Real Madrid have stunned the World of football, or soccer, by announcing a series of transfer coups. Their signings of Kak’a for 70 million Euros followed by Ronaldo for 95 million Euros give or take a million and depending on the exchange rate, is supposed to send a message out about the brand.

So how is it that Real Madrid can spend these vast quantities of money? There is one reason that is obvious, a reelected megalomaniac chairman who refuses to see his mistakes of the past. Mainly though it is The Beckham Law that attracts them whatever Ronaldo may say about dreaming of playing for Madrid etc…

What is the Beckham Law then? Well check out the Wikipedia description for Beckham Law. This means that the set tax rate of 25% can be applied for up to six years avoiding the higher tax rates in the UK and Italy. With high tax rates at 50% maximum in the UK expect to see a flood of players opting to go to Spain rather than the Premier League stating that it has always been their ambition to play there, they have been fans since the year dot etc… This is plainly not true. To put it simply tax is why they come. It is only natural to want to save up to 50% on taxes I suppose.

How can this effect you? Well if you come to work in Spain earning a high salary with a Spanish company then you can opt into the Beckham Tax Rates for up to six years. You are required to spend over half the year in Spain which is not too great a cost. So if you are planning to come to Spain then think of setting up a company here beforehand and then give yourself a contract here.

Then of course you need to buy a property with the amazing amount of saved tax to give yourself a good investment. The prices at the higher levels are standing up to the World economic crisis and Spain’s first 30 million Euro villa has just been started on Mallorca. For more information on tax, Spanish property sales and much much more get in touch with houses for sale in Spain. You can save an absolute fortune on your Spanish property purchase.

When Spain conquered Europe at football last summer the newspaper headlines proclaimed that 46 million people were thankful. Spain’s population when I was studying was stuck resolutely at 38 million with the second lowest birthrate in Europe. Almost eight million people have moved into the country in little over ten years. Many are packing up their bags and heading back to their nation of birth. However those here require housing and services. The housing pyramid base is still strong then as any price reductions bring more potential purchasers including immigrants into the equation, if the banks will actually lend which is the main criteria currently. Lost confidence in the banking sector reflects the lemming like way they lent without regard for income multiples before the crash.

An increase in signings has been reported by notaries in Valencia recently especially since the Banco de Santander opened up the floodgates just a little. Other banks follow the Santander’s steps in Spain. In Northern Spain where the overdevelopment of the Costas has not happened prices are holding up. Yes they will get caught up in a ripple effect but not in a maelstrom.

Sagunto, a town to the north of Valencia, is a good example. It is not the most beautiful place in the World in my opinion. It is however OK as it has a beautiful Moorish/Roman fort at the top of the hill and the old Jewish quarter is lovely. The largest freeport in the mediterranean is being built and it is expected to create 40-70000 jobs in the long term. Demand will outstrip the supply available and price drops if any will be minimal as more and more people come into the area. Prices have reduced in this area but by a smaller amount than elsewhere and they continue to hold their values well.

Spain is a home from home for British people so they will always be attracted by the cheap beer, satellite TV and being back in the UK in a couple of hours if needed. The young professionals that can work from anywhere due to the internet will still look to bring up their families with bilingual children in sunnier climes and less perceived crime. Fuel bills are cheaper and generally the lifestyle here is cheaper, not so much as in previous years but enough to make a difference and therefore people will continue to want to retire here.

And to finish off being a tad controversial, what is wrong with those who offer nothing to the Spanish economy being forced out because life is getting too difficult for them. Those same people spend all day back in the UK complaining about excessive immigration and those pesky foreigners taking our jobs etc… Come to Spain, learn the language, bring a profession, add something to the mix and mix with the Spanish, they are extremely friendly.

Come with a good plan of action for your life and do some work on it and Spain will work out for you

How does an estate agency market itself and its website? What do you do to get visitors to come to your site and stay? How can a company use social media sites and search engine optimisation?

If you cannot answer these questions or feel confused by them then you may be storing up problems. The new media outlets allow you to get a lot of free PR, tons of exposure and increase your visibility. If your website is static and staid with the same look it has had for years then you may be missing out on the vast majority of people searching.

It is always possible to make mistakes. There are many real estate agents that have put up really good looking websites relying almost totally on Flash. This is not good for being found on Google as Google spiders, they look at your site periodically, cannot find any content to index. Yahoo and other search engines are the same.

Lots of good quality backlinks going into your site are needed to increase visibility. Recently I have put my faith in the writing of articles with backlinks in. They are published on others sites and bring traffic maybe but Google juice definitely. My favourite service has given me over 1000 good quality backlinks from six base articles in just a month.

After writing an article you can place a version of it within your own site too of course. It is easier to submit automatically to social network sites giving the article exposure and avoiding the laborious manual submission process. There are many services for doing this and most are free in the basic version. Social Marker and Only Wire are examples of sites that can do this for you nd save lots of time.

The other thing is you should contribute by providing good content on the social media sites such as Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, Digg and my personal favourite Stumble Upon. The more you can do within a short time frame each day the better as you participate and drop your links in over time. Services such as Ping.fm lets you update your status faster.

Finally you buy with your eyes so you should make good use of video too. Avoid grainy video if at all possible because the customer will decide on a place straight away in many cases and first impressions count. Put your personality into the videos and you will get more business.

The real estate market is not the best in the World to be in at the moment but by promoting yourself through these media and making your company more visible you can still be successful. Have a look at the site developed in the last quarter (With some older content) to see how certain techniques have been used