It's that time of year again. Most of us have already planned a nice summer getaway both from work and from school. When it comes to your business, this is also the perfect time for you to do some networking and have fun at the same time. The best part is doing all these just around the neighborhood!

Here are some ideas for you to consider:

1. What to do where?
Search for various activities such as festivals and summer fairs in your area. Use your AccelerAgent™ Website and email the list of events to your contacts. To get additional contacts, create a simple summer calendar that includes all the events that you found. Walk around your neighborhood and distribute the copies. It's a great way to reintroduce you as the local expert.

2. Let's do some BBQ.
Encourage your neighbors to bring their food and grill for a fun BBQ event. Note that you do not need to provide the barbecue for everyone. You can conduct a drawing instead. Prizes may include a new BBQ grill, family tickets to a water park, gift cards, movie tickets and more. Create a lead capture form on your AccelerAgent™ website and tell them to register for the event for a chance to win a prize. Your website automatically adds them into your contact list. Not in the mood for BBQ? How about a yard sale event? This is a great way for everyone to make some extra cash and have fun. Follow the same steps from Tip #2. Don't forget to include your event on the calendar that you send out. Be creative and have fun!

3. Business for business.
How about those small and usually family-owned businesses? Get your smile ready and start building your pipeline. Get some small jars filled with cookies or candies. Drop one jar on each small business (be sure to get their permission). Do not forget to attach your card on the jar, including your website. Ask if you can leave some of your business cards next to the jar. If you want to go the extra mile, you can come back every month to refill the little jars. It's a great way to keep in touch!

4. Become an Avon® or Tupperware® Rep... or not.
Remember that person who constantly ask you to buy an Avon, Mary Kay or anything similar? We say find those sales reps and hold a 'Hosted By' monthly meeting. Invite your friends and family. Pick your date for hosting. Be sure to have that sign in sheet for the visitors, collect those emails and use your AccelerAgent™ Website to keep in touch!

5. The family that plays together wins together.
Ask each family in the neighborhood to submit their favorite family summer photo to you via email. Make them go to your website to find the best picture winner. Whoever wins gets a prize. Tell them that the complete contest rules are on your website. Create a custom page on your AccelerAgent™ Website for the rules.

We invite all our readers to test drive the AccelerAgent™ Virtual Office Websites at www.propertyminder.com. Ask us for a 30-day no risk trial by calling (800) 743-5820 today.

PropertyMinder continues to offer the TechMar Program to help agents to develop their Internet Marketing skills.

Since 2003, PropertyMinder has helped more than 30,000 Real Estate agents and brokers quickly adjust to post Internet revolution reality and take advantage of tremendous opportunities to secure success in Real Estate.

For more information about our TechMar Program, call (800) 743-5820 or visit us at www.propertyminder.com.

Direct response marketing is the centerpiece of PropertyMinder's money-making iMarketing System. The start of the Internet and its growing popularity has spawned a number of different marketing possibilities.

Direct Response online is built around motivating your website visitors to contact you at the very first opportunity.

Once the consumers are on your site, content is key to making them stay. Here are some ideas for content: neighborhood events, current market trends, newsletters, testimonials and local groups that you may belong to. Your AccelerAgent^TM Website has so many lead capture forms available for visitors to fill out - from home search to free reports.

According to Aric Kazarnovsky, Executive VP and co-founder of PropertyMinder, "the most important aspect of Direct Response Marketing is the initial method that agents use to encourage visitors to give their addresses and contact info. Once this information is captured, agents can build a relationship with these potential buyers and sellers before they even personally look at a property or meet them in person." Aric is also the creator of the iMarketing System.

Customers who took PropertyMinder's TechMar Program report greater results from implementing direct response strategies.

"The TechMar clinics were unbelievable. I can't believe they packed in so much information in such a short period of time. There are so many "secrets" that no one wants you to know and now I know why. My website traffic went from 50 hits per week to 1000 hits this week. I have gotten 15 leads that signed up on my webpage this past week."- Joe Doman, Realtor®

There are numerous effective techniques for consumers to be interested and respond, but first, you need them to come to your site.

There are two primary methods of obtaining more hits or traffic to your AccelerAgent^TM Website: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay per Click Advertising (PPC).

SEO is a way to increase your website's organic or natural search ranking. By increasing organic rankings, agents gain more visibility, without having to spend on advertising. It does take time, but your traffic will definitely improve after you do some legwork.

Our TechMar Program covers SEO. It consists of two webinar-based classes that cover topics from identifying your vertical markets, modifying your meta tags, participating in social networking, getting more exposure for your listings, and much more. The program is built to ultimately get you more hits and let your site ‘exist' on the web. You are given homework after each class so you get a hands-on experience.

Pay per Click is more for agents who do not have the time to make a lot of changes on the site and wants ‘immediate' traffic from search engines such as Google^TM and Yahoo!.

PropertyMinder valued customer discounts are available.

As of June 2009, our most reliable and all-encompassing AccelerAgent^TM websites and productivity tools will include direct search access to Trend MLS. This Multiple Listing Service covers the following Realtor® Associations: Burlington Camden County, Gloucester Salem Counties Board, Kent County, Mercer County, New Castle County Board and Greater Philadelphia.

"PropertyMinder is working very hard to link our AccelerAgent web tools with national Multiple Listing Services so more Real Estate agents and brokers can experience the convenience and price advantage of our technolody", said PropertyMinder Executive Vice President, Aric Kazarnovsky.

Since 1999, PropertyMinder technology has been leading in innovative Internet Marketing, reliability and data safety.
PropertyMinder has helped more than 30,000 Real Estate agents and brokers adjust quickly to the post-Internet revolution and take advantage of tremendous Internet marketing opportunities to secure success in Real Estate.

For more information, visit www.PropertyMinder.com.

Many agents who took advantage of PropertyMinder's TechMar Program made the switch from image-based marketing to direct response marketing. Within a few months, they began to see fantastic results.

Image advertising is the creation of a particular perception for your service. According to allbusiness.com, "While there is definitely a role for image advertising in creating awareness, an entire marketing strategy built around image is not going to create loyalty because it is, by nature, a one-way communication strategy."

Direct response marketing is designed to solicit a direct feedback which is specific and quantifiable. The delivery of the response is direct between the viewer and the advertiser (source: Wikipedia.com).

Any agent can start the road to direct response marketing by following these 2 tips on how to instantly generate interest through your website.

Numbers and Statistics: For example, if you save your buyers 12% on the purchase of a home on average, say it! Instead of having a slogan that says "I have the honesty, integrity and passion to make people's dreams come true", make your slogan "I guarantee to save you 10% on your next home purchase or you get $1,000.00." Notice the first slogan is more focused on you, the agent, and the second is focused on the client's desires.

In buyer marketing, a simple way to figure out your unique statistics is to go through the last 12 months of your transactions. Take the list price, subtract the final purchase price and the difference is the total savings.

Specialties: Become the expert. For example, you specialize in working with first time home buyers. Instead of having a slogan that says "Leading people to achieve their dreams with passion and expertise", try using "An expert in saving first time home buyers thousands of dollars. It's guaranteed". Notice again that the first slogan is more focused on you, the agent, and the second is focused on the client's desires.

It is also important to know where your audience is. List yourself on sites that get the most traffic, but most of all, those that are relevant to your real estate services.

PropertyMinder continues to offer the TechMar Program to help agents develop their Internet Marketing skills. PropertyMinder has helped more than 30,000 Real Estate agents and brokers quickly adjust to the post-Internet reality and take advantage of tremendous opportunities to secure success in Real Estate.

For more information about the TechMar Program, call (800) 743-5820 or visit us at www.propertyminder.com. Also ask us for a 30-day no risk trial today.

A RISMEDIA newsletter on March 11, 2009 stated "One-stop shopping promises a simpler and better experience for home buyers and sellers." Studies show that most consumers want a single point of contact for the sale of a home and all related closing services. Partnering and co-branding with a loan officer makes you that contact. As a result, you will be growing your client base, improving customer service, build loyalty, and make extra money.

A great one-stop shopping experience isn't just about introducing clients to your mortgage broker. It is about an effective marketing technique called co-branding.

Co-branding online means that you, as a real estate agent, will link your Real Estate site to a site of a trusted mortgage professional or firm. As a result, your website visitors can get both Real Estate and Mortgage related information and services at one stop.

How can you benefit from implementing co-branding strategy?
Your partnership with a mortgage professional will attract a greater number of qualified leads. You will be able to capture more leads as a result of additional lead capture forms on the AccelerAgent^TM Website mortgage booster platform.

Secondly, you can improve your website's search engine ranking for mortgage related keywords due to the mortgage content hosted on your own website. By driving more traffic from search engines and the loan officers site, the natural (organic) ranking of the website will eventually improve as a whole.

"PropertyMinder clients with AccelerAgent^TM Websites co-branding with Mortgage Professionals realize that their superior technology does not prevent them from continuing to offer other mortgage choices to their clients", said Aric Kazarnovsky, Executive Vice President and co-founder of PropertyMinder Inc.

Many agents do not understand the difference between co-marketing and co-branding.

Co-marketing is simply placing a link to a partner's (loan officer or real estate agent's) website on your site. Co-branding is a form of cooperation between two or more service professionals who are looking to build significant customer recognition, at the same time retaining their own brand names and distinction. Co-branding leads to increased loyalty and higher client retention rates. It will also disable competitor's efforts to take your clients away. Co-branding is the science of alliance. It expands your scope of business and reaches more customers. It also leads to an increased value to the client, providing both services by a real estate agent on one hand and a loan officer on the other. When you share the cost of loyalty programs, your impact on clients is greater with pooled resources leading to a much higher return on investment.

With PropertyMinder REBridge^TM you can market your self and your loan officer as a "full service" team. The REBridge^TM connector tool connects a PropertyMinder hosted Mortgage site with a PropertyMinder hosted AccelerAgent^TM Website.

PropertyMinder Mortgage Booster is ideal for agents providing both real estate and loan services. With a simple upgrade, agents with AccelerAgent^TM Websites can supplement their existing sites with rich mortgage content including five of the most popular financial calculators, mortgage reports and articles, glossary of financial terms, mortgage lead capture forms such as requests for pre-qualification, financial consultation and online loan application.

Since 2002, PropertyMinder has been offering Virtual Office powered websites for individual agents, brokers and offices. With AccelerAgent^TM Websites, PropertyMinder clients are always in control. AccelerAgent^TM sites offer a map-based MLS search allowing agents to exclude listings from displaying based on geography, list price, property type, cooperative compensation offered by the listing broker, or whether the listing broker is a REALTOR®.