Welcome to the RTV virtual tour company blog. The RTV Blog holds a wealth of information published by our dealers. Please enjoy your stay, feel free to leave comments and be sure to stop back often. Content is updated frequently. Call us Today! 866-947-8687(TOUR)
The new Miami-based mobile marketing and real estate agent lead capture system provide by Virtual Florida Tours is the best marketing service provided to Real Estate since the introduction of virtual tours.
The Realtor® creates his/her advertising campaign for the property places it on one of his listings page at miamidadeconect, and places a rider on the for sale sign. The customer sees the rider sends a message to obtain more information and receives immediate feedback on the property, at the same time the Realtor® receives a phone number that will allow her/him to contact the prospect.
This system is extremely affordable 2.95 per listing per month with up to 100 text messages free when you buy our 10 listings plan. Just imagine how this tool will help you to promote your business. You will be the realtor that is willing to go the extra mile for your customer. You can offer your customer this new text messaging system that not other one is offering. Your competition will not stand a chance.
Well here I am reporting from beautiful Spokane Washington folks. I'm staring at another week's virtual tour blog entry and thinking what could I write about this time. It seems to be quite a trick to come up with something on a regular basis. Especially when I'm so busy putting together my virtual tour company here in Spokane.
I had a newbie photographer ask me the other day, "how do you operate the exposure settings" he just could not get the light operating controls on his camera whether it be analog or digital. I pointed out that you have to think of it like a water faucet. The shutter on your camera lets light flow just like a water faucet lets water flow. The aperture is like the wheel handle on that water faucet and you control the amount of water pressure that flows through that faucet. It is the exact same thing for the aperture, you control the amount of flow. Together these two items give you the proper exposure for you shots. Try this next time your on a virtual tour shoot!
It seems to make sense to them when it is explained this way. Cameras have become increasingly automatic, often including automatic exposure and focus so that not too many people actually get to get creative with their cameras controls. Nevertheless, this Spokane virtual tour photographer prefers to use manual operation in order to make my own exposure and focusing decisions.
Whomever may be reading this, you might consider operating the camera manually for your first exposures to help you learn basic camera controls. Then once you have gotten the basics down, you can move on to become a better "artist at your craft" Most people want to know what to do after that to become a better photographer and my answer is always surprisingly consistent. "Take more pictures." "Shoot, shoot, shoot." "Persevere." Just keep after it; you can't help but improve if you do."
I know this sounds kind of obvious but it is advice that has worked for me and others in the business. It's not rocket science, no secrets or inside information. Just simply shooting a bunch is how I have improved my skills and I know that this will work for you too.
See if you can apply some of these techniques to your local virtual tour business. Good luck out there! Good luck all of you out there with your virtual tour business!
Welcome FORMULA fans and Happy Holidays to you all. Are you ready for The FORMULA 19?
If you're out there screaming "Teach Me Teach Me!" then let’s kick off 2010 and learn a little something about the power of social bookmarking sites. Please join myself, Jason LaVanture on Tuesday Jan 5th 2010 at 7:00 Eastern for an hour of social bookmarking excitement.
For those of you who are wondering how the little Traverse City virtual tour company, BlueLaVaMedia has been able to make their virtual tour videos, www.TourGrandTraverse.com blog submissions, and virtual tours rank so well in the search engines, you need to attend this next show. I will be discussing how you can setup 20-30 of your social bookmarking sites and finally fully automate the entire social bookmarking process down to three minutes per tour once you have all of your accounts setup and in place!! Yes that's right...3 minutes!
BlueLaVaMedia customers have come to love the fact that they can key in their property addresses and INSTANTLY find their listings on PAGE 1 of the search engine results page. Moreover 97% of all BlueLaVaMedia customers can type in their name (Agent Name real estate) and see the impressive work that we’ve done to get them MORE 1st page impressions.
To fully prepare for this webinar please be sure that you’re already taking our Social Ignition course by sending an email to rtvsocial@aweber.com.
Century 21 Northland a Traverse City Real Estate brokerage is proud to be a sponsor of Munson Healthcare’s Healthy Futures program. Over the past two years our agents have donated more than $10,500 to promote the health of area mothers-to-be and young children. The program provides valuable health information and in-home nursing visits to new families.
Community involvement is a major goal of Century 21, and our agents are proud to support an area organization that focuses on children. A portion of an agent’s commission at each closing is donated to this worthwhile cause and specifically to help families that find themselves in crisis situations. Healthy Futures can provide financial relief for unexpected hospital stays, transportation and home safety items.
The Healthy Futures Program begins with support during pregnancy and continues through the child’s fifth year. During this time families have access to support groups, educational materials and valuable information about immunizations and nutrition. During these tough economic times, families are surprised and relieved to find out that help and support are available at no cost.
Please keep in mind; next time you buy or sell a house with Century 21 Northland, you will help to give one more child in our community the shot at a healthy future.
Join me, Ben Knorr as we take a look at the advantage and outcome of using additional lighting beyond just the flash that is built into your camera. You will see how to get the lighting just right by adding some of your own.
On Tuesday December 29th at 7:00 Eastern I will go over some tips on framing a shot to make it sell. So if you're tired of always struggling with lighting and you're looking to make the ordinary room look extraordinary this is a show that you won't want to miss out on. Join me for an informative evening all about multi-flash photography and framing.
Does your virtual tour company have a desk, cubicle, office or suite that is generating dust as opposed to revenue? Have you recently downsized your workforce resulting in an abundance of unused office space? Is your company locked into a long term lease and could benefit from an additional revenue stream?
In today's economy, many companies of all kinds are downsizing their workforce, resulting in a growing inventory of unused commercial space. At the same time, a large number of entrepreneurs and small businesses are looking to reduce their overhead by re-negotiating their existing commercial leases, or finding new space altogether.
Open Office Space, based in New York City, has launched a new website to facilitate the interaction between companies burdened with carrying the cost of their unused office space and small businesses/entrepreneurs looking to streamline their expenses.
A shared space is the perfect solution for a small business or entrepreneur looking to cut costs while providing a revenue stream to a space holder when they can use it the most.
Openofficespace.com was designed with ease of use as the number one priority. "We set out to create an extremely clean and user friendly experience that is unlike any other typical real estate or classified website”. As we continue to grow we are finding that more and more of our customers see a large need to do virtual tours of their office space for rent.
The comprehensive “Evolving Guide to Leasing” alone is worth a visit to the site. The interactive guide explores the “Top 10 Mistakes” made by companies during the leasing process with and outlines in layman's terms “The 4 Steps” it takes to be successful every step of the way. From finding the right space and negotiating the lease to planning the layout and creating an eco-friendly work place, the sites powerful interactive tools and easily understandable content simplifies the leasing process for everyone involved.
One of the most common mistakes made during the leasing process is estimating how much space your business will actually need. Getting too much means unnecessary additional costs while too little means growing out of it before you are ready to move. For entrepreneurs and small businesses (even you virtual tour providers that are out there!!) that are unsure of how much space they actually need, the space estimation tool can be used to calculate the right amount of square footage based on a company’s specific requirements. With options ranging from a single desk, a cubicle, a shared office, a private office, to a co-working space or an executive suite, the calculator and check list take visitors through the entire process.
“It is an excellent resource, not only in this economy but in any economy, for small businesses with limited budgets, looking to create the ideal working environment,” said Spector.
Users can design, find or post available office space at no cost, anywhere in the US and Canada. With the help of the RTV Virtual Tour Network users may also order full service open office space virtual tours for their listings at a very reasonable price! Featured cities on the site include Austin, TX; Charleston, SC; Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; Toronto, Ontario; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Miami, FL; San Jose, CA; Vancouver, British Columbia; Boston, MA; Dallas, TX; New York, NY and Seattle, WA
I really love the hit reports from RTV because they go out to my virtual tour customers once a week and keep my clients thinking about me. I'm wondering if you have any other suggestions that work in a similar fashion.
Not a sales guy -
Lance
Dear Lance,
You bet I have some ideas for you. In fact this is a question that comes up quite often. "How do you stay in front of your clients without coming across like you're always selling them stuff?" This is a question that has driven even the brainiest of men to drink over the years. Have you thought of writing a series of follow up emails? I know the team over there at BlueLavaMedia have a pretty nice "Tour Follow Up" program in place.
They send a follow up email when a customer's virtual tour has been published. It is easy to arrange these emails so you are progressively training your customers on your products and services as they make repeat orders with you. For example, your very first email might look something like this:
Dear Customer, I just wanted thank you for your continued support in our product line. I also wanted to make sure that your needs were met and your expectations surpassed. Please let me know if you were happy with the services that you received when you get a moment of free time. We just love testimonials!
Once again, I would like to thank you for your business and let you know that you can contact me anytime with questions that you might have.
Best regards,
Your Name
PS. Did you know that you can run an INSTANT on demand hit report by clicking on the little "Eye" at the bottom of your tours?
Most of the time your customers will reply back with glee over the novelty of the "on demand" hit report button they did not know about. As your customers continue placing orders with you, simply repeat this process of making sure they are happy with your services followed up with something new that you have just rolled out. By keeping your emails short and to the point, yet personable, you will find that a tour follow up is just another GREAT way to further establish better relationships with your customer base.
If you're an inner circle member with RTV you can now login and download your first FOUR tour follow up emails that have been prewritten for you. Enjoy!!!
This is an exciting time for our Corpus Christi virtual tour company, Island Digital Images as we prepare to add a new product line to our company. This new product line is designed to help our clients to further market their businesses and listings while generate sales leads. With an anticipated fall 2009 introduction we will be sure to keep you informed of its release through this newsletter and online through Facebook.
This additional virtual tour and property marketing product line creates an opportunity for us to start working with some independent contractors to help us grow our company. Specifically we are looking for a couple of individuals who present themselves professionally, are bondable, have an eye for detail, have access to dependable transportation, and a willingness to work a flexible work schedule. If you think you know someone that we should talk to please have them contact Alan by emailing their resume to Alan(at)IDIVirtualTours.com.
In our previous blog we covered some exciting new virtual tour options including the $29.95, You Film The Corpus Tour, virtual tour. This is a low cost full feature virtual tour uses your photos along with our tour assembly and publication expertise to create tours for homes that in the past you may have shied away from or viewed the home as unworthy of a virtual tour. This option allows you to have all of your listings represented in your tour gallery.
We have also added a new option for each of our virtual tours the "Agent Voiceover". This option allows you to add a new personalized dimension to your virtual tour in your own voice talking about the attributes of the listing.
Have you noticed that we have made some changes to our Media Exposure Engine?
We now include your MLS Public Remarks within your virtual tour under the images, an area that we call Spinfo. This helps to further inform your prospects of key features of the home as they are watching the virtual tour. Another key reason for us including this information in Spinfo is that our virtual tours are SEO (Search Engine Optimized), the additional text provides information for the search engine robots to see and include your virtual tour in its search engine results.
When we email your Media Exposure Engine notification to you it now includes a docx file along with the PDF copy of your online listing attached to the email. The docx file is editable by MS Word 2007. With this document you can easily make any changes to the flyer prior to printing it for distribution. Keep in mind that the email itself can also be used with the CCAR List Serve system. With the Media Exposure Engine you have flyers available to you for digital and print mediums without any additional effort on your part.
Also we have changed our video production software so we now include panoramic scenes within the video tour that we upload to You Tube. We have also added some additional excitement to our still images within the video by showing movement within these photos. Make sure you check out your video link on your next Media Exposure Engine purchase.
Even as we introduce enhanced features to our virtual tours we also continue to hone our virtual tour product line. I invite your comments and suggestions; feel free to use the email link on the right of this column to send us your thoughts.
Hey there dealers! Our 200 Pack is back by popular demand. After receiving 7 inquiries about it in the past 3 days we put our heads together and came up with an end of the year special just for you to help you kick off 2010.
From today until the end of December, anyone that would like to commit to a purchase of 200 virtual tour credits at the $10.00 rate will receive a bonus of 50 free virtual tour credits. The best part is you don't even have to call in and wheel and deal for it.
Log into TMS and order as usual by clicking on the Buy Tour Credits button on the left nav bar and use the IHD form. We will process the order and credit you with 50 bonus virtual tours. It is that easy!
A big thanks going out to all the dealers that called in and asked for this. It goes to show that it never hurts to ask!
Please join FORMULA host Jason LaVanture and guest Tara Jones on Tuesday December 15th for an episode of The FORMULA you won't want to miss! The FORMULA 18 is all about helping your real estate customers put video onto their website. Best of all anyone that is an active RTV provider will get a FREE video channel account to put onto their site! This show is open to the entire RTV Network.
What is the video channel?? As you already know, everyone wants video on their web site, but who can afford it? Especially video that is professionally scripted and filmed! Beside the expense and the expertise needed to create the video, who has the time to research and develop the material your clients are interested in learning about, much less keeping the content fresh each month?
The Agent's Video Channel, a brand new and exciting technology that brings FRESH video content automatically to your website is the easiest way for you do this. Each month they will provide you with new and entertaining content fed direct to your web site. They literally take the burden off of you and allow you to do what you do best. Sell Virtual Tours and additional property marketing services to your ever growing customer base!!!
It's as easy as copy and paste! Each RTV dealer site will receive a unique code and a reseller promo code. All RTV virtual tour providers can place this code onto their site and each month new exciting (professionally made) real estate related videos will appear automatically.
Because of our special arrangement any active RTV providers will be able to resell this technology and receive 15% commissions or simply leave the product on your websites to keep people coming back for more month after month. It's that easy!
See you on the show!
Best regards,
Jason
See how easy it is to apply "The FORMULA" to your business!
Title: The FORMULA 18 | Agent Video Channel Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST Sign up Now! http://tms.realtourvision.com
East Bay CA virtual tours cost anywhere from $100 to over $400. Whether you are a seasoned real estate professional or just getting started, you watch every penny you spend on a listing, right? And what about Short Sales and REO listings, do you spend money to advertise these? So why should you spend the extra $100-$400 for a virtual tour or professional photography???
Many real estate agents might answer... to make the seller happy or to show the seller what you are doing for them to help sell their home, right? Or, you may (rightfully) believe that the virtual tour will help sell the house by giving both local and out-of-town relocation prospects the opportunity to walk-through the house (in their pajamas) to see how beautiful it is, what the layout looks like, maybe you even include a floor-plan!
These are both good reasons, but let's not forget the third and I think, most important reason... marketing and exposure for the AGENT! Getting YOUR NAME out there in front of potential sellers and buyers, getting exposure for yourself and your property! Moving your name up in the Google Search and to show your sellers as well as potential buyers and sellers how professional you are!
If you are hiring a virtual tour company to photograph your listing, create a virtual tour and then send you the code to include in your listing, that's great, but what about EXPOSURE! When you look for a virtual tour company to represent you and your sellers, ask these questions:
1. Are they a local company with an actual person you can call directly or do you go through a national number to schedule an appointment?
2. Where is the virtual tour hosted and how long has that company been in business?
3. What is the marketing background of the company, do they understand real estate, social media, property and personal brand/name marketing? Yes, this is photography, but marketing is what it's all about, right?
4. Where will they distribute your virtual tour and/or do they just send you a "link" and you have to distribute it yourself?
5. Will they create and distribute a YouTube presentation for you?
6. Will they create and post a Craigslist Ad for you?
7. Will they blog/Twitter/promote your virtual tour/listing?
These are just a few of the questions you will want to ask before you decide if it is worth the expense. And then, ask yourself, where else can I spend $100-$200 and get all of the above marketing and exposure for my listing and myself?
A newspaper ad cost at least this much and will only be in front of your potential prospects for 1-2 days and you what about post cards? You will spend about $1 per post card so you can send about 100-200 post cards which will probably go into the trash! East Bay Virtual Tours are one of the best cost/benefit options available today for the real estate market but only if you find a provider that provides all the benefits mentioned above!
To learn more about Virtual Tours in the East Bay and all over the San Francisco Bay Area, visit Property Marketing Studios located in Dublin California. Better yet, sign up for our trademark "Brokers Pajama Tour" and see the latest property listings in your pajamas... :) East Bay Virtual Tours and Property Marketing Studios welcome your comments and opinions...
RTV is pleased to announce that they've gone live with their new Interactive Floor Plan System powered by Icovia. Icovia is the industry standard for online space planning.
The Interactive Floor Plans are launched directly from your client's online property listings, their buyers browse detailed floor plans branded with your client's corporate identity. And coming this spring your agents will be automatically alerted when users save, print or share the floor plan.
You have a couple options to choose from when using your floor plan software:
~Draw your own floor plans in minutes by tracing over a sketch or starting from scratch. ~Or have Icovia draw the floor plan for you ONLY TWENTY BUCKS!!! Just email or fax your floor plan sketch to them and they'll do the rest.
The RTV Interactive Floor Plan is an amazing online tool for planning and designing spaces. The floor planner makes it easy to recreate an entire house or you can create professional floor plans in minutes.
Point and click to add walls and drag-and-drop windows, doors and other items. Plans can be added by your agents, a measuring service, or by the Icovia design team.
Integrate Photos and Tours
The RTV Interactive Floor Plan combines function and finesse to make your property shine. Include photos, panoramas and virtual tours of your properties and watch your listings come to life.
In addition, an integrated reporting tool gives you real-time access to user registration data and performance metrics. Identify top properties and help your clients reach new buyers.
Features Include:
~Launching directly from online property listings Branded with your client's corporate identity, both in the viewer and the printouts.
~Easy to use – no software to install.
~Link to photos and virtual tours.
~Integrated collaboration tools for prospects and agents.
~Capture detailed buyer information – Coming soon!
~Powerful reporting tool identifies top properties and interested buyers.
Benefits Include:
~Generates registered contacts for your agents – Coming soon!.
~Engages prospects and creates excitement about property listings.
~Gives agents another way to identify and collaborate with prospective buyers
~Differentiates your company and your client's company.
Help bring your client's properties to life with interactive floor plans. Join the list of leading companies that use the Interactive Floor Plans powered by Icovia to convert web traffic into contact lists for your Client's potential buyers.
This technology leapfrogs the floor plan technology of your competitors with its unique ability to add photos, panoramas, AND move furniture around! Take a test drive of the new RTV Interactive Floor Plan System today!
Imagine your virtual tour customers seeing an embarrassing photo of you. How would you feel? Do you ever want a business client to read your comments about a bad day at work? How about your personal problems?
If you use Social Media for both your virtual tour business and personal life, you need to be careful! Here at Real Vision Studio, a Detroit Virtual Tour Company in South East Michigan, a full service virtual tour provider for RTV, we need not only maintain a level of business decorum for ourselves, but for the reputation of RTV.
RTV is a global company and maintains several national accounts that they are affiliated with, hence the need for professionalism on both your part and corporates.
Below are some excellent articles that provide examples of how (not) to use social media appropriately, while maintaining your reputation.
This month we decided to focus on our new Interactive Floor Plan Software & Space Planner technology program that we are thrilled about. This amazing program is just one more service that will expedite sales and enhance your virtual tour business over any other competitors out there offering just plain old floor plans.
There is a brand new 2 page floor plan flyer as well as a interactive floor plan postcard connected to this topic to help you spread the word to your clients.
With the holidays are rapidly approaching, we created a simple “we’ve missed you” postcard that can be sent out to previous clients that you haven’t heard from in awhile. It is always a good idea to keep your company name fresh and in front of potential clients.
Lastly, dance studios are another business that you may have overlooked. This is a great example of a business that could benefit from a virtual tour. Take a moment and look in your local phone book, you will be surprised how many studios there really are.
Tuesday's Show "Setting up Shop" was a fantastic hit altogether! Nearly 100 RTV providers joined us for what it now going to be a two part series. Four of RTV's top virtual tour providers had a round table discussion on how they setup their successful virtual tour companies and why they have remained dedicated to the RTV virtual tour technology for so long.
Stay tuned for part two of "Setting up Shop" sometime in early January. The line in the outline below indicates how far we made it during our first show.
Recruiting Your First virtual tour Customers learn about your customers needs learn about your competition form your customer advisory board attend weekly sales meetings
Setting up shop Selecting the right name Logo design Website and hosting Brochures print yourself vs. local printing vs. Vistaprint Computer hardware what hardware is suggested -> best pricing Software suggestions on what to buy -> best pricing photo processing work flow tracking (appointments, work process, billing) Quick Books _________________________________________________________________
Setting up Shop II - Look for this episode of "The FORMULA" show in early January
Process Flow setting Appointments -> onsite filming -> offsite processing total turn around time what services will you provide packages options
Credibility boosters business cards business insurance (liability and bonding) local phone number fax number PO box toll free number
Affiliate to local MLS get involved sponsor classes
Expanding your business continuous improvement recruitment and hiring
Blogging in the virtual tour provider blog at RTV. Why you MUST use the RTV blog to link back to your site if you want #1 Ranking
Jane Jones from Texas writes- Wow Ben – it was a fantastic IMAGE tonight – I keep learning – thank you so much for ALL YOU DO!
QUESTION: What WB would you suggest with these new funky ECO lights?
Ben Knorr from RTV - That is a great question Jane and thank you for coming to our show. The new eco friendly lights are really just compact florescent lights. So I would say to try using the white balance setting for florescent lights when shooting in an area where these lights are the primary light source. Now if these lights happen to be in a room where they are not the primary light source then I would set the white balance to the primary light source in the room. If you are in a room with a lot of windows and a lot of sunlight then I would set the white balance to the sun, open shade, or cloudy setting depending on the day.
Thanks again and we will see you on the next episode of The IMAGE!
What goes around comes around | What happens when RTV dealers support each other by Nancy Bain
We were lucky to have a couple week's head start with the RTV TxT Connect program in Nova Scotia and Canada. Setting up the white label website was easy, add your company information and it's ready to go.
You may remember an earlier blog when I talked about visiting a handful of Nova Scotia Realtors and showing them first hand the Text Connect product. I was surprised how this simple technology needed a hands on demonstration.
Since my initial face to face visits, I have concentrated on advertising heavily with print media and email campaigns in my market area, Nova Scotia. But, the phone just wasn't ringing. My nightly check with google analytics revealed visitors to the site, but no one was ordering?
You may also remember that this Nova Scotia girl was introduced to RTV by a fellow dealer while on a business trip to Florida in June. Dave Hall of Listing Solutions in Florida, raved about RTV and Inner Circle Marketing. I could tell he was "pumped" and his enthusiasm was contagious.
I contacted Dave who I know to be an excellent salesman (this guy could sell beach rocks) and asked him how he was making out with Text Connect. "I just sold my first two today!" he said. In retrospect, I'm not sure why I was surprised.
Dave took the time to tell me how he took advantage of the 10 free codes, had signs made up and visited offices. He offered either his virtual tour clients or the top salesman an opportunity to "try" Text Connect for 30 days. He told them they would be doing him a favor by checking out this new technology, monitoring response and getting back to him. While "out and about" and "face to face" with his clients, he made two sales.
Dave encouraged me to "get in their face". He said "people buy from people" and told me my personality would help win them over. (Dave is also a really nice guy) He said if I was struggling with my confidence, to take a power point presentation, play it and then have a question and answer period.
I customized the powerpoint presentation made available for Text Connect at www.rockpointemarketing.com. You can check it out on my other services page at www.supernovastudios.ca And I've set up 5 of my free codes today with listing information I had on file from my Nova Scotia virtual tour clients. Tomorrow I'll order my signs and by next week I'll be knocking on doors.
When I thanked Dave for his time, compassion and expertise, he said, "No problem, another RTV dealer told me how they did it and now I'm telling you". "It's karma baby!"
What goes around comes around. Thank you Dave. For everything.
LAKE LEELANAU was known by two other names. The very first was Ke-ski-bi-ag which means in the native language Narrow Body of Water. This was because until the dam was built at Leland, it raised the water level behind it, the stream ran from the south to the north and it certainly was narrow. The original settlers planed a vineyard and farmed their acreage. When the village expanded they changed the name to Provement which stayed that way until the 1920’s when it was named Lake Leelanau that lies on their side of it.
To date, when you pull in the docks and the hoists you know the season is totally finished on Lake Leelanau. It is such a bitter sweet moment when our outdoor service gets in the cold water with their waders on and starts taking everything apart and placing them on our side lawn. The kayaks, canoes, paddles are stored upside down and all of the Lake Leelanau memories of spring and summer are just a past thought. I love looking on the Lake Leelanau open water from our large windows. At the end of October the light is fading but we always see in our minds eye Lake Leelanau’s sparkling diamond waves.
To see some of the many wonderful virtual tours of Lake Leelanau Homes please be sure to check out my virtual tour gallery. As the most tech savvy real estate agent in Leelanau County you can rest assured that you will receive an interactive 360 virtual tour on every home that you decide to list and sell with me. Call me today and I will make your "Life on Lake Leelanau" dreams come true!
This is my latest blog entry about becoming a more creative and inventive photographer both with my Spokane virtual tour business and my personal photographs. I’ll share some of the techniques I use to boost my creativity and I’ll show you how I’ve learned to be more imaginative with my photography. It would be nice if I could help you to become a more creative and inventive virtual tour photographer too. It also would be nice if I could help someone to hone their creative approach (should you choose to accept them).
I have found that there’s no simple formula out there for creativity when on a virtual tour shoot or when taking a walk in the park. It seems to be something that is just within each and every person and it is different for each and every one of us. When trying to come up with a truly unique picture, it is important to see what’s really there as opposed to what you expect to see. I try to focus on what matters.
What’s important within the photographic frame. In other words, to focus on something is to pay attention to it. How you focus your shot as well as what it is your shooting, has a lot to do with the success or failure of that shot.
And to me, I must truly care about what I am shooting to come up with the creative juices to see a photographic project to the end. A lot of people think that photography can be done casually, but in reality (or virtual reality), the more effort you put into your work, the more you will get back. I had to look up what my old college professor had to say about focus and he says the following; "By understanding how to focus an image, you’ll clarify your compositions. Techniques for discovering and better acknowledging the true subject of your photos will help you be direct in delivering the power of your imagery. Also, by focusing on what really matters to you and your life, you’ll be able to integrate personal passion with your photography, and start on the life-long journey of discovery that true artists make."
Wow, that says it all doesn't it. You know, I am passionate about shooting flowers, and I probably could be happy shooting flowers for the rest of my life. Flowers aren't the subject matter for everybody, or even the only subjects for me, but I think they're beautiful and the possibilities for color and variety seem to be endless.
Also, there is a very different feeling between images that are completely in focus, and ones that are partially focused in order to emphasize a particular part of the flower. Sometimes photographs are just casual, or sort of a "grab shot" in response to a situation, and that's ok. But I think that more often than not, an image is really improved by a sense of where you might be going visually right from the start. And that is another thing you can do, pre-visualize. It becomes a skill of knowing in advance how an image will come out depending on the decisions you make in capturing the image and to "focus" on what the photo is really about.
See if you can apply some of these techniques to your local virtual tour business. Good luck out there!
We now have lived in our new community nearly 8 months, moving from Northern Illinois to Corinth in NE Mississippi. Up North snow is predicted this week, here our outside flowers are still in bloom.
We have continued to "cold-call" to initiate new business relationships. We attend all Chamber activities and continually meet new people, providing new networking channels. Recently we did a virtual tour of a commercial building for the Alliance (our Chamber of Commerce). Our Chamber actively promotes the sale of existing commercial properties. This property can be seen at http://rtvpix.com/RC-3888-ZBIZZF-01?h=500&w=700. It will soon be listed at a commercial property site, http://www.tvasites.com and will stand apart from other properties because it has a tour.
Before moving here, we had no idea we were going to live so close to several large resort communities--Muscle Shoals, AL., and Pickwick Lake, TN. After repeated visits to several Realtors/property managers at Pickwick Dam, TN., we landed our first agency http://www.baugus.com. The arrangement has proven beneficial to us on various levels. Finally we can showcase our work in the local market! These weekend homes are quaint and beautiful, with lakefront acreage or situated on coves. One of those homes can be seen at Corinth Home Tour
Next week we will be meeting with a Corinth, MS Realtor. (It took 4 call-backs to finally get this promising appointment.) I guess my advise is stay the course with your cold-calling; soon they will be calling you!
Get Connected & Capture More Leads with BlueLaVaMedia!
The BlueLaVa TxT Connect System is an all new mobile marketing service that uses SMS ("text messaging"). This technology makes property information instantly available on mobile phones and yields lead generation for real estate agents and rental management companies.
"Text messaging" is the fastest growing form of communication and BlueLaVaMedia, Traverse City's Premier Virtual Tour Company is very excited to offer this unique and powerful marketing tool to you at a very low cost. The BlueLaVa TxT Connect mobile marketing / lead capture system is available 24/7 and works by instantly responding to requests for detailed property information from potential buyers.
The Traverse City Real Estate agent simply adds a sign rider with a property identifier and a short code to their yard sign.
The cell phone user sends a text message such as "JBlue" to the short code "43766".
Within seconds the BlueLaVa TxT Connect system delivers detailed property information to their cell phone.
The agent controls the information in the download. It can include prices, features, and direct web links to photos, as well as agent contact information.
Some of the key benefits of the BlueLaVa TxT Connect system include:
• Takes advantage of today's text popularity and smart phone technology • Easy to use for the prospect - 154 million people in the US text daily, 107% year/year increase, median age 38, in 2007 36% of American Seniors who own a cell phone text • Easy to setup for the realtor - completely portable from property to property • Generates leads to your phone and email • No more empty flyer boxes - disappointing prospects and clients • Inspires confidence in YOU, shows that you are tech savvy • BlueLaVaMedia's incredibly low pricing makes this a *** Best Buy ** for your advertising dollar - as low as $2.95 per month, per listing when purchasing our Best Buy 10 property pack!!
Once the cell phone user connects to the BlueLaVa TxT Connect system the callers cell phone number is captured so that the agent may follow-up with a phone call. It's that simple, the agent has a new lead to call. You never got that from your old flyer box now did you? Did I mention that you will never have to fill up a flyer box again?
Are you ready to be one of the first savvy Traverse City Real Estate Agents to offer the most advanced marketing and lead generation technology available? Sign up now by visiting our site below and remember that you get ALL this for TEN of your listings for a mere $29.00 per month! Let's see it cell!
Give the BlueLaVa TxT Connect System a Try Now! Send Text Message 'JBlue' To Phone Number '43766'
