Massachusetts Real Estate

Are you in the Real Estate field and either have a website or blog that just rocks online? I just came across a very cool tool you can use to showcase your online dominance. A friend of mine Rich Vetstein from the Massachusetts Law Blog was where I saw this idea 1st. Stop by his blog and check him out!

The video is super easy to create. What you want to do is visit Youtube Search Stories. You will be able to create a video on Youtube like I have done below. You will of course be able to share this will all of the social networks you belong to.

What you will want to do is pick keyword phrases that you know you come up for at the top of the Google results page.

While creating your video the option is available to show the type of search you come up for whether it is a standard search, picture search, Blog, ect. The music can also be customized for your taste as well!

You could use this on your website explaining how well you do when people search anything related to local Real Estate online. Of course this will work much better if you actually have a fantastic online presence!

A few years ago I realized just how important the online search was becoming for any business. Every week I receive phone calls from buyers and sellers in the Metrowest Massachusetts area due to the online presence of my website and various blogs. Search engine optimization is not an overnight process. You need to constantly be focusing your attention on it if you want to achieve a large measure of success from your efforts. Best of luck with your video!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: The above Real Estate information on showecase your online dominance via Google search stories on Youtube was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356.

Have a home to sell in Metrowest Mass? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

For Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate and homes see Massachusetts Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in and around Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Northboro, Shrewsbury, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Franklin, Framingham and Douglas MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

Subscribe in a reader

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 24 years.

I just read a very interesting article over at Web Pro News that talks about how Google will now be incorporating your social network connections as a factor in delivering search results!

As Chris Crum, a writer for Web Pro News points out, "If you are one of those people still skeptical about the business uses of social media, you may be interested to know that Google's Social Search is no longer just an experiment."

SEO is always a moving target. What you do today to increase your SERPS might not be the same a year from now. If you are in business and want to continue to get results from the Internet having a grasp of what works and what doesn't is vital.

The message out of this article is loud and clear ~ Having connections, followers, friends at the various social media sites such as Twitter, Friendfeed, and others is going to help your SERP placement!

What kind of content is in Social Search?

If you are signed in to Google, you might see social search results for a particular search at the bottom of the results page under "Results from people in your social circle." All the content shown within Social Search is publicly-available online through Google and other search engines. Social Search simply highlights content from your social circle to provide a personalized search experience.

Here are some of the types of content you might see:

• Websites, blogs, public profiles, and other content linked from your friends' Google profiles
• Web content, such as status updates, tweets, and reviews, from social services that your friends have listed in their Google profiles.
• Images posted publicly from your social circle on Picasa Web and from websites linked from their Google profiles.
• Relevant articles from your Google Reader subscriptions.

According to Google:

1. Have your Real Estate client/customer base follow you via social networks.
2. Regularly participate in social media so people will engage and then possibly connect with you.
3. Share your content via Social Media sites. If you don't have a Share This widget or something like it I  would encourage you to get one!
4. Include your social network information on business cards, email, ect.
5. Incorporate your social network information into your online advertising/marketing.

Here is a terrific video that quickly describes how to create a Google profile if you don't have one and what this new search feature means to you!

 

 

                                         So who is presently in your social circle?

                                                                                                                                                      

Your social circle is the groups of connections you have including these contacts:

• Those in your Gmail (or Google Talk) chat list

• People in your Friends, Family, and Coworkers groups in your Google contacts

• People you're publicly connected to through social services that you've listed in your Google profile, such as Twitter, FriendFeed, and others.

• In case you were wondering, those that are connected to you via your Facebook profile page are NOT included in this as Google does not spider your contacts there.

• People who are contacts of those in your immediate social circle. Basically friends of friends.

See a list of your social circle connections at google.com/s2/search/social. This page shows your direct connections, secondary connections (friends-of-friends), and some of the content that each of those connections has published publicly online. The information displayed here is very interesting as it can shows you all the degrees of seperation that exist from your social media efforts.

You can also get to this page by clicking the link next to "Results from people in your social circle" on any Google search results page that's showing social search results.

See Bill Gassett's Google Profile. <-------HERE.

If you don't have a Google profile set up I would make sure you start working on one. It is very easy to get started and to add all the places online you are connected socially with others.

Good luck everyone. I hope this information continues to help grow your online business!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: The above Real Estate information on social networking becoming more important for Google SERPS  was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356.

Have a home to sell in Metrowest Mass? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

For Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate and homes see Massachusetts Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in and around Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Northboro, Shrewsbury, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Franklin, Framingham and Douglas MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

 

Subscribe in a reader

 

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 24 years.

 

I will admit right up front this post is a shameless plug that shows if you put your mind to it you can succeed in any kind of Real Estate market.

Before I ever wrote my 1st blog article which was in July of 2007, I was a pretty decent Realtor. In fact this will be the 3rd time I have made it into the Top 100 RE/MAX teams in the country.

As of the end of November my team is ranked #91 in the United States for RE/MAX. I won't know for a few months if I managed to stay in the top 100 for the entire year but it would be nice.

The other couple times I made this list of top RE/MAX agents I was ranked at #48 and #50. This was back at the hey day of the Real Estate market in the beginning of the decade.

 

By clinking the link you can see the entire list of the RE/MAX Top 100 Teams Through November 2009. My team is currently ranked as the #2 RE/MAX team in Massachusetts.

                                                                

The way I generate business these days is very different than before I started to blog. Almost everyone that is in the Real Estate business realizes that consumers start the home search process online.

In fact the latest statistics suggest that in many parts of the country 90% of buyers start their home search and eventually find a property by using the Internet as a tool. Gone are the days where Realtors rely on newspapers and magazines to make the phone ring.

As technology has advanced over the last decade, it was easy to see this coming. Staying ahead of the curve is always something I have attempted to do. There are probably a few Realtors who are reading this and thinking to themselves "I saw it coming too."

The Internet is changing the way many businesses operate not just Real Estate. When someone needs a good plumber, electrician, lawyer, ect and they don't have a good reference guess where they go? Hint... it is usually not the Yellow Pages anymore.  

One of the biggest common denominators for some of the best Realtors today is how well they market a clients home. Those that understand the internet and marketing in general, tend to hold their own despite the market forces.                                                                               

In many businesses there is an 80/20 rule in place that says 80% of the of the business will be done by 20% of the people.

Did you know that in the Real Estate industry 94% of the business is done by 6% of the agents? That is just a staggering figure!! Is it any wonder why there is so much dissatisfaction amongst consumers?

On many occasions it is the consumers own fault because they assume incorrectly that all Realtors are created equal and we all do the same things to get a home sold.

This poor line of thinking is further compounded by the fact that many people will make a terrible selection by picking the Realtor that gives them the highest price for their property. In other words the Realtor that LIES to them about their homes true value. This could all be avoided if more consumers took the time to ask good Real Estate interview questions.

When you ask the right questions it is much harder to get caught with your pants down!

Getting back to my original point about how powerful a search tool the Internet has become led me to start putting some serious effort into creating a Real Estate website that would not only be found online but dominate local Real Estate searches. If you want to see what I mean just Google

• Metrowest MA Real Estate
• Hopkinton MA Real Estate
• Holliston MA Real Estate

as a few quick examples. These are the type of search terms consumers will make when thinking about Real Estate in my area. In fact you will find my website and or blog on the 1st page of Google for over ten different towns in my immediate area. If a consumer is ready to talk to a Realtor right now, the search term will more than likely be something like top Hopkinton MA Realtor.

The integration of my website and blog have been tailored into a complete social media marketing strategy which I would love to explain further but this article will become endless if I do:) Facebook and Twitter are two quick examples of ways my blog and website are further disseminated beyond just the search engines.

So when you are thinking about hiring your next Realtor why not look for one that embraces the Internet? You will be glad you did!!

2009 was an outstanding year and I would like to take this moment to thank all my clients, customers, colleagues and friends who made it all possible.

I would encourage you to come over to my Massachusetts Real Estate blog where I provide informational articles pertaining to lots of relevant Real Estate topics.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: The above Real Estate information on RE/MAX top 100 teams in the United States through November 2009 was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356.

Have a home to sell in Metrowest Mass? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

For Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate and homes see Massachusetts Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in and around Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Franklin, Douglas, and Framingham MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

 

Subscribe in a reader

 

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 24 years.

Whether or not to write this article kind of had me torn. On the one hand I have always been willing to share my SEO knowledge to those at Active Rain and other social media sites that subscribe to me and I have become friends with.

In fact there are quite a few that call or email me when they have a question about search engine optimization (SEO).

Paying it forward has always been something I have done. Why is this so different? That is easy.

By following this article I am going to be giving other local Realtors the ability to compete with me on a local level through Google local business search.

While local search is a very small part of Internet optimization it is an extremely important piece of it.

Doing well in the local search means much more than just having a listing in Google Maps.

Local search is a competitive and increasingly critical space of the web that local businesses need to take seriously.

Those that have mastered the art of having a well indexed website, combined with an exceptionally written Real Estate blog can increase their business substantially, especially when combined with a coordinated social media effort.

People today spend hours in front of a computer. When a consumer wants to find a company or person to work with now more than ever they use the Internet as a tool. The days of grabbing the phone book often times have been replaced by our ability to type on a keyboard.

This could quite possibly be the best piece of FREE advice you read this week. This will work for anyone that has a business and wants to get noticed! So whether you are a mortgage broker, attorney, home inspector, home stager, or anything else for that matter listen up!!

In the screen shot above you will notice that I punched in Hopkinton MA Realtors. So whenever a consumer is looking to work with a local Realtor in my town guess who is in the #1 position! This did not cost me a dime and I am going to show you how you to can be in the Google list of the top seven results.

The 1st thing you are going to need to do if you have not already is claim your business in Google or if they don't have your company in their results to create your business.

For those that don't know how to do this here is a complete explanation: Claiming your listing at the local business center.

Once you have claimed your business you will need to go in and edit your listing. This is where you will need to make your profile stand out to the search engines. Above all else you will want to be as detailed as possible.

• You will want to write a description about yourself or your company using the keywords you want to rank for.
• Make sure you fill in all the contact information such as address, email and phone numbers.
• Filling in all the categories are important....for example if you are a Realtor; Real Estate, Realtor, and Realty are good categories.
  
• Add appropriate pictures of yourself/company
  
• Add a video if you have one
  
• Have others review your services: In other words a testimonial about you.
  

In fact if you know me and would like to write a recommendation for my profile that would be fantastic!

Below you are going to see a video from Web Pro News. I would highly encourage you to listen to it as you will pick up a few other advanced tips that will help your business rank locally in the Google map.

Remember this works for any kind of business not just Real Estate! So get going and get yourself some FREE exposure.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: The above Real Estate information on free SEO through Goggle local business pages was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356.

Have a home to sell in Metrowest Mass? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

For Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate and homes see  Massachusetts Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Franklin, Douglas, and Framingham MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

 

Subscribe in a reader

 

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 24 years.

Knowing how to market your services online can be very powerful. In the Real Estate field it can certainly be the difference maker in whether or not a client chooses to hire you or NOT! Anyone who is in the Real Estate field knows that Realtors are a dime a dozen.                                                                                                    

Unfortunately, there are very low barriers to entry for becoming a licensed Real Estate agent. When the market was booming every Tom, Dick, Harry and Mary wanted a license into the promised land of easy money. They came in droves hoping for that rags to riches story.

THEN THINGS CHANGED....The 3 P's of Real Estate no longer worked. Put a sign in the yard, put it in MLS, and pray. This marketing strategy used to work for many agents when the Real Estate market was booming.

Real Estate was Easy Street. Multiple offers and home values rising by the month. There was much less marketing skill involved in the business. Commission checks were easy to come by.

Heck you could price a home improperly and a few months later it wouldn't matter because the market would have caught up to your mistake. An inexperienced Realtors blunders could suddenly turn genius. Those were the days.

 

The Real Estate market today is much different. Terms such as recession, short sales, mortgage meltdown, foreclosure, and stock market crash are all common terms we deal with on a daily basis. There are no lines forming at the door to the division of Real Estate licensure anymore.

In fact the Real Estate business is going through a consolidation at the moment. Many of the agents who didn't realize that you need to invest a serious amount of time and energy in actually working your tail off are getting out just as fast as they entered.

There is also another set of agents that just don't know what you need to do in order to be successful in a challenging market. Up until a few years ago, a Realtor that entered the business in the last ten years had not seen a down Real Estate market. Times have changed and so should your thought process about picking a good Realtor.

If you were looking for skill sets of the best Realtors it would be those that know how to price homes accurately and those that have a strong grasp of online marketing.

The Internet has grown by leaps and bounds. Survey after survey says that over 84% of all buyers find their home from an online search!

If your considering selling your home would you not want to be with the Realtor who provides a dominate online presence for their clients? The agent that is not going to tell you what you want to hear in order to get the listing?

I have mentioned this on many occasions so I may be preaching to the choir but using Google as an interview tool can be very important.

Here are two tips...Google the agents name you are considering and also ask them for an address of a home they are marketing.

You should Google both of them. If the agent knows anything about Social marketing there should be pages and pages of results for their name! You should be able to quickly get the picture as to whether or not this agent is Internet savvy.

When you Google an address of a home they are marketing, you will be able to see all the sites that the home is being marketed on. Think about this for a moment...if you Google a homes address and don't come with anything you have found a Realtor that follows the 3 P's of marketing. Run for the hills Amigos this is not what you want!!

Besides Real Estate, one of my passions is SEO (search engine optimization). When a client hires me to sell their home it will be found everywhere online.

My clients home becomes front and center for those buyers looking to make a move.

A good Real Estate professional understands the importance of implementing a social media strategy into their marketing plan.

The goal is to provide the greatest exposure to my Real Estate listings, while also generating worth while hyper-local, geo targeted content that can be found through the search engines.

So how is this accomplished? Well 1st let me tell you it now takes days to get the marketing set up for clients home I am representing! I am not going to go into great detail, as I do not want my competitors trying to duplicate my efforts but will give you a small glimpse.

The 1st thing that is done is getting the listing into my website that covers Real Estate sales in Metrowest Massachusetts. This website is highly indexed by Google and will usually come up on the 1st page for anything related to Real Estate in the towns I cover.

This is important because if the site can not be found what good is it? My knowledge of search engine optimization has allowed me to have a top ranked Real Estate site. One of the amazing parts of my site is the ability to syndicate the listing to some of the most heavily traveled Real Estate sites at the click of a button. The graphic above shows the power of what I am talking about. Some of the best sites include Zillow, Trulia, Cyberhomes, Google, and Yahoo.

The next thing I do is create a blog post of the listing. There will be pictures, descriptions, links and possibly an imbeded video tour. Again, my Active Rain blog is highly indexed in Google (what you are reading). It comes up all over the place for any kind of local Real Estate search. I also have two other blogs that widen the net for even more visability at Bill Gassett's Trulia Blog and Metrowest Real Estate Blog.

One of the most important consideration for any Real Estate marketing campaign is the use of a video presentation. I will use the Real Estate Shows and have a video slide show sent to Realtor.com, MLS (multiple listing service) and also YouTube! Here is a sample of a home I just sold at 152 Stagecoach Road Holliston Mass using the Real Estate Shows.

This is just scratching the surface of what I provide my seller clients. The fact that my sites come up all over local Real Estate searches has brought a fair amount of business my way. In fact this week I will be closing on a Short sale and I never even met the seller!

He happened to read an article I wrote about short sales and also found my Real Estate website while doing a local search. He interviewed me over the phone. He had been transfered out of the area and was renting his home. The tenants moved out and he needed to sell it or he would have ended up in foreclosure.

Fortunately for me I get leads like this all the time. Lately I have even been getting calls for advice from people located in other parts of the country about the possibility of doing a short sale. This happens because they read my articles which come up in the search engines.

Foreclosure Avoiding it Through a Short Sale or Loan Modification

Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure and Short Sales

Sometimes they can be helped and other times it is too late as foreclosure has reached their door step. The point is the internet is a powerful sales tool for those that use it. Having a Realtor with a social marketing strategy in your corner is a smart move!

Caution...Realtor above that could not spell commission might not be your best bet.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: The above information on social marketing, blogging, short sales and the seller I never met was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. 

Have a home to sell in Metrowest Mass? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise! 

For Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate and homes see Metrowest Mass Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Franklin, Douglas, and Framingham MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

 

 

 

Subscribe in a reader

 

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 23 years.

As many of you know establishing new relationships via Twitter can bring you the potential for future business.

This is one of the benefits of social networks and becoming connected online. We all get requests daily via our accounts to be contacts, friends, to follow, and so forth.

It's great that all of us in the Real Estate industry can use Twitter as a tool to keep in touch but have you ever wondered how you can make connections with those that are local to you? I am going to show you how. There is a site called Twellowhood that allows you to easliy find LOCAL contacts for your Twitter account. Below is a screen shot of a map at the Twellowhood site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you are at the map you will put your mouse over the desired state and click.

This will take you to a drop down list of all the towns in your state that have Twitter members.

Looking at the screen shot below you can see that it tells you how many members there are in each town. By clicking on a specific town you will then be brought to another screen that will show you all the members that live in that town.

From this you will then be able to click the follow button should you desire to become contacts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screen shot below of Hopkinton. There happens to be 7 other members in my home town.

I am the 1st of the list. You can follow me @ Massrealty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twellow is also a directory that can be used to find people in any industry. For example is you go to the categories tab on the main page and scroll down to Real Estate you will see a list of all the Realtors who are in the directory and using Twitter. You will notice quite a few familiar Active Rain members. If you are not in the directory I would suggest you add yourself.

The Twellow directory is part of Web Pro News which is an outstanding site to learn more about social networking.

Love using Twitter? Here is a link to a Twitter application that will blow you away called Monitter. Check it out:)

Enjoy!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The above information on finding local contacts in Twitter was provided by Bill Gassett, the team leader for the #4 RE/MAX Team in Massachusetts in 2007. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 22+ Years. Bill's office is conveniently located in the center of Hopkinton MA at 77 Main Street.

I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise! I would welcome the opportunity to earn your business.

For Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate and homes see Metrowest Mass Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Franklin, Douglas, and Framingham MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

 

 

 

Subscribe in a reader

 

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 22 years.

Pluck is one of the major companys that powers Social Media.

Powering more than 2.5 billion monthly interactions, Pluck’s technology platform offers comprehensive social media capabilities broadly deployed and integrated on more than 300 leading digital destinations.

Pluck provides social media solutions that empower leading publishers, brands, and retailers to integrate open content, community and social networking into their web properties to drive audience traffic and revenue.

Well Pluck owns Blogburst. If you are not familiar with Blogburst it is a syndication site that increases your reach, visibility and readership by making your blog available to leading publishers. The distribution sites  are no small fish in the pond either! Here are some of the possible places you will see your Blog when you are a member of blogbust and one of your posts gets syndicated ~

I wrote back in April how my Real Estate blog was featured on the Blogburst network:

My Real Estate Blog gets Featured on Reuters, Chicago Sun Times, and Neilsen Through Blogburst

Well I think I may have gotten lucky again, as I have been selected as part of Blogburst's beta program. Here is the email I recieved from them.

 

Dear BlogBurst blogger,

In November, Pluck will launch a beta for a new BlogBurst-related product intended to increase your blog's exposure and give you an additional way to be paid. Your blog has been chosen to be a part of the select group to be included in this limited beta.

This new initiative will expand blog distribution to a larger range of publishers. As always, new publishers added to the network are vetted by our Editorial staff to ensure your content is only available to credible sources.

This new product will also allow every blogger who gets published to enjoy a share of the revenue generated from their content. Please note that we will continue to compensate the top 100 bloggers on the BlogBurst leaderboard every quarter in the same way we always have.

As a selected Blogburst blogger, you will be automatically enrolled in this limited beta program. As always with BlogBurst, you have the ability to opt out at any time. If you choose to opt out you will be able to do so from your BlogBurst Workbench.

Stay tuned for more detailed information regarding this new Pluck offering. In the meantime, please visit the Pluck New Product FAQ or contact us at blogburst-editors@pluck.com if you have any immediate questions.

We're excited to offer you this new opportunity and welcome any feedback you might have.

Your BlogBurst team

Here is what one of my posts looks like on the Chicago Sun Times network for a post I did about a local neighborhood in my area called The Village at Highland Park.

I would encourage all of you, if you have not already, to try to gain acceptance into Blogburst. Interested in increasing your online exposure dramatically? Here is where you go to Apply for Blogburst acceptance.

As a Realtor covering home sales in Metrowest Massachusetts, I know I want as much online exposure for my clients as possible. When I write about a local neighborhood or one of the homes I am marketing, you just never what avenue someone will take to find it!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The above information regarding Blogburst and Pluck was provided by Bill Gassett, the team leader for the #4 RE/MAX Team in Massachusetts in 2007.

Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 22 Years. Bill's office is conveniently located in the center of Hopkinton MA at 77 Main Street.

I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise! I would welcome the opportunity to earn your business.

Selling your home in Metrowest Massachusetts see Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Douglas, and Framingham MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

 

 

Subscribe in a reader

 

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.  

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 22 years.

In case you are not familiar with Zipvo.....Zipvo is a Real Estate Media and Video Platform that allows Reators, Videographers, Bloggers, or anyone else involved with Real Estate to either create or upload a video that will enhance themselves and their listings through the use of video, photovideo, blogs, and news FREE and EASILY. It is similiar in some respects to the Real Estate shows.

By the way you can send your Real Estate shows to Zipvo via the Video tab located in the upper left corner in the Real Estate shows site.                                                                                                                    

Zipvo however, has a useful tool called Zipvo News where you can send your blog posts from Active Rain or outside blog. This is a great way to get more inbound links for your blog as well as the possibly of a few more readers.

 

Some of the other features at present include the ability to automatically syndicate your ActiveRain blog posts to ZIPVO in real time! When in the site under the "UPDATE PROFILE" section you simply enter your ActiveRain username and your ActiveRain blog posts will instantly appear in your ZIPVO Blog.

In addition you can link up your Twitter account to your ZIPVO account to feed live status updates to and from ZIPVO in real time. How cool is that!! Lastly you can add your linkedin, facebook, and trulia accounts as well!!

 

 

So the big news is that Zipvo will be upgrading their site to Zipvo Platinum on September 10th. They have not released the complete details but below is a quick understanding of what they expect the site to become.

 

According to Greg Affarian who works for Zipvo and is a member of Active Rain:

"The basics of what we are feeling is that after MANY, MANY, months of development we have put together an AWESOME, POWERFUL, and EXPLOSIVE product to help the Real Estate Community conquer on-line marketing.  Our tools will help Realtors market themselves and their listing effectively while increasing productivity by putting together an on-line marketing strategy that consumers (buyers and sellers) demand.  All others that don’t embrace what is happening in Real Estate and Technology have to ask themselves are they serious about their marketing efforts?  We feel that “official” print media / advertising is dead!"

See a sneak peak at Zipvo Platinum here.

 

ZIPVO is here to revolutionize the way real estate professionals market themselves and their listings online, and how consumers find and connect with them.

I have already started sending a few of my blog posts to Zipvo News and plan on intergrating their video site into my marketing arsenal as well.

 

You can see my Zipvo profile here Zipvo Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate.

Zipvo has a page over at Facebook so that you can connect there as well if you like.

 

As a top producing Massachusetts Realtor, I am always looking for new ways to improve upon the marketing of my clients homes. Zipvo will be just another avenue to accomplish this goal.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The above information regarding the Zipvo Real Estate site was provided by Bill Gassett, the team leader for the #4 RE/MAX Team in Massachusetts in 2007.

Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 22 Years. Bill's office is conveniently located in the center of Hopkinton MA at 77 Main Street.

I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise! I would welcome the opportunity to earn your business.

Selling your home in Metrowest Massachusetts see Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Douglas, and Framingham MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

 

 

Subscribe in a reader

 

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.  

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 22 years.

The concept of Active Rain incorporating an outside blog into their already popular platform was just ingenious.

 As an Active Rain member you are now able to have all your posts sent to a new blog that is hosted on their servers. This new blog is another means of getting your voice out to the public. The look of this new blog is more consumer friendly.

My new blog is called Mass Real Estate Voice. The blog covers Real Estate in Metrowest Massachusetts including the following towns: Hopkinton, Southboro, Westboro, Milford, Holliston, Ashland, Upton, Mendon, Hopedale, Grafton, Northbridge, Medway, Douglas, and Framingham.

I also have another personal Real Estate blog that is on the blogger platform at Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate. Please drop on by and make a few comments. I would love to see you all.

 

My Massachusetts Real Estate blogs are highly indexed by the search engines. These Real Estate blogs keep people up to speed with local market reports, tips and advice, and profiles of local neighborhoods and attractions.

One of the better uses of these Real Estate blogs is to promote my clients homes to the fullest online.

Here are a few examples of some of the posts I have created:

Medway MA Homes and Real Estate

RE/MAX Executive Realty Hopkinton

Selling your home in Milford Massachusetts?

Grafton Massachusetts Homes and Real Estate

Hopkinton Massachusetts Real Estate

 

Active Rain just keeps getting better and better as a marketing platform for Real Estate. The new Massachusetts Localism site will only continue to feed this trend!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The above information regarding Massachusetts Real Estate blogs was provided by Bill Gassett, the team leader for the #4 RE/MAX Team in Massachusetts in 2007.

 Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts and surrounding areas for the last 22 Years. Bill's office is conveniently located in the center of Hopkinton Massachusetts at 77 Main Street. There are also offices located in Holliston, Medfield, Franklin, Upton, and Natick.

I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise! I would welcome the opportunity to earn your business.

Selling your home in Metrowest Massachusetts? See Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Douglas, and Framingham MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

 

                                                                          

Subscribe in a reader

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.  

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 22 years. 

Join the Internet's First Network of Business Cards ~ Build, broadcast, and discover business cards on the web.  

BusinessCard2 is another great way to add to your online presence. It is similiar to LinkedIn and will be picked up by all the major search engines.

Bill Gassett's BusinessCard2 - here is the link to what my business card looks like on the site. One of the things you will notice while viewing my card is that you are allowed to add as many links as you like to other sites you may have. I have added both my Active Rain blog as well as my other Metrowest Massachusetts Blog. I have also added my Hopkinton Massachusetts Real Estate website.

The fact that you are able to add more than a couple of sites has allowed me to "deep link" some of the interior pages of my website which is a good SEO practice. When you have links to interior pages of your website Google and other search engines view your site as having valuable information. This will help boost the overall page rank of your site over time.

 

 

A quick summary of benefits:

 

Easily share your professional self with the world.

Bring your business card with you, on the web

Share a web widget to find more business (You can add this to your blog).

Store files to inform and educate customers (You can add articles you have written).

Improve your presence in the search engines.

For those of you who don't seem to understand SEO, joining sites such as BusinessCard2, Linkedin, ect are not social networking sites like Active Rain where you invest an abundance of time. You will take a few minutes to create a profile and you will be done. If someone contacts you later and they want to join your network or want to do business with you...GREAT! Not only are sites like BusinessCard2 valuable for networking but they will also increase your websites position in search engine results.

** In the Real Estate world it is crucial to have an online presence. I know if I was selling my home I would not want to be using a "secret agent". I would want someone in my corner who knew how to expose my home to the masses online. One of the easiest ways to see if a Realtor will do a good job marketing a home is to see if they have a good online presence.

This can be accomplished by Googling a Realtors name. There should be pages and pages of results!! If you Google a Real Estate agents name and don't come up with much information it means they don't know how or have not invested the time to market themselves on the internet. If they don't know to market themselves, how could you possible expect them to do a good job marketing your home?

An agent connected online is more often than not a successful agent.

Here are a few other business sites you may want to read about:

Connectture for Real estate.

Upworld ~ Professional Network for the Real Estate industry.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The above information on BusinessCards2 was provided by Bill Gassett, the team leader for the #4 RE/MAX Team in Massachusetts in 2007.

 Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 22 Years. Bill's office is conveniently located in the center of Hopkinton Massachusetts at 77 Main Street.

I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise! I would welcome the opportunity to earn your business.

Selling your home in Metrowest Massachusetts see Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate. Want to have MLS access to beat other buyers to your dream home? Sign up with no obligation at my MLS Property Finder Site.

I service the following towns in Metrowest Massachusetts: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Grafton, Northbridge, Uxbridge, and Framingham MA.

Click here to view Bill Gassett's Real Estate profile.

                                                                                                                                        

Subscribe in a reader

SUBSCRIBE TO MY METROWEST HOMES BLOG via email.  

Building lasting relationships by helping people move in and out of Metrowest Massachusetts for the last 22 years.