Once again, he was promising the sun, moon, and stars to anyone who signed up for his latest and greatest.

I have no idea why I read the first few paragraphs, but I did, and here is what I found:

“You have to see this new video that me and George just produced.”

I was shocked, so I read on, and there in the third paragraph, he repeated it. “Me and George.”

Now, all copywriters use conversational grammar. But that error is one that everyone should have gotten past in say… 3rd grade.

There’s no excuse for this. If English is your first language, you know better. If it’s NOT your first language, find someone to proofread your materials before you send them out to the world.

Unfortunately, many of them are “shooting themselves in the foot” with the way their messages are presented.

If you’re using these methods to reach and expand your audience, stop and think about how you present your message – you need to pay attention to both the words and the visual appeal.

The headline is important, of course. Without a good headline, no one will click the link to read the message. But that’s not all that matters.

The message has to immediately tell your reader that he or she will get some value from reading. In other words, that first sentence and first paragraph has to be about them and their concerns – not about you.

Never, ever begin your message with “I” or “We.”

Next, Looks Do Count!

So stop and think about how your message looks.

Back in school you learned that you need to start a new paragraph when you start a new thought. But when you’re writing for customers, especially on the Internet, you need to break it down a bit more than that.

If your thought goes on for ten or twenty lines, it’s way too much. It turns into a “wall of words” that simply looks like too much work. As a result, many of the people who might benefit from your message won’t bother to read it.

So find breaking points and split that message up. Make reading it easy for your audience.

Do remember to add a blank line between the paragraphs, and use bold or underlines in some spots for emphasis. And do vary the length. Ten paragraphs all with the same number of lines looks boring – so strive for variety.

In fact, try putting some of your most important points in one-line paragraphs for emphasis.

Add some sub-heads

The other point to consider is that everyone today seems to be in a hurry. They want to quickly see if your message is worth reading, so they skim. Have you ever tried to skim when there are no breaks in the message?

So in addition to breaking up the copy, try to add some sub-heads. They make it easier for your readers to see what your message is about.

If you have several sub-points to your message that will lend themselves to being in a list, use bullet points as well.

Make it easy.

The bottom line is that no matter how important your message is, if you make it difficult to read, it won’t reach your audience.

It’s finished now, and you can read all about it at www.promotemyrealestatecareer.com.

In it, you’ll find 107 ways to promote your career, and all but about a dozen of those ways are either completely free or cost only the gasoline to get you out and about.

If you have a different kind of business, I also have an e-book for you. In it you’ll find a plan to keep people coming back to your physical store, or to keep ordering your party plan merchandise or “door-to-door” products such as Avon.

Read more about How to Market a Local Business.

The truth is, you can do a great deal to help yourself by spending your time and using your imagination.

Yes, you need a good website, and yes, your website needs good copy. You also need business cards. But beyond that, a whole lot of what you could get talked into will be a waste of dollars.

The catch is, you do have to spend the time.

Just as there’s no magic pill to give you good health, there’s no magic pill to make your business take off.

Darn new technology anyway.

Tammy Emineth is a SEO expert who blogs on Active Rain, and this morning she was explaining  Google +1 - It’s Google’s answer to Facebook’s “like.”

If you’re interested, I suggest you read her blog, and then you can spend a half a day with it just like I did!

And then, when you see this image on a page you like, click it! You’ll be helping someone with a real site rank higher than those annoying link farm sites that pop up in a Google search.

Next task, learn how to put the button on a blog…

But guess what? It’s not the be-all and end-all that some proclaim.

Why? Because people like me will never see it, never hear it. We’re that bunch who live away from the cities – away from easy access to high speed internet.

We rely on Wild Blue or Hughes Net to bring us service – or we struggle along on dial up.

And most of your videos just plain don’t come in.

Videos that can be downloaded work OK – if we have the time and patience to wait until they download. But videos that stream live – forget it.

Tonight I tried another one because the teaser copy told me it was something I really wanted to hear.

But what did I get? The word “Hi,” then a 10 second pause. Next came “My name is Charlie H..” and another pause.

So, regretfully, I clicked on the little X in the corner.

When I called Wild Blue last week to see if anything could be done, I was told that if I upgraded my service from $77 per month to $87 per month I would “probably” be able to view video clips.

“Probably” isn’t worth an extra $10 per month, so no thanks.

So please – if you want everyone to see and hear your message, go ahead and offer a video. But ALSO offer the information as text.

They’re taking a 200-300 word article and breaking it into 6 or 8 small pieces – each on it’s own page, surrounded by ads.

Some entrepreneur sites are doing much the same. They give us part of the first paragraph, then stop in mid sentence with “…” to tell us to click to read more.

I’m curious – do you keep clicking?

I tend not to. When I click on an email link and land on a page, I’m hoping to see the promised article. When I see a few words and an arrow showing that the message is in 6 or 8 parts, I generally click away rather than onward. If the subject is of great interest to me, I might click once to see if it’s worth my time. But then it had better be good or I’m gone.

One reason is that I’m a skimmer - I want to skim down the post to see if I really want to take time with it before I commit.

The other reason is that I’m always in a hurry. And since my Internet connection is via satellite, I have to wait a while to get to a new page. According to a Huffington Post survey, about 40% of all U.S. Internet users are in this same boat – living without high speed.

Are they all as impatient as I am, or are they willing to take the time to see if the article has value?

Tell me your opinion…

Everyone has their own reasons, but they probably loosely fit into two categories.

* They want to check the pricing on other homes.
* They want to find a good agent.

They can learn about the listing prices of homes in their neighborhood by doing a search, so you don’t need to be concerned with that part.

But they’ll learn whether they want to use you by looking at three things:
* Your agent bio
* Your blog
* Your home listings

We’ve talked about the agent bio before, and you can read more about its importance and see examples at my website.

Your blog is important because it reflects your personality and your attitude toward both your business and your customers / clients. Try to post something new at least once a week – and do it in your own “voice.”

What should you post? Market updates are good. News about local events and businesses is good. Advice for buyers and sellers is good. Even a funny story about your kids or your pets, or an adventure you had on vacation is good. The only thing you absolutely shouldn’t post is “sour grapes” or anything that reflects a negative attitude.

If you’ve had a really rotten day or gotten involved with an impossible client, save it for the “members only” section of Active Rain. But even there, be careful. Even though it’s members only, a competitor could cut and paste and share your story with your client prospects.

Post Better Pictures and Write better descriptions than your competitors offer…

When sellers look at your home listings, they want to see how well you present the homes you have listed. So be sure to use ONLY good photographs and write appealing descriptions to go with each of them.

Enlist your clients’ help in making sure the house is ready for the photo shoot – no clutter, no pets to distract from the house, and please… no pictures of the toilet!

Because you haven’t lived in the house to get first-hand experience, take some time with your new listings to learn what the occupants have appreciated most about the house. It might be something you would overlook, like the way the sun shines in the kitchen window when they’re enjoying breakfast on a winter morning.

Get them thinking and talking about living in that house. Take notes. Then use that information in your descriptions.

Of course, be sure to mention other benefits and features that you know trigger interest in home buyers.

And remember to use words that create visual impressions.

Instead of factually stating the dimensions of the back yard, say something like “In the family room, French doors open on to a back yard that stretches 100 feet to the banks of a bubbling creek.”

Pretend you’re an artist – painting a picture of your listing with words.

Once you’ve impressed that homeowner, keep on impressing…

You know I’m a big believer in using auto responders to stay in touch with prospects when you’re too busy.

That’s why I’ve written prospecting letter sets for a variety of different buyers and sellers – like expired listings, FSBO’s, short sellers, and first time buyers.

But, when a seller who is just starting to think of listing arrives at your site, he or she doesn’t yet fit into any of those categories.

And that’s why I wrote the newest prospecting letter set: Advice for Home Sellers.

This set is 18 letters long – because as I wrote and thought about things sellers need to know, it grew.

The letters begin with explaining the three basic parts of marketing a home successfully: price, presentation, and marketing. Then they go into greater depth about each. Toward the end, the letters shift to dealing with the offer stage and what to expect between agreement and closing.

Of course each letter offers your assistance – but without being pushy.

You can send these letters after a homeowner uses an automated market analysis form on your site, or offer them via a separate auto responder. In my thank you letter I offer two examples of “Invitation” copy.

Come on over to Copy by Marte to read the topic list and learn more.

That might not be a good idea.

It hadn’t occurred to me until today, when I got a political email with a bold warning – twice. Warning: When this page opens, music will be playing.

At first I just thought that was a nice gesture. But then it occurred to me – there’s a purpose for warning people.

I don’t know the numbers, but a large percentage of people open their mail and browse the Internet when they’re at work – being paid to do something else entirely.

This isn’t the place to get into a discussion about the ethics of reading personal mail, shopping, etc. while being paid to do a job. It’s enough to simply realize that your customers may be doing just that.

So give them the option. Let them click a link if they want to hear an audio or a video from you.

If you simply surprise them with music or voices when they’re at work, they may decide that it’s unsafe to click your links – and you’ll lose customers.

If nothing else, you could copy the idea of giving a warning – so those who don’t want to be overheard listening to your message can simply turn off their speakers before they open your mail.

But that presents another problem, doesn’t it? Turning off music won’t hurt your impact, but if part of your message is presented with sound, they’ll miss it.

So why not offer the same message in a form they can quietly read?

You could make the offer: “Click here for audio – click here to read.”

Don’t limit your audience by insisting that they hear your audio.

Urgent,

Just add this to your Paypal account and your done. Expect to start receiving your checks from paypal *or clickbank with 1 more click:
<email address was here>

Please configure this immediately to get paid before this expires.

Sincerely,

Payment Support Team
The subject line said (please add PayPal account) and gave a notice number. The from line said ePayments.

This mail is similar to the ones I get every day from “Mike” and one other that tells me if I want to opt out I should “click here.” (I forget what the rest of that message says – I delete it too quickly.)

The difference is that with this one, my suspicion was that if I added my pay pal account, that account would probably be empty within minutes. Handing them my account would be like handing over a fist full of signed checks and trusting that a stranger wasn’t going to use them to clean out my checking account… dumb!

Maybe they’re on the up and up – but they sure don’t act like it!

Neither this email nor the “Mike” messages give me any clue about who they’re from. They have no web addresses I can type in to see what they’re all about. They have none of the required name and address information that goes at the bottom of all legitimate mail coming from legitimate auto responder services.

I delete all of them quickly, because of the danger that they might be carrying a virus.

But are they dangerous?

Are they dangerous, or are the senders just dumb? Maybe they think that hiding their identity is a good idea? Hard to believe, but perhaps.

If you want people to trust you, you’re going to have to reveal your identity.

You’re also going to have to tell them what you’re selling, and what’s in it for them.

“Hand over your pay pal account and start receiving money” just isn’t going to do it!

In the year ending in April 2010, their purchases had accounted for 7% of the sales – and predictions are that this year that number will be higher.

Thus, real estate agents in the communities they prefer should be gearing up their websites to attract those buyers.

But what about other businesses?

It seems to me that those people are going to spend money on related services. If they buy foreclosed properties to use for rentals, they’ll need:

• Rehab contractors
• Trash removal
• Cleaning services
• Landscapers
• Property managers

And if they buy high-end homes as vacation destinations for themselves and their families they’ll need much more.

Just think – if they buy vacant high-end homes it will take plenty of furniture, perhaps a decorator, new flooring, services to care for the home in their absence, perhaps a car to drive when they’re in residence – and any number of personal services for when they’re in town.

Don’t forget about eating out and recreational opportunities, too.

Can you make your website showcase services that will help you reach out to foreign investors?

Think about it!