What is the Seller Area?
A private area where you, the seller, can login to view information and statistics about your newly listed home and provide additional details about the listing if you wish.
From the Seller Area You Can:
- Preview your listing (as displayed on this website)
- See a copy of the listing brochure
- Access detailed reports on the performance of their online listing (automatically generated and updated by your site)
- View notes regarding their listing (from you to them)
- Use RSS feeds to view notes from me to you
- Upload your own additional details, photos and memories of your home using a text editor
You will be provided with a URL and login for your newly listed home once it's in the system!
The Seller Login is located at the bottom of the listing.
In a few months, Google will be discontinuing uploads on Google Video. Since this is a big change for Google's site, they wanted to make sure they answered your questions about it.
- Why is Google Video discontinuing uploads? Is Google Video shutting down?
No, Google Video will continue to focus our mission on search and search technology. This move will allow Google Video to spend more time on technologies that make the information contained in online video more available and accessible, enabling users to search all kinds of videos across the web.
- Does this change only apply to new and future accounts?
No, this change will apply to all accounts.
- If I currently have an account, can I still upload videos?
You won't be able to upload videos to Google Video, but Google will still offer hosting services. Your Google Video account will enable you to upload videos to Picasa and YouTube.
- Will all of the videos in my Google Video account be deleted?
No. The videos that are already in your account will remain hosted by Google Video. You will still have access to all the existing management tools for them.
- What do I have to do before this change? Do I need to notify Google Video that I want my videos to stay up?
You do not need to notify Google. Your videos will remain on the site.
- Can you transfer all of my videos to YouTube or Picasa?
While Google encourages you to move your content, we are unable to transfer it for you.
Your Real Estate Website is the Most Important Marketing Tool You Have!
Today home buyers are going to the Internet to start their process. In order to remain competitive, real estate professionals need to utilize "inbound" marketing techniques to "get found" by buyers searching for homes and home sellers.
"Do you want to be found by more prospects?"
"Do you want to convert more prospects into leads and clients?"
To Do List:
Create more, better, optimized content
Create more, better, offers and calls to action
Website Redesign Tips
1. Goal: More visitors and leads.
The reason you're redesigning your website is to increase conversion rates, and this is achieved through content, conversion tools, IDX, etc. The icing on the cake would then be a nice pleasing website "surround" for the viewer. Focus on the infamous phrase "what's in it for me (the buyer/seller)?" (WIIFM), not a nicely redesigned "look" but the same stagnate content.
2. Avoid pitfalls.
Your existing website has a lot of assets that you have built up. These assets help your prospects find your website and help you turn them into leads and clients. You need to find out what these assets are (great content, keywords you rank for, inbound links to individual pages, conversion tools) and protect them carefully during a redesign.
3. Spend resources on remarkable content that attracts and converts. Not expensive design.
Bet you never thought I'd say that being a web designer myself. The design should be pleasing and layout user-friendly, but that does not mean expensive. Focus on the content of the website for conversion. Allot more of the budget for content and conversion tools (IDX) and less for design.
4. Create an ongoing content building strategy.
If you have more content, on average you will have more website visitors and grow your business faster. A 100 page website will beat a 10 page website 90% of the time. So build a strategy to continue to add more and more content to your website over time. Blogging makes creating content easy.
5. Enable conversion experiments.
The key to driving your conversion rate and the number of leads you get from your website over time is to constantly improve the effectiveness of your conversion tools - this usually means your landing pages. If you build a completely static website and have to go to a consultant or IT person each and every time you want to set up a new landing page or to change an existing page, you might be limiting your ability to quickly experiment and improve.
6. Include a blog, RSS, landing pages, SEO
Any website built today should include these basics.
Visit Nancy's eNewsletter for Point2 Tips & Tricks!
I noticed this just yesterday and you'll all be so excited!! Anchors for long pages of text, hex# can be input for text colors instead of just choosing what's available!
Take note: The "Design" and "HTML" tabs at the bottom of a content box are now just labeled "Source" - you always start out in design and if you want to switch back and forth, just keep clicking the "Source" tab at the top left of the content editor toolbar.
A pic is below for you...
When Point2 populates your website upon signing-up, pages are automatically populated too. When the Home Evaluation page is populated, it's automatically pulling in "Toronto" no matter what's in your profile.
Point2 is aware of this and taking care of it, but it will be on any new sites populated going forward.
So double check this 
This is a Mini-Series devoted to two tables...
Table 1 is a typical table with 4 rows, 3 columns.
Table 2 is the same table...WHOLE NEW LOOK!
By playing around a little bit in your "html" tab of content, you can create amazing things!
Click here to view the tables and take the challenge!
Real Estate Internet Marketing... To gain and nurture real estate clients, nothing works better than sending out a quarterly or monthly eNewsletter. This is "drip, drip, drip" marketing that keeps you in touch with clients and prospects so that when they are ready to buy or sell a home, you are the real estate agent they will contact. And email newsletters enjoy the phenomenon of "viral marketing," wherein they get forwarded to relatives and friends. So, your potential return on the effort invested in a real estate newsletter is multiplied. 
You can use your email newsletter to promote featured listings to your mailing list. Not only are you keeping in front of your potential buyers, sellers and investors, your eNewsletter can also bring them directly to your Website. And this only costs you pennies daily, much much less than a direct-mail campaign with all its printing, handling and mailing charges. | If you have the time and are willing to learn the process, you can do this yourself using the same leading solution we will - Constant Contact. But if you are concerned about learning how to set everything up and transferring your existing email contact list over, we can do it for you for a nominal fee (fees vary depending on content desired and email list size). CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE! |
I've had some inquiries about the little graphic that I insert on all my customized Point2 websites.
Here it is! I try to keep up with all the new syndication partners and any that aren't partners anymore so this is complete as of today - fresh outta the oven! Anybody feel free to email me if you see anything that needs fixing :-)
Enjoy!
And hopefully when the time comes that you want to enhance your Point2 website look, you'll think of www.nancygolliday.com!
Point2 websites are awesome! I haven't seen any other real estate website platform out there where you get so many features, and the flexibility to take away any hint of a template! You can easily find "one or the other"
We're redefining the search engine optimization experience for Point2 members...
Hassle-Free Search Engine Optimization Services!
No Yearly Contracts
You Can Cancel At Anytime (at the end of any given month)
FREE & Paid Consultations Available
We Work Within Your Budget
Bi-Monthly & Monthly Reporting
That pretty much sums it up!
Check us out at www.seoredefined.com
Double check your selling areas. I had a client who received an inquiry for a listing that was really pretty far for her and she couldn't figure out why it was even showing up. It was just because when the site was originally set up, a box was checked next to the county and she really didn't want that county.
Here's a trick with the selling areas...
The little boxes next to counties/cities/neighborhoods allows you to "choose all" or "unchoose all" - play around with clicking, it will fill up or stay blank - you'll see...same with the neighborhoods.
For those of you with domains purchased through Yahoo and haven't been billed your yearly hosting fee...HEADS UP - Yahoo has recently increased their pricing from $9.95/year to $39.95/year!
If you are like me, you may have some domains in GoDaddy, some in Gem3, some in Yahoo...with this drastic price increase, I'm moving everything over to GoDaddy. Yes, it's a little time consuming, but now's the time to do it if you have anything in Yahoo and don't want to pay that price.
Just wanted to pass the word!
I bet you're all wondering if you're going to lose all those pages you created if you find financially that you need to downgrade back to the Standard membership with your Point2 site...
WELL...GREAT NEWS!!!!
It just becomes "Inactive" - now remember, it doesn't just magically become "Active" again until you change its status - and this has to be done for every page.
So with some tweaking, your site will be restored if and when you go back to Professional.
As if there's not enough to remember when you switch real estate brokerages...
But don't forget the details down to your metatags...the title or description and/or even keywords may contain your old brokerage's name. And these pages take a long time to be removed from the search engine results. The time varies, but to give you an example, I still have an old page from my personal site (a non Point2 site) showing up under a particular search that is hidden and has not been referenced anywhere for about 6 months! It honestly baffles me, but gives you an example.
So don't forget changing your account info, any information in your content that may reference your old brokerage, and your metatags! And just remove it altogether...don't put yourself or your brokerage in your metatags except on the About Us/Me page, the About (Brokerage) page, and the Contact Us/Me pages. And think about it, if somebody does want to look you up, aren't these the pages you'd want them to see first anyway?
Blogging with links to pages within your site (not just the home page) and back to the blog from pages in your site "steer" the spiders to relevant links (both inbound and reciprocal).
If you want to move up in particular "area" searches or "narrowed" searches (i.e. waterfront homes in ______) BLOG ABOUT IT and make a dedicated page in your site for that town, neighborhood, whatever. If no dedicated page is made, then link the viewer/spiders to listings. It needs to be relevant to the search phrase.
** To do a regular phrase link, type the phrase (i.e. "waterfront homes in Brentwood Forest AL") then highlight it and click on the little chain link up in the toolbar of the content box. This is where you'll put in the actual URL of the page you want to link to (this would link to "that dedicated page or somewhere in your site showing these listings).**
Get in the habit of writing about these areas and linking back and forth between your site(s) and your blog(s). Add graphics and make it stand out! And don't forget about the ActiveRain Customizer! Awesome tool!!!
Now when a viewer searches for "waterfront homes in Brentwood Forest AL" you have a second chance to be found!
Click here for more information on blogging and Point2 New Member Tips
Once you've had a chance to get to know what pages you're "really" using in your Point2 site, it's time to "clean house" on the inside. Delete pages that you're not using. If something is hidden, but it is referenced somewhere in the site, then you need to keep it. That's what you need to watch for. You may have forgotten a link exists to a hidden page "somewhere in your site"...and for those that have 70-80 page sites, I FEEL FOR YA'!!! But it must be done! No way around it. Here's why:
1) You want whoever is doing your SEO to be able to see what's actually being used so they can optimize just those pages and not have to thumb through a bunch of pages that you really may not be using. Hence, I'm finding out that SEO firms aren't making this part of their practice for organic SEO. They are focusing on the key phrases that you pay for and that's it. So it's a 2-way street here. They can't help you if you don't help them.
2) If you're doing your own Organic SEO, then cleaning house will make it so much easier for you!!!
COMMAS VS DASHES VS :: VS | VS..........
Use whatever you want, just keep in mind that you have an 80 character window for the Title to be considered "search engine friendly" - that's just the title. I'm finding that commas are becoming more popular to get as much in that space as possible. Description should be a catchy phrase still using search phrases and include your phone # and name...part of this is seen on the actual google search page when your site comes up, so think of what will make the viewer pick your site over the other 9 on page 1...i.e. MLS SEARCH - NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED or BEAT OTHERS TO YOUR DREAM HOME! or whatever you like. I'm going to say 150-200 characters. I've read various #'s here. Keywords: 150-200 characters. Keep in mind these really are not being indexed or "crawled" anymore, but still put them in for kicks and grins and good practice. I use all lower case letters and a comma between phrases or words I want to separate.
Log-In to your site, and click on the Website "Jump To" Edit" and go to edit your website. On the left will be a dropdown arrow showing all the pages (unhidden and hidden - it can get messy if you haven't "cleaned house") - you'll be clicking on each individual page and then clicking on "Page Name & Search Engine Options" - this is where you'll enter relevant phrases that you want to be found for...area related and using "Real Estate" and "Homes" and other narrowed down phrases, such as luxury homes, waterfront homes, depending on your specific area and niche market if you have one.
If this sounds like a too time consuming venture for you, this is included in my New Member Special.
Have fun!!!!
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