Spoken Gently's Blog: For Realtors

In light of some recent safety news with real estate agents, I wanted to post an entry on real estate agent safety. I am a former U.S. Marine whose specialty was security, plus I have several years of civilian security experience and a few college minors in Criminal Justice/Pre-Law. Safety is important to me. I geared up to do an exhaustive post on safety and early (fortunately) in my research I came across this free download for real estate agent safety. Saved me a lot of work, as this pamphlet is excellent and a must read by women and men alike.

National Association of Realtors® | Real Estate Safety Council Free Safety Pamphlet from Washington Realtor®

This brochure is not just for women, but for men as well. From the first page of the brochure:

In…

Click To Read "The Bankrupt Homeowner"

We've seen Google come down on unnatural linking patterns and/or link spam in previous years. In the past year, we've witnessed Google come down on real estate agent's state reciprocal link pages, paid linking, directory linking, contextual linking, etc. I suspect the next wave of Google penalties will be in regards to what I will coin as selective dofollow comments in blogs and web pages. Let me explain.

Selective Nofollow Comments

Many blogs are selectively allowing comments to have the dofollow attribute.

I have two blogs and have the comments turned to off and/or needing moderation prior to approval. Well, I am embarrassed to say that I wasn't paying attention and this real estate blog had 12,000 comments waiting for moderation! WordPress only…

With the recent seo contest and the quick ranking of some of the press releases associated with the contest, my attention has turned towards press releases and other venues of publicity. I've sought many types of links, however, I have never submitted a press release, so I thought I would do some investigating. Here are some resources I've turned up:

• For starters, Ryan Ward just published a blog entry on his take on press release preferences. Ryan recommends and/or discusses Free Press Release and I-Newswire.
• A few additional pr release service companies I consistently stumbled upon in my research (some are paid, some free): 24-7PressRelease | PRNewsWire | PR.com |
• Publicity Insider publishes a list of pr links and resources for not only…

Happy Valentines Day Colleen! You may not win the Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World contest, but you are certainly the apple in my eye! Actually, you are the Greatest In The World period! I guess that puts us officially in the competition. Not sure we'll win, as I can see all sorts of time, money, and effort put into this thing by a lot of folks.

I suspect the person that wins the contest will be the person willing to work the hardest at it, and employ the most creative link building methods. Speaking of working hard, did you see Dennis Pease's Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World Squidoo page, or Ryan Ward's Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World pr plug? I am certain Eric Bramlett's Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World campaign will include…

Has anyone seen Squidoo's ever.com?

Squidoo purchased www.ever.com recently and has set up a template whereby lensmasters can create the best, fastest, funniest, etc., ever.com lens. What's cool about this, is Squidoo has taken steps to deter spam lenses at ever.com by allowing a max of 2 lenses per day, and after 30 days the lens receives a review. If the lens does not pass muster, the lens is rejected. So, ever.com has potential of being a great source of traffic and otherwise quality inbound links.

I created a community real estate website page of sorts for forum members here titled, best-real-estate-websites-ever. I've included a plexo whereby any of you can add their website(s). You can even vote for the best website! When doing so, be sure to…

I received my weekly copy of the Washington REALTORS® Newsletter and usually there is a good article or two inside. This week's edition was no exception. Bill Miles posts an article on The End Of The Line For Real Estate Agents and discusses the current market and the shift towards home owners' self reliance in selling/buying their own home without the use of a real estate agent. Miles illustrates the need for real estate agents to make adjustments factoring in the changing marketplace by specializing in an area(s) of expertise to accommodate the changing market climate. I would recommend the article, as the article addresses a concern I have had for some time that real estate agents are slowly being replaced by the internet, FSBO information and…

I found a pretty darn good list of 47 points to consider for building a website or blog. The article is written by Miles Galliford and titled 47 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website or Blog. A lot of points to consider, however, the good news is your competitor will most likely not consider these points.

While on the subject of lists, here are a few favorite SEO list I've used from time to time for our real estate website: 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity | 106 Content Idea For Real Estate Agents | 24 On-Site SEO Checkups | 10 Tips For The Ultimate Landing Page