According to the Oxbridge Directory of Newsletters, the number of online and e-mail newsletters increased from 1,053 to 6,055 over the last five years. (Click here for full article.)

Print-only newsletters listed in the directory decreased 43 percent over the same time (from 7,395 to 4,180) and newsletters sent in both print and electronic formats increased slightly.

Why are smart businesses using e-mail newsletters?

They aren’t the newest fad, but “unsexy” newsletters can generate much-needed ad revenue, said BusinessWeek in a February 2009 article. Dogster and DailyCandy.com were cited as two success stories in the e-newsletter world. Even Yelp, a search and review site for local businesses, said it was going to focus more on newsletters.

     Publisher props

A newsletter can also help a small to medium-sized business reach out to consumers in an easy, cost-effective way. One such tool is the online platform for the e-newsletter you’re reading – FrogPond Publisher.

“I just started really taking a look at your newsletter and WOW is all I can say,” said Susan Ireland, a certified integrity coach and member of the Master Coach Council. “Every real estate professional who wants to excel and rise above the pack should be working with you.”

“Using an e-zine is about driving traffic, providing faster information and shortening the closing process while also decreasing your expenses,” said FrogPond President Susie Hale. “FrogPond Publisher offers multimedia Web 2.0 functionality. And it’s designed to be used by your personnel who don’t have knowledge of HTML coding. It’s very user-friendly.”

Fidelity National Information Solutions agreed. “FrogPond Publisher is great and we’ve used it for years to produce two newsletters for our organization,” said Darcy Patch, senior vice president of marketing, real estate information services.

“FrogPond has made our life so much easier,” said Paula G. Georg, Marketing Manager, Keyes Co. “We can now communicate news to all of our 1,500 associates in a timely and exciting fashion. The back-end process is seamless and easy to maneuver. Everyone in our company is very excited about our new e-newsletter.

“Most importantly, the FrogPond team is always willing to help us,” added Georg. “It has a been a pleasure working with them. I would recommend FrogPond to any other marketing director.”

Hale said each subscriber to FrogPond Publisher receives hosting, support, training and free content – “in addition to our ‘5-Star’ customer service!”

To take the first step toward making more money, e-mail Susie@FrogPond.com for a brief demo of FrogPond Publisher.

When HGTV launched the FrontDoor.com real estate information site in November 2007, it expanded a “golden” brand further into the real estate space. Now courtesy of a new strategic content partnership with Internet Broadcasting, FrontDoor.com’s listings, videos and articles can be accessed by millions of home searchers from more than 60 local TV stations’ online news sites via search and content integrations that point traffic back to FrontDoor.com.

FrogPond.com talked with Kelly Roark, Vice President of Interactive Sales and Development for FrontDoor.com, about the blockbuster June 25 announcement regarding the partnership.

Roark said the partnership places FrontDoor’s search and content widgets – in addition to video and other features such as FrontDoor’s City Guides, “Real Estate Top 10” and “Cool Houses Daily” – on media Web sites across the nation.

“The partnership opens the door at a local level to millions of additional Web users who can access FrontDoor’s rich how-to real estate content online, in addition to a home search integration that drives more traffic to FrontDoor – and broker/agent listings,” said Roark.

Internet Broadcasting’s Web clients include such well-known media properties as Hearst TV, McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, Cox TV, Meredith Broadcasting, NBC, ABC, Belo and more. Sample integrations include:

Houston: http://www.click2houston.com/realestate_fd/index.html
Atlanta: http://www.wsbtv.com/realestate_fd/index.html

Denver: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/realestate_fd/index.html

Milwaukee: http://www.wisn.com/realestate_fd/index.html
Cleveland: http://www.newsnet5.com/realestate_fd/index.html
Greenville: http://www.foxcarolina.com/realestate_fd/index.html

     What does FrontDoor.com offer users?

“HGTV offers information and tools that address every facet of the real estate lifecycle, and we continue to see a high demand for practical, instructive real-estate information that’s specific to the various life events people experience, from first-time buying to downsizing to relocation,” said Roark.

FrontDoor.com brings the “home” experience full circle, offering content inspired by shows such as Designed to Sell and House Hunters. The Web site has a database of four million listings, fed from independent real estate companies, franchises and third-party aggregators.

In 2008, FrontDoor.com was named the most innovative real estate Web site of the year by Inman News.

The new partnership with Internet Broadcasting promotes broker/agent listings to a broader audience of home searchers, at a highly localized level. FrontDoor.com also continues to associate the listings with HGTV and its popular real-estate content by inserting listing-search teasers close to HGTV and FrontDoor content.

FrogPond.com will feature a Web profile of Kelly Roark in an upcoming issue of The Pond Report. It will cover the exciting integration between FrontDoor.com and Facebook, and what it means to the typical residential real estate agent looking to sell a home.

The new economy requires you to change the way you work – not just to try harder or work longer hours. Ask yourself these three questions to assess the current situation and then adapt your game:

1. What’s the situation? Remember, in this new reality where big businesses are failing, the new competitive advantages are trust, reliability and relationships.
2. Who else is involved? Consider what your customers, prospects, and employees want and need in this new economy.
3. How can you help? Determine what you have to offer that is unique: innovative products, a differentiated pricing structure, or a new way of relating to customers and employees.

For the full Harvard Business Publishing article, “Three Questions to Help You Adapt to This Economy,” click here.

by Georgia Feiste

Resilience is the ability to persevere and adapt when the twists and turns of life go amiss. We all need resilience. It is the key to success at work and satisfaction with your life. Some think it is the basic ingredient to happiness and success, preparing us to emotionally or psychologically handle adversity, which means facing our situations bravely and with confidence, rather than giving up and feeling helpless.

Research has shown seven major factors contributing to the development and strengthening of resilience.

1. Pay attention to your thoughts. If your thoughts about the situation you are facing are inaccurate, your ability to respond effectively will be severely compromised. It’s important to identify your “self-talk” when faced with a challenge, and understand how it affects your state of being – your behavior and feelings.

2.      Shun thinking traps. Aaron Beck, the “father” of cognitive therapy, revealed seven thinking traps that make people particularly vulnerable to depression.

a)  Jumping to conclusions

b)  Tunnel vision based on a biased view of the entire situation

c)  Amplification of negative events and diminishment of positive events, or vice versa

d)  Making things personal, automatically blaming yourself when things go awry, or the flip side …

e)  Blaming others when things go wrong, becoming the angry victim

f)   Oversimplification – always and everything generalizations

g)  Mind reading – assuming you know what the other person is thinking

Let’s add an eighth –

h)  Emotional reasoning, measuring reality against the emotions you feel at the moment

3. Deeply held beliefs. These are ideas about how people and the world should operate, who they are and who they want to be. Often these values guide us in behaving in ways true to ourselves, but sometimes they get in the way of our ability to live the kind of life we want and explain why we react the way we do.
   
4. Problem-solving abilities. Your thinking style may lead you to misinterpret the causes of a problem, which then causes you to pursue the wrong solutions. We all need the ability to test the accuracy of our beliefs about problems, then find solutions that work.
   
5. Gaining perspective. This is monkey mind at its best! We often have a tendency to “what if” ourselves into abject misery, rather than recognize the obstacles that REALLY exist or are most likely to occur, and then determining solutions to get around/through those obstacles.
   
6. Gain focus. When your emotions overwhelm you, or you can’t concentrate because your thoughts keep wandering, it is helpful to find activities that allow you to calm your mind so that you can focus on the immediate task. These could be contemplation, positive imagery, prayer, meditation, yoga, controlled breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, etc.
   
7. Intentional change to counter-productive beliefs. Utilizing your newfound skills in problem-solving and perspective to intentionally work on situations immediately. You will ask yourself one of three questions.....

a)     A more accurate way of seeing this is ________

b)     That's not true because _________

c)      A more likely outcome is ________ and I can ______ to deal with it.

Once you learn and practice these skills, you will face situations that once might have thrown you with confidence and clarity. Your composure will improve, and you will have the inner power to create the life you want for yourself.

Georgia Feiste, owner of Collaborative Transitions, located in Lincoln, Neb., is a business, career and personal life coach, writer and workshop facilitator. She has more than 30 years experience as a corporate executive in the insurance industry. Georgia currently writes columns for the Lincoln 55+ Senior Newspaper and Touché, a local magazine. Her Web site is http://www.collaborativetransitions.com

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

(Flickr photo by The Artifex)

by Dianna Booher

Answer a question clearly and succinctly and then stop. Continuing to ramble on about a complex matter can make the issue seem even more complicated and can cause the other person to give up in frustration.

Give an overview of the “must know” information, then wait to see if the other person asks for further details. If so, you can always add a second layer of detail to the foundational information you have already provided.

Let follow-up questions be the guide as to how much or how little detail is appropriate.

With an over-response to questions, you may find your discussion gets sidetracked on unimportant issues, and then you’re forced to rush through key points to finish within the allotted meeting time.

Shoot for the simple and hit the mark every time.

Register or view the complete 2009 Public Workshop schedule

Conventional wisdom for brokers was that advertising on their company Web site would make it look less dignified, but a new report by the Online Publishers Association says, “not so!”

The report was done in cooperation with Web-traffic analytic company comScore and reviewed by WAV Group.

“The report finds that display advertising on websites increases consumer engagement,” said WAV Group. “This may substantiate that Brokers may actually be able to convert more customers on their Web sites if they also offer advertising.”

The analysis assessed 80 of the biggest branding campaigns across 200 of the most trafficked sites over a month’s time.

If your brokerage wants to benefit from traffic on the FrogPond.com Web site and the Housing Trends e-Newsletter, contact Susie@frogpond.com for information about advertising.

Generation X consumer Tricia Andreassen explains in an RISMedia article how she and her husband want to search online for their next home. They are looking for a broker's Web site that offers a map-based search of home for sale.

Why? They are looking to purchase a home on a lake they already frequent, and do NOT want to have to tow their boat to the lake.
 

Andreassen has some great ideas -- in her real life, she is CEO of Pro Step Marketing, a firm that works with real estate agents to develop Web marketing systems. Click here for an article with examples of Web sites that get her “thumbs-up.”

     The best of the B2B Web sites

What do Adobe®, the U.S. Postal Service, Johns Manville and Cisco® Systems have in common? BtoB magazine has listed theirs among "10 Great Web Sites." See why a panel of five industry experts chose these business-to-business Web sites as the best in the online world.

     Video on your real estate site and blog

We’ve told you that online video is now as big as network television. So what are you doing with all your videos to make sure they are optimizing your Web site’s position in the search engines? Here are 10 great tips from Property Ad Guru on getting the most hits for your videos.

Also, learn the pros and cons of using video in your real estate blog in this posting from The Real Estate Tomato. The real plus of this post: video content ideas, video production tips and video marketing tips.

     YouTube + social networking sites = instant viral sharing

New video uploads to YouTube can now be shared/syndicated seamlessly to social networks including Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader. MarketingVOX suggests the Facebook Connect integration will especially further the dominance of YouTube.

Should travelers still worry about swine flu?

A recent article by Air Ambulance Card notes that a couple of months ago, you couldn’t hear anything else but swine flu talk. And then Iranians revolted, Michael Jackson died and swine flu seemingly ceased to exist. Travelers: breathe a sigh of relief?

According to a leading travel-medicine doctor, you may still want to take that breath at least six feet from the closest coughing stranger. The number of swine flu cases has grown to some 55,000 worldwide. There’s been a case reported in nearly every country by now.

So why isn't Dr. David Freedman, director of the UAB Traveler's Health Clinic (an Air Ambulance Card partner), sounding a code red for travelers? “People who worry about going to a foreign country and getting swine flu while there, I’d have to tell them their chances are probably greater getting it in New York City.”

Add to that, those who don’t travel much are more likely to contract the virus. Only 5 percent of cases are those over 50 years of age. Freedman says travelers in their 50s and 60s likely were exposed to a similar flu some 30 or 40 years ago and still carry some effective antibodies.

Still, there are some areas of concern. Flu viruses transmit better in winter. So travelers planning a trip to Australia, Chile, South Africa or anywhere far south of the equator should take precautions. Freedman recommends:

• Stay 5-6 feet from travelers who are coughing
• Wash hands frequently, especially before eating
• Carry tissues and hand them out to fellow travelers who are not covering their mouths when coughing or sneezing

Most importantly, don’t become so fixated on swine flu that you neglect other travel health practices.

Freedman says travelers headed for tropical or developing countries face far more serious health problems from diseases like malaria if they fail to get the necessary vaccines and medication.

U.S. workers’ leisure time shrank 20 percent last year, down from an average of 20 hours a week in 2007 to an average of 16 hours in 2008. During the same period, their average work week increased by 1 hour.

Why the 3-hour discrepancy? Researchers at Harris Interactive speculate that stressed-out employees are spending more time at home checking their e-mail and thinking about work – that’s not exactly work, but it certainly isn’t leisure, either.

SOURCE: Harris Interactive

In hard-hit housing markets such as Southfield, Mich., real estate and mortgage professionals are doing all they can to generate confidence with buyers. That’s why the John Adams Mortgage Co. announced its new Mortgage Protection Program in a recent news release.

The program is provided through the Rainy Day Foundation (RDF), a non-profit mortgage/personal finance counseling service. The RDF’s mission is to help homeowners who are having trouble making their mortgage payments. Part of their program gives qualified homebuyers some protection from job loss by paying up to six months of their mortgage payments if they lose their job during the first two years after closing.

Famed Washington Post business columnist Kenneth Harney wrote about the recent “booming business” in the mortgage payment-protection niche. Harney said RDF, a “previously obscure charitable group” is now offering job-loss-protection coverage and homebuyer financial counseling through builders, lenders and real estate brokers.

Lennar Corp. and Long & Foster Real Estate are two huge entities offering the protection plan. Toll Brothers Inc. has its own version.

In the John Adams Mortgage Co. plan, only properties listed for sale by the Real Estate One family of companies are eligible for coverage under the program. The coverage is up to $1,800 per month.

The cost of the program is $550, payable by the seller (if seller chooses to participate) at closing if the buyer accepts the program. Coverage cannot be funded by the buyer, and the program cannot cover those who are self-employed, independent contractors or active-duty military.

“From a consumer perspective, job-loss protection — insurance coverage worth up to $15,000 (six months times $2,500 maximum) of monthly mortgage debt — sounds like a no-brainer,” said Harney. However, there are key exclusions and coverage limits.

“Bottom line: Even when it’s ‘free,’ read the fine print,” said Harney.

While MSN Real Estate and Redfin broke into real estate’s Top 10 Web sites maintained by Hitwise in May, no new sites have cracked the Hitwise Top 10 so far this year. However, there’s a battle for positions 6 through 10.

Hitwise is an online competitive intelligence service.

Trulia and Homegain moved up on the Top 10 list in May. Trulia, which in December became the last site to break into the Hitwise Top 10, rose from ninth to sixth from April to May. Homegain moved up from 10th to eighth, reclaiming the rank it held in February.

Hitwise said the Top 10 real estate Web sites grabbed 29 percent of all traffic in the category, and that the top 20 got 40 percent of traffic. The average visit to sites in the category was about 12 minutes.

Realtor.com, Yahoo! Real Estate, Zillow, ZipRealty and RE/MAX Real Estate continued to hold the top five spots on the Hitwise Top 10 list -- the same order in place since February.

FrogPond sponsor HomeFinder.com (formerly Homescape.com), made Hitwise’s Fast Moving Websites (Real Estate Category), as a Web site “witnessing substantial increases in rank” over the last four months. The Web site rose 100 places to the #112 slot in May. The company recently rebranded and instituted a national print-advertising campaign (click to Pond Report article).

Hugs, The Frog

Susie Hale, President
Frog Pond
FrogPond Publisher
800.704.FROG (3764)
susie@frogpond.com

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