As by now you are aware, the Internet shines when used as it was meant
to be - as a provider of information and resources to those who search
them out. When considering an agent, most Internet customers
will contact those REALTORS® who actively demonstrate they
can gather the resources and information needed for them to
make the right decision.
Thing is, how to you ensure these customers know you exist?
Yes, yes, yes, there is the standard search engine and Internet
publicity that you certainly should investigate. A well-designed
web site and active links from business and city directories to you
will go a long way to bringing in the kinds of customers you want.
What else can you do?
In the past year, the phenomena of "webrings" has started popping up
all over the Internet. Briefly speaking, a web ring is a collection of
related sites, sequentially numbered, that contain links to the previous
site and the following site. This makes it quite easy for visitors
to circle around, so to say, until they've traveled all the links
in a particular ring.
Ringworld provides an easy way to find
rings that might assist you in searching for a customer. There are two ways to use it - find resources where your customer resides, or get onto a ring yourself.
Go to http://www.webring.com now. You'll see at the bottom a list of categories through which you can navigate. For example, you can
choose "Business" and then "Real Estate" and see the Real
Estate Ring for Real Estate Brokers, the
Real Estate Software Ring, and various other related rings. Selecting
one, say, the North California Real Estate Web Ring brings you first to Timber Real Estate. Look at the bottom of the page - there's a link for the next firm in line.
This is an easy way to bring traffic to your site.
Do you network with related fields in the industry? For example,
let's say that you're an agent in Walnut Creek, CA, and sell residential
properties. Your colleagues include local mortgage brokers, home
inspectors, builders, a commercial agent or two, etc. You can agree to form your
own ring entitled "Real Estate Resources in Walnut Creek, CA" by
going to http://www.webring.com/cgi-bin/wrnewring and following the instructions. Maintaining a web ring, remember, does take
time and energy, but the results could be most profitable.
Another place to find web rings would your friendly neighborhood
search engines. Let's say that you are a business woman in
Virginia. You could search on Virginia business web ring women and find the link to The Virginia Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs at http://www.bpwva.advocate.net.
What categories does your agency fall into? Regional, minority,
service field, etc. - all those categories are something to
which you might add your own business link. Remember, whenever
searching on the Internet, you'll come across side roads that
might seem a tad odd, but will definitely benefit from further
exploration.
Published: October 14, 1998
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
Editor's Note: This article reflects the opinions of Barbara Ling only and not necessarily the views of this or any other publication, organization or Website owner.
