Dominate Your Local Market!

In our last post, we stated that to begin a successful email marketing campaign, you need to do two things:

1. Build a quality list of prospects or customers.
2. Email to that list in a way that achieves maximum deliverability.

In that last post, we covered #1, building a quality list. Today, we’ll cover #2 – emailing to that list in a way that achieves maximum deliverability.

Read more…

“The much-loved Firefox Web browser reached a milestone Friday morning — its billionth download.

“Quite a feat for a browser that, unlike Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Apple’s Safari, is run by a nonprofit organization with fewer than 250 employees.

“Firefox, the free browser built on open source software that debuted in 2004, consistently gets high marks for speed, efficiency, adaptability and user-friendliness, and has become hugely popular worldwide.”

Source: Los Angeles Times via San Jose Mercury-News

Download Firefox here

If your answer was “Internet Explorer” only, you may be antagonizing huge and growing parts of your market. I never understood the “one browser” web development philosophy, even back in IE’s hey-day.

Back then I used to hear some non-forward-thinking developers say they only tested in IE because it had some 75% or the market, the rest of the contenders divided up the other quarter of the pie, there was only so much time in the day, blah, blah, blah.

But thumbing one’s nose at 25% of web browser never made any sense – at least to me.

But the nose-thumber’s lot has grown worse with time. Over the past year, IE’s segment of the market (combined IE6 and IE7) has shrunk from 53.2% to 46.6%. IE 5 has all but disappeared.

In the same 12 months, Firefox’s share of the market has gone from 36.4% to 44.2%, Safari’s from 1.9% to 2.7% and Opera’s from 1.4% to 2.3%. So anyone now developing for IE and ignoring the others is building for less than half of the market.

But I still see websites and applications that misfire or completely fail in Firefox, Safari or Opera. For a personal website, it’s just dumb. For a commercial website, it’s suicidal.

If the current trends continue, it won’t be long before Firefox assumes the #1 position, a mean feat considering you need to go get it, download it and install it. But Firefox is gaining popularity for a lot of reasons – not least of which is that it’s extensible.

There are Firefox extensions that add all sorts of useful features to the basic browser. One of my favorites is the Foxmarks bookmark extension that allows me to keep all of my bookmarks automatically synchronized across four different Firefox installations on two OS X Macs, a PC running XP and a Linux laptop on Ubuntu.

I also installed extensions such as the Google toolbar, the Web Developer Toolbar, ColorZilla (tells me the value of any color on my screen) and a Del.icio.us bookmarking button.

Add to that the fact that Firefox is Open Source (free) and very crash-resistant. If you’d like to try out Firefox, here is the link to download it:

There are a lot of tools on the market to help you make edits to your own web pages. The problem is has always been that they are both expensive and difficult to learn.

Editing and creating new pages from scratch or from a template just got a whole lot easier… and less expensive. KompoZer is an Open Source (free) WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) HTML and web page editor. If you can use Word®, you can use KompoZer.

And to make using KompoZer even easier, there is a complete video tutorial series that will take you from total newbie to expert in a few, short, entertaining lessons. The Konquer KompoZer Video Series is now available and you can view a sample video from the series here.

KompoZer is available for Linux, Mac and Windows systems. We use KompoZer on an almost daily basis here at BobStovall.com and highly recommend it.

You can download KompoZer for FREE here

More info on the Konquer KompoZer Video Series here

Have you ever wanted to learn basic HTML so you could build or update a website? If you have, the HTML For Beginners Video Tutorial Series may be just what you’ve been looking for. This 14 video series will have you creating or changing web pages like a pro even if you think you are technologically challenged.

Why are these tutorials so unique? Well we all learn things in our own way… I understand this and I’ve made an easy to follow, visual program that offers all the learning tools you need – as well as showing you fantastic ways to succeed using the ever popular HTML code.

The HTML For Beginners Video Tutorials contain information about building a site with HTML ‘from the ground up.’ This tutorial series is overflowing with techniques and methods that HTML experts use day to day to create fantastic looking web pages, well structured content and visually exciting sites… and now you have the same opportunity!

Get a complete list of what you’ll learn and more information at the HTML For Beginners Video Tutorial website.

You can use the free Windows Movie Maker program to make videos from your still photos. You can then take that video and put it on YouTube, Google Video or Yahoo Video as well as other leading websites.

Make videos of your homes for sale, apartments for rent, cars, trucks, bikes and planes for sale, small products, etc. Why put static images on your website or in your eBay ads when you can put narrated video? Tests have shown that using video brings faster sales at higher prices.

This video tutorial shows you how to create a video from still photos using Windows Movie Maker.

You can download a larger version of this video for free at the 7DollarVideoStore.com Free Stuff Page.

The 7DollarVideoStore.com is creating dozens of new videos every month and they never cost more than $7. You can register to be notified every time a new set of videos is available by visiting the 7DollarVideoStore.com website.

You can also receive special pricing on complete video tutorial sets to take you from beginner to pro in a few short, entertaining video lessons.

I’m often asked about what programs I use to handle images… you know, do the routine cropping, resizing, basic retouching, etc. that many images need before they are put on a website or into a video.

I own Photoshop® CS3 and have found it be an invaluable tool. But not everyone is thrilled about the prospect of dropping $650 for the latest version of Photoshop. But how would FREE sound?

As it happens, there is an Open Source (free to use) clone of Photoshop called the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It is a very powerful application and can do pretty much anything Photoshop can do.

But like Photoshop, it has a fairly steep learning curve. So learning by trial and error can be a long and frustrating process. The 7DollarVideoStore.com has just released a 27 video Creating Stunning Graphics Using the GIMP tutorial set that makes learning the GIMP a simple and entertaining experience. Watch the video to get the coupon code for $10 off the video set.

The first video in the series shows you how to download and install the GIMP for free. The remainder of the series hows you step-by-step how to use the GIMP to create stunning graphics and enhance your photos to make you look your best. You can download this video and others for free here.

Download the GIMP here

Using Apple’s QuickTime on your Mac or PC, it’s a piece of cake to make a video from still photos. You can then take that video and put it on YouTube, Google Video or Yahoo Video as well as other leading websites.

Or use the Perian QuickTime Plugin to export the video as an FLV (Flash Video) for display on your website if you are using a Mac. If you are on a PC, use Any Video Convertor to output the FLV file.

Make videos of your homes for sale, apartments for rent, cars, trucks, bikes and planes for sale, small products, etc. Why put static images on your website or in your eBay ads when you can put narrated video? Tests have shown that using video brings faster sales at higher prices.

This video tutorial shows you how to create a video from still photos using QuickTime Pro. We’ll be looking at how to make a video from stills in Windows Movie Maker shortly.

The 7DollarVideoStore.com is creating dozens of new videos every month and they never cost more than $7. You can register to be notified every time a new set of videos is available by visiting the 7DollarVideoStore.com website.

A short while ago, we posted a review of Open-Realty® 2.5, the latest version of the popular real estate listing and website program. (You can read the review here.)

Feedback tells us that there are still quite a few agents and investors who could be using Open-Realty to build their business, but are intimidated by the thought of installing the software, setting up the databases, configuring the application, changing themes (templates), and so on.

I have always felt that technology should level the playing field in most occupations, not set a bar that makes entry or advancement difficult. That is one of the chief reasons that Orange Cat Productions set up the How Do I DO That? Videos website – to make technology easier for folks like you and me to understand and use.

There are a LOT of web hosting companies who offer control panel installation of software and configuration of the databases they run from, but you still need a degree of technical knowledge to keep the process from turning into a nightmare. Many of these accounts sit around doing nothing for their owner, wasting both time and money.

Well, now OrangeCat.net has a solution to that. Hosting accounts with Open-Realty, WordPress or Joomla! Content Management and PHPList list building software already installed and ready to use. Have a look at OrangeCat’s pre-installed hosting solutions here.

No more uploading, installing and configuring software. No more setting up users, passwords and tables to get a database up and running. No searching for and installing templates, themes and plugins to get the most out of your software. It’s all done for you. All you do is add content – which is as easy as creating a letter in Word.

And if that’s not all, OrangeCat.net can manage your site for you from top to bottom. Whether it’s adding, updating or deleting content, listings, products, email addresses or anything else, OrangeCat can do it FOR you. Find out more about OrangeCat’s Done4U Internet Marketing Services.

So now even the most devout technophobe can use the Internet to build their business – no matter what that business may be. And now there’s no reason why you should ever feel intimidated by technology. Make technology work FOR you! Click here to learn more.

The latest version of the Open-Realty® real estate listings software is Version 2.5. Open-Realty® has been the standard in Open Source Real Estate applications since it first appeared in 2003. With the release of Version 2.5, Open-Realty® has solidified it’s position as the premier tool for Realtors® and Investors to publish their property listings on the Internet.

Web hosting service with Open-Realty® pre-installed and configured is available from OrangeCat.net. Customization service is also available from OrangeCat. Investors and Realtors® who are members of the Association of Real Estate Investment Professionals (AREIP.org) can get a special package deal on membership and Open-Realty® hosting. AREIP Members have access to special Open-Realty® templates that display the AREIP Membership logo and link.

The list of features for the software and users below was originally published on the official Open-Realty® website, which contains a lot more information on the software, documentation, a support forum and more.

Open-Realty® v2.5

Open-Realty® is a professional, open-source, web-based real estate listing management system written in PHP that is provided FREE by Transparent Technologies, Inc. Designed to be flexible, powerful, easy to install and maintain, Open-Realty® has powered thousands of real estate web sites worldwide. Open-Realty® is a mature application that is actively developed, and has been community supported since 2003.

Features:

Open-Realty® is written entirely in PHP, and utilizes a standards compliant XHTML template system, designing a new template from scratch or incorporating the look of an existing web site is greatly simplified.

Open-Realty® Features For Realtors: