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Realtors Employ RSS Feeds
to Sell Homes
Daily more and more realtors are turning to RSS
as a tool to market homes for sale. The growing
RSS phenomenon in the realty market makes perfect
sense. Unlike email RSS feeds have a 100% delivery
rate. In addition the costs involved in creating
and managing an RSS feed are insignificant when
compared to the print advertising Realtors spend
on each week. Imagine the amount spent each week
to promote various properties in circulars and weekly
newspapers, compared to the costs associated with
updating and managing an RSS feed.
How it Works:
1. Create Specific Feeds.
Create RSS feeds of homes for sale in a specific
town or zip code. Another consideration is to create
an RSS feed based on the home cost or create a feed
of scheduled Open Houses in a specific region. RSS
feeds can be created manually using a text editor.
A step by step guide is available at http://www.make-rss-feeds.com
or software specifically for RSS feed creation can
be used.The realtor publishing the RSS feed controls
what information is syndicated in the RSS feed,
so ultimately it is the realtor's decision as to
whether to include teaser copy or full articles.
Generally most Realtors use copy similar to those
in print ads to attract the home-buyers attention.
Once you have constructed an RSS feed, you will
need to transfer the feed to your server. This can
be done using a standard FTP client (if it is not
built into the feed creation software). The feed
is usually placed in the domain's root directory
like this: http://www.mydomain.com/nameoffeed.xml
or a subdirectory like this http://www.mydomain.com/rss/nameoffeed.xml.
2. Promote the Feed.
Once you have an RSS feed you will need to promote
the feed on the realty company website, submit the
feed to the numerous RSS feed directories and tell
customers about the availability of the RSS feeds.
In order to signal to website visitors that an RSS
feed containing content related to the website is
available, include a colorful graphic on the website.
Realtors can customize RSS feed buttons by selecting
the text on the button and the color scheme of the
button. Once the color and text is entered, a custom
graphic is instantly created. Webmasters can easily
match the style of the RSS button to a website's
theme.
Create custom RSS buttons - http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm
Many website visitors who have RSS readers/aggregators
installed will automatically detect an RSS feed
on the website if you add a small portion of text
to the header field of your web page. Use the following
format to assist RSS readers in auto-detecting the
location of the RSS feed.
[link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="RSS" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml"]Replace
the brackets [] with less than and greater then
symbols <> and replace http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml
with the URL to the RSS feed.
In order to increase exposure of a realty RSS feed,
Realtors should submit the feeds to RSS search engines
and directories. This can be done manually. Just
as you would submit the URL of a website or web
page to a search engine, or you can use software
to automate the process. There is a large list of
RSS directories at
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
. If you prefer to automate the submission process,
consider evaluating RSS Submit available from: http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html
.
3. Update the Feed.
Update the RSS feed(s) daily or weekly by adding
a new feed item, as new properties are made available.
Repost feed items for any properties that have experienced
a price change.
4. RSS Feed Tips.
In order to maximize the benefit of marketing
using RSS be sure to include the realty company
phone number or link to the website in the description
of the feed, so that any prospective buyers will
call the appropriate office to receive additional
details, or schedule a viewing. Include images of
the home in the RSS feed's description, so that
the property will attract the viewer visually. Highlight
different homes each week or emphasize different
property features each time a property is listed.
It is also suggested that Realtors communicate success
stories by letting prospective buyers know when
homes are under-contract but still on the market,
or communicate when properties are sold and no longer
available. The realty market will benefit from RSS
as a technology as it is a natural fit for the Real
Estate industry.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing
for NotePage http://www.notepage.net
a wireless text messaging software company. |
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