What is a Browser?

That may seem like a silly question if you make your living online and work on a computer 10 hours a day. But are you making assumptions about what your website visitors know that might be killing your site conversions or preventing a large number of your site visitors from taking positive actions (or any kind of actions) on your website?

I am not suggesting or otherwise recommending one browser over another, would just encourage you to think a little more about your website, and what your site visitors may or may not know.  Don’t assume they know what you do! It could be costing you a LOT of lost business.

Until next time,

Follow me on Twitter!
Ed

75 Percent of People Buy Their Home Online – Realtors – Are You Ready?

Real Estate Internet Marketing is gaining a lot of importance these days, and is very important for those engaged in selling real estate online.  According to a survey conducted by a top-rated magazine, more than 75% of people now depend on the Internet to buy their dream home.

Since many Realtors have their own sites on the web with features such as pictures of properties as well as floor plans, it has enabled the potential customers to experience hassle-free home buying.  A website not only allows a Realtor to promote listed properties, but also to promote the services they render.

But, there is such a large number of real estate-related websites that it has now become an overwhelming process for a particular real estate website to get ranked high among the search engine results.  Herein lies the role of real estate internet marketing.

A large number of proven real estate internet marketing techniques are now adopted to improve the ranking of a real estate-related website for better search engine visibility, such as search engine optimization, search engine submission, pay-per-click marketing, link analysis, affiliate marking, and e-mail marketing. Among which, perhaps the most prominent one is search engine optimization, or SEO.

Real Estate SEO contains a series of strategic and technical solutions including a selection of the most appropriate keywords, preparing search engine friendly content, linking and submitting the website to major search engines like Google and Yahoo.  All of these factors work together to enhance a real estate agents’ website ranking in the search engines for real estate related keywords.  Although real estate SEO work can be done by business owners themselves, it is better to seek assistance of an experienced SEO firm.

A reputable SEO firm conducts a detailed analysis on your real estate business as well as your target markets, apart from structuring your real estate website with appropriate search terms, synchronizing Meta title and descriptions, and formulating link popularity programs.

Any Realtor who’s serious about competing online should move forward with proven real estate marketing techniques like real estate SEO.

Until next time…

Follow Me on Twitter!

Ed

Managing All The Information Overload

These days, we are all in danger of “Information Overload”. I read an article some time ago about Information Overload, and that was before much of the Information we are overloaded today even existed. When that article first came out, there was no such thing as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or many of the RSS feeds we have so readily available to us today.

Now, it’s not uncommon for one to have accounts in all of the social networks, and subscribe to hundreds of RSS feeds as well.

One of my clients recently told me he was getting over 1000 email’s a day, and had over 1200 unread items in his RSS Reader.

Is this the ideal way of getting information?

If this sounds like you, then it’s time for you to get a grip on reality and realize that you have about the equivalent of getting a Sunday edition of the New York Times delivered to your door every day of the year!

Over subscribing to free content via RSS feeds and email newsletters is an invitation to “Information Overload Disaster”. You’re probably getting far more information delivered to your in-box and RSS reader than you could ever hope to read.

I’m guilty of bookmarking sites I visit, all with the best intentions of going back there one day, but in reality, I very rarely ever get back there, because in the following days, I’m inundated with even more stuff, more links, more places to get more information.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

It’s time to start some RSS and Social Network housecleaning!

These days, more information is published online every 24 hours than you could read in five years. The key to managing it is to be more selective, not less. So ruthlessly unsubscribe to e-zines, RSS feeds, etc. until you get only what you absolutely need.  Even then, you won’t have time to read even a small fraction of what you get. But at least your inbox will be somewhat under control.

I challenge you: Unsubscribe from 10 newsletters today. Remove every RSS feed from your reader (Bloglines, Google Reader, whatever you use) that you know you don’t have (or take) time to read daily. Just unsubscribe from them.

You will feel less like you are in the Information Overload mode, and more like you can handle what you see.

It’s insane that we keep piling on more and more information, when we have less and less time to do our jobs. Where will it all end?

In writing this post, I removed myself from 14 email newsletters or updates I had been getting for a long time, and unchecked 22 of the RSS feeds I had been monitoring. It felt really good!

Are you suffering from “Information Overload?”

Please share a comment below and tell me what you did today to trim some of the fat off of your Information Overload.

In the meantime, FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER (Unless that’s one of the places you choose to “unload”) 😉

Ed

Online Business Scams, Shady Tactics & Half Truths

When it comes to making money online, you’ll find there are a lot of claims floating around out there.  Thankfully there aren’t too many outright scams, and most of those that are can be fairly easy to identify.  The real problems lie with outrageous claims of overnight fortunes, questionable “business opportunities”, and half truths.

Scams can range from ponzi schemes to modern versions of mail fraud. Once you’re looking for ways to make money online for a little while, you’re sure to come across some of these:

Gifting Schemes – It’s not illegal to give an individual a gift of money but it IS illegal to try and make money with gifting schemes. Any kind of gifting “system” or “business opportunity” is something to stay miles away from, because people get arrested and jailed for these types of scams frequently.

Money Collections – These types of scams are disguised in many forms, but the basic setup usually claims to be a job offer. The “company” needs workers in the U.S. to collect money from their clients, and forward that money onto them. The “worker” unfortunately sends the company money from their own bank account, only to find out later that the client payments or deposits were fraudulent.

There are hundreds more scams and illegal “opportunities” online, but the two above are quite common and they should help you to start being able to easily identify others you may come across in the future.

Shady Tactics and Half Truths are more difficult to identify, and they’re much easier to fall for. Some people continue to fall for these types of “opportunities” many times. Let’s look at a couple of examples…

Data Entry Jobs – There are valid data entry jobs online but they’re not nearly as prolific as some of the advertisements would have you believe. And unfortunately many say that all you have to do is type ads into a form on Google, and you’ll earn x dollars per ad. The truth of the matter is,  you have to pay for the ads you place on Google, and not every ad you place will actually earn money. Because after placing the ads, people have to click on your ad and actually make some sort of purchase before you’ll earn anything.

The actual process is a bit complicated and it takes quite awhile for most people to learn. If you’re interested in understanding more about how this works, search the web for “Google AdWords” and you will find thousands of pages of information available about it. Do not however, pay for a service, book, job, or opportunity which claims you can make money doing “data entry” like this on Google, or any of the other online advertising sites for that matter.

Survey Jobs – There are also many places online where you can legitimately make money taking surveys and filling out opinion polls. The legitimate forms of these opportunities are few and far between, but many products and services want you to believe you can make hundreds of dollars each week online doing surveys… if you just pay them $49.95 first.

It is quite possible to be paid for doing surveys, and there are many sites you can sign up for online which give you the information for free. Usually however, you receive very few surveys to fill out regularly. In fact, getting just one each month is rare. There are also many places which will send you many surveys each month, but after spending 10-15 minutes or more filling out each one you find that you’re not qualified for that survey, thus they aren’t going to pay you anything for it.

Last but not least, there are sales letters which are designed to make you believe you can become a millionaire overnight, or claim to have the “secret” to making easy money with your computer, and so on and so forth. These claims are usually based on some level of truth, but they often leave out some critical details, or they gloss over the fact that it could take years to reach a certain income level.

For example, one money making opportunity may claim that you can make $1000 every day following their business model. What you may not realize however – and they don’t always reveal – is they spent $995 to make that $1000. Or they were able to make $1000 once in the last 5 years.

You also need to be aware that many people will make claims, then provide “proof” of their claims with pictures of income screen shots or checks they’ve received. Be aware that it’s very easy to edit pictures with software, so the amounts of money stated in those “proof” pictures may be, and often times is,  falsified.

Use common sense when looking for online businesses. If it looks too good to be true, it usually is.

 

Until next time,

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER!

Ed