The Dark Room - New From RTV Marketing

Our marketing team decided to celebrate the release of over 100 RTV ShutterBots into our virtual tour provider network by making you a new handout announcing your new service. What is a ShutterBot?

Our marketing team has created a brilliant, eye-catching virtual tour marketing piece for you to customize, finish off and distribute in your service area.  This new piece allows you to show off your new level of photography quality while maintaining some mystery behind your skills.

As you know our marketing team strives hard to make sure your virtual tour company is armed with the most up to date and effective marketing pieces to help grow your virtual tour business.  If you have a piece in mind that you would like us to tackle just drop us a line and we'll get right on it.

Enjoy the new marketing materials and see you on our next show!  Login to http://www.RockPointeMarketing.com today and snag this amazing new flyer!

RTV, Inc
Virtual Tour Software & Digital Marketing Services
866-947-8687

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Location Location Location

Anyone who has been in or around real estate for any length of time knows that the three top factors in selling a home are location, location and location.

One of those locations is, of course, the neighborhood where the house is sitting.

Today, the second-most-important location is the internet. Visibility online is prime real estate. The internet has surpassed signs to become the number two way buyers are finding the homes that they eventually purchase. All homes need to be widely visible on line, not just the ones priced over $250,000. First-time buyers and empty nesters are searching on line – and not for large homes.

On the internet the top three factors for buyers are pictures, pictures, and pictures. A virtual tour of your home is one of the best ways to claim that space – on the net and in the buyer’s head. Buyers want pictures; and they especially want a virtual tour. They want to virtual tour the home without having to spend precious time and expensive gasoline driving from home to home. They want to be able to narrow down which homes they want to give their special attention before they walk out the door. If they have insomnia, they can virtual tour the home at 2:00 am. A buyer can see a lot more homes on line during their lunch break if they use the internet than if they go out driving around.

Four Seasons Virtual Tours, in partnership with Real Tour Vision (RTV) the World leader in Virtual Tour Software, has been providing affordable virtual tours and slide shows for real homes located in Valparaiso, Crown Point, Hammond, Munster, Schererville, Lowell, Chesterton and many other communities in Lake, Porter, La Porte, Jasper and Newton counties in Northwest Indian since 2006. We produce HDR, full screen tours that can be uploaded to the MLS and personal websites. However, the MLS isn’t the only internet location where your tour should be visible. You need much wider coverage than that. We also offer our Internet Optimizer package that will get your home on Craig’s List, Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com, and many more sites on line.

Can potential buyers find your listing on the internet? Call Four Seasons Virtual Tours and claim your virtual location on the web.




Contact us today!

Debbie & Mike Higgins

Northwest Indiana Virtual Tours

www.FourSeasonsVirtualTours.com
Order a virtual tour: 219-921-3413

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RTV Boosted My Client Base!

RTV has boosted my client base in my Real Estate Market and now I am making steady money by creating superior 360 virtual tours!

I bought a Real Tour Vision complete virtual tour software kit a couple of months ago after the agent who used to produce our "virtual tours" left the company.  Little did we know her leaving would be a HUGE benefit to Arlington Properties.  I bought the RTV package and NC Home Tours has been producing all virtual tours for Arlington Properties, ever since.  Not only does NC Home Tours produce a product that is infinitely superior to what we were used to offering, but now I use my virtual tours to pick up new clients from the for sale by owner market.  Offering a Panorider and single property website greatly increases there marketing potential, and if they are interested in using a Realtor down the road, I have already shown my commitment to excellence and I hope they will call me for that service as well. 

Being able to show future clients my amazing HIGH DEFINITION VR Tours is a great marketing tool and everyone loves the weekly and on demand tour hit stats.  By posting virtual tours on the www.arlingtonpropertiesinc.com home page we are maximizing the exposure of every home that is listed with Arlington Properties.

I have always prided myself on giving people a top quality product and maintaining honesty above all else in my business.  I now offer clients, associates, and for sale by owner customers incredible marketing tools at a fair price.  I can't thank the Real Tour Vision staff enough, especially Jason and Ben, for getting me started in this wonderful BOOMING virtual tour industry.  I look forward to years of association and years of providing the best virtual tour in North Carolina. 

Taylor Keith
Realtor/Broker
Arlington Properties

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Bartering with Virtual Tours

Call me a diva but I am happy to admit that I love living the" good life".  I love traveling all over the world, staying in the nicest places, eating fine food. I love being pampered, waking up and knowing that I don’t have to make the bed or wash my dishes.  I love vacation and adventure and excitement.  This year, we have photographed virtual tours in 26 states and have had so many amazing adventures along the way that a friend at church was watching our Facebook posts and asked our pastor if one of us was terminally ill.  He said it looked like we were checking off a bucket list!  Nope, just living the life of our dreams at our leisure.

The conundrum is that as small business owners, we don’t always have the budget or the time to do all the things we love.  We made the decision early in our relationship that we would live within our means.  For us that means we run our life and our business, Vision Quest Virtual Tours, on a cash only basis - no credit cards or loans.  We give 10% of our pre-tax, pre-expense income to charity and reinvest most of our profit back into our business.  You might ask how is it that we have stayed in villas and luxurious bed and breakfasts and mountain top cabins and flown in acrobatic bi-planes and eaten in fine restaurants and gotten massages?

It’s called bartering and it ROCKS!  Our high definition 360 degree virtual tours are a great way for businesses to improve their marketing efforts in a very cost effective way.  Luckily for us, many of the businesses that can benefit from our services are also businesses that have services we enjoy and benefit from.

Three keys to successful bartering are:

    Provide an equal exchange of services
    Agree IN WRITING what the terms of the barter will be ahead of time.
    Make sure that the person agreeing to the barter passes the information on to their staff.



We calculate what we would charge for a virtual tour and then calculate what we would pay for that business’ services. If there is a difference, then we invoice or expect to be invoiced for the difference. Bartering should be a fair exchange of services where both people get the same value for their part of the barter.   If we are offering a $400 virtual tour for a restaurant, then we need to be mindful of what we order...it’s not fair for us to provide a $400 value and then run up a $500 dinner tab.

It’s important to agree ahead of time IN WRITING what each party is providing for the barter.  One place we have found this to be important is in bartering for lodging.  We travel all over the country so rather than paying for generic hotel rooms every night, we barter with bed and breakfasts or boutique inns.  The room rates for a particular bed and breakfast can be as much as double from one room to the next so it's important to clarify what you are providing and what you expect to receive in return. 

I learned the hard way to clarify in writing that we are bartering for their lowest price room. We bartered with a bed and breakfast and when we arrived, they upgraded us to a private two bedroom villa because it was mid-week in their off season and the whole place was empty.  We were thrilled with our good fortune until we got ready to check out and were expecting to receive a rather substantial check.  The owner expected that since they were upgraded to a villa that would have cost $300 a night, then our charge would be waived.

We would have never expected a $300/night villa but more importantly we would have never ACCEPTED the $300/night villa had we realized they meant it to replace our fee.  If we weren't bartering, we would have gotten a hotel room for around $75 and charged them our normal price.  We love staying in nice places but our budget is what it is and we are on the road to make money.  That particular photo shoot was a multiple day job which meant that we weren't available to shoot other jobs.  Part of calculating the value of a barter is to calculate the lost opportunity cost for the time you are spending providing your end of the barter.  Unless you are bartering on your free time, then you are not giving or getting something for free. 

The latest thing we have learned from experience is to make sure that the business owner communicates to their staff that we will be coming to barter.  We recently showed up to photograph a restaurant and were expecting the owner to be there when we arrived.  Not only was he not there, no one in the restaurant had any idea that we were coming.  Luckily they were able to get him on the phone but we would have wasted a great deal of time had this not been the case.  Lesson I learned is that I should have sent a confirmation email stating the terms of the barter and asking him to respond so we knew we were all on the same page...then had that email available when I arrived.

Bartering is a great way to experience things that your budget would otherwise not allow.  There’s no guarantee that a business will be interested in trading services but if you don’t ask the question, the answer is definitely no.

Paige Mitts
http://www.vquestmedia.com/
Quincy, IL Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: 404-863-9769

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Austin Virtual Tour Company Shouts Out

Please allow me to introduce myself on behalf of Net Visual Tours, an Austin Texas Virtual Tour Company. My name is Daniel Rodriguez, owner of Net Visual Tours.  Net Visual Tours is a Virtual Tour company proudly serving the greater Austin & San Antonio, TX area. We provide professional, high quality Interactive Photography for Commercial and Residential properties. Net Visual Tours is dedicated to client satisfaction, fast turnaround and personable customer service. We are proud and passionate regarding every virtual tour and place high attention to detail quality to our work. We can showcase your Real Estate, Commercial Property, Apartments, or Commercial Showroom at its best 24/7. Over 85% of online shoppers are researching prospect homes and researching business representation. Make your presentation count, turn prospects into clients! Whether you need a professional Virtual Tour, professional still photos or an amazing slide show, Net Visual Tours can customize and market your project for success!

Net Visual Tours is proud the be a member of Real Tour Vision, the #1 ranking virtual tour company and software provider in the World. I provide the highest quality virtual tours on the market that are designed to professionally distinguish your listing or local business at its very best by specializing in HD 360 Virtual Tour Photography.  With the power of today’s technology combined with our attention to detail & quality, we offer a very competitive  - or I can even go as far as saying the best valued Virtual Tours in South Texas. In this challenging real estate market, the proper presentation of listings it is crucial… set yourself apart by presenting a cutting edge, authentic view of your property or business.

Net Visual Tours can market various industries including but not limited to golf courses, Hotels, Resorts, Boat Rentals, Medical Offices and much more! If you have a unique project request, please do not hesitate to contact us directly for a quote!



Net Visual Tours
Daniel Rodriguez
Austin Texas Virtual Tours
http://www.netvisualtours.com

Order a virtual tour today: 512-773-9085

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The FORMULA 58 - Turning Old Memories into New Opportunities

Ever wish you could increase your dollar per customer earnings from your virtual tour business?

Island Digital Images, LLC a Corpus Christi virtual tour company has been able to add additional services for their customers and Alan Fon is now willing to share that business success with the RTV Network. Alan transfers old photos, movies and videos to DVDs that are rated to last 100 years. Alan is going to show you how you can benefit from using his services to benefit your current client base and create incremental revenue opportunities for you. And the best part is that Alan does most of the work for you.

Join us on October 4th as Alan introduces you to his services and how it can help you and your clients.

See you on The FORMULA!


http://www.RealTourVision.com

We like you just the way you are! http://www.facebook.com/RealTourVision

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RTV ShutterBot Turns Heads

 

Our amazing ShutterBot works with ANY digital SLR camera and is an add-on to your RTV Tour Builder Kit.  Watch the ShutterBot Video Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG-BWCnS8Z4

Current full service RTV providers offering this technology are reaching an entirely new "HIGH END" customer base.  Give us a call today to see if your area is still open and feel free to review our packages and pricing on our virtual tour builder kit page: http://www.realtourvision.com/Kit-Order.php

This exciting technology is exclusive to RTV FULL SERVICE virtual tour providers. 

Thanks for your continued support!

Yours Sincerely,

Team RTV

PS: All RTV virtual tours are streamed in HD, go to realtor.com, provide an automatic weekly hit report, and run on all mobile platforms. 

RTV, Inc

http://www.RealTourVision.com

866-947-8687 Ext 4

#1 on Google for Virtual Tour Software!

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Sweet Home Alabama

Have you seen the movie Sweet Home Alabama? Or maybe the reality tv series? Well this is the backdrop for those iconic sets. To see this tour:

http://rtvpix.com/BU-5836-3DRTO5-01

How did we get this amazing virtual tour account?  We vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama several times a year. We collect all paper advertising for the area to see who is promoting their business. One such business is Oak Hollow Farm in Fairhope, Alabama. We cold called them by phone before our recent trip to the Gulf, asking them if we could send along some examples of our virtual tour work. We informed them that we would be in town for a limited time.

Then, while in transit to our condo on the Gulf, we stopped in to meet the owners, and set up a meeting to show them the virtual tour features and benefits.

Long story short, we were able to land the virtual tour account. The owners will soon be presenting at a trade fair and showing off the virtual tour at this convention!

We have laid the groundwork at several restaurants for future 360 tours. Hope to return to the Gulf later this year or early next year. Having moved from Illinois to Mississippi, there is still some "snowbird" mentality in our veins.

NE Mississippi Virtual tours can meet your internet marketing needs in the Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama area.


Hugh Jordan
16 Tadpole Lane
North East Mississippi Virtual Tours
www.seeitsellstudios.com
Order a virtual tour today: 662-664-0965

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Google is a Fickle Friend

I blogged recently about the impact that blogging has had on the Google rankings for our website, Vision Quest Virtual Tours  Over a 60 day period, we watched our daily virtual tour website hits grow from an average of 10 per day to an average of 30 - 50 per day.  The only thing that we did differently during that time was to blog consistently about our business.

We went from the place where a great month was 350 hits to the point where we were consistently at 1,250 hits for the month.  About that time, life got in the way and I stopped blogging for a few weeks.  We were out of town visiting family, we were packing to move, we were really busy photographing tours...there are plenty of “good excuses”.  But the fact is that Google is a fickle friend!

I don’t pretend to understand the mechanics of Google rankings and analytics but I do know that Google loves blogs or should I say, Google loves fresh blogs.  We blog on our own virtual tour website as well as over 40 other blog sites and once I write a blog, I get an instant jump in visits to our website.  I get some residual readers over time but it's a trickle compared to what I get when I put in a new blog.  But during the time when I was too busy to blog, I saw a very profound drop in our website hits.  Our hits still maintained some of our momentum but we very quickly dropped from a consistent montly number above 1,250 down to 1,000.  Having worked so hard to get up to 1,000, I got busy with my blogging to make sure it didn't drop again.

The problem with being a virtual tour business owner is that you can’t rest on your laurels or past achievements for very long.  My part of the business is sales and marketing and that entails a long to-do list that must be maintained every day or else we will lose momentum in our virtual tour business.  I have now realized that near the top of that to-do list is to keep my blog current and fresh.  The value of Google Analytics is that I can track the results of my efforts.  I can see whether the cold calls I am making and blogs I am writing are driving traffic to the sight.  I've always said that you can't expect what you don't inspect and Google Analytics allows me to inspect my results.

Since Google’s constant question seems to be “What have you done for me lately?” and I’m going to be pretty busy for the next two weeks, I am writing several blogs over the next few days so I have them ready to post over the next few weeks.  After all, Google doesn't make exceptions for you when you're too busy!  Finally...make sure you ALWAYS send RTV your blogs to post to the RTV blog.  The JUICE is AMAZING!


Paige Mitts
http://www.vquestmedia.com/
Quincy, IL Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: 404-863-9769

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Virtual Documentation Provides Some Relief

On September 8, 2011, the Wyoming Valley of Northeast Pennsylvania experienced devastating flooding when the Susquehanna River crested at a record level (42.66 ft.) surpassing the level of the 1972 Hurricane Agnes flood. The updated and raised levee system held strong, but encountered extreme pressure as it was pushed past its capacity.

In the days following, as the clean up process begins, residents will return to their homes unsure of what the extent of the damage will be. There will be widespread and extensive losses suffered at the hands of Mother Nature.

iReact Media offers Wilkes-Barre, PA Virtual Tours. My 360° Virtual Tours in NEPA have helped numerous homeowners/businesses sell and market their properties to potential buyers and patrons. iReact Media also offers an Insurance Documentation Service to homeowners and businesses in case of events and disasters such as this.

While it may be after the fact and the damage is already done for many, some iReact customers can rest assured that they have proper documentation because of their iReact Media Insurance Documentation Virtual Tour.

 Insurance Documentation Services Include:
•    A Full Virtual Tour of Your Home – 360° Panoramas and Stills
•    High Resolution Still Images of all Valuables
•    Scene by Scene Descriptions (as detailed as you want)
•    Inventory Worksheet (filled out by owner)
•    Two CD’s of the Completed Digital Documentation (one for you and one for your insurance agent)
•    Peace of Mind!

Be prepared. Call or email to learn more about the iReact Media Insurance Virtual Tour service. I hope that we never have to experience anything of this magnitude again, but IF we do… consider the benefits of how much stress and confusion this service could relieve.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the thousands of people affected by the flood in Northeast and Central Pennsylvania.

Mark Jones
iReact Media
www.iReactMedia.com
Order a virtual tour today: 570.262.9843

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Virtual Tours & Realtor.com

Recently, I had a real estate agent ask me to explain to her what Realtor.com was.  My answer was very vague – a listing service for brokers so that potential buyers can look at houses they might want to see.

Then the agent said what is the difference between a basic listing and a showcase listing.  I answered what I thought to be the correct answer.  A showcase listing can have up to 25 photos and a basic listing only has 4.  Also a showcase listing can have a virtual tour at no extra charge.

Finally the agent said, so when I pay you the $25 for loading the tour, my tour is getting all 25 photos and the virtual tour, so I said yes – I actually have never bothered to check on it.

Over the last few days the RTV virtual tour provider facebook page has had some discussions about Realtor.com.  ie.  Where is the spinning house.  Where did the tours disappear to.  Why are there only 4 pictures showing when I paid the fee to put it through picture path?

Ok, it just so happens that Realtor.com – or rather move.com their picture path company is here in Scottsdale.  So, I decided – Road Trip!  They can pay to air condition their office and my office can be put on conserve energy!  How smart is that thinking!

Here is the scoop. 

To be a Showcase Realtor you pay an annual fee (broken out monthly) which is based on how many listings you do a year.  For instance if you listed 100 listings in 2010, then you would pay $2800 (approximately) to be a Showcase realtor in 2011.  In return for this you have the right to have 25 pictures and a virtual tour.  You can put in your own descriptions, your personal photos and your own email and contact information.  A Showcase listing is in Yellow highlighting and the tour symbol is an arrow that wraps in a circle on the very right side of the yellow bar.  There are other things you can pay extra for, but this is the Showcase package.  If a Virtual Tour provider has a picture path account, the virtual tour will pass through without a charge.  When you click on the tour icon on the yellow bar it takes you to the listing.  In the window with the photograph is the link to the tour on the lower right.  How many of you RTV dealers out there have showcase agents that there is no $22.95 charge from RTV?

All other agents who are not Showcase agents are Basic Agents.  Realtor.com pulls up basic listings from the MLS.  It pulls up the MLS number, the first four pictures of the MLS and the basic MLS info as a description.  Contact information is the brokerage office rather than the agent.  Basic listings have a grey highlight bar.So…. How to get a tour, photos and agent contact information onto a Basic Listing.

This is where the RTV picture path charge of $22.95 (marked up by $3 – and then we can mark it up to $25).  What the fee does is put a virtual tour onto a Basic Listing.  The basic listing still only has 4 pictures, little contact information and little description.  With that being said, a clever dealer with a great tour like RTV will be able to create a venue for potential buyers to be able to not only see stills and video about the listing, but also what I call – meet and greet the agent! 

Now,  where does the search engine come in between the showcase and the basic agents.  First of all, when you are general searching on google, the showcase listings get more pre-programmed google juice.  I’m not sure this is that relevant because if the keywords really narrow the field enough, the listing will pop up one way or another including the agents virtual tour itself on one of your sites or blogs!

If you are searching direct on Realtor.com, then the difference is as follows:
    You pull up a preliminary search based on price, neighborhood, bedrooms, etc.   Once you have these pulled you have several sort criteria – price hi-low, price low-hi, photos hi-lo, featured tours and open houses.  According to the very nice customer service person at Move.com (Nicky) most people search on price low-hi or photos hi-lo.  The next most chosen category is featured tours.  Realtor.com does not create a complex sorts on these criteria – you must sort on only one of the above. 

If you have a showcase account, on the photosearch  - the ones with 25 pictures come up first and then the number of pictures descend until there are only 4 pictures per basic account.  If you are a basic agent and there are 16 pages of listings in the criteria, you may never get seen on a picture search – this is the number one reason to be a Showcase agent.   If you are a showcase agent, or a basic agent, and you have a virtual tour, the sort will bring forward all listings with tours in the last search and sort criteria.  At least now you have a chance – the point for paying the additional fee for the tour if you are a basic agent.

So….the moral of the story is – yes, paying the money for picture path for non-showcase gives you a little bit of a leg up over other basic agents, but the best thing to do is to promote the heck out of the virtual tour using the PROVIDER’s EXPOSURE ENGINE. 

At Powervision4Realestate a mini exposure engine is included with the package price and that includes the fees for Realtor.com (we charge $298 for our most basic package).  This mini exposure engine includes up to 10 exposures.  For an additional fee, you can purchase our maxi engine and thereby almost be guaranteed for the tour to pop up at some point on page one based on the search criteria.


Suzanne Feinberg
Scottsdale Virtual Tours
Order a virtual tour: 480-284-8177

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Social Networks for BIG Gains

Having presence on Social Networks such as Facebook, and Twitter these days is almost as important as having an actual website for your virtual tour business.  Millions and millions of new users each day are using these main stream social network sites, and why not let them know us RTV dealers are out there! Creating a Facebook page for your business takes about 10 minutes to create, and just little longer to perfect.

Once you start blogging and setting your status's to things like..."Virtual Slide shows Under $100 Deal!" and "Best Quality Virtual Tours in the Industry!" the hits will roll in. Also on your Facebook page be sure to add your website and contact information. Once you have created the page, now it is time to look around on Facebook for local Realtors and Real Estate offices, as well as commercial properties (Hotels, Restaurants, Golf courses) and atleast let them see what we have to offer! You can easily post on these websites facebook pages and contact them directly. What is holding them back from having a beautiful virtual tour of their business on the internet! Good luck!


Garret Ryan
www.insighthomemarketing.com

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Is Your Realtor Working in the 21st Century?

With 90% of home buyers using the Internet at some point in their search, and 36% of them saying that they found the home they purchased on line, it’s not hard to figure out that your home needs to be easy to find on the internet. Most of those buyers (80%) also say they want to look at homes with a virtual tour.

Where is your Realtor advertising your home? What media are they using? Have they aligned themselves with a local virtual tour provider?

The sign in the front yard used to be the second-most-reported way that buyers found the home they purchased. (Now it is number three – behind the Realtor and the Internet.) These days that sign had better have a QR code on it so that someone driving past can get the “inside scoop” on their smart phone.

Newspapers and real estate books were of major importance. Today it’s mostly the real estate offices that are using the Sunday classifieds, but it’s thin. The real estate books are ghosts of their former selves. And those ads are expensive. The cost for an individual agent to advertise a home can run $75.00 per week or more for a one-inch ad. In 2011, the listing ad needs to be on Craig’s List.

Four Seasons Virtual Tours can help Northwest Indiana sellers and their Realtors get the best coverage for their listings with high quality tours at affordable prices. We can also position the tours so that they have the widest internet coverage possible.

Our virtual tours and slide shows are high definition, HDR photography that can (and should) be shown full screen. The virtual tours are interactive so that the viewer can move through at their own speed and in their own way. They can play on smart phones and tablets. The virtual tours provide detailed property descriptions, MLS information, area information and maps. Weekly stat reports let you know how many people are looking at your listing.

We also offer an incredibly inexpensive Internet Optimizer Package. It posts your listing on Craig’s List and updates it weekly for up to a year. The listing is also posted on Zillow, Trulia, Oodle, Lycos, Hot Pads, Backpage, Vast, Enormo and other  real estate websites; plus Facebook and YouTube. An eflyer and a QR code are also included in the package.

Don’t let your home languish in the 20th century. Four Seasons Virtual Tours can help your Northwest Indiana home (Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties) be seen by buyers from all over the country and the world.

Debbie & Mike Higgins

Northwest Indiana Virtual Tours

www.FourSeasonsVirtualTours.com
Direct: 219-921-3413

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Nova Scotia Virtual Tour Provider Expands Services

Nova Scotia Virtual Tour Provider - offers custom Facebook "Fan" Pages

Do you have a custom Facebook page for your virtual tour business? How is it doing? Are you pleased with results? It's taken 2 years to build a successful, engaged audience at Supernova Studios http://www.facebook.com/novascotiavirtualtours

What do I mean by successful? 2011 was the first year we earned revenue as a result of this page. Now, if I were to divide that revenue by the number of hours I've invested in this page, well…. I'd have been paid in peanuts. But 2011 is just the beginning and each week we seem to be given a new opportunity. Opportunities from around the globe, ones we wouldn't have had if it weren't for Facebook.

Two years ago, when I first created the page, I utilized the "suggest to friends" feature to suggest to ALL my friends that they "like" my page.  I've got some good friends and more than half of them obliged and clicked like. Back in 2009 it was all about the numbers for me. I measured my success/reach by the number of my friends/fans.

A lot has changed since then. Most of the friends who clicked like on my page have since stopped following my page and the fans I have now, have come to me organically. These are the type of fans that make an engaged audience. These are the type of fans I crave. The ones that WANT to be there. The ones LOOKING for my SEM and virtual tour services.

Our latest opportunity came from a Realtor in Central Florida. This client was referred to me by someone who follows me closely on my Facebook page. I was pumped for two reasons: the referral was from a reputable marketer, and; I was excited to service clients in another country again.

Here is the custom Facebook fan page we created for Exit 1st Class Realty. https://www.facebook.com/Exit1stClassRealtyFlorida

We:

1) created a custom avatar
2) created a custom thumbnail
3) designed the 5 ads in the photostrip at the top of the page
4) created a custom Facebook landing page for new clients which points to their website
5) Installed "My Listings" which showcases their listings
6) Installed an opt-in
7) Fully optimized their site for search
8) Provided a work summary
9) Provided "Facebook Best Practices" a tutorial we've written, to ensure success.

We're excited to offer this service as part of our repertoire at Supernova Studios. When we're not selling virtual tours, we love to provide Realtors with any social media marketing needs they may have.

If you have questions about your Facebok page, feel free to post them to our wall at http://www.facebook.com/NovaScotiaVirtualTours

--
Supernova Studios
Nova Scotia Virtual Tours
Web Media Consultants
Riverport, NS, B0J 2W0
Order a virtual tour: 902-766-TOUR (8687)

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Money is Money & Time is Time

Several of my very wealthy friends were walking through a parking lot together many years ago.  These men had annual incomes ranging from $500,000 to millions.  Near the back was Hubert, the richest of the group.  He was the founder of their company and their mentor.  In the 80’s, Hubert was the first man in his company to make over $3,000,000 in a year and later went on to start his own company.

As they neared their very expensive cars, Hubert bent down and picked up a quarter.  As he held it up, he asked the other men in the group if they had not seen the quarter on the ground.  Their answers were either that they hadn’t noticed it or hadn’t deemed it worth stopping to pick up because after all, as one man said, it was only a quarter.  Hubert looked at them all with disbelief and said “The day I step over money is the day they put me in the ground.”  Perhaps there’s a reason he was the most successful of the group.

It was Benjamin Franklin who is credited with the quote “Time is Money” but I have most often heard that quote repeated by people who have much more time on their hands than they do money.  I think Hubert would agree with me when I say that Time is Time and Money is Money.  I have been in sales for a long time and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it is how to tell the difference between Time and Money.

At Vision Quest Virtual Tours, we determine our prices based on the amount of time and effort that a particular job will entail.   We publish guidelines on our website but those prices are often negotiable based on many factors such as our current work load, our travel schedule, the volume of tours a particular client is ordering at a time.

We are working with a ministry that has an extremely limited budget.  I explained to them that if we could do a virtual tour for him on a Saturday before we leave town for a large out of state job, we would do the tour for 1/4 of our normal price.  It is a win/win situation for us -- he gets a high quality virtual tour and we get paid on a day when we would otherwise be sitting home watching television.  Now keep in mind, we are going to sleep late that morning and be home in time to watch the University of Georgia football game that evening.

It’s true that we will invest our time to do the job at a greatly reduced price.  We will have to pay for gas to drive to the job.  It’s true that we will then come home and have to process the job and create the tour.  And yes, we will have to pay for the hosting of the tour.  But at the end of that day, we will have more money in our pockets than we did when we started the day and frankly, Greg will be processing and building the tour as he sits beside me on the sofa watching the University of Georgia football game -- which is where he was going to be anyway!

I have blogged before that a business with no income is a hobby.  It’s true that we are in business to make money and as your business grows, you have to weigh the value of your time.  But I have to laugh when I hear people say that it’s not “worth their time” to leave their house for less than a certain amount of money.  Until there is someone willing to come to our house and pay us for sitting home, we will consider ANY job no matter what the price.

The key is to weigh the cost.  We don’t turn down full price jobs to do discounted tours and when we do a discounted tour, it is with the understanding that we will schedule them around our other customers.  I also spend my time talking to and encouraging new virtual tour providers who call me for advice on how to grow their virtual tour business...but I schedule them for times when I am in the car between jobs or on the weekends when we are home relaxing - not during peak phone calling hours.

We rarely want to lose money on a job although we look at the big picture. If the job is one that could open other doors for us, is for a ministry that we want to support financially or a new business we want to encourage, we have no problem making less than our normal price or even doing the job for free sometimes.
We have been blessed in our virtual tour business and we love to give back...whether it is of our time or money.  To end with another quote by Benjamin Franklin,

“For my own part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favours, but as paying debts. In my travels, and since my settlement, I have received much kindness from men, to whom I shall never have any opportunity of making the least direct return. And numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our services. Those kindnesses from men, I can therefore only return on their fellow men; and I can only shew my gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other children and my brethren. For I do not think that thanks and compliments, tho’ repeated weekly, can discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator.”



Greg and Paige Mitts
Order a virtual tour: www.vquestmedia.com

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Grinding it Out

Hello RTV dealers out there. I’ve been with RTV now since 2003 and have to say it’s been one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made.  I know you’re all going to think I’m crazy now but were JUST starting to get into social networking and thinking about having a website made.  When my wife and I lost our jobs due to a corporate downsizing years ago we felt the world closing in around us.  I had taken a photography class back in college, have a degree in business and knack for talking with people.  We threw a hail mary pass and found RTV through lots of research.  A month later we were in the virtual tour business and doing office visits or whistle stops as they call them to local real estate offices and businesses. Present day our company averages 500 or so real estate tours a year and typically 10 -20 business related virtual tours a year.  We average about $115 per real estate shoot and get about $1000 per commercial shoot which of course we charge a small annual fee to.

The training that we’ve received from RTV has helped us grow this home based virtual tour business into averaging 60k in real estate jobs and about 13k in commercial jobs per year even through the rough economic times.   Running a virtual tour business now for nearly nine years just by WOM marketing and belly to belly sales is really exciting and our business continues to grow each year.  We appreciate all you do for us RTV and thanks for keeping your technology at the forefront of virtual tour technology.  There’s lots of competition here and believing in ourselves and the company backing us seals our deals day after day.  Keep up the good work and keep the leads coming!

Faithfully,

Steve Jankos

Order a virtual tour: Stevejankos((@))gmail.com

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Virtual Tour Provider Shares Testimonial

"I would like to share my experience in meeting, working and getting to know Stan Davis at Exposure Elements a San Jose virtual tour company.  Having worked with 3 other virtual tour photographers in the past, (prior to meeting Stan) I honestly thought my experience with these other photographers was what I thought, great service, professional work.  Let me tell you the difference between working with other photographers and working with Stan was like night and day.  From the moment I met with Stan I could see and feel the difference about how much he loved his work.
 
He immediately started asking me questions about what I wanted and not just all about what he was going to do for me.  At that point,  I knew he really cared about my expectation.  Normal photographers are in and out of the home shoot within 20-30 minutes.  The first time working with Stan and every time we have worked together since we started he spends time making sure the pictures he is going to take will look their best.  Others come in and just start shooting.  Stan goes above and beyond what is asked of him.

The results of his virtual tours, YouTube videos and photo’s are absolutely the best I have ever seen.  I am excited to work with Stan because his work helps sell all my homes fast.  His turnaround time in getting the work done and in my office is second to none. This guy does not mess around.   I look forward to a long working relationship with Exposure Elements because of Stan Davis and his attention to detail and professional photography."

- Julie Richards









Order your San Jose virtual tour today! 408-440-2278

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The FORMULA 57 - The Secret Congrats Tool

If you’re like most RTV dealers out there you’re always keeping your eyes peeled for great marketing ideas that will drive more business through your doors. By now you’ve probably already heard our Secret Congrats Tool that has dealers making LOTS OF MONEY!!! In fact 70% of all RTV dealers who have started using this method have seen a direct increase in business, so it’s about time we have a show on it!

Please join myself, Jim Blue, Mike Thompson, and possibly one other guest whose yet to be named on September 13th at 7:00 PM Eastern for a full overview of “The Secret Congrats Tool”.

Whether you’re already using this amazing business canvassing tool or have been just thinking about it, we’re strongly urge you to attend this event. This single marketing tool has lead to 9 new repeat customers for us here at BlueLaVaMedia this year and chances are it will do the same for you too. Sign up now in your TMS http://tms.realtourvision.com

See you there RTV!

Sincerely,

Jason


HD Virtual Tours & Digital Marketing Training
Fiji Virtual Tours are here!
We like you just the way you are! http://www.facebook.com/RealTourVision

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