Credibility and the Internet
For a real estate investor one of the most important steps in establishing credibility is to carve out a niche as the local “go-to” person for real estate problem solving. You must gain people’s trust by teaching them, not by “pitching” them. There are many traditional ways to teach and educate people. You can provide information through letters, postcards, fliers, newsletters, press releases, articles, and speaking engagements at civic clubs, real estate investment clubs, real estate company meetings, and educational seminars. You can also educate people through paid advertisements, TV infomercials, press releases, and radio talk shows. All of these are venues by which you can educate people, thereby establishing yourself as the local real estate expert.
But in today’s fast-paced world, nothing beats the amazing power and speed of the internet for rapidly building your credibility. By using the internet, an anonymous real estate investor can become a highly respected authority almost overnight!
Let’s take a look at the internet and see why it should be one of the main tools you use to quickly create your credibility.
Timothy Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web (no, it wasn’t Al Gore who invented the internet) recently said in an interview with BBC News (April 2008), “The internet is still in its infancy.” Bill Gates of Microsoft said, “If your business is not on the internet, then your business will be out of business.”
Did you know that more people are now getting their information from the internet than from newspapers? Newspaper subscriptions, for the most part, are falling, while internet usage is skyrocketing. We are even at a point where more people are using the internet to entertain themselves than are watching TV. Can you see the trends? If you want to get information out to people as fast as possible, the internet is the obvious choice.
There are numerous ways to use the internet to get your educational and business information out to the world. And with continually improving technology and software programs, using the internet has never been easier, even for those of us who, by our own admission, are internet-impaired. Let’s review some of the ways one can use the world wide web to make his or her information available for the world to see:
1. Create a website. This is the traditional way of gaining a presence on the web, and is one of the best ways to promote yourself and your business. Your site doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy, but it should have lots of good educational content. If the information you provide on your website is relevant and useful to your visitors, they will keep coming back for more. You will be positioning yourself as a real estate problem-solving expert, and will gain the trust of your visitors. Many of those visitors will become clients who will sell you their home, buy a home from you, or refer business to you.
Setting up a website is really not that hard. There are numerous companies that will create a website for you, as well as services that will help you create your own website. Your budget and time constraints will dictate which option is best for you. A search for “website development” using Google or another search engine will aid you in finding the help you need for developing your website. There are many good sites, so do a search and choose a service that meets your needs and is within your desired price range.
2. Create a blog. What is a blog? Blogging is contributing content to a web log (blog) that is published online. The fact that the information is published to the internet means it is accessible to millions upon millions of internet users worldwide. Blogs can be as simple as a page of someone’s thoughts, or as complicated as a large, interactive resource provider. While blogging used to be dominated by individuals with some web knowledge, it is now being used by the masses. Even large corporations such as Ford, McDonalds, Time Warner, Wal-Mart, and Nike maintain company blogs; if you become a blogger, you are in good company.
Don’t worry; you don’t have to know a lot about computer languages and programming. You don’t even need to have a website, although if you do, you can use your blog to drive traffic to your website, where you can have more information and good content for your visitors. Setting up a blog is very easy. There are a large variety of blogging platforms that exist to help individuals and businesses establish and run their own blogs. Some of the most well-known blogging platforms are:
www.blogger.com
www.typepad.com
www.wordpress.org
www.b2evolution.net
www.livejournal.com
www.geeklog.com
www.blogdrive.com
There are many other blogging platforms out there; do a search and find the system that works best for you.
There is one thing to keep in mind if you become a blogger. You need to post new and relevant information on your blog as often as possible; it doesn’t have to be a lot of material, just good material. Some people post every day, but posting once a week should keep your visitors happy and coming back for more information. The whole idea is to get (and keep) as many visitors as possible coming to your blog. Consistently posting good content on your blog will help you accomplish this goal, although this is only part of the formula.
Once your blog is up and running, you will want to make sure your blog is listed with as many blog directories and communities as possible. This will drive more traffic to your blog site. Here are a few blog directories; do a search for a more complete list:
www.bloguniverse.com
www.blogtoplist.com
www.blogarama.com
www.blogrush.com
3. Join social networking sites. Social networking sites have become very popular in recent years, and it seems that new sites are being developed every few months. Some of the most popular sites are YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Squidoo. Social networking sites are no longer just for your teenagers to post a few pictures (or a lot of pictures) and a personal profile. These social networking sites are really, really, really big business. In fact, one company that tracks website traffic, Comscore, indicates that in March 2008, 84.8 million viewers watched videos on YouTube. Facebook had more than 73 million visitors in January 2009, MySpace had more than 53 million, and Squidoo had close to 5 million visitors. And yes, in the news just this last week was an article on how some in the U.S. Congress were using Twitter to communicate (only on critical issues, of course).
So what does this mean to you? It means that social networking sites can be
very effective in driving traffic to your blogs and/or websites. So get with
your teenagers and have them help you set up your profile on Facebook and
MySpace, or even put a video on YouTube! You don’t need expensive video equipment anymore. An inexpensive flip camera can do an excellent job.
4. Utilize social bookmarking sites. Social bookmarking sites are another way to promote blog sites and get the attention of new readers and potential clients. These sites can be used to increase the number of other blogs and sites that link to your own blog, thus increasing traffic. A few of the many social bookmarking sites are:
www.stumbleupon.com
www.linkroll.com
www.feedmelinks.com/portal
www.digg.com
5. Create and use a signature. Whenever you send an email, be sure to add your signature box to the end of the email. In the signature box, along with other contact information, you can put a link to your blog or website. This is powerful! It gives people a chance to go to your blog or website without you having to give them a sales pitch about visiting your sites. It is amazing how many people who receive your emails will click on your link just out of curiosity. Once they are on your blogs and/or websites, they will find all sorts of quality educational material that will benefit them. Also, if you participate in any of the many online message board communities that allow posters to have signatures, you can add your link there as well.
As you can see, there are many ways for a person to gain a presence on the internet. If you don’t have a presence on the internet, you become invisible. One of the first things people do nowadays when they are introduced to a professional or a business is to Google or similarly research the individual or company. If they can’t find you or your business online, they may think you are not serious about your business or qualified to help them. Creating this reaction in your clientele pool will cost you credibility, and without credibility, you won’t have much business.
With Web 2.0, you don’t have to know anything about programming or programming languages to gain a presence on the internet. All the work is pretty much done for you, as when one paints by numbers. When you log onto almost any of these sites, you will be walked through the steps needed to get you started. If you can click the mouse, you can successfully build a blog or a website. And if you run into trouble, just ask your 10-year-old for help. He or she can have you up and running in no time!
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