• High Plains Drifter – DJ Icey
• Drum Thunder – Drumatic Twins
• Shut Up and Dance – Cream
• Firecrack – B-Phreak
• I Am Here – Heavy Feet
• Work Dis – Labrok
• Ghetto Freaks – Mike Movement
• The Rollers Ft. Skibadee -  NAPT
• Rock Your Floor – 4Kuba
• Back There – Mike Movement
• Hot Girls Dope Boys – Rico Tubbs

Enjoy!

Visit StroupeCondoBlog.com

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Most of my peers know that I am a real estate agent, and that I do internet stuff as opposed to sales.  In fact, I more than likely wouldn’t be licensed if the rules didn’t demand that I did, my primary roll on my real estate team is to market the business and generate leads through the web.  In turn, I occasionally get a reqeust from people looking for help regarding their own website.  For the most part, I happily assist when asked.

With that said, being an Internet person guy, I should probably have my own place on the internet.  Most of all, I’ve always thought it’s important for it to be relevant to what i do.  That’s been my biggest challenge in getting my SeattleSavvy.com to ever turn into anything.  It’s been four different sites so far and they have most all been about real estate.  At any rate, I like real estate, but my business is really the Internet.  So, for the most part that’s what this site will be about–the Internet and real estate.  I’m also going to slipping in my DJing hobby and other topics of interest here and there….

I’m just excited that if someone now asks what I do, I don’t have to think about it too hard.  I can just tell them, “I’m an internet person guy.”

Dancing and Speakers

For the last 6 years, I have had this vision of the perfect real estate website.  One that was filled with hyper-local content and spoke directly to consumers who were trying to decide where they wanted to live and raise their family.  One that automatically took advantage of other web services to spread your online visibility/branding, and generate more traffic back to your main website (6 years ago this was craigslist and postlets, now obviously facebook and twitter).  One that was memorable, different and unique, not templated, stagnant, and stifling. One that was consumer focused, allowing the user to customize not just search options, but layout and style preferences.  One where there were no barriers, requirements or registration forms that needed to be filled out before being able to access the information, opting instead for an approach of giving away the information and being there to help support and answer questions that will undoubtedly arise.  One where the listings (the actual product after all) felt like they were a part of the site, and not an after thought crammed uncomfortably in to a small section.  One that was interactive and most importantly, fun to use and left the consumer wanting to keep clicking around just see what everything did.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that there has never been the opportunities as there is today to create such a product.

Since ListingPress’ inception, the connections and relationships I have forged have just been amazing.  Everyday I talk to someone new who wants to be involved in the project and has the same ambition I do; creating the ultimate online solution for a real estate agent.  What fascinates me is the diversity of all who are receiving this email. Whether you are a designer, developer, educator, consultant, or tech savvy agent, we all share a common bond; an entrepreneurial spirit that drives us to innovate, create and sell.

Over the last couple weeks of speaking with many of you, I received a ton of the same questions:

“Do you know of any good website designers?”
“I can handle my own when it comes to HTML and CSS but I would love some PHP help.”
“I can design and code, but do you have any leads or business for me?”
“I am looking for a solution where I can earn a residual income and not have to deal with any 3-4 letter acronyms.”

Because of these common questions, I have decided to start a ListingPress community where individuals can engage each other and forge relationships which all revolve around the same goal; creating an effective business model.

I will be hosting (along with Jim and Chris) a weekly webinar on Fridays from 12:00pm – 2:00pm PST (3:00pm – 5:00pm EST).  These webinars will be somewhat structured and somewhat of a free forum for people to connect, ask questions, make suggestions and discuss different opportunities that might be present.  (I will be sending out another email on Friday with the call in information for the webinar)

We will obviously be discussing anything and everything ListingPress.  I plan to get somewhat geeky at times and dive in to code to demonstrate the power of ListingPress, (at this point, many of you may want to leave the computer and get a drink) but then I am also planning on backing out to discuss the larger picture; where and how everyone fits in.  By combining the skill sets of everyone involved, I believe we will be able to create a better product; faster.  A “win-win” type of situation (thanks to Kyle for that one).

Envision this:

Designers start working on imagery, graphics, backgrounds, etc.
Developers start developing ways to implement new technologies within those designs.
Educators and consultants start building classes or at least writing down syllabuses for the classes you are already teaching.

Each week we will all meet to answer questions, pitch our own products, check out any designs that someone may have created, listen to new and effective ways to sell these designs/websites and go over updates and enhancements to the ListingPress plugin.

I know there are plenty of economic opportunities for everyone involved if we can pull together and create something awesome.

This week specifically, I am excited to share two new libraries that will be bundled with ListingPress.  A Zillow api set and an Education.com api set.  Just as ListingPress has made it extremely easy to embed listing content, we now will have the exact same ease of use to display detailed neighborhood data coupled with detailed school data, all embedded within a wordpress blog.

I look forward to hearing from many of you on Friday and continuing our pursuit to beatify the face of the online real estate industry.

Jason Benesch

Real Estate Tomato
Co-owner
www.realestatetomato.com
(619) 770-1950

ListingPress
Owner, Founder
www.listingpress.com
(619) 955-7465

• WP Photo Album by Rubin J. Kaplan – Plugin Directory
• ‘SlideZoom by TatMiNG@HongKong – Plugin Directory

What this has done is inspired so many more advancements and functionality from other freelance/independent programmers and developers, making the Wordpress platform even more valuable.  The additional functionality that can be installed into the Wordpress platform is referred to as Plugins, and there are many.  Plugin vary from enhancing the front end functionality of a website or blog, to the backend functionality of a website or blog.  Since a lot of what my clients ask for is much more than just simple HTML based coded functions, Plugins save an incredible amount of time and money for both my client and myself.  In addition, many people like myself who may use a particular Plugin over and over again will sometimes make a donation to the developer.   I have personally made donations from as little as $5, to up to $200.  Donations are not always necessary, but it’s a customary thing to do if you believe in the Golden Rule.

Most importantly, it’s important for anyone considering to have a website built, and Wordpress is an option, to understand that’s it’s more than a blogging tool.  It’s best referred to as a CMS tool.  Simply put, Wordpress allows you to remove the blogging functionality so that it is what is commonly known as being just a website.  On the flip side, turning a website into a blog isn’t as easy.  Therefore, it makes logical sense to start with it all, then remove what you don’t need.  You can also choose to simply never post blog posts, and only develop your pages without even deleting the blogging functionality if you choose to do so.

At any rate, that is the very basic description of what Wordpress is–a Content Management System.  However you choose the make the front end look like is all up to you.

First off, let me begin by saying I am pretty awesome at Wordpress!  I’m not a King Wordpres Guru programmer guy like Jason Benesch, but I have seen a lot of real estate transactions made from a blog I’ve developed and currently maintain for another agent here in Seattle.  Manipulating the look, function, and optimization for search engines has been as simple as pie!  Because I’ve seen such great results, I’m looking to take the Pepsi Challenge and duplicate what I’ve done here in Seattle for another agent farming a downtown urban market.

Secondly, as Jason Benesch has already explained on the ListingPress site (still under construction), it’s been common practice for an agent to purchase a template or custom built site, then frame a preferred IDX feed which allows all MLS listings to be displayed online.  Soon, a decade will have passed since the law of broker reciprocity has allowed the little guys to compete with the big guys.  ListingPress is one of the first new ways an agent can take advantage of MLS data driven technology since the origination of IDX to begin with.

Since the beginning of IDX, becoming successful online as a Realtor was just a matter of getting traffic to your site–as long as you had IDX should .  When I first began working with agents, the best results came to those who changed their offline marketing efforts to be centered around thier domain name and a tagline that read, “Search Virtually All Homes for Sale at www.________.com.”  Making the change from marketing a phone number to a domain name was like pulling teeth for a lot of old school agents, but today it’s certainly a no brainier.  ListingPress is that new “no brainier” that either you grasp and understand with the intent of becoming a pioneer, or you hold off and wait to see what it does for everybody else.  If that wasn’t true, believe that I wouldn’t be spending the time blogging about.

ListingPress Plugin Directory Downloads = 1 Week

With that said, here is THE major benefit that you can choose to, or choose not to take advantage of.  Superior search engine placement opportunity!  I’ll say it one  more time just in case.  Super duper search engine placement opportunity!!  Now I’m not going to go and start giving away all my secrets, but what’s important to understand is that when it comes to search engine placement, the saying is “content is king.”  Meta tags and keyword optimization is already a standard practice, and really doesn’t tell search engines if your site is actually giving your visitors the resource of information they’re looking for.  Reciprocal linking and link farming is dangerous, and have heard a few recent horror stories about Google catching on to the whole scheme of it.  After all, reciprocal linking is really quite schemish wouldn’t you agree?  So when it comes to placement, content is truly the way to go.

Now you may have an IDX feed and it may display listings on your site, but you can bet all that content for all those listings are not being indexed by Google as content.  THAT, is what ListingPress will do for your site.  If you’re already a blogger, you already know how important it is to blog regularly.  You already know that you blog regularly because that shows search engines you are an authority on your topic.  Imagine if you could blog dozens of posts of relevant content a day!

With ListingPress, listings post on your site/blog just like a traditional post or page.  I’m not saying that will alone take you to the top.  However, you compliment customized ListingPress searches along with some additional relevant content for a particular neighborhood, address, price range, etc., and you certainly will.

Contact me about getting a ListingPress based site before released to the rest of the world.  I can personally work out a search engine/lead generation  success GUARANTEE success to the first person willing to give it a shot.  I’m only looking for 1 client while I use this blog to report and develop bugs and tutorials.

Friend calls me up and says here’s what to do
I’m havin girlies over and I’m inviting you

Start thinkin back to my last bday
I flew out west for my own holiday
Still sittin on the beach The Corona’s I’m drinkin
Gazed at the sea, my mind started thinkin
When I get back home I think I’ll sell my lincoln
Buy a long board and the expense I’m beatin

What a fippin trip, threw a punch, took a deep sigh
The party’s up north and I sold my ride
Up flippin north in the LCC
Gary made the call about a ragin party
Perfect timing, I just dumped my lady
Now I gotta find a way to leave the city

Need to find a ride, I’m seattle savvy
Picked up my phone, my new black berry
Anne’s down the street, she won’t charge a fee
The best part is she has an suv

10 minutes later I get a text
It says “I’m here” and here’s what’s next
Strapped on my shoes, rushed out the door
Flew down the hall to the elevator
I pushed p2, the bottom floor

Rushing through the lobby, I flung open the front door
Waiting for me was a range on d’s, a white rover

On I-5, then 10 miles later
We’re in the LCC and it could of been better
Gary spits a game and Anne says whatever
He winks and he smiles but she still says never

Back on I-5 and 10 miles later
If I had my own ride, I’d likely date her

Luckily we’re just friends, like a four leaf clover
Can wait to see her again, a ride in the white range rover