Every month we tell you to make your own content not just copy and paste from periodicals you subscribe to. For us we preach it because copying real estate content for your web site doesn't help your site with search engines because hundreds of others in the real estate industry are copying and pasting it.

This week we had a look into the other side of why its not appropriate to copy content. Marcie Geffner, a prominent and renowned expert in real estate topics contacted us about what content that we had on sites that we purchased years ago from a content provider. Apparently some of it was hers and was sold to us without premission. We immediately took action as we would expect others that have taken our content without permission.

However the conversation we had really enlightened us and we wanted to give an insight many don't think of.

Marcie writes for the pulse of the real estate and financial icons that influence us on how to act  when it comes to real estate, mortgages and finance. LendingTree.com and Realtor.com are two of many.

She doesn't jsut write whatever comes to her, she researches the topic extensively so her content is more accurate and ,most importantly, more informative. Her passion and responsibility to the word gives the content she writes much more power than those that just write at deadline with no real forethought.

As we listened, she told us she regularly has to send cease and desist letters to agents that copy her content at inman news and reallty times. Many cut and paste verbatim what she wrote but selectively omit her copyright.

Her writings is no different than an MP3 of a song and deserves to paid for its use.

Even putting her name and where it is from is not good enough. Unless you have permission you can't cut and paste any part of it. Paying for a subsription to realtytimes or inman news doesn't allow you free use of the content.

What would you do if you googled a phrase in a sentence you wrote and you found paragraphs of what you wrote (word for word) on other sites? It would bother you wouldn't?

So don't take real estate content in whole or in part and paste it to your real estate website. Now that you know its unethical AND it really doesn't help you with search engines, write your opinion about it. You search engine rankings will thank you and clients will thank you for reading an original thought not the same thing on hundreds of sites when they google a real estate topic.

Managing so many MLS feeds across the nation I see an area of improvement on almost every MLS board.

In order to convert real estate visitors into sales almost everyone agrees that the client will reach out to contact you if they see smething they like. However before they can get to that yoru real esate search page has to be easy to use AND give them a pinpooint accuracy "feel" that will show them what they want.

We use a raw data feed and wrote our own IDX MLS integration software so we cna give a better than average expreience for our sites. However, we find across the country that the MLS feed that we get permissions for only have certain fields. On top of that agents don't accurately list 55+ properties as well as they should. Other areas too.

If we could suggest to the real estate industry a few things it would increase lead conversation 500%

1. Every 55+ property should be in a 55+ database, at least have a dedicated field in the MLS database that all agents adhere to 100%

2. Waterfront/Dock field, Deepwater/Dock and pond view fields. You agents really stretch this one. "lake view" should be defined that if you can throw a football over it? its a pond not a lake. Many high end luxury homes have a dock in the back yard but when trying to search using check boxes on a real estate search page you don't get that choice nationally. Furthermore, the lines get blurry between pond-lake-water views.

3. Casita/Granny Flat/Guest house- These days more and more people are looking for homes that have one because they are taking care of their parents rather than sending them to a home. for the high end real estate client they like the guest house feature and consider it a sign of status.

4. Craftsman/Victorian/style of home- So many people are looking for these types of homes yet many MLS' dont break it down to be able to search for just these types of homes that studies find are the only ones they are interested in seeing.

5. Foreclosure/Bank Owned-its surprising that MLS boards don't break it down. During a typcial real estate market this type of property is only for a client with the disposition that can take the ups and downs and landmines that can occur during an REO transaction.

In a perfect world, if these could be installed and all agents adhere to it 100% , clients interst would build more becuase they are seeing more of what they are looking for and taking less time sifting through unwanted properties. A more "pure" list takes their initial level of interest and increases it as the properties help sell them on contacting you.

This is our two cents...maybe you can think of things like this for your regional home needs or think its ridiculous. If it seems to make sense then email your MLS and let them know because the more agents and brokers like you do the more likely they will change.

A client this week called and asked "can I have my assistant post responses to our blog posts?" Absolutely not!

It’s bad karma and most people know they are fake and it can turn against you. Read real estate web master forums and they talk about dong it but they are thinking with their geek hat not professional real estate hat. It reflects on your integrity  and could affect them using you if they find out.

Besides blogs really are to attract search engines and you want them to link a phrase from what you are talking about to a Google result. So they put in a question and your topic comes up as an answer, they go to it and it gives them some meat but still leaves them wanting to talk to you.

Podcasts- man the real estate web master community is really screwing this up and everyone is asleep about this. I listened to a podcast because a client wanted my opinion. It started off with music and using a fake moderator with a fake studio and took over a minute before the DJ introduced the agent and then they modified his voice as if he was calling in like a radio show. The message from the agent? "oh the market is back and people are buying like crazy and lollipops are falling out of the sky." It didn’t talk about specifics and was the equivalent of a late night low budget infomercial.

Clients pick up on it and they get turned off. Save your money and skip all the froo froo and just talk. Let your personality come through, its why people use you when you meet them in person....why aren't you using one of your most valuable weapons?

You can listen to the real estate web design "web masters" (that have never been in your shoes or successful at it) but ask 10 of your best friends to listen to one of those over-produced spot or just you being you talking about a topic that allot of people ask these days and you just relax and talk like you would over a starbucks I bet they will tell you they like the real you not the fake you.

I was talking to a Tom Ferry real estate coach and apparently other real estate web design companies had a problem with the condition of the guarantee.

Something along the lines of "why get locked in for a period of time" or "well I should be able to pay you at the end if I like your service."

How absurd. These are the same companies that charge for their work upfront and DON'T guarantee their clients success. Sort of hypocritical don't you think?

This proves our point that most real estate web design webmasters are "maters of none" when it comes to truly understanding the real estate agent or broker's need to NOT have to learn the web and focus on the latest techniques in being a true top notch real estate agent . Lets try to explain what they are missing (well they miss allot but in relation to Tom Ferry coaching).

Tom Ferry's concept of having a contract in order to guarantee is that no one offers a guarantee in their industry, just like us. Think of it like a personal trainer. Yoy pay them for their advice but most don't take it to heart as much as they would if were to get paid $100,000 if they lost 90 lbs. Conversly by offering a guarantee based on doing everything required all the time the law of physics will have you losing 90 pounds.

The problem is changing habits and breaking the "if you keep doing the same things the same way you will get the same results" way of life most agents and brokers live by.

We still have agents in florida that only want $1M+ cash buying clients. Their sites get $400k, 500k and 700k home buyers and if it wasnt for our contract of MAKING them go after these sales they wouldn't wake up and be a casualty of the market. Others using other website webmaster companies? will rationalize "the market is gone" and will retire or go back to what they did before real estate (or jump into our busines by taking what they think is webmastering and offer it to real estate agents). Its tough changing the mind of someone who has had years of success doing what they did.

The real estate agent and broker are inherently a dynamic personality and they set in their ways and think they know how to get sales. Well, till their bank account or a competitor shows them they need to do something.

The reason they HAVE to have a contract and WHY they give a guarantee is twofold. One, Tom Ferry real estate coaching has a high level of success based on their system if properly followed. Like a fat boy (I have been there so dont email me)trying to lose 40 pounds, real estate agents and brokers resist change and having to do things that are out of what they are normally do.

It takes months of being exposed to the concepts and systems of success. Lets look at some of these real estate web site design webmasters. They tout success on thier websites but they really turn their clients into real estate agent-webmasters. OUR clients don't go to forums, or "how to" web blogs or scour the web to post for help on their site. Its because we have a system that they work on the real estate servicing side of their site not learning the web business.

Why do they give a guarantee? Because as the fat boy-personal trainer scenario we know the client focuses two ways...the benefits of going through the changes? absolutely... yeah... sure. Deep down inside though the client sees that money they are going to get back if the servicer can't get them to their goal.

They (Tom Ferry coaching) don't sell a passive product like the real estate web design webmasters out there criticizing them. You "webmasters" sell it and let your clients figure out how to get sales and close the leads (I hear many of you "webmasters "are taking classes to learn more about what it takes....good for you because it  in a few years you will deliver a better web product not just take their money).

What's unique about Tom Ferry coaching is that they designed their system to guarantee your success, not just take your money and go through the "game." Most others go through the motions.

The fact that you can switch coaches for their expertise has them on a higher level because others are selling you a "coach of all trades and master of one, hopefully?"

"I didn't lke my coach" or "it didn't work for me" are usually the ones that think that they pay their fees and expect a magic wand to make everything easy. Changing real estate agents and brokers habits is one of the toughest thigns to do.

So before you cast a stone at them be sure you are not a hypocrite. If you don't have a system that makes your clients sales not just a pretty website then throwing them to learn web thigns that you should be providing AND you gaurantee that if they are FULL time agents (not converting them to be webmasters in order to help you do the job YOU should be doing) that you will buy back their site if it doesnt perform? Then don't be critical of something you don't have the integrity to offer.

This is for all the smaller real estate web shops or real estate brokerages trying to figure out why they need to go wtih a web company that has the certification or broad approvals before they work on your proejct.


You will have to what FTP Feeds, Zip files, and other terms mean and we have provided the information


Lets take the relationship with PlanetRealtor and the MLS boards.


First, you as a broker are not allowed to give zip files to outside companies....only an inhouse web developer. If you do it is in violation of your agreement with the boards.


For you web developers? You can get banned from developing in that area. Pretty steep price if you go along with what the client is telling you. They don't know because no where on planetrealtor does it have warnings.


Here is how the normal interaction goes; broker hires programmer, tells programmer they want an integrated search, programmer says they need ftp access, broker gives it to them, MLS board finds out that programmer isnt signed up direclty with their particular board and gets banned and face legal action.


Because we are approved vendors all over the country we don't have that problem but we did get some business from another company because of it. WE feel bad for them and are trying to help but it raised this issue so we wanted to help the small shops so they can stay clear.


Why? because we are not trying to thwart others.......we want to help the little guy.....there is plenty of business to go around if you are doing the right thing and giving quality service to clients.


The real estate market in Florida is tough so by us helping you get a better product to your client you help us all

Ever see those TV spots done by NAR?(National Association of Realtors).


They are great and really deliver the messages fro each one that you need to use a Realtor, not take a chance that thinigs will work out.


Why wont NAR allow TV ads to be used on websites?

We have tried for two years now to get permission to put those TV ads on our realtor's websites. We saw them a few years and thought "wow, those really hit home the message as to why you can't replace the expereince a licensed realtor gives to a transaction."


So we contacted them and they said that they couldn't. Couldn't? Why not? They already spent the money and they are sitting there. Why can't the National Association of Realtors GIVE permission?


Its a "win-win." Realtors get a high quality group of messages on their site that they couldn't afford to make for just their site and NAR would get hundreds of thousands of their "R"'s on sites (Realtor logo would be on every video)


We try every year to get them but its silly that they hold them back. They could charge a $49 license fee and make $4.5M on the low side.


We urge the NAR (National Association of Realtors) to consider it. It would greatly enhance websites and help thier members convert more sales into involving a Realtor.

Its unfortunate that thousands of agents were left in the dark while Advanced Access takes care of itself.

ALL agent and broker sites have been down for days and AA cant be reached personally to get an idea of what happened or when it will be fixed. Advanced Access is already known for its periennial customer service issues and many clients remember the last 18 months of search engine problems with Yahoo that ONLY affected Advanced Access clients because of how they cut corners by having pages in a format that search engines feel are questionable.


However Advanced Access reacted quickly to the outpouring of blog posts today like this one on Advanced Access real estate web sites are down and even from thier post there about their Advanced Access Outage


They responded with the typical Big Business "we are working on it." Now it seems sites are up which shows they acted quickly in rectifying the situation. However, this all should have been avoided if they had invested in teh right infrastructure like some of us do.


This is an example of pumping as many sites out (they say over 30,000) for as little cost as possible by not spending in areas that don't seem to be cost effective. Cutting corners by not having redunancy and off site systems in place like some of us do and spending the money on advertsing and promotion has its price.


Its funny because others look at us expensive yet we have invested in the infrastructure that prevents this. WE have our email servers (one online and one as a back up in case the primary goes down) separate from our web site servers. WE, as well as some others, look at your needs not just pumping out sites.


But this is just temporary right? They DID resolve it in 36 hours.


Just forget that you have had problems with customer service historically, thaty they just started getting a clue about helping with search engine optimization, froget about the Yahoo incident wehre the way they build sites was questioned and sites were sandboxed, to now.


Looking at this way it seems that Advanced Access is finally having to conform to "VALUE" based servcies and they are being forced by human nature to evolve to a standard of service that some of us already provide.


We predict that Advanced Access will be more expensive AND will be using their clients as expendable as they learn how to offer a platform that is becoming the standard the rest of us have offered for years.


We predict this is just another pothole of many to come on a path Advanced Access is taking in trying to offer a level of service that smaller real estate web design companies already offer.


The days of just Big Business mass production at the expense of the client or user has come to a close for the tobacco industry.....it will be coming soon, as early as this december, to real estate web design companies that mass produce and don't truly service on a personal leverl their clients needs.

The real estate lead acts differently in person than on the internet. The internet client likes being anonymous and wants to get what they want before having to listen to your pitch.


They don't care about you. They hate cheezy scripts and fake slogans. They dont liekto be pushed around or asked for their information without getting instant gratification.


The only way you will get them to slow down to ask for help is if they see:
1. a listing they are interested in
2. the appearance that you have an insight to a problem they have
3. content that talks about other concerns about the area.


The other key thing is that your site seems original. People lookat about 30 sites when they search so when they see the same insincere " 7 tips to home buyin" or the same is media "latest real estate news" it makes your site look canned.


The key is to have content from the heart not a sound bite or fad statement.


So if you have a site like this (which most do) the visitors register and use your site to search homes but wont give you real information or will reply when you contact them because they see you as cheezy.


You already started two steps back in getting thier trust. How to get ahead? Don't ask for their business, give them more tools to help themselves till they ask for your help.


Put them on a weekly "just listed" or "just reduced" list of homes in your service area. Use your mls function to set up the reports.


Then, if your website admin allows you to track what homes they looked at, send them personal information about the area they are considering. Don't send something rehashed or form a "feed"


Throughout it all don't try to sell them. Your fellow agents are too pushy and try to close the internet client too soon. This approach of "you can use whoever you want, I'n just trying to help a future neighbor" works far better.

"Gene Ward Real Estate" Its a phrase that if you know anything about SEO you know it wont make you money. However, "Ego Surfers" get off on the fact that their name shows up the way they want and nothing else.


Gene contacted one of licensees when ego surfing and he found a link to one of his sites on her site. "You are using tricks.......cloaking....to drive traffic to your site with my name."


He harassed the lady, threatened and got her upset yet when he was directed to us he retreated and would not deal with us when we tried to explain SEO architecture.


Reason why? becuase many people in the industry that put advice on forums (remember my podcast and blogs about "beware of free advice gurus") and dabble in software really don't have a clue when it comes to real Search Engine Optimzation and higher end web site architecture.


My mother told me when I was young "just because you can pick an apple doesnt mean you are a farmer." This holds true for real estate and web design. Just like a successful agent may flop as a broker, many intenet "gurus" seem like they know something when in acutality they don't

Well as of November 2006 it seems that seems that fellow real estate web design and seo companies have begun to grasp the importance of real estate coaching

We found out from a client who googled SSI, a tom ferry real estate coach company and came up with this post on Tom Ferry

the only people reading these posts are people in the industry or prospective clients so industry people will think this is a bash but clients may be follwoing us till they get enough value to see what we say and do makes sense

so read into this what you will but for all the people that think we are too expensive or are following what others do.......its interesting that since 1996 and more recently,when we officially formulated NailSoupMedia in 2003, that our designs or architectures and now our philosophies are turning on lightbulbs in the internet community.

Sure it will bring us more competition the more we post what fee and do to keep us ahead of everyone (pssst.....new stuff coming Jan 2007 that will have the industry "coaches" and
"experts" and "gurus" scratching there head to figure out how they can do the same thing...its all good....we like being chased.....its when you aren't chased is when you worry right?)

Let's get back to it eh?.........as 2007 approaches we call on real estate coaches, experts and real estate web design people to be more responsibe to your clients and look beyond selling crap. Everytime you "sell" rather than service your clients? you are lying, stealing and cheating agents and brokers from their dream to do what they love.

If you are real estate coach? don't come off like you know the real estate industry.....we know 90% of real estate coaches DON'T know what they should.....if your advise is that your agents need to learn how to do it themselves YOU ARE A MORON! (look we dont need the business but pretty soon as other companies like ours get a clue and start speaking up YOU will look foolish and lose clients from "selling" rather than truly knowing.

If you are a real estate web designer ,SEO guy or gal, real estate marketing company or others that profess they sell a complete product for peanuts? YOU are the one that should grow a conscience or go back to selling used cars. By the middle of 2007 the real estate industry will be going through SO much innovation why not spend less on spam and boiler room telemarketing and more on contributing to developing something worthwhile?

You the real estate agent and broker? demand more next year, get performance garantees in writing that if these coaches, experts and web designers dont perform you get your money back. Remember, in 2007 a performance real estate web site will make clients over $100,000 in many markets.......why not have someone in charge of it and ACCOUNTABLE for it?

Do you send your 2006 500 SL to brother in law who is a hyundai mechanic? So why do you give your real estate web site business (that will make you a six figure income) to half a$$ed "gimmick" spinners? Really.....think about it.

Whether its us or companies like us (call us.....we will give you an honest opinion of who is out there)....get with someone that does it all AND gives a contract that is responsible for your success or they don't get paid. Wake America! coaches, experts and gimmicks without standing behind you with a performance contract in writing but taking your money and lying to you are standing in the way for true success

Its funny how so many agents call talking about keywords, meta tags and tables. We know they are just trying to figure things out and try to use the catch phrases as a way to connect. When we quiz them they chuckle that they really can't answer the questions because they just heard it in an epro class, PRIMA class or by a real estate coach. They are relying on these things to get them up to speed but in all areas, these "experts" are selling agents short

These sources also talk about keywords suggestion tools like overture.

It drives us nuts about this. Everyone, including self proclaimed Real Estate SEO gurus, touts that you should use keywords suggestion tools.Its just not true.

Keyword suggestion should only help you make sure you have covered all the phrases that are out there, NOT be the exclusive source. Why?

If you think about it as a pie chart, the majority of searches done on the net are by people in the busines. Think about that.

Real Estate Web Site Design companies (web geeks) start it all.They want to make their job easy so they started this all by saying "look, your site is ranked for the words used the most by this suggestion tool" yet in fact they are superficially manipulating. Web geeks are testing their clients sites with the "industry standard"(that they created)keywords to make sure sites are ranking every week for each site, then they use these keywords to look for new clients (just check your spam for all the desparate companies lookng for business,thats how they found you).

The next group are Search Engine Optimization companies testing their clients sites and spamming like the above, other marketing providers looking for the top sites to market to, and so on. All the spam you get is from a slew of companies checking the industry norm of "real estate keywords"

Pay per click experts. Same thing here. Everyone using the "industry standard" or "most used" keywords have higher prices.....it just funnels you into using what someone else says and not truly figuring out your market.

Lets take a quick side bar. You have different clients markets and niches than your office mate or competitor, so why do you both have the same keywords and pay for the same phrases in pay per click? do you see this is just a gimmick to make real estate coaches and experts look stupid while real estate web site web geeks make more money.

OK lets get back....Next are "web tools" that every month put in the industry standard real estate keywords (you know....the ones that the web geeks tell everyone works)

Now take mortgage, insurance, and service providers to the real estate industry....its how they find top sites.

Don't forget about the "experts." Epro, Prima, Prudential real estate web site design "one shot wonder" gurus...They will stand in front of you looking impressive and confident when they spew out this garbage that the best tool is a keyword suggestion tool....THEY actually help the web geeks in putting real estate agents to sleep as they make real estate web companies more money.

Lastly, you the real estate agent. You check your site, your competitors sites as other agents check you. You ALL get the phrases from the web geeks ( who smirk everytime you use them) or the real estate coaches or real estate "experts" teaching Prima or EPro.

Sorry if this sounds mean or in poor taste. We just say it like we see it, we don't spam or cold call or have boiler rooms to try and get business.....our sites speak for themselves.

But lately there are so many "one shot wonders" coming into the real estate coaching and expert market that like they know something.

Having moderate success doesn't make you an expert yet in this market all it takes is stirring up a corporate PR campaign and work your way up to a sefl proclaimed "expert" status.

But we have over 80% of our clients top ranked and making money JUST from what we do, the rest are new and not there yet but will be.

The top real estate coaches have no clue about what it takes and they are hiring people that had one web site that was successful (and not the way we do it...they adverstised on TV, newspapers and everywhere else including pay per click)and then did what alot of quacks did during the dotcom boom.....

These quacks ran around doing more self promotion on limited results and miking all they could till the market popped.

That will happen in the real estate expert and real estate coaching market too.

The real real estate web site experts and true real estate SEO gurus don't run around making themselves look good. They are the ones that the quacks align themselves with.

I can take the top 50 quacks (prudential, remax, real estate coaching companies, real estate newsletter experts,etc.) and put them in a room and they couldn't show me 50% percent of the websites they did getting the results (this means they did everything....not doing one part and taking credit for the whole project)we do in getting SALES not just leads

We hate that you the real estate agent get taken for a ride when trying to get true help by real estate experts or real estate coaches.

To tell? ask them "what would I use a keyword suggestion tool for?"......if they say "its a guide to figure out what keywords you should use" then you are OK.

However, if they say "it tells you what keywords to use, just just put in the top keywords they suggest (making it seem like IT is the only source)"......then they don't know what they are talking about and is just as clueless as the other experts.

We are not the only ones so don't think this is an end around to trying to have you think we want you to read this and use us. We just don't like the games

As we manage sites all over the country with our Fast Response Lead Callling system we hear from customers all over the country how most property searchers on web sites suck.

They are not accurate and it drives visitors nuts

Listing agents in general don't put in listings properties and it affects us all because as clients use searchers they either come up with the wrong property or not as many results.

a BIG pet peeve is Senior community listings. Although anyone can buy them, CERTAINLY not all can live in them. Senior Communities are governed by HOA's and you agents know this. Yet you consistently put senior listings in without proper disclosure so realtor.com and other searchers on other websites can display it properly.

Seniors and/or people buying homes for senior family member do not find homes when searching

Help us and your clients understand, "why don't they list it properly?"

Waterfront is another area that makes searching hard

I was talking to a client (a real estate coach too by the way)yesterday about his questioning content on his site. "Why is this content on my site?" its not at all what I think is appropriate for MY clients"

He was concerned about a links page and some other pages talking about relocation and content that was not for canadian home buyers. He admitted that allot of his business is from Americans buying homes in canada by the way.

I explained to him that is saying "I want to buy mens work boots but because you have a cosmetics department I won't shop there."

There are many pages of a successful real estate web site that clients will NEVER go
to but are necessary for search engines.....how'd you like that statement? many wont say that.

Next is that buyers look for buyer content, sellers look for sellers content, finance for finance and so on.

Incidental pages that you the real estate coach or agent might think of as "nonsense" may just be the page us being "Soup Nazis" (Character on Seinfeld) on keeping it there will give you a deal

Case in point? we have a few real estate agents in La Jolla, California. One client was VERY particular and demanding about the standard "relocation" page. "This is NOT what we want, the content is talking about stuff that we don' t want to deal with." They went on and on. Well we fought it.

Wouldn't you know? their site ranks on google for "relocating La Jolla" and "relocating to La Jolla"

They actually have gotten some leads from it.

So if its us or another company, realize that you have to look at your real estate web site with a thousand eyes...one for each type of client or client's question that you have been asked.