Gee Dunsten, RS Council trainer for the National Association of Realtors and co-founder of The Interagent believes one of the greatest marketing tools is right under your nose: Internet marketing, particularly e-mail.

"The biggest problem regarding e-mail in the real estate industry is the rampant non-use of it," Dunsten says. "It is the cheapest, most effective form of communicating personalized marketing messages, and most agents simply do not bother."

How can e-mail be used to your advantage? E-mail postcard systems, e-mail letters, and e-mail flyers are becoming increasingly popular with today's more sophisticated agent. With a click of a few simple buttons, agents can use the latest World Wide Web technologies to highlight their exclusive house listings, offer relocation information to those looking to move, send open house invitations, present full marketing plans to buyers and sellers, and much more. The sky is truly the limit.

This type of proactive Internet communication has been labeled a "push technology" and until recently has only been used by large computer marketing firms like IBM and Microsoft to offer technical support to their power-users. Today, agents across the country are using this same technology to take their marketing to the next level.

Why? More households have Internet than ever before. Thus, more agents and agencies are online than ever before. Agent Web sites are popping up all over the Web -- and rightfully so. Every agent should develop a strong Internet presence; it's the new frontier for selling homes. However, there are some pitfalls to watch out for:

Planning. Know the reason why you want to get active on the Web. Be able to sum up in two sentences to yourself what you hope to accomplish with a Web presence. Check out your competition, see how they present themselves, and then outclass them. Content is key. Don't make a Web site just so you can print the Web address on your business card. Make sure your site and your postcards contain relevant, useful information. Get in the minds of Web surfers, and think about what they would find informative. That's the content for your site, postcard, newsletter, and the like.

Hire a professional. If you decide to go the route of a personal Web site, don't make it look like you have just purchased the most recent version of a "do-it-yourself" Web kit. Internet surfers can spot these somewhat unprofessional sites a giga-mile away. You're going to the trouble of breaking a new marketing front. Don't go to the trouble of learning a new industry at the same time.

The visual assault. Being a real estate agent involves selling you as well as the property. Many agents produce bright, colorful, fully animated Web sites full of scrolling text and flashing banners. People cannot read text on a page when half of the items are moving in different directions. After all, you want people to read your pitch. Simple, elegant sites using warm colors are more inviting and cause less eyestrain. Just because technology can do it doesn't necessarily mean you should do it.

Follow up. Many agents have their own sites and make use of a postcard system, and then never follow up on the leads it generates. The technology is hardly worth it if you don't plan to take advantage of the fruits of your labor.

Web promotion. Your site is fairly worthless if people cannot find it. You have to get your site registered in all the Internet search engines. Furthermore, strategic links from community resource centers, chambers of commerce, relocation guides, and tourism boards will increase traffic to your Web site, which translates to more leads for you.

Domain names. If you are committed to making a Web site, then you should be committed to getting a decent name for it. It costs $100 to buy a name, and it's worth every penny. Be wary of free Web services like GeoCities and TriPod, search engines put up blocks to keep you from registering these sites, so you can't market them at all. The bottom line: You get what you pay for.

Keep it Current. Two months is a really long time on the Web. If you have a site that isn't updated with new information constantly, your site becomes stale. You can avoid this problem by using an interactive service that generates pages on the fly when you log on. These Internet agent-support services keep you from having to make your own Web site, and still give you the high tech edge you're looking for.

Spamming. Some agents have learned to unleash the power of e-mail -- and use it to excess. "Spamming" is an Internet term for inappropriate use of e-mail, which is the Internet equivalent of junk mail. In fact, spamming is such a serious problem that Internet authorities actually revoke people's online privileges because of this type of harassment. So spamming doesn't score you any points.