While our UltimateIDX Clients are aware of our recent move to Las Vegas, Nevada this is the first public announcement of our corporate move.

While Missouri will always be home, Columbia simply did not offer the advantages necessary for our coming expansion efforts.

Las Vegas offers a much larger labor pool of individuals with the necessary skills to become a Member of the UltimateIDX Team. We are now located on minutes from an International Airport making travel for meetings much more convenient for staff and Clients alike. And since the move there has been an increase of Clients wanting to visit us.

Although we are now located in the most exciting city on earth we will never forget our humble beginnings in a sleepy little town in America’s heartland.

Submitted by user of the Menu Creator, this modification guide is well documented on how to apply the WP Menu Creator to the BFA Atahualpa WP Theme. You can read about the implementation on the project site located on the Denver Home Real Estate Site for more details.

After receiving so many code submissions and snippets from users of the WP Menu Creator, we have setup a new page to provide a one way link back to the project site so that others may see how the plug-in is being used. I wrote a brief announcement about it here and you can examine the new categories and examples from around the web as we publish them.

A quick note, keep an eye out for our Form Creator which will be released today on WordPress.org as a full production release.  Having struggled with countless issues in the DOM library in order to make it compatible with so many of the different types of themes, we finally got the plug-in whipped into shape in order to get it published. You can look for the plugin on WordPress.

Is Real Estate Webmasters Forum Really Worth the Time

From time to time we do check out the Real Estate Webmasters forum just to see if the former Canadian porn webmaster turned Real Estate sales evangelist is slamming UltimateIDX or PREN.

Today I forgot to turn my Fire Fox DoFollow link checker off before I went to the Real Estate Webmasters forum and low an behold I noticed a Member with over 500 posts had “nofollow” tags on all of his signature links. I remember hearing something about REW Members with less than 300 posts would have the “nofollow” tag on their signatures but had no idea that was implemented or substantially raised until today.

It now appears that the figure to achieve before REW Members get any credit for posting is over 650. Please don’t take my word on this. Check it out for yourself. Now that seems like one hellofalot of work on Morgan’s website BEFORE you get any link love.

My question is what will REW raise it to the next time 1,000 posts, 1,500 posts or??? And do New REW Members know about this?

The Rest of the Story

OK I admit my curiosity kicked in and I really needed to know “the rest of the strory”, so I started checking further. Right off the bat you can see that REW places a “nofollow” tag on any text links within a post and it is obvious that Google has substantially devalued REW Blogs and any inbound links from these blogs.

So then I wanted to know what kind of link juice the Real Estate Webmasters forum generated for the “Uber Real Estate Webmaster” Members (aka “Kool Aide Drinkers”). I targeted a Members website that primarily only had REW inbounds. This REW Member joined back in 2005 and had in excess of 1,100 posts and a multitude of blog posts. The Member’s website displays a dismal PR1 for all the hard work and effort.

Conclusion

Now if the same REW Member had posted over 1,100 blog comments on 1,100 different websites, posted to his/her own Blog the same amount as he/she posted to the REW Blog the Member’s PR would be significantly higher. This is a no brainer folks!

Now you can call me bias all you want (and yes I am). But do the research yourself. Please don’t take my word for it. Regardless or whether you are a new REW Member or a Kool-Aide drinking “Uber Real Estate Webmaster” the Real Estate Webmasters forum is nothing but a huge waste of your time.

What was most shocking is that Morgan Carey even applies the “nofollow” tag to REW Clients!

Admittedly, Morgan Carey is one of the BEST self promoters I have ever come across, however his loyalty is strictly to himself and enjoys the fruit of his Members labor to glorify and promote who? Not you!

How can I include your plugin with my theme?

We get asked this a few times a week from theme developers and designers that want to include our Menu Creator with their products.  As part of our efforts to make the plug-in as developer / designer friendly as we can, we encourage this as often as possible in hopes that it will be used as a central feature of the overall design concept.  The method for including the plug-in is pretty much the same as nearly any other.  The basic idea is to define the zones or areas in the theme you wish to render the menus and then use a little PHP to load the variables if certain conditions are met, essentially that the plug-in is present and active.  If the function for the displaying of menu creator menus is present then load the menu number specified, otherwise display something else.

It is important to note that in future releases of the plug-in, we will have added widget support for themes that use them in order to make the inclusion of menu’s super user friendly. Your theme users will simply create the menu, add the links and once saved, simply use the widget feature to assign the widget to locations supported by your theme. The widget can be used or replicated many times with the difference being only the MenuID it is to display.  At some point in the future we will add in a way of putting dynamic CSS for instant styling of the menu items.

For now here is the code to include the menu creator in your themes.

<?php
if (function_exists(‘displayMenu’)) {
displayMenu(1);
} else {
//your alternative menu code here
}
?>

More Real Estate Webmasters Lies

I heard from a client that Morgan Carey was up to his old tricks again slamming any one that competes with him. So I went a looked and sure enough he has an imaginary Member (melissayost – 2 Posts) slamming the UltimateIDX.

The truth of the matter is that we have never served Casa Grande, AZ or any other MLS market in Arizona for that matter. But the truth has NEVER impeded Morgan Carey on any front especially when it comes to slamming competitors.

In his thread at (www).realestatewebmasters.com/thread27972.html Morgan states “Anything has got to be better than UltimateIDX”. Now while my list of REW Clients that have converted to the UltimateIDX continues to grow he can not site one of our clients that have switched to the Real Estate Webmasters IDX. So if “anything” is better than the UltimateIDX where does that leave REW?

While our disputes over the years are well known and subject of much Internet lore, you would think that Morgan and Real Estate Webmasters would just shut up. Especially after narrowly escaping FBI prosecution for hacking the Pro Real Estate Network Forum.

Morgan’s unethical practices and “Black Hat” SEO are continuously overlooked by his fanatical followers and “Kool Aide Drinkers” at Real Estate Webmasters regardless of the depths he is willing to sink to. I mean come on; you guys must at least feel the need to shower after some of your orchestrated attacks on Morgan Carey detractors. Don’t you?

There are actually very few days that I am not contacted by REW clients that want to use the UltimateIDX. The problem is that we can not map a new MLS for one or two Agents. We need at least 10 Agents to commit to using our services prior to us mapping a new MLS market. And unlike REW who is rumored to not pay MLS Boards for data feeds, we pay all required fees to any Board that charges for the feed. To do anything less constitutes theft and jeopardizes IDX Client’s access to the much needed data.

When I heard that NAR requested logs from REW concerning the latest ruling and Morgan declined I must admit I found myself rolling on the ground. The LAST thing that Morgan wants is for National Association of Realtors to see computer logs that might be shared with Local MLS Boards. That could well be the end of REW.

And don’t forget that the REW Summit 2009 is coming up July 30 through the 31st in Nanaimo, BC and for ONLY $499 you can line up and kiss Morgan Carey’s hairy while the former Porn Webmaster teaches you how to sell real estate. This is a MUST Attend Event for all Morgan Carey “Kool Aide Drinkers”!

DoFollow Real Estate Blogs

Background:
A couple of years ago Google devaluated (and in some instances penalized for) reciprocal link exchanges by Real Estate sites and God Bless them for doing so. If we are all going to be honest the whole idea of exchanging a link with a REALTOR in another city or state was nothing less than a blatant attempt to manipulate the SERPs. And it worked for years.

I personally spent endless hours soliciting reciprocal link exchanges and then constantly auditing them to make sure the site owner was living up to their part of the exchange. This time could have and should have been used to update existing content and writing new content for my website. In other words adhering to the Google Webmaster Guidelines…. Da! So when the word came down from on high that the link scam was over and everyone had to take down their spammy 50 page “State Directories” while others were wringing their hands I was celebrating and quickly went back to writing fresh content.

I still have serious heart burn with real estate sites that have reciprocal link exchanges on their Home Pages. I’ve read all the excuses in the forums and on blog posts that these are “Referral Partners” and they share clients. I guess we are also supposed to believe in the Easter Bunny too. While Matt Cutts and Google are aware of the practice and it is a clear violation of their Webmaster Guidelines they have yet to act on this link scam. My guess is that eventually they will and I urge all beginning real estate webmasters to avoid this practice.

Quality Back Links

There are other ways to get quality back links and adhere to the Webmaster Guidelines. Good, relevant, fresh content is the best way. We you write articles that are authoritative and have useful information website owners will link to the article without even being asked. This gives you a premium one-way link.

Another favorite is Blog Comments on blogs that use the DoFollow tag. Like anything else, spammers hit the blogs hard using comments to perpetuate their spam and most blog software is NoFollow by default. You now must use a DoFollow plugin or hard code your blog to follow external links. Personally I feel the DoFollow movement is the right approach to encourage visitors to contribute to your blog by posting comments that are relevant to the post and contribute to the conversation. I personally use the DoFollow plugin on all of my blogs. I do however moderate my comments and will use the “Delete” button in a heart beat on any and all spammers.

By using the DoFollow tag I have increased visitor participation on my blogs and have made some new acquaintances. Without comments from my visitors my blogs seem to be a one sided conversation and while I may not agree with all of my comment poster’s opinions I do like the fresh perspectives they add. So for me Comments are a win-win scenario.

DoFollow Blog Lists

There are a lot of DoFollow Blog lists out there. If using any of them I strongly suggest you verify that the blogs you posts to truly do use the DoFollow plugin. What I would like to do here is create a list of DoFollow Blogs that are specifically related to “Real Estate”. If you have a DoFollow Real Estate Blog please post it in our comments and it will be added to the list. This will give REALTORS the opportunity to communicate with likeminded individuals in an industry that we are all involved with.

It creates fresh content for your website and gives your readers different points of view.

This list will be monitored and audited on a regular basis. If the DoFollow plugin is removed or if the blog is found to perpetuate spam you link will be removed. All Blogs must comply with the Google Webmaster Guidelines at all times.

Caution: For website owners that are considering using the DoFollow Plugin I strongly urge you to moderate ALL of your comments. I also suggest you only accept quality comments that contribute to the conversation.

The List:

• IDX Services
• Las Vegas Real Estate
• San Diego Homes
• Atlanta Real Estate

Today, Michael Torbert, the developer of the mega popular All In One SEO WordPress plug-in, announced and released a new CMS enhanced version the plug-in by adding some uniquely important features to CMS structured sites. The new features include better support for WordPress sites that are setup to function more like a mini CMS and the addition of another feature which provides the blogger a toggle option in the All In One SEO settings tab to either use or not use the Dynamically Generate Keywords for Posts Page.

One of the most under utilized features being used with WordPress is the feature that provides a way for WordPress to function more as a CMS (Content Management Solution) combined with the powerful blogging ability as opposed to just a blog. The feature is especially attractive to website owners that want to have all the control and publishing abilities to maintain their site without the overtly complex and lofty functionality of a full blown CMS solution. The UltimateIDX uses this method almost exclusively for our Real Estate website clients in either the UIDX MLS configuration or standard Realtor website development. After completing our latest project for a San Diego Realtor, we had come to discover that duplicate or identical meta keywords and meta description details were being rendered in the two primary landing pages. Those pages were the home page and the blog page. Modification to the All In One SEO plug-in, we were able to come up with a solution that gave us the control we were seeking on a page by page basis regardless of the location or type. Naturally, as we are strong supporters of the Open Source community, we submitted the code and examples to the developer of the All In One SEO.

Working with Michael, we were pleased to be able to contribute to the plug-in and assist in pre release testing the new features in several live sites. Now in any of our future projects we can confidentially continue to use the All In One SEO plug-in to achieve the SEO advantage it provides in our CMS structured WordPress sites as well. Be sure to download the updated version of the plug-in today.

Content is Still The King

It seems as though all new Clients for the UltimateIDX™ all want to know short cuts for ranking well in the three major search engines. The simple truth is there are no short cuts. It takes many months of hard work and dedication to rank well in Google, Yahoo and MSN.

With Search Engine Optimization practices over the past decade I have seen many fads come and go however the only real constant has been good and fresh content. Without fresh content readership inevitably drops and so do rankings in the SERPs.

Over the years I have watched how many website owners will go through a lot of work and effort to manipulate the Search Engines when it would have taken less effort to keep their content current. For this there really is no excuse. Even if a website owner can not write or does not have the time to write there are many copyrighters available that do an excellent job for a reasonable price. There are also a lot of copywriters that will even maintain your blogs and keep them current.

Inbound Links

Inbound links are also very important when it comes to Search Engine Rankings. But all IBLs are not created equally. Incoming links from .edu and .gov sites are cherished but rare. It is much easier to get links from sites that are considered authoritative or “Trusted”. How can you get these links you ask? Maintain good fresh content on your website. If others consider your content to be authoritative, relative, informative or though provoking they will link to your website. This is also known as “Link Baiting”.

Link Baiting

Link Baiting is exactly what it implies. You write though provocative or controversial articles (Blog posts) that will cause other Bloggers or website owners to link to you. An extreme example would be: “Blue Widgets” vs. “Blue Widgets May Cause Cancer”. Of course the latter of the articles is much more likely to be quoted with a backlink. However, be sure to keep your articles or Blog posts accurate and well documented if you want to remain credible in the Blogosphere.

Smaller Search Engines

If you continue to generate good content the first rewards for your efforts will come from listings on smaller Search Engines like PeekYou and if you are lucky enough your site may appear in EDU Search Engines Like Bates.

Again it all depends on the quality of your content.

Summary

While there are many aspects involved in your Search Engine rankings, they all revolve around Content. Content is and will remain “King” and the key to your rankings in the SERPS.

After todays update to version 1.1.2 we discovered that it had been uploaded to wordpress twice in the same folder,  this will cause an error when you go to manage the menus.  Simply delete the entire plugin folder from /plugins/wp-menu-creator/ and re-upload a new copy.  Sorry for the frustration.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-menu-creator/

Real Estate Leads

While industry experts may vary on the percentages of real estate transactions that begin on the Internet from 70-84% none of them will disagree with the importance of capturing and managing real estate leads. This was the driving force that moved the founders of UltimateIDX™ to create our system. Our founders are REALTORS® and we understand the importance of real estate leads. Let’s face it, the days of a real estate Brokerage’s ability to survive on “walk-in” traffic alone is over. If you want to stay in business you need to learn how to get leads from the Internet and how to convert those leads into closed transactions. In this market it is more crucial than ever to keep leads (potential buyers) in your pipe line.

While we all love it when a buyer visits our website that needs to move or relocate within 30 days. The truth is it just does not happen that often. Discounting “tire kickers” buyers can generally be classified in one of four groups;

A) 30 Day Buyers
B) 30 – 90 Day Buyers
C) 90 – 180 Day Buyers
D) Over 180 Day Buyers

All to often inexperienced real estate Agents discount C an D buyers opting to devote most if not all of their time to the quicker sales that A and B Buyers potentially offer. The more seasoned Agents see the time lag on the C and D Buyers as an opportunity to develop a relationship with the buyers over time. By developing a relationship with the C and D buyers the seasoned Agent has a much better opportunity of making a sale than he/she does with an A or B buyer. The veteran also realizes that sooner or later the C and D buyers will turn into A and B buyers. The trick is to build your real estate lead pipeline so that you have a steady supply of all classifications of buyers.

Lead Notifications

One of the most critical steps involved with real estate lead capturing is the follow up email and phone call. Agents need to know as soon as a potential customer registers on their website so the Agent can follow up immediately. The UltimateIDX™ immediately sends out a “Welcome” email with YOUR contact information from YOU. The system also notifies you of the new registration by: Text Message, Email, Web Alert or all three methods. Your notification will give you the Name, Phone, Email and searched properties of the new lead. You will also be notified of “Revisits” each time a registered lead goes back into the system.

REMEMBER: Most experts report the Agent that contacts a new lead within 15 minutes of them logging on to their website and starts a rapport stands the best chance of making the sale.

Suggestion: Call within 15 minutes. Keep your call brief, professional and friendly. Introduce yourself, explain that you noticed that they logged onto your website and invite them to contact you if they need further assistance. If the call is going exceptionally well offer to set them up on your VIP Email Alerts so they can be notified of new listings on the MLS that match their criteria. DO NOT keep them on the line if they do not wish to talk.

Lead Management

Our Client Resource Manager allows you to monitor your leads search habits as it records the search criteria, viewed listings and saved favorites. In addition to giving you a good indication of what a potential customer is looking for it helps you quickly identify “tire kickers” and mark them accordingly so no time is wasted pursuing them. This frees up your valuable time assisting serious property buyers.

Summary

Different Agents in different markets use techniques for follow up that may or may not work for other Agents in other markets. Phone calls and drip mail are some of the most popular methods to keep in touch. Try different things with different intervals and take detailed notes on your lead follow up. Chart what works best for you, and repeat the process. The main thing is to follow up, build that rapport and make the sale. If you don’t your competition will.