A little under a week ago the Twitterverse, Facebook and other social platforms along with many news sites were clamoring over an article written by a Philadelphia paper called Philadelphia Citypaper titled, "Got a blog that makes no money? The city wants $300, thank you very much."

Philadelphia has an old licensing fee called, "Business Privilege Tax" that has been around for along time but is just now finding its way into the blogosphere for anyone in Philadelphia that has a blog.

"Every individual, partnership, association and corporation engaged in a business, profession or other activity for profit within the City of Philadelphia must file a Business Privilege Tax Return, whether or not they earned a profit during the preceding year." - BPT Description (PDF Link).

I'm a small business owner as are the majority of the readers at the moment.  With the responsibility of being a small business owner, I understand the idea and requirements of paying taxes on money generated and even needing a licensing fee.  There are advantages to paying taxes and my yearly licensing dues as there are with your own fees you have to pay. 

I have a few concerns about the taxation and licensing fees on bloggers though that are wrapped around freedom of speech and entrepreneurship growth in particular that are really bothering me and concerns me should other cities nationwide follow in Philadelphia's footsteps.

Freedom of Speech

Negative: Since bloggers have entered the scene, we no longer have to rely 100% on what reporters from big time newspapers are sharing with us.  We now have the option to see viewpoints from every possible angle much like this post here.  How many people in Philadelphia do you think will foot the $300 lifetime licensing fee just to share their opinion?

Entrepreneurship Growth

Negative: Ideas abound from people like you and I who share their thoughts with others and before you know it you have something useful and may lead to a business model where you can make a comfortable living off of.  However most people with ideas don't have a lot of money, especially in economical times like these and without the freedom of speech to share in this medium, their idea may never come to pass.

I wish I could add a poll on this post but since, to my knowledge, I can't... what are your thoughts on this topic?  I'm particularly interested in knowing your thoughts on the following questions:

1. Would you pay a "Privilege Tax" in your area to continue blogging on Active Rain or other platforms?
2. Is such a fee fair if a blogger makes no money even if they attempted to monetize but couldn't?  Isn't that how it is with any small business though?
3. If your a Philly AR member, have you paid your BPT yet?

San Diego homes, San Diego real estate, San Diego Foreclosures... these are all types of keywords you can expect home buyers, sellers and real estate investors to be searching for on Google. 

To prove the above statement I went to Google's own keyword tool to get the estimated number of times each of the above keywords have been searched over the last month.  Here are the results: 

1. San Diego Homes - Searched roughly 673,000
2. San Diego real Estate - Searched roughly 201,000
3. San Diego foreclosures - Searched roughly 301,000

Give it a try, you'll find that keyword research doesn't have to be difficult at all.  Once you have your keyword list, take it to Google via the link above and determine which keywords are going to drive the most traffic and which ones are you focusing on that maybe you shouldn't be wasting your time with.

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Info@10minutes.org
Http://www.10minutes.org

A true buyers agent typically won't have any listings of their own.  This provides for a unique circumstance that must be overcome in more ways than simply placing a link to the MLS / IDX; here is why...

Buyers

Buyers will primarily start their search, online and off, searching for homes.  They'll look over dozens of homes and make notes and save listings for later.  Being consumers that they (we all) are, they want to know what their options are.  Should such a buyer come to a buyers agent website and can't find properties... well they are likely to go elsewhere because they aren't interested in contacting the real estate professional yet.

Search Engines

When listing information can be found on a website by a search engine spider, the likelihood of your website showing up in search results, when a local buyer is searching for a specific address, will increase greatly and make your website more relevant to the area and niche you work in.

So how do you make sure search engines, buyers and everyone else in between find properties when you don't actually have listings of your own?  While there are many possible answers to this, I've recently come across one that I really liked, have never seen before and would work great for a buyers agent looking to get ahead of the crowd. The answer...

PROPERTY REVIEWS

Address:  123 McLaughlin Ave
City: Riverside
State: CA
Zip Code: 92513

Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 3
Garage: 2

Square Feet:  1,795
Stories: 2

Review Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review Notes:Today I showed an interested buyer this immaculate home in Riverside.  The image should speak volumes to the beauty of the landscaping and stone paved driveway but what I found on the inside simply cannot be expressed in words or photos online.

The biggest thing to be concerned about with this property is that some of the pavement in the backyard surrounding the pool will need to be repaired as I noticed several decent sized cracks.  If a buyer was interested and had a little extra repair money to invest, I'd actually suggest they consider completely overhauling the pool area to match the paving stone driveway in the front.

If you'd like an opportunity to tour this property and see what can't be put into words or photographs, contact me and I'll open the doors and show you around.

This may not be your property but you've just written a review for it and can publish this review on your website, on Active Rain, your Blog and so on.  You can be creative and use a star rating, a thumb rating, a bagel rating or whatever you'd like.  You can focus on luxury home reviews, foreclosure reviews, dumpy fixer reviews or whatever you'd like.

The next time a buyer does a Google search for 123 McLaughlin Ave Riverside, CA 92513, they may find your review and you've just offered them an opportunity to tour a home that they are interested in.

If you do these reviews long enough and frequent enough, you may end up with a few selling agents willing and wanting your online audience to see one of their properties.  The opportunities are endless here depending on how creative or bold you'd like to be.

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III
Info@10minutes.org
Twitter: @10Minutes 

Be the first to test out my free keyword discovery tool which is hasn't been made public at this time.

Good morning everyone,

I know Active Rain is predominantly real estate related but with 150,000 members and growing I thought this would be the best place to get honest reviews and personal viewpoints about Amway Global also known as Quixtar.

This coming Wednesday I am sitting down with a co-worker and his wife for dinner and discussion of Amway.  I don't want to go into the conversation one sided thinking I'm going to get rich quick but on the other hand I don't want to go in with nothing but Skepticism either. 

Have you ever looked into or participated in Amay Gobal?  Are you still active in Amway if so?

Regardless if you have looked into it or became a member; when I mention the name Amway Global or Quixtar what is the first thought that comes to mind about the companya nd what you know?

Any feedback would be appreciated!

It is no secret amongst friends and family that my wife and I enjoy eating out. Tonight was no different from any other night that we both don't feel like cooking but the one exception to that is that neither one of use wanted to choose where we went for dinner.

So I decided to get creative and asked my wife to pick a series of numbers and then explained those numbers to her while we were driving.  Through those numbers and her responses once she under stood what they were, we landed at Sevilla in downtown Riverside.  Sevilla is a Spanish restaurant that once had a billboard that read, "Topas not Topless" near the Pierce exit that I'd see every single day.

When we first arrived we both realized rather quickly that we might have been a tad under dressed for this place but no one gave us a second look and to be perfectly honest, we both enjoyed the experience with the staff.

STAFF

Hostess

We were greeted by our hostess and were asked if we wanted to sit in the Tapas Bar or downstairs dining area.  Because we had our son, we opted for downstairs where it was a little more quieter than perhaps the bar area might have been.

The first thing that I noticed at our table before we sat down was a big glass jar with utensils in it.  I had made a small statement to the Hostess right before I noticed this was to be found on every table.  The Hostess asked if we had been to Sevilla before and we both said, "No".  She then proceeded to tell us that the extra utensils are on the table because it is tradition that everyone shares their food with others at the table.  The extra was so that we all got clean utensils to use each time.

Waiter

Our Waiter's name was Felix and he greeted us rather quickly upon sitting down and knew that we were flesh blood to the Spanish foods; the Hostess had tipped him off.  He quickly proceeded to share with us a great number of selections that would be good for starters and even mentioned some of his favorites.  I've personally never encountered a Waiter that spent that much time at a table giving recommendations.

Through out the dinning experience our waiter was prompt and always reminded us to save room for desert.  Our drinks weren't really ever empty and whenever he came by he would take whatever it was that didn't need to be on the table off of the table like used sugar packets.

FOOD

Alioli & Fresh Baked Bread

We ordered this primarily because we thought it would be the best to share with our 15 month old son.  It came pretty quickly, was hot and had two types of sauces for us to dip it into.  The first being Alioli and the second being a Spanish salsa which proved to be rather tasty.

You have the option of choosing between an olive bread or a wheat french bread so we went with the french bread thinking our son might not like the olive bread, even though we thought it sounded tasty.  

My personal complaint about the bread was that it was really hard on the outside which made it a little harder to chew.  I powered through that though and certainly cannot say if that is simply how Spanish style french bread is.

Sea Bass Cantabrico

This was my choice for the night.  I don't believe I have had Sea Bass before so I was up for a new taste.

When this arrived the first thing I noticed was the small shrimps used within the garlic sauce that covered the Sea Bass.  My initial thoughts were pretty much along the lines of, "Too bad there wasn't more shrimp".  The shrimp ended up being absolutely fantastic with that garlic sauce and I quickly realized that I could have ordered a plate with just those and would have been completely happy with my experience.

In addition to my Garlic sauce covered Sea Bass, my entree also came with a medley of vegetables that looked to be hand prepared and not straight out of a bag and cous cous.  Both were exceptional compliments to my meal and the Cous Cous was also something new for me.

At first I was kind of disappointed when I seen the portion of my plate.  However to be honest with you, by the time I was done eating, I was completely satisfied.  I ended up having the perfect amount of food and didn't leave feeling full, stuffed or even bloated.

Flat Iron Steak

My wife ordered this meal and I was able to grab a bite of the steak and the mash potatoes that came with the mean.  The steak was absolutely tender and the sauce over it was delicious in my opinion.  The mash potatoes came with a Shallot butter that I didn't get to try but wasn't a favorite of my wife's so she simply didn't use it.

PRICE

My wife and I were not looking to spend a lot of money on dinner.  However with our random selection, we were ok with trying something new.  Well we knew the minute we walked in that we were not likely to walk out of Sevilla without spending a pretty penny.  Our two meals, two drinks, bread and tip ran us a cool $50.00.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Sevilla has a night club, Salsa dancing lessons on Thursdays and a host of other events.  You can find out more about what they offer at http://www.cafesevilla.com.

In the past we've been able to view just how many impressions our local listings on Google has received and how many clicks we've received from the simple step of adding our business's to Google's local search.

Today Google rolled out with what I'd consider a major update.  This update comes with a lot of extra useful statistics that we've not had before about our local listings such as what terms people searched and then seen your listing, what specific action they took when they clicked on your listing (More Info, Driving Directions, clicks to your website) and a handful of other very useful bits of information.

I've written a post on a social media site for marketers where you'll find screenshots of this data and some extra opinions on why this new data is useful.  My intentions are not just to get you to visit this other site where the post is but at the same time I don't want to duplicate the post here as I have run out of time for the moment.  If you are interested please feel free to check it out at: http://www.pickysite.com/blog/65.html

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

This morning I came across a post written by Fran Gatti in Crescent City California titled, "Are REALTOR.COM Enhancements Worth the Money?".  The post itself is an excellent topic to cover and at this time over 150 people have weighed in on their opinions.

I work with many Realtors and they have almost all asked me at one point in time or another if Realtor.com is worthwhile.  I always turn the question around and ask them what their definition of worthwhile is:

1. Do you expect leads?  How many? How often?
2. Do you expect increased traffic / exposure to your website from these enhancements?  How much more traffic would you expect? How will you successfully track this?
3. Is having enhanced listings going to be a STRONG selling point to potential sellers?  Is this alone worth the fee for all of your listings?  Some of your listings?
4. Which enhancement package have you looked into / researched?
5. Have you asked others in your office / area if they use it and what results they have experienced?

This almost always gives my customers perspective to keep in mind when considering the use of Realtor.com.  Once they end up contacting them for package and pricing information, if they make it that far, they almost always pass on the opportunity.

You can reasonably ask the above five questions with anything you are looking to invest time or money in and probably should.

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Many of us want to know where visitors to our websites, blogs and other web properties come from right?  Well we have analytics data for that kind of information and probably check it several times a week.

Last night a friend and co-worker found a online tool that actually let's you visually see what visitors do on your website through a video recording of where they move their mouse and what they click on.

This is probably one of the most innovative tools I've seen in a long time and since it is in early development still I suspect a lot more will come of such a great tool.

Create a free account, view the demo and check out what exactly on any one of the pages of your website visitors are clicking on, what they are reading and so on.  Damned awesome and well worth sharing with others. http://tinyurl.com/p6vegc.

(Note: I've tested this on an Advanced Access website using their 3.0 platform and it worked fine.  I placed the code this site gives me inside the Keyword Manager)

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Roughly 30 minutes ago a thought occured to me and I had to put it to the test.  I quickly typed the following message on Twitter:

I wonder if a "Yaaawn" is Contagious via Twitter. If you read this and shortly thereafter yawn, just for fun RT this.

The results less than 30 minutes later are the following:

Click Image to see latest "Yaawn" update

So now I'll pose the same challenge to my fellow AR Members... IF shortly after reading this post you yawn, come back here and let us know via a comment or write your own "Yaawn" post to put your fellow readers up to the test.  If you use Twitter RT my original post and see how far this gets.

Today ActiveRain announced their new membership plan that has raised several questions, concerns and even all out applauding by long time members. You can read the, "ActiveRain's NEW Membership Plan" announcement directly by clicking on the link. At the time of me writing this there have been over 250 comments on that post and I'd imagine we will see the numbers double and maybe tripple by the time things calm down. Because of this I've created this special post before I finish my 10 day property marketing posts.

2009 ActiveRain Membership Plan FAQ

Q: What if I already have an account?

A: Active members who have posted at least one blog post before February 16th 2009 at 5am PST have been grandfathered in and are being called the "Founding Members" of ActiveRain. These people won't ever be asked to pay a monthly membership fee yet they will reap all the same advantages as a paying member.

Q: Oops, I've never posted my own blog on Active Rain! What happens to my account?

A: Technically nothing happens to your account. You are free to post and comment like everyone else. The one difference between the paid membership is that your posts will only be viewable to members which means consumers will not be able to read your posts unless they have an ActiveRain account and are logged in.

Q: Do I have to pay?

A: You'll never have to pay if you don't want to pay. You can use ActiveRain with very little limitations from paying or Founding Members.

Q: What are the limitations if I am not a Founding Member or a paid member of ActiveRain?

A: As mentioned above, anything you write will be for members only. The outside world, including search engines, won't be viewing your posts.

Q: What will change with Individual & Group Blogs?

A: For Founding Members and paying members of ActiveRain your Group Blogs will now only be $19 per month. If you are not a Founding Member then yes you must pay the new $29 a month membership fee and if you want a Group Blog at that point it'll be that extra $19 per month. Outside blogs will continue to be at no charge for paying members while free memberships will have the ability to post internally to members only. This is a huge benefit for Founding Members because they will no longer have to pay the $79 a month if they want the Group Blog.

Q: Wordpress, Blogger and plenty of other blogging platforms are free; why would I pay ActiveRain just to so consumers can see my blog posts?

A: From my own personal experience the biggest value I've received from ActiveRain aside from the SEO value is the instant traffic to each and every post. Starting with any blogging platform is fine if you are a seasoned blogger but for those who want to get their feet wet and not worry about then having to seriously promote their blog all that much then ActiveRain's new $29 membership is far worthwhile.

I'll let my traffic statistics on ActiveRain do the talking for me:

When it comes to ActiveRain members, I count myself as one of the 'small fry users'. Many other members can show you their traffic stats that would blow mine right out of the water but regardless, I could never get this kind of traffic off of a brand new Wordpress or Blogger based blog without time & effort promoting the blog itself. ActiveRain comes with 2 million visitors each and every month and that isn't likely to be beaten by an individual Realtor starting their own blog using Wordpress.

Q: If I don't want to pay?

A: Don't, contribute anyways because the connections you'll make by being an active member of ActiveRain can ultimately be priceless. Write posts on ActiveRain that would benefit its members such as Lenders, Brokers, Staging Specialists and so on. Start your own Wordpress blog and use that to promote to consumers instead of using ActiveRain. If you need help setting up a Wordpress blog almost anyone who has one can give you pointers and many people can set one up for you at rock bottom prices if not for free including myself.

Day Eight: Virtual Tours

So many free and fee based tools / services that allow you to create virtual tours of a property that there really is no excuse NOT to create virtual tours.

So far if you've been following along with this series you've learned some tips on why to add properties to the MLS, to your build in property search tools that came with your website or that you've had built (if any), on page property marketing through out your website, 3rd party vendors like Trulia, e-mail broadcasts to Realtors and past leads / clients, and press releases.

At the same time you may have started towards implimenting these different property marketing efforts and are probably amonst the top 75% of Realtors while everyone else won't even bother with that much effort with marketing homes.

People search for homes expecting to find property photos and descriptive content.  Now why not provide them with yet another visually appealing way to discover properties?

VisualTour.com probably has one of the better technologies I've seen in a long while and I find them being used by many Realtors. Agents pay $199.95 setup fee and $29.95 a month thereafter for unlimitted tours with up to 50 photos per tour.  Broker prices vary by number of agents in the office but offer private label branding and even allows a broker to advertise their company on tours created by agents in their office using the Visual Tour platform.

RealTourVision.com and other companies like it can help get you started with making your own fully functional 360 degree virtual tours.  This would be ideal for an agent that wants to do virtual tour photo shoots themselves and need the software and equipment to accomplish the tasks.  Here is a 360 virtual tour example with this kind of setup.

Many Realtor based hosting companies will also have their own style of virtual tour tour tools.  You can almost always also look at what some of your competitors are doing and through that find the right virtual tour tools for your needs.

Tomorrow: Video Tours

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Previous Post In This Series: Day Seven - Online Property Marketing

Day Seven: Press Releases

I completely understand that not all homes are press release "Worthy".  However some are worthy of a press release such as a famous or semi famous person's home being put up on the market.  If you are a creative writer than even a simple shack could be put on the market.

A few years back I caught a press release about a dumpy little shack that was on the market for over a million bucks.  The press release was creatively written and an appropriate disastrous image was used to make me say, "What the heck?" and proceed to click on the link to read more.  It turns out that dumpy little shack was in Las Vegas on a prime location which probably has a condo skyscraper on it now.

Are you selling the last lake front estate on Lake Norman in North Carolina?  Isn't that something to send out a press release about?

EXTRA EXTRA

Last Lakefront Property in Lake Norman Up for Sale!

Written by Estelle Brown, a Lake Norman Real Estate Agent - 2/10/2009

About two weeks ago I caught via Twitter that a Realtor was doing a 70 hour straight open house event.  While I didn't look too much into the details, this SCREAMS Press Release!

Did you just merge with another office in the area?  Press Release!

Did you change companies? Press Release!

New Developement of Homes?  Press Release!

Twice as many homes sold in 2009 than 2008?  Press Release!

Besides the fact that people read these things, the other advantage would be several new links to your website.  If your press release content has links within it and the receiving news source publishes as is then you've just picked up a link. Additionally, a press release can be used as a selling point to attract sellers.

Go to Google and type in, "Online Press Release".  You'll come up with a ton of places where you can submit press releases. Many distribution websites have some kind of free submission and others charge a fee.  If you have a luxury property and are an extremely tallented creative writer than I'd suggest investing in PRWeb.com every now and then for maximum exposure & distribution.

Tomorrow: 

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Previous Post In This Series: Day Six - Online Property Marketing

Day Six: E-Mail Broadcast Marketing - Past Leads

If you've read my previous Day Five post Titled, "E-Mail Broadcast Marketing - Realtors" then you can suspect that you have some marketing options for anyone that has contacted you in the past for real estate needs.

Buyers, Sellers and those that are just curious on lookers; if they have contacted you before then they are potential clients today.  Even if these people have used your services to buy or sell in the past, there may be a need for your services once again OR they may have a friend or family member in need of buying or selling.

Like with marketing to local Realtors, be it that they are colleagues or competitors, you can't simply solicit old leads out of the blue.  You must maintain and build upon a relationship so that they won't simply delete your e-mail communication to them.

For those that you've done business with in the past and from here on out, get into the habit of sending them some kind of gift basket each and every year.  Ideally you should send them something on the day they closed on their new home or sold their previous home.  You could take it a step further and send them a Christmas basket as well.  You might end up spending $20 - $40 per basket each year but the gesture won't go un-noticed by past clients.

For those that have only inquired about a property or contacted you regarding some questions they had about the local real estate market, it might be best that you keep a cheat sheet containing what they were interested in.  When anything changes on that topic or if another property matching the one they were asking about comes on the market again you can easily contact them with the information and a small call to action.

I work with MANY Realtors and I often find that my clients talk about how a large part of their client base is based off of referrals.  Other Realtors often include something like, "Referrals are the best compliment you can give me..." or the likes.

Having a successful transaction with a buyer or seller doesn't always mean that you'll be remembered time and time again or referred to when your past client has a friend or family member looking to buy a home.  You often have to take that extra step and remain in contact with them in such a way that they don't forget you.

Be generous by the way.  Everyone receives birthday and Christmas cards from their dentist, doctors and mechanics these days.  These are discarded most of the time because there is always a hint of, "Come back and see us soon!".  Be generous in what you give and be genuine.  Count the years of communication and gift giving as part of your marketing expenses and stick to it!

Here are just a few ideas of what to pass along to your past clients:

• Gift Baskets - Hand delivered is best but you can mail them as well.
• Gift Cards - Typically you can send a gift card within a card but spend the time on a nice card as well.
• Carpet Cleaning - Pay for a carpet cleaning and allow them to set up the date and time.
• Window Washing - Same concept, pay for this cleaning and allow them to set up the date and time.
• Newspaper Subscription - Cover their newspaper subscription from year to year if the price isn't too much.
• Lawn Care - Give your past buyers a break every now and then with a lawn care provider service.

Lastly, hold an annual BBQ during the summer at a local park.  Spare no expenses with the food and beverages and if you deal with a lot of families with children rent one of those jumpers as they go a very long way with children.

If you've done all or some of these things then it isn't likely that an e-mail broadcast will get deleted by past leads.  Funny how online marketing takes a little of social activity and offline marketing isn't it?

Tomorrow: Press Releases

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Previous Post In This Series: Day Five - Online Property Marketing

Day Five: E-Mail Broadcast Marketing - Realtors

As a Realtor you have every tool available to you to inform other Realtors in your office and out of your office of current properties you are marketing.  By educating them on what is available you are further improving your odds of selling a home even more quickly than other Realtors in your area.

You Can't Simply Blast an E-Mail to Every Realtor in a 50 Mile Radius

I'd say that in almost all of the United States there is easily enough property surplus that your competitors won't give a damn about your two bedroom one bathroom home.  Additionally your e-mail is most likely going to be considered spam and deleted. 

There are ways of getting your properties in front of other Realtors more often than others though via e-mail blasts.  You MUST build relationships with those in and out of your office in order to be able to have an in with them so that they won't be offended by your solicitations.  Here are a few pointers:

Realtors In Your Office

1. Brokers - Make it a point to send a weekly and monthly office property roster
2. Realtors - Send a weekly or monthly team property roster (For those that are teams)
3. Spend more time at the office which allows you to associate and be-friend more Realtors in the office.
4. Volunteer more at company events including meetings to be more visible and again befriend other Realtors in the office.
5. Purposefully make time to attend open houses from other agents in the office.  Show your support, familiarize yourself with the property that you might have a lead for yourself and build lasting friendships or acquaintance status.
6. Invite Realtors in the office to tour your own open houses.

Realtors Out of Your Office

1. Attend open houses as much as possible.
2. Attend Chamber Mixers or other local events; it is likely that other Realtors will be there and soon enough you'll get to know them.
3. Purposefully go out of your way to point out a flaw or two with a listing you find in the MLS that could be corrected.  The Realtor may not have realized and be appreciative.
4. During Christmas send a basket of goodies to select Realtors that you know are power house agents.

Building working relationships allows you to get away with an e-mail blast or two every now and then.  You might be able to get away with this once or twice a month but be careful not to abuse the relationship. 

One last thing...

Personalize each and every e-mail you send out.  Remind the Realtor of the great time you had discussing a flooded basement or something funny that happened back in college.  Get PERSONAL as this goes a long way towards your e-mail being spam or a warm and inviting e-mail from a friend.

Today is the half way point for this 10 day series.  If you've just started reading then I welcome and encourage you to take a quick glance at the past posts in this series.  Here are the topics:

Day One - Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
Day Two - Website Property Search Tools
Day Three - Website On Page Promotion
Day Four - 3rd Party Property Vendors

Tomorrow: E-Mail Broadcast Marketing - Past Leads

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Previous Post In This Series: Day Four - Online Property Marketing

Day Four:  3rd Party Property Vendors

Your MLS might technically be considered a property vendor type website but more specifically vendors are websites like Trulia, Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate and many others.

The more locations you are able to advertise a property the better the odds of picking up leads and an even better chance that many of your competitors aren't taking advantage of as much property promotion as you are.

The good news is that you don't have to take the time to submit to each and every vendor one at a time.  In many instances your MLS already exports properties to these vendors.  In other instances your Brokerage might export properties to these vendors and in some cases even the company hosting your website will have vendor relations.

What you should do is ask your MLS, Broker and web hosting company which websites, if any, they export to.  Once you have an idea of who they feed to and who they don't feed to you can at that point manually submit to the other vendor websites.

Here is a SMALL list of vendor websites you could possibly be marketing your properties on:

• Trulia
• Zillow
• Yahoo Real Estate
• Google Base
• Backpage
• FrontDoor
• Oodle
• Lycos (Syndicates from Oodle)
• Local.com (Syndicates from Oodle)
• Vast
• Craigslist (No Export, Manual Only)
• HotPads
• Facebook
• DotHomes
• Enormo (International + fee)
  
• HomeFinder

I'm only one marketing specialist.  You as Realtors can probably come up with twice as many places to advertise properties online at that I've possibly never heard of.  If you would be so kind and share others in the comments of this post I'll add the vendor website as well as a contribution link to your website or AR profile next to it.

Tomorrow: E-Mail Broadcast Marketing - Realtors

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Previous Post In This Series: Day Three - Online Property Marketing

Day Three: Website On Page Promotion

If you've been following along over the last two days you've read about promoting properties both through the MLS and the property search tools that are available with most template provider based websites and even custom websites.

Today I want to review a screenshot of a real estate website that I think promotes properties fairly well through out the actual pages of the website AND at the same time provides visitors to search the MLS or search properties via their own property search tools.

Main Property:  This home is the very first thing someone visually notices when they visit this website.  Nothing else stands out the most unless the visitor scrolls down the page in which case the next visual stand out are the additional three properties at the bottom.

This property could be the most expensive in your list of properties or it could be one that has been on the market for longer than you'd like.  It could also simply be that you randomly rotate all of your properties on a monthly basis so that all properties get equal attention.

Mini Featured:  The three properties at the bottom of the home page are also visually appealing and stand out the most on the website.  In fact if you've noticed, nothing else is standing out visually and this is done on purpose.

The properties on the home page include the following:

• Best Possible Exterior Image
• Image Alt Text Using Property Addresses
• Unique Descriptions
• Property Address Displayed
• Link to More Info

Best Possible Exterior Image - Put your best foot forward when trying to attract potential buyers.  Using a picture of the bathroom with a normal tub and tiled windows isn't exactly that attractive to someone making one of the biggest decisions they will ever make in their lives.

Image Alt Text - For search engine optimization purposes and to help those that are visually challenged please use image alt text.  I tend to use the full property address (address, city, state, zip) since that is exactly what the image reflects.

Unique Description - No matter where you promote a single property, be it in five or ten different places, take the time to write unique content for the property.  Obviously you cant change how many bedrooms but you can change the way you write out the details.

Unique content helps improve your chances of ranking within search engines.  More importantly a visitor might stumble across one description and later find the same property with much more information and that could repeat two or more times.

Property Address Displayed - Buyers are educated and have an arsenal of tools at their disposal.  They may want the address to check out location on Google Maps or maybe even do a drive by if they are local.  Additionally, there is a GOOD chance you could end up ranking in search engines for all or part of the property address.  While less traffic is likely to come of this long tail keyword term, I'd bet that anyone purposefully doing a Google search for the property address is going to be a much more qualified and interested buyer.

Link to More Info - So you've added a property photo & description but are you really going to leave your interested visitors hanging like that?  At the very least provide a link to the property details within the MLS or within whatever property search tools your website has built in.

Avoid sending them to a massive form where they then have to enter in criteria and search for the property.  Why would anyone want to spend time re-finding a property that you are promoting on the webpage itself.

Ideally what you'll want to do is create a custom page dedicated to the property itself with photos and yet another more detailed description.  This will improve ranking chances for the property address and also flesh out your website so that more pages are crawled by Google and counted towards your over all ranking goals.

Notice on the image that I also highlighted where this website is promoting an MLS search and a link to their property search tool that they use on their website?  Do you also notice that 11 out of the 13 possible links on the image are property related? This is purposefully done in order to navigate potential buyers straight to properties because in the end the properties are what visitors are going to want information on first.

Here are a few additional screenshots of internal pages of this website for your enjoyment.

Tomorrow: 3rd Party Property Vendors

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Previous Post In This Series: Day Two - Online Property Marketing

Day Two: Website Property Search Tools

Let's assume that at least 30% of Realtors nationwide have custom or template based websites.  That would mean that out of 1.2 million Realtors that 240,000 websites exist purely for real estate agents.

• Over 1.2 Million Realtors (1)
  
• Over 4.9 million homes on the market in 2008 (2)

Template based websites from companies like Advanced Access, Homes or Best Image all tend to have their own internal property search tools.  So not only can a Realtor take advantage of MLS property marketing but they can also have their own property search tools directly on their website.Custom websites may also use 3rd party applications or custom built programs to display properties in such a way that may be different than what the MLS may offer.

Depending on your MLS limitations and your property search tool capabilities you might find some added benefits in also using property marketing tools on your website in addition to your MLS.  They are:

1. Property data is on your website and not simply a link to your MLS.
2. Custom Search Options (Some MLS / IDX Solutions don't allow you to create custom searches that might meet your buyers criteria and then send them a link.)

Also I might add that it is of my opinion that many Realtors won't do much more property marketing outside of adding the listing to the MLS which is almost always required.  In the event that this is true in your market then you've now added one more way to promote your properties above and beyond what your competitors are willing to do.

Tomorrow: Website On Page Promotion

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Previous Post In This Series: Day One - Online Property Marketing

Online property marketing has grown and changed in such ways that should a Realtor close their eyes for just a minute there is a good chance that they've missed out on great opportunities, services or products that allow them to promote and market real estate online.

I've created a list of 10 ways that you can market individual properties online.  Some of these you probably already do but keep in mind that the more of these 10 items you can accomplish for every single property the more likely you are to be ahead of the competition.  Furthermore, the more of these that you can accomplish for your sellers properties the more likely it is that you'll get more interested leads regardless what the media has to say about the real estate industry.

Over the next 10 days I'll be introducing these ten strategies.  Some will be more detailed than others but each day will bring on a new perspective that you may not have considered in the past.

Day One:  Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

The MLS is pretty commonplace for Realtors when marketing properties online.  The MLS is often connected to through out agent websites that use the same MLS. Because of this someone could happen across one of your properties through dozens of other websites online simply because you've taken the time to add this property and property details to the Multiple Listing Service in your area.

This is step one and as mentioned, one of the most common tools used to promote properties.  There are a few additional advantages to most MLS services these days though that you should be aware of:

• Many MLS services will feed websites like Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Google Base, Yahoo Real Estate and maybe a dozen other property portal websites (Discussed in detail on day four).
• Most offices utilize the MLS in office for when walk-ins happen.
• Agent websites often tie into the MLS giving you countless opportunities.

Note: This is the first step any Realtor with a property to market should take.  Interestingly enough it is probably often the only step a Realtor will take so if you simply take the time to add your clients listing to the MLS then you are as good as they are in regards to marketing.

Tomorrow: Website Property Search Tools

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Most Popular Post Around the Web: Five Twitter Marketing Strategies

Ok so I've been tagged by Mike Wilton who runs a blog called, "Musings For A Darkened Room". He happened to be tagged by David Harry aka The Gypsy who happens to be an extremely detailed blogger with all things related to Internet Marketing and some things not so related. The idea of this game of tag is that each person gets to share a little about themselves that not everyone might be aware of and then tag several other people to do the same. So without much hesitation and some free time on my hands through out the evening last night... I give you seven facts about me that you probably don't know or are sick of hearing me talk about.

Goody goody

Through out my life I've been looked at as someone that behaved, never got in trouble and couldn't possibly do anything wrong. As a child I sabotaged my moms makeup and my brother got the blame, in elementary school one year I kept the walkathon money that I collected instead of giving it to the school, I was accused of burning down a vacant motel when I was 13 and even though I didn't have anything to do with it I did rat out who MIGHT have done it and no one really knew I told. At around that same age I came across a blue bank bag with $1,300.00 in it and turned it in though what people didn't know at the time was that it wasn't my choice; I was already picturing a red moped an older friend was selling for cheap.

Needless to say and as sad as it is, I've had a minor run in or two in my 20's with the law and the cat was out of the bag. However I will say this... no matter what stupid choices I've made in life, I've always been the one to turn myself in. The walkathon money? Yeah I felt guilty and told my mom and together we gave it all to the school; the snitching ... I confessed and even though I got beat up for it I was glad to have a guilt free conscious. I also would have never been arrested for my stupid stunts if I had never turned myself in or played my cards a little different.

So while I may not be the best goody goody out there, I can tell you that I learn my lessons and try not to repeat certain mistakes... oh and my conscious keeps me from getting away with anything sneaky for any period of time. I've been behaving for almost five years now.

Loyalty

I consider loyalty to others above my own well being a weakness that others consider one of my best qualities. I simply do not like disappointing people that are counting on me and feel a great deal of grief when I feel as though someone somewhere is being let down by my choices. I remember giving my two weeks notice at my first job when I was 19 after being with the company for two and a half years; it took me damn near two weeks just to give my notice! Today this has not gotten any easier for me and I am still as loyal as ever to employers, clients and above all my family.

Dungeons & Dragons

Even though I've not played the game for five or so years now I still consider myself a gamer. I've played the game since I was 17 years old and didn't stop until I was 22 when my girlfriend at the time told me it was either the game or her that had to go. I should have chosen to keep playing the game so to save myself the grief because later she became my wife and very shortly after that my ex-wife. That is what I get for thinking with the wrong ... never mind about that.

Christianity

I'm a Christian and have been since the age of 18. I've never once looked at gaming as evil or satanic and that is mostly due to the particular group of people I gamed with. I'll argue with anyone until my face turns blue that gaming is not bad even to this day. Sure bad things can happen in the wrong environment but that is true for anything in life.

Family Tree

I'm the third generation in my family to carry on my Great Great Grandfathers name. If it wasn't for my Great Grandfather being named John Alvin Jones I'd be the fifth person to carry on the name without a single break in the passing down of the name. My son who is 9 months old is carrying on the name as well which was one of my life long desires to see happen. I'm glad my wife was ok with this one stipulation before I decided to marry her.

This is the one fact about my life that everyone knows about but if they knew the history behind the Jones' family they would probably question why on earth I'd choose to pass down my namesake to another human being. That however is a book of a story that I won't get into.

My Biggest Fear or Most Natural Talent

My profession is defined broadly as an Internet Marketer but with an emphasis on search engine optimization. I've been in this field now for almost seven years and I don't see an end in sight. Every now and then though I fear that I don't know as much as I let on when talking with customers or co-workers and that one day that would become apparent to everyone around me.

Regardless of what I know, don't know or have yet to study up on though I'd say I have a natural talent that my forever keep my biggest fear from becoming a reality. You see, during my seven years in this industry I've had an understanding of what I am doing in a logical and common sense kind of way. My work isn't complicated to me at all because it makes so much sense to me regardless what it is I don't really know or what I know like the back of my hand.

I don't like to admit this particular thing because even to me it is a recently new realization that I've come to discover about myself. However I am a fairly honest person and willing to risk the opinions of others by being transparent with this post. I will however expect the same transparency from those who I plan on tagging at the end of this post so keep this in mind when you get tagged!

Addict

No I've never touched drugs, don't smoke and while I do drink every now and then I'm not an addict in that kind of way. Instead I get easily addicted to things like video games or books. If I start playing a video game it simply consumes me until I pass it and any previous versions that might be floating around.

Diablo II consumed me so much that I snuck into a friends house while he was at work on MANY occasions. Twenty minutes before he was due home I'd leave only to come back 30 minutes after he was home and asked if I could play for awhile.

I read one James Patterson book that involved Alex Cross and spent the next few months reading the entire Alex Cross series. Today I am reading the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer. I picked up book one last Tuesday and today I am maybe three quarters of the way through book two and already looking forward to starting book three this weekend. Needless to say, when I go off on these addictions, my wife can't wait for me to get through them so she can have her husband back.

My Past Life

When I was a young boy I always wanted to grow up and become a Chef. I left home when I was 16 to attend Job Corps out in Stead near Reno Nevada. My choice vocational study was Culinary Arts and I completed two thirds of the program before I left and returned home. I then spent almost three years working at Harrah's Tahoe working in the food pantry and every now and then playing line cook, cashier and even host. I've been a Junior member of the American Culinary Federation and would still like to jump back into that membership one day.

My motives for wanting to become a Chef were selfish though and my desire to continue that path didn't last long. You see, growing up I didn't have much and I never wanted my own children to go hungry or repeatedly eat the exact same stuff over and over again. I thought that if I became a Chef that it wouldn't be speghetti, hamburgers, macaroni and cheese every night for them.

I eventually realized shortly after my first experience on a computer that I didn't want to be a Chef and that I didn't have to be a Chef to cook good and decent meals for my family. So, back to Job Corpse I went at the age of 20 to study office related vocations including typing, use of computers and so on. Today I type over 80 words a minute, am fairly fluent with Microsoft Office applications and obviously can work with websites.

Tag You're It

In keeping up with this viral tradition, I have chosen seven people I know to come up and share seven things that people may not exactly know about you. They can be as simple as David Harry's post or as complex and brutally honest as my post.

Griffin 'Gage' Granberg - Friend, Strategist, Programmer, Designer, co-conspirator and Sweet Geek!

Jennifer Jones - My Wonderful Wife and business owner of Tutoring 911 & Blogging Mothers

Pat Haddad - Indianapolis real estate professional and one of my favorite clients to work with.

Sandra Mathewson - Newer client of mine but my real estate related social media co-conspirator in Fernley Nevada

Steve McLaughlin - My best friend & DM (Dungeon Master)

Steven Jones - My younger brother who can vouch for much of what I gave away up above.

Jeff Turner aka ResPres - Though I know of his popularity and follow him on Twitter, He doesn't know me so I thought it'd be kind of fun to tag Jeff and get to know him a little better.

I was recently asked a series of questions about my experiences with Trulia Voices as a home owner and not so much as a marketing person who spends his days trying to utilize Trulia for marketing purposes.

I must admit that as I was answering the questions I found myself being a bit bleak towards the Realtor’s that answered any one of the dozen questions I asked over a two week period.

Out of a dozen real estate related questions all but two were answered and I received a total of 38 answers. Of those 38 though I have to be honest that as a consumer I was fairly disappointed in the answers provided me.

I’m at an impasse because my biggest complaint became my biggest aid to answering my questions unless they were otherwise completely answered by one or two thorough Realtors.

You see, the majority of answers weren’t answers at all or if they were answers they were really guides pointing me in the right direction which meant that I still had to do my homework on my own. I wanted the answers as quickly as possible without putting too much of my own effort into finding the answers out.

While I now know the answers to the questions I asked, with the exception of one or two instances, my answers came about mostly due to my own research and time which is what I was trying to avoid all along.

I write this as a consumer who feels that he has mostly been failed by the very people who should have known the answers to his questions. I also write this to point out that there were one or two exceptions wherein those particular Realtors not only answered specific questions but they answered them thoroughly and completely. I’ll remember them when I have additional questions and seeing as one of them is local to me; the next time I am buying or selling he will be a Realtor I highly consider.

Social Q & A based websites like Trulia Voices and Zillow Advice are great marketing tools for Realtors when questions are answered in such a way that you make a lasting impression on the person asking the question.

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain | PropertyQube

My Most Popular Post Around the Web: Five Twitter Marketing Strategies (for Realtors)

About once a week or so now I hear about one big company or another jumping on Twitter to manage their public image and provide one more resource for their customers to reach them.

Last night I mentioned I had goofed on my Bank of America account.  Wasn't all that happy about my mistake or the loss of almost $100 in service charges for an account I've never once used.

Well this morning I woke up to a Tweet from @BofA_Help wanting to help me.  I explained without too much detail what the problem was through 3 - 4 direct tweets.  He then asked for my contact info which I promptly only gave him my account number since that is a fairly safe thing to give him.

No less than five minutes later I received a call from another rep at BofA that has already looked at my account, knew which one I wanted to close and even refunded me the service charges which comes in handy right about now.

So now I have one more reason to suggest people use Twitter.  If you use Bank of America then you should follow Bank of America on Twitter.  Additionally you'll start to find so many more mega organizations jumping on Twitter for many of the same reasons I imagine BofA did.

My only suggestion to big business is to launch a Press Release hosted directly on their main site and easily found.  As more and more big named companies such as Best of the Web, Charter, Comcast, T-Mobile and so on jump on board we, the consumer, are going to need to guard our info a little more closely or be caught up in identity theft and more.

Sincerely,

John F. Jones III

Find me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Trulia | Active Rain

My Most Recent Post Around the Web: Too Many Social Websites - Where to Start?

Over the last week I've been actively hunting out a Designer and Programmer skilled with Wordpress.  I've posted on the Wordpress forums, Created a profile on a freelance site and posted the job details, found several blogs based around Wordpress tutorials and sent direct messages to the blog owners and have received numerous contacts from those blog owners pointing me in the right direction.

Needless to say I've been busy trying to get everything taken care of and in my communication efforts I discovered the importance of Social Media Reputation Management on a whole new level that I thought would be highly important for Realtor's using Social Media such as Active Rain, Twitter, Facebook and so on to understand.

Many of us have LinkedIn which is a great place to send potential customers for testimonials, credentials and your resume.  Fantastic site that I'd encourage everyone to jump on board with.

However, while you are directing people to your LinkedIn profile where everything smells like roses, some consumers will be looking for you in other places on the World Wide Web.

Here are just a few examples of negative things I've found online and how while researching some of these providers:

Google Search: I searched on guys name and city and found out he is a Webmaster for a local website.  The website wasn't all that attractive and there were some pretty simple HTML mistakes that could be easily avoided.  I then found out that he and his buddy have started a music label from another website.  Turns out this service provider shared his life story on this site and all the parties, drugs, jail and women.  While he has made a great effort to straighten up, I simply don't think I can trust someone with only a few months of 'doing good' under his belt.

Twitter: Someone suggested I follow someone on Twitter and ask them for help.  Before I got a chance to followed them I checked out their website which was highly professional and awesome looking; even built on Wordpress.  However I took a quick look at their Twitter timeline and in more than one occasion I seen this person seriously trash talking and complaining about Customers.  Now, he didn't mention any names but the hostility and negativity coming from him made me think he probably isn't the best person for the job.

----------------------------

I'm just saying that if you use Twitter, post comments on others blogs and so on then it might be a good idea to consider, "Hey, what if a customer reads this?".  For an additional viewpoint and thoughts on the topic check out a friends post on Reputation Management.  He wrote it awhile back now but it brings a unique perspective none the less.

How detailed do you get in relation to your communication with sellers that you represent?  Do you let them know every last detail of how you are promoting their property?  For example:

"Hello John,

Today I went out to your property and took interior and exterior photos.  I wrote up several variations of a detailed description on your home and then added your listing to the local area MLS.  Additionally I used a website called Postlets to distribute your property data to about a dozen classified based sites like Trulia, Google Base and even Craigs List.

Tomorrow I'll be sending out an e-mail blast to my current list of potential buyers to make them aware of the propety and will also be sending out an e-mail internally to my office to make other Realtors in the office aware of the property as they may have a potential buyer in their own leads."

::: The Next Day :::

"Hello again John,

Today I sent out an e-mail to my list of potential buyers and let the Realtor's in my office know about your property.  I've also gone ahead and scheduled an open house for January 17th from 9am to 3pm and have been promoting that through several online social networks specifically geared toards area locals.

Behind the scenes I've started preparing some of the documentation with basic information such as property details and of course ownership information.  When we find a buyer interested in the next step I'll be that much more ready to quickly and easily finish the paperwork and proceed."

::: One Week Later :::

"Hello John,

To date I have had one direct inquiry about your property from my website, one from Trulia.com thanks to my promotion through Postlets.com and none through other Realtor's in my office.  For the two leads I have recieved so far I've sent additional information via e-mail and through a printed PDF file via postal mail.

One of these interested buyers has said they will be at the open house on January 17th so I've scheduled a follow up call and e-mail for the 14th to remind them about the open house."

-----------------------

Is there such a thing as too much information or not enough?  What exactly do you disclose during the process of working with a seller in today's market when it can take months to sell a home now?

I ask this as a home owner because I work with clients every single day and some expect the absolute nitty gritty details about what I do and some simply don't care to know the details so long as what I do is working.

I've spent a considerable amount of time finding different Twitter Services, Tools & Articles.  I've read the articles and tried the services and tools.  All of these or many in conjunction with one another can help improve your Twitter usage and marketing efforts.

Services

1. Twitter - This is a no brainer, if you want to promote yourself through Twitter then you'll need to create a Twitter profile.
   
   
2. Twit Pic - Share your Twitter worthy photos through this website. Great way to get discovered by other Twitter users.
   
   
3. Twitt Groups - Find groups that interest you or that you can connect with and possibly do business with down the road.  Create your own group and build up a community group.  Plenty of opportunity with this website.
   
   
4. Tweet Grid - This is a recently discovered website thanks to @SugarCube. It is fast becomeing one of my favorite places to find other Twitter users that are topic oriented.  Tweet Grid allows you to conduct one or more searches on Twitter and see who is talking about specific topics.
   
   
5. Tweet Works - Another group related website.  I like this because you can post directly to the group page OR both to your Twitter and to the group page.  I created the 'Marketing' group and plan on posting at least a daily marketing tip.
   
   
6. Twitter Feed - Useful tool if you have a blog and RSS feed.  Simply give your RSS feed to Twitter Feed and whenever you post a new blog this service will announce the new post automatically via your Twitter profile.  Be cautious using this though as too many automated updates may cause you to lose some followers.
   
   
7. Twitter Poll Daddy - Create a Poll and then broadcast it to your Twitter followers.  This handy modification of PollDaddy changes your Twitter status so that more people will see your Poll even when you aren't Tweeting about it.
   
   
8. Twitter Response - Probably one of my favorite Twitter tools of all.  This allows me to set up Twitter posts to publish at a specific time and date.  This is handy for me because I can't always use Twitter through out the day but don't want to miss out on potential followers that are only on when i'm not.
   
   
9. Twitter Reply - Want to know when someone sends you a response or direct message on Twitter without spending your day glued to your Twitter screen?  Twitter Reply sends you an e-mail whenever someone mentions your Twitter username.  If someone said, "Hello @10minutes!" I'd get an e-mail.
   
   There is some chance of spam associated with this I can imagine so beware of that possibility if your using a name similar to someone elses OR someone is blindly broadcasting spammy messages hoping to hit and miss.
   
   
10. Qwitter - Over solicitation can lead to people removing you from their follow list.  This might also happen if you are not active on Twitter or if you are out right rude or something.  This service will alert you to when someone stops following you by sending you an e-mail along with the post immediately before that person stopped following you.  Great way to measure what you might be doing right or wrong with your connecting to others.
    

Desktop Tools

1. Tweet Deck - This tool is an Adobe Air product that allows you to break down specific parts of Twitter such as direct messages, replies and so on into seperate viewable windows.  There are many great advantages to using this particular software if you want to give it a go.
   
   
2. Twhirl - This is the tool I use by default for all of my Twitter activity.  This tool allows you to manage multiple accounts which comes in handy if your wife shares your computer from time to time or of you have multiple accounts, one for professional and one for personal.  This also has a nice little built in URL Shorten button and when you move your mouse over someones twitter image it'll give you options to reply, direct message, retweet or add to your favorites.
   
   
3. Twitter Fox - This is a Firefox plugin that allows you to get Tweet updates in a small non obtrusive window.  I use this at work and it is very handy in keeping me away from constantly refreshing my browser window.
   
   
4. Twitterlator - For all of those iPhone users out there, this is the application you can easily setup on your phone to start Tweeting no matter where you are at.  I haven't personally tried this one but did stumble across it so if you have any reviews feel free to share via a comment.
   
5. Twadget - My wife is a Vista user while I am still on Windows XP.  This nice little Twitter tool is a Windows Vista gadget that I just had to install on her computer and give it a go.  Not a bad desktop application to run on a Vista machine.

Twitter Articles

1. 10 Easy Steps for Twitter Beginners
2. 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
3. Beginners Guide to Using Twitter for Business
4. Twit Tip - Daily Twitter Tips
5. Twitter Blog - New Updates, Announcements and more.
6. Five Twitter Marketing Strategies - My own Twitter post on AR.

Follow me on Twitter - @10minutes | View My AR Profile | View my Linked In Profile | My Trulia Profile