Google Real Estate Launches

Google Real Estate Launches

Shimon Sandler has discovered Google's new Real Estate beta. I have confirmed its existence here. It utilizes Google Base and Google Maps on the back end. Shimon's a rising star. Keep an eye on his blog. He has a knack for breaking news, which is the hallmark of many popular blogs.

Email Marketing - Tips & Articles

10 Simple Courtesies By Catherine Franz

you are super busy or you are down to your last email before heading home. Maybe it’s first thing in the morning, you have a full in box to read and handle, all before your meeting starts in 10 minutes. It’s easy to be in a rush and dismiss the little things, however…
…have you ever thought how your email looked from a receiver’s viewpoint? Of course you have, every day, haven’t you? It is so easy in our fast-paced lives to let the little things go.
When you receive a poorly formatted email and you don’t know where each paragraph starts or finishes -- the thoughts are scattered and jumbled -- here’s the reader’s self chatter in action: “What the heck, it’ll take me hours to decipher this. I don’t have time for this. Can’t X be respectful? I’ll just pretend I didn’t get it and maybe their follow-up email will be clearer.” Click and delete. Of course, you have never done this – chuckle.
By chance, your next email receiver is nicer and doesn’t delete and pretend. They just move onto the next email and leave yours for the “someday in the future” stack. And maybe it will or will not ever be answered. Their response may even miss your point entirely or only provide feedback to half of the items that need addressing.
If you have difficulty getting quick responses or any response at all, the receiver could be sending you a silent message. They could feel that you are wasting their time or do want to educate you on common email courtesies.
Recently, after receiving ten emails in one day from separate independent professionals, with their personal pronouns “i’s” in lower case besides other items. I asked them to enlighten me about their lax protocols. I received a wave of negative responses. In order to keep this a family-available article, here are a few responses cleaned up: “i don’t have time, too many emails.” A few others added, “i do it to everyone.” I particularly loved the “to” in the last two emails – I do it “to” everyone.
A human resource director client shared with me that every day she deletes ten or twelve applications, about 12% of the total number she receives daily, that omit common email courtesies. A majority come from individuals with higher degrees. I chuckled at the irony. She didn’t and just heavily sighed. She found it even more serious on the number of emails she received from recruiters that also lacked these simple courtesies.
“Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff” is a book I read a few years ago if I recall correctly. Normally I wouldn’t care much about the small stuff either. However, coherent communication, whether verbal or written, still represents who we are and shows respect. Using history as an indicator, communication started and stopped wars.
Recently, I attended a speaking engagement with Michelle Singletary, author, “7 Money Mantras,” and columnist, The Color of Money, for the Washington Post. In the presentation, she mentioned several times, “You had better sweat the small stuff.” Of course, her reference was to money. Yet, it was an important point. It takes pennies to develop into dollars, dollars to add up to ten, and so on up the monetary ladder. Doesn’t it hold true that if we leave out the small common courtesies and respect in emails, will it not block the dollars – directly or indirectly?
When thinking over the given benefits for taking care of the “small stuff” in emails, here are three powerful mantras:
* A professional email attracts a professional response.* When you respect other people’s time, they usually will respect yours.* When communication is thought through and clear, the chances increase significantly that the response will be returned in the same manner. Stinkin’ thinking attracts the same.
10 Simple Courtesies, gathered from reading 2,000 emails, and feedback from the human resource director:
Focus on one topic per email. Keep the email simple so the receiver can focus in fast and easy. This improves the chance of a faster response, maybe any response. If you write to someone regularly, ask what he or she prefers.
An appropriate subject line will help reduce accidental deletion. It will also help locate that specific email faster if needed. When forwarding or responding, change the subject line to reflect your response. You can also add your first name in the subject line as an added identifier. I like to start mine with: “Personal note from Catherine” or follow after the subject with: “From Catherine.” If you are dealing with deadlines add: “Please respond by.”
Keep each paragraph to one thought even if the paragraph turns out to be one fragmented sentence. You will want to limit email paragraphs to six sentences. A natural way of reading from a computer screen is with a scan-read process. Screen reading dries out the eyes and reduces blinking causing eyestrain.
Add subheader titles into the email when more than three paragraphs are in the email or more than three paragraphs follow the subheader. You can add subheaders as you type or while rereading. This keeps the eyes moving fast and easy. It also allows the mind to shift from topic to topic without developing cobwebs.
Re-read your email no matter how long or short. We always think faster than our fingers can type. Thus, what is typed isn’t always what was swarming around in our mind.
Does the subject flow or was it choppy? Flow in an email isn’t the same as flow from one chapter in a book to another. Flow allows the reader to easily transition and comprehend the material. If choppy, the reader might daydream or take a break and formulate a different answer that might not fit the material, creating additional emails on your part to clarify. Frequent places to check for flow in your material are where you start or stop a message or submessage.
Is there any type of priority or order needed to follow so that the receiver follows along with the material? Are there steps or information that build on the previous message? Before you can pour a glass of milk you might want buy the milk – chuckle. When we are extremely familiar with how to do something, it’s easy to write past something, a common mishap by IT experts. Do you know the receiver and their level of knowledge or experience on the topic? My favorite saying is, “When in doubt, write it out.”
For goodness sake, turn on the spell check feature on. If you want to write pronouns in small letters, at least let spell check catch them for you.
Who are you? You would think that this one was common sense, at least I did. Yet, every week I receive 10-15 emails asking me a general question without telling me who they are or giving me some background. They are huge, open-ended questions that would take me years to answer. This falls into the lack of respect category.
What do you need or want? Forwarding an email that doesn’t ask for what you need makes the receiver try to guess. Not cool. Speak up, don’t be shy. If you take rejection personally, hire a life coach to work on this with you. Statements don’t automatically ask anything. Questions do. My dad had a saying, “Squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you can’t ask, squeak somewhere else. I can’t guess what type of oil you need.” A little harsh yet it makes its point. Go ahead and ask, and no this isn’t a reflection on you.
We all believe we have good communication skills. There could be some real surprises when you start practicing these 10 Simple Courtesies. Take your time, slow down in order to speed up. Tackle it slowly so that the lessons stick. You will be glad you did. The next email you send might be to your next boss, client, or forwarded to the President. You never know. It happened to me and it could happen to you.
About the Author: Catherine Franz is a marketing veteran, a Certified Business Coach, Certified Teleclass Leader and Trainer, speaker, author, and Master Attraction Practitioner. Business client’s include professional firms, restaurants, retail stores, coaches, employees using writing for advancement, and independent professionals across the globe, i.e., the USA, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. For daily marketing tips and electronic newsletters on marketing, Universal Laws of Attraction, and marketing writing/copywriting.

What E-Mail Marketers Can Learn From Banner AdsBy Paul Soltoff

A long time ago (last century, to be exact), banners flourished on the Web. People saw them and clicked. The banner worked. Then, the great banner deluge began. An overabundance of banners caused a downward spiral in CTRs and conversions.
The banner still exists, in different incarnations. It still works, and it's even regaining popularity. Still, some sites stack up banners like pancakes at IHOP. It's as if publishers, desperate for banner revenue, have their own fraternity: Phi Kramma Banner.
E-mail, too, once flourished. People weren't receiving so much email back then. They opened email and read it, they clicked on the links. E-mail worked. Then, the spam floodgates opened. Thanks to an overabundance of email, today email marketers are headed down the same slippery slope as marketers who used banners.
Banners and email are now pretty much in the same boat. Both are recovering. Recovery notwithstanding, getting consumers to respond to both is getting tougher. The commonality can be summed up in one word: clutter.
This is exacerbated with more online ad spend. Banner ad and email marketing, like just about every other form of advertising, must cut through the clutter and engage people long enough for them to hear the marketing message.
On TV, advertisers must make that connection in the first 12 seconds. In direct mail, the connection depends on the envelope message. In a print ad, the time it takes to read a headline is the only chance. So banners and email must face the same hurdles, right?
Yes, but with a significant difference. When users surf the Web or read email, their hands are literally on the trigger: the mouse. Their fingers are poised to jump to a different Web page or delete the email with a click.
It comes down to time. You've got very little time to make an impression and get the email recipient to read the message. Successful banner creators learned many lessons over the years about dealing with very little space and making every word count. Many of these lessons can be applied to email:
Few words. Craft a headline that gets your point across fast. The only way to achieve this is to cut the number of words you use; 6 to 10 is a good rule of thumb.
Simple words. Replace complicated words not everyone knows with simpler words everyone understands.
Short words. Long words take time to read. For almost every long word, there's a short one that's just as effective.
Big type. Make it easy to read your headline. Basic stuff, but I see too many small headlines that force people to spend extra time just trying to read them.
Dramatic graphics. A picture is worth a thousand words, so find graphics that enhance the headline and instantly convey your message.
Benefit-oriented copy. Features and specifications go in the body copy and supporting bullets. People want to know what's in it for them. Tell them quickly, or your email is history.
Call-to-action buttons. If you want customers to click to a landing page, use "click here" at exactly the point where it's optimal to click.
One or two fonts. Multiple fonts make reading harder and don't add anything to the message.
Above all, create a compelling, benefit-laden value proposition or offer. Even if you follow all the suggestions above exactly, your email will fail without a great offer. You're competing with thousands of ads every day. In the end, the ads with the best offers, supported by smart presentations, almost always win.
About the Author: Paul Soltoff is the chief executive officer of SendTec, Inc., a direct marketing services company specializing in customer acquisition. SendTec combines extensive direct response experience with proprietary technologies to produce scalable results. Principal services include performance-based online marketing, offline direct response marketing and direct response television. SendTec represents advertising agencies and advertisers such as RealNetworks, AARP, Monster.com, AAA, Punch Software, MyPoints, Grey Worldwide, Cosmetíque Cosmetics, Columbia House, and Euro-Pro. Prior to starting SendTec, Paul was a founder and EVP of Saatchi and Saatchi's DRTV division in New York and has over 25 years of advertising, media and direct marketing experience.

SEM FAQ: Globalization, Hiring, and Getting into SEM By P.J Fusco

I usually respond to readers' SEM (define) questions individually. But sometimes I get the same questions repeatedly, so I address them here. Today, I'll answer your questions on global SEM strategies, hiring honest SEM vendors, and the education you need to work in SEM.Note: no individual or company names or email addresses are used to respect correspondents' privacy. Some of the questions have been paraphrased into more general queries.Q. The company I work for wants to take our SEM strategy global. What should I look for in a global SEM vendor?A. Executing an SEM program on a global scale isn't easy; SEM combines business goals, technology, and creativity. Yet global SEM campaigns can produce amazing results when geographically divergent branch offices are unified in a global search campaign.Different vendors will have different approaches to producing a global strategy for your organization. To determine which vendor best suites your needs, organize your Web assets by priority. Know which markets, languages, and places are most important to your business. From there, review each vendor's capabilities in the countries and markets that mean the most to your business. Ask for local references from organizations operating in the countries that have the greatest effect on your business. The SEM vendor you select must have a working knowledge of local directories and search engine usage in each market on a language-specific basis. Also, be certain the vendor has either a local presence or access to talented translators who speak the languages your business needs. Q. How can I be certain I don't hire an SEM vendor that will spam the search engines?A. Once again, references are essential. However, three good references don't necessarily mean the vendor won't leverage questionable SEM tactics. Some vendors will go so far as to put no-spam clauses in their contracts. But this doesn't guarantee the services they provide aren't contrary to what search engines deem best practices.No reputable vendor will ever guarantee organic search results.Nor will they promise results within a definitive time frame. Such promises usually mean that link farms, doorway pages, or cloaking will be employed to produce temporary top rankings. Your best course is to review the Webmaster guidelines at each of the major search engines:Google Webmaster Guidelines Yahoo Search Content Quality Guidelines MSN Guidelines for Successful IndexingYou can usually spot a link farm or doorway page by doing a few deep searches for the vendor or a few of its clients; simply drill down similar page details in Google or analyze who links to them. Another signal of questionable strategies is if the vendor expects your business to link to it or an off-topic site. If a vendor tells you it can increase search traffic to every page of your site, they're probably building doorway pages for your site.Spotting a vendor that employs cloaking is no small task. Sometimes the vendor tells you very few site changes need to be made, only some "special code" needs to be added to the site. An easy way to see if a vendor uses cloaking to deliver different search results is to check out the site or its clients in Google's cache. If what you see is different from what Google sees, the vendor's probably using IP cloaking to sway search results.Q. What educational focus provides the best background for getting into the SEM industry? A. The answer depends on which elements of SEM you want to specialize in. Computer science is a natural if you prefer programming over site design, for which an art degree would be handy. An advertising or marketing degree provides a solid background if you prefer the PPC (define) side of the street. If writing and composition are your forte, an English degree is in order.Top marketers in the industry have highly diverse backgrounds. No particular educational background makes one SEM more successful than another. Focus on what you're good at and what you enjoy doing. From there you'll need to practice, practice, and practice. After that, the sky's the limit.

Affiliate Marketing

An Introduction to the Different Types of Affiliate Programs

Today, affiliate marketing programs is seen as one of the most important methods by online companies and merchants to market their products and services because implementing an affiliate program doesn't cost much money and it helps generate a consistent stream of online profit.On the other hand, the affiliates see affiliate marketing as a feasible and low cost method to make online online by promoting other people products using a website or without a website (using Google AdWords PPC advertising program).There are many affiliate programs on the Internet and not all of them are similar. The most basic affiliate programs fall into 3 categories:
Pay Per Performance
Pay Per click
Residual Income Affiliate Marketing ProgramsPay Per Performance Pay per performance (PPP) affiliate programs are what most companies and online merchants likes to use. The companies only need to pay when an affiliate referral translates into an action. The action can be a purchase or a lead. The affiliates will spend their own money to promote the affiliated company's products, This save a lot of money for the company. PPP affiliate programs can be futher classified into 2 sub-categories:
Pay Per Sale (PPS) The title says it all. The company only pays the affiliate when a visitor referred by the affiliate make a purchase.
Pay Per Lead (PPL) PPL is a little different to PPS. PPL affiliate programs usually used by finance and insurance companies. In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate will be paid a fixed commission whenever a visitor referred by him/her to the merchant's website requested a quote or filled up an online application form. Pay Per Click (PPC) Affiliate ProgramsPPC affiliate programs are most popular. You should have heard them a lot. PPC programs are probably the easiest way for web publishers to make money from their websites and blogs. The affiliate gets paid a certain amount ($0.05 to $0.50 usually) whenever a visitor click a banner or text ad displaying on the affiliate's website. PPC typically used by contextual advertising companies like Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Networks and much more.Residual Income Affiliate Marketing ProgramsIn this type of programs, the affiliate not only compensated for every customer referred to the merchant's website, the affiliate is also paid whenever the referred customer returns to the site and buy another product.The different types of affiliate marketing programs would deffinitely work differently for merchants and affiliates, and each would have their own advantages and drawbacks. To find out which types of programs work best for you, you'll have to know which one of them suit your need and characteristic most. And then start testing them.

Interesting Ideas to Make Money on ebay

Only a successful sale generates profits. You can encourage visitors to your auction, you can alsvo get them to read it, but the most important thing is to get them to bid on it. Below are some tips that can help you increase response on your e-bay listing and make more money on each sale:
1) A lot depends upon how you design your auction. You have to attempt to put information on it in a manner that it gives the much required incentive to the casual or interested visitors to actually bid for your item. For example some people do not give enough importance to the accompanying picture they have posted on eBay. A professionally shot picture with proper lighting and un-intrusive background is as vital as the description of your item.
2) Most of the bidders are apprehensive about disputes and the hassles that they might get into after they pay up. To allay such fears the best policy is to sign up at SquareTrade and get permission to display their logo on your auctions which will assure the bidders that they will be not be shortchanged in any eventuality. It gives a professional look to your auction and you will always see it on PowerSellers auctions. To further your professional image and build confidence, put up all business practices in a visible place giving details, including shipping, time schedules, and refunds.
3) Nothing boosts confidence more than good feedback. Include all positive feed back comments prominently and in the event that you have 100% positive feedback, make sure that it is mentioned on all auctions. If you have a reserve price it is likely to discourage bidders. Displaying a NR (no reserve) along with your item’s name should take care of that.
4) Benefits not features: Make sure your description emphasizes on the benefits that your item can give to the customer, not just its features. This is a classic sales technique. If you have trouble with this, remember: 'cheap' is a feature, 'save money' is a benefit.
5) You can never be sure of which payment method a particular bidder might be comfortable with. Try to include unusual payment methods such as checks, which most of the sellers try to avoid. Also keep just two or three auctions going on for an item you have more than one of in stock rather than choosing the Dutch-auction route.
6) Remember that much depends upon the search results when it comes to categories that are crowded. To ensure that your product comes up in the first ten results and you get the maximum hits you need to upgrade regularly. The best upgrades may be expensive but they may be worth the money you spend for them.

Quit the Recession - Make Money Online by TJ Philpott

As you've surveyed the internet landscape for the best opportunity to make money apparently affiliate marketing has caught your eye.
You've probably realize by now that selling other peoples products offers some compelling advantages for anybody who desires to grow an online business.
Let's review some of those advantages here:
Quickly Launch Your Business:
With little or no time needed to develop your own product(s) or conduct a lengthy product research campaign, you can immediately begin promoting products already in demand.
Unlimited Product Selection:
The products you can choose to market, across a wide spectrum of categories and affiliate marketing programs, ranges well into the thousands. The choices you have are ever growing and changing on a DAILY basis! You will never run out of selections or ideas!
Next to Nothing Out of Pocket Expenses:
Being these affiliate marketing programs are internet based businesses any start-up capital is virtually eliminated from your budget. The only equipment you'll need is a computer and phone, but I'll bet you've already got that covered!
No Products to Warehouse:
Establishing and maintaining a facility to store your products can be a significant cost. This storage and handling expense is eliminated for you.
Also eliminated is any shipping and handling expenses affiliated with physical storage since the products you are marketing are digital and can be delivered over the internet.
Automated Sales Process:
Since your business is on the internet every function involved in your business process will be computerized. This will allow your online business to operate unattended and non stop so that even as you sleep you will continue to generate sales, process orders and deliver products.
Global Exposure:
Since the internet has a worldwide reach you are able to market your products and your company globally at no additionally costs!
No Customer Support Responsibilities:
All customer transactions and support are handled professionally by the product manufacturer. This allows you more time to generate more sales!
The Only Income Limitation is YOU:
With the ability to market as many products as you choose on a global basis affords you the opportunity to literally 'write your own check' for the future.
The only variable here is your desire…
Earn an Income While Learning the Ropes:
Even if you lack technical or marketing skills, the field of affiliate marketing enables you to earn an immediate income allowing you to learn as you go along.
If your goal is to quickly make money while you increase your technical and marketing know how at the same time, look no further than the proven field of affiliate marketing!
About the Author
TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. For additional Online Success Tips and a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit:http://affiliatequickstart.com/

Make Money With Articles - 5 Tips To Creating Great Articles

If you want to make money with articles, you must become effective at article writing. Article marketing is only one, but certainly the most important component of an online marketing campaign.
Writing copy for the internet is completely different than writing for print or radio or other forms of media. You are faced with writing for an audience who is pressed for time and who has no desire to wade through a 500 plus word article that is difficult to comprehend and is formated with long, drawn out sentences and paragraphs.
Your job must be to capture their attention immediately, get them hooked and somehow make them want to continue reading your article.
Keep in mind that when it comes to writing online articles, you aren’t writing a term paper for school. The information that you present to your audience should not be academic in nature.
Your goal is to focus on a particular need or problem that your target audience has and solve it in a creative and concise manner.
With that said, here are 5 tips to creating attention-grabbing articles:
1. Get your readers excited
Your goal here is not to win a writing contest. You are not writing to win awards so avoid the ho-hum pragmatic style. Write in a conversational tone that is effervescent and easy to understand. Utilize bold headlines and use attention-getting punch lines so that your audience remains interested and keeps reading!
2. Establish A Connection
You must make a connection with your reader. Talk to them through your article as if you are their friend. You must instill a sense of trust in your target audience. You have to make them feel as if you can relate to their problems, in whatever area you are writing about.
3. Good Content is key
You don’t want to write an article so technical that the reader has to pause and look up each work in a dictionary. You want your article to be easy to comprehend and easy to relate to. Remember - most people read at a six grade level. You must adapt your writing to that level of difficulty.
4. Avoid long paragraphs
Your article should consist of short paragraphs, containing two or three sentences only. Not only are short paragraphs easy to read but will tend to capture the attention of the reader who is time constrained and is just skimming for interesting facts.
5. It’s Not About You
The best way to establish a connection with your audience is to frequently use the word YOU through out your article. The reader will feel as if he or she is important - as if you were speaking directly to him. You will be able to effectively capture their attention by writing in this manner.
So, there you have the five basic article writing tips. It is crucial that you learn how to effectively write articles before you start mass submitting to article directories.
Always keep in mind the reason you are engaging in article marketing. You want to get targeted traffic to your website so that you can make as many people as possible aware of your services and products.
If you want to make money with articles, you need to create well-written, attention-grabbing content that will help you achieve your goal.About the Author:To read more Free tips on how to Make Money With Articles, please visit: http://eArticle.org Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service