Real Deal REInvestor Network

In a sense, MeetUp online is a portal for bringing together people who are interested in certain things.  I want encourage you to use MeetUp Groups to find local influencers and groups.  You can use existing meetup groups or use the Meetup website for that. For real estate groups, you can also use my website. It’s a great tool for this. Traditionally, real estate investors have been able to connect with other investors and influencers through their local Real Estate Investor's Associations.  This is one of the ways that my good friend and business partner, Rick Melero, moves and shakes in areas where he's never been. 

He shows up and people know who he is, and they know who his students are because he has given them specific exercises to do to connect with these influencers.  If there's not already an influential group in your area, there is a lot to be gained by stepping up and starting one—mainly a lot of influence in your local area among real estate investors who are glad to see something of that nature organized. 

So if there isn’t a group in your local area, this is your opportunity. Start one! Use MeetUp to find local influencers. This works not only within the real estate industry but within all industries, whatever your interest or passion is, you can use it.  If you're interested in real estate and you really want to fill that local influence space yourself, it would also benefit you to start a group within our group on Real Deal Community website.  Just start a group within our network and build your own network within ours. Would I be happy if you did that? Sure, I'd be very happy if you did that. That'd be great! 

Some of our network members have been brought into our internal discussions and planning on where we're taking The Real Deal Community social network for real estate investors site, how we're by the end of the year planning for this to be a minimum of 30,000 real estate investors and professionals in the network. Do the math that's a minimum of 600 within every state if you do a simply divide by 50. Those 600 people not only will be in that state but they'll also be in your group. 

For example if you're in North Carolina, start North Carolina Real Group. If you're in Wisconsin, start Wisconsin Real Deal. If you're in Illinois start Real Deal Illinois and so on, do that and we will have every reason to help you grow that in your local area. 

I hope that you see how you can use the Real Deal Community and MeetUp to find local influencers. The real point is to get connected with influencers by getting plugged into an existing group or by starting your own.   

There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank page and trying to come up with some new creative marketing ideas.  That’s why I suggest that you create a swipe file of marketing ideas.  You have to have one of these, they save you so much time.  What is a swipe file? It’s an electronic library and written published library of ads you’ve seen that get your attention and compel you to respond or others around you to respond in the perfect way that ad is positioned to do.

I created a swipe file of creative marketing ideas years ago. My attorney even knows I keep a swipe file and sets things aside for me from time to time. He has added a lot to my swipe file because he’s kept certain things over the years that impressed him as marketing pieces. And, of course, I was able to take those, use them, massage them into something else and start making money for our company. I highly recommend that you create your own swipe file of marketing ideas.

What are some cool ways that you can start your own swipe file today? Well, my marketing knowledge, when I first got started, the curiosity if you will or the wow factor of, man that’s what I want to do is be a copywriter, a marketing consultant, it came from a guy who positioned himself as the greatest copywriter in the world. In a field of big egos in copywriting, for a long time, no one questioned this gentleman on being the best in the world, which really says something.

Unfortunately, he died before I could thank him in person for the pieces of information and encouragement he gave me, but one good thing about him passing away is that someone in his family or center of influence decided that most of the stuff he had for sale should be given away for free.

For anyone interested in copywriting, search for “The Gary Halbert Letters” online. You’ll find an archive of 20 years worth of marketing newsletters, promos, etc. that he used along with some great swipe file nuggets. Is it organized the way we’d like? No. Are you going to have to wade through a lot? Yes. Are you going to be annoyed sometimes with his attitude about writing about how he’s the best, he knew it so he doesn’t need to impress you? Yes.  Will his newsletters be great for someone like you looking to create a swipe file of marketing ideas?  You bet!

Another resource for swipe file information is the Robert Collier Letter Book. (Good luck trying to find a copy for sale for less than a couple hundred bucks since it’s out of print). If you find one for sale for less than $100 grab it up, it’s a good investment. It’s a published book of winning ads that he put together to use from different marketers.

I hope that you will begin to create a swipe file of marketing idea right away.  You always want to be keeping an eye out for great marketing pieces.  The resources I’ve shared with you in this article are a great place to start!

I personally like to think of it as a marketing funnel for your real estate business as opposed to a sales funnel which many people call this idea. Imagine an inverse pyramid. Everyone is in it, everyone you meet, everyone that comes into your marketing portals, everyone that comes into your website, everyone that calls you, everyone that emails you for information, everybody that responds to one of your bandit signs, everybody you meet at a networking meeting, everybody that sees one of your videos online or reads one of your articles - these people are all at the top of the sales funnel levels.

   This includes people who know you. They may or may not be the perfect prospect for you to do business with, your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, teacher, preacher, girl you met at the gym - these are all people that are at the top of that pyramid.

   Just below that if you were to draw this on a piece of paper, we all know what a pyramid looks like, I'm assuming, not that ancient Egyptian history is a pre-requisite for reading an online article, but let's assume we all know what a pyramid is. At the top if you've got a line that's about two inches wide, just below it you've got a line that's about an inch shorter, about an inch wide and it's centered below it.

   That first line is all those people I just mentioned– just below that are people who you decide to follow up with– just below that is another line, which are people who agree to receive your follow up and just below that are people who want the same and request more information.

   What do I mean by that? Somebody can give me permission to follow up with them, but they're not even a real person until they raise their hand and say, “Hey, tell me this,” or ask a question. You should have something within your follow up sequence of your marketing funnel that identifies those people that do raise their hand from those people who are like a cold fish just laying there.

   If you're looking at your piece of paper and you're actually drawing this with me, you've thus far got four tiers and they consistently get smaller. What we're building here is an inverted pyramid. If you were to continue going down the next three levels would be levels of getting involved with them. 

   What do I mean by that? In your real estate business marketing funnel, or really one for any business, you should have different ways someone can get involved with you. Let's say, for example, you're a mortgage broker. A level five would be - level one, two, three and four I've already shared with you - a level five would be they've raised their hand and said they're interested in you following up with them and right now is the time they want to put in a loan application, so you’d get a 1003 filled out.

   Level six of your sales funnel levels would be you have a conversation with them after that. You follow up with those people in a different way in your marketing funnel. Of course, some of that should be automated, and if you're not using automated follow-up tools you're missing out on time you could be spending with new prospects. 

Level seven would be people who actually do a loan with you if you're a mortgage broker. Now, we're seven levels deep going from a Level one which might be someone you've met at a conference, or who has seen you on social media or your mother, father or whoever that comes into your orbit in any way, going all the way through Level four which is they have given you permission to follow up with them, you want to follow up with them, and they've raised their hand asking for more information in several ways.

   Whether it's emailing you, asking a question, calling you, filling out a form on your website, filling out a form through your autoresponder sequence that says I'm interested in (X), all the way down through getting more specific to your business in levels five, six and seven with the example I gave for a mortgage loan officer.

This is the basic anatomy of the sales funnel levels.  Do you have a sales and marketing funnel with clear levels established for your real estate business?

Recommended Tools for Beginner Real Estate Investors

I’m often asked for a list of recommended tools for Beginner Real Estate Investors. The list I’m about to give you works in all different industries. It doesn't matter if you're working with foreclosure sellers or whether you're working with potential private investors for a commercial real estate deal you're putting together.

The first tool I recommend is a credibility kit. It could be a website, brochures, collateral and business cards. Whatever it is, it should be consistent. It should show people you are who you say you are, can do what you say you can do, and let them know what you do, what solutions you provide and why they should work with you. It's very simple. 

 

Next, and a lot of people disagree with this, but I think you should have a dedicated phone. I think, at the very least, you should have a dedicated phone line. It can come into your cell phone number, but it should be a dedicated phone line. 

 

Next on my list of recommended tools for beginner real estate investors is a tickler file.  This is a way to track your pinging and your follow up if not automated. For example, you talk to a seller who is interested in selling but not yet over the hump of selling at the terms that you want. Make sure you have a system of organization whether that's Outlook, one of the automated tools that I use, or a box on your desk with index cards that are put in order of date - whatever it is, low tech or high tech have something that helps you follow up and tickle people over time and keep organized. 

Next, and I think as we move more and more in today's world, this is less of an option and more of a requirement quite frankly: an autoresponder. One of Aweber. The one that I got started with and am more familiar with is GetResponse, I currently use both Get Response and InfusionSoft. 

Next are questionnaires. This is a simple tool. This is something you can have printed out in front of you on your desk. You want to have questionnaires that deal with who your perfect potential people are who are coming into your marketing funnel. For example, you should have a sheet that you fill out on the phone with someone if they're a potential lease option seller. You should have a sheet you fill out with someone on the phone if they're a potential lease option buyer. You should have a sheet in front of you if you're having calls come in from a potential private lender or investor.  

Can you later advance, put some of that stuff on the web and have it automated? Yes of course, but don't let what you don't know stop you from doing that. If you don't have a website with those fancy features where people can type all this in on the site, have these people call you. Fill out a form while you're on the phone with them and build rapport with them. 

We don't want to 21-question them, that doesn't work, everyone has seen a first date where you're just like - that guy is definitely not going to get a second chance because he's just rapid firing question after question and we all know that doesn't cook the bacon, so you want to have those sheets in front of you. 

I'll tell you a quick story about when I first started out in the real estate game. I was actually working for an investor for free and this guy was a jerk. I didn't like him at all but he had this policy about this buy sheet, this thing that had to be filled out.  

If it was blank paper it was about as worthless as toilet paper but as you started filling it in and putting in the information about the property, putting the motivation from the seller, different information pieces you'd gotten from the seller– as you started getting that filled in, and it might take more than one conversation it might be over time– as you start filling it in it becomes less and less toilet paper and more and more worth its weight or more in gold. That was something he taught me, even though he was a jerk and I didn't like him I learned the value of keeping and data-basing that information for follow-up.  

 Let's say somebody is advertising in your local newspaper and they're saying they have their house for rent. Could you call them if your niche in real estate is doing lease options or sandwich lease options, in which you take the lease from the seller and you offer a lease that incentivizes you, meaning you get option consideration, you get more money per month, and tell them you’ve got a perfect tenant buyer for their house who has bruised credit and would like to buy a house like theirs on a rent to own basis? That is the power of reverse marketing for real estate investors.  If that's your niche, what would stop you from calling people who have a house for rent and offering them that value proposition? What would stop you from calling every single for rent ad you find every week?
 Maybe you might call with a reverse marketing message to phone numbers associated with “for rent” ads that goes something like this: 
“Hey, I know you have a for rent house, possibly you may have wanted to sell it and just weren't able to. If that's the case, I'd like to buy it, please call me about terms.”
 Now, that's not too difficult, but what is a little bit more advanced, what I call reverse mass marketing –this is kind of interesting stuff, this is some next level stuff that very few people do– what happens if you had somebody, you don't have to do it yourself or if you're strapped for cash you can do it yourself, I happen to like other people doing it but that's me. What would stop you from doing it as a “voice blast” after getting the phone numbers typed up and put into a spreadsheet?
   Take all the numbers in your local newspaper that are for rent, have them typed up and put into a spreadsheet, and send that exact same message that I just said to you guys over a voice blast using a service that only charges you a few cents per call.
   The people who call you back are people who would be looking to sell their house who weren't able to sell their house, are now offering it for rent, and were intrigued by your voicemail call saying “hey, I'd like to buy your house, call me if you're interested in my terms.” When they call you, your job at that point, is to take that prospect and turn them into a seller so that you can purchase their house in a lease option, resell it to a potential buyer tenant you already have lined up in the wings and make money.
   It's a very simple niche. Can you use that with a lot of different things? Yes. Is there a voice blasting tool that works better then others? Yes. Will I give it to you? Of course, I will. There are many different services available but of the ones I’ve tried I like CallFire, for price on large call blasts and VoiceShot for ease of use on quick small voice blasts. 
No matter which strategy for reverse marketing for real estate investors you use you're going to ask yourself a couple of questions: Who is my market, meaning who is the perfect person who should hear about my message? What are the mediums or media that I can use to reach them? What is the perfect message that will get me the response I'm seeking? No matter what market you’re looking to reach with your message, you can likely reach them through the medium of reverse marketing, not just by telephone or voice blast marketing.
Those of you who are real estate professionals or investors who have yet to use reverse marketing I challenge you to begin thinking now of who is advertising, to do business in a certain way or sell something in a certain way that you can grab their contact info and reverse market them because of what you offer them matches what they are actually spending money or effort to tell the world they have to offer you.
Pretty sweet, huh

What is the ultimate social media strategy for business? This is very simple. You can write this down, circle it, star it, underline it, box it, highlight it - do whatever you want or take a picture, this is the biggest thing.

   You want to add value to other people's lives.

I just paused for like five seconds there to let that sink in, because this is not a hocus- pocus it only works in the 21st century era of social media, this is how you connect with other human beings and get them to do business with you – period. 

And that’s what makes it the ultimate social media strategy for business. It just so happens the principle doesn’t change but the platform we're applying that principle on is changing faster and faster until today we're able to immediately get and receive feedback for the value we've created for others through platforms such as social media.

First and foremost, be a value giver in social media. Whether you're trying to get people to sell you a house, whether you're trying to get somebody to gain trust in you to later invest in one of your projects, whether you're attempting to get people to get on your buyer's list, who want to find out more about properties you can provide for them - the number one thing you want to do is add value to those people.

Let’s say you’re looking to attract people who could possibly be in foreclosure. First, you need to realize this is not a laughing matter, these are human beings and you need to approach them with a service mentality. By doing what I explained to you to do, you will come across in a way that’s far above and different then the typical people saying ‘I want to buy your house”…that most people do. You have to slow down and feel empathy before you can build empathy for those people.

 Therefore, you have to approach that from a service mentality. In fact, if anyone wants specific tactics for doing that there are a number of articles I’ve written on the Internet, feel free to Google the phrase, service mentality and foreclosure investing, and you’ll probably find them.

However, specifically on social media, how you do that is not by offering people a drill. What do I mean by that? A drill is a tool. A tool is your ability to buy the house and get someone out from under a potential foreclosure, giving them that solution. The tool is you; however, they don’t want you. They don’t know you and they don’t trust you. What they do want is a hole in their wall and that hole (speaking metaphorically) is a solution to get out from under their problem, not to have to worry about it anymore, to be able to sleep at night and move on with their lives.

If that’s a solution for a hole in their wall, that you’re able to provide for them, they will not care that you can do that until they know that you care about them as a person, so you use the ultimate social media strategy of adding value as a way to show others that you care about them. Then, from time to time you let them know what solutions you’re able to provide and ask them to refer their friends. 

Why do you ask them to refer their friends? Because it’s less invasive, less popping in their face saying I know you’re in foreclosure I just knocked on your door, “I have the lis pendens, and I know you need my help!”  It’s much softer.  “If you or someone in your family or network may know of someone behind in their house payments, if you do, please understand that I’m totally equipped, willing and able to help them, just have them call me.  They can either rent their house and save it or sell it and get on with their lives.” I’m a solution provider in this area and leave it at that.

You’re not saying I know you need help, you’re saying you may know of someone who needs help and you may find that the very people who respond are those that you give that message to, instead of referring to their friends. However, they won’t feel like you’re like big brother with your hand on their necks already knowing everything about them, which quite frankly is what happens when you’re one of those investors who does door knocking, which I’ve done and which students of mine do. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t work on social media, because in social media people can close the door on you much easier by de-friending and getting rid of you or by not paying attention to you then they can when you’re there on their doorstep.

These are two different strategies that both work, but you use them with a different mindset and intent.  So to sum it up, add value add, be a professional, show empathy if you’re dealing with someone in foreclosure.  How do you get them on your list? Same thing, add value…It doesn’t matter whether that person is on your wholesale list as a potential buyer, a rehabber or landlord looking for potential properties, firstly they are human beings. Make them laugh, make them interested, make them curious and then make them your customers.  That’s the ultimate social media strategy for business, and it’s that simple.

Most of you, don’t know it, but I gave up a lot to go to this event in Orlando. As you know my birthday was July 6th. But what most of you don’t know is that it was my 50th birthday this year. As a result, my Husband (Russ) was planning a surprise party the same weekend as the Orlando event, for me. Russ had flown in my son from Vegas, and my grandson from NYC to come celebrate with us. He also coordinated the party with his brother and wife, flying in for their summer vacation, coming from Alaska. When I told Russ, that I was going to Orlando for a real estate seminar this past weekend, he was not at all supportive about it. He made several attempts at getting me to cancel my plans and stay at home for my surprise party, without giving away the secret, but failed. Finally, with all other options exhausted, he told me what he had planned for me. At that point, we had open discussions, and I had to make a choice. It was a difficult decision. I made the decision to cancel the party, and go. I figured, I could still visit with my out of town guests, when I got home; and I could always have a party next summer to celebrate my 50th outgoing year, or my 51st birthday, or heck – I could even wait 5 years and throw myself an AARP party. This was too important to my development to miss. After changing all our party plans, I found out the Directors were not going to be there. “Did I make the wrong decision?” I started to ask myself. Should we get the party back on? I could wait until August, and go to California, when all the directors will be there. I finally decided, I could no longer live with one leg over each side of the fence. It was time to DECIDE. Am I going to commit to this investing, or am I going to make excuses about not going? I decided, it was now or never - and I was going to be all in! I still had a few moments of concern and regret, but for the most part, I reconciled within myself, and I moved forward. Did I regret it? HELL NO!! Let me say that again – HELL NO!!!!! It was the one of the best things that ever happened to me. This weekend affected me so deeply, in ALL levels of my life. What happened this weekend? I fell in love this weekend!! I fell in love and had a life changing event this weekend! I fell in love with a Semi Good-Looking Guy, and a Freakin’ Puerto Rican! I fell in love with these two guys, their business, and what they stand for. Prior to this weekend, I had hopes that Rick & Danny were the “Real Deal”. . . . . But if you have any concerns like I did initially; Let me tell you - rest assured your weary minds!! There is absolutely NO need for your concerns. These guys are the “Real Deal”. They stand for integrity, hard work, joy, prosperity, and sharing their wealth and talents with others. In fact, they stand for these things so much, it just Oozes out of them! Never have I connected with mentors, teachers, or gurus in the way that I did, over this weekend. The seminar that was taught was AWESOME! The first day of the seminar, our syllabus, was a high level vision, about everything we have been working on, in our menternship. Rick & Danny taught us how essential our marketing projects are, and how it is all inter-connected. They taught us other ways to market, (things we have not done yet). But most importantly, they gave us a very clear picture of the marketing component of their business, how critical it is to all businesses, and how we can implement it in our own businesses. All the dots, were truly connected! On Sunday, we got into their commercial and financial strategies. This information was new to me, and it was very well explained to us. Now their entire business model, makes complete sense to me. I can’t wait to start investing with them, and bringing other investors to the table. Being with Rick and Danny brings out the best in you. You want to be a better marketer and investor. You want to be a better person. When you are with them, you can tell they enjoy life, and they are infectious. They have given me an incredible gift through this menternship, and this weekend’s live event. They moved me out of potential and into “Action”. They moved me out of “Wanting” and into “Doing”. If you did not get a chance to attend this weekend’s live event, then book your flight and hotel now for the next event. IF you put it off, the rates will only go up. Commit to yourself now, and ask “How can I go?” instead of “Should I go?” You owe it to yourself to experience this business, and these relationships. It is time to COMMIT to YOURSELF, and DECIDE to go NOW. You WON”T regret it!! WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE UP, TO EXPERIENCE SUCCESS? To Rick & Danny - I love you , man!!!

In case you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, and are wondering why you should use video marketing to promote yourself or your business right now, this article is for you. Here's what I have to say about it: DO IT! Don't think about it. Go get a hand held HD video camera and start talking into it about your business, about what you can do for others, and start learning about local search or about video marketing as a tool to get yourself found not only as a credibility piece, but because the search engines love video. 

For example, why does Google love video? Why is it beginning to show up on the first page of search results? Quite frankly, it comes down to one of the biggest companies in the world buying an asset that has yet to produce income for them. 

If you don't know this, it's amazing. They purchased YouTube. We all like YouTube, some people go there and they watch silly videos, right? Other people go there to market their business. Some people go there who are employees and they spend their entire work day watching silly videos. 

However, that business model has yet to generate a profit for YouTube and for its acquiring company, Google. Is Google incentivized to make sure that video gets out there as much as possible so that people click into it, watch it, and they click on some of the ads on the websites that do make them money? You better believe it, and this is why you should use video marketing.

They're one of the biggest companies in the world and they're not stupid, they want a return on that investment. Until they get it, video is the new blogging and it has been for quite some time and will continue to be for quite some time, until that model turns a profit for companies like Google. 

Again, the tip with video marketing is to begin doing it now if you haven't already. Get yourself a Flip video camera or whatever you can, I don't necessarily recommend you do it on your cell phone although there are many people who do. 

You want to talk about what your business does, who your business likes to connect with, who your perfect customer is, customer success stories, testimonials, the different areas and markets in your local area that you serve, and the different niches and types of services you provide.  You also want to stack your videos with keywords.  If you don't know what keyword stacking is, find a tool like Traffic Geyser or find a tool that does it for you and learn more about that.

If you’ve been investing time in your marketing, and have begun to see results, you may be finding yourself with less and less time to invest in marketing.  Hopefully, those results are translating into dollars in your pocket, and you now have the ability to really ratchet up your marketing by investing in some time leveraging marketing tools. 

If you don't have money to throw at marketing right now, that's okay. There are ways to get your message out there without spending a small fortune, but never forget marketing requires an investment of either time or money.  So if you don’t have much money, you need to be prepared to make an investment of time instead.  I’ve written many articles on cheap and effective marketing ideas, and I believe that you will find them very helpful.

Time leveraging marketing tools allow you to get much more done in much less time.  One of the tools I use is Traffic Geyser, which is pretty fantastic. Is it perfect? No. Have I had issues with it? Yes. Is our support team on the phone sometimes with their support team trying to figure out why this or that didn't work? Sure. It's not perfect. Nothing is on the Internet to be honest with you, but it is it worth the investment? Yes, it absolutely is, and I'll tell you why. 

Traffic Geyser is a time leveraging marketing tool that allows you to put your message into one website portal, meaning Traffic Geyser and immediately pushing it out to almost 100 others such as YouTube, Mega Upload, Facebook and Yahoo Video, etc. That basic premise, just pushing out a video and instead of posting it to YouTube posting it to Traffic Geyser has been responsible for a lot of business for myself and for my company with HIS Real Estate Network. 

However, they don’t stop there. When they first started a while back that's all they did. Now they'll actually take that same piece of content, that same video and they'll do a couple of really, cool things with it. They will literally strip out the video part and keep just the audio, which is an mp3 file, and they will post it for you to places like iTunes where people can download it and listen to it on their iPod. 

They don't even stop there. They will take that same audio file and somebody somewhere, I don’t know - first, second, third world company or machine– they will turn it into an article and submit it to article marketing sites for you. Is that a cool service or what? So, I don't have to lift a finger other than creating the video, uploading it to Traffic Geyser and then it’s blasted out there to all of these places. By the way, another thing they do is tag all your videos on all the social bookmarking sites. Is that fantastic? Yes. Is that leverage? Absolutely!  

Could you do that on your own? Here's the question those of you who don't have the financial resources for example even to afford something like Traffic Geyser. Could you do it on your own? Absolutely! Is that the best use of your time? No. If you were to test it, I think you would find that it would take you a good 40-60 hours personally and manually doing submissions that Traffic Geyser does overnight while you sleep.   

   Traffic Geyser is just one example of a time leveraging marketing tool. I'm not going to go into a whole bunch more tools in this article, but there are different things I use, have used. Some that work and some that don't work.  The point is that at some point, we all need to be able to leverage our time and take advantage of some of the tools that are out there.  I hope this helps point you in the right direction.

What’s the importance of blogging?  What about article marketing? If you’re a real estate investor or professional, should you do it? What happens if you're not a good writer? What's the whole point of this? I really don't see what the big deal is. There are some people that feel like just by blogging that they're somehow this nihilistic person that thinks the most of themselves and the entire world should listen in, but that’s not what blogging is about. 

Blogging is about finding people who want to connect with you in the way you're able to add value to them to the world through your business, your personality and your own personal sense of what you can accomplish or solve problems for others. It's also a way of creating credibility.  

Let's say you meet someone at a conference, they're considering doing business with you in one way or another so they want to come back and look you up. What are they going to do in today’s day and age? They're probably going to look you up on the Internet. They're going to want to find out who has worked with you, who you know, whether they're connected to you already, what you've done in the past, what your skill sets are, what you're like and what your personality is. 

We live in a very transparent world where all that information for someone that knows how to and is interested to find it can do so. You have to make sure that as much of what they find reflects what you're able to do for them as you can. 

Are you starting to see the importance of blogging and article marketing in real estate marketing yet? Let me just tell you one quick thing; I'll tell you a good 5-12% of my database for real estate investors has come from blogging and article marketing. That speaks for itself, because we have a pretty big list of people that we work with, both me personally and through the real estate network. 

These people are consistently staying engaged with us because of the valuable content that we give them. There are lots of article marketing websites out there to post your blogging content on for extra exposure, and once you post your articles, they will be on the internet for forever. That's one of the cool parts about marketing on the Internet in that it continues to work for you long after you've extended the effort to put it out there.

Don’t overlook the importance of blogging and article marketing in real estate marketing. You will be amazed at the opportunities that spring into your life. Some of them will be direct and some indirect, but all of them will add to your fun and add to your bottom line as a real estate professional or investor.