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Well, I’m guilty of thinking again.   My mind wanders thinking of ways to do things differently-actually, a way to do things better, which brings questions, and then getting lost a little bit.

My blog, if you remember, is a pretty narrow niche in that I write about Green Real Estate. But, the other day I was thinking…What if there were a way to have multiple pages or categories with their own blog?  I know that makes absolutely no sense, but I’ll explain.

I have tried to spend some time looking at Niche Marketing Blogs over the past few months and each one proves that Niche Blogs are just…different.  If you get off topic, you lose readers.  If you don’t get out on a limb and break up the content sometimes, it bores people..and then you lose readers.

So back to my idea.  Personally, I think this is an amazing idea for the real estate industry.  In a way it would be multiple sites all in one.  For example, we have pages right?  Contact, Search for listings, yada..yada.  Then we have tags for our posts: Foreclosures, Mortgage, Marketing, New Listings…whatever.

What if within the separate pages we could have a different blog, or a way to filter a blog to a separate page?  Instead of having just one long page of posts on a blog page it would be nice for within the Dashboard to filter the Blog Post to a different page.

So, I’m writing a post on Foreclosures and I would like to filter it down to appear only on the Foreclosure page.

In my case, I would like to be able to write posts for say Builders and move it over to a Builders Going Green page.   Another idea would be a not so Real Estate page with General Green Information.

I would think that any one in Real Estate that focuses on a Niche of any kind would like the ability to do this.   Does anyone know plugin to do this?  Or are there any of my Genius friends out there that would happen to want to tackle it? :0)

Or is this just a dumb idea?

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On Vendorslut Eve, here are a couple of quick notes on free “gifts” and their intended influence:

Richard Riccelli points out this New York Times article:

Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies — Viagra pens, Zoloft soap dispensers, Lipitor mugs — that were meant to foster good will and, some would say, encourage doctors to prescribe more of the drugs.

No longer will Merck furnish doctors with purplish adhesive bandages advertising Gardasil, a vaccine against the human papillomavirus. Banished, too, are black T-shirts from Allergan adorned with rhinestones that spell out B-O-T-O-X. So are pens advertising the Sepracor sleep drug Lunesta, in whose barrel floats the brand’s mascot, a somnolent moth.

Some skeptics deride the voluntary ban as a superficial measure that does nothing to curb the far larger amounts drug companies spend each year on various other efforts to influence physicians. But proponents welcome it as a step toward ending the barrage of drug brands and logos that surround, and may subliminally influence, doctors and patients.

It’s not just a matter of subliminal influence. When every pen and pad you use comes from a vendor, the vendors are underwriting your office supplies budget. The “in-kind” gift translates directly to an “in-cash” benefit.

Here’s a very complete disclosure on this issue of “gifts” and affiliate marketing from the Mortgage Sales Blog:

While most of the information provided on this mortgage blog does not include product pitches or personal agendas, some of the authors may generate income by selling services to loan officers or real estate agents.

Personally approved mortgage vendors participate on this blog as a way to expand their online reach, develop relationships with our readers, and prove that their products are worth taking a look at.

In the instance where it is not obvious, I will make every attempt to be fully transparent with our readers about any affiliate agreements where the Mortgage Sales Blog receives financial compensation by promoting a product or service on this blog.

As of Jan 4th, 2009, the Mortgage Sales Blog (Mark Madsen) has not promoted any product or service where an affiliate agreement was in place.

The MortgageSalesBlog.com does not necessarily endorse any of the products or mortgage vendors mentioned on this site.  However, some of our contributors may have affiliate business arrangements, co-marketing agreements, and personal interests that will most certainly create a bias in the way information is shared or interpreted.

Even though we do not do paid product reviews, we are open to accepting free trials (not bribes) of products or services that may result in a favorable mention on this blog.  As expressed above, there will be disclosure, but our goal is not to trick our readers into buying something we don’t believe in.

I’d rather have a vendor pay me to teach them how to blog about their own stuff.

Now that our cards are on the table, please use your own judgment and research before making a final decision to spend your valuable time and money following the advice of any of our contributors.

That’s not as hard a line as I might draw, but at least everything is fully disclosed, in detail, in advance. The comments on that post are worth reading, too.

I refuse most of the appeals I get from the mainstream media. Why? Because all they’re looking for is waxed-fruit, a pre-defined set piece in the tableaux they had constructed before they called. The same sort of thing goes for vendors and their earnest appeals for feedback — lubricated with free drinks — from real estate webloggers. They don’t want your feedback, they want your readers. Amazingly enough, no matter what they might say to you, pretty young girls in slinky cocktail dresses don’t really have a thing for clunky, chunky, balding guys in Sears & Roebuck suits.

Here’s the deal, sad but true: If you didn’t look like man-bites-dog to the reporter, the reporter would not have called. If the girl hadn’t already weighed your wallet, she’d be nuzzled up to a different fat guy. And if you didn’t have a weblog to be exploited, the vendors would treat you just like they did before you had a weblog to be exploited: You would just be another cow to be milked, instead of, potentially, a highly-prized volunteer dairy farmer.

They’re selling product, and, if they’re bad at it, they get fired. They are courting you to get you to sell their product for them — to get you to sell out your readers in exchange for free drinks and free “gifts” and pretended friendship.

To the reporter you’re a cipher and to the hooker you’re a john. But to the vendor you’re a stooge — or, even worse, a shill. You can try to deny this disgrace, but as the shrink says at the end of the Times article, “The need to deny influence is damaging to the soul.”

Technorati Tags: blogging, Inman Connect, real estate, real estate marketing

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As I take stock of 2008 and move into 2009, I’ve decided to  develop and implement a strategy for transforming my business moving forward.  I’ve settled on a theme for this year - creating, delivering and leveraging knowledge.

My goal for 2009 is to become a better filter.

I want to become an expert filter - more importantly, be recognized as an expert filter - transforming information into knowledge.  I had a very interesting conversation this morning with a client regarding the state of the current real estate market in Chicago.  After three attempts of getting several properties under contract, my client and I finally succeeded in getting a deal together.  We visited the unit again this morning.  After seeing the unit, I sensed his apprehension when talking about next steps.

He wants to renegotiate the price now after having the property under contract.  He’s been actively reading on the blogs that prices are continuing to fall in the US - he cited Case Shiller’s recent price decline of 18% as the reason why he should pay even less than our negotiated price.

This became a real example of why information is not knowledge.

I became a filter - he was not really aware that the indicator, often touted in daily news sound bites about the ailing US real estate market, was actually an aggregated statistic for 20 metro areas in the US - Chicago faring slightly better at alittle over 10% decline since the same period last year.  To drill even deeper, the indicator measures single family home prices, not condos .  The decline hasn’t impacted every neighborhood equally.  Perhaps more importantly, we have spent the past 5 months searching for properties in four different neighborhoods within the city.  The process was an eye-opening experience for him - he learned that while inventory was plentiful, there were only a handful of properties actually worth buying.

While I am not keen on resolutions, I have decided to spend less time listening to the 24 hour, continuous coverage of catastrophe that our news has become.   Without the proper context and filtering, consumers are simply mis-educated and misinformed regarding what is really happening in their corner of the world.

Our clients need expertise and experience to filter the information into tangible knowledge that can provide real, measurable value.

I’ve struggled with how knowledge can really be tangibly measured.  In my attempt to begin tackling an answer,  I reached out to my colleagues on LinkedIn to get some ideas about what specific knowledge and/or expertise other professionals have used to provide measurable, real value to their clients.  I received several great responses, however, two answers really hit home for me.

The first was Brian Brady’s - fellow Bloodhound - response regarding his knowledge of VA lending rules which saved his client real, measurable dollars in financing the purchase of a new home:

I’m a lender so my specific expertise draws upon my experience in financial planning. I believe that specific expertise sets me apart from 90% of the loan originators available to a consumer. I’ll share a recent example:

Rather than borrow money against an investment property (at rates of 8-9%) for a down payment, I advised the Vet to borrow 100%, and pay the $8300 funding fee, rather than obtaining a $100,000 loan at 3% higher than the VA rate. The breakeven for the 100,000 piece was about 1.5 years.

Today, their liquidity is intact along with the equity in their investment property.

The second response was from Arn Cendedella:

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This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link).

 
If selling is not a viable option, you need to fall in love with your house all over again

The foreclosure market dominates the news, but it remains that good old-fashioned American homeowners occupy the overwhelming majority of Phoenix-area homes. That’s the good news.

And here’s some even better news: If you have significant equity in your home, you can probably refinance right now, reducing your monthly payment.

But here’s the bad news: Unless you absolutely have to, you probably won’t be moving for at least five years.

Don’t believe the number you see on that refi appraisal. At most, your house is worth the same amount as a comparable lender-owned home, plus the net cost to bring that home up to the livability of yours.

Swallow hard. You may have read in the paper that Americans lost $2 trillion in real estate equity in 2008. That’s a specious number. Money is the stuff you can fold up and spend. The equity in your home is unrealized money. You weren’t rich when your home was worth a lot, and you’re not poor now that it isn’t.

But what you are is stuck, practically speaking.

You don’t want to sell your house for what it can bring right now. If you do, you will lose money. But, refi or not, you’re making your payments.

If your home really was purely an investment, like a stock, it might be wise to dump it, take your lumps and move on.

But your home is not only where your heart is, it is very probably where most if not all of your savings are. You need to wait for the market to turn so you can sell at a profit.

So what should you do?

My advice: Paint.

Patch that stucco and paint it. Caulk the wood at the eaves and the trim and paint it. Clean out the house one room at a time and patch and paint the walls, repairing and painting the molding.

You’re stuck in your house for the next five years. It’s time to fall in love with it all over again. When there’s nothing you can do to improve the real estate market — paint.

Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing

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One of the biggest stories we followed in 2008 was Vlad Zablotskyy’s legal battle with ePerks.com. The fight ended in a settlement, about which it were better for me to say nothing, but it suffices to say that ePerks has filed for bankruptcy.

Working together, we raised a ton of money for Vlad’s Legal Defense Fund — but not nearly as much as was needed. Brian Brady and I would like to do what we can to help reduce Vlad’s legal debt.

So here’s our proposal: If you will make a $200 donation to the Vlad Zablotskyy Legal Defense Fund using the PayPal button shown below, we will send you a complimentary set of DVDs from BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Phoenix, 2008. The DVDs sell for $199, so you’re essentially getting them for free, in exchange for your donation.

Why are we doing this? Because Vlad jumped on the grenade for all of us. What happened to him could have happened to any one of us. For my own part, I have tried to make this episode instructive for any other corporate attorneys who decide that webloggers are easy targets. But it remains that Vlad took the flak that could have been aimed at any one of us. We can only imagine what he and his family have been through this year, but at least we can help to lift this finacial burden.

Click on the “Donate” button and let’s put “paid” to this kind of intimidation against real estate webloggers.

Support Vlad Zablotskyy’s Defense Fund
Defend your own right to free speech!

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RE BarCamp Seattle has a time and a date.  From Todd Carpenter:

Rich Jacobson and Brad Andersohn from Active Rain, along with Drew Meyers from Zillow have established the basics. A date and venue. February 13 at Zillow Headquarters.  This happens to follow a Bloodhound Unchained preview event held the day before, also at Zillow headquarters, and also free!

Greg and I are pretty stoked about heading to the Emerald City.   Scott Cowan signed up for Bloodhound Unchained Phoenix ‘O8 but had to decline participation to tend to familial duties.  Since then,  Scott’s been lobbying us to head up to Seattle to out on our “Mini-Unchained Event” for Coffee Bean Town.  Last month, I told him we’d gladly come if he could round up a venue and a group of eager people.  Scott called the folks at Zillow and we arranged to be a prequel to Seattle RE BarCamp.

Our event will be from 1PM until 5:30 PM, on Thursday, February 12, 2008, at the Zillow Headquarters. We’ll be talking about Direct Marketing (online and offline), Social Media Marketing, and Blogging.  David Gibbons and Rich Jacobson agreed to speak, as well.  Marlow Harris raised her hand to attend but I’m hopeful to have her to speak.

Our concluding session will be a debate between Glenn Kelman of Redfin.com and Greg Swann.  They’ll be discussing Glenn’s thoughts about whether size really matters.  Glenn outlines the case for why the little guy might get squashed:

This is a change. Marketing, which used to be the large brokers’s primary advantage, is actually getting cheaper — if Bloodhound has proved anything, it’s that the web has made marketing a question of what you have to say not how much you have to spend.

But the cost of running a real estate search site is rising fast. Large brokers throw money (if not always expertise) at the problem, while small brokers struggle to compete. The small brokers ask MLSs to provide a common set of services, like listing alerts, but the large brokers sometimes block these efforts as being beyond the MLSs’ charter.

Greg Swann thinks the little guy has the advantage:

I want to make sure I’m being clear about this. The mom in this example doesn’t have a problem that can be solved with data. It can only be solved with experience — rich, deep, visceral experience. This is what you have to deliver to take away her fears. We don’t put a coffee table book in the house because we expect it to sell the home. We put it there to get buyers to sit down in the house. If we can close on that — sitting down — the house has a chance to sell itself. A whole lot of the things we do consist, in large measure, of slowing people down. We want for them to take their time getting to know the house. If we can do that, the battle’s half won. The job we need to think about, going forward, is doing those same kinds of things with other factors that can motivate a sale.

This one ought to be a lot of fun.

Our BloodhoundBlog Unchained Seattle Agenda is still relatively loose.  I LOVE the folks who have agreed to present; I just haven’t nailed down the agenda, yet.  Any Unchained alumnus will tell you that we always put on a show and rarely lack in content that is practical advice for the practitioner.  Expect no less from the Seattle event.

Here’s the cool part; it’s free for fifty guests.  As a matter of disclosure, we’ll have money in our mouths.  We’re coming to Seattle to promote Bloodhound Blog Unchained Phoenix ‘09. If you agree to attend, expect a few “two minute commercials” for the big show.

Seats will be limited and we’re still working on a registration form.  Hope to see you in Seattle!

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Ya know, this whole Social Media thing is pretty funny when you think about it.  For a little while now I have just sort of sat back and watched instead of hopping in to create a conversation.  It’s kind of like sitting at the airport and watching how people react to different things.  By no means am I a social media expert, I don’t really think I want to be one ~ I’m just a Real Estate Professional that finds it all really interesting and enjoys meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends.

One of the sites I find the most interesting is Twitter.  It’s amazing how everyday there seems to be another site that helps you ‘use’ it as a tool.  You can go and find out who is following you back-maybe get your feelings hurt when you find out who is not reciprocating or Grade your twitter stream and find out how you rank or if you just pretty much suck at socializing..

All of these tools seem, in my eyes atleast, to make us more vulnerable in so many ways.  It all takes so much time.  Where our blog used to be what we needed the most, folks are saying there is no point in having a blog if you are not on every Social Media site imaginable.

While I love the Social sites, have met some amazing people and truly value all of the Relationships that have formed through Social Media Sites-what is this doing to business?   Are we at some sort of tipping point?

All of this just makes me think about how much time it really takes away from conducting business.   While we may be out there creating opportunities, marketing a listing or other service, prospecting…are all of these ‘tools’ that ‘grade’ us  in a way taking away from what we should really be focusing on?  Are we worrying so much about making others happy in what we say, tweet or update that we are not connecting with people on a real one on one level?

I am totally in agreement that Social Media is a place to be, but how much time should be spent in a virtual world.  By not updating on a lot of sites frequently it takes your ‘Karma’ and Rankings down to practically Nil yet more and more applications are in a sense judging people for their online activity.  This may be all well and good for Social Media and other online Experts, but probably not so hot for those whose jobs rely on us connecting in person.

What will this year bring in the Online World?  Maybe a little less of ‘Do This’ and ‘Don’t Do That’ or ‘If you want to Succeed this is how you HAVE to do things’?  Everytime a new application comes out is it really separating all of us a little more instead of bringing people closer?

If you are wondering, there really is not a point to this post.  Just rolling around a few thoughts that have been in my head.  I once attended a conference where one of the speakers led a discussion on ‘How Web 3.0 will be more like Web 1.0′ ~ maybe this is why?

So for now, I think I’ll just hop over and update Twitter and Facebook and tell everyone how much I appreciate them and have some fun with it.  After that, I’m going to continue prospecting and connecting with past clients.   To all of you, I wish you a Happy New Year!

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I wrote this six years ago today, but it describes events that happened eleven years ago. You’ll figure it out…

So… She says it’s time she goes
But wanted to be sure I know
She hopes we can be friends

I think… “Yeah, I guess we can,” say I
But didn’t think to ask her why
She blocked her eyes and drew the curtains
With knots I’ve got yet to untie…

What if I were Romeo in black jeans?
What if I was Heathcliff, it’s no myth?
Maybe she’s just looking for
Someone to dance with…

The song is ‘No Myth’ by Michael Penn, a very folky kind of Rock ‘n’ Roll. There’s this one and ‘Thunder Road’ by Bruce Springsteen: “You can hide ‘neath your covers and study your pain, make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain.” We never had an ‘our song’ because we always had two.

I found her on the internet, like every good thing. It was just after Christmas in 1997. She was a widow awash in sadness, and her sister pestered her into posting this completely impersonal personal ad:

Women Seeking Men, Phoenix, Arizona

Description: I haven’t started dating since my husband
    died… and I’m not ready to start yet. I do, however,
    enjoy stimulating discussions, and am interested in
    expanding my network of gentlemen friends without
    having to go out and meet anyone. You may fantasize…
    I am lovely… but do not be crude or too graphic. It
    seems that the chatrooms I’ve scanned are populated
    with people looking for anonymous opportunity to be ill
    mannered. Please do be eclectic, though. There is so
    much fascinating knowledge to be shared and adventures
    to be enjoyed, that the mind should not be limited by
    crassness or trite vocabularies. If you don’t
    understand, please go to the next on the list.

I was in the same sort of spot. I had been through a completely vicious divorce, very costly financially and emotionally, and I had no need or use or plans for a woman in my life. A friend had been bugging me to do something despite all that, and I was reading those personal ads to get him off my back. But this ad was catnip to me. I mean, she had me at ‘hubris.’ I wrote back as follows:

> Such a breathtaking snob! Most impressive. Especially
> do I like the recognition that hubris can be a virtue.
> I have what you need, assuming you can stand it. See me
> at my web page beforehand. It’ll save us both time.
> Talk to me as and when.

Just the right kind of indifference, if you ask me.

See…, it was just too soon to tell
And looking for some parallel
Could be an endless game

We…, we said goodbye before hello
My secret she will never know
And if I dig a hole to China
I’ll catch the first junk to Soho

What if I were Romeo in black jeans?
What if I was Heathcliff, it’s no myth?
Maybe she’s just looking for
Someone to dance with…

She wrote back, saying,

> I thoroughly enjoy your writing. Your prose is poetry.
> But like Ayn Rand, you are to be savored, not skimmed.

Oh, my.

But then,

> I was once fortunate enough to have found kinship
> within romance and romance within kinship. I don’t
> believe I have the right to ask for such a miracle
> twice in a lifetime.

But wait…

> You, however, still have an unfulfilled experience,
> somewhere in your future; so please, in the name of
> romance, don’t let go of hope.

Not me. Not ever.

> If you would like to correspond, I believe you would be
> very interesting and very good for my soul. I fear,
> however, that I could not reciprocate. I’m very dark
> and very morbid just now. Especially in the midst of
> all the holiday joy. So, write back at your own risk.

But what if I was…?
So what if I was…?
Maybe she’s just looking for
Someone to dance with…

We batted things back and forth by email over the next few days, and then she surprised me by calling me on this very day, January 2nd, five years ago today. She asked me to meet her for dinner in downtown Tempe, a mildly-bohemian quarter of Phoenix quarantined safely outside city limits. Almost I declined, so disgusted was I by the thought of dating. I met her by the giant statues of Alice’s rabbits, by the little burbling fake lake, and she was tall and willowy and unbearably beautiful. And she was wearing black jeans…

What if I was Romeo in black jeans?
What if I was Heathcliff, it’s no myth?
Maybe she’s just looking for
Someone to dance with…

And she was, too, dinner or not. Someone to dance with, someone to dine with, someone to not-be-involved with. She told me as much.

We ate and then we walked all the way up to the little amphitheater in front of the America West building. We sat on a little circular concrete stage and I told her everything I never knew. I talked to her as I have never talked to anyone, and she let me, let us both drench ourselves in a geyser of words.

That was a Friday night, a long, sweet, slow drenching. She sent me home without a kiss. Someone to dance with. On Sunday she made me go with her to the Phoenix Art Museum. To demonstrate, I am sure, what was and what was not going on between us. But she forgot that I am a novelist, a hoarder of small details. Her behavior was above reproach, but the skin at her collarbone was flushed and mottled.

I know how to prosecute my advantages, so I took her back to my house and made her lunch. Later we went to the mall and I made a point of taking her right past Victoria’s Secret: Say the truth or say nothing, but don’t tell me a lie when your chest is flushed like that. Even so, she sent me home without a kiss.

The next day we met for lunch and then did she kiss me, alone in her office and then again in the light of the winter sun on a bench by the pond in Encanto Park. The photo is of my Cathleen on that day, in that sun. Her chest was flushed from the first, but her hair wasn’t messed up before we started kissing.

A few nights later we were out in my car, just out driving in the dark on the empty desert roads in Papago Park. I had a tape of Melissa Etheridge’s MTV ‘Unplugged’ performance, and we listened over and over again as Melissa sang ‘Thunder Road’ with Bruce Springsteen himself.

Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk
And my car’s out back if you’re ready to take that long walk
From your front porch to my front seat
The door’s open but the ride it ain’t free
And I know you’re lonely and there’s words that I ain’t spoken
But tonight we’ll be free, all the promises’ll be broken

Her name is Cathleen Collins, my wife. I saw her for the first time five years ago tonight. I love her better than I ever knew I could love any woman. And she’s mine — to dance with, to talk with, to dream with, to thrive with — to be with — forever…

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The Technium:

Instead of dozens of geniuses trying to program an AI in a university lab, there are billion people training the dim glimmers of intelligence arising between the quadrillion hyperlinks on the web. Long before the computing capacity of a plug-in computer overtakes the supposed computing capacity of a human brain, the web—encompassing all its connected computing chips—will dwarf the brain. In fact it already has.

Pascal kept a room full of “Rainmen” — idiot-savant math geeks — as human calculators. He could have done the problems he threw off to them himself, but they saved his time for the work they could not do.

While we will waste the web’s ai on trivial pursuits and random acts of entertainment, we’ll also use its new kind of intelligence for science. Most importantly, an embedded ai will change how we do science. Really intelligent instruments will speed and alter our measurements; really huge sets of constant real time data will speed and alter our model making; really smart documents will speed and alter our acceptance of when we “know” something. The scientific method is a way of knowing, but it has been based on how humans know. Once we add a new kind of intelligence into this method, it will have to know differently. At that point everything changes.

Read the whole thing.

Technorati Tags: disintermediation, technology

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All of the stand-alone BloodhoundRealty.com-hosted blogs (that is, the SplendorQuest.com blogs) are going to WP 2.7 this weekend, with a few changes in our standard line-up of plug-ins. If we host you at BloodhoundBlog.net, your big changes will wait for the release of WordPress Multi-User 2.7.

But the plug-in discussed here, the Grunion contact form, is available to you from any weblog we host. (SQ.com admins may have to Activate it.)

Here’s how you use it: Put the words contact-form between [square brackets]. That’s all. You’ll get a contact form that emails its responses back to you. Very simple, very smart.

So: In the text-input box shown below, tell me how much you like the Grunion contact form:

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Vita brevis, ars longa: Take a stand…

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Go ahead and vote. More serious uses to come…

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I was quietly writing on a different post this morning when an email or two from my buddy Cal Carter kicked me in the butt and made me switch gears.

One of the first principles of internet marketing (and marketing in general) is that you follow the eyeballs. Preferably the RELEVANT (targeted) eyeballs of those who are mostly likely to use you product or influence those who will. Wherever they are find them. Target them. Starting with the highest ROI and working down the list until you have all of the business you can handle.

Why do we optimize for Google vs Yahoo or MSN?
More relevant eyeballs to be had at the least cost. Simple as that.

Why do we use facebook?
Brian Brady showed us in Orlando that you can HIGHLY target niche eyeballs using it. And those coming to Unchained in Phoenix will hear MUCH more about that I am sure.

Would it surprise you if I told you that for the last month or two, over 30% of the traffic to EricOnSearch has come directly from Twitter? (true story…).

That’s what I get for listening to Teri (thanks Teri!!) and finally trying to make solid business use of Twitter! 2 new customers, and much more traffic every day. (Hint: What’s your Tweet / Follower ratio?) That’s the key metric in terms of ROI in my world.

(side note: Do you have the authority (read: credibility) to send 100 people to your blog simply by letting them know that you posted? Here is the BEST question…when they visit, are they impressed enough to link to it? Maybe even to syndicate it?)

Pat Kitano and friends are promoting Social Media conscious marketing as “online marketing without blogging”. Of all of the things I think Pat gets right, this is a point I (humbly) disagree with. Blog is NOT a 4 letter word (contrary to popular belief).

LAZY is. (I don’t wanna blog is too often code for I don’t wanna put effort in. Time to face that truth and call it what it is.) Own that.

I totally agree with him that a LOT of new delivery vehicles for content are going to come to life. Where we part ways is marketing it in a way that says “No need to blog…”. It takes well crafted and attractive content to attract people AND it takes a distribution system to promote it. One does NOT replace the need for the other IMO. I do agree with MOST of his points…just not that one.

EXAMPLE:

I do believe that crowning your content King in 2009 will involve syndication as well…you are going to see more of RSS words like Homescopes and Scenius et al. These are brilliant ways of Top QUALITY content creators (read: BLOGGERS) working together to create bigger microphones for all.

I quote from Pat at Transparent Real Estate:

“The Focus of News Will be Distribution over Creation

Before the Internet and citizen journalism, mainstream media owned the content it created (news, music and movies) and charged a lot for the consumption of that content. The social media now produces a lot of the online content and is disrupting the media industries by pushing the price for content creation towards zero. Online news sources are now positioning themselves to be the most comprehansive “news re-sources” and in 2009 will start steering their readership to authoritative sources who may or may not be their own journalists. Among citizen journalists, real estate bloggers and Twitterers will benefit from the exposure.”

This is right in line with my commentary about Citizen Journalism from a few months ago. I agree with that 100%. NICELY said.

Again though, here’s where I think Pat goes into slight oversteer:

Does that replace websites with listings? Nope. People who Google are NOT per se the same folks you connect with on social media. It does not replace SEO/M. It enhances it. It is simply another channel on the real estate marketing TV set.

Does that replace blogging? NOPE. It facilitates it!

Does it mean that you STILL have to create the best content? YES! (of course)

Social media IMO does not compete with SEO/M at all…except I guess in some peoples’ view that it competes for REALTOR time and dollars. But in the mind of the consumer, they are two seperate beasts. In terms of building authority, they promote each other. In the marketplace of 2009, my take is that you’d better be prepared to go “all in” on both fronts. They enhance, compliment, and help each other.

And should you blog? Yep. Like your marketing life depends on it. (It does.)
And should you participate (smartly) in social media that ACTUALLY has eyeballs? YES. Like your marketing life depends on it.
And should you build a distribution basis for your blogging? Yes. same as above.
And should you have a web presence that ranks well? Yes. It is and will remain the highest ROI activity you can do.

There is NO room for laziness in 2009. The competition will only get stronger. Here’s wishing you ALL a great year! (You included Pat. Please do not take my slight disagreements with you as a major deal. I really did enjoy the post! )

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Please, allow me to be the very first to wish you a Happy New Year!  What’s that?  Not the first huh; the second?  The tenth?  Well just forget it then.  Truth be told “Happy New Year” is kind of silly isn’t it?  I mean, it’s just an imaginary line drawn in a calendar.  The time of year we just know we’re going to write the wrong date on our checks and when we do we’re still surprised by it: “Look what I did here Mac, I was writing out a check and I wrote ‘08 instead of ‘09!  Can you believe it!  Golly, I wonder how many more times I’ll make that mistake.”  (Note of explanation for the younger readers out there: we used to carry around these little pads called checkbooks.  They were nicely encased in a faux leather little cover and you would write on one of the sheets in this pad a kind of IOU that your bank would pay out of your account.  It had the benefit, especially right after the holidays, of creating a little time between when you paid something and when you necessarily had to have the actual cash.  You could not use them for online purchases, which was OK because the world was offline at the time.)

Where was I?  Oh yeah: saying Happy New Year on this day is a bit arbitrary.  When you think about it, we begin a new year every single day of our lives.  As a matter of fact, we begin a new life every single day of our lives.  Why don’t we wish each other Happy New Life each day instead of Good Morning?  Wouldn’t that put a much finer point on the power of today?  Oh I know what you’re thinking: “arbitrary or not, this is the time for Resolutions.”  Have you read the statistics on New Year’s resolutions?  Do you know how many are broken within hours of their creation?  (If so, please go ahead and post them in the comments because I didn’t bother to look them up - one of my resolutions is to waste less time finding links that others can find on there own.  As a matter of fact, did you know that the importance of blog linking is declining?  Damn it!  There, I went and broke my only New Year’s Resolution… anyone got the time?)

Here’s my point: every single day is an opportunity for us to take one more step down the path of success as we define it.  Whether you want to lose weight, spend more time with your family, spend less time with your family, make a boat load of money, load a boat with money and travel the world - whatever our goals - we can get closer to them each and every day if we only take three simple steps:

1. Have a Goal.  This may seem obvious but you’d be surprised how many people do not have a specific, written goal they look at every day.  (I’ll pause here for everyone to get a paper and pen and write their goal down.)
2. Select an Action.  Like ironing, one you can do every day and make into a habit.  Albert Einstein said the 8th Wonder of the World was the power of compounding.  If it is so powerful in the financial world, imagine the impact of a compounding habit on us!
3. Recognize your WHY.  Have a damn good reason “why” you want to achieve the goal.  We are motivated by the why’s in our life.  Nobody actually loses 50lbs because they would look better.  They lose weight to save their life or to save their marriage or to finally show up at the High School Reunion and rub it in the face of “little miss popularity” who now has four kids, four chubby cheeks and a couple of chins…)

Hey, the truth is everyone looks at January 1st as a time of new beginnings.  If it helps to believe in that type of mass delusion I say go for it.  If you set your goals on December 3rd I say good for you too.  If you are going to wait until January 2nd just to be contrarian I relish the beat of your different drum.  Just make sure you don’t wait until January 3rd, because that will have been three New Lifetimes from now and no one should allow so much time to pass without purpose (last night’s festivities not withstanding).

Take a look around.  If you are content with what you see, don’t change a thing between today and yesterday.  If, however, you occasionally wake up and say to yourself “Hey, I don’t remember asking for more bills than money.” or “When did I decide I wanted more waist than I had belt?” you might want to engage in a little personal compounding yourself.   Those three steps I mentioned above are all that’s required to create some pretty amazing miracles.  Want to know the best part?  Compounding your personal interest does not depend on a calendar.  It doesn’t matter in the least what day today is because when it comes to your success, every day is a beginning.

Happy New Life!

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Kelley “Klik Kween” Koehler, instructing from the ARE-TEC blog:

Users like to see words describing their goal on a site, it helps them have more confidence that the thing they’re looking for is indeed there to be found. It’s called a scent trail.

Which means that if I create a page on my site just for people looking at townhomes, then I need to very carefully optimize for those kinds of words, and then I need to restate those words plainly on the page.

Kelley taught us about scent trails at Unchained Orlando.  She explained her “long-tail search engine marketing strategy” and how she makes it easy for online shoppers to find exactly what they want.  Kelley told us to build a landing page with the exact same phrase as the web surfer searched.  

I’m using my BloodhoundBlog.net weblog for these experiments.  Greg Swann suggested that I use it to post mortgage rates.  I built a page on the weblog, titled “Current Mortgage Rates Report”. “Current Mortgage Rates” is a keyword search phrase that a plethora of consumers search.  If I start a PPC campaign, I’ll play in that keyword search phrase.  “Current Mortgage Rates” is the scent trail I’m trying to build.

I want to build it with a long-copy sales letter, with no links other than a “Contact Me Now” link (call to action) throughout the landing page.  I want to have that landing page present the proposition, air out (and hopefully answer) all of the potential objections, and ultimately weed out anybody who doesn’t have interest.  My goal is to have clicks that are consumers who have “flopped” and want a mortgage right now.

BUT…as Kelley states, I have to “title” and theme the page with the keyword search phrase that EXACTLY matches what the consumer wants.  I have to make it as simple as possible for them.

Who’s implementing what Kelley taught us?  How are you doing it?

PS:  I changed the title of this post from “Give them What They Want” To “What Is  A Good Scent Trail ?” to reaffirm what Kelley says.  When you click the links on this post,  you get the answer to the question I posed in my title.

PPS:  I also tried to be careful to have ONLY the phrase “scent trail” in bold on this page.

PPPS: Of course, I hope Kelley critiques this practice.

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