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Widgets I can't live without

This isn't going to make sense to some. I wrote a post for project blogger and sent it to Jim Cronin's Real Estate Tomato. We are competing coaches in the same contest. The post is about widgets that I can't live without because they show me who is visiting my blog and where they came from.

My St. Paul Real Estate blog is mostly about St. Paul, MN and about real estate. Writing about blogs is not the kind of content of unique content that will help me in my mission to meet people who are interested in buying or selling real estate in St. Paul.

When I write guest posts for the Tomato Jim puts a link back to my blog. I do get readers because of this. Jim also benefits by having content written by a Realtor who has a real estate blog. Some day I may write a post about how I met Jim and why I started writing posts on his blog. Blogs are social and mine has enabled me to meet people from all over the country. When Jim and I met almost a year ago there was some friction. We still don't agree on a few things but we have a lot in common in that we both have business blogs that help us meet most of our clients.

Widgets I can't live without.

Posted by Teresa Boardman on 06/10/2007 06:29 AM

Comments (44)

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44 Comments on Widgets I can't live without

JUN

2007

As much as I remind myself all the time that I am blogging for business, I cannot overlook the fact that I love the social side of blogging. Blogging has lassoed in some wonderful people that I now am happy to call blogging buddies.

I heard that realtor.com was setting up free blogs is that true?

GOOD GRIEF! ! !

You can't leave a statement like that hanging and twisting in the wind,

"When Jim and I met almost a year ago there was some friction. We still don't agree on a few things . . ."

Are you starting a series of

Teresa's Terrifically Tantalizing Tidbits???

It wouldn't surprise me a bit about Realtor.com doing that. They are getting very aggressive in their marketing.

If realtor.com is starting free blogs keep in mind that they would be doing so to increase there own web presence. i sound like a broken record but will say RUN. You don't want to google your name on day and have active rain or realtor.com come up first. If you have your own business you owe it to yourself to have your own blog that you can control.

Lenn - I had no idea anyone would be interested in a relationship between two internet colleagues. I would be happy to tell all and did not mean to tantalize. Jim won't even be awake for a few more hours so I'll send him a note and if he is agreeable we will do a post about it. For the record I do like Jim . . . most days. :)

Heck yeah. Give us the dirt. ya think we're reading this on a Sunday morning for RE news? :^)

Rob - you guys are bad. To be honest this is not the first time the subject has come up. people do wonder . . . .

I put the dots in for Lenn. :)

If ya want, I can make up a real good story...

"It was a dark and stormy night........a sudden flash of light filled the room and my computer froze in the middle of typing a blog....the screen no longer displayed the words I had compiled but instead ....an eerie distorted image of a fellow blogger was staring at me....darting red eyes and a wicked grin.....

Than ks for the tips, Teresa. I signed up for MyBlogLog a while back, but then never followed up with putting the code on my blog.

Thesa, I used my blog log and I do miss seeing all my friends here, but some people here said they read if that was on their side, as it was too intrusive etc..................... I stop by lots of blogs and don't comment because if it is late in the day.............everything has been said and I don't want to be repetitive.

Hi Teresa, I also love the blog statistics from myweblog. They are very helpful in letting you see how readers are coming to you blog and they have a free version.

I also like www.clustermaps.com, it let's me see from what part of the world the readers are coming from, and shows other readers the same.

I agree on too much bling is not a good thing. I had to pare down (and should do more) and dropped my Meebo yesterday, sigh. I should drop the Meez to, but it is so darn cute!

Theresa,

Thanks for the tips---I'm not there yet (as far as using these widgets) but working hard to get up to speed.

I was glad to see that I already had both of the widgets you said you couldn't live without. Maybe I'm doing something right?

Diane,

Installing widgets on ActiveRain is non-trivial, due to lack of documentation. I'm an ex software-developer and it took me longer than it should have given that I'm generally ahead of the real estate curve on the technical side (on the negative side 80% of you could probably out-listing-agent me in a walk).

I think I'll do a post on how to install the mybloglog widget on ActiveRain, since I could have used one last night. Funny how with the great 3 hours of sleep I got it was easier than it was trying to tackle it at 3:00 AM.

The head widget is up fine, but I wonder if Teresa or someone with it already installed could click over to here:

http://activerain.com/blogs/johnclockwood

So I can verify the tracking code's working right.

You don't have to read me or anything, just go look at your head. :)

Teresa - now don't stir up such a mess like last time. You will be drowning in comments!

Joh - it works. I did not know you were back here on the rain. now you have a subscriber. :)

Jennifer - I have no idea why i have to put my foot in it every time I write a post. it would be nice if I just stopped writing on the rain and went away. :)

Thanks -- sure enough there your "head" is.

Oh my god, a subscriber! Well, I better misbehave, so I'll be worthy of you! :)

You are worthy but as soon as you start behaving like an aggressive jerk I'll unsubscribe. If you write to me or talk to me I will listen. You don't need to be so aggressive and mean. We all have opinions. Mine is that I would like to see a little of the lockwood intelligence and charm.

Wonderful post. Sound like you agree to disagree. And since you can, you both benefit. I need to look into widgets more. I am not really familiar with them and what they do.

I love the MyBlogLog widget as it gives a lot of info. However, based on some comments on another post, I changed it from the photo widget to just the tracking widget. I rather liked seeing the photos, but apparently others decided they didn't, and would no longer visit the person's blog if they used the photo widget. Sigh!!!!

Wow, Teresa, I love you too.

Actually what I came back for was not so much a character analysis as to post that I finished the tutorial I mentioned for the Widget Teresa's talking about, presumably out of the agressiveness and meanness of my heart.

Sheesh.

See there you go again. i attribute no such motive to your tutorial or the mention of it on my blog. I see it as helpful not mean or aggressive.

That's good. Nice talking to you.

John - Kristal Kraft beat you to the punch. She provided a tutorial on the same subject a couple weeks ago.

Just added the autoroll widget. Thanks for leading us there.

Thanks for the insights and for sharing your experiences in the blogoshpere. I am trying to learn as much as I can, however, I find I am getting busy and it is difficult to balance everything. I will bookmark this so I can look at all the widgets.

Thanks for sharing your widget favs :)

Scott

Hi Teresa,

We too have been trying to put that widget on our blog and have not given up yet but we have not been able to figure it out. We think it would be a great thing to see who's been visiting our blog. Thanks for your post and it's o.k. to disagree on stuff. We're all friends in the network!

Blue Ridge Real Estate,

Here is an excerpt from an Inman story on the Realtor.com blogs...

"Realtors can sign up for a free Realtor.com blog at http://www.featuredblogsignup.com. A planned section at the Realtor.com site will allow consumers to view an assortment of blog posts individually chosen by site editors for inclusion on a featured blogs page at the site. These blog posts can direct traffic back to the Web sites of participating Realtor.com bloggers."

But with the sole exception of AR... be wary, you get what you pay for.

--------

Friction? What friction can one possibly make with such a smooth skinned vegetable?

--------

John, your MyBlogLog Recent Readers Widget TUTORIAL works great.

I like the bloglog widget, too..I know Jim hates that I love all those widgets..there's a new one coming that I'm going to spring on him. I like the "library thing" widget, too...so much easier than putting each book on the sidebar..

Teresa - I love widgets too - thanks for sharing more about your favorite.

Hey Teresa,

I don't see either widget installed ATM - but a different one. Do you have to log into MyBlogLog every time you use it?

it would be nice if I just stopped writing on the rain and went away. :)

06/10/2007

by Teresa Boardman

NOT!

As for widgets, I have a ways to go.

Abraham - for the most part you just stay logged into my blog log but yes you do have to be signed in to use it. I don't know what "ATM" is so I can't help further. i guess I was trying to explain why I like them and even though I know better than to put too many widgets on my blog I can't live without some of them.

I too love the blogroll. StatCounter is another one I love. In fact, if I could only have one.... I use it on my "other" blog and it tells me EVERYTHING. Heck, it even....

....wait, I feel a post coming on.

I've played around with these widgits, but that's all so far.

As far as Realtor.com goes with offering free blogs, so many agents don't believe that you can gain clients by blogging, so I'm not sure it really matters.

I am just guessing here but am wondering if i should not be writing more how to posts? I guess I don't write many because everyone is doing it.

Good subject and I love all the comments. Very funny!

So the "dark and stormy night ...." wasn't worthy :^(

I'm still not sure about adding MyBlogLog, but love the functionality of AutoRoll. Besides the ten most current sites that are displayed, does it track all of them somewhere else online? That would be great to know for cross-commenting and linking.

JUN

2007

Kewl new toy, thank a bunch. Careful, they are gonna start calling you tool girl, lol.

JAN

2009

Teresa, I came across this because I'm trying to find out how to install BlogLog Recent Readers widget. Can't find it on the bloglog widgets...and the only tutorial I found wasn't helpful. I think it they have changed the format since it was written. Anyway, I enjoyed reading this post :)

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Teresa Boardman

Saint Paul, MN

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Saint Paul Home Realty

Address: 413 Wacouta street #250, St. Paul, MN, 55101

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