publishing secrets that made it possible for her to self-publish 8 books in less than 18 months.  I’ve now purchased 2 of her 8 books and know first-hand how well-written and informative they are.  And, I know getting a book published on any real estate topic will help you build your real estate agent personal branding in a multitude of powerful ways.

TODAY ONLY - Susan is offering free shipping on her Publishize book.  When you purchase it, you also get a slew of bonuses from many people in the publishing and business world. You’ll find audio and print bonuses from Marcia Yudkin, Shel Horowitz, Fern Reiss, Sheri McConnell, and many other people. You’ll even find my smiling face on this page offering my report Improve Your Bottom Line by Hiring Online Help as a free bonus.  Check out http://www.publishize.com and you’ll see the incredible list of freebies Susan has collected.

Of course, you also get the book itself, which is chock full of all the information any aspiring self-publisher needs to finally realize that dream of publishing a book.

Here’s what a few publishing pros have said about the book:

A roadmap to turn businesspeople into published authors.”
– Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing Manual, ParaPublishing.com

“Well-written, honest, pulling no punches, and full of good advice. Read Publishize to make informed and profitable decisions about the entire publishing and marketing process.”
– Shel Horowitz, award-winning author of Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers and six other books; www.GrassrootsMarketingforAuthors.com

Susan Daffron offers honest advice and breaks down self-publishing into manageable steps any business owner can implement.”
– John Eggen, President, The Mission Marketing Mentors, Inc.; www.MissionMarketingMentors.com

Susan Daffron eloquently nails the why’s and how’s of self-publishing in her new book, Publishize. This book is a great gift… I highly recommend it.”
– Fern Reiss, Director of the International Association of Writers, and CEO of PublishingGame.com

Susan Daffron explains the ins and outs of print-on-demand printing without the subsidy press stigma and offers a great overview of the latest online book marketing methods. I highly recommend this book for all the women writers I serve!”
– Sheri McConnell, CEO of the National Association of Women Writers, www.naww.org

You can read more testimonials here - http://www.publishize.com/praise.htm

I hope you can take a moment today to check out Susan Daffron’s book and all the great bonuses at http://www.Publishize.com.

To building your real estate agent personal branding,

Kathy Goughenour

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