Dear CyberAgent user,

World Soccer Cup 2010. Are you ready?

It was made clear in resent articles that was placed on the web that online marketing is going to be bigger this year. With the World Soccer Cup 2010 being hosted in South Africa real estate agencies and agents don’t have to debate on whether they should or should not advertise their properties on the web. The question now is “How much should I spend on Internet marketing?” You should also ask the question on how you can make sure that the money that you are going to spend on online advertising doesn’t go to waste.

• Where did you spend your money in 2009 on Internet marketing?
  
• Did it work for you and if not why?
  
• Which Internet marketing resulted in your strongest leads?
  
• Did you spend enough on Internet marketing?

One of the biggest expense for real estate agencies and agents advertising online is usually the property portals on which they submit their properties. It should also be like this as US National Association of Realtors reported that an estimated 90% of potential buyers looked for properties online. Even in South Africa we at CyberAgent saw a dramatic increase in Internet traffic. Read what one of our CyberAgent users, Anne Porter Knight Frank, have to say about Internet Marketing. To the editor

Year-on-year we had an increase of more than 600,000 page impressions on www.cyberprop.com alone. We received a whooping 12,000 “first time” Internet enquiries for January 2010 and we now update and advertise the properties of our clients on more than 60+ websites at less than R 6.00 per website per month compare to the 40 websites of January 2009. Here at CybeAgent we are committed to give you the most for what you spend on your Internet marketing.

As a CyberAgent user take this tip today; if your competitors is not big on Internet marketing capitalize from their mistakes!

And that is what we will be focusing on this month; Internet marketing.

Good Luck!
The editor

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, USP Designs has added mapping to www.Cyberprop.com, its client’s as well as affiliated websites.

With this in mind, we now are able to display a map and plot agencies on that map, yet again, a first for the industry.

A web user can now zoom into a particular area on the map and request a display of all Real Estate Agencies for that area. The user can define what area they wish to buy in and then see which agencies are nearest to that area. The area can be as broad as the whole of Southern Africa or it can be focused right down to suburb level.

To help us speed up this process, we ask if you would please enter your agency’s mapping coordinates.

If you are a CyberAgent Professional/Lite user;

you can use CyberAgent desktop application, Under “Site Update” we have added a new “Map Agency Coordinates” button.

Clicking on this button, will open a web page where you will be able to enter your coordinates.

CyberAgent Anywhere;

users can find the link under “Agency Setup” Menu option.

On this page, is a quick find, which will help you to navigate quickly to the suburb where your agency is located. Once you have located your suburb, simple click on the map to plot where your agency is. This will add a pointer and retrieve the coordinates for you. Then Click on the “Update” button to save the coordinates to our database.

Please remember to be as accurate as possible. This will help prospective clients find your premises quickly.

All our newsletters are stored on the CyberAgent website - so you can view any previous newsletter by simply going to www.cyberagent.co.za/newsletters.shp and then simply click on the newsletter link on the right.

Search Engines: Choosing Effective Keywords

Learn what keywords your potential clients are searching for
It's extremely important to choose and focus on the right keywords. Very few sites spend enough time analysing what terms and phrases they should be focusing on. What terms do your customers search by to find your competitors? What keywords are your competitors using? Obviously, these are important things to know when choosing your own keywords.

The most highly searched keywords aren't always the best -- Target a niche market

It isn't enough to just know what the most popular terms are. The best terms are those that are not only popular, but also specifically targeted to your market, and have the least competition.

In recent years, the real estate industry has become one of the most competitive online. Large corporate real estate sites dominate most of the top search engine rankings and it is nearly impossible for a new web site to get a top ranking for terms such as "Cape Town real estate" or "Cape Town Estate Agency".

While most large real estate firms and portals are focusing on greater metropolitan areas and broader real estate search phrases, individual agents and small brokerages should be concentrating on a much more targeted market. Be as specific as possible about your target market with your keywords. It's a common misconception to think that including a highly used search phrase in your site will generate a proportionate number of visits. This is because the popular search phrases will also have the most competition.

For example, if 100 searches are done on the term "Pretoria Properties" every minute but there are 75,000 web sites targeting the keywords "Pretoria Properties ", your chances for getting many visitors from that term are very low. On the other hand, let's say you target each smaller neighbourhood such as "Faerie Glen properties" or "Lynnwood properties" specifically. Even if there are only a few searches per minute for these, your actual clickthroughs will be much higher with only 10-20 sites competing for them.

Your visitors will also be better qualified for your services and your web site will better demonstrate to them that you specialise in what they need..

Brainstorming for additional keywords
Keep in mind that some keywords will be extremely competitive and you may not be able to get into the top 10 listings for quite some time, even if you've narrowed down your focus. More established sites with higher traffic and link popularity will be able to muscle out the top rankings even if you do use the all the right keywords in all the right places.

Don't be discouraged as there are always other keywords and phrases that are overlooked. Be clever and think of other less-competitive phrases to start while you work on building your site's link popularity. There are more people searching for these overlooked keyword phrases than you think.

Write down all the possible keywords that someone might enter into a search engine to find your site.

Do not target single keywords

One common mistake is to target single keywords. With a few rare exceptions, searches on single words will match millions of web pages in any search engine. Your potential clients quickly learn that if they perform a search on "homes" or "properties" that they'll get hundreds of thousands of listings for real estate from all over the world. They will most likely use a much more specific search phrase to eliminate the irrelevant matches before continuing. For example, the following list of keywords will not be very effective.

• properties
  
• real estate house
  
• estate agent
  
• broker
  
• realtor

These terms need to be combined to take on the correct context.

Use the longer version of a keyword phrase

If possible, choose a longer form of a keyword phrase that also contains the shorter version. For example, if you use "Brooklyn real estate agent", you are also covering the shorter phrase "Brooklyn real estate". This way you can use the shorter and more popular search phrase as many times as possible in your web site while still covering the less competitive longer phrase.

Next Month - Keyword Vs Content Balance in SEO

For more information contact webmaster@cyberprop.com

E-MARKETING THE GROWING FORCE IN REAL ESTATE SECTOR

Among the older generation of property marketers there was for some time a definite reluctance to get to grips with the internet and to maximise its potential – but this has almost entirely disappeared now that the power of this medium has made itself felt.

This was said recently by Lanice Steward, MD of Anne Porter Knight Frank, the Cape Southern Suburbs and Atlantic Seaboard estate agency.

“None of us, I suspect, realised just how effective websites and internet exposure would be,” said Steward, “but there is now clear evidence that e-marketing will increasingly generate sales.”

At Anne Porter Knight Frank, she said, the number of internet referrals has increased by some 55% since January 2009 – “a remarkable upswing”.

Steward said that the main internet enquirers are young people who have grown up in the electronic/digital era. It is, she said, a great help to her staff to be approached initially via the internet because the potential client will usually have set out his area, price and other preferences in writing at the outset, thereby giving the agents a chance to understand and prepare for his visit.

Overseas referrals, particularly those from the UK (many coming via the Knight Frank referral system) have, said Steward recently, been on the increase and have often had substantial sums of money to invest.

“I find it heartening that in the wake of the credit crunch UK buyers are again more and more in evidence, often showing great faith in the future of South Africa.”

Article by: www.anneporter.co.za

Increased traffic quotas & reduced traffic over-usage charges

Hetzner remains committed to adding value to our customers and passing on cost-saving benefits wherever possible.

With this in mind, we are pleased to announce a significant decrease in the traffic over-usage charge for all Dedicated Servers from today, Monday 1 February 2010.

With this great news from Hetzner the traffic over-usage cost from our side will be reduced to R0.08 per MB.

Should you have any questions please contact Dillon at domains@cyberprop.com

Click Here for printable .pdf file

We provide you with FREE training session in the following areas;

• Gauteng
• Kwazulu Natal
• Western Cape
• and the Garden Route

During these training sessions more information will also be provided on:

• CyberAgent Anywhere
  
• Keep me Informed Function
  
• New developments in CyberAgent
  
• New Update Manager
  
• REEP (Real Estate Evaluation Portal)

A warm welcome to all new Agencies January 2010:

We trust that by now you are well aware of what CyberAgent can do for you. If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at support@cyberprop.com or phone us at: +27 (0)11 955-9100 or 086 112- 9237

Most Internet enquiries January 2010:

IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION - FIDELITY FUND CERTIFICATE RENEWALS FOR 2010

As part of the Estate Agency Affairs Board statutory mandate and legislation, it is the requirement of all estate agents and principals wishing to operate within the property industry to be in possession of a valid Fidelity Fund Certificate (FFC).

The validity of a FFC is 01 January of a year to 31 December of the same year and estate agents and principals are therefore required to renew by no later than 31 October of each year to obtain a FFC for the following year.

PLEASE NOTE:

BANKING DETAILS:
ABSA A/C No. 405 203 3310
Branch: Protea Park
Branch Code: 535105
A/C Name: Estate Agency Affairs Board

RENEWAL FEES
Principal: R855.00 Interns / Full Status: R364.80

LATE RENEWAL PENALTY FEES
Principal: R250.00

Interns / Full Status: R150.00

Limits on the number of agents allowed to market property in housing estates should be scrapped.

This recommendation forms part of the best practice guidelines drawn up by the Institute of Estate Agents (IEASA), the body representing the interests of South Africa’s estate agent industry, and the Association of Residential Communities (ARC), the body representing the residential community industry...

Too often, I see Agents turn uncertain when it comes to getting a client to sign an agreement. It is that moment of indecision that causes Agents to lose sales and listings. Here are a few thoughts that can take you over the threshold to more listings and sales.

You have to assume success. The Champion Agents who assume that they are going to get a contract signed have much greater success. Don’t go in asking for the business first. Assume you are going to get it, then ask...

There is no argument that if used wisely, technology can save estate agents a lot of time and help them increase sales. “The technology available to agents today has, to a large extent, revolutionised the way business is done in the property arena. Never before have agents been in such a powerful position to initiate, drive and direct communication directly to their target markets,” says Adrian Goslett, CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa...

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