Well, the how isn’t totally clear right now, but what we do know for sure is that links to our sites play a major role in our page rank and relevancy when evaluated by search engines.  We also know that Tweets are full of links to all sorts of websites, news feed, etc.

And now we know that Google and Bing two of the three big dogs in search engines are negotiating with Twitter for direct access to their feeds.  Suppose you have content on your site or blog that someone tweets about and it ‘goes viral’ or to some lesser extent spreads broadly.  You could suddenly have thousands or tens of thousands of new links to your site or blog.

If you’re a small business owner and beginning to realize just how critical web presence is to your growth and success, pay attention.  Get on the learning curve for Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and any others that appear, or at least have your webmaster or web designer start the process for you.

It’s becoming more and more important to make an Internet marketing professional a part of your virtual advertising team–even if you are a very small business.  Don’t look back.  Take advantage of what you know.

Spam sites usually are only registered for one year.  Therefor a site that has a multiple year registration may be perceived as unlikely to be a spam site.  Payment for several years in advance usually saves the registrant a percentage of the single year fee so it makes good sense to invest in a 5 or 10 year registration.

If you have some practical experience with this aspect of Internet marketing for REALTORS® I’d appreciate hearing about it.

By Amanda Gengler, Money magazine writer

 Homes are selling again, but the market today is divided by price point. Your best strategy depends on where your home sits on that spectrum.

The bottom tier (hot)

The lowdown: A big chunk of the 1.9 million post-boom foreclosures have been among the least expensive 35% of homes. Bargain prices on these foreclosures and a new tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers have lured investors and would-be homeowners back to the market, even in hard-hit areas, says Pat Lashinsky, CEO of online brokerage ZipRealty.

See the compete article

Internet Readiness Quiz

If you are satisfied that you are getting plenty of business from the Internet DON’T TAKE THIS QUIZ!

If you think you’re not getting your fair share of Internet leads, take the quiz.  (This is for your info only.  You will not submit the answers.) (Does not show on Smartphones)

If your answers are a bit discouraging, take heart.  Only a very few business owners will be happy with their answers.  The good news is that if you make the effort and investment in time and money to improve these answers you will be at the top of the pyramid.  10% of the websites get 90% of the available Internet leads.  You can be in that 10%.

When you mentally design the web page you would like to use to sell your product or service, do you design it for what you like, for what your prospect likes, or what you think your prospect likes?

I’ll bet it’s the last option.  Be very suspicious if that’s true especially if you’ve based your ideas on past experience with media other than websites on the Internet.

Studies have shown some surprising anomalies that could lead you astray in your design and that could also work to your benefit if you understand them better.

Well, that’s cryptic I admit, so let’s take a look at a couple of findings.

Very few people browsing for a product or service will look at information that is below the top two thirds of the first screen they see. Your important points had better be right up there at the top. That doesn’t mean ignore the rest of the page but use it knowing it won’t be read by many people.

How can you use that to advantage? Well if text at the bottom of the page is seldom read, it doesn’t have to be deathless prose does it? In fact if you want to have your web page appeal to search engines by using a lot of text relevant to your search phrases, you can stuff some of them down there even if it makes the reading by humans a little awkward. The top is for your prospects, the bottom is for the search engines.

Contrary what we all ‘know’ is true about newspaper and print ads — i.e. pictures are the first thing a reader notices–there is evidence that on the web your prospect looks first at the print headlines and has become very adept at avoiding pictures unless they are in sync with their interest and in the subject of the text. Eye tracking tests have shown that browsers eyes avoid looking directly at ad pictures especially garish banners that twitch or shake or contort to get them to look. So, use pictures modestly and in a way that will help your prospect associate the message of your ad with you.

Most browsers scan a page starting at the top left, then move to the center, then the left column, then the right. The right column is NOT prime real estate on your page. Moreover, even newbies on the Internet quickly and subliminally catch on to where the good information is (from their standpoint), and if pages are all formatted the same they may skip the content in locations that they discovered was uninteresting previously. If your ‘good stuff’ is in different locations on the page then vary the layout in a way that will make your prospect stop and re-evaluate where to look.

So being suspicious of your ‘little darlings’ really means to think ‘outside the box’. You can pick which cliché you prefer.

Marketing for real estate agents is evolving at a blistering pace.  Just as we start to realize that to have an effective real estate business we need an effective website, we find that even with that we must scramble and compete for ‘position’ in order to get our fair share (or more) of prospects.

These are some of the statistics (April 2009):

• 87+% of buyers start with the Internet.
• Most spend about 8 weeks researching listings on the Internet before contacting an agent.
• 40% go to Google and browse websites to line up an agent while others use sites they are familiar with.
• Social Networking is becoming another source of possible agents for buyers and sellers.
• When they finally contact an agent MORE THAN HALF want to hear back within 1/2 hour!

PDA’s are fast becoming as important to your business as your phone.  If that prospect fills out a form or picks up the phone or sends an email to contact you for information and you don’t respond Pretty Damn Quick, they will simply go to the next one on their list.

There is absolutely nothing as depressing as finally getting around to contacting that lead and finding out they are already working with your competition!

Get on the learning curve if you haven’t already done so and talk to your webmaster about streamlining your Internet marketing so your incoming leads find you wherever you are  IMMEDIATELY.