Last week was another incredible week of classes at Tomato University.  I had the opportunity to sit in on most of the classes, and I couldn’t have been more impressed with our professor’s efforts.

This week looks to have just as much punch and impact with some very popular topics and skilled professors.

Do not miss a class that catches your attention, you might not see it come around again for a while.

Monday May 10th at 11:00 am PDT

Show Me Your Back End - Autoresponder Messages That Sell More Homes.

With Steve Rosenbaum

Steve Rosenbaum knows how to sell homes using the internet.

He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Austin Business Journal and interviewed by the 20/20 News Team for his expertise on creative marketing techniques that gets houses sold.

In this session, Steve will share with you the techniques to make any home stand out. Plus, all registered guests will receive templates for an automated follow up campaign that can be modified to make any real estate property stand out from the crowd.

Special Social Media Bonus: Tweet a promo with #SMYBE message and receive a free digital copy of Steve and Sherri Rosenbaum’s Big Bad Home Sale.

Tuesday May 11th at 11:00 am PDT

“Practical SEO for the Real Estate Professional”

With Justin Smith

This course will teach you how to use readily available SEO tools to help you increase ranking, traffic, and leads. You will learn how to use these tools to their full potential, and easily implement your findings. Most SEO tutorials and classes are too broad and not relevant to the real estate industry. We will break down complicated reports & metrics and teach you how to apply them in a practical way into your website and blogging strategies.

• Keyword research for the real estate industry
• Turning Keyword Research data into an Actionable ‘bite size’ To-Do List
• How to analyze backlinks and domain authority
• Breaking down the link profile of a competitor’s website
• And much more…

Tuesday May 11th at 11:00 am PDT

Breadcrumbs - How to be EVERYWHERE (Or Just Look Like It)

With Mike Mueller

How to deliver your message to everyone.

From your blog to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Tumblr, Posterous, Flickr, Friend Feed, Yelp, 4Square, Ping and many more.

Dropping “breadcrumbs” all along the way, all leading back to your homebase!

Wednesday May 12th at 11:00 am PDT

Social Media Strategy for Brokers

With Beth Butler

A simple approach to implementing a Social Media strategy for brokerage companies of all sizes.

Redefine real estate marketing 101 with social media as a cornerstone.

Thursday May 13th at 11:00 am PDT

Simple, But Effective Mobile Blogging

With Teresa Boardman

Anyone with a phone with a built in camera can have a blog.

Explore easy, effortless photo blogging options. Get content ideas and learn how to market yourself and your business with your photo blog.

Thursday May 13th at 11:00 am PDT

The Power of Adding Posterous To Your Online Marketing Strategy

With Brad Carroll

Give your online marketing presence a jump start in 2010 by adding Posterous to your online strategy.

You won’t believe how easy it is to increase your search engine ranking and drive more traffic to your site with this easy to use microblogging platform.

Friday May 14th at 11:00 am PDT

Optimizing Your Real Estate Blog For The Search Engines

With Chris Hotz

It seems that everyone knows how important it is to attract external links to your website. However, there is another type of link that is overlooked time and time again, but is just as important…the internal link.

When considering your sites Search Engine Optimization (SEO), why not concentrate your efforts on something you can control. Your blogsites internal links are those links that you have complete control over and that can have a direct affect upon your sites search engine visibility (ever heard of Wikipedia?).

In this class you will learn how to:

1. Ensure that your website gets properly spidered and that all pages are found by the search engines
2. Build the relevancy of a page to a keyword phrase
3. Increase the PageRank of an internal page
4. Create page depth
5. Keep visitors on your site longer

Please note:

• All classes are LIVE Webinars.
• Students will be able to either call-in or connect with their headset/mic/speakers to listen in and ask questions.
• All classes will have a live chat managed by the professor (or assistant).
• Students will receive all webinar login links and codes in an email (to the email on file with their TU account) 1-hour prior to class start time. If you have not received the info in your email, contact tu@realestatetomato.com immediately, and we’ll resolve.
• Most classes will have a ‘take away’ item such as a checklist, to-do list, e-book, worksheet, resource sheet, or the like.
• All classes will have an additional 15 minute live Question/Answer Session after their posted schedule.

In order to sign up for a class, you must be registered and logged in. Registration is free and takes just a few seconds. Let us know if you have any challenge logging in.

Future Tomato University Classes can be found on our Classes Page.

Our extended Professor Roster is available on the site as well.

Take advantage of these classes while you can.  We cannot guarantee that you will have another chance to attend anything listed above.  We will not be recording classes, and it is our aim to constantly provide our members with unique and ever changing content.

This Week’s Upcoming Class Schedule For Tomato University - Blogging, Video, eNewsletters, & SMM

It is finally here!  We are so excited.

We’ve launched Tomato University (beta):
“Technology Education For The Real Estate Industry”

The success of our first three Virtual BarCamp events made two things very clear:
1. There is an overwhelming interest in learning how to use technology to improve one’s real estate career.
2. Participating from the comfort of your home or office is a hugely popular alternative to learning in person.

Please Note: If you were a participant in any of our Virtual BarCamp events, then you are instantly a member of the University. You will have received an email notification of your membership… and if you haven’t, simply login and request a reset of your password.

Our mission with Tomato University is to scale back a bit on the intensity of the VREBC experience, and give everyone an opportunity to learn in a much more relaxed and engaging environment.

Rather than spending the day drinking from the fire hose of VREBC (28 live classes over 7 hours), we are launching the University with just 5 classes per week (1 per business day).

See University Schedule: http://www.tomatouniversity.com/courses

The other major distinction from VREBC is that the classes will be limited to much smaller audiences, allowing for direct engagement with the professors, in real-time, during class.  Classes will last between 1 and 2 hours, and in most cases will be limited to just 40 students.

See University Professors: http://www.tomatouniversity.com/professors

During this beta period (roughly 45 days), all classes will be held at 11am PST (2pm EST).  In addition to the great schedule we already have in place, we will be adding classes and professors on a regular basis, with constant turn-over and growth.

Soon we will be offering intense Labs and Tutoring Options to our schedule.  The labs will be limited to as few as 5 students, and the one-on-one tutoring sessions will be available for those that want our undivided attention.

Even though the University is in a beta phase, our commitment remains in providing our students with the most relevant and effective technology training available.

Here are a few of the ways you can instantly take advantage of the University:

1. Sign up for upcoming classes taught by some of the Real Estate Industry’s finest minds.
2. Shout out from your Dashboard to the entire community, Twitter style!
3. Hold conversations with any other member(s) in real-time using “@membername” Twitter style!
4. Rate and Comment on classes you have taken to improve our offerings.
5. Friend other members to send direct messages and get updates on their activity within TU.
6. Post your RSS feeds to your profile to gain more exposure to your blog articles.
7. Submit your ideas for classes and/or your application for professorship.
8. Update your profile details.
9. Connect with Twitter and Facebook to broadcast status and connect with others.
10. Manage your email update preferences.

To begin taking advantage of your free membership you will need to register or login:

Once logged in:

To view your Dashboard:
http://www.tomatouniversity.com/members/dashboard

To see our Upcoming Classes:
http://www.tomatouniversity.com/courses

To meet our Professors:
http://www.tomatouniversity.com/professors

To update your Profile:
http://www.tomatouniversity.com/members/edit

We are going to be making an enormous amount of usability and functionality improvements in subsequent phases.
Many of these improvements are already in the works, but we would love suggestions from you.

Our goal is to create an incredibly resourceful learning environment that thrives as a social network.
This initial phase is intended to be interactive, so don’t be shy.

Near future upgrades we already have planned:
- Fan Classes for notification of updates and future related content and classes.
- Uploading of instructional videos to a tutorial library by both professors and members.
- Direct Message other members, privately.
- Participate in a community blog discussing high-level real estate technology topics.
- The addition of a Tomato University Blog for system news and updates.
- Browse and view an archive of recorded classes from past VREBC events.
- RSS/XML Feed of upcoming classes for affiliates and professors to showcase on their websites.

Don’t hold back on your suggestions - we are very excited to hear from you.
http://www.tomatouniversity.com/members/contact

One of the beautiful things we’ve all been able to maintain about the Real Estate BarCamps is that they are free.

But the more beautiful element is the spirit of helping others.  Nearly every RE BarCamp passes the hat to support a charity in need of our generosity.

Here at Virtual BarCamp we are blessed to be able to reach thousands of people, gathered for a day of intense learning.

With such a large audience, it is our hope to be able to make a significant financial contribution to a deserving cause.

When I heard the story of Dan Keitz, through Jay Thompson’s blog, I knew immediately that we were the perfect outfit to lend a hand.

Jay Thompson is a close, personal friend of Dan’s, and a copy of the blog that details Dan’s heartbreaking situation is follows.

So if you would, while you are taking advantage of all the incredible content delivered to you free by our amazing roster of speakers, take a moment to make a difference in Dan’s life by clicking the Donate Button and making a contribution to his recovery.  Anything will help.

My Friend Dan Keitz

By Jay Thompson

Posts like this are hard.

I met Dan Keitz many years ago when we both worked in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. I was immediately struck by three things: His sense of humor, his intelligence, and his huge heart.

Dan was a U.S. Navy Commander, a marathon runner, a semiconductor factory capacity modeler (and latte drinker), and is a fun-loving guy:

He’s also a family man, and a man of great faith.

And he has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy).

Both of which are horrific, and ridiculously expensive, diseases.

Yet despite what he is facing, Dan remains strong in hope, spirit and faith.

I’ve set up a site at DanKeitz.com where anyone interested can help contribute to Dan’s medical expenses, learn more about ALS and CIDP and even leave Dan a message that his caretaker can share with him. I’m sure words of encouragement, even from complete strangers, will mean a lot to Dan.

I don’t like asking people for money. I know times are rough for many out there. But any contribution, no matter how small, adds up. And when you’re speaking to the man upstairs, please put in a good word for my friend Dan.

Here is a video Dan’s son Kendal made that shows some of what his father is going through. What an expression of a son’s love for his father this is. Keep a box of Kleenex handy…