Archive for July, 2009

Lance Armstrong – Inspirational
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

I just read a quote that said, “Pain is temporary, but quitting lasts forever.”

It reminded me of Lance Armstrong’s amazing comeback story.

Today is Stage 17 of 21 of The Tour de France. 37 year old, Lance Armstrong began today in second place behind his team mate Alberto Contador.

In 1996, Armstrong was 25 (the No. 1 ranked cyclist in the world) when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that subsequently spread to his abdomen, lungs, and brain. Doctors gave him a slim chance of survival.

Two years later, after a miraculous recovery, he got back on a bike but then quit a race in Paris when he realized he wasn’t ready to race yet.

The following year (and the next 6), he won the Tour de France and retired as the only person to win this gruelling event seven times.

It was amazing to see Lance Armstrong in Australia earlier this year after his announcement that he was going after another Tour de France title in an effort to help promote cancer awareness globally.

There are so many superlatives that come to mind whenever someone mentions Lance Armstrong.

He is truly inspirational & his ‘Live Strong’ message is something that we should all aspire to in any of life’s endeavours.

If you’re in need of some inspiration check out Lance Armstrong’s site or follow him on Twitter

Bring it home Lance, the world is riding with you.

Filed under: Inspiration,Tips for Success — Tags: , , — Greg Vincent @ 9:41 pm
Smile At The World & Improve Your Results
Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Smile & Move: It’s all about your attitude & actions…PLUS…Mattering to the world all with a smile.

Filed under: Inspiration,Tips for Success — Tags: , , , , , — Greg Vincent @ 10:09 am
Twitter for Real Estate Workshop
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009


Who else wants to earn more commission and find an easier way to list/sell real estate?

… this is not a regular workshop, so take advantage NOW

In this Interactive ‘No Geek Speak’ Workshop you’ll learn simple steps to help you become a Leader of Innovation & Technology in your area.

The Twitter for Real Estate Workshops have been designed to help agents like you put their internet marketing on steroids & create a huge advantage over your competition.

Here’s just some of what you’ll learn…

• Find out how to use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc to grow your business.
• Discover effective ways to build a massive, loyal database of clients.
• Gain more from the major portals. (realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, etc.)
• Learn how to build a bigger, better profile online.
• Find out how you can secure some of the best real estate on the internet.
• Learn simple, innovative techniques that will help you win more listings.
• How to build trust online & leverage the internet to make your life easier.

Discover how you can use Twitter, one of the latest phenomena’s of the internet, PLUS other effective web strategies, to help improve your real estate marketing & generate lots of extra commission…easier.

To learn more click here

Filed under: Real Estate Training,Tips for Success — Tags: , , — Greg Vincent @ 12:20 am
Facing Your Fears Leads To Success
Saturday, July 11th, 2009

Here’s a great one minute video from Jack Canfield reminding us all that most of the time we create our own imaginary fears. Fears like these can actually hold you back from achieving your goals.

Conquer your fears & you will succeed. Remember FEAR stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.

Don’t let you fears hold you back. Understand that they exist & tackle them head on.

For more information from Jack Canfield check out the summary of his book The Power of Focus

Filed under: Inspiration,Tips for Success — Tags: , , , , — Greg Vincent @ 2:15 pm
Google Changes Real Estate Search
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Google have recently announced a new search feature for real estate on Google Maps.

This will be an important change for real estate agents, real estate portals & consumers.

So far it has only been launched in Australia & New Zealand and there is some conjecture about the reasons why major real estate portals like realestate.com.au & domain.com.au weren’t part of the launch process.

It will be interesting to see how Google’s move will impact the real estate industry.

REA Group’s previous CEO, Simon Baker commented on Business2 that ‘This would be an interesting decision for them as it would impact their PPC (adwords) revenues from the likes of domain, realestate.com.au, realestateview, developers and some agents.’

I see that Google’s move will actually increase PPC revenues for Google because the real estate related keywords will become even more competitive.

REA, Domain, etc will need to find ways to by-pass the traffic away from Google Maps so they can keep their subscription fees & advertising rates up.

For example, in a Google Search on Real Estate Sydney done today a PPC ad for maps.google.com was in the top position. Even though this is an expected marketing strategy by Google, it will be interesting to see how long they continue to use PPC ads to promote their Google Maps product.

For the short term it looks certain that PPC costs will increase for REA, Domain, etc if they want the same level of SEM traffic.

One things for sure, the major portals won’t remain off Google Maps for too long.

Here are 3 things that could have an impact on the industry.

1. Figuring out the SEO puzzle & how an agent can get their listings to be ranking as A, B, C, D, etc.

2. Consumers using the ‘Write a Review’ function is going to be really interesting to watch.

3. (Future) Will Google eventually integrate the time period search into the Mapping so people can search the latest listings or latest updated listings by Any time, Recent results, Past 24 hours, Past week, Past year like you can on their normal search?

If you need some help with getting your listings onto Google Maps here’s some helpful information for agents provided by Google.

Filed under: Industry News — Tags: , , , , — Greg Vincent @ 5:09 pm
Great Way to Keep Up-to-Date With Real Estate on Twitter
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

There is a really simple way that you can check out what’s happening with real estate & property on Twitter by using the ‘Saved Searches’ function.

Here’s a quick video tutorial.

Filed under: Real Estate Training,Tips for Success — Tags: , , — Greg Vincent @ 7:27 am
Google Your Clients & Get To Know Them Better
Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Real estate trainer, Ray Wood mentioned on Twitter today that you should Google your clients before you go out to an appointment. That way you can get to know as much about them as possible.

I thought it was an interesting idea that may help agents with the icebreakers & help you connect with your clients a lot quicker at listing presentations.

But this idea also got me thinking. What if they Google you, their potential agent, prior to you turning up for a listing presentation?

Do you know what they would find out about you & is there anything they might see that might reduce your chances of securing the business.

Make sure you Google yourself regularly. Google spiders are constantly travelling throughout the web & forever changing the results that appear on a Google search under a particular keyword.

If there’s anything that you don’t want to appear remove it if you can. If it’s something that appears on someone else’s site. Contact the website owner & plead your case to see if they will remove any defamatory comments.

As an agent it’s important that you keep an eye on anything that is said about you or your company over the internet.

The best way to keep up to date with what could be appearing on Google is by creating an alert via Google Alerts. Create an alert under your name, your company name & recommend that your work colleagues do the same.

This one thing could be just what you need to help you maintain the professional online reputation of you & your real estate company.

On Twitter you can use a site called TweetBeep.

Also, just a quick word of warning about Twitter. Be careful what you tweet. If you delete one of your tweets people can still see them via a site called Tweleted.

Filed under: Real Estate Training,Tips for Success — Tags: , , — Greg Vincent @ 4:49 pm