realweenie

Hiding?

Spending so much time selling real estate has made it hard for me to find the time to write on this blog of mass destruction cleverly designated as a hot dog stand.

For me there isn't any place to hide.  Put the words Teresa Boardman in Google and within seconds my phone number and email address will pop up along with a bunch of articles and links to web sites.

Yesterday I spent some quality time looking for email address of some of the most prominent Realtor bloggers on what we call the re net. I kind of get why they might want to hide from me but I fear that they may be hiding from prospective clients.

As my writing gets closer to this mans butt I hate to go all serious on you but try to find your own contact information through your blog or through google some time.  I could have been writing on this blog but instead I spent my time trying to find you.

You don't have a lot of credibility with me as a web 2.0 savvy marketer if I can't figure out how to contact you.

Maybe you are afraid someone will find you so you have secret contact information? I might want to try that. It would give me more time for writing on the weenie.

Watch out! The enforcer is watching . .

Unplug, Unsubscribe, Unfollow - Advice from the Enforcer  By: Jonathan Dalton

 

During my tenure as a writer at Agent Genius I had developed a fairly specific role - that of the enforcer. As I told Teresa earlier this week, I was like the Minnesota Wild's Derek Boogard - if there was someone being roughed up, I stepped and joined in the defense. And if there seemed to be an excess of stupidity on display elsewhere in the real estate blogging world, I usually waded into those frays as well.

 

Just as in hockey, the enforcer can exist within this well-defined niche. But it's an often uncomfortable existence As one-time Coyotes enforcer Jim McKenzie put it after a fight, I often was the meat in an idiot sandwich. Not that I'm myself an idiot, but rather that the role in itself was pointless. Others would nod in agreement, glad that someone said what no one else would but, like the players on the bench tapping their sticks against the boards, that's as far as it ever got. And I'd soon find myself alone with my thoughts in my own personal penalty box.

 

As such, being the enforcer isn't good for the soul. And so I retired my skates and my gloves and left to focus on my own blog and my own business. Remaining on the sidelines isn't always easy, especially when faced with the volume of silliness I've seen this week. Setting aside the constant barrage of snake oil salesmen trying to sell you and the other residents of Passamaquody either something you don't need or something they're not qualified to teach, this past week has been rife would allegedly profound proclamations that have little basis in fact and have absolutely no real correlation to the business of real estate.

 

Before I retired I would have written a 1,000-word missive condemning each weenie-worthy statement. Instead, I provide you with this simple advice. If you follow it, I can guarantee you'll not only save your own sanity but find yourself with more time to focus on what matters in real estate - closed escrows or, as Jeff Brown wisely puts it (to the revulsion of my allusion-deprived 10-year-old) skinned cats.

 

When a so-called expert tweets that you shouldn't be hired as a real estate agent unless you own an iPhone, unfollow.

 

When you run across a superficial article that tells you how unprofessional you are for dressing appropriate to the clients with whom you're working, unsubscribe.

 

When your decision to follow someone on Twitter is met with an auto DM explaining how this person can expand your business in ways never imagined, unfollow.

 

When you run across a month-long series of infomercials promoting marketing techniques that lead to the same results (or less) than you already have, unsubscribe.

And when you can't take it anymore, when your b.s. meter overfloweth and your RSS reader is acting as a dementor sucking away your very soul, unplug.

 

Because while it's really nice to have an enforcer take care of the messes for you, they'll continue to happen until everyone voted with their "un" buttons and demands better from the RE.net.

Thanks Jonathan, for saying it on the weenie, the blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand.

Size does matter

Back when I started my real estate blog I discovered that blogs are not just for words.  Images work well too. A while back I wrote a blog post about how Blogs - Not Just For Realtors Any more . I have since learned that photographers like to have blogs too. They are called "photo Blogs".  They are not as important as real estate blogs but I don't think it is a good idea to mention that to the photo bloggers.  We all like to think that what we do matters.

I started one of my own a little more than a week ago.  Photographers are friendly and it didn't  take long for them to start showing up on my blog, and it was only a couple of days before they asked me to join them for a photo walk. Sweet! I do love photo walks. They are best if I can find someone to carry my bag and tripod, but I don't think my husband wants to go on this so I'll have to keep the gear light.

I digress.  As I have been visiting the blogs of some of my new friends I am discovering that even though photo blogs don't have many words they take a long time to read. The reason is because of the huge photos some post that take forever to load and view. I know I am sometimes guilty of putting too many photos on a page and slowing things down but I am careful and if it seems slow I tweak it a bit to speed things up.  I do care, I just avoid showing it because I don't want people to take advantage of me.

After a whole week of experience as a photo blogger I have decided that the best practice is to use photos that are no larger than 640 X 640 pixels. 

Off to find a really big huge annoying picture for the weenie to drive my point home. Buh Byeeee.

Some thoughts on Conference Photos

My friends all understand that I prefer to be on the working end of the camera over having it pointed at me. I guess I don't mind having my picture taken it is more about where they end up and who sees them.

When it comes to photography I guess I am kind of a specialist rather than a generalist. I take photos at conferences but I only publish about 5% of them.  The reason is because most of them turn out pretty crappy.  They are taken in poorly lit rooms with people in motion.  I usually have to look up to take photos of faces and that is often the most unflattering angle. The photos are not flattering.  Some of my lovely friends look frightening.  I won't publish a bad  or  unflattering photo of someone. I have quite a collection of them. . . MUWAHHAHA

I recently read a post on one of my favorite blogs about how to shoot a conference. How to Photograph a Conference by the DPS blog.   Professional photographers are told to do everything they can to make people look their best or they won't be asked back.  Leaving me to conclude that most people like to see flattering pictures of themselves.  Several of the few "people" photos I have published from conferences have become avatars and pictures used in on-line biography's. That is an honor.   I take the photos out of respect for the wonderful people that I have had the privilege of pointing my camera at.

There are a couple of people in the re-net who have taken conference photos that I treasure. One of those people is Rudy. He publishes the nicest photographs of others and I am thrilled when I  see myself in them. When I see them my respect for Rudy grows. Kristal Kraft has also taken some great shots, even the shots where she compares her subject to street people.   Rich Jacobson  does a good job and I hate to mention Jeff Turner because it will just go to his head,  but he seems to actually look for ways to make people look their best. He has only gotten a good shot of me once but he has tried. He is a social kind of guy and isn't sure how to approach anti-social subjects.

This post is way too pro-social for the weenie and I promise I won't do it again.

Help Spread the Word

I know that  several who attended the NAR convention heard me say this and it was put out on Twitter but I really want everyone to know that Twitter isn't just for Realtors.

There are people outside of our industry who use it too.  If you look around you can find these people.  They are a lot of fun and you can learn from them too.  Some of them buy houses, and others are small business owners that you might want to do business with. There are also local and national news organizations who use twitter making it a great way to  keep up with what is going on in the world outside of twitter.

Some of my friends who went to the recent unchained event in Orlando learned that twitter is for idiots. Proving again that twitter is not just for Realtors.

So again I will say . .

Twitter isn't just for Realtors

Please help spread the word!

A grave situation

Hard to imagine but there are people out there who do not understand how to properly use twitter at a funeral.  The deceased twitter ID should always be turned into a hash tag and 'RIP' is put on the end of it. Example: #mickeymouseRIP. 

Use twitter search, put in the hash tag and use the RSS feed to put it on a blog. It is all so simple yet people seem to be having trouble with it.  The last funeral I attended  people were using a couple of different hash tags and I had so much trouble following it all I almost left.

A classic

This video is from a post written more than a year ago. I was reminded of it when I met the Wagners in person last weekend at REBlogWorld. 

Most of us have noticed that many of the property photos that we find on the MLS these days are . . . just bad!  Really bad.  Now some Realtors have decided that video is where it's at and have added video to the spew stream.  Guess what?  The video is just as craptastic as the photos, except it moves.  I looked at one where I could hear heavy breathing from the agent as she walked up some stairs while she was recording.

Yah I get it. Video is drop dead cool but video taken with a really cheap camera by an armature mostly causes motion sickness for me. This one made me laugh, so enjoy.

Colorado Springs Real Estate , Derek Wagner demonstrates the drawbacks of video marketing for the amateur. See the entire post, "It is harder than it looks".

You can also find the Wagners on Active Rain

I love you and I want to help

I hope you feel the love here. I have decided that I need to help other people.  I want to do it becasue I am better than everyone else and I should be sharing my wisdom and experience so that others can benefit from it.  Russel Shaw, I know you don't read the weenie but you really should.  It is in your best interest to do so and I only want to help you.

Russel wrote a post, "Barry Cunningham is Full of Crap"  to help Barry Cunningham.  Barry may need help but that isn't the point.  Russel has helped Barry by publicly calling him a "turd".   I am sure Barry will appreciate the help and take Russel's wise advice.   I know that if someone called me a turd publicly I would be able to overlook it and understand the loving intentions behind it.

I have seen this type of behavior on the Bloodhound blog before. A few of the writers are on a mission to help and guide the clueless unwashed masses who hold real estate licenses issued by states all over the country. Bloodhound blog tried to save me last year by noticing the evil in my heart and trying to snuff it out. They did not understand at the time that I don't have a heart.

This post is meant to help.  I just want to say that you could learn a lot from me, and you should all pay attention.  Read the weenie every chance you get so that you can learn and grow. It doesn't matter how much you know now, there is always more to learn and you can learn from me becasue I know more than you do.

Russel you are not helping anyone by publicly trashing them.  Your posts can ruin reputations and ruin businesses.  If you do want to help others, which I know you do, consider sending them an email with your words of wisdom instead of calling them a "turd" and posting it on the Bloodhound blog. That is my advice to you.  Publicly discussing someone else's business in a negative way is not at all helpful but I recognize your greatness and understand your loving intentions.

I say it without getting personal, although I have mentioned your name a few times.   I am not attacking you, I am merely commenting on your actions and using them as an example to demonstrate to others what should not be written on a blog.  Thanks for giving me such an excellent example of a post the makes the writer look bad, and the blog look bad. 

I know that Mr. Shaw and the bloodhound blog will not be offended by this and it would be just wrong for anyone to get defensive.  I am just trying to help and I think this would be a great venue for a discussion on how we can all help each other. 

RE.net cool kids

By: Todd Carpenter
Film critic Pauline Kael is infamous in her reaction to Nixon's 49 State 1972 landslide re-election. "I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don't know. They're outside my ken. But sometimes when I'm in a theater I can feel them."

Pauline Kael's view of that election is a wonderful analogy for the group think that is infesting RE.net. Are we Sharing a Brain? IMO, this is Teresa's single best post on blogging. Unfortunately, I don't think many have taken it to heart.

Questioning the validity of Saul Klein's You Tube video, pondering who will subscribe, or unsubscribe, or racing to connect to the same 30 or so people on the latest social network are all worthy endeavors, and I'm guilty of all of them. But in doing so, I can't help thinking about Ms Kael.

I don't think it's productive to live in the "rather special world" called RE.net. By "live" I mean to let the ambition to be a RE.net cool kid consume you into thinking the way millions of other professionals earn a living is wrong because of the comparatively small success of a few hundred.

When it comes to Web 2.0, I agree with Teresa that it's a good idea to look at Web 2.0 perspectives from outside of the real estate vertical. I also think it's good to look at real estate perspectives from outside the Web 2.0 vertical. I don't think RE.net does enough of either. Lately it seams we do less and less.

Food For Thought

If NAR doesn't get you your broker will . . well when they get internet access and learn how to use it they will . . but only if they can find you . . maybe you don't have anything to worry about after all.

When I was in grade school some times my parents would help me with my homework.  My dad used to frustrate me at times but he was right.  I would ask a question and instead of giving me an answer he would have me look it up myself.  he used to tell me that if he gave me the answer I wouldn't really remember it, but if I looked it up myself I would.

So here we go.  Many of the real estate blogs that I encounter are not compliant with NAR regulations that apply to all types of Realtor marketing. 

In some cases the blogs are designed by vendors who just don't know any better.  it isn't their job to understand the rules, it is the job of the REALTOR with the blog or website.  As the big behemoth soulless money grubbing corporations that are real estate companies start to lose profitability and have some of their internet traffic swiped by micro entrepreneurs like myself, they will want to fight back. They have been making money for years selling our own leads back to us.  Now some of us are able to compete head-to-head with big companies through our blogs.

The day will come when someone will start slapping non-compliant bloggers around and ask them to either make their site compliant or take it down.  Worse yet maybe the big companies will make policies against REALTOR blogs becasue agents can not be trusted to follow the NAR rules and the local guidelines set at the state level that apply to real estate marketing materials including web sites.

What the hell am I talking about you ask?  I am not going to give you the answer.  Go to NAR, look up the rules and decide if your blog is complaint.  Naturally it is password protected becasue they don't want to make it easy to find.   For vendors selling blogs to REALTORS it would not hurt you to familiarize your selves with these rules.  It would be a great way to add value and to become a true expert on real estate blogging.

The St. Paul Real Estate Blog has been compliant since day one.  This blog is not compliant.  Weather or not it needs to be is debatable.