Writing 2 AR posts in one day, now that's a new novelty.  But I felt compelled to remind my friends here on Active Rain about their testimonials, and recommendations. I was just looking at someones profile and the testimonials look like the canned ones that come with many template sites. 

As of yesterday, Dec. 1,2009 the new FTC Guidelines for Bloggers went into effect.  There IS NO grace period for compliance.  You have to be truthful in all your testimonials (no canned ones that come with some sites) and be able to substantiate them, in other words prove that you sold Mary Joe her new home and are the best REALTOR in town.

In case you missed it, I wrote this about the Guidelines.  Remember this includes Facebook and Twitter as well as all your blogs! 

You can use this on your Blog or Twitter.......read more at the link above if you missed it.  Now is this confusing, absolutely.  But better to err on the side of caution than to get one of those sue happy people to find you!

By: Kathy McGraw- Real Estate Broker in Riverside County CA

I have never done a reblog...at least I don't think I have.  But yesterday Joseph of Pillar to Post Home Inspections (who made this Video) was supposed to do a Home Inspection for us, at a Foreclosure. We had to reschedule because Fannie Mae had winterized the House and we're trying to get permission to unwinterize it and turn the water on.

I first "met" Joseph here on Active Rain a couple years ago, and from day 1, I was impressed with how thorough and transparent he was.  My old Broker said he hated Home Inspections because they always messed up his deals.  YIKES.......

I want my clients to know what they are buying!  I am not a used car salesman, and want to be able to sleep at night.  When I do have a buyer for a single family home I always recommend a Home Inspection!  And since Joseph of Pillar to Post is in my area, he is the only one I would recommend.  I have learned to trust him. 

Now do I get a kick-back, or any compensation for this recommendation.....absolutely not.  I will only recommend someone I trust to do a good job for my clients.  And after reading all of Joseph's Posts, and actually talking to him a few times, I am comfortable that he is the best for my clients.

I am a REALTOR that loves selling land.  I love to walk it, feel it, and everything else about it.  For me selling land is the best part of my Real Estate Career....land represents everything to me.  Freedom, Opportunities, and Visions.  I like to sit on a piece of land and visualize what type of house or building could be on it.  I like to visualize the views, the little critters that live there, and how the next person will use this land.  I just love selling land.

No matter what we do, we should do what we love. My passion for selling land fits my passion for appreciating life in general, so even during the hard times I walk the land, and visualize what will once again be. A good Real Market where people can afford to live where they want, and have jobs to pay for it.

Kathy McGraw- Real Estate Broker in Riverside County California that sells lots and land in Whitewater, Cabazon, North Palm Springs and surrounding areas.

Just saw this-so anyone in the surrounding Temecula area might want to check this out.  Dianne Hicks is a local REALTOR in Temecula, and knows about giving back to her community.  And what better way than to promote this Race For a Cure for Cancer during October, Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Blogging on any Platform is a learning experience, and one we use to share information.  Sometimes though we learn things on other platforms that we want to share with the community of another.  That is what this is, some valuable resources I found on another Platform, and wanted to share to help you make your Blog Better.

I have been actively learning new things for months now, and thought I would share a few of the great resources I have been using with everyone here.  Yes, I have been blogging for a couple years now, but technology changes, Google indexes things differently, and learning is a never ending cycle. 

Blogging on Active Rain is great for our Business, and great for networking.  However it is an insulated platform, where the information we get is mostly from like minded people, which can be good or bad.

How many of us have different Blogs?  We start with one and work our way out into the larger web community.  Some of us do, and some don't.  But bottom line is we want our Blog to improve just like our Business.  We blog for business!

Here are 5 Resources I have used recently to improve my Blog, my Posts, etc.  I was very pleased  when I came back on here and wrote this Post with a colored border to accentuate the main part of the Post:  I did that Post in about 10 minutes, and it served it's purpose.  Many of you went to the site and donated! (BTW thank you).

My point is:  we find resources in different places, and it can help us improve our writing.  I happened to find mine on Squidoo- but even if that is in the Title, Google Research is the same everywhere, keywords are the same, etc. 

During my over 2 years on Active Rain I learned tons......mostly about our business-selling Real Estate, but also about adding pictures, SEO, Marketing, etc.  However, these 5 resources, and a host of other ones really gave me the tools I needed.  I felt like I had finally learned what I needed to improve my Blogs.  I added the color one because I saw several posts recently that love colored fonts...so that is just for you. The other ones helped me tons, and the borders one I used for many of my writings on Squidoo including a Real Estate Specific lens on my farm area.  One lens beat out my Active Rain Blog, and my personal one in Google which both surprised and pleased me because that meant I had learned something ;)

Here are a couple examples of my Real Estate writings that have all done well in Google by using the resources I found, and specifically by spending more time on the pre and post part.  Something I have NEVER done before.

Serrano Del Vista is the area I work for Residential Listings and Sales (mostly I was selling land) and it is #6 on Page 1 of Google.The 2nd and 3rd spots are my other Blog, 4th and 5th spots are my videos, and this one beat my Active Rain Blog by 1 place- I have 7 of the 10 spots on Page 1 for my Niche.  And all this is from what I have learned from AR and other places.

5 Resources (forget the platform) that can help you improve your Blog, Post, Lens, Article, etc.

1.  Make Your Blog be found better in Google

2.  HTML codes for Borders and Backgrounds

3. Improve your Blog with Google Book Clip Tool

4. understanding and Improving how you use Keywords

5. HTML Color Guide

Photo Presentation Program

William Johnson just posted this, and it is beautiful.  I had never heard of this program, but will be watching for his tutorials so I can use this as a tool for making my Blogs better too ;)

Note: One of the most important things I learned is to have unique content, that is also updated!

** for #3 The Book Clip Tool go to Advanced Search and click on Public Domain (see comment 55 below)

Update: Note go to This SEO and Marketing Blog for Q&A's (the Author of the SEO resource)

By: Kathy McGraw- CELLing Realty in Riverside County CA

Oh my...I only came on here to read a few things, and one thing I read just jumped out at me, and the Lil Devil threw his sock away and has been jumping up and down ever since. 

Why?  What is going on this time?

We all have heard about the new FTC Guidelines.  Several Blogs on here were written, some better than others.  But what the Lil Devil noticed were a few of the comments, uh oh here he goes:

Lil Devil- Will you quit acting like you are so superior!  And if you really want us to believe what you say, then I suggest you actually do some research before writing.  And you call yourself a Prolific Blogger!

Lil Angel- Many people are confused, and it didn't help any that most of the media got it wrong, and so did some of the top Bloggers.  This was all clarified in a Conference Call I was on with Mary Engle of the FTC a couple days ago.

Lil Devil- Yea yea, who cares about that....I want to know why this whole thing has gotten out of control? Nobody is going to be making a Bloggers Jail, and regardless of that "important" AR Blogger.....the Government is not restocking the treasury with fines from Bloggers.  He** this reminds me of all that fear mongering that was so prevalent in the past. 

Lil Angel- Yes, but that prolific Blogger went on and on about how it is our responsibility to check things out, and ........

Lil Devil- Oh really?  If that's the case then they sure dropped the ball on checking facts.  We do check facts don't we?  Or is that only for Market Reports?

Lil Angel- OK, enough now.....here is something that will give you the Q&A from the call, and a link to the Guidelines.  And as far as the misinformation that is going around the media and Blogs, most of it was misinterpretation of the Press Release. 

Lil Devil- that may be fine and dandy, but what about the people that love spewing their cr*p about everything? You want me to just ignore them?

Lil Angel- Yep, those are the AR Guidelines.....If you want to play in the sandbox, you must remember that not everyone plays with the same deck of cards, and some people just love to spout off to sound important!

My Writeup on the Guidelines with Q&A's

Link to Read for Yourself the Guidelines

Kathy McGraw

Busy people often times rush through life without taking time to see the little things in life.  A quote by Throeau is on my desktop to remind me every day, "It is not what you look at that matters, but what you see". And this is what I saw one morning. I am reposting it here, as originially I put it on Rocket Moms, a group of Women Writers in their Photography Group.

Yesterday I got to San Diego about 9 am and it was foggy out. My daughter told me to look at something out the window, and here was this huge beautiful spider web near the top of her Avocado Trees with the morning dew caught on the web. Oh, I grabbed my camera and ran out the door with their words of "you'll never get it" echoing in the background. This was extremely difficult to capture on a fly by "I want it now" picture, but as you see I got it. Not in it's full glory as I saw it out the window, but enough to share it with anyone that appreciated the small things in life. The things we often don't see :) Look very close and you can see the morning dew drops in the center of the web. The Avocados will give you an idea of how large this web is.....imagine the time it took one itsy bitsy spider to weave this.

  I was making a Word Press Blog to practice some of the things I learned and found a great theme for Photos called Monotone.  Since the name of the Blog is called Sunset Art Works  of course I had to upload some Sunset Pictures.  This is one I got a real kick out of, and had fun with it on Twitter.  Hope you get a smile out of it.  Some things don't really need an explanation, and if you live in North County, San Diego you've probably seen it along Highway 101.

I was just sitting here reading old Posts and thinking of all the time I invested in this network.  Learning, putting out fires, and writing from my heart.  Oh, not mushy stuff, just heartfelt thoughts that made sense out of things.  But in reading the comments I saw people I haven't seen in a long time.  Where did all the Bloggers go?  I remember my first year on Active Rain. 

The people I read at the time disappeared.  Where did they go?  I know now where they went, to the same places I have been.  Learning all over the Internet with the Blogging skills we learned here.  Writing on other platforms, socializing on Twitter and Facebook. Dreaming and hoping their dreams aren't lost as they find their way in this big Wide World of the Web.

Where have all the Bloggers gone?  They mentor new people, they go to the REBar Camps, Blogger get togethers, and Tweet updates of what's going on in their lives......short quick encounters.  I see people all over the Internet that I met here.  But to tell the truth I miss many of the people I used to blog with and comment on their Posts. 

We come to learn, to grow our business, and a host of other reasons, and sometimes people just have to follow their dreams no matter where that is. When one Blogger leaves another takes their place.....

Follow your Dreams........and if that means we will miss you, then so be it.  We all have to be true to ourselves in the long run.

We all have slow times in our business, and some of us more than others lately.  But what do you do with this time? How do we help families other than getting them into new homes?  I know this community, and I know that it is a caring one.  So many people have supported each other, and shared their hopes, dreams, and sorrows together.  Well, I want to share what I am doing today to help.

Today is September 9th, 09_09_09 the one day Twitterthon to Stop Child Sex Trafficking.  Anyone that knows me knows that I spent my life working with, and for kids, to give them a better life.  So when I was asked to help, I did!  Here is what I wrote on Squidoo for them, explaining about the Project.  Background information on the perverts that are capitalizing on our kids, the worlds kids.

Look at this Video, then get angry!  Afterward please help with this Twitterthon for a most worthwhile cause.  As one Twitter user said this morning, after I thanked her "@brokerkathy My pleasure, Miss Kathy. $9 and a Tweet is the least any of us can do."  

Here is how you can make a difference today:  Stop Child Trafficking!