The Cutting Edge of Online Marketing

Manufactured Home and Land Lease Community operators and owners, and retailers take note: if you’ve been waiting for the right time to photograph those installations, properties and communities, now would be the time.

In many parts of the country, you’ll need to wait out the rain to get a clear day to photograph those homes and communities, but it will be worth the wait.

Be sure to get plenty of photos when the sun shines so you’ll have a lot to choose from when you post them to your website or Facebook fan page.

You may need to re-size or enhance your photos before uploading them to your website. There are a few tools that I’ve used to do this that will cost you absolutely nothing to use.

If you have Mac, your computer came with iPhoto. iPhoto makes the job of adjusting, enhancing and resizing your photos a snap.

But if you’re using a Windows or Linux powered machine, there are a couple of tools here that can help you get the job done in style.

First, there’s the Open Source application the GIMP, that runs on Linux, Mac or Windows. the GIMP can do pretty much anything that Photoshop can do – but saves you the $700 that Photoshop costs. There are installers for each. The Mac version requires that the X11 X-Window system be installed. It is installed on OS X 10.5 Leopard and newer by default. the GIMP for Linux and Windows can be downloaded at GIMP.org.

Here’s a video showing how the get started with the GIMP:

Although it’s free, the GIMP has a learning curve like any other sophisticated software. The video above is from a 23 video tutorial set that can get you using the GIMP like a professional in just a few hours and provides ongoing support for as long as you need it.

The video tutorial set is called Create Stunning Graphics Using the GIMP and is available at HowDoIDoThatVideos.com.

If all you need to do is resize images, PixResizer for Windows will do the trick. You can download it from bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm Here’s a short video on how to use it:

The long and short of this is get out there now through June to get the best images you’re going to get. So go get them, then use one of these tools to enhance them or resize them and put them to work for you.

The other day I overheard a person talking with their paid “web expert” about their ranking in the search engines (SEs). It wasn’t specific to Manufactured Housing, but I’ve noticed similar comments in this industry as well. The “web expert” was explaining how well he had done his job by noting that the client ranked #1 on Google when they typed his company name into a Google search.

Well, glory be!!! Ranking #1 for one’s own name? That must have required a ton of work and some long, hard hours at the keyboard for the “expert…” NOT!

I’ve seen the same kind of claims made for searches conducted using the website’s URL. WOW! A #1 ranking for your own domain name! If you don;t rank #1 for your company name and domain name, there are some serious issues that need immediate attention. Here’s the kind of results you should get using a domain-based search.

This result is for a website I run with news about local businesses.

I have had potential clients come to me who didn’t rank at all for their own company name. That’s a problem. Usually this occurs when a business doesn’t have a website and hasn’t been indexed online by a directory or other service. Fortunately, it is becoming a rare occurrence.

What you really want to know is how well you rank for a keyword that your current or potential customers will type into Google, Bing, Yahoo, About, etc.

For instance, my business specializes in web marketing and is based in Danville, KY. When I typed “web marketing Danville KY” into Google on one day, the following was the result on the Search Engines Results Page (SERP):

As you can see, OrangeCat.com captured the first four results for the keyword AND there is a more results link that gives several more. In addition, my website at KentuckyWebExperts.com ranked number five for an article that’s only been up for a week and after a domain name change to the site two weeks ago.

That’s the kind of result I like to see.

I posted a version of this article to my blog at BobStovall.com on Tuesday and now that article has taken the 5th position in a search of those keywords – in less than two days!

And it’s the kind of result you can get for your keywords if you use WordPress, add the proper plugins and post content that the SEs can easily index and categorize.

Word of caution: If you keep typing the same keyword into a search and then click on the same page over and over, you will notice it rising in the rankings. But only for you.

To get a true picture of how you rank for certain keywords, you need to use a tool like the SE Rank Checker and know how to interpret the results.

As you can see here, when we used the SE Rank Checker, the results for Google were almost identical to our web search except that my second site picked up another listing, giving me 6 of 10 page one results.

Looking up your own rankings by doing a web search will give you a good idea of how you rank, but to achieve the best results, use a SE Rank Checker search as your base results and compare the results of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work in the future to determine how you are improving and how fast.

One of the services we offer is a website review. In a website review, we go over every page of your website and check for any missing elements or erroneous entries that might have a detrimental effect on your Search Engine ranking.

But do you need a full website review? Here’s a short video that will enable you to do a quick evaluation of your own website based on four critical factors. If you find your site coming up short on these, a full website review should be considered. It can save you a lot of lost business in the long-term and lost money in the sort term.

Click here for more information on Website Reviews

The Louisville Manufactured Housing Show was a rousing success. Exhibitors and attendees alike were in an upbeat mood and pretty much every exhibitor I talked to was happy with the results. This kind os show can put the industry on a positive footing as we head into 2011.

Trade shows are one of those places where one picks up a lot of business cards. I was there with the MHMSM.com crew – Publisher, Marketing Director and Industry Consultant L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, Business Development Manager Jeff Templeton and Reporter Matthew Silver. We received cards from most of the exhibitors and many of the attendees.

One thing about those cards struck me as rather odd here in 2011. Many had no email address and many more had no website URL. Did they not have a website? Or were they doing the “penny-wise, pound-foolish” thing of using up older cards years after having a website?

Doing some quick calculation, I found that fully 61% of business cards collected at the show had no website address. That’s astonishing. If 61% of exhibitors and attendees have no website, I have little doubt that could be a major contributing factor in the falling sales figures for the past few years.

Email addresses on business cards were better, but not perfect. 10% had no email address.

Your business card is your personal-sized billboard. Using every part of it is in your best interest. Website URL and email are essential pieces of information these days.

Here is what my MHMSM business card looks like:

Notice how we used both the front and back of the card to convey our message. Of the cards we collected, only 5% utilized the back of the card for more information.

Business cards were and are part of your offline Social Networking system. You give away both sides when you hand out your business card – use them.

When I began to write this, I was thinking to myself that it was an awfully basic thing to post about. Then I thought about those 61% of business cards that had no email address and the 90% that didn’t use the real estate on the back of the card.

If your cards fit one of these descriptions, think about an immediate update. That little piece of card stock is one of the most important parts of your online marketing strategy.

Adapted from the article Business cards are an online marketing tool at OrangeCat.com

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone!

Another new year is in front of us. What will we make of it?

Will it be more of the same? Or will this be the year of the turnaround?

I’m inclined to believe that 2011 will be the year that industry begins to re-take it’s rightful place as America’s Affordable Housing Choice. It won’t all happen at once. Life rarely works that way and there are baggage and obstacles to overcome.

But this year will present ever more opportunities for us to take control of our own destiny and that is a challenge that we should all relish.

Moving forward depends, among other things, on a balanced view of the past coupled with a crystal clear vision of the future as we wish it to be. Seeing the plans and perspectives of others can guide us toward our goals.

That is why we are once again conducting our Trends survey. Getting a handle on the pulse of the industry from knowledgeable insiders – as they see it and in their own words – can prove to be a valuable tool to assessing the current state of the industry and where we are headed.

Some whether you are a manufacturer, retailer, salesperson, community owner or manager, supplier, installer, consultant or anything else, we’d like your input by filling out our short survey form.

We will publish all Industry Trends 2011 Survey responses in the upcoming issue of MHMSM.com.

But the deadline is coming up fast – we need ALL entries to be submitted by 6PM EST, Wednesday, January 6, 2011.

Download the form now – it is in MS Word format. There is also an RTF version available for anyone using a word processor other than Word.

Your answers to this survey are very valuable to us and to all of the members of the industry. Do it today!

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