Important News about YOUR DOMAIN NAME!

~ Read Immediately ~

A domain name is your unique identity on the Internet. The name secures visibility, name association and name recognition for you and your real estate business.  

When does your DOMAIN NAME expire? Please do yourself a favor and CHECK the expiration date of your Domain Name TODAY.

Does your DOMAIN NAME include correct and updated contact information?

Please call Customer Support at 866-518-1571 or email us for more information regarding your domain name renewal.  

Past Marketing Tips regarding this topic:

www.advancedaccess.com/marketing/marketing139.htm

www.advancedaccess.com/marketing/marketing128.htm 

Show Your Patriotic Spirit and Watch Your Business Explode

Driving down the streets of my community during the Fourth of July weekend was a wonderful and patriotic sight. Over 75% of the homes had our national flag proudly waving in the sky, and there were two to three mini flags placed on the corner of each lawn with a REALTORS® business card attached. Many of the neighbors took the flags and placed them artfully in their flower beds. In my city, a community parade featuring decorated golf carts, bicycles, and home made floats marched majestically down our main boulevard. That night, celebratory fireworks were set off in the sky in explosions of light, and no matter what the people wore, most of us all had something on with the red, white and blue to join in the spirit of the festivities. 

With the holiday weekend behind us, why not try to make the patriotic feelings of Independence Day last the entire year. Showing your patriotic spirit now is more important than ever. With the 2nd anniversary of 9/11 approaching, the war in Iraq, our troops in far away countries, and terrorism still on the rise, why not demonstrate your patriotism all year round. 

Typically the Fourth of July is a day to gather around and celebrate with your friends and neighbors. With summer upon us, family and friends gathering at parks or beaches is an age old custom. Whether you were getting together at a friend's house to barbecue, at a local park for a city-wide party, or traveling for a nice relaxing getaway, I hope you remembered to take your business essentials! I'm not referring to a laptop and cell phone either. Group gatherings are a great place to network. Don't forget the business cards that feature your website address, and let them know they can find ALL the listings in the area on your website, along with featured properties, and buyer/seller advice. Remember to bring these essentials to future summer gatherings. 

With interest rates down and stocks on the rise, more people are buying and selling than ever. It never hurts to mention your career in real estate. Everyone always has a comment about the real estate market. Nowadays, it's not unusual to be having a conversation with a friend and find that they're either involved in or know someone who is involved in a refinance, searching for new home, or thinking of selling. It's an easy conversation starter to say, for example:

You: "Wow, the real estate market is pretty busy lately with those low interest rates." 

Friend: "Yes! My parents have been looking for a new home for ages. Everything is being snapped up so quickly. They live up in Oregon though and are taking their time to look." 

You: "Well, tell them to visit my website at www.MyDomain.com because I have some great buyer's tips to help them in their search. By the way, have you been to my website? It has some helpful info about the mortgage rates and market conditions in our area. If you have a card, I can email you the address later!" 

What was the objective of your casual conversation? The point was to subtly pass along the hint to visit your website for tips regarding the real estate business. Yes, you need to network among people in your own geographic area. Getting the word out about the business you are in is a great marketing idea. Even if the people you speak to directly aren't buying or selling, you never know who they might know. This is called your Sphere of Influence. Encourage your friends, family, and neighbors to go to your website to read your monthly news. (First, be sure you are adding some type of monthly news!) 

Why not incorporate the summertime and patriotic theme into an EXPLOSIVE marketing plan for the next several months. After all, many of us keep our flags flying long after the end of the summer, and the spirit of patriotism is something we to which ALL can relate.

How can showing your spirit make a difference in your business after the 4th of July?
Here are some helpful ideas: 

- Change your template to reflect a red or blue colored theme.

- Add a page about 'Supporting the Troops' who are still in Iraq and other countries.

- Add a section about your past 4th of July activities, showing off your community involvement.

- Feature American Flags in your website to remind people you are a citizen of the United States. Be sure to link the patriotic icons to your page that you created (see above!).

With flags flying everywhere around town - on homes, cars, and businesses, being patriotic is not only back in style, it might just make a difference in your real estate business.

Link Popularity Update

Real Estate & Mortgage Resources has all the real estate information you need. They also have a nice directory to add your website to.  

Here's how to get started ~

Visit the link below to get the code to add to your website:
www-real-estate.com/real-estate/real-estate-agents-list.shtml

- Once you have added their link to your website, visit the link below:
www-real-estate.com/links

- Click on 'Add a Site'

- Fill out the form.  You will be added to their website promptly. 

If you have any questions on adding a reciprocal link from your site please don't hesitate to contact us.     

"I want to especially thank you for taking the initiative in calling to help me improve our site. We are consistently working 60-70 hour weeks and upgrading the web site is pretty low on our priority list at the time. Your taking the time and initiative to help us makes a most positive impression on me and, Primarily, helps me keep the site much more up to speed by keeping it in my vision. Very positive step which helps cement our relationship. Also, Jamie did a great job of making suggestions and stopped short of completely overloading me. Very positive session, which I greatly appreciate."

Al Noblin

"I am thrilled with my AA website! I had a company website for four years before switching to AA almost a year ago. In the four years I paid my company $40 per month I did not receive ONE lead! Within four months with AA I had four solid leads that closed. By April of this year I had already brought in more than $30K in NET commissions directly from my site. Currently I have two sales getting ready to close from website contacts -- one at $1.1 million and the other at almost $400K. Prior to my AA site, my average sale was in the mid 200's!

When I was thinking of going with AA, I did the same thing you did. I checked out AA websites and emailed Realtors. But, I did it "blind," as I figured that AA would only give me people who were thrilled with their sites. So, I found a dozen random AA websites and email the owners. About eight got back to me within the day and each one said they really liked their website. Most could credit the site with between 20-50% of their business. They gave AA high marks for customer service and ease of working on their website (to me, at the time it seemed daunting, so it was a relief to have them say it was easy to learn).

I really can't praise them enough and feel that, without a doubt, it's the best investment I've made in my career! I have the "Basic" site with no frills, so it's not like you have to go overboard to get good results.

If you decide to go with them, I have two pieces of advice which I feel made a big difference in my success rate. First, take the time to really "tweak" your site quickly (say, within a month). AA will hand-submit your site to the search engines within about six weeks and you really want the search engines to grab ahold of your site as "unique." It's not difficult to learn how to tweak your site and it's well worth the effort.

Another biggie is to try and implement the tips that AA sends weekly in their Weekly Tips email. I made it a point to take advantage of their sage advice from the beginning and it really helped me improve my site immensely.

One tip would be to go into Google with a notebook handy and type in your town's name -- or nearby towns and then also nearby recreation places like amusement parks and such. When Google gives you different sites, check them out. Are they well done? Would they be an asset to your site? If so, copy down their URL and the name of the site (or name of the attraction) and then go on to the next site or town or amusement. Keep them all in a notebook. When you get your website, type each one that you've found into your page called "Community Links." The same with "Favorite Links." Look around the internet for "favorite" links that you think may be helpful to others. (You can check out my site for some ideas.)

The things that