Online Newsletter for the Week Ending May 7, 2010

QUOTE:   "If things are not going well with you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering, and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it." Roger Babson, 1875-1967, Statistician and Columnist


LATEST NUGGET: Using Simple Logic by yours truly. www.NuggetsForTheNoggin.com.

PAPERLESS UPDATE: Getting better and it would be outstanding if everyone just focused on insuring there are NO blank spaces on any contract or form. At the moment there are 58 folders needing work that have been pending for less than 30 days, a lot of them only just submitted. However there are 22 folders that have been awaiting corrective action for MORE than 30 days. Everyone needs to check their Paperless Dashboard to insure that they do not have any folders pending correction.

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING AND THEN THERE IS… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJMbk9dtpdY

9 FREE GOOGLE TOOLS FOR REAL ESTATE: Check out this article: http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/teresa-boardman/9-free-google-tools-use-real-estate

“THE GOVERNMENT CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!” Oh yea? Check out my favorite youtube and you will think differently, only 3:38 minutes long: humor me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZbS9Bfp18s

FIVE RULES FOR READABILITY: Thanks to Verne Harnish for sharing these tidbits: Five Rules for Readability -- Tom Sant, author of Persuasive Business Proposals, shared five rules for making anything you write more readable -- and Microsoft Word can automatically tell you if you've met four of the rules: short sentences (ave. 17 words or less); short words (average 5 characters or less); 10th grade reading level or lower; and less than 10% passive voice. I've been writing for years and never knew about the "Readability Statistics" tool in Word. The fifth rule is no fluff, guff, geek, or weasel words in your writing.

Readability Statistics -- Press F1 while in Word to pull up the Help/Search menu and search for Readability Statistics. Follow the instructions to turn on the feature. The only confusing part of the instructions is the "Word Options" choice is at the bottom of the right hand column of the main Word pull down menu. Once the feature is activated, you have to actually manually check the Spelling and Grammar of your document once (under the Review menu) and at the end of the process the summary pops up. Cool feature -- I'm at a 9.7th grade reading level, 4.7 characters per word, 20 words per sentence, and 2% passive voice for this insight. I was higher on all these statistics and made adjustments.

SOCIAL MEDIA TIP OF THE WEEK FROM THE INSIGHTS GROUP: In the world of social media, remember to keep your message simple. We recommend crafting the message as if presenting it to a fifth grader. Just because we know everything there is to know about our product/service, it doesn't mean that our prospects need to know all of it. Keep your ideal client in mind. Craft the message in a style that they would like to receive it, not the way you would like to receive it. Be sure to entice them into checking out your website or blog. Never deliberately sell in social media, just tease people. Finally, be sure that your website has an email capture form above the fold on the home page. Make it easy for people to get your future information. Happy Tweeting! Allan Curtis email acurtis@insights-group.com

CERTIFIED CHINESE DRYALL TESTING: Interesting site where you can schedule a test for Chinese Drywall. Not what you would call “inexpensive” but good information nonetheless. http://www.certified-chinese-drywall-testing.com/chinese-drywall-realtors.html

REAL PRO SYSTEMS:  There have been numerous comments on real estate agents Facebooks that talk about their success by using products provided by Real Pro Systems. www.RealProSystems.com. They apparently provide a one-stop type service for real estate agents in their Silver and Gold programs. They also provide a Webinar every Thursday at 1:00 Central Time. You can register by going to their site to see if these programs may apply to your business. You can also call Lisa at 541-633-7507. It is my understanding that their program also includes a contact management program; certainly worth check out. I am not endorsing it only sending along the information.

TOMATO UNIVERSITY: Believe it or not this is about real estate. Go to www.TomatoUniversity.com and register. It is boast that the site is especially valuable to newer agents.

TIRED OF SPAM EMAILS: Spam Arrest costs $5.95 a month once you are past the 30 day free trial. There are varying degrees of commitment up to 2 years at $89.95. The way it works is that when you receive an email for the first time from someone they will be asked to verify their email address and insert a code. When this happens you receive the email and any future emails (without troubling the sender). But if it is a spam, the spammer typically will not take the time to verify a spammed email and you not only will not receive the email the sender will be blocked from future submissions. www.spamarrest.com.

WHAT DO SALES PEOPLE DO THAT'S BEST?  WHAT DO YOU DO?  Jeffrey Gitomer article:
http://www.gitomer.com/articles/ViewPublicArticle.html?key=ajcdMibak3PCCNiKCiXZXw%3D%3D