A business website is like any business development method, the one you do consistently and master is the one that will get you business. If you hate writing, don’t setup a blogging site.

For Example; each month, people type into google “san diego real estate” about 200,000 times and that’s just one keyword phrase. Every Realtor(r) who pays member dues can give people MLS access. So what. People hire real people to help them buy and sell real estate.

The reason you have not been directed to many blogs or websites is that most of them suck (mine included).

You are already doing the right stuff (video, advertising, car wrapper, sign spinners). What a blog does is get people to know you and what you stand for.

People visit websites (whether blog centric or not) for humor. The #1 blog is http://huffingtonpost.com (political in nature) it is also #148 of all websites in the world. OR http://peopleofwalmart.com #5116 of all websites in the world.

If you are only going to write promotional and self serving dribble, then you will never get new clients. If you share your opinions, talk about injustices, what sucks & what you love about San Diego, Real Estate, Mortgage people, Title Reps, County recorders, the idiots at banks in the short sale department, stupid real estate investors (nothing down, land contracts, etc) and GET REAL about Real Estate instead of being a watered down, politically correct “stepford agent”, then you can have an interesting web site. (This is not a slam on you, but 99% of all Realtorss(r)).

Yep you will offend and piss people off. But for everyone you piss off you endear 3 more who think and have experienced the same thing. If you write something worth reading, then people will visit your site/blog. If people visit your site and you invite them, some will become clients. It’s elementary my dear Woolgar.

Blogging platforms/software like wordpress.org are now full blown websites with CMS (Content Management System) capabilities. These capabilities include a blog or blogs, but also allow you to accomplish 3 key business goals:

1. Build your brand.
2. Collect leads
3. Service customers

A well designed site built with a solid SEO foundation will build your business by having people find you on the search engines.

First: Social Media is based on relationships NOT volume of friends, followers or fans/likes. There maybe a relationship between the quantity of Facebook Friends and Page likes, but statistically I’ve not had anyone show me traffic logs where traffic spikes from a Facebook click throughs. You can get traffic to your website using twitter and with the properly designed tweets you back links are generated.

Second: Most of the people who promote social media as a business development strategy make their money selling social media consulting. Why is this important to pay attention to? Simple, if you are joining Facebook, Twitter, et al for more business you want to know how it works the quickest and most efficient method. Who better to show you than a Social Media Consultant? Here is the question that I have not had answered as yet: How much business do your clients get? In other words:

• How many escrows have you Realtor® clients closed directly trackable to their social media presence?
• How many new patients have your Chiropractor, Dentist and Cosmetic Surgeon clients received?
• How many appointments have your Plumbing, Interior Design & Financial Planners clients booked?
• I recently spoke to a group of business owners and only about 12% of them could directly track business back to Facebook and other social media efforts.

Bottom Line, how much business have you closed /will you close directly from a social media presence? If the answer is little of NONE then is it a good business decision to hire a Social Media Consultant? I personally hate ROIs of Zero!

Third: What do you find interesting, fun and rewarding? When you sign onto your Facebook , Twitter or LinkedIn account do you care about the people with whom you’re connected? I ask because, if you don’t care about reading their updates, will they be interested in reading your updates? Especially when your updates are only promotional and informational in nature and never personal?

Look at how the kids use social media. The share real, stupid and personal updates about themselves and their lives. You ask who cares? The answer is people who know them. Their friends, parents and family that’s who cares.

Forth: When you use the social media sites, you build their website footprint and not your own. There are millions of people who have joined Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn and each one of these sign ups translates into success for that website not your own.

Why is this important? Because you DO NOT OWN OR CONTROL THE CONTENT YOU POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES. Sorry to shout, but this is very important to understand. The social media site owns and directly benefits from your content NOT you! Not your business. This is the difference between Image Advertising and Direct Advertising. Here’s how. When you post to a social media site, google gives that site credit. The most you get is an atta-boy/girl link back to your site and possibly some curiosity seeker traffic to your site.

People DON’T go to Facebook to buy. People DON’T for to twitter to buy. People DON’T go to LinkedIn to buy. That is NOT the intention of those sites. People do go to Amazon, eBay, Half.com to buy. It’s that simple.

So What! Now What? This seems to be the million dollar question doesn’t it? Here’s what I recommend…

Create your own website which you OWN, CONTROL & Directly Benefit From all of your efforts. This builds an online footprint for you and your business which Google and the other search engines index. Then automatically integrate your content with the social media sites where your community and network will know you’ve updated your site. Then spend your time building your own website and presence.

The biggest benefit I see for Social Media Consultants is having your social media accounts setup and configured for you. These credentials are then used to integrate your dynamic website into your social media accounts. But do you really want a consultant making connections for you and your business?

Are you a WordPress newbie

I have several clients who love to tinker with their own sites and they call my when they get stuck. Like when they get a white screen of death (nothing but white), 500 fatal server error or a fatal error with a reference to an offending line of code. The first time this happens is a real sphincter pincher… WTF did I do?

Now that it is possible to add plugins and themes through the dashboard and API access to WordPress.org, it’s very easy add and try new bells whistles and features on your site. Not too long ago, we had to load everything into WP via ftp…

These are the 3 most common mistakes I see people have made when I go in and fix their install:

• Mistake 1: Using a buggy theme. There are hundreds of themes at WP.org. When selecting a theme, I recommend you look for 1 key metric besides the look. That is a rating of 4+ with at least 10 votes.
• Mistake 2: Plugin compatibility. Plugins are mini programs you add to WordPress for additional functions and options (one of the best benefits). Plugins must be compatible 1st with the version of WP you are using, 2nd with the theme you are using and 3rd with the other plugins you are using. Any compatibility problem can cause plugins to NOT work or your site to crash.
• Mistake 3: No test site. It’s a best practice to have a test or development site where you can play test new options, bells whistles and upgrades before adding them to your live or production site.

When problems happen and they eventually will remember that you can always delete the incompatible plugin folders to get your site working again quickly.

Have fun.

Melinda Martin did ask to JRI provide her an attorney. JRI never responded.
Megan Fredrickson filed a worker’s compensation claim for Melinda Martin without Martin’s knowledge. Martin learned of this when contacted for an interview about her disability. Martin declined Worker’s Compensation. Martin does not have a worker’s compensation lawyer.
Martin has not requested monetary compensation from JRI.
Martin has not received compensation from any of the news interviews where she has appeared.
Melinda Martin was trained in CPR.

As James Ray’s possible indictment looms near and the Death Ray Defense unfolds, I’m amazed by my naivety. I’m in my late 40s and still feel our legal system should be about what’s right and the truth and

Article by terry hall @ bizsayer.com…

Article by terry hall @ bizsayer.com…

by Terry Hall @ MrTerryHall.com

Publish Them.
Publish Excerpts & Highlights.
Destroy Them & Leave Poor James Arthur Ray Alone (he’s helped so many people & only killed 4 – Don’t Ya Know!)
Other Ideas?

Leave your comments….

Article by terry hall @ bizsayer.com…

Article by terry hall @ bizsayer.com…

Article by terry hall @ bizsayer.com…