When I started working on websites, I was heavily focused on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to get traffic to our business websites.  Then I had my eyes opened to the idea of having a marketing campaign online (aka Google’s AdWords, PPC, etc) and how that mixed with fundamental SEO led to great traffic (all at a cost obviously).

When asked why I don’t focus on SEO like my good friends over at SEO-Alien, I like to explain that to be fully keyed into great Site SEO, you need to essentially pay attention to all the changes and fluctuations that occur.  One simply change by Google can knock your SEO rating down by volumes, thus forcing you to possibly start the work all over again.

SEO is sort of like a long drawn out War.   Read the rest of this entry

In April, I wrote the first part of this three part article about how I would go about starting my Real Estate business today on a budget.  In part 1, I covered the basics of creating a business plan, setting up an LLC, and setting up a business bank account.  After you have set up your basic business, it’s now time to create the professional image that will jump your business ahead of the competition (for a newbie Real Estate Investor, the average life expectancy of their business is only 7 months!  Often these drop outs are folks who haven’t taken the time to establish their new business as a true business and treat it more along the lines of a hobby)

To give your business the professional edge over your competition, you need to have the modern equivalent to an office or store front and everything that goes along those lines.  Essentially creating a virtual office space that gives the impression of a real world business location.  So how do you go about doing that without spending Read the rest of this entry

“What would you do if you were to get started in Real Estate today?…with a limited budget?”  This is a question I hear a LOT, and with the current state of the economy I’m not totally surprised.  This is often followed up with questions about where should I advertise, is Facebook advertising effective in Real Estate, and how do I find leads?

Well, I decided to put together an article that should help the newest investors launch their businesses on a limited budget.  I won’t focus on the questions concerning advertising and getting leads in this article, but may come back to address that issue.

So the answer to the great question of how to get your business started is simple:  treat it like a business.  Read the rest of this entry

Being the night owls that I am, I always dread the early morning meetings.  While these networking groups are always useful for your business, I have to say that I am often less than at full mental capacity.

Well I found out that I wasn’t alone, so we decided to form our own nite owls network group here in DC.  My good friends Peter Gauthier and Tom Zeeb and I formed the Nite Owls Network that is focused on networking with Entrepreneurs and Real Estate Investors.  We had been talking about forming this group for about 6 months and this month we had our first meeting.

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Want to know what upsets me.  Well, a lot of things really, but seriously it’s when people get taken advantage of.  When predatory “experts” prey upon people’s hopes.  Honestly I am not talking about any specific guru out there in this instance, yet I continuously hear the horror stories of people putting their trust in “Gurus” who have the solution for a price making every promise they can under the sun to make the sale…then coming up short (often way WAY short).

Now I used to be one of those types who might have followed the P.T. Barnum approach to business (“A sucker born every day…”) but not anymore.  There are a LOT of people going through rough times right now.  Rough times often equates to people in search of hope, willing to spend their last dollars or even worse sacrifice paying their bills in hope that they might get rich as the “Guru” promises.

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