Viral Book Project

So here’s the deal. Every time I search for great ideas on different viral marketing campaigns, I come up with the same old, create a video, comment on blogs, and create your own posts. Well, there has to be more out there and I am going to find it. Therefore, I am pleased to announce the viral book project.

Essentially, my goal is to get input from the best bloggers on the net on the best and hopefully easiest viral campaigns for you to create yourself. I plan to work with these great Web 2.0 thinkers to create an e-book that anybody can download as a source guide to crease effective viral marketing campaigns that drive traffic and increase notoriety.

Here’s what I am asking of you. If you have an idea, write it in your own blog and let me know where to find it by commenting on this blog I will link to the article on this blog and capture the article in the e-book. I may summarize parts of it on this blog as well. After I get fifty or more of the best viral marketing ideas and articles, I will aggregate them into an e-book which will contain the original articles, links back to the original authors and credit to that author.

After the ebook is complete, I will distribute a copy to all of the contributing authors so that they may distribute the book however they see fit.

The way I see it, there are a lot of general viral marketing ideas out there, but not much that is specific enough to be effective. Let’s create a tool that teaches the most effective techniques that will in itself be viral.

Submit comments to this blog linking back to your viral suggestions and I’ll do the rest.

TAGS: viral, marketing, web 2.0, viral blog project, e-book, marketing ebook, bloglog, blogger, viral project, wom, word of mouth

Help others find this article: Digg It!, Reddit or Bookmark it

Ten Ways to Piss Off You Readers, Kill Your Blog, and Get Banned From the Internet!

Everywhere I look there is blogging advice on how to increase your traffic, pagerank, and readership on the net. There’s syndication, RSS feeds, and any type of social topic you would ever need. However, nobody tells you how to stop the traffic, alienate your fan base; so I thought I should try.

1. Active in blogging? Why not put as many popups on your page as humanly possible? Make it as difficult as possible for a reader to navigate away from your page and ensure that he will never come back! If you are not comfortable with popups, AdSense ads after every post and every type of widget that you can find will do the trick.

2. Too many comments? Turn them off, don’t respond when they are posted, and return fire with fire. People like to feel engaged when they read your content. Don’t let ‘em!

3. Got an RSS feed? Get rid of it, or better yet, find a blog that you absolutely hate and offer it as the feed through your site. It all looks like XML code until you plug it into a reader anyway. Your readers won’t know what hit them.

4. You have a bookmarking widget; Digg, del.icio.us, News Vine, Reddit? Aren’t there equivalent bookmarking tools for adult sites? Couldn’t you use the same graphic and just replace the hyperlink? Hmmm, if you want to get some hate mail, this may be the way to do it. When responding to the hate mail, please refer to item 2 above.

5. Member of MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Xanga, LinkedIn, MyBloglog and other networks that syndicate your content? This one’s easy, don’t complete your profile, syndicate content that is not yours, be un-genuine, and do not respond to comments. We keep going back to step 2 for some reason.

6. Overload your readers with useless bookmarks. Stop writing content and go hog wild with your Sumble Upon and del.icio.us bookmarking Wordpress widgets. Nobody likes going to a blog that has nothing other than a collection of non-related bookmarks. No content, just bookmarks; nothing slows down traffic like a great link farm.

7. DUMP THE TAGS!!!! Nobody will read your blog if nobody can find it. If you have a search term that inadvertently shows up under a Google search, repeat it in the text as many times as possible. A black-hat trick or two will also work to get you banned from Google.

8. All text and no pictures makes for a very boring and unpleasant blog. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and people love to look at and share video. Why do you think YouTube sold for a billion dollars? If you don’t want traffic, do not use flickr, youtube, or other multi-media sharing service.

9. Whatever you do, do not reference blog posts that you had writer earlier. This would entice readers to go further into your blog and spend more time there. Why would you want that?

10. This one I had to think long and hard about. How do you get blacklisted from as many sites as possible, kicked off search engines and banned from the internet? One word….SPAM!!!

TAGS: spam, banned, rss, ugly, kicked off, no readers, bad blog, bookmark widgets, digg, anti-comments, popups, tricks, reference, readers, ugly blog, mybloglog, wordpress, blogger, stumble upon

Marketing Idea: Viral Scavenger Hunt

A small and controversial buzz has been growing in the blogspace about Bayer’s new online promotion to expand the Aleve brand online. The new site, http://aleviator.com/ is an online scavenger hunt to track down the fictional Dr. Albert Brigg and Eve Bloom who are actively fighting PAIN and have disappeared in No Name USA. The marketing campaign utilizes a number of online social networking sites, blogspot, ning, WetPaint and videos (I haven’t found them on YouTube, but the night is still young.)

Now there is controversy because the campaign is very contrived, but it is entertaining. My take on it however, is why not utilize their idea and create your own viral campaign? Anybody up for a viral scavenger hunt? Get a group of bloggers together, have them create profiles and posts across as many online social tools as possible, and have a wikki scavenger hunt. The first person to locate each profile, post a specific message to it, and document that you did it on your blog (hyperlinks, videos, pictures, etc.) wins!!!!

TAGS: viral scavenger hunt, wikki, aleviator, albert brigg, eve bloom, ning, wetpaint, video viral, wins

Periodic table of viral elements.

This is a creative approach to identify the current leaders in Web 2.0 The actual page has hyperlinks to each page on the"periodic table.

http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-06-23--periodic-table-of-the-internet.html

Viral Marketing Ideas and the Bloggers that Shared Them

I have been searching the blog-sphere for great ideas to become more viral and I have to tell you that good ideas are actually pretty scarce. However, I found a great definition, the elements of, and seven ways to create a viral response.

WHAT IS VIRAL MARKETING?
By George Torok:

Viral marketing is apply named because, when done right, it spreads like a virus. The term viral marketing might be too graphic for some because it brings to mind the viral spread of disease such as the bubonic plague, typhoid, and AIDS.None of those viral diseases are nice things. But a virus in your marketing is powerful and can be hugely profitable.Viral marketing is about spreading your message through networks. Some networks are more efficient than others. Meetings, family gatherings, community groups, religion, phone calls, peer pressure, media, email and blogs. Viral marketing is by persistence, passion and purpose.The growth of almost every religion was the result of viral marketing. Every social change is the result of viral marketing.
http://georgetorok.blogspot.com/2007/07/viral-marketing.html

ELEMENTS OF A VIRAL STRATEGY
By Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Accept this fact. Some viral marketing strategies work better than others, and few work as well as the simple Hotmail.com strategy. But below are the six basic elements you hope to include in your strategy. A viral marketing strategy need not contain ALL these elements, but the more elements it embraces, the more powerful the results are likely to be. An effective viral marketing strategy:

• Gives away products of services


• Provides for effortless transfer to others


• Scales easily from small to very large


• Exploits common motivations and behaviors


• Utilizes existing communication networks


• Takes advantage of others' resources

http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm

SEVEN STEPS TO VIRAL MARKETING
By Dean Hunt
http://www.deanhunt.com/

Trick 1: A Global Appeal

Trick 2: The Negativity Slant

Trick 3: The Killer Headline

VIRAL GOLD HEADLINE: “10 Step Guide to Thinking Like a Loser”

Trick 4: 10 Steps to Viral Heaven
Anything in list format is a surefire winner with the Digg and blogger crowds.

Trick 5: Stand out from the crowd
If you are struggling to think of ways to be creative with your
content, then grab a pen and paper and just start writing as many wacky ideas as
possible. Be creative, controversial, edgy, wacky, unique… try it all.

Trick 6: Curiosity Killed The Cat
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but with buzz
marketing it is a killer technique.

Trick 7: Image Is Everything
This is one of the easiest tricks. All you have to do is simply add an interesting
photo/image to your story. It is that simple!

http://fadtastic.net/2007/07/13/buzz-marketing-exposed-a-step-by-step-guide/


TAGS: Dean Hunt, Front Page of Digg, Viral Marketing, Viral Buzz, Viral Techniques, definition of viral marketing, Dr. Wilson, George Torok, viral ideas

The Blogs I Look to For Inspiration

In this industry, news, opinions and research changes frequently and it is tough to stay on top of the newest methods to attract clients and customers. Thankfully, there are a number of peer leaders in the real estate blog space that consolidate the wealth of data that streams through the real estate industry. Here are a few of those blogs that I look to for guidance and answers:

Jim Cronin as the Real Estate Tomato:
If you are looking for updates and some great ways to promote yourself online, Jim and the crew that he runs with (Sellsius, Bloodhound, and Zillow can’t be beat.)

Sellsuis and Bloodhound Blog
You can pretty much stay up to date on what’s happening in the real estate
world just by reading the Tomato, Sellsius and Bloodhound.

Zillow Blog:
Obviously the blog is slanted to provide updates on the Zillow platform, but it is also a great source of real estate news and opinion.

Ardell, Dustin and the Rainy City Guide
Let’s face it, the real estate technology revolution started in Seattle. I was told that this was due to the presence of Microsoft millionaires. Regardless, Dustin, Ardell and her associates are in the thick of the technology revolution and provide great insight into how to fully leverage web 2.0 technology for real estate.

Brian Brady
This guy is prolific. If you are looking for market insight and updates in Southern California (that’s right, I live in So. Cal.) then Brian is your man.

RSS Pieces
Despite some recent criticism from a controversial marketing program, Mary, Jessica and the Fairy Blog Mother provide continual wisdom on how to attract traffic and promote your blog.

Mashable
New technology is realeased every day to help get us closer to our friends, colleagues, clients and sales leads. Mashable catalogs and details every last one of them and is a great resource for the newest online network, instant messaging tool, or gizmo to connect you with your clients.

TAGS: real estate blogs, real estate market data, real estate marketing, mashable, real estate tomato, sellsius, zillow, jim cronin, brian brady, rss pieces, bloodhound blog, activerain

Surveys, the Underutilized Marketing Tool

In the world of leads for REALTORS, farming letters, and the ever-popular real estate flyer, many agents overlook the great benefit of a simple user-response survey as a great marketing tool. A simple survey has a number of benefits as is the only marketing tool that has the potential to provide you with direct feedback about you and the real estate products that you represent.

If you do not currently use surveys as part of your marketing system, consider that former and existing clients are going to be the best source of data on how to improve your service offering and the value of your brand. In addition, using a survey to prospect new clients is a great way to tailor your current offering to suite the needs of your market. Finally, regardless of who you touch with your survey, it is a non-intrusive way to remind your prospects about the services that you offer.

TAGS: survey, marketing tool, survey monkey, sales scout, drip marketing

Servicing Your Long Tail For Better Blog Searches

Our friend Jim Cronin over at the Real Estate Tomato has re-published a great list from Teresa Boardman that provides 101 ideas on what to blog about in the real estate blogsphere. I have included part of the list below, but I did want to add that whatever topic you choose, you should use targeted keywords as part of your text.

For most of us, blogging is a great past time, but also a way to appear in high ranks in search engines as part of an overall promotion strategy. In addition, by blogging about topics and including search phrases that are more targeted to your niche (your long tail) you can increase your search ranking in the odd phrases that would not otherwise be obvious.

A great tool to help in this strategy is hittail.com which shows you the key phrases that are sending traffic to your site so that you can leverage these terms in future posts to get an even better ranking. My personal strategy in using this tool is to cast as wide a net as possible to service all aspects of the real estate industry. In that vein, I write about leads, expired listings, topics covering real estate heavy states such as Florida, California, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Utah (because I am from Salt Lake,) Washington, and any many other areas. In addition, my strategy is to cover topics that serve REALTORS, brokers and investors. Anyway, back to the point, service your long tail and make it wide.

Here is part of the list re-printed from Jim’s post.

Read the blogs and look for ideas to build on or spin a new idea from..
Take
a picture write a post.
Home maintenance
Take a walk
Senior housing
Pet friendly housing
Staging ideas
local events
Your hobby
A closing
A lender who did a great job
Things that go wrong with
real estate sales
Home owners insurance
Gardening and landscaping
Your city council
A new development
Lofts
Decorating ideas
Real estate industry news - with your own unique commentary
Mortgages
news
Interest Rates
Credit scores
Consumer hoaxes and scams
First time home buyer programs
Working with seniors

TAGS: Real Estate Tomato, Jim Cronin, Long Tail, Blog Topics, expired listings in Florida, Texas, blog brokers, blog strategy, blog marketing, keyword blogging, keyworks

Expired Listings in California

I have been working with expired listings in California for some time as part of my own training and my relationship with RedX expired listing lead service, and it is becoming quite apparent that as the market has softened, clients are looking for and expecting much more from the REALTORS that they employ as agents. In my area of San Diego, California, listings are expiring at a rapid rate as houses spend much more time on the market. These expired listings in San Diego as well as the rest of California are presenting a great opportunity for enterprising REALTORS who have the skills necessary to close these listings and sell their properties.

Currently, I am seeing a lot of agents that are trying to use direct mail and introduction letters to prospect expired listings. My feeling toward this approach is that the prospects that are receiving the message are already disillusioned with real estate agents. Therefore, you need to be very careful about your value proposition and speak to the needs and expectations of your prospect in any form of communication. If you choose to use a letter of introduction to prospect expireds in any market, I would recommend that you use an approach that does not dismiss or diminish their current agent, but solicits them to think about, or learn new information that could help them overcome the difficulties that they may currently be experiencing. For this group, webcasts, podcasts, mailed reports, and learning programs work well to place you ahead of your competition. If you are up for the risk, a sell-by guarantee does wonders as well.

Personally, I would bypass the canned introduction letters for expired mls listings and make a personal introduction instead.

TAGS: expired listings, expireds, expired listings California, mls listings, letters of introduction expired listings, solicit, direct mail

Sales and Marketing Lessons from Jack Daly

I attended a seminar put on by sales coach Jack Daly today, and I must tell you that it was a great experience. Jack frames his techniques for his sales trainees as tools to help differentiate yourself from the competition. However, if you look at his system, it is direct marketing at its finest.

He described a number of techniques that I found very interesting and potentially very useful in helping REALTORS differentiate from the competition. The first technique was simply to change and update your voicemail with something interesting every day. I have a number of colleagues do this, and add news, market data, or simply the weather in their voicemail. The consistency with which they change their message has paid off for a couple of them with increased client referrals.

The other technique that I found specifically beneficial to real estate professionals was his technique of immediate follow up after a sales presentation. As soon as his meeting with a prospect is completed, he goes to his car and drafts an action item email on his blackberry. The email, which he sends to the prospect that he just met with, includes specific data on the agreed next steps that both he and his prospect are to take in preparation for the next meeting. In his email, he also includes dates by which each of the action items will be completed.

As an additional step, he immediately (while still in his care) drafts a hand-written thank you letter, puts it in an envelope with a stamp that has his picture on it (see stamps.com) and writes “Personal” next to the hand-written address. He drops the letter into the mail slot as he leaves the premises.

As I said before, spending the morning learning from Mr. Daly was a great experience. If you have the chance to get a copy of his books, or the privilege of seeing him in person, I highly recommend it.

TAGS: Jack Daly, Daily, Sales Speakers, Marketing Speakers, REALTOR Differentiate From Competition, immediate follow up, books on selling, closing tools

Interesting approach

Calling real estate investors

Real estate investment bubble

The bubble has burst, but that doesn’t mean that there is no longer money to be made in real estate. It simply means that you need to be much more careful in your investment choice, and you may need to change your investment strategy.

Currently, foreclosures, real estate owned and bank property inventories are on the rise. This is simply due to the fact that for the short term, in many markets, the annual appreciation that we have enjoyed over the last nine years has stalled. However, because of this shift in the inventory status of banks and lending institutions, they are becoming more willing to negotiate and deal on their inventory than they have been in many years. If you are in a real estate market or area that has stalled, but still provides the fundamental economic drivers of property appreciation (job growth, education centers, industry, etc.) then buying short sale investments and negotiation pre-foreclosure purchases may be a great way to maintain and grow your portfolio.

For REALTOR investors, this is a great time to leverage those expired mls listings and those properties that are facing repossession as well. It all depends on your real estate investment strategy. Oh, yeah, don’t forget to use the IP Ware software to help evaluate your investments.



TAGS: real estate bubble, appreciation, short sale, real estate owned, economic fundamentals, expired mls listings, bank owned, real estate has stalled

Expired listing leads and FSBO

As you may be aware, I have been working with the REDX and their expired listing lead service for some years. Originally we included their service offering in our 4MySales REALTOR marketing service, but logistically, it was better to keep the two services separate. As a result, we have been working separate from them for some time.

Recently, they approached us with a great offer to share with 4MySales members and readers of this blog. They have rolled out a new for sale by owner lead service and are including it with their current expired listing service. In order to get people started with the service, they are offering to waive the startup costs for readers of this blog and members of 4MySales. As a REALTOR, this should save you about $150 and give you access to a multitude of expired and fsbo leads. Also, I have heard a lot of good things about this new FSBO service, and it should prove to be better than the service that we currently include in 4MySales.

With that in mind, check out their service, and let me know your thoughts. Also, if you need help crafting introduction letters to expired listings, let me know.

TAGS: expired listings, fsbo, for sale by owner real estate, FSBO leads, real estate lead letters, REDX, THEREDX, 4MySales.com,

Finding real estate investment opportunities

Let’s face it, inventing in real estate is all about timing and finding the right investment opportunity. If done right, you can potentially make millions. However, if the wrong investment is made, you stand to lose a lot of money. So I ask the question, where do you find a good investment property?

First and foremost, you almost never find a great deal if the property for sale is listed by a sales agent. The reason is simply that the property will likely be priced appropriately, and the sales price includes commissions that are payable to the agent. As a result, you will pay close to the fair market value for an investment property listed through a real estate agent.

With that in mind, where are the local investment opportunities? There are a few, but you need to know where to look. Personally, I like the for sale by owners, pre-foreclosures, bank REO’s and the ever popular divorce attorneys. Generally these groups represent a section of sellers that are motivated and ready to negotiate and sell.

TAGS: REO, foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, divorce attorneys, investment opportunity

Back into the investment and marketing game

I have decided to shift my focus in real estate a bit and spend more time talking about the great opportunities available in the investment community. As a result, I am revamping the 4MySales.com website as well as FreeTrainer.com and updating the IP Ware real estate investment analysis software.

The truth is that the real estate “land rush” of the late 90’s is over. As a result, the buy on speculation approach is no longer an acceptable way to invest in real estate. So instead, it is back to the fundamentals; which are simply stated as follows:

1) Make sure that your investment returns a positive cash flow. I have attended a lot of seminars over the past few years that preach buying income property with financing that returns a negative monthly cash flow. Usually the seminars teach that monthly net revenue of negative $200 or less is acceptable and that the investor should focus on appreciation. My personal position is that if you have a negative cash on cash return you should not do the deal.

2) Factor in vacancy rates. I cannot tell you how many associates, and even family members, that only focus on gross rents. As a real estate investor, you need to accurately estimate your costs.

3) Use other people’s money. Arrange your financing so that the bank, your backers, or partners with the deepest pockets supply the bulk of the funds. If you structure the deal properly, you and they will get the desired return on investment, and you will have the cash to do other things.

TAGS: real estate investment, seminar, basics of real estate investing, vacancy rates, vacancy factor, negative cash flow, cash on cash return, other peoples money

Attended Jeff Adams Webinar last night

Last night I attended Jeff Adams webinar. Overall, his message was what I had heard before from many of the GURU's that promote systems to streamline the investment process. In his webinar, he presented a contact management tool, a direct mail resource and proposes to provide a "lead generation website" that you can use as a turnkey promotion tool. He also went into detail on how to use Google.com Adwords to promote the site that he provides.



I must tell you that as a marketing person, I am skeptical about how effective his system will be. So far I haven't spoken to anybody who has purchased his system, so I cannot relay whether or not it is successful.

Cold Calling? Time to Warm Up the List

If you haven’t spent time manning the phones recently trying to scare up new clients, you may have forgotten how utterly frustrating the process of cold calling client lists can actually be. The act of sitting down in front of that brilliant piece of communication technology can be daunting, and the rejection received on the other end can be wholly disheartening. This is especially true if this is to be your first point of contact for these prospective new clients.

With this level of frustration, you need to ask yourself, is this really worth it? The answer is actually more complex than yes or no, and actually hovers around the place of “it depends.”

Cold calling can be a great way to find new business and secure new clients. However, you should never waste your time calling a completely cold lead. If you look at your investment in time and the return that you receive, there are much more productive ways to spend your time.

Instead of trying to prospect cold leads, spend your time and resources developing cold leads into at least moderately warm leads before picking up the phone. My personal rule of thumb is that I never call an unsolicited cold lead until they have been exposed to my personal brand at least five times. In that vein, I use the 4MySales prospecting system to touch these cold leads with email, direct mail, new announcements, market updates and other bits of information. I make sure that each lead gets exposed to my message in some form or other at least five times before picking up the phone. After at least five exposures, the prospect is much less likely to just hang up on me, and may be familiar enough with me and my services to offer a good conversation, and even a possible referral.

Cold calling can be a difficult task and a daunting waste of time if the lead list is entirely cold. Take the time to warm up the list by sending out your message in a couple of different formats before taking the time to pick up the phone.

It’s notice of default time again

I just received an email from an agent friend of mine letting me know about a notice of default workshop that is coming up. I do not know if I will attend or not as it has been a while since I have dabbled in the field of pre-foreclosures and creative finance investing. However, it does raise the question, how can real estate agent capitalize on this new surge in NOD’s from “liar loans” coming due?

Many real estate agents actively prospect notice of default recipients. However, the pitch is typically the same. List with me, I can get your house sold before the bank takes it away. Unfortunately, many of these homes have larger amounts due on the loan than they are currently worth.

My recommended approach is to prospect to these people with the voice of help and reason. If you are not familiar with the process, learn about the process of forbearance to help the homeowner fend off the bank while he/she sells her home. Depending on local regulations, you may be able to charge for this service as a value add; in addition to giving the home owner more time to sell the home. Also, make friends with a few investors in the area who may be able to buy a property quick for the right deal. Regardless, when approaching a homeowner who is in the throws of foreclosure, approach them with the voice of honest reason and an offer to help.

Untapped source of new clients looking for a home

One of the biggest changes in a person’s life that almost always involves a move is a marriage to another person. Two people join in matrimony, and at least one of the parties needs to move. More importantly, for a bright-eyed young couple, it is now time to find their dream home.

I posed the following question the other day to a group that I was addressing: “How many of you currently prospect newlyweds and engaged couples as part of your marketing?” Although it was a small group, nobody volunteered that this was part of their target market. One person did volunteer that they have an active client that is in fact a newlywed, but none of the agents currently made this group part of their target market.

So what’s the takeaway?

This may be an un-tapped market to attract a fair number of prospective home buyers.

I haven’t worked out the details on how one would market to these groups, but there are a number of bridal fairs, boutiques, websites (theknot.com) and other resources where an enterprising real estate agent may prospect for the newlywed couple that is ready to start their lives together and move into their new dream home.