The blog is coming together. Our homework was to find a theme and artwork that represent our markets. Sounds like fun, huh? Well it was and it wasn’t.
I love to paint, but I work differently than many artisits. I work with 6 colors maximum: red, yellow, blue, black, white, and brown. From that limited palette, I can create any color I want. This means I create nearly every color that is put on the canvas as I rarely use paint straight from the tube. Much of my time is spent creating color and mixing paints, but I love the process and it gives my work color like no other artist. The only reason I bring this up is to confess that when I went searching for a theme, I kept finding the “feel” of computer generated color and art entirely too flat and cold and sterile and unnatural for my taste. Oh well, sorry about your luck, Lussier. It is 2007, so time to buck up and deal with it. There are thousands of themes available, and while I found them oddly similar due to the medium, I did find one that I could live with.
I had nothing whatsoever to do with the downloading and uploading and whatever else is involved in getting a theme up and running. I picked a theme, gave Greg the url, and he took care of the rest. Why? Because he can do that stuff in 15 minutes and I cannot. Greg is a great coach and I’m not only learning about blogging, I’m also learning about real estate, and here’s what I’m learning: if your time is put to better use elsewhere, then farm out the stuff you can’t/ won’t/ don’t do and let yourself do the voodoo that you do so well. So, thanks to Greg the theme is up.
But the default banner wasn’t up to snuff. Hmm. I thought this was going to be even more difficult than finding a theme. I spent a good bit of time looking at other successful real estate blogs. There are skylines or archtecture or buildings or no pictures at all. My target market is a bedroom community of affordable entry level tract homes. We frequently deal with foreclosures and short sales. There is no glam spectacular skyline; no lovely historic district. So while I was pulling out my hair, stuck in architecture or generic theme mode, Greg was thinking about how to “represent homeownership” in my market. Once I got my brain wrapped around that brilliant idea, I could agree with the coach that what my blog really needs is a big ol’ Rover for a happy kid to snuggle with on a warm sunny day. We checked the royalty-free photo sites, Greg wrestled the photos into place and…Done.
I’m well pleased with the blogsite so far but we are a long way from finished. I don’t even know what the next step is because you and I are playing along at the same time. I’m worried about all the usual things newbie bloggers worry about; you know what they are and I don’t need to repeat them here. Still, I have the utmost faith in not only my coach, but all the coaches and the apprentices, and I’ve already learned quite a bit from everyone. For now let’s just say I’m putting one foot in front of the other, continuing to move forward.
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Steve Nicks says:
Teri,
The weblog looks great so far. I am very interested in watching your site develop. Along with the other members of our team we too are developing a real estate weblog and look forward to seeing your progression and comparing it to the progression of our blog. We’ve enjoyed the challenge so far and look forward to putting all of the “Weblogging 101” tips and tricks from Greg to good use.
I wish you the best of luck with your site and the competition.
-Steve
April 9, 2007 — 8:10 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Steve- I’m thrilled that someone is playing along. I will be watching and learning from you, too. Is it easier to have a team to write, do you think? Do you worry about a cohesive voice or does the free-for-all atmosphere keep things from getting stale? All of the above? 🙂
April 10, 2007 — 9:59 am
Steve Nicks says:
Teri- I think there are pros and cons to the team approach of our weblog. The main advantage is that we’ve got a total of 4 realtors who are contibuting to the blog. Hopefully that means that our content is being updated several times a week (which it has so far), which will help with getting our clients, SOI, geographic farms, etc. visiting our site more often to see the new posts. It also provides our readers with some different perspectives on the real estate market and other topics.
I guess the disadvantage, as you mentioned, would be that we might not have a cohesive voice, but hopefully that is overcome by the advantages. We’ll have to see what the next several months bring. We are very excited with the potential that the weblogs have and look forward to growing and developing.
April 10, 2007 — 11:18 am