Getting ready to shoot some pictures of a home or office? Then you best be sure that you have taken the time to spot any potential problems before you put that camera into action.

There are some simple photography tricks that you can use to make your listings look as captivating as possible.

Thank goodness you can now take your photos via digital imaging. This means that you can instantly see what the picture looks like and make the necessary adjustments to your lighting, staging or camera angles – no more guess work involved.

This is your opportunity to practice your skills with a camera. The more adept you become, the better the final shots will be. The better the picture, the more interest you will generate amongst home buyers.

Remember that the wrong lighting can make even a luxurious home appear dull, boring and uninviting. Lighting problems are easily solved with just a few adjustments. You might have to open a window; open the doors or simply change the controls on your camera.

Back-lighting is effective in certain environments but this does require a light touch and practice in order to get the best pictures. Luckily lighting is one thing that you can adjust repeatedly-until you are satisfied with the photos.

Professionals home staging experts have the knack for making any home look wonderful. They know how to highlight the best features and architectural details. If your budget does not allow for the hiring of an interior design expert or a home staging team then just take a page from their book and DIY.

Natural light is very flattering and you can create more of this lighting effect by removing heavy drapes and window coverings. Practice taking pictures until you discover where to find the best natural light.

Fluorescent lights and decorative lamps can create problems. Switch these lights off and check the next set of photos and see if you are satisfied with the shots.

Always get rid of any excess clutter in the rooms of a home that is going onto the market. Clutter is unappealing and very distracting in a photo.

Keep the line of the camera level when snapping those pictures. This easy trick will make sure that you avoid out of focus shots or those funny “fish-eyed” pictures that are an instant clue to amateur photography skills.

Slower speeds on the camera shutter are your best option when taking pictures that are going to be shot in less than optimal light. * Low light=Low shutter speed.

Your hands may be steady but there is still a chance that you will come up with some shaky pictures. Eliminate this problem with a tripod for your camera.

A wide angle lens can let you digitally display an entire room to interested buyers. Just remember to check the vertical settings. These lines should be perfectly perpendicular to the floor. Once you have established a totally vertical angle the final picture should be spot-on too.

Sometimes photography tricks are simply not enough to help you do a good job for your client. In order to show that home in its best light you must have quality camera equipment. That camera phone may not cut it for prime professionalism. Try a DSLR and external flash equipment for the best results.

Online real estate marketing has grown in importance dramatically in recent years. With web-based marketing, Realtors® and real estate companies alike can reach new clients and keep their pulse on local real estate markets like never before.

A vital component to online real estate marketing and advertising is neighborhood pages. These pages are imperative for providing local (also known as hyper-local) real estate information to potential clients as well as expanding the reach of Realtors® and real estate firms of all sizes.

Neighborhood pages allow for unprecedented marketing and advertising opportunities, letting companies and Realtors® reach out and connect with prospective homebuyers and real estate investors from all across the globe in a very specific and niche-oriented way. Additionally, they provide vitally useful information on local schools, amenities, attractions and other points of interest for potential clients to see, allowing them to become acquainted with the neighborhoods they wish to live in and be able to better decide if it fits their unique needs.

Another reason that these pages are so important is the information about home prices and property values they allow both realtors and homebuyers to conveniently and quickly access. This can be done extremely effectively by utilizing the agent’s MLS IDX system and, if using WordPress as your platform for your site, plugins and widgets which are specifically made for such pages.

By creating neighborhood pages, you are essentially creating single landing pages for each neighborhood.  Depending on your market area, this can enable you to develop your website exponentially in a very short amount of time!  In addition, if created correctly (using researched keyword phrases within the page urls, titles and tags), you can gain great strides in search engine results and traffic to your site, which in turn will provide you with additional clients and eventual sales.

These pages act as critical real estate guides and information sources for potential homebuyers, giving them the knowledge they need to know before they move into a neighborhood. By gaining such specific insight into a neighborhood and its housing inventory before reaching out to Realtors® physically, prospective homebuyers are more likely to buy a home with that specific Realtor®. Having the right information about each neighborhood at the right time can make the difference between closing the sale or not.

Acting as an informational tool for local Realtors® and a connection to prospective real estate buyers, neighborhood pages are vitally important in the world of online real estate marketing and advertising. No Realtor® or firm in today’s world should enter the competitive market without investing the time and resources into creating neighborhood-based pages for clients to view online.

Blogging is an increasingly popular and effective online activity. Blogging for the best SEO results, however, can be tricky. Good SEO requires dedication, a basic understanding of search engine marketing, a grasp of search engine principles and the drive to write compelling and enticing content.

Making your blog appear at the top of a search results page can be tough work, but with some dedication to your craft and a good understanding of SEO principles, can be done effectively. Good SEO skills are honed over time and require extensive trial-and-error tests. However, by blogging daily and researching effective SEO principles, you’re one step closer to making your blog one of the most popular online.

As a general rule of thumb, daily blogging is the best way to increase your SEO results. By pumping out new content on a steady, daily basis, you’ll ensure that your blog rises in the search engine rankings by developing a following and generating buzz. Daily blogging is the most effective way to build up your blog and make a name for yourself online.

Daily blogging, it should be noted, doesn’t mean just putting up content for no other reason. Be sure that each blog post is relevant to your audience and is edited and proofread extensively. Just putting up new, yet irrelevant, content is a surefire way to turn your audience off and lose your place in the SEO rankings. By making each post clever, relevant and clearly directed at your target audience, you’ll practically ensure that your blog slowly but surely develops a following over time.

Blogging on a consistent, daily basis is only half the battle. It’s important to remember that each blog market is different. Make a point to research how competitive the market is for your blog and what keywords work effectively. The more you know about your blog audience, the better you can tailor your blog to increase in traffic and on search engine results.

Effective SEO blogging takes time. By blogging daily, employing relevant content and getting to know your audience inside and out, you’ll be much better equipped to make your blog appear higher in the search engine results and ultimately generate more traffic and buzz overall.   However, being consistent in your blogging is more important.  Be realistic in how often you can (and will) add new posts to your blog.  One way to ensure that you do not move closer to the top of search engine rankings is by being inconsistent.

Creating calls to action on your website

Real estate sites are a vital tool in reaching out to potential homebuyers and spreading information about local real estate markets. However, some fail to be effective due to a failure to entice prospective real estate buyers into contacting the Realtor® about buying property and homes.   This is largely due to an ineffective call to action. Calls to action are a critical step in reaching out to potential homebuyers and generating lucrative property sales leads.

Here are just a few ways to make calls to action on real estate pages more enticing and effective when attempting to reach out to new clientele:

Active & Urgent Language

The first and arguably most effective technique is to use active and urgent language when addressing your audience. Focus on action words and phrases like “How’s the market” and “What’s my home worth today?”  Doing so adds a sense of urgency to the reader that may have been missing before and the primary reason for the audience disconnect.

Multiple Teasers & Temptations

Having strong calls to action on every page is another effective technique for real estate bloggers.   Visitors to your site will not just be on your home page – they will (hopefully) visit numerous pages within your site and as such each page should have a call to action.  After all, the main purpose of having a website is to gain additional leads and sales, and the only way to do that is to gain their information, which can be obtained through your calls to action.

Be Deliberate & Obvious

Also, be sure to incorporate the call to action into your webpage prominently. Placing a “Contact Us” link on the sidebar of each page is a great way to catch the audience’s attention and to get the phone to ring.   It is also important to not clutter the call to action with other less important content. Doing so will make it blend in and seem less important.

Finally, make a point to use bolder colors and larger fonts to catch the audience’s eye better.

Calls to action are a critical link in online real estate marketing. By using urgent language, staying consistent and making the call more prominent and enticing, you will be able to generate sales and reach out to prospective property buyers.

Easy to use and highly intuitive, WordPress is one of the top website and blogging services online today. As with other blogs, many have inquired about its safety and privacy for users. The security of WordPress, fortunately, is ironclad and amongst the best on the Internet. WordPress’ tough security features, top-flight customer support and stringent privacy controls make it among the safest and most secure blogging services in the entire world. For prospective bloggers, the security of WordPress shouldn’t be in doubt.

WordPress incorporate strong, state-of-the-art security features to guard users from privacy breaches, spam, viruses and other online hazards. WordPress 3.0, for example, maintains strong security safeguards as well as spam filters and other security measures. These features make it among the safest and most secure blogs out there.

Additionally, WordPress is also noted for its top-notch customer support services. Any privacy or security breaches are dealt with swiftly by WordPress. The company has made great strides in responding to potential security and privacy violations immediately, ensuring that users are as safe and secure as possible. WordPress’ eminent safety measures and excellent customer support make it among the most secure blogs in the world.

WordPress also features excellent privacy controls and settings that allow bloggers to maintain their privacy and security without breaking a sweat. The privacy settings allowed by WordPress include exclusive and private access by only pre-approved individuals, letting bloggers enjoy excellent safety and security from various online threats. In addition to its excellent privacy controls, WordPress also boasts top-notch safeguards against viruses, hackers and other online annoyances and threats. These privacy and safety features all ensure that WordPress users are secure and that their identities and intellectual properties are completely protected against any and all breaches.

Thanks to its excellent security features, fantastic customer support and strong privacy controls and settings, WordPress is among the most secure online. The site’s firewall of safety and security software ensures that users are safe and secure and that their identities are fully protected from hackers, viruses and other online threats. With its top-notch security and privacy features, all WordPress users can rest assured that they are safe.

We feel very confident in recommending the use of WordPress based websites!

I’m pleased to announce that over the month of July Arranging Pixels will become BrandCo!

Born in 1999 Arranging Pixels started as a network infrastructure company that built custom business applications for various industries including retail, legal and real estate.  Throughout the years Arranging Pixels has sold off it’s IT interests and morphed into a creative agency focused on small business.  Our team has amazing technical and creative chemistry that makes us positioned to be one of the best branding agencies for small business in the World.

The new name comes to solidify our commitment to becoming known as a worldwide branding phenomenon.  The name BrandCo was chosen for it’s solid stature, two syllable pronunciation, and it’s corporate appeal. We’ve always been very passionate about our client’s businesses and as we transition to BrandCo that will not change.  We are taking this opportunity to improve our policies and procedures, implement new systems to help our clients achieve success, and reinvent our company culture with our new mantra: “So others may win!”

As you can imagine, there are 100’s of things to do when changing your company name.  During the month of July you will see us make this transition.  You may notice communications with solely Arranging Pixels branding, joint branding, and as we get towards our launch date you will begin to see more and more BrandCo exclusive communications.

On Tuesday July 31st we will celebrate the commencement of the new BrandCo with the launch of our brand new website  just in time for our public announcement at Inman Connect in SanFrancisco.

This is a very exciting time for me and the entire Arranging Pixels team.  We are confident that at the end of this transition we will be a stronger brand that will allow us to reach more clients in more parts of the world. Thank you for being a valued client- without you we would not be where we are today!

With Great Respect and Appreciation!
Ken Granger
Founder & CEO
Arranging Pixels and now BrandCo.

Inevitably, bloggers and webpage owners are faced with the crucial decision of what to name their site. While it may seem like a good idea to use your name in your domain name (for name recognition), it is something that should be avoiding for numerous reasons.

Putting your own name in your blog or webpage address will not help with your desired search engine results. Consider how many people know your name throughout your market, or even the world, versus how many people know the name of your product.  This is what you should keep in the forefront of your mind when deciding upon your new site’s url.

Try to focus on a keyword rich domain name which will appeal to your target audience effectively. Rather than just placing your name in the blog address, you will want to brand your business, and in doing so, generate better search engine optimization (SEO) results. By concentrating on SEO and keywords that will capture your audience, you’ll be able to build your blog or site traffic more effectively.

Focusing on SEO keywords in your domain title is a much better way to increase your online visibility as opposed to placing your name in the domain address.

I will add, however, it never hurts to own the url of your own name, but I just would not make it the main url of your business website.

What does an ideal domain name look like?

A well thought out domain name will be descriptive, easy to spell, not include hyphens or dashes, not include numbers (ie House4You.com instead of HousesForYou.com), brandable and with a .com extension.

So, unless you’re name is highly recognizable within your industry (like Madonna or Brad Pitt perhaps), it would not make sense to have it as (or part of) your domain name.

Please note:  If you have had your name as your url for many years already, and it is an established website, then I would not recommend changing it at this time.