As an agent, you may be using the Internet for e-mail, news, and some surfing, but are you using the medium to market yourself effectively? HomeSeekers.com is betting that you aren't, and believes it has the answer to what is holding you back.

You may be intimidated by the steep learning curve associated with using the Internet, a medium that appears to shatter traditional marketing concepts. The reason? The Internet is the first marketing tool that allows interactive information relay at the will of both the consumer and the service provider. This can be an advantage for new agents or seasoned professionals, if you know how to take advantage of it. If you could find everything you need to manage and deal with the Internet in one convenient box, would you use it?

HomeSeekers, again, is betting you will. To entice more listings to its site and to increase its lucrative Web hosting service to agents, HomeSeekers.com is offering a complete Internet Marketing Kit free to agents. The kit includes an Internet service provider at $16.95 per month, a desktop tool kit for contact and listing inventory management, and a guide to marketing yourself on the Internet.

The ISP is provided by RealPoint, and offers the first month of Internet service free. The desktop tools are from Realty 2000® and come in the form of a CD. In addition to the contact and listing management features, you can use the tools to send electronic marketing flyers, create CMA presentations and to calendar and schedule key real estate events and appointments. The software also contains a word processor and customized reports.

Also included in the kit is CityNet, a card that allows your buyers to have a special password into the HomeSeekers.com Web site. They enter through a special portal that features you as the exclusive buyer's agent, effectively giving you a leads tool.

The free kit is distributed one of three ways. Agents can sign up for the Web hosting service and allow HomeSeekers to build their personal Web sites. The second way is that agents attend a seminar provided by HomeSeekers in their area. The third way is that HomeSeekers is marketing the kit through MLS/Associations for distribution to their members at no cost to themselves or to their member agents. In return, HomeSeekers requests that the organization consider sharing its listings. In addition, the organization can take advantage of a non-dues revenue resource by accepting 25 percent commissions from HomeSeekers on agent Web pages generated by the kits.

The real value of the Kit is that it is virtually a Web site in a box. With your own Web site, you can have your own domain name, your own e-mail address at your own domain name, place your own listings on the Web site, and control the content yourself with an easy log-on, or have someone in HomeSeekers customer service department do it for you. The fees are $649 the first year, $349 the year after and include the Web hosting, ISP, and customer service. According to HomeSeekers, many agents spend thousands of dollars developing a Web site, but the kit offers an inexpensive and effective alternative.

In case agents are confused as to the difference between a Web site and a Web page, such as those offered by Realtor.com and HomeSeekers at $200 a year, the difference is owning your home as opposed to renting a room, or the difference between a book and a page in the book. Each has its place, but HomeSeekers believes that their step-by-step approach will provide agents a pain-free way to have their own Web sites without interviewing Web designers, or learning complicated html codes themselves. HomeSeekers provides an on-line editor so that you can control your content easily, including adding links or inputting a listing - complete with a virtual tour by Bamboo.com. You will also have a lead capture system through your guestbook page where visitors who wish to view listings can put their contact information. You are notified of the leads, including how many times the user has visited the site.

For more information, visit HomeSeekers.com or call 1-800-704-9302.

Published: May 4, 1999

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Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. For more articles by Blanche, click here.