If you are going to be in the area of Woodland Hills on June 2, 2012 – you will want to visit this Local CAR Show event hosted by VTAC.
(click on the photo to go to the VTAC website to register!)

This will be a great event and is very close to most of the cities within reach of the Los Angeles Metro Area.  Be sure to go to the VTD-VTAC website and register before hand.  Click on the photo of the car show flyer above!!!

I see the “updated” feed on Facebook.  I watch as folks stroke themselves.  I then see others that de-friend them.  It is a viscous cycle.  There is, however, a better way.  Facebook “personal pages” should be about you, your life talking about your struggles and victories.

The only lacking is the Hugging you may do with a friend in person – and then there is that other “thing”.  But you get my gist.

We built a facebook Business Page a while ago.  However, even on that page we do no Grandstanding.  I will post up information that is for the betterment of the group and those that have “Liked” my page.  Some are potential clients, past clients, other agents in my industry and folks from other walks of life.

Point being, don’t grandstand on your personal page – it is a true way to turn off those that are watching.  Nobody cares about the new Maserati you just bought or the European Vacation you took because you are so Good at what you do for a living.  They want you to interact with them.  If you are the “all about self-promotion” type, your Friends may also want you to install some windows where the sun doesn’t shine so you can look at others in the world and not at yourself all of the time!

This reminds me of the most dangerous thing in the world to new Motor Cops.  Curious as to what that is?  It’s Windows.  Not the windows that stop the bugs, or the windows on other cars.  The windows that are Big, reflective and on the street level of large sky scrapers in down-town areas.  We love to look at ourselves riding that motorcycle in full uniform.  However, when doing this, your attention is not where it should be and that is where we are driving.  Whew, I get goose-bumps remembering, “I feel pretty….  Oh so Pretty…”.  But do you know how many motor cops have crashed as a result of self-admiration?  Me neither, but there has been more than one, so much so, it was talked about during motor school!

Some of the bonuses to having a business page on FaceBook are the following Results:

Some weeks are not as productive, but I do see our Paris911 Page on Facebook going three times above the shown amount.  When I post an article such as this one, something that is created to help others, and purposed to point out how fantastic we are with what we do.

Ask your friends, do they want to talk to you about life, love and friendship or get bombarded with you talking about your success all of the time?

Facebook is the same, just approach it as if your viewers could reach out and smack you if you were to get out of line.  That should keep your updates and posts inline with the “correct world view”, and with keeping more friends than turning them into Foe’s.

We use Jing by TechSmith.  We capture photos from our real estate resources and you will be able to do the same.  In fact, we have been able to post photos from all of our Real Estate resources on each post we enter within the Santa Clarita real estate realm.

In fact, photos that accompany each and every blog post are a true asset to Google’s algorithm.

We pay a minimal amount for the ability for being able to capture images from our Various Real Estate Resources.

Here are some of the common items we capture.

• Easy Web Video’s:  This is our very own upload platform for videos.  We have categorized over 440 videos to YouTube showing the in’s and outs of real estate.  We can capture the “interactive Video” that is uploaded to Easy Web Video dot com and present it within a blog post.
• Foreclosure Radar:  This system seems to be one that agent’s don’t see the value in.  We have been able to work with many various buyers from different walks of life with our “previewing” of the Foreclosure inventory for Santa Clarita Valley and the other Southern California Cities.
• Diverse Solutions:  The DS system is unique.  It allows us to upload the current market snapshot and have the photo reroute to the page that is rendering all of the listings that are applicable.
• LifeStyle Real Estate Search:  With the consumer in mind, the real estate interested, we are able to capture the screen shots of various searches and have the photo link to that particular search.  Whether distressed searches or searches by various bedrooms, bathrooms, price and area combinations.

These are just a few examples of what our on screen photo captures are able to be used for.  If you want more intel regarding how to get your Business or Real Estate site to the top of the SERP’s(search engine results pages), give me a shout out so we can help you.

Even if you are in our same industry, having that “connection” blesses our buyers and sellers in Santa Clarita real estate.

“To Pay for Clicks or to Not Pay for Clicks”, that is indeed the question.

If you are a masterful writer of content, or even a so-so one that is creating content by answering consumers questions, you will not have a need for “pay for click”.  But, if you are just starting out on-line, the “pay per click” does level the playing field when it comes to “on-line exposure”. 

Know your Business keywords:

Have you ever wondered how people may be searching for your business?  In the Santa Clarita Valley, as far as real estate is concerned, we have various costs’ associated with the “largest” keywords in our market.  ”Santa Clarita Real Estate”, can cost a Buyer anywhere from $3.00 to $7.00 a click.  Don’t look at this as a way to end your competition and deplete their pay per click balance.  You only get one crack at a competitors balance from the clicking on any sponsored ad.

Google has a Keyword Tool.  Type in some brief business information and you will see the results populate the page.  You will be able to see how people are searching for your type of business.

Pay Per Click companies:

While there is not much to putting together a pay per click ad, most can do it themselves, it may not hurt to talk with company that only does “pay per click” management.  Some of these companies can be quite insightful when it comes to managing your pay per click campaign.  I’m sure some of those pay per click companies rep’s will respond to this post, see if their comments below add value or are built around self promotion only.  Go for the ones that are “adding value”.

DIY – Pay Per Click Do it Yourself:

After you get your keywords and what  you want to be known for, get into Google and start your own Pay Per Click Campaign(Ad-Words).  The same would apply for Yahoo and Bing.  You can set your pay per click campaign at only one of the Search Engines, or you can set accounts up on all of the Search Engines.  Your choice, but I’d start a bit slower to tune your ads and landing pages(more about this next…).

Start slow, find out what items get more clicks.  Make sure you have a “contact” form that is highly recognizable on the landing page.  Make every dollar spent on the pay per click campaign pays off by having the page, you have the “clickers” land on, optimized in the best way possible so you can obtain the visitors information and conduct a follow-up.

Organic versus Pay Per Click:

We will talk about “Content being King” in a future post about your BEST Business methods.  However, I’ll leave you with this.  While Pay Per Click campaigns work well.  There is something quite reassuring, to a “Googler”, to have your own business website at the top of the “organic” search results pages.  How you will do this is by adding value to what you sell or to the service you provide.  Write without ceasing and then write some more.  Get involved in the conversation, ask questions and answer the same.

Human beings are very visual creatures.  For those of that maintain the Gift of Sight, it enlightens multiple senses.

So hence TV taking off as it did back in the day.  With the advent of the “affordable” video camera, we can all become directors in our own “frame of reference”.

Enter stage left, YouTube and being to upload your video’s for all of the world to see.

When you use YouTube, you get a few fields that can be modified - but to go completely nuts with instant landing-pages, squeeze pages, video email, clickable links to appear when you want them within the video, and the ability to integrate mail-chimp or constant contact contact, YouTube does not do that.

Also, after the video quits playing, your potential clientele may see other related videos.  By whom?  By your competition.

Easy Web Video is a product that is on the cutting edge of technology.  They have given me nothing to talk about it.  They also have an affiliate link, which I have but do not use.  Easy Web Video is so useful and so “timely”, it will be the “game-changer” so all of us can start using video on our own self hosted platform.

There are a couple of reasons why self-hosted is better.  First, I don’t mind building YouTube’s Content.  YouTube does monetize some of their site with Content – raking in the Bucks…  So the more people that upload videos, that get HUGE view amounts, the more YouTube can sell their ad spaces for.  Again, this does not bother me.  But if I want to make a point with my business and care enough about my clients and my presentations, “self-hosted” makes a wonderful point.

Blogging on the real estate syndication websites, instead of on my own platform, does bother me. (point being, I do get bothered )

I spend the money, therefore my clients see that they are all worthy of not being bombarded with ads.  And frankly, there are some video’s I would never put on a public platform.  Videos that have no place being on YouTube. (not the type of video’s you are thinking of…)

Secondly, with optional Analytics and the ability to re-route your viewer at the conclusion of your video to any website of your choice, Easy Web Video is worth the minimal cost.

Let’s talk video quality.  Do you do Screen Video recordings?  The video’s that are recorded of your computer screen?  We do this very often when talking about real estate values, inventory and price changes within the market.  We display our graphs and get the viewer to understand more completely by displaying factual data that they can access at any moment during the video.  The quality of the Easy Web Video resolution topples anything else on the market – so hence, my screen recordings are crisp and able to be seen in detail…

Below is an example of a Stand Alone Webpage that I built, with the Easy Web Video Interface, that took less than 1 minute.  (click on the “play” button in the center of the screen below)

Go to Easy Web Video dot com and see that Mike and Shawn have been up to!

You may be one of those people in the world that copy and paste other people’s content onto your own website or blog.  I have to admit, there are a lot of “deep” thinkers in the world, some have some AWESOME ideas.

However, while you may think that no one will catch you, even with that, it is not the best idea to do so.  If need be, break it down from an ethical point of view.  That someone else’s work that you stole.  You cannot consider it borrowed.  Working hard generated that content.  They should be owed an amount of respect because of their insight and time.

Besides, google is not dumb, they are smart.  Have you heard of the algorithm changes to their Search Engine?  They started recently with Panda.  Panda went out to the websites of the world and checked for dead websites that were URL friendly only.  Meaning if you wanted to have the domain name, Santa Clarita Open Houses, and the site existed but there was no valuable content, they market it down.

More recently there was the Penguin Update.  Both Panda and Penguin are black and white animals?  Meaning???  Who knows – that’s Google for you…  Penguin focused on Link Farms amongst other things.  But if you were paying a link farm to produce back links to your website in a “black hat or grey hat” endeavor, you may have watched as you website fell in the SERP’s. (search engine results page)

With those two algorithm changes – plus over 200 other points that are constantly viewed by Google  at the speed of light, we can deduce that Google is not a DUMB search engine.

Therefore, when you are wanting to get content to your website, come up with from your own stories and or experiences as they relate to your business.  Read the news and comment.  But never copy.  You may end up causing Google to put you in the penalty box.  Or worse, ban you for a much longer period of time.

With all of the buzz lately that has been generated by Warren Buffet fans, investing in real estate seems to be a  ”No Brain-er”.

However, where should your first stop be?  During my walk this am, not on a Treadmill but on a Treadclimber(much harder ), I read an article about Investing in Real Estate.

While this is a Business Blog for the Santa Clarita businesses, I felt the need to post up my thoughts about making a lender the pivot point in your real estate investment strategy.

“Who’s going to have your six?”  While the “world view” of real estate agents is akin to some of the most deceitful salespeople in the free market, we think your first step should be with a real estate agents that are themselves FREE AGENTS!

Here is something you may not know or don’t remember.  When you purchase any real estate, there are fee’s that all buyers must pay, these costs are known as “closing costs”.  Mostly they consist of three components:

• The investors part of the Escrow Fees
• The investors portion of the Title Fees
• and The Lender’s Fee
• (depending on the transaction, most can be covered by the Seller, read more about closing costs here..)

It always amazes me how many of the people in the world are “watchers” and how so few are “doers”.

I suppose that most law enforcement officers can be included in the category of the “doer”.  Reason being is that they have to do and perform a multitude of tasks when encountering various situations during their daily routine.

Speaking of routine, one of the things that is taught quite vehemently, by the PD academy staff, is that a police officer or deputy sheriff should never treat anything as “routine”.

The “routine” is the type of “view” that causes one to think, “This is the same old domestic violence call…”  ”The Same old Traffic Stop for expired registration…”  ”The same only audible burglary alarm…”

Two of the most destructive inside of the criminal element, Timothy McVeigh and Richard Ramirez, were caught for simple traffic violations.  What if those officers, deputies or troopers would have viewed those as “routine traffic stops”?

The outcomes may have been different.  Sad but true.

When it comes to helping others, the best view to have is that you will receive nothing in return.  In fact, do these things without expectation or prize.

In life, you never will know how your “Good Karma” will come back to you.  But, I can guarantee one thing, it will in a big way.

If you want to get on our Business Blog update list – click on this link to join.  It’s free and we will all grow stronger by the sharing.

Have you ever met the “ultra busy”?  The shape shifters of business?  Those that only talk about how busy they are and how great they are?

<p align=”center”><iframe height=”225″ src=”http://paris911.com/widgets/macbox/macbox.asp?color=blue” frameborder=”0″ width=”300″ allowtransparency=”allowtransparency” scrolling=”no”></iframe></p>

Above is the code that you can use for your very own Santa Clarita business website.  You can expand the width, the height and change the color.  The colors acceptable are gray, blue, red, green, white, black and yellow.  The sizes above are the “minimum” sizes.

I have installed the HTML below to render at a width of 595px and height of 225 in a color of yellow – for an example.

Let me know what name you want to make MacBoX capable and I’ll forward it to your website.  That way we both get a link and stronger results in the Internet Search rankings.

If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll walk you through the process.