Attention Real Estate Agents & Brokers: Take Back Your Listings & Leads

If you are a real estate agent or broker you understand the power is in the listing. He or she who owns the listing lasts in this business.

With all new technology there are positives and negatives.

Technology helps us do more tasks however, sometimes we are either encouraged to use short cuts and sometimes we are just plain lazy and look for ways to get done faster and with less effort.

This happens with syndicating your listings on the internet.

What started out as a really time saving idea of having our listing syndicated to all the different portals on the internet  but ended up losing sight of owning our listings online.

In this Free Workshop you will discover:

1. How to own your listings online
2. How Google determines who owns your listings and why that is important
3. How to get more leads from your listings when they are properly marketed online

Click here to register for the workshop:

katerinagasset.com/webinar-take-back-your-listings-and-leads

The workshop is on August 25, 2016 on Thursday at  5:00 P.m. Eastern Standard Time

Make sure to register. Being in the webinar live is always the best experience.

However, I do understand life happens!

Make sure you are registered and then if you can not make it, I will post the replay for about 24 hours or so for you to watch or re-watch.

Custom Designed WordPress Website that Rocks!

Congratulations to Rhonda, one of my wonderful clients. She hired me to design her a website. She is a member of my Listing Experts Academy and also a private coaching client.

Rhonda Fee owns her brokerage in Pleasanton California. She did all her avatar training which is in module 1 in Listing Experts Academy and then she hired me to help her with her keyword research just to make sure she was on the right track.

We discovered her avatar. An avatar is your ideal customer persona but it goes way deeper than general demographics. We really drill down. We were able to really narrow her niche to match her avatar.

From there I was able to take her logo as the guide to her colors and messege that will resonate with her avatar. It flows and tells her story in a way that will meet her avatar where she is.

It is so exciting to see all of the necessary pieces come together.

Check out her website at: http://HomeValuesPleasanton.com.

We have a webinar coming up on Wednesday: “Website Best Practices” to help you get your website on the right track.

Go here to sign up for the webinar: https://katerinagasset.com/2016-website-best-practices-webinar/

Here are some of the screenshots of Rhonda’s Home page:

 

 

 

Apple, The FBI, and Individual Private Property Rights

Apple, the FBI, and Individual Private Property Rights

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc. wrote a letter to all Apple customers. It was one of the best letters in modern times I have read regarding individual private property rights.  You can read the letter by clicking here.

Private property rights are one of the rights of a society which honors liberty. There are very few countries even today who honor private property rights. It is one of the things that made our nation unique and created so much prosperity.

Most of us take our right to private property for granted. A part of private property is privacy. Privacy is something we hold dear. We like our privacy. We also tend in most instances to honor the privacy of others.

I commend Tim Cook of Apple for taking the stand against this unprecedented demand by the U.S. government to force a private company to create a back door in order to break into a phone.

Among those who are coming to the support of Apple in this case are: Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Airbnb, Twitter, LinkedIn, Twellio, Ebay, AT&T  and many others, the list is long, and several trade groups like the Consumer Technology Association and others. You do know that Google and Apple are not exactly friends. However, we must all stand together to protect our individual rights.

The reasons this has everything to do with your privacy is as follows:

1. Encryption is highly important to security. It is your personal security we are talking about. You store your photos, your personal information and now the Apple pay encrypted chip, and many other personal details on your smart phone.  The reason we have encryption is to protect our data from hackers, thieves, bad guys and anyone else we don’t want messing in our business. Apple has always been at the forefront of protecting their customers with security for their data so much so that Apple does not even have access to your data.  They believe the content on your iPhone is not any of their business. They are correct.
2. The FBI asked Apple for help. Apple helped in every way they could.  Apple even had their engineers available to help the FBI.  One of the FBI agents  tried to reset the password to the terrorist’s phone and then got totally locked out. Apple can not get them back in.
3. The FBI is requesting Apple to create a “back door” to the phone. This type of software does NOT even exist today. And thank goodness it does not exist. This could and most likely would get into the wrong hands. After all, how many times has information been in the wrong hands that was supposed to be secure? This is what Tim Cook said about this: “Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.” I certainly don’t trust that it would only be used one time. It will be one time, then another time, and another…
4. The government is saying that Apple can create the back door for just one phone. That is not true. Once a back door is created, you open a pandora’s box. This would be just the tip of what could possibly happen in the future. It would be like “making a master key” that would open every door to every bank, restaurant, office building. Do you really want someone having the master key to your private data on your phone?
5. Now, usually in these kinds of cases where the FBI is not getting what they want, the normal channel would be to go through congress to try to get something passed to force Apple to do something they are refusing to do. But that is not what is happening in this situation, The FBI is trying to use an very antiquated law, the All Writs Act of  1789 to force Apple into compliance.  Well, there were no computers in those days, no iPhones, no phones! The All Writs Act was created 50 years before the telegraph was invented and nearly 100 years before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone! Now the government wants to use this old writ to force a company to do what they want it to do.

This is what Tim Cook says about this forcing: “The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.”

This is an overreach by the U.S. Government. Using “national security” as a reason or excuse to invade your personal space does not make it ethical or right.

Tim says it better than I could say it:  “While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”

Now Apple is tied up in Congressional hearings over this matte and going to court again.  The majority of Congressmen and women are really not that well trained in encryption data and security. All of the techie companies that do know about encryption and keeping our data protected and private have ALL warned against the creation of a back door.

Ed Black, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association  said the tech sector is very united in this case because the” FBI wants Apple to create weaker software or introduce “malware” to be able to crack the locked iPhone.”

He continued:

“…to give law enforcement access, Congress could in theory mandate that devices use automatic cloud backups that could not be disabled. But that would constitute a dramatic departure from current views about privacy.

“From an individual rights standpoint,” he said, “that would take away control by the user of their personal information.”

Briefs from:

From Airbnb, Atlassian, Automattic, CloudFlare, eBay, GitHub, Kickstarter, LinkedIn, Mapbox, Medium, Meetup, Reddit, Square, Squarespace, Twilio, Twitter and Wickr:

Dangerous precedent. “The government’s demand here, at its core, is unbound by any legal limits. It would set a dangerous precedent, in which the government could sidestep established legal procedures authorized by thorough, nuanced statutes to obtain users’ data in ways not contemplated by lawmakers.”

More important than ever. “The unprecedented scale of digital information used, stored and communicated on the Internet means that ‘privacy,’ which ‘has been at the heart of our democracy from its inception,’ is “needed now more than ever.”

And from:

From Amazon, Box, Cisco, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nest, Pinterest, Slack, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Yahoo:

Outdated rules. “The government seeks a dramatic extension of New York Telephone (a 1977 Supreme Court case) to cover ever-evolving technologies…It is dangerous to extend that limited endorsement of judicial power over third parties to situations the Supreme Court never could have envisioned.”

Not just one hack. “The government’s motion reassures the court and the public that the request here is a one-time-only hack. But there are already strong indications that law enforcement will ask for broad authority under the All Writs Act on facts far different from the terrorism investigation at hand.”

A most personal device. “Cell phones are the way we organize and remember the things that are important to us; they are, in a very real way, an extension of our memories. And as a result, to access someone’s cell phone is to access their innermost thoughts and their most private affairs.”

And from:

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation and 46 technologies, researchers and cryptographers:

Conflict of expression. “The Order is unconstitutional because it compels Apple to express itself in conflict with its stated beliefs. The Order forces Apple to say something it does not want to say and that it believes is ‘dangerous.’ It then forces Apple to endorse code it does not want to endorse and thereby undermine the trust it has established in its digital signature.”

This is a serious matter before us. While most people are being entertained by the politics of the day, this hearing is going on. This is a very important hearing and we should be paying attention to it. When rivals in the technology come together and even file briefs in behalf of Apple or any company put in this position, we should be paying attention.

The government has no right to force any private company to create something for them.  The All Writs Act also does not put forth the right for government to do this either.

Twitter and Ebay wrote this in their brief:

The All Writs Act does not authorize the government to make an end-run around this important public debate and our nation’s legislative processes… This extraordinary and unprecedented effort to compel a private company to become the government’s investigative arm not only has no legal basis under the All Writs Act or any other law, but threatens the core principles of privacy, security, and transparency that underlie the fabric of the Internet.

You can write letters or email your congressional leaders about your interest in this case and why.

Apple and the FBI appear in court again on March 22, 2016.  Let Apple know you support them if you do.

 

 

Webinar- Blogging On Your WordPress Website Fast

Free Webinar- Blogging on your WordPress website fast and easy! 

Are you ready to start blogging on your WordPress website? 

In this webinar I will share with you some ways in which you can post to your blog much faster.

• I will show you how to create your blog on using Thrive Themes- super fast.
• I will show you can add images, video and graphics quickly to your blog posts.
• And some more tips and tricks to speed up your blogging process.

This will be a rather basic webinar so if you are new to WordPress this is perfect.

If you are new to Thrive Themes, this will also be great for you.

Webinar:

Wednesday March 9, 2016 at 3 p.m. Eastern time

Register now: 

Free Webinar- Blogging on Your WordPress Website Fast 

 

Project Management for Business and Personal – Video Tutorials

I was on the hunt for a simple project management app for several years. I tried so many of them both paid and free. Because I am a very visual person and love sticky notes I needed something that would work on my mac computer  and on my iPhone. It also had to be downloadable from the Apple App store instead of from an unknown or insecure website.

Visual appearance was also important since I would be looking and working in it every day. The learning curve had to be short. It needed to be simplistic enough to understand quickly but also intense and robust enough to handle multiple projects and tasks.

I tend to get excited about an app and start to use one and disappointment rears its ugly head very quickly as soon I discover it is not all it was claimed it would be.

Then I found Trello!

Trello changed my business which helped to change my life.

Trello is free. They do have a paid version but very few people I know need to use the paid versions. About 90% of all those I consult and work with can use the free version.

Click here to get your free version of Trello. I gift Trello and in return I get some “Gold” Trello which is graphic skins I can use on my boards. You can invite all your friends to use Trello and get some “Gold” too.

http://KaterinaGasset.com/Trello

Because many of you may not know what Trello is or how to use it, I created a YouTube playlist with tutorials I created to train my team on how to use Trello for our projects.

Here is the Trello Tutorial playlist:

Whether you want to organize your daughter’s wedding or plan your garden or whether you need to organize your website content, blog fodder, social media tasks and other checklists for your business, Trello works for both personal and business! And you can keep it all in one account.

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a webinar on how tips and tricks in speed hacking Trello for project management. I am posting that link here as well.

The video tutorials are very short however the webinar is one hour or so. So make sure you watch the short tutorials first.

This one is called, Trello Tutorial Organize your Business and Life

This next video is called, How to Use Trello as a CRM for Entrepreneurs, Consultants and Biz Owners

Followed by: Trello Tutorial: How to Use Trello for Project Management

And: Trello Tutorial: Task Management

Next Trello Tutorial: Fun Trello Hacks Tutorial: How to Add Some Fun to Your Trello Boards

And last but not least, here is the Trello Webinar if you want to go more in depth in learning how to use this very visual organization app! You can use Trello on your desktop on both PC and Macs, on iPads and iPhones. I don’t know about other smart phones, you can check it out.

Strategy Sessions now available for Budget Cuts and Expense Reduction

Because you asked me for these sessions 🙂

You can now schedule a strategy session with me to go over your list of expenses and see what you can cut from your budget.

The last few sessions I have had with brokers and business owners, agents and dentists I have saved them a lot of money.

I was able to cut over $1800 a month from my dentist’s budget.

I helped a broker cut over $6000 a month from their company budget.

I helped another broker cut $1800 a month from his Google Adwords account and increase his business by 100% in 6 months.

Sometimes you just need another set of eyes to help you cut your expenses.

In many cases, business owners want to make wise investments like on a new website or training or going on a vacation but feel they can not because of their expenses. Trimming their expenses usually frees up a lot of income that can be invested in better places or saved.

Text me your name to 561-502- 1577 along with your time zone and your email address. My assistant will reach out to you to schedule your time to meet with me over the phone.

You can schedule your appointment here as well but please note the appointment must be paid, approved,  and confirmed.

 

[CPABC_APPOINTMENT_CALENDAR calendar=”1″]

 

SEO is Back with a Vengeance!

SEO is back with a vengeance! We are seeing some amazing results on page one and page 2 with brand new websites and blog content.

Then I went back to older sites to see how they are doing and they also are showing up on page one.

Google made what most would think is an insignificant change not in their algorithm ( although Google is always updating their algorithm) but rather in the application of serving up the algorithm.

This little seemingly insignificant shift appears to be favoring those of us who are not huge brand names.

Before Google invented their zoo of animals, panda, penguin, pigeon- most of us were rocking it with our SEO. Then with the zoo animals being set loose to wreak their havoc a lot of people lost their income, their leads and their positions almost overnight. The winners through the zoo rotation were the big name brands.

The little guy, small business owners, real estate agents, dentists and marketers took a huge hit because even the past head huncho over at Google said they needed to clean up the ‘cesspool’ on the internet and favor the big brands.

Over time the shift tended back again toward quality content and long form content. Then a very interesting shift happened that many people would not notice.

When I started the building the latest 3 websites for clients- we noticed there was a shift back to good content and keywords, so much so, that well, you will need to get on this Free webinar where I will show you what I am talking about and also tell you what we believe may be the reason we are getting these sudden boosts of page one rankings!

I ran a few tests on some brand new niche websites I am building for our real estate company and it held true again.

If you are in real estate- how would you like to rank ahead of Zillow?

If you are a dentist, how would you like to rank ahead of the big directories?

While Google favors big brands, I will show you what we see is happening where the small time brands are able to position themselves out in front!!!

I can’t wait to share what we are finding with you!!!

Please tweet this post to share this information on Twitter!

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Don’t forget to register for the Free webinar right now, then add to your calendar so you don’t forget!

Here it the link to get registered:

https://katerinagasset.com/webinar-seo-is-back/

 

Case Study: How Fast a Brand New Website Ranks!

Case Study- This is the case study of one of my client’s brand new websites. When I build a website for a client the first thing we do is go over their keyword strategy and get to know their avatar and if it is a local business, their geo tags and terms as well as do a study on their competition. This session takes a little over an hour or so.

In this study my client, Rhonda is a broker and owner of a boutique real estate brokerage in a highly competitive market in Northern California.

We build websites as they are already published on a server and have wordpress installed. Then I take some time to come up with the best way to connect to the client’s avatar, a study of color, design, focal points and call to actions.

I started this site about 3 weeks ago. As soon as I start the site I want Google bots to start crawling the site and I want them to keep coming back during the building stage. And they do.

Here is the WordPress Theme I use: Click Here. 

This is what Rhonda’s website looks like right now:

 

 

Within just a few days her site was indexed. It took about 2 weeks to get the site to be on page 1 and page 2 for her 5 sets of keyword phrases, we were only focusing on 3. For this keyword phrase, 3 weeks ago she was on page 2 for her brand new website.

[bctt tweet=”SEO is still alive and ranking on Google can still be done! “]

Now one week later, she is on page one on Google!  Check it out. If you like what you see, we can help you with a brand new website and hopefully your site will rank this fast too!

 

For one of the tougher competitive keywords she has spots # 2, 3 and 4 on page 2! This is so exciting!!! I love it when my clients get surprised like this. Even though I put a plan into place, I had no idea that she was going to rank this fast.

In fact, I was not even going to check the SERPS so soon. I can’t really remember what we were discussing when I thought I would check the SERPS. It was a wonderful surprise!

So with the next website I am building– I thought, hmmm, maybe we can keep on this roll! And sure enough! We are! The next case study is having the same kinds of results which I will share in another post!

 

 

Within 3 weeks she has moved up the Google Ranks and all of her 5 sets of keyword phrases are now on page 1 on Google except one!  Not only that since she is a real estate broker she has some pretty tough big boys to go up against like Zillow. However, we know how to beat them. We also know that she wants to get listings, so some of our target keywords are words that a sellers would type in to Google.

For seller keyword phrases we got her on page one on Google in the #7 and #8 spots – in just 2 weeks of doing that particular content on her brand new website. This is amazing for her since her old site did not rank for any of these keywords.

 

And in her niche, it is very competitive!  We have some other heavy duty competitors with pretty good SERPS positioning. We looked for the holes in their SEO and flew in right under their radar!

Here is another tough keyword phrase that is popular to compete for and she was on page 2 last week and now is on page one on Google!

 

Text me to work with me at 561-502-1577. If you need references for further comfort, let me know, I have those too!

Text Me To Work With Me 561-502-1577

It’s OK to Change Your Mind About Your Business

You have heard the saying, “Never give up”, many times in your life.  You have heard the saying, “Winners never quit”. So when you begin to have thoughts about quitting your job or closing your business you may get pangs of guilt coming at you from yourself and those around you. There is a stigma that quitting is what losers do.

But what if we don’t put the label of “quitting” on the action? Perhaps we are on a journey and now your path is leading you in another direction. Or maybe you want to change your mind. Maybe you thought this was what you were destined to do but now are having second thoughts. Does that make you a loser? Does that make you a quitter?

For instance, you might be a nurse. You became a nurse because you love helping people. You love nurturing and taking care of people. You like to help people heal from injuries and traumatic diseases. Plus, the pay is not bad. The shifts are long but you can work with more flexibility than many other careers. Think back to why you became a nurse. Now, fast forward to your current feelings. You may now feel burned out. Your cup is empty and there is no time to refill it. You are getting fatigued working long shifts and graveyard shifts or swing shifts. You end up getting 3 hours of sleep on those days.  We can go on and on…

You may be at the crossroads. You still want to help people. You still want to assist in their healing. You still love to nurture and take care of people. The vehicle just needs to change. There is nothing wrong and everything right with that. You are not quitting. You are just changing vehicles.

In this time it is also very normal to change careers at least 3 times in our working lives because we are living longer, it is easier to learn to work in another field or career and our lifestyles change to fit our next path.

You might be a Real Estate agent who is wondering if showing and selling houses is really what you are being called to do. Perhaps you became a real estate agent because you enjoyed being with people, you enjoyed the smile on a  new family’s face when they purchase their first home, or maybe you got into real estate so that you could invest in properties to build wealth for you and your family. Maybe you became a real estate agent because you like to serve others, help others, make a difference in their lives.

But now you may be wondering… while you love to serve others you also have bills to pay. Maybe you are not making the amount of income you need to make to support your family. And may be you are suffering from burn out because you have been burning the candle from both ends, not delegating your tasks, not creating systems that can be delegated, and not taking right action to reach your financial goals.

I have seen agents who are miserable, barely making enough to pay their bills, struggling with lead generation and getting enough business and yet, they tend to defend their decision to stay in real estate because of the stigma connected to quitting real estate. After all, being altruistic is something you want to be admired for. Being in real estate is not a career but a business. The mistake I see most often is agents who don’t treat their businesses like businesses. They treat it like a job. That will never work out. Employee mentalities don’t work in entrepreneur settings.

Perhaps you are working in corporate America putting in long hours and climbing the “success” ladder. You chose this path as the vehicle to reach security and have a great retirement. However, years into this grind, you start to see you are giving up too much of yourself and time away from your family. Something is going to have to give.

While the 3 of these scenarios are pretty different, what they have in common, is a chosen vehicle and a road to drive that vehicle on.

Now, maybe you have been thinking about how much you would love to start your own business and leave the 9 to 5. Maybe you are passionate about skiing and want to teach skiing instead of selling real estate. Maybe you are a nurse that knows natural healing alternatives and believe starting an online business coaching parents in how to deal with their child who has ADHD naturally is going to be much more rewarding while still fulfilling your desire to nurture and help others.

As long as you are changing the vehicle on the path you want to be on, that is perfectly fine. I have been hired by real estate agents, business owners and corporate employees to help them get more business only to discover they are not passionate about their business at all and they wish they could be doing something else. If your heart is not into it, the drive and tenacity you need to succeed will not manifest for you.

Interested in having a discovery session to go through your options? If you are contemplating changing horses ( vehicles) the best thing you can do is get an objective opinion and expertise to help assist you to make sure you are making the right decision.

Schedule your session today!

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Free Webinar: Using Trello for Projects | Management | Organization

Free Webinar: Using Trello for Projects | Management | Organization and more.

Trello is free. Please use my invitation link here:

http://KaterinaGasset.com/Trello 

This is one of my most requested tutorials. I created some video tutorials on using Trello. They are among my most popular video tutorials. Based on these requests I decided to offer you a webinar to show you live how we use Trello.

Trello is a very visual organization app. If you are a visual person you will fall in love with Trello. If you like to work fast and easy… all my webinars are about systems and apps that make your work faster, more efficient and not rocket science.

There is so much you can do in Trello and now, even better, you can use Zapier with Trello to streamline even more tasks.

I use Trello for contact management, travel trips, website creation planning and executing, project management, homeschool records, house inventory, recipes and menus complete with shopping lists, Christmas planning and gift logs  and so much more. I run nearly my entire business on Trello.

This will be a live webinar. I will not have slides as this is for hands on learning. You will want to make it to the live training so you can follow along. I will record the webinar but as always, if a technical problem occurs, there is no guarantee the recording will work. So it is always best if you can attend the webinar live.

The webinar is on Wednesday January 27, 2016 at 8 p.m. eastern standard time.

Please share this on twitter:

[bctt tweet=”Free Webinar: Using Trello for Projects & Organization in biz & personal life,”]

You will get reminders the day before and an hour before you webinar starts from GoToWebinar.

Go here now to get registered:

https://katerinagasset.com/trellowebinar

Also, in the comment section below please comment on what you want to learn in Trello and I will do my best to add that to the webinar. If I don’t know the answer, I will find out.

We will also have a question and answer session all during the training, so bring your questions about Trello!