About Adams County, IL

Before we started Vision Quest Virtual Tours, I worked for a therapeutic boarding school that had been embroiled in a multi-million dollar lawsuit. The bulk of the lawsuit was thrown out by the judge and a small portion was settled but the mother who initiated the suit had a vendetta that lasted until the school eventually closed. The school survived the lawsuit but did not survive the onslaught of internet attacks that this mother led. A Google search for the school’s name yielded the school’s website first and second and our virtual tour as the third listing but the fourth through seventh items that are returned were negative attacks.

These vicious and somewhat baseless attacks were led by this woman but appeared to come from several disparate sources. Because they seemed to come from a variety of sources, they appeared to have merit in the eyes of the prospective parents I talked to. Since the third item that came up in the Google search was the virtual tour, I was able to separate the truth about the school from much of misinformation that was out there.

We get about 1,500 hits per month to our website but even more importantly than that, we drive those hits from dozens of different sources. My experience at the school made me realize the importance of variety in Search Engine Optimization. We blog regularly and submit our tours and blogs to over 40 different websites and we get lots of web exposure as a result. If you search “Vision Quest Virtual Tours” on Google, there are two full pages about us before anyone else even shows up. This is a big deal because our name Vision Quest and the term Virtual Tours are pretty generic terms that are used by many other companies.

The Google search for our name returns references from 16 different websites in the first three pages alone! Google juice comes from having lots of different backlinks to your website. The fact that someone searching for our name yields returns from not only our website but from 15 other sources on just the first three pages helps to boost our credibility. Many people who do a search for our company aren’t really looking for more information as much as they are for validation that we are who we say we are.

The very first Google result that refers to anything other than our company is on the third page and is titled “Co-Ed Naked Networking on Vision Quest Retreats”. While our web content is scintillating, I am pretty sure that Co-Ed Naked Networking would catch the eye of anyone who is searching the web in the same way that the negative posts caught the eye of people who searched for the school. When someone searches for our company, I want them to be thinking about virtual tours - not co-ed naked networking!

Vision Quest Virtual Tours photographs high definition 360º panoramic virtual tours all over the country. We specialize in the areas of healthcare, hospitality and education. We have photographed tours in 31 states but when we aren’t on the road, we split our time between Charleston, SC and Quincy, IL. Vision Quest Virtual Tours is owned by husband and wife team Greg and Paige Mitts and the only co-ed naked networking we do is with each other! To learn more or to schedule a tour, visit us online at www.VisionQuestVirtualTours.com or call us at 404-863-9769.

Land Prices Soar at Auction - Illinois - Missouri - Iowa

Over the last 12 months or so good agriculture land in West Central Illinois, Northeast Missouri & Southeast Iowa have soared to prices never before seen. The land prices seem to be following the crop prices, up. It starting to make a person wonder, will this ever stop. Just when you think you cant go any higher you hear about another record sale.

Over the last 60 days in West Central Illinois there has been over 380 acres sell in three different auctions. In McDonough Co. Illinois 80 acres sold recently topping out at $10,800 per acre. Next up was 162 acres selling in Adams Co. Illinois. This farm was divided in 4 tracts and bringing $16,000 per acre, $15,000 per acre, $13,000 per acre and finishing up at $12,000 per acre. When all said and done the farm averaged $13,373 per acre. Just a few days ago 132 acres was sold in Pike Co. Illinois near the town of Hull and when the hammer finally fell the price was at $13,250 per acre.

On October 29th, 550 acres was sold at Public Auction in Greene Co. Illinois, near Carrollton. The farm was offered in 10 tracts and the method of sale was High Bidder Choice. Once the dust had settled all 10 tracts were sold to 2 seperate people (30 registered bidders). The out of area Sellers were thrilled with the outcome. The farm brought right at $800 per acre more than the expected.

With ag land selling at these record prices, why not sell? Call United Country Wallingford Group today for a free consultation. United Country Wallingford Group is based in Quincy, Illinois and is a Licensed Real Estate and Auction company in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. References upon request.

"Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life" says Bill Collins on the first page of his classic book, Good to Great. What does it take to make that move from the good life to the life of your dreams? That was the question that Greg and I asked ourselves when we began our journey together. Two years ago, Greg and I were both at crossroads in almost every area of our respective lives. For the first time in more than a decade, Greg was doing something other than working full time as a professional photographer. I had been laid off after ten years as an executive in the financial services industry and was pondering my career options. Circumstances had caused us to downsize our lifestyles and seriously re-evaluate what we wanted for our futures. The luckiest day of my life was July 8, 2009 when I met the man who would become my husband and everything I thought I knew about living the a good life was turned upside down. It was clear from the start that this was a different relationship than anything either of us had ever known and it caused us to think about what other possibilities life might have in store for us. Suddenly good wasn't good enough...Greg and I both realized that GREAT was on our horizon. Greg was worked for a year and a half as Recruiting Manager for the Census Bureau in what we knew would be a finite assignment. I was on unemployment for a year as I pondered the next detour in my career path. I knew that I absolutely did not want to return to financial services and Greg knew that he absolutely did want to return to photography but in a new and different way. He signed up with RTV, Inc. the same month we met and we began researching the virtual tour business but honestly, I really didn't see a way to make that his full time income. After a year of unemployment, I began working as Assistant Director of Admissions at a therapeutic boarding school and shortly after that, Greg's job at the Census came to an end. The job at the school was a great fit for me in many ways because it allowed me to utilize my strengths in behavioral health and marketing. While the laundry list of my weaknesses is quite long, there is a very distinct list of what I do well and selling something I believe in tops that list. Looking back at the times when I had been happiest and most successful in my life revealed some clear truths and obvious patterns: I am most alive when I feel like my work has a greater purpose. I thrive in a role that allows me to help people and share my knowledge and experience. I am competitive and I much prefer working to meet a challenging objective versus working to punch a clock. Whether through commission sales, recruiting, sales management, or admissions, closing the sale is my favorite way of keeping score. It has been said that I can sell anything but that's not true...I can only sell something I believe in strongly. Greg excelled in his position at the Census but it was very clear that working for the government wasn't going to be a career path for him. While working at the census, he began shooting virtual tours on the side. The truths that were evident from that experience were just as obvious: Greg is used to being responsible for his own success and is most comfortable with being self employed. Greg doesn't have a clue how to punch a clock...while being paid for 40 hours for the census, he worked nights, weekends and early mornings because he knew that the job had to be done whether he was "on the clock" or not. No matter what the paycheck is, doing a job for the sake of doing a job wasn't enough for him...he needed to see the greater good in what he was doing. Greg is most at home behind a camera and learning new technology is like unwrapping a Christmas present to him. In my next blog, I'll talk about how we came to realize that Vision Quest Virtual Tours was going to be the vehicle to take us to the GREAT life we dreamed about.