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If you want to learn the secrets to effectively working your sphere online and off, let’s set up a time to chat and see if we are a fit to work together. I don’t work with everyone, but those I do work with win.

The post Rock Star Closer Radio: The ROI of Authority with Brian Horn appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

If you want to learn the secrets to effectively working your sphere online and off, let’s set up a time to chat and see if we are a fit to work together. I don’t work with everyone, but those I do work with win.

The post The $2,000 Happy Hour Story appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

The post 400,133 Mistakes People are Making on Social Media w/ Nick Carpenter appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

If you want to know more about leveraging the world of technology to grow your business. By all means fill out the form below and let’s get all strategory together. Hell, if we like each other we may just be able to work together and make some of that good old stuff they call money ;-)

The post The NEW Cold Call is Inbox Messaging appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

 
So in order to effectively work your sphere and grow a business on facebook you must use material that does at least one of two things.
 
Thing #1: You need posts and content that grabs attention and engages people. The best posts are ones with more comments than likes. This is usually a sign of a great post. When people feel more compelled to tell you their opinion or can’t resist chiming in, your EdgeRank and visibility rise. This means more people can see that you exist. If your posts are not the talk of your circle, you will be irrelevant before long.
 
Thing #2: If you can’t engage the masses, you need to be extremely specific. if you don’t have a big number of friends on facebook, make the most of the ones you have. I have around 3,500 friends and honestly, I only interact with about 50 of them. That may leave me with a lot of un-attended friends, but it also allows me to connect in a big way with a smaller amount of people. This allows us to build a better online bond with each other.
 
You see, in the past we were all worried about how many friends we had and how fast we can grow our subscriber list. These days with Facebook’s new algorithm and their technology getting smarter and smarter every day, IT’S NO LONGER ABOUT HOW MANY FRIENDS YOU HAVE, IT’S ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF COMMENTS, LIKES AND SHARES YOUR POSTS GET. 
 
The real numbers you should concern yourself with are the engagement numbers. How many people actually took action and interacted with you/your post. EdgeRank is not about how many friends you have, it’s about how many people actually “talk” to you on a daily basis. You can have 40,000 followers and friends online but if you only get 3 likes and no comments on a post, you can bet no more than 100 of those people see your post.
 
Matter of fact, facebook is shying away from people and pages with large numbers. (I have a conspiracy theory about this but we will save that for another time.) If you have a popular page or timeline, facebook figures people will go directly to your page for their information so they don’t put you in the newsfeed as often. If facebook knows your friends and followers are fake, you GET N0 JUICE! 
 
Size does matter! But not the size of your friends list, the size of your comment and like lists on each post you make. The more comments, shares and likes your posts have the higher your EdgeRank will be and the more your exposure will grow. Focus on what you have and be sure to like their comments, and reply to their questions and stuff on your posts. If you want to have engaging friends, you have to be an engaging friend.
 
I know a few easy ways to game the whole EdgeRank system. Just like SEO for Google, there is SEO for facebook’s newsfeed. If you want to know how you can use my Syndicate Style to game the EdgeRank, fill out the short form below and let’s talk.

The post The REAL Numbers that Matter on Facebook appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

As I got to know AJ more and more I realized there was a lot more to him than just super human strength, he’s also got super human intelligence.  While we were in Vegas AJ walked me through his process of how he runs ads on facebook.  He set me up with a small, yet simple funnel with a $100 a day budget to attract leads.  Since he put my shit together, I have made more money in the last 60 days than any other period in my life.  No fucking kidding.  AJ is THE MAN!

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If you want to stay ahead of your competition and carve your spot out in the web, fill out the short form below and let’s you and I talk about how I can help you improve your business.

The post The Coolest Way Ever To Repost and Syndicate Content that Goes Viral appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

Search engine optimization (“SEO”) can be a scary term for those who don’t know what it is. Images of lines upon lines of code or Internet wizardry may spring into the minds of the uninitiated when they hear about it. In addition to involving neither of these things, SEO is something that everyone who owns a website or blog can work on. Even if you have no web development skills whatsoever, it’s possible to optimize your site to become search engine friendly by working on on-page SEO.

The term on-page SEO is used to described the SEO factors that pertain to what is actually on your website. These factors include the ways your content is formatted, what keywords you use and how images are coded (among many, many others). On-page SEO factors differ from their off-page cousins, like the number of backlinks your site receives, in that they are (relatively) easy to control. You can’t freely make the New York Times link to your site, but you can change your content formatting to your heart’s content.

Of course, on-page SEO won’t make or break a site. You won’t be able to put your site on the first page of search engine results for every keyword you target by beefing up your on-page SEO alone. Regardless, on-page SEO should be the foundation of every SEO strategy and arguably offers the greatest gains if you only have a small amount of time to invest in it.

How to Format Web Content

The most basic form of on-page SEO is something that everyone who publishes content on the web should be doing anyway – formatting their content correctly. Content formatting assists with SEO in two ways.

First, well-formatted content that is easy to access and understand is more likely to be appreciated and read fully than a poorly-formatted piece of content that consists of massive blocks of text. Search engines want to provide the best search results for their users, so articles that visitors spend five minutes reading and then interact with using social media (i.e., give it a Facebook “like” or Google+ “+1”) will always rank higher than similar articles with no social media interaction that visitors that spend mere seconds reading.

Second, search engines use formatting styles to understand what web content is about. For example, an article with the term “Seattle kayaks” in every header will be understood as an article about that term by Google and other search engines. Proper formatting thus ensures that your web content will rank higher than it otherwise would for the keywords you’re targeting.

Make sure you use the following formatting styles, when applicable, for every piece of content you write.

Paragraphs

Nothing screams poor writing more than a 1,000 word article consisting of only a couple of paragraphs. Every paragraph in your web content should encompass one thought or idea. Don’t be afraid to overzealously break down paragraphs into smaller ones; it’s better to err on the side of small paragraphs than to run the risk that they will be too long.

Headers

The easiest way to communicate what your content is about to both your human and search engine readers is through the use of headers. Divide every piece of content you write into topics (and, if appropriate, subtopics) and write a descriptive header with related keywords for each.

Consider this blog post. It consists of three main topics; content formatting, keywords, and image optimization. There is a header for each of these topics. The content formatting section (the one you are reading now) also has many subtopics, including lists, paragraphs, and horizontal rules.

It is necessary to create headers using HTML code so that search engines can identify them; search engines will not “see” headers unless you use the proper HTML code. Bracket your primary headers with the following HTML tags in your site’s HTML or “text” editor:


. Bracket your secondary headers with these HTML tags using the same method:


.

Want an example of how these tags are used in practice? Right click this post’s text and click on “View page source” to see how its headers were formatted.

Lists

Lists are the best way to organize a group of related sentences. For example, a step-by-step guide to listing your home can be implemented with a numbered list to make communicating this lengthy, complicated process easier to follow.

Likewise, an outline of the defining characteristics of your local market should be organized using a bulleted list. In this example, chronological ordering isn’t necessary but it’s easier read and process these market characteristics if they’re broken out of a giant block of text.

Horizontal Rules

There is arguably no better way to visually communicate a thematic break in your content – to both search engines and human readers – than to use a horizontal rule. If, for example, you switch from talking about developments in your local real estate market to sharing updates about your business in a blog post, you should use a horizontal rule to demarcate the topic shift.

Add a horizontal rule to your web content by adding the following HTML code snippet to your site’s HTML or “text” editor:


.

You can adjust the height of the horizontal rule by changing the number found here: “height: ___px.” For example, the horizontal rule created using the code snippet


would be twice as tall as the one given in the previous paragraph.

Bold, Italics and Underline

These text stylings are excellent ways to draw your readers’ attentions to single words, strings of words or entire sentences within paragraphs. However, the SEO benefits of using these text styling are dubious. Some, though not all, SEO experts claim that putting the first instance of one of your keywords in bold will help search engines identify what the content is about.

How to Properly Use Keywords in Web Content

As you are writing a piece of content, identify the words and phrases that human and search engine readers can use to easily identify what it is about. For example, a blog post about businesses that rent kayaks in Seattle during the summer might use keywords like “Seattle kayaks,” “Seattle water sports,” “summer kayak rentals” and “kayak rentals.”

Keywords are added to content in various ways; the exact method depends upon what content management system (CMS) you use. In the WordPress blog and page editor, keywords are entered into the “Tags” section while in the ActiveRain blog editor they should be add to the “Tags” textbox.

It is important to use keywords sparingly and appropriately. Try not to use a single keyword more than five times per article, and do not tag more than four to five keywords for every 500 word article (or five to seven keywords for every 700 word article) you write.

Also, only use keywords when doing so makes sense given the context of the words around it. The keyword “Seattle kayaks” makes sense and belongs in the sentence “While kayaks found in the interior of the Pacific Northwest are normally small and maneuverable, Seattle kayaks are generally of the large, stable – and unwieldy – ocean-going variety.” This keyword does not make sense in the sentence “Tourists should visit the Space Needle, Pike’s Place Market, and Seattle kayaks” and should be removed.

The location of keywords within content is also important. Your most relevant keywords must be located within the title, headers and the first 100 words of each piece of web content you write.

Optimize Your Site’s Images

Alternative (“alt”) text is what search engines use to identify the content of an image. Search engines need alt text because they can’t see the image itself and thus need text-based clues as to what they contain. Alt text thus needs to convey exactly what the image itself conveys. Short, non-descriptive alt text is of little value because it does not do a good job relaying what images are about.

Image titles also provide important textual clues to search engines but are more about labeling the image than describing it. An image’s title is also the text that is displayed when a visitor to your web content hovers their cursor above the image. You thus want the title to be professional (capitalized when appropriate, spelled correctly, etc.) and don’t want it to have the same descriptive explanation provided by the alt text.

Andy Fulton is a community manager for RealEstate.com. He has more than three years of experience with blogging, outreach, and managing social media accounts for a handful of companies and non-profit organizations in the Seattle area.

The post On-Page SEO 101 by Andy Fulton of Real Estate.com appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

45+ Useful WordPress Facebook Plugins (via http://learningnewsnetwork.com)

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People love hearing other people’s opinions. Even more so, people love giving their opinions about certain subjects. So one easy way for you to come up with original content is for you to give your opinion about a subject currently in the news. Something that is on your audience’s mind.

You can easily find plenty of stuff to talk about if you will just utilize the news function of google search. Google will automatically bring up the most important and trending news stories from whatever keywords you use to search. You can bet if it’s on the front page of google, people will be willing to talk about it and share it.
 
Remember this quick tip: If you want more comments on your blog or social media posts, you need to be asking questions instead of making statements. If you post a news article and say “Look at this news post.” There is no reason for people to chime in. If you post the same exact link but say “What is your opinion on this article?” you are inviting people to give their 2 cents.
 
Engagement and consistency is the key to keeping you and or your brand relevant online. You have to be sure to keep your profile and blog posts in front of your audience frequently. If not, they will forget about you and your existence within a couple of weeks. Think I’m wrong? Go through your facebook friends list and see how many friends you like but forgot about. Then you will see exactly what I’m talking about.
 
I’ve made a quick video to show you step by step what I do when I need to come up with content and I am suffering from writer’s block. In the video I will show you how to use google and news stories as content. Enjoy and don’t forget to share with a friend. 

If you want to know how you can use the internet and social media to close more loans and attract more Agents, fill out the short form below. If I like what I read I will reach out to you for a free strategy session.

The post How To Create Original Content When You Are Struggling with Writer’s Block appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

If you are tired of looking for something you can’t seem to find i.e. $2MM+ in closings a month, every month then fill out the form below. Quit screwing around and let’s get serious. I turn people into champions. Let me make you famous. But please, don’t waste my time…

The post Beware of Fake Ass Gurus [Ryan's Rants] appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

I know what you are probably thinking: “Man Ryan, that is a strong claim. I don’t even do that much business from social media.” If this is what’s on your mind you may very well be the exact person who needs to read this the most. Pay close attention to what I’m about to share…

In the past few weeks I’ve conducted over 100 strategy sessions with Loan Officers all around the country. I’ve been able to get a clear view on some of the issues our industry is facing. The biggest issue I see LOs facing is not understanding or utilizing the internet. Almost every LO I spoke with is using the same exact BS marketing methods. This practice is not unique to the mortgage world. I’ve heard the same things from Realtors and Insurance Agents as well.

I want to share with you a case study. A case study about implementation and what will ultimately separate the best from the not in business any more. In case you have not been paying attention, you are competing against computers. Your getting shopped on the internet, I don’t care what business you are in. If you are being shopped there, wouldn’t you want to make sure you were there for the shoppers?

Case Study #1 Colleen Frost:

Colleen Frost has been a Realtor for right about 2 years as I write this post. She came from an interior design background and one day decided to throw her hat into real estate. When I first met Colleen she said she was 100% coachable and willing to do what the other agents weren’t. She told me she wanted to know more about social media. She knew there were big ways to use it and she had a huge interest in it, she just needed a formulated plan. 

Colleen and I talked about checking in on facebook for listings as well as using youtube videos to sell her properties and grow her brand. She wasted no time what so ever. I’m not sure how much her business has grown but I can tell you she sells 10-20 houses a month and most homes get sold in 2-3 days for above list price. Her main marketing platform is social media. You do the math. 

Case Study #2 Sean Matheis:

Sean Matheis was one of my very first personal coaching clients. When I first met him he told me he was 100% open to do whatever it took to reach #1 in his fortune 100 company. Matter of fact, I have modeled much of my current coaching programs around Sean’s success.  

Sean is the #1 insurance agent within his company nationwide and he told me on Friday that he is now closing more deals in a week than he used to in a month. Oh. The thing I forgot to tell you about Sean, is that he only has about 2 years in the business. [you see a pattern here]  

I find it no coincidence that Colleen and Sean are doing the amount of business they are. They are out the for business to find them. They both create videos, blog posts, content and are active on social media. They are visible when people go looking for them or their services.

If you are going to be #1 in your niche, you are going to have to embrace technology. As more and more Seans and Colleens step up, you are surely to get pushed further and further toward finding a new business or maybe even working for a Sean or Colleen.

You see what it takes. You know it’s all around you. Are you going to sit there and wait for life to give you shocking news or are you going to get ahead of the game and not worry about competition because you have none? If you are ready to take it up a notch, fill out the form below.

The post This is What it Takes to Be a Top Producer in Today’s Market appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

That being said I ran an ad on facebook this week. The ad got a 10% click through rate and was a big hit. The only bad comments I got were in regards to the word “shit” being in the video. Now first off, if “shit” offends you, you are fucked. Second of all we all cuss.

I completely understand why religious people and fancy people don’t cuss but at the same time why try to control others? After the person posted on my ad about how offended they were it made me think. Why do people get all ass hurt about cussing? if you think about it, the word “fuck” is used on primetime TV in England like the word “horse” but yet “bloody”is forbidden. It’s all in our heads man…

So I posted on facebook about it and asked my friends opinions. That’s the cool thing about facebook, if you ask questions you get answers (engagement) if you make statements you, well… make statements. Engaging content always ends with questions. Tell your audience you want to hear from them. No matter what they may have to say. 

People gave opinions alright. Matter of fact there were several arguments and people deeply offended. There is a lesson here though. The lesson is about knowing your audience. I know who I want to work with and how they speak. I speak the same language to attract them. In my world that language is cussing.

The other lesson learned from this post is if you make your wall and facebook page a safe place for anyone to say anything, you will get more engagement. See, I could have easily stepped in and said “please stop fucking fighting on my wall” but I din’t. I want people to feel ok with coming to my wall and saying/posting anything. I’m social and that’s what it’s all about right? Notice the amount of comments I made as well. I engaged my friends and thanked them as they posted.

Here’s the post feel free to join in the conversation. It’s public so anyone can leave a comment. https://www.facebook.com/ryan.stewman/posts/10201006615231821

If want to make the most of your time on social media and actually use it to attract loans fill out the form below and sign up for a free strategy session. One call could change your life and income.

The post How To Get Over 200 Facebook Comments Fast appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

On Tuesday 4-16-13 Linkedin add an update to their system that now allows you to tag your friends when you post. Much like facebook, all you have to do is capitalize the first letter of the person you want to tag’s name. This is a major breakthrough for the professional networking monster site.

We need more ways to engage on Linkedin. There are so many useful ways to utilize linkedin but the social element has always been weak at best. Now it appears as if the LI crew is wokring on making the site way more interactive. I wonder what they are planning on next? I hope it’s IM or a cool chat platform.

Many of the actions facebook has recently taken to improve their site has come from stuff linkedin has done successfully. Looks like linkedin is reciprocating with facebook. Linkedin may have been the last site to actually use this function. It already works on Google+ and twitter. It’s about time Li got on board.

So the next time you want to post on linkedin, you can grab more engagement by tagging the people who you want to see your posts. Just like everything else though, don’t spam or abuse it. Li is really strict on policy. You could lose your whole profile no q’s asked.

Here is a quick video I shot for you. I show you exactly how the new function works and how you can use it. Enjoy

If you are ready to take your social media marketing game to the next level be sure to fill out the form below.

The post Good News! Linkedin Finally Enabled User Name Tagging appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

Garrett has been a huge inspiration to me and hundreds of thousands of other people. His no bullshit message is always timely. Matter of fact, when I watch Garrett’s videos (which get 100,000+ views each) I feel like I’m in church, where the preacher is talking directly to me and telling me to make shit happen.

Do epic shit is Garrett’s mantra. His Wake Up Warrior 90 Day Challenge has changed men’s lives in an insanely wonderful way. I’ve personally heard Garrett get all emotional when he talks about the breakthroughs some of his warriors have. It’s quite inspiring and motivating.

When I met Garrett J White in person while we were in Las Vegas I quickly realized he is the real deal. He’s not fake. He’s not arrogant. He’s not an actor. He’s 100% authentic on and offline. His empathy levels for his fellow man are unreal. I’ve never in my life heard anyone care so much about other people.

I firmly believe Garrett J White will reach and motivate more men than Tony Robbins (yep, I said it) and he will have a place in the hall of fame with the likes of Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar. I’m blessed to have him as a guest on this week’s show.

You are in for quite the treat this week. Garrett bring’s it and is going to tell us things that will wake us up and open our eyes to all we have and all we have ahead of us. Tune in and turn it up!

If you are ready to step your game up to the next level and you are looking for just the right person to get you there, that right person could be me. Fill out the form below and let’s talk about your business and how I can help you.

The post Rock Star Closer Radio: Wake Up Warrior with Garrett J White appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

Facebook mobile has now advanced to the point where mobile is better and easier to use than the desktop version. One of the coolest new features is the “chatting head” feature. Anytime someone sends you a message on fb you see their profile pic floating on the page like the pickle was on 4/1/13 on /r/trees. This helps users put a face with a message. More importantly this is the first small step in video chat becoming the next big communication platform.

All you have to do to ge this new update is hit the app store up and search for the facebook app. If you already have fb on your phone just hit “update” This will enable all the new features.

The new dynamic view is nice too. The images have more depth to them. One thing I have noticed is that when you tag someone in your post the name now appears in blod black vs the traditional blue hyperlink we are used to seeing.

The last feature I noticed about the update was the different lists you can choose to see while you are browsing. You can see the traditional newsfeed, your friends that are online posts only or a special list you may have created or follow. This should increase the amount of engagement and interaction you get from your target users/friends.

So head to the app store now and get the latest version on facebook mobile. You will love it!

If you are tired of stressing about how to make money from facebook fill out the form below.

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Let’s take a quick count of some of the services and products Realtors are propositioned with. Mortgages, title insurance, home warranty, home inspection, appraisers, web designers, lead gen companies, contact management systems, flyers, mailers, biz cards, signs, and I could keep going for a long long time but you get the point.  

So let’s think. If all of these different vendors are attempting to sell stuff to Agents, then Agents must be really good at hearing or rejecting sales pitches. Many people say “Agents are cheap asses.” While that may have some truth to it, the bigger truth is if your stuff is not being bought by Agents, maybe you sell shitty stuff. Maybe Agents aren’t cheap. Maybe your shit is just not valuable to them.

You’re going to have to prove to Agents you are who you say you are and you can do what you say you can do. Most seasoned Agents have heard it all before. They have go-to excuses to thwart off sales people just like you. I’m sure you have heard a few. I know I have…

Agents want results. They can get any service or product they need at anytime. Realtors complain to me all the time about vendors calling them with philosophical sales pitches. You know. When people call them and say things like “Would you like to meet for lunch and talk about how we can help each other?” How more open-ended of a BS question can you get?

If you are going to work with a serious Agent and expect serious volume from them, you are going to have to bring serious value. You need to bring your A-Game and a bag of magi tricks to awe them. If not, you will get nowhere. I promise.

I know what value Agents are looking from Loan Officers. I’ve help countless LOs attract their dream Agent. I’m like Hitch for the mortgage and real estate industries. If you would like to know how you can add the value to an Agent to create a lasting referral relationship fill out the short form below. If I like what I read I will be in touch for a free strategy session with you.

The post The Reason Real Estate Agents Are Not Sending You Their Loans appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

The word angle when applied to sales means a different point of entry to the sales process. An edge above the competition that appeals to the inner wants of your prospects. We all need an angle if we are truly going to have success in sales.

The sad thing about most salespeople is they think they already have an angle. But if your pitch is the same as every other Joe Schmo sales guy out there you don’t have an angle. You have a pitch. An angle is a unique way to approach your prospect with an offer they can’t resist.

A sales angle is not customer service or availability or communication. That shit is everywhere and will not separate you from the crowd. You need to create an offer that your prospects can’t refuse. Sales angles are also used to avoid pressure. You can even utilize them to trap prospects with their own words. Your only job in sales is to close. In order to close you have to be better or at the very least appear better than all of your competitors. I go over the exact steps to do just that in this weeks radio show.

Tune in to the radio show below and if you like what you hear be sure to subscribe to the podcast as well as share the show on social media. This weeks show includes a detailed process on how you can easily create a sales angle to start using immediately. Enjoy the show!

If you are ready to find out how you can get the proper angle for your business, fill out the form below and let’s talk.

The post Rock Star Closer Radio: The Reasons Salespeople Need an Angle appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.

So how do you tone down the noise?

I’m finding a great deal of success with small Facebook groups. Generally speaking, thanks to the Edgerank, your affinity of active friends is a small circle anyway. Why not use a group for all of your communication needs?

Facebook groups are actually very functional these days and easy to assemble and use. More and more business and charities are using Facebook groups to keep in touch with a target audience for a specific cause. You can communicate and connect on a more intimate level with people of your choice.

Facebook groups can be super small to super big. In countries outside the USA, FB groups have led revolutions. Matter of fact, FB groups were responsible for the Arab Spring. If using a simple concept like groups on Facebook can overthrow a Government, think of what it can do for your business.

You can get your clients to spread the good news about you like wildfire!

If you are not using Facebook groups as a part of your marketing plan, you could be missing out on connecting with your prospects and partners on a deeper level. Watch this quick video which walks you step-by-step on how to create a group and administer the proper settings.

If you are ready to stop screwing around and get serious about making money then fill out the form below.

The post Why You Should Be Focusing on Facebook Groups [Because They Work] appeared first on Loan Officer Mortgage Marketing Strategies.