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Google Makes Your Active Fan Page Even More Valuable

Nancy Strong — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:09:00 GMT

I know it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything to my blog and I must apologize to you all. I took a quick trip to San Antonio to help my brother with his condo rental this past week and took photographs to go on the website I am creating for him. I plan on writing a blog this weekend about what has transpired and how everything has turned out thus far in this adventure.

Going over a lot of back e-mails I have kept in my In Box, I ran across an article from Mr. Internet about Google adding Facebook Fan Page updates to its mix of search results.

This blog goes hand in hand with a webinar I attended from SMM Camp about Facebook and the differences between Fan Pages and Groups. It was an enlightening webinar, albeit long. It was over 4 ½ hours long but well worth my time. I figure if I learn one thing in a webinar I did not know before, my time was not wasted. During this specific webinar I learned more than one thing, I was on overload by the end of the webinar.

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 03:56 PM PST

Google is busy serving up real-time updates from Twitter, Myspace, blogs and so on for hot search topics or trends. It just added Facebook Fan Page updates to this mix and here is why it’s important to you.

The world of search results and relevancy is going more real-time (you can largely thank Twitter for that). Since Google is all about providing relevant search results for a particular search, it is now striving to provide these real-time yet ephemeral results right at the top of the non-sponsored results of each search. If you have an active Facebook Fan page focusing say on your primary neighborhoods, and fans are actively posting comments, then you are going to see more search engine traffic. First to your Fan Page, then (by extension) to your site. This also means that your Fan Page is likely to rank higher in the search results over all as a result.

For this to work in your favor however, two things need to be in place regarding your Facebook Fan page:

Its focus needs to be relevant – a Fan page is NOT about you (at least not if you want to succeed)! For most real estate sales professionals this means it needs to be about your particular niche and/or neighborhoods you service.

Fans need to be active – this means you must keep the content fresh and worthy of comment.

I truly believe that appropriately maintained social media will be the new “Google Juice” for driving Web traffic and hence most online business. Static content, even if comprehensive, is no longer enough. So if you are not connecting with clients and prospects this way (i.e. via an active Facebook Fan page), now is a good time to start!

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Living Big in a Small Home

Nancy Strong — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Two things happened to me when I read the article below. I first starting thinking, I would love to downsize my home. When we originally bought this home we had been in a home that was about 1500 square feet and would run into each other. So of course we went overboard and increased our living space to over 3100 square feet. But nine (9) years have passed, our daughter has graduated from college and is now in and out in our lives. She is an archaeologist and works seasonally in Arizona. In the Fall of 2010 she will be heading off to Memphis, Tennessee to start her graduate studies in Egyptology. So you can imagine the enormity of our home. But the caveat is, I don't want to move and pack up this house again!

The second thing was a video that came into my inbox the same day. This video is from PlanetGreenDiscovery.com. It is titled World's Greenest Homes: Hong Kong Space Saver. This engineer lives in a 330 square foot home that has been in his family for a very long time. It explains what he has done to accommodate his sorroundings and make his living spaces work for him. I know you will enjoy watching this video!

World's Greenest Homes: Hong Kong Space Saver

The article below is from RealtorMag.

After years of upsizing, Americans are enjoying the benefits of more modest living spaces.

By Maggie Sieger | February 2010

With the average home size declining, owners are cleverly doing more with the square footage they have.

Years before house staging came into vogue as a sales tool, Howard Hoffman was helping sellers rearrange their furniture to maximize floor space and enhance a home’s beauty. Hoffman, GRI, SRES®, now owns Stage & $ell, a home staging and redesign company in Indianapolis.

Chances are he’ll have a lot more business in the years ahead from people needing to resize their lives. With baby boomers entering retirement, young adults delaying marriage, and the economy improving by fits and starts, Americans are starting to embrace the idea that less is more when it comes to their square footage. The average size of a new house decreased last year for the first time in nearly three decades.

"Home buyers have been changing," says Fran Litton, a planner with Evans Group, an architectural firm in Orlando, Fla. "They still want the luxury and toys, but they’re putting them into a smaller space."

Although the average square footage of a new house is still double what it was in 1960, in the last year, it decreased slightly to 2,215 square feet from a high of 2,277 square feet in 2008, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. While the decrease doesn’t approach mid-20th century levels, it is the first drop in house size since the recession of the early 1980s.

Smaller houses can mean bigger challenges for real estate professionals. "Eighty percent of people appreciate only what they can see," says Hoffman, who also works as a sales associate with F.C. Tucker Co. in Indianapolis. "You have to make sure you’re showing them what you’ve got." That means making sure each room is easily identified. "Get rid of that desk and computer in the dining room," he says. "Make sure buyers can see it’s a dining room."

Hoffman also advises clients to remove rugs to show off hardwood floors and take pictures off the walls. "The less the eye has to distract it, the bigger a room feels," says Hoffman. "People buy what they see. If they can’t see the floors or the walls, they won’t buy the house."

Interior designer Roberta Lathrop agrees. She tells her clients with smaller kitchens to clear the counters. "You can’t have all the small appliances sitting on the counter," says Lathrop, who runs Designs by Roberta in Belmont, Mich. "It will start looking very cluttered very fast."

Smaller houses require owners to rethink what they have and how they use things. "If you have a smaller house, maybe you don’t need half a dozen different pans," she explains. "Maybe a single flat griddle that you can put over a couple of burners will do."

One of the first tasks she assigns clients is to go through their stuff—ruthlessly. "We all have too much stuff," she says. "Get rid of it. If you’re attached to an item, or think maybe you’ll need it, put it in a box and store it somewhere for six months. Then go back through it.

Have you used it? Have you even missed it? If not, donate it. Get it out of the house." That goes for clothes as well, she says.

Read the entire article . . .

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Photo Blog Your Way to the Top of the Search Engines

Nancy Strong — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:10:00 GMT

The article below came from Realtor Business Tips Newsletter. It describes how easy it is to use Posterous.com in a nutshell.

Posting photos to your blog provides both fast and interesting content that will get you more clicks.

By Michael Russer | February 2010

There is no question that blogging can be a powerful tool to help you and your Web site stand out from the crowd and generate new business. And, as many have already discovered, it can be time-consuming and a lot of work—until now.

Here's an innovative way to post compelling content to your blog in just seconds that will also help propel your site to the top of the search engine results.

Photo blogging is a way to leverage what you do best every day—look at properties and use your cell phone—to create fresh search engine relevant content for your blog even several times a day. Here's how it works:

1. Snap a picture of a listing in your market area with your cell phone.

2. Compose an e-mail with the address of the listing as the subject line and just a sentence

or two describing the property.

3. Send the e-mail to a special address (which we'll discuss in a second) at which, once it's received, it will instantly post your subject line as the blog post title, insert the photo, and follow it up with the descriptive text as the main body of your post.

There you have it—about 90 seconds total (unless you're all thumbs like me; then it might take you two minutes). And what is really cool is that you haven't broken your daily routine to do it. And there's no more staring at a blank computer screen trying to figure out what to post while you could be out looking at properties—because you'll already be out looking at properties.

Now at this point you are probably thinking: "Awesome—I can do that! What's that special address I need to send these e-mails to?" As you might have guessed, there's just a little bit of set-up you have to do before you start photo blogging.

Getting Started

The first thing you want to do is set up a free account at Posterous.com. Once you've completed that, you'll be able to send your cell-phone posts to post@posterous.com, and it will know who sent it (it also works with e-mail sent from any device, including your computer). Now if this is far as you go, Posterous will automatically create your blog and handle updating it via your e-mails. However, if you want to maximize the Google "juice" that a frequently updated blog can give you and have a look and feel that is consistent with your brand, there are a few other things that you'll want to do:

1. Create a subdomain from your main Web site domain that points to your photo blog. For example, if your main site domain is LuxuryMountainHomes.com, then you may want to set your photo blog URL to photoblog.LuxuryMountainHomes.com with links to it on every page of your site. By doing this, search engines like Google will attribute the new photo blog content to your entire site. And since you used the property address as the post title, your site's relevancy for your market area increases with every submission.

2. Have your Web designer modify the look and feel of your Posterous blog to be consistent with that of your main Web site.

By doing the above, you now have a way to constantly add high-relevance blog content to your site, day in and day out, without breaking a sweat.

NOTE: If you already have a blog with more traditional content, be sure to make your photo blog separate from it. Not everyone subscribed to your current blog will want to receive your photo blog posts throughout the day. Remember, the main benefit of a photo blog is quickly and easily adding search engine relevant content to your site on a regular basis, not necessarily to inform a reader base.

One Practitioner Found Success in Just a Few Months

Walter Burns is a condo specialist with Weichert, REALTORS®, in Hoboken, N.J. Thanks to his social media efforts—a large part of which is his photo blogging—his average transaction prices have soared from $250,000 to over $600,000 in a short period of time. You can see his photo blog by going to http://photos.livingonthehudson.com/. Notice that in addition to his photo blog, he has a traditional one as well, and both are seamlessly integrated into his main site, www.LivingOnTheHudson.com. If you examine both, you will see that the frequency of his posts to his photo blog is far greater than his regular one. And for good reason—it's so darn easy!

Whether you're brand new to blogging or a seasoned social networking pro, photo blogging is one tool you should be using on a daily basis. If you can take photos and text with your cell phone, you can photo blog.

Advantages of Top Producer Market Snapshot

Nancy Strong — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:00:00 GMT

I went to a Top Producer 8i QuickStart seminar this past Friday. Even though I knew everything that was presented in this program, I have to re-certify for Top Producer 8i. I thought it would give me a quick review of what Top Producer 8i has to offer. Especially as they just did an upgrade to their system. There were more than 30 people in the room.

The interesting aspect to this seminar was the number of real estate agents that have subscribed to Top Producer, some for over 15 years, that were not utilizing Top Producer 8i to its potential. Most realtors gave the impression they barely used this program at all. One Realtor® told me she had subscribed to Top Producer for 15 years and still did not know how to use it.

Another Realtor® had just started in the business 3 months earlier and had subscribed to Top Producer and wanted to learn how to use it. I found it very interesting that she left at the one hour break. I wondered to myself, how much will she be using this fantastic database?

At the end of the program Ben Bock, the Top Producer presenter, gave a 30 minute overview of Market Snapshot. Although I have heard this overview before, I wanted to listen again as no real estate agent I have worked with who has Top Producer has subscribed to Market Snapshop.

Ben started this part of the program by asking the real estate agents what was the most asked question when they spoke with people. Everyone concurred, “What’s the Market like?” This is where Market Snapshot will help every real estate agent.

Here are the steps to starting to get more quality leads with Market Snapshot.

1) Sign up for Market Snapshot.

2) Get a URL similar to www.marketvaluesinhourhometown.com.

3) Put the full page capture form on this website address. You can also use this capture code to have a widget sized form and put it in multiple settings like your website and blog.

4) Put this URL on the back of your business card with this simple statement.

“Do you want to know what the market is like in you area?

Go to: www.marketvaluesinyourhometown.com.”

5) Put a link to your market snapshot website on your e-mail signature. Just state, “Click Here for a Free Market Report.”

6) You can post ads on Craigslist or Facebook. A simple ad that states “Find Out Your Homes Value in the Market in Just Minutes!” It is very easy to post html code on Craigslist and you can attach your full page capture form right on the ad.

So when someone is talking with you and asks what you do for a living and you tell them you are a real estate agent, you know the very next question they are going to ask you. . . “So what is the market really like?” You can give them you business card and tell them to go to the URL on the back of your card and sign up for a Market Snapshot of their area and receive it in less than 15 minutes.

Here’s Another Feather In Your Hat!

A Decade of Dramatic Developments

Nancy Strong — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Daily Real Estate News | December 31, 2009 |

At the beginning of the 21stcentury, most home buyers had never viewed a home online; the three tophome sale marketing methods were yard signs, newspaper ads, and openhouses; and nearly nine out of 10 buyers financed their purchase with afixed-rate, 30-year mortgage.

What a difference a decade makes.

“The real estate industry has seentremendous change and evolution over the past decade,” said NATIONALASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz. “As the first, best source forreal estate information, REALTORS® have not only anticipated andadapted to the evolving needs of their clients and customers, but alsohave influenced industry trends and innovations that will carry us intothe future.”

In 1999, buyers who went online in searchfor a home were in the minority – only 37 percent of buyers used theInternet in their home search, according to data from the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.Today, 90 percent of buyers are searching online, and the real estateindustry has responded. Sites like REALTOR.com, which attracts nearly12 million total visits every month, have evolved to gives today’sbuyers what they want – not just property listings, but multiplephotos, online videos, mapping features, and comprehensive neighborhoodinformation, as well.

Median home values over the past decadehave increased more than 25 percent, from $137,600 in November 1999 to$172,600 in November 2009 (the most recent existing-home dataavailable). Fewer people are buying detached, single family homes – 82percent in 1999 compared to 78 percent in 2009 – but more people arebuying homes in suburban neighborhoods – 46 percent in 1999 compared to54 percent today.

Buyers themselves have also changed. Asmaller proportion of married couples are buying homes these days;while married couples comprised 68 percent of all home purchases at thebeginning of this century, they represent 60 percent of all buyerstoday. Single men and women have made up the difference – single menpurchased 10 percent of all homes last year, compared to only 7 percent10 years ago. Single women now represent more than one-fifth of allhome buyers – 21 percent, up from 15 percent in 1999.

Other things haven’t changed. The medianage for home buyers last year was 39, just as it was in 1999.Neighborhood quality, affordability, and convenience to work and schoolhave consistently been top priorities for both past and present buyers.And eight out of 10 recently surveyed consumers believe that owning ahome is an investment in their future.

“REALTORS® have been around for more than100 years, but one constant during that time has been the persistenceof homeownership as the American Dream,” said Golder. “As the firstdecade of this century comes to a close, NAR stands ready to meet themany challenges and opportunities that lie ahead by helping ourREALTORS® members better serve their clients and communities andensuring that those dreams of homeownership remain possible for all whowant to achieve it.”

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Picture Perfect: Tips and Tools for Better Photos

Nancy Strong — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:00:00 GMT

This article came from Realtor.org Magazine.

It's a fact: Listings with pictures sell faster.Here's an overview of some key photographic principles, as well as photo editing tools, to help you visually present a home.

By Michael Antoniak | January 2010

Every real estate professional is now a photographer. Creating virtual tours is part of your job—an essential service you are expected to provide both buyers and sellers. Unless you have the budget to farm this chore out, you'll have to put in some time behind the lens taking pictures to make listings shine and highlight all the selling points of a home.

Whether you consider yourself the novice snap-shooter or a serious amateur photographer, there are simple techniques and an abundance of software tools to help you achieve a perfect shot.

It all starts with a good picture.

Tips for Better Photography

Get the Right Camera: For real estate, select a camera with a wide-angle lens so you can capture an entire room, or an entire home,in one shot. Wide angle means a lens "equivalent to a 28mm lens" on a35mm camera, or lower. You'll also want at least a 4X optical zoom(rather than a digital zoom) to highlight specific features of the home. Fortunately, there's now a good selection of wide-angle/zoom cameras in all categories, from compacts to digital SLRs.

Learn a Camera's Features: Today, all digital cameras boast automatic features and presets that help ensure a good picture,whatever the subject and setting. But you need to understand why and when to use each and switch them on.

Think Before You Shoot: Don't just snap away as you walk through the house. Scout each room, and think in terms of how to capture its appeal. That may mean removing clutter, clearing tables and shelves, or rearranging furniture to better convey the possibilities in that space.

Compose Your Shot: Use the camera's viewfinder or monitor to visually compose your picture before shooting. See how the image changes when you move closer or away from your subject, or when viewed from different angles.

Use a Tripod or Monopod: When shooting in any poorly lit setting or using zoom, there's always the risk of the picture blurring if you hold the camera. With the camera mounted and stationary, the potential problem is easily eliminated.

Step-Up: Use a stool or step ladder to take a picture from a slightly higher perspective than eye level. Otherwise, your pictures can highlight too much ceiling, rather than what's on floor level.

Turn Up the Lights: For interior shots, turn on all the available lights, even when using flash. If your camera's built-in flash range is too limited, invest in portable lights or an auxiliary flash (if available for your camera). Or, plan to shoot during daytime hours, and take advantage of ambient light.

Avoid Backlit Situations: When the background is bright,the subject can get lost in the shadows. Inside, you can avoid this by drawing the curtains; outside, by tightly framing your subject. Some cameras have specific settings for shooting against a bright background.

Shoot Like a Pro: Take lots of pictures—professional photographers fire away because they know the more they shoot, they more likely they will get that perfect shot. Zoom in and out, shoot interiors with and without flash, move around, and take several pictures of the listing in every room.

Get It Right Before You Leave: Use your camera monitor, netbook, or notebook to review your photos while you're still on site.It's better to make sure you have all the pictures you need than discover later you have to return for that one shot you missed.

Software Tools

Even if you've mastered the art of photography, there are always situations where you can improve your photos with imaging software. For real estate purposes, you'll typically use this software to organize images, crop photos, pull details out of the shadows, and adjust the exposure level. Shy away from making significant changes to a picture—erasing unwanted details, changing colors, or rearranging elements within a picture—and, if you do, always let viewers know how the image has been edited.

There are three types of imaging software to help you improve your pictures:

Tools You Already Have: Every camera comes bundled with software you can use for organizing pictures and basic image editing.Some cameras actually have this software built in, so you can make minor improvements to pictures while they are still stored in the camera's memory card.

Digital photography is so popular that imaging software is also one of the essential programs included with your computer's operating system. For Windows Vista users, the Windows Photo Gallery provides tools for organizing and improving pictures. On the Mac side, iPhoto is included as part of the iLife suite bundled with Mac OS X.

Aftermarket Imaging Software: Mention imaging software and most people think of Adobe's Photoshop first, part of the Adobe Creative Suite. Apple's Aperture,$199, is also a professional-level imaging solution for its platform,with tools that more than cover the needs of the typical real estate professional.

For Windows or Mac users who aren't satisfied with what's included with their systems, one good place to start might be with something like Adobe's Photoshop Elements, $99. Also, there's Google's free Picasa, which combines imaging software with a Web-based image gallery.

Other Windows options include:

Serif PhotoPlus, available in a free or $10 deluxe version

Ulead Photo Impact, $49.99

NovaDevelopment's Photo Explosion Deluxe, $49.95

On the Mac side, some of the aftermarket choices include:

Pixelmator, $59

Iris, $79

GIMP, freeware

Web-Based Solutions: As with every other software category,there's a growing selection of Web-based tools for organizing and editing photos. With the exception of Windows Live Picture Gallery,most are platform independent. Bandwidth and available online storage space should be a consideration if you plan to work with large image files. Some of the many choices include Adobe's Photoshop.com along with FotoFlexer, PicNik, Pixlr, and Sumo Paint.

Remember, whether you install software or use an online package, all of these tools provide the same basic functions for improving pictures.Where they differ is in their sophistication and the actual user experience. Therefore, you may want to sample several programs before deciding which one you'll be most comfortable using.

That may be the toughest part of getting those perfect pictures for your tours.

Michael Antoniak is a journalist and technology expert with a focus on real estate applications. Antoniak also writes about real estate technology at his blog, RealTechTools. He can be contacted at antoniak@dtccom.net.

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days of Christmas

Nancy Strong — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:03:00 GMT

We are all busy this time of year. I Love Christmas; the sites, sounds, and smells. I especially like the smells while I'm baking to make gifts of food for the neighbors and family. I love to listen to all of the Christmas songs and this year I started early as Andrea Bocelli's, My Christmas, CD came out early.

So instead of rambling on about what you can get for free to grow your business, I thought I would rather have everyone enjoy this video. It's from an A Capella group out of the University of Indiana. This video is by Straight No Chaser and was produced in 1998.

Have a Blessed Christmas and Holiday Season!

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Real Estate Associates Think Outside the Box

Nancy Strong — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:45:00 GMT

As I haven't had time to write a blog in the last few weeks I did find a very interesting article that all real estate agents could use. I know that many real estate agents do not hold Open Houses much any more. There are a lot of reasons: no one comes, it never seems to sell the house, etc. However the article below came from Realtor Magazine Realtor® Magazinetoday. I hope it inspires some real estate agents to be more creative in how they handle an Open House!

"The persistently sluggish economy is forcing property agents to take more creative approaches to the run-of-the-mill open house. Recent marketing events in the Memphis,Tenn., area reflect the lengths sales associates are willing to go to in order to attract attention to their listings. Some have partnered with other practitioners to host festive open houses featuring Christmas music and refreshments. This tag-team approach to marketing multiple properties was effective for Crye-Leike agents Vicki Gandee and Carmen Brown.

"This can be done with several sales associates in the same subdivision, and sell the subdivision as well as the home," says Gandee. "This type thing brings the neighbors out as well, and they love to talk about their neighborhoods to potential buyers."

Individual sales associates, too, are stepping up their marketing strategies. "I tell you this, they remember my open houses," declares Signature Realty affiliate broker Larry Ohrberg, who promoted new homes in the Trinity Park neighborhood with a barbeque lunch, drawings for cash and prizes, and even an appearance by Santa Claus. Another of Ohrberg's more spectacular open houses was built around a 10-acre mini-ranch in Olive Branch.

To market the property, he invited fellow brokers to participate in hay rides, giveaways, and other activities."It didn't sell the house," Ohrberg concedes, "but we did have a lot of people there. Now when I have an open house, they come." Other agents are taking the open house to the next level as well.

Briscoe Ellett of Weichert, REALTORS®,Benchmark, for example, helped stage a "martini open house" for a home on Mud Island. The concept was designed to give downtown workers a sample of the lifestyle they could enjoy by buying a home close to their jobs. "A social way to get the exposure for people in the home,"is how Ellett described the function. "Something outside the box and enjoyable." Formerly a mechanical engineer, Ellett says he has realized that success in real estate sales hinges in part on being creative. "If you do things the same way, you get the same old results," he notes."

Source: Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, Tom Bailey, Jr. (12/16/09)

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Getting Wired for Christmas!

Nancy Strong — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:42:00 GMT

This post doesn't really have much to do with being a virtual assistant, but my husband thinks I should do a blog about it anyway. Although the more I think about this, I love to make my life as simple as possible. If there are things I can do so I do not have to do them over again, then that makes my life easier. My job as a virtual assistant is to make my clients lives easier for them.

The day after Thanksgiving always finds my family starting our Christmas decorating. We all love Christmas and this just makes us get in the mood for Christmas that much easier. I love the Christmas carols, the decorations, the thought and the warmth of the season!

Last year I decided to take the old Christmas lights off the tree and put on new LED lights. We had always had red lights but my daughter thought the ice blue lights would be pretty. I found some LED lights at Sam's Club that would work and not break the bank.

But I need to move backward about 15 years. We had moved into a home up in Estes Park, Colorado. It was a lovely home, log, hard wood floors, moss rock fireplace, I loved it. We needed a different tree so we went down to Littleton, Colorado to a store on Santa Fe. Most of the year this is a pool and spa store, All City Pools, but for the Holidays it becomes the best Christmas store around, Christmas City.

We wanted a tree with the lights attached but these trees were very expensive. The sales person at Christmas City showed me how to attach the lights permanently. She said to string the lights on the tree how you wanted them, use green craft wire, and wire the lights onto the tree limbs. This way you can put the lights on each limb from the base to the edges, giving the tree a more 3 dimensional look. After Christmas you fold up the tree and lights and put it away until the next year. The lights are not damaged and you don't have to string lights every year.

We bought the tree and lights and I went home and did exactly what she had advised.

So last year, when I decided to change out the lights I had to take the old lights off, wires and all, and string the new lights and attach them with the green craft wire again. By the end of this, which took quite a bit of time, my hands were cut and scratched and my fingers were numb.

The biggest problem with these lights is we didn't like the effect it gave the tree. Since we had always had red lights, we just were not happy with the ice blue.

This year we looked into replacing the bulbs to red LED's but this would have been an extremely expensive endeavour. So I resigned myself to the ice blue lights and went about getting the tree ready. My daughter and I were unfolding the tree and getting the limbs adjusted when she noticed a string of lights were out. So I get the fuses replaced, which is not as easy as they say, turn the lights back on and the string is still out. But I look closer and it isn't a complete string of lights, just a portion of a string. So now I am really upset.

Off we go to Ace Hardware. We look at the LED lights again and the regular lights. The price for the LED lights are very expensive and I figure we need at least 5 boxes of 100 lights each. So we decided to go with the regular lights because it is within our budget. It's late and we are tired of things not working so we decide enough with decorating, or not decorating, and have dinner.

Saturday finds me starting to take the light blue LED lights off the Christmas tree. It is hard work actually, I have to figure out how I attached the wires last year and it seems like every single wire was put on just a little bit differently. My husband and daughter start to decorate the rest of the house, putting up the Dicken's Village, North Pole Village, and our Santa collection.

They finish up long before I am half way through taking the lights off the tree so they decide to start helping me. About 7:00 p.m that evening, we are finished.

Sunday, starting around 7:00 a.m. again, I start to string the lights. However, in the wee hours of the night, I decided attaching the lights with green craft wire is for the birds and I figure out a way to wrap the lights around each limb and make them permanent! I have no idea why this idea never came to me last year, probably because the sales person at Christmas City said to use the green craft wire, but it made it so much easier and the lights are on the tree permanently. All you really have to do is wrap the lights either around the limbs or the branches.

We were not able to finish decorating the tree until Monday evening, but the tree looks lovely and I am so glad we are back to our red lights!

Here's Is Another Feather In Your Hat!

Secrets of a Successful Open House

Nancy Strong — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:18:00 GMT

While doing research for her chocolate blog, Turn To The Dark Side. . . of Chocolate, my daughter came across a great idea for real estate agents who may be holding an open house. We both follow ChoclatiQue on Twitter @ChoclatiQueJoan and @ChocolateDoctor, and have signed up for their e-mail newsletters and specials. Their blog post, Chocolate: The Fashion Accessory That Never Goes Out Of Style, seemed appropriate to share here. This blog post is about a New York open house fashion event. I am not campaigning for real estate agents to spend a lot of money on chocolates every open house they hold. However, it might be an interesting concept for those special homes, or an open house for real estate agents.

I always heard putting some vanilla on a pan in your oven and setting your oven at 250 degrees was a good idea to make your home more inviting for an open house.

Another good idea for an open house or a showing, to give your home a more delicious bouquet, may be to bake some chocolate chip cookies right before the scheduled showing or open house. A home with the fragrance of baked goods always seems more inviting.

Still another alternative to baking, because we all have so much time to do that these days, is to brew Choffy. I do not like the taste of Choffy because I don't like the taste of coffee. However, the aroma is absolutely amazing! And for those of you who like the taste of coffee, this is an excellent drink. I said it tasted like coffee light. My daughter says it tastes like coffee light with chocolate overtones.

"Chocolate: The Fashion Accessory That Never Goes Out Of Style

"A few weeks ago Choclatique had the privilege of being involved in a NewYork open house fashion event for editors, organized by Dell et RuhsPR. Among the racks and racks of beautiful designer clothing andjewelry displayed in the penthouse, there stood a table filled with astunning array of Choclatique confections."

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Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Wonders of Free Time

Nancy Strong — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:38:00 GMT

There hasn't been a whole lot of time lately to write a blog post. I want to write about things that are helpful to my clients and discovering new ways to promote their business. But I also have things I want to do for myself, much like my clients. That is my job, to allow them free time to do the extra activities they want to do in life: hiking, biking, golfing. Whatever their passions might be! Everyone wants some me time.

My passion goes to creating stained glass. I have been working on a piece for about 2 1/2 months for my brother. I found a wonderful pattern that I knew he would love and sent it to him. He came to visit in July and we went and picked out the glass he wanted.

I am not able to work on my glass as often as I would like so I work on it in the evenings and weekend when time allows. After about 60 hours of work, this is what I have produced. The photographs do not show this piece in it's best light. Stained glass has to be viewed in person to really see the vibrant colors.

I hope you enjoy my passion! And remember, everyone needs to get away from work once in awhile. You may need to find a good virtual assistant that can help you in your work. This will allow you to go enjoy the things you are passionate about pursuing!

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Secrets of Creating a WordPress Blog

Nancy Strong — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:41:00 GMT

When I attended the Blogging and Social Media Marketing seminar on August 21, 2009, Jason Berman of “The J. Berman Group” touted WordPress.com for blogs. I had just been researching WordPress.com and WordPress.org for blogs. I covered this aspect in my blog on August 26, 2009 titled, “How to Set Up Your Blog.”

I have set up my first WordPress blog for a real estate client and had fairly little trouble. I was lucky to have my daughter sitting by my side to answer my questions as she had done one (1) WordPress.com blog and two (2) WordPress.org blogs. She is more willing to click and see what happens than I am.

I had some specific things I was looking for in a theme. I wanted my client’s blog to look much like her website with a custom header, a left navigation bar and the right side available for pages. I chose several themes that I thought my client might like and asked her to decide which ones she liked the best. Her first choice was Celestial Aura and second was Atahualpa. Both of these would work well so I used Celestial Aura.

The next step was to decide which plug-ins would work the best.

Akismet - checks your comments to make sure they are not spam.

WordPress.com Stats - tracks the number of views you get on your blog.

Fast and Secure Contact Form - this is a very simple contact form, but allows your visitors to send a quick e-mail message but block spammers.

All in One SEO Pack - as described on WordPress it is “Out-of-the-box SEO,” which all blogs need.

FT Signature Manager - allowed me to put in HTML so visitors could click on the signature and go to my client’s website or click to send an e-mail. The signature is at the end of every blog post.

Social Bookmarking Reloaded – puts links like Twitter, Facebook, etc. at the end of ever blog post so it is easy for your visitors to share your blog.

My client suggested I put some events on her blog for local sporting events. Since she lives in the wonderful city of San Diego, I found many other venues that would be wonderful for visitors.

Deciding which pages to put on the blog was fairly easy as I had already installed many plug-ins that I wanted for pages, contact form, about page and events. It just came down to adding the pages and sub-pages.

I needed photographs of my client and what she wanted for her header. I needed to resize the header photograph and crop some of it so it would fit in the 880 x 125 space in the header.

The final step was to start getting blogs posted. As my client had already subscribed to Lead Booster Club blogs, this is a monthly job I do for her for both of her blogs.

If you would like my assistance in setting up your WordPress.org blog, contact me at Nancy@LightenYourWorkLoad.com

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

The Successful Combination of Photography and Real Estate

Nancy Strong — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:27:00 GMT

This press release was forwarded to me by a real estate agent I work with, not just photography but many other areas of their business. I thought it insightful and something most real estate agents do not consider when they get a new listing.
(Hdr Photography by Nancy Strong)

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

The Successful Combination of Photography and Real Estate

"Commentary by Gar Benedick

RISMEDIA, April 1, 2008- Pictures that are poor or less-than-flattering can turn buyers off, leading to fewer leads and offers. In real estate, good pictures–the right pictures–are worth more than a thousand words-they can be worth thousands of dollars.

According to a survey of buyers and sellers by the National Association of Realtors, 80% of the people across the country who purchased a new home last year used the Internet while researching their purchase. These buyers rated photographs as the single most useful tool in their search. Agents say the photos buyers see online are often the first, and sometimes the only, chance they may get to make a good impression."

Amazing Tool for Realtors® - Postlets.com

Nancy Strong — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Another free service from the internet was sent to me by my sister who owns Rooftop Realty. I have not had much time lately to sit down and investigate new free internet services but decided today was the day to start another one. This one is Postlets.com. This is an amazing tool that all real estate agents should have in their arsenal. Postlets is a real estate distribution platform that allows you to distribute your listings to many of the leading classified sites. (I will cover what distribution sites Postlets uses later in this blog post.)

Postlets is a free service that allows you to creates as many listings as you want and you have full use of their distribution tools. You may elect to use their premium listing service, Postlets PRO for just $10. There is discount pricing if you decide to purchase more than one PRO upgrade.

Before I delve into the differences of these services, let me explain the simplicity of Postlets.

To sign up for Postlets, I just filled out the normal information, your name, a user name, and password. You will need to include your e-mail address and your company name. Of course there is the telephone and fax numbers, your city and state. You then decide which distribution platforms you want to subscribe to. I checked all. Lastly, upload your company logo and your photograph. It’s that simple!

Your next step is to create your Postlet. Click on the “Create a New Postlet” button or “Create” and it takes you to the contact and location information. It was so easy. The hardest part was considering the description of the home and community. After I put in my address, Postlets filled in all the necessary information for me, number of bedrooms, square footage of the home and lot, etc.

I was then able to post six (6) HDR photographs of my home. The photograph size is approximately 350 x 262 pixels. If you decide to go with the PRO version, you are allowed up to 18 photos and the size of yourphotographs coubles. I was also able to link the MLS virtual tour I had produced and posted to YouTube and include it in my listing.

It’s as easy as that. No muss, No Fuss!

You will be given different HTML coding for different effects. You can click on Post to Craigslist, put in your information, copy the HTML code from your Postlets listing and click continue. Your listing is now on Craigslist.

After you have two Postlet listings, you will be able to create a gallery. You will be prompted to simply click “Create My Gallery” button at the bottom of the page. You can make your Gallery URL anything you would like e.g. if you choose “Anyrealtor” than your Gallery URL would be anyrealtor.postlets.com.

Your Postlet listings will be distributed to:

backpage
ByOwnerMLS (only for sale by owner listings)
DotHomes
Enormo
FrontDoor
Google Base
HotPads
Local.com
Lycos
Oodle
Trulia
Vast
Zillow

Standard Postlets listings include a one-page template, the template themes, 6 photographs, or agent photo, small embedded map, local information mortgage calculator, external links, HTML code, widgets, syndication, and Google Analytics tracking. With the standard Postlets listings they include Ads by Google.

With Postlets PRO you get everything you have with the standard listings plus quite a bit more. The PRO costs as much as $10 per listing or you can buy Postlet credits, 5 or more and the price decreases. With Postlets PRO you get a multi-page format, 20 theme choices, 18 photographs, slideshow viewer, embedded video, full-size embedded map, neighborhood information, video integration, your branding on every page, an MLS compliant version and no advertisements.

You are then able to embed your listings from Postlets to your blog or website with Postlets Mini. Postlets Mini is a “widget” of your listing. You embed the HTML code in your blog or website and a “mini” version of your listing is displayed and links back to your full-size listing. There are three different sizes, small, medium and large. I have included them in this blog post for you to see.

The one downside to Postlets is if you have a lot of listings it takes time to load, add the creative descriptions and post them. The answer to this is to hire a virtual assistant to help you grow your business. Contact me if you need my assistance!

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Now You Have a BudURL in the Web Business!

Nancy Strong — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:39:00 GMT

The next free service that was recommend by Jason Berman of “The J. Berman Group,” during the seminar, Blogging and Social Media Marketing, I have started to research is BudURL. I decided to start my research on Twitter and Facebook. I wanted to be on the up and up with everyone and told them I was doing research on a new service. I told them the link took them to my blog site. It has been amazing what transpired. BudURL is a fantastic tool to grow your business. It is a tool that will enable you to find out what sources you use that give you the biggest bang for your buck!

BudURL has several different levels you can sign up for from their Free service to Agency. Each service gives you a number of BudURLs , plus Premium Click Stats. As BudURL states, “We track the number of clicks for every inbound BudURL. The Premium Click Stats report shows you the timestamp, referrer, IP address, keywords used and the total/unique clicks for the amount allowed in your account. This feature is one of the biggest differentiators between BudURL and its competitors. Without it, we’re just counting clicks.”

I just wanted to get a feel for this service and decided to just sign up for the Free service. The Free service is just that, FREE. You are able to create and track up to 250 BudURL’s. However, you are only able to see statistics on the first 25 hits.

The next step up is Solo. This service is $4.00 per month and gives you 500 BudURLs to create and trace and you are able to see data on the first 500 hits.

Power is the next level for tracking your clicks at $12.00 per month. This level enables you to create and track up to 25,000 BudURLs. Again you get the Click Stats but you also receive Click Stream Enabled, Weekly Stat Emails and Daily Stat Emails. Plus you have the ability to download your stats.

The highest level of BudURL is Agency. The only difference between Power and Agency is you are able to create and track up to 50,000 BudURLs.

The first day I Tweeted and posted on Facebook was Friday, September 4, 2009 around 3:50 in the afternoon. I received nine (9) hits, three (3) from Facebook and six (6) from Twitter. Two of the hits were actually bots or webcrawlers. Six (6) hits came from browsers, three (3) from FireFox and three (3) from Internet Explorer.

The second day was even better. I Tweeted only. It was Sunday, September 6, 2009 at 8:18 a.m. MDT. I was only able to see the first 14 stats because that is where I hit the maximum of 25 for the Free service. However I had over 20 hits on this Tweet. Eight (8) of the first 16 were from bots/webcrawlers, five (5) came from the browser FireFox, one (1) from Internet Explorer and two (2) were not identified.

I wanted more data to see what kind of results I could get from BudURL. I decided to Tweet, “My business is taking wing because of @ExpertVAMentor. Classes are starting September 29, 2009. http://budurl.com/jgbz. I know Kathy Goughenour is starting another class for virtual assistants at http://www.ExpertVATraining.com. This is the class I took to start my virtual assistant business and I am one of her biggest fans. I decided I wanted to help her out and also get some more statistics for this blog post. I posted this blog at 8:52 a.m. and by 9:36 a.m. there had been 14 hits on her site: three (3) were bots/webcrawlers, six (6) came from FireFox, two (2) from Internet Explorer and three (3) were not identified.

Now my interest was peeked!

One of my clients is a real estate agent I am helping by posting Tweets about one of her businesses. I decided to do both types of Tweets and see what transpired. The first Tweet was, “Get a higher ROI for your IRA or 401k. Go to: http://budurl.com/89jz.” From 8:58 a.m. to 9:48 there were 25 hits on her website. 23 hits came in the first eight (8) minutes. Of the 25 hits, six (6) were bots/webcrawlers, nine (9) came from FireFox, four (4) came from Internet Explorer and six (6) were not identified.

My next Tweet was for this same real estate agent’s website, but looking for real estate agents to send referrals to. The Tweet was, “My client is looking for exp. real estate agents who would like to receive referrals for 401K and IRA investors http://budurl.com/xw9d.” Within three and a half minutes she had 27 people go to her website. Nine (9) were bots/webcrawlers, nine (9) came from FireFox, one (1) from Internet Explorer and three (3) were not identified.

If you would like to know what is working for your money, this is the way to go. BudURL, for no fee or a very small fee per month, will enable you to decide where your advertising dollars are going for the ultimate value. This is truly a remarkable service that will help anyone Grow Your Business!

If you would like assistance, I am able to set these services up for you and keep track of where your money is working best. Contact me at Nancy@LightenYourWorkLoad.com or call me at 303-678-9860.

Here’s Another Feather In Your Hat!

Amazing Virtual Tours Online!

Nancy Strong — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:00:00 GMT

From the seminar I attended last Friday, Blogging and Social Media Marketing, (mentioned in my last blog post), Jason Berman of The J. Berman Group, gave us 11 free tools that are available on the internet. These all looked very interesting and I have decided I am going to work on each one and post my thoughts and what I am able to achieve.

The first one is Animoto.com. This is a video producing website that I thought was absolutely spectacular. Now that 84% of real estate buyers are starting their home search on the internet, all Realtors® need to have virtual tours to peak the interest of their potential buyers. There are plenty of virtual tour software programs and companies out there that perform these services. However, the time to learn the software is a luxury most Realtors® do not have.

I went to Animoto and just looked around for a couple of minutes. I then decided to join at no cost. This free service provides simple 30 second videos that are very unique and an unlimited number. You upload the photos you would like in your video, add text, spotlights and other options to enhance your videos. Animoto allows you to put your photos in the sequence you want by simply clicking on a photo and dragging it to the desired location. After you have done everything you want to your photos and added text and effects, you need to select music to accompany your video. Animoto has a large selection of music to choose from or you can upload your own soundtracks. After this is done you finalize your video. You can logoff during this process because Animoto sends you an e-mail and tells you it is ready. With the free subscription, you can pay for full-length videos for $3.00 per video.

If you decide you want to make changes to your video after it has been created, it is very easy to do just that. You can click on your video and there is a blue toolbox button at the bottom of the video. Click edit and edit your video. It’s as simple as that.

If you would like to view the three (3) minute video I produced for a listing, go to the bottom of this blog post.

There are two other paying options that are available through Animoto.com. The first one is an All-access pass for $30 per year. You receive an unlimited number of videos and all are full-length. A full-length video goes for the entire length of the song or a maximum of 10 minutes. With this subscription you have the ability to download videos to your computer. Animoto says these downloads are not good quality to burn to a DVD. You can also get DVD-quality downloads for an additional charge of $5.00 per video.

The second subscription option is the Professional. This costs $249 per year. These videos are licensed for commercial use. You have an unlimited number of videos, all can be full-length. The DVD-quality downloads are available with this option at no additional charge and are unlimited as well. With the Professional subscription there are several other options that are available at no additional charge. These are: videos approved for commercial use, commercially licensed music, a call to action button on each video and your own branding.

It has actually taken me much longer to write this blog post than it was to figure out how to use Animoto. This simple to use video creation is a must have for anyone who wants to produce virtual tours, send messages to loved ones, create event invitations, the possibilities are endless!

Just announced, these video creations can support video clips from your camera or phone. You just upload your video clips from your camera or phone and pick the highlights you want to incorporate into you video, no complex video editor. Finally, decide which you would rather hear, your video clip’s audio or the Animoto soundtrack you have chosen.

If you don’t want to take the time to do your own videos, you can contact me and I will be glad to assist you to produce videos you will be proud to have on your website, for virtual tours, promotional videos, or whatever you dream!

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

How to Set Up Your Blog

Nancy Strong — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:02:00 GMT

I attended a seminar this past Friday entitled, Blogging and Social Media Marketing, that was hosted by the Colorado Association of Mortgage Brokers. The attendees were mostly real estate agents and mortgage brokers: the main speaker was Jason Berman of “The J. Berman Group.”

We never did get to the Social Media Marketing part of this seminar because the attendees were primarily interested in how to get started with a blog and how to start blogging. Jason recommended using WordPress.com. I understood his reasoning behind this. WordPress.com is fairly easy to setup and start using right away. I have a few clients that want to start a blog and would prefer to use their logo or header. It’s a personal preference and one that is not available on WordPress.com. However, you can incorporate your logo or header on a WordPress.org blog.

There were many questions asked by the attendees, many of them very good questions from beginner bloggers. One that stuck in my head was, “What is a Widget?”

Jason took his time and answered all the questions in an easy, relaxed fashion. I wanted to stand up and announce, “You guys really need a good virtual assistant to do the setup and blogging for you.” As I am not that outgoing, I did not attempt this feat.

I asked myself several questions regarding these attendees:

At the end of this seminar, will any of them actually start a blog?
If any of these people want to start a blog, will they take Jason’s advice on WordPress.com?
Will they be disappointed as to the capabilities of WordPress.com?
Would they rather have the option of starting with WordPress.org so they can use their own custom logo or header?
Do they understand what needs to be done to maintain a blog?
Will they continue to update their blogs at a minimum of once a week?

The questions could go on and on. But suffice it to say, most of those attendees could use a very good virtual assistant.

If you have any questions about setting up a blog, or would like a virtual assistant to set up your blog so you don’t need to worry about learning how to do it, please give me a call.

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Secrets to Simple HDR Photography - TIP

Nancy Strong — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:32:00 GMT

Camera Settings

If you are experimenting with HDR (high dynamic range) photography, it is best to set your camera to Raw. This enables better control of your colors and gives you more choices when you save your HDR image.

There are several different settings you can use on your camera to take images for HDR photographs. Most SLR (Single-lens Reflex) digital cameras come with an AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) capability. With AEB the camera will automatically change the exposure level up to +/- 2 stops in ½ stop increments. AEB can be shot in all creative modes on your camera settings.

AEB enables your camera to take three (3) photographs exposed in the following sequence: standard exposure, decreased exposure, and increased exposure.

The key to taking steady AEB photographs is to have your camera on a tripod.

Below are three photographs taking with AEB with my Canon 10D. The first one is taken at normal exposure, the second is taken under-exposed and the third is taken over-exposed.

Enhancing Your Photographs

I prefer a photograph with true colors rather than HDR photographs with colors that have been enhanced to the point of being unbelievable.

Below is the combination of the above three photographs using Photomatix software.

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Technorati

Nancy Strong — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:07:00 GMT

I am in the process of reading a blog from Chris Brogan titled “100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media.” There are many great suggestions in the article that you can follow. One of the suggestions Chris Brogan recommends is to claim your site on Technorati.com. In doing this I need to copy a code and publish it in a post on my blog. So I am posting this blog with the claim code to claim my blog on Technorati.com.

After I post this blog I am then to go to another link that was sent to me and fill out a profile and claim my blog. They say on their site: “ As a member you can claim your blogs, and create a personal Technorati profile, and readers from around the web will be able to find what you've written. Membership is free! (We'll never disclose your personal info to third parties.)”

Below is my claim code.

zfr7txy9du

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!

Designing My Own Website - Part 4

Nancy Strong — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Launching LightenYourWorkLoad.com

March 13, 2009, website publish date. I was so excited. Something that I had been working on since December 2008 was coming to fruition! When I hit the publish button the elation I felt was unbelievable. I had learned so much in such a very short time and something I had never thought I would ever do in my life was now becoming a reality.

Once published, which took approximately 24 hours after hitting the publish button, I knew there would be changes and revisions needed. I informed my family, friends, and colleagues and asked them all to review my website and let me know what errors they found. There were a few. The biggest were discovered on the Internet Explorer browser. Figures as I work on a Mac. This is when I needed to learn html.

Learning HTML

During the whole process of writing my web site on GoDaddy I had never gone to the html side of the pages. This was about to change. There were wonky fonts discovered and mistakes that needed html changes. I figured by this time, what the heck, I’ve actually published a website, how difficult can html be? Much to my surprise, it isn’t as difficult as I had imagined. I did write software for Martin Marietta back in the 1970’s so I wasn’t as intimidated as I thought I’d be.

This has produced another challenge I am embracing with my whole heart. As if I do not have enough on my plate, I have started reading “HTML, XHTML and CSS for Dummies,” by Andy Harris. There have been numerous times in my business and website design where I have looked for html code needed to accomplish something that I wanted a certain way. Again, with all of the information on the internet, free most of the time, it is fairly easy to find the answers. But I figure with some of the issues I have been confronted with the best choice is to learn html. This will help in my business and I may find another avenue in which I can make money.

Analyzing the Website’s Success

My website has been published for almost three months. I cannot say I have had success in acquiring clients from this website as of this date. However, I have had people visit the website and go through my pages. A service GoDaddy provides is Visitor Statistics. These statistics enable me to see what is happening when people search for a keyword or phrase I am using and what they do when they go on my website. Since my website was published there have been over 4,500 successful server requests and this is increasing. According to the statistics from GoDaddy there have been almost 1,500 successful requests in the past seven days. I average approximately 50 blog visits a day. This is not resounding success, but for three months it is a good start.

Helping Others with their Websites

My daughter had been laid off in January of this year. She was having no success in finding a job in her field of Archaeology, nor in the workplace as a whole. She found an interesting video on internet marketing and did a lot of research. She wanted to start her own website.

At first she attempted to use Wordpress.org for a website, but the restrictions she was encountering made her decide to use GoDaddy as I did. I have helped her with some of the aspects of her website. In the meantime, she had a job offer to work at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to do Archaeological survey work for the National Forest Service. She did get her website published, May The Chocolate Be With You, before she left but there are many pages she has not been able to complete and keep up to date as internet service is very limited where she is. I did get her site map, or Coordinates page as she calls it, written and published this past weekend. I am hoping there will be a chapter in this book with her experiences as well.

This experience has helped me in my business endeavours. I am currently working with a group of virtual assistants for a real estate agent. We each have our expertise and are assisting her in updating her website, contact management system and adding video. Because of some of the challenges I encountered with GoDaddy and learning some html, I have been able to incorporate her contact management system with her website.

I am also in discussions with a family member to develop a website for him in a new enterprise he is pursuing. There are going to be challenges, as everyone needs and wants different things on their websites. But with my experiences in developing my website I feel I am up to the task.

Here's Another Feather In Your Hat!