You may rewrite the body of an email two or three times before sending, but how much time do you spend on your subject lines? Here are a few suggestions:

Keep your subject lines short and sweet. Many email providers (Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL, Earthlink, etc.) will truncate long subject lines, so keep your subject lines under 50 characters including spaces. Be sure to indicate the most important information at the beginning.

Keep your subject lines professional. Avoid using "smileys" and punctuation marks. These will fall easily to spam filters.

Use capitalization sparingly! Typing in all caps can be construed as the equivalent of yelling at someone face-to-face. This also applies to the text in the body of your email. Using caps to draw attention to a single word is acceptable, but frequent use of all caps is likely to annoy the reader and will ultimately cause your emails to be deleted.

Do not use vague or general words alone. Using general words all alone trigger spam filters. Words like urgent, new, hi, etc are prime examples. Tip: look through your spam or junk folder for examples of what not to use. Use specific information, such as the property address and the consumer's name. "Jan here is the info for 123 Center Street". This validates the email as current, cites importance, and personalizes the message.
Always be sure to check your spelling and grammar!

Remember, the subject line is the first thing the consumer reads and in could determine whether the email is deleted or read based on those few words. Those first seconds are critical, you need to engage the consumer and let them know what you have to say is important.

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Traditionally, spring cleaning is the time you beat the rugs, flip the mattresses and clean the cob webs from corners. These cleaning chores are not only limited to your house. Springtime is also a good time to "clean" or "refresh" your website. Here are some key areas to tidy up this spring:

• Check your website “keywords.” Keep in mind anything new that you or your area may have added since the last time these were updated. What about that new neighborhood you want to highlight? Add it as a keyword.
• Refresh your content. Is there anything new and exciting in your territory like a new mall, interesting store, new neighborhood?
• Double check your site for spelling errors. You dunt want to sound selly doo you?
• Check to make sure all of your photos are displaying properly.
• Click on all of your links to make sure there are no broken links (usually this happens when a website address has changed).
• Go through your leads and reconnect past clients with a quick email. You never know where your next referral may come from.
• Consider how user-friendly your site is for a new contact; it may be time to think of a new design.

These are just a few tips to get you started. Not only do search engines like refreshed content, your customers will appreciate the updated information as well!

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The thought of search engine marketing can be rather mind-boggling, especially considering the staggering number of seemingly “secret” methods employed by the professional search gurus. There are, however, quite a few basic techniques that EVERYONE can use to boost your search engine results organically. Keep the following things in mind when trying to create effective organic search engine rankings:

1. META Tags
META tags are part of HTML but exist for the sole use of search engine spiders. These tags contain various information that the site owner wants to deliver to these spiders. Meta Tags include, but are not limited to:
a. Site Title
Title refers to the META/HTML tag that contains the page title, which SHOULD be determined by the contents of that page. Many designers pay little attention to the page content versus the title.
b. Keyword Tag
This tag generally refers to any word or phrase the user might search for in order to find a website or a page. Each variation of a keyword, such as the plural form of the word, is treated like a separate keyword. Phrases (i.e., a string of multiple keywords) are generally used interchangeably.
c. Description Tag
Refers to the information contained in one of the META tags that holds the description of the page and/or website. As the information contained in this tag is the information that is displayed immediately after the main link on many search engine results, it's a good idea to make this text “sell” the page or site content.

2. HTML Navigation
Most people like to use JavaScript or Flash for the main navigation on websites for the simple reason that you can include many links without taking up a lot of space on your page. While technically this method will work, JavaScript and Flash are not readable by the search engines. Create your navigation using HTML to ensure that the search engines can read your navigation and follow the links to your content pages.

3. Place Keywords in Your Page Content
Search engines scan your website for keywords. Including your keywords in your site content will help ensure that your site is “Content Rich” and more likely to be ranked higher in organic search engine rankings.

4. Use Flash Sparingly
Flash is very popular due to the visually appealing presentation one can achieve with its use. However, Flash cannot be read by search engines and, if used too frequently, can actually hurt your optimization efforts.

5. Submit Your Website to the Search Engines
After you have optimized your website, you need to let the World Wide Web know that it is up and running! Submit your website URL (address) to directories such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and DMOZ.

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Exposure, exposure, exposure…
In this day and age, where do you start?
Print, online or direct marketing?
How does it work?
Where do I put my marketing money?
These are all important questions to ask yourself, especially in today’s market. Our world is changing day by day shrinking every second right in front of our eyes with the invention of the internet. These changes may not be tangible, but they are nevertheless revolutionary.
Like any type of marketing, it all comes down to your return and the amount of buyers who make it to you and your properties.
In today’s society we get instant information from our personal computers, our PDAs, our internet connections and even our cell phones.
And buyers are more educated than ever.
With that education and instant access to information, today’s buyers purchase homes dramatically faster.
Like any business, it comes down to the numbers. For every ten prospects, four will be lookers and one or maybe two will be qualified clients. There is no silver bullet to marketing, but there are smart and efficient marketing solutions.
Find places that give you the maximum exposure.
At Homes.com use our free directories.
Trulia, Google Home Base, Harmon Homes, and Yahoo are just a few.
Get that exposure that your clients and the property deserve.
It could take as little as five minutes a day to cut and paste information about your properties, and we will export them to our partners. It’s a small effort on your part and it could bring big returns in form of a commission check.

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What is a domain name? A domain name, also know as a web address, is the name you type into the address bar of your internet browser (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox) to visit a site on the internet.

You can register a domain name through the registrar or registrar re-seller of your choice. A registrar is a company that is accredited by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to register Internet domain names. TIP: Always be sure to keep a record of your registrar and the login information. You will need this information to access your domain name in the future.

When you register a domain name, you own the right to use that name for a defined period of time. Many domains are initially registered for a 2-year period, but can be registered for a total of 10 years at a time. After a domain is registered, you will have to pay a renewal fee once your initial registration period expires. If you do not renew in time, you risk losing control of the domain name and causing your website to be offline. However, as long as you continue to renew the registration of your domain it is essentially yours to do what you want with!

What's the status of your domain name? Does it need to be renewed? Not sure? Visit a “whois” search like www.BetterWhois.com and enter your web address to find out. TIP: When you search a whois for your domain, always be sure the contact information associated with your domain name is correct. The “admin email” is typically where your registrar will send domain name renewal notifications.

Owning a domain name also gives you the ability to have a more personalized email address. So, if you own the domain janesmith.com, instead of using janesmith@hotmail.com, you can now have the email address jane@janesmith.com!

If you are a Homes.com member, our Customer Service department can answer any questions you might have regarding your domain name or assist you in setting up personalized email at your domain name as well.

So, on your own – or with the assistance of your website hosting company, stay on top of the renewal of your valuable domain name and setup your personalized email address today!

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