Go Smart Solutions has created VidShout to satisfy the need for entrepreneurs, small and mid-sized businesses, and large corporations, the ability to add video to their online advertising efforts and get in front of the growing number of consumers and businesses who are using online videos as a way to research products and services online.

Video Distribution

VidShout offers businesses unparalleled exposure, branding, and lead capture on its self-service video advertising platform

VidShout’s self service platform allows users to create video ads from photos using its online video wizard and syndicate their video ads across multiple online networks. The video distribution provided by VidShout includes over 60 online properties including video networks, online directories, shopping sites, and social networks making it a powerful online advertising platform for businesses.

VidShout members create a profile and upload photos to create a video. Once photos are uploaded users choose to add music or their own voice file in .mp3 format as well as a custom banner for their video page. Users also have the option of uploading their own videos to the Vidshout platform.

Vidshout is a lead generating powerhouse. Each video a user creates using the VidShout platform automatically generates a free landing page that is fully branded and search engine optimized. Once a video is created using the video creation wizard or an existing video is uploaded to the Vidshout Platform users can then create a video landing page.

Landing pages created using the VidShout platform act like mini websites for online video ads. Users can add a description of their online video, their contact information, their logo, and a header. User can then choose their landing page from multiple landing page templates within the VidShout platform. Each landing page includes call to action forms, and links, making it easy for businesses to capture leads from their online video advertising efforts.

The Vidshout platform comes full circle by distributing its users’ videos across over 60 social networks and directories including Youtube, Vimeo, Google Base, PriceGrabber, eBay, Yahoo Shopping, Facebook, Twitter. VidShout has an activity and leads reporting tool that allows users to track opens, clicks, and leads generated to and from their videos.

Vidshout is affordable for every budget with a 20% discount for yearly plans. This cost effective self-service video marketing platform allows users the ability to use one video advertising platform to create lead generating online advertising campaigns that are easy to create, facilitate, manage and track their campaign’s effectiveness and their ROI.

VidShout is part of the Go Smart Solutions, LLC ad service family. It is an online video advertising solution for businesses. Its user-friendly self-service platform allows members to create professional videos and search engine friendly landing pages which are distributed to a host of online directories, video networks, shopping sites, and social networks.

A cost-effective online advertising solution, VidShout also offers a powerful API that enables affiliates, resellers, software developers, or bulk advertisers to interface with its video advertising system. For more information visit www.vidshout.com.

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

Facebook Business Page service, FaceItPages.com, offers a do-it-yourself Facebook page creation tool that will allow Real Estate Professionals and other business professionals to easily create search engine friendly Facebook Business Pages. The service offers a gallery of Facebook template design styles that users can customize with their own header, logo, images, video, and more.

Customers can browse through the gallery to find a design that best matches their site, branding, or style. By uploading their own branding, photos, content and video, a user can make the design one-of-a-kind. After the design is saved, FaceItPages.com will provide the design code for users to add to their Facebook Public Profile, Fan page, or Business Page.

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

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So, you have killer content and you have optimized that content for search engines and what users would search. (And by “optimized”, I mean your titles and meta tags are search friendly and you have done your keyword research to determine the best key phrases to target).  So now what?  Well, the old adage “content is king” doesn’t just work magically on its own. Content is not king unless you distribute and syndicate it. You can have tons of the greatest content in the world, but that won’t get you very far if you are not distributing it.

Following are a few ways to get your content in front of search engines:

1. Bookmarking
2. Sitemaps
   
3. Google XML site maps
4. Backlinks
5. Submit to feed directories

Ways to get in front of users:

1. Social networks
2. Post ads on classified sites
3. Tell people

So, if you have great content, that’s a good start. Remember, though, that your content won’t be “king” unless you distribute it around the web for others to find!

Read full post about content is not king

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

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As an alternative to IDX solutions, real estate marketing company, RealShout, offers a free WordPress plugin that allows agents and brokers to have searchable real estate listings on their site.

With WordPress being the choice for many real estate bloggers, RealShout has unveiled a new plugin for the publishing platform that will enable real estate professionals to have searchable local listings on their blog or website.

RealShout Real Estate Wordpress Plugin

Up until now, real estate professionals had to purchase expensive IDX solutions in order to display neighboring listings to their visitors

The free searchable listing Real Estate Wordpress plugin can be installed on any WordPress template and functional the same day. Pulling data from the Google Base API, the plugin provides ample data to populate any real estate site. Customization capabilities include colors, location (cities), distance, bedrooms, bath, and price. The plugin enables listings to display in a list with thumbnail pictures, which can be clicked on to view more details, photos, a Google Map, and more.

Setting it apart from many IDX services, the RealShout plugin does not place listings in an iframe, thus allowing them to be indexed by search engines.

“Up until now, real estate professionals had to purchase expensive IDX solutions in order to display neighboring listings to their visitors,” says Misty Lackie, CEO of Go Smart Solutions, LLC, the parent company of RealShout. “We’re offering this plugin for free to allow agents and brokers to have searchable listings on their site without spending hundreds of dollars.”

The plugin is offered for free on the RealShout website or the WordPress Plugin Directory, and is compatible with most WordPress templates.

RealShout.com is a real estate marketing company that guarantees leads for agents, real estate brokers, and mortgage brokers. The company also offers marketing services to MLS’s nationwide.

RealShout is the creation of Go Smart Solutions, LLC, a company that has been providing advertising solutions for professionals and small businesses since 2002. RealShout provides lead generating online real estate advertising for agents and brokers in the industry.

You can view a live site that is running this from Real Estate In Chicago

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

With the recent changes Google implemented that shows tweets directly within the search results, it is more important than ever that you think about what you tweet. Your tweets now have a chance of showing up when someone searches for your brand, name, product, service, etc., and these tweets show up at the very top of search results. This means they will most likely get clicked and viewed before your web pages and other content.  Following are some key points you should consider when tweeting:

Are basic conversations you have on Twitter going to take away from your conversion?

A basic @reply tweet like, “Hey thanks for drinks tonight”, or something similar, may show up in a Google search when potential clients are searching for your brand.  Does your brand, service or product have anything to do with going out for drinks?  If not, what will your clients and customers think? Is this really the first impression you want to leave them with?

Are links you post sending your potential clients AWAY from you?

Now this is a big one, and one that I am trying to evaluate for myself as well.  I post links all the time on Twitter to other resources/websites.  These tweets with links now have the potential to show up in the top of Google when searching for your brand/name.  Think of what could possibly happen if a user, searching for your brand, see’s your tweets at the top of the search results and clicks on the link you tweeted.  You just may lose that client because they now clicked on a link that is associated with your name but actually takes them to a page that has nothing to do with your company.

Are your non-business tweets hurting you?

Again, another one I struggle with, since I tweet both about business related stuff and non-business related stuff.  While the non-business related stuff is always clean and friendly, it is not targeted to my brand and I am pretty sure if a potential client searches Google for my brand and sees these types of tweets at the top of the results, they will be completely confused.

Following is a screen shot of a search on one of our brand names that illustrates some of these concerns.

 

While I have no concerns of my conversation with Kathy and I think she has built a solid Twitter presence for herself, I have to think about how a potential client would respond when seeing this in Google search results for my business.  Will they click Kathy’s name and be taken to her Twitter account?  That would be great for Kathy, but could the potential client misunderstand that Kathy’s Twitter account is the Go Smart account?  Now imagine if a conversation you have with someone who doesn’t have a solid or professional Twitter profile shows up in Google for your brand.  Imagine if the potential client clicks on that person’s name and see’s some not-so-appealing stuff.

Now let’s look at the second example.  Again, a tweet that I have no concerns of and one that actually links to a very valuable blog post.  BUT again, as a business owner, I have to consider how this may confuse a potential client or send them AWAY from our company and services.  A potential client will most likely click on this link and be taken to a page that has nothing to do with Go Smart Solutions or our services.  Can we say “confusion”?

You have to remember that you and I and whoever else is reading this is probably aware of and understand these latest changes, but your everyday person (clients, consumers) are in a completely different world and have no idea about this stuff.  All they know is, all of a sudden, these scrolling results are now sometimes showing at the top of their searches.

See my other posts about similar topics

• Is Real Time Search REALLY a Good Idea?
• Are You Ready For Google Search Changes
• Google Search Sidebar
• Twitter is Important For SEO
• This is for all of those long-tail SEO skeptics
• Have you seen Google’s new search options?

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

In fact, many factors determine whether a rental ad will be successful at attracting renter leads. With so much information and so many choices on the internet, rental marketers need to make sure their ads catch - and hold - the attention of potential renters.

This week, we're highlighting one of our members' ads that received over 40 phone and email leads in one month... 40! For those who like to keep track of the numbers, that's less than a buck a lead (Single-family rental ad = $29.99). Let's breakdown the strong points of this ad that helped to make it a success:

• Photos
• Competitive Rental Rates
• Low Deposit or Incentives
• Widespread Distribution
• Easy to Contact

Read more about each of these 5 rental advertising tips

View My Other Recent Posts

• Twitter is Important For SEO
• I Choose Not To Fail
• Using PPC Advertising To Determine Target Keywords
• How Schools Can Save Money By Using Technology
• This is for all of those long-tail SEO skeptics

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

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I am a big proponent on targeting long tail keywords.  Sure a single long tail phrase may bring in less traffic than a single short phrase, but long tail keywords are so much easier to convert.  The screenshot below shows just how powerful long tail SEO is.  This is long tail "organic search" traffic that came into one of our sites for a campaign we did for a client.  As you can see from this screenshot, this campaign drew in 8,424 visits from 8,186 different search phrases in 1 month.  Yes you read that right - 8,186 different search phrases all from long tail. 

Following are a few reasons why I am such a big fan of long tail >> 

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

Funny video from The Daily Show.

"If Timothy Geithner is as bad at handling the economy as he is at picking bathroom tiles, he won't need to sell his house."

Make sure and watch the entire video to see the bathroom.

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

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Do you want your Facebook actions to control what ads show up on your friends Facebook wall?  Well that may just happen if you are not aware of the Facebook privacy setting that allows for this.

The Facebook News Feed and Wall setting states:

"Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user's friends to create Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. These respect all privacy rules. You may opt out of appearing in your friends' Facebook Ads below."

So how can you disable this?

When logged into Facebook navigate to "Settings"

 Choose "News Feed and Wall" from the privacy settings page

 Choose "Facebook Ads" from the News Feed and Wall page and set "Appearance in Facebook Ads" to No one

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative

Subscribe to Real Estate Technology Tips by Email

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Go Smart Solutions, LLC Misty Lackie - CEO http://www.gosmart4u.com LinkedIn: gosmartsolutions Twitter: @gosmart4u Facebook: gosmart

Real Estate Broker Marketing Multiple Listing Service Marketing Mortgage Broker Marketing IDX Website Alternative