I still get amazed at the number of online entrepreneurs who don’t understand the ‘dating mindset’ when trying to build their online businesses. Real estate agents are particularly bad at this. But perhaps I shouldn’t be over critical.

I used to be guilty of the same approach before I was shown the correct way to build relationships by a couple of online gurus.

Social media is all the rage. It’s become the ‘in’ word to drop at parties or in the boardroom. You can instantly gain ‘expertise status’ by eluding you know about social media and are a participant in facebook, youtube or twitter. Gosh everybody is doing it.

But the biggest mistake I see on social media pages is ignorant, untrained ‘boffins’ going straight for the juggler as soon as they meet a new ‘buddy’. You know what I mean.

“Thanks for following me. Do you want to make a million dollars. Visit http://wwww. blah blah blah” or

“Please add me as your friend. To learn more about me www.someschmucksite.com ”

But this kind of behaviour is not limited to online boffins. Have a look at how most real estate agents promote themselves.

“Harry Heavy- Hitter. No1 Agent in Slicksville. No.2 Nationwide for XYZ franchise” or

“Thinking of Buying Or Selling, Call Sally Super Agent” or “If you have buyers in the ABC region please refer them to me for a 20% fee etc etc”

WHY would you do business with any of the above. There’s no relationship there. There’s no trust.

Now let’s look at dating. Boy sees girl. Boy likes girl and asks her out on a date. When boy picks up girl in his car and suggests they go straight to a motel, what chances do you give the boy of being successful? Hopefully you said NONE. You’re at a party and the host introduces you to somebody. How popular do you think you’ll be if say something like:

“Hi John. nice to meet you. Pull up a chair. I just so happen to have brought my presentation kit with me and I’d like to talk to you about Amway” You’d soon find yourself the lonliest guy at the party, right!

Well if you wouldn’t do such a thing at a party or on or first date, why do you believe you’ll be successful in business pedalling the ‘go for the juggler’ technique mentioned above.

You need to build relationships with people. You need to build trust. You need to be interested in people. You must give before you want.

Adopt the ‘dating mindset’ when you next converse with people and you’ll be more successful in developing long term business relationships. To discover more about building a massive online business from a 25 year old online guru who’s income shot from $250/mth to $85,000/mth in just 18 months, check out the 7 FREE videos http://www.get-online-success.com  (PS. The same online concepts can be adapted to real estate)

….writing and submitting articles.

Not only can this strategy build you a loyal following, it can deliver targeted visitors, increase your search engine rankings and ultimately, boost sales.

However, it is easy to equate article writing with days of high school or university paper deadlines, and those dreadful all-nighters. Those stressful memories can make article writing seem like hard work, and keep you from taking advantage of this powerful strategy.

I want to get you over that hump today, because the fact is, writing your own articles for the web isn’t difficult at all..

It All Starts With An Idea…

One of the biggest hurdles most writers face is finding ideas to write about. Naturally, you’ll be sticking to your niche, but pinpointing a topic to write can seem challenging.

Once you have decided on a general area, a good way to narrow your article topic down is to focus on the problems that people have.

You may already know the common problems that people have in your particular field, but if not, a good source of information is to look at related online forums and note the most common questions asked. Try a search for your niche at http://groups.google.com/ and you’ll find some active discussions from real people.

Oh, and if you don’t have all the answers, a small bit of research can assist. Often the answers are readily available with a Google search which the readers could do themselves. However, you are adding value and convenience by providing a range of answers in a single article.

Short and Simple is the Rule Online…

Most people don’t like to read large documents from the Web, so your articles can be as short as 300 – 600 words long.

If you break the article into an introduction, a small number of sub-headings and a conclusion you may only have to write about 100 words in each section. You’d be surprised how fast the words add up.

The first draft should be for your eyes only. Don’t try to produce a final copy as you write. It tends to be much quicker to get your thoughts down and come back to edit later.

The final step in the writing process is to proofread your article making sure that the writing flows and would be interesting to the reader.

Ask yourself, ‘does the article provide information the potential reader is looking for?’ Also ask yourself if you can you get your message across using less words.

Finally, if possible, have someone else proofread the article, not only looking for spelling and grammatical errors, but helping you cut out the “fluff”.

Once you have your article completed, what you DO with the article is even more important. I’ll cover that next.

How to get a ton of traffic from your articles…

Perhaps the most important thing about article writing is what you do with your articles once you’ve completed them. Here are the four things you must do with each of your articles, to leverage them into traffic and income.

1. Add an ‘About the Author’ section after your article, with a link to your website.

This is where you tell readers about yourself or your site, and give them a call to action. Make them an irresistible offer they cannot refuse, such as a free product or service.
 

2. Add the article to your own website.

Each article you write should get it’s own page at your site or blog. Search engines love original content and the more you add to your site, the better your ranking will be in your niche.
 

3. Publish the article in your own newsletter and send it to your subscriber list.

If you do not have a subscriber list, you need to start growing one right away. You can do that by converting your best articles into an ebook and giving it away at your site via an opt-in list subscribe form. Here’s the tool I use to automate that process.
 

4. Submit your article to article directories and newsletter publishers in your niche.

As other websites publish your article, you receive one-way back links. That not only results in direct traffic, it improves your search engine ranking faster than you might imagine.

Note: Submitting articles can be a tedious and time-consuming process. If you want to save time, consider an article submission service.

In Closing…

After writing your first few articles you will find that it is not nearly as daunting as it first appears. You never know, you may even want to offer your services as a freelance writer on the Internet as a way to make some extra income.

But one thing’s for sure, you’ll never find a better “grass roots” strategy for marketing on the Internet. In fact, if you do it right you may see an increase of thousands of website visitors a month — not to mention a sharp increase in sales.

I can personally attest to the power of this strategy, as I used it extensively to build my list into the thousands. And you can do it too!

YOU are your biggest asset. It’s imperitive that the public knows you, respects you and perceives you as an expert in your field. How do you establish that?

Put up more signs, advertise on bus shelters, run ads in the community newspaper and tell everybody that you’re ‘No.1 in the office…No.1 advertiser in the XYZ newspaper…etc etc”  NO! The buying and selling public don’t give a dam about you. They are not sitting in the wings waiting for the day they can do business with you. They don’t care about you.

They’ve got a problem. To buy a house at a bargain basement price or sell a home for top dollar in the shortest possible time. Simple. That’s it. And they are looking for the agent who can solve this problem.

So the agent who markets themselves as the person who can solve other people’s problems will win the business. How does an agent attract people with problems (buyers and sellers) to him/her. They need to establish YOU.Inc.

YOU.Inc is a hub where leads are feed into. The best way to establish a hub is to start your own blog.

Blogs

Blogs are simple to establish but difficult to sustain. They require real comittment. Free services provided by Blogger and WordPress are the best but if you are going to be selling products and services from your blog (and I recommend you do adopt a multi income approach), then I’d suggest you get an account at WordPress.org. It’s also free but you will require your own hosting. Bluehost run my blog and I’ve found them to be very good. There are a ton of templates to choose from when setting up your blog; most of which are free. Check out WordPress templates or google ‘free wordpress templates for more suggestions.

Your blog needs to be infomative and ideally updated daily with content rich articles or videos. Do not attempt to sell properties on your blog. This is a vehicle where you can build trust worthy relationships with your reading public; some of whom may buy or sell a property through you. In furure posts I also show you how to monetize your blog so you can create additional funds from those who never buy or sell a property with you. It’s part of what I call the funded proposal concept.

Feeding Your Blog

Establishing YOU.Inc as the real estate expert needs regular feeding of targetted, fresh leads. This can be done through both offline and online marketing using free or paid strategies.

Free Online Marketing Strategies

1. Email Signature.

Every email you send out should include a signature. eg

Regards
Greg Reed
For great tips, ideas and articles on real estate marketing, please visit my blog http://www.magneticrealestateleads.com

2. Video Marketing

Youtube is the No.3 most visited traffic site. You MUST have a channel. Grab an inexpensive video recorder  like a Flip video camera or webcam (I like Logitech) and start recording your own videos. Check out my channel.

3. Facebook, Twitter and Myspace

With over 355 million accounts Facebook is the 5th ranked most visited site. Twitter is the fastest growing social media site in the world today virtually doubling every 90 days. By year end, Twitter will have approx 50 million users. Myspace is also another great medium but has a few more restrictions (it’s a Murdoch owned product)

4. Linked In

Grab an account and set up your profile. Many sellers are now scouting this site to discover more about their potential agents as well as prospective recruitment companies are finding LinkedIn as an invaluable source for heading top agents.

5. Article Marketing

Writing content rich articles is a great way to build relationships with buyers and seller. Ezine Articles is the grand daddy of directories to have your articles published on but there are a number of other outlets as well. I use iSnare to upload my articles to 40,000 directories.

6. Forums/Discussion Boards

There are a ton of real estate discussion forums on the internet. Google ‘real estate forums’ to get an extensive list. Join a few, create a signature back to your blog, and post regularly. Jump in for about 15 minutes a day and answer questions to other people’s problems and in no time you’ll be building solid relationships with buyers and sellers.

If you adopt the above strategy with consistency, your funnel of fresh, targetted leads to your blog will flourish and you’r quickly establish YOU.Inc as a leader in the real estate industry.

Let’s look at what the ‘naysers’ are saying about Twitter:

Valid comments I suppose but here’s  few positives that can combat these negative thoughts:

Whatever your take on Twitter, it’s here to stay. Join the band.

But like all social network sites, Facebook is a place to mix with other people, develop relationships and potentially engage in business. It is not a place to advertise products or services UNLESS you adopt a very unique approach. We address this approach in future posts but for now let’s look at setting up a Facebook account correctly so as to capitalise on a solid foundation when business opportunities arise.

Step 1

Open an account at http://www.facebook.com This will only take a few minutes. Complete your details, click the sign up button and you’ll be sent a confirmation email that your account is ready for activation. Do this and you’re away.

Step 2

Create and polish your profile. Make sure you let people know who you are and what you are about. This is a critical step and should not be hurried. Here you can also link your other interests, websites and blogs. If you need to add or delete any information here, you simply click on the edit button.

Visits some of the great Facebook sites like Mari Smith, the Queen of Facebook, and get a feel of how the professionals put this area together. Remember success leaves clues. Learn from the best.

Step 3

Join a Network. If you indicate your location when you register you’ll be automatically connected to a network. However if you are targetting people in other areas or even countries you can nominate your preferred network.

Step 4

Join Groups. Once again depending on who you are trying to connect with, search for Groups where like minded individuals hang out. Facebook allows you to join around 200 groups; so you’ve got plenty of scope. Enter the specific tye of group you are looking for into the search bar and you’ll be presented with a list of groups you can join.

Step 5

Participate in Discussion Groups. The more you are active within your chosen groups; the more people will be attracted to you. Make sure you post relevant, valuable content and skip the cheesey sales pitch. If you are perceived as a person who can help; then your relationships and ultimately your database will continue to grow.

At the end of each post make sure you are using a signature file that includes your website or blog url. If people like what they read, they’ll click onto your site.

Get these basic steps right and you’ll lay a solid foundation to creating a strong following on Facebook which will ultimately lead to more business for you. Get started now. And once you’ve got your account established, please add me as a friend by visiting http://www.facebook.com/whoisgregreed

I once asked a group of real estate agents this question centered around McDonalds. What type of business is McDonalds in I asked.

A flurry of “the hamburger business” you dummy came rocketing back to me. Well yes McDonalds do sell hamburgers but I believe they are only the ‘lead in ‘ product to what McDonalds are really selling. Soft drinks, fresh salads and coffee is where the real money is made.

What about Subway? The sandwich business? Well ever since Jake lost 30 lbs, Subway has been in the weight loss business. Just look at their advertising. ‘Less than 6 grams of fat…’

So what type of business are real estate agents in? Yes they do service buyers and sellers but how do they meet such parties?

Lead generation is the key to a successful real estate agents long term career.

If you sell a product like real estate or service like property management, you should lead your promotions with information about solving problems, not information about the product or service itself.

It’s an old cliché, but it bears repeating:

Nobody who bought a drill wanted a drill. They wanted a hole.

What this means for you is that instead of providing information about drills, you should deliver information about making holes. You’ll get a LOT more sales leads – with fewer literature collectors – and build more rapport with prospective customers that way.

This is Massively Huge!

Master this skill and you’ll have a flood of leads coming through your door. No more cold calling. No more buying leads. No more door knocking!

Lead generation is the name of the game! Without fresh, qualified, targetted leads you have no business.