Real Estate Investing Begins a New Era with Web 2.0 Techniques.
In this day and age it is basically a given that you want to be on the internet.
After the initial internet businesses of the early 2000’s, people have been reluctant to say the least with regard to investing time and money into any internet strategy. Free email like Gmail and Online fax services like eFax and ringcentral are two of the only business models to survive in into the new generation.
The new technologies have put the power back into the hands of the individual. Although big companies have booming voices backed by millions of dollars in advertising, people tend to believe the individual that reviews a product or service over the huge advertising campaign. And with large corporate entities defrauding the public on the stock exchange, who can blame them?
So what exactly is Web 2.0?
If you are like most people, Web 2.0 is this foggy new concept that leaves you with more questions than answers. In simplest form it is a broad concept that covers all of the websites that are bringing the new technology to market. These new sites allow a greater manipulation and distribution of content than ever before.
Users communicating directly with other users enables a rapid distribution of content never seen before. When a major news event happens in this generation, CNN watches Twitter for second by second eye witness reports and YouTube for cell phone videos that have been uploaded in the past few minutes. There is no longer a need to put a news crew on a supersonic jet to get the first scoop. Better yet, a few clicks of the mouse and you have CNN’s live reports coming into your website. This allows you to build followers verses strictly the big news or information sites. Your take becomes your business model.
There are many facets of the online world covered by Web 2.0. A few of the most common items are people writing blogs, you commenting on other blogs and setting up profiles on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Other varieties of Web 2.0 strategies include link sharing like Digg and Reddit where you can submit links to your web sites and vote on other people links. Even photo sharing sites like Flikr, Photobucket and iPhoto fall under the Web 2.0 category.
So what does this have to do with Real Estate Investing? Well, one obvious tactic is the sheer number of people you can now get your message across to. Whether you are buying or selling properties, marketing a product or just establishing yourself as an authority, the various Web 2.0 strategies will help create exposure for you and your business. I think you will be surprised at just how many people identify with you and start to follow your flow of information.
Once you have established yourself as an authority in your marketplace, people will begin to reach out to you for available deals and potential buys. In the end, exposure means money. Your friend down the block may be a stronger investor than you but when a stranger Googles “real estate investing Seattle, WA” does his site show up or yours?
Maybe you are thinking, “Great, something more to spend money on.” Hang on, that’s the best part of Web 2.0, the majority of it is free. It will take you a few hours every week to make your posts and whatnot but there is very little to no out of pocket expense. A small price to pay for an equal voice in the real estate investing world.
Once you have been at it a while you will become better and better at creating new content in less time. Keep in mind, once you produce the content you keep getting returns on the information long into the future. But also keep in mind that you need to watch what you put out there as it will probably be around for years to come as well.
Since the real estate bubble burst people have been searching for a new way to approach the market. While deals and cash to buy them are not wholly plentiful right now, take this time to build your reputation for the next roller coaster market climb.