zanders 0 Report post Posted February 26, 2010 I guess I stopped trying to fish and started raising worms. What I mean by this is as the market has slowed down, I started looking for ways to get around Craigslist. What I did was go back to my first pasion which was marketing. I teamed up with a colleague and we started using the Google Local 10 box Map space to our advantage and the leads came flooding in! Basically, we have a method to get on the first page in Google for our area for any number of keywords like rent to own, real estate, etc. I put up a couple capture pages and poof, there are the leads. Now I can either work them or sell them or whatever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlspartz 0 Report post Posted February 27, 2010 Good idea. What Google Local Business Center category did you go after? Rental? Real Estate Rental? Not many others that fit that well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
timmym22 0 Report post Posted March 1, 2010 hey zanders,that is a great idea. how much does it cost? how hard is it to get on the top 10 listing? do you recommend any website to help someone who is not experienced in online marketing. thankstim Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason (AL) 1 Report post Posted March 1, 2010 This is something I have done for not only me, but for other investors andlocal business owners as well. Yes, they actually pay me to get them listedand ranked. I've even heard folks charging $500-$1500 just forplacing them on Google Maps, via the Google Local Business Center.It's not because it's difficult, it's from knowing how to do itand do it correctly...no different than putting a CA deal together. Anyonecan do it, but the results will be different. Seeing that most folks don't go "below the fold" when doing a Google search, gettingyour name and/or business in the Google Local Map pack is ideal. Before, it was SEO (search engine optimization) that got results. Now, if you can get a businesslisted in the map pack, you'll rank at the top of page 1 on Google. Although, I still wouldn'tdiscount SEO. For best results, it's best to use relevant keywords when describing your business.From my research and speaking with others (that do this for clients too), having a businessaddress as close to the center of the city/town also plays a key role when getting ranked. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
timmym22 0 Report post Posted March 2, 2010 If your address needs to be near the center of town and you work out of your home, what should you do? Also, is it free to set this up? How many leads are you getting a day zanders? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason (AL) 1 Report post Posted March 2, 2010 It doesn't need to be in the center of town.If you work from home, you'll have to put a physical address.I wouldn't advise putting your home address, for obvious reasons. Also, you will have to list your phone #. Google will then call you (automated) and willgive a PIN# to verify that you're who you say you are. The # you give will showup in your listing.And, yes, it's free to set up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scotsmann2 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2010 It doesn't need to be in the center of town.If you work from home, you'll have to put a physical address.I wouldn't advise putting your home address, for obvious reasons. Also, you will have to list your phone #. Google will then call you (automated) and willgive a PIN# to verify that you're who you say you are. The # you give will showup in your listing.And, yes, it's free to set up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jonathan RexfordFL 8 Report post Posted March 19, 2010 I have been working on SEO work for my sites during off time (which is rare). From the time I do it I do get above the fold and stay their for some time. Google Local is just a start. I am finding that once you start down this road it is going to be a continue work. Just like any marketing. Article marketing, Feeds, Social Bookmarking...etc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlspartz 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2010 SEO can be very time intensive if doing it all yourself. Vary your anchor text to receive the most benefit, use all phrases that show up in the Google Keyword Tool. Take over the lowest phrases first. If you have a PR2 or PR3 site, taking over lower searched phrases is a piece of cake. Then make your way up the list. Also, people usually just submit to the article databases that give you followed links, but from my experience Articlebase has a lot of PLR users that copy your info all around. Getting onto twitter will give you an explosion of traffic, but typically not good targeted traffic that you want. Videos have the most impact, embed them with keyworded metadata, and any video hosting site will give you plenty of PR back to you site. Hope you follow what I'm saying. I'm a tech geek. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason (AL) 1 Report post Posted March 19, 2010 SEO can be very time intensive if doing it all yourself. Vary your anchor text to receive the most benefit, use all phrases that show up in the Google Keyword Tool. Take over the lowest phrases first. If you have a PR2 or PR3 site, taking over lower searched phrases is a piece of cake. Then make your way up the list. Also, people usually just submit to the article databases that give you followed links, but from my experience Articlebase has a lot of PLR users that copy your info all around. Getting onto twitter will give you an explosion of traffic, but typically not good targeted traffic that you want. Videos have the most impact, embed them with keyworded metadata, and any video hosting site will give you plenty of PR back to you site. Hope you follow what I'm saying. I'm a tech geek. I read you loud & clear. Thanks for sharing with others. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randian 0 Report post Posted March 23, 2010 Who's the market here? I don't see homeowners that already know they want to RTO (because they're Googling "rent to own") contacting an investor as a result of a Google hit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zanders 0 Report post Posted April 17, 2010 I actually used rent 2 own homes as my keywords and it worked real well. I have other folks that used different keywords in their own cities. Deb, the woman I partnered with, is a whiz at getting these rolling. Sure beats the deadbeats with Craigslist. I can direct you to her if you want to emal me. I don't want to blast her info on the boards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zanders 0 Report post Posted April 17, 2010 Hi Tim, The nice thing about the Google box isthat it automatically gets you in the top 10 in your city for your keyword. It literally blasts you past the competition that has spend thousands on seo work. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
randian 0 Report post Posted April 17, 2010 How does this help find sellers? A seller isn't going to type "rent to own" into a Google search box in order to find you, because few know what that is and those that do are doing it by themselves. A seller that's typing stuff like "sell my house" is going to get thousands of hits from realtors and mortgage brokers, who are going to pay a lot more than you for those hits. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jason (AL) 1 Report post Posted April 17, 2010 A seller that's typing stuff like "sell my house" is going to get thousands of hits from realtors and mortgage brokers, who are going to pay a lot more than you for those hits. Not necessarily. With a broad, and very competitive search such as "sell my house", you'll have to fightmany folks. The idea is to target long-tail keywords, specifically for the areas you're wanting to buy in. So, insteadof focusing on "sell my house", you could focus your keywords on "sell my house timbuktu". I'm not sure where you live, but Google can now decipher your geographical location and give youresults based on where you're doing your search.Depending on what is entered into the search box, 2 people living several miles apart will get differentresults, even though they typed & hit the search button on the same keywords. The nice thing about the Google box is that it automatically gets you in the top 10 in your city for your keyword. It literally blasts you past the competition that has spend thousands on seo work. Yep.Although, it's good to get organic search results as well.You can always be pushed out of the Google "box", just as you canon the regular search results. I've gotten 1st position in the Google "box" (as you call it), as well as thefirst 3 positions on a few keywords in the organic results quite a few times. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites