Luxury Real Estate

By Michael Edlund

The Luxury Lounge is an exciting project we’ve been busy working on over here at Luxury Real Estate.

The Luxury Lounge is a gated social-networking community for professionals within the LuxuryRealEstate.com affiliate network to make connections with quality peers all over the world. Initially, you will be able to search and connect to people, send private messages and write public comments to others, write and comment on blog posts and discuss topics in forums.

We’ve also implemented online purchasing of Luxury Real Estate conference tickets and the Luxury Lounge will over time grow in to a hub for everything related to Luxury Real Estate. From managing your listings and exposure on LuxuryRealEstate.com to tracking your leads and much more. Rain or shine, noon or midnight. In the lounge, luxury professionals can utilize the full power of their Luxury Real Estate affiliation at the time and convenience of their choosing.

We have already started sending out invitations to a limited number of members, but will expand their reach over the coming weeks to the whole LuxuryRealEstate.com network. When you see an email with the subject “Invitation to Luxury Real Estate’s VIP Lounge” you know what it is all about. It is about embracing and empowering your interaction with the global Luxury Real Estate network.

Thank you for your participation!


Editor’s Note:
Michael Edlund is the Director of Technology with LuxuryRealEstate.com. He is in charge of all of LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Web projects, including website creation, software updates and implementation, and much more. Big changes are afoot here at Luxury Real Estate. The Luxury Real Estate Blog is gaining in popularity on Google, Yahoo and MSN searches, and now the Luxury Lounge is gaining momentum! With the rise of social-networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Naymz, many people are starting to see the possibilities opened up through them. This is a great chance to build relationships in creative ways online. Happy networking!

By Robert Lockard

Thanks in large part to all of the wonderful contributors within the global Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network, the Luxury Real Estate Blog is making a tremendous ascent in its ranking on major search engines, including Google, Yahoo and MSN.

www.LuxuryRealEstate.com is the most-viewed luxury real estate Web site in the world and it comes up first on most searches for luxury properties, luxury homes and luxury real estate. But the Luxury Real Estate Blog is fairly new and we’re building it up to the heights of our main Web site. We owe much of our success to Jim Walberg, John Brian Losh and many other bloggers who consistently contribute their fun work

Like my personal written works, I take pride in the writing found on the Luxury Real Estate Blog. As this blog’s editor, I feel particularly responsible for its quality and success. So it pleases me to no end to add so much great content almost daily and to find more comments from our fantastic readers. I also like seeing our blog climb in popularity with a number of search terms.

I’ve thought a lot about how best to organize the information on the Luxury Real Estate Blog’s ranking in the big three search engines. I’ve finally decided to simply put the same search terms in each row for easy comparison purposes and to roughly put them in order, from highest to lowest, in terms of their placement on search engines.

The following search terms and rankings were recorded on the morning of Thursday, July 31, 2008, and they’ll surely change in the coming days and weeks. At least this will give us a good reference for future searches so we can see how they improve, hopefully.

By Brian Langhorst

LuxuryRealEstate.com is the most-viewed and most-visited luxury real estate website in the world. For this reason we opt not to capture the visitors of our website right away to search properties around the world.

We realize many of our visitors are of very high net worth and have very limited time, thus the idea of creating restrictions does not make sense. On the other hand, I see many websites who capture their visitor traffic right away.

I personally prefer not being captured right away on websites and opt to view websites where the capture of data does not occur until later.

What are your thoughts?


Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. This is an interesting topic because the Internet is all about letting customers remain anonymous until they want to identify themselves to take advantage of offers and other things online. Is it better to ask people for information sooner or later? It’s hard to tell. I smell a great discussion brewing…

By Robert Lockard

I hope this doesn’t sound too prideful, but I really like what I write. And I do a lot of writing as the Public Relations & Media Specialist for LuxuryRealEstate.com.

While my blogs on ActiveRain and the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog are sometimes quickly written and they don’t have the benefit of as much outside editing as I usually receive for my other work, I think they give you a taste of my writing skill and style.

My mind is constantly working before, during and after the writing process. I think about what is interesting about the story I am currently writing about. I ponder why my target readers would bother to read what I’ve written. I try to decide which points are most important and how best to convey them. I only have a limited amount of time to create my news releases, newsletters, magazine articles and other works, so I need to make quick decisions.

For the Week in Review newsletter I create each week, I receive a lot of news releases from members of the LuxuryRealEstate.com network. I am very grateful for that fact because it helps me keep our newsletters filled with great material. Many of the stories I receive are really interesting while others are about new employees, anniversaries and other topics that don’t seem too interesting at first. However, once I go through a news story, I can usually find something remarkable in it and I usually rewrite the headline so it’s much more eye-catching.

With these thoughts in mind, I’d like to talk about my recent experience writing a news release on a seemingly average topic: a Ewing & Clark, Inc. broker celebrating her 20^th anniversary. I don’t mean that the broker, Jane Powers, is average; I’m just saying that I’ve read many stories similar to hers. As I approached this story I tried to remember that this is an important moment for her, and she has many great stories to tell after 20 successful years in the Seattle luxury market.

So I sat down to write about her story. Many times when I write I have a sudden inspiration that I know did not come from me. This time was no different. I suddenly had a thought that I should look up remarkable events that occurred in July 1988, when Powers started with her company. As it turned out, I discovered that a little movie called “Die Hard” debuted in theaters the same day that Powers began working at Ewing & Clark.

I was ecstatic by the creative opportunities opened up by this coincidence.

I am a big movie buff and I couldn’t pass up this chance to add some really unique flavor to Powers’ story. So that’s exactly what I did. You can see the final product here. I wrote the first and second-to-last paragraphs first and then worked on the rest of it. I had a blast writing this story.

I got butterflies of nervous excitement when I showed it to Powers herself for approval. Luckily, she liked my take on her story and I got to distribute it through my usual PR sources.

I believe any story can be interesting to read. I could have written Powers’ news release in a really boring, run-of-the-mill way, but I found that little something special that turned it into a great story. I hope that you can find the greatness in your stories and, as long as you’re a LuxuryRealEstate.com member, I’d love to post them in the Week in Review!


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. By the way, John Brian Losh is the Chairman/CEO of Ewing & Clark, which is a member of the Luxury Real Estate Board of Regents. The copy of the “Die Hard” movie poster is from www.flickr.com/photos/nickslidepics/442646618 and it is the copyright of Nick Slide.

By Jean-Yves Piton

I recently came across some remarkable facts about blogging. Did you know that, as of 2008, 70 million weblogs exist, about 120,000 new blogs are started each day or 1.4 new blogs are created every second, according to a report by David Sifry, founder and CEO of technorati.

Impressive, isn’t it? And blogging keeps on growing universally!

As a business professional, do yourself a favor: embrace this change rapidly.

Thanks to a recent analysis of the online behaviors of over 2 million worldwide candidates performed by comScore, Six Apart and Gawker Media, we discovered that bloggers are “significantly more likely to live in wealthier households, be younger and connect to the Web on high-speed connections. Blog readers also visit nearly twice as many Web pages as the Internet average, and they are more likely to shop online.”

Clearly, this fact alone should help you appreciate the importance of reaching out to this ever-growing target audience in order to grow your business.

Equally important, do not underestimate the power of this innovative tool as part of your online marketing strategy worldwide. Search-engine marketing is predominantly gaining ground vis-à-vis other forms of online marketing. As you blog, your blog entries will consistently appear in search engines like Google and Yahoo, resulting in higher search-engine rankings to be seen by virtually anyone around the world.

Needless to say, blogging is much cheaper than owning and maintaining a complete website, and represents the most inexpensive method to date to advertise your company's brand name and products on the Internet.


Editor’s Note:
Jean-Yves Piton is the Global Services Membership Manager for LuxuryRealEstate.com. He assists Bente Madtsen, the Director of Global Services, in expanding the LuxuryRealEstate.com brand into even more countries around the world. Blogs are amazing tools for gaining traffic, and their usefulness is probably just going to grow as bloggers refine their craft. Be mindful of some possible legal issues involved in blogging, but other than that, happy blogging! The photo of the blog apartment building is from www.flickr.com/photos/poagao/96805244 and it is the copyright of Poagao.

By Joey Pauley

We are pleased to announce LuxuryRealEstate.com has negotiated a monumental deal with LuxuryLifestyle.com that we are able to offer to you. The price is only $750 a year for an Enhanced Company Profile and 10 Enhanced Properties on LuxuryLifestyle.com. At Luxury Lifestyle’s normal rate, this would cost $10,500.

This offer is exclusively for members of Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate.

Are your home sellers asking, “What are you doing to advertise my home?”

Are you looking for somewhere, in addition to LuxuryRealEstate.com, to advertise your exclusive properties online?

Do you want to advertise outside the real estate market?

Are you looking to supplement your link-building – an important aspect to Search Engine Optimization?

We have already seen positive results for existing members who have placed properties on LuxuryLifestyle.com for Search Engine Optimization. What are you waiting for?

Email me at jpauley at luxuryrealestate.com or call me at 206.838.2865 to receive over 90% off this great service.

LuxuryLifestyle.com is the largest, most comprehensive, and most exclusive direct-access register of luxury companies, products, and services anywhere on the Internet. They are highly selective of the products and services featured on their website. So selective, in fact, that they are only offering this deal to Luxury Real Estate members – the best luxury brokers in the world.


Editor’s Note:
As a Technical Account Manager with LuxuryRealEstate.com, Joey Pauley helps members with their Web and technology needs. He does a phenomenal job in all of his projects, as you can see by visiting the many websites he has helped design. This is a great opportunity that might have slipped by if you hadn’t checked the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog. Aren’t you glad you did? Thanks for the great opportunity, Joey!

By Joey Pauley

Today, did you notice that your coworker got a haircut?

Did you notice the fresh scratch on the side of your car? I didn’t do it.

Did you notice the country search has Bahamas as an option in the country dropdown on the Luxury Property Search Page on LuxuryRealEstate.com? Many of our Caribbean members have brought to our attention the confusion in the Caribbean section of the site so we made a few changes to make our website more usable for the potential buyers of our members’ most luxurious homes.

Enjoy, and keep your feedback coming.


Editor’s Note:
As a Technical Account Manager with LuxuryRealEstate.com, Joey Pauley helps members with their Web and technology needs. He does a phenomenal job in all of his projects, as you can see by visiting the many websites he has helped design. Feedback like this is very helpful. We are always looking for ways to better serve our members. We sent out a survey about our conferences a little while ago and we’ve incorporated the suggestions we received into our plans for the 13^th Annual Luxury Real Estate Fall Conference in Philadelphia. We hope to see you there! The photo above is from www.flickr.com/photos/christophemallet/131222816 and it is the copyright of christophe mallet.

By Brian Langhorst

The luxury real estate market place is filled with various companies with very strong branding messages for the corporation. What are you as an agent doing to stand out from the other competing agents in your own company?

Editor’s Note:
Brian Langhorst is LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Membership Manager. He meets members’ unique needs through the dynamic services LuxuryRealEstate.com provides. Short and sweet – just the way I like blog entries! LuxuryRealEstate.com can help you stand out with print and online advertisements in The Wall Street Journal, LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and more. The above picture is from www.flickr.com/photos/vieuxbandit/499540173 and is the copyright of vieux bandit.

By Courtney Jackson

Our latest ad in The Wall Street Journal hit newsstands today. If you aren't able to pick up a copy of this issue, you can view the ad in color at www.luxuryrealestate.com/wsj.

Editor’s Note:
Courtney Jackson is the Print Director for LuxuryRealEstate.com. She works closely with The Wall Street Journal, Unique Homes and a variety of other publications to help luxury brokers gain domestic and international exposure for their properties. Don’t forget to advertise in print as well as online. Publications like The Wall Street Journal are great for reaching specific audiences as well as online readers. Check it out!

By Grant Hermes

“Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.”
~ William Pollard

Nowadays, information spreads and multiplies exponentially throughout the Internet. Who has time to spend hours a day sifting and sorting through endless websites in search of useful and, more importantly, up-to-date news? I know I certainly do not. This is where RSS feeds are a lifesaver for me.

When you see the  icon all you have to do is click on it and add it as a bookmark or to a reader of your choice. Try it out by clicking on the “Articles” RSS feed on this blog page (just look for the  icon to find it). Now you have a current look at the most-recent posts to the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog. I personally place all my feeds in my bookmarks toolbar so they’re right in front of me. Another useful RSS feed I use is from RISMedia.com (they have dozens of feeds but I use the Real Estate-specific feed as well as a few others – check them out).

I always saw links for RSS feeds before, but just never clicked on them until this past week. Let me tell you, it is the greatest addition to my Internet browser. In one click, I get a snapshot of a site’s blog posts or articles and, most importantly, if any new ones have been posted. I feel more informed than ever on world news by being able to quickly and effortlessly scan through headlines, and if I want more detailed information it’s just a click away.

Hopefully this will help you narrow down and sort through the overwhelming amount of information out there that’s important to you but which you just don’t have time to sort through.

If you need it…RSS picture is complements of http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102200751033.aspx


Editor’s Note:
Grant Hermes is the Staff Accountant for LuxuryRealEstate.com. He assists Controller James Hughes with all of the necessary paperwork and accounting to keep LuxuryRealEstate.com running smoothly. This is the first blog entry I’ve received from Grant, and it’s quite a smashing one. RSS feeds are quite helpful in our information-saturated environment, like the quote at the start of this blog entry notes. It doesn’t help to have a huge library if none of the books are correctly ordered or easily accessible to readers. Thank goodness for RSS feeds, which are kind of like a high-tech Dewey Decimal System. And thanks for the explanation, Grant!