I have questions.

Are the days of Keyword Search numbered?

2008-04-25T15:20:29Z

I used to sell web sites to mortgage brokers in the Pre-Google erra. At that time, being on page one was everything, and we knew how to do. One problem though, Google came along and changed the game. It's because of this experience that I've never been a proponent of SEO as the only, or even the most important way to market a blog.

In article in Tech Crunch today reflects my opinion that while Google's search model dominates today, it's future is uncertain.

What kind of software to you use to send email campains to your client base?

2008-03-12T11:21:17Z

I speaking at the REALTOR Rally in Denver next week on Client Relationship Management and am curious as to how many of you currently use email to keep in touch with your client base. I really appreciate any feedback on services or software that you use as well.

Originators - are you signing up for Zillow Mortgages?

2008-03-07T09:23:07Z

I wrote about Zillow Mortgages' initial entry into the mortgage industry last night. Is anyone going to sign up?

If so, I'd like to feature your experience on lenderama. You'd be a part time contributor, reporting throughout the year as to how it's working out for you. If you're interested, visit this page for details.

Who's coming to RE Bar Camp?

2008-01-21T16:36:00Z

Are you planning on attended Inman Real Estate Connect in San Francisco this summer? Come a day early. We're planning a free event for RE.net.

RE BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendee. Plus, It's free! Visit our wiki and our blog for more information. I also set up a AR group for the event.

If you're planning to attend, please RSVP!

We need to have a pretty good idea as to how many people are going to show up. Please fill out this form if you think you might go. Here's a list of people who are already planning to attend.

I'm looking for a title insurance blogger

2007-11-26T00:46:13Z

Can someone help me out? I'm looking for a potential blogger to contribute to lenderama who works in the title industry. Know anyone? It's a unpaid position, but I can provide exposure to mortgage and real estate professionals, and some really great link love. I'm looking for someone who would like to talk to mortgage professionals about the title industry. I'm interested in someone who can post at least twice a month, but they'd be welcome to post more often then that. Please email me, or comment below to nominate someone (including yourself).

What will Zillow Mortgage bring to the table?

2007-10-30T02:06:00Z

I posted this on lenderama, but I want to get people's opinions here as well. What do you think Zillow Mortgage will bring to the table?

As I said in my post, I think the core plan for moving forward will include the following:

1. Informing the consumer - the obvious answer would be focused on rates, but I have a different idea.
2. Advertising - will it be traditional banner ads, sponsored territories, a competition platform like Lending Tree, or will they come up with something else?
3. Community - Zillow’s Discussions forum will likely play a part on the mortgage side, but how so?

So what do your think?

Do you play god with your blog's comments?

2007-10-07T01:02:13Z

Well it happened today. I had one of my comments deleted here at Active Rain. Two and half years of leaving commens on other people's blogs, I guess it was bound to happen eventually. Don't get me wrong, I've deleted more posts on lenderama then you could ever imagine. But that's because they were comment spam, or contained innappropriate language, or simply had nothing to do with the conversation.

I think the reason why it's taken so long to have one of my comments deleted is that I always try to add to the conversation at hand. "Great Post" to me, is not adding to the conversation. "See my sweet deal on Costa Rican property" doesn't either.

However, if someone comes along and disagrees with me, Yahoo! A lively discussion on a topic! This is the whole point of web 2.0 as far as I'm concerned. That's why I was surprised today to see my post deleted. All I did was respectfully disagree. The post's author has left a note in his comments section that many posts were deleted due to personal attacks. I'm not sure if that applies to my comment or not.

Anyway, the post in question is not important. It just made me wonder how much control you all take over the comments section of your blogs here on Active Rain, or on your real blogs. What's your opinion?

Is anyone going to Blog World?

2007-10-05T22:12:24Z

It's November 8th & 9th in Las Vegas. More info here.

This is an expo for all bloggers. Political, Business, Entertainment... It looks like they are offering some pretty good classes as well. I'm thinking about making the trip as it's the same week as NAMB West (for mortgage brokers). Anyone else planning to attend?

Do you DO BUSINESS on MySpace or Facebook?

2007-09-26T18:16:40Z

I know there are plenty of RE professionals that are signed up with Facebook, and MySpace, but I'm wondering if anyone is actually doing any business through these social networking sites. I have a Facebook account, and it's great for it's intended purpose (connecting with friends online). But I keep reading that these platforms are the future for online marketing. Personally, I really don't see how.

So, is there anyone actually making money by being a part of these networks? If so, how are you doing it?

What kind of music do you listen to while blogging?

2007-09-22T02:34:15Z

When it comes to blogging, I usually listen to Jazz. Jane Monheit, Dianna Krall, and Madeleine Peyroux are all favorites. I also like Amy Winehouse, although it's not really jazz. I don't know what it is. I also listen to the Dave Mathews band quite a bit while I'm on the computer.

Tonight, I had to get a bunch done, and needed a little more motivation. So it was The Ataris, Jay-Z & Linkin Park, Helmut, Korn, Social Distortion, Ministry, and The Crystal Method. I have my Sennheser Headphones on, and the volume was at eleven. That's right, my amp goes to eleven.

Now I'm just relaxing to some 10 Foot Ganja Plant, and thought it fun to learn about the listening habits of other bloggers.

So, what do you listen to while you are blogging?

What's the biggest mistake you made, marketing on the Internet?

2007-09-20T20:01:33Z

The only thing better than learning from your own mistakes is learning from someone else's. What's the biggest regret, or mistake you made concerning what you've done to market yourself on the net?

Personally, I think my biggest mistake was to not allow contributors for the first two years of blogging at lenderama. The first person I knew who brought on contributors to their blog was Dustin Luther at Rain City Guide. At the time, I couldn't conceive how someone could give up so much control over the voice of their blog. Later, I became a contributor myself. First at Realty Blogging, then at Inman News. Soon, I could see that a group of great minds is always going outperform a single one. The final straw was when I had some health issues this spring. I contracted a really bad infection in my leg, and was stuck in bed for a couple weeks. My blog really suffered when it shouldn't have. Adding contributors ranks among one of my best decisions regarding lenderama. Waiting so long ranks as my worst.

Do you have an event related to AR, or blogging that you wish to promote?

2007-09-20T17:19:17Z

I teamed up with Drew Meyer today at the Carnival of Real Estate. I'll be contributing to CoRE by updating the events list. For anyone who attended a BlogTourUSA, AR, or Inman event over the summer, I think you'll agree that getting out and meeting all of your online colleagues in person is a valuabe and fun excercise.

The best way to let me know bout a new event it to email me at todd@mariah.com

Want to get a cup of coffee? (offer for members in Colorado)

2007-09-19T15:47:01Z

My partner and I are organizing a "focus group" type survey to help us fine tune a seminar we are building for next year. The seminar will go way beyond blogging, and cover ways to help professionals use affordable technology to make themselves more effective in their industry. We will be charging for this seminar, but if you want to help us out now, we'll let you come to it for free.

It looks like we are going to meet next Wednesday morning, September 26th. We basically are going to ask you some questions about how you handle your email, to-do's, marketing, etc... It will be highly informal. Nothing is going to be pitched or sold to you. It's open to any professional that works in a realty related field. This will most likely happen at a Starbucks, in the Denver Tech Center. We'll buy you a cup of coffee and put you on our free admision list for the Seminar in exchange for about 30-40 minutes of your time.

Depending on initial response, I may set up two or three different times to keep the groups smaller. You can invite a non-blogger to come along. In fact we would very much appreciate it.

Please leave a comment below if you are interested. I will have more details on exact times by the end of the week.

What kind of camera and software to you use?

2007-09-19T01:34:35Z

Greg Swann has an excellent post on the best cameras to use, but what I want to know is, what king of photo equiptment do you actually use. This could be for your blog, your listings, or whatever.

I'm not an agent, but for my blog, I use an Olympus C-740. It is a great camera for outdoor scenery, but pretty bad indoors. The lense is very narrow as well, to accomadate the 10X zoom. I would really like to get a new, cheap camera that shines when the light doesn't with a wide angle lense. All suggestions would be appreciated.

For software, I use Photshop Elements. It's the $100.00 version for consumers. I used to have the full boat version a few years back, and today's version of Elements actually seems like a step up. Does anyone here use gimp? What else?

Do you remember your first computer?

2007-09-18T02:45:49Z

I intended to ask everyone how long they have owned a computer. Instead I thought it would be kind of neat to look how far computers have come by recollecting as much as you can about the first computer you actually owned.

My first computer was built by Magnavox (really). It was a 286 that ran a glorified DOS shell style operating system. It had a 20 megabyte hard drive and 256 kilobytes of RAM. I remember that I later purchased enough RAM to run WIndows 3.2. I can't remember exactly, but I think the total amount of RAM ended up around 1 meg. I was using it to access the Internet through AOL. I can't remember just how slow my modem was, but I had my computer set up next to my TV so I could pass the time while it loaded pages. Basic pictures took several minutes to download. I also remember wasting countless hours playing a military strategery game called Conflict. Because there was so little room on the computer, you had to run the game from a floppy disk.

So lets hear it. It's fine if you don't remember the specs. I'd mainly like to here stories about the experience itself.

When do you blog?

2007-09-17T09:04:55Z

I hope you all have seen the interviews of other bloggers I've been doing on my blog. I've been learning a great deal myself. Now I would like to ask some more general questions to be aswered by the AR community as a whole. My first question is, "when do you blog?"

I'm posting this a 8:00 AM, but I'm usually for more likely to be posting in the wee hours of the night than in the middle of the day. I catch up on my email at that time as well. It used to shock me when another blogger responded right back, despite it being two or three in the morning. But it's become so common that I half expect it now.

So, when do you blog? In the middle of the night? Bright and early? Do you actually set aside a specific time? Your comments are much appreciated!