Today's Easter Sunday, I just got home from Mass and lunch with my family, my dad, and his girlfriend, and I have a knot in my stomach.
Tomorrow is the beginning of Project Blogger.
Where's the Maalox?
I love to write. One of my biggest challenges is not writer's block, but instead, being brief. I read once that women say about 5 words for every 1 word men say. I think I have that gene (the verbose one) in triplicate.
But blogging is a whole different thing. It's not just about saying something, it's about saying something worthwhile enough that someone cares to read it, and in a package that's attractive and helpful to the viewer. With realty blogging, hopefully it is a way of getting an "at bat" with more buyers and sellers too. And frankly, I don't know what I'm doing with blogging.
Thank goodness I'm not on my own. Frances Flynn Thorsen is my very talented, very successful coach. And she is confident, too, and that's a good thing, because like I said, I have a knot in my stomach.
Are you familiar with the DISC Assessment? If so, you know that folks who are "high D's" are super competitive, they like to win. No, they almost need to win. We have some high D's in my family, and these people are highly successful (whether it's in law, teaching, playing softball on the beach at a family reunion or throwing a football for a famous team out of Boston). Ordinarily, I'm only a "high D" if it bumps into ethics or one of my values. Competition is not my "M.O." and it is not something that I particularly seek out - even though it's part of the package deal of working in Real Estate. Instead, I'm a "high I" - I like to have a good time, I'm expressive, I love a good story. (We have a lot of that in my family too.) And so I write because I enjoy it, and if I can make it enjoyable for others to read my pieces, that makes it even more fun. Real estate can be fun. So writing and real estate combined should be a very, very good time for me! I believe that the best route to success in real estate is finding a way to be passionate about what you do. If you enjoy it, it will be sustainable. For me, then, blogging for real estate should be ideal. And this blogging contest should be the express elevator ride for realty blogging, with a learning curve so fast my ears will be popping.
Competition, on the other hand, is not something I crave. It's part of the package and I just have to adjust.
How'd I end up as an apprentice on Project Blogger, then? Fran heard about me from someone we both know, like and trust - and this gal knew that I was anxious to learn more about blogging and she knew I had a passion for writing. A lot of things in real estate are tied to relationships, so I guess this isn't surprising, but I never saw the opportunity to do this contest coming. So when it did come to me, I was surprised and almost suspicous. Will I have enough time? What is involved? Hearing all about it, I was intrigued. Hearing that money was going to go to charity, I wanted to help - that kicked the "D" in me into gear.
And so here I am, with my nerves on high alert the day before we go into this contest. I am reminding myself that it's a marathon, not a sprint. And I'm reminding myself that Fran is running this thing with me, and she knows what we're doing.
What is really cool, too, is that in recent weeks (even before I knew about Project Blogger), I started getting more involved here on Active Rain, and I'm beginning to feel like I know some of the good folks from all over the country here. As I re-read the rules on how the competition will be judged, I realize that it's not only the judges who have something to say about the outcome of the contest: it's everyone here on AR too.
My learning's already begun as yesterday I asked a question about where everyone gets the graphics and I received a ton of great answers. (Next I need to learn how to wrap text around images, as you can see from above.) I hope you will feel free to participate by doing the commentaries or scoring on me and everyone else involved. I'm hoping too that I will get constructive criticism (and maybe occassional encouragement!) and that from the contest we will all learn and improve our blogging skills and effectiveness with this very cool new venue. In addition to the growth in understanding on blogging, I am also looking forward to just getting to know this giant community better.
Mary, I'm so excited about Project Blogger. I'm looking forward to learning from all of you. From the looks of this post, Fran's confidence in you wasn't misplaced. You're a great writer. Best ofluck to you both! The great thing is that we're all going to come out winners when this is over.
P.S. Kristal Kraft has info on how to do the picture thingie. It's real easy!
Good luck. You'll be wonderdful. To answer your question about wrapping, on the daisy here, I added it using the little tree icon same as when you added the keyboard image. There are two tabs on the top. The tab on the right says appearance, click on it. Top line on the appearance tab is where you want the photo. I chose left for this.
Directly below that is dimensions if you want to resize an image. It may automatically fill in the size of the image as saved.
Next down is vertical space and horizontal space (around the image.) I used 5 on both vertical and horizontal here. That's the white space around the daisy. You can add a border too in the next box down. I seldom use a border.
Thanks so much, both of you! I was just doing a comment on Tisza's blog and I wanted to add a pic and noticed the the options for making the pic go right, center, etc. Didn't notice the part about a frame. I will check it out!!
I use the same margins as Maureen for images ... 5 pixels is PERFECT!!! And FORGET the Maalox ... Project Blogger is going to be an altogether FUN event for everyone ... just look at the distinguished bloggers you are attracting here 8-)
Enjoy the rest of your Easter Sunday ... we'll all have some fun tomorrow and in the days ahead ... and the real estate blogosphere will see some some advances happen in short order ... and you will be an important part of this chapter in real estate blogging history.
We just took a leisurely, hourlong stroll through the neighborhood park with the dog and the camera. It's shorts and t-shirt weather here and a great day to relax outdoors.
I just want to tell you how much fun it has been and will be in the coming weeks for me to read your postings. I am grateful for everything I have learned and continue to learn from each and every person that I have met here on AR. Have a wonderful time. Let's continue to grow, learn and share together and we will all win!
Hi Mary. I'm also an apprentice blogger and I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling the need for Maalox. This was a great post by the way. I think we're all going to learn so much from being involved in this. From the looks of it you're off to a great start!
Mary, you are an awesome writer- good luck to you! I too, am glad I'm not the only apprentice feeling nervous, excited, needing Maalox, etc. But in the end, this is going to be so much fun, and I keep thinking how great the entire AR community is going to be when it's all said and done.
Maureen - I'm such a guy... I still haven't gotten the hang of the text wrap yet. AND.... now this is sad..... I haven't figured out how to 'name a link'. In other words, I can copy and paste a link....but all 25,000 people on here (except me) know how to change it so it is name friendly instead of a string of letters/numbers/etc....
Frances - you're in Bethehem? Perhaps we can meet - love to discuss both blogging and biz.
2. Type the words you the link anchored to such as ....Rob Robinson
3. Highlight the word's you want to anchor it to with your mouse's left button and the little chain link icon on the edit bar above appears. It should be the 6th from the left. The unbroken chain 'link." The icon next to it is to break links. when you click on the chain link an edit box opens.
4 .In the top line put in the link you put in the url http://activerain.com/thebertrumgroup the middle line defaults to opening a new window which is what you would normally want so no change. The bottom line you type in words to explain what you want to identify the link as. Often it is the same as the words you are anchoring the URL to. In this example I typed in "Rob Robinson The Bertrum Group."
Voila the final product Rob Robinson if you mouse over that it should say... Rob Robinson the Bertrum Group.
Mary can just delete our little lesson if necessary. My hand knows how to do this but I don't really know the words for some of it.
type the word you want to add the link to where ever you want it to be in a comment. in a blog. I am typing it at the end of this comment
then copy the url (link ) by higlighting and copying hold mouse left button down while running the cursor over the words then click the right button and you get the choices.. open, copy, select all, print, etc. choose copy. the link http://activerain.com/thebertrumgroup <--- goes on your invisible clipboard because of the copy command.
then highlight the word (run your cursor over the text and let go and the link will appear... Rob Robinson
Mary Pope-Handy, ABR, CRS, ePRO, SRES — Silicon Valley Home Search by Map
Good luck. You'll be wonderdful. To answer your question about wrapping, on the daisy here, I added it using the little tree icon same as when you added the keyboard image. There are two tabs on the top. The tab on the right says appearance, click on it. Top line on the appearance tab is where you want the photo. I chose left for this. 
;)
;)
Mary, I'm so excited about Project Blogger. I'm looking forward to learning from all of you. From the looks of this post, Fran's confidence in you wasn't misplaced. You're a great writer. Best ofluck to you both! The great thing is that we're all going to come out winners when this is over.
P.S. Kristal Kraft has info on how to do the picture thingie. It's real easy!