Online Marketing: The Times They are a Changin?

 Print Article

Online Marketing: The Times They are a Changin?

By Israel Rothman

One of the first Realtors in his market to promote his company, ?Team Boise,? online, Dale Alverson, CRP, with RE/MAX Capital City in Boise, Idaho, has always been a pioneer in online real estates sales.

Like other Realtors around the country who were early to rise in the world of online marketing, Alverson had great success initially, but then faced increasing challenges as his competitors began to catch on and flood the online marketplace.

?At first it was easy to stay on top of the search engines, but as everyone else started to catch up, it got harder and harder,? says Alverson. ?I was one of the first Realtors ever to do over 25% of my business online, often with out-of-state investors, but when the search engines became more competitive, my Web site fell off the face of the world.?

Alverson is a good example to examine, because his original site (teamboise.com) is nothing fancy, but does have the essential elements of a good, ?findable? site with a lot of quality links to local resources. And most important, it has sold real estate consistently over a period of many years.

But once again we are reminded that function matters more than form; that the most beautiful site will not accomplish anything if it is not seen; and, that search-engine position, along with an understanding of the market, is more important than a big budget or a good eye for color!

Because Alverson has been at it so long, it was easy to get him up on the major search engine indexes. Still, he had reached the point where he could not get there by himself anymore. He tried ?pay-per-click? for a while, he says, but began seeking another way when the search words he wanted to maintain became too costly.

?Now I am back on top of the search engines for my chosen key words, and once again I am getting over 25% of my real estate income as a result of my online efforts,? reports Alverson of his results with Ads For Free and Hit My Page. ?Now all my listings are turned into unique Web sites, constantly updated and re-submitted to the world, findable on the major search engines by every street name and every zip code to better serve my clients.?

In the world of online marketing, what once was, is no more, and what is, is fading fast. Everything is new, dying, or dead on the Internet. Whatever methods you used before, unfortunately don?t work anymore.

To quote Bob Dylan, ?and the first one now, will later be last: for the times, they are a changin?…?

Israel Rothman is the CEO and founder of Ads for Free, Inc. and HitMyPage.com. For more information, visit www.hitmypage.com or www.rismedia.info.