You may have heard of the 80/20 rule. If not, let me explain.

The 80/20 rule says that 80 percent of your production (or profits) will come from 20 percent of your work force (or sales force). In pay-per-click terms, that could be stated “80 percent of your conversions will come from 20 percent of your ads,” or even “80 percent of your click-throughs will come from 20 percent of your pay-per-click sources (re: search engines).”

What this means is you shouldn’t expect overwhelming results from any one ad. If you find an ad that is doing well then you should milk it for all it is worth. If one search engine is delivering more traffic than other don’t be surprised (it will likely be Google). What that means is you should focus your energies on where the 20 percent is. That doesn’t mean you should discontinue everything else. You might have to tweak a few things to get more performance out of the other ads and search engines. But you really should consider that 20 percent as your most effective efforts and maximize all of your potential in your biggest performers. If you’re going to pay for clicks, you might as well pay for the best clicks, right?

One of the best improvements that you can make to your website is adding the ability to track where your visitors come from and where they go. Knowing where your visitors are spending the time on your website can allow you to make the improvements to your site that will convert these browsers to clients.

Many site owners engage in email marketing, either direct email or newsletter email marketing. Being able to track the visitors that come from your email campaigns will tell you what types of emails to continue and which ones you need to adjust.

Adding analytics to your website will also allow you to see how much time visitors spend on your website as well. A visitor that clicks in and leaves, is looking for something that they evidently did not find on your site. Maybe it needs to be rearranged? Or possibly you need to rewrite your text.

The information provided by analytics is almost priceless to the site owner. A very simple website improvement, but one that cannot be missed!

Most daily newspapers are primarily of regional interest. That necessarily means that their subscribers are mostly – not wholly, but mostly – local. So largely people who live in and around, say, the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex area will see the print version of your Dallas Morning News article. How many others, though – former Dallas or Fort Worth residents, relatives of those live or perhaps attend school in North Texas, executives who do business in the area, fans of Texas sports teams, and so forth – will likely see your article in the online version of the Dallas Morning News? And how many of these people have the potential to one day need your services or products?

Publicity is publicity, and few people would turn down publicity however they can get it. However, publicity that appears in print venues is here one moment and gone the next, whereas online publicity can endure and even perpetuate itself. An article in an online newspaper might include a hyperlink to your Web site or your blog. That can bring prospective clients directly to you. It might also motivate other Web site and blog owners to include references to the article (as well as the hyperlinks) which can create buzz about you on the Net and improve your visibility in search engines.

These traditionalists are missing the point. Given the benefits of online coverage, an article that appears only online, or online as well as in print, will be of far greater value than one that appears only in print. Each time a newspaper (or a magazine, for that matter) prints your article online, the potential readership for that story increases exponentially. And you still have bragging rights you would have if you’re tallying up your publicity “hits” for your Web site or media kit. A USA Today mention is a USA Today mention whether it happens online, in print, or both.

Everyone knows that to make money, you must spend money right? Well some of the best forms of advertising on the web is to submit your site to paid directories. There are directories that will allow you to post for free but most of those end up being spammy as they will accept any site or listing there is. So why not shell out some bucks for a listing on a site with a reasonable PageRank that will actually get you quality visitors and leads?

Although not a Real Estate website, Business.com is one of the leading directories online for anything business related. It is most likely the most popular directory on the web and is highly regarded, highly ranked and a listing will benefit you and your business greatly.

The Yahoo Business Directory is another highly ranked directory that has been around for quite sometime and has a reach of 330 million unique visitors.

" onclick="javascript:urchinTracker('/outbound/botw.org/_br_/');">Best of the Web is a popular directory that has been around since 1994 and is also great for link building purposes.

When it comes to a more targeted directory only for Real Estate, Reals.com has been around since 1997 and is said to be the largest real estate directory on the web.

If you are looking for a more affordable real estate directory, OverlyReal.com may be just for you. It is a bit smaller than Reals, but offers a more affordable listing price and may be just what you need for that extra online exposure.

When it comes to online advertising, press releases can be the best way to go to increase overall traffic, branding and business.

All of the news worthy topics have occurred. You have it all written down. Now what?

Well the first step is to make it short and sweet. Give all of the details in a clear and concise way, but keep it short. Keep your sentences short and use paragraphs every 5-6 lines if possible. The body should not exceed 500 words.

Be sure to provide a place for readers to gain more information, like your website.

Terms such as “visit us today”, “buy me now” or “discount prices” will see your press release headed straight for the recycle bin, as will WORDS IN CAPITALS and the unnecessary use of exclamation marks.

When you have all of this in a generic format such as a text file then start scouting place to submit it. Perhaps look to other Real Estate industry press releases as a guide to help you structure your own. For a few bucks, you can even have a marketing firm write you something worth publishing if you are not confident enough in your own press release writing skills.

A search of the internet will result in many place to submit your press release and voila! You are on your way!

When you have a real estate website, chances are good that you have domain hosting that allows you to create subdomains. Should you use those subdomains to create a unique website for the properties that you represent?

The answer is absolutely yes.

When you create a unique web page for your listings, you’ll find that you are able to:

1. Create a single place for prospective buyers to learn more about a property.
2. Give the property more attention than you would with a simple blog post.
3. Include more information about the property than you would be able to include on a marketing flyer.
4. Use the website as a place to include slide shows of property photos or even a virtual tour video.
5. Add a form where prospective buyers can schedule an appointment to see the home or request more information.
6. Market the listing more effectively.

When you design individual real estate property websites, you’ll find that you’re able to do more to get the word out about the properties that you’re selling - and add links back to your main website and blog as well.

Having a real estate website is, well, more or less essential if you want your business to thrive in the current environment. With more and more homebuyers looking to the web first, how can you afford to not focus on creating your own presence?

However, that doesn’t mean that everyone is able to create the right content for their real estate web pages: so how do you decide who should be writing your real estate content?

If you have a knack for writing and you have the time to create the content, then by all means, go ahead an do it yourself. If you don’t know much about coding a website, you can have someone else design the site and post your content and you can focus on adding content with your blog.

You can have the person who designs your real estate website take charge of creating the content as well - something that’s great if you have, say a real estate assistant or real estate VA who knows a great deal about real estate and specializes in providing web marketing services.

Similarly, you can focus on finding a reputable ghostwriter who can research the information and write the content so that you can put your name on it. Ghostwriters aren’t all created equally, but if you’re looking for great content, you probably shouldn’t rule them out.

Remember, real estate websites need to serve multiple purposes. First, they exist to provide information. Second, real estate websites are meant to help prospects get to know you. Finally, they are a marketing tool - and a very effective one, provided they have the right content. Be sure that you’re considering this when you create your real estate websites.

Blog marketing is about two things:

1. Establishing your reputation.
2. Improving the visibility of your website

Both of these are tools for creating an influence over the buyers and sellers - and it’s that influence that will help you to build your real estate business.

Blog marketing, therefore, requires that you approach it with specific goals in mind:

• Consistency of message. When you’re marketing your real estate business with a blog, it’s a good idea to focus on providing a consistent message. If you find yourself writing posts that directly contradict one another, it’s going to be difficult for you to attract more readers and to establish the reputation you want to have for your business.
• Quality of message. With blog marketing, you can’t just type out quick messages filled with spelling errors and conflicting ideas; your goal is going to be creating posts that provide readers with information that they can use because that’s what is going to attract readers.
• Helping out readers. When you’re marketing yourself with your blog, your focus shouldn’t be just on writing posts, it should be on writing posts that others will want to read. The best way to encourage visitors to keep coming back - and to check for more details on your website - is to give them information that helps them to make choices that are right for them.

Focusing on the readers and providing them the information that they need will do more to establish your influence and build your real estate business than providing them with the same information they see everywhere else.

Search engine optimization is a key element for everyone who will be doing at least some of the marketing for their real estate business online. One of the key elements to search engine optimization is making sure that there are links coming into the website - or, in the case of a particular property that you’re marketing, links that will help buyers to find the property online:

(source)If Google can find 1,000 links of a home’s address in its index, that means that there are 1,000 instances where prospective buyers can find your home!

Think about it for a minute: if having a thousand links back to a property means that there are a thousand chances that buyers will be able to find it, isn’t that far better than having, say, 5 links on?

To an extent, you can create links back to the property with blogs, posting virtual tours on sites like YouTube, adding photos of the property with links back to the site on photo sharing sites like Flickr. By doing so, especially given the popularity of these sites, you’re able to increase the reputation of your own website (or a web page dedicated to one seller’s home).

In addition, it’s important to know that there are others out there who can help you to build links; finding them (something that can be done in part by creating a well-optimized page) is going to be easier than you may think.

Great content, incoming links and the right keywords: all of these search engine optimization strategies will help you to help sellers sell.

When you create a real estate website, one of the goals that you’ll have involves getting visitors. Of course, you want to do more than just get people to your site, you want them to settle in for a while, have a chance to learn something new and to determine why it is that your real estate services are more right for them than the services that your competitors offer.

That means that, when you develop your real estate websites, it is essential to make sure that your site visitors are able to find the information that they are looking for.

So what exactly does that mean?

On one hand, it means that you should make the links on your site straightforward: if you have pages that are designed for buyers, make sure that that is clear; the same is true when you have pages that are designed for sellers. On another, it means making sure that, when you add fresh content, there will be ways for site visitors to get to it quickly.

It also means that if you make changes to your site, that you have a tool for redirecting visitors to the information that you’ve moved around on your site. For some, this will mean creating a 404 page with links to other parts of the site. For others, it will mean creating a 404 page that redirects visitors to your blog or another relevant page so that they are able to find the details they are looking for.

In other words, when you design your real estate website, make sure that site visitors are able to find the right information - regardless of where those details are located.

One of the biggest advantages that you will find when it comes to local networking is that it will provide you with the tools that you need to market your real estate business.

How can local networking help you to get more out of the marketing that you do for your real estate business?

Real estate marketing thrives on the ability to get the word out about neighborhoods for those who may be interested in relocating to the area. When you network with business owners in your local area, why not focus on what you can do for one another.

When you network with local restaurant owners, you can offer to hype their restaurant in your blog or on your real estate website. When you network with those at various churches, you can help prospective buyers know whether or not there’s a church in the area that will suit their needs.

Of course, networking isn’t all about what you can do for other businesses; it’s also about what they can do for you. If you have flyers, they may be willing to let you put them up. If they know of someone who’s talking about buying or selling a home and you’ve been marketing their business, it’s a fairly safe bet that your name is going to come up in conversation.

In other words, make it a point to network locally when you need to market your business; you’ll find that the entire community benefits.

When you set out to create a real estate website, you just might find that there’s another really good reason to know your market well: if a number of members in your community are bilingual you may want to look into translating your sites into an additional language.

For example, those who live in communities where Spanish, Korean, French or another language is spoken as much as (or nearly as much as) English may find that if they do not translate their websites into the additional language they will alienate a large prospective client base.

However, that doesn’t mean that you should just run the content on your real estate website through a bit of translation software; after all, just doing that may not ensure that the content is translated properly. Instead, consider hiring a translator who can create the content that your clients are looking for - a translator who will work with you to focus on getting your message just right.

Of course, if you do not have translators within your office, that may prove to be an additional drawback to offering translation - unless you’re prepared to have someone on staff who can help you to communicate with every client that comes in. Still, if you’re looking to maximize the impact of your message and the number of people you reach out to, translations on your real estate websites just may be the right way to get that message across.

When you make the choice to use blog marketing to promote your real estate business, there’s something that you need to remember: you’re using your blog to provide the information that buyers and sellers are looking for - information that will lead them to your services - you’re not trying to sell them on your services within the blog itself.

Because blog marketing is a tool for getting your message out there, you’re going to want to be sure that you know what kind of a message you want to send. If you message is - ultimately - that you want to encourage more people to invest in real estate, then you need to focus on the advantages of real estate investing; if you want to ensure that FSBO sellers use your service for marketing their home, then you need to be able to use your blog to talk about why marketing is so essential.

Providing information gives readers the choice about what they are going to do: it shows them that you know what you’re doing, and it shows them that there are pieces of the puzzle that they’ve been missing. Your blog is a way to fill in the gaps for them, it’s a chance for you to make sure that they are getting the right info.

The marketing information that you use in your blog has to be subtle - it’s not the sales pitch. Yes, you want to “sell” your readers - at least to some degree - on following through a link to learn more about a related topic or service, but your primary goal with blog marketing is simply to get and hold the readers’ attention.

Both while you are creating real estate websites and while you are focusing on marketing them, one thing that you’ll want to pay careful attention to is the variety of services that you offer.

On one hand, that’s going to mean looking into options like home swapping or flat fee MLS as well as home valuations and showing tips. What that means is that, when you’re marketing your services you’re going to want to be able to make sure that those people who are looking for specific information are able to find it.

On the other, it’s going to mean making a commitment to knowing which services that you offer that you will be marketing online so that you can direct traffic to your website. Pay per click advertising campaigns, after all, are only as productive as they are well thought out and well-executed; the same - on a more general level - can be said for your real estate websites.

Regardless of which services you offer on your real estate websites and within your business, the only way to really get people interested is to give them the information that they need. And the only way to get them to pay attention once you put that information up on your real estate websites is to launch a great marketing campaign.

The services that you offer, after all, are the foundation of your success - both offline and on your real estate websites.

Direct mail, at first glance, seems to have little in common with online marketing. But that doesn’t mean that there are not some cross over points that are important to keep in mind when you’re taking your real estate business to the web.

1. Have a targeted message. When you’re sending just listed postcards to those in the neighborhood of a home, what you’re really saying is “If you know people who have expressed an interest in living nearby, have them give me a call.” When you’re marketing your real estate business online, try to focus on having a clear message.
2. Recognize that part of your goal is just to get your name out there. Sending just sold postcards in a direct mail campaign isn’t so much about telling people that there’s someone new in their neighborhood, it’s about getting the word out that regardless of what the market is like in your area you sold a home - it’s about letting folks know that, if they’re thinking about selling you’re there for them. This is a good thing to keep in mind when you’re designing web pages and writing blog posts.
3. Sometimes there’s going to be a need to use clear information, other times you’re going to want to be a bit vague to attract more attention. This is something to keep in mind when you’re creating pay per click campaigns. Just as you may send out a direct mail campaign to announce a homebuyers seminar, and when you do you’ll include the basics of what they’ll find without the specifics, when you launch a PPC campaign, you’ll need to know which information will bait people who are interested enough to act.

Those three tie-ins between direct mail and marketing your business online are meant to get you thinking: what other connections between the two do you see?