Are you thinking about doing more volunteer work, helping the needy in your community, but not sure where to turn? Here’s a website that identifies both short-term and long-term volunteer opportunities. Go to www.VolunteerMatch.org.

Last month Bernice Ross, a Realtor and one of Inman.com’s best columnists, declared that Micromarketing is the hot real estate marketing trend for 2012. Ms. Ross described micromarketing as “old-fashioned farming with a 21^st Century twist.”

Micromarketing means marketing to an area where the residents’ demographics, lifestyle, and recreational pursuits match your own interests and expertise. Perhaps you target residences around a large recreational lake where people buy second homes or retire. This appeals to you because you are an agent who a. lives on the lake and b. owns a boat and likes to fish.

Ms. Ross uses AustinLakefrontProperties.com as an example of a micromarketing website, as opposed to a more common and generic URL like www.Realtorsname.com. You should also use micromarketing to enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and promote your social media efforts.

Ms. Ross reports that “agents who are having the best luck with this approach have integrated their print marketing efforts with their online marketing efforts.”

If micromarketing intrigues you, consider using Homes & Land’s Integrated Marketing Package. Your Homes & Land Publisher can help you reach a micromarket using direct mail. A Homes & Land ad is also a great place to promote your Facebook page and blog. In addition, we feature QR codes that link to a video promoting your micromarket.

With the Homes & Land package you receive a website that can be branded as a micromarket (e.g., AustinLakeFrontProperties.com). You can also backlink your Homes & Land site to your current website for enhanced SEO.

As usual, Homes & Land is ahead of the marketing curve.

When you are marketing what to most Americans is their biggest financial asset, you need to do it right. Columnist Phoebe Chongchua explains how great photography can help you sell homes. http://bit.ly/wcRTJs

These days the kitchen seems to be the most talked about room in the house. Also, the room most closely examined by home buyers. However, fixing up your kitchen can be extremely expensive. Columnist Phoebe Chongchua offers guidance on how you can makeover your kitchen without breaking the bank.  http://bit.ly/u228mA

Below is a funny, light-hearted look at the First Thanksgiving story and how marketing could have made it all happen.
Happy Thanksgiving!

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How Advertising Saved Thanksgiving
by Rob Wicker

As the Thanksgiving Story is traditionally told, the Pilgrims in Massachusetts would have starved to death except for the help of the Native-Americans. The Pilgrims were so grateful that they invited the Native-Americans over for a big spread. The Pilgrims planned to have turkey, dressing, squash casserole, yams, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie with Cool Whip. What is interesting, however, is that the Native-Americans initially didn’t want to have lunch with the Pilgrims. 

Why not, you ask yourself? Well the Native-Americans had watched the Pilgrims stumble around for at least a year. They considered the Pilgrims to be a bunch of knuckleheads.  For one thing, there were those clothes. The Pilgrims wore large, steeple-top hats that bumped against tree branches in the woods. Baggy black garments with gaudy white trim. And worst of all, funny square-toed shoes with silver buckles that got caught in the underbrush when the Pilgrims foraged for food. 

In addition, the Pilgrims carried a rifle called a Blunderbuss. Who carries a loaded weapon named “blunder”? 

Finally, the Pilgrims weren’t exactly tops in the Fun Department. Have you seen the pictures? The only thing rarer than a smiling Pilgrim is a laughing Pilgrim. There’s no “Pilgrim Section” in books about American humor. The Pilgrims were a bunch of stiffs. 

In fact, that’s why the Pilgrims really wanted the Native-Americans to come to lunch. They were sick of each other! Think about it, the long boat trip on the Mayflower, nearly starving to death in the New World, nothing to talk about except how hungry they were—and no jokes. The Pilgrims were about ready to point those Blunderbusses at each other. They needed some company. 

But the Native-Americans weren’t having any of it. They politely declined the Pilgrims’ invitation. They told the Pilgrims that they’d be out of town, visiting relatives on Cape Cod.   

This is when the Pilgrims got clever. Sketching is one thing the Pilgrims were good at. It’s how they passed the time crossing the Atlantic. The Pilgrims sketched and colored fat roasted turkeys with all of the trimmings, squash casseroles, and cranberries not from the can. The drawings are so good that Butterball still uses some of them in their ads. The Pilgrims also showed the Native-Americans pictures of at least fifteen desserts, all with Cool Whip. Legend has it that one of the drawings even included a Pilgrim woman exposing a little ankle below her black dress. 

The Pilgrims were basically advertising Thanksgiving! Boy, did they get a response. After seeing these drawings, the Native-Americans announced that their Cape Cod relatives had suddenly come down with whooping cough. The Native-Americans would be in Plymouth that Thursday, and they’d be delighted to come for lunch. 

The rest, as you know, is History.
Happy Thanksgiving!

We all go to networking events. They’re fun, and they can also be a great way to find new prospects. Bestselling author Jeffrey Gitomer offers these 11.5 ways to make more connections at your next networking event. http://bit.ly/nPOmpW

Advertisers have more options than ever. Yet magazines continue to be used by major marketers, including technology giants like Google, Facebook, and especially Apple.

Why? Because magazine advertising works.

Magazine readership is up among all age groups, and readers spend an average of 43 minutes per issue. Consumers report that magazines deliver “pure pleasure, control, and escape.”

And magazines hold your attention. Magazine readers are the least likely of all media users to engage in other activities. (Consider all the things you try to do when you’re watching television.)

Marketers have a word for this type of engagement: “Sticky.” It means that a medium captures the consumer’s attention for a long time. Stickiness is one of the reasons magazines work so well for advertisers.

Need proof? Give a copy of Homes & Land magazine to a friend or family member and watch what happens.

The US housing market is moving in two different directions.The Associated Press reports that prices of homes over $1 million have risen o.7 percent since February. Homes valued under $1 million have fallen by an average of 1.5 percent.

According to real estate econominst Stan Humphries, luxury is the best performing segment of the housing market.

If you target the luxury market, keep in mind that affluent homeowners love to see their homes in a glossy magazine. (Like Homes & Land.)

Buying a house is tricky. Minor flaws that you don’t like can easily be fixed. On the other hand, structural problems that you fail to notice may end up costing you a lot of money. Author PJ Wade offers advice on how to “see” and evaluate houses of interest. http://bit.ly/nbSITS

Watch this video to learn more: