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My Love Hate Relationship with Web 2.0, Part Three

I recently published Part Two (or Part Deux, for you Charlie Sheen fans) of my Article Series on My Love Hate Relationship with Web 2.0. Part two gets into some of the technical issues surrounding the use of Other Peoples' Code.

I think I'll do Part 3 here, and start it off this way:

Where Does My Blog Live?

Having dispensed with the topic of Other Peoples' Code, we now move on to a related topic: Other Peoples' Web Sites. Here I am on one now. I started out this article series on the Sacramento related site above, where it probably didn't belong. Today I'm slogging away on someone else's web site, where the topic arguably does belong but where I arguably don't.

This web site has done a hugely successful job of attracting writers to create someone elses' web site for them, in exchange for points.

Nor am I talking about points the way we know them in meatspace, as one-per-cent units of the high-ticket items we sell. I mean just a chance to have one's head show up over someone else's head on someone elses' web site. And I don't mean Google either or something with a high eyeball value. I mean a web site where the most likely people reading me are my colleagues.

There's even a very interesting discussion going on to the effect that one should avoid writing fluff pieces to boost one's rankings even there. As human beings, we're so social-approval motivated that we can (given the secondary reward of social approval), work on tasks that are less likely to make us money than our own tasks, that will reward someone else, and then turn around and argue that one should do a good enough job of doing so that we do it without seeking to be visible while doing it.

(By the way, William's a real good guy, and put up with my ravings brilliantly, so I'm not lampooning his position -- I just am trying to understand it, and even to understand why I'm here).

So anyway, here I am in the heart of Web 2.0, the belly of the beast, as it were, wondering if the beast is enjoying the meal and trying to sort it all out before becoming too tired to help ActiveRain make a go of it.

Have an excellent evening.

Posted by John Lockwood on 06/08/2007 05:38 AM

Comments (22)

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22 Comments on My Love Hate Relationship with Web 2.0, Part Three

JUN

2007

John you are NICE and I am here! I am happy to help you make sense of Active Rain so the eyeballs you're reaching is your future consumers :-) - Glad to see you "dancing in the rain" - though I have to confess this post was like a head maze for me - I think I followed it :-)

wow John, You are confused? Active Rain is where it is at - web 2.0 or is it 3.0?

Well, thanks everyone for stopping by. Cyndee, this is actually more of a hobby. I do pretty good reaching future consumers back on Web 1.0. Though if I could reach a few here, that'd be OK. But it just seems like competing with myelf, really. I enjoyed your post. Thanks for calling me nice. :)

Thanks, Wynne. No, I'm not confused. I just make more money off my own blogs, so I'm commenting on the fact that I'm enough driven by the need to hang out with colleagues that I'd write here. Also I'm tired, so I'm writing with my extra small brain tonight. Thanks for stopping by.

Active Rain, what more is there

JUN

2007

Oh, I don't know, Bruce, how about dominating multiple high market share search engines for major real estate related organic keywords on your own web site?

I just stopped in to see what deaux had to say about Active Rain.

I like 1.0 & 2.0 slightly shaken, no olives (too salty). That seems to be the mixture for me.

100 things to sell a home...activerain is just oen of those...exposure, search engines...having fun typing away...

Gary

Sometimes it's a glorified chat room... and then there's the good stuff we run into, which happens everyday that we "comment for points." We are building someone elses's website exit strategy, that's for sure. But we're also connecting, meeting new smart people, and pretty darn much having a good time.

AR is part of the mix, and so far for us it's more like a convention, and like a convention we gravitate to what's interesting and bypass the rest.

Thanks

Hey Gary, Chris, Gary,

Excellent job of putting it in perspective for me. Thanks.

Yes, there's a sort of water cooler feel to it, but once in awhile you just need to hang out in the office and chit chat. I suppose that's especially true for a guy like me where the Internet really IS the office.

Important safety tip about olives. :)

great post

John - I am not even sure I know what you are saying.

Good luck figuring it all out, I am sure a smarter AR member has some sage words to share.

I like the points, of course, but try to make sure that anything I write is solid. It is not all great art, but I can say none of it is fluff, just to fill space.

Hmmmmmm.....Featured Post, not much fluff. Congrats John and more importantly you make a heck of a point, "As human beings, we're so social-approval motivated that we can (given the secondary reward of social approval), work on tasks that are less likely to make us money than our own tasks, that will reward someone else, and then turn around and argue that one should do a good enough job of doing so that we do it without seeking to be visible while doing it." Very well put indeed.

If blogging is a significant part of one's marketing strategy, is spending time reading blogs part of the strategy as well? How about responding to blogs with "e-praise" and congratulatory comments? Is this part of a marketing strategy as well? Is it spelled out in a written marketing plan?

Blogging is a great business activity and can be used to share and learn new ideas with fellow industry colleagues. There has to be a context, however, and a line must be drawn between the business activity of blogging and the social behavior of blogging. If you are unsure where you stand, you should start to measure how much time you spend reading blogs, writing your own blog entries and entering comments on other blogs. These metrics translate into costs. For example, if you spend three hours per day, five days per week doing the "blogging" thing, then that equates to 60 hours per month.

If your monthly blog activity, in any way generates a transaction, then the time that you spent doing the blogging, i.e. marketing, should be subtracted in order to correctly determine the net value of the transaction.

If your monthly blog activity has not generated any transaction this month, then this is a loss. If you spend 720 hours blogging per year and have not generated any sales, then you need to start to think of blogging as a recreational, social activity rather than an effective business activity.

REAL ESTATE AND TECHNOLOGY

I love the web, I do alot of my marketing through and over the web. I use it as listing tools its great!

Wow, thanks everybody. And thanks to whatever person / algorithm featured the post. It's gratifying.

Christian, you make an excellent point about the balance. In my own case it's fairly obvious that blogging is an important SEO maintenance activity, but I always ask the question of whether there are other development tasks with greater yields. To the extent there are, then this is just a social activity, but a little of that doesn't hurt either.

Wow...what a post. I agree, we are very social oriented. And most of us do need approval or validation. Great post!

Please, please, my modesty...

Oh wait, I'm a Realtor® :)

JUN

2007

John,

This one was a bit confusing but I think that I followed it. But otherwise, great post!

www.sugarlandrelocation.com

Hi Cristopher or Bernadette,

Yes, I'm just trying to come to grips with how plainly entertaining something entertaining is.

Maybe I'm overthinking it. :)

JUN

2007

John, I like that you moved this conversation to AR; it shows your grasp on your blog's identity which is geared toward your clients and locals rather than big-headed Realtors (and me)- this will be your blog's longevity. This one is definitely good for "Project Bladder" fodder... I'm going to write about your new logo today! :)

Thanks. Nice to know I grasp something besides straws. Yay -- publish that logo, it's a keeper.

And speaking as a big-headed Realtor, mentioning you in the same breath as "big-header Realtors" does you a disservice. Tell Blue Brain hello. What the heck is his name, anyway? Do I need to keep calling him Blue Brain or what? :)

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