There is no doubt that the real estate industry is one of, if not the toughest profession. Not only are there a lot of licensed agents out there, they are motivated. So, when competition is thick, how do you differentiate yourself from the others? One of the easiest, although sometimes overwhelming phases of your marketing strategy is your on line presence. The great thing about your on line marketing campaign is that it works for you 24/7. While you are out showing property, performing a listing presentation, or even sleeping; your on line efforts are at work.

A critical part of your web effort that some agents tend to forget, is that you have to stay on top of it. This is not something you just throw together and then forget about. It is critical that you update your profiles and add new content to your sites, blogs, and on line communities. For example, what do you think when you go to a blog that has not been updated in a couple of weeks? Where did they go? Are they still in the business? You already know how important it is to stay in front of your clients and prospects with e-mail and mailings; it is just as important to do so on line.

A great tool that many blog services offer to assist you with this task is that of post dating your blog entries. Take some time to write a few articles in one sitting, but schedule them to post at a later date. Do this once a week and you have a great pipe line of articles created. Another great tool for Twitter is called tweetlater. Much like post dating you blog posts, tweetlater allows you to post date your tweet updates. Going out of town? Just want to stay ahead of things? These are two great tools to help you. Stay tuned for more helpful hints from Agent Nation.

Due to the lack of blog posts in the last couple of weeks, it may seem as if we have fallen off the radar. On the contrary, the last two weeks have had the Agent Nation team busy finalizing the last few features of the site with our beta group.

Remember, the mission of Agent Nation is to be the place to build a successful real estate career through collaboration and use of valuable tools. It is professional networking, dynamic marketing and business management. Agent Nation is powered by a group of professional real estate entrepreneurs striving to enable real estate professionals to succeed.

Although we can not wait to see you inside, we want to get it right the first time. Our select beta group is providing us with the necessary feedback to make your Agent Nation partnership the most successful.

So thank you for your patience and helping us build more excitement. The state of this union is good!

To make the concept of "Web 2.0" simple, we came up with the following:

The first generation of the Internet net offered one way communication. You got on line, found the information you needed and that was it. Now, the second generation; or Web 2.0, offers two way communication. Blogs offer readers the opportunity to communicate with others, social networks create communities, and Wikis allow readers and users to edit and add content to the site.

The real estate profession is and always has been a service oriented business. You have mastered the art of prospecting and building rapport. Now you just take those skills on line. The first generation of the Internet gave you the tools to talk to your clients, now you can talk with them.

In previous posts we have discussed RSS feeds and marketing your blog; most of you already know about Twitter. Today we want to suggest a Web 2.0 tool that will get you in front of even more folks in your market and advertise your listings and services.

When you first got into this business you probably did not consider yourself and event planner, but you are at times. Each listing is an event with many events within it; open houses, showings, virtual tours. All of these events require coordination on your part and the involvement of others. Your Agent Nation profile will offer you the ability to advertise your events not only to those within your AN community, but also your circle of influence outside of your AN contacts. The invite you send will offer an RSVP field so you can better plan for the event and a place for comments to build your community. This business is all about relationships and maintaining them through constant contact is key. Agent Nation provides the tools to help you build and maintain your business on line and on the street.

The Millennial Generation, those born during 1983 to 2003 became the generation always on the go. Their parents had them actively involved in sports or after school activities to the point where it is hard for them to stay focused for a long time. They get bored easily. Everything was scheduled for them. There was not much down time. They were brought up immersed in technology, i.e. cell phones, laptop computers, emailing, etc. As such, they are extremely mobile and even have an emotional attachment to their cell phones and computers.

Meet your next client; about 80 million of them, and they're rapidly taking over from the baby boomers. The Millennial Generation is upscale, well educated, and influential. This is an important generation to understand.

You already know that it takes at least ten "reminders" for someone to think of your services. What do you do when that potential client not only consumes an enormous amount of information, but does so through multiply mediums? You stay in front of them. One of the most important things to remember about this group is that they do not seek information, the information comes to them. With that in mind it is even more critical for you to diversify your marketing portfolio. As you continue with your tried and true marketing methods, add some new tools. Although you may be a member of one social network, you may need to join others to reach a wider audience. Think of this as casting a net for bait fish. The wider your net, the more fish you will catch.

The key to this multi tasking marketing plan is to be efficient and effective. This is a visual generation that has a short attention span. Providing a multi media listing presentation to earn their listing or a digital marketing package to present your listing will get their attention. Keep things short and simple and you have them.

So you started a blog, now what? How do you get and retain readers? How do people even find your blog? You will hear a lot about search engine optimization, or SEO, as you get more involved. For those of you not familiar with the term, SEO is the act of taking steps to make your blog or site search engine friendly. We are going to give you some SEO tips, but first off, keep in mind as you write your blog posts, you have two audiences. Your first audience should be your readers and your second audience is the search engines. Like losing the forest for the trees, it is important to remember that if you focus too much on SEO you will miss the point of blogging, which is to provide your readers with information, to network, and create community.

Simple SEO Tips:

~Be specific in your blog topics and page titles. You will rank higher on search engines with “Red Brink House on Mulberry Street” than you will with Anytown Real Estate.

~When loading images, make sure you have named them and are not using the standard camera assigned identification.

~When writing your articles, use key words more often than the word “it”, to improve your ranking opportunity.

Marketing your blog is as important as search engine optimization and does not have to be time consuming. Consider your blog as one more item in your branding toolkit. Prospecting in this business is an on-going effort. Consider your blog one of your tools in your long term investment. Much like your pipeline of prospects, to maintain readers and enjoy return visitors to your blog, you need to offer an incentive. Provide your readers with information that they need. Create a niche market, just like you did when you first got into real estate. You are already a pro at networking, take those skills on line to increase the radius of your circle of influence.

Tips for gaining readers:

~Read and comment on other blogs
~Join social networks like LinkedIn, Face Book, and Agent Nation
~Start a twitter account and follow others in your market
~Create an RSS feed through feedburner
~Join MyBlogLog

The final step in maintaining your blog is monitoring your traffic. Find out where your readers live and what websites are referring them to you by utilizing analytics applications like Google Analytics and SiteMeter. These applications are free and easy to set up. Analytics allow you to monitor your readers, and your progress. Use the key word feature to find out what folks are looking for when they end up on your site. This is a great way to come up with blog ideas.

Last but not least, have fun with your blog!