I was very excited to complete another video blog for a customer of ours. Most Agents have not yet begun to unleash the power of video blogging and it is mostly because they do not know its value and impact as of yet. Most Agents are still skeptical when it comes to spending anywhere from $250 to $500 per video project specially when the times are rough and that amount may very well be their monthly auto gas budget!

So how do we possibly rationalize spending money on such multimedia projects? It is actually easier than you think:

- Projects such as these Video Blogs using green screen technology required a green screen room, proper lighting and very expensive software. They would therefore cost up to $2,000 in the recent past. Now, thanks to the advance in vector key technology it can be done right at your home or office using a simple green screen back drop and a couple of holgen work lights bought from Lowes or Home Depot. I found a nice lime green color cloth at Walmart that was on sale for $10/yard. Very easy do-it-yourself setup. If you don't want to bother making a frame for this home made green screen you can simply use green dock tape to keep it secure on a wall or door until you are done. The rest takes clever green screen software which I won't lie is pretty expensive and takes time to master. You will also need a very good high definition camera to shoot the footage properly. So instead of going through this hassle, it is much easier to just pay $300-500 to a professional compay to do it all for you.

Now the real question: But WHY would I need this in the first place? Well lets see. For one, it is a great recruiting tool for brokers/managers. If you are an Agent, it is a great tool for communication and social networking online wtih your customers as well as your potential sphere. Today, the name of the game is effective websites. Websites that can be found online. The name of the game is also MASS search engine placement in multiple forms of social networking. Whether it is through online social networking sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn or sharing feeds like RSS, Twitter, digg, del.icio.us and so forth, bloggin and mass feeds have quickly become one of the most effective ways of getting people to find you and read what you have to write on your blogs or websites. A couple years ago, Real Estate blogs were the uncharted new frontier for Realtors and have created fantastic results for top producers.

Now Agents from all over are travelling hundreds of miles to seminars (such as the bloghound blogs) which teach them how to unleash and harness the true power of these blog style sites. Now imagine if a picture is worth a thousand words... just how many words is a video worth? And with blog style pages becoming easier to use and embed video links into... Why would we NOT want to use them?The best part is we are finding more FREE video hosting places today. Sites such as Wellcomemat, Youtube, DailyMotion, MotionBox, Google Videos, Yahoo Videos, etc. are making it easier by the day to post our own videos or share videos we have had a professional outfit make for us and share them with the world for free. And they all come with their own search engine friendly formats for adding keywords and descriptions we want our videos to be found under.

The result? well here is an example reel on our Video site. I rest my case :) Get ready to move out virtual tour... make room for Video tours and blogs... the future of Real Estate is now!