What is an RSS feed?

An RSS feed, of just “feed” is a publishing format for frequently updated web pages such as news sites and blogs. Readers can subscribe to RSS feeds and read in a “Feed Reader” which frequently resembles an email application. In fact, some email programs (e.g., Outlook, Mail.app) have an RSS feed reader built in. The advantage to the reader is that she can read all of the latest updates from her favorite sites in one place, rather than having to go to a bunch of separate websites.

All BestAgentBlogs include RSS Feeds automatically.

How do I use RSS?

First, you must Subscribe to a site’s feed. This is very easy to do, but it is slightly different depending on which browser you are using. The arrows below show where the RSS Subscribe buttons are on the most common browsers:

Internet Explorer

Safari

Firefox

Finally, some websites and blogs call attention to the fact that an RSS feed is available by displaying the standard icon for an RSS Feed: An orange button with a white broadcast symbol radiating from a dot.

When you press one of these buttons, the default RSS Reader on your computer will open and confirm that you want to subscribe to the feed.

Outside RSS help:

• Microsoft – How to Add an RSS Feed (Outlook & IE)
• Apple – Safari 4 Features

Consumers don’t care about you at all. They just don’t care. Part of the reason is that they have way more choices than they used to, and way less time. And in a world where we have too many choices, and too little time, the obvious thing to do is just ignore stuff…

To paraphrase: The thing that’s going to decide

…who get’s talked about
…who gets asked to write a CMA
…who gets get’s called to see a house
…who gets remembered

…is who is most remarkable?

A Most Interesting Story

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Don’t think having a good-looking listing or buyers’ presentation, dressing the part of a professional, or properly staging a home for sale, will substantially affect your business? Guess again. Marketing studies determine again and again that presentation and packaging are critical to people’s estimation of the value of a product or service.

So, make sure you blog looks good!

For more details, read the article: Pearls Before Breakfast in the Washington Post.

Thanks to Eric Ransone for emailing me the story.

In the past few years, an entirely new type of data has emerged — real-time updates like those on Twitter have appeared not only as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and feelings, but also as an interesting source of data about what is happening right now in regard to a particular topic.

Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results  - The Official Google Blog

No hard sell, and no real competition… Do you love promoting your farm area as much as John Nese likes selling soda? I challenge you to watch this video and NOT want to go to Galco’s Soda Pop Stop.

Lessons:

• Obsessive enthusiasm is contagious!
• Know your farm’s inventory inside and out. You must have shown or previewed every home on the market so you can talk with absolute authority about how they stack up.
• Have opinions! Don’t just shuffle people around to every house on the market. Listen to your clients’ preferences, then show them the ones that are likely to be their favorite ones first! They’ll soon catch on that you really do know your stuff and they’ve already been shown the best homes. But remember: “Everybody’s taster is different.” (Don’t catch yourself steering your clients!)
• Know a few neighborhood insider secrets that you can use to pepper the conversation.
• Be a unapologetic advocate for your community and your customers!
• Many people expect — and are happy — to pay a premium to work with a specialist.

“The important thing is to set yourself apart and provide your customers with something that nobody else has.” -John Nese, Galco’s Soda Pop Stop.

Personally, I’m now eager to try that Fentimans Curiosity Cola and I’m glad that John doesn’t sell real estate in my neighborhood.  :-)

In brief:

• Don’t sell – Inform
• Don’t sell – Redirect
• Don’t sell – Guide them

Synopsis
It’s all about the conversation, the sharing and the value to bring to the other members of the discussion. The more selfless your actions the better your following and ultimate return will be.

Read the full article: 15 Tips on How to Conduct Yourself in a Social Media Network

By the way, if you have a chance to see Stefan speak, not only is his information spot-on, but his presentation style is hilarious.

While most people won’t appreciate all the effort this designer put into this project, some certainly will. In fact, recognizing how rare his level of attention is, a few people will become raving fans. And raving fans talk. A lot.

What about your niche is worth a little obsessing? Do you have raving fans? What are you doing in your business that is worth talking about?

“No amount of genius can overcome a preoccupation with detail.” —Marion Levy

Thanks to John Gruber at DaringFireball.net for linking to this some time back.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What do I write about?

We as real estate agents have a unique mission in the blogosphere. Most bloggers try to get as many people to visit their website as possible so that some small percentage of visitors will click on the ads. If a “regular” blogger gets $1 per ad click, and 1 out of every 1,000 visitors clicks on an ad, you can see why they try so hard to get attention! On the other hand, real estate agents don’t need to get thousands of visitors. Instead, we offer information that is super targeted and mostly not available elsewhere, and then make sure that everyone who is looking for such information knows where to find it… On your blog!

Fortunately you don’t need to blog about what you had for breakfast nor even take a stab at interpreting the latest national economic report. No, your job is much easier. All you have to do is identify 3 things that people will find on your blog:

1. Your full name and the city/town where you work. (e.g. “Joe Schmoe Denver”)
2. Broad search terms for your niche. (e.g. “Highland neighborhood Denver”)
3. Narrow, specific search terms for your niche. (e.g. “Historic Homes Highland Denver”)

Let’s break it down…

1. Who is behind all this fantastic information?!

The first thing you need to do as a blogger is make sure that anyone searching for you — by name and city — can find you on the first page of Google search results. Start by writing a detailed “About” page. In fact, change the name of “About” to “About [Your full name]“. Write it in the third person so you can use your name a lot… and I mean a LOT! Use some form of your name at least 5 times: “Mr. Schmoe has sold Denver real estate since 2005 and has concentrated on the Highland neighborhood for the past year…” (You get bonus points if you noticed that I snuck in “Denver real estate” and “Highland neighborhood” in that sentence as well!) Yes, it will probably look a little strange, but it is also very common for the very reason that it is very effective.

Next, make sure your full name is listed as the author of your posts. This is specified in your Dashboard > Users > Your Profile, under Name, in the drop box of Display name publicly as. You don’t want all your posts to be attributed to “JShmoe” or to “joeshmoe” since nobody will ever search for you that way. Enter your full name into Nickname then select your full name from the drop box. That way, your name will be plastered all over the blog, but in a very non-intrusive way.

2. What is this blog generally about?

Identify the broad terms that describe your niche. If your focus is on a particular neighborhood, use the name of that community in the context of the city in every post. Yes, every single post needs to incorporate the words that you want to be known for. For example: “Even though the national trends are still gloomy, the Denver Post just featured an article that states that homes the Highland neighborhood is still appreciating! That matches what I’m seeing, particularly between the blocks of…” The broader your niche, the more posts you’ll need to secure that 1st page of google. Seriously, for popular neighborhoods, it could take years. For lesser known neighborhoods, it could take only weeks. Choose your niches wisely.

3. What specifically are the highlights of your niche?

While you settle in to the idea that it may take some time before google “discovers” you as a broad niche expert, you can’t waste time waiting for that to happen. Figure out what micro-niches within your broad niche you can “own” today. In other words, what are the unique characteristics that make your niche so great? It could be it’s proximity to downtown, or the pocket parks, or the boutique shopping, or the great restaurants, or the views, or whatever… you get the idea. The key is to imagine what your perfect client would like to know, and then write about that in your blog — just in case they are out there and they’re frustrated because they can’t find anything about what they are looking for on google. (Hint: they probably are!) To highlight these micro-niches further, you should probably use them as your blog’s categories. In the meanwhile, you will be gaining “authority” for the broader niche with each new post you write. In any case, you’ll quickly learn why the most successful agents have said for years: “The riches are in the niches.”

To sum up

Your “About” page will speak glowingly about how “[Your full name] is best/most knowledgeable/hardest working agent serving Denver’s Highland Neighborhood…” Not to mention the fact that every single post you write will be attributed to [your full name] as well. In no time at all your name should appear on the first page of a google search for [your full name] [your niche]. Since every post you write will also include the specific terms of your broad niche, your blog should be steadily moving toward the first page of Google searches for those terms as well. Finally, the posts that you write specifically because there is nothing else written about such local items in detail, will very quickly show up in the #1 Google spot for those terms. (They even have a name for this type of writing: They call it “Hyper-Localism”.) Just keep chipping away at your niche keywords and you will be found by anyone who is looking.

Next up: Don’t wait for the mountain to come to you!

Click here to view the embedded video.