The New Money ... Welcome to the Information Age. It's here, it's not going away. I speak to many Real Estate Professionals that simply don't want to deal with it. They have been doing business the same way for years and it has worked out so far, why change? Well, for starters, whether you want to face it, or not, homebuyers and sellers are. It's just that simple. Generation X has grown up, and they are beginning to become active in the Real Estate Marketplace. Moreover, the 30 to 50 year old demographic has gotten much more comfortable with technology. Even the baby boomers are online in increasing numbers. They can check out properties 5,000 miles away, complete with satellite images, from the comfort of their living rooms. They expect you, as real estate professionals to be up on all of this technology. If they can do it, why shouldn't you be able to? After all, YOU"RE the pro right? BUT WAIT! You're a REALTOR®. Your business is properties. Who said you have to be a computer science major? Now, you have to know about legal, financial, construction, city ordinanaces, taxes, and everything else that goes with selling a property? PLUS TECHNOLOGY??? Wow, doesn't seem fair does it? Unless of course you happen to enjoy technology. I have found that most people that don't have a good grasp on technology, just don't understand what it is all about. So, if that is the case, then, perhaps I can be of assistance. Keep reading. Before you get discouraged with it, let's take a look at technology? What its all about, how to work it, how to keep up? When you boil it all down, it's much more manageable then you might think. Let's break it down. The Internet, is simply a huge network of computers. Computers Manipulate and Store Files. Files, regardless of what they are (pictures, numbers, letters, email etc ... ) data. Data is simply information. Therefore, the Internet is just information, or, more plainly the Internet = Information. Think of it like an enormous library, that contains basically all of mankind's knowledge that you can access from anywhere you have access to it. All you need is a simple computer, like say ... a cellphone ... Better yet, once you get the hang of it, it is a lot more fun and a whole lot easier to find information then a real actual library. What's more, the information is up to the minute, comprehensive, interactive and constantly updated. There is information about anything that could possibly interest you, even if it only interests you for a moment (like this blog perhaps). Yep, it's all about information. That's all there is to it. As I see it, information is becoming more important than money. I am guessing that soon, information will be the new money. Already, I have little or no need for actual cash. I can lose it, have it stolen ... My check card is accepted everywhere. I even think the neighbor kid's lemonade stand has a credit card terminal ... But that is not really what I mean by "the new money" actually, information becomes a means to attaining money. For instance, Techy-REALTOR® A and Non-Techy-REALTOR B® are trying to get 29-Year-Old-Client A's business. Client A has a home that he won on an online poker game that he is trying to unload. It is a shotgun shack that needs paint. REALTOR® A has an interactive website that links to Google Maps, IDX, Blogs, REALTOR.org. He can take digital images of Client A's house, upload them to the MLS, market it all over the web, get comps in moments flat, e-mail blast perspective buyers, offer virtual tours of the property, video tours, send and receive email from the middle of nowhere on his PDA, line up; painters, plumbers, home inspectors, and candlestick makers. He can store the sellers name in a database for future reference, and match it with potential buyers from the same database. REALTOR® B thumbs through his roledex. REALTOR® A updates the new contact so that a service sends his wife flowers on their childrens birthday, as the offers are accepted. Simultaneously, he smiles as all the work he has done on SEO hits paydirt with 3 new strong e-mails from his site. REALTOR® B waits for his bus stop bench to generate a lead ... Make no mistake, business is war & that being the case, can you afford to be out there without the same tools the other guy has? Whether you like, or dislike technology, it is here to stay. It is up to you to lead, follow or get out of the way. If you are ready, but don't know where to begin, stay tuned, I will keep the info coming as time permits. If you are the motivated type, feel free to send me a message, either comment here, or shoot an email. Good luck, God bless and keep the powder dry. Courtesy of RealEstateTechOnline.com your real estate technology connection.

Mastering Vista

Cool Things That You Can Do With Microsoft Vista The links below will lead you to various tips, tricks and secrets that will help you learn to unleash the full potential and power of Microsoft's Windows Vista®. One of the the most basic and overlooked facts regarding computing is that even the most advanced skills are simply a matter of knowing. These little gems will hopefully help you maximize your time and productivity, minimize your hassle and frustration and beautify your computing environment. I have been using it for some time now on a couple of my non-production environment machines (my fun computers ... ) and I have been pleasantly surprised with the results. Now, caveat emptor, there are some issues with backwards compatibility. Due to the major overhaul on the security features, some faithful ol' applications had to get left behind. Sad, but alas, that is the price of progress folks. Chances are good that if you have some apps (and you do) that are incompatable, there is either a work around, or a patch on the manufacturers Web site. I am not making any promises, so look before you leap. Simple Usability Tools and Tweaks What's New Customizing Your Desktop The File System The Taskbar Windows Search Cool Simple Tricks & Features The Sidebar Windows Calendar RSS Parental Controls Hotkeys & Shortcuts Vista's Awesome Media Capabilities Importing Photos It has never been easier to import photos. Vista provides us with simple, intuitive way to import, store and view our photos. Record, Make and Watch Your Videos Resources The Real Estate Tech Online Community Forum References

Spam

I have been dealing with spam for a very long time. I have been online since 2400 baud modems. Yep. Didn't take long before I started getting it. I remember when they coined the term as a matter of fact (a dark day for Hormel® to be sure). I can remember when I would go days, sometimes weeks without receiving any email. Then, slowly at first, I began to see it appear. The early days of spam (the email kind) brought some legitimate offers. In fact some were downright tempting ... But, those days were short lived. The spam began pouring in. Waaaay back when I was first starting out, back when computers were still made of wood (I had a deluxe model with a butter churn built in), and laptops were red, had two knobs and you had to turn them upside down and shake to reboot (oh wait, that was my etch-a-sketch®) we had to actually download our mail. The vast majority of people (yes, I'll admit it, me too) had AOL, or Prodigy and we all had to pay by the moment. Yes, so in addition to wading through the spam, we got to pay top dollar to download it as well.

Why am I feeling nostalgic all of a sudden? Since that time, I have created more web sites then I can even remember. Yup, hundreds of web sites ... All of them have something to the effect of Problems? Contact Webmaster@SuchAndSuch.com I then FORWARDED ALL MAIL TO MY REAL ADDRESS. Over the years, the number of sites I authored grew. Everything was good. My skills were improving, I was making a name for myself ... I began to notice 10, 15, 30 a day. The dreaded mailing lists had begun to appear. The trickle of email, became a steady stream, but it was still manageable. Annoying, but manageable.

Then it happened ... I can remember the day it started, my spam went through the roof, literally overnight; BOTS were unleased. Bots, spambots, scrapers, harvestors, mail spiders, whatever you want to call them, hit the scene. A bot is a program that does a certain task, over and over and over again. Bots operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They don't sleep, they don't stop, ever. In the case of spambots, they move from page to page following links, indexing any and all email addresses as they go. They read the code behind the page, so they can "see" the email addresses even if you can't.

The bots store the email in databases. They will be catagorized whenever possible. For instance, if your email address is on a web page containing words like: REALTOR®, Real Estate, New Homes, MLS, etc ... then guess what, your email will be "profiled". Then the mailing list companies then charge a premium to send spam to all real estate emails, or medical, or lawyers or people that like sailing, or whatever. They only charge a few hundred bucks per hundred thousand emails, so there is no shortage of companies willing to use the mailing list's services ... As a real estate professional, your email address is considered prime. Thousands of companies what to sell you something, hence the massive amounts of spam you receive every day.

This is of course in addition to the companies that will send billions of emails to everybody. Oh, yes, you get included in those too. Viagra, All-natural Breast Enhancements, Nigerian 419's, Stock Tips, Phishing Scams, all of it. Phooey.

Why am I telling you this? Perhaps, it's because I like you. No? Ok, maybe because I receive somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 emails A DAY! Perhaps I just dislike the spammers. All of the above, I suppose.

If I had a dollar (used to be a nickel, but have you seen gas prices lately?) for every person that asked me what they could do about spam, I could buy that small country I've always wanted.

Well, there are a few things:

• Don't enter contests (just go ahead and fill out that card with your email addy and drop it in that shiny new car that you can win in the middle of your local mall, I dare you. How do you suppose they pay for those?)
• Be careful what companies you give your email address to, especially online, if you are buying something or for some reason you need to, have a spare address (check out hotmail.com) and use that.
• Use MS Outlook 2003. It has excellent filters.

I have had "issues" with products from Norton, McAfee and other so called "spam filters" and do not recommend them, however, that's my opinion, you are free to do as you wish.

I have however found a pretty cool utility. When somebody sends you an email, it replies and asks for verification. If verified, the email is forwarded. I am not totally sold on it, but you may want to give it a try. It is called, SpamArrest and you can find it here.

If you do, please let me know what you think of it. Good luck and I wish you a spam-free day.

A few words on link popularity

I recently replied to a post on a forum regarding search engine optimization. This topic inevitabley led to the subject of Link Popularity. There was all sorts of information regarding Link Popularity and much well meaning and well intended advice.

Now, for those of you that do not know what I am talking about; Link Popularity is the term used to describe the technique search engines use to determine website rankings. It is a count of how many websites link TO a particular website. The logic here is simple. If a lot of websites link to whatever.com, then whatever.com must be an important website, and therefore, should be ranked accordingly.

One of the respondants remarked that Link Popularity was the magic bullet and was the best, and fastest way to increase site ranking.

No truer words have been spoken. HOWEVER, there are some things you should be aware of:

1.) Google considers the ranking of the site linking to you. If CNN.com links to you it carries more weight then if someobscurerealtylinksite.com links to you.

2.) If the number of links (in comparison to other content) is too high Google tags the site as a "Link Farm". Having a link to your site on a "Link Farm" will actually DECREASE your ranking.

3.) Multiple links from one site may be considered as one link. It is possible, if the content is original enough between pages that it may be more. I am not 100% on this and it seems to change.

4.) Self links don't seem to count.

5.) Links from other domains that you own are devalued. For instance, if you have more then one domain and you link one domain to the other, it doesn't get as much credit.

6.) No matter what is said, it may change next week at Google's discretion.

7.) Your best bet is to make the site as unique and informative as you can.

Link Popularity is a huge factor in determining link popularity, but the word from Google itself is, just make a good site. That is the quickest way to the top.

You can see how many sites link to your website by visiting this link RealEstateTechOnline.com Link Popularity

Good luck!

Realtor Tech: Choosing a Web Designer

Realtor Tech: Choosing a Web Designer

Choosing a Web Designer

Hi. While I am sure there is a whole boatload of designers (perhaps even me) that would love to build a website for you, I recommend that you proceed with caution.

You website will be an extension of your image online. Therefore, it is imperative to find the right developer.

First, there are a few things that you should consider.

1.) Your budget. Know what it is before you begin to negotiate.

2.) What you want. make sure you have a concrete idea regarding what you are looking for. With that said, if you want the moon and the stars, be willing to pay for them. Building a website is a time consuming venture and a good designer will want to be paid a fair price.

3.) Content. What do you want your site to say. The more the better. It is up to you to write this. Do not make your designer do it. While they may be articulate and be able to write good copy, they are not you. After all, isn't it your online personna?

4.) If you have a shoestring budget, then consider a template. Template Monster is a good place to start. Their templates are priced fair and more importanly, they are retired after 10 downloads. This way you can be assured your site is relatively original. The have hundreds of real estate sites to choose from.

If you do go with a template, I still recommend having a professional customize it. With that said, the bar isn't so high and a good pro-am (professional/amatuer) designer should be able to pull it off.

*I should say I am an Monster Template affiliate.

5.) Time. The more time you can devote to upkeep and new content the better. You will only get as much out of your site as you are willing to put into it.

6.) Marketing. I have written a couple of articles re: real estate marketing. You can see them here; Marketing Part One, Marketing Part Two

Well folks, that is all I have time for today. Good luck choosing your designer.

Keepin' it safe...

So now that I have told you a little about the potential hazards lurking in the dark corners of the Internet, it is time that I shed some light on what you can do to protect yourself.

So to revisit my last post, there are three basic threats that you should be concerned with...

1. Viruses (Self replicating malicious programs)
2. Spyware/Adware (Software that has been surrupticiously installed on your machine that will do a number of things including: moniter your surfing habits, record keystrokes, initate multiple pop-up ads, etc...)
3. Hackers (The folks that spend most of their waking hours trying to get into your machine.)

Remember the motivation for most of these threats has become financial gain. It used to be notoriety or even pranksters, but now it is a multi-billion dollar business. Spammers need machines to send out their garbage and are willing to pay .15-.18 cents a month per machine... This means YOU. Ever wonder why all of a sudden your machine is running like molasses? Well its probably because you are sending thousands of emails an hour unknowingly.

ANYWAY...

You need three essential things to protect yourself...

1. A good antivirus program. I recommend AVG, or Avast both are free and both are in my not-so-humble opinion signifagantly better then what is widely available... You can download a copy by clicking one of the following links: AVG or Avast
   
2. A good anti-spyware program. Microsoft Windows Defender is what I use. It is also free... Typically, I do not recommend beta versions to end users, BUT I have used this for quite some time and have found it to be both comprehensive and bugfree...
   
3. A Router. Erroneously called a hardware firewall, it uses a technology known as network address translation. I will spare you the techie details and tell you simply this, it makes your computer much harder to hack. Better still is an actual hardware firewall. I recommend the Zyxel P1

Well, that won't make you bulletproof, but it is a good start...

Keepin' it safe...

So now that I have told you a little about the potential hazards lurking in the dark corners of the Internet, it is time that I shed some light on what you can do to protect yourself.

So to revisit my last post, there are three basic threats that you should be concerned with...

1. Viruses (Self replicating malicious programs)
2. Spyware/Adware (Software that has been surrupticiously installed on your machine that will do a number of things including: moniter your surfing habits, record keystrokes, initate multiple pop-up ads, etc...)
3. Hackers (The folks that spend most of their waking hours trying to get into your machine.)

Remember the motivation for most of these threats has become financial gain. It used to be notoriety or even pranksters, but now it is a multi-billion dollar business. Spammers need machines to send out their garbage and are willing to pay .15-.18 cents a month per machine... This means YOU. Ever wonder why all of a sudden your machine is running like molasses? Well its probably because you are sending thousands of emails an hour unknowingly.

ANYWAY...

You need three essential things to protect yourself...

1. A good antivirus program. I recommend AVG, or Avast both are free and both are in my not-so-humble opinion signifagantly better then what is widely available... You can download a copy by clicking one of the following links: AVG or Avast
   
2. A good anti-spyware program. Microsoft Windows Defender is what I use. It is also free... Typically, I do not recommend beta versions to end users, BUT I have used this for quite some time and have found it to be both comprehensive and bugfree...
   
3. A Router. Erroneously called a hardware firewall, it uses a technology known as network address translation. I will spare you the techie details and tell you simply this, it makes your computer much harder to hack. Better still is an actual hardware firewall. I recommend the Zyxel P1

Well, that won't make you bulletproof, but it is a good start...

Regarding the Bad Guys...

With so many hostile factors facing your computer these days, it can be a monumental task to protect yourself. Let's start by defining the different types of threats.

• Viruses -is a self-replicating computer program written to alter the way a computer operates, without the permission or knowledge of the user (as defined by Wikipedia). Many people mistake other kinds of threats as viruses, however, spyware and other malware, may act very differently. Click this link for a complete definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
  
• SpyWare -Wikipedia states:" a broad category of malicious software designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the informed consent of that machine's owner or legitimate user. While the term taken literally suggests software that surreptitiously monitors the user, it has come to refer more broadly to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit of a third party." Often spyware is installed via virus, but it is not limited to that mode of installation.
  
• Root Kits -This particularly nasty form of Malware actually alters the root of the operating system to render the unwanted user invisible. In laymans terms, it makes the hacker and his tools invisible to Windows. Therefore you (and your antivirus protection) can't see them at all. More on this later
  
• Hackers -These guys are the guys that "hack". There are good guys known as White Hat Hackers and Bad Guy Hackers, known as Black Hat Hackers. This bears some further explanation.White Hats also known as "Ethical Hackers" are generally the folks that secure networks. The will also attempt to break into networks to expose security flaws for the perpose of evaluation and remediation. Black Hats These are the guys that most people think of when they hear of "hackers". They spend their time trying to maliciously break into networks and computer systems.
  
• Adware -Adware allows the unwanted software to serve ads. Usually in the form of popup ads. In some cases you don't even need to be on the internet. Other types of Adware adds a tool bar, or a search bar to your browser. In some cases, these can be extremely maliciaious, they can add additional spyware/malware, redirect your searches to their pages...

So what do you do?? How can you keep your computer in working order? What about email? What happens if you have already been infected? What about online banking and ecommerce??? What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow???All that and more in upcoming installments!! So Stay Tuned.