Tuesday, November 30, 2010
2011 Business Planning Clinic
DATE:
December 6th, 10am-2pm
December 7th, 10am-2pm
LOCATION:
Toyota of Rockwall
1250 East I 30
Rockwall, Texas 75087
COST:
$30
Lunch Provided
Who will benefit from attending this course? Do you know many appointments you need next year to net the income you want? Come learn the business models to set up a successful business next year. Learn how to focus your efforts on the key activities that will make a difference in growing your business in 2011! All agents will benefit from comparing their numbers to top grossing agent benchmarks.
What's in it for you? Align your thinking with that of a Mega Agent. Create your goals and identify the milestones that will support them. Develop a detailed business plan to guide your lead generation, money management and organizational development. Apply focus to convert your goals to a reality!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
How to Get High-Quality Inbound Links
Provided By KW Blog
One of the fastest ways to improve your search engine rankings is to build high-quality inbound links—links from other websites to your website. In fact, successful search engine optimization (SEO) demands a focus on inbound link building, also called backlinking.
Here’s why: Although Google (and other search engines) evaluate scores of factors as they rank your site against the thousands of other agent sites on the Internet, inbound links are among the most powerful determinants of where your site will show up in the list of results.
And here’s another reason to focus on inbound links: Getting more relevant links to your website also increases the chances that real estate consumers looking for your type of services will find you as they naturally surf the web.
How Not to Build In-Bound Links
Before I give you the eight ways to get inbound links, let me warn you of a tactic from the early web days that could backfire today: link trading. Also known as reciprocal linking, trading links with relevant peers can be helpful to your efforts. But joining a link farm could be SEO suicide.
A link farm is a collection of websites that each link to every site in the group. Don’t be enticed by automated programs that promise to get you hundreds of links. The links are bound to be irrelevant and the search engines will punish you for trying to outwit their algorithm. In fact, Google may even ban you. Build inbound links the right way and you will gain credibility with the search engines.
The Right Way to Build In-Bound Links
Here are eight KW-sanctioned strategies you can begin using today.
1. Launch a Blog
You can use a free service like Blogger or Wordpress. Blog about your particular niche, i.e. luxury condos, foreclosures, vacation homes, or trends in your city or region. Linking from your blog to your website offers relevant inbound links.
2. Craft Strong Content
Content is still king online. If you produce interesting, relevant content, people will link to it. Let your service providers and partners know you are blogging or adding content to your site and invite them to share it with their customers in exchange for a link.
3. Consider Pay-Per-Click
Narrow in on your niche audience, choose a budget and launch a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. The text ads link to your site, giving you a potential boost in the rankings while also driving qualified leads.
4. Submit to Directories
There are many web directories you could list your site on, like Merchant Circle and DMOZ. There are free and paid web directories. You can find them by doing a simple search online.
5. Join Organizations
When you join organizations like the Better Business Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce and industry associations, you can often get the group to link back to your site.
6. Employ Article Marketing
Have you seen sites like ezinearticles.com? You can repurpose your blog content to submit to article marketing sites, position yourself as an expert, and get reputable in-bound links.
7. Get Social
When you join communities like Facebook and Twitter and post links to your site in status updates, you set the stage for high-quality links and relevant traffic to your website.
8. Write an E-book
With Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can include links back to your site in an e-book and post it on sites that host e-books, either as a free offering or for a small fee. This also positions you as an expert in your niche.
A final note: The text of the link makes a difference. Ask those who link to your site a to link on relevant terms like “Chicago real estate expert” rather than “click here.” The more descriptive the text is, the better Google likes the link.
One of the fastest ways to improve your search engine rankings is to build high-quality inbound links—links from other websites to your website. In fact, successful search engine optimization (SEO) demands a focus on inbound link building, also called backlinking.
Here’s why: Although Google (and other search engines) evaluate scores of factors as they rank your site against the thousands of other agent sites on the Internet, inbound links are among the most powerful determinants of where your site will show up in the list of results.
And here’s another reason to focus on inbound links: Getting more relevant links to your website also increases the chances that real estate consumers looking for your type of services will find you as they naturally surf the web.
How Not to Build In-Bound Links
Before I give you the eight ways to get inbound links, let me warn you of a tactic from the early web days that could backfire today: link trading. Also known as reciprocal linking, trading links with relevant peers can be helpful to your efforts. But joining a link farm could be SEO suicide.
A link farm is a collection of websites that each link to every site in the group. Don’t be enticed by automated programs that promise to get you hundreds of links. The links are bound to be irrelevant and the search engines will punish you for trying to outwit their algorithm. In fact, Google may even ban you. Build inbound links the right way and you will gain credibility with the search engines.
The Right Way to Build In-Bound Links
Here are eight KW-sanctioned strategies you can begin using today.
1. Launch a Blog
You can use a free service like Blogger or Wordpress. Blog about your particular niche, i.e. luxury condos, foreclosures, vacation homes, or trends in your city or region. Linking from your blog to your website offers relevant inbound links.
2. Craft Strong Content
Content is still king online. If you produce interesting, relevant content, people will link to it. Let your service providers and partners know you are blogging or adding content to your site and invite them to share it with their customers in exchange for a link.
3. Consider Pay-Per-Click
Narrow in on your niche audience, choose a budget and launch a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. The text ads link to your site, giving you a potential boost in the rankings while also driving qualified leads.
4. Submit to Directories
There are many web directories you could list your site on, like Merchant Circle and DMOZ. There are free and paid web directories. You can find them by doing a simple search online.
5. Join Organizations
When you join organizations like the Better Business Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce and industry associations, you can often get the group to link back to your site.
6. Employ Article Marketing
Have you seen sites like ezinearticles.com? You can repurpose your blog content to submit to article marketing sites, position yourself as an expert, and get reputable in-bound links.
7. Get Social
When you join communities like Facebook and Twitter and post links to your site in status updates, you set the stage for high-quality links and relevant traffic to your website.
8. Write an E-book
With Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can include links back to your site in an e-book and post it on sites that host e-books, either as a free offering or for a small fee. This also positions you as an expert in your niche.
A final note: The text of the link makes a difference. Ask those who link to your site a to link on relevant terms like “Chicago real estate expert” rather than “click here.” The more descriptive the text is, the better Google likes the link.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
KW Marketing
Provided By MyKW
Keller Williams makes it easy to market your listings online- when you want, where you want through KWLS!
Click here to get started!
Keller Williams makes it easy to market your listings online- when you want, where you want through KWLS!
Click here to get started!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
How Rising Interest Rates Will Impact Affordability
Provided By KW Blog
In a recent Forbes blog post, multimillionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson declared that today’s record-low interest rates made this the best time to buy homes in fifty years. “If you don’t own a home, buy one,” Paulson said. “If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes, buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home.” Why should we care what Paulson thinks? Well, he was among the few to accurately predict the subprime collapse and, while no one has a crystal ball, a closer look at the numbers supports his call to action.
Historically low interest rates are the key…and they aren’t likely to hang around for long.
As we wrote in SHIFT, buyers who “choose to wait until prices come down more” are gambling that interest rates will hold steady or drop. The truth is even a 10 percent drop in home prices is nullified by a 1 percent increase in interest rates. The figure below illustrates how this works for a $250,000 home purchase and the relative likelihood of each scenario.
To figure out which was a smarter bet–counting on home prices to fall further or interest rates to rise–our research department took the last ten years of monthly home price and mortgage interest rate data and ran the numbers to see which was more likely: an increase in mortgage rates or a further drop in home prices. Here’s what we found:
A one percent increase in mortgage rates is ten times more likely to happen than a ten percent drop in home prices.
A one percent rate increase more than offsets a ten percent reduction in home prices.
When interest rates fall by one percent, the total interest paid is almost three times more than the interest savings from a ten percent drop in home prices.
The probability of both happening at the same time is ridiculously small, and homeowners would still pay 15 percent more in interest over the life of the loan.
Interest rates have dominated the news in recent months as we’ve shattered record low after record low. Potential home buyers need to understand the positive financial impact low interest rates have on the cost of home ownership and the thousands of dollars that can be saved over the life of a typical mortgage loan. For those who can afford to buy, trade up, or invest, our current market presents a lifetime opportunity.
In a recent Forbes blog post, multimillionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson declared that today’s record-low interest rates made this the best time to buy homes in fifty years. “If you don’t own a home, buy one,” Paulson said. “If you own one home, buy another one, and if you own two homes, buy a third and lend your relatives the money to buy a home.” Why should we care what Paulson thinks? Well, he was among the few to accurately predict the subprime collapse and, while no one has a crystal ball, a closer look at the numbers supports his call to action.
Historically low interest rates are the key…and they aren’t likely to hang around for long.
As we wrote in SHIFT, buyers who “choose to wait until prices come down more” are gambling that interest rates will hold steady or drop. The truth is even a 10 percent drop in home prices is nullified by a 1 percent increase in interest rates. The figure below illustrates how this works for a $250,000 home purchase and the relative likelihood of each scenario.
To figure out which was a smarter bet–counting on home prices to fall further or interest rates to rise–our research department took the last ten years of monthly home price and mortgage interest rate data and ran the numbers to see which was more likely: an increase in mortgage rates or a further drop in home prices. Here’s what we found:
A one percent increase in mortgage rates is ten times more likely to happen than a ten percent drop in home prices.
A one percent rate increase more than offsets a ten percent reduction in home prices.
When interest rates fall by one percent, the total interest paid is almost three times more than the interest savings from a ten percent drop in home prices.
The probability of both happening at the same time is ridiculously small, and homeowners would still pay 15 percent more in interest over the life of the loan.
Interest rates have dominated the news in recent months as we’ve shattered record low after record low. Potential home buyers need to understand the positive financial impact low interest rates have on the cost of home ownership and the thousands of dollars that can be saved over the life of a typical mortgage loan. For those who can afford to buy, trade up, or invest, our current market presents a lifetime opportunity.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)