Real Estate Web Design and Marketing Blog

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Recently, Brad and I were honored to be guest on a webinar hosted by our good friend and real estate trainer and social media expert Amy Chorew with The Tech Byte. The next day I received an email question from one of the participants asking a series of questions about selecting domain names for their real estate website. These questions are pretty typical of the questions we are asked from time to time and I thought, why not use the Dakno Real Estate Blog to provide some answers.
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The other day I was reading a terrific post by Stephen Fells on the Agency Powersites Blog. Stephen wrote an offbeat humorous post on the unusual images the Google Streetview van has captured in it’s endeavor to map the US. After my chuckle, it came to me the real power of a Google Map and how agents need to take advantage of creating a map using MyMaps by Google!

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There is a common misconception among real estate professionals that a newly or even a recently launched website with a new domain name should rank well fresh off the shelf. To exacerbate the problem, some agents also have unrealistic expectations that if they launch a website and upload a smidgen of content to the site, it will rank well and receive a flood of site visitors (traffic). Warning, my “snarkiness” is about to begin! No Dorothy, you can’t “click your heels three times” and have your site rank well for Topeka, Kansas, real estate; you’re not “the Lone Ranger” and there is no “silver bullet” you can fire to have your site gun down your competition and appear at the top of the search engines for Cheyenne, Wyoming real estate; nor is this “The Matrix” and there is no “blue pill” you can take to magically achieve quick search results for a new site (and your new domain name) in Gotham City! The good news is there are tools you can use and best practices you can adopt to gain the much sought after traffic you want.

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In today’s highly competitive online marketing arena, if your real estate website fails to deliver the five critical components below, you could be falling behind your competition. Today at 2:00pm EST (1-26-10), we invite you to view our Dakno live stream as we guide you step by step to understand what home buying and selling consumers want the second they land on your real estate website. Come see for yourself what essential ingredients are needed for your real estate website.

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While our families gather in warm, festive homes to celebrate this special time of year with our loved ones, courageous men and women of our Armed Forces serve and protect our country in distant, often hostile lands.

It is out of a deep respect and admiration to honor and consider these valiant service men and women who choose to sacrifice for our freedom that we elect to convey a small token of our appreciation.

Rather than purchase holiday greeting cards and postage for our clients and friends, the Dakno Real Estate Marketing Team has decided to send a few of our military families Christmas gifts during this holiday season.

To our clients, and friends of Dakno Marketing, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year for 2010! May you and your families experience a richer life filled with health, blessings and depths of love and joy like you have never experienced!

All the best,

The Dakno Marketing Team

The genesis of this post came as a result of an email I recently sent to Dakno client and Iowa City real estate agent Toni Rubin. Do you find yourself recycling emails as post? You should! That’s how blogging works. Many of the best post you will ever write have already been written! They are sitting in your sent folder of your email client dying to be shared so your readers can benefit from the information. If you have used the same email to answer the same question asked over and over by home buying and selling consumers, retool that email into blog post!!! That way the next time the same question comes your way you can say; “here is the link to a post I wrote that answers your question.”

Thank you Toni for being the inspiration behind this post!

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Part of the DNA of the new breed of real estate agents is their voracious appetite for tech toys. We are all about the “shiny objects”. With the holiday gift giving season upon us, I’m sure you have started your own personal “wish list” of tech toys you want this Christmas. While this list is in no particular order of the “most wanted”, these bright and shiny objects are priced under $150 MSRP. Given our current stingy economy and the state of the housing market in many areas, I figured we all needed to be pretty smart with the budge this year. My compliments to the writers at “WIRED” Magazine and their December 2009 issue for serving as my inspiration for this post.

What Real Estate Pros Want Most This Christmas!

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The legacy of our Thanksgiving holiday dates back to the very foundation of our great country. Signified by the partaking of the harvest feast, Thanksgiving has transcended generations as people throughout the United States gather with family and friends over a meal to offer words of gratefulness. Respecting this time honored tradition, all of us here at Dakno Marketing wish to give pause and offer our own words of thanksgiving.

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If you read my previous post on “Stop Creating More Real Estate Websites“, you now understand my stance on managing multiple real estate websites. I wanted to continue with the “single site solution” theme and talk about ensuing you get the most search engine credit from your single branded solution.
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I’m writing this blog post as I head out to Blog World and New Media Expo. I’ll be on a panel talking about things to think about when hiring a Vendor. But strangely enough,  this blog post isn’t about my session. Instead it’s about the session that’s happening directly after. Reggie Nicolay of My Tech Opinion will be talking about Integrating everything into “One Site”. I’m really looking forward to the session as it’s a topic that I 100% agree with. I think it’s vital to real estate agents building a successful online marketing presence.

Seamless Integration Across All Sites

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