What is Web 2.0 and just what the heck does it have to do with real estate investing anyway?

That's a great question and one that I needed to find the answer on, too!

Web 2.0 is a key-phrase term that really means a '2nd level' or even a 'second coming' of the power blast of the Internet.

Most people use it to mean things like;
- video on the web (you'll see below how that's not what you think...)
- various 'new' ways to clean up webpages for better SEO (more below)
- 'Social Networking' methods to really make your site stand out

OK, let's look at each of these briefly, and most importantly, how YOU can use them to help your real estate investing business!

Video on the web (see how that's not what you think...)

"Video" itself brings to mind doing pictures, moving pictures, film/movies even...

However, in today's Web 2.0 version of 'video', it can mean a variety of things;
- presentation video with voiceover sound
(like http://TheLazyInvestor.com/ChoosingTheRightHouseInAnInstant.html)

- live, recorded sessions with audio and visuals
('webinars' - like http://TheLazyInvestor.com/Presentations/cheaphouses)

- actual video/audio production with real presence presenter
(like http://TheLazyMinute.com/11_Real-Estate-MENTOR.html)

- and more

While Web 2.0 video activities are much like you'd think, the 'movie' portion of it does not necessarilly ring true.

So, if you are cautious of being in front of the camera, or find it stressful to get the lighting, location and layout just right in a video of you doing what it is you do, then you shouldn't worry.

Certainly, using presentations is a worthy alternative!

However, there's something else you should know....

Even with poor lighting, bad focus and aweful hairdo (in my opinion...), you can do pretty well...
http://www.youtube.com/v/qW2jplF-gTc&rel=1

This girl (while she is nice looking and sings pretty well - although, again, not my style of singing...)
has made a really big hit with this video - seen over FOUR MILLION TIMES in around a year, she's
been on Oprah and now has a contract with Justin Timberlake (if you know who that is, you might
add a comment - I've heard the name....)

What I'm telling you is that you really don't have to have great lighting and such - just do the videos! (I know, I know, I'll be doing more soon.......  ;)

Various 'new' ways to clean up webpages for better SEO

While many will argue that "SEO is dead", I'd have to argue that it still matters, though not as much as it did ten years ago.

So, what is SEO??

It stands for Search Engine Optimization and it really boils down to the Google ranking or Yahoo ranking of your page (yes, there are other page ranking pages, but these are the two top ones - for the moment...)

With a good page ranking, you get visitors to your webpages automatically - in other words, you don't have to go get them yourself or pay to bring them in.

There are several ways to get good ranking (one of them is to use this service - I've seen some really good results from it....), most all of them involve simply putting more posts with quality content out there so people can find you!

Many places help your page ranking - scribd.com, squidoo.com, del.iciou.us and digg.com are among the best. 

Post to those places and I've been told (just starting to do that myself, so I'll fill you in later on the results) your Google rankings and Yahoo rankings will soar (we'll see....)

The topic here is about 'cleaning up your pages', so let's hit on that as well as the ranking bit...

This really gets into the 'techie' side of web page design and goes much further than a quickie daily post, so let's keep the heavy details out for the one-on-one mentoring times, ok?

Mostly, cleaning up your website pages means that you need to get your content wording higher than your template wording  (see, I told you it gets a bit techie...)

This can be accomplished in several ways, and depends on the template you are using.

What's a template?  Well, it is the thing that is the same on every one of your web pages - usually the top, bottom, left and right sides of the site (see http://TheLazyInvestor.com/members for mine)

Some of the new 'cleanup' methods I've just learned (and will get implemented in the near future) is to;

- make all common borders that are not links into graphics (like our testimonials - no need to have them as words the computers can read, make them graphics so humans can read them but search engines won't count them as 'duplicate content')

- by reducing the word count on the template, the content section (the center part, that changes every different page) will be much easier to have a larger word count than the template (cool, huh?)

- be sure to watch for and remove other 'duplicate content' stuff in your page titles and make them as unique as possible while watching out for 'stop words' - those things that computers dump out anyway like 'a', 'an' 'the', etc.

OK, that got a bit techie and you are wondering what all this has to do with your real estate investing business...

Well, it all does, if you are to put your real estate investing business online and expect to get any sort of traffic from it!

'Social Networking' methods to really make your site stand out

Now, let's go into the Web 2.0 segment of social networking...

Social networking is a relatively new concept for the Internet, however, it has been around in the background for a few years now.

Mostly, social networking and how it relates to real estate investing is more of the active video stuff you'll likely want to put on your website.

Here's some examples (yeah, I'm working on these things too.... ;);

- Put a video on your main page that tells a bit about you and what you do (you can see mine at http://TheLazyInvestor.com/members - and also an introductory one with me alone at http://TheLazyInvestor.com)

- Take a video of you in front of a recent property/deal you completed
this can tell the world how well you do on deals (I've recently put up some of my properties at http://TheLazyInvestor.com/members as 'static' content and have a 'to do' of putting together a video of these deals)

Note that you don't have to stand out there in front of the camera, you can just use PowerPoint and a picture (as I did).

- Take a video of a property you have for sale
Selling property with video is simpler than you think.  I find that pictures help a lot and even with a short description, you can get a good response ("The Lazy Investor's Guide To Real Estate Investing"  now includes an automatic webpage generator that takes your picture or video and guides you through the text to make a winning ad)

CONCLUSION
"Pictures are great, videos are better" - that's the Web 2.0 cry... 

Taking everything to video you can is certainly a wave of the near future.  You should begin practicing with your camera and get into editing a bit (I just found yesterday that Windows has a free editing software called Windows Movie Maker - it's been on my computer and I didn't even know it!)

I'll be doing a lot more video as time goes on - I highly recommend you do, too!

Learn, Apply, Lower taxes, Your wealth will grow!

Steve Majors - The Lazy Investor
http://TheLazyInvestor.com
702-568-7194 ext. 854