Turn up the Volume!

There have been a lot of changes in the last few years to our country, and to each of us individually. Myself, I received my real estate license, became a RTV dealer, got married, and quit making virtual tours to move across country. During this time, I had the opportunity to look at a lot of houses trying to find one for my family. Having been both an RTV dealer and a Realtor®, I was in the unique position of seeing marketing from both sides of the fence.

Because I had to find a house, or at least some good candidates before I moved, I found myself looking at houses on the Internet from 1500 miles away! I saw everything from ads that had 1-20 still pictures, slide shows, bad “virtual” tours, to excellent virtual tours. You know what happened to the homes that had one picture – they were dumped without even reading the description. Bad virtual tours made me angry, while good virtual tours were a delight. When I say “bad” virtual tours, I’m thinking of the many agents across the country who have begun using a do-it-yourself company (you know who they are).

The agent buys the software, pays a monthly fee, then makes as many tours as they want. Many brokers have even been persuaded to buy this program as an added benefit for their agents. This company has a very good product which is easy for the novice to use, but what the agent and broker forgot to figure in was the fact that it’s only as good as the photographer and the person stitching the tour. Consequently, the compiler either doesn’t receive good enough training (you hardly ever see a 360 tour), or they didn’t pay attention to training. So, their virtual tour is nothing more than a slide show.

In many cases the picture quality makes it a not so good slide show. Imagine my chagrin as I looked for houses, clicked on a virtual tour button, only to find a slide show showing the same 6 still pictures I just looked at, only now they’re moving in and out, or bouncing back and forth with music! As a home buyer, this made me angry more than anything. I felt like I’d been taken because I wasted my time waiting for the tour to load on my computer and got no added value.

Now that I’m semi-settled, I’m preparing to start my Montgomery virtual tour business. I plan to open my doors on October 25, 2009. The name of my new company will be www.iHomeEvents.com. I chose this name because I think of technology as living the future now. One day I was reading a very popular book about time travel. I thought when you’re many miles away, and you want to see a home immediately, you wish you could time travel.

I noted that when scientist speak of time travel, they use the word EVENT to mean a point in space-time; that is, a location in space at a specific moment of time. While technology can't offer us time travel, as a RTV dealer, I can offer my clients the ability to let their clients “time and place shift” to a specific home. They can walk through a property regardless of what continent they're on, or what time it might be. In other words, a client can shift to anywhere in the world to see a virtual tour of a home at a certain point in time that they choose.

A smart agent will allow their client to view homes at their convenience - WHEN they want and WHERE they want. Technology now allows us to be able to look from most anywhere: at home, at the office, at the beach, in the mountains, on an airplane – anywhere we can take a smart phone or iPod – it’s the client’s choice! Therefore, I’ve used the “i” to represent technology, and then I go to work to create a “HomeEvent” for my clients.

A true, quality virtual tour is obviously the best way to showcase a home other than being there in person. If an agent really wants to sell, now is not the time to forget about marketing. According to Gary S. Shamis, CPA, managing director of Cleveland-based SS&G Financial Services and a member of The Advisory Board:

“. . . knowing that you will be losing revenue and business, aren't you justified in reducing your marketing efforts? On the contrary - this is the time to "turn up the volume" and increase all aspects of your marketing.

“If you are the firm in your region to up the marketing ante, and your competition is hiding in a cave or under a rock, what could be better? Your firm is turning up the volume, and your competition is turning off the radio.” (See the rest of Gary’s article at http://www.webcpa.com/news/Turn-Volume-Marketing-51463-1.html)

We must help our clients understand that even though the economy is bad, turning up the volume and the quality, while others turn the radio off will not only help put them in the forefront now, but will start them at the top of the heap when the economy turns around. It will be their marketing through bad times that gets their names remembered by prospective clients when the good days return.

Jean Bryson
Montgomery Virtual Tours
iHomeEvents.com

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The Heartland Property Tours Exposure Engine

Heartland Property Tours is a Central Illinois virtual tour provider now offering a truly amazing extended service to our customers called "The Exposure Engine"

The Heartland Property Tours Exposure Engine sends your listing and interactive 360 virtual tour to more than 15 websites so your listing can get the MAXIMUM exposure possible. And if you include with your purchase the Submission to Realtor.com your tour will be pushed to nearly 100 sites in all!!!!

With our Exposure Engine your listings will get more views because your listing is on more websites and the Exposure Engine creates back links to your listings and website. What that means is that if any potential buyer would search by agent name or listing address the properties run through our Exposure Engine will return in the search engine results page. Everybody likes a little google juice with their virtual tours!

But that's not all. Included in the New 2010 Exposure Engine is a new Smart Phone Tour and E-Flyer!! Are you putting all of your listings on YouTube? Well don't worry because we are doing that for you. Our Smart Phone Tour allows agents to carry with them at all times their virtual tours on their cell phones for instant viewing. You never know when you may come across a potential buyer.

The E-Flyer is an HTML email-ready flyer that agents can easily send out to potential buyers.

Look us up online today. Heartland Property Tours is ready to take your listings to the next level.


Michael Robinson
Heartland Property Tours
www.heartlandpropertytours.com
Central Illinois Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour : 815-549-6844

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It Takes Money to Make Money

The last thing on my mind when Real Estate on Nova Scotia’s South Shore (my magazine) lost 30% of it’s revenue last fall, was investing money. Anywhere.

In an economic climate where survival of small business is at stake, how should I plan my spending? We are in the middle of a recession, but as a business owner I have one step up on those that are employed by others... I am in control of my destiny. If I truly want to maintain a thriving business I needed to invest in my business. The saying “build it and they will come” is simply not true of business.

In business it is so important that you maintain a “leg up” on the competition. It surprises me that many people fail to grasp this concept. When you consider the revenue cost of losing customers, or the acquisition cost of replacing them, you can make a very strong return on investment case for the appropriate use of limited resources.

It was time to be proactive. And broaden the scope of the marketing services I offered my Realtors. As I considered that 84% of home buyers and 87% of first time buyers use the internet as an information resource during their search for a home (in the 25-44 age group this number jumped to 91%) I concluded, that a compelling use of virtual tour technology would keep visitors on their site, and would also keep them coming back.

I chose to invest and become a full service dealer with RTV (Real Tour Vision). The largest full service virtual tour and property marketing network in the world. Simply put, they had the best virtual tour software, property marketing training and support.

By having a virtual tour, you are effectively demonstrating to your clients that you are not only at the top of your game, but you will serve them best by employing unique and “out of the box” solutions to meet their problems and most importantly, expectations and needs.

The competition is fierce, and so are you. Come out on top, every time - your clients don’t want to settle for less, why should you?

Virtual tours not only appeal to the local market, but to the international market as well. Increase your level of service, Supernova Studios virtual tours integrate easily into any website.

Order your Nova Scotia Virtual Tour Today.
www.supernovastudios.ca

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How's Your RTV Virtual Tour?

Dear RTV,

We recently purchased a virtual tour from Florida Eye Tours. Chris Grumley really did an outstanding job! He was able to capture the unique features of the property far better than any still photos could do. When he added the graphics and the music, the result was nothing short of spectacular! I don’t impress easily, but I was completely blown away by the virtual tour he produced. We got so many compliments on the virtual tour. Our rental inquiries have more than doubled. Thanks for having a great product. You have my highest recommendation."

Best Regards,
Mike Fischer

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The Benefits of Entrepreneurship

The economic changes seem to be effecting everyone I know, but the good news is that my Denver Virtual Tour and Architectural photography company, Denver Image Productions is off and running with great successes!

I started my virtual tour business just a few months ago after being laid off myself from a International Real Estate company that was not able to keep on the staff due to the poor economy and lack of sales. After much thought and consideration on whether to stay in real estate or not, I decided to do the next best thing…stay in real estate in a different avenue and also something that I really love – architectural photography and virtual tours.

After a LOT of research and discovery, I found Real Tour Vision. The reason I chose RTV was that I recognized the advantage of owning your own virtual tour company vs simply working for one such as the Obeo or Circlepix business model is. Although, I may have had a smaller startup and would have been busier in the beginning of this process, the benefits of owning my own company, making my own rules, setting my own pricing far outweigh any benefits of working for somone. The key with RTV's business model is that you have be business savvy and intelligent to make it work not to mention be confidnet in yourself. These are all qualities that I have and finally I really enjoy exploring my own territories and working with clients that I can build a good repore and lasting relationship with.

I’ve found in my discoveries over the last few months that Realtors and commercial businesses understand the value with online e-marketing and Virtual Tours. We are not creating something new, so talking to folks about the product is easy. What RTV provides that so many other companies don't offer is many additional great property marketing tools. It's these additional features that makes attracting new clients easy and fun. I am getting busier and busier and am expanding to new companies everyday. I look forward to seeing how big I can grow Denver Image Productions over the next year.

Tahvory Bunting
Founder, Photographer
Denver Image Productions
Denver Virtual Tours
Mobile: 720-382-8328
www.denverimageproductions.com

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Interactive Floor Plans are Fantastic

Dear RTV,

This your new interactive floor plan software is absolutely fantastic! It does take a little getting used to, but this stomps all over your previous technology.

I was in the middle of creating a plan in your older system the other day when you sent out
the notice about it being live… so we put on the breaks and jumped into the new
program with all four feet!! (My son was working on it with me.)

A little frustrating with the learning curve and all… but will be awesome and I will
Promote the floorplans more now.

Anyway… here is our first try at it…and I think it came out really nice. Please let us know if there is something that can better enhance it.

http://rtvpix.com/RE-7796-MVJ0XP-01

This is going to help me get so many more customers now over a competitor of ours down here offering floor plans with snapshots. When I roll this out I think we are going to get a lot more interest now.

I’m geeked over this update and ALL the other things RTV is doing. I for one appreciate the fact that RTV is always on the cutting edge of technology and grabbing a hold of it… not just watching it take place.

Thanks!
Dawn Frees
Grand Rapids Virtual Tours
www.freesframephotography.com
Order a virtual tour 616-334-9750

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New Technology Release | Floor Plan Software

We're very pleased to inform everyone that we've just gone live with our new Interactive Floor Plan system! We have created an all new system utilizing an amazing space planner technology!

This technology leapfrogs the floor plan technology of the competitors with its unique ability to add photos, panoramas, AND move furniture around!!

You're now able to create unlimited floor plans and link them directly to your virtual tours. We're also very happy to announce, by popular demand, we've brought back our Sketch & Fax service.

Take a moment now and check out the new system by following the link below:

Floor Plan Software by RTV

For those of you that would like to hear about this system in detail you're more than welcome to join us Tuesday, November 3rd at 7:00pm Eastern, while Jason LaVanture and Guest Speaker Steve Street from Icovia discuss the many "bells and whistles" built into the new Floor Plan system.

Sign up now and start practicing so you can be ready for this event!

Enjoy the new system!

Team RTV

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Creating Buyer Curiosity

I believe in competition. I believe that it makes people work harder to provide quality products and incredible services. That is why Listing Solutions is proud to be a Full Service Provider for RTV, the World’s largest network of Virtual Tour Providers. Our amazing technology allows us to create a unique perspective of homes for sale in St Augustine.

There are a number of companies and a few new ones (your welcome for the plug Chris) that are selling “slideshows” under the guise of virtual tours. This method of marketing your property online does not allow the potential Home Buyer to see the actual layout of the home.

Listing Solutions’ virtual tours feature “Hot Spots.” These carefully placed icons appear on the virtual tour and when clicked on, take the viewer to what is behind the door. Kind of like Christmas! Our virtual tours are loaded with features that enable you to professionally market your property and promote yourself online. Contact us today and I will give you 31 Reasons Why Listing Solutions Should Be Part of Your Online Marketing Strategies.

Listing Solutions is laser focused on helping our clients achieve the success online needed to compete in today’s challenging market. We are one of St. Augustine web designs emerging companies and a Full Service Dealer with RTV, specializing in Jacksonville virtual tours. We are one of the premier virtual tour providers in St. Augustine. Our online real estate marketing skills allow us to help our clients dominate the search engines. We would love the opportunity to help you. Call us today!

Dave Hall
Marketing Director
Listing Solutions
Order a virtual tour - (904) 540-9962
View Our Blog

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Spokane Virtual Tours

Even though I am very new to the "Virtual Tour" scene I have already been asked by many friends and family why I decided to start producing Spokane Virtual Tours. I would think back to the time when I first decided to get an AAS degree in Photography. The year was 1998 and I was going to find my niche in the digital photography market. In fact, I decided to add another year of digital imaging technology so I could "Photoshop" those digital images I was about to start stacking up.

I had a great time learning all those things and plying my trade when out of the blue, my College professor told me about these fantastic 360 degree images on the web and that they were being used by most of the major players in marketing and advertising on the internet. That he was actually creating them himself and would I be interested in learning how with him. I jumped at the chance and it was not long before we had everything of interest in our hometown of Spokane Washington photographed and stitched and placed on the net for all to see.

We tried to market to local businesses and we did sell a few, but back in 99 the technology was new and the file sizes were rather large at one to two megabytes per "spin". Additionally, there was not much broadband available so it took quite a while to download each file. In other words, we really didn't get this enterprise of the ground.

Well now, here it is ten years later and things have changed. By total chance, I ran across a company called Real Tour Vision. They happen to be world leaders in the virtual tour field and they offer state-of-the-art technology. I immediately realized that this was the opportunity I had been looking for. Turns out the software had improved tremendously and now everyone seemed to be hooked up to broadband allowing for very fast downloads.

The game had taken a complete 180 and was now a viable advertising option. This company keys on the Real Estate market but can be utilized by many different types of businesses. For example, imagine that you want to take a vacation to the Florida keys but having never been there, you have no idea where to stay. Simple, just plug in your Google search for local hotels and "voila" there they are complete with virtual tours of each individual property. You can see what your getting into before you plunk down your cash. Wonderful. This is an idea that years ago no one even thought about. What a great idea!!

I can only imagine where this is going. I look forward to the future when this application evolves into who knows what. Until then I plan on making many virtual tours in Spokane and thoroughly enjoy my association with RTV.

Remember - there is nothing to fear but fear itself !

Steve Stephens
www.digitalshowcasevr.com
Spokane Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour - 509 868-4043

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Welcome to Tour Track

As many of you who are seasoned virtual tour providers with RTV already know, the RTV tour track system dolls out hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to its loyal virtual tour providers. Anyone that is a part of the RTV network can simply email our Tour Track team a set of architectural images via photo bucket, RTV will grade your images and from that point on you will instantly qualify for one of our many national accounts that provide us with steady work every month.

Because RTV has built up the World's Largest virtual tour and professional photography network many companies come to us each month asking for bids and quotes to satisfy their unique photography needs. From restaurants to hotels to luxury yachts, RTV has enough national accounts to keep their providers busy year round! Below is a nice testimonial from a brand new RTV provider after he received his "Welcome to Tour Track" email. Enjoy!!

Dear RTV,

"Thank you for your introduction. Since joining the RTV network I have been impressed seeing the communication skills and depth of the RTV team. I am looking forward to working with your team as I get up to speed on creating virtual tours.

While I am new to creating virtual tours, my experience in architectural still photography is seasoned. For the last 7 years I've been shooting real estate and portfolios for architects, builders, stagers, and interior designers. You can find a gallery of my architecture work here.

Recently some of my Realtor clients began requesting virtual tours in addition to the stills (they were actually booking OBEO for the tours and then throwing out their stills!). Realizing the need to expand my product portfolio, I began researching solutions to provide virtual tours. I'm very pleased to have discovered RTV. While I had opportunities to partner with OBEO and TourFactory, I'm continually impressed with the resources, skill, and professionalism I'm encountering with the RTV team.

I have much experience shooting small jobs with available light to multi-million dollar homes and commercial properties that require elaborately lit scenes. I utilize professional camera equipment and a variety of continuous light and remote strobes as dictated by the job quality requirements and rate.

In the meanwhile, I will be familiarizing myself with the Tour Track Forum and getting the virtual tour creation process honed in."

Best regards,
Rob

It's great compliments like this that keep our company going as strong as it is! Thanks for the feedback Rob!

RTV Tour Track Team
Order your national photography services today!

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Bradenton Virtual Tour Company Wins Large Customer

e-toursonline Interactive Media is pleased to announce our newest client, SunHost, Corp. After looking at several Bradenton virtual tour providers, SunHost decided to use e-toursonline for their virtual tour solution because of the marketing abilities incorporated into each customized virtual tour.

"Ultimately, we owe many thanks to the technology of Real Tour Vision. I really have no sales pitch and so basically I explained how our virtual tours are search engine optimized for indexing, "My Tour Gallery" hosts all tours and is also optimized for the serps and finally how the tour stats will help monitor weekly virtual tour tour traffic." said Lance Ziegler of e-toursonline.com.

We explain to everyone that we talk with that our virtual tours are social media and social network ready. With the click of the mouse you can instantly tweet or facebook your virtual tours. It is simple to use, easy to implement into any website or blog. The virtual tours are also very easy to use both online and offline.

I always like to leave a new customer by telling them that our virtual tours are are by far the most inexpensive and useful property marketing tool that drive business back to their company and website.

SunHost has already requested that e-toursonline begin fulfillment of the contract by creating 360 virtual tours for Madeira Norte Resort, Surf Song Resort, Beach Place Condominiums and Crimson on the Gulf, all situated on the sandy white beaches of Madeira Beach, Florida. Historical John's Pass, the world famous Bubba Gump Shrimp, CO., dozens of site seeing expeditions, a casino cruise ship, and shopping are all located directly across the road and are within walking distance from these resorts.

Each resort has undergone many renovations and individual unit upgrades to greatly improved the quality of each visitors stay, giving them a feel of luxury right on the Gulf of Mexico. The virtual tours have now captured this beauty in 360 degrees and definitely gives resort shoppers the true perspective of being on location.

Using e-toursonline Interactive Media (Bradenton Virtual Tours) is a great way to showcase your business or real estate property. Visit us now at www.e-toursonline.com and get the best virtual tour solution.


Lance Ziegler - Owner
e-toursonline Interactive Media
Bradenton Virtual Tour Company
www.e-toursonline.com
Order a virtual tour - 941-795-6978

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RTV TxT Connect Officially Live!!!

Attention RTV...Our all new TxT Connect Program is Officially Live!

To all of you that have already signed up to the TxT Connect text message service, we are now officially live on ALL USA mobile phone carriers. You can begin selling the service!! Wait though...there's even more good news.

We're going to extend the discounted sign up rate and 5 free plans promotion for this program until November 30th!!! We'll be holding one more webinar on the TxT connect program next week so please be sure to look out for that announcement coming soon. This webinar will be open to the entire RTV network. If you're not an RTV virtual tour provider yet and would like to offer this service you MUST sign up before this deadline to take advantage of this amazing new property marketing tool at the discounted startup cost.

For only $250, you can get your own white label (Private Labeled) website to resell the text service. You will then receive 50% commissions on all sales that go through your site! See a live example of this on Alan's website here: http://www.islanddigitalimages.com/

Remember that on December 1st this promotion will end, so be sure to attend our webinar next week and also be sure to start up your virtual tour company this month to get things moving on this exciting new technology. Remember that the typical sign up rate is $995 and if you sign up after November you won't be able to lock in the 50% commission rate. If you sign up for this program after November your commissions will down to 20%!! Even though 20% is a very good rate you really need to snag this deal while it is hot.

For any of you that want to TRY A LIVE CODE NOW, Text prop123 (message) to 43766 (number) right now and check this out for yourself. You can reply to the second message with the word MORE to get a link to pictures as well.

Thanks for your patience on this and we look forward to seeing your custom site!

Sign up now in the left nav of your TMS!

Best,

Team RTV

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Free Marketing Materials for RTV Dealers

Vistaprint offers small businesses everything they need to market their business. They offer high-quality printed marketing materials, promotional products and marketing services such as copywriting, design, websites and postcard mailing. Every month Vistaprint offers a choice of FREE business cards, rubber stamps, calendars, postcards, tote bags, t-shirts and business stationary. Yes, I said FREE! Ok, so the weekly e-mails can be a bit annoying but who cares, it’s FREE!! This week I ordered a free tote bag and all I paid was $4.41 shipping. The retail value of the tote is $12.99! On top of the free products they also offer free Webinars, On Demand Marketing Tips, Expert Advice and More. Check it out in their Marketing Learning Center. So, what are you waiting for, get your free stuff now!

RTV Marketing
Check out our new LIVE MARKETING CHAT SUPPRORT for all RTV providers!!

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7 Tips for Great Real Estate Photos

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and this holds especially true with real estate virtual tours and photos

Here at The Virtual Tour People, we show the viewer a glimpse inside the home allowing them to determine if it interests them. The viewer can see everything from layout of the home to features such as counter top types, wall color, flooring type, dishes in the sink, clothes on the floor and well kept lawns. Photos and virtual tours are a driving marketing force in the sale of a home and it is important that these photos help not hinder the sale. Below are 7 tips for great real estate photos.

Tip 1: Tidy up. Your photos are an open house 24/7. As you prepare, go through each room tidying up. Items on counter tops such as the basket of mail in the kitchen or the toiletries on the bathroom counter should be removed. Tables and counters will show best with just a few tastefully selected items. Pick up and put away children's toys, clothes, dishes, items on the floors and furniture. All this can appear to be clutter in the camera. Don't forget to check for burnt out light bulbs which can really stand out in a photograph.

Tip 2: Please do not have other workers such as housekeeping, lawn crews, or repairmen at the home during photographing. If you desire to have housekeeping or lawn work done ahead of time, your virtual tour company will be glad to work with you on the best possible time to photograph your home.

Tip 3: Some pets love to pose for the camera! But others are uncomfortable with equipment or strangers. Please plan ahead for your pets by placing them in a kennel or at a day care.

Tip 4: What's on your fridge? The family photos and artwork on the refrigerator are fun to look at, however, it can often appear as clutter to the camera. Please plan to remove these items before your virtual tour. A clean front on the refrigerator always shows best in photographs.

Tip 5: If you have begun packing, remove the boxes to an area which will not be photographed. Items stacked in the corner or tucked under the bed can show in the photos and this will keep your home from looking its best.

Tip 6: Outside move summertime items such as bikes, skates and pool toys to a storage area. Plan to have the lawn mowed and edged. If summer heat has caused the grass to turn brown, try to water a couple of days in advance to give it a fresh look. Trim hedges and sweep walks and driveways to give a manicured and inviting appearance. Add a few flowering plants for extra curb appeal!

Tip 7: Don't forget the pool. A sparkling, clear pool can inspire thoughts of summer fun and relaxation, even in the off season. However, green murky water can leave an impression too. Make sure your pool is an inviting asset to your home.

Visit Ark-La-Tex Virtual Tours
Shreveport Virtual Tours

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Nova Scotia Virtual Tour Newbie

Having launched Supernova Studios to Nova Scotia real estate companies last Thursday, this week was (finally) about shooting some tours!

The feature tour at www.supernovastudios.ca is of my own home. Filling my gallery with stunning 360 degree panoramas of Nova Scotia Residential Real Estate would add to my credibility.

Several of my clients had taken the time to prepare testimonials for me to include in my website. As a thank you, I gave them each a free virtual tour.

I had booked three homes to shoot on Monday. Sunday night I tossed and turned I was so nervous. It wasn't the alarm however, that woke me that morning. It was the sound of rain! Rain? I hadn't even considered that. How could I not have considered that? I contacted each client and rescheduled the tours to the following day. (Thankfully I did not have tours booked for the following day!)

Night number two. Again, tossing and turning and finally, Tuesday morning. My first tour was a 40 minute drive from my home. I was to meet the agent on the side of the highway as she said "I'd never find it". No wonder. We drove another 20 minutes through the woods on what we call in Nova Scotia a "cow path".

The home owner was there to greet us and I wondered if it was my imagination that he was scrutinizing my camera equipment as I unloaded the car. Quietly, I'm talking to myself, "You're just nervous.", "Don't be silly." "You are used to sitting behind a computer, being out in the field and face to face with clients is new". "You'll be fine." "Your product speaks for itself".

"Is that a Canon Rebel XT?" I could feel myself freeze. Yes. I have taken some photography classes in the last couple of months. Yes. I read the 4000 page manual that came with the camera, 2 times. Yes. I had taken the Canon on-line tutorial. Yes. I had followed the instructions given to me by Ben to set up my camera. But.... can I talk "camera talk?" "Yes."I told him, in a voice that didn't sound like my own.

"I spent the day yesterday, deciding which angles would be best for you to shoot your pictures" he said. "I'm a photographer myself". "I just took over 5000 photos of the Nova Scotia coast line".

"Super!" I said. "You've saved me some time then". (that was NOT what I meant AT ALL). I level my camera and begin with some still shots of the front of the home. It truly is a spectacular property. Amazing vistas of the ocean and complete privacy. "You can't get a good picture of the water from this angle", he said.

He followed me around the property, moving around the rooms as I took the panoramas. "Don't you think your tripod is too low?" "I can go and get my tripod." "Do you want me to show you how to make your tripod higher?" He wanted me to take panoramas of the bathrooms and laundry room.

"I'll be looking at the quality very closely" he said "When you deliver the tour."

"Thank you very much sir, I appreciate a discerning eye, and I'll certainly be back if you are not pleased."

The sweat that had been accumulating in the small of my back was now trickling down my pants. My very first (free) virtual tour, and I had promised to come back if he wasn't happy.

Certainly, virtual tour number two would go much better than that. It was of a vacant model home and there would be no vendor at home. Yay!

I couldn't have been more pleased when the agent said, "Go ahead, I'll be back in the office, come get me when you're finished". Absolutely, music to my ears.

Much more relaxed now, with no one staring over my shoulder, I start outside again with some still shots. I can see already, that I am developing a routine. Ahhh. this is better. A little level here, a little level there, snap, snap, snap, and let's go inside. My confidence is building now, I'm guessing I even LOOK like a professional photographer.

Inside I decide on a partial pan of the living room and setup the equipment. Snap, snap, snap, and then, nothing? I keep pushing the button, and pushing the button, but the picture won't take? How come? I look at the camera, adjust ISO, white balance, turn on the flash, and try again. NOTHING! Why won't my camera take a picture of that wall?

I try in the kitchen. Same thing. Master bedroom. Same thing. OMG! What do I do now? I spend an hour on 3 rooms trying to photograph them and realize my agent must be wondering what is going on. I pack up my stuff, telling him I may be back tomorrow to re-shoot their photos to ensure the best quality.

Back in the office I download the photos of the first tour. I quickly stitch them, export a high-res copy and open in Photoshop. They are beautiful! I can see where I would have changed a couple of things, taken more interior still shots, and stills of the view out the window, as opposed to partial pans. But, the good news, I wouldn't have to go back!

Time to look at the (incomplete) panoramas of the model home. And as they are downloading they all have one thing in common. THEY ARE BLACK. Every one of them. I get out my notes from Ben again, look at the camera and I see it. It was on the wrong mode. Nice.

Just as I'm about to head out the door to my third appointment, the phone rings. A frantic agent calling to cancel her virtual tour.

Mom always said, "Some days are diamonds and some days are stones". She also said, "You'll be able to laugh about this someday". Mom is usually right.

Book your Nova Scotia virtual tour today. If we don’t get it right the first time, we'll come back.

Supernova Studios
www.supernovastudios.ca
902-543-2185

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Dallas Virtual Tour Company

Dallas - October 8th, 2008

Dallas Virtual Tour Company 360 Web Expeditions has announced expanded service offerings for Real Estate clients all over the DFW Metroplex. The company announced from its Allen, Texas office that in addition to 360 Degree Panoramic Virtual Tours, it will now be providing YouTube Video Tours, Text Message Marketing, Custom Single Property Websites, Custom VisoRider Signage, and a host of Social Networking Resources and Features as part of its efforts to remain on the cutting edge of Real Estate Marketing.

Justin Burns, Owner and Lead Strategist of 360 Web Expeditions stated, “This is an exciting time to be combining the power of 360 Virtual Tours with these up to the minute marketing tools. With more people than ever before making purchasing decisions based on what they see on the Internet, we believe these resources are the key to success for our Real Estate clients who are serious about staying competitive in today’s market.”

Most of the new products and services fall within the $25 - $75 range, which has many Real Estate Agents excited that they can remain competitive without having to stretch already tight budgets even further. The Allen based Virtual Tour company came significantly into the public limelight when they were selected to provide Virtual Tours for the Rangers Ballpark and the Arlington Convention Center, among other high profile projects.

360 Web Expeditions is a full service Internet Marketing company specializing in Virtual Tours, Web Design, Interactive Media, SEO, Corporate Blogging, and Social Media Products and Consulting. With over twelve years of experience in Internet Media and Business Consulting, owner of this Allen, TX based company Justin Burns brings a good dose of practical experience to the table.

Burns says the company has a “positive focus on propelling other businesses and entrepreneurs towards their marketing goals.” He also shared that the company has experienced great success in the last year, despite the economic downturn. “We are very blessed, and that is why we want to assist others with their success as well,” said Burns.

Contact:
Justin Burns
360 Web Expeditions
Dallas Virtual Tours
Lead Strategist/Owner
Phone: 214.383.9464
http://www.360webexpeditions.com

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The IMAGE | It's Magic Part 2

Sign up for the next episode of The IMAGE

Because we had such an overwhelmingly positive response to our previous show, we are going to continue exploring picture editing skills. In this next IMAGE webinar, It's Magic Part 2, I will be showing you more ways to edit your pictures to fix errors and make them look like the pros. Join me as we continue the magic of image editing here on the IMAGE.

Previous Webinar:
The webinar attendance last week was amazing and we want to thank all of you for your e-mail feedback. Sorry to those of you who were not able to attend. Due to technical difficulties we were unable to record the webinar. Don't worry though; we plan to recreate the webinar and record all that we covered. Soon enough we will have a recorded version of this webinar, and it will be posted to the IMAGE archive page on the RPM Marketing website, just like all of the other IMAGE webinar recordings.

RTV Marketing
Order a Virtual Tour http://www.RealTourVision.com

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Virtual Tour CD Marketing

Handing out a Flyer is great; but handing out a virtual tour on a disc that also contains that flyer and other promotional material can really make a positive impression. Like standard promotional material, these multimedia discs could be left on a counter at an open house or fill the brochure box of a real estate sign post. Experiment and come up an offering that works for you.

To get started, it is important to note that downloaded tours are representative of the Classic viewer only, and as such, Affiliate logos will not display properly. So, before starting to build the disc, be sure to remove any Affiliates attached to the tour. Then assuming the tour contains no Affiliates, is not a Practice Tour, and is published, follow the steps below.

1. View the tour using one of the public links from the tour's Deliverables page. Tours viewed from inside TMS are not downloadable.

2. Click Share Tour>Download Tour and in the next window click "Click here to Download virtual tour to your computer".

3. Downloaded tours will not be downloaded with any audio you may have added in TMS. However, if you wish to add audio to the downloaded tour, an Audio Wrapper is available to Inner Circle members only on the marketing Resources page and should be used at this point.

4. Using whatever program you prefer, burn the downloaded tour to disc.

5. A nice feature to add to the disc is to make the tour play automatically when inserted into a PC. To do this you will need to create an autorun file and burn it to the disc as well. Directions on how to make an autorun file can be found by clicking HERE. However, an easier way to do this and is to download and use a program called Autorun Max!

6. At this point you could add a flyer, a Power Point, and just about any other creative marketing materials you can think of. Using Autorun Max! can help you make professional autorun menus.

And that's it! Of course if you want to get even more creative you could use business card CDs and interesting labels. You could even add Hot Spots to the tour that link to your company website or even other tours. How far you take it is up to you.

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New From RTV Marketing

Your time is precious, so we at RTV have done some of the hard work for you. Each month we create several marketing pieces that will target specific businesses. These virtual tour marketing pieces will highlight the numerous benefits of virtual tours and are customizable within minutes.

All you need to do is insert your company name, contact information and logo. This month we created a 2 page flyer that targets virtual tours of small schools, a 2 page flyer that Realtor agents can provide sellers, 2 versions of a reminder for Realtor Agents that winter is coming and virtual tours Preserve listings throughout the year.

Last of all, we created a postcard that congratulates agents on their new listing and highlights the possible media marketing tools that you can offer. Our postcards can either be printed by a local printer or by using an online printer. It is important to support local companies, but we also recommend Vistaprint as an online option.







Are you an RTV provider that would like us to make a marketing piece that you're not seeing in our marketing area? Try using our suggestion box and let us know what you need to drive your virtual tour business!

http://www.RockPointeMarketing.com
Marketing for Virtual Tour Companies

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Relocating to a New Market

Hello all you RTV dealers out there. Have any of you ever moved to a new market and had to start all over again?? Well we did! We recently moved our virtual tour business from Northern Illinois to Corinth Mississippi. New to town and new to the existing markets, we needed a new sales approach. Cold-calling had always been beneficial for us, so we began to look at markets that would benefit by adding a virtual tour to their existing web sites.

The two niches we are currently working on have had great success: furniture stores (with large show rooms) and churches. (See Oakland Baptist Church)

We have emailed our tours to "competing" stores/churches so that they are aware of what others are doing to enhance their web sites!

We joined (free) Merchant Circle; this marketing has allowed our company name/web site to list at or near the top of a search for Corinth Virtual Tours and Tupelo Virtual Tours. (Oh, and we blogged on the RTV blog too which REALLY helps for recognition by the search engine.)

Next project--try to improve upon our facebook page.

Hugh Jordan
Corinth Virtual Tour Company
www.seeitsellstudios.com

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Improving Your Photography

Often times we are asked down here in Corpus Christi for some hints and tips on taking better photos. Many people have asked us about what camera they should purchase and what number of pixels should they be looking for. When it comes to pixels it's important to note that many of today's cameras take photos that are very close to the quality of photos that up until just a few years ago were reserved for cameras that used film.

The higher the number of pixels the more detailed the photograph can be and the larger you can print the photo without distortion or pixelation. Many of today's cameras are capable of a resolution of 10 megapixels or more. The side effect of the high resolution images is the amount of space used on the camera's memory card or on your computer for storage. For example, on a popular camera we were able to film photos in one of four resolutions.

10 Megapixel takes 3.61 Megabytes of disk space
5 Megapixel takes 2.12 Megabytes of disk space
3 Megapixel takes 1.52 Megabytes of disk space
.3 Megapixel takes 106 Kilobytes of disk space

The 10 Megapixel size is great for printing photos and should be used for occasions such as weddings and close-up photos such as flower petals where you wish to show great detail. If you are going to email these photos remember that with larger photo files you will need more time to upload the files and that many email sites limit the size of email that they will accept at less than 10 megabytes.

For photos that you are going to use for your MLS listing or even for a You Film The Tour, virtual tour with Island Digital Images; you should use a photo size of less than 2 megabytes. The reason for this is that many publication services limit the per photo size to less than 2 megabytes in size.

In all practicality you could use either the 3 or even the .3 megapixel size for your MLS photos as either setting will look okay. I would consider the .3 megapixel size as an absolute minimum as that would produce and image of 640x480 pixels that is equal to VGA on computers. A best choice in this example would be the 3 megapixel setting producing an image of 2048 x 1536 and a file size of 1.52 megabytes.

Alan Fon
Island Digital Images
Corpus Christi Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: (361) 749-0901

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SuperNova Studios Now Offering Real Estate Virtual Tours

Supernova Studios Nova Scotia Virtual Tour Company Launched Today!

Blood, sweat, and yes.... tears (the blood was from a paper cut). Supernova Studios was launched to south shore, Nova Scotia clients today. 146 real estate agents received an email package this morning from a company they have known for the past 12 years as Taylor Design Inc.

Accustomed to a certain standard of excellence the package had to be perfect. I kept the introductory letter brief, attached a couple of flyers (one for the virtual tours and one for the RTV TxT Connect program) and pointed them to both of my websites: www.supernovastudios.ca and www.cellthishouse.ca

This was a strategic move. I want my customers in the habit of getting their questions answered at my website. This is why I spent hours developing it, AND it will allow me more time on the road shooting virtual tours.

I followed up a couple of hours later with a personal visit to each of the 16 brokerages. It was delivery day for the monthly magazine Real Estate on Nova Scotia's South Shore which I produce for them. (ps - I had included 5 pages in the magazine advertising Supernova Studios, virtual tours & TxT Connect)

Other than my sexy new business cards I brought one thing. My cell phone. Real Estate professionals are busy. I knew I could only keep their attention for a few minutes."Got a cell phone" I asked? "I want to show you something". Every single one of them reached in their pocket.

"Okay. Let's send a text message." Most of them looked at me "deer in the headlights" look on their face. They didn't know how. They are carrying smart phones and don't know how to use them. Smiling I tell them that last year cell phones were not allowed in my daughter's school. This year, recognizing that text messaging is the preferred means of communication amongst teens and adults between 40-50 (and it's not going away) they relented to "the times". It's inevitable.

Using my cell phone I show them how to receive listing information just by entering two short codes. The "deer in the headlights" look changed to dollar signs in an instant. They "got" it.

Do NOT underestimate how a quick visit and hands on instruction can make a difference. This kind of technology is new to my clients. They need their (cell) hand held a little. You see; they want to "keep up" (that's why they're carrying those phones) they just may need you to show them how.

Virtual tour technology speaks for itself. The feature tour on my home page at supernovastudios has already received 110 truly unique visitors! If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a virtual tour is worth a million.

Book your Nova Scotia virtual tour today!
Supernova Studios
159 Alexandra Ave.
Bridgewater, NS B4V 1H6
Phone: 902-543-2185

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FORMULA 14 SEOverdrive

Listen up FORMULA fans! If you liked our last two shows on SEO, link building, and just plain dominating your competitors in the search engines, you WON’T want to miss out on next week’s show.

Learn exactly how Jason LaVanture took BlueLaVaMedia to the #1 slot inside of THREE months for Traverse City Virtual Tours and many other related searches. Mike Thompson took on the # 1 slot for “Metro Detroit virtual tours” after applying just a few secret tricks.

Do you want to pull rank on your customers names, your virtual tours, your website, your local blog, YOUR COMPETITORS SITES?

The truth is that YOU can do this too! In fact, anyone can and that’s why we’re having another show on the subject. We'll even make sure that we record it this time!

If you’re thirsty for Google Juice, if you want to learn how to literally make everything from your virtual tours to your website pop on ANY keyword phrase that you so desire, you better sign yourself up and get ready for SEOverdrive on The FORMULA 14.

See you there RTV!

Jason



Title: The FORMULA 14 | SEOverdrive

Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT

Sign up now inside of your TMS!

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