Matt Jameson

Purchasing new technology can be a scary thing. It's easy to wonder if that shiny new phone or laptop will become obsolete within the first four months you own it. It's also easy to wonder if you made the BEST decision. Often times we purchase items only to find out that a better model just went on sale at a lower price.

So what's a savvy consumer to do? Well it turns out that if you know where to shop, and how to price match you can take some of the fear out of that next big purchase.

First off let's tackle the issue of research. One should never purchase technology based only upon what the salesman at the electronics or phone store tells you. Bottom line is they are trained to oversell. Sell the biggest and baddest item out there, and get the biggest commission bonus. Doesn't matter if you as a buyer really only needs something basic... if the salesman can convince you that you need the features - chances are you will buy them. But for many of us, we don't need to own the biggest and baddest devices, we just need those that suit our needs, perform well, and of course fit within our designated budgets.

Research turns out to be what separates those of us who get over-sold from those of us who buy exactly what we need. For example, your typical Realtor probably needs a phone that can help them maintain and access their database on the fly. But Mr. Average Joe, who has only a "phone list" of friends and family probably DOES NOT need a "contact management system" - unless of course they are terrible at keeping in touch with friends and family. So when Average joe goes to buy his new phone - he should first do some research into what is available within his price range. Next he should evaluate which features he truly needs, and eliminate those fun sounding features such as the ability to mix your own ringtones (an example of a feature that rarely gets used after the first two weeks of owning the phone). By doing some basic research you can quickly determine what you need vs. what you want.

I personally like to research things online, using tech websites and user forums. I feel that since these areas are not run by the company who produces, sells, or offers service - you know that the review are more likely to be unbiased reviews from people like yourself. Sites such as www.cnet.com , www.digitaltrends.com and www.pcmag.com offer in depth review and commentaries on new and existing technology. You can also try www.review.zdnet.com for even more in depth analysis of the hottest trends in tech.

I personally like the zdnet reviews because I feel that they present their opinions in a very easy to understand format in real English!

Next we tackle price shopping. My favorite way to check prices is to combine a quick check of both www.amazon.com and www.ebay.com. In my experience, if it's hot and trendy Amazon will not only have it, but they can get it from multiple sources. By searching in Amazons search box at the top of their website, you often will find that Amazon will do the price matching work for you.

eBay is the place to check if it is an older item (meaning it was released more than two months ago). By this time eBay will have some of them listed and you can get a good idea of how much they would go for as used items. This gives you a good benchmark for what the new price (Amazon) and the used price (eBay) would be.

Now your tech purchase is far less scary. You've researched what's out there, you know what features you really need, and now you know what a good price to pay would be. So the next time that jazzy salesmen comes your way trying to upsell you into the latest over priced unit with features that sound great but largely go unused - you will be able to confidently tell them that you know what you want, and how much you plan to pay for it.

Good luck and happy searching!

Okay brokers:

Not sure how things are for you locally, but for us in Southern Oregon our new media tends to over dramatize the condition of the local real estate market.

There's a lot of doom and gloom coming from the media here, which is sometimes directly impacts the local public. In fact its not that bad at all. According to Southern Oregon MLS stats, and local market and home value experts - Jackson county hasn't been a declining market since last spring. In addition to this sales, are up. And up quite a bit.

Also, in many areas home values have only decreased by a minor amount. But the more negative press the public is exposed to, the more nervous they can become. So whats a broker to do?

Well, educate, educate, educate! Talk to your neighbors and friends about the many buying opportunities available now for the savvy consumer. With Shrot Sales, REO (bank owned properties), and many people feeling a tightening budget due to the economy - there are truly many amazing deals to be had for those who are willing to shop.

In fact, in this so-called "declining" market - my office had its best month ever. So the key ios to help educate the public to the fact that while it may not be the best time to sell a home you bought two years ago - its a great time to invest in a rental property, or in some cases to seel your home at a bit of a loss - only to buy into a fantastic priced home that is larger and offers more land.

Think about this. We've been seeing more sellers willing to reduce prices, or cover closing costs than in a long time. We've been seeing prices around $100 a square foot here locally, which means that those who qualify for financing have some great deals awaiting them.

Just the other night I was out having dinner with my family when we began to discuss the definition of a short sale. I began to talk about how they worked and how they can offer fantastic deals for those with a bit of patience and preserverance. Others in the restaurant began to listen in, and before you knew it I had some interested people and potential buyer leads. If nothing else I helped to correct the perception of our local market to some folks.

So remember, don't get caught up in the doom and gloom. Those who are willing to work for the business, are still making money right now. Go back to your database, make some calls, and help educate your sphere about the great deals to be had. You might be suprised at just how easy it can be to make money in this so called "down market".

Good morning AR,

Here's a little gem I'd like to pass on to you. Or in this case, two gems. Todays website technology is based around search engine presence. If you have it, you have website visitors. Without it, you don't.

Your website may be the next big deal in the industry, but unless people know about it - its useless.

But how do you get on all the search engines? Well, you don't. There are literally thousands of them out there, but the good news is that you only need to focus on a select few - which can syndicate your website out to many others.

HOWEVER: Your first step is to make sure your website is ready. I plan to write an article on this later, to go more in depth. But for now here's your homework:

You've probably heard talk about something called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. In order to be seen by the search engines, you need KEYWORDS. So your first homework assignment (if you haven't hear about keywords) is to learn more about them.

Keywords, are tems your visitors might search in hopes of finding websites that offer information relevant to their search. You can find more about keywords, including some nifty free tools to help you choose them, at www.submit-express.com .

Once you have chosen and added good keywords to your website (you may need to work with your web designer to assist you in adding your new keywords) - its now time to submit your website to the search engines. www.submit-express.com also help with this. It allows you to submit your website to around 20 popular search engines.

But don't stop there, also submit your website to www.addme.com . Its another free submission tool which will syndicate your website out to even more search engines.

Lastly, search Google for ever more free submission services. The process takes a few weeks but you should begins to notice more visitors (provided that you have done your homework and chosen good keywords).

I also recommend re-submitting your websites at least once a year to these free submission sites. Since your website content may change dramatically over the source of a single year - its a good thing to have your websites re-submitted.

Look forward to another article soon about choosing keywords, and more about other SEO tactics which can drive more traffic to your website for FREE.

Happy searching!

SPEND LESS TIME ON FRUITLESS SEARCHES!!!

While people organize and catalog subject directories, search engines rely on computer programs called spiders or robots to crawl the Web and log the words on each page.

Because these databases are very large, search engines often return thousands of results. Without search strategies or techniques, finding what you need can be tough.

To use search engines effectively, it is essential to apply techniques that narrow results and push the most relevant pages to the top of the results list. Below are a number of strategies for getting better results!

IDENTIFY KEYWORDS

When conducting a search, break down the topic into key concepts. For example, to find information on what Obama has said about the real estate industry, the keywords might be:

Obama real estate

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"AND"

Connecting search terms with AND tells the search engine to retrieve web pages containing ALL the keywords.

Obama and real and estate

The search engine will not return pages with just the word Obama. Neither will it return pages with the word real and the word estate . The search engine will only return pages where the words Obama, real, and estate all appear somewhere on the page. Thus, AND helps to narrow your search results as it limits results to pages where all the keywords appear.

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"OR"

Linking search terms with OR tells the search engine to retrieve web pages containing ANY and ALL keywords.

(Obama or real or estate)

When OR is used, the search engine returns pages with a single keyword, several keywords, and all keywords. Thus, OR expands your search results.

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"AND NOT"

AND NOT tells the search engine to retrieve web pages containing one keyword but not the other.

Pittsburg and not Steelers

The above example instructs the search engine to return web pages about steelers but not web pages about the "Pittsburg" football team. Use AND NOT when you have a keyword that has multiple meanings. The need for AND NOT often becomes apparent after you perform an initial search. If your search results contain irrelevant results (e.g., Steelers fans rather than Steelers the team), consider using AND NOT to filter out the undesired websites.

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PLUS & MINUS

In many search engines, the plus and minus symbols can be used as alternatives to full Boolean AND and AND NOT. The plus sign (+) is the equivalent of AND, and the minus sign (-) is the equivalent of AND NOT. There is no space between the plus or minus sign and the keyword.

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PHRASE SEARCHING - MY PERSONAL FAVORITE

Surrounding a group of words with double quotes tells the search engine to only retrieve documents in which those words appear side-by-side. Phrase searching is a powerful search technique, and it should be used as often as possible.

"Ninja Selling"

"Real Estate Agency"

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URL SEARCH

The URL SEARCH limits search results to web pages where the keyword appears in the URL or website address. A URL search can narrow very broad results to web pages devoted to the keyword topic.

+url:halloween +title:stories

url:halloween and title:stories

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Long story long....this approach may prevent you from spending time wading through pages and pages of unusable search results.

AND!!! For those of you who are getting into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you can use the PHRASE SEARCHING as shown above to check your name or your company name to see just how well your SEO efforts are paying off.

Back when I was getting started on the web I used PHRASE SEARCHING to determine how close my websites were to being on the first page of Yahoo. WHich at the time was the biggest baddest search engine. Nowdays I can PHRASE SEARCH my name (also known as ego searching) and I now dominate the first three pages of Google.

Happy searching!!!

The word geek has evolved quite a bit over the years. It's now being used more than ever as our culture changes to embrace the many technologies we use in our daily lives. Once used as a moniker for anyone whose hobbies were not understood or embraced by the masses. But today the term is no longer limited in use as it once was.

With the inception of computer science into almost every corner of our existence, modern day citizens find themselves compelled to learn and understand this technology. Those once deemed as geeks are now in charge of maintaining, creating, and troubleshooting the very technologies that make our lives easier. This change requires most of us to maintain a baseline amount of techie knowledge just to keep us from being left behind as new technologies are developed.

Basically, we all speak a little 'computer geek' whether we like it or not. Even the term blog itself is just geek for Web Log. We all use this term and think nothing of it. Now we even have Vlogs - or Video Blogs.

With geek being such a prevalent modern language the word itself has begun to take on much more meaning than it once had. Terms such as "geek chic" or "geeking out" have recently introduced themselves into our slang adapted, ever-evolving English language. The formerly negative title is now more acceptable than ever, and even applies to hobbies considered popular.

In fact, people now can "geek out" on just about any subject. Any hobby is susceptible to this. In fact the more knowledge a person has about their hobby of choice, the more of a geek in that hobby they become. Discussing these hobbies in detail is now known as "geeking out". For example, in most of my posts I am geeking out about some great software or technology that excites me.

So where does that leave me? I'm quite sure I am a considered a consummate computer geek. But in addition because of my hobbies, I am also now an art geek, music geek, film geek, and since I like to play live music - officially a band geek. Because I hold a wealth of mostly useless knowledge in these areas, I have firmly established my geekdom.

But as usual, I have my own two cents to throw in. I think it goes much deeper than this. In fact I believe we are each born with the geek gene. It just takes something a little different to bring it out in each of us. Everyone has a subject that they love to talk, discuss, or debate. Everyone has a hobby that they enjoy talking about in painful detail. And for each of us, it is these hobbies that bring out our inner geek.

So I ask you, what makes you geek out? Is it Real Estate? Is it following your favorite sports team, or another hobby such as mountain biking, yoga, or working out?

Chances are that if you don't yet have a hobby such as this, one day soon you will. And when you find yourself rambling on about it in detail at your next social event, just think of me. Music, art, film, band, and consummate computer geek at your service.