Beyond Dot Com: 26 Alternative Website Domain Extensions to Try
Looking for an easy way to jazz up your real estate website? Consider trading in your .com website domain for a real estate-focused domain extension, like .realestate or .homes. This little tweak can make it easier for consumers to remember your website — and it looks pretty snazzy on marketing materials, too. The .com domain extension turns 38 years old in 2023. That's a lot of decades of .com website names being snatched up — and a lot fewer short, memorable website domain names to choose from. That's why we want to direct your attention to these 26 domain name alternatives. Here's a list of real estate related domain extensions that you may want to use to upgrade your website domain name: .apartments .broker .buy .condos .commercial .community .estate .farm .forsale .frontdoor .homes .homesense .house .land .living .luxury .properties .property .realestate .realtor .realty .rent .rentals .sale .town .townhomes Neat, right? But what happens if you already have an existing website domain? Here's our advice… What Happens If I Already Have an Existing Website Domain? If your current site has been around a while and is consistently updated, it probably has decent SEO. Since switching to a new website name would essentially erase all your search engine goodwill, it's worth keeping your established name. Instead, consider redirecting your new domain extension to your existing site (your website host or domain registrar can help you with this). That way, you can use your snappy new domain name on promotional materials — and when people type in that new address, it will automatically forward them to your original, existing site. However, if you're sold on permanently moving your site to a new domain name, you can direct your original site to the new. In technical terms, this is called a 301 redirect — and if you ask your website host to set this up for you, it should be simple for them to do. Alternatively, you can also create an entirely different site on one of the domain extensions above. For example, a neighborhood-focused site or a .condo website focused solely on that niche. The sky's the limit! Changing Names In the end, it's worth noting that while these domain extensions can help your website stand out, they do not guarantee that your website will rank higher in search engine results. Your website's content and SEO strategy are more important factors in determining search engine rankings. To check if a website domain name is available, visit lookup.icann.org. You can purchase domain names from multiple sources, including GoDaddy, Namecheap, Network Solutions, and more. If you're specifically looking for a .realtor or .realestate domain, check out NAR's info page here. Happy naming!

Slow Searches? 4 Simple Steps to Optimize Your Web Browser
Is your internet experience slow, yet you have a speedy connection? A sluggish web browser may be causing you problems. Browsers are so ubiquitous we take them for granted. Until we can't because we discover they are slowing us down. Nowadays, websites contain more complex content than ever: images, video, audio, and other elements that can decrease your browser's speed over time. Unfortunately, you may not realize it until you find your browser stops working correctly. But some methods can improve browser speed and keep it that way. Today, two browsers have more than 1 billion users: Apple Safari and Google Chrome. These web browsers are likely an indispensable part of your operating system. Browsers allow you to manage your email, post on social media, and even write, edit, and store your work documents. Here are four things brokers and their agents can do to optimize their web browsers and improve their online productivity: Delete Cache The more you surf the web, the more web pages that your browser will cache – or store locally – to accelerate your internet experience. Your cache builds up when you visit new websites. Eventually, an overload of web data can noticeably slow your web browsing experience to a crawl. A simple fix is to click on your browser's settings and find the "Clear browsing data" option, which will allow you to select and delete data that may be clogging up your browser. Right afterwards, you may see your internet speed drop a bit, but will soon be back to normal. It would help if you also made it a habit to clean your cache every few months to maintain your browser's optimal speed. A hidden benefit of clearing your cache: Certain webpages may also contain hidden malware that could wreck your computer. Deleting your cache helps you remove potentially harmful files from your system. Update Your Browser Usually, your web browser will automatically update itself to the latest version. But there are times when technical issues prevent that from happening, forcing you to update it yourself manually. A best practice with web browsers is to confirm automatic updates whenever prompted. New updates often fix recently detected security issues, offer new features, or improve browser performance. It's also good to double-check that your automatic updates are on for your browser. The process is different for each browser and type of computer operating system (Mac or PC) you are using. If you need assistance, contact Tech Helpline, and an analyst will walk you through the steps. If you have not regularly updated your browser, you may have to install a brand-new version from scratch instead of updating it. You'll know you have an old browser when websites don't display everything on your older browser. Perhaps the most significant incentive to keep your browser current is the older your browser, the more vulnerable it becomes to security issues. Viruses and malware can slip by. So keep your browser current to ensure hackers won't steal your info, wreak havoc on your email or social media, or worse, take control of your computer. That's why it is always better to update now than update later. Less Tabs = More Speed Learning to manage the number of tabs you have open is vital in making sure you have an optimal browsing experience. The more tabs you use in your browser, the slower the speed will likely be. While your web pages may load swiftly with a single tab open, they can start to slow down when you have an increasing number of tabs. Plus, the most popular browsers purposefully slow down tabs that are not in the foreground and can load up to 20 times slower than the tab you are currently using. A rule of thumb is only to have a few tabs open to improve your browser performance. If you need to access more websites quickly, it is better to bookmark the links you need. Remove Unneeded Browser Extensions If you have cleared your cache, are using the most recent version of your favorite web browser, don't have any extra tabs open, have a speedy internet connection, and you still have a poor browsing experience, the source of your problem might be a browser extension. A browser extension is a small piece of software that adds a specific function or capability to your web browser. Also called a plug-in, extensions can improve your web experience. AdBlock is an extension that helps you filter out unwanted content. Online shopping browser extensions such as Honey, Capital One Shopping, or American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping are designed to save you money or earn you miles. But sometimes, these extensions can cause a conflict. The easiest way to see if extensions may cause a web glitch is to delete them one at a time and restart your browser. Again, feel free to contact Tech Helpline if you need assistance. As a benefit to 725,000 Realtors, odds are Tech Helpline is your member benefit at no additional cost. As a reminder, Tech Helpline is just a click, call, or text away. On the go? Take us with you! Download the Tech Helpline mobile app available on Google Play and the App Store. Search "Tech Helpline." Other related topics of interest: Smartphone Running Slower? Here Are 4 Helpful Tips Top Tech Issues Every Real Estate Pro Faces Tech Helpline Tips: Is It Time to Update or Replace Your Computer? Tricia Stamper is Director of Technology at Florida Realtors®, which owns and operates Tech Helpline and Form Simplicity.

How to Choose the Right Domain Name For Your Real Estate Business
The domain name you choose for your real estate business's website is a crucial yet challenging decision for any agent to make. Your domain name goes on all of your marketing materials, business cards, email signatures, and more. The name you choose will give an impression of your brand's professionalism and personality, so it is crucial to get it right. However, beyond how it looks and sounds, the real challenge can come from choosing between domains that aren't in use. With thousands of single-agent and brokerage websites out there, it can be discouraging to stand out and settle on a name that feels just right. Before rushing into a decision that will heavily affect your real estate business, consider the following best practices when it comes to choosing your domain name: Keep It Short A short URL will always perform better for your real estate brand than a longer one. For starters, short URLs are easy to remember, meaning that even when not physically written out, your customers will be able to recall them. Having a domain that is easy to repeat in conversation can be especially useful when giving information over the phone or in person. Real estate is the business of relationships, after all! Second, a short URL will always look better on your real estate brand's marketing. Long URLs can hamper design elements on business cards, email signatures, social media, and more. Additionally, having a long URL can put you in the unfortunate position of leaving off important information due to character limits on these mediums. Consider that you may also be hosting your email address under this domain name, meaning your email address will get longer and more challenging to remember as well. To get a shorter URL that is still descriptive, try using abbreviations or acronyms that people searching for your business may use. For example, instead of www.SouthCaliforniaHomes.com you can try www.SoCalHomes.com. Go for Clarity While it's best to keep your domain name short, it's also important not to shorten it to the point where it doesn't make sense. For example, swapping out a number for a word like SoCalHomes4sale.com may be more confusing to clients trying to type in your URL, and they may end up on a competitor's website or at a 404 error page, which can be a detriment to their experience and ultimately result in a lack of trust. The same can happen if you choose a domain name with words that have common misspellings or include many hyphens between words. It's best to keep your domain name as simple, short, and straightforward as possible. An easy way to keep your real estate domain name simple and memorable is to opt for a .com extension rather than a .net or .realestate. People tend to remember .com much more than the other extensions and will try that first when remembering your URL, so don't work against them. Another element to consider is how descriptive your domain name is to those looking for your real estate service. By choosing your first and last name as your real estate domain name, you're not making it clear what services you offer. However, by choosing a more descriptive name, you can be more precise on your brand's objective and capture the market on a specific audience you cater to. Including these descriptive keywords will help with clarity and your website's SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Think about it; people don't search for specific Realtor names when starting their home search. Instead, they search keywords like "homes for sale in (city name)" or "best realtor in (city name)." The domain name you choose can help you rank for these common searches to get the most traffic. Think of the Long Term Thinking ahead to the future of your business and your brand can save you hassle and time later down the road and inform your decision today. Since your domain name is a part of your brand identity and online identity, it is crucial to pick a name that can age with your brand. For example, you may not always stay with the same brokerage or even take on a partner or expand your business. It's essential to ensure that the domain name will withstand the test of time and changes that will inevitably come. Plus, if you decide to pass your business along to another person, this will be difficult if your name ties into every aspect. Do Your Research Similar to how you may warn your clients not to fall in love with a property before inspection, don't fall in love with a domain name before you've gone through your assessment. One important thing to look out for is a domain name that has had previous use by someone before you. If the domain previously hosted spammy content or something completely unrelated to your business, it could negatively affect your SEO. Another thing to look out for is the use of trademarks in your domain. The most famous example is the use of the word "realtor." "Realtor" is a registered trademark of the National Association of Realtors. There are rules for how real estate professionals can use it in a domain name, and when not followed, it could result in legal action against you. Make sure that you aren't using any possible trademarks in your domain before committing to it. The last factor to look into that may sway your real estate domain name decision is social media. If the social media handles for one domain are not available, it may be easier to consider others for the sake of consistency in your brand. Social media handles may not be much of a factor to some, but still worth looking into in today's dominant social media age. To view the original article, visit the Wise Agent blog.

Take Control: 3 Tips to Master Your Gmail Inbox
Have you ever wondered how assistants can get so much done? Wonder no more! These three tips will increase your productivity by controlling your Gmail inbox. You will learn how to send, archive, and delete emails without taking your fingers off the keyboard. Also, keep your eyes out for the bonus tip! Tip #1: How to quickly send emails The most impactful keyboard shortcut to save time in your inbox is how to send an email without moving your hands away from the keyboard. By simply typing CMD + Enter (Windows: Ctrl + Enter), your email will magically send. No more having to grab your mouse and search for your cursor and then find the Send button. You will be amazed by how much time is saved by using this shortcut. If you are like me and send hundreds of emails a day, you will use this tip more often than not. Don't forget, for any of these shortcuts to work you must turn on keyboard shortcuts in your Gmail account. For instructions on how to turn on the shortcuts, keep reading. Tip #2: Archiving your emails when you no longer need them Many people choose to delete their emails when they (think) are done with them. However, often a week or even a month later, you are looking for that email you deleted and you end up having to ask your client for that attachment or information again. This can be incredibly embarrassing and shows your lack of organization. The power of archiving your emails will come in handy with today's Bonus Tip. To archive an email, just select which you want to archive and hit the letter E. And it is gone! Tip #3: Deleting those emails you will NEVER need Calendar invites have a way of blowing up one's inbox to scary proportions. One meeting with a dozen people can make your unread email count jump up so fast that it can send you into a panic. No worries, select the emails that you want to delete and simply press # and they will be gone! Today's Bonus Tip: Finding emails Arguably the most powerful feature of using a Gmail inbox is the search functionality. Google made the super smart decision of adding a search bar into your inbox. Simply pressing / (forward slash) will give you the option to search for ANY email in your inbox (except spam). This is where the power of archiving your emails comes in very handy. Turn on Keyboard Shortcuts in Gmail To turn on keyboard shortcuts, select settings in the top right corner. Click See all settings. Scroll down until you see Keyboard shortcuts. Select Keyboard shortcuts on and then hit Save! You are now ready to master your Gmail inbox. Now it is your turn Now that you have learned three tips that the pros use to master their inbox, it is now time for you to practice. By purposely taking the next 15 minutes to enable keyboard shortcuts and practice each of these tips, you will truly understand the power of each one. Come back next week for tips on how to "Zoom like a pro." If you have any questions about these keyboard shortcuts or would like to see more, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] or on LinkedIn.

9 Reasons Why It's So Important to Have Your Own Domain
Not all websites are created equal. Just as no two real estate agents are the same, each agent's website highlights the differences between other agents vying for the marketplace. Though content is king, it's important to understand that even your website's domain name has a significant impact on your performance and perception. Here are nine benefits and advantages of having a custom domain name: 1. It's a No-Brainer Why should you have a custom domain name? Why not? It's simple, especially when you're trying to encourage clients to access it. Instead of asking clients to remember a confusing web address, simply adding a ".com" to your business name makes engagement effortless. It also makes it easier for clients to find you passively, for instance, when they search for you online. If they search "John Smith" and find "johnsmith.com," they'll know that they've found the correct address. 2. It Gives You a Leg-Up on the Competition Do you know how many of the other agents in your market have their own custom domain names? Chances are high there are many which simply use web addresses provided by a hosting site. By locking down your custom domain name, you have another leg-up on the competition by demonstrating your legitimacy. 3. It Demonstrates Legitimacy How does having a custom domain address demonstrate legitimacy? First, it shows that you're using the latest technologies. Though websites are nothing new, you'd be surprised how many agents still do not use custom domain names despite the relative ease of obtaining one. It also helps a user feel more comfortable following your link. "johnsmith.com" appears much more legitimate than "johnsmith.domainhosting.com." 4. It Increases Your SEO Ranking SEO. Three letters your small business needs to know regardless of which industry you serve. If you're online, Search Engine Optimization is essential to your success. With so many other agencies selling homes in your area, you need the best search ranking possible on Google. Having a custom domain is one way to increase your SEO ranking in the eyes of Google's algorithm. 5. It Enables Custom Email Addresses Similar to your web address itself, your email addresses are small yet important elements of how your business is perceived. Sure, an @gmail.com or @outlook.com address will work just the same, but having an @johnsmith.com address will once again enhance your legitimacy and reassure customers that you're the real deal. 6. It Elevates Your Brand The brand you've cultivated in the real world can be easily integrated into the digital world with a custom website address. It also helps your brand consistency to have a legitimate domain name that matches your other online profiles, like your social media accounts. 7. It Enhances Your Branding "Branding" is different from "brand." Your brand is the business; your branding is what your business does. For instance, you may be a luxury real estate agent, but the content you supply that highlights your listings is an act of branding. A custom domain name is an investment. When clients click that link, they're taken to your website to interact with you through your branding. If you're trying to wow your luxury home market, for example, your domain name is the doorway to these interactions. 8. It Opens Potential for New Leads You don't need an open house to generate new "walk-in" leads. As you strengthen your website's content with a custom domain, you increase the chances that new customers will organically visit your site when they find it through a search engine. With the right tools, you can convert these visits to potential leads by continuing to engage them after they've left your site. 9. It May Be the Future of Virtual Businesses Thousands of new websites are created each day, which means many domain names become unavailable every instant. It's clear that more and more agents are adopting custom domain names. Keep in mind other agents may also scoop up domain names that you're interested in. Delta Media Group's digital marketing platform will easily integrate your custom domain, ensuring you reap the maximum benefits from your online presence. If you lack a custom domain name, we encourage you to consider these advantages and discover how quickly a new website address can benefit your agency. RE Technology users can try DeltaNet 6 FREE for 30 days. To view the original article, visit the Delta Media Group blog.

How to Create a Custom Short URL for Your Real Estate Website and Brand
Some real estate companies use short URLs on Twitter and other social media. Have you noticed them? Realtor.com uses rltor.cm. Zillow uses zlw.re. Inman uses inmn.io. Short URLs can be a fun, creative way to further integrate your real estate brand into your content. And they are not that complicated to set up. In this article, we will show you how to create a custom short URL for your real estate website and brand.

Can You Recover an Old Gmail Account?
Since its initial introduction on April 1, 2004, Gmail has become the world's most popular email service with nearly a billion and a half registered users around the globe and a favorite among Realtors. But have you ever deleted your Gmail account only to regret doing it? Well, fear not, because there is a way to reverse the process as long as you act quickly. Here's a thorough guide to restoring your Gmail account.

4 Reasons You Need to Update Your Web Browser Today
How old is your browser? If you are using Firefox or Chrome on your desktop or laptop PC, are you sure you have the latest version? Tech Helpline found that one-in-three callers were using a version of Firefox that was at least seven years old! Why should you need to be concerned about searching the web using an outdated version of any of the popular browsers? Let's look at four reasons that should motivate you to make certain your web browser is updated today:

How to Grab Text from an Image Using Google Keep
As many of you have read, I prepared a one-hour webinar titled "Digital Note-Taking Tips and Techniques" for a national education company, and plan on sharing parts of the webinar. The great thing about building this presentation is that I am talking about FREE programs and apps. Too many times, an app or program gets you hooked with basic features and benefits, but then if you want the balance of the product, it costs you! Apple Notes and Google Keep are both free, plus Keep can be loaded on Apple devices. I think having both Notes and Keep available on all your Apple devices makes sense so you can use features you like from both. My first share is a feature I love on Google Keep: "Grab Image Text." Oh, the uses are endless on this one. For example, say you are attending an event and they are displaying a slide show—simply take a picture of the slide. Need info from a document? Take a picture. See a poster about an upcoming event? Take a picture. I'm sure you get the picture (sorry, I couldn't resist)! You can then use Google Keep to change the words on the image into text that you can use. Here is an example I did using my computer: As you can see, it also pulled info from my keyboard. Keep is available from the App Store and Google Play. I personally have Keep on all my Apple devices and use this feature and a few other features regularly (which I will be sharing). More tips are coming, and I will be loading them both as a JPEG and PDF on my Facebook page. Please feel free to share, and if somebody wants to use in a newsletter or other publication, let me know. I would be happy to work with you! Dick Betts is a national speaker, trainer and consultant. Learn more at www.DickBetts.com More article in this series Collaborating with Others Using Apple Notes and Google Keep How to Set a Location Reminder in Google Keep How to Overcome the Pain of Passwords Want to Use Mobile Scanner Software? Be Very Careful! Dictation, One of the Most Unused Feature in Notes and Keep! Apple Users: Let's Set Up Notes to the Max!

No Internet? Here's How to Set Up Your Own Hotspot
Real estate agents know better than most that sometimes it's just easier to accomplish specific tasks on your laptop than attempt to do the work on your phone. But sometimes those tasks require an internet connection. If you are always on the go, and you don't have a nearby Wi-Fi connection, how can you get instant internet service? Use your smartphone and create your own internet connection for your laptop. Here's how.

8 Great Gmail Tips and Tricks
Gmail by Google is the world's most popular email program: 1.4 billion users. It's robust, simple to set up, easy to use, wickedly fast to search, and for most people, free. No wonder it's wildly popular among real estate agents. Gmail has many unknown and little-used features that can be hugely helpful. But like the secret menu at the West Coast chain In-N-Out Burger, most people don't know what's available. Here's your guide to some great Gmail tips and tricks to help boost your business:

Google Flags Websites that Are Not HTTPS as Not Secure
It's for your clients. It's for your security. It's for Google. Our team heard "rumblings" as early as two years ago from Google strongly "advocating" website owners move to HTTPS encryption to make the Internet secure and protect the privacy of your users. If you have not yet acquired an SSL certificate, you may have already noticed Google has flagged your website as "Not Secure" in Chrome.

Why Your Internet Browser Choice Matters
The internet is a wonderful thing. It does a lot of good in our everyday lives: it helps us connect with friends, it helps us work, and it gives us all the information we could ever need, right at our fingertips. But it can also be a troublesome thing if it isn't handled with care.

How to Connect to a Computer Remotely
If you ever find yourself needing to access a computer remotely--either attempting to connect to a desktop computer at work or need to assist someone with their computer from afar--this primer is for you. Whether you have a Microsoft Windows PC or an Apple Mac, let's take a look at the basics you'll need to know.

Why Real Estate Agents Need to Think About Cyber Security
In a former life, Jason Frazier was an information security professional. Today, as the CIO of Mason McDuffie Mortgage and the @RealEstateCIO, he still takes it very seriously. He contributed this post after an exchange on a Facebook Group. I did a training class last year for Realtors on cyber cecurity. The subject was the wire fraud scam. This happens quite a bit in the mortgage industry, and it absolutely does not need to happen. I just read a post in another Facebook group where an agent's client lost $72k. In this scam, it is almost always the agent's email that is hacked or spoofed. Best Practices

How Worried Should You Be About Internet Cookies?
In this article, we review what cookies are in the computer realm, their purpose and how to manage them. What Is a Cookie? A cookie is what we call a small text file that a website stores on your computer’s hard drive or in your mobile devices. Origin / First-party cookies The original purpose of cookies was to provide you with a better browsing experience. Here is how it works: when you visit a website, its web server (the computer where the web content is stored) creates a small text file and transmits it to the web browser you are using (the software that retrieves and displays the web page). The web browser stores that small text file on your computer. The file contains your website preferences, such as language, layouts, configuration, or items in your shopping cart. It serves as memory, so that the next time you visit that website, the web browser ‘remembers’ what your preferences are by pulling the stored file from your computer and applying those settings to the website automatically. For example, if you went to a website and placed items in its shopping cart, but didn’t buy them right away, the cookie would save the items you placed in the shopping cart on a cookie in your computer and in your future visit to that website, the cookie would automatically bring them back up into your shopping cart– you wouldn’t have to go search for those items again.

Don't Get Caught by the Phishing Hook
It's spring home buying season, but that also means it's phishing season, and not the kind that puts fresh trout on the dinner table. "Phishing" is an attempt to try to trick you to give up financial or other confidential information, such as your user ID or password, by sending you a communication that looks as if it is from a legitimate organization. The communication typically is from scammer who is using the name and likeness of a financial institution or other trustworthy organization. It contains a call to action or link to a fake website that can look identical to the real one and usually features a web address that is nearly identical. As home sales activity heats up this spring, real estate agents and brokers also need to ramp up their alert levels and be increasingly aware of these scams. Scammers are increasing their focus on real estate because they know that there are millions of transactions totaling billions of dollars each year, and our industry relies heavily on email and texting to coordinate communications for these transactions. We all get busy, yet we need to be particularly cautious and keenly aware of any communications that ask for confidential information, no matter how trustworthy the source may appear. A good example occurred in Florida earlier this year. A fake organization calling itself the "Florida Board of Realtors" sent out invoices to real estate professionals throughout the state, sending them a "Final Notice" bill. The attached letter suggested that their real estate licenses were in jeopardy unless they paid the annual $225 fee. The invoice even cites a Florida Statute in an attempt to establish legitimacy. This highly sophisticated scam even included links to a very professional looking website. However, if you dug a little deeper, you would discover that most of the links on the website were broken – they did not work – and the blog content was very outdated. Fortunately, Florida Realtors were notified immediately by members and sent out a statewide alert to members. But how do you protect yourself from something like this, and other scams?

Amateur Move: Are You Making One of These 7 Password Mistakes?
Did you know that "password" was one of the top 10 most used, well, passwords in 2016? What a time to be alive! It's a time when developers have created better (and easier!) ways of staying secure online, but people still muck it up by making rookie password mistakes. Don't be a rookie. And don't make the amateur move of endangering your clients' sensitive personal information by using weak passwords that can easily be cracked. Not sure about the effectiveness of your password? Your password may be vulnerable if you're making one of these seven mistakes: 1. Your password is less than 12 characters long. In the early days of the web, passwords were typically eight characters long. Today, eight characters are fairly simple to crack, and security experts recommend that 12 should be now be the absolute minimum. While it may be harder to remember, longer passwords are also much harder to crack. 2. Your password has just one word. If you're looking to make your passwords longer and stronger, using a pass phrase rather than a single word is an easy way to do it. By using an entire phrase, your password is longer and more difficult to guess. Don't pick a well known quote or phrase—instead, use something obscure that has meaning to you. Add in random capitalization, characters, substitute a few letters for numbers and you're well on your way to a stronger password. 3. You use simple keyboard patterns. Long passwords made of out of simple keyboard patterns may seem like an easy path to security, but they're extremely common and therefore easy to guess. Sure, 1q2w3e4r5t6y looks like a difficult password, but upon closer examination, it's obvious that this password is just the first few numbers alternating with the first few letters on the keyboard. Stay away from this method to stay safe.

How The 'Internet of Things' Affects Real Estate
Growing interest in Wi-Fi connected gadgets inspired us to write this article about Internet of Things (IoT). So today we cover IoT: what it is, how it affects real estate, and what to look for in the future. What is the Internet of Things (IoT)? The English Oxford dictionary defines the Internet of Things (IoT) as "the interconnection via the Internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data." For example, lights that can connect to your smartphone via internet so that you can turn them on or off wherever you are, even if not at home, wearable devices to track your sleeping habits, or self-driving cars. These everyday objects with internet connectivity aim to provide convenience and efficiency to the user by sensing, tracking and transmitting data. And because the growth in the industry has made such devices very affordable, they are proliferating. All these devices, regardless of who makes them, are categorized into the IoT concept. How It Affects Real Estate IoT gadgets for the home lead to smart homes. Did you get a Wemo Switch this year as a holiday gift? Or perhaps an Alexa-controlled Echo speaker? If you did, you are probably on your way to transitioning your home to a smart home. Smart homes are homes "equipped with network-connected products." Perhaps you already started noticing clients who are more excited when they tour properties with "smart home technology." In these homes, devices communicate with each other – from the alarm clock to smart thermostats, fire alarms and security cameras. READ: Prep Agents with 6 Smart Home Facts

Tips for Taming Your Inbox: Setting Up Canned Responses
According to a survey by Adobe Systems Inc., U.S. workers spend 6.3 hours a day checking email. That's a significant portion of your workday! Much of that time is spent crafting the perfect response. However, often you're responding to similar requests from your clients and colleagues. Today, we'll help you create efficiency by using canned responses to set up email templates you can use over and over again. With these readily available templates you will save time (and avoid typos!) for email messages you frequently send. Follow the simple steps below. Setting up Canned Responses Many email services have options to create email templates, or canned responses, that can be saved and inserted into new emails. Below are step by step instructions to set this up for Gmail or Outlook. Gmail 1. Click the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of Gmail, then choose Settings. 2. Click the Labs tab, find Canned Responses, click the Enable radio button to enable Canned Responses, scroll down and click Save Changes.

Best of 2016: Why Agents Should Never Use Personal Email
Here it is—our top article of the year! This article was originally published back in February and is the most read article of 2016. See #2 here, or read the full list of our Top 10 articles from 2016 here. I saw a news article recently about why real estate agents should use their personal email addresses. The article talked about the 10,000 selfish reasons why it benefits the Realtor®. It was a grand display of the underbelly of self-centered real estate professionals. I am here to tell you that using a personal email for real estate business is STUPID and perhaps illegal. The communications between a real estate agent and a consumer are subject to the real estate laws in your state. They are communications that happen under the supervision of the agent’s real estate broker. They are covered by the insurances held by the real estate broker. They are subject to the Realtor Code of Ethics if you are a Realtor. Last year, there were multiple instances of emails getting hacked. In many cases, consumer information was compromised. In some cases, earnest money instructions were hijacked and in once case, $250,000 was stolen. Guess what? If you are a real estate agent who got hacked or had earnest money stolen, you are in deep ****. You probably violated the broker’s independent contractor policy that you signed. If you did, your broker does not need to help you. In fact, if your actions cause harm to the brokerage brand, and you could be liable for those damages.

Tips for Taming Your Inbox: Managing Your Notifications
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that the average office worker is interrupted or changes tasks, on average, every three minutes and five seconds. As a result of interruptions or multitasking, it can take 23 minutes and 15 seconds just to get back to where they left off. That adds up to a lot of wasted time in the day! Email can easily be one of those distractions if not properly managed. Over the next few months, we will share some useful tips to help you tame your inbox in order to be more productive and minimize distractions that take you away from the real business of real estate. Manage Notifications Today, we have all kinds of notifications interrupting us throughout the day – email, alerts, Facebook, chats, etc. One way to minimize email distractions is to eliminate email notifications. Not every email is important and requires an immediate response. For emails that are truly urgent or require immediate attention, you can enable selective notifications to be alerted when you receive emails from VIP senders. How to Set Up VIPs on Your iOS Device iPhone users using the native mail app can denote any email sender as a VIP. When you receive an email from a VIP, you will receive a pop up notification on your phone. Launch the Mail app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad. Tap Mailboxes in the upper left corner of your screen. Tap the VIP inbox directly underneath your regular inbox. Tap Add VIP. Tap on the name of the contact you'd like to add to VIP. If a contact is grayed out, it means you're missing their email address and can't add them until you enter it. After you tap on their name, they'll be automatically added to your VIP inbox.

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts Are the Key to Speed
Between open houses, following up with your client database and focusing on your marketing efforts (not to mention your personal life), it's no surprise that your time is stretched thin. To help you maximize your time, we're going to review some of the must-known keyboard shortcuts for Gmail. Many industry professionals rely daily on keyboard shortcuts to save time. A keyboard shortcut is a combination of keys that, when pressed simultaneously, perform some task that ordinarily requires a mouse or other input device. Many of you are probably familiar with the "Ctrl+S" to save a document. In his article, The 25 Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts That Save Me 60 Hours Per Year, Scott Tousley of Hubspot explains that he invested two minutes into learning Gmail shortcuts, and he suspects it has saved him about 60 hours in the past year. It's clear that utilizing Gmail keyboard shortcuts is a must for any time management ninja. Getting started To begin using Gmail shortcuts, you must first turn 'keyboard shortcuts' on in your Gmail settings, under the 'General' tab:

Should Agents Use Their Lead Routing Email Address in MLS?
Real estate agents have a crazy number of email addresses. They have their personal email address at aol.com, their vanity email at MyAgentWebsite.com, their corporate email address at MyBrokerEmail.com and, of course, that mysterious lead routing email address. Lead routing email addresses are pretty common in real estate. Perhaps the most common is the email address assigned to every agent member of the REALOGY franchise group. It reads something like 8789398976293578(at)leadrouter.com. The benefit of each agent's LeadRouter® email address is that it follows business rules and provides certain alerts. An example of business rules would be a use case whereby a team would all get the notification of the email. This is especially important in terms of response time. With LeadRouter, agents may receive a text message or other alert when an inquiry comes in. The is a particularly valuable alert in terms of managing responsiveness. Another key feature of using a lead routing email address is that inquiries are naturally added to an agent's CRM solution. From there, the agent can assign an appropriate response and track that response in either the lead routing system or assign tasks or drip campaigns, or whatever might be the right action. Surely, even inquiries from other agents or notifications from the MLS would be well served from an attention to rapid response or follow up plans.

How Agents Can Protect Themselves from Email Scams
Members of the San Francisco Association of REALTORS® (SFAR) were the targets of a phishing attack last week. Agents received an email that, at first glance, appeared to be from the association and prompted recipients to download a malicious file disguised as an invoice. The message was the latest in a string of phishing attempts aimed at real estate professionals. In fact, just last year, NAR issued a warning against an email scam that attempted to get buyers to wire money to a fraudulent bank account. The Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau have issued similar warnings recently, as well, and the message is clear: agents need to be alert and on guard. How to Spot a Fake Email Even if you're technologically savvy, that doesn't mean you're immune to falling for a phishing attack or email scam. The SFAR email, for example, was a convincing fake, going so far as to "spoof" or make the email appear like it came from the association's servers, thus making it more likely that trusting Realtors would download the malicious file. So if email scams today are growing increasingly sophisticated, how can agents discern which are real and which are fake? Well, while the SFAR email looked like a convincing fake, there were a couple of "tells" that gave the spammers away. Let's break down what the SFAR phishers did wrong so we can better learn how to spot fake messages in the future.

The Psychology of Using GIFs, Memes, and Emojis in Your Emails
If you've been anywhere near the Internet or used your mobile device recently, you've probably noticed a few trends in the form of emojis, memes, and gifs. As they multiply and proliferate across every screen, website, and even into your own correspondence, we're faced with the predicament of if and when to utilize them in business situations. Is there an appropriate way to implement a gif when you email your broker or a new client? How about emojis? It feels like you can't send or receive an text message these days without expressing your emotions with several emojis. First, if you're feeling completely lost, don't worry. We'll break down the differences of all the Internet trends for you. Then we'll prove that there's some psychology to it all, and why utilizing an emoji or meme may be a great choice for the next business email you send out. Get gif-ing... Before we start, we'll share our definitions and examples of our Internet trends and sensations so we're all on the same page, here. GIF stands for graphics interchange format, and it's generally a short video that's captured from a TV show, movie, or pop culture that repeats...endlessly. Generally, they're short clips and you may even see them utilized as an animation on a website that directs you how to do something.

Why You Need to Google Yourself
It's no secret: Long before new clients or referrals pick up the phone to call you, they research you online. They Google you, look at social media, read online reviews... But here's what you might not know: Today, 88% of people trust online reviews more than personal recommendations from friends, family, or colleagues. Not too long ago, the referral process was much different! You'd work with a customer, they'd be happy, they'd refer someone, and that person would call you. Now they Google you long before they contact you. They want to make sure that what their friend said about them is, in fact, true. Do you know what your online identity is and what it says about you? You have an online identity whether you've taken the time to create a purposeful one or not. To find out, Google yourself! What do the results say about you? Chances are, if you haven't taken the time to shape what comes up on Google, the results will misrepresent you in one or another. So what can you do about it?

New .Homes Website Domains Now Available to Real Estate Pros
Is the .com domain name you really want already taken? Never fear, there's a new domain extension in town, and it's full of SEO potential for real estate practitioners. The sunrise registration period opened just last Monday for the new .Homes top-level domain. "Sunrise" registration is a limited window of time that allows trademark holders to purchase .Homes domains that match their marks before registration is opened to the general public. That means if you've trademarked the name of your real estate team or practice--Central Coast Realty™, for example--you can now reserve CentralCoastRealty.Homes so that your company's name isn't taken by somebody else. The Sunrise period runs through May 6. You can learn more here. However, the domain names with the highest SEO potential are up for grabs on May 12, when open registration starts. Because registration will then no longer be restricted to trademark holders, agents and brokers can buy names that reflect their area, like Boston.Homes. The reason a domain like this has so much SEO potential is because it matches the phrases that consumers are likely to search for, e.g. Boston homes or Boston homes for sale. .Homes domain names are only available to professionals who serve the residential real estate industry. This includes agents, brokers, mortgage professionals, appraisers, property managers, builders, home insurers, MLSs, and associations. Dominion Enterprises, the operator of Homes.com, is the exclusive registrar of .Homes domain names. To learn more, visit domains.homes.

Why Agents Should Never Use Personal Email
I saw a news article recently about why real estate agents should use their personal email addresses. The article talked about the 10,000 selfish reasons why it benefits the Realtor®. It was a grand display of the underbelly of self-centered real estate professionals. I am here to tell you that using a personal email for real estate business is STUPID and perhaps illegal. The communications between a real estate agent and a consumer are subject to the real estate laws in your state. They are communications that happen under the supervision of the agent’s real estate broker. They are covered by the insurances held by the real estate broker. They are subject to the Realtor Code of Ethics if you are a Realtor. Last year, there were multiple instances of emails getting hacked. In many cases, consumer information was compromised. In some cases, earnest money instructions were hijacked and in once case, $250,000 was stolen. Guess what? If you are a real estate agent who got hacked or had earnest money stolen, you are in deep ****. You probably violated the broker’s independent contractor policy that you signed. If you did, your broker does not need to help you. In fact, if your actions cause harm to the brokerage brand, and you could be liable for those damages.

Best of 2015: How to Convert a Document to PDF in 3 Easy Steps
We're continuing an annual tradition of counting down our top 10 articles of the year. The following article was originally published back in August and is #4 in our countdown. See #5 here. Need a quick, easy way to turn a document into a .PDF without having to pay for conversion software? You're in luck! If you have a Google account, you already have access to a free online tool that makes it a snap to change files to the format you need. (If you don't have an account, you can sign-up here.) One of the most underappreciated features of Google Drive is how it lets you convert documents to different file formats like rich text, plain text, Open Office, PDF, Microsoft Word, and more. It's a simple hack that anyone can do in just a couple of minutes. Here's how. Step #1: Upload a File for Conversion First, upload the document that you want to convert to Google Drive. To do this, click the orange New button and select File upload. Then browse to the file on your hard drive you want to convert and hit Open.

Resources to Maximize Your ROI in 2016
In his appearance on a recent Secrets of Top Selling Agents webinar, Jimmy Mackin, co-founder of Curaytor.com, shared these great sites you can use to grow your business in 2016. Check out the best of team management, lead gathering, and branding ideas below! BestAboutPages.com has examples of some of the best "about" pages on the internet. Everyone in real estate is saying the same thing on their about page – take a look at these to get inspiration on how you can infuse your about page with personality to help it stand out. Theknot.com, a hub of wedding planning, may seem like a strange place to go for real estate, but here you can search for professional photographers. Mackin suggests that you "get professional photography of your team, get professional photography of your area. You will reuse it over, and over, and over, and over again." Slack.com is a team communication and messaging app. To help minimize the time lapse in business communication that can turn what should be a quick communication into hours of back and forth texting and calling. Mackin uses Slack because "it allows you to set up a very simple portal where you can communicate with your entire team in real time." Upwork.com and thehiredpens.com are two sites you can use to outsource your copywriting. Mackin recommends you start by getting a professional bio and 'about' page made.

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Real Estate Website
Converting leads in the online environment is not an easy thing to achieve. It is not just a matter of bringing people to your website and letting things run their course, although that is the place where you must start. Ok, let's assume that you have a decent real estate website as far as functionality and the visual side are concerned. If you are experiencing low traffic to your website, it means that you haven't taken enough time and made a good enough effort to reach people and get them interested in what you have to offer. Today we are going to discuss what are some of the right steps (and some of the wrong ones as well) to pulling in a satisfactory number of people to your real estate website. Identifying the Ideal Traffic When it comes to website traffic, you have to think ahead. Getting the numbers up is no big deal. You can pay for traffic and bring your stats to a satisfactory level. However, if you want to achieve something more than just having numbers for show, you will need to focus on finding the right traffic. Identifying parameters like age group, vocations, geographical area and other relevant factors will help you focus on getting traffic that will have a better chance of converting to paying customers later on.

How to Convert a Document to PDF in 3 Easy Steps
Need a quick, easy way to turn a document into a .PDF without having to pay for conversion software? You're in luck! If you have a Google account, you already have access to a free online tool that makes it a snap to change files to the format you need. (If you don't have an account, you can sign-up here.) One of the most underappreciated features of Google Drive is how it lets you convert documents to different file formats like rich text, plain text, Open Office, PDF, Microsoft Word, and more. It's a simple hack that anyone can do in just a couple of minutes. Here's how. Step #1: Upload a File for Conversion First, upload the document that you want to convert to Google Drive. To do this, click the orange New button and select File upload. Then browse to the file on your hard drive you want to convert and hit Open.

A Look at the Marketing Opportunities .REALTOR Offers
In the early days of the internet, there were just seven top-level-domains (TLDs); .com, .org, .edu, .net., .int, .gov and .mil. These were put in place to provide some distinction between the types of websites a user was visiting (e.g., commercial, organization, education, etc.). Now, in 2015, there are more than 1,300 TLDs, including the new .REALTOR domain, which brings a unique and a powerful marketing opportunity to REALTORS®. Technical Background: In 2014, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) released the .REALTOR domain to NAR. Today, NAR is in good company with hundreds of major brands and categories that have also received approval for a top-level domain, like .tv, .bank, .Google, .Canon, .Honda, .Marriott, and .MLB. View the latest list of delegated TLDs. Like other major brands and professions that are unleashing hidden branding potential with new TLDs, REALTORS® are differentiating themselves from other real estate professionals online. .REALTOR is a short, distinctive domain with a focused extension that lets consumers instantly know they've found a trusted source for real estate. The Marketing Opportunity: As a REALTOR®, it's imperative to know how TLDs will impact your web presence and online marketing. As more TLDs become mainstream, the Internet is being divided into categories. This makes it easier for consumers to navigate the online world and locate exactly what they need. Sooner than we think, the widely recognized .com domain will be viewed as dated and generic.

Create Your Own Real Estate Memes
Love them or hate them, real estate memes are great for engagement. Whether you work at a fun, family-oriented real estate agency or a high-end property management company, carefully selected memes can be a lighthearted way to interact with clients, colleagues and referral partners. You may choose to share them on your website, on social media channels, in an email or even via text. Of course, finding just the right thing for the right audience can be tough. The good news is that it's very easy to create your own real estate memes! How to create your own memes It's simple! You can either start from scratch or use an existing, recognized meme and add your own text. Starting from scratch: If you want to create a meme using your own image, perhaps of life at your office or a funny home detail, it's as easy as snapping a pic with your phone and opening an app. There are many free, meme-creating apps out there you can download right onto your smartphone or tablet. Then you can use any photo in your gallery to create your perfect meme. We like Meme Generator for Android devices and MeMatic for iOS.

How to Set up IFTTT for Lead Generation
Have you checked out If This Then That (IFTTT) to use as real estate technology? Basically you can create automatic actions to be performed over pretty much anything you could want or think of. Want to save all those houses in a Google doc automatically? Check. Want an email every time someone tweets about you? Check. You can even program it to open the garage door every time you get home without pressing any buttons. How about getting an email every time someone is moving to your city? Or getting alerts sent straight to your phone when a certain type of home pops up for sale in your area? Can we say sign me up for more home sales? This is lead generation FOR FREE. This is some pretty handy real estate technology. IFTTT will save you a lot of time while actually giving you legitimate leads you can follow up on. Here is your step-by-step guide to more home sales: 1. Download IFTTT It's available on Android, iOS, and your computer. 2. Sign up for your free account. 3. Open it up Browse "recipes" that are already made. They have a LOT you can choose from.

11 Ways to Outsmart Security Threats in 2015
If last year is any indication, security will be continue to be a big topic in 2015. For real estate, the biggest story of the year was undoubtedly the tragic death of Realtor Beverly Carter, which ignited concerns about personal safety across the industry. Other incidents, like the cyber attack that took down Realtor.com's website for several days, underscored the increased level of threats witnessed in 2014. It's not all doom and gloom, though, and there are plenty of ways you can educate and protect yourself in the year ahead. To give you a leg up, we've compiled a list of resources to keep you and your data safe in 2015. Smart Web Surfing I'm going start this with a plea: If you're using Internet Explorer, please stop. Stop now. Not only is IE subject to security vulnerabilities and frequent attacks, it also offers an inferior browsing experience. Honestly, the best thing you can do for your online safety is to consider switching to an alternative like Chrome or FireFox. Be sure to stay current with all application updates, too! Once you've got your browser squared away, these tips point the way to safer surfing: 10 Social Media Safety Tips Keep Your Real Estate Clients Safe with These Internet Safety Tips

Responding to Client Emails: 3 Tips and Tricks
Email: we all have it, and most of us could use a little help when it comes to controlling our inboxes. After all, the catch about email is that it works around the clock, even when we don't. The good news is that clients and contacts have a place to send messages 24/7. The bad news is that keeping up with all those emails can feel like an epic undertaking. (Sometimes we just wish our email would take a few days off.) In an effort to help make your workday easier, here are our top three tips and tricks for responding to client emails. 1. Create a cheat sheet for faster responses. One of the biggest complaints the industry hears from real estate consumers is that they just aren't getting the responsiveness they want from the agents they are reaching out to. While we think this perception can be skewed by a number of factors, it doesn't hurt to try to be the agent that does respond in a timely fashion. To that end, we recommend developing a handful of standard replies or one-liners you can easily copy and paste from when you're in a hurry. You'll find it extra helpful when you're at a loss for words, and it really cuts down on your proofreading. Many agents get the same type of emails over and over again – inquiries, charity and event invitations, referral requests, etc. Think about the top 10 or so emails that you seem to write over and over again and create a Word doc with prepared responses that you can edit slightly or use as is. You can often pull examples from your sent folder.

Automate Your Business with zipForm® Plus and Zapier
Most people have heard the devil is in the details, and to achieve success, the goal is to eliminate that devil. For real estate professionals, these smaller details--like keeping address books synchronized--can become a large nuisance. To help with this, zipForm® Plus has integrated with Zapier. Zapier specializes in connecting web applications using 'If This, Then That' automation. This enables anyone with basic knowledge of multiple applications to easily connect them by defining a trigger. Currently, 360+ of the most common applications are available to connect immediately in ways that can make you a champion of multi-tasking. zipForm® Plus has joined the large group of web applications that is ready to connect within a few steps. Some of the applications that are sure to be the staples of real estate professionals are LinkedIn, Twitter, Office 360, Gmail and Exchange. Just imagine the ability to add a contact to your Gmail account, then have that information delivered to your zipForm® Plus address book only saving it once. Each connection created is called a 'Zap' and creating these connections is simple. See some of the following 'Zaps' are waiting for you in Zapier today: If a new contact is added to zipForm® Plus, Then an invite is sent to connect on LinkedIn If a new contact is added to zipForm® Plus, Then add that contact to Contactually If a new contact is added to Gmail contacts, Then add the contact to the zipForm® Plus address book If a new contact is added to zipForm® Plus, Then create a Evernote note for that contact

How to Help Online Buyers Get the Most Out of Their Search (Without Sabotaging Your Business)
Real estate agents by nature don't deal well with change. When it comes to teaching our clients about how to do an online search for real estate, we feel like crawling under a rock and getting in the fetal position because it's scary to think they could look up a house on their own. You mean they don't need us to see what's on the market any more? It's 2014, folks. Let's teach our clients the right way to search for homes online and it might actually make our job easier. Don't worry; they'll still need you for many other things like, oh, I don't know, unlocking the front door so they can actually see it. The Challenge of Selling to Millennials One of the biggest hurdles companies are trying to figure out, no matter what they sell, is how to appeal to Gen Y. Gen Y, also referred to as the "Millennials," is defined as anyone born between 1982 and 1993 and is typically (and falsely) categorized as a generation that prefers renting over owning. According to a recent article on Inc.com, "Gen Y's annual spending will amount to approximately $2.45 trillion, escalating to $3.39 trillion by 2018—significantly eclipsing Baby Boomers in spending power." Now do you understand why companies are competing for their attention? Millennials understand the power of computers and they don't want/need to rely on a business or, in this case, a real estate agent, for everything. This is why they often look on their own at first, and when it's convenient for them, we step in. Should we cater to this as agents? Hint: The answer is YES.

7 Essential Tricks to Take Control of Your Online Reputation TODAY
Whether you like it or not, your real estate business has an online reputation. Surveys have found that trustworthiness and reputation are the two most important factors when homebuyers and sellers are looking for an agent. If your online reputation isn't perfect, you will lose business. Here are 7 simple tricks to ensure that your online reputation is helping you attract customers: 1. Audit Your Search Results 90% of home purchases start online and 93% of online research starts with a search engine. See what potential customers see by searching for your name and business on Google. If you don't show up in the search results, you'll need to create more content. If you find bad reviews, you'll need to address them. You can optimize your online presence but you have to start by finding out what needs to be fixed. 2. Set Up Google Alerts You should only have to audit yourself once. Set up Google Alerts for your name, business, and any other search query for which you want to show up in the results. Google Alerts will send you an email every time there is a new result for your chosen keywords.

Real Estate Prospect Leaving too Early? Bounce Rates for Your Real Estate Website
Let's Talk About Bounce Rate Do users make it to your Home Page and not use it all? Do they click on any of your listed properties or use your property search? Do users click on your About Us link in your email signature and leave your About US page immediately without browsing your real estate website? Do users go to your Realtor Profile page from your social media profile and leave immediately without contacting you? In our last Real Estate Digital Marketing post, I wrote of the importance of linking your Google Analytics Accounts with their respective AdWords accounts in the wake of Google rolling out their new Bulk Importing feature that makes it easier to link multiple accounts. In doing so, I touched on a few of the important metrics that are pulled into AdWords after linking: Bounce Rate, Pages per Visit, Average Visit Duration, and Percent of New Visits. These metrics allow you to see how users are interacting with your website and are therefore worth going over individually. The time, effort and dollars associated with getting potential buyers and seller to visit your real estate website is all for nothing if visitors aren't actually using your webpage! Bounce Rate Defined Google defines it as the "percentage of single-page sessions." The lower the better!

Google Trends in Real Estate Digital Marketing
What is Google Trends? Even many digital marketers aren't too familiar with Google Trends. Google Trends, formerly "Google Insights for Search," allows users to see the latest and hottest topics that people are currently searching for. Additionally, and more importantly for the advertiser, Google provides access to historical search data collected since 2004! Google Trends is a free tool for any user available at http://www.google.com/trends/. At the moment of writing this article, the Google Trends homepage shows me that the Galaxy S5 and The Voice are "Trending Now" and what states search for LeBron James the most. While that may be interesting to some, how does this help the advertiser? In a recent Google Partner discussion from February 12, 2014, Google showcased some of Google Trends' "cool little features," with more forthcoming. We can see that information presented by Google Trends may be amusing or "cool," but does Google Trends have any use for the advertiser or real estate digital marketing analyst? It certainly does! Application for The Real Estate Agent The most beneficial feature for the advertiser is the Search Term Comparison Tool, in which one can see the interest over time in a search term. Let's explore how this is useful for the real estate agent and digital marketing analyst using a sample search term of "Atlanta Homes for Sale."

Free .realtor Domains Available To NAR and CREA Members Soon
If you're a member of NAR, you will soon have the option of grabbing a free .realtor website domain from the organization. These new addresses should be available to members by the end of September. Back in 2012, the trade group applied to ICANN (Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers) to create and manage the .realtor top level domain. Now NAR has officially signed the contract that will enable them to launch signups for the new domains. They expect to be able to start offering their members access to these new domains by the end of the current quarter, which ends September 30th. NAR is offering an introductory deal for its members--a free .realtor domain for one year to the first 500,000 people who register. NAR's Canadian counterpart CREA will be offering 10,000 free .realtor domains to their members, as well. Single year registration will regularly cost $39.95 with discounts for registering for multiple years. GTLD Domains Are New Territory These new domains will definitely be of interest to agents looking to brand themselves in the online world as a Realtor. It will do a pretty good job of telling your prospective clients what you do just from reading your URL, though it will take some time. Generic Top Level Domains are a new concept for the public, so to a certain point it will take a bit of getting used to for the average user. In time they'll understand that all these URLs, like .coffee, .technology, .email or .photography will work just the same as the tried and true .com, .ca and .net, but there will be an adjustment period of these domains become more common.

What's a DDoS Attack?
Realtor.com's website has been down since midday Tuesday (update: the site is back online), along with other Move services like Top Producer. In a statement, the company identified a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack as the reason for the outage. The attack against Move's web properties is the latest in a string of recent DDoS attacks across the Internet. Ancestry.com was also down Wednesday. The World Cup website, along with RSS reader Feedly and Realtor-favorite Evernote were targets of DDoS attacks last week. Attack of the Zombie Computers! So what is a DDoS attack, anyway? It's a tactic that malicious hackers use to take down a website or network by overwhelming it with a high volume of traffic. Think of it as a mass stampede of thousands or millions of computers all trying to access a site at the same time. It's called a Distributed Denial of Service attack because the intent is to deny legitimate users from accessing a website, therefore crippling a business for the duration of the attack. Banks, media, and other major sites are frequent targets of DDoS takedowns. Hackers use something called a "botnet" to execute DDoS attacks. A botnet is a network of linked computers that are used collectively to pummel a target's server. These computers often belong to regular home or business users, but have been infected by a virus or malware. Once infected, hackers can control these computers remotely and use them to attack a website.

7 Tools For Working With Clients Remotely
Have you ever had to work with an out-of-town client? If you have, no doubt you've thanked your lucky stars for digital tools like digital signatures and transaction management software. Sometimes, however, your buyer or seller may need a more personal touch. So what's a far-away agent to do? Consider looking into web meeting applications. Most solutions will let you share your computer screen with clients, or chat face-to-face using a webcam. You can use these programs to review documents in real-time with clients, or simply to add a human touch that remote digital transactions can sometimes lack. There are a variety of different web meeting apps on the market, both free and paid. We've rounded up a few of our favorites below. To Download or Not to Download? That is the question and, next to price, it's probably the biggest consideration when choosing the right meeting app for you. Web meeting apps come in two flavors: those that require you to download and install software before joining or hosting a meeting, and those that work right in your browser, no installation required. Those that require installation typically offer more robust features, like the ability to record a session. However, if those features are not important to you, browser-based apps may be the way to go. GoToMeeting - If you've ever attended one of RE Technology's webinars (or most of these), you're already familiar with this program. GoToMeeting is one of the most widely used online collaboration tools. It offers desktop sharing, high-def video conferencing, the ability to record sessions, and more. The program requires software installation and a monthly subscription fee. However, there is a new free version with fewer features and no installation required. This version only works in Google Chrome for up to three participants.

Are You a Spammer and Don’t Realize It?
When someone mentions email spammers, do you picture sleazy con artists selling Viagra, get-rich-quick schemes and match-making services? You certainly don't picture yourself, do you? But if you're not careful about the marketing emails you send out, you could end up being labeled a spammer. All it takes to be pegged as a spammer is a single person who responds to your marketing newsletter by clicking the "spam" button in their email menu. At best, a "spam" click dumps all future emails from you into the person's trash can. At worst, you collect enough spam reports to inspire an Internet Service Provider (think Yahoo, Gmail or Comcast) to block emails from you to their customers. To avoid picking up a reputation as a spammer, follow these five tips: 1. Make it easy to opt-out of your e-newsletter Yes, you read that right. You want it to be just as easy to leave your email list as it is to click the "spam" button. If your clients aren't enjoying your e-newsletter, you need to find one they do like. At HomeActions, we include an unsubscribe button at the end of every email. The unsubscribe button isn't just good marketing, it's also legally required by the federal CAN-SPAM law for most commercial emails.

Managing Your Personal Online Presence: A Guide For Real Estate Agents
As a real estate professional, how you present yourself is paramount to your success in the industry. While you often hear about employers doing background checks on potential job applicants, your real estate clients are doing the same to you. They want to know that you’re a good person to do business with and are doing their homework on who you are, using search engines. When someone looks you up online, do you know what they will find? Spring Cleaning For Your Online Presence Google Yourself Try running a simple search in Google and Bing search engines and see what shows up. Maybe you’re fortunate and have a unique name that makes it easy to find you. If you’re like me and have a really common name use a search query, like Jane Jones + Columbus OH or Jane Jones + Awesome Realty + Columbus OH to specifically target you and your real estate business. Do you get search results that pertain to you? If you do have a common name, you may find there there are online twins that share your name and live in the same area as you. Take Notes Make a spreadsheet of what you find, categorizing the Good (leave as is), Neutral (ignore or not worth bothering with) and Bad (action required), among the search results you find. The goal here is to create an actionable list to address any blemishes you might find when you search your name.

How to Buy a House – As Told by Memes
This post comes to us from the Market Leader blog: Having trouble connecting with Millennial homebuyers? This graphic may be just the thing you need to get your marketing efforts on their level. "I Can Haz Real Estate" gives Millennials and other aspiring homebuyers who are Internet-savvy a highly simplified version of the home-buying process. The vehicle this infographic uses to explain this frequently convoluted process is a "meme." If you're wondering what exactly memes are, they have been described as "virally-transmitted cultural symbols or social ideas" or cultural elements like jokes and turns of phrase that are created and disseminated by individuals. The memes contained in this infographic are simple images with text imposed over them. This type of meme uses standardized images with defined voices and contexts in which they should be used. (For example, the fist-pumping baby near the top of the graphic is known as "Success Kid" and is used to express happiness about a victory or success.) As most Millennials and Internet-savvy people can tell you, memes are commonly shared on social networks like Facebook and websites like Reddit.

The Importance Of An Email Address For Real Estate Agents
There are a lot of things that go into crafting your image as a real estate professional. While you may take care of the bigger stuff like building a website or arranging print materials like business cards, some of the smaller things like picking the right email address might slip through the cracks. While you may think an email address is just a means of communication, it really does speak volumes about you and can serve as a first impression to your potential customers. Avoid Service Provider Email Addresses These are probably the worst kind of emails you can have as far as an outside perception. Whether it be an account from Time Warner, Verizon, Rogers, Bell or any other smaller internet provider, this just sends the wrong message to prospective clients. Email addresses like this work as a beacon to the rest of the world telling them that you probably aren't the most tech savvy person. If your address is from an ISP people could draw the conclusion that you're just a part timer or that you may only have access when you're at home at the end of the day. The biggest issue with these emails is what if you decide to change service providers? Sometimes these changes are unavoidable, maybe you find a great deal with a rival provider that's too good to pass up, or maybe your provider goes out of business. What happens then? The email that you had printed on your business cards and in the Yellow Pages will now be entirely inaccessible to you once you leave that provider. Think of all the hassle of updating all your online services with your new address and getting in touch with all your contacts to update them. In short, it will be a mess. Ideally you don't want real estate leads slipping through the cracks because you decided to save a few bucks on your Internet bill.