Luxury Real Estate

By Jean-Yves Piton

I recently came across some remarkable facts about blogging. Did you know that, as of 2008, 70 million weblogs exist, about 120,000 new blogs are started each day or 1.4 new blogs are created every second, according to a report by David Sifry, founder and CEO of technorati.

Impressive, isn’t it? And blogging keeps on growing universally!

As a business professional, do yourself a favor: embrace this change rapidly.

Thanks to a recent analysis of the online behaviors of over 2 million worldwide candidates performed by comScore, Six Apart and Gawker Media, we discovered that bloggers are “significantly more likely to live in wealthier households, be younger and connect to the Web on high-speed connections. Blog readers also visit nearly twice as many Web pages as the Internet average, and they are more likely to shop online.”

Clearly, this fact alone should help you appreciate the importance of reaching out to this ever-growing target audience in order to grow your business.

Equally important, do not underestimate the power of this innovative tool as part of your online marketing strategy worldwide. Search-engine marketing is predominantly gaining ground vis-à-vis other forms of online marketing. As you blog, your blog entries will consistently appear in search engines like Google and Yahoo, resulting in higher search-engine rankings to be seen by virtually anyone around the world.

Needless to say, blogging is much cheaper than owning and maintaining a complete website, and represents the most inexpensive method to date to advertise your company's brand name and products on the Internet.


Editor’s Note:
Jean-Yves Piton is the Global Services Membership Manager for LuxuryRealEstate.com. He assists Bente Madtsen, the Director of Global Services, in expanding the LuxuryRealEstate.com brand into even more countries around the world. Blogs are amazing tools for gaining traffic, and their usefulness is probably just going to grow as bloggers refine their craft. Be mindful of some possible legal issues involved in blogging, but other than that, happy blogging! The photo of the blog apartment building is from www.flickr.com/photos/poagao/96805244 and it is the copyright of Poagao.

By Robert Lockard

For the past several months I’ve had the pleasure of posting content to the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog from Jim Walberg, an experienced blogger and the co-Broker/Owner of The Bay Area Team, the most-successful team at Keller Williams Realty-Danville, Calif. Jim’s Caribbean Islands Realty Blog is very well-established and fun to read so I’m always glad to include his work on our blog, with his permission, of course.

Jim took the time to point out something awesome to me in an email on June 11, 2008. I have read about blogs helping with search-engine optimization, but Jim’s message really drove this idea home to me (The links weren’t in his message originally. I added them):

”You may notice when you use my blog postings that LuxuryRealEstate.com jumps up on the Google search engine. I have “owned” Aruba Fractionals on Google for months! LuxuryRealEstate.com just jumped to the top of page one with the posting of my article on your blog site. It is so fun to see how this blogging game works. It is my pleasure to support LuxuryRealEstate.com in any way I can.”

One other comment Jim made also impressed me: “The power of blogging is based on one’s understanding the ‘rules’ that Google and Yahoo have set up for search-engine optimization. The next is to understand the ‘strategies’. Don’t forget, strategies always beat out rules. What I have found among the blogging world is that all of us are constantly sharing strategies. We all want each other to ‘win’. That is one of the fun cultural experiences you will find in the blogosphere. I am always available to share.”

Thanks for the great message and for all of your help, Jim.

I still feel like I'm learning the ropes when it comes to blogs, trackbacks and all of these inventive ways to provide great content and be rewarded by search engines. I think it’s very important to write about important topics first and worry about good placement and all that other stuff second. It’s nice to know that Jim Walberg, who has found a great balance between the two, is on our side!


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. You can contact Jim Walberg at jim at jimwalberg.com. I sure put a lot of links in this blog entry. I guess I just had a lot of information to cram into a couple of paragraphs, plus I’m learning how to provide more links for the search engines to find us.

By Joey Pauley

We are pleased to announce LuxuryRealEstate.com has negotiated a monumental deal with LuxuryLifestyle.com that we are able to offer to you. The price is only $750 a year for an Enhanced Company Profile and 10 Enhanced Properties on LuxuryLifestyle.com. At Luxury Lifestyle’s normal rate, this would cost $10,500.

This offer is exclusively for members of Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate.

Are your home sellers asking, “What are you doing to advertise my home?”

Are you looking for somewhere, in addition to LuxuryRealEstate.com, to advertise your exclusive properties online?

Do you want to advertise outside the real estate market?

Are you looking to supplement your link-building – an important aspect to Search Engine Optimization?

We have already seen positive results for existing members who have placed properties on LuxuryLifestyle.com for Search Engine Optimization. What are you waiting for?

Email me at jpauley at luxuryrealestate.com or call me at 206.838.2865 to receive over 90% off this great service.

LuxuryLifestyle.com is the largest, most comprehensive, and most exclusive direct-access register of luxury companies, products, and services anywhere on the Internet. They are highly selective of the products and services featured on their website. So selective, in fact, that they are only offering this deal to Luxury Real Estate members – the best luxury brokers in the world.


Editor’s Note:
As a Technical Account Manager with LuxuryRealEstate.com, Joey Pauley helps members with their Web and technology needs. He does a phenomenal job in all of his projects, as you can see by visiting the many websites he has helped design. This is a great opportunity that might have slipped by if you hadn’t checked the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog. Aren’t you glad you did? Thanks for the great opportunity, Joey!

By Joey Pauley

Today, did you notice that your coworker got a haircut?

Did you notice the fresh scratch on the side of your car? I didn’t do it.

Did you notice the country search has Bahamas as an option in the country dropdown on the Luxury Property Search Page on LuxuryRealEstate.com? Many of our Caribbean members have brought to our attention the confusion in the Caribbean section of the site so we made a few changes to make our website more usable for the potential buyers of our members’ most luxurious homes.

Enjoy, and keep your feedback coming.


Editor’s Note:
As a Technical Account Manager with LuxuryRealEstate.com, Joey Pauley helps members with their Web and technology needs. He does a phenomenal job in all of his projects, as you can see by visiting the many websites he has helped design. Feedback like this is very helpful. We are always looking for ways to better serve our members. We sent out a survey about our conferences a little while ago and we’ve incorporated the suggestions we received into our plans for the 13^th Annual Luxury Real Estate Fall Conference in Philadelphia. We hope to see you there! The photo above is from www.flickr.com/photos/christophemallet/131222816 and it is the copyright of christophe mallet.

By Joey Pauley

I figure after three years in Seattle, it is about time to settle down. There are a good many reasons to buy a house now, but the main reason is freedom. Right now I rent a huge house in the Capitol Hill Area of Seattle but there is nowhere outside for a dog to run. The yard is just too small. Not just for the dog but for me.

A home of my own would defiantly keep me in the area, taking away my freedom to move at will, but I would have the freedom to do what I want with it. I could get a dog; build a rock wall in the backyard, get the hot tub I have always wanted… These are all freedoms of space – a space of my own; the house, the yard, the location, the freedom to do with it what I wish.

This is going to be a scary process, buying my first home. But it is a great challenge and looks like a lot of fun. I've set up email alerts on Ewing and Clark's new website to keep myself abreast of the market. I get a number of listings in my email that match my search criteria. It is like a present in my email box every week. You can set up your clients to have similar email alerts on Luxury Real Estate. It is a great tool for shoppers like me.


Editor’s Note:
As a Technical Account Manager with LuxuryRealEstate.com, Joey Pauley helps members with their Web and technology needs. He does a phenomenal job in all of his projects, as you can see by visiting the many websites he has helped design. Does anyone else remember those fun “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoons on Saturday mornings? There was one called “Elbow room,” talking about the expansion of the United States from sea to shining sea, and this blog entry totally reminds me of that. We all need a little elbow room!