Home Staging Business Tips

Do You Pay for Google Ads? If so listen up?

ETN — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:20:22 +0000

I am recommending a new free report by Ryan Deiss for anyone who either buys pay per click ads or who wishes to get their web site or blog ranked higher on Google. Its called the Perpetual Traffic Report. It runs some 29 pages and was must reading for me, and perhaps for you as well.

It covered a lot of different topics including a bit of a history on Google and how its ranking algorithm has changed over time. But what I want to focus on today is just one element of the report.

It used to be that to get the most traffic from Google, it made sense to buy pay per click ads. That’s no longer true. Now I have been a cheap s.o.b. for some time, so I have always preferred to do what is called search engine optimization to get as much free traffic as possible.

According to the report it appears that my time is now.

Based on their research, it appears that the top ads, the one that shows up on top of the organic listings get only 2-3% of the people who come to the page to click. The ads on the side get only 1-2% of people to click.

This is in contrast to the top organic listing. It typically gets 41-45% of the people who come to the page to click.

The #2 listing gets 11-18%

The #3 listing gets 7-15%

The #4-9 listings get 2% putting them on an even base with the highest paid advertisers, and

The #10 listing gets 3-4% as it appears that some people start at the bottom up, or some other rationale.

What does this mean to you as a home stager, or any type of business online.

Clearly, the place to be is #1 on the organic listings for your keywords.

Number one is 4 times as valuable as the #2 slot.

And the bottom line is that you must start paying serious attention to your search engine rankings.

The report goes on to stress the three major contributing aspects toward getting top search engine rankings. Two of these I have written about in detail and will pick up again in coming posts.

The two old ones are, Getting your page set up right in the first place. Even now, after some 16 months of harping on the topic, most home staging and other small business web sites are not set up properly. This is particularly true of most of the group template websites so many new homestagers use.

The second key to the game is getting backlinks from not only a lot of places but also from highly ranked authority sites. I will also take up this mantra in the coming weeks.

Finally, the third aspect that I have not given much direct attention to is what Ryan referes to as “Activity.” By which he means proof in Google’s eyes that a sight is a real site with people rather than robots running things.

This may seem strange to those not familiar with all the people who sell black hat tools and programs to try to fool the search engines.

I will return to this topic again as well. But frankly need to do some additional research of my own.

In the meanwhile I recommend you get your own copy of this excellent free report. Ryan is one of the Good Guys, who actually does his own research and knows what he is talking about.

Get your copy of Perpetual Traffic Report while it is still available for free.

Technorati Tags: Ryan Deiss, perpetual traffic report, perpetual traffic, Google Rankings, SEO Factors, SEO, how to rank high on Google, Search Engine Optimization

Technorati Tags: Google Rankings, how to rank high on Google, perpetual traffic, perpetual traffic report, Ryan Deiss, search engine optimization, SEO, SEO Factors

Who Benefits From Home Staging?

ETN — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:42:54 +0000

Home Staging is a relatively new industry and many people still have a lot of questions about it. Questions like does it really work? Does a staged home really sell faster and for more money? Who benefits from Home Staging? The latest research clearly reveals the effectiveness of Home Staging and you might be quite surprised to find just how many people benefit.

Home Sellers Benefit:

o Staged homes sell faster; an average of 50% faster (and as much as 89% faster; according to a 2008 RESA study).

o Staged homes sell for more money (as much as 10% more). In a recent study 65% of the buyers surveyed said they would be willing to pay more for a home that was move-in ready.

o Home Staging is a great investment and can save home sellers money. A 2007 HomeGain survey found that home staging produced a 340% return on investment. I know allot of people who wouldn’t mind a that kind of return on their investments. Knowing which improvements bring you the greatest return is the key to success.

o Home Staging also helps a seller’s home to make it to buyers top 10 lists of properties to view. According to Maritz 2005-2006 research poll, 58% of buyers made a decision to buy after seeing 10 properties.

o Front yard staging gives a home great curb appeal. 63% of buyers drive by homes before choosing which ones they would like to view. By staging the yard (as well as the home) you will increase the amount of potential buyers that come to view the home.

Realtors® Benefit:

o A staged home photographs well and provides Realtors® with great photos for their internet and print ad advertising. Statistics show that 80% of home buyers preview properties on the Internet. By staging their listings Realtors® stand a better chance of enticing potential buyers to come and view their listings.

o Staging can save Realtors® money. Staged homes have been shown to sell faster than non-staged homes. Fewer days on market not only makes for happy clients but reduces the amount they have to spend on marketing and other listing expenses.

o Staging can help Realtors® to get more listings. Realtors® who consistently have their listings staged distinguish them-selves as an agent who goes above and beyond. Happy home sellers will be more than happy to recommend you others.

o Staged properties receive more viewings.

o Professional stagers act as an objective 3rd party. Many Realtors® are reluctant to tell their clients all the work that should be done to their property in order to fully capitalize on its selling potential. They fear they may somehow offend the client and thus lose the listing. By using the services of a Professional Home Stager (even just a consultation) the Realtor® reduces this risk while at the same time serving the best needs of the client.

Builders & Investors Benefit:

o Staged properties sell 78% faster than un-furnished properties. A faster sale reduces the risk of a price reduction and potentially increasing your profit margin. Home Buyers have a difficult time visualizing how a room would look furnished. People tend to see things as they are not as they could be. It is hard to get an accurate feel for the size of a space without furnishings. A modest investment in Home Staging will not only help the home to sell it helps it to sell faster and often for more money.

o Home builders have long been known to furnish and decorate model homes in order to entice buyers. Traditionally they have hired interior designer or decorators to create their models. But a recent trend has many Home builders and investors hiring home stagers to prepare their models because they are finding it more cost effective.
Home Stagers use rental furniture and accessories. Home builders can save a bundle by not having to out-right purchase all of the required showroom pieces. It also solves the problem of having to store or sell the furnishings and accessories later.

Home Buyers Benefit:

o Home buyers benefit when they purchase a property that has been staged. A properly staged home is often move in ready. Everything is fresh, clean, and in a good state of repair. Decors and up-grades are on trend. Clutter is removed and walls, windows and other fixed assets are easier to view.

Neighbours Benefit:

o When a home sells for maximum value it causes the price of the other homes in the area to go up in price as well. This is because values are usually determined by the average selling price of comparable homes in the area.

Bankers and Appraisers Benefit:

o A home that has been well staged is easier for bankers to lend money on and to appraise it value. Sometimes the appraisals even come in a bit higher meaning the bank will loan more money for the purchase of that property.

Home Inspectors Benefit:

o When a home has been staged it makes it easier for the home inspector to do his/her inspection. A staged home will usually receive a better report from an inspector.

o Many deals have fallen through after an inspection has turned up allot of work and repairs that needs to be done. Once the inspector spots a few red flags he becomes all the more vigilant. If the home is dirty and appears not well keep they tend to presume that the home seller has neglected other repairs as well.

With so many benefits and beneficiaries home staging has never made more sense.

Kimberley Pacholko is a Certified Home Stager, Interior Decorator, Professional Gardener, Garden Designer and owner of White Swan Properties. For more information call (905)-725-7926. Web: http://www.csptraining.com/pages/?cspid=1494

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kimberley_Pacholko

Geographic Long Tail Keywords in Article Titles, Good or Bad?

ETN — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:59:49 +0000

I have long preached about the power of what I call geographical long tail keywords.

When you are setting up your web pages for your home staging business or any other locally based business for that matter, you want your page text and the invisible meta tags behind your page to include the key geographical keyword terms appropriate for your market.

This helps the search engine know that your site is and should be shown to people in your area, and will help get your web page to the top of the search engine results for people doing a search in your community.

In smaller markets this alone, when done properly will get you to the first page of results. However, in most markets you need to go beyond this.

You need to generate backlinks to your site.

One of my favorite ways to do so is through article writing. I encourage you to create short meaningful articles and post them to article directories. Perhaps the most important of which is www.ezinearticles.com

I recently checked them for articles on Homestaging and noted several that included geographical references in their titles. There’s something good and bad to be said about that idea.

The good first. Article Directories like ezinearticles have high page ranks on their own. An article that includes your town name and home staging in it may well show up on the search engines by itself.

Being a published author online in a Google Search will certainly aid in your perceived credibility in the eyes of the reader, which is certainly good.

The downside is that far fewer newsletter, blog or ezine editors are likely to use the article. For example in the article below the author lists 5 ways to homestage PEI (Prince Edward Island) real estate. Since it mentions PEI, its not likely a California or Florida or Australian site on homestaging or realestate is likely to repost it.

People who reprint articles from these directories are not allowed to edit them, and thus most will just pass them by. I will be the exception as I include it below.

It’s important to understand that the widespread reposting is the primary goal of article marketing. For each republishing of your article counts in your total backlink tally. The reason to write articles is to gain this backlink power to raise your ranking on the search engines. And that would be my focus, so I would tend to say do not put geopraphy in your article titles.

That said, if you have a number of good articles written, it may be worth an experiment to see if you can’t get some of them ranked.

Now what I like about the article below is that the author did create anchor text linking his site to the term PEI real estate. This will help him rank higher in anyone’s search for that term.

Here’s his article.

5 Ways to Homestage Your PEI Real Estate For Best Sales Opportunities

Home staging involves taking the time and effort and yes, a little bit of expense to ensure that your home is a marketable product and that you get the greatest possible return on your largest PEI real estate investment, your home.

Home staging involves presenting your home in a way to take the focus off the less desirable aspects and focus buyers on the reasons that they would want to buy your home. It involves de-personalizing your home and making it suitable for the maximum number of potential purchasers.

Much of homestaging you can do yourself and in fact might even enjoy doing – however, some aspects may require the services of a professional, especially if anything is in need of repair.

1. Curb Appeal – the outside

Make your home the best looking on the block when potential buyers drive up. Remember, on average, island homes are well looked after, so this might be a “tall order” in your neighborhood. Make sure that paths are swept and in winter snow is cleared and paths are de-iced. In spring, summer and fall make sure that at minimum flowerbeds are cleared of old growth, however if the growing season is right plant some flowering plants. Tidy away garbage bins and any derelict items from around the house, and paint the trim in an attractive, complimentary color.

2. Clean & Clutter Free

The next step is to move indoors and give your home a thorough “spring cleaning”. That means behind the stove and fridge and all the places people don’t see as well as those that they do. Make sure that your home smells fresh. Clean out cupboards and closets of extraneous items. These prohibit the buyers from seeing themselves living in the home. Take the time to de-personalize the rooms as well. Take down family pictures and momentos as these also distract buyers and make the rooms look smaller.

3. Reduce and Arrange

As well as de-cluttering, reduce the amount of furniture in your home and keep only those pieces that suit the decor and are in good condition. Your furniture will also add or detract from how buyers view your home. If you have older furniture that is not in good condition then buy some attractive throws and cover the worst pieces. You should most likely paint unless you did so recently. If your walls are anything other than a muted, pastel shade or white then paint anyway. The more strong or unusual your choice of home decor and colors the greater the need to mute-down your decor.

4. Lighten up

Make sure that during day showings that window coverings are open and during evening showings that as many lights as possible are on. You may want to add a few bright touches in your now muted decor. Choose a potted plant, a nice picture for the wall. a rug – well this is the fun part, right?

5. Security

You are inviting strangers into your home. Make sure that you have removed any items, documents, prescriptions or anything that tells the visitor about you. You do not want them to know anything about you as this could be used in negotiation, ie if a buyer saw a prescription for a certain drug they might know your health issues and realize your need to sell. As you don’t know who is coming through your home, these people may have reasons other than purchasing PEI real estate, so play it safe. On the subject of safe, also make sure that the environment is safe for the buyers too. Ensure there are no obstacles in their path, no potentially dangerous items on display (your gun collection for example), and that your pet(s) are secured.

R. Parker works with local realtors to promote PEI real estate and PEI as a place for people to relocate to. Known as the “Gentle Island”, PEI is known for it’s laid back lifestyle.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_K_Parker

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PS: I am still willing to assess your home staging websites SEO status and give you hints on what to do about it. This involves examining your websites meta tags and on page aspects plus a 20 minute or so consultation. For the balance of July, I will do this at a discounted rate of $49. Email me at enetwal@gmail.com for more info.

Technorati Tags: article marketing, backlinks, geographical keywords, long tail keywords, curb appeal, clutter free, seo, search engine ranking

Use Anchor Text To Improve Search Engine Ranking

ETN — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:40:20 +0000

Last week I discussed how I use Squidoo as a Search Engine Optimization tool. I explained that you want to get free backlinks to your web site or blog to help lift it toward the top of the search engine rankings.

Squidoo is one of several high ranked authority site where you can create your own content on your topic and create your own backlinks. What I neglected to focus on in my last post was the need for and how to create what are called anchor text or anchor tags.

Anchor texts are backlinks that have been coded with the url of the destination we want people to go to. We do this for the practical reason of making it clear to the reader and to the Google Bots not only where to go but why.

For example, a home stager may want to get their web site to appear on the top of the search engines when someone searches for the term San Francisco Home Staging. They could just enter their url www-MaryJanesHomeStaging.com in a Squidoo page and anyone who visits the site will be able to click on the link and go to the site. So will the search engine bots.

The search bots will note that the backlink exists, and will give it some credit depending on the value the attribute to the the site where they found it.

A better course of action, (and the point of this post) would be to use a keyword you want to rank for rather than your url as the link.

For example, if Mary Jane lived and did home staging in my home town of Minneapolis, she might choose to type in the link as “Minneapolis Home Staging” and then highlight those words and then insert a link on those words. In most browsers, the words Minneapolis Home Staging would appear blue, and most people would know that it was a clickable link.

On most text editors you will often find a small image of a linked chain, which serves as a tool to create links on the selected text.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy on Squidoo, so you need to learn a tiny bit of HTML code to create your anchor text.

Here is the HTML format for an anchor text.

Minneapolis Home Staging

Lets look at this more closely so we can understand what’s happening. It’s not hard.

The

We let the computer know we are done with our url, by adding a end guote and closing arrow. ie “>

Next we have our keyword that we want to be our anchor text. Again in this case it’s Minneapolis Home Staging.

Then we tell the computer that we are done with all of out HTML code by ending with

You will note that the code started with an

This convention is used throughout HTML.

Once we have done this, the people reading our Squidoo Lens will know that MaryJanesHomeStaging serves Minneapolis. More importanly, the search engine robots will learn that MaryJanesHomeStaging.com is about Minneapolis Home Staging. Now when someone goes to Google or another search engine and searches for a Minneapolis Home Stager, the search engines will know that MaryJanes site is one they should list.

The more backlinks associated with the anchor tect Minneapolis Home Staging that Mary Jane is able to establish on Squidoo and elsewhere, the more likely Mary Janes site will be ranked toward the top of the search engines.

HTML is actually relatively easy to learn, and very helpful in many different applications. I have a good HTML Guide for those who want to learn more.

But whether you wish to learn HTML your self or not, you do want to understand that using sites like Squidoo and others can be a powerful way to move your web site to the top of the search engines. The advantage of sites like Squidoo is that you can generate free back links from a high ranked site.

When you create your own links you have control, and can use the anchor text of your choosing to in essence Brand your web site to appear in the search engines on the keywords you use as your anchor text.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions on this topic or any other by leaving a comment on the blog. It was a comment there that generated this post.

Anchor text are not limited to Squidoo, its just that to make the maximum use of Squidoo, you do need to learn how to do a little bit of extra work. Once you learn how, it’s a piece of cake.

Click here to get my Squidoo eBook.

Technorati Tags: anchor text, free backlinks, anchor tag, how to get backlinks, Search Engine ranking tool, search engine optimization tool, improve search engine ranking, squidoo ebook, HTML Guide

Technorati Tags: anchor tag, anchor text, free backlinks, how to get backlinks, HTML Guide, improve search engine ranking, search engine optimization tool, Search Engine ranking tool, Squidoo ebook

Squidoo Ebook or Have It Done for You

ETN — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:07:00 +0000

My long time readers know that I like to use Squidoo as a tool in my internet marketing. I have often suggested it to others as well.

Why? For two reasons mainly, in addition to it’s being a free service.

First Squidoo is relatively simple to do. Once you know your way around you can get a “Lens” or Squidoo page up in about 10 minutes, even if you have no technical expertise.

And it only takes a little while to learn the basics to know your way around.

This makes it easy for people who do not have any type of web presence to create one for themselves. What separates Squidoo from many of the other social networking sites out there like Facebook, Myspace and others is that they welcome commercial content.

So it’s perfectly okay to create a lens on Homestaging in MyTown, USA and talk about your business and solicit customers. You can get banned from other sites for doing so, if you are not careful.

(Another site similar to Squidoo that is fairly open to commercialization are Hub Pages.)

The second reason I use Squidoo is it’s value as a source of back links.

Backlinks to your web site, blog or individual blog entry are one of the key criteria in how high your site ranks in the search engines. I counsel my clients to set up Squidoo lens with this in mind.

If you are in business, you want to be on top of the search engine results when someone searches for home stagers in your community. The more backlinks you get, the greater the likelihood that your page will appear in that top position. And you want to be there.

Now Squidoo has what’s called a high page rank. And what that means basically is that search engines like Google consider a link from a site with a high page rank to be more important than a link from your cousin’s occasional blog posting.

There are ways to enhance that value further by joining groups within Squidoo of other homestagers. It seems the groups, add to the weight of the link, because they represent links from similar types of lens on related topics.

That relevancy is another of Google’s criteria. In this case the theory is that a link from a site about home staging or perhaps real estate is more relevant that a backlink from someone’s blog about dog training.

Now both of these reasons are good reasons to spend some time learning about Squidoo.

Some quick tips. You are probably better off from a Search Engine Optimization point of view to create several related lens on your topic than just one long one.

Thus you may want to do a short lens called Homestaging, your town and another called Your town, home stagers: and perhaps another on Selling Your House In Your County.

In each of these lens, you will want to insert a link to your main web site that you want to rank high.

I recommend that you include your geography in your lens titles. If people use different terms when thinking about your area, consider creating lens that highlight each of them. That way when they search for information on home staging, they may well find your lens.

Your lens then should provide a soft sell on how exceptional your services are and encourage people to go to your site.

If you are interested in learning more about Squidoo and how to put it to work for you, you might want to invest in a Squidoo eBook.

There are also people who will create Squidoo lens for you. The longest running such service is offered by Squidoo experts Tiffany Dow and Lewis Smile. They will build your lenses FOR YOU!
Dow & Lewis

A newer resource and cheaper is available here. SEO Ninja & Squidoo Queen

I’m a do it yourself type of guy, but I recognize most homestagers are more interested in doing home staging than they are in creating web properties.

There’s a lot more to Squidoo and even more to getting a good ranking on the search engines. I welcome your questions or comments.

If you are new to Squidoo, you can sign up here for Free.

[tags]Squidoo ebook, Squidoo, SEO, Backlinks, Search Engine Optimization, page rank[tags]

Technorati Tags: backlinks, page rank, search engine optimization, SEO, squidoo, Squidoo ebook

Affiliate Marketing 101 – Why a Blog Makes the Perfect Affiliate Marketing Web Site

ETN — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:13:55 +0000

Affiliate Marketing 101 – Why a Blog Makes the Perfect Affiliate Marketing Web Site

When you start affiliate marketing, one of your first tasks has to be setting up your first affiliate blog. Using a blog as your affiliate marketing web site will benefit you in many ways – ease of installation, automatic notification to the search engines each time you post and a number of other automated benefits that you don’t have with a static site.

There are a lot of salespages for various traffic tools that claim you don’t need an affiliate marketing web site, but the truth is you want one permanent place in each niche you enter that can be your hub – a place where you can build your following within that niche’s community with the intent of drawing people back time and again.

Your affiliate marketing web site needs to be updated and kept current, and this is very easy on a blog – banners and buttons can be replaced site-wide in seconds just by making a single change in your control panel. And it’s much easier to blog about each of your affiliate offers in one place than to have any number of static sites that must be changed each time an offer closes or a new offer launches that you want to promote.

Further, if you’re just learning to drive targeted prospects to affiliate links, you have to start over from scratch with each new promotion. This stops you from deriving the long-term benefits provided by article marketing, social bookmarking, podcasting and video distribution, just to name a few promotional techniques. By having a blog set up in that niche as your affiliate marketing web site, your articles, podcasts, videos, social bookmarks, viral e-books, etc, will continue to drive traffic to your site for years to come, not only exposing them to your current offers, but giving you the opportunity to entice them to join your opt-in list.

A quick glance at the most common WordPress themes being used today will show you how perfectly set up they are to be used as your affiliate marketing web site – a larger column of text, perfect for product reviews or information relevant to your niche, and a narrower column or two of links and buttons – perfect for your affiliate links and graphics. So much so, in fact, that’s it’s rare to find an affiliate program these days that doesn’t provide ready-made buttons measuring 125×125 pixels, the standard size for ads in blog sidebars.

And then there are the numerous Web 2.0 sites, whole communities in themselves, like Twitter, LinkedIn, MyBlogLog, Technorati, etc, each of which gives you a simple way to tie your blog to your pages on their sites – meaning you could potentially get your information and your links in front of a huge targeted market you wouldn’t have time to chase otherwise. Even FaceBook, the current top-ranked traffic behemoth online, has an automated way to tie in your blog posts. Once you’re a little more advanced and adding podcasts and videos, you open up the doors to marketplaces like iTunes and YouTube as well.

So right now, as you start affiliate marketing, make one of your very first steps setting up a WordPress blog as your initial affiliate marketing web site – visit a few of the best-known super-affiliate blogs for ideas, and research the techniques and strategies used on these blogs. That way you can make your blog a first-class affiliate marketing web site right from the start!

Marketing mentor, coach and speaker Doug Champigny has been teaching companies new marketing strategies since the 1970′s, having owned and operated his own retail advertising agency before transferring to marketing online full-time since 1996. A recognized expert in how to market a product online or offline and master of these new marketing strategies, Doug Champigny is the creator of the PowerStart Marketing coaching program at http://www.PowerStart2010.com and the Affiliate Marketing PowerStart coaching program at http://www.affiliate-marketing-powerstart.info and is occasionally available for private 1-on-1 consultations and mentoring as well. Doug is a regular speaker at many of the live marketing events and conventions around North America – watch for him speaking live onstage in your area soon!

Homestaging Your Home to Sell Faster and for More Money

ETN — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:12:57 +0000

Homestaging is the latest trend in marketing and selling your home. Most savvy and experienced real estate agents will be familiar with homestaging- sometimes called “fluffing”. It can be as simple as your qualified real estate agent coming in and advising you to remove clutter, change a too bright paint color or remove out-of-date- wall paper. It can also be as involved as hiring a professional accredited Home Staging professional who will help your home give the best first impression on potential home buyers while not breaking. Typically it will mean re-painting your home in more neutral and more sell-able colors. Removing or replacing art work, family pictures and personal objects. Buyers like to see a “clean” palette and picture their own items- and home staging makes it easier.

Tidy Every Room in the House

Check counters, floors, closets, halls and stairs. Make beds; straighten or remove newspapers, magazines, mail, toys, clothing, recreation gear, drinking glasses and dishes.

Lighting

Lots of light will show off your home- turn on all the lights, even in daytime.
Open all the blinds- will show views, make rooms look larger and add sunlight to the rooms.

Kitchen and Bathroom

Make sure bathroom and kitchen gleam! In the kitchen have counters as clear as possible, put away crockpot, toaster oven and blender. Clear and wipe down all counters and appliances. Have dishwasher emptied. Scrub out the sink – scrub faucet and edges with toothbrush and soak bleach in sink – you will be shocked how much better your kitchen will look will look!
Flowers are a nice touch- use fragrant flowers such as roses, freesia or lilies.

Straighten washcloths and towels; replace with fresh, decorative ones if possible. Clean the sink and wipe down counters. Use clean smelling room freshener- avoid anything to sweet or cloying.

Get Rid of Clutter

I can’t emphasize this is enough- DECLUTTER. Get rid of stacks of magazines on coffee table, the pile of kid’s crafts on the microwave and bowl of change on the front hall table. You may have to go to extremes and pack up the bulk of your belonging and consider putting then in storage if space as an issue. You do not want to give the slightest hint that you home is too small, cramped or over stuffed!

Think of it as buyers mentally moving their own things into a home. If a home has too much or too little in it, it is hard for most buyers to visualize how their own belongings things will look in your home. There are many do-it-yourself web sites that specialize in way to help you get your home ready for sale. Of course, when selling your home- you want to keep your costs as low as possible and see a return on your home staging investment. Your real estate agent can help! They know what sells and what doesn’t. Good Luck selling your home!

LJ Stewart worked in interior design business for several years and now works as freelance business writer and consultant to small businesses. For more information on homestaging and tips for selling your home please visit LeaJensen.com – Mississauga MLS Listings and top selling Mississauga and Oakville Real Estate Agent

Technorati Tags: homestaging, home staging, sell home, decluttering, selling your home

Whose Twittering Home Staging?

ETN — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:30:15 +0000

Here are some recent Twitter Tweets related to home staging I noted today. If you use twitter for home staging, please leave a comment about how its going for you in the comment section.

Virtual Staging Or Just Misleading Pictures?: If you’re a home stager, depending on what email lists you … http://bit.ly/9LTqLx

By sunriseled at 06/18/2010 21:56

uValue » Home Staging Careers Fastest Growing New Career … http://bit.ly/c1akSq

By usacommunity at 06/18/2010 21:18

Home Staging: The Garage: http://dld.bz/fYX5

By UnitedCarolina at 06/18/2010 20:54

How to choose the right paint colors for home staging. http://fb.me/yPt96TVE

By StagedByGabi at 06/18/2010 20:11

Nice little tip to use in Home Staging: Sweet Smelling Sachets. Fill lengths of pantyhose with potpourri and tie… http://fb.me/BhbrRiZZ

By DeanaStyle at 06/18/2010 19:18

living air purifiers: Sizzling Summer Success: Outdoor Home Staging Tips for the Hottest Season! http://bit.ly/bBQe8n

By LivingAirpurifi at 06/18/2010 19:55

” If you can smell it, you can’t sell it” Home Stager Gals Memphis. Staging & air purification 4 quick sale http://www.homestagergals.com/

By talkshoppetn at 06/18/2010 18:43

: Home Staging – Organizing Your Home to Sell Fast! http://www.crazygreco.com/home-staging-organizing-your-home-to-sell-fast.html

By CrazRealEstate at 06/18/2010 16:37

http://bit.ly/10LGQ4 The Key to Successful Home Staging: Communication – Jaime’s Blog …: The key to successful h… http://bit.ly/aPsARl

By home_stagingGA at 06/18/2010 15:15

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, home stager, home staging tips, twitter, twitter tweets,

Technorati Tags: home stager, Home Staging, Home Staging tips, Twitter, Twitter Tweets

Home Staging Videos on YouTube

ETN — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:05:09 +0000

You Tube has grown rapidly to the point that it is one of the dominant sites online. Google loves video and tying video to your Home Staging Blog is a natural. And its actually quite easy.

We won’t go into the how to today, but will show a handful of YouTube videos relating to home staging. Now tell the truth didn’t you always want to star in the movies. See how these home stagers are doing it.

Staging Your Home to Sell for Top Dollar

Home Staging Tips for Top Dollar Sale of your Home by Susan Botticelli, Realtor, Broker and Home Staging Expert. Susan specializes in residential sales in the Rancho San Diego area of El Cajon, California. Visit www.RanchoSanDiegoLifestyle.com or cal…

Home Staging TIps: Living Room Staging Ideas

Stage your living to attract homebuyers. Living Room’s are often the first space that a homebuyer views when walking through the front door. First impressions are crucial when selling your home. Start with a blank canvas and start removing everything…

Home Staging – Curb Appeal

You’ve got only a few seconds to make a good first impression when selling your home and it starts at the curb. If you’re putting your house up for sale, curb appeal can increase the value of your home and help it sell more quickly. Follow these tips…

Home staging – the master bedroom

Staging has, of late, taken on increasing importance in real estate marketing. Several weeks ago Prudential Rubloff agent Francesca Rose and I shot video of a unit at ParkView Condominiums prior to its being staged. The transformation, as you can see…

Home Staging, Washington DC : See A Vacant Home Staged From Scratch

www.redhousestaging.com Red House Style is a TV show from Washington DC’s to staging company Red House Staging & interiors.Hosted by Tracy Griffin – In episode 1 you’ll see how they transform a vacant loft apartment in downtown DC into a breath takin…

Home stagers are using video to tell the story, establish their own credibility and showcase their skill. You can do the same with your cell phone or an inexpensive flip camera.

Technorati Tags: home staging, home stagers, video, flip camera, youtube

Technorati Tags: flip camera, home stagers, Home Staging, Video, youtube

Home Staging Essentials – 50 Tips To Get You Started on Your Home Staging Journey

ETN — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:31:30 +0000

“Home staging” was coined by Barb Schwarz back in the early ’70s, and the concept has become well known as “house fluffing,” “dressing to sell,” and “home presentation” to name a few, but the concept has not taken hold among home owners when selling a home because many people do not understand the idea or cannot create a workable plan for staging their home correctly.

The focus of staging is to make a home more marketable by creating the most appealing home to the greatest number of prospective buyers. It should be impersonal enough not to infringe on a buyer’s own sense of style.

Decorating is optional. Staging, on the other hand, is essential – that is if you want to sell your house for the most possible money in the shortest amount of time. Staging – it is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary.

Since home staging is truly an essential part of selling your home, I wanted to share these 50 Tips To Get You Started on Your Home Staging Journey.

1. Be sure that your home is staged before you or your realtor takes the photos for the web. Over 70% of all new apartment/home searches are started on the Internet. It is imperative that the property looks good in the photos so that it can attract as many people as possible to see the real thing.

2. You should not have one person look at your house until it has been staged completely. It should not go through the broker walkthrough, MLS, open houses, or anything. Stage first!

3. Kate Hart of Hart & Associates Staging and Design LLC knows that home staging works for all properties regardless of the price point because home staging is about preparing your home for a faster and more profitable sale and marketing your property to the most potential buyers for its target audience. “I have staged homes ranging from $100,000 to $10 million and have had the same result- the homes sell faster and for top dollar compared with the competitors within their price range.”

4. If you have dark cabinets, a light colored handle or something in shiny gold will enhance them. If you have light cabinets, you can give them the sleek look by using handles of the same color so that they are hardly noticeable or by using brushed silver handles. With light wood, you can also use darker handles, gold, bronze, or even colors.

5. Sometimes renovations are needed. However, here are five that you should avoid:

· Adding high end appliances to a modest home

· Adding hand painted tiles to the bath or kitchen

· Adding a central vacuum

· Adding air conditioning (unless you are in an area that all homes have it)

· Replacing windows with newer models

6. Be sure to check with your city or county building inspector before beginning a new project. Many departments require permits, even for things as simple as changing a dishwasher.

7. Everything in its place is a good motto to remember. Always find appropriate places to store your items. Litter boxes in the kitchen and trashcans in the pantry are just two examples of inappropriate placement.

8. Julie Dana of The Home Stylist has the following tip: Do not have any cleaning products visible. You want the buyer to think that the house cleans itself. You do not want to remind buyers that there will be work to do in this house, so put away laundry baskets and dish drainers as well!

9. Lisa Wonsey of Space/Lift explains that selling an empty home can be a huge mistake. Buying or renting furniture is especially vital in an empty home. Empty homes do not show well and can sit on the market for months until a buyer with a good visual imagination comes along, or until the seller drops the price so low that the home is a steal.

10. Your refrigerator will need to be cleaned, even if you are not leaving it. People will still look inside and a dirty refrigerator will turn them off. If you are taking it with you, you may as well clean it now. If you are leaving it, then it is imperative to have it sparkling.

11. Ruthanne Hatfield of Art of Interior Placement emphasizes that taking away items is needed, but adding back is essential, too: Each room should be embellished with accessories artwork, mirrors, accent tables, silk trees and florals, as well as dishes, bedding, and towels so all areas look inviting.

12. Check for unusual odors in your house. It may come from a pet or even from your upholstery.

13. Cleaning is rarely fun for anyone, but it does not have to be a terrible chore. Play some fun, lively music. Before you know it, your adrenaline will start pumping and you will be dancing your way through the house.

14. To clean those irritating stains in the bathtub, make a paste by using hydrogen peroxide and cream of tartar. Use an old toothbrush to rub the mixture into the stain and rinse thoroughly.

15. To clean the microwave, fill a paper cup with water and a few tablespoons of baking soda. Nuke it for about 30 seconds, or until you see the contents explode. Then just take a paper towel and wipe it all off. The explosion spreads the cleanser over the entire area, and you can even use the moistened rag or paper towel to wipe outside the microwave and its surrounding area.

16. Mary Larsen of Larsen-Trochlil Designs offers the following professional tip: Do not offer money towards painting or installing new carpeting. Remember, if you are not willing to do it, your buyer is not likely to either.

17. Take a look around you. Do you have items in your home that are unused and have no real sentimental value? If so, get rid of them! These types of items can often be found in closets, cupboards, basements, and garages. Sometimes they are on bookshelves or even in your everyday living space. The more you are able to move out the more the next buyer will want to “move in.”

18. If you do not have a plan for what to do with the stuff you no longer need, it will get put in the basement or the attic or the garage or simply stay in a pile in the room where it began. If this happens, then you really did not get rid of clutter – you just moved it to another location. When you are clearing the clutter for home staging purposes, you will have many different piles. Some things may go to a thrift store such as the Salvation Army, some things may go to the dump, some things may go into storage, and some things may be set aside for a garage or yard sale. Knowing what you are going to do with the extra clutter is essential to really decluttering your home.

19. Sylvia Beez of m.a.p. interiors inc. reminds us that: A home for sale should always be presented in its best light and immaculate condition, which is not the reality of everyday life. Potential buyers do not want to see how you live, with your children, cats and dogs, and mess. They want to see themselves in a perfect house under perfect conditions and that is how a home on the market should always be presented.

20. If your kitchen cabinets, pantries, and drawers – even your refrigerator – look jammed packed, it sends a negative message to the buyer. This message is that there is not enough room in your kitchen. If they were looking for plentiful storage space, after opening your crowded cupboards, they will believe that they will not find it in your kitchen. The best way to change this negative first impression is to have as much “empty space” as possible.

21. Marlene Feldman of Marlene Feldman Associates has the following suggestion for small dining rooms: If the dining room has an oversized china cabinet, consider removing it. Or, if has a top and bottom, remove the top. This will open up the space considerably

22. Take a look at your bathroom. If you are like most people, you will find half-used shampoo bottles, a jumble of hair accessories, a curling iron, foam curlers, several cans of shaving cream, tub toys, lotions, medication, books and magazines, oils, candles, toilet paper, and on and on and on. The amount of stuff we store in our bathrooms is far greater than the storage capacity for these small rooms, especially, if like many bathrooms, you have just a medicine cabinet and a very small vanity. The “stuff” that is not in use needs to be boxed up and moved out.

23. Katie Joanow of Star Staging explains that: You should remove extra chairs from the tables. Unless you have a massive space, you will not need more than 4 chairs around a table. Also remove extra leaves from the table. This will make the room feel larger.

24. Buyers want to see your carpet or your hardwood floor or your linoleum. Most home stagers suggest removing all area rugs, unless you have a large area of hardwood, where one rug is acceptable. Area rugs make spaces seem more crowded. Without them, your floor plan opens up.

25. Closets are great for accumulating clutter, though you may not think of it as clutter. Perhaps the clutter is wrapping paper, or Christmas items, or an old sewing machine. Maybe you have some keepsakes, or photo albums. Then of course there are the extra clothes and shoes. None of these things are likely to be in the throw away pile, but they should not be in your closet if you want to reduce the look of clutter.

26. Gail Greer of All Rooms Great and Small gives this tip about painting your home: You need to be willing to change paint colors. There are certain universally accepted colors and these should be used when repainting your home. Yellow or shades of gold are warm and inviting. You should also accent with yellow. Your eye absorbs more yellow and therefore sees it first. Green or blue in the bedrooms are great colors because they are restful.

27. Stand a few feet away from the entrance to the bedroom. What do you see? Whatever you see is the first thing that a buyer will see. Is it pretty? Is it bulky? Does it make the room feel small? Move anything from the doorway that is not inviting.

28. A spare room should be viewed as a bonus. It is a “plus” feature of your home, but only if the buyers can view it as such. For example, if your spare room is used mostly as an office, then, during the selling process,you need to make it just that – an office! Get rid of the spare bed and the extra dressers full of last season’s clothes. Get rid of the boxes of storage items in the closet. Keep the essentials of your office such as a desk, filing cabinet, bookshelf, and a nice chair in the corner with a small table and lamp.

29. Holly Weatherwax of Momentum Realty explains that whenever possible, she recommends leaving the garage free from storage. If people see that the seller does not have enough storage and has to use the garage, they will begin to wonder if the same thing will happen if they buy the house. People like to think that they might actually be able to use a garage!

30. Find out what organizations in your area pick up items. Such organizations often include Goodwill, The Salvation Army, veteran’s associations, and other local organizations. Another good way to get rid of items you no longer need is to use Freecycle. Here, you can list items you no longer need and then choose someone from a list of takers to have them. The best part is the person wanting the items comes to your home on your timetable to get them. You can find a freecycle group in your area by going to http://www.freecycle.org.

31. Get everything off the counters. Everything. Remove all appliances from the countertops. Even the toaster. Doing so will make you kitchen look larger and more spacious. It will also keep the buyer’s eye from stopping on a particular item rather than getting a full view of the room. Put the toaster in a cabinet and take it out when you use it. Find a place where you can store everything in cabinets and drawers.

32. Charlie Ann Taylor of C.A.T.’S ROOMER has a lot to say about these focal points in your home: The kitchen and baths need to be model perfect because the kitchen and baths sell the home.

33. Have you taken away so much that your home no longer has any sparkle? Although YOUR personality needs to be removed, the personality of the house still needs to come through.

34. One of the most important factors to consider when placing items into a room is the idea of transition. As your eye moves around the room, you do not want it jumping from place to place or piece to piece. The movement of the eye should flow – not bounce. To accomplish this, you want to avoid abrupt changes in height.

35. Gail Jackson of Weichert Realtors explains that home staging does not need to be expensive: Paint is very inexpensive and gives you a big bang for your buck. Although a bit labor-intensive, painting is not expensive and gives your home a new, fresh, clean look.

36. Give each room a touch of the unexpected. This can be done with artwork placed in an unusual way, using a piece of furniture in a way that you normally would not use it, or adding a dash of color where the eye least expects to find it. Be creative.

37. Follow the “like-with-like” rule of the thumb. Tall with tall, small with small, wide with wide, and narrow with narrow will guide you throughout the decorating process. Mimic the shape of each space you are decorating. For example, a sofa should be accessorized with horizontal art so you are complementing wide with wide.

38. Marcia Smart’s (Smart Interior Styling) tip is to: Recognize that your major competition comes from newer homes. People will take a newer home over an older home if all else is equal. That is why it is essential to give an older home something that puts it above the rest.

39. My favorite decorating tip is to look outside the box. You do not always need to use an item for its intended purpose. For example, do not just use a tablecloth for a table; make it a slipcover for your ottoman. It can save you lots of money and time when you purchase a tablecloth at a local chain verses buying yards of fabric and by purchasing the correct size it can become a no-sew project. Always keep your eyes open for new uses for everyday items.

40. Select a focal point for your room and subtly orient other furnishings and some lighting toward it. If there is a fireplace, it will nearly always be the focal point; other focal points might be bookcases or built-in shelving to house lovely collectibles, or a sofa with a striking painting on the wall above it.

41. Donna Reynolds of Home Rearrangements explains that there are two times that you can angle furniture: In a square room and if a room already has an angle in it, like a corner fireplace or a bay window.

42. In a bedroom, unless you have no other choice, you want to see the foot of the bed when you walk in. You do not want a bed to cross the doorway because it blocks the flow and makes the room look smaller. It is better to see the foot so that you can see the pretty pillows.

43. One of the easiest ways to create color is to add beautiful accent pillows to any room. Introducing a complementary accent color in a room can make a room “pop” and come alive. Accent pillows not only add color but texture and warmth as well. By adding throw pillows in a coordinating or contrast fabric to a couch chair, bench, or bed, you can transform your room and add instant warmth inexpensively!

44. One way to see if your home has curb appeal is to walk across the street and have a good look at your house. where did your eyes go? They should be drawn to the front door and entryway. If they are not, then you need to do something about it.

45. Kimberly Cash of ASPM Tidewater Home Staging Consultants, Inc. offers the following advice: People do not see their house as a product that you have to market and sell. However, selling your home is like packaging. People look at the outside before deciding to come in. Then they look at the inside before deciding to buy, and it is mostly based on looks. It is packaging. You need to wrap up your product, your home, like a beautiful package.

46. Once you have gotten the front yard in shape, it is time to work on the backyard. The most important areas of the backyard are the patios, decks, and porches. Getting these areas up to date will give the buyers a feeling that they are getting bonus space.

47. New window treatments can make a world of difference. They can add value and style to your home and be something the buyers view as a bonus – something they will not have to buy or replace when they move in. The caution, however, is that you keep the treatments neutral (keep your personality out of the room) and that you make sure they do not block the amount of light that comes into a room.

48. Debra Blackmon of Blackmon Design offers the following suggestion for your windows: Many homes have the louvers of the blinds turned down to face the floor. A more enhancing way to use blinds is to turn the louvers up to reflect much-needed ambient light onto the ceiling.

49. Sometimes, refreshing a room can be as easy as changing a light bulb. Bulbs like GE Reveal filter out yellow rays common in ordinary light bulbs, making colors, fabric, walls, and artwork appear richer, crisper, and more vivid.

50. Add pampering accessories! Things like bath bubbles, fluffy towels, and candles not only add the pampering feeling you are trying to achieve, they offer visual comfort with color and texture as well. Psychologically, we all crave that long soak with a good book, and even if we are only in the bathroom for 10 minutes to whip on some make up, just seeing those items displayed promises wonderful baths to come!

As you know, your home becomes a house – a product for sale. Staging your property gives you a more competitive edge in today’s market by transforming it into a marketable product. A staged property helps you sell your investment for top dollar and is the first line of defense over lowering the price. Do not settle for less at the closing table simply because you did not understand the value of staging or did not want to take the time or spend the money to do it properly.

In this world of busy buyers, a property has to be staged to appeal to the their imagination. They want to be able to look at your home and know that they can live there. They want to know that their furniture will fit. They want to know that everything is in “move in” condition. That is why staging is so important. It allows buyers to imagine themselves living in your home with their stuff, not yours.

Presentation is everything and staging is presentation! The result is improved functionality and complementary space. Following the techniques in this book will maximize your equity while reducing the market time for your home.

Teri B Clark is a professional writer and published author. Her most recent book, 301 Simple Things You Can Do To Sell Your Home NOW and For More Money Than You Thought, explains these tips in more detail and offers many, many others. To learn more about Teri’s latest book, visit http://staging-your-home.blogspot.com or sign up for a free newsletter

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Teri_B_Clark

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, home stager, home staging tips,

A Plug in to Build Comments and Back Links

ETN — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:40:57 +0000

One of the plug ins I am sure to add to all my blogs is one called “CommentLuv.”

The default setting in Word Press blogs is to not link back to those people who comment on your blog. The Comment Luv plug in overrides this and creates a link to the last blog post of anyone who takes the time to comment on your blog. This serves to encourage people to make comments and helps you get a conversation going with your blog viewers which is good.

You want to stimulate these conversations any way you can, and frankly it’s not easy to get your lurkers to speak up.

The advantage for the commenter is that this is a backlink to their blog and as such helps with their ranking in the search engines. I routinely visit and comment on a half dozen or more blogs almost every day. When I do, I not only support the worthwhile blogs I visit, but help myself out by generating new back links to my various blogs.

As a homestager, you should seek out other home stagers blogs to read and to get ideas for your own blog posts. Encourage them to install the CommentLuv plug in so that you get the back links you need to build your sites rankings.

If you can find a half dozen or more non active rain blogs to visit on a regular basis and get them to return the favor your activities will help encourage other people to comment on the blogs and will over time build you a ton of back links which will raise your site to the top of the search engines in time, and keep you there if you already have the dominant ranking in your market.

You can access the CommentLuv plug in from within the plugin section of your blog or search for it in Google or other search engines.

Technorati Tags: CommentLuv, plug ins, back links, backlinks, word press, commenting

Bolster Your Blog with Ezine Articles

ETN — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 17:29:16 +0000

Over the past few weeks I have posted several articles on this blog that I got directly from ezinearticles.com. You can do the same thing. It’s easy and it’s free.

Just go to www.ezinearticles.com and look for the article search tool in the left column. For this blog, I just type in Home Staging and I usually can find a half dozen new article every week or so to consider adding to this blog. You can do the same thing for almost any niche market.

When doing so, there is one hard and fast rule that you must follow. You need to use the entire article as written, including the author’s resource box at the end.

Now sometimes I will add my own content before or after the article to explain why I used the article or to comment on the issues it raises, but this is optional. As long as you include their entire content, you are fine.

The author of the article gets several benefits from the process. In fact if you go back in this blog, I have written extensively on why you should write articles of your own to achieve these same benefits, to wit..

They are more likely to be perceived as an expert in their field. People who see the article may want to learn more and will follow the link in the resource box back to their site. More importantly in many cases, is that the little bots the search engines like Google and Yahoo will follow these links, even if no once else does and record it as a back link.

Back links help raise your sites relative ranking in the search engines. And the higher your page shows up in a Google search in your market, the more likely your site will get seen, and in turn the more likely you will get new business.

Now by promoting someone else’s article from another marketplace 100′s or thousands of miles away will not interfere with your own local rankings, so there is no reason not to help them and yourself by posting their article.

You get to add worthwhile content to your blog with minimal effort. And the regular addition of content is a major component to successful blogging. Your readers get worthwhile content consistent with your overall topic and are thus more likely to continue to monitor and read you other offerings.

Some blogs are all borrowed content, but I prefer to write my own material and intersperse articles from article directories as a supplement. But the mix of original and “borrowed” content is up to you.

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of article directories online that you can find article on. I’ve personally had best success with ezinearticles, but if you want to search for others just type in a good keyword for your industry and then add the word article directories and you will find many more.

One last tidbit. If you are interested in learning how to monetize your blogging efforts, so that they become a profit center on their own, you may want to get a copy of my blogging mentors new eBook called Profitable Blog Steps. I write a bit about it in another blog of mine called A Profitable Blog

Technorati Tags: ezine articles, resource box, backlinks, succesful blogging, article directories, monetize your blog, profitable blog steps, a profitable blog

Technorati Tags: a profitable blog, article directories, backlinks, eZine Articles, monetize your blog, profitable blog steps, resource box, succesful blogging

StumbleUpon for Homestaging?

ETN — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:19:52 +0000

There are a plethora of social media sites out there from Twitter, to facebook, and so many more…

Some of the tools are of particular value to Home Stagers who are interested in driving traffic to their blogs or web sites. The more traffic you get, the more likely you will get better ranked in the search engine, and the more likely ultimately that your next customer will find you.

I ran into an article on StumbleUpon today that I thought might be worth passing on. This is just one more tool you can use to help market your site and raise you visibility online. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you would like more items like this, by commenting on the article.

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Have You Discovered StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It is an Internet community that allows users to discover web pages. StumbleUpon is a social network online desktop. Many consider it one of their favorite social media sites, not only can it drive traffic that matches or often exceeds that of Digg, StumbleUpon users are much less critical/confrontational/judgmental than the typical Digg user. StumbleUpon is less about communication and more about discovery, which I think is an under served problem on the web.

StumbleUpon gained its popularity as a toolbar for Firefox while Digg isn’t browser-depended as Stumble. StumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user’s ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. StumbleUpon was owned by eBay from May 2007, when it was acquired for $75,000,000, until April 2009, when Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith and several investors bought it back. StumbleUpon is now an independent, investor-backed startup once again, with offices in San Francisco and New York City.

Traffic from StumbleUpon ordinarily has the lowest bounce rate. Traffic coming directly from Digg is much less memorable, and most Digg users don’t venture farther than the front page. Traffic from any source is welcome I agree, but I personally prefer StumbleUpon. If you Stumble the right way, it will get you huge traffic. Webmasters have realized the potentia lof StumbleUpon as a marketing tool and therefore have started to stumble each others sites to gain traffic and exposure for their sites.

Users rate a site by giving it a thumbs up, thumbs down selection on the StumbleUpon toolbar, and can optionally leave additional commentary on the site’s review page, which also appears on the user’s blog. Users can post comments in the manner of a discussion board in these groups and post links to Web sites that apply to the specific topic. Users can also use the Stumble Upon toolbar as a form of social bookmarking. Users can also see others who gave kudos to a page and follow their recommendations. They can now simply start on StumbleUpon’s site, for example, and stumble all over the Web using their Web browser as guide rather than a toolbar.

StumbleUpon is more widely accepted by mainstream users while Twitter is more accepted by the power users. StumbleUpon is more to an entertainment website (just one button will bring you to a new page that you might not have visited before) while Twitter focuses more on communication and keeping in touch.

StumbleUpon is an amazingly fun tool and having the StumbleUpon Toolbar installed, I often play about with it myself, the result being it leads me to great sites I’m interested in and excellent articles I might not have found otherwise. It is one of the handful of services launched on the consumer web in the last few years that can truly be said to have significant cognitive benefits for the people who use it.

Andre Arnett is a professional Internet Marketer and the author of the Learning Affiliate Marketing blog. For more information on StumbleUpon, be sure to download Andre’s free report, How StumbleUpon Benefits Your Business

Technorati Tags: StumbleUpon, SEO, Search Engine Ranking, Backlinks, Internet Marketing

Technorati Tags: backlinks, Internet marketing, search engine ranking, SEO, StumbleUpon

How to Set Up a Profitable Blog

ETN — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:59:28 +0000

Many home stagers will try to add a blog to their website and that’s a good idea. It can help drive traffic to your site, and help you build credibility and earn your main site some good “Google Juice.”

Unfortunately while blogging is relatively easy once you have it set up, there are many steps to doing so, and even more if you want to establish a profitable blog.

My personal blogging mentor, Mike Paetzold has just released a wonderful new product called Profitable Blog Steps. In it he provides a comprehensive ten module step by step plan to get your blog up and running, and specifically covers the key steps to make yours a profitable blog.

Not only does he tell you what to do, he shows you in a series of 10 videos.

If you are interested in setting up a profitable blog look no further. Grab this now, as Mike is offering a special launch week discount to those willing to take fast action. This special deal expires on June 9th, so do yourself a favor and grab it now.

To learn more and profit more get your own copy go to Profitable Blog Steps now!

Technorati Tags: a profitable blog, profitable blog, profitable blogs, profitable blogging, profitable blog topics, Mike Paetzold, profitable blog steps

Technorati Tags: a profitable blog, Mike Paetzold, profitable blog, profitable blog steps, profitable blog topics, profitable blogging, profitable blogs

Home Staging – What to Look For When Selecting a Home Stager

ETN — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:15:30 +0000

How to Pick a Home Stager

Selecting a Home Stager to help you get a house ready for sale used to be pretty easy since there were so few people in the industry. In the past 6 years we have had a literal boom in this service for preparing homes for sale. There are some that have jumped into this field with no training, no credbility and have not set up their businesses professionally, which could cost the client money. The public needs to know what to ask for when selecting a Home Stager and this top 10 list should help give you some food for thought.

1. What kind of Training Does the Home Stager have?
It is important that the person you invite to help you with readying you house for sale has some training behind them specific to the field of Home Staging. There are courses a home stager can take and earn a designation, certification or accreditation. Of the 3, the accreditation is the highest form of education offered in the home staging industry. You can find accredited home stagers by searching online or by asking for referrals.

All stagers have a natural ability to do their work – that is a given. When a Stager proclaims they don’t need training, what they are saying is they don’t value education, or they don’t want to invest in their education. That is a mistake as Staging is not decorating or design, and handling clients involved in the selling process is very different than a client who is decorating their house. Any person that expects to succeed in business needs knowledge specific to that industry. Home Stagers are no different.

2. Should the Stager have insurance?
YES! Definitely ask to SEE a copy of a current policy that includes liability coverage and coverage for any of the stager’s items they may use to add pizzazz to your house. You don’t want to be held responsible if something is stolen or broken, or if damage is done to the house during the process, you want it paid for under an insurance policy. A professional home stager should carry insurance – both liability and coverage for items provided from their inventory.

3. Is it all about Price?
No. Staging should not just be about price because cheapest does not always mean “best.” You want to interview your Stager and ask for a proposal for services that is reasonable for your house. Most Stagers have a range of fees they charge depending on the service provided. You want to make sure the job that you pay for actually is a good job. When the average price reduction on a house sitting on the market is now between 5-20% (based on National Association of Realtor – July 2008) it’s important to remember: Staging your house is less than a price reduction – in any market and in any price range.

4. Should the Stager be Licensed?
The Stager should have a business license and be set up properly through the proper channels depending on where you live. You can ask to see a business license and also ask if the stager has any additional services or discounts to offer you from vendors they may partner with in your area or nationally.

5. Experience Matters.
Most stagers have been staging their whole life – they just did not realize there was a business they could wrap around their talent. That said, depending on your house, you need to ask for examples of their work and ask how much experience they have. A newer stager can do a fine job on certain houses, but a more complicated Staging job requires the services of an experienced Stager to make sure it is done properly and within budget. As for references and testimonials as an experienced Stager will have those readily available. As Stagers gain more experience, they are able to conduct work more quickly, and have better ideas on how to handle projects.

6. Who Pays?
Staging services are paid by either the homeowner that is selling or the Realtor listing the house. Ultimately it is up to the seller to ensure their house is Staged but some savvy Realtors are including Staging as part of their services to list a home – and a way to get a listing over competitors. The dollar amount they are willing to provide for this service is typically $200-$500 and they may require that the seller pay up front and they reimburse at the close of escrow.

7. How much Does it Cost to Stage my Occupied House?
For Occupied Homes a Stager has two types of services. They can provide detailed plan to the seller who then implements the recommendations with a basic follow up on the back end for about $350.00 average. The stager can also bring in inventory to help add “wow factor” which is typically an average of about $200 per house per month. The Stager can provide total hands on staging using the seller’s things – and is paid for their time in the house to transform each room. This average investment for this varies based on size of the house, what needs to be done – and a stager will provide a proposal to the seller.

8. How much Does it Cost to Stage my Vacant House?
For Vacant houses, the staging costs depends on the size of the house and the style, price and location. For smaller condos or townhouses, Staging can start as low as $700 and go up from there with monthly rental involved. For average houses, the fees are on average about $2,000 to Stage. Larger houses have higher fees because there is usually a need for more furniture and decor. The Staging includes the time to install the furnishings and the rental on those furnishings for a designated period of time. The primary rooms of the house are staged, leaving some rooms vacant. With all vacant houses the client pays for rental of furniture and decor that is in line with the price and style of the house. The furnishings help make the house look more inviting for buyers and helps them imagine living in the house. It also helps them envision the scale and size of the rooms using the furniture as a guide. The rental is at minimum 30 days, and can be contracted for a 60 or 90 day period, or longer depending on the market conditions. The house needs to stay staged as it is a key part of getting a buyer to make an offer. The Staging also includes fees for delivery and removal of Staging items.

9. What else should I ask for?
Stagers that are part of larger associations may have the ability to help with some marketing of the house including featuring it on national websites. Stagers can often provide photos of the houses they have staged that may help with the marketing, as well as provide real estate shows that function similar to a virtual tour. You can ask your potential Stager what they offer to help with marketing once the house is Staged. Look for a Stager that belongs to a reputable association that is founded on educational and code of ethics requirements. Associations that include everyone without regard for educational standards of excellence or enforcable code of ethics have no merit. Ask to see membership certificates and find out what else the Stager can offer you as part of a professional association.

10. Rapport and Relationship Matter Most
When it comes down to it – you need to work with someone you trust can do the best job for you. If you find a connection to the Stager’s personality, that helps you to know you are in good hands, and so look for a Stager that is engaging, and not all business. If you are a Realtor, this Stager can become a valuable part of your team, even sending you referrals for future business. As a seller, your Stager is coming into your house and helping you transition to your new home and should be someone that you trust.

These Top 10 suggestions for location a great Home Stager should serve you well when you follow all of them. Ultimately the goal is to get all properties Staged prior to coming on the market so that Buyers get the best first impression of the home. For statistics on Staging you can go to Stagedhomes.com and see current statistics that show a Staged house sells 2-3 times faster than the unstaged competition. Staging also helps a seller keep more money as they are less likely to have to reduce their house either once or multiple times in price than the competition that is not Staged.

Jennie Norris, ASPM, IAHSP is an Accredited Staging Professional Master (ASPM) and Owner of We Stage Sacramento, a full-service Home Staging company serving the greater Sacramento region. She was the first Home Stager to launch a company in that region and has staged thousands of houses. She was privileged to be part of national Home Staging features on ABC’s 20/20 and NBC’s Today Show. A local resource for media and newspapers, Jennie is a recognized expert in the field of Home Staging.

She is the Vice President of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP -http://www.iahsp.com), the President of the local IAHSP Chapter serving Sacramento, and teaches others about Home Staging in her role as a Course Trainer with http://www.Stagedhomes.com

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, home stager, home stager criteria,

Home Staging – How Much Does it Cost, and Does it Work?

ETN — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:23:00 +0000

The Benefits Of Home Staging.

One of the hottest trends to sell a home today is home staging, an interior decorating technique for making the most of your home’s attributes and making it more appealing to the widest array of potential buyers. Home staging has been known to boost home sales prices, as well as quicken the amount of time the home stays on the market. But the question is – What is the pricing for home staging-and is it worth it?

Preparing Your Home for Sale.

Most sellers realize the importance of cleaning up their home before putting it on the market. Things like fixing leaky sinks, mending cracks in the walls and completing other minor repairs are also pretty standard. These things are often good to do, and, in many ways, are considered forms of “staging,” or preparing your home for sale.

What Do Home Stagers Do?

There are professionals, however, who will go above and beyond what most homeowners think of when they go to sell their house. While decorating is geared toward the owner, Home Staging is aimed first and foremost at pleasing the biggest possible number of buyers. For a fee, these home stagers will come into your home and use your existing items. Or, bring in items that add that special touch to complete a room and make your house as attractive as possible. Home staging costs often include moving around, removing or adding furniture and adding tasteful artwork or other decoration to make your home really shine.

Staging – Is It Worth It?

The main benefit of hiring a professional to stage your home is that they will look at your surroundings with an experienced, tasteful and objective buyer’s eye. They won’t be attached to a souvenir plate collection, like the homeowner would. They will be able to come in and tell you which items should be removed, what should be added, and how best to feature your home.

While home staging may seem like an unnecessary expense, there probably isn’t a single house that couldn’t benefit from a bit of carefully manipulated staging. Only a mere 10% of home buyers can actually visualize living in your home, or your homes hidden potential. This is why having a vacant home staged is so important. Buyers cannot visualize size and scale, so furniture helps to give them a frame of reference.

Why Can’t I Just Stage My Own Home?

Home owners have gotten used to the way their home looks and in fact it is difficult emotionally to change it. If you can’t view something objectively then you are unable to market and package it effectively. Not to mention, most home sellers don’t stage homes everyday for a living. Staging is more than a “to-do” list, de-cluttering, and painting. Its about decorating a home for potential buyers. Home Stagers, rearrange, shop the home, and pull items from other rooms, to create a whole new look to rooms. It takes a designers eye, to pull the rooms together. And often, suggestions and changes from professionals can amount to significant increases in the bottom line profit when selling your home.

Will My House Sell If It’s Not Staged?

Eventually, every house will sell…it’s just a matter of when and for how much. Even if your house sells quickly in a good market, it doesn’t mean it sold for the amount it would have sold for had it been professionally staged.

How Much Does Home Staging Cost?

Having your home staged, doesn’t cost a fortune. It’s the most inexpensive way to achieve the most dramatic and profitable results. Home staging pricing runs from $200+ depending on the market you’re in. According to a 2003 Survey, by Home Gain, statistics showed an average of a 6+% increase in the final sales price on homes that had been staged, versus those that had not. On a $300,000 home, that’s a $18,000 increase! And well worth the low cost of home staging fees.

To find out how to best showcase your home for sale, contact a home staging professional or your local realtor. Many realtor’s will even offer home staging services as part of their listing package, so be sure to ask if that’s something they offer, or if they can recommend someone in the industry. If you’re willing to put out a bit of money up front, you just might find that the benefits from staging your home can greatly outweigh home staging costs. In the end, Home Staging is really a no risk, win-win situation for everyone involved!

Cindy Bryant – Owner of Redesign Etc. a Home Staging & Interior Redesign Service. Serving Houston’s Bay & Gulf Coast. Featured on ABC Houston, The Houston Chronicle, Live Talk Radio, and author.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cindy_Bryant

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, home staging cost, Does home staging work, what do home stagers do, benefits of home staging, preparing your home for sale, preparing my home for sale

Technorati Tags: benefits of home staging, Does home staging work, Home Staging, home staging cost, preparing my home for sale, preparing your home for sale, what do home stagers do

Home Staging Strategies to Remember!

ETN — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:32:57 +0000

Have you ever heard a real estate agent say that “It’s a buyer’s world out there”? The sentiment rings true because due to the economic problems that the United States and the rest of the world has experienced for the past few years, the housing industry has also sank to record lows. While things are still getting back to normal as far as the real estate industry is concerned, how can homesellers make sure that they are still getting top dollar for the residential real estate property that they selling? How can homebuyers get the best value for their hard-earned bucks? This is where home staging comes in.

Here, we will take a look at the reasons why home staging is necessary when selling or buying a home, and also enumerate the top tips on how you can stage your home in such a way that your home buying or home selling goals will be met.

Why is Home Staging Important in the First Place?

So why is home staging important in the first place? Experienced real estate agents would know this: staged homes sell twice as fast as a hastily prepared house prior to selling. Again, this is a buyer’s market that we are talking about so if you are a home seller and you do not exert enough of an effort to make sure that buyers will be interested in purchasing your home, then it might stay in the market for quite a long time.

Another reason why home staging is necessary is simple: staged homes sell for more money. If a real estate property for sales sits on the market for a long time, the seller will usually get lower offers because buyers think that there is something wrong with the property that you are selling. If you want the selling process to be over and done with quickly, you need to make sure to stage it properly.

Next, no matter which part of the house it is that you stage – be it your porch, kitchen or living room – these will have an instant impact to a potential buyer. When potential buyers drive over to your home, make sure that they will be enticed enough to actually get out of the car and get a closer look, rather than just driving by. More importantly, staged homes attract real estate agents; they get more advertising; they can be appraised for top dollar; and it helps you as a seller to speed up your move.

Staging Your Home to be Sold for Top Dollar

Now that you already have a basic idea about the importance of home staging from both the buyer’s and the seller’s perspective, how about when you are a seller? How can you make sure that the way that you are staging your home is good enough for it to be sold at premium value, despite the economic crunch?

It all boils down to how staging your home will make an impact to a potential buyer. To help you out, here are a few home staging tips that you need to keep in mind if you want to sell your house for top dollar:

1. Learn what home staging is all about.
Simply put, home staging is a cost-effective way of enticing home buyers to purchase your home. It’s all about getting a potential buyer to imagine how it is to live within the walls of your home, or beautify the existing garden even more. The basics, however, involve decluttering and cleaning the premises. Make sure to get rid of all the personal clutter like family portraits. Even if those things have a sentimental value for you, a buyer would want to have his or her own family portrait in the living room – not yours.

Remember that home staging is all about teasing a buyer’s imagination so that living in the house in the future would seem like a viable prospect.

2. Remember that home staging is more than decorating.
After decluttering your home from all the personal effects, you can use strategic decorations such as mirrors to make a room appear larger, for example, but home staging goes beyond that. Make sure that whatever furniture’s left is artfully arranged to highlight a focal point in the room. Upgrade accessories if you need to. Naturally, you should have already attended to the needed repairs and fresh paint is always necessary.

3. Do to the exterior what you are doing with the interior of your home.
Sometimes, all it takes is the sight of a white picket fence to entice a buyer to purchase your home. Make sure that the exterior is as inviting as the inside of your house. Replace any dead plants, trim the lawn and add a few outdoor furniture if you have to or go for strategic lighting to highlight the features of the house’s exterior.

On average, a staged home sells twice as fast as the average home on the market. In addition to speeding up the selling process, taking the time and effort to properly stage your home will greatly increase its asking price. It wouldn’t even matter if you take the economic crunch into factor. Generally, a staged home has a better selling value as compared to a run-of-the-mill, freshly painted home.

How to Use Marketing or Design Psychology to Up Your Home’s Value

There is one more important factor that you need to take into account when it comes to home staging. What you can do is combine marketing and design psychology so that the value of the house that you are selling will increase. When creating flyers, for example, create a copy which goes straight to the heart. Instead of saying that the large backyard has a built-in barbecue grill, indicate that the property has a ‘private backyard park with a built-in barbecue where you can entertain your friends.”

At the end of the day, being a home seller or a home buyer requires some effort on your part so that you can go about proper home staging. By doing so, you can sell your home to your target market at top dollar if you are a home seller; and get the best value for your real estate property if you are a home buyer.

Let the Mark Z Home Selling Team help you find your next dream home… Are you looking for Bank Owned Homes in Michigan? How about Commerce MI Real Estate or homes in Oakland County. For more information you can contact us at 248.937.1337.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Z

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, de-cluttering, design psychology, staged homes

Technorati Tags: de-cluttering, design psychology, Home Staging, Staged Homes

Top 10 Reasons Home Staging is a Great Home Based Business

ETN — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:16:54 +0000

If you have a flair for decorating and an interest in real estate, Home Staging could be the right career for you. This service business, also called Real Estate Staging, is based on the art of decorating a home to sell quickly and for top dollar.

Home Staging is a great service business to run from a home office for these 10 reasons:

1. It is a low cost business to start.

You can work from your own home office. You don’t need a store front or inventory. You also don’t need expensive advertising to grow your home staging business successfully.

2. There is no need to invest in inventory or recruit others into the business. Home Staging is not a multi-level marketing scheme.

If you’ve researched the subject of home-based business, you’ve probably encountered lots of schemes that want you to buy inventory and recruit others into the business too. These are multi-level marketing businesses. Home Staging is not a multi-level marketing business. You don’t have to buy anything and you don’t have to recruit anyone else to join the business. This is something you can do on your own without any recruiting pressures. You aren’t expected to pester every friend and casual acquaintance you’ve ever had to invest in your “unique opportunity.”

3. It has been recognized as one of the best growth businesses.

Entrepreneur Magazine identified home staging as one of the hottest growth businesses, and the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program is the ONLY home staging business opportunity recognized by the magazine for the last three years in their business start up guide books.

4. The financial rewards are there if you work hard to build your business.

Home Stagers create real wealth for their clients by effectively decorating their homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. Once clients realize the significant return they can make on their investment in home staging services, they don’t feel it’s unreasonable to spend several hundred dollars for even two hours of a stager’s time. In other words, working only half a day, you can make what many people take a whole week to earn. If you have five clients in a single week, you can earn more than you did in an entire month of working full time.

And with real estate markets slowing in many parts of the US, the demand for (and interest in) staging services will continue to grow as desperate home sellers look for an alternative to the costly price reductions their agents recommend.

This business can also thrive in a hot real estate market as savvy home sellers realize the greater profits they can make when they have 10 or 15 buyers bidding on their homes, instead of the two or three they might have had before staging.

5. You can still have time for your family or other demands while running a your business.

You control when you meet clients. If you only want to work during the day when your children are at school you can arrange it that way. “I have an opening for you on Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM works well!”

Or, if you want to start this business on the side while you already have a full time job, then you can meet your clients on evenings and weekends. Many of them will really appreciate it as they work themselves.

6. You will have daily opportunities to be creative and meet interesting people.

Home Staging projects very much depend on the creative solutions you develop for your clients, and each one is unique. You get to see the end result very quickly and meet lots of different people as you deal with real estate agents and homeowners.

7. You will enjoy variety and a sense of adventure in a Home Staging business.

Home Staging projects are very short term in nature, lasting days or a couple of weeks. Each house is different and you’ll be visiting streets and neighborhoods you didn’t know existed as you build your home staging client base.

8. You decide who you want to work with and what kind of projects you want to take on.

Since a project is short term in nature, if you find yourself with a “client from hell,” you know they won’t be in your life very long. If you find there are certain real estate agents that don’t share your approach to business, or treat you with less respect than you deserve, don’t work with them again. There are thousands of real estate agents to choose from in most markets. Did you know that in California alone there are 200,000 agents? Clearly not all of them are equally good or equally pleasant to be around.

9. Since you visit clients in their homes, you do not need to worry about what your own home looks like to run a successful staging business.

Nobody needs to know where your home office is and they certainly don’t need to visit your home. So, don’t worry if your house isn’t a reflection of what you want to present to Home Staging clients. The most important thing is to always present yourself in a professional manner.

10. It does not require specialized training or official credentials.

Despite what some organizations claim for their own marketing reasons, there are no official credentials to be a Home Stager. You can call yourself a Professional Home Stager today and no one can say anything about it.

Of course calling yourself a Home Stager doesn’t mean you’ll automatically know how to price your services, build your business and get clients. These are important skills to acquire if you want to be financially successful. The main point is that you don’t have to undergo years or even months of training to get into this business.

Entrepreneur and Home Staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, knows how to make money as a Home Stager. Discover her secrets to business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Free quiz to see if a home staging business is right for you at http://www.stagingdiva.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Debra_Gould

Home Staging – Why It Works

ETN — Mon, 03 May 2010 01:50:26 +0000

Here is another in my series of articles from Home Stagers who have learned how to drive traffic and back links to their sites by article marketing.

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Home Staging – Why It Works

With the popularity of home staging television shows, many are wondering if staging works in the “real world.” Home staging is more than just good entertainment on a Saturday afternoon, it is a proven technique that sells homes in Hollywood and across the country.

HOME STAGING DESCRIPTION: Home staging is the art of preparing your house for sale by highlighting the home’s features through furniture arrangement, accent placement, and color choices. An Accredited Staging Professional is a real estate expert that performs an objective evaluation of a property to determine any obstacles that may hinder buyer interest in your home. Staging is not decorating. Home staging involves using interior design principles and marketing strategies to best represent your home.

WHY STAGING WORKS: Home staging works because a properly staged house is a house shown at its best condition. Each room contains important design elements: highlighted focal points, proper furniture placement to create a larger space and smooth traffic patterns, tasteful color selections on walls and through home decor, and properly placed home accents. All these principles working together create an atmosphere that triggers buyers’ emotions, causing them to fall in love with the home.

In a staged home, buyers will see that:

* Staged homes look well cared for: staging addresses updating the home’s decor while working within the home owner’s budget.
* Staged homes are uncluttered: staging involves removing excess items so buyers can see the home’s features.
* Staged homes have a pleasant atmosphere: staging displays the best furniture layout for your home, highlighting the focal points and creating easy pathways around the furniture.
* Staged homes appeal to a wider range of buyers: staging neutralizes a homes decor, giving it a model house-like appeal, thus attracting more buyers.

These elements help to generate buyer interest causing wonderful side-effects

HOME STAGING SIDE EFFECTS (BENEFITS):

1. Higher Asking Price: Statistically, homes that have been staged command higher asking prices than non-staged homes, because the house is in top showing condition.
2. Faster Sale Time: Statistically, staged houses sell in one-third time than non-staged houses
3. Greater Rate of Return: Statistically, the investment in staging is returned to the homeowner when their house sells. The average rate of return is about 120%. For example, if a home owner invested $500 in staging their house, they are likely to receive $560 back from the sale of their home through fewer (if any) price reductions or from an increase in asking price.

HOME STAGING STATISTICS:

Staged homes sell quicker than non-staged houses…

* Nationwide, staged home is on the market for an average of 31.9 days
* Nationwide, non-staged home is on the market around 160 days
* 93% of ASP homes sell within one month
* This could mean the difference between days and months!
* For complete statistics visit the Staged Homes Website

Staging is a win-win situation. The sellers win because their houses are sold in a shorter amount of time compared to a non-staged homes, and the real estate agents win because their listing sell faster than agents who don’t recommend staging. Results do not lie. Story after story has been told of how staging made the difference in the sale of a home.

For more information on staging or to view gallery photos of staging projects visit: www.kfmstaging.com.

Kristina, owner of KFM Staging & Design, is an Accredited Staging Professional and has been working with Realtors, builders, and homeowners in the Twin Cities for over ten years. KFM Staging & Design specializes in consulting as a real estate expert, performing vacant and occupied staging services, and working with re-design clients.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristina_Mosloski

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, Staging, selling houses,

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, selling houses, Staging

Squidoo Help To The Rescue!

ETN — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:18:02 +0000

If you have followed my postings for any length of time, You will be aware that I am an advocate for using Squidoo as a source of traffic and in particular high ranked backlinks to your web site.

I’m so positive on Squidoo, I’ve even published a book on the site. You can get it here: Squidoo Basics If I say so myself its a bargain at $17 and could go a long way toward helping you establish your web site on Google and the rest of the search engines.

I’ve discovered though, that most people are either too busy or too lazy to go from reading the information to actually doing it. Now I have been asked to do it for others, but that isn’t the type of work I am really looking for. I prefer not to trade my time for dollars. But it is clearly what a lot of people are looking for – someone to do it for them.

My buddy, Bill McRea who also appreciates the power of Squidoo, however has found a person who is not only willing to create sites for other people, she is a master at it. And she is willing to do it for far less than I would charge if you could talk me into doing it for you.

https://mcrea.infusionsoft.com/go/WBSL/EarlNetw

If you are going to get you web site to the top of the search engines in your market, you need to do more than put up a web site and hope people will find it.

One of your best options is to create a Squidoo page and link that to your site. Sometimes you will find that your Squidoo page will actually rank higher than your own page. And while that can be a bit frustrating, it gets you noticed, and that in turn leads to business.

https://mcrea.infusionsoft.com/go/WBSL/EarlNetw

Technorati Tags: home staging, squidoo, squidoo help, search engine ranking, Earl Netwal, Bill McRae

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, search engine ranking, squidoo, squidoo help