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The Top Realtors on The Net The top Realtors on the Net are achieving annual sales of Four to Eight Million Dollars. How are they accomplishing this? Well, they are using the same marketing techniques that they used in the real world. They are penetrating their Internet market utilizing aggressive promotional strategies that capture market share. Just as they did in the real world, they have entered the Virtual world of the Internet and eclipsed their competition. The whole purpose of marketing, of "advertising", is to get business. This includes advertising individual homes, promoting your services as a Realtor and developing recognition. To accomplish this you must be "seen". Ideally, buyers and sellers should see your name wherever they go on the Net. Yes, it's true, you can't be everywhere. But, you can be in all the most common places. One of the great things about the Net today is that it is cheap. Still in its' early development stage, the Net offers a very inexpensive way of marketing for a Realtor. It is true that only 18% of the buyers last year had looked for homes on the net. But, unlike the real world, on the Net, for a nominal amount, you can dominate your market and capture a very large share of the 18%. This is what the Top Realtors on the Net are doing. As the early leaders in the Internet real estate business these Realtors are grabbing a very nice piece of the market. What are they doing and what does it cost? Well, they are getting their websites up in the top positions on the search engine results. They have links in all of the top Real Estate Directories. They are using their websites as selling tools in their presentations to sellers. And they are doing a professional job of responding to inquiries from their website. The websites of these top Realtors are experiencing visitor traffic of 200 to 500 people per month. These are not unique hits. Many customers return several times to the Realtors' websites and some of the hits are other Realtors trying to figure out what they are doing wrong. The cost. Some Realtors have been taken for a bit of a ride by Website Designers who sell them expensive websites and little in the way of promotional services. The initial set up expense is similar to establishing an office. That is exactly what you are doing. You are setting up a virtual office on the web. It is not necessary to have animated graphics and all kinds of bells and whistles. You need a good functional "office" that makes the appropriate impression and "sells" you. This initial office will cost between $300 and $800. We don't suggest spending more for the initial set up. You will expand your office as your Internet business develops. With an office set up you now have to "advertise". You're not going to place a full page. You are going to place a lot of permanent ads that are for the most part free. You will commit to spending perhaps $200 annually for "paid for links" in certain real estate directories. You will also pay a professional service to promote and monitor your site on a monthly basis. This will cost $35 to $75 per month. There are also costs for hosting the site and these will vary up to $25 per month. What's the bottom line? Set up expenses will run $500 to $1,200. The monthly cost will be $50 to $75. So, the first year (twelve months) costs will total $1,100 to $2,100. You can spend more, but this budget is sufficient to establish an aggressive Internet marketing program. Spend less and you will have a profitable office in the virtual world but you will not capture a major market share. But, whatever you do, make sure that your site is properly promoted. Without the promotion it will be like having an office in real world and never having anyone call or come in. It will take three to six months for the activity to build but you will see activity. Depending on your market area you will get up to about ten inquiries a month. After this first year and with your virtual office in full operation you will spend $1,000 to $2,000 in the second year. This is assuming you are making sales and therefore building upon your initial success. Good Luck!! |