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Found on the Weenie at 6:00 CST. It has to be Joseph Ferrara. Rudy would sign out of mybloglog before he came a calling. Joseph I still say you need a haircut but thanks for stopping by. It is always nice to see you.
Can't wait for a rebuttal on the straight jacket comment and the stuff about the pills. During the next several days I will be telling more of your story . . . if you get my drift. I have so many stories to tell . . .
T
All so see Missing Bloggers
This rare photo of Rudolph D. Bachraty III, of Sellsius Real Estate was taken on July 31st, 2007 in San Fransisco just days before he and the notorious Joseph G. Ferrara disappeared from the real estate bloggosphere, leaving behind this cryptic message: "see ya"
We can only speculate as to where they might be, or if they will return. Some of us miss them and wish for their safe return. It is rumored that the cross country trip was just too much for them and that they are too heavily medicated to write blog posts. The two are such close freinds that I heard from an inside source they are sharing a straight jacket.
I can relate to what they must be going through. I met some of the real estate bloggers in person and have been having nightmares ever since. I can only imagine what it must have been like for Joe and Rudy, if those are their real names, as they traveled across the country and met so many of us. I know they were truly frightened when they met me and I did try to keep my dark glasses and baseball cap on at all times, but it just wasn't enough.
Gents, I really do miss you both but understand that you have probably gone to a better place. Just keep taking the little pills the nice lady gives you and when you feel better come back to us.
I know I am supposed to have a picture of some food or weenie related product here on this weapon of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand.
The hat is not edible but it is something I would wear to a weenie roast. That's right I did wear it to a weenie roast.
I found something on the internet this morning that is going to rock the real estate blogoshere:
* Upgrading to TypePad just got easier One of more popular feature requests lately has been a way to make it easy to upgrade from a Wordpress blog to TypePad. So yesterday afternoon we enhanced the Import / Export functionality to support importing your WordPress blog to TypePad via the WordPress eXtended RSS export format. There's…
Real estate blogging experts recommend WordPress . Most have never tried any other platform and some even admit it. Just as I will admit that I don't have a clue which platform is the best but I have tried several and have blogs on Typepad, Blogger, the free version of WordPress, and the self hosted version of Wordpress. Now that I think about it I guess I am a real estate blogging expert too.
Each platform has a lot to offer. The TypePad platform has just about everything already built in that the WordPress bloggers install plug-ins for. WordPress users have entire blogs dedicated to WordPress plug-ins which is cool because as bloggers we all know that finding topics to write about can be tough.
On TypePad we can install widgets for added functionality. I could write about widget installation and functionality but the the idea makes me want to yawn. I guess I am not a true geek, just the worlds laziest real estate blogger. Not lazy enough though to use some of the dumbed down products created for Realtors, or to take advantage of the massive sites where I can spew vast amounts of content that will appear on pages with the spew of hundreds of my competitors.
The Blogger platform is just plain cool. Yup that is a technical term. I post to blogger by taking pictures from my phone, writing a few words and sending them to the blog. The picture of the hat is part of a blog post on my blogger blog. I can do the same thing on my TypePad blog and am positive that they make a WordPress plug-in for that too.
My business blog is on TypePad, along side many other great business blogs. Am I crazy? Yes I am totally insane, but that isn't why I won't be upgrading to WordPress. I can't because WordPress doesn't have a Plugin for that yet. It would be hard to start over and would take too long to transfer over 700 posts to another platform.
This is an opinion, but I think it is the content that is posted on a blog and how it is set up have a greater impact on the success of the blog than the platform being used. A couple of my blogs are highly customized with the features that I want for my business internet presence. None of the platforms I have used have everything that I want without some customization.
My wiki is the only site I currently have up and running that is self hosted. I don't host it because I can, I do so because I don't know any other way to use MediaWiki. I make this comment only to prove to the world that I too can enjoy installing a good bug-fix.
I consider myself fortunate. I live in Minnesota, so I can do anything I want to. I am such a non-conformist . . Ah the freedom . . .
When Teresa Boardman floated an invitation to me to contribute a guest post to
the weenie, my thought was, "How could I possibly add to the
conversation? I don't have any hot dog pictures". Then I remembered
Jabo's Bar Be Que. This is how the weenie rolls in Denver yo. That's a
quarter pound hot link covered with half a pound of slow cooked pork
and topped with a secret recipe BBQ sauce strait out of Kansas City.
Even my man Chris would be
impressed. I'm on a diet, but was compelled to eat the entire thing
anyway. I felt I owed it to the loyal weenie readers. The heartburn
suffered as a result reminded me of the general tone of RE.net over the
last few weeks.
If you read a lot of RE blogs, you may have noticed the alliances, rivalries, and camp mentality that's taking seed. In many humorous ways, these cliques remind me my days in collage. It's still early, and there's plenty of time to take sides, so here's a quick rundown on who to position yourself with in the growing soap opera that is RE.net.
RSS Pieces and The Real Estate Tomato . If you have a blog built by either of these companies, sorry, you don't get to choose which camp you're in. By birthright, you are sworn enemies. Stop trying to leave friendly comments on each others blogs. It's like Buckeye Fan breaking bread with Wolverine Fan. What are thinking?
Remember the "in" crowd? Cheerleaders, jocks, Gregg, Babs, Neidermeyer, and the rest of the Omegas? If you want to be "in", BloodHound Blog is the camp to join. Here, one can feel unencumbered by the bonds of social niceties usually present in the business world. Tell it like it is, and don't worry about making friends because everyone already loves you. If you do decide to join this camp, make sure Greg gives you the Super Secret Odysseus Decoder Ring. Otherwise, you are not truly in. Kind of like the nerd who does the quarterback's homework, and gets invited to some parties, but not the really good ones.
What campus would be complete without a socialistic, communal clique where thousands of worker bees all contribute to the greater good ? Most people are assimilated through indoctrination invitation, but you can join on your own as well.
If you don't have anything good to say, but want to say something anyway, try hangin' with the goth bloggers. This one is easy, Just start pining about fraud, the real estate bubble, or sub prime lenders. You'll be in the clique before you know it.
Then there's the Corporate Sell-Out camp. To join, just start contributing to GeekEstate, the Zillow Wiki, Trulia Voices , or best yet, get yourself a gig blogging for Redfin! Watch as your efforts lead to actual business and take solace in the notion that the rest of us are secretly jealous behind our mantra of "keeping it real".
Finally, there's the Sellsius camp. I consider myself a proud member. We are the Deltas to Bloodhound's Omegas. Can't we all just get along? Let's sing kum-by-ya, smoke a bowl, and have another Jabo Dog. Togas are optional, but highly encouraged.
So there you have it. The Blog and the Beautiful of RE.net. I've been blogging for two and a half years now, things are finally getting interesting. Make sure to pick sides soon. Maybe we can all square off (West Side Story style) at Inman Connect this winter.
BY: Todd Carpenter - REMBEX Blog Fiesta!
We welcome guest posts from both Deltas and Omegas, don't be shy. Find my contact information on the St. Paul Real Estate Blog
By: Larry Cragun
There is a lot of talk and type about social networking. There are a lot of business models looking to monetize the concept. Cool.
What about the un-social networking? Is there a way to monetize that? There must be. Why do I assume such a thing?
It exists is why.
I approach this real estate blogging adventure with a clear vision of a few things. For example, I know I am a little fish in a big pond. I know that some read me and continue, and some read me and don't come back.
I know I like my ideas. I know others won't and if I am good, some will. I know I can build my real estate practice doing what I am doing. It brings in plenty of business. If it does more than that, great. I know I can teach others to do what I am doing.
I know I wasn't on the Inman top blogger panel. I know I wasn't a hero at their show. I know I loved the show anyway and got my money's worth. Kathleen was there and did too. Someone I think important said I should have been on one of the panels. I am not so sure of that. I liked the compliment though.
I know I hosted The Carnival of Real Estate Monday. I know I liked it. I know some who didn't. I know I didn't do it for 100% approval. I hope some enjoyed it. If not, OK, I tried.
What I don't get and want to address is the un-social networking that I see spewing and growing. I propose you take a look at reality. Your little blog can never match the traffic of Googles, eBay, or the like. If you feel all puffed up about how good you are, go get a price from the buyers. Home.com's parent is buying. Give them a call if you want fair market value.
I see three ways of behaving. 1- Be a leader or follow the practice of making nice.
2- Do your own thing and let others do the same.
3- Be puffed up, join or build a gang of allies that go bully others around. Set the standard of the obviously needed and untapped un-social networking concept.
I like the first two options, either works for me. How about you? Which camp are you in?
Thanks Larry.
The photo is of a t-shirt we found in San Fransisco in the Haight-Ashbury district, when we were in town for the Inman Connect Conference.
I must say the conference was quite an experience, and I highly recommend it for real estate professionals. There are not a lot of training courses or seminars for agents like me who work and live on the internet.
In the real estate blogosphere I think this has been the summer of blog love and of social networks, and I found that they were emphasized at the conference, as we explored web 2.0 and the idea of interacting and socializing through the internet.
There were a couple of sessions at the conference where companies like Zillow and Trulia talked about social networking between home buyers, home sellers and neighbors. Homes and neighborhoods are what both sites are about and both give visitors the opportunity to interact with one another.
My question is do neighbors want to interact with each other on line?
A brief visit to my own nieghborhood on Zillow revealed a bunch of heads with question marks on them next to nonsensical names. The discussion boards are new, who knows maybe people will start talking about houses and neighborhoods.
I belong to a few social networks. The groups I belong to are not geographic, instead they are centered around my occupation and my interests.
As a long time resident of St. Paul who has lived in the same home for 18 years, I really know my neighbors and the neighborhood. I am also active in my community. Yet I can't see myself going on the internet and talking to my neighbors about houses if I were not a Realtor. We have some online social networks here in St. Paul but they are centered around hobbies, politics, businesses and causes, not around neighborhoods or houses.
It will be interesting to see if homes and neighborhoods really do become the center of social networks as some of the web site developers beleive. When I go to the Zillow site or the Trulia site I don't find them very friendly or inviting and am having a hard time warming up to the question mark heads on Zillow. On the Trulia site there is no sense of place. I go online and am confronted with lenders from California. It is hard to warm up to even though I know some of those lenders personally.
The recent experiences of my 20 something daughter are a prime example of how to use a social network and find housing. She was able to get connected to someone who rented her an apartment in a foreign country through an online network that she already belonged to. She asked people that she knows and trusts for advice rather than joining a new network. She was directly connected through friends to someone they had rented from. Based on what her friends told her she was comfortable wiring money to a total stranger and is confident that the apartment will be to her liking.
I think buyers and sellers are more likely to network with their friends on other social networks like Myspace or Facebook when want to talk about real estate. They will share what they are doing with their friends instead of talking to strangers with funny names on Zillow or Trulia.
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