Although the real estate market may not be a bubble about to burst, it definitely is slowing down. Now is the time for REALTORS to position themselves to be competitive in a market that has lower prices, fewer buyers and longer sales cycles.

The hot real estate market attracted thousands of new agents. And business has been good as long as the interest rates remained low. Now the times are changing, and many new agents will be washed out of the profession as the market slows down.

Those that intend to survive must leverage online marketing tools for maximum competitiveness. This means learning how to drive prospective buyers and sellers to your Website and then capturing them as clients. Here are some suggestions that will help real estate agents succeed in a fiercely competitive market:

1. To be credible in today's real estate world, you must have your own Website to promote yourself and your listings. Make sure you have your own domain name (i.e., Website address). If your "Website" is just a page on your broker's or an association's site, then any money you spend promoting yourself online is really promoting that site, not yours. There are low-cost solutions that allow you to have your own site for just pennies a day, so immediately take advantage of these. Don't dilute your promotion dollars and time by filtering them through a parent site.

2. Recognize that just having a Website is not enough. You must promote your Website to be successful! Fortunately, there are several ways to do this without having to spend a lot of money:

a. Obtain local Google and Yahoo listings that come up when someone does a search for real estate agents in your locale.
b. Get a listing in the online Yellow Pages or Verizon SuperPages.
c. Use local pay-per-click advertising that only displays when someone in your target marketplace performs an online search. Better yet, you are only charged when they actually click on your ad to go to your Website!
d. Gain new clients by offering a MLS feed on your Website that allows visitors to peruse local listings AFTER they first register on your site.
e. Offer promotions on your Website, such as a free neighborhood pricing analysis for prospective sellers.
f. Refresh your Website content regularly with new information of interest to buyers and sellers to keep them coming back. Use RSS feeds to get up-to-date, free information displayed on your site.
g. Do an inexpensive online press release.
h. Start a blog on your site