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Here's your 2:00 real estate announcement

Why successful agents embrace the Internet

Information about a new online marketing

concept that can help you get more clients

By Kevin Harper

Real Estate Marketing and SEO

Dear Real Estate Agent,

First of all, thanks for setting aside the time to read this letter. It's rewarding to be able to help so many people with their real estate marketing efforts. As a marketing consultant for agents, I'm genuinely excited about the value to my readers and clients I've created in the site I'm going to tell you about.

One of my best clients gave me some valuable feedback recently.

He said some of my first e-mails to him about this announcement seemed a little "salesy," like a phone book advertising sales pitch.

Yikes, that's precisely NOT what this new site is all about! I'm glad I got that honest feedback so I can clarify something here.

A phone book sits dormant most of the year and often gets thrown out without being picked up once. I know that's what happens to my phone book. What about yours? When's the last time you used it?

When I need something, the first place I go is online.

And so do your prospects. That's why you need to be where they are...online. You want to have links pointing to your site from all sorts of places: out of state agents, business directories, and targeted real estate directories and portals.

A colleague of mine, real estate copywriter and former broker/owner Marte Cliff, recently brought my attention to a study published by the National Association of Realtors. She noted that according to the NAR, over 80% of all buyers search the Internet first when looking for a new home.

That's not big news, right?

No, the big news is that agents still heavily weight their ad spend toward offline media like newspaper ads, brochures, billboards, etc. Marte writes "Neilsen Monitor-Plus showed that Realtors spend only $6.70 on Internet advertising for every $972.40 spent on print advertising. They even spend 7 times more on radio and almost 50 times more on television - 2 mediums that are there one second and gone the next."

Do you see the irony? Eighty percent of buyers search online FIRST, yet agents tend to invest 145 times more in OFFLINE ads than online ones. If the early bird gets the worm (or in this case, the lead), then you can see that a small amount of savvy agents who are actively prospecting online are getting first dibs on 80% of the buyers out there.

Well, here's an opportunity to change that without just throwing your money away like yesterday's phone book.

Introducing OneAgent

I developed OneAgent for several important reasons, first and foremost to be able to offer a valuable service to my own very focused readership of real estate agents who want to improve their online marketing.

What agent doesn't want to

improve their online marketing?

An architect and former director of marketing for an architectural firm, I've been doing marketing, copywriting, and SEO for nearly ten years. I've focused the last couple of them almost exclusively on a clientele of agents and broker/owners.

Of course, with this new site, there's a business objective of making a profit. But that will not happen unless I provide value to the agents and home buyers and sellers who find this site. I am determined to bring value and personal service, right here, right now, to agents in the great state of Illinois.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

A one page directory of Illinois cities...

I am taking a unique approach to real estate directories in order to provide maximum simplicity and efficiency for both the busy real estate agent and the busy home buyer or seller looking for one.

There is definitely a place for a deeply categorized, search engine optimized directory of agents. But the concept of the OneAgent network of sites is radical simplicity.

Each state gets one page with every city listed on that one page.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

And another of Illinois counties...

When I launched the Idaho directory last month, I had some unhappy readers...readers who wanted a city, but didn't snap up the city they wanted fast enough.

So with the Illinois directory, I've added a county directory as well. In addition to grabbing available cities, you can also get listed as the exclusive agent in your county.

And yes, one lucky agent will get listed as the exclusive agent for the entire state of Illinois in the state directory!

...with a direct link to YOU

What's unique about OneAgent? A lot, actually, but one important thing is that the city names link directly to the agent who is listed there. So instead of a user having to navigate fourteen levels deep, only to find the listing of multiple real estate agents, your site is linked directly to the city, with NO COMPETITION.

When someone clicks your city, they go to your site. It's that simple. One city, one agent, one link. That's very valuable.

In the case of a phone book, if you were lucky enough to have someone look at your listing, they would have to pick you out of all the other listings on the page. With OneAgent, if they are looking in your city, they will find you and only you.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

Human reviewed for quality

Unlike other directories that are not human-reviewed, I will personally check each site to make sure it is relevant to the keywords chosen for the listing. If it's not, I will reject it and refund the cost. And if I find that a site's subject matter changes at a later date, I will cancel the listing as a violation of the terms of service. I only want accurate listings in this directory, period.

This level of review and management is important to make sure the directory obtains a reputation for quality, and this is exactly what I'm committing to at OneAgent.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

High return on investment

Online advertising can produce some of the best bang for your advertising buck because many real estate agents are still not on the bandwagon (as the 145:1 statistic above illustrates).

Most agents spend disproportionately in offline media that gets thrown away, but the online listings on OneAgent will be around for many years to come.

Your advertising dollars will stretch a long way, because your listing will not expire. Once you are the featured agent for a city, county, or state, it's yours permanently!

So your small investment up front can produce many happy clients for years to come. All it takes is one new client generated from your keyword ad in coming years to make it worth the cost many times over!

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

Easy to make your listing stand out

There is an infinite number of ways to make your ad stand out. You can apply font colors, italics, bold, different font sizes, overline, underline, and more to your ad to get maximum impact on the page.

The appearance of the directory will evolve as individual agents select their own preferences.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

Help search engines find you

with "mouseover text"

One of the coolest things about this site is that you can use keywords in the "mouseover text." I know, when I talk HTML, sometimes agents' eyes glaze over. But bear with me a minute.

The mouseover text (also called the "title text"portion of the link—it is entered at the time you click an available city to purchase a listing) can contain search engine friendly keywords that relate to your site. If you don't know what to put, you can just copy and paste the keywords from the listing itself (such as Chicago Homes, etc.).

Just trust me...the mouseover text is a great feature for search engines, and worth every penny.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

Benefits of online prospecting

More leads. You're in the business of matching buyers with sellers, and that means connecting with a lot of buyers and sellers. Where are those buyers and sellers lurking? Online, of course.

The leads you do get are more targeted. With print, radio, and TV advertising, your ad dollars are watered down by a lot of eyeballs that really aren't interested in your message. With online advertising, there are ways to pinpoint the kind of prospect you want and really speak directly to them.

More listings and more sales. When your online ads target the right audience, you will get more listings and more sales out of your prospects, because your message is specifically geared to what they are looking for.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

Free downloads for list members

Since you are on this list, you already have access to two of my three available downloads. Here are some links in case you haven't read these yet. They will help you a lot in your marketing efforts:

365 Blogging Ideas for Realtors

Top SEO Killers: Is Your Website Invisible to Google?

There is a third that I'm offering only to my existing clients and new members of the OneAgent network of sites.

It is entitled "How to Hand Pick Your Prospects" and details four easy steps to targeting your website for the right clientele. Targeted communication is a key to converting website traffic into leads, and leads into sales.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

Frequently asked questions

What is "mouseover" text?

Mouseover text is the "alt text" that shows up as a tool tip when a user hovers their mouse over a link. It has the added benefit of allowing you to put relevant keywords into it that search engines can associate with your site.

Note: Do no stuff too many keywords into the mouseover text field. It will make your ad more expensive, first of all, and can be detrimental to your site and ours. Generally, it's best to keep it to a few words. A good rule of thumb is to use the same words as the link text itself. So if you are buying "Boise Real Estate," that would make good mouseover text.

Can I buy multiple cities and counties?

Yes. Each city or county listing you purchase will be used as an entry in any promotional drawings.

How long with the listings stay online?

I originally thought I'd keep the listings active until December 31, 2010, but I've decided to make listings permanent. That's right, permanent. The listing could be sending buyers and sellers to you a decade from now!

Can I change an ad once I've created it and paid for it?

We'll see how many of those requests I get. In general, it's easier for everyone if you take a few minutes to think about what you want ahead of time. :-)

What if I'm not a Realtor?

By taking out a listing, you are indicating that you are licensed in your state to sell real estate. But if the listing you want uses the word "Realtor" in it, and you are not a member of the National Association of Realtors, you may purchase the listing, but let me know ASAP so I can change the word "Realtor" to "Real Estate Agent" free of charge.

Claim your Illinois city

Claim your Illinois county

Current promotions...while they last!

First 250 Listings in Illinois

The first 250 listings will each be entered in a drawing for ten free copies of Dameon Russell's book "The ABC's of Prospecting: The Ultimate System for Every Real Estate Sales Professional." Each listing counts as one entry in the drawing, so if you buy multiple city listings, you'll get multiple entries in the drawing to get this book worth approx. $20 on Amazon.com.

First 100 Listings in Illinois

The first 500 listings will each be entered in a drawing for a free custom drip newsletter system worth over $1000 including installation and training. It takes up to seven points of contact to convert a prospect into a client, so with this system, you'll be able to better manage your messages to online prospects.

When the Illinois directory is filled

When the Illinois directory is filled, I will enter each listing into a drawing for a free custom built, custom written, search engine friendly real estate website for agents or brokers worth over $3,000, including installation and training. This will include a listing manager, content management system, custom website design, quality SEO, blog, and much more.

Suggested OneAgent marketing strategies

• Major metropolitan areas tend to go the fastest. If you live in one, try to get the most populous cities in the area first.
• The second most popular listings are those in resort areas. If you specialize in vacation property, target the resort cities you want to be listed for.
  
  
• If you specialize in golf properties, target cities that have prominent golf communities in them.

Top ten Illinois cities by population

1 Chicago 2,878,552 2 Rockford 188,073 3 Peoria 145,267 4 Springfield 140,231 5 Joliet 131,207 6 Schaumburg 124,435 7 Naperville 114,110 8 Aurora 108,155 9 Elgin 103,782 10 Waukegan 96,467

Top ten Illinois counties by population

1 Cook County 5,376,741 2 Dupage County 904,161 3 Lake County 644,356 4 Will County 502,266 5 Kane County 404,119 6 Winnebago County 278,418 7 Mchenry County 260,077 8 Madison County 258,941 9 Saint Clair County 256,082 10 Sangamon County 188,951

Sign up now to reserve your Illinois city...

Or your Illinois county...

These will go fast, so get what you want before someone else does!

Happy marketing,

Kevin Harper

Experienced Real Estate Marketing

http://topsellersites.com

(208) 249-8893

P.s. - On rare occasions, due to nearly simultaneous transactions, multiple agents may end up paying for the same listing. When that happens, the first timestamped payment will get the listing, and a refund will be issued within 24 hours for duplicate payments. You can always e-mail me for support or questions at kevin@topsellersites.com.