Las Vegas Real Estate Blog

Gena, this one is for you. So, you have started a link exchange campaign and have started to exchange links for several months.  As I have stated before, as your site becomes higher ranked and more well known, you will start to develop a reputation on the web. Whether its good or bad will be up to you. Link exchanges are based totally on trust. The trust part comes into when you have completed the exchange and verified your link has been posted correctly. After that, you will be trusting link partners to leave your link on their site as you are doing for them.  There will be some webmasters that will delete your link after you verify its there.

So, a part of a link exchange campaign is verifying your link partners are still just that, link partners. Because of comments made by various SEO experts in the last few months, some webmasters feel reciprocal linking is dead and they are deleting their link pages.  Some may notify their link partners, but most won't. I recommend keeping a black list of sites that you should not exchange with for the above reason.  Keep in mind, some deletions are NOT intentional. The page name may have changed or the links directory could have been rearranged.  So when you find your link has been deleted or you simply can't find it, notify the webmaster of the site in question.  If you link isn't back up in a reasonable time frame, delete their link from your site and put them on your list.  By keeping the list, you will prevent your self from exchanging with them in the future and going throught the deletion process again.  There are plenty of programs you can download, some free, some not plus a host of link exchange scripts that verify your links are still in place.  Some of these scripts will take care of this for you automatically as well as generate your links pages. I'm not a big fan of these, because most won't let you customize the pages enough to suit me, but that's just me. I'm sure there are members here who use these programs and would be happy to recommend one to anyone looking for one. In the mean time, happy linking. -Charles

It seems that the infringement issue is on the right track (or things are being posted from really obscure sources).  Although I still see some old posts that should be removed by the poster, most of the blogs being put up are original content. There is something else I have noticed. Quite a few people are putting up pictures in their blog posts. I'm all for it, as long as they have the right to use the photo.  Posting someone else's graphic, photo or clip art that has not been released into the public domain is copyright infringement.

Graphics released under a GPU license may have restrictions on their use. The same thing goes for sites that have royalty free photos and clipart. So if you the pictures you are posting were not taken by you, make sure you have the owner's permission to use them. - Charles

I'm sure we'll being hearing about Katrina a lot because of the anniversary. Dateline did a show on it last night. One thing I didn't know was that the media was allowed to stay inside the Superdome, or at least one journalist with a camera crew.   They showed 27 minutes of footage they took as the storm was happening inside the dome and after.  The amount of suffering and helplessness they caught on tape was truly horrifying. This is AMERICA.  Things like that AREN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.  It took FIVE days before the government showed up with food and water.  The Dateline correspondent talked about how they had to hide their food and water, ride around with an armed guards for fear of being car jacked.  The desparation was so thick it was almost like a fog hanging in the air.

Now a year later, areas of town are still leaking water and have no power. Its going to be at least another 3 years before government housing is replaced. BUT, the levy has been fixed. I'm curious to see what going to happen to all that prime real estate. They have been allegations that the rich have been given special treatment by the mayor. Allegations of dragging his feet on the rebuilding as well. Some things have been fixed, but the 15 billion dollars in FEMA money apparently has yet to materialize. I know we have at least one realtor in New Orleans that has seen what is going on first hand.  Is the media being fair or are they taking sides?-Charles

For those of you that missed 20/20 tonight, ABC is doing a week long series on Katrina for the anniversary.  The story on 20/20 centered on State Farm, you know, like a good neighbor State Farm is there?  Or are they?  There have been several allegations (since last year) that they had been dragging their feet and not paying claims. What I found interesting is that their policies don't cover water damage, only wind.   20/20 spoke to several people who claimed that State Farm denied their claim for compensation under false pretenses.  One of the people they talked to was an engineer who was hired by State Farm to assess damage. They pulled one of his reports that had been falsified by someone at his company and signed by someone else, supporting State Farm's position of water damage.  Two independent adjusters working for State Farm, overheard a State Farm employee telling subordinates to get back on the phone to the engineering company to get the reports to state water damage or they weren't paying the invoice.  They also downloaded thousands of documents from State Farm supporting the allegations and turned them over to State Attorney General. They also interviewed another couple who actually received two engineering reports stating wind damage while State Farm had yet a third report stating water which they were using to deny the couple's claim.

Every story has two sides, but its looking very bad for State Farm. The lawyer that sued big tobacco has been retained by several people with denied claims. Its going to be a clash of the titans.-Charles

For those of you that buy stuff on ebay, I thought I would share this.  My dad had been looking at this Fuji Camera acution for the last couple weeks http://search.ebay.com/fuji-finepix-s3_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQcatrefZC6QQfromZR10QQcatrefZC6QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1   for fake eBay auctions for S3 camera.  They are easy to spot because the auctions start  for under $50 dollars.  When you look at these auctions you will find a email address to contact them before bidding on the auction.  This is a scam to have you send them money by Western Union to an address outside the US.  If you send them $900 right away they will give you two lenses or something like that.  You will never see the camera or what ever they have up for auction!!!   When he clicked on the third fake eBay auction to bring up the auction window a eBay sign in page came up instead. So he hit the backspace key to get the listing again.  The listing came up with the sign in page again.  Before he did anything else he copied the web address which was not in this country! (BUSTED)  So this time he put in wrong information to see what would happen and it came up with a page error see the webmaster!  At least eBay had it removed within five minutes of it being reported. He also found another one with a fake seller page that wanted you to give your password & info to that he reported. After he told me about it, I signed in a found another one just like it within a few minutes!

According to a US Today article, most of these auctions are coming out of the Czech Republic and the mob is behind it. (Guess they are looking into alternative income streams)  If you play along with them they will give you a address in the Czech Republic to send the money to using Western Union.

Any time you come across a scam like this or are suspicious of something that seems too good to be true, you can report it at spam@ebay.com.   I'm sure there are variations of this scam for other items on eBay and other auction sites as well.

To make sure your account is secure, go to "my eBay" and check to see if you have anyone authorized to use your account. If so, report it immediately to eBay as well as your financial institution that you use online.

So the next time you are on eBay looking for a new camera, be careful.  If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is! -Charles

Caleb had posted a blog request for member's thoughts on what they are getting out of Active Rain.  Well, for starters, lack of sleep, loss of productivity on other projects, writer's cramp... But seriously, I have made some connections with other like minded individuals of integrity.  Its given me another forum to express my views, share information with others as well as learn new things. I've been contacted by two realtors from different parts of the country for a referral because of this site and my profile on it. So being here has also helped my business grow.

However, if I had to choose one thing, I would have to say that probably the best thing has been getting to know other people across the country. Ultimately this site is about social networking and it has accomplished that goal very well in a short amount of time. I think it has the potential to become the social networking hub for the real estate industry and I am thankful for the opportunity to be part of it.

For those of you that actively comment (or blog a lot), you will have noticed a new requirement when leaving a comment----the SPAM STOPPER!  Basically its a security measure designed to stop bots (scripts that spammers and hackers use to scan websites and insert various things) from filling out comments on our blogs.  I'm sure you've all experienced it in your guestbook or contact forms.  Requests for link exchanges with pharmacy or adult sites, praise for your website with a small note to visit our site at the live link of xxx. com.

If you are getting a lot of spam through your website, there are some things you can do to limit the amount.  First, you can remove your email link from your home page and put a link to a contact form instead.  A lot of spam harvesters only scan the index page of a website when harvesting addresses.   You can also put your email address in a photo and post it on your home page for those visitors that don't like to use contact forms. You can use java script as well to hide the address, while still making it useable. There are also CGI scripts that you can download for free to setup hidden email to help reduce spam from bots. I've requested from our webhost, Advanced Access, that they put a security measure in place for our guestbook to help reduce the amount of spam its generating.

Quite a bit of spam is generated from two places - Nigeria and China. A drastic step would be to block those ip addresses that originate from those countries. Some providers will do it for you upon request. That will help to a certain extent, but most spammers are using spoofed addresses(spoofed is a fake address or concealed) so its originating from a legitimate server that isn't even aware spam is being generated. Some providers are now automatically checking for spoofed addresses and blocking or flagging those automatically.  If you use outlook express, you can create a message rule to automatically route mail based on subject or sender. For example, if you continue to receive spam from the same address, you can create a rule to route those into a specific folder, not download them or even delete them from the server.  BE VERY CAREFUL when doing that.  Be SURE it will never cause you lose legitimate email!!!!  Here in Las Vegas, Cox Communications will flag suspicious email with a SPAM tag for you.  I have a rule set up so those emails are routed to a spam folder, so Jacqui can look at all of her legitimate email first, then check those to make sure nothing important was mislabeled, saving her time for what's really important - legitimate communications. Perhaps we should all start a campaign, Just Say NO to Spam.  :) -Charles

Is anyone using them?  Talking house is kind of the precursor to podcasting.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the product, its been around for years. How it works, is pretty simple. You get a short range radio transmitter(am) that you place inside a listed property.  You record a message about the property (just like a podcast) for the transmitter. You put the provided sign out from giving prospects the channel to tune into on their car radio to hear about the property.  Their website also offers sample message scripts and promotion techniques.  With everything going on the real estate market, you really don't hear much about them any more so I'm wondering if its due to the results or if its being overshadowed by newer products.

Is anyone currently using them or have used them in the past? 

With more and more potential home buyers starting their real estate search on the internet, even the dinosaurs are starting to get websites.  Probably 99% of all agent websites will never be promoted properly and will never generate any type of business. Its been said that content is king. That statement is probably more true than ever at this point. So how do you promote your site so it becomes a recognized resource or brand if you will? 

The key is offering more in depth information that your competitors.  Once you start doing that, you will start to be contacted by developers, requesting that you advertise their property on your site. The latest addition to lvrealty.net is a page about Spalofts, a new loft community in the northwest part of Las Vegas. A representative contacted me asking if I would be willing to put up a page on their project. They provided all the information I would need---all without me having to ask for anything. I received another request from another development yesterday.  Not only is the site being viewed locally but Jacqui is getting priceless exposure to the movers and shakers in the Las Vegas area.

Another thing, probably some of the least viewed pages on an agent's site is the real estate glossary.  You know the one I'm talking about.  Its the same set of phrases and definitions that appear on hundreds and hundreds of websites.  They have been copied so many times I doubt we'll ever know who actually wrote them.   Visitors never look at them and why should they?  They've seen them before.  They should be terms unique to your area as well as the common terms in the industry. A good example would be the word lanais.  If you're from the Florida area, you'll know it means a screened in porch.  Here in Nevada, if you asked about it all you would draw would be blank looks.  Does your area have strange/unique names for housing divisions or cities that may be confused for something else? Put them in your glossary with a link. Unique or off the wall architecture types? Put a definition (and a picture if you can get one) in your glossary.  Most agents write these pages off as just filler.  Turn them into lead generators.  Be the best that you can be and others will take notice. - Charles

I thought I would delve into search engine rankings a bit. What prompted this post was the obvious distress by one of the members for losing her ranking on Yahoo. First, let me specify that I am going to stating some things in a generic terms, because each engine does look for specific things in their ranking algos. Can't you have good rankings on all three?  Of course you can.  It just doesn't happen all that often!

Of the big three engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN, Google is probably the most stable as far as results are concerned.  If you manage to get a good ranking on google for a term, you generally don't move all that much if you are maintaining your site. By that, I mean getting new links (not a lot but some) and adding new content.  Yahoo and MSN's results vary a lot more. Probably the biggest yoo yoo in results is MSN. One day you could be number one, the next your at number 50. Their algo changes are very, very big.  Yahoo is very similar, to a smaller extent. Its been my experience that Yahoo likes a lot of the same things as google, but not all. Yahoo also seems to find duplicate content and is quicker to penalize a site than the other two engines. One thing that will get you kicked from Yahoo is a lot of interlinking.  Too many reciprocal links with other sites can get you banned from yahoo, although there are some mitigating reasons which I'll go into at another time.

The best thing you can do in the fast of a ranking drop is to keep promoting your site in the traditional ways. Getting new relevant links to it and above all else, adding fresh content. Sometimes ranking drops are nothing more than a hiccup if you will, and sites soon return to their original place. If after a week or so you don't see your rankings return, it probably means that a significant algorithm change has been made.  Take a look at the sites that are now ranking for that term.  Sometimes algo changes are just reversals back to prior algos and not all rankings are actually valid. A good example would be a site using "black hat" techniques.  If they re-appear, the odds are good they won't be staying for long. In order to regain your ranking, you may need to taylor your site more towards that term.  There are several ways to do that, like adding more content about that specific terms or gain links with that anchor text from relevant, trusted sites.  In the ranking game, sure and steady wins the race.  -Charles