So I was checking out the forums today and came across a post asking if people use video to promote their appraisal services.

Of course on the forums there were a lot of comments, not giving any real information if people use video, more reasons why they do not do any marketing and then some more about how they hate their jobs… Lol.

So I posted something along these lines and I hope it helps if you are thinking of using video to promote your appraisal services.

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I definitely use video quite a bit when marking appraisal services to potential clients, you can see a bunch that I recently created for this purpose.

http://appraiseallrealestate.com/appraiser-sandiego/new-real-estate-appraiser-videos/

There really is nothing special in the videos, I really don’t plan on people even watching them, that is why they are very short videos.  They are super easy to create using Animoto and they work VERY WELL!

There are a number of reasons why you would want to spend the time to make videos to promote your appraisal services.

1. The first one is that YouTube is owned by google, the largest and most used search engine around.  I think I recently read that more people search for products on services on YouTube possibly even more than in Google itself.  So being owned by google, they will display videos related to the keywords that your customers are using to find appraisal services in their area.  Google will sometimes display those results at the top of the page even before all the other search engine results!
2. Google also loves new content, new media and all forms of new content, they will quickly add it to their database and give it a little boost when it is new.  You have a way better chance of showing up in the search engine results quickly with a new video that a new website. (websites will usually rank for longer periods of time though)
3. If you optimize the title, keywords and description in YouTube, you can easily add a clickable link to your website right in the description and your phone number in the title so your customers can find you easily.
4. When you add videos to your website, in to your google+ or google my business accounts, your profile will get a boost, giving you better chances to show up in the search engine results and the map on the side of the page.
5. The link to your website in the description will help your actual website to rank better in the search engine results for the keywords your potential clients are using.

One final note.  They are super easy to make.  You can easily create short slideshows in animoto and upload them from animoto to your youtube account. You can also create more informative videos that have the possiblility of getting tens of thousands of views, furthering improving the rank to both your youtube channel and your website.

Before you discount this completely, try search for major cities in the United States followed by appraisal or appraiser.  Most likely you will see great examples of this.  If there are none in your market area, you should be able to get your videos to show up with proper optimization.

If you would like to see a tutorial on this process, you can get a $1.00 trial to the Appraiser’s club and check it out.

Give it a try, you will be surprised with the results!

Bryan

http://appraiserincome.com

Newly updated 07/01/2014! 

On this last update, I went through the entire list of appraisal management companies and removed any of the companies that have had problems paying appraisers, those that have gone out of business as well as adding a bunch of new companies to the list. They are all clickable links on the electronic version and a printed version is also available for those that want to write their usernames and passwords directly in to the book.

With the incredible slowdown that has been experienced recently, it is a great time to update all of your information with the AMCs and sign up to a bunch of new companies. The list has over 200 companies with the top 42 on the list are the companies that sent me the most work in the past year. There is still a lot of work out there.

Why are you not getting the appraisal orders?

There are a lot of reasons why you might not be getting a ton of work from the appraisal management companies. Topping the list of reasons is due to document updating when you get a new license or e&o insurance. You can also reach out to all the appraisal management companies by phone to speak with the vendor managers. AMCs like to work with appraisers that reach out to them and you might even get on their preferred list of appraisers.

Of course fees vary from one company to the next. I have not accepted less than customary and reasonable fees for many years now and I am not about to get started. A lot of these AMCs still work with the fees with appraisers as long as you explain the situation.

Well, I just wanted to let everyone know the new directory is available and you can order your copy today. Thanks again for being a valued subscriber to Appraiser Income! http://appraiserincome.com/shop/catalogue.php

Wishing you success in 2014,
Sincerely,
Bryan Knowlton
http://www.appraiserincome.com

Hey Everyone! Hope you are having a great week.  Today I came across a question from a fellow appraiser about traffic to their website.  They have a relatively new website that is getting a few hundred hits a month and just wanted to see if they are doing the right stuff to get more traffic and such.

One of the first things you want to determine is the number of people that contact you after they visit your website.   Even if your website is getting visits, it is worthless unless people are taking the next step to contact you.

Make sure your contact information is placed throughout the website and that you have a mobile version of your website as well.  That is a good starting point.

The next step you will probably want to take is to get some good analytics added to your website so you can see where that traffic is coming from, and if it is from the search engines, what keywords they are using to find your website.

You can have thousands of visits a month, but if they are finding your website because you are ranking for the wrong terms (funny cat at appraisal, real estate for sale, etc….), then that traffic is pretty worthless to your appraisal business.

You want to determine your keywords as soon as possible, usually prior to building a website, but you can also make changes to your website to help the search engines and other websites determine it is actually an appraiser website.

So optimize your website for those primary keywords and use those keywords in your social profiles, throughout your websites, in your blog posts if your blog, when creating videos and in all of your marketing efforts.

You can track the progress you are making by checking your analytics from time to time and by getting an app that tracks your website ranking.  I like to use an app called SEO Ranking.  It keeps track of your placement in Google.

Iphone – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seo-search-ranking/id320423449?mt=8

Android – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leonhuang.seosearchranking&hl=en

Most likely if your website is showing on the first page of google, you are top ranking on all the other search engines.

If you would like more information on optimizing your website, or getting a free optimized website by being a member of the Appraiser’s Club, please visit http://appraisersclub.com for more information and to attend one of our free webinars!

I hope you found this helpful!!

Bryan Knowlton

http://appraisersclub.com