Instagram Releases Hyperlapse App – AWESOMENESS!!!

Instagram Releases Hyperlapse App- Awesomeness!!! 

Instagram just released their new stand alone app called Hyperlapse. This is like have a $15,000 Steadicam and tracking rig all rolled into one app. No longer do you need expensive over the top video equipment! 

And Hyperlapse is FREE! 

Now with your iPhone you can create tracking shots and time lapsing with fast forward style speed. 

Thomas Dimson who works in Instagram’s data department was inspired by a movie he had seen that showed people time lapsing from all around the world. Here is the gif of that movie over at Wired.com. 

He approached Karpenko who had created the first- ever- image- stabilization technology. But how to put all this to use in a small iPhone? Large movie studios could use this technology but it just seemed quite far fetched for smart phone users. This is SUPER complicated technology that we all take for granted. I don’t think we give much of our technology much thought. 

These two guys from Instagram created the most amazing video app to date. 

Check out the app in motion below: 

All you have to do is to click record, then choose the speed you want your video to run on, there is an easy slider for that. Then you can share the video directly to Facebook or Instagram! 

This is so cool. I don’t know if you have ever tried time lapsing video but it is NOT easy! With this app, you will see the world in a whole new way! 

The other feature is the amazing stabilizer this app has. You can see the side by side of videos and see how much this helps in your final production of video. 

Imagine filming one of your listings and moving from panning in with a slower shot and then moving into the speed 2x up to 12 x speeds to super speed by time to keep the attention of your viewer as you are filming the street on the way to the house.

I have seen this done in high end luxury video that cost a lot of money to produce.

Now you can do this with a free app and an iPhone from iTunes Store.

How Come My Own Listings Don’t Show Up On Google On My Own Site?

How Come My Own Listings Don’t Show Up On Google On My Own Site? 

We have received several emails this week with this question from agents and brokers. 

This is a great question with the answer being relative to each particular situation. 

This is a tough question to answer if you can not also add details about your website and what you are doing with your listings to get them to show up on page one on Google.

You can not simply add your listing to your website and somehow magically your website with that listing suddenly appear on page one. SEO does not work like that. Also, you most likely are NOT manually adding your listing to your website. 

First, I would like to start off by addressing a couple of things that need to be taken into consideration. 

As far as listing exposure goes- the more the better. So at the end of the day it does not always matter if it is you or someone else that is on page one with your listing. The sellers don’t care. They just want their listings on page one – which they are if you do an address search – IF- you have syndicated your listing. 

But if you are using YOUR listings on page one to GET MORE LISTINGS- it does matter. Using the evidence that your website shows up on page one on Google in your listing toolbox works in getting more listings. 

With the onset of tough competitors in the internet space- the big ZTRs- it becomes even tougher to get to the top of page one for the listing address. 

In most cases, it is not worth the effort, the time and the money you would have to invest to compete against the big boys for your own listing addresses because by the time you do all that, your listing most likely will be sold. 

You have to weigh ego versus highest and best use of time and resources. 

There are WAY better keywords to go after that you CAN rank on page one with your listings for that buyers actually are typing into the search box, ( that is a different subject). In fact, with the right SEO steps you can dominate 7 out of 10 spaces on page one on Google for keywords that sellers type in to search for an agent to list their home. 

Right now, we will focus on the question on why your website does not show up for listing address on page one. 

The first and most important factor in Google’s algorithm is “AUTHORITY”. It works to find what it considers based on programming metrics and rules what is the website with the most authority for any given keyword phrase. 

What creates “Authority”? TRAFFIC. 

Traffic is the main measurement that the algorithm uses to determine authority. 

So you then ask yourself: for my listing address- who gets more traffic to their website, the BIG Z or little ol’ me? 

The next factor that Google looks at is the popularity contest. 

He who has the most links wins that contest if those links are quality and/or social. 

In both of those 2 categories the majority of real estate websites don’t hold a candle to the big boys who now control those top spots for listing addresses. 

The linking campaigns that I know of that consist of quality links can not be bought by the hundreds like the old days. Most of the time, manual linking campaigns are the only ones trustworthy enough to deploy with your site. Those are expensive. 

How does Google determine which site is more popular than another? LINKS 

Check your competitors to see how many links they have compared to you and what is the trust factor of those links? How relevant are those links?

Then there is the issue of WHO owns your listing as far as the search engines like Google go. 

If you did not follow the steps in Listing Experts Academy’s Listing Syndication module– you most likely do not own your own listing data according to the search engines. 

When Google picks up the data of your listing- they don’t see that you are the listing agent- that is not even a part of their algorithm. Their programming determines who owns that data through original posting on the internet. He who put it there first which is actually determined by who is indexed first is considered the original content provider. 

If you simply go through the motions of adding your listing to your MLS and then auto syndicate your listing- guess what- you just gave up your online ownership of your data. That will NOT help you with your SEO. You are depending on your IDX to pull in that feed from the MLS to your website. SO your listing is REALLY NOT on your website! 

Unless you have blogged about your listing with photos and video and placed that on your website, you do not own any info about your listing according to the search engines. 

Now, there are some places where you can have placement of your listing on page one on platforms that have proven to be very powerful and have a lot of traffic and are NOT the big ZTRs. Realbird is one of the them. ActiveRain is another one. YouTube is yet another one. 

If you are looking to attract more buyer leads from your listings- be sure to do your keyword research to find other ways besides just the address of your listing. After all, not many buyers actually know the address of your listing when they search for a home. 

In my opinion it is best to be ranking for the following in this order: 

1. Brand ( not your brokers unless you are the broker)

2. Keyword phrases that sellers search for 

3. Neighborhoods – market reports, etc. 

4. Avatar centric keywords 

There is much to do in all 4 of those areas. If you are a Listing Experts Academy member make sure you know who your avatar is, retake the modules on speaking and discovering your avatar. This is where most agents fall short in having a real dialogue online with the ideal customer.

There are over 35 steps to properly syndicating your listings. To find out more…
Check out Listing Experts Academy. 

 

 

 

The One Thing You Can Do Right Now to Compete Against the Big Z

The One Thing You Can Do Right Now to Compete Against the Big Z 

Now that Trulia and Z merged with Z on top their plan is to continue to compete on the SEO organic landscape with both companies in tact- so in other words- as some agents had hoped, they won’t be combining their SEO under just one URL. Actually that would not be smart for business for them to do so. 

Instead they will continue to have both T and Z at the top of many of the real estate search results pages. 

All is not lost for us agents who want to get our own seller leads from our blogging and other networking online. 

There are a few steps you should put in place before trying to rank for your keywords: 

1. Know your avatar. 

2. Speak in a voice that resonates with your specific avatar. 

3. Drill down to find the keywords that your avatar will use to find you. 

4. Make sure that you do your keyword research to measure commercial intent. 

Once you have those 4 steps in place you can move on to the one thing that will help you fly under the radar of those big ZTRs. 

Click here to watch this free 2 part short video tutorial on the one thing you can do right now to get on page one for keywords that sellers actually look for online. 

While you are at it, please like my Facebook fan page – this is where the video is. 

See you at the top! 

 

 

How to Create Real Estate Flyers with Canva.com

How To Create Real Estate Flyers with Canva.com 

Canva.com is a free service on the web where you can create all kinds of visual materials like your real estate flyers, graphics for your blog like watermarked images, infographs, images with text for Pinterest and memes.   

You can also change out your Facebook timeline cover every month for free using Canva.com. 

It is all free to use, to download and they don’t put their logo or ads on your content! 

The only thing that has a cost is canva does offer clipart for sale for $1 each if you want to use it but they have plenty of free clipart and you can also upload your own. 

I am sure you have seen my blog images that have the title of my post on them and visual images to relate to in regards to the message of the blog. These are great to  post on Facebook to get more attention to your blog but also these are excellent for you to put on your blog board on Pinterest because it shows a visual of what your blog post is about. This encourages people to click on your image and read your blog post. 

Canva.com just came out with Real Estate flyers. These are very high end looking and if you print on nice brochure paper they will look very professional. 

The real estate flyers are free but almost all of the built in images on the templates have a small fee. But for like $2. you can create an amazing flyer for your listings or you can create your own. 

You can make a real estate flyer in about 5 minutes! 

There are 3 video tutorials below that I created for you: 

1. The basics of Canva.com

2. Creating a real estate flyer on Canva.com

3. Creating a meme ( visual for Pinterest and Facebook) for your blog posts. 

The other thing that we do is to make this process even faster is we create themed templates. 

I will break this down more in future posts and tutorials so make sure you are subscribed to our blog!

 

 

Basics and Overview of Canva.Com: 

 

Creating a FREE Real Estate Flyer on Canva.Com:

 

 

 

Creating a Meme- Visual for Facebook Wall, Blog and Pinterest

Make sure you are subscribed to my blog for future tutorials!