HousingLeadsUniversity.com

I am very analytical. Most people are not. Let me cut to the chase with a simple formula…

Google Rankings = Popularity (of your website) against Relevancy of the search terms in a Google search

You can try to master a top Google Score by guessing the algorithm, design a website specific to the formula, but what happens when Google changes it?

Here is a good rule of thumb for 90% of internet marketers: Create a Popular Blog for your Niche! Blogs are perfectly suited for the Google Popularity Contest. You can do very well on the Goolge Algorith Formula by creating a popular blog rich in conent that includes keywords to your niche.

Blogs are designed for the non-computer programmers to produce websites. Google is a popularity contest so make it social! More about this in Part II of our article.

For the 10% of internet marketers that are highly analytical - keep the following Google formula in your mind as you create websites. Stay closer to HousingLeadsUniversity.com and we will let you know when we see changes in the search engine formulas.

Google Score = (keyword KW Usage Score * 0.3) + (Domain Strength * 0.25) + (Inbound Link Score * 0.25) + (User Data * 0.1) + (Content Quality Score * 0.1) + (Manual Boosts) - (Automated & Manual Penalties) also Hub/Authority score

KW Usage Factors:
• KW in title tag
• KW in header tags
• KW in document text
• KW in internal links pointing to the page
• KW in domain and/or URL
Domain Strength
• Registration history
• Domain age
• Strength of links pointing to the domain
• Topical neighborhood of domain based on inlinks & outlinks
• Historical use & links pattern to domain
Inbound Link Score
• Age of links
• Quality of domains sending links
• Quality of pages sending links
• Anchor text of links
• Link quantity/weight metric (Pagerank or a variation)
• Subject matter of linking pages/sites
User Data
• Historical CTR to page in SERPs
• Time users spend on page
• Search requests for URL/domain
• Historical visits/use of URL/domain by users GG can monitor (toolbar, wifi, analytics, etc.)

One of my favorite euntreprenuers of all time is Sam Walton - the creator of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Wholesale. I have read his biography twice in my lifetime and I am about to read it again. The man was brilliant and his legacy continues to grow!

I have seen Wal-Mart behind the scenes and I have to say - this business model works - and it especially works in a recession!

Simple reason: the focus of the Sam Walton companies is to control expenses.

As real estate professionals, I highly recommend the business principals of Sam Walton in our current economic times. Read his book if you get a chance.

Here are my favorite 3 “Waltonisms” that you can apply to your Real Estate business:

#1 “Capital isn’t scarce: vision is.”

#3 “Control your expenses better than your competition.”

My interpretation of Sam Walton if he was giving advice to real estate professionals in 2008:

Bust it. Quit Complaining and Bust It! Turn off the negative media T.V. and stay close to your vision of real estate success. Decrease your expenses and increase your market share. (Move quickly into internet marketing of your business and shut down your expensive and ineffective billboards and newspaper adds).

OK, I am biased to internet marketing, but as a former empoyee of WalMart and as someone who has studied Sam Walton - I know his biggest focus was controlling expenses. This is also a great plan for creating a recession-proof business is controlling expenses.

As real estate professionals, it is time for us to rachet down our expenses. Hold every marketing dollar accountable.

Oh by the way, I teach intenet lead generation for real estate professionals. Moving to the internet is a calculated step to hold every marketing dollar accountable.

We are going to promote our blog, newsletter, training classes etc. by using the power of video and social media.

I do not know anything more powerful than search engine optimized video or video channels. If used properly, it is the creme de la creme of SEO!

You will be able to watch us live via web connection or by video download library.

Using a website called USTREAM.TV we will be able to have live video shows and run repeats of our previous shows at the same time. You will also be able to chat with other viewers during our shows.

To watch our shows CLICK HERE. Be sure to bookmark the website!

In a future blog post, we will teach you the HOW and WHY of video marketing for your real estate website or blog. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter at www.HousingLeadsUniversity.com so that you will be “in the know”!

Imagine a real estate business without overhead.

No monthly MLS dues

No SUPRA key rental dues

No monthly office charges or desk fees

No monthly showing service dues.

Do you think you could survive real estate in 2008 and 2009 if you did not have to pay your overhead every month?

It would certainly make surviving a little easier right?!

Consider this. Everything that we preach at HousingLeadsUniversity.com is to Search Engine Optimize your blogs and websites. MONETIZE IT BABY. MONETIZE IT.

FACT: Everyone who clicks to your website will eventually click to another website OR close out of your website and go to another website.

OPPORTUNITY: When they click to another website, would you like to get paid?

I am leading into several advertising opportunities that can actually pay you enough money each month to start covering your monthy overhead in real estate. ACTUALLY, I have half a dozen ways to make money with advertisers on your real estate blog.

MYTH: My website is all about lead generation. Anything else on the website, is taking away from my lead generation efforts.

TRUTH: EVERYONE WHO CLICKS TO YOUR WEBSITE WILL EVENTUALLY CLICK TO ANOTHER WEBSITE.

CHOICE: Get paid on those clicks or do not get paid.

In Part II, we will cover the HOW on getting paid. I just want to share a quick story.

As many of you know, I started my largest blog (searchMLS.TV) one year ago. I felt that advertising on the blog cheapened the user experience. I felt that offering advertisers an opportunity on the blog took away from my lead generation efforts.

Boy, was I wrong! This is an example of my own limiting beliefs.

For the past 60 Days, I opened up my blog to advertisers and put an end to my own doubts.

Have I made money? Does this cover my monthly overhead in real estate? and MOST RELEVANT TO YOU - CAN I TEACH YOU HOW TO DO IT?

You better believe it.

We will monetize your traffic AND I have a few tricks to help you keep the monetized traffic AFTER getting paid $$$ by the advertisers AND ALSO change a lot of that traffic back into leads for your business!

Wipe Out Real Estate Dues Part II coming soon…

I started building real estate blogs in 2006. If I had it to do all over again, I would have found a blog mentor - more about this later. I have done a lot of things right. I have also done a lot of thing wrong. You can learn some great SEO tips from my experience…

In this article, I am going to use www.searchMLS.TV also know as http://xmls.typepad.com as the example

Statistics: 3000 Web hits per month, 1000+ Unique Visitors per month, Not bad, for 7 big mistakes right!?

Here are my top 7 mistakes on the XMLS blogs:

#1 Keyword Research: If I had it to do again, I would have spent more time on keyword research. If I had done this before creating massive amounts of content, I would have 2-3 times as much traffic.

I built my blog on the keyword “mls”. A better keyword would have been “real estate”.

You can reasearch keywords at seobooks.com and by using the google keyword tools.

***I did recover from this mistake partly by making “realestate” the subdomain of my entire blog. 

#2 Finding the Right Blog Platform: I thought Typepad.com was better that WordPress.com  This was my biggest Rookie Mistake - assuming that a paid platform (Typepad) was better than the free platform (Wordpress).

Wordpress is better for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for a number of reasons. Honestly, I was intimidated by the Wordpress platfrom. Typepad tempted me by the ease of use, but I pay $30 a month!

I have since customized my typepad blog http://xmls.typepad.com with codes from a website called www.typepadhacks.com- But this was a lot of work to make it SEO equal to the free wordpress platform.

#3 Host or Not To Host?: For your main blog, you gotta go big. Host it on another server like godaddy.com or 1and1.com

Take http://xmls.typepad.com as an example. I did not host it. I do use a forwarding domain called searchMLS.TV  If I could do it all over again I would host it so that the one and only domain would be searchMLS.TV

Think big and host it from the start. Godaddy and Yahoo are the easiest. 1and1.com is a great one to use also. For wordpress blogs, I like hostgastor.com with the special plugins.

Yes, I could spend 30 days of my life and redo my blog on my own host server like 1and1.com  The problem with changing your mind after you start is that you have to switch your high ranking webpages of the blog and hope that the SEO transfers to a new domain. This is called a 301 Redirect. Very complicated and very time consumiung, but it is possible.

Trust me, it is worth the hassle up front of hosting your blog on the domain name of your choice. Quick Tip: use 1 or 2 of your keywords in the name.

#4 The Name, Blog Title and Tag Line: Keywords, Keywords, Keywords!!!

I chose XMLS as an abbreviate for eXtra Marketing Levarge System. I also knew that XMLS was a computer language. Cute, Right ? WRONG. This was a big SEO mistake. Luckily for me, the Google Algorithm for their search engines does pull the MLS out of the XMLS to help me rank for the word MLS.

Do not choose a name that is already in high competition - especially in another industry. “XMLS” has huge competiton, but not for anything related to real estate. Again, use 1 or 2 keyword relevant to your business in the domain name.

#5 Lead Conversion Starting on Day One: Even with all the mistakes, I was getting thousands of traffic per month on http://xmls.typepad.com 

Rule Number One: Get Calls to Action and a Sign Up Box ASAP. I repeat AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

I lost hundreds of registration my not implementing this from the stat. It was 1 year into my blog before I started the newsletter or a registration box.

Email me if you need help with this step. I have a few recommendations for you.

#6 The Art of Posts and Pages: The first 3 words are more imporant in the title of a post or page than the second 3 words. Use more keywords at the start of a post or page title!

If you get a chance to name the hyperliunk of a page, load it with keywords and separate those keywords with a hypen, do not run the keywords together.

#7 Its not about You. Its about the Houses: It is easy to get a big ego when you are at the top of the search engines from your blog efforts.

Type in my name, “John Pohly” on Google and watch what happens. Thousand of webpages pull up. This is not uncommon for internet marketers and it will probably happen to you also.

Do not get a big head. Remember that your web visitors do not care about you. They want to see houses. Give them what they want.

Do not let your new blog fame go to your head! Make houses the focus of your website! If you are a loan officer, they want to see payments!

Our 31 Day Calendar is just a preview of our program currently being made ready for a release in the Fall of 2008. Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other search engines are constantly scanning the internet for the most relevant web pages.

Our program called 31 Days to Company SEO will help you master internet marketing. Again, sign up for our newsletter at www.HousingLeadsUniversity.com

Google Analytics will help us keep track of visitor information and statistics on conversions etc. The social bookmarking button will make your life easier.

Do not worry, I will explain the entire 31 activities in detail in our class called 31 Days to Company SEO.

As we move through the 31 Days, you will notive repition. It is important that you cantinue to follow the calendar of events and homework.

On Day Twenty Seven, we taught you about video creation. Now we are going to focus on mass distribution of that video.