Dave Hall

If you are new to blogging or find yourself struggling to come up with something interesting to write about, this blog is for you. I was doing some research for a blogging class that we teach and as I was surfing I could hear the same question that most new “Bloggers” ask, “What am I going to blog about?” Blogging is an outlet for some people, while others view it as a necessary evil. The truth is, finding interesting information to write about is not that hard. Google Reader is an extremely robust tool that allows you to search, categorize and utilize up to date articles being posted about areas that you are interested in. Here is how it works:

Google Reader is FREE and it works with most browsers. Better yet, you don’t have to install any software or toolbars. Google Reader constantly checks the web sites and blogs that you tell it to track and lets you know when new content is posted. This allows you to stay up to date with areas that you find interesting and provides plenty of ideas for your personal blog too. You can share interesting articles and blog posts by utilizing Google Reader’s built-in public page. With just one click you can share interesting articles with your social networks and potential customers, by sending them to relevant links. Some people have coined the product as, “a personalized inbox for the entire web.”

Looking for content is made easy with Google Reader’s integrated feed search. This helpful feature allows you to enter keywords on topics that you want to research. You can even add a customizable clip that displays your latest blog in your site’s sidebar. You can access your Google Reader account from any computer with online access, most mobile phone browsers and you can add a Google Reader gadget to your iGoogle account and see updates when they occur.

It takes less than two minutes to Register, Log In and start using Google Reader. This incredible organizational tool is both convenient and informative and will get you working smarter instead of harder.

Listing Solutions is laser focused on helping our clients achieve the success online needed to compete in today’s challenging market. We are one of St. Augustine web designs emerging companies and a Full Service Dealer with Realtourvision®, specializing in Jacksonville virtual tours. We are one of the premier virtual tour providers in St. Augustine. Our online real estate marketing skills allow us to help our clients dominate the search engines. We would love the opportunity to help you. Call us today!

Dave Hall,
Marketing Director
Listing Solutions
(904) 540-9962
Visit Our Web Site
View Our Blog
Email Me

I believe in competition. I believe that it makes people work harder to provide quality products and incredible services. That is why Listing Solutions is proud to be a Full Service Provider for Realtourvision, the World’s largest network of Virtual Tour Providers. Our amazing technology allows us to create a unique perspective of homes for sale in St Augustine.

There are a number of companies and a few new ones (your welcome for the plug Chris) that are selling “slideshows” under the guise of virtual tours. This method of marketing your property online does not allow the potential Home Buyer to see the actual layout of the home.

Listing Solutions’ virtual tours feature “Hot Spots.” These carefully placed icons appear on the virtual tour and when clicked on, take the viewer to what is behind the door. Kind of like Christmas! Our virtual tours are loaded with features that enable you to professionally market your property and promote yourself online. Contact us today and I will give you 31 Reasons Why Listing Solutions Should Be Part of Your Online Marketing Strategies.

Listing Solutions is laser focused on helping our clients achieve the success online needed to compete in today’s challenging market. We are one of St. Augustine web designs emerging companies and a Full Service Dealer with Realtourvision®, specializing in Jacksonville virtual tours. We are one of the premier virtual tour providers in St. Augustine. Our online real estate marketing skills allow us to help our clients dominate the search engines. We would love the opportunity to help you. Call us today!

Dave Hall

Marketing Director

Listing Solutions

(904) 540-9962

Visit Our Web Site

View Our Blog

Email Me

Listing Solutions’ Anniversary Sale

It is our 2 Year Anniversary and we have a gift for you!

We are entering our 3rd year of service to the real estate community in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Florida. Our virtual tours and real estate photography have been instrumental in many Realtor’s® marketing campaigns and our new text messaging service, Text Connect, promises to be just as successful. Listing Solutions is pleased to announce the following sale in celebration of our anniversary:

Pick Up A Five Pack Purchase and pay for 4 Standard Virtual Tour Packages and receive a Full House Package (valued at $199.00) for FREE! Hurry though this offer expires October 31st, 2009.

Our virtual tours and real estate photography are chosen over the competition daily by business professionals who demand the very best exposure for their listings. We are a Full Service Provider with Realtourvision®, the World’s largest network of Virtual Tour Providers and an Approved Vendor with Realtor.com. Our online marketing strategies are guaranteed to get you the exposure needed to compete in today’s challenging market. With 86% of current Home Buyers utilizing the internet to assist in their search, don’t you owe it to yourself to explore our Results Driven online marketing tools? Take a look at some of our features that come standard with every virtual tour:

• Agent or Owner contact information as well as links to their E-mail and Web site.
• Slide Show feature will showcase your listing within the virtual tour in a slide by slide presentation.
• E-mail button allows viewers to E-mail a link of the virtual tour to family and friends.
• Detailed information on public libraries as well as local and private schools is included with every virtual tour.
• An overhead aerial and satellite view is placed on every virtual tour.
• Detailed MLS information is included with every virtual tour.
• Navigation buttons give viewers control over turning left, right, up, down, and zoom in or out.
• Hit Counter - This button allows the Realtor or the home seller to run virtual tour hit traffic reports anytime!

Listing Solutions is laser – focused on helping our clients achieve the success online needed to compete in today’s challenging market. We are one of St. Augustine web designs emerging companies and a Full Service Dealer with Realtourvision®, specializing in Jacksonville virtual tours. We are one of the premier virtual tour providers in St. Augustine. Our online real estate marketing skills allow us to help our clients dominate the search engines. We would love the opportunity to help you. Call us today!

Dave Hall
Marketing Director
Listing Solutions
(904) 540-9962
Visit Our Web Site
View Our Blog
Email Me

I had the good fortune of being invited to the StomperNet Live 8 Event last weekend in Atlanta, Ga. (Thanks Mark). If you don’t know who StomperNet is, you should! These guys are simply put, The Master Minds of online marketing. I expected to pick up some good search engine optimization tips and from the minute I sat down, I was not disappointed. I can’t wait to start employing the techniques that I learned on my current and future projects. I have been compiling notes from the event all day.

I had a client tell me that someone told her that she should rely on social media and not have a web site. In order to be successful marketing yourself online you need to do a combination of the following:

1. Create and post your Blogs. You want to utilize keywords and phrases that you want to rank on within the content of your blogs. You should link keywords and phrases and direct them to different pages on your web site. By doing this, you are utilizing keywords, phrases and links to direct people to your web site. When they get to your web site, you can capture their information and convert them to a lead. You can allow them to learn more about you, earning you the right to ask for their business and you can have a Call to Action on your pages, giving them permission to make a decision to choose you. Blogs are your hooks in the water.

2. Utilize social networks to inform people of your blogs and other blogs that you find interesting. This allows you to start creating your “Expertise” in this field and generate conversations with people. As you build relationships through social networking, people become more comfortable with you. They must feel comfortable with you in order to business with you. Social Networks are hooks in the water too, but with YOUR personal “bait.”

3. Your Web Site is your online persona. With more and more buyers searching online and sellers demanding better results, you will have a difficult time competing without a web site. You want your Blog to be from your Web Site. This helps with ranking and at the end of the day ranking is what is going to get you business. Your web site is your store!

Blogs have a life span and you can not “OWN” a keyword or phrase through social networking. Those tools are used to build your web site’s organic ranking, allowing you to “OWN” that niche. I hope that this helps some of you and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Listing Solutions is laser – focused on helping our clients achieve the success online needed to compete in today’s challenging market. We are one of St. Augustine web designs emerging companies and a Full Service Dealer with Realtourvision®, specializing in Jacksonville virtual tours. We are one of the premier virtual tour providers in St. Augustine. Our online real estate marketing skills allow us to help our clients dominate the search engines. We would love the opportunity to help you. Call us today!

Dave Hall

Marketing Director
Listing Solutions
(904) 540-9962
Visit Our Web Site
View Our Blog
Email Me

I recently attended a DotNetNuke convention in Tampa, Florida. The convention was held at Microsoft and promised to provide valuable information on new technology and techniques. I invited Dick Betts to come along and see first hand how dynamic and robust this platform is. Dick is a National Speaker and teaches classes for Realtors. I manage his Web Services Division and provide internet technology for him and his many clients. (I honestly could not tell you which one of us was "Oscar" and which one was "Felix" but, we were definitely the "Odd Couple")

As soon as we arrived in Tampa, we met up with some friends at PF Changs for a late dinner. Three of them are from Canada and focus their talents on the real estate industry there. It was interesting to hear the state of the real estate market in Canada and soon dinner turned in to beers back at the hotel. (Yeah, Geeks drink too!) We arrived at the Grand Hyatt, not your typical "Geek Pad", as you have to pay for the wireless connection. But, the beer was cold and it was nice catching up with friends that you only get to see once a year.

The next morning we got up and started preparing for our day of learning. I was so excited that I nearly forgot my "pocket protector" and where the hell did my "Spock ears" go? I searched everywhere for them, even the Moss Covered Three Handled Family Credenza. If Dick Betts thought he could steal my prized possession, he had another thing coming. I would not be upstaged by his trickery and decided on the "X-Ray vision glasses" that I purchased from the back of one of my Spiderman comics. "To Infinity And..." well, you get the picture.

We got there right as the Keynote Speaker was finishing up and I grabbed a cup of coffee. (Were you expecting Jolt or Vault?) I sat in on "Building Online Communities with DotNetNuke 5" and looked at Dick through my X-Ray Glasses. I still couldn't see the Spock ears but, I could read his thoughts through the amazing glasses..."I need more coffee"..."Where are the doughnuts?"..."I hope someone brought some breadcrumbs, because I am so lost." It was without a doubt the best $2.50 I have ever spent. They Worked!

When we were in the Search Engine Optimization class, I looked over and saw that Dick had started a game of "Tic Tac Toe" with one of the ladies from Canada. (Maybe he was going to fit in after all, I mean Tic Tac Toe is to Geeks what SuperBowl Sunday is to jocks.) I tried my best to study his technique, as I listened to the speaker explain new information and tips on making your web site search engine friendly. I secretly hoped that they would start playing "Hangman." I wanted to try out my new "Micro Thesaurus Casio G-Shock." No such luck.

We broke for lunch and I was a little disappointed that Dick was not willing to trade his Skittles for my chicken salad wrap. Oh well, it was time to see the Dynamic Registration Module. This module allows you to do many things but, creating and managing a database was by far the feature that I wanted to see. I have a lot of friends who are Realtors and I can definitely see the value of them having access to customers who come to their site. This module will allow you to stay in constant contact with your web site's visitors.

By the way Dick, I have heard the joke, "What do you get when you put 150 Geeks at an open bar?" I don't remember the punch line but, "Two More Hours Of Geek Talk" could use some work. How about, "You had to take away my calculator, because friends dont let friends DERIVE drunk." or "You had to explain to us that we can't set a laser printer to stun?" Now that would have been funnier.

The internet has changed the way that real estate is conducted in this country and promises to bring value to what Realtors do on a daily basis. "Geeks" can help you get your message out to arenas that were out of your reach until now. So, be nice to the "Geeks," we can be instrumental in helping you find your next buyer or seller. And remember, "computers can never replace human stupidity."

Dave Hall
Marketing Director
Listing Solutions, Inc.
(904) 540-9962
dave@listingsolutions.net
www.ListingSolutions.net