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Pain and problems dominate us. Everyday and every hour we are constantly looking for solutions for our pain and problems.

This holds true for home buyers and sellers. That’s why it’s a great idea to use the PAS formula in your sales presentations.

Whether you’re persuading a buyer to bite the bullet and buy a home or convincing a seller to stake YOUR for sale sign in their yard, you can use the PAS formula to get the job done.

What Is the Problem-Agitate-Solve Formula?

The PAS formula is Dan Kennedy’s darling. Or at least he gets credit for it. Nonetheless, it’s pretty basic.

Identify a problem. Agitate the problem. Solve the problem.

Identify a Problem

Imagine you just met a man at the tennis club. Imagine he told you he lives in a two-bedroom, one bath home with his wife and two kids. Imagine the children as one girl, one boy. Next, imagine the girl 7 and the boy 5. And they share a bedroom.

See a potential problem?

If you do, point out the problem.

You: Hey Stan, are you concerned about your daughter wanting her own privacy?

Agitate the Problem

Once you’ve identified the problem, now aggravate it.

You: Man, that’s probably pretty uncomfortable. You guys are probably looking for a house soon, right?

Stan: You bet. But it’s tough. With the market and all.

You: Yeah, but if you don’t get her own space soon–especially as she gets older–could be a nightmare for all of you. Don’t you think?

Stan: Oh man, yeah.

You: Often one thing can really drive a wedge between a brother and sister–even a family.

Stan: Yeah, my wife and I are really concerned about that.

You: Could be a real problem when she realizes she’s the only 8 year old who shares a room with her brother.

Stan: I don’t even want to think about it.

You: But how can you think about moving when the market stinks and you really don’t know how well your house will sell.

Stan: You can say that again.

Solve the Problem

This is when you trot out your solution.

You: Stan, if you got some time this week, any chance we could get together and I could maybe show you how we could solve your problem? I’ve got some great ideas to share with you.

Stan: Even though I’m not in the market, I think I might be able to swing that.

See how easy and casual that was to set an appointment? Works just as well in any situation.

Conclusion

Use the Pain-Agitate-Solve formula to stop people in their tracks, draw them closer, yearn for your answer and beg for your solution.

Use it during casual conversations or planned-out sales presentation. It doesn’t really matter. Just remember, PAS.

Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog.

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Eliminate Competition at Your Next Listing Presentation Even Before You Arrive

Everyone knows that in today’s market, it’s not enough just to get the listing—you need to have an aggressive marketing plan.

While printed flyers, signage and the basics will always have their place, we all know that over 80% of home buyers begin their search for a new home online.

In fact, second only to over-priced home, no internet marketing strategy is the biggest reason homes don’t sell.

That’s why you need advanced online marketing strategies–social media strategies–to help you create a compelling online presence.

Yet, marketing real estate has never been a hip business.

The people in it might be cool–but the advertising venues that work best for real estate have long been traditional vehicles like postcards, print newspaper ads and signage. Real estate is nothing if not a local business, after all (note the real estate mantra of “location, location, location”)–you don’t buy a house off of the Internet, right?

Maybe not yet.

Tech-savvy real estate agents and developers quickly turned to online and social media tools like video, blogs, and other new media to sell their properties. However, the adoption is so slow for the early majority [or pragmatists], and, of course, painful for the late majority [or conservatives].

Which brings me to my point.

The first step in successful and aggressive listing promotion is to make sure your property is featured where home buyers are looking.

And because offline marketing tools cost money, and money is hard to come by in tough times, its really no surprise that real estate agents to reduce their newspaper print budgets, if not eliminating them altogether.

My belief is that perhaps financial hard times might drive some normally timid, pragmatic and conservative people to finally get online and get with it, crossing that chasm faster than they normally would.

Otherwise they may have to be happy with failing. After call, necessity is the mother of experimentation.

To get us started, here are some basic suggestions to help you get the most out of your web site’s listings:

• Promote listings on your home page—make a featured property listing highlighting a particular property, and make sure there’s an easy-to-access slide show at the ready.

• Keep your hot news hot—announce your newest and most-desirable listings.

• Update your open house page—drive traffic from the web into your open houses.

• Use a hotline number with your listings. This allows you to capture contact information when they call to listen to an audio tour of the home or updated price information.

• Add a summary to your home page—with a dedicated link to your listing page.

Once you’ve secured the listing and published it to your website–the minimum–it’s time to capture other agents and potential buyers. Let’s move on to more advanced online marketing strategies–social media strategies–to help you create a compelling online presence.

Here’s how to get started:

• Create a single-property blog. Is this the most potent listing tool? Teresa Boardman talked about Keeping Local Real Estate, Well…Local, and how blogging can support and express your local knowledge and expertise within the microcosm of your community; establishing relationships with site-visitors and clients. [With Local, I'm speaking in-terms of relationships--referral business, repeat business, becoming known in your community for the all-inclusive services you provide consumers.]

• Add YouTube videos along with other content such as business details, photos, and descriptions to their listings. To do so, simply upload your videos to YouTube and ensure that the ‘embed’ option is turned on. Then, associate your video to your business listing through the Local Business Center.

• Promote Google Map as the new real estate search page. Once you’ve got your videos in Google Maps, then you got to make sure people actually use it.

• Dominate your local search. Back in November I wrote about local search and why you should care and gave you 7 steps to improve your local rankings. The best part: it’s bootstrapalicious [read: doesn't cost any money except your sweat].

• Advertise your business and listings using Facebook. Putting your brand on Facebook is actually a pretty easy process. Just click on the Advertisers link in Facebook’s footer and then Create a Page.

• Brand your listings with Trulia. Quoting from the Trulia blog: “Agents will have access to a self-service tool to highlight up to 10 listings per month for a monthly subscription fee of $50.” So, for less than the price of a typical newspaper classified ad, you can now highlight your listings and connect directly to more than 2 million unique users per month, including a highly affluent group of home buyers, 81% of who are looking to purchase a home in the next 12 months.

• Talk about foreclosures at Zillow. Share vital information with home owners, buyers and sellers on a hot topic. Throw your hat in the ring. Get involved where people are involved. This is a low-entry point to get your feet wet. And it’s free.

These steps will get you to a place where you can offer your visitors the most information-rich experience, and will help them to remember you, and thus to return to your site again and again.

Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.

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21 Low Budget Ways to Keep the Revenue Flowing During a Recession

Think 2007 was bad? For some burnt-out and near-broke real estate agents, it’s hard to imagine things getting any worse. But who knows what’s in store for the rest of 2008.

And, even if the economy hasn’t hit rock bottom in your part of the country, it has slowed down significantly in many states.

Worse, it doesn’t take a recession or even a soft economy to create problems for your business.

Every business has ups and downs. Even if things are going great for you right now, you need to develop revenue-generating strategies that succeed when times are tough.

See, recessions are the economy’s little reminder that your marketing needs to be more efficient. You and lots of your friends are being asked to produce more sales with less resources.

(And if you’re reading this post, that might sound familiar to you.)

Many real estate agents fear a flat market. The reason? If the economy is poor, clients will stop spending, and buy only from discount agents.

All of this is true. But only to a degree.

Of course, an economic slowdown can be a problem for your business. Or, it can be an opportunity to gain new clients and boost your sales…if you know and have mastered the marketing and sales methods that work best in times of downturn.

1. Make your ads pay. Starting today, eliminate your old “image” campaign and replace it with one that’s designed to produce bottom-line results. Every ad must communicate benefits and make a strong call to action that produces a measurable response.

2. Track the results of your marketing efforts. Place response codes in all your ads and lead-generation tools.

3. Take advantage of focus groups and surveys.

4. Stay abreast of the latest research and published articles to discover your target market’s current needs, desires and buying preferences. Put customer feedback forms on your Web site and take steps to make your online presence more interactive.

4. Increase your visibility. Associate with a charitable cause or community-based group for a special event. Take a high–profile position-rather than melting into the crowd. But be careful to avoid the appearance of giving for the purpose of self-aggrandizement.

5. Beef up your networking activities. Designate several days a month to get out and attend different groups. Assign goals for follow-up and regularly add contacts to your database.

6. Communicate frequently to your entire prospect database. I recommend about once every six weeks by direct mail, e-mail, fax, phone or in person. Do this and you’ll come out of this downturn with a strong and loyal customer base.

7. Intensify your media relations efforts. Targeting several media outlets with story ideas tailored specifically for your prospects. Identify specific journalists or editors to receive your information and find out if they prefer releases via fax, e-mail or standard mail. After sending your initial information, follow up with phone calls and a polished press kit.

8. Know your scripts. When change hits real estate, consumers look to the experts for guidance. That’s you, so do you homework.

9. Explain in layman’s terms what a buyer’s market is. How it differs from the seller’s market, why the market has shifted to a buyer’s market and what to expect in such a market. And don’t sugar coat this—tell your sellers exactly like it is and that they can expect picky buyers. They’ll thank you later and you’ll keep your reputation intact.

10. Know your numbers. What are the listing prices versus the selling prices in your market area? What’s the average selling price? Is that up or down from the same period last year? What are the days on the market? What is the current supply of homes on the market? This will lead to a price that fits the current market.

11. Categorize your leads. “A” leads are ready to buy or sell now. “B” leads plan to buy or sell in the next month or two. And “C” leads might buy or sell in the next three to six months. It’s easy to salivate over the “A” leads, especially in a slower market. But stay in touch with the “B”s and “C”s—they’re your future business.

12. Share selling tips. Share real estate best practices with buyers. Consider providing a home staging guide or offer to list the home.

13. Offer a higher commission. Give 4 percent commission instead of the standard 3 percent to the buying agent. Lure them in. This really works.

14. Promote your successes. Because the high number of foreclosures has made prospective buyers nervous, let everyone know if any of your communities have zero or very few foreclosures.

15. Offer credit advice. Consider partnering with a credit improvement service that can help customers correct false information and resolve credit problems that are preventing them from getting the best loan.

16. Maximize referral marketing. Your delighted customers are your best sales tool. Sponsor weekly events and activities that bring prospects and loyal customers together so that potential buyers can hear first-hand what a great builder you are.

17. Take a leap into social media. Sell the story of a house through blogs. Create a community with Twitter. The means are endless. These are two great places to start.

18. Stage your listing properly. Recommend home improvement projects carefully to your sellers because returns on these improvements are relative. They’re less likely to recoup top dollar on a new master suite or third full bathroom if they’re the only one on their block doing it. They should improve the home relative to other homes nearby. And also consider using a free product like Showing Feedback to help you get easy price reductions and much needed improvements.

19. Combat the media. There are a lot of good reasons to buy a home today: interest rates are still low, housing prices are falling, home builders are offering sizable cash credits and incentives, and a surplus of new homes means that there are a lot of choices for buyers. Share this information.

20. Revamp your lending. Consider working with brokers who are better equipped to shop around for the best deals. Opt for a variety of partners who are willing to hustle for your home buyers’ best interests.

21. Achieve customer loyalty. The businesses that are holding their own during these tough times have a pipeline of happy customers making referrals. By maximizing referrals, some builders have been able to keep sales steady instead of declining. If you don’t have many sales coming from referrals, you have much lower chances of survival.

Main point: keep your feet moving. Don’t stop.

Yes, change can be tough. But if you stay focused, concentrate on the basics and stay informed on the market, you can weather the shift and continue to make money.

Leave a comment if this post was helpful or if you have anything you’d like to add. And if you like what you read, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by email or news feed.

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When Being a Narrow Minded Fundamentalist Works

Stunningly Easy, 25 Minute and 25 second Routine for Finding Buyer Clients

2 Lethal Mistakes REALTORS Make When Prospecting Foreclosures

Jesus. Evolution. Abortion. Hot, volatile topics. Topics likely to upset even the mildest of situations.

But I’m not talking about creating a riot or a mob. Just want to get you thinking about 3 things:

1. What you love
2. What you do best
3. What makes you money

Master these fundamentals–and never waver from them–and you survive the current housing chokehold.

Narrow-mindedness and Marketing

According to Paul Eastwood, founder of Single Property Sites, Inc., “There is a relationship between a tightly-focused niche and increased sales.”

That’s not surprising.

Competing in a crowded, sluggish market makes it difficult to earn a living, let alone generate good leads. That means not only are there fewer people per agent to go around, but commissions and profits drop, too.

So what do you do?

Conventional business wisdom states that you make yourself unique. You stand out, go against the grain. You narrow your focus to a smaller, denser segment of the market, which might sound bizarre.

One way to narrow your focus is to create marketing personas. Another way is to follow the Parkinson’s law by rapidly disqualifying buyer leads.

But why would anyone in their right mind decide to “narrow” their market and work with fewer people? Good question.

The Paradox of the Narrow Market

The more successful you become with your small segment, the more exposure you gain, the more business you earn and the more money you make.

In essence, you’ve made this small segment so happy that they gush about you like a five-year-old after drinking a can of Coke.

This tight-knit group is your cult.

How to Narrow Your Market

One of the ways you could “narrow” your focus is with technology. Let me explain.

Let’s be simple for a moment and split the world in two: on one side we have those who hate technology. On the other side we have those who love technology. Do you see how I’ve just “narrowed” your playing field?

You can continue to do that.

Let’s split the technology camp into two: those who like to use technology and those who like other people to use technology.

Let’s split those who like other people who use technology: now we have those selling homes in the city versus the country.

Now those selling in the country might love technology. They might have a fit of joy–after a brief introduction, of course–if you walked into their house and said “I’m going to sell your house for more money in less time because of the powerful electronic marketing tools I use.”

That’s because you stand apart and satisfy their soft spot.

You can do the same if you narrow your market to working with the exact opposite group: people who were “relationship-oriented selling in the city and hate technology.”

Do you see what I mean?

And the cool thing is, once you narrow your focus down three or four levels, you can write it out and use it a lot like a mission statement.

As Seth Godin points out in his post needle in a haystack marketing, this works in the world of online search, too.

Do this and you’ll find yourself energetic, excited and potentially more successful–both in money and life.

An African bull elephant weighs 12,000 pounds. Stands 11 feet high. Flaunts tusks 6 to 8 feet long. Eats 770 pounds of grass, leaves, roots, bark, branches, fruit and water plants.

A day.

Now, imagine eating that sucker. It would take forever, wouldn’t it? So one bite at a time, right?

Well, that’s the take away for today’s post. If you are in a market with a hefty level of inventory, then finding buyer’s is on top of your list.

But consumer confidence is gloomy . This means people are holding on to their money, saving, perhaps looking for discounts. What you have to do is figure out how to approach them with an enticing offer. Something that will get them off the fence.

It could be a discount or bargain . It could be a one day only sale .

Whatever it is you are offering, once you have that out of the way, use a simple, 25-minute and twenty-five-seconds-a-day tactic to find those hot leads…in a fraction of the time it usually takes.

How do you do that? Easy.

1. Choose the time of day you are at your peak. Whether morning or afternoon.

2. Block out 30 minutes each day at this time.

3. Use a timer: set it at 25 minutes and 25 seconds.

4. Then pick up the phone and return phone calls from leads you received that day.

5. Don’t do anything for that 25 minutes and 25 seconds. Except call.

Once you’re done, pat yourself on your back. And use the remaining 4 minutes to plan how you are going to spend all the money you’re going to make. Make sure you do it again the next day.

I like this method because it’s a great time management principle: time block AND lump tasks. The most important thing to do here is make sure you do nothing else but pick up the phone and dial. It’s unbelievable how much time people waste dilly-dallying simply because they don’t put boundaries on a task .

And get this: once the market is on the upswing, you can switch this tactic around to build a house list. Call friends and families, ask them for permission to call people they know who might have housing needs, focus your time, get to work and don’t look back.

It’s old news that 84% of buyer’s start there search online [wink wink, nudge nudge], that offline advertising places are losing revenue that, that real estate blogging is hot as ever.

All of this begs the question of managing your online presence, winning the local search engine results war.

But it requires a proactive strategy.

What exactly is your marketing strategy for local search?

What Is Local Real Estate Search? And Why Should I Care?

If you live in Nashua, New Hampshire, for instance, and someone types in “Real estate Nashua New Hampshire,” that’s a local search.It doesn’t matter if they live in South Florida or West Washington or smack dab in Nashua. You want to dominate the search engine results page for those “local” keywords.

Here are seven concrete steps you can take to improve your local organic search results.

1. Make sure that you have a crawler friendly web site

The first step in improving your business performance in local search engines is to make sure that the search engines can easily crawl your site, and identify your business keywords.

This means you minimize the use of tables, and avoid deeply nested tables. Make sure that your business name and address are featured prominently on the page as text [in fact, make sure your business appears twice on every page] and not hidden from the crawlers in an image file.

Your page title should include your business name, address and key words. Place an “H1″ header near the top of the page that also has your business name, address, and key words.

2. Add 10 pages of content to your website.
Any website that adds 10 pages of relevant content will get a boost in search engine visibility. It’s one of the easiest steps in an SEO campaign. Search engines love content. The more tightly focused, keyword rich [read: focused on your local market or markets] content you have on your website, the easier it is for search engines to understand what your website is about and categorize it appropriately.

A blog is a great way to add content to your site.

3. Use videos to supplement your search engine rankings

Great to see agents already seeing real world success with this strategy.

4. Take charge of your local listings

Yahoo! local search will give you a free 5-page Web site just for listing your company with their service.

Google’s local search service is more like a classified directory, but you still have direct control over how your listing appears.

But don’t stop with their Web listings. Take charge of the Yahoo! Mobile and Google Mobile services, too. People are increasingly using their cell phones to search the Internet.

5. Check out your competition

Do a local search for your business keywords (for example: houses, San Francisco, CA) and see who your competition is.

Find out who is linking to your competitors and investigate whether you can get the same sites to link to your business.

The links can be determined by going to Yahoo and typing “linkdomain:” and then your competitor’s web site (i.e. linkdomain:www.yourcompetitorssite.com). Click on “inlinks” in the results page.

Check inlinks for your site as well, and see who is linking to you. Make sure that the information on those sites is correct, and contact them if it isn’t.

6. Get your business rated

Ask your satisfied customers to write reviews and rate your business at Google, Yahoo, and MSN. More importantly, try to get them to use the same keywords that you use in the business description and on your web site as part of their review. Don’t add too many reviews over a short period of time, and make sure that the reviews are unique.

7. Solicit local links

Find the web directories that are local to your area, and ask them to link to your web site. Contact your local chambers of commerce and ask them to link to your business from their web site.

Conclusion

Of course there is much more you can do. And this only includes your organic search: I didn’t touch on paid online searches. But this is a great way to boost your local rankings if you haven’t done so yet.

I’d love to hear what you think.

In the past I’ve written on approaching foreclosures and preforeclosures.

Since then I’ve heard a couple of alarming stories about agents approaching foreclosures aggressively. Like face to face…on the first time they met.

Seems pretty straightforeward, but you just don’t approach foreclosures this way. That is if you want to have any hope of working with them.

People who are going foreclosures are very sensitive about what they are going through.

Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel?

This ranks up there as the deadliest and most common mistake:

One: Agressively approach foreclosures, face to face.

The other mistake is kind of the opposite.

Two: Passively approach foreclosures.

Remember, foreclosures have a whole lot at stake here. And some foreclosures are reaching out [and getting burned]…but mostly they are remaining quiet, trying to protect their pride and dignity.

So, we know the thing for them to do is to let down their pride, but we don’t get in their face. But neither do you back away and give up after one rejection.

In fact, for the best results, you want to approach foreclosures weekly, or every other week, with original letters.

Totally avoid form letters or postcards. They’ll see through that big time.

And each letter should reference the previous letter and always be different in some way.

And remember this: letters should appeal to the emotions of the preforeclosure homeowner because this is a difficult time for them. Your stance should be one of wanting to help. Make it clear how you can assist them, including offering cash for their equity, finding them a new place to live and keeping them from having a foreclosure on their credit history — something that could make it extremely difficult to qualify for a home loan for up to seven years.

In a nutshell, help them avoid a nightmare. And this takes some kid glove treatment. Persistant, sensitive treatment.

How about you? Have you heard any horror preforeclosure stories?

If you haven’t already, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog today either by email or just click on the big button to get the feed:

Sounds alomost impossible, doesn’t it: eliminating competition at your next listing appointment before you even set foot in the door ? Well, it’s not. In fact, it’s rather easy…if you’re willing to be different.

How can you be different? Here are some ways:

Pre-Presentation Seller Briefing

• Insist on being the last in a line of presentations,
• Find out when all of the other presentations are
  (keep a note of this). 
• Call the sellers every day there is a listing presentation.
• Ask them if your appointment is still on.
• Ask them to promise not to decide on an agent until all presentations are done.

Pre-Presentation Research

• Print a quick summary of market activity for the home’s neighborhood. 
• Look for identical matches in Actives, Solds, Under
  Contract, Pending, Withdrawn and Expireds. (This summary will help you familiarize yourself with the neighborhood, which you can reference during the presentation.)
• Take digital photos of the property, comparable properties and the subdivision entrance. (This portfolio of photos will allow you to view the condition of the property and make positive and negative notes.)

Pre-Presentation Questions

• Look at the seller’s home and ask yourself these questions: What are the negatives? Does it back to a major road? Is it under power lines? Does it need paint? How does this compare to other homes in the neighborhood?

Pre-Presentation Materials

• Create the CMA from your MLS as a Web or PowerPoint presentation. Have a color print copy, too. (Everyone else will do a black-and-white CMA.) 
• Personalize the print presentation on a color-bound material with “Especially prepared for <their name>.” (It’s easy to create a template in MS Word, MS Publisher, HP Real Estate Software or IMPREV.)

Pre-Presentation Recording

• Create a recording on one of your 800 extensions and test it. 
• Read the full listing presentation script at:
  http://www.realestategrowth.com/listing_pres.asp

Bottomline, when you are thoroughly prepared, you immediately distance yourself from every average agent (Pareto Rule: two agents out of ten are above average. The rest: barely average).

And when you arrive it’s only a matter of moments before your sellers recognize you were the only rational choice the whole time.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog today either by email or just click on the big button to get the feed:

Did you know this: a particular insect native to all 50 states could easily get any home, in any market, in any season sold in record time…even if we’re experiencing the worst drop in home sales in 18 years?

And no, I’m not talking about a termite. Or carpenter ant. Or even lice.

What insect am I talking about?

Nothing greater than the common household fly.

I realize that may sound like a ridiculous, tabloid-worthy assertion, but think about it…

If you were a fly on the wall you could easily hear every word that comes out of a buyer’s mouth. Then you could share it with the seller verbatim. And price reductions and needed fix ups (two pieces needed to selling stagnant homes)…are a near guarantee.

Or are they?

I first picked up this concept from a popular television program, tweaked it a bit, and now will share with you my version…

Are you familiar with this story?

A real estate agent tours a listing with her client’s. The family walks from the living room to the bedrooms to bathrooms. During this time the buyer’s discuss with what they see, frankly, openly and honestly…and then they walk out.

No offer. No suggestions. Nothing.

As the selling agent, all you know is that they were there. You don’t even get a whiff of their impression of the home. Your seller thinks they were just the wrong people. You, having previously pointed out potential problems, know better.

Now…what if you did have access to the buyer’s impression of the home? Would it even make a difference?

Are sellers so embedded in their current hope that their home appreciation is going to continue to multiply despite the fact that there isn’t anyone available to buy it?

What do you think? Do you think sharing frank, uncensored comments about the home can change the sellers mind? Will this help seller’s see their misconceptions? Is the current buyer attitude “wait-and-see” an attitude that you can really change simply by reducing the price or updating the home? What do you think the current consumer in today’s market is looking for?  Or can even afford?

If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog today!

Michael Wright, Executive Editor of Agent Inner Circle, shares an ingenious listing agreement submitted by reader David Rake to close more listings. See the agreement that gets the whole family involved in selling the property.

One reader claimed that giving up prospects is an insane idea in the current falling market. I disagree. But you be the judge.

Time management professional Dr. Donald E. Wetmore shares five techniques to recapture a wasted hour or two every week.

In the March 1, 2006 article “Automating Showing Feedback” Michael Russer (aka Mr. Internet) demonstrated “a far better way to get valuable comments from showing agents without wasting time on the phone or cranking out reports.”

In May of this year we showed you how to automate showing feedback for free.

The Future of Real Estateblogger Joel Burelsom explains “anyone who gets into blogging quickly finds out - Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are an indispensable way to keep on top of a tidal wave of information that exists out there.” But far from just simply keeping tabs on the industry, he shares five ways you can expand your blog habit, take it to the next level, better your day and improve your productivity .

All you can really expect when using Microsoft’s new Vista operating platform is an incremental improvement in productivity. Or so says David Berlind. In the meantime, stick with XP until 2009. Or 2014. Or buy that Mac.

And finally, Lifehacker Dustin Mix shares six ideas on how to kill that vile and despicable enemy of productivity: Eeyore.

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