http://www.realestateappraisertips.com/ - Home Appraisers: Why Pay $50 to $295 Per Year To Be Placed In An Online Appraiser Directory When You Can Do It Yourself…..AND BE MORE TARGETED FOR LOCAL KEYWORDS?
APPRAISERS, HERE’S MY QUESTION: Am I the only appraiser that receives a new offer each week from a new “Online Appraiser Directory” wanting me to pay them $50 to $295 per year to be listed in their directory? Now, there’s Appraisers2010 dot something. DO YOU REALLY NEED THEM?
COULD I DO THIS MYSELF AND GET MY APPRAISAL COMPANY RANKED ON GOOGLE PAGE 1 FOR “ESTATE APPRAISERS” IN MY CITY? The new push in online appraiser directories now is for non-lender work: “Estate Appraisers” or “Estate Setllement Appraisers”, “Probate Appraisers”, “Divorce Appraisers”, “Trust Appraisers”, etc.. On 12/11/2009, I was contacted about purchasing my spot on a new “Estate Appraisers” online directory for like $50/year. They’d also sell me a position on a “Probate Appraisers” for additional $50/year. The first thing I did was google “Estate Appraisers in my city” and that new online appraiser directory wasn’t listed on page 1. So, I asked myself if instead of spending $100 per year with them, could I do this myself? AND, THE ANSWER WAS YES I COULD, SEE BELOW RESULTS. In fact, I’m on 6 of 10 Google Page One Results. AND, I achieved similar results in my efforts to rank locally for “Probate Appraisers in my City” as well (not enough room in this post to show all of my results). The important point is that I ranked on page 1 for the keywords “Estate Appraisers” and locationally for “My City” where my appraisal business is located.
HOW DID I ACCOMPLISH THIS?
By combining minimal efforts utilizing Appraiser Blogging Skills, Appraiser Video Marketing and Twitter. There’s a new article due out soon in Working RE Magazine that explains this process. You know that data we’re extracting for the 1004MC for neighborhoods? With the permission of my local MLS, I just quickly take that data, work I’m already doing anyway, and publishing that data as a value to my local market, my local readers and for Google Indexing. Want to know more, check out http://www.appraisersblogsample.info/ . And, YES, blog(s) have replaced my traditional appraiser website. That’s Right! I don’t have a regular appraiser website and for very good reasons.
SO, ARE ONLINE APPRAISER DIRECTORIES WORTH THE MONEY, SINCE APPRAISER BUDGETS ARE SO TIGHT NOW?
As my results above show, I believe most of your advertising money for online search should be invested in your own Appraiser Blog and not Appraiser Directories. However, I have fairly consistent orders from www.appraisers.com (paid) and www.zipappraisers.com (free). In the early and mid 2000s, I’ve paid close to $1,500 to $2,000/year just for placement on online appraiser directories. I Know Better Now! Am I saying that ALL of them aren’t worth the investment? No, because I haven’t tried them all. After spending thousands on online appraiser directories since 1994, The one key Lesson I’ve learned is that nobody will market your appraisal business more effectively THAN YOU CAN YOURSELF!
ONE FINAL NOTE, See Above “Dominate Your Local Market”: The above illustration is how Real Estate Agents use online tools to gain buyers and sellers. What do you see on the flow chart? Blogging! Social Media! And, Video is on their website! So, why is it that Real Estate Appraisers think differently about marketing than Real Estate Agents? Can You Imagine Being A Real Estate Agent in 2009-2010 without a major online presence? I know of a couple of Real Estate Agents that ignored blogging and video marketing and are now suffering more than other agents are in this market downturn. Food For Thought!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Tags: appraiser blog training, appraiser video marketing, home appraiser tips, real estate appraiser, real estate appraiser blogging, real estate appraiser tips, real estate appraiser video marketing, real estate appraiser videos, real estate appraisers
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Great post Bill. I use WordPress for my real estate appraisal website and blog. Even if an appraiser has a website, I would suggest having an additional blog as well.
I would agree!! Becaue my primary appraiser website wasn’t ranking well, my initial appraiser blogging strategy was for my appraiser blog to direct traffic to my main appraiser website. After I figured out that my main website wasn’t being helpful to my business, I replaced it with Wordpress self hosted appraisal blog, which has served me very well. I could never have achieved indexing this well with just a normal appraiser website. And, Ben Goheen totally agrees as well as he strictly uses Wordpress CMS. Bill
Directory listings apparently work for some appraisers, but I have always strayed from paying to be listed.