Do you already hold workshops and training sessions with Real Estate Professionals? Are you already a Certified e-PRO Trainer? Maybe it's time to consider adding REW to your trainer offerings and become an REW™ Trainer.  For additional details, keep reading or visit our Trainer Page here.

Become an REW™ Trainer and extend your training offerings while earning generous sales commissions AND bonuses. Sign up now!

Getting Started - 3 Easy Steps

1. Complete Application :: Fill out this form in our Trainer System. (ensure you can meet the Trainer Requirements

2. REW™ Certified :: A free user account will be supplied to you to complete the certification. ((Note their is a $75 registration fee. If already an e-PRO Trainer, email ScottLau [at] Webographers.com as your registration fee is waived.)

3. Sales Domain :: A sales domain like jhicks.Webographers.com is created for you upon completion of the certification.

Trainer Requirements

Trainers should be in good REW™ Certification standing in order to lead by example.

Commissions and Bonsues

Commissions for both single user and broker account sales are 25% of the current sale price and are paid on a monthly basis. See for yourself how much you can earn!

Single User Sales

Commission on a single user account is 25% of the current sale price (including a 15% discount). Commission around $45 each.

Broker Accounts

Multi-User Package - Brokers are billed one time. REW™ Trainers earn 25% commission of the sale price of the broker account.

Monthly Subscriptions - Brokers are billed monthly for 12 months (or the term of the agreement). REW™ Trainers earn 25% commission every month of "Monthly Packages".

Plus Bonuses - Bonuses are offered as an added incentive. If you reach these sales milestones, you get more!

Sign up TODAY!

Recently featured in Inman News, Scott Einbinder wrote an excellent article, entitled "Death of the listing presentation", calling to attention the ineffectiveness of today's current listing presentations.

This article really hit home - sellers don't want to know every accolade you've earned, they don't want to be drowned with pretty graphs and a host of facts and figures, and they definitely don't need slide after slide of AVMs and CMAs they can easilly obtain on their own. All of these things are great, but 1 or 2 slides in an entire listing presentation would easilly suffice.

They want a plan - no - they want a detailed plan of how you intend to sell their home. Not a series of advertising actions, but a well laid out plan, including the services you will use, and how they jive with one another to create an overall marketing campaign.

Scott Einbinder thinks we should change the name of the process from a Listing Presentation to a Listing Education, and I couldn't agree more. RE agents need to educate their consumers on the services available, which ones they use, and how they are effective. It is this sort of presentation that will capture sellers and turn prospects into clients.

Webography - is the art or practice of establishing a seamless web presence through the selection of various web-based applications, joined together through basic and applied web techniques.

Webographer - doer of Webography.

REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ - denotes standards in applied web techniques and adherence to the Commitment Document as set forth by the National Institute of Webographers, LLC (Webographers.com); the owner of the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ certification mark.

Unified Approach to Real Estate Web Applications
Webography implies using out-of-the-box solutions, joined together for your web presence (like a puzzle). When one considers business requirements like an agent website, virtual/online tours, electronic forms and online transaction management--is there one, all-inclusive service provider in existence of these technologies? The answer to that question is regretfully no.

An agent must establish customer relationships with various service providers, being mindful of how they can be joined together for seamless functionality, look, and appearance. After selection of these service providers, the agent or assistant applies basic web techniques, to establish a seamless web presence. Such efforts to establish a seamless web presence includes: selecting products “natively” compatible with each other, ensuring the same personal and corporate branding is applied across all web applications, selecting similar color schemes and much more.

This process is an evolution from traditional web design to establish and maintain an agent’s real estate, web presence. It empowers agents and their assistants the ability to self-serve their business objectives online the easy way. There are many providers of web-based applications for real estate, thus it may be a challenge for real estate professionals to choose the right services that best fits his or her endeavors and budget.

The REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ certification curriculum covers an array of web-centric technologies and services.  Although educating on the value-proposition of each distinct technology competency, the unified approach towards a seamless, all-inclusive web presence is carried through the educational experience.

The National Institute of Webographers is dedicated to the professional development of RE agents, brokers and assistants on emerging, online technologies by offering the most inclusive, consumer-facing RE technology certification program available today.

In our continued commitment, brought forth with sponsoship by Blogging Systems (those who "wrote the book" on blogging -- Realty Blogging), we are proud to formally announce the addition of Blogs as the 12th course in our REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ (REW) certification program.

To see the official press release, click here.

Blogs :: Whats Inside

The Blogging Course focuses on the importance of utilizing blogs for both the corporate franchise and brokerage, as well as the individual RE professional. It demonstrates how a proficient blogger can verbalize their viewpoints to their blogging audience, as well as position themselves as an expert on any subject matter they choose - for instance - themselves, the RE profession or community; virtually anything they feel they can convey useful information about.

Beyond teaching RE professionals the importance of blogs, the course also includes the marketing advantages of:

-- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing - "Better Listings On Google"

-- Direct communications - With your potential customers and existing ones

-- Brand Building - Market yourself as a brand, not just an individual

-- Competitive differentiation - Differing yourself from your competition

-- Relationship Marketing - Marketing yourself by building relationships with others

-- Niche Exploitation - Finding and utilizing the gaps within your market

-- Media & Public Relations - People will contact you based on your projected expertise

Blogs :: Look, Touch & Feel

As with many of the courses in the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™, hands-on activities are available as optional activities allowing candidates to wrap their five senses around the subject matter. The candidate is provided access and guidance to items that will aid them in becoming a successful blogger such as:

-- WYSIWYG Editor - "What You See Is What You Get", commonly found in blogging software, the course shows you what's "under the hood" of this online blogging aid with real life scenarios.

-- Blog Formatting - Examples of the common Do's and Don'ts of formatting a meaningful blog for your audience.

-- Web 2.0 - Given the age of social networking sites and features, blogging, widgets, and much more, a blog WYSIWYG editor is now part of the suite of demo applications included in the REW "sandbox" - thus allowing you to become more comfortable with the technology.

-- See a Sample! - To view a sample of the course, please click here.

Blogs are here to stay, and if used properly, can be an extremely valuable tool when utilized for consumer-centric communications in the Real Estate industry.

Over the course of a conversation and dealings with a potential client, clients come to realize the acronym soup of real estate (NAR, C.A.R., VA, etc.).  At first mention in your email signature block or logo on your website of your designations / certifications, clients may not understand the value behind what you have earned, nor why it sets you apart.  These trade terms become part of the acronym soup that separates you from your clients (REW, CRB, CRS, GRI, etc).

I have a few friends involved with computer programming and I have heard them use acronyms like OOA, OOD, or J2EE over in passing. Of course, any person out of the computer programming field would probably not understand them and trust me, you don't want to. Even their meanings - OOA - Object Oriented Analysis, will escape most people. (By the way, OOD - Object Oriented Design, and J2EE - Java 2 Enterprise Edition)

So why not break down these verbal barriers and work with your clients on a common ground?  In a face to face meeting, you would probably take special care to explain these Real Estate trade terms to your clients, so why not on your website as well? 

One approach to achieve this would be to create your own "Certifications / Designations" web page within your website.  Organize these trade terms into seperate web pages detailing the designations and certifications you have earned, as well as the associations you are affiliated.   Display a logo and include a brief description (2-3 sentences)  to let your clients know what you have accomplished.

Clients are more than likely to work with an agent, broker or virtual assistant that stands apart from the crowd, so sell yourself, AND your RE marks along with your product. Let the folks who could be your new clients know that the letters after your name are more than just that.

While at the Inman Conference today, I met up with Mark Lesswing, NAR senior vice president and chief technology officer.  Fantastic gentleman who moderated numerous sessions at Inman.  He let me know that 2007 Realtor® Technology Survey was hot-off-the-press today. 

As the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER certification evolved from research and findings, many of which came from the Center for Realtor Technology (CRT) surveys, studies and whitepapers, we wanted to see where technology adoption stands with today's agents and brokers.   We concluded that technology adoption and implementation remains well-behind-the-times; that through technology awareness and adoption training with the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER (REW) Certification, these less-than-optimal findings can improve.
 

MLS-CMA
"Ninety-four percent include a CMA as part of their listing presentation. The majority is satisfied overall with the CMA program furnished by their MLS; still about 35 percent were either somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. The ability to personalize design was the number one area that was deemed 'needing to be improved the most.'" 

• Take-away 1 - Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is still an agent/brokers' own design, hand-crafted through their own special recipe to produce a personalized, well-branded CMA, where the MLS (along with supplemental data from county / public information sources) just provides data/maps/etc.

• Take-away 2 - Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) or Property Report is crafted using a 3rd-party tool, like AgentAVM.com or RETS-compliant eNeighborhoods.com for example, where data is "pulled" from the MLS to craft a professional CMA-document.

• Take-away 3 - As far back as I've looked, the #1 issue with the MLS-CMA tool (having "the ability to personalize" CMAs) is at least 4 years in the running.  Either vendors of MLS solutions are not listening to their end-users, or take-aways 1 & 2 above are driving factors for not "enhancing" the MLS-CMA tool, as agents/brokers have other prescribed methods.
   

Agent Websites
"Approximately two-thirds, of respondents have their own real estate agent business Web site." 

• Take-away 1 - 1/3 of all agents do not have a website...there is still more do be done to further awareness and adoption as with the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER certification.  Moreover, this 1/3 is likely to not have a personalized "business" email that is an extension of their website, their web presence, their marketing. This means that agents who utilize free email addresses such as johndoe1234@hotmail.com immediately lose a sense of "branding"  as discussed within our "Agent Website Course".  Consider referral business where emails originated from agent are forwarded.  Given Me@GregDugan.com, the email directly implies a web presence for my business and that of my listings at www.GregDugan.com.
   

Automated Transaction Management
"Twenty-three percent of respondents use a transaction management system...Sixty-nine percent of those respondents who are not currently participating in an automated transaction management system are interested or very interested in participating."

• Take-away 1 - Adoption rate remains low.  However, implementation of an online transaction management system as a consumer-facing solution, lends itself to agents/brokers immediately differentiating themselves given adoption, as others do not offer this convenience to consumers and peer real estate professionals.
   
• Take-away 2 - Interest remains high.  National Institute of Webographers speaks to the 69% of interested or highly interested.  It is now time for agents and brokers to engage training on the value-proposition of Transaction Mgmt, strategies on adoption and implementation, and the ability to play with live applications while a candidate within the REW Certification.

In conclusion, amongst other findings in the survey, it reaffirms that the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER (REW) certification is the solution to less-than-optimal (almost dismal) findings within the 2007 Realtor® Technology Survey. REW creates a heightened sense of awareness to today's technologies that increase the agent/broker's reach with a full-service web presence for Internet-savvy consumers, while further marketing their brand image.  Simply stated, differentiation through REW certification, also means differentiating yourself with implementation of technologies; as your peers in this survey may elect to stay behind the times.
 

Extremely proud day at the National Institute of Webographers.

ZipForm®, the real estate industry's leading brand of forms software, today announced that its solutions, along side the RELAY™ Transaction System, have been selected as official sponsors of competencies within the REAL ESTATE WEBOGRAPHER™ certification. While ZipForm® has been named the official sponsor of the electronic forms competency, RELAY™ has been designated sponsor of the online transaction management category.   

View Press Release here.

Truths about Electronic Forms

Electronic Forms technology is commonly provided as "inclusive" of Realtor® member dues.  As with ZipForm, accessibility is made available via desktop, online, or from a mobile device.  ZipForm is currently used by 400,000+ Realtors and RE professionals, and is available to 1.4 million Realtors.

Electronic Forms applications include form libraries (standardization in the “look” of all forms), error-handling in form input, and the ability to minimize redundant data entry. Additional components for conducive paperless activity includes digital signatures applied to electronic forms, integration of forms software with the MLS, CRM and online transaction management (OTM) systems.

Transaction Management :: Consumer-facing Interface to Electronic Forms

If consumers engage online banking, they are ready (and expect) online transaction mgmt solutions. 

Besides streamlining transactional paperwork for brokers, agents, assistants, and peer professionals such as Title/Escrow, transaction mgmt (online) is the "consumer-facing" technology that highlights procedures that were commonly overlooked, undervalued, or under-appreciated by consumers...executing the volumes of transactional paperwork. 

Given the array of technologies on the market, transaction management solutions have the highest potential for growth in adoption-rates by real estate professionals. Online transaction management solutions, when adopted, remain the strongest differentiating factor between brokers/agents who provide such all-inclusive, online services to clients compared to those who do not.

ZipForm / WINForms & RELAY
RELAY™ allows the tracking and management of all information related to a real estate transaction from listing through closing; allows users to enable assistants, other agents or transaction facilitators to participate in the process; and features one-click integration with ZipForm® and WINForms Online®, the electronic forms software used by nearly 400,000 REALTORS® nationwide.

National Institute of Webographers is extremely proud to showcase these two products to candidates of the REW certification, providing every candidate demo accounts to these applications to experience their functionality and native integration; to further comprehension and hands-on understanding to today's Electronic Forms and Online Transaction Mgmt solutions.

As a result of valuable feedback from both our trusted certificant holders and students as well as our many site visitors, this week, the National Institute of Webographers has announced our release of Webographers.com 2.0. To read the entire press release, please click here.

The entire effort was two fold (1) to upgrade our "external look, feel and navigation" and (2) to continue to push the envelope in delivering the most powerful and effective real estate training availabe online today.

Enhanced Learning Experience

Here at Webographers.com, we are always looking to remain on the cutting edge of online technology training. Our enhancements in 2.0 have helped us deliver an even greater "self paced, self directed" technology experience that our certificants have available to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

The Big 3

Every business enterprise has a target audience - a group they feel can really benefit from the services they are offering. In 2007, NIW has placed great emphasis on more clearly defining and speaking to this audience - that is of our "Big 3" - AGENTS, BROKERS, and ASSISTANTS. In doing so, our first major step was to build a site navigation system customized to their wants and needs, and we believe we have succeeded. The look and feel of the site is greatly improved as well as our clear message of the necessity to partake in Online Real Esate Technology Training through REW.

"REW is not just a certification to mention in an email signature block, but a real estate technology experience in consumer-facing RE Technologies," said Marc Grayson, president and founder of NIW.

Although we have a new look, our long standing message remains strong: Are you ready to embrace real estate technologies?

Laura Monroe, president & owner of Creative Agent Solutions, conducted an interview with Marc Grayson, President &  Founder of the National Institute of Webographers.

Interview for Virtual Assistants
This interview, conducted in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant Group at Active Rain, examined the applicability of the REW™ certification for the audience of Virtual Assistants. The interview can be found at Laura's ActiveRain Post.

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Learn More About Creative Agent Solutions

Providing "real estate support and virtual assistance for agents and brokers", Creative Agent Solutions can maintain and administer online real estate Marketing, Listing Coordination, and administrative tasks.

-- Input new listings into MLS and manage updates/changes.
-- Enter listings into KWLS (Keller Williams Associates only)
-- Set up & manage showing feedback system
-- Order/Create/Post Virtual Tours
-- Enhance REALTOR.com listings
-- Design a professional color flyer or brochure
-- Create & send Just Listed/Sold Postcards
-- Design flyers, luxury property brochures, postcards, and multi-media presentations
-- Prepare and send newsletters
-- Manage neighborhood websites
-- Customize Point 2 Agent websites
-- Write, create & record IVR recordings (audio tours, hotlines)
-- Design & create print ads approved by you
-- and so much more!

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Learn about VAs...from VAs
For those interested in learning more about Virtual Assistants, or submitting an RFP, please check out the REVA Group (private group where you must ask for permission) at ActiveRain.

In the current world, where emails have replaced phone calls and web-meetings have replaced face-to-face meetings, Virtual Assistants (VAs) are rapidly becoming a more practical answer to the many gaps a small OR large business may have in pure muscle.

Virtual Staffing Agencies (and independent, freelance VAs) are constantly touting the myriad of reasons why VAs have become a profitable solution - they possess many skills already, they "work" online to facilitate support across state lines, eager and motivated to acquire just about any knowledge they don't already have. In addition, they only bill the hours they work, as they are not employees on salary...and the list goes on.

With regards to technical tasks, the list is virtually limitless to the number and types of things a VA can tackle. In this article, we are going to bring to light a few ideas that any RE firm can implement directly or hopefully spark more ideas to more completely and successfully utilize a VA.

1.) VAs can provide valuable advice and guidance for your website(s)

Whether it is customizing a current agent website you already possess and run on your own, or maybe it's creating a brand new site, a VA possesses the skills to design a custom template or adapt a template, and can maintain it on a regular basis, adding/removing listings or information as needed.

This expertise would be invaluable for any RE professional interested in keeping a listing of properties on their agent site. This would also be an excellent asset when creating and or maintaining single property websites, 1 website (URL) dedicated to 1 property. Its often said that many agents/brokers purchase technology, but never use it, as finding time during your day can be a limiting factor.

2.) Make your virtual storefront visible

Once you have a web storefront, how do you attract site-visitors? The answer is something known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a process of improving the ranking of your site amongst various web crawlers (or search engines). Generally, the higher the ranking, the earlier a site will appear in search results, which yields more site visitors. A VA can customize your site to utilize key words which can be submitted, along with your site name, on a weekly (or even daily) basis to increase your rankings as well as your site volume. They can also solicit other websites to reference (link to) the agent website...activities you simply may not have time for but are critical in SEO.

3.) Take your site to the next level

Your VA can take your agent website or single property site an additional step further with the creation of virtual tours. You've heard of them, you've seen them on other's sites, but you just don't have the time to learn how to create or execute one? Assign it to your VA! After you have sent the photographs, your VA can utilize their computer to create, finalize and publish virtual tours for each of your properties.

4.) Manage your important documentation

Your VA can even manage your paperwork for you, all virtually! For example, you have routine paperwork that must be executed through the life-span of a transaction. Simply fax your hand-written information to your VA. The VA enters the info into your standard form and faxes to the proper location OR they can even utilize online transaction management as a central repository for all your documentation needs. Your VA can maintain this repository for you, facilitating document execution of clients and peer real estate professionals throughout the lifespan of the transaction.

With the technology available today, VAs are definitely a viable resource for your business entity. The examples above are only a fraction of the types of activities VAs can accomplish that easilly puts them to work as more than just an assistant. Rather, they become your partner.