Real Estate Agent, Brokerage and Mortgage Blogs

For those of you that know me- you must know by now there are two things I hate. 

1. Blogrolls

Read also: Real Estate Blogs and Reciprocal Linking Penalties: Does Google hate your Link Love?

2. Commenting for backlinks (That being said, since many of you do this, here are some tips)

Read also: Why commenting for traffic and backlinks to your real estate blog is a waste of time

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Want an affordable way to start blogging now? Custom blog design can take weeks to get just right, so RSS Pieces came up with an automated system for building semi-custom template blogs. These high impact real estate blog templates come in a variety of colors can be live in as little as 1 hour form the time we receive your full order and assets and offer you the greatest level of flexibility. You upload all your own images, including headers and logos, add your lead generators and customize all the text (even in static areas) through the back end of the RSS Pieces proprietary Diachronics blogging platform. It's easy, fast and affordable.

This product does not officially launch until mid July, but we are offering a pre release offering with 4 selected templates now. After the official launch you will be able to choose from tons of templates, each in a variety of colors with new templates added to our library weekly and set your blog up yourself online in less than 1 hour. These templates make it easy to switch between them, so when you are tired of your blog, you can change it yourself! Flip layouts, colors, call to action buttons, etc in minutes.

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Template Features:

• Fully SEOed templates for real estate
• Fully optimized landing pages for greater lead conversion
• Read also: Real Estate Site Landing Page Optimization: how to get your visitors to contact you
• Highly customizable layouts
• Graphically intense designs

Platform features:

• Running on the most stable, versatile and feature rich, automatically SEOing blogging platform available for real estate, Diachronics. (Our platform is written in PHP5, the only open source scripting language to pass LEVEL2 security tests - WordPress is written in PHP4)
• Read also: Learn more about Diachronics
• Custom form building features allow you to create custom lead capture forms that will automatically email you new leads and house them in your private backend database
• Read also: Generate More Real Estate Leads from your Blog with RSS Pieces Custom Form Builder
• Automatically SEOs all content to 100% search engine relevancy by selecting all keywords for you while allowing you to inject additional SEO information in category and custom pages and reconfigure your SEO settings to the recommendation of SEO experts like Michael Gray, Rand Fishkin, Aaron Wall and Stephan Spencer.
• Full backend, integrated server side statistics allow you to accurately measure your traffic and search patterns from a single point of entry
• Geolocation tools enabled so you can geocode listing posts for better search placement
• Form relationships with other RSS Pieces bloggers and cross post from your blog(s) over to a friend's blog through a single interface or aggregate all your content automatically over to other RSS Pieces agent, brokerage or community blogs.

Jamey, Prezzi, Miami Rentals and Sales Blog

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OK, I've had it.  The more I learn about this whole sordid tale, the less I like it.  So, here: let's show ePerks what the blogosphere can really do.  If you care about your fellow real estate blogger, Vlad Zablotskyy or if you just want a blog, write a post in support of Vlad Zablotskyy.  The post must be supportive of Vlad and use both his name and the ePerks name in the title.  Please refrain from slandering ePerks, just publish the information as it is understood.  Feel free to reference this post or any other post listed in this article.  It seems that with every new post, we learn more about the inner workings of ePerks.  Many former customers and employees have come forward to provide additional information which will help Vlad and provide real estate professionals with iinformation they may need to make an informed decision when deciding whether or not to do business with ePerks.

Why will I do this?  Because the more positive info we push up the engines about Vlad, the less likely the negative info that is out there can harm him.  These posts will also

This offer is good for the next 5 days (June 13 - Jun 18, 2008) - no strings - you buy the domain - we will give you a semi-custom Template blog and hosting (hosting free for 1 year)

To see the templates available for this offer go to this post and scroll to the bottom.

Get the story: ePerks Sues Real Estate Blogger, Blogosphere Unites to Destroy the ePerks Brand

Read also: Eperks: How to kill a startup

Read also: ePerks & iHype - Legal Kneejerk - Sues Blogger

Once you have written your post, click on the link below to order your free blog:

See who supports Vlad and gets a free blog:

Ruthann Macklin: Im Mad As Hell-You Will Be Too When You Read About Vlad Zablotskyy and ePerks

Kevin Wilhelm: Spreading the word about Vlad Zablotskyy and his battle with ePerks - Free Speech Issue For The Blogging Community

Susan Goulding: ePerks & Freedom of Speech?

Sean Giorgianni: Zablotskyy the Scrivener

Aaron Mallo: Suport Vlad Zablotskyy in his defense against ePerks.com frivolous suit

Hunter Jackson: E Perks Sues Blogger Vlad Zablotskyy

Mitch Argon: ePerks Sues Real Estate Blogger

Dennis Blackmore: Why Real estate Agents are Bailing out of ePerks

Barry Cunningham: Real Estate Radio

Aaron hoffman: Nominee for PR Blunder

Felipe Cook: ePerks and Freedom of Speech

Don Reedy: Stop ePerks and get sued

Debra Davis: Atlanta Homes and Condos

 Colleeen Kulikowski: How ePerks, Wake Up

Gregg and Denise Tomlinson: Eperks using questionable tactics

Benjamin Ficker: Spreading the word about e-jerks

Ginger Sala: ePerks vs Blogger: Is free speech at stake?

Scott Schang: Vlad Zablotskyy - A Martyr for Reputation Management

Karma's a Bitch, especially when you get the blogosphere involved. So, here is a beautiful little story about a company, ePerks, that didn't quite like what one blogger did (Vlad Zablotskyy), so they are suspected of having attacked him personally all over the Internet (some NASTY stuff detailed below) and then sued him when he started talking about it and saying he suspected as much (IP addresses from ePerks and employee names have been linked to certian attacks as detailed below). Well, this is a blogger we are talking about and he would not take it laying down. So, he wrote all about it on his blog and next thing you know you have:

• My favorite blogroll hating SEO devil, Andy Beard chronicling the story
• The silver tongued wordsmith himself, Greg Swann starting up a fund to help the blogger (Vlad)
• That ever so handsome Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson calling them out as EJerks
• And many many more bloggers standing up to ePerks in blog posts, including Inman News which covered Vlad's legal problems in March.

The funniest thing about this is that ePerks is suspected of having set out to damage Vlad's reputation, but in the end it is theirs that is getting destroyed. They are one, we are many and we are indignant that a large corporation thinks it can wield it's weight to censor or personally destroyany of us. The more posts out there about this situation, the more negative information filters up the engines and the more information we are able to learn from people that also had dealings with them. So, while this singular post may not help with the legal matter- the collective of all these posts just may quicken the fall from Google, investor, consumer, etc grace for ePerks and finally land them in what Hoovers so kindly terms, "the Business Boneyard."

Please note: this post is not meant to be slanderous, I am reposting information gathered from other sources about this case and adding my own commentary.  Becasue of so many posts about this case, many former employees of Reply.com and ePerks have come forward to speak about how they were treated by Ben B (ePerks CEO) confirming he has a long history of online and legal bullying.  Many former customers and real estate professionals that had contact with ePerks have also stepped up and posted nasty emails they received from ePerks employees. (Dennis Pease is called an idiot by an ePerks employee in an email).

Read also: Reputation Management: Using the best tools to build and monitor your online identity

Snapshot of the ePerks vs Real Estate Blogger Tale

The following is the torrid tale of eParks and how they solicited editorial advertising from real estate bloggers and when they didn't like the result of one blogger's pieces they attacked him personally and are now suing him. It's disgraceful. For those of you not yet in the know, ePerks, a service that allows Realtors to offer incentives back to consumers, has recently taken legal action against a fellow real estate blogger, Vlad Zablotskyy.

These are the facts, as reported by Andy Beard and Greg Swann

1. ePerks solicited editorial advertising (blog posts recommending their service) on real estate blogs

2. Vlad wrote such a post and was complimentary

3. Commenters on the post came in and talked about how bad the ePerks service was and how they felt they were swindled

4. Vlad writes a response piece to acknowledge reader comments: Is ePerks a gem or a Scam?

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Hey, real estate agents should be too busy to blog. It's a fact. So, sometimes you need quick, easy and effective posts that take minimal time and brain power. So, here are examples of simple posts that will quickly become cornerstone pieces on your blog.

Please note, most of these revolve around you knowing your way around the MLS and listings. Why? Because every successful real estate blogger knows, the bread and butter of their blog are posts about listings.

Read also: The First 30 Days of Blogging

1. A monthly top 10 listings post.

This is a very simple post. Each month, you probably walk through upwards of 20 homes and view even more on the MLS with clients. So, make a list of your favorite picks for various types of buyers.

Examples:

• Top 10 Denver CO Homes for first time home buyers
• Top 10 Salt Lake City real estate investments
• Top 5 Fort Lauderdale Foreclosures

How to implement this post:

• Use MLS data like listing info, address, description, photos (if copyrights do not prohibit you) etc.
• Make your own brief analysis of what makes each home a best buy or good investment (be specific - people like specifics)

Read also:Top 5 Easy and Effective Listing Posts You Can Write for Your Real Estate Blog

2. Use a listing that has sat on the MLS for months to show what prevents a home from selling

Hey, you've been in the house or you have seen it on the MLS. You know the house. The one where the front yard hasn't been tended to or the home is never in showing condition or the MLS info plain old stinks. Or worse yet, the home is just grossly overpriced. Take an explicit example from the MLS of a home that has sat on the market for months and explain all the problems with it and why it isn't selling.

Examples:

• Why this 3 bedroom DC Condo won't sell and how you can make sure yours does
• Why great San Diego Homes like these go unsold
• Why good Portland homes can't sell and bad ones do

How to implement this post:

• Find one home that has sat on the market for a while that you can clearly identify why it has not sold. It is preferable to pick a home that you have been inside.
• Use MLS data like listing info, address, description, photos (if copyrights do not prohibit you) or take your own photos etc.
• What is preventing the home from selling and list things that the Realtor or Seller could do to help this home get sold.

Read also: Formula for a Successful Blog Post

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