Tina, what a shame, I hope she backed up everything for the future. Gee,  I thought W went under. Best of luck to her, if and I say IF any company EVER told me to stop blogging I would be gone in a red hot minute.

I just changed companies.  I considered myself blessed at my last brokerage because they were supportive of my blogging.  When I spoke with the new brokerage about making the move one of the main issues (for me) was the blogging/online presence.  My new broker is also very supportive; sits on the technology committee of our local board, and was twice President of the Board.  As a result of his knowledge of and great attitude toward technology and the future direction of the industry involving both technology and the Internet, 2 of the 3 top placing local Realtors now hang their hats under his license. 

It is really quite simple.  If I were told to dismantle my on-line presence, I would leave.  Without an on-line presence, I am out of business. 

This is exactly the reason so many Realtor/bloggers are getting their Broker licenses. 

What I find most interesting about this whole broker forbidding blogging thing is a that before blogging we all had (many still have) websites.  Websites have to be built; custom pages are created and added.  The content on those custom pages is very similar to many blog posts.  Websites don't seem to be the threat that blogs have become, yet the same information can be pushed out on them and ranked in the engines.

The differences between websites and blogs are:

• the ability to comment on a blog and have a conversation with both the consumer and other Realtors
  
• blogs are text based therefore the engines like and place them better
• the Realtor is communicating directly with the consumer, rather than boilerplate website content

I understand the position of the larger companies who are doing this.  The liability is tremendous.  Outside of our industry many large companies are doing the same thing, some don't even want their own blog because the control over what information is disseminated is lost.  One of my past clients works for a large automotive company.  They neither have nor want a blog, tried it and had too many problems with consumers and many law suits as a result.  They issued an ban on blogging about the company and/or its products - company wide.

Companies spend large sums of money developing advertising and marketing campaigns often based around their brands.  One blogger placing high and/or saying the wrong thing in front of the general public, could undo millions of dollars invested and/or can cause a multitude of law suits. 

There are many bloggers who feel they have the right to talk about anything they want, at any time.  Many do not understand the repercussions of such actions.  Before we put information on-line we have to think about how that information is going to be received and question if we are doing harm anywhere, breaking ethics or causing liability.  Sometimes bloggers do that without even realizing it. 

Many bloggers do not have a great command of the English language.  When learning about contracts we were taught the difference in the small words can change the entire meaning of a paragraph.  Words, such as,

• and
• if
• or

used in the wrong context can irrevocably change the meaning of what a blogger is trying to communicate.  Heck lawyers make mistakes on contracts and lose cases over these kinds of errors.

There are so many blog posts I have wanted to write, but were never written, this is often the source of my writers block.  So many ideas floating around in my head, so many things the public SHOULD know, but, the price tag is just too high, the risks too great.

As others have observed many blog posts both here at AR and out in the blog-o-sphere probably never should have been published.  How is that controlled?  If a blogger doesn't have the sense not to write a post that shouldn't be written, there is no control.  There isn't anybody to stop them.  Once out there it is permanent. 

The best we can do is to blog responsibly, think about both the words we are using and their long term effect.

My condolences to Naoma.  My advice would be to put it all into draft mode until such time as you are able to move to a more flexible employer then take it back out and get on with your business. Best of luck to you and congratulations on your new born.