I’ve been playing around with a new resource everyone should have a look at. Real Estate Wiki is essentially the largest online collaborative encyclopedia for the real estate industry. It’s free for registrants and, currently, you can add inbound links back to your own websites and blogs!

Real Estate Wiki serves home buyers, sellers, home owners, the millions of professionals that serve them and the real estate industry as a whole. Real Estate Wiki was apparently launched January ‘08 with several thousand entries, definitions, acronyms, biographies and FAQ’s about the real estate industry and the home buying, selling, renting and home ownership process.

It’s apparently the culmination of a group of real estate professionals dedicated to laying the groundwork for what means to be the the industry’s preeminent resource. These folks felt resources like Wikipedia.org, the world’s largest free online encyclopedia, had such a broad scope that they didn’t successfully serve a users’ ability to drill down into industry specifics.

Real Estate Wiki is known to be a privately funded, non-profit venture and it’s not affiliated with the Wikipedia Foundation; however and similar to Wikipedia.org, it hopes to gather support from real estate industry volunteers that believe in collaborative web- based resources. Particularly, folks that appreciate a great free real estate resource for everyone to use.

Even if you’re not using your domains and subdomains, no one else should use your property as a free advertising opportunity. It’s become semi- common practice amongst hosts while you’re in limbo, but advertising should cost money!

Here’s a great piece on the subject, including how to identify it and then protect yourself - How to Protect Your Business From Nefarious Subdomain Hijacking. SEOBook’s Aaron Wall is ‘by all means’ recommended reading!  For link building techniques and general search engine optimization info he’s generous with his knowledge

Real Estate Blogsites, in affiliation with Kinetic Knowledge LLC, is excited to offer the Real Estate marketplace a new comprehensive, affordable Business- blogging platform and educational service.

Real Estate Blogsites, in affiliation with Kinetic Knowledge LLC, is excited to offer the Real Estate Professional a comprehensive, affordable Business blogging platform and educational service.

If you have serious business marketing requirements, you will find it both useful and cost-effective to have Real Estate Blogsites build & host your Business Blog. Our intention is to help you succeed by providing leading edge business blog solutions, ongoing education and support for a very affordable price.

Kinetic Blogs Monthly Service includes:

• Leading Edge Blog Platform
• Proactive [Human] Service
• Ongoing Education [regular client edu-email, monthly educational email newsletter & quarterly educational seminars]
• Unlimited Online Educational Knowledge- base & Support
• Weekly Real Estate content provision- 90 days FREE Blog content 
• Hosting and storage
• Real Time RSS Syndication
• Real Time RSS conversion to Email subscriptions management
• Unlimited Static Content Pages
• Unlimited Blogging Authorship
• Seamless Photo/ File Upload & Storage
• Important Content Categorization
• Complete Editor including Spell Check, Photo/ File Upload, etc.
• Ping Engine, Tag Cloud, Title & Content Meta- tagging, Secure Commenting … and much more

… $49 per month

Kinetic Blogs custom build includes:

• Design, build, feature configuration and integration with any existing website presence
• Domain/ URL host setup (A Record or CNAME DNS setup for custom URL)
• Ping Engine (New content search engine notification system)
• Tag Cloud (Topic, Key Word & Key Phrase org)
• Title & Content Meta Tagging package
• Complete Editor including Spell Check, Photo/ File Upload, etc.
• Five Static Pages Setup (i.e. About Us, Mgmt. Bios, Products & Services, etc)
• Captcha, challenge-response comment test
• RSS to Email Setup (For visitor subscribe via email)
• Two Inbound Content Feeds (Fresh content from sources relevant to your business)
• Two Basic Widget additions (widgets of your choosing, pending system compatibility)
• and many other advantages a Real Estate Professional should never have to worry themselves over

… $399 [one time fee]

Additional Service Capabilities include:

• MLS Search/ IDX integration
• Blog Content Conversion import  and search engine indexing redirects
• Multi-Domain Search
• VisiStat Human Traffic Analytics installation
• Google Analytics installation
• Real Ping Push to call
• Basic Lead Capture System installation
• Custom Header Design
• Supplemental Ghost Blog Writing services
• Basic Image-based Video creation, YouTube/ Google Video upload & optimization
• Additional Inbound Syndication Content Feeds
• Additional Widgets
• Content Links monitoring setup
• Additional Feed Registration [up to 90 Blog Directories & Search Engines)

A Kinetic Blog is preconfigured for Search Engine Optimization and ever-evolving. We retain some of the original WordPress development team so that our platform is meticulously designed, agile [updates, upgrades & plug-in solutions], up to the speed of technology and business class!

Contact sales@kineticknowledge.com for inquiries.

Is it a website, a blog, an MLS web search, stealth sites, email drips campaigns – so many options so little help!

I realize I’m just a lone individual and not even a Realtor at that, but I do have an opinion on the real estate tech miasma, so I figured why not share.  I worked in real estate marketing for 10 years before I became a biased provider of real estate blogging technology (full disclosure and for what it’s worth :)), so at the least I have a healthy understanding of the options.  I speak to Realtors day in and day out who display a pretty substantial level of confusion about all the available real estate technologies.  What is it that you really need? 

• A real estate website
• A real estate blog
• A blog and a website
• An MLS/IDX online search site
• Stealth real estate websites
• SEOists
• PPC
• Real estate videos
• Real estate podcasts
• Real Estate widgets
• Email drip campaigns and online lead management
• Social networking

Oh my!  The list is endless.  In my [very] humble opinion you can effectively get by with a fraction of this list.  More is not always better and there is very little magic in the real estate tech game.  Let’s jump in…

Blog OR Website, Blog AND Website
Ok, let’s just get this one out of the way.  Do you really need a website, a blog or should you have both?  Let’s define the two first.  I see a website as a relatively static extension of your brand – an online brochure if you will - a quick measure of your commitment and professionalism.  A blog is more of a dynamic component providing you with a sense of community and voice.  A blog however, is really just a dynamic website - a website that makes publishing fresh content to the internet incredibly simple.  You CAN build a blog in such a manor that it covers all the aspects that your static website would cover.  Meaning, your blog can (most likely - depending on provider) house static marketing pages as well as dynamic blog posts.  I like the marketing message and the level of professionalism that having a website conveys, however if you are constrained by budget I don’t believe a website is entirely necessary as a blog can pull the weight.  However, be forewarned – both a blog and a website should be considered a regular effort.  There is no way to find favor with the search engines if you aren’t committed to offering fresh, relevant content in either option.   

An MLS Search Component
I debated whether or not to put this first as I believe this is the most basic piece of your online real estate marketing package, but you can’t really benefit from this without a website, a blog or PPC so here it is.  Let’s think about online marketing.  We’ve got brand impressions, we’ve got visibility to your messaging and contact information, but in all, to be successful online we must have a way to capture leads.  With real estate technology, it’s quite simple, buyers and sellers want access to MLS information – for free and at their leisure.  The only way you can provide that AND get leads is to offer an MLS search using internet data exchange (IDX) technologies.  Unfortunately not all of you are able to do this; it will depend on the governing laws of your MLS.  Did you know that you could buy a “naked” MLS search component that has lead capture and management tools?  Here’s an example.  You don’t have to buy a website package deal to get full MLS search functionality.  Many providers offer just the plain search portal portion of the MLS with a back-end management system.  In my opinion, this is all you really need.  However, it IS important to weigh the data search functionalities of such tools.  In other words, the more mls data points you can search by – the more powerful your tool.  Be sure to ask the provider how granular you can make your MLS search and whether or not you’ll get unique links to those search results.   

So let’s review up to this point…

The Bare Minimum
Since a blog can technically perform the functions of a standard website, can look like a standard website AND will provide you with all the search engine benefits of blogging (if used properly!), you MAY be able to get by without a real estate website.  You will however need to institute a naked MLS search component so you have the ability to entice and capture online leads from your blog ‘site’.  Otherwise a blog or website will not get you much aside from branding.  Although I call this scenario, “the bare minimum” – it will give you pretty darn good coverage if you use the tools as intended.  If I were constrained by budget, these are the two monthly costs I would choose to carry.   

A Lead Capture System with or without Email Drips
Although lead capture management and drip email campaigns are great efficiency tools, they are technically a convenience.  It IS possible to capture leads using simple, direct email forms which are practically free.  This may be an area where you can start small and grow into more robust tools.  You likely won’t need a robust lead management system until you are generating a significant number of online leads.  But when you do hit the big time, these tools will be invaluable time savers.  This is an area for potential savings.

Stealth Websites
Stealth websites are basically just generic/unbranded entry pages that ask viewers to complete an extensive form before gaining access to a tool such as an MLS Search or Home Valuation.  They are meant to look ‘safe’ and unassociated to a Realtor and would often be used with a PPC campaign.  They are not effective at gaining search engine visibility on their own.  I won’t knock them because I’ve been told they work by many.  However, I do believe that you can easily ‘mimic’ or create your own stealth pages with a little creativity and maybe some help from your existing website or blog provider.  All you really need is some generic graphics and a well built email form and you’re on your way.   

SEO and PPC
SEOists (experts who suggest they tune your websites to be the most attractive to the search engines) certainly have their place.  However, much of what they will help you with is based upon common sense and can be achieved on your own if you are willing to put in the effort.  If you have a troubled domain, then definitely seek out the doctor.  However, if your domain is healthy, you probably don’t need to pay for this service from the onset. 

Pay-per-click advertising is great for short term or very specific goals.  If you use it, make sure you set a budget and stick to it!  PPC can easily get totally out of control.  I don’t believe this is a must as organic search results are completely attainable with the right tools and a healthy effort, but the strategy is up to you.  PPC will be effective at getting you an audience for predictable/competitive search terms.  However, you can expect this audience will most likely require lots of “lead washing”.

Video, Audio, Podcasts and Widgets
These things are the spice of life and I like them because they are relatively inexpensive to use.  They are not necessary but will help to boost anything you are already doing with the search engines.  Listings videos can be created from still photos and be uploaded to free portals like www.YouTube.com.  Audio can be done using free tools like www.utterz.com.  Widgets are a dime a dozen, are typically free and many out there will enhance your website or blog ‘stickiness’ and help you to generate more leads.  If you have the time/energy to pursue integrating any of these into your website or blog it will be well worth it! 

Social Networking
I know – everyone is busy, but this one is free and it can make a world of difference in the effectiveness of your website or blog.  What is social networking anyway?  It’s simply the idea of seeking out similar conversations and using existing communities and pertinent social networking sites to bolster your own blogs and/or websites thru relevant linking.  This could mean commenting on another blog or news site that is having a discussion relevant to a blog post you’ve written.  Or, it could also mean creating a free profile and regularly using Active Rain, My Space, Facebook, YouTube, Squidoo or hundreds of others.  My advice?  Start small - pick one venue and join in regularly.  Once you master one social network then consider joining some others.  You can also set up Google Alerts to help you in this quest.      

If I Could
If I were not budget constrained, what would I do?

• A simple, nice looking marketing website that allowed me the ability to create neighborhood pages containing a specific MLS search and map for that locale or I might just do a blog/website if I found the functionality I wanted in the blog technology (Yes, we CAN help you with this).
• A well configured, custom designed and hosted blog with a heavy linking strategy to both the website and the MLS search
• A very good MLS/IDX search component with lots of data sort options and a back-end lead capture and management component with email drip
• Regular listings videos uploaded to YouTube and embedded to blog posts
• Featured listings widget or MLS quick search for blog integration
• Hire a blog writer to provide a supplemental content foundation
• Create a healthy social networking footprint

Again, these are just my opinions.  Hopefully sharing them has been a benefit.  I’ll leave with one final thought.  There is no “magic” in any of these technologies.  If you buy them and then put in zero effort, they will not work (even your websites need to be tuned regularly!).  At the very least, if you make a monetary investment, you should also commit to the time investment necessary to make each component truly effective.

Have you been wondering where to find out about real estate widgets? Search no more...

There are so many new tech terms to keep up with these days!  You may have heard the word "widget" being thrown around in a tech-oriented conversation, but does anyone really know what a widget is?  Economics made them famous, but a real estate widget?  I remember when I first heard blogs being discussed on headline news and thought to myself, wow we’ve hit the mainstream!  I jumped the gun a little, but we all take baby steps each and every day.  I find the only way to take a step forward is to learn little by little.  Before I embarked on creating this article, I did a Google search for "real estate widgets" and came up with very little of value.  Thus, I decided a great mission would be to tell you all what I know on this subject.  Probably not worthy of emeritus, but a foundation none-the-less.

In simple and general tech terms adding a widget (sometimes also referred to as a badge or snippet) to your website or blog is like inserting a window or a special box that can pull information from a third party resource (usually another website that is pushing data).  Once inserted, the data that is displayed in this "window" on your site manages itself and stays current.  I know, still confusing… let’s think about a specific example - a weather widget is a good one.  Some of you may have seen a small box displayed on a website showing the current weather for a certain local area.  That weather box is most likely pulling data from a third party website such as www.weather.com or the like. 

How did they get it on to the website you ask?  Well every widget is represented by a piece of code - a set of instructions that tell it where to go find that data and keep it current while it’s living on your website or blog.  There are many different kinds of code (HTML, JavaScript, Flash, etc) that power widgets.  Honestly, unless you’re a programmer, you’ll probably never understand the code details (I don’t).  But that’s OK - most widgets are easily created by walking through a simple set of steps offered by the third party provider which allow you to easily make the widget code.  Once you create the widget code, your job as a computer programmer should really be done.  Unless you are a "do-it-yourselfer" when it comes to blogs and websites, all you really need to do is pass the widget code on to your techies and let them install it for you.

And, so… on to the real point of this article - real estate widgets.  If you think about the definition I gave you above, the idea of a real estate widget will start to take shape.  It’s simply a widget that might be beneficial for real estate technology use.  Maybe to gain additional visibility for your listings, or to help generate leads, how about a mortgage calculator, or instant online communication.  I’m willing to bet there are hundreds, however I’d like to give you a list and explanation of a few that I think are useful (and most are free!).

Excellent Real Estate Widgets:

1. VFlyer Listings Widget (www.vflyer.com) - VFlyer allows you to create single property web pages for your listings (up to five listings is free).  This handy service will also help you get additional visibility for those listings by submitting them to online real estate data engines such as Google Base, Trulia, Edgeio, Craig’s List and others.  VFlyer also conveniently allows you to create a featured listings widget for display on your blog or website.  There are several different gallery options to display listings.  This is a great tool - go check it out!  See an example: http://blog.paris911.com (middle lefthand navigation)
2. Postlets listings widget (www.postlets.com) - Postlets is actually quite similar to VFlyer, it creates single property webpages and featured listings widgets that are very much like a classified and also distributes data to online real estate data engines.  Another great free basic service, just a little different format.  In fact, here’s a great comparison of the two: http://activerain.com/blogsview/22683/Postlets-com-vs-VFlyer
3. Feedblitz RSS to Email (www.feedblitz.com) - if you have a blog, this is an incredible tool. It allows people to sign up to receive your blog posts by email instead of through RSS.  It allows you to use your blog as a direct marketing email news system to keep in touch with your existing sphere of influence.  Also free for basic service.  You can see this one in the top left navigation right on this page! 
4. Top Producer Market Snapshot (www.topproducer.com) - this one isn’t free (and actually I’m not sure of the cost), but it is a nice online lead generation tool.  It is basically a sign up form to get local real estate market conditions.  It offers a summary of what is for sale, what just sold and how fast properties are selling in your market.  It also requires viewers to give you name, email and phone to get the data. See an example: http://www.santaclaritarealestateblog.com (top righthand navigation)
5. YouTube Video Gallery (www.youtube.com) - you may or may not be hip to the Youtube craze, but if you have videos on Youtube you also have the ability to create a video gallery widget.  The importance of online video is growing quickly so if you’re curious, go take a look.  See an example: http://blog.julesleni.com
6. Custom widgets "borrowed" from your real estate website for placement on your real estate blog.  That’s right, you can make your own widgets.  One of my favorite things to do is to take an MLS "Quick Search" and add it directly to the navigation within your blog.  A blog helps you gain visibility, turning that visibility into leads is up to you - this is a great way to do that.  (not all of you have a quick search, but often times your IDX provider can make one for you!) See Example at: http://blog.homesmagazine.com (upper lefthand navigation)
7. Picasa Web Albums (http://picasa.google.com) - Not only does this Google tool give you a place to store your property photos online, it also allows you to create cool photo slide shows that you can use on your blogs and websites to showcase those properties!  See an example: http://blog.prescottfinehomes.net (upper righthand navigation)
8. Flickr Photo Badge (www.flickr.com) - similar to Picasa, Flickr gives you a space to store your photos online - you can also create fun photo "badges" for placement on your website or blog based on categories that you create within your photo album.  Flickr photos allow tagging and categorization that helps the pics get picked up in Google.  Another great free service.
9. Meebo Instant Messaging (www.meebome.com) - Want to chat in real time with people directly from your blog or website?  Take a look at Meebo.
10. Jaxtr Phone Link (www.jaxtr.com) - get a widget that links people directly to your phone while keeping your number private - again free!  So much for free time

                           
This should keep you busy for awhile!  Hopefully, this article opens your eyes to the possibilities of the power gained from utilizing widgets.  There are so many to choose from out there - one piece of advise, try not to use too many.  Pick and choose the tools that are right for you so that you can gain the most out of your online marketing websites and blogs!  If anyone else out there knows of a great real estate widget, let the world know - please tell us in a comment!

Are you thinking about business blogging for real estate?  We can help, drop us a line!

Additional Resources
MyTechOpinion Updated Real Estate Widget List

Real Estate consumer moving increasingly toward online Real Estate Resources

Leading- edge Web analytics technology provider and Real Estate Blogsite related products & services partner, Visistat, releases promising data demonstrating an increasing use by consumers of online Real Estate Resources.

Director of Sales and Marketing for VisiStat Tina Bean said,

“We provide data for thousands of brokerages and agents across the country, and because of this, I have been working closely with brokers and agents for some time. It’s no surprise that the figures in this report coincide exactly with what I have been hearing from them, and that is, home buyers are using the Internet to educate themselves and find properties, often long before they engage an agent.”

Useful Listing and Neighborhood amenities website adds 2.3 million businesses

With potential home buyers searching for Real Estate online there has been a growth in sites dedicated to providing local information for consumers.

Information such as community amenities and activities as well as the closest gas station or grocery store. Using a Real Estate Blog agents can utilize their knowledge of the local market plugging these marketing resource in when writing on their local neighborhoods. The usage of third party resources, such as Google Maps, Trulia, Zillow, Walkscore and now PropertyMaps.com are all great examples. This site has similar features to WalkScore and Trulia/Zillow and has just recently added 2.3 million local businesses to aid its results when searching for services near a potential property.

The website also pools local information on schools, fire and police services and the number of sex offenders living in the vicinity…attempting to live up to its motto as a ‘One Stop Shop’. Clearly a great listing and neighborhood resource, agents should use it when blogging about a neighborhood or a particular listing.

California Association of Realtor's Opens Virtual Headquarters in Virtual World

The success of Second Life really has been phenomenal, with people buying and selling items including Real Estate, in fact one of the leading Real Estate franchise company’s, Coldwell Banker has even set up shop there.

However, now it is time for the associations to move in. The Californian Association of Realtors now has set up a headquarters in Second Life! After all Second Life has 9.3 million virtual residents, that is a lot of people who will need a lot of virtual real estate and of course, assisted by a lot of Virtual Agents.

Asides from getting in on the fun and games of Virtual Reality, it is of course a clever marketing ploy. The Association uses the headquarters to market the benefits of using a Realtor in the real world as well as providing other information for visitors.

See the links below to check out Second Life as well as C.A.R.’s Second Life Presence.

Online Encyclopedia Giant Takes on the biggest search engines in the world

With over 8.2 million articles in over 250 languages and having grown from virtually nowhere in just 6 years, Wikipedia is nothing to be sniffed at. The web based encyclopedia is a great resource for children doing their homework or parents researching technology terminology, a vacation hot spot or even a new car.

Wikipedia is true Web 2.0 because it is user generated, with virtually anyone contributing to the resource; however, it can at times have its downside as on rare occasions unscrupulous characters may write something false, obscene or offensive. In such circumstances, the community usually reacts swiftly making Wikipedia a self-policing resource.

Wikipedia is often compared to the over 200 year old British Institution, the Encyclopedia Britannica which has been a knowledge resource for all for generations; however, the latest set of volumes costs over $1000 and Wikipedia is free.

What about the future of the project?

Wikipedia plans to release a new search engine in December called Wikia Search. The hope being that it will be a successful rival to Google and Yahoo! The plan is for anyone with sufficient programming knowledge to contribute to its development, ultimately enhancing the search experience for the consumer.

In theory ,this could prove most useful and similar to other open-source projects such as Linux, which are continually changing and improving. One might argue [from a business perspective] that Google, being such a large corporation, has lost some of its agility.

Of course the business blogging community should take an active interest in this development. Especially as they can help in the development. The development of Wikia Search will take time and adoption by the consumer is also an unknown. Development will combine human resources for ranking sites as well as computer ranking and it is possible the mix will provide a formidable search experience in the future.

Web 2.0 Social Networking Websites can help the visibility of your Internet Marketing Strategy

With the latest news showing that MySpace, News Corps giant social-networking community, has over 100 million members it has enough search usage in its own search facility that it has passed AOL and Ask.com. It has been called ‘the 4th search engine’ and a serious contender to the ‘big three’ - in July MySpace had 551 million searches.

At that critical mass MySpace, which allows you to create your own online profile and to link up with friends and colleagues for free, the community is nothing to sneeze at. While it’s believed that other search engines won’t consider individual MySpace users for their own highly ranked results, by creating a presence in a community of this size you can’t help but believe there’s an opportunity. You certainly have the bonus of being able to socialize, message, search and link up with other colleagues in the MySpace environment! Social Networking communities have become so popular in recent years that MySpace is not alone with Facebook also hitting critical mass. Specialist professional social networking communities such as Active rain and LinkedIn are also potentially useful.

Yahoo is rumoured to be developing its own social-networking website called Yahoo! KickStart, which will be similar to LinkedIn. Using these platforms to your advantage is the key. Facebook, for instance, has a great third party RSS feed application, which you can place onto your profile for your own blog’s feed updates - another marketing avenue (albeit a subtle one).

It appears social networking communities are here to stay. They are a potentially a great way for developing new relationships, for keeping in touch and for reaffirming business and personal friendships!