I was so excited Thursday morning to be heading off to the 4realzEd seminar on Internet marketing.  I'm a huge fan of Rain City Guide and Dustin Luther.  I live in Calabasas, less than 20 miles from the Skirball Center so my decision to attend was a no brainer.  As I inched my way to the Freeway, I was glad that I left my house early, but the traffic seemed much heavier than usual.  I quickly checked the traffic on my iPhone and every single road heading South was RED!  Then my phone rings and its Siobhan from my office, she travels to Beverly Hills a few days a week and wanted to warn me that there was a Sigalert plus a landslide on Sepulvada Blvd.  Oh Brother, no alternative routes and the cars were just inching a long.  I could probably walk faster than I was driving.

There I sat on the 101 just watching the clock.  So I did what any other geek heading to an Internet conference would do, I grab my phone and start checking my email.  I clean out my morning inbox and actually send a couple of quick emails as I inch along.  When I finally do make it to the Skirball Center they are just getting started so luckily I didn't miss anything.

The seminar was interesting and informative, with lots of visuals and plenty of cutting edge information.  Everything that I learned about blogging and Internet marketing in the past year was crammed in to this one day seminar, plus some.  I wish I would have taken this seminar last year, it would have saved me a lot of time.  Dustin is a knowledgeable and a very likable guy, (in person he is exactly what he sounds like in his blogs).  He oozes with enthusiasm, so much so that he should be the poster boy for sharing insider real estate information on the Internet.  Jim Marks is a little more corporate, but still a very engaging and warm speaker.  I'd love to sit and pick this guys brain for a day or two.  My big Ah-Ha from the day was from Jim's end of the day wrap.  He spoke about how important it is to track your results and dollars spent.  He shared many ideas on how to know where to spend your marketing dollars to get the most ROI.  And really isn't this what it's all about?

I left the seminar with some great ideas and some major tweaks for my Internet marketing campaign.  In addition to meeting these two very giving speakers I also had the pleasure to meet some of my Activerain buddies, Marlene Bridges and Irina Netchaev.  Marlene is delightful and a sweet gal with the best smile you've ever seen, and Irina is my Keller Williams family from Pasadena.  I felt like I already knew Irina since we have spoken on the phone before.  It was so great to put the blogs with the real people.  Both of these gals are exactly like their blogs.  Harley Ramsey from my office was also there and we had an opportunity to catch up during lunch which was great.

Here is a picture of us, from left to right, Harley Ramsey, Me, Marlene Bridges, Irina Netchaev.