1. Utilize demographically targeted ads on Facebook! Geographically specific as well, this is a great solution for agents to send local or relocating potential clients to their website to sign up for their newsletter…yes there is a cost…but you only pay for actual clicks (if you set it up as CPC (click) rather than CPM (impression).  Of course, this would work with any of the other PPC services out there now, but the costs can add up quickly on any if you aren’t careful…and Facebook really seems to be able to zone in on the target demographic really well because of all the likes & interests information that people feed it. Here is an article that I wrote about this very topic last week as a guest author over on RealBlogging.com…
2. Also utilizing Facebook, create a page (formerly known as “fan pages”) about either your geographical area (North San Diego County, CA) or a combo of a certain target market within that set geographical area (golfing communities or retirement communities in North San Diego Country, CA)…and embed a subscription form for your newsletter on that Facebook page.  Sure you can send them directly to your website, but you are apt to get greater results if they don’t have to do any extra work…we tend to be a fairly lazy species after all!  You can learn how to create a page on Facebook here.  People will search to find you…you can create a Facebook badge for your page and put it on your website, all your blog posts, etc…so you are constantly promoting it while you are doing all of your other marketing chores.
3. Pop-ups! 
   I still hate them…but they are effective.  Utilizing some code or plug-in that will make your website viewers have to sign up so that the annoying pop-up will go away and they can read the content that they came to see…well, it can increase sign-up rates exponentially.  But I still hate them.  I don’t want to mention any by name right now…I am actually going to see if I can get one company to let me review their product in detail for a future post.  Some canned real estate websites already have this functionality built in…so check with your provider before laying out additional cash. 
4. Get your fingers typing!  Learn the strategies for using good keyword text in all your articles, website copy, blog posts, etc…the more people that find you in the search engines while looking for their own search terms, the better your odds are of converting those visitors into subscribers.  Guest blog or comment on people who come up when you type your targeted search terms into Google…that will put your site link (where they can subscribe to your newsletter) on these higher ranking websites and will increase your visibility to your target market!  Here is an article that I think is a great starting point for those looking to really focus in on their target market via writing.
5. Now that you have done all of the other items above, number 5 is easy.  Every single thing that has your brand on it on the internet, from your blog to your website to your social media profile pages to EVERYTHING, should have a subscription form right there embedded into it…or at the very least, along the sidebar!  It’s not hard, some WYSIWYG editors tend to make it difficult, but if you aren’t having any luck getting the forms to just paste in or embedding the code directly into the html…and sometimes you won’t…try as a last resort to embed the form into an iframe.  Make the forms stand out, not blend in.  You don’t want to totally distract from your quality cotent, but you don’t want them to fade into the background either.
6. Bribe them to sign up!  Yes, it works…offer them entry into a contest to win Starbucks, a free CMA, a free neighborhood profile, iTunes gift card raffles, chance for lunch with you at a fancy local restaurant, a funny report, a list of funny quotations, a historical report on the area…think outside of the box! (For example…IF I get over 50 female / women / lady real estate agents to subscribe to the weekly newsletter for the National Association of Lady Real Estate Agents via the form below or via the form at the link provided below BY Monday 8/23/2010 at 11:59pm PST, I will do a blog post featuring the first 15 of those ladies with keyword targeted links and a 3 line bio…links to both agent website and AR profile will be included…I will feature this blog post on all my sites and get it as much exposure as possible, creating great inbound links and traffic back to the new subscribers   I will post the links to the blog post in the comments section of this post by Wednesday 8/25/2010 at noon PST. This is called thinking out of the box, people!!!  )

Below is a prime example of #5…here is a hard to miss, attractive to look at (I know it’s large…normally it would be about 1/4 this size, but I was making a point , very easy to use subscription form which I have created for the National Association of Lady Real Estate Agents.  The “look” of the form mimics / complements the look of the association’s website, so it continues to build brand awareness everywhere that it is used.  This is a live form for the NALREA newsletter that is published every Tuesday, so all the lady real estate agents who read this should feel free to go ahead and test it out!  

(Should you prefer a more subtle, classier example, you can see the one on the sidebar here.

A few examples within Active Rain of great sign up forms are:

• http://activerain.com/blogsview/685076/the-activerain-suggestion-box
• OK…seriously…I can’t find anymore now that I want them…I looked through all the people I would normally have been looking at…even though I can see them in my mind and know they’re there…one of them is bright red and on the sidebar…can’t think who it belongs too…sorry – I was trying to do an AR shout-around!

I started a fan page for the National Association of Lady Real Estate Agents today, but I need that fan page / like page to have 20 fans …or likers or whatever before Facebook will allow me to shorten the URL and give it a custom fan page link. So if you have just a few seconds, I would really appreciate you clicking on the like link at http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Association-of-Lady-Real-Estate-Agents/139878569382647
to help me out!

I truly appreciate the favor and am happy to return it.  Thanks!

The author of this book, Sheri McConnell has allowed me to post something from this book to give you a taste of what you’ll find between the covers!  I hope you enjoy it, Sheri has become a mentor to me and I believe that women everywhere can find value in her “voice”, no matter what your path is at the time.  Enjoy!

Trusting What You Can Not See

by Sheri McConnell
Excerpted from Smart Women Know Their Why

Faith is a big part of living a successful life and being a successful entrepreneur.  My secret is deciding to have faith in myself more than any type of external force.  Notice I said the word “decision” because that is where it starts. My journey has taught me that I always intuitively know which direction to head next and when I look to find answers outside of myself, I always end up off the path a bit. It took me until I was well into my thirties to be able to trust others because of not having established trust in any form whatsoever during my childhood.  For me, I had to have my own family and connect with the love I had for them to be able to trust myself and others.

The deeper reason it is important to be able to trust is because your heart must be full and complete in order to bring out the passion and joy for yourself and others in your life.  The feeling of trust will penetrate the walls surrounding a broken heart, the pain from being alone or feeling alone.  Just like you, others have been in the dark and are searching for what you now know to be true. They are searching to believe in themselves in the darkest moments of their being.  This is trust at its core.

So let’s talk about a few ways to learn to trust yourself so you can be empowered to live the life of your dreams which could mean grow a very profitable business, or have a huge family, author a series of books, or travel the world and meet exciting people—shoot your dream life could include all of these—mine does!

Trust in Balance

If you are moving in “auto-pilot” the heart will not shine and the days will cast heaviness in the center of your body.  Balance will provide the base of being grounded to the truth. Believe in the love you have for yourself and you will come from the deepest parts of your soul.

The fastest way to develop a trusting relationship with balance is connect with nature.  This will bring the balance between work, family, love, and life.  In this connection you will build the foundation that will hold you up in any storm.  So each day work on getting out and just seeing the beauty of nature around you.  This will help make the connection stronger and remind you of just how small we are in the universe.  The more you bring in nature and hold the thought of each molecule and atom circling in your path, the more balanced you will become.

Now, I am aware that I live in San Antonio, Texas and we are blessed with nine months of beautiful weather each year, so I know I am able to connect more often than some—if you live in an area that isn’t as mild as where I live, do whatever you can to create the sounds and smells of nature in your home during the cold months.

Trust in Power

True power will emerge when you are in service. All you have to do is trust that the power is given to you to serve and that if you serve, the world is abundant.  This doesn’t mean when running a business, you don’t charge for products and services.  You can’t produce quality products and services and really help your customers if there isn’t an exchange of money.  Trusting in your own power to lead others through your products and services is the inner structure that allows the new ideas and the new beginnings to come forth.

Trust in Energy

The innocence of childhood energy is what we tap into when we are at our center.  Remember the feeling of being with one self and no cares or a negative thought to speak of. Trust that this energy still exists within you and allow yourself to bring this calmness into your thinking when you are taking on the biggest obstacles and the biggest conflicts. Tapping into this energy will help you to reduce stress and become heart centered. This is the constant energy that is felt by others so they can rejoice in their knowing of this power within them.  And knowing about this energy will help you break the barriers of negative energy in any room.

I have found that our truest sense of self comes from just trusting in our energy and the energy signals we get from others. Your goal is to have no barriers or boundaries where energy is concerned and just be with the energy of each moment. In the present moment, there is no fear, no doubt, just you in your power and experiencing all of life’s joys that are presented to you each day.

Trust in the Journey

A lot of people get stuck in their own journey. They relive the worst parts of it over and over again in a very unloving way.  It becomes a vicious circle of inner self disappointment that circles them right back around to the same place again.  I’ve been there and I get it.

Instead of getting stuck on your journey, take the mistakes you made and will make and love yourself as if you were a child who is learning. Even as adults, in some areas of growth we are only children and we must be gentle with ourselves to truly grow through the journey. What I know to be true is that people are searching for a place of belonging and validation. You can create this for them by being a leader who spreads passion and love.

Remember that your journey is a gift because it provides the wisdom you will need to go out and create positive change in the world. So your goal is to learn from your past and do better as soon as you know better. Be strong and have courage to change. Trust me, I know how hard it is to move past a dysfunctional patterns that have become comfortable.  But the rewards of doing so allow you to stand outside of yourself and get a good look at whom you have been and where you are now.  What surfaces is love. And now you can shine this love for others…. You see, without the journey, you would not have this gift.

Because of my journey (see chapter one), I was able to survive the darkness and now shine a light for others who are now in the shadows of darkness themselves.  They need help from someone who has been there and conquered the fear of internal and external chaos.  I do this by casting light on dark situations and allowing my words to fill the gap between doubt and love.   I invite you to find your passions (your gifts) and cast light for others too.

Want to learn more about Sheri McConnell and her new book, Smart Women Know Their Why? Visit http://www.smartwomenwhy.com

You know, complacency is a funny thing…when you’re drowning in it…you don’t even know it exists. How many days do you do the same thing that you did the very day before?

Here’s my first tip to drown out complacency instead of drowning in it:

Every day for a whole week I want you to write down the top 5 activities that take up most of your time each day.  They may be the same 5 everyday, or maybe you have a certain schedule of activities that you perform every Monday, than a different schedule on Tuesdays, etc… Whatever your day is like, just be honest with yourself and record those top 5 time sucking activities

At the end of the week, I want you to look over this list…now take a piece of paper and write all these activities down in one list and then number them in order from least to greatest, according to their income producing potential.  That’s great…you’re doing well…now comes the hard part…THINK. Think what you could do differently to spend more time doing those top income producing items on your list. Think about WHY you spend so much time doing the activities that aren’t mainly income producing activities…what ROI do you get for doing those activities?

Just this one simple activity that will take you a very few minutes each day for a few short days will make you THINK about what you’re doing and why you are doing and break the chain of complacency.  Just as real estate is all about “highest and best use”…so should YOU be…if you aren’t putting “YOU” to your highest and best use, then you need to rethink your game plan.

Check back soon for Part Two of the Drowning Out Complacency series!