“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” -Melodie Beattie
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. And no, it’s not only because of it’s the time of year where we have an
Image by Markus Rödder via Flickr
excuse to stuff our selves silly with yummy food loaded with carbs. The
reason it is a favorite holiday of mine because because it is gateway to the holiday season and a day to give gratitude to people and things in our life that mean the most and truly give thanks for all that we have.
Today I’m starting my 12 Days of Thanks, leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday. I’m putting it out there, the things that I am thankful for. Gratitude is the attitude.
Today I am grateful for…
A laid back Sunday morning with my son and husband
The huge toothless smile my baby boy gives me when he spies me in the room
A day without rain so I can go and take a walk, which always makes me feel good
The fact that I have started this today and get to reflect on those things that I am truly grateful for.
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” – Buddha
Don’t mind our little mess here at The BVAS Connection. Just changing up the theme and playing with images and colors. I’ve got some plans and I want to make this blog as fun, informative, and dynamic as possible.
So please excuse us if we look a little discombobulated for the next few days.
Kate Wheeler says "Step Up Or Step Aside", and SHE IS RIGHT! If you are an agent that is not getting active in Active Rain (and Localism), what are you waiting for?
Kate’s post is a great example on why you should be on there. It is a great platform writing to your target market and making yourself a trusted authority in your local world. Not to mention it’s an awesome place to network and learn from you real estate peers.
If you are still unsure what to do with Active Rain, or how to get set up, contact a Real Estate Virtual Assistant to help!
What do you see here? I’m using video now? That is right, I have started some video blogging. Right now I’m playing around with video and incorporating it into my business. I’ve decided to use every tool I can in my social media marketing arsenal, and video was next on my list. So here it is, my first video.
Video blogging, or vlogging, is a fantastic tool that real estate pros should seriously consider incorporating into their real estate marketing plans. They are super simple to make with a webcam, or small camcorder (My favorite is the Flip), and can be uploaded numerous places like YouTube, Facebook, etc., to gain you more online exposure.
From being a "talking head" giving informative advice, to showing off your newest listings or favorite local businesses, incorporating real estate video on your websites or real estate blogs is a great real estate business tool. And of course, video a task your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can help you get started with and maintain.
More tips and tricks are to come in the future. For now, I invite you to come along on this video blogging journey with me. I want to see YOUR videos too!
I found a cool tool today, called Posterous. And if it worked right, you are viewing this not only on my Posterous page, but on my blog as well. Posterous is a simple and very cool tool that you can easily post anything with email. Share thoughts, photos, videos, blog postings, etc right from your email.
One great way to use it is to make blog posts anywhere you are from your mobile phone. For example, take a photo of your newest listing from your phone, make a quick write up, and email from your phone to post@posterous.com, and boom, it’s posted. And even better, set up your Posterous account with Autopost and you can updated your Facebook, Twitter, or your blogs (as I have done). So it’s one-stop instant posting.
There’s many other cool ways to use Posterous, so I recommend you run over and check them out.
Gotta love all the many of ways you can post your content to anyone, anywhere, any time. Thanks for letting me have a little fun here testing today. J
Real estate websites have become one of the mainstays of a Realtor’s marketing plan. And one of the first things one needs when starting a new real estate website is a great domain name. A common thing that I notice is that many agents decide to choose their own name as their domain name. But what I don’t think many agents realize, is that choosing their own name as a domain, is a big mistake. Picking your own name as a domain is easy, but is it right? From one of my favorite real estate marketing books, Real Estate Rainmaker Guide to Online Marketing, author Dan Gooder Richard mentions as one of the "New Rules" – Your brand should never be your name. Let’s think about the big picture here. When building an internet presence or an overall marketing presence, you are building a brand. Building your brand can take a significant amount of time an money to promote and make successful. Well after a time running a successful real estate business, someday you may wish to retire. Can you see where I am going here yet? Essentially you want a brand that is attractive and "saleable" to potential buyers that may want to take on your business once you decide to retire. And if your brand is something that can be easily transferred to a new buyer, that obviously makes it worth a lot more money. Well if you are using your name as your brand, or as your domain name, how easily transferable or attractive would it be should you decide to sell the business you worked so hard on? I don’t believe many agents haven’t give this much thought when developing thier websites. How attractive would a brand that was by some other person’s name be to you? So how should you go about choosing a great domain name for your site? Take the ego out of it. Your real estate site is not about all about you but about the consumer. Think about the areas you serve and the consumers you want to reach and what they may be interested in. Think of a geographical area or specific property type that you specialize in. Have you already chosen your own name as your domain name? Don’t fret! Landing pages can be your answer! Without having to completely change to a new site or completely change the domain over to something new, you can still use great targeted domain names while still keeping the main website. You can buy several domains like (and these are just for the sake of example) YourTownHomeBuying.com, YourTownCodos.com to target certain property types or market segments, and take them to landing pages that correspond to that item. Same with domains that target certain geographical areas and landing pages in your site to go with. Good luck and happy naming!
Attention all bloggers, young and old, newbie and experienced. I stumbled upon a great contest today that you may want to check out. The prizes are the coolest (at least to geeky bloggers like me) and they would be of tremendous value to whoever wins. Plus, I think it is impressive that he is using this as a great way way to snag list subscribers, and get great traffic. Kudos to him!
On the blog earlier in the week I started the conversation about the social networking tool, Twitter and a few tips for the beginner. Twitter can be a great real estate marketing tool and is easy and fun. Today I have more tweet tips about applications to make Twitter easier to use and integrate it with all blog and other social networking platforms. There are hundreds of Twitter apps out there, but here are some choices that are popular with myself and many of my colleagues.
Don’t want to have to go to twitter.com each time to send and receive your tweets? Some applications that make posting easier:
Twhirl – This is a free download that allows you to use Twitter from your desktop. Receive notification of new messages.
Tweetdeck – Thought still in beta, it is another desktop application for Twitter use. It also includes some organization functionality that allows one keep track of twitter threads a little easier.
OutTwit – This application allows you to tweet and follow right from your Outlook.
TwitBin – For Firefox users, with TwitBin you can use twitter right in your Firefox internet browser.
Twitter2Go – Check and update Twitter from your Palm, Blackberry, or practically any mobile phone or pda device. No download required.
Want to announce a new blog post, pictures, etc, to your twitter followers? Check out these apps:
TwitterFeed – This application takes the feed from any of your blogs, (Blogger, Active Rain, etc), or anything with an RSS feeds, and it will periodically check for updates and post them for you.
Twitter Tools – A WordPress plugin that automatically notifies twitter of new blog posts.
Twit Pic – A great tool to share your photos on Twitter.
Want to search tweets for keywords, be alerted when someone is talking about you, or follow conversations easier? Use these apps:
Quotably – Want to find the original tweet that sparked a twitter conversation? Use this app by inputing the twitter name to help you find the thread of conversation.
TweetScan – This app is a real time Twitter search to search for keywords, find replies and you can sign up for email alerts.
TweetBeep – It’s like Google Alerts for twitter. Find out who’s twittering about you, your business, comany, services, etc.
A Few more fun Twitter apps:
TweetBurner – Allows you to track the links you share or links shared by others and what happens to them.
Tweet Clouds – Make word a cloud of a public twitter stream.
StrawPoll – Create your own straw polls to gather opinions of your twitter friends, or settle a long standing debate.
Tweet Ahead – Schedule your tweets ahead of time to be posted later.
Post Like a Pirate – Have a little fun and turn your twitter post into “pirate speak” <– LOVE IT (I’ve got a great story about pirate speak)
As I had said, there are 100′s of Twitter apps out there and new ones are popping up all the time. To view a great list of several apps available, check out this cool site, Twitter Fan Wiki.
Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, and publisher of The REAL Advantage E-Zine. Megan has spent 9+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.
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Doing a little housekeeping here. 
Real estate websites have become one of the mainstays of a Realtor’s marketing plan. And one of the first things one needs when starting a new real estate website is a great domain name. A common thing that I notice is that many agents decide to choose their own name as their domain name. But what I don’t think many agents realize, is that choosing their own name as a domain, is a big mistake. Picking your own name as a domain is easy, but is it right? From one of my favorite real estate marketing books, 
