realweenie

Go Ahead Comment

Appropriate that I post on this blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand on the 4th of July weekend. Isn't the 4th all about noise and hot dogs?

I have been deleting comments left by Realtors on the St. Paul Real Estate Blog.  I never thought I would be doing that but I need to for a few reasons.

First of all it irritates me that the SEO gurus out there teach real estate bloggers how to keyword stuff comment sections and leave as many links as they can.  They leave an extra link in the body of the comment and make sure they mention that they sell real estate and where they work.  I strongly discourage that tactic and consider it spamming and don't care which expert is recommending it as an SEO strategy.  Get your back links somewhere else.

Secondly my blog is for consumers.  When they come to read and see a bunch of comments from Realtors it looks to them like it is a blog for Realtors, kind of like Active Rain, and they pretty much stay out of the conversation.  They still read the blog, they still hire me but no comments.  I need their comments.  They start conversations, they teach me and they inspire me to write blog posts.  I write at least 365 posts a year, trust me I can run out of ideas.  I still believe that it is content that makes blogs work so I plan to write every day for the next 365 days, just like I did for the last, only better and with fewer misspellings.

Thirdly the comments are inane.  Like nice post, great capture, good job etc.  I find them as irritating as I find the SEO gurus who teach blog spamming for back links. There are some agent bloggers out there who make comments that do add to the discussion  so I leave those comments there because they inspire me, they add to the conversation, or start a new conversation.

I knowfor many the blog thing is a game, and it has rules and there is the belief that the rules must be followed at all times.  I don't believe in those rules and I have never followed them, I find them too limiting.  I am just lucky that I started my blog before the experts came on the scene.

The best way to have a successful real estate blog is to write posts, and what the heck, would it kill you to throw in a photo once in awhile?  People like to see real estate, not just read about it.  Maybe the time spent in the never ending SEO conversations could be better spent learning a new skills that could be applied to blogs.  There is a great way to get back links that the coaches don't talk about and that is by creating posts that get attention and are linked to by other blogs.   Very powerful but it is a lot more work than leaving "great job" comments with links on other peoples blogs.

I will continue to publish comments from Realtors on the St. Paul real Estate blog, but I will also be deleting the comments that are left just so the blogger can get some back links.  You can listen to the SEO Nazis out there and have a melt down about back links if you want to but please leave me out of it.  I  have a blog to write and a business to run.

Real estate writers and other people who don't know what they are talking about

I don't know much about beer, and I blieve Fat Tire is an import from Belgium but I am told that some folks like beer with their hot dogs so I thought I would include the logo with my post.

I could write an entire post about beer.  I could do some research online and maybe even look like an expert on a subject that I know little about.

When I see an article written for the real estate industry I know right away if the writer is an expert, or just an industry writer.  In the past couple of weeks I have seen a few posts written by vairous coaches, vendors and writers about property photos for real estate listings.

Now they are saying that in addition to video HDR, High Dynamic Range images, are the way to go with property photos.  Of course none of these people have actually taken property photos and they are not getting this information from consumers, they just figure because it is newer to most we should start using it.  Maybe they talked to an actual real estate practitioner who has been having extraordinary success selling listings in a down market becasue of spectacular HDR photos.

The reality is that most agents take crappy pictures of their listings and put them on the MLS where the images look even crappier than they did to start with.  The pictures I see are too dark, out of focus, have reflections in them and are in general of poor quality.  Then there are the homes themselves.  Some are butt ugly and have no redeeming qualities, making it unlikely that the photos could ever be decorating magazine quality.  Most of the homes i list are beautiful but many are very small.  It is difficult to get "dramatic" photos of a 1000 square foot square loft.  It can be a real challenge to get 10 "dramatic" photos for the MLS.  maybe next time I'll try video.

What the real estate writers don't understand is that many agents don't know how to take a picture.  If they can take a picture they don't know how to get it from camera to computer.  If they do now how to get in from camera to computer they don't know how to upload it onto the internet.  Most don't use any kind of software for optimizing photos so even if they can take the picture and get it onto the internet it may be two dark, too large or just need a little cropping.

I have been experimenting with HDR for some of my property photos and taking some night shots too.  I happen to have an interest in photography.  If I did not I would hire a photographer.  having a real estate license does not qualify me to take property shots or design marketing materials. 

Remember as you read the stuff out there written for our industry these people are just writing for our industry.  They maybe saw some HDR property photos or a good property video some where and decided that ti would be great if all agents produced videos and magazine quality photos. It gives them something to write about too becasue they can compare video cameras, camera's, photo processing techniques, and the list goes on and on.

They are all trying to help us out.  If they were Realtors they would be doing all of these wonderful things, why aren't we?   Maybe someone out there who likes to give agents advice could write some basic how too posts on property shots and how to get them on the internet and provide a list of companies and photographers who take property shots for Realtors.

Keeping up with the times

No I am not talking about the newspaper, newspapers really are five years ago.   I am talking about life in the web 2.0 world, on the planet earth, I think.

You see Facebook is so six months ago but it is still cool so I use it.  Digg is very three months ago and I don’t use it so much any more.   Zolve is kind of last week but I really have not gotten up and running on it.  There was a new one this week that I signed up for and have friends on but I don’t remember the name of it and already lost my password. 

Linkedin is kind of on again and off again but for right now I use it because it is cool enough.  I can’t remember if Naymz was this month or last, and I can’t remember my password either.

I know some of my top friends on Facebook.  I googled their names and now I know who they are.  I do really love my friends so I am not complaining.  I am not sure what to do with all of the sheep that have been thrown at me but at least when I get super poked I feel loved even if I don’t know the perp, who is probably just a top friend.

I really should be on utterz all day long but the problem is that I just don’t have anything to say.  I know that it isn’t about having something to say and I should talk anyway but I really don’t want to.  I spend all day on the phone as it is, but just the same what will people think?  They may mistake me for a web 1.0 agent or just think that I am not very cool.  (Have you noticed that the people who do the most talking also do the least listening?)

Twitter is very a few months ago, but it is cool again so I use it every chance I get.   Twitbin was very popular last week, but this week I really should be using spaz.AIR if I want to keep up with the cool kids who may think less of me than they already do it I don’t load it on my computer soon.  Spaz is sitting on my desktop because I am kind of waiting to see what I should be doing next week.  No one will notice that I kind of missed a step and I’ll still be cool.  People follow me on Twitter unaware of where I am going and where they will end up if they follow me. (Insert maniacal laugh here)

Today I have been invited to join Cre8buzz, which I guess is beta but it will give me buzz.  According to the note I got about it,  I need buzz.  Used to be I couldn’t work if I had a buzz.  By the end of the week, everyone I know in the re-bloggoshere will send an invite. I feel the love and bask in it’s warmth.  crebuzz is so next week.

Thats all for now.  Thanks for listening I feel so much better. I am going to take the pills the nice doctor gave me and I know I will be feeling better soon. . . . oh I had to log off to do it but I sold some real estate this week.  I am such a dweeb. I realized I did not have to miss any of the action.  I have facebook, twitter, IM, email, SMS, and of course email on my BlackBerry. (I really wish it came in Pink, which is the new orange, or is it red?) Hate to admit it, but I am not cool enough yet for an iphone.  I should consider buying a jitterbug, but they are sooooo 2018, no one gets how cool they are yet.