Realtors Employ RSS to Sell Homes
Daily more and more realtors are turning to RSS as a tool to
market homes for sale. The growing RSS phenomenon in the realty
market makes perfect sense. Unlike email RSS feeds have a 100%
delivery rate. In addition the costs involved in creating and
managing an RSS feed are insignificant when compared to the
print advertising Realtors spend on each week. Imagine the
amount spent each week to promote various properties in
circulars and weekly newspapers, compared to the costs
associated with updating and managing an RSS feed.
How it Works:
1. Create Specific Feeds. Create RSS feeds of homes for sale in
a specific town or zip code. Another consideration is to create
an RSS feed based on the home cost or create a feed of scheduled
Open Houses in a specific region. RSS feeds can be created
manually using a text editor.
A step by step guide is available at
http://www.make-rss-feeds.com or software specifically for RSS
feed creation can be used.The realtor publishing the RSS feed
controls what information is syndicated in the RSS feed, so
ultimately it is the realtor's decision as to whether to include
teaser copy or full articles. Generally most Realtors use copy
similar to those in print ads to attract the home-buyers
attention.
Once you have constructed an RSS feed, you will need to transfer
the feed to your server. This can be done using a standard FTP
client (if it is not built into the feed creation software). The
feed is usually placed in the domain's root directory like this:
http://www.mydomain.com/nameoffeed.xml or a subdirectory like
this http://www.mydomain.com/rss/nameoffeed.xml.
2. Promote the Feed. Once you have an RSS feed you will need to
promote the feed on the realty company website, submit the feed
to the numerous RSS feed directories and tell customers about
the availability of the RSS feeds.
In order to signal to website visitors that an RSS feed
containing content related to the website is available, include
a colorful graphic on the website. Realtors can customize RSS
feed buttons by selecting the text on the button and the color
scheme of the button. Once the color and text is entered, a
custom graphic is instantly created. Webmasters can easily match
the style of the RSS button to a website's theme.
Create custom RSS buttons -
http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm Many
website visitors who have RSS readers/aggregators installed will
automatically detect an RSS feed on the website if you add a
small portion of text to the header field of your web page. Use
the following format to assist RSS readers in auto-detecting the
location of the RSS feed.
[link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS"
href="http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml"]Replace the brackets []
with less than and greater then symbols <> and replace
http://www.yourdomain.com/rss.xml with the URL to the RSS feed.
In order to increase exposure of a realty RSS feed, Realtors
should submit the feeds to RSS search engines and directories.
This can be done manually. Just as you would submit the URL of a
website or web page to a search engine, or you can use software
to automate the process. There is a large list of RSS
directories at
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm . If you
prefer to automate the submission process, consider evaluating
RSS Submit available from:
http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html .
3. Update the Feed. Update the RSS feed(s) daily or weekly by
adding a new feed item, as new properties are made available.
Repost feed items for any properties that have experienced a
price change.
4. RSS Feed Tips. In order to maximize the benefit of marketing
using RSS be sure to include the realty company phone number or
link to the website in the description of the feed, so that any
prospective buyers will call the appropriate office to receive
additional details, or schedule a viewing. Include images of the
home in the RSS feed's description, so that the property will
attract the viewer visually. Highlight different homes each week
or emphasize different property features each time a property is
listed.
It is also suggested that Realtors communicate success stories
by letting prospective buyers know when homes are under-contract
but still on the market, or communicate when properties are sold
and no longer available. The realty market will benefit from RSS
as a technology as it is a natural fit for the Real Estate
industry.