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TOUGH TIMES CALL FOR FREE MEASURES!

Join Us June 20-21 at Bell Harbor International Conference Center

2211 Alaskan Way, Seattle, WA 98121

Learn how to drive FREE LEADS from CraigsList, FaceBook, and ActiveRain to actually GROW your business in a down real estate market.

At RainCamp Seattle you will:

• Learn the mechanics of blogging and how to use your blog to bring you business
• Understand the value and benefits of using social media to connect and capture more business
• Hear top real estate and blogging tips from successful ActiveRain leaders in the Pacific Northwest
• Find out how to drive more views to your ActiveRain blog
• Meet and network with local real estate professionals on ActiveRain

PLUS, it’s the 5th Anniversary of ActiveRain! Join us for a blow-out birthday celebration at the Hard Rock Café in downtown Seattle on June 21, and for a family barbeque at the ActiveRain headquarters on June 22.

Come Learn, Share, and Connect with the ActiveRain Community at RainCamp in Seattle June 20-21.

RainCamp Seattle: June 20-22

Day 1:

8:00am-9:00am        Registration
9:10am-11:20am      Domination through SEO and Craigslist, Bob Stewart & Ben Kinney, ActiveRain / Keller Williams

11:30am-12:00pm     Seattle-Style Success Panel
12:00pm-1:00pm       The Power Lunch

1:00pm-2:00pm         From FaceBook to Oprah: Launching BaconSalt on FaceBook

2:30pm-3:30pm        Take Your Blog to the Next Level with Todd Clark (Top Points on ActiveRain)

3:45pm-4:45pm        Top Social Media Tools & Secrets, Brad Andersohn, Zillow

5:00pm                     Seattle Style After Party




Day 2:


8:00am-9:00am        Registration

9:10am-10:10am      Blogging a Remarkable Business , Rich Jacobson

10:40am-12:00pm     New Blog Topics for Homeowner Engagement, Debe Maxwell & Steve Shatsky

12:00pm-1:00pm       Lunch 

1:00pm-4pm             Personal Coaching Breakouts, Focus-driven sessions led by ActiveRain staff and Ambassadors
8:00pm-11:00pm       ActiveRain’s 5th Anniversary Party at Hard Rock Café in Seattle

REGISTER FOR RAINCAMP TODAY!

Can’t wait to see you in just a couple weeks!

Nikesh Parekh, ActiveRain CEO
Bob Stewart, ActiveRain Chief Evangelist

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Posted in social media | No Comments »

Tags: activerain, bell harbor conference center, raincamp, real estate training, seattle wa, social media, social networking

With technology changing and evolving so rapidly these days, as real estate professionals we’re hard-pressed keeping up to speed and knowing what technology tools are worth our time and investment.

Clearly, one of the most obvious tech ‘toys’ that offers tremendous practical value and benefit is the Apple iPad.

With so much of our core business becoming increasingly ‘mobile’ the Apple iPad empowers you to effectively/efficiently embrace and utilize the growing use of mobile apps and technology.

From Listing Presentations to drafting Purchase & Sales contracts, the Apple iPad allows you to quickly connect, communicate, and conduct business tasks with ease.

Shoot and edit HD video for that new high-end waterfront listing. Answer your Buyers questions immediately on-the-fly (What will my payment be? Where are the schools located? What services are nearby? What have other homes in the area recently sold for?)

And forget about lugging around that bulky dinosaur-esque laptop anymore. The new iPad 2 is 1.33 lbs of glorious time-saving, task-hungry heaven!

There are over 65,000 apps (and growing) for the iPad. Here’s just a few of the more popular ones geared towards real estate:

Top Ten iPad Apps for Real Estate

Keynote - This is Apple’s version of PowerPoint.  I love Keynote and this is the perfect app to “wow” your clients with a slick Buyer Consultation or Listing Presentation.

Open Home Pro – a great application for use during Open Houses that provides a Virtual Guest Book Sign-In Tool.

DropBox - is a free Web-based file hosting service that uses cloud computing to enable users to store/share files/folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization. It lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPad, and even the Dropbox website!

PDF Expert for iPad - PDF Expert is the ultimate solution for all your PDF needs. It lets you read and annotate PDF documents, highlight text, make notes, draw with your finger, and save those changes being compatible with Preview and Adobe Acrobat. PDF Expert is the only iPad application that can fill PDF forms!

DocuSign - Now, you have the power to send, track and sign documents while on the go! Add documents from Google docs, Box.net or use a pre-configured DocuSign Template. Instantly add iPhone photos of receipts to expense reports. Take a snapshot of a document, then drag and drop familiar “Sign Here” tabs on it for electronic signature.

Evernote - Ever have those ideas while you are out and about and before you can get a chance to write it down, you have forgotten it?  In comes Evernote!  This app will allow you to type or record a voice note.  If you use a smartphone with a camera, you can also create notes from photos.  Again, this app syncs your notes online so they are accessible everywhere (phone, computer, iPad).

Realtor.com - Find more homes for sale on your iPad with REALTOR.com® – the #1 real estate site. REALTOR.com® has more listings and updates them more often (every 15 minutes) than any other site. Features include: map search, saved searches and listings synchronized with the website, private ratings and notes and the ability to share listings with your friends, agent and social network.

Zillow – The Zillow on iPad Real Estate App delivers a bold real estate browsing experience built specifically for the iPad’s interactive multi-touch device. View photo galleries of homes on iPad’s large, eye-popping touch screen where your fingertips tap, swipe, pinch, and drag to see Zestimate® home values, Rent Zestimates, homes for sale, homes for rent, and much more!

Trulia - Designed specifically for the iPad, Trulia HD is the helpful house hunting app that makes finding your next home easy and fun. Search homes for sale and for rent with full-screen interactive maps, neighborhood-specific details, high-resolution photos, and more.

LoopNet - Looking for an investment property, lease space? Search the nation’s #1 marketplace with LoopNet’s Commercial Real Estate Search App – the first commercial real estate search application for your iPhone or iPad. Research millions of properties for owner, tenant, historical listings, mortgage info, etc.

For some additional helpful advice on going mobile in real estate, check out the following video by my friend Joel Burslem:

http://www.1000wattconsulting.com/presentations-and-publications/15-ways-to-make-your-marketing-mobile

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate broker providing Knowledgeable Empowerment and Relentless Representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain.com, EverydayCK,  HomesByHarbors, and Crabbing in the Hood, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Posted in Technology Tools for Business | No Comments »

Tags: apple ipad, ipad, mobile technologies, real estate business, social media, tech tools

People often ask me,

“What online tools do you find to be the most beneficial to your business?”

With so many great technology tools available these days, it’s hard to sort through them all. But one of my most obvious choices would be Jing.

Jing by TechSmith is a fast, easy, and fun way to capture images and create videos of what you see on your computer screen, allowing you to add visual elements to your online conversations.

Founded in 1987 by President William Hamilton, TechSmith provides seven products in more than 30 countries that do anything from take screen captures, to screen recording, and managing consumer content.

Since the advent of Web 2.0, a wealth of helpful tools have emerged to help make the sharing of information online more effective and efficient.

Jing enables you to easily capture, edit, save, and distribute specific portions of information displayed on your computer screen.

Jing makes it easy to insert arrows, add text boxes, or highlight or frame text….

Jing also allows you the ability to create a video of your screen capture and add an audio element as well (referred to as a ‘Screencast) with up to 5 minutes recording time maximum:

2011-02-16_1138

http://soundbiteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/2011-02-16_1138.swf

Your screen captures and video/audio captures (screencasts) can be easily distributed to several of the most popular social networking sites.

You can easily download the FREE version of Jing for both Windows and Mac by going to the Techsmith website:

http://www.techsmith.com/download/jing/

Once you’ve downloaded the program, the small yellow Jing orb will be superimposed at the top center of your screen, allowing for quick, easy access to the Jing tools.

For more information and helpful tips on how to best use Jing, follow their blog:

http://blog.jingproject.com/

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate broker providing Knowledgeable Empowerment and Relentless Representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain, Everyday CK, HomesByHarbors, and Crabbing in the Hood, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Posted in Technology Tools for Business | No Comments »

Tags: Jing, online sharing, screen capture software, social media, web 2.0

I’ve always been able to best express my thoughts through the written word, so it’s no surprise that I embraced blogging like a fish to water back in 2005.

It all started with a challenge from my managing broker at the time, Frank Wilson. He was always pushing the technology envelope when it came to the real estate business. He would explore and exploit every widget and gadget that came along, trying to find some meaningful application to increase sales or improve efficiency.

Frank pointed me towards blogger.com and gave me an encouraging shove. Like most people, I created a profile, and embarked upon a 3-month conversation with myself. Obviously, I must have contracted ‘comment leprosy’ during this time.

I have to confess that I also attempted to post for a while on MySpace, but I don’t think that platform really qualifies, does it?

Either way, I became rather disenchanted with the whole ‘blog’ craze thing, until I met up with Brian Brady, a mortgage broker down in San Diego CA, through a connection on MySpace. Brian invited me to check out a new social network created specifically for real estate professionals. It was a small start-up company out of Bellevue, Washington, called ‘ActiveRain.’

The real genius of ActiveRain was in offering a social network where members competed for points. The more you participated and engaged the community, the more points you earned. The more points you earned, the greater your exposure and prestige. ActiveRain provided it’s members with their own blog publisher, similar to blogger.com, but with the added benefits of networking freely with other industry professionals. People openly shared ideas and technology tips, thereby reducing the learning curve tremendously. It became the perfect online classroom for developing my blogging skills.

Shortly after joining ActiveRain, I realized that one of the top point scoring members in the State of Washington was right here in Silverdale WA. His name was Mark Flanders, a local mortgage lender and husband to one of the agents in my Windermere office.

Mark and I became quick friends and started meeting for coffee once a week to talk about blogging/social media. Over the course of several months, we both participated heavily on ActiveRain, swapping the lead back and forth for points in WA State. Eventually, we were both asked to serve as voluntary moderators for the network.

In January 2007, in what seemed to be a common evolution for many, we decided to embark upon our own joint WordPress blogging project and SoundBiteBlog was born. It was a true tag team effort. Mark exercised his blossoming code monkey skills and I contributed content.

The following year, I was afforded the opportunity of joining the ActiveRain staff as a Community Manager. It was a wonderful and enriching experience, allowing me to meet many social media heavy-weights, and speak at numerous national events, including BlogWorld.

During this time, I started two additional blogs:  CrabbingInTheHood.com (a ‘just-for-fun’ blog about my favorite pastime), and Everyday CK (a community blog for the local newspaper Kitsap Sun).

Returning to full-time real estate in the Spring of 2009, I have been focusing much of my time and energies on implementing other social media tools to grow and promote my business. However, Blogging still remains my primary passion. My most recent project, HomesByHarbors.com, though in its infancy stages, should prove to be a very effective lead/referral generation platform.

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate broker providing Knowledgeable Empowerment and Relentless Representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain, Everyday CK, HomesByHarbors, and Crabbing in the Hood, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment »

Tags: blogging, brad pitt, engaging readers, quality content, razor sharp content, seo, social media, talented writing

In recent years, real estate blogs have become an increasingly popular marketing tool used by real estate professionals to attract/engage potential clients and share helpful information/resources within their sphere. In many instances, well-constructed blogsites, in which good quality content is published consistently, can out rank/out perform more traditional ‘static’ websites, resulting in more traffic and more business.

However, blogging isn’t for everyone. Just like any other meaningful marketing method, it takes time, effort, and consistency to achieve results. There are no ‘easy’ buttons.

Perhaps one of the best ways to test the writing waters and get your blogging feet wet, is to join a social network like ActiveRain. Launched in 2006, ActiveRain has grown to nearly 200,000 members throughout the US and Canada. The basic free membership allows you to set-up your own blog publisher, post articles, read/comment other member blogs, etc.. For a monthly subscription fee, your blog content (articles) can be made accessible to the Search Engines, allowing your blog to be found by consumers.

Although there are other blogging platforms, like Blogger.com or WordPress.com, and niche microblogs like Tumblr and Posterous, you will find that some don’t get crawled and indexed by the search engines as well as others, and you end up feeling like you’re having a very long, frustrating one-sided conversation.

Ultimately, your blog should serve as the primary ‘Hub’ for all of your online marketing activities and social media involvements.

For those who discover the value of blogging and find it to be a good fit in their marketing plan, a natural evolution is to eventually migrate over to a WordPress.org or TypePad blog. The primary benefits are having a greater degree of control and ownership over your site and content.

The process for creating your own WP or TP blog is not as difficult as it appears. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a Techno Geek or a Code Monkey to successfully launch your own blogsite.

Here’s the basic steps in a nutshell:

1. Name and Claim Your Domain:

What are you going to call your blogsite/blog? Ideally, it’s best to use a name that describes your local real estate market or niche, like “HoodCanalWaterfront.com” or “HomesOnHoodCanal.com.” This will help improve the ‘findability’ factor of your blog.

There are a number of companies that offer domain registration, like GoDaddy or Direct NIC. Some Hosting Services also offer domain registration as part of their package.

2. Select Your Hosting Server

Once you’re chosen/registered your domain name, you’ll need to select a Hosting Service Provider, like BlueHost or GoDaddy. Personally, I prefer BlueHost because they make the overall set-up process fairly painless.

3. Upload Your Blog Software

WordPress.org is by far the most popular blogging platform currently available, and it’s FREE! You can go to their website and download a .zip file to your hard drive. Or, as is the case with BlueHost, they have a WP icon that allows you to quickly install the WordPress software onto your hosting space.

4. Select/Upload Your Blog Template/Theme

One of the great things about WordPress is the seemingly limitless array of themes (free or paid) that are available for use. For my most recent blog project, I simply did a Google search for ‘WordPress Themes’ and downloaded a free theme that fit with my intended marketing niche.

Again, the process may seem daunting at first, but it’s really not all that difficult. If someone like me can embrace technology and make it work, just about anyone can!

For my latest blog project – HomesByHarbors.com – it took all of about 15 minutes for me to register a domain, secure my hosting provider, and upload a theme. Now the fun/challenge will be to generate good, relevant content that potential clients will find helpful/valuable.

Happy Blogging!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing Relentless Representation and Knowledgeable Empowerment for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain, Everyday CK, HomeByHarbors and Crabbing in the Hood, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Posted in Blogging | 3 Comments »

Tags: blogging, internet marketing, social media