Christine Wade

I wasn't planning on posting today, I am swamped with client work; however, while in the process of trying to get a deal for my client, I stumbled upon a survey of the top 100 real estate agent sites...and the results of the survey were proof of what I have been telling my clients for years. If you can't afford a custom site, I always send my clients to Advanced Access whenever I can persuade them in that direction.

You can read the full article over at RealBlogging.com where I am a contributing author; however, not knowing how many of you read over there as well, I wanted to get the message out to as broad a range of agents as possible, so I am posting in my Active Rain blog as well. Please head over there now and read the article. Here's the link

Welcome to the 5th edition of “Tipsy Tuesday”. If you’ve been following along with us, you know that this blog series was the brain child of a chat I was having with some of my fellow Virtual Assistants over at the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce regarding how often one should blog. The discussion was about having themed blog days (as in a specific day of the week is a specific type of blog post) - which I think is a great idea, but I am not that disciplined. Instead, I decided just to devote one day a week to my Active Rain blog efforts...and “Tipsy Tuesday” was born! I wanted to make it interesting and not just a generic real estate tip, and since real estate agents generally love the finer things in life, I decided to add a wine recommendation or a cocktail recipe as well (something that could be used at an open house or given as a closing gift, or for purely personal pleasure). I hope you enjoy the Tipsy Tuesday blog posts! Please subscribe to my blog so you won't miss any!

• Tip #5 – Step Out from Under That Umbrella and Get in “The Rain”!

  

  Did you know that you can place targeted ads right here on Active Rain? What a great way to get noticed for area referrals, but potential buyers & sellers, etc… You set the price and your budget, create the ad and watch the results.
  
  To get started, go to your My Home page. On the left click on My Ads. This will open up a new window, click on Create Ad Campaign. Just follow the steps and fill in the fields on the form from there. It is relatively self explanatory. Like all good marketing campaigns, you should try out a couple of different ads and see which ad reaps better results for you. I put $10 into my “bank” for the advertising and told it to stop when it had used up my money on my targeted display campaign (I didn’t want my ad to show to everyone, just to agents!), and out of that $10, my ad had 5005 views. I’d say that was pretty good bang for my buck!
  
  I get pretty obsessive about managing my ad campaign when it’s active (I take breaks), and setting it up and changing the ad text and targeting to improve results can be pretty time consuming…you know where this is going…so, my suggestion is to add “Manage my Active Rain Add Campaigns” to your Real Estate Virtual Assistant’s list of duties (if you don’t already have one, contact me via the form at the right, or visit the VACOC and fill out an RFP for a Real Estate VA to contact you with information about their services).
  
  
  

• Tipsy #5 – Apple Cider (well kind of…)

  Fall is definitely here, you can tell by the crisp clean morning air, even here in Southern California! Fall is the season of the apple harvest and it’s truly one of my favorite times of the year. You get to start to look forward to the holidays ahead, but you’re not in mad rush panic mode yet, so you still have time to sit on the couch with your significant other, a warm “Hot Tody” of sorts, cozy blanket and a good movie.
  
  Before I give you the recipe, you’ve also got to know that there is nothing better than walking into a home filled with the wonderful aromas of apples, cinnamon and cloves, so why not make your next Open House event one to remember (even if the property is a dog, the visitors will remember you and the effort you put into the event) by simmering a nice batch of apple cider, cinnamon sticks and cloves on the stove.Share a cup with visitors as they enter the home, along with an apple muffin. This is sure to please Open House goers, both young and old!
  
  OK, here’s the cocktail recipe…there’s no real name for it…it’s something that my Mom used to make after we’d go out to my uncle’s farm to pick apples when I was little, the kids got the plain cider and the adults got the good stuff!
  
  Hot Apple Cider Maker
  
  • 2 oz. Maker’s Mark Whiskey
  • Hot Apple Cider
  • Honey
  • Cinnamon Sticks
  • Whole Cloves
  • Ground Cinnamon (optional)
  • Whipped Cream (optional)
    
    
  Simmer apple cider, a few cinnamon sticks and a few whole cloves or 30 minutes or so. Take one of those clear Irish coffee style mugs, line the bottom with a bit of honey, add your Maker’s Mark and fill with hot apple cider. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and 2-3 whole cloves. I prefer mine just like that; however, if it’s a party or a special occasion and you want to be extra festive, you can add a bit of whipped cream to the top and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon as well. Enjoy!

With the year's first Santa Ana getting ready to blow in this weekend, fire hazzards are on the rise. There was the fire here in Vista yesterday on the corner of E. Vista Way and Foothill which was fully put out within a matter of hours. Now today there is the fire burning over by Camp Pendleton...which from my house looks like it is actually two fires combining, but the news doesn't seem to portray that.

Remember to keep the 100 feet defensible space around your home, especially at the height of this fire season. Here is a link to more information on that.

Here is the photo from the driveway of my home in the Warmlands area of Vista at about 5:00pm today...those aren't clouds...it's smoke.

A friend sent me to this link on YouTube today. It is funny...but factual. Turn up your speakers, get into the beat...have a sense of humor and take notes!

You didn't take notes, did you? Well, doin' like I do...I did it for you! See below for the highlights:

1. Make your site a clear reflection of you and your industry.
2. Make the overall look of the site pleasing to the eye with crystal clear navigation - keep the look clean and professional, not busy.
3. Use graphics to increase interest and motivation; however keep spinning and flashy graphics to a minimum as they will distract visitors from your site's message.
4. Text should be easy to understand and at a conversational level.
5. Look at other sites for inspiration...but don't duplicate! That's why we have those copyright laws!
6. Use divisions rather than tables when you're coding, if possible, search engine spiders have a harder time digesting the table tags...and you want them to eat up your site content!
7. Keep layout and style coding on a separate style sheet (.css) if at all possible. This helps your site to load faster and also helps those search engine spiders again.
8. Make sure you use a Doc Type tag in the header of your html...this helps the web browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc...).
9. Make sure there are no errors in your coding or your page will not validate!
10. Title everything - pages, images, links...oh my!
11. Don't use deprecated (old) html language in your coding like the <bold> or <italics> tags...instead use <emphasis> and <strong>

If you have a canned real estate website solution, your options on some of this stuff will most likely be limited. Just do what you can do, and remember, you don't have to understand how to do all of this stuff yourself. Simply pass your notes (or mine) on to your Real Estate Virtual Assistant and ask them to take care of it! Do what you do best (Real Estate) and outsource the rest to a qualified Real Estate VA. If you need a Virtual Assistant for Real Estate Support Services, simply contact me via the links at the right or contact the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce and submit an RFP proposal to have skilled Real Estate Virtual Assistants contact you directly.

I just wrote another article as a Contributing Author over at RealBlogging.com - below is an excerpt. I hope you will find it worthy to click over there and read the full thing and hopefully subscribe to my blog.

You’ve got listings, yes you do…you’ve got listings, good for you!!!

Ummm…the market is overflowing with listings right now, and no matter how superior your listings are over anyone else’s listings, they don’t do you any good unless you get them out there! You have to get them out to the people that are buying in your area; you also want to get them out to potential sellers so that they can see how you would handle their listing if they were to sign with you. You have a sphere of influence, you have a database…why aren’t you using it? continue reading