You remember the story.... The Little Red Hen lives in the valley with her neighbors; the dog, the duck, and the pig. One day, she finds some wheat seed and decides to plant them. "Who will help me plant the wheat?" says the hen... and no one wants to help. This goes on and none of her neighbors want to help... until it's time to eat the bread. Moral of Story: Plant seeds for the future and tend your garden well. You will reap the Rewards!
When it comes to On-Line Marketing, are you The Little Red Hen or just another one of the Neighbors?
First the Hen planted her seeds: Plant your "seeds" in your prospects' minds - get your web address on EVERYTHING you put out there. Think about Doo-Dads too! I just bought 500 pens for about $100 that have "MNRealty.com" printed all over them in various sizes & colors (The "colorama" model), plus a single line with our 800 number and e-mail address! --> National Pen Corp. - 800-854-1000
Then the Hen had to Tend and harvest the Wheat: Get your web site more oriented on "content" that can grow, such as a community directories, market reports, relocation guides, local history, bulletin boards, etc. Put in some personal time, effort, and EXPERTISE into your web site. This makes it more powerful than just trying to purchase links or add-ons. Take pictures and just start jotting down some of your better anectdotes, travelogues, tours, presentations, seminars, etc. Each can become a valuable web page or section of a web site - especially when you add a few photos! And just as the Wheat takes time to grow and time to harvest, these pages and sections of your site can grow slowly over time, as long as you keep at it and add a little.
When it was time to Eat the Bread, THEN all the Neighbors wanted to help: DON'T just copy or use other web pages and graphics from other Realtor Web sites unless you have permission to do so. Besides the obvious Copyright violations, it can also be fraudulent or deceptive business practice. But most important, if you "borrow" material from other sites, it is usually too generic to make a big difference to your site, and it might backfire if your site is "watered down" with too much "Resource Room" or "me-too" type material.
But the Little Red Hen said "No" when all the Neighbors wanted to Eat the Bread she had made: Be careful who you link to on your site. A "reciprocal link" might be more beneficial to the other site than yourself. Example: You might not want to link to your main Corporate web site or perhaps use a more specific page inside of the corp. site so as not to link to lots of other agents competing in your market area. Some "Free" Corporate-provided web pages are more oriented to Corp. than the Agent. Stand up for your rights and get your "own" page or site!
And then the Little Red Hen sat down and Ate the Bread. It was Delicious! Many "Cyber-Oriented" Realtors are already making $1000's from business on-line and they are rapidly investing in the Future for even bigger rewards. If you tend your site and help it grow, you too will be reaping more and more transactions as time goes on!