An Internet Business Plan That Works: Step-by-Step

Many REALTORS™ buy a website expecting it to instantly make them money, but the truth is that it’ll take a little time and effort before things really get rolling. Here’s a plan that I’ve seen hundreds of REALTORS™ use to make them tens of thousands of dollars each year:

1. Get a Website

Naturally it’s pretty difficult to make money from the internet if you’re not on it. Get a website with at least the following:

• Blog (preferably with twitter integration – I’ll talk about this in a sec)
• Listings engine (preferably with a full MLS™ Search)
• Unlimited extra pages

Other things to look for:

• Single domain name – don’t settle for your blog or other part off your website being hosted on a separate domain name – make sure it’s all under one roof
• Unique static names for each blog post – posts with names like: http://www.mydomain.com/blog.php?id=4 won’t rank very well in google and should be avoided (if you don’t know what I mean, make sure to ask us about “unique post names” on our live chat)
• Control over meta tags
• Reasonably priced – Don’t go higher than $70.00/month for this

2. Get a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager)

A good website will have a basic CRM built-in. Your CRM should keep track of your leads, even automatically storing leads originating from your website. Your CRM will need to be capable of:

• Sending unlimited emails to customers
• Tracking correspondence with customers
• Notifying you of tasks that need to be performed for specific customers

That’s it – nothing fancy, just something that gets the job done.

3. Generate some interesting ideas

This part is the most fun: coming up with interesting things to write about. Make sure you carry a pen and pad of paper (or your iPhone) with you and jot down ideas as they come to you. Make sure these ideas:

• Are related to real estate
• Revolve around a specific theme (you don’t need to be an expert at everything, so pick things you know something about)
• Are geographically targeted (as you refine your system you can target right down to the neighborhood)
• Are about things that most people don’t know much about (seller take-back loans, market data from your MLS, etc.)

4. Write some articles

This part takes some work and that’s why it’s the place where most people stop. The persevering few who put their ideas down on paper must make sure to check and re-check their spelling and grammar, and make sure that their ideas are expressed clearly and concisely.

If writing’s not your thing, don’t fret – there are plenty of copy-writers out there waiting to produce quality articles for you for only pennies a word. Here’s a link to one: http://www.thewritersforhire.com (there are hundreds, and I don’t make any representations about this one specifically).

Once you’ve written your articles, put them on your blog.

5. Update your customers

Every one to two months send an email with your latest articles out to your customers.

That’s it. Really.

Other Considerations

This is a simple business plan that will actually make you money, but as with everything you’ll need to be smart about it. Here are some tips:

• Send consistently – if you’re going to do this, be consistent enough so that people start to expect your updates.
• Provide consistent content – if you’re sending out market updates, choose a consistent format so readers don’t have to search for their information every time.
• Don’t spam – If people opt-out of your mailing list, don’t keep hammering them with emails. They’ve opted out fair and square and that needs to be respected.
• Integrate with Twitter – Make sure your blog automatically syndicates the title of your post and a back-link to Twitter – this will allow people to access your articles through another medium.
• Get more email addresses – It doesn’t matter where you are – you should always be on the lookout for more email addresses. Anywhere from networking events to the post-board at your grocery store are good sources. After-all – everyone will need to buy real estate at some point right?
• Plan to do this for at least a year - My uncle always told me that there’s no such thing getting rich quick; it’ll takes at least 6 weeks… Well, in this case it’ll take a little longer, but believe me – once you’ve got this system worked out you won’t go back to anything else.

Challenge

RealPageMaker believes so strongly in this approach that we’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars in building a basic blog/CRM system and included it with every customer’s website. If you’re a customer and not yet doing this, make sure to ask us how to get started through our live chat.