Accepting Credit Cards by Phone is the Smart way of doing business

If you’re in the home repair business, you know how many people compete for your customers. You need an edge. You need credibility. Your hard work gets the job done, but how can you show potential customers you are in business for the long haul?

Taking credit cards payments on the spot sends a message to clients. You know what you are doing. You have what it takes to do business in today’s competitive climate.

Perhaps you’ve waited to bite on credit card payments because you are handier with a hammer than a calculator.  The truth is that taking payments by credit card over your smart phone actually lessens the paper work you need to do and will give you back precious hours each month because your credit card processor keeps track of the payments your clients made.  That means you can  pick up your hammer and get back to the things you love to do best.

Many home repair businesses do not realize how simple and easy it is to accept credit cards. There are no up front fees, no minimums and even the credit card machine you will need is something you can pick out with your own budget in mind.  You can even add a small gadget to your cellphone that allows you to take plastic on the spot without a phone line.

So what are you waiting for?  There are customers out there who just want to know that you can get the job done and make their lives easier. One way to sell your business is to take credit cards on the spot.

And Google Does another Update.

First it was Panda, and now it’s Penguin… (Next it will be giraffe or some other zoo exhibit) but nevertheless about the name, Google is once again cracking down on those sites with spammy and worthless back links.

While most of us probably won’t have to worry too much, other may see a drop in your rankings and if so, you may need to do some quick maintenance and find out why. IF you have ever bought links or used a link farm that spreads your site to numerous other sites for instant back links, you may be in deep doo-doo here.

Google likes the natural back links; one from here, one from there, different anchor texts, tags, alt images, image links, comments, responses, shares and posts and while all this is natural, having 3,000 links all from one source or with the exact same anchor text may shoot up a red flag for Google proders.

While it’s good to have a variety of hyperlinked texts back to your website, it’s not so good to have them all the same. For instance, if you only blog on one platform and in your links blog roll you only have one link leading back to your website that says: “Olympia Real Estate” or whatever your main keyword or phrase is, and you never change it or it’s not in any of your posts, before you know it, you’ll have 500 back links from that IP address all with the exact same anchored link. Google may start to count this as fishy.

It’s OK to have your keyword in your main title, heading and content but linking back to the same page, over-optimizing and spamming the page with keywords is a no-no.

While one good quality back link is worth 100 or more poor back links, those menial back links can add up and having a variety of linked texts to go with them can make a difference. So while we all can’t obtain a back link from a .gov or .edu site, we can alter our back links with a variety of texts, phrases and keywords. Always be checking on your keywords too because what people search for changes each year.

It’s always good for a link overhaul every once in a while anyway!

Finding real estate in unlikely places

Alaska is a sea of uncharted territory, barren wasteland, and majestic natural beauty. While most of the state is uninhabited, those cities and towns that are emanate a deep desire for connection to nature and the environment. From sweeping snowcapped mountains to trickling creeks in valleys below, the landscape of Alaska is something unmatched in just about every other state in the US. This final frontier; this frigid and barren treasure-land combines a beauty and expansive territory as you travel from one city to the other. There are those cities that can only be reached by airplane or boat such as Ketchikan. Majestic and exquisite cruise liners traverse the icy waters of the inside passage up to Skagway Alaska. Whether it’s a chartered fishing trip in uncharted waters, adventurous camping trips up in the awesome mountains or to simply stop and watch the bald eagles soaring along the seaside, Alaska is an untapped resource of creative explorations and unparalleled beauty.

If you are relocating to Alaska, finding the right home, condo, or property to build upon takes the knowledge and experience of a seasoned and skilled agent. If you are relocating to Anchorage Alaska the Reed Moore Group offers exceptional customer service with a fully staffed team ready to handle any real estate transaction in the Anchorage area. From Peters Creek to Chugiak, finding a home in Anchorage is what keeps the Reed Moore Group at their top-notch best. They know not only the Anchorage real estate market but all the surrounding areas and boroughs. You’re welcome to tour their website for all available listings from Willow and Wasilla to Sunrise and Hope, the Reed Moore Group is an excellent choice if you’re moving to Anchorage Alaska.

Farther north, the Wes Madden team is an excellent choice for those relocating or moving within North Pole or Fairbanks Alaska. Literally known as the final frontier, North Pole Alaska sits between the Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright. This is a great location if you’re looking for homes near Alaska’s Air Force Bases or military bases. The Wes Madden group employs dozens of skilled agents and brokers to assist in any property transaction in the area. From Ester to Fox, Moose Creek and North Pole, the Wes Madden group is ready to assist in your next real estate transaction around the Fairbanks area.

Alaska truly is a one-of-a-kind state with a variety of landscape and typography. If you’re not buying at this time, Alaska is a wonderful place to visit because we know you’ll be back. Contact these two real estate agents in Alaska today.

SEO companies and individuals alike are starting too… no, DO HAVE, the reputation of blood-sucking lawyers. And why shouldn’t they? It seems everywhere you look there’s someone that has gotten scammed, ripped-off or suckered into spending thousands of dollars on something they either didn’t need or didn’t get.

Finding a reputable SEO company is literally like a needle in a haystack. Just like used car salesmen, mechanics and lawyers, finding one that won’t rip you off or treat you like an idiot is becoming a lost art form.

Of course I didn’t realize this when I got into this business. I just thought this is a great way to help people with the knowledge I know; the information I have gained and studied and maybe we can actually make enough to pay the cable bill.

Well that thought took off.  And now we have a booming “small” business that’s doing fairly well. (We’re able to pay a little more than the cable bill now) But we’re still doing it for the same reason. Individuals couldn’t afford the thousands it took to buy SEO or learn SEO and they were falling behind. We wanted to fill that gap for those that needed that individual touch in whatever SEO area they were lacking.

But unfortunately because so many have been burned in the past, we still feel the sting of that disdain and get the snub nose even if just online in comments and blogs. There are reputable SEO companies out there but I will admit, we have seen far too many that have ripped people off, cost way too much, performed black-hat techniques such as buying back links and eventually get the website banned. What’s worse, is they are extra gun-shy when talking with us. OR, they just talk about us behind our backs. “There’s no way they know anything relevant about SEO” – “They’re no SEO expert” And while I don’t say that about their business, somehow they feel it necessary to clump all us SEO people into the same bad hat.

I will admit that there are those that do nothing but collect a check for PPC advertising that anyone could do. And there are those that say they will do things and never complete them. The closer a website gets to the top, the most other SEO companies will pull out all the stops and send spammy emails saying they don’t rank for such and such or this or that key phrase. People believe it and wonder why they don’t. Research tells them that that’s a dumb key phrase that no one is going for so it doesn’t make any sense to rank for it. They only want to jump in on a well-ranking site and ride the coat-tails to the top taking all the credit after they rope some unbeknown client into their expensive plan.

So are we guilty by association? Unfortunately yes. What do we do about it? Pull up our britches and take it like a man (err woman) and say, to heck with them. We can’t win them all. We know how we operate and we provide results and customer service to those that give us a chance. Those referrals are all we need to continue to perpetuate the business.

And that’s just fine with me.

If you’re new, you are probably writing for the reader. As we go along and learn more about the SEO side we may tend to shift our thinking and write more for search engines. But just like that old adage that innocence is best, how you started out writing may be the way you should return if you have lost some of that drive that first sent you into the blogging world.

Remember that your readers are human.

If you wouldn’t want to read something, why should anyone else? It’s easy to get caught up quickly with the idea of keyword manipulation, title strategy and tagging but you also have to remember that you want human readers to see your content and engage with you as well. Naturally adding keywords into your content may seem like a stretch but write first, optimize second. Have your set of keywords on a separate paper and add them in where you think they would naturally flow after the blog is written. You don’t need 10 keywords per blog either. Sometimes just one or two is all you really need. You don’t need to keyword stuff or bold every other word for your blog to carry some weight.

Proof it….. then proof it again.

I have read too many blogs, and probably been guilty of it myself, where the wording and grammar doesn’t even make sense. I get stuck on a sentence because I literally have no idea what the writer is trying to convey. Read it out loud (if you can and your neighbor on the computer next to you won’t think you’re crazy). Hearing your words aloud will allow you know how the reader is hearing it. Is the punctuation in the right place to relay the message correctly? I am not just talking about spell checking… but Wordo checking.

Be conscious of the layout

ActiveRain, just like any blog, typically gives you the ability to shrink the width of your blog down to manageable size. When your blog stretches the width of your screen it’s hard to focus and our eyes tend to wander. You may eventually lose your reader altogether regardless of what you had to say. Use the customization tool and confine your blog to a more manageable size. Pick a background color and it will shrink the size of the blog. Break up your paragraphs and ideas. Use <h1> and <h2> tags at the beginning and tag with ( / ) at the end of a phrase or word you want emphasized. This is a heading tag and will stand out to your reader and to search engines.

Give your readers something to do

If you simply throw out a blog with information, as great as it may be, and never come back to interact with your readers, others will notice and may not continue to interact. I’m sure you have visited a blog before and perhaps not left a comment because you scroll though dozens of comments and never see a response from the writer. They may be reading your comment, but if you never know how they respond, you are less likely to continue to comment. This is the whole purpose of a blog; to comment, interact, learn and grow.

Write about something someone want to know about

This is probably the hardest concept to adopt. We can write for search engines and while we may be at the top of the list, no one cares what we have to say. You can’t just write about the same thing over and over and hope to stay at the top. You won’t gain readers, subscribers or clients if you are a one-trick pony. Branch out. Be personal, specific, intentional and purpose driven. Have a goal with each blog and keep that in mind throughout the writing process. “What do I want my readers to do after reading this blog?” If you can’t determine that, neither will they.

Here are some great examples of websites that offer excellent articles:

Real Estate in Klickitat County

Ranches in Montana

Bozeman homes for sale
http://actvra.in/nTX – Post original

Tips to Market Yourself and Your Business on Pinterest

Pinterest is a highly addictive and fast growing social media platform. If you don’t know yet, well, as Geico says, “what? do ya live under a rock?” Pinterest is a wildly popular virtual cork board to pin up everything and anything you may find online. From recipes and home decor ideas, to fashion statements, personal photos and… wait for it… real estate listings.

There are even web and seo ideas and of course business people to follow. It all depends on what you want to check out and who you want to follow. You can follow a particular board or someone’s whole profile if you want. For example, I am NOT into shoes and while I like this one follower I didn’t care about shoes so I unfollowed the shoe board, same with someone that only pinned baby things.

You can follow particular boards if you just want to know about those subjects or an entire profile of the person. YOu start to figure out what someone posts by the frequency of particular posts and then decide whether you want to keep them or not.

So how do you market yourself or your business on Pinterest?

Set up an account first. Done that? Great. Now set up boards. Not sure what to name them? Start looking around at things that interest you and repin a few things, you will quickly find that certain things fit into certain boards more than others. You can name the board after you repin (or while you are repinning) which helps figure out the genre better.

Once you have a few boards make sure they are into categories. If you are really new, you may not have any followers and the quickest way to do this is to make sure all your boards are in a category. You simply click on your name in the top right and click boards. From here you can click on a board and at the top of the screen it will ask you to place it in a category. By doing this your pin can now be seen by everyone that goes to that category, not just floating around in your own little world.

From this page you can also rearrange your boards. Once you get a good amount of pins up, arrange your boards with the most popular or more important boards first to last. This allows Google to crawl through the site knowing what you’re about more. This also helps those interested in following you a better idea of what you pin the most of.

Once you have repinned a few things you can venture out to pin original links. This is where it really gets good! From the home page you want to click the Add+ button at the top. From here you can upload a pin from your computer such as a real estate listing photo OR you can add a link from anywhere on the web.

Once you add the link (say from your website showcasing your new listing) make sure you put it into a board with a category and add text talking about the listing. In the text section you have 500 words but of course you don’t want to bog someone down with marketing blah blah blah.. so make it interesting. “Beautiful Ruidoso Home and Estate – FOR SALE” You may want to add your email or phone number or a simple web address. If you post the same on every pin people may start to unfollow you, so keep it interesting. I pin a lot of beautiful pictures of places that link back to the real estate site. Many times people repin because its somewhere they want to visit.. who knows, if they find you at every turn, they automatically think of you when the time comes to move there.

If you want to promote a listing or product with a price you simply add the price in the comment and it will splash it up across the product.  It will then be listed in the “gift” section as well.

Once you get going you can create more of a name for yourself by commenting on other people’s pins, requesting to be a contributor on other people’s boards and encouraging others to contribute to yours such as agents in your office to your real estate board.

Utilize the Pin buttons. Under the about section you can choose several ways to add a pin-it button to your website or create a favorite button on your browser tool bar so where ever you are online, you click the pin-it button and it automatically pins whatever you want, wherever you want. (LOVE IT)

Find out who has repinned you and comment on the post, not pushy but in agreement or an answer to the way they may have repinned it.

Pin videos or virtual tours of your homes and again, make sure your comments are inviting and catchy.

Pinterest is a wealth of information and great marketing tool. Don’t be spammy but have fun and get your stuff out there!

Here are some great titles of boards for real estate professionals: (Use Your Own Area or Niche)

Things to Do in Ruidoso

Birmingham Events

Why I love Tacoma Washington

Post originated here: http://actvra.in/tr9

What is Organic SEO? It’s your site naturally rising to the top of the search engines without paying for that coveted sponsored spot at the very top or side bar on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Those spots are considered Pay Per Clickmeaning you pay every time someone clicks on your link found at the top. Some of those spots for certain keywords and phrases can literally cost hundreds per click, and some are only a few cents per click.

So how does that stop someone from clicking numerous times on your link? It doesn’t but most of the time businesses have a cap on how much they will spend and when that cap is reached, the next PPC sponsor is shoved into that space. Does it work? Yes, but not nearly as good as Organic SEO.

Why is this? Well, 75% of Americans use search engines on a regular basis. That’s a huge chunk of targeted traffic that should never be ignored. The general public is getting smarter on who pays for what and that the search engines are really trying to get them the best choice for their search. Very few are actually clicking on those PPC sponsors anymore.

We have never done PPC but do refer those out that want to give it a try. We don’t manage it and haven’t since we started this business. It was a lot better and of course, a faster way to go to begin with but now, those with real content and relevant information are shooting to the top just as quickly if optimized correctly. How do you increase your Organic SEO?

Your page, blog, website or article must have an title that people are searching for. You can’t just title your blog ” Golf Properties” because it’s way to broad and there are about 10 million other bloggers that are using it as well. Getting more specific such as “Golf Properties in Wenatchee” is starting to narrow the field down but to really get your target audience to see your blog, a better title would be “Search Golf Properties in Wenatchee Washington” – the search narrows it down to those actually looking for properties. Another title may be “Homes for sale on a golf course in Alamogordo“. You can pretty much bet that searcher is really looking for that content specifically.

Once you have the reader clicking on your blog, make sure you lead them to other blogs or pages you have written. Maybe they get there and realize, well, maybe I want a home near a school instead? So on the menu, or in the signature you have titled “Search Sedona homes by School District”  and this leads them from there to another post or page on your site.

Remove any broken links on your website or blog. There are dozens of broken link checkers out therehttp://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/ may be a good place to start unless you have a plug in on your WordPress site that does this automatically. Remove them or correct them so your site remains clear and clean of any mistakes.

Capitalize on your existing rankings: take a look at the top 100 keywords sending traffic to your blog for the search engines, look for the new long tail keywords sending traffic to your blog, check your rankings for those keywords and try to get ranked #1 for keywords you are not ranking for already. This tactic is way too simple, very effective, but so underused. - Source  Blogging Tips (because they said it better than I could)

Know where your links are going and coming from. In the URL address bar type “site:yourwebsite.com keyword” and replace “yourwebsite.com” with your website URL, and “keyword” with the keyword you want any of your articles to rank for. This will return a list of articles that you can easily update with internal links back to the new page you just wrote for instant Google juice!

Use these simple tips to get organically to the top of most search engines. With a little tweaking here and there you can create a well optimized site, organically.

Original was posted here: http://actvra.in/sHJ

This month Google released a new algorithm (the way they measure and track websites) that will actually penalize you for over optimizing your website. Google is always looking for the newest and best way to determine accurate search results for it’s readers and those that simply optimize without actually providing relevant and fresh content may find themselves scrambling back to the top.

What they are trying to achieve is a level playing ground for those that optimize and those that just put out great content. Matt Cutts says,  ”“And the idea is basically to try and level the playing ground a little bit, so all those people who have sort of been doing, for lack of a better word, ‘over-optimization or overly doing their SEO, compared to the people who are just making great content and trying to make a fantastic site, we want to sort of make that playing field a little more level.”

So does this mean that all the work you have done or paid for is going to harm your site?

That all depends on what you did and how far you went. This really is to elevate those with high-quality, relevant pages from pages that were just a collection of words about a subject. While many people really try and put out relevant content, some, and some SEO companies have just optimized the heck out of sites to where their hits are high but bounce rate is also extremely high, when you want it low (the amount of time spent on a website).

Google is constantly trying to find the freshest information that fits the searchers criteria best. Does this mean that those keywords and links you added to pages will harm your site? Probably not unless you jammed 30 keywords in a 200 word document and linked to and from it 50 times.

This penalization is for sites that do just that; over-optimize with no real meat to the site. So how do you make sure your site is not targeted in this over-optimization penalization? Here are some things to consider:

1. Make sure your site’s name and domain are specific. Don’t use generic terms too much such as www.housesforsale.com. Make your domain (if you can) specific to your area and your niche. Example: Rather than being “homes for sale.com” use your brokerage such as Hallmark Realty.com or the area you service like Kirklandrealestate.com

2. Keeping the “home” page just that, not a specific keyword. Google doesn’t need to see your keyword everywhere to rank you for that keyword anymore. (can I just say that I’m guilty as charged?) Example: Use home page as the page title rather than something like San Angelo Home.

3. Using your main keyword over and over and linking it back to the home page numerous times in one page. While once is good, 5 times is bad. Directing people back to the main page is not a bad idea and using your keyword keeps the bot focused on your topic, doing it too much will start to raise red flags. Example: It’s ok to link to your home page in the footer or as a reference somewhere on the page but linking numerous times using a broad keyword such as Homes will get you no where.

4. Linking a page to itself. This is technically old SEO tactics but Google will really start cracking down on it. Don’t bother linking a page to itself using its keyword in the content. This is redundant and Google may start to rank this page lower because of it. Example: If you’re on the page talking about Flagstaff golf homes, don’t like that keyword to the page you’re already on.

Should you be worried? Probably not, especially if you try and offer relevant content on a fresh and new basis for your clients. Over-doing it for the sake of SEO will start to look suspicious. Stay on top of the search results by know your competition and how you’re ranked and you should do fine. Although we may be seeing a lot of new sites pop up because of this.

Originally posted here: http://actvra.in/y8q

SEO is simply optimizing your blog or article for search engines to easily find it and index it. If you write something, no matter how good it is, if no one finds it, sees it or reads it, it does you no good, other than you may have had a chance to brush up on your typing skills. You must write for your target audience and write something that people can find and get to. If you write something really good, you will want to promote it and others will want to share it.

So how do you SEO your Blog posts?

First start by writing whatever you want to write about. Just write about it and optimize it later. Get all your thoughts, ideas and tips out there first. Once you have the post down, now it’s time to go back and optimize the post.

If you wrote about finding a home in Northern Alabama and you have discussed some of the areas, the listings or the environment, now you need to title it appropriately. Do a search for “homes in Northern Alabama”. If there is less than 500,000 results with that, you’re good. If there is more, you may want to narrow it down a bit. “homes and real estate in Northern Alabama” and so forth. Then check out the Google Keywood Tool to see if anyone is actually searching for that. These are the two keys to finding the right lead and reader. If no one searches for it, don’t bother.

Once you have the title down, make sure you have used that title and keyword or phrase a couple times throughout the content and bold those phrases so they stand out not only to readers but to search engines.

Then you want to get the post out into the world. Take the extra step to promote it on social media. Make sure you have tweeted the link, posted it on your facebook page, posted in linkedin, on Google+ and others. There are hundreds of sites you could use but these are the top ones. If you have beautiful pictures you will want to post that as well on photo sites like Flickr and Pinterest.

Change up the posts

If you are writing about where to live on Whidbey Island in Washington state you may want to cover various places when tweeting or posting. You don’t have to post the same thing everywhere. Get creative and yes, this is going to take extra time. But it’s well worth it. An example would be: “Fishing, clam digging and oyster shucking all on the same beach? Check out ….. on Whidbey Island” and make sure you post the link to the article.

If you don’t get any hits, check back and repost in a couple weeks. You may have better luck posting at different times or the day or different days.

Use your imagination, get creative and take the extra time to write well and post proficiently. It’s the best way to SEO your blog posts.

First impressions can make or break the real estate deal. Knowing how to showcase your landscape can make all the difference in the world on whether or not buyers take that extra step inside the home.

John Pinto Landscaping has been helping folks in the Main Line of Pennsylvania, Wayne, Bryn Mawr, Gladwyne, Narberth, Villanova, Haverford, and Ardmore areas for years. He has helped hundreds of homeowners set up their landscaping for selling or redesign a new layout. Knowing what colors to use, the space to give for established growth and contrasting tips is what makes John’s business flourish. He knows the Pennsylvania area well but what about places that are not so lush and green?

Bill Wasowicz of Maricopa Arizona knows the challenges homeowners face when landscaping their home. He specializes in Maricopa short sales so he has seen the gamut of poor design, shotty workmanship and plain old lack of care. He must make at least the outside look presentable so that buyers will want to step foot inside. How do you do this without spending a forture and without the luxury of greenery?

Rocks – lots of rocks. Rocks can speak to the viewer by offering a variety of color, shape and texture. Setting stones along a path or interspersing cactus and native plants can add to the charm and desert style of the Arizona area. Take a look at some photos of Arizona homes and see how the outdoor staging affects the way your eye travels up to the front door. Getting buyers in the front door may be half the battle right there.

Other areas of the country that can benefit from rock gardens in a whole new light are Alaska homes. Although the feel is much different from Arizona, the styling can remains the same with the native landscape and local provisions. Large round boulders and massive logs give the Alaska Tundra feel paired with vivid green grass perfectly maintained and trimmed along walk ways. Many Anchorage homes and Fairbanks real estate feature forest backdrops and mountain canvasses. These are great medians to work with while setting up the front view of the home for MLS photos.

Your Landscape can make or break that first impression. Don’t let this great marketing opportunity pass you by. Make sure your landscape invites buyers in to see more. Once their in, you can focus on the interior staging.