James's Blog

The Best Room in the House: Mission Inn Riverside

James Rivers (Riverside Home Source) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:56:12 -0500

The Best Room at the Inn

The historical mission in Riverside, California is a fabulous testiment to the Mission Revival style of architecture. Rooms in the mission in vary in price from the low hundreds to the thousands per night. One of the best rooms in the entire hotel though is the Glenwood Suite.

Looking out from the spacious living room of this two room suite, you look down into the courtyard of their 4 star restaurant, and across the way you can see the herb garden and oriental style roof of the Japanese wing of the Inn. Staying a night in this room will set you back around $1300-1400 but it is a terrific romantic getaway with style and class.

12 Steps to Effectively Promoting Your Blog

James Rivers (Riverside Home Source) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:41:46 -0500

If you are a blog owner, then you definately should consider following these steps to help you break out!

Via John Jones:

I noticed today and over the last week that my Active Rain posts are capping out at about 100 views before the views start to trickle in. Further, I'm ranging anywhere from 40 - 50 click through's to each post I write and roughly 4 - 5 comments on average per post.

So how does one break through the glass ceiling and succeed at getting 500 views and 100 - 200 clicks to each post? Many people will want to say, "Quality & Catchy" content but I must say that some of my posts have taken a great deal of time and in some cases creativity so I am thinking that for the most part I have covered quality and occasionally catchy.

The answer comes in many different ways and several combinations of these methods. Here are just a few ideas to jump start your views, clicks and comments. I cannot possibly cover all potential ways to promote your AR blog but I'm sure that others will be able to provide other creative ways.

Add a very visible link to your blog on your websites main navigation. Many major companies that have blogs make sure to announce the fact that they have a blog and so should we.

With every e-mail you send out, be sure to add your blog URL to the signature line. This is what you should already be doing to promote your website so why not your blog?

Take the time to submit your blogs RSS feed to feed based directories. About a week ago I wrote about 45 sites that you can submit your RSS feed tofor free. After I wrote that article and submitted some of my own RSS feeds to these directories I did see my numbers jump a little and stay fairly stable at the new range.

Promote other posts you've written within new posts. If something you wrote in the past is relevant to what you are writing about now then be sure to provide a link to it. One perfect example is the link I included in item #3 on this list and in #5 below.

Get in the habit of ending all of your posts with something like a "Previous Post: The Professionals I know"

Take the time once a week to write a post titled something like, "End of the Week Round Up" where you briefly recap on the posts you've written during the week and maybe even some other posts you've commented on.

Take #6 as the basic principle and apply it to a monthly post titled something like, "Monthly Conclusion"

Get active on Twitter or Plurk and join hundreds if not thousands of other Realtors and even locals in your area. When you write a new blog post simply announce the post if you think those following your profile would appreciate the information you have to provide.

Write posts that others might want to Reblog about. A link back to the original post is provided each time a post is reblogged which means you'll get some foot traffic that way.

Ask other AR members that subscribe to your blog to ReBlog, Tweet, Plurk or otherwise pass on the post to others if they enjoyed the article.

Building consistency in the style of your writing and with the posts you write to keep people returning to see whats new. (Contributed by Ron Moore; a Florence South Carolina Realtor)

Reciprocation and participation in others blogs via commenting directly and even referencing can build up an interest base directly to your own blog but make sure your reciprocation is genuine and your contributions helpful. (Contributed by Ron Moore; a Florence Realtor)

What other ways can you think of that will help promote your posts and help you reach your next level with your AR blog? Share your strategies below with everyone so that we can each test different concepts out.

By the way, if you ReBlog I'd appreciate a Reblog of this article. If you are on Twitter I'd appreciate if you would share this with your other Realtor connections that might be on AR but don't catch this article and of course if you have any other strategy to promote blogs I'd appreciate your help in helping me get to my next level.

Get a taste of the past in Riverside Downtown

James Rivers (Riverside Home Source) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:54:22 -0500

Downtown Riverside

Taking a walk in downtown Riverside is a truly great experience. You will see many different historic buildings like the mission inn. The downtown pedestrian mall has a large number of small, non chain stores so shopping really is contributing to the local bussiness person. You can get all kinds of unique gifts and toys from Ms. Tigglywiggles or get some scrap book supplies from Auntie Amy's.

Downtown Cuisine

The Historic mission inn has 4 top rated restaurants, from their Las Campanas mexican restauraant to Fratoria, Italian you definately will enjoy the food. If you are looking for the best sandwich in the world, then go to Simple Simon's, and try the Grilled Marinated Chicken breast sandwhich served on french bread with real olives baked into it. Downtown riverside is a real blast!

Realtor Article Posting: Zipvo.com

James Rivers (Riverside Home Source) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:46:52 -0500

Rise of the Multi Media Real Estate Platform

With more and more venture capital available, we continue to see a growth of new websites online that are integrating the newest innovations in online services with what has traditionally been a low tech industry. Real estate is opening up to technology, and Realtors need to be on their toes about what is changing. Zipvo is another example of a new technology that is expanding even further than it's original scope. You upload your virtual tours, and then they becoem searchable by zip code for interested home buyers. They just expanded to include an article submission feature similar to Digg.com, but for the RE industry. Here' my word of advice, keep on top of these trends, there are some great free tools, and ways to market listings now!

Riverside Real Estate

James Rivers (Riverside Home Source) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:21:01 -0500

Find a Home in Riverside

Riverside California is a beautiful community in Southern California. The city has several distinct regions that you can look in and find the home that you are looking for. The historic downtown area has the Mission Revival architectural marvel of the Mission Inn. This is a 4 star hotel, with the classy Presidential Lounge, and 4 world class restaurants.

Downtown Riverside

In downtown, they hold a farmers market weekly, selling fresh fruits, flowers and other local products. You can also enjoy the diverse culture of Riverside through it's Art Walk on the first thrusday of Every month.

Unique City, Unique Architecture

If you want to find a craftsman, Vistorian or colonial revival style home then you should look to the "Woods Streets". We can help you relocate and find the best piece of Riverside Real Estate, that meets your specific needs. Riverside is really a gorgeous community.

Tour Riverside Through Video

Want to get a fresh look at Riverside, check out these "Riverside in 20 seconds" video tours!