Calls slowed. What would my fellow Forum Members Focus On?12958
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 WGAN StandardMember Las Vegas |
VTLV private msg quote post Address this user | |
| My phone used to ring like crazy on Mondays, until this week and last. Where do you stand right now? Busy? Slow? Average? My city is once again flooded with bottom of the barrel price tiers on Pro Photos and 360 tours. Business slowed down and not eager to compete at lower price tiers. RE inventory is low and agents are pinching pennies as the reports of more layoffs in town are reported each week. What would you do with YOUR extra time if you had some to devote to your business? What thoughts in your head would you catch up on? Watch some training videos on Lynda (LinkedIn Learning) or YouTube pertaining to gear you already have that you meant to follow up on? Watch Ben Claremont videos? Dan has had a section posted at the top of the forum page, but I haven’t made the time to follow. Watch some WGAN-TV Training on some software programs Dan has posted here? Try out some software access that came with your WGA Standard or Premium Membership? Buy some gear you’ve been eyeballing, but haven’t pulled the trigger on? Update your website and social media? Take a course on WP3D Model Plugin? Advertise to keep your brand relevant? I went with watching WGAN-TV Training on some software programs Dan has posted here. I’ve thought about Metareal after watching capture the World with DEE and WGAN-TV for a more in depth explanation. Now watching a piece on Asteroom to see if that direction would make more sense. I want to know what types of thoughts are marinating in the back of the heads of my fellow Forum Members. We know we have a wealth of information here on the forum. If you're like me, there are many times we're too busy to soak in all of the information at times. |
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 WGAN StandardMember Greenville, South Carolina |
8643d private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I’m still building the business, so it’s basically always slow for me. I’d love to hear input about how others find more clients. Do they use Google or Facebook ads? Print media and/or snail mail? Digital media and email? Calling or in person selling yourself? What has been working best to build a client base here in the forum community? Lately, I’ve been deciding whether or not to add video walkthroughs to my services. Currently, I just create video slideshows of my still photos. I feel like I need to offer the walkthroughs, because most local competitors do. I know you can create one of your Matterport gallery, but the ones I see locally on social media have drone footage and impressive walkthrough shots. So I have been trying to watch YouTube tutorials and researching some gear on the best way to add this to my services. I’ve also been spending time on improving my website. In my opinion, I think exploring the various other 360 software out there isn’t a waste of time. Asteroom is intriguing, I’ve been thinking of trying it out. WGAN TV has always been informative to me, can’t go wrong with watching some of Dan’s discussions. @VTLV Hope business picks up for you! |
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 WGAN FanClub Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Do you do Google Maps tours? May be some community tour you can do to promote yourself. I am waiting for my electric scooter to arrive. Once I get it I will use it to map quite a big local park. I did one trail there by walking but it was very exhausting & time consuming. I hope with the scooter I can do it much easier and faster. Meanwhile I am building my website on WordPress. It is not a big job but I find myself super lazy with this task. One day I can do 1-2 pages, while the other I may just put one paragraph of text. |
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JonJ private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I was recently commissioned to capture photos and videos of every community in my area. My plan is to fill time with this and to create a sort of stock video/photo site where I can sell the stock videos/photos to other agents that need them to market their properties or to market their brand. That being said, does anyone know of any stock photo/video sites that they can recommend for this purpose? Ideally, they could preview the photo/video and then purchase them and download them instantly if desired. Thanks in advance! JonJ |
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 WGAN Fan Club Member Gilroy, California |
Dataventurer private msg quote post Address this user | |
| There is a tier of apartment communities that do not have virtual tours. The top tier companies usually have Matterport tours on their sites. Those mid-tier companies have only photos with which to entice an apartment hunter to visit for a look-around. I have not personally pursued this market segment because the idea just came to me a few minutes ago while conversing with a friend who is in the relocation service business (helping out of town new employees find an apartment). A simple 360 tour could help the mid-tier properties present a better idea of what they are offering renters. Let me know if you have any experience pitching this market! | ||
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by JonJ These guys are paying really well, like 50-70% https://www.alamy.com/ I am going to stick with them. I even tried to submit three photos for initial QA process. One photo passed their quality control but two had a few problems. I do not have time for fixing them now so I will try to do it later. Or if you know that will be selling to your local agents you can setup an online store and they can purchase directly from you. https://www.bigcommerce.com/ offer a store for selling digital products. |
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JonJ private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Thanks @Wingman, I will be hosting these videos/photos on my own site. I will take a look at bigcommerce.com to see if they have the functionality that I am looking for. |
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WGAN Standard Member Las Vegas |
VTLV private msg quote post Address this user | |
Well, what sounded like a beautiful post to tap the brains of my fellow WGA members and picking up on some Asteroom info on WGAN-TV got pushed off once again to the back burner  @8643d - Sorry to hear things are slow. Difficult to get your product in front of agents right now with everyone not able to congregate for classes and team meetings. I’ve got stuff in the works with some companies, so I’ll enjoy the time at home catching up. @Wingman - Google Maps tours? I’ve done some for restaurants and retail stores. Always been wanting to make that aerial 360 shot over a community and tag a bunch of places to it on 3D Vista. Updating website…. Well that didn’t go well today… Never got to my site with other sites all having issues plus the wife’s real estate sites. Had her on WebsiteBox and they’re raising rates. Deciding if we stay or go.. @JonJ - I love this idea knowing we all have a stockpile of community shots we have had to use from time to time. Especially when people are using the community pool and we become the creeps walking around it with a camera. Just worried other agents will steal from a previous listing and use them. Makes a great case for copyright infringment. @Dataventurer - I got no experience in that one. Virtuance & Quickpictours locked down that market here. Never dug into it. Think I'll just pour a drink and talk to the wife about what we will do next out on the patio  And one day get around to some of these ideas. |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by VTLV I mean do something for community On Google Maps(trails, paths, community spaces) with your logo at Nadir. One day you may get a client just from these tours. It will also keep your busy, let you practise more. And it can bump your Google Street View Trusted profile to a higher level. You may reach Gold level(when new levels are applied) and it can put you at the top of the Google Hire directory in your area. As for the website, check www.bluehost.com It is cheap with unlimited websites and bandwidth. You can even host your client custom tours there and charge them a bit for it. Wix wants about $170 for one year of hosting. That's ridiculous considering blue host rates and the fact that Wix offers less features and more limited than WordPress hosting. |
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Expertise private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Hey Jon- We use Zenfolio for selling photos this way. It works well. Quote: Originally Posted by JonJ |
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 WGAN ForumFounder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @JonJ I have used SmugMug Pro plan. You set your pricing. Here's a coupon code link to save on SmugMug. Dan |
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JonJ private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Expertise and @DanSmigrod, Thank you for the suggestions! I will check them both out. Do you happen to know if either of these platforms are good for stock video as well as stock photos? I would like a solution where I can sell both types of media. Thanks again, JonJ |
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WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @JonJ SmugMug hosts video too. Dan |
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WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @JonJ SmugMug was created by photographers for photographers. It's an amazing platform. They bought flickr. Dan |
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WGAN Standard Member Las Vegas |
VTLV private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Wingman - I ditched Dreamhost and switched my work site over to BlueHost late last year. Took the real estate sites and comedy show sites off to Namecheap over Bluehost. Their sites have run into issues in the past. I haven't touched Google Local Guide in years. Been too busy for that. Think I'm stuck at level 6 with my Star of David. One day when I do this it will probably be a Master Planned Community and post it on a site for my wife dropping into 360's all over. Beginning to think Homeschooling the kids this year has given me significant brain injuries on a daily basis. One day these things we'll all get around to. Good luck everyone and thank you for sharing. |
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San Francisco |
EricTsai private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @VTLV Thank you for considering Asteroom. As it was discussed in the Asteroom vs Matterport thread, some photographers discovered that agents just want a tour with a dollhouse, and they dont want to spend a lot. I hope you find Asteroom a good way for you to compete with other low cost 3D tour solutions. If you have not yet made a final decision to go with Asteroom - Perhaps you can share with me and the forum what else you’d like to see in the system. It will be very helpful for me and the team to learn from our targeted customers |
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adc1967 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Commercial Real estate and Property Management companies. Commercial office spaces, etc are taking a hit (covid). Much of those potential buyers and lease customers are out of town. Im seeing tour growth in those areas with my business. I'm getting apartment requests now. Remember I'm a commercial Architectural photographer as well, so Matterport is piggybacking on my main services. |
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