Residential property prices in Orlando, Florida, appreciated for the fourth consecutive month in May, with the average price of a home in the city rising by 2.6% from April and 11.1% since the start of the year, according to a new report released by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

The four-month trend of rising prices suggests that the market is recovering following a turbulent period that saw prices collapse by up to 70% across parts of Orlando since the market peaked in late 2007.

“The good stuff is getting snapped up. We see more and more multiple offers. It’s reminiscent of 2008,” Mark Dean, broker for Maingate Real Estate in Orlando, told the press.

The core property markets in Orange and Seminole counties are performing particularly well, with the midpoint price in May stood at $120,000 (£76,500), up 9% from a year earlier.

Furthermore, the average property took an average of 12 weeks to sell – three weeks faster than those that sold in May 2011.

The inventory of homes is the most anemic it has been since 2005. At the current pace of sales, the May backlog would sell out in 3.5 months, compared with a six-month inventory, considered a market in balance.

Demand for homes in Orlando is primarily being supported by attractively priced properties, potentially high rental returns and low mortgage borrowing costs – the average interest rate that buyers paid for a 30-year mortgage in May was 3.89%, the lowest on record

I’m sure you have seen those ugly long online sales letters. You’d be surprised how well those pages perform in regards to sales. But in 2012 long text based sales letter are OUT! From now on it is all about the video sales letter.

Your business needs to go ahead and add some video sales letters to your site. Below is my 11 step action plan for implementing video sales letters into your business and web presence immediately.

1. Buy Keynote or Powerpoint.

I prefer to use Keynote for creating my video sales letters. Keynote is only $20 and it is one of my favorite pieces of software. Of course you can use Powerpoint too if you have a PC. (I absolutely love Keynote so I created an entire video training series about using Keynote in your business.)

2. Practice Creating a Few Sales Letters.

One great this about video sales letters is that while they can include shot video, they can also be 100% text based. This allows you to create them in your boxers with your 5 o’clock shadow, feature important screenshots, and keep production cost low.

Try these two practice video sales letters:

1. Do a general intro of your website. This video will ideally be on the homepage. It will be 1-2 minutes long. In the video introduce yourself and introduce your business.
2. The second video you need to make is a product specific video. No matter what your business I’m sure you offer different types of product. Well now is your opportunity to pitch your product. Explain why the visitor must buy the product immediately.

Creating these two videos will be a fantastic learning experience.

3. Upload Your Practice Video to Vimeo.

Vimeo videos tend to look more professional, in my humble opinion. Once the video is uploaded go ahead and practice embedded the video somewhere like your blog or a Squidoo site.

PRO TIP: The video needs to autoplay. Meaning when someone hits the page the video plays automatically. These video sales letters can be super powerful BUT if the user never clicks the play button you are screwed. Therefore avoid this issue by making the video autoplay.

4. Write Your Script for the real deal.

Anyone can create a video sales letter. But the pros write detailed scripts in order to make their videos super powerful. There are tons of articles about the “perfect” formula. Here is one. I recommend being yourself. Avoid using industry jargon or marketing-speak. BUT do read a few articles about the successful sales letter formula.

5. Create Your Homepage Video Sales Letter.

The goal of this video is simple. MAKE THE VISITOR TAKE AN ACTION.
Anything will help. You are just trying to reduce your bounce rate and get the person to scope out your site. Grabbing their email would be ideal.

6. Edit using iMovie or ScreenFlow.

You may or may not need to edit this video. If you do I recommend using iMovie or ScreenFlow. I personally use ScreenFlow.

7. Embed your sales letter on your homepage or landing page.

It’s show time. Embed the sales letter video and make sure to select the autoplay function when grabbing the Vimeo embed code.

8. Write the Script for Your Sales Page Video.

The first video is to get people engaging with your site whereas the second video is all about SELLING PRODUCT. This video can be shorter than the homepage video and tailored to the product you are pushing.

9. Create the Product Sales Letter Video.

By now you are a pro so just create it.

10. Embed it.

Enough said. (remember the autoplay) When embedding a video sales letter on your sales page, I suggest placing a buy now button directly below.

11. Add other sales videos throughout your site.

You can add a video on your About Us page, Contact page, or anywhere throughout your small business website. Maybe get creative and do a webcam video of your pretty face and integrate that with your text based sales videos. The sky is the limit here. Humans are used to seeing faces and hearing voices so video sales letters are much more intuitive than text based web pages.

Author: Matt Smith     Matt Smith on the Web Matt Smith RSS Feed

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This article originally appeared on Future Simple – Small Business Software and has been republished with permission.

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Five years ago my husband (Scott) and I purchased 31 acres in the Ozarks, and immediately started working toward the lifestyle that we had long been fantasizing about and planning for.

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We bought our land with the full knowledge that we would be living without electricity, unable to hook up to a power company’s grid. A national wilderness area borders us on three sides, you see, and the nearest electrical pole on the property’s accessible side is more than a mile away. Furthermore, there are numerous vertical rock ledges and a year-round stream between our home and that lone pole … and we would never consider destroying the beauty of the glades and brook with a big, cleared powerline right-of-way!

Unnecessary Conveniences

One and a half years after our land purchase, Scott and I moved into an octagonal, square-beamed home that we’d built ourselves … with hand tools. And just before that happy event, we had an electrical-appliance garage sale … during which we parted with our television, iron, hair dryer, toaster, blender, and various other gadgets we’ve long since forgotten (and haven’t missed).

Now you probably wonder how we get along without such “conveniences.” Well, it’s not complicated at all: We’ve replaced electricity with kerosene, propane gas, wood, a car battery, and the heating and cooling properties of the thermal mass in our house.

Mantle-type Aladdin kerosene lanterns provide us with illumination for evening reading and work, for instance. Five of these — two in the living room and three in the kitchen — give off plenty of white light (which is also easy on our eyes when we’re doing close work). Throughout the rest of the house, standard kerosene wick lamps produce a soothing yellow glow. Our lighting system probably isn’t any less expensive than electrical lamps would be, but it does create a mellower atmosphere and isn’t subject to the potential brownouts and blackouts (and pricing whims) of a power company.

During the day our many windows and two skylights provide plenty of light, since — when we designed the house — we were careful to base the placement of the openings on the daily and seasonal positions of the sun. The kitchen (which is the most important room for us) stays bright and cheerful all day long as a result of its southwestern exposure. And there isn’t any problem with excessive summer heat buildup, because our home is nestled in the trees, and their leaves filter the sun during the intensely hot months.