My HDR photography is ideal for real estate

So during this off-season I’m running a real estate photography sale. Any property photographed for only $499!
But there are only 10 packages available. Package includes:

• Stunning interior HDR photography
• Exterior photos
• Processing
• Delivery

Use Now or Save for Later

The Red Bell Ranch

When you want to use it is up to you. Use it now to capture fall colors or wait until the snow falls for a winter wonderland package. You have until February 14th to use the package.

With a money back guarantee on the photos there’s no risk.

(I’m only doing 10 of these so once they’re gone, they’re gone.)

Learn more about my photography services here or on my Steamboat Photography website www.Steamboatpics.com

Sample Before & After Photos

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Sorry, cheap videos from Flip cams, iPhones just don’t cut it anymore. Competition and consumer expectations have raised the bar. In a world of infinite coffee choice I pick Intelligentsia.

In a world of infinite choices in your business, why pick you?

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

We decided to promote the events with Ignite style presentation from the members. The Ignite presentation format of 5-minutes, 20 slides, automatically advancing every 15 seconds has produced some truly enlightening presentations. We filmed almost all of the presentations and they’re available to you online: http://ignitesteamboat.com/videos/

The Ignite Steamboat events are completely free.

Growth

2 years ago this thing started with just a handful of people. Now, there’s 142 on the list and we’ve had great participation at the Ignite events. If you’ve been looking for a group that promotes fresh thinking, connects entrepreneurs and interesting people, Ignite Steamboat may be your thing.

Spark Talks

In November we introduced Spark Talks. Spark talks are live video interviews via Skype with thought-leaders and entrepreneurs from around the country.

The hope is that their words ‘spark’ you to start something meaningful. The response from these special guests has been nothing less than enthusiastic and supportive of what this group is about.

If you’ve missed these, they’re available online for you here: www.ignitesteamboat.com/spark-talks/

A Night of Innovation

Next Thursday (April 7th) we have our biggest event yet with 3 incredible Spark Talks Lined up:

• Charlene Li – Author & Social Media Innovator
• Brad Feld – Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist & Founder of Tech Stars
• Chase Jarvis – Professional Photographer, Entrepreneur & Innovator

Charlene Li

Charlene Li

First up is Charlene Li. This woman is amazing and we’re really honored for Charlene to spend some time with the group. If you have any interest in forward thinking business practices, social media or the new rules of leadership, this is for you. 
- Named by Fast Company as one of The Most Influential Women in Technology
- Named by Fast Company as one of The 12 Most Creative Minds of 2008
- “Groundswell” named by Fortune Magazine as one of the 3 best Web books of 2008
- “Groundswell” named by Advertising Age as number 3 of 10 Books You Should Have Read
www.charleneli.com

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Chase Jarvis

Chase Jarvis

Next will be world-famous photographer & entrepreneur Chase Jarvis. This guy has taken the photography industry to a new level and he got his start here in Steamboat! 
What Chase brings to the table is way more than photography.  Sure he’s a phenomenal photographer but his approach opened up what had traditionally been an industry built on secrecy and fear. So even if photography isn’t your thing, Chase has a lot to offer.

There’s no doubt you’ve seen his work for brands like Nike, Pepsi, Volvo, Reebok, Apple, and Red Bull!
www.chasejarvis.com
Chase Photographs New Zealand

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Brad Feld

Brad Feld

We have Mr. Brad Feld scheduled to speak with us live via Skype. Honestly I wish just typing his name would be enough for you to camp out in front of the Smokehouse to ensure a seat but I realize that some of you may need more convincing. Brad has been the driving force behind the incredible technology & startup growth in Boulder.   


The current book club book, Do More Faster was co-written by Brad. 


Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies. Brad is also a co-founder of TechStars.
www.feld.com
Brad Feld on Techstars

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

What Are You Waiting For?

This promises to be our biggest Ignite event yet! There’s a cap of 60 max – so the first 60 to RSVP are in. There are a few spots left so please RSVP now if you’d like to go!
 
Act now and save your spot!

Videos & More

I posted several videos of our Spark Talk guests on the site. Go here to check it out: http://ignitesteamboat.com/2011/03/a-night-of-innovation/

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Noreen Moore, Chad James, Jens Owen & John Moyer, all co-organizers, for their persistence, hard work and value they’ve been providing this group.

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Me & Matt Mulleneweg, Founder of WordPress

If any aspect of your marketing touches the web you should be using WordPress. WordPress is an incredible platform that’s gained tremendous traction over the past few years.
Let’s look at some facts:

• WordPress is the #1 open-source Content Management System in the world
• WordPress.com has more than 30 million accounts.
• Microsoft just closed it’s blogging service and migrated millions of accounts to WordPress.com
• WordPress is free.
• More freelance jobs are being done on WordPress than any other platform.
• Major companies like NTY, eBay, Time, Mashable.com, techCrunch.com and CNN all use WordPress

Interested? I hope so.
The fact is, you can out-distance your competitors, connect with customers and make more money using WordPress.

Ok, maybe you’re still not convinced. I get it – so I present to you 10 ways to use WordPress other than a blog.

1. Start a Q & A Site About Your Industry

Quora.com, StackOverflow.com and other Q&A sites are have become extremely successful. These Q & A sites have a ton of traction in-part because people want answers from real people. Why not start a Q & A site about your industry and let the people who care about your niche help each other out? With WordPress you can. Take a look at this Q & A solution:

Q & A Site

2. Host a News Aggregator About Your Industry

Sites like PopURLS.com and AllTop.com are extremely popular new aggregators. With WordPress you could make a news site full of current info about your industry. This is exactly what I did with www.SteamboatDaily.com

News Aggregator

3. Start a Paid Membership Site

Maybe you have an idea to start a paid membership site. With WordPress it’s a snap especially with a plugin like member.wishlistproducts.com/
WishList Member is a powerful solution for creating an online membership site – all built using WordPress as the core content management system.

Membership Site

4. Host an Auction

Be it a charity fundraiser, corporate or personal event, WordPress can be used to hold an online eBay style auction. These guys have built a fantastic plugin to create a full e-commerce enabled online auction: http://www.wpauctions.com/

Auction Site

5. Project Management

Looking for a low-cost, high quality solution for project management? Well, you guessed it, WordPress. CollabPress is an all in one project and task management plugin for WordPress. Transform a standard WP installation into a full featured project management application in a single click! Easily create unlimited projects, task lists, and tasks with all of the features you would expect.

Unlimited projects, task lists, tasks, and comments
Easily edit/delete projects, task lists, tasks, and comments
Email notifications for new tasks and comments
Task due dates with a calendar view
Uses built-in WordPress user accounts
Activity log tracking all activity
Multisite compatible
100% GPL and Free!
http://collabpress.org/

Project Management

6. Start a Discussion Group

Create a dynamic discussion with P2 for WordPress!
P2 is a theme for WordPress that transforms a mild-mannered blog into a super-blog with features like inline comments on the homepage, a posting form right on the homepage, inline editing of posts and comments, real-time updates so new posts and comments come in without reloading, and much more. Here’s a quick video tour of the best features:

7. Sell Stuff

WP e-Commerce is a free bolt-on shopping cart that lets customers buy your products, services and digital downloads online. They make setting up shop incredibly easy.
http://getshopped.org/

8. Coming Soon

Have an idea that’s not quite ready? There are a number of killer coming soon WordPress apps that allow you to show a countdown timer and collect info from interested people.

Coming Soon Page

9. Launch an Online Community

WordPress has an add-on component called BuddyPress allowing you to create a full-blown online social website.

Community Site

10. Event Registration

Sure there’s plenty of event registration services out there but you can set up your own with Event Espresso. I used an early version of Event Espresso for a conference last year and had great results.

Event Registration

As you can see, WordPress is an incredibly powerful platform and one that every business should be looking into.

Sign Up Already!

Ok, the best thing to do now is sign up for a priority invite. By signing up, you’ll get an invite before the general public and you’ll help me gauge interest & venue size.
What are you waiting for – Sign Up!

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

There’s been a great discussion in the comments of the original post and thanks to all who commented!
While there were some diverse opinions, the general consensus was the ad could be dramatically improved.

Find the 5 Mistakes - Click to Enlarge

It has… forever.

Why This Matters

The ad for the exercise represents two properties with an asking price of nearly $4 million each. In order for these properties to sell, someone is going to have to extract a worth of $4 million in perceived value from the property. They are going to have to be convinced and make an emotional connection that the property is worth $4 million. What makes this extremely challenging is that the pool for buyers at a multi-million dollar price point is extremely shallow and the pool for $4 million homes is extremely deep. Plenty of supply but little demand.

So every step along the sales cycle matters more than ever in the effort to create perceived value.

The Premise

Even though this may be viewed as a tactical exercise after all, it’s just an ad – there are some strategic observations that can be applied across the marketing spectrum.

1. People Don’t Read

They scan. They scan magazine pages, webpages, newspaper pages, twitter feeds, etc. Their eyes dart around the screen or page looking for something interesting. Advertisements are scanned even less.

You’re probably scanning this content right now to see if there’s something interesting — to get the essence of the content.

(Highlighted by the text in block quotes.)

Having conducted a number of eye-tracking and usability studies I’ve seen first-hand how easy it is for people to miss even the most important information.
Creating scannable marketing assets is key. Think “Scan-Ability” in everything you do.

2. No Second Chances

This property is on the market for $3.9 million per side. Less than 3/10 of 1% of the people in the U.S. can afford this property.
Even fewer are in the market to buy a home at any one time and even fewer still would be interested in a home in Steamboat.
Even fewer would actually be here and see this property in a magazine.
So for the perhaps the small handful of qualified, interested, potential buyers per quarter who might see the ad it better be compelling. You’re not getting a second chance. This is why print magazines are so tough for single property-type marketing – the frequency and reach for this target market is very low.

With these two points in mind, here are 5 issues with the ad along with commentary on how this ad can be improved to better connect with a potential buyer.

1. Hotmail

Click to Zoom

Just about every commenter had an issue with the Hotmail e-mail address. So do I. It’s a professional credibility issue. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail e-mail addresses are fine for personal e-mail but a Hotmail or similar account for business is unprofessional. It lacks credibility. For example spammers, scammers and Internet crooks all use Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. and we’ve developed associations from those experiences. Those negative associations hinder the process of establishing trust in the early stages of a relationship.

For some reason many in real estate continue to use such an email address. I can’t figure out why this is so prevalent in real estate while other professions got the message a long time ago.
A professional company e-mail address is a must.

2. Duplicate Photo

NAR research shows that 84% of buyers consider photos the most important piece of information about the property. In this case a crop photo repeat of the gondola car doesn’t reinforce the value of the property, add context to the narrative or aid in the scan-ability of the ad. In addition the placement of the photo in the center causes an unnatural break in the text. A stunning interior, detail or view photo could have been a great hook to pull a reader in.

We see issues related to photography perhaps more than any other. This is completely at odds with what buyers want to help them extract value and make a decision. Photography is at the heart of marketing because people want passive visuals that help them determine if a marketing message is worth their time. Again, photography speaks to the “scan-ability” of a marketing message.

3. Copy/Information

Click to Zoom

Since we know people initially scan it’s important to present critical marketing information in a way that scannable and easy to understand.

This text is just the opposite.
The treatment of all caps with a mono–spaced font is almost painful to read and impossible to scan.
The main selling and differentiating points of this property should be easy to find, easy to read and easy to understand.

Click to Zoom

Unfortunately this copy gives no indication of price, property scope or even property type. This is a $4 million property and yet the last line reads “a must see for any buyer.”
No it isn’t.

Finally, a grammar error in the third sentence puts the nail in the coffin of this copy.

The trend we see in real estate is to write uninspiring, generalized, one-size-fits-all copy while using the same tired descriptions over and over. Go read a few more descriptions and you’ll quickly become numb to the echo-chamber of:
“amazing views”
“views, views, views”
“Exquisite”
“Views”
“Luxury”

This is completely at odds with the social-media driven cultural shift to authenticity, tone/voice and transparency.
Once someone makes that initial scan and decides they’re interested, copy gives an opportunity to connect. The copy should be meaningful and relevant.

Having conducted a number of eye-tracking and usability studies I’ve seen first hand how easy it is for people to miss even the most important information.

4. Who is in Charge?

Click to Zoom

The ad contains three different entities for contact:

• The developer
• An individual
• A brokerage

From an interested buyer’s perspective this is confusing and adds unnecessary clutter to the ad. This ad can be improved by providing a single clear contact.

Real estate developments typically have a number of “cooks in the kitchen” all wanting exposure and credit for the project. Many brokers even admit they use their listing’s marketing as a primary way to market themselves. But for marketing to be effective all the egos and ulterior motives need to be put aside and the focus put on what’s in the best interest of the potential buyer. Put the buyer’s need for simplicity and clarity first. Don’t make the potential buyer think.

Internet adoption in real estate is still too low and much of what is being created is way behind what’s needed to meet consumer expectations and be competitive.

5. No Online Resource

Click to Zoom

We know that 90% plus of real estate buyers begin their search online. I’d go so far as to say an even higher percentage of second homebuyers begin online.

And yet this ad offers no web address for someone to find more information. For an $8 million property this is a lost opportunity. Even the developer’s domain is without a website.

Internet adoption in real estate is still too low and much of what is being created is way behind what’s needed to meet consumer expectations and be competitive.

In this case, a memorable domain with a simple landing page containing property information and a short contact form would be a good start. It would provide the added benefit of being able to track the ad’s effectiveness. Get on the web or get out of business.

Summary
What’s encouraging to know is that all recommendations are essentially free. More attention to detail and understanding of how a medium can best be used can go a long way to improve marketing results. What are your thoughts?
Thanks for reading!

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Find the 5 Mistakes - Click to Enlarge

There are at least 5 mistakes in this ad that, if avoided, would make this ad much more effective. Can you find them?

(The fact that it’s print isn’t one of them )

Leave your thoughts in the comments and I’ll follow-up with answers in a few days.

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

So?
If there’s ever been a time to make a jump from where you are or start that new thing it’s now. There’s never been more resources at a lower cost with more potential to make a positive impact than now. Go for it!

Stay on Track
This desktop wallpaper for January 2011 is offered as an inspiration and reminder to just jump! Put this on your screen to keep you in check; are you jumping?
When I took this photo, my buddy Nelson had no idea where or how he was going to land but he ended up fine.
Go for it!

What You Get

This pack contains images for these screen sizes:
1920 x 1200px
1680 x 1050px
1280 x 1024px
iPad Version
Each version has the option to display a calendar

So head over to Steamboatpics.com and grab the file – it’s FREE! And while your at it, sign up for updates using this handy form:

[hr]

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

1. Michael Jordan on Failure

[hr]

2. Rocky Montage

Classic inspiration set to a different vibe.

[hr]

3. Versus Commercial

Perhaps the greatest sports commercial ever!

[hr]

4. Famous Failures

Who knew?

[hr]

5.Why Do You Do What You Do?

18 minute presentation on the core of what makes leaders successful.

[hr]

6. Gary Vaynerchuk

Probably the pivotal video that launched Gary into the spotlight. 15 minutes of pure passion!

[hr]

7. Human Chain

Nike commercial inspiring you to get back up!

[hr]

8. Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford

Perhaps the best commencement speech of all time.

[hr]

9. Dennis Crowley, founder of Four Square

Dennis failed a bunch but kept believing in his vision. Now he’s the founder of one of the hottest social media companies. This is his story.

[hr]

10. John Wooden on True Success

A true legend shares his principles.

[hr]

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

They created videos to target new moms by speaking directly to them with catchy reasons why Motrin is such a great choice to help them get through their day. If only the videos could go “viral” then the world would be right. They had no idea what was about to happen.

The marketing campaign launched with the slogan: “Motrin. We feel your pain.” The video-based social media campaign was promoted with magazine and TV ads. The visits to the online videos began to rise. Soon the hits skyrocketed and they thought they had a home run. But nothing could be further from the truth.

There was a big problem with how the videos referred to the way new moms carry their kids. The videos claimed that their choice of child portage was a “fashion statement.” Unfortunately many new moms were very sensitive to this reference. To make matters worse, these weren’t just any new moms, these were connected new moms.

It turns out many of these new moms were connected through a relatively (at the time) new channel called Twitter. Through Twitter, they began to communicate about the videos that offended them so much. Word began to spread and it was this communication channel that was driving all the traffic to the videos. The trouble was, no one on the other side was listening. No one at Pfizer or their marketing agency was listening or monitoring Twitter and they had no clue what was going on.

It wasn’t until a few mainstream blogs posted what was happening, then CNN ran a story that Motrin pulled the videos and an apology was issued by Pfizer-Motrin. But by then it was too late.

The video had been copied and posted on YouTube. Angry new moms went on YouTube and posted their own angry video responses to Motrin.

The campaign was a total failure. What’s worse for Motrin is the online damage is permanent. If you Google “Motrin Moms” you find almost 400,000 hits, most of which relate to this story.

If only Pfizer-Motrin were listening.

What this Means to You

Never before have we had the opportunity to listen in real-time to the conversations, thoughts and comments people are having, about nearly any topic. And yet the first thing most organizations do when they approach social media is to start “broadcasting.” They start spouting their message as if social tools are a new broadcast medium without any regard for what people are saying about them or their industry. What a waste.

Do the opposite. Spend a great amount of time and energy setting up and using social media as listening devices. By having good listening devices in place, you’ll be much more prepared to respond and connect with people and topics that matter. By listening to the conversations about you, your business & industry that are taking place now, you’ll be in a better place to discover and take advantage of opportunities.

As the buzz of a new situation begins to surface, you’ll be in a better position to evaluate how that might be an opportunity for you.

Listening helps you make better decisions. The flood of ideas, projects and demands will never stop. But, having the knowledge of what resonates with people within the social media space will help you prioritize and support the right projects, for the right reasons.

Recommended Tools

As you begin to build your Social Media Toolbox, we recommend the following listening tools:

Google Reader is a way to monitor what is being said across the internet about any subject which interests you. It takes 5-10 minutes a day to scan the web for mentions of your company and/or any keyword that influences your business.

Social Mention searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services. It allows you to easily track what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time.

http://bit.ly/9D7fTx (tutorial video)

Hootsuite is a good way to be engaged in social arenas in which you willingly participate. It does not measure all social mentions, but rather streams mentions where YOU have chosen to reach out to your consumer and feeds responses through one localized platform. Hootsuite is touted as the most relevant web application for Twitter. You can schedule all your posts days, weeks, even months out.

http://bit.ly/avZITH (demo video)

Radian6 at the high end of the scale gives you a complete platform to listen, measure and engage with your customers across the entire social web.

Highly recommend watching this short video:
http://bit.ly/bngXYd (Gatorade brand video on importance of social listening. – Radian6 customer)

[box type="note"]UPDATE: This video, just released by Gary Vaynerchuk speaks to this very post.[/box]

[fblike]

[hr]

[box type="note"] Web Camp starts December 9th! Are you in? More details at www.webcamp.co [/box]

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Today I’m launching a new venture called Web Camp. To some this will be really special. I say ‘some’ because it’s not for everyone. Web Camp is an advanced 4-day camp where we, (I emphasize ‘we’ meaning up to 8 Campers) build a complete online marketing platform.

This isn’t a watered-down generic, one-size fits all opportunity. Instead Web Camp is an advanced and intense 4-days focused on results for a few passionate, fun, smart business people.

The result of Web Camp is an online marketing platform providing everything a business needs to be competitive, connect with customers and control their online marketing. By combining up to 8 Campers at the same time we can offer so much more value at much less cost. The total cost for Web Camp is $1895. Campers must apply & be accepted and each Web Camp is limited to a max of 8 and needs a minimum of 4.

Why Web Camp?

To be competitive in today’s world you need much more than a simple website. Competition, your current & future customers are raising the bar for what it means to do business. Businesses who connect with their customers & prospects on their terms have a significant advantage over their competitors.

Click to Enlarge - Web Camp Platform

Breaking the Budget Barrier

Is it possible for a company with a budget of less than $2000 to get a complete online marketing platform?

No.

$2k isn’t a lot of money but I’ve met with plenty of business owners willing to spend that amount, on something whether it works for them or not. With that budget constraint I found two solutions, neither of which are very compelling.

There’s the ‘Website in a Box’ solution – a simple point & click, very canned, inflexible, online service that ranges in price from $7 to $19.99 per month. There are so many problems with these services I don’t know where to begin but let’s just say, these solutions aren’t something you want to hang your online hat on.

Then there’s the ultra cheap solution from the local ‘web shops,’ you know the usual suspects. You get not much more than a website-in-a-box but at a much steeper price and in the end there’s still no client control of the content & growth.

(I suppose the third is the ‘DIY’ approach that usually produces the worst result of all.)

So I thought it’s time to rethink this whole thing.

The mandate became find a way to produce an online marketing platform to include the top elements that all online marketing platforms should have:

• A content management system (CMS) so content can be easily added & updated
• Easily supports multimedia
• Is, for the lack of a better term, Web 2.0+. Meaning uses CSS and had a strong focus on design aesthetic & usability.
• Has Social Media functionality and integration
• Has an automatic mobile component to render & display properly on a mobile device (iPhone, etc)
• Has Search Engine Optimization features
• Includes analytic reporting.
• Is self-sustaining; the owner can not only own but also operate.
• Is future-proof; this platform can grow & change as the web grows & changes.

What I found was this cannot be done, as a service, for under $2k.

But, and this is a big but, that’s the case when considering one single project at a time – the traditional way of looking at it. What if multiple projects were conducted at the same time, in the same venue, with the same set of tools & objectives? That’s a whole different picture.

Thus, Web Camp

Web Camp isfor businesses who need to be competitive, need to reach new customers and who want the best use of their marketing dollars and management time. By combining a number of projects together, the economics make sense on both sides. The business owner is able to get a set of marketing assets that make their business more valuable and competitive at an investment level they can afford.

The key to make this happen lies in-part, with recent developments in open-source tools in terms of traction, maturity & support along with the advancement of front-end design options. These two things make Web Camp possible.

By rethinking the traditional approach to project & online development it’s my belief that a business can now get a complete marketing platform that would have easily cost $15k+ for less than $2000.

4-Days

But there’s one more thing. To make this approach even better, it has to be done in 4 days.

Why?

Because business owners & entrepreneur types need focus. They need the constraint of a compressed time period to get it done and out to the world. We’ve spent an enormous amount of time creating a Web Camp program that delivers these results in 4 days.

[box type="note"]Web Camp starts November 18th and is open to the first 8 who apply and are accepted.[/box]

Who’s winning online – you or your competitor?

Click to Enlarge

How do you know?
Understanding how your online presence stacks up against the competition is an important step in providing a better experience for your customers.

You can get a free report that’s an easy to read and understand technical assessment of how your site performs against your top competitor.
We’ll analyze your online presence against your competitor and email you the results in a personalized PDF.
[button style="info" color="silver" link = "http://www.webcamp.co/info/site-assessment/"]Get Your Report[/button]
[hr]

Interested?

For more info head over to the Web Camp Site

www.WebCamp.co

[button color="red" link="http://www.webcamp.co/apply/"]Apply to Web Camp[/button]

Altera Performance Group - New Media Marketing & Technology