The Article Blog

 Did you read this article on Salon.com late last month? Entitled, “Why loan modification scams are booming,” it’s all about how bad things are getting for the unwary borrower who is in danger of foreclosure, needs a loan modification, doesn’t know where to turn, and makes the mistake of falling prey to one of the hundreds of shady “foreclosure rescue” companies who are currently out there looking for victims to rip off.

 According to the article, “…law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country have filed suit against 150 such companies, but they continue to proliferate, and the number of consumer complaints continues to rise.”

As an example, it mentions one particular company–21st Century Legal Services–who has been sued by four states and is under investigation by at least three more.

“Over 150 consumers from more than 30 states have filed complaints against 21st Century with the Better Business Bureau,” the article says. “No active firm has more complaints. Yet the company forges on. Operating under a new name, Fidelity National Legal Services, it continues to solicit consumers nationwide, even in states where authorities have won court injunctions.”

I’ll let you read the rest of the article yourself for more gory details about these scam artists, but the point is that the number of companies charging up-front fees and making guarantees they can’t deliver is increasing, not decreasing, so the problem is getting worse, not better. That means it’s even more important that homeowners who find themselves facing foreclosure know where to turn for real, honest help so that they don’t get duped by these unscrupulous crooks.

An assisted loan modification program, like the one offered by The Homeowner Center, provides borrowers with all the genuine help and one-on-one guidance they need to process their loan modification themselves–and at a fraction of the price. So, let’s all be vigilant and spread the word! Let’s do all we can to keep these con artists from claiming any more innocent victims!

Christina Inman, the CEO of TheAgentCenter.com, has been a real estate industry specialist, author and broker for 17 years.

Often when we meet a new customer we are asked about search engine optimisation. We try our best to educate customers that SEO is all about intelligent work and not just adding ad hoc keywords and registering to all directories possible. I’m writing this article to reach to the search engine optimisation customers and to help them to distinguish the amateurs from the pros. Some website design firms will be experts in SEO as well as being talented designers, but do not assume that this is true.

1: No Top Ranking Guarantees

The only formula to increase your search engine rankings is by playing by the rules and hard work. If your SEO promised you “Top rank in the leading search engines in ten days” then you should look for a new SEO. There are no shortcuts. Top ranking in the natural search results will take time. Hard work is essential, particularly for the content on your site and building links to your web site.

2: Rating is not always the goal

Ask yourself what will a top ranking achieve? Most business sectors are concerned with growing sales on the internet or repeated web traffic. Ranking for the correct keywords is essential There are SEOs who would attempt to display high rankings for keywords that are irrelevant to your business or ones that will not convert into sales.

3: Know your competition

“Rank” is relative position and more so in the SEs natural outcomes. How good you do in the SE result is a function of how much effort you’ve put into evaluating the competition. Evaluate keywords, back links and keyword density. But make sure to never copy your competitors.

4: Use a search engine friendly design

A search friendly design is vitalimportant for any productive site. Be sure you have search engine friendly domains and don’t use lengthy URLs with query strings. You should also make sure that your programmers and designers stick to worldwide coding standards.

5: Choose the right keywords

You should search for the right keywords prior to targeting. There are tools that can help you with this. It’s crucial to know the number of hits for a keyword in the last a few days, previous month and last six months. One should also check the number of online pages that are targeting this keyword. It’s suggested to begin a campaign with keywords with limited competition and sufficient search volume.

6: Write good articles

Even if your site is technically perfect for search engine crawlers, it will not give you any benefit unless you also fill it with good content. Informative articles result in repeat visitors and increases the probability of sales conversions. Informative articles are factual and attracts the target buyer. The page should have desired action integrated in the articles. You must ensure that the content is fresh. Keep adding and changing the content regularly.

7: Exercise a good hyper linking scheme

You should hyperlink in the correct context within the site and to the additional sites. Use relevant anchor text when linking to internal pages in your site and make sure that there are no dead links.

8: Write separate meta description and keyword tags for each page of your site

Whilst not infuencing the rankings, meta description tags are important because they are used in the search engine results pages to summarise the subject of the website page. Well written meta description tags can increase conversion rates.

9: Add links that point to your website

The most important factor in search engine rankings is the amount and quality of links that you have pointing to your site. Over a period of time, you should be constantly building new links to your website by submitting to website directories, article directories and blog websites.

10: Ask the experts, if you need to.

If you’ve the aptitude there are two ways to learn. Gain knowledge from your own errors and learning form other’s mistakes. If you have the time and can wait for the online earnings do it yourself. If you wish to get on track now it’s perhaps useful to consult the SEO experts.