Author: Aaron McManus

  • REVEALED: Your Real Estate Website is NOT Responsive? You’re Losing Up To 40% Of Your Leads

    REVEALED: Your Real Estate Website is NOT Responsive? You’re Losing Up To 40% Of Your Leads

    This is a Carrot Test Kitchen post – that’s where we break down the secrets of lead generation (building traffic & converting) to help YOU grow your real estate investment business.
    UPDATED 2/24/14 with thanks to Chris Clothier from memphisinvest.com and new screenshots.

    Is your real estate investor website mobile responsive? Having a responsive real estate investor website is important because of the types of devices users now have access to. If your website is not responsive then you need to find a template that is…quick.

    In other words… Does your real estate investing website automatically adapt for the screen on the device that your customer is using to look great to the customer so they engage in your website more easily? Responsive optimized real estate investing websites are critical.

    (Try our free test to instantly see how your website looks on mobile devices <— Click here)

    mobile-search-is-growing
    Every year the % of searches online with mobile devices (cell phones, ipads, etc.) is growing… which means more and more of your website visitors are viewing your website on their phone! Is your website setup *correctly* to handle that? See how below…

    Even though a huge amount of internet use is taking place on tablets, mobiles and other devices, a frightening amount of real estate investor websites aren’t responsive for mobile users.

    Smartphone visits account for a huge share of the growth of the internet.

    People are using their mobile devices more frequently for local search – and that matters a lot for real estate investors.

    Google says that 40% of mobile searches are local in nature, which seems obvious once you think about it. People are using their phones to access information while they’re out and about. That trend is going to continue rising, and fast.

    If your real estate website is set up to convert well, it can easily capture leads from someone who is searching while stuck in their car, waiting in line, or killing a few spare minutes before a meeting.

    Plus, more and more people ditch getting a full on computer for their house and just use their cell phone to browse the internet and check their email.

    Too many real estate investor websites are losing huge amounts of conversions just by not being ready for them.

    So back to the main question…

    If you’re not, you should be checking out the InvestorCarrot demo video right now.

    But don’t worry… you’re not alone on optimizing for a responsive real estate investing websites.

    I’ll use an example from a really smart and successful investor now – just to show that even great real estate investors aren’t optimized for mobile.

    This guy has already been named to Inc’s 500 list and is one of Tennessee’s fastest growing businesses, so he’s doing a lot of things right. He’s working really hard to build an awesome business, and it shows.

    ((My thanks to Chris Clothier from memphisinvest.com – I just spoke to him about using his site as an example… and he’s right, it would have been more polite for me to ask permission first… I have never been good at asking first, but I’m trying to get better, so here’s my apologies along with my thanks to him for being a good sport.))

    His site’s template isn’t responsive… it doesn’t automatically adjust the layout to make it easier for mobile phone users, which may or may not (depending on their device) be able to play the video on his home page.

    His site’s menus will be very difficult to use on a touch screen, and chances are good that he’ll lose any mobile users who may have been interested in his products and services.

    memphis-iphone

    Just to be fair, Chris does have a nice looking website – here’s a desktop photo below.

     

    There’s a few things I’d change to make it convert better, make it mobile optimized (obviously) and things like adding a first-step opt-in form to capture email addresses right on the front page before going to a longer form (that’s a feature we’ve used to get huge conversion rates on our cash buyer sites, but I’ll save that for another post).

    Most important takeaway for sites like Chris’: make an offer on the front page with a short form to capture basic info. If someone only has a few moments to access your site, make it very simple and clear. Chris is primarily targeting investors, so access to investment properties or a free report would probably convert well right on that main site.

     

    Here’s an example of one of our mobile optimized real estate investor sites that’s converting really well with a clear call to action:

     

    As you can see, the call to action is clear and they’re taking some basic contact info on the main page… once a buyer opts in, that person will be taken to a second page that collects just a little more information on the buyer… that’s a opportunity to qualify accredited investors who are willing to “raise their hands” during that second step of the process.

    Now let’s see how that translates to the mobile optimized screen:

    As you can see above, the page has automatically changed its layout… because the site is mobile optimized, like all InvestorCarrot sites. There is a clear call to action at the top that is easily legible and clickable: “Join our Hot Properties List Here”, plus a “navigation” menu and the ability to keep scrolling.

    Here’s what the navigation menu looks like when clicked:

    As you can see, the choices fill the screen so it’s easy for a mobile user to click the options (instead of having to pull-zoom and click really small links, which usually ends up in a frustrated user… and frustrated users don’t opt-in, they leave.

    And if a visitor to the site scrolls down past the navigation menu, they’ll get to an easy form to get access to the properties:

     

    As you can see, the Call to Action at the bottom is clear and it fills up the screen, plus the form is short – only 4 choices, easy to fill out on a mobile device. This website will help convert mobile visitors into actual customers and leads… not bounce them away in frustration.

    Want to see how your site looks on mobile devices?

    Ready to take your business to the next level?

    Get a mobile responsive lead generation machine launched in just minutes:

    Sign up for InvestorCarrot ← Watch the demo now!

  • How Affiliate Marketers Can Use the Storytelling Secrets of Pixar to Make Money

    How Affiliate Marketers Can Use the Storytelling Secrets of Pixar to Make Money

    Quick Note – Our Affiliate Contest is Taking Off! There’s a few people leading the pack, but there’s plenty of room for you to jump in. Go check out the contest now – and if you’re not already an InvestorCarrot Affiliate, sign up here – it’s fast and free!

    You know Pixar is the ONLY movie company never to take a loss, right?

    All of their movies have been successes at the box office (although Cars 2 was kind of a dud, it still earned big $$$$).

    Their secret storytelling formula was leaked and tweeted out, and when we saw it… whoa! It’s pure gold for anyone who is engaged in affiliate marketing – really, content marketing in general. You know why?

    Storytelling is the key to successful sales.

    No matter how good of a storyteller you are, you can always be better.

    We’ve got a powerful video for you here… even tho the audio is pretty lame, the content is great.

    In the time it takes to watch an episode of the Office, you could be lining up the strategy that will make you thousands of dollars – and help you win some cool stuff in our affiliate contest.

    In this video you’ll learn:

    • The exact formula Pixar has used to write every single movie they’ve made – (none of their movies have ever taken a loss – that’s a first in Hollywood)
    • How to use Pixar’s character development tricks to create sales content that builds trust, credibility, and engages your audience more than ever before
    • Fast, easy ways to get “unstuck” when you’ve got writers block and are struggling to put out that next content piece
    • Why you should never ever try to make “perfect” content… and why you should always begin at the end to get the best results.

    You’re not already signed up???

    Join our Affiliate Program now!

     

  • Don’t read this if you’re already earning over $50,000 per month.

    Don’t read this if you’re already earning over $50,000 per month.

    We’re looking for a few good partners…

    Wanna grow your passive income with Carrot and help other investors succeed at the same time?

    So, interesting story…

    Over the last 6 months or so we’ve had lots of Carrot customers ask us this question…

    “I love InvestorCarrot! Can I refer other people to Carrot and earn a commission on the referral?”

    We were so darn focused on creating a great product for real estate investors looking for the best possible system for generating inbound traffic and leads… we neglected to let our members spread the word about our system.

    So we did create an affiliate program (we call it our Partner Program) last year… and as you’ll see today and in the coming week… we’re really rolling out our efforts to support our Partners in an even bigger way now. More on that in a bit.

    But back to our customers.

    We now have a bunch of Carrot customers who joined our Partner Program and are making solid passive income helping other investors leverage our system.

    We even have a few customers who are selling consulting locally… then setting their clients up on InvestorCarrot and making money helping them leverage our system (while the client pays THEM money each month).

    Our biggest referral Partners currently get checks in the thousands each month as passive income (and we haven’t even made it easy for them to promote us up until this point!)

    Crazy, right?

    So the other day, I was at a party talking to a powerful executive for a huge company. I told him that another business owner was using our system to make 5X more than we were charging by leveraging our platform and helping his clients get great results for their real estate investment businesses. 

    He told me to immediately fire that guy, because we were “leaving money on the table”.

    But I laughed at him. I don’t think he gets it.

    He was telling me all about how I needed to hire a bunch more folks and “capture the market”.

    That’s what made me crack up: I started picturing the Monopoly guy trapped in a cage. “We captured the market!”

    Ha!

    Ok, maybe it’s not so funny…

    But that’s how the old Titans of Industry used to think! And clearly, some of them still do.

    This guy is part of that old set, and frankly I think he’s struggling.

    That part isn’t funny at all… it’s sad.

    His first thought is how he can crush the market and take every cent of profit out of it for himself…

    … our mindset is “How can we work with our Carrot customers to help THEM make even more money by leveraging our system even more… to help OTHER people in the process?”.

    We realize (and so do our most successful Carrot members) that there’s more than enough wealth and income to go around… if we just provide a ton of value to those we’re out there to help.  Heck, even if you and 10 other investors are in the exact same city and you all use Carrot… it’s not a bad thing. It can actually be a good thing.

    Other investors aren’t your competitors… they’re your potential collaborators… and the more you can help THEM be successful… the more successful you’ll be.

     

    That guy above is not thinking like a successful investor.

    He’s thinking like someone who is just now realizing exactly how much retirement is going to cost him, since that Golden Parachute didn’t inflate the way he’d hoped.

    He’s thinking like someone who is insecure. He doesn’t have the confidence of a seasoned real estate investor and he thinks that by someone else doing well that it detracts from him (which is the opposite of the truth).

    I’ve been really lucky in my life – I’ve gotten to meet a lot of ultra-rich people. Most of them radiate confidence. Some haven’t been able to shake the insecurity of poverty. But the really wealthy ones – not necessarily the ones with the most money… but the people who are truly secure in life… those people shine.

    This guy was not shining.

    But listen, I told him.

    “We don’t want them to stop making money off of our platform. Our company’s goal is to help people make money and improve their lives and the lives of others off of what we’ve built. It’s pretty great for all of us actually.”

    That’s called a platform business, I told him – and I pulled out my iPhone to explain.

    The iPhone is a great example of a platform business. It brought together people who never knew they needed each other.

     

    16-must-have-iphone-apps-for-broadcastingI mean, come on – 10 years ago, who knew that 100 million people needed Angry Birds?

    But seriously – we’re building InvestorCarrot because we want to plant something powerful and watch it grow. We want a huge harvest so everyone can feast together.

    InvestorCarrot is a platform business because it brings people together on a common platform and lifts up everyone who chooses to leverage it well.

     

    Being a platform business means that other people will get rich off our system… not just one “owner” – but a whole community of people building wealth together.

    And that’s fine by us. We love helping people to build wealth.

    Wealth beyond just money… Personal wealth, emotional wealth, spiritual wealth – there are so many layers to the emotional intangibles of fulfillment, what makes us deeply satisfied with life, and stable for a strong future.

    See, wealth never happens without relationships – not just who you know, but how you interact with other people… In business, relationships are worth a ton.

    We’re big believers in the power of collaboration.

     

    InvestorCarrot helps people to grow.

    Wealth building is about boosting up other people – it’s about community development. We’re developing our local community – and the InvestorCarrot community.

     

    We’re Looking For A Few Good Partners

    We don’t want just anyone. We want strong minded people who think like business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs.

    Entrepreneurs who want to build wealth for themselves, their families, and their communities by helping others succeed.

    There’s a few ways that InvestorCarrot can help those kind of people to earn great money – even big bucks.

    I’m going to get into specifics, but first – indulge me as I tell you a story about the heart, soul and meaning of our company:

    We know we’ve built a pretty awesome system, and it’s working really well.

    In just the past week I’ve talked to two different users of our system that are new investors.

    Separate mentors referred each of them to InvestorCarrot just a couple of months ago to build their very first sites and start generating leads.

    They paid for the training, they worked really hard in their local markets, and they are each closing multiple deals this month.

    There were a couple of stumbles.

    It wasn’t easy. They were scared. They took risks that might not have paid off… but they did.

    They’ve each already made over $15,000 in the past 45 days from leads they got on the system. They’re on the way to more deals. Leads are coming in every day because they built a solid marketing engine for their business. (NOTE: Does this mean it’ll happen to you too? Nope. These members decided to make it work, put in the focus, and did what we instructed. No excuses. Just action.)

    Dude, I can’t tell you how happy that makes us.

    It’s not just about the money.

    It’s allowed at least one single mom (that I know about) to quit her job and focus on building her investment business full-time.

    She’s able to live the dream of being her own boss – and making a lot more money than she was getting in a paycheck.

    That matters so much. My mom was a single mom… I watched her struggle to pay the bills, crying when she couldn’t afford enough groceries… So it’s deeply personal for me and very satisfying to be a part of a team that’s helping single moms to become financially independent.

    Now, that won’t work like that for everyone. There are a lot of factors that create the success of a real estate investor. Luck plays a huge role.

    Hey, we all wanna get lucky, right? ;)

    But back to our story:

    We started with websites for real estate investors – and that will always be our main focus and niche.

    Real estate is very special, and we love it. It’s the best single way to build wealth that we know of when you do it right.

    We’re Real Estate Entrepreneurs.

    Just Like You.

    We want what you want – lifestyles of freedom and autonomy. Our goal is not to work insane amounts of hours shackled to a cubicle – like you, we love to get out there and enjoy life. Our investments work for us – we don’t want to get stuck working for our investments.

    We prefer to grow our business just like real estate – with leverage.

    By leveraging our system as one of our referral Partners, you can add a big check from us to your bank account each month.

    We’re already paying a few dozen affiliates some decent sized checks simply for telling others about InvestorCarrot and how it can help them grow their own real estate business.

    Remember that guy I mentioned in the beginning?

    The one who is making thousands of dollars each month by providing a great consulting service and leveraging our system for their websites?

    I want to tell you a little bit more about what he’s doing, but I can’t tell you the details yet… so forgive me if I seem a little vague.

    But he’s doing something that we do too… it’s a behavior we really seek in partners… remember? Leverage… exerting minimal effort for maximum result.

    He’s leveraging his real estate investment knowledge by helping out other entrepreneurs. He’s charging a lot for his services, of course.

    He’s acting as a mentor in so many ways… he’s providing expertise on marketing, strategy and more.

    There’s a ton that this guy is doing to add value for his clients, and it makes them money each month while the leads pour in through their InvestorCarrot sites.

    He provides the service… then has his clients get websites setup on InvestorCarrot because it’s fast, easy, and effective.

    Who Is The Perfect Person For Our Partner Program?

    We absolutely LOVE our bigger partners… the people who can send a ton of customers our way each month (50+).  But they’re few and far between.

    However, our favorite people to have in our Partner Program are our InvestorCarrot users who are using the system themselves… getting results… see the benefits… and become evangelists for us and spread the word far and wide.

    Like Adrian N. out of West Virginia who has been a Carrot member for quite a while… and has already referred over 7 or 8 other new members… who are also now getting great results.

    Like David B. out of New York who is an active investor himself… but also an expert online marketer. He’s now consistently referring members over simply because he uses Carrot himself… loves it… and its quick and easy to get rolling (even if you’re an advanced online marketer like him).

    Like Scott C. and now a new Partner Sharon V. who are active investors… but also well respected bloggers. They are paying InvestorCarrot members themselves and spread the word about their experience with InvestorCarrot to other investors through our Partner Program… and earn commission each and every month in the process.

    We want Partners who are hungry to grow, hungry to help others, and hungry to add another stream of income to their bank account each month.

    If you’re earning less than $50k a month right now in your business… helping us spread the Carrot word and platform to other investors can help you add an extra $100, $500, $1k, $3k/mo+ to your bottom line.

    All I know is that I want hungry people who are on their way to huge wealth to team up with InvestorCarrot. We’re planting a big garden together, and we want to share the harvest.

    If that sounds like you…

    Head over to the affiliate center and register as an affiliate – it only takes a minute.

    Join Our Partner Program >>

    Once you do, you’ll have access to a lot of materials, banner ads and way more cool stuff… plus the inside scoop on some great new ways to earn major cash that will be released soon.

    Let’s build wealth for you… it starts by clicking here now.