In an effort to help you continue your dominance in 2012, here is your definitive guide to throwing the best garage sale ever. Thanks to the folks over at Lifehacker and our own methods, this guide will help your clients move more merchandise than anyone else on the block.

Ramp Up Your Marketing

Just like in business, you need to be thinking about your ideal customer. Take an inventory of the merchandise you’ll be selling and what type of clientele you want to attract. Then build your marketing campaign around that.

Putting signs up all over town saying exactly what people can expect to find at your sale is far more effective. On the note of signage, here’s the rundown on what you should be doing:

• Everywhere. Place signs anywhere, and everywhere, legal and logical. Weatherproof where it’s appropriate. Good starting points are community centers, local shops and nearby college campuses.
• Snacks. You wouldn’t be caught dead at a mixer that didn’t have food and drinks. People flock to free snacks, so throw some sodas and chips or popsicles in a cooler.
• Free. Consider having a “Free” box to attract more visitors. Don’t forget to advertise this or the snacks.
• Detail. Can we agree putting Today on a sign isn’t enough? You need the full address, time and date. Place signs days in advance to, so the pros have time to prep.
• Online. Lastly, consider posting on Craigslist and eBayClassfieds. You wouldn’t even think about selling a house without listing online, the same should be true for your yard junk.

Run a Tight Ship

It’s time to put your Junior Target Store Layout hat on. Don’t just throw everything into boxes and put out on your lawn. You’d never find Men’s Boxer Briefs in the Women’s Lingerie section. Likewise, I don’t want to see clothes thrown into electronics boxes or children’s toys in the art pile.

Consider displaying you choice merchandise in prime locations. Keep that Free Box in the middle if you can, so people have to pass through other items to get to it. Put clothing on hangers. Run an extension cord to the area multimedia/electronic section. This helps people test out before they buy.

You want to create a pleasurable shopping experience. Don’t take this section for granted. If you walked into a store with merchandise strewn about the place, with endless piles of junk and no clear pricing system you’d be out of there in no time. The same is true for your yard sale.

Be Prepared For The Pros

Finally, you need to be ready for the pros and the amateurs alike. There are people who love to haggle – I am not one of them. You need to be ready to counter offers that are thrown at you. If someone says,

How about two books for 50 cents?

You should be ready to fire back 75¢! Sure the books are marked 50¢, and yes you are technically losing money, but if you give a mouse a cookie…

Also, be ready with plenty of change on hand and consider taking credit cards. Using any iPhone or Android you can use a service like Square or Paypal Here, and not have to deal with cash only buyers. There is a small service fee with either option, but it’s better than having to keep that ugly armoire, right?

Action!

You are now equipped to have the best yard sale experience of your life! OK, that might be a bit over the top, but still if you want to move the merch follow these tips.

What did we leave out, is there anything you’d add to the list?

Photo Credit

Wouldn’t it be nice to know where the pitfalls are though, before you make those mistakes? Hindsight is 20/20 after all. Here are the top 4 things I wish someone had told me before I started the show, blogging and using video.

Know What You’re Getting Into

Like most things in life, observing before you dive in is much more preferable to going in blindfolded. That’s essentially what I did back in 2009 when I started the show that eventually became The Ticker.

Whether you’re starting a blog, getting into video or any other project, this simple step can save you a lot of trouble, help you understand the logistics of the project and get you motivated to take action.

Find someone already engaging in the task you’re looking to adopt and ask if you can shadow them, or if they can mentor you. An easy way to get in good is to volunteer.

Spend Wisely

Today the barrier for entry is low. Video gear isn’t anywhere near as expensive as it used to be, and blogging is generally considered to be an inexpensive pastime. However, as with anything if you’re not careful the expenses can start to add up quickly.

For any new endeavor, take advice from the mentor, or whomever you shadowed, on ways you can be a savvy shopper. Spending wisely requires being smart about your purchases and staying within a budget.

Remember audio is fifty percent of your videos, so don’t blow your entire budget on a camera. Been there, done that. A great theme for your website and blog might cost a bit more, but it’s more than worth it.

One last thing to note, as you get more experienced upgrade your gear. Whether that means new software, a better graphics guy for your marketing pieces or a new lens on your camera, upgrade as you go.

You Signed a Contract

You might think blogging twice a week is crazy, impossible or that you just can’t find the time? Wait until you get the ball rolling, it’ll blow your mind. You’ll be hooked!

Once the expectation is set by the audience, and yourself, it’s hard to stop. You’ve basically signed a social contract that you’ll be addicted to upholding.

Blogging, video and a million other things are addicting once you really get going. Prepare yourself.

Compete With Yourself, No One Else

Run your own race!

Admittedly, this one is hard for me, even today. It’s far too easy to get caught up in the competitiveness of this business. It’s vital to set goals and develop a plan to accomplish them.

The difficult part is using others around you as motivation, instead of getting caught up in some childish comparison contest.

Challenge yourself, reach your goals. Leave all that foolish comparison stuff to the amateurs.

Action!

So, if you had the chance what would you tell yourself?

What are some things you wish you’d have known before you started selling real estate, blogging, etc.?

Photo Credit

As we struggle to recall a forgotten login or password, engineers over at OneID, a San Jose-based start-up launched a beta version of its next generation digital identity service.

Passwords Are So Passé

With OneID, users can ditch all those dodgy and easily forgettable usernames and passwords. Instead opting for a single digital identity to securely log in to websites (across platforms) and pay for online goods.

According to CEO Steve Kirch,

“The idea behind OneID is to move us out of the Stone Age and into a more modern age where we’re using the latest crypto technology so that we can securely log in to websites, so we can share information, authorize transactions, and so forth.”

If you’re anything like me you know exactly what he’s talking about. Latest Crypto Technology? OK, all joking aside, in just a handful of conversations with many within the industry, they loved the idea.

But, before we get too excited there are definitely some concerns worth pumping the brakes over.

Whoa Tonto! Not So Fast.

The dust hasn’t even settled from the announcement yesterday, but already people are questioning the legitimacy of OneID’s claims.

Among the main talking points,

“If Facebook/Twitter/Google can’t do it, I don’t have much confidence for someone without the massive number of users to start off with.”

Followed closely by,

“Why would I want a company to own and have their product be my identity? Not even my personal data, but literally controlling the ability to verify my identity.”

According to OneID all these criticisms are invalid as most, if not all, of the current systems use some sort of username/password functionality, which OneID is going to make obsolete.

Action!

So, amid growing concerns of online identity theft and an internet base incapable of creating good passwords, it seems like this is a necessary step.

Is this service you would use or does this kind of technology concern you?

Fortunately, we can pretty much guarantee your local Board of Realtors won’t be using it for at least another 15 years.

In all honesty, the show absolutely cannot do If this then that justice. It’s a web service you have to see (use) to believe.

Channel Surfing

It all begins with channels.

Channels are the services that IFTTT connects to. Channels are used to fulfill both the this and the that. Here’s a quick example:

If X happens within Channel A, then trigger Y will happen within Channel B.

There are already an amazing number of web API’s included within IFTTT, as well as some standard ones like SMS, weather and email. All the channels work differently, but most can be used as triggers and actions.

Next up are triggers.

Triggers cause a certain task to activate. For instance, here are some triggers for Twitter:

• An @reply directed at you
• A tweet containing a particular #hashtag
• A new tweet by you

Any one of these triggers can cause an action to fire off.

Actions are what happen after a trigger is set off. Actions can range from sending you and email to sending something to your Dropbox account.

Top 3 Tasks

Tasks are easy to set-up. You simply choose a channel and one of its many triggers. Then you decide what action will happen from another channel. Here are some of our favorites:

Automatically reach out to people who say certain things about your company on Twitter

Take any tagged photos of you and save them to Dropbox Send Starred Gmail Messages to Evernote

Action!

“Think of all the things you could do if you were able to define any task as: when something happens (this) then do something else (that).”

According to the creator of If this then that, that’s all this service does. But, when you break things down like this, things are both incredibly simple and mind-blowingly complex at the same time. The principles may be simply, but the possibilities are endless.

So, what’s the first task you’re going to set up?

The main objections we hear involve time and a lack of equipment. Leave it to the amazing people over at Coldwell Banker to provide the industry at large with a fantastic resource about video creation.

Get Your Spielberg On

Imagine the neighborhood tour from this angle!

Here’s why I think video works, and why you should consider it for your business.

• Video is more engaging than other forms of communication. It appeals to more of the senses.
• Video provides an opportunity for you to build trust.
• Video gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your product.

Now that last one might sound strange. It’s important to understand why I didn’t put home there. A home isn’t always going to be the product of your videos. Sometimes the product is past clients, other times it’s you!

In case you need them here are a few stats to help persuade you:

• YouTube has more than 3 billion video views per day
• Listings with video get 20% more leads
• 73% of home sellers prefer an agent that uses video

And that’s just to name a few.

On Location Video 101

Coldwell Banker’s new site On Location Video 101 can be your new go to resource for understand video for real estate. They lay out the steps for creating video with 5 simple steps.

These are the same steps I address when I teach classes about video.

1. Equipment. It’s easy to get distracted from the very beginning with the question of what camera to use. Don’t fall for this trap. It’s possible with today’s technology to capture high-quality video footage cheaply and without much hassle.
2. Prepping. Taking a page right out of my Boy Scout handbook, Be Prepared! Doing proper story-boarding and having checklists in place will ensure a proper shot every time. Or at least help avoid common pitfalls.
3. Filming. You can use the power of video to showcase a home, have past clients talk you up or send out great personal videos without hitting the record button.
4. Editing. By far this is the most daunting task for most agents. Embrace the challenge and refine the technique over time.
5. Marketing. Now that most of the heavily lifting is done you need to get that video in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Learning how to market your video is a crucial step to succeeding with video.

Action!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth ten thousand. That’s why I recommend for agent to use even more of it this coming year.

Is Pinterest the silver bullet that’s going to launch your business into the stratosphere? Maybe… or maybe not, either way email is dead right? No wait it was blogging that was dead. Long live Social!

The truth is none of it is dead – well, maybe BetaMax. All that stuff is really just scuffed up. They lost their luster and shine long ago.

Here’s the little known secret though, it’s OK. Like Seth points out,

Great music wasn’t created by the first people to grab an electric guitar or a synthesizer. Great snowboarding moves didn’t come from the guy who invented the snowboard.

Now that no one is paying attention to hand-written notes their impact is incredible. Now that so few are still writing their own emails, going with canned content instead, the personal touch is immeasurable. Don’t let technology shield you from doing work that’s remarkable.

My filter for technology is pretty simple:

• ROI.
• Will I actually use it?
• Does it place a barrier between me and my client.

That last could say goals, family or work that matters.

Personally, I could geek out all day on the shiniest of objects, but I’m the most interested in what people with the old big thing. How are you crushing it with email? What’s so different about your phone prospecting scripts?

Still some of you don’t have a To-Do list method at all, but deep down you feel the urge to start one. Every day seems more hectic than the last, and you just can’t stand being overwhelmed anymore.

Ever the productivity junkie, it almost pains me to say this: kill your to-do list.

The reasons have stared us in the face for years. They suck up all your time and motivation in one fell swoop. The lists are always too long, you never get to the end and for many of us some of the items never even get done – ever!

That’s enough to sap anyone’s motivation. For those that do manage to keep up with their ever-growing lists, they tend to spend more time on the list than actually getting things done. Since, the only thing that really matters is action, actually doing something.

So, what’s a better system? Well, I’ve had success with two different systems.

The Done List

One of the biggest motivators for people who love To-Do lists is that the feeling of checking something off the list. The only problem is that a to-do list just shows you the steps you need to walk, not the steps to actually take.

To achieve  perspective and motivation you need to make a Done List. Before you say it, I know, it sounds like semantics, but trust me it isn’t. A to-do list is all about planning, whereas, the done list is all about execution! And it’s easier to keep up with than a to-do list.

As you move through your day just keep track of what you’ve actually done. For really competitive people like me it’s incredibly tempting to do “just one more thing” to beat what you accomplished the day before.

There are two easy tools for trying this method. iDoneThis is the ultimate done list that comes to you. It’s a service that emails you every day asking you to reply with everything you’ve done. It takes all the data and places it into a calendar.

If using technology isn’t something you’re interested I’ve heard tales of something called paper.

The One System

This system is much more difficult to follow given our day-to-day activities. However, if you’re looking to break free from lists forever, this is the method for you:

1. Wake up, then decide the one thing you’re excited about getting done.
2. Focus on doing just that.

That’s it! Turn off all distractions and get lost in productivity.

There are two frequent objections to this method:

• How can getting one thing done be that productive? First of all, I didn’t say you only do one thing a day. Depending on the day there are two options once you finish the first task: take the rest of the day off or move to the next One Thing.
• What about email, Facebook, Angry Birds, etc.? We all have routine things that need to get done, but remember that you should always be grooming that list. The more things you put between you and actually executing on the things you need to get done, the further away you’re going to be from achieving any of your goals.

Action!

It’s hard, trust me, but you need to kill your to-do list. Everyone talks about the importance of execution, yet we start our days and weeks off with plans and possibilities, instead of execution, perspective and evaluation.

Which method are you going to try?

Many agents leave meetings, conferences or one on one’s excited about blogging. However, when they start to explore the world of blogging, they get overwhelmed. There are so many options and choices to make:

• Where should you host your site?
• If you’re self-hosting, which service should you go with?
• Which theme/template is the best? There are a million free options and thousands of premium ones.
• Should I hire someone to design it?

And that is just a short list of the many I get asked. The problem is these are all the wrong questions to be asking. Free or premium? Hosted or self-hosted? This theme or that one?

These are distractions from the two questions you really need to be asking:

1. Can I create regularly scheduled, high quality content?
2. Will my content target a niche well enough to attract a loyal following?

The truth is most real estate agents that start blogging quit within the first few months. Take some time to read that sentence again. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

The sheer number of decisions can be overwhelming. Here is what I recommend to all the first time real estate bloggers I talk to and coach:

• Setup. Set up a blog over at WordPress.com.
• Upgrade. Once you have your account set up, upgrade to the premium version. It’s like $17 a year. This will give you the ability to have your own unique domain name. (e.g. realestate.com vs. realestate.wordpress.com)
• Themes. WordPress.com has over 100 hundred attractive themes to choose from. You can upload your own logo and do a bit of customization too.
• Content Creation. Start producing content. Whether that’s videos, audio podcasts or just a written blog. Just do it!

Once you get a real sense of what it’s going to take to be a lean mean content creation machine, that’s when you move onto the next level. Don’t let the analysis by paralysis inhibit you like it does so many other real estate professionals.

Focus on creating great compelling content, and let everyone else worry about all that other stuff.

In addition to the apps below I’d like to also mention we LOVE all of you. Yesterday we hit the 30k views milestone on YouTube. We couldn’t have done it without you, and for that we’re eternally grateful. Now, on to those apps that have us smitten.

Let’s Get Physical

We’ve talked about the importance of nutrition before and study after study has confirmed the benefits of tracking your food in conjunction with what you eat. It’s pretty simple, the more consistent you are about tracking your intake, the more likely you’re to lose weight.

MyFitnessPal makes keeping a food diary and activity log easy. Using this app you can track your weight lose goals and see detailed reports of all your progress. Studies show that 80% of weight lose comes from nutrition, that makes this one of the best app you can use.

Whether you’re still on track with your New Year’s New You, or if you’ve fallen off the wagon and need to get back on, this is the app for you.

Social Navigation, Say What?

Founded in 2009, Waze offers free apps for the iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry and other mobile platforms. Waze is a turn-by-turn navigation for drivers, and at the same time, uses that user data to build out its own maps.

All of that sounds great, but pretty boring. The app really shines when there are issues on the road, such as major traffic jams, all of that information comes in through the app and can be sent to other drivers.

The app relies primarily on crowd sourced data, from driver-created maps, to citizen traffic reports, to community-curated points of interest. In fact, Waze users are reporting a traffic jam every 4.2 second, and an accident every 44 seconds. Use Waze, and help outsmart traffic.

Pinspiration

The cork board social media site has become a runaway hit. Pinterest hit 10 million unique monthly visitor make faster than any independent site in history. It now drives more traffic to sites than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.

We certainly aren’t addicted to Pinterest, like many people we know, but we love the site and app. The popularity on Pinterest of amazing real estate photos make it a great match for Realtors.

Action!

So, what are you in love with right now? Is it an app, blogging, video or something else?

In a report last week analyst Carlos Kirjner, via Bernstein Research, predicted that by 2016 the majority of web search traffic will come from mobile devices. Is your website ready for the mobile spotlight?

Responsive Web Design

With the landscape of the web changing at the current rate, it’s no longer acceptable to check your site from a few different browsers and launch it. It’s becoming more vital that your online presence is optimized for both a desktop and mobile experience.

Using a number of new tools and technologies you can make sure your website is ready to go from any device. This process is called Responsive Web Design.

Two fantastically executed versions of this can be found at Phoenix Real Estate Guy and Maya Paveza. When you load up Jay Thompson’s beautiful real estate website from a mobile device you get a smaller version of the desktop site. However, if you click on the search function you are taken to a mobile optimized search page. Maya’s page goes a step further and asks you before you enter if you’d rather have a full version or a mobile version of her site.

Keep It Simple

When optimizing your real estate site for a mobile format you’re going to want to simplify things. There are a few reasons for this:

• File Size. When it comes to mobile, speed is key. Smaller files will decrease load times tremendously.
• Screen Size. There is a huge difference between the real estate available on a phone or tablet, as compared to a desktop. So, simply your approach with regard to design and navigation.
• Tap-ability. When creating a mobile experience you need to take into account all the “clickable” spots on your site, and make them “tappable.” The use of a mouse on the desktop web is much more precise than mashing around with your thumbs on a phone. Keep that in mind.

Action!

The last thing you want to do is avoid testing your site out from a mobile device. Go ahead, pull up your site on your phone – don’t worry I’ll wait.

So, how’s the experience? Put yourself in the mind and shoes of the consumer. Would you love using your site from your iPhone or Android? If not, what you going to do about it?