Tchaka- I'm thinking that the purpose of localism is for potential customers to find you.. so I post things about my market there.. what most people want to know about are prices.. what 's for sale and what has sold.. most of the chatty community stuff I reserve for my other blog..  I have never thought of it as spamming..

Kaye, I have absolutely no problem with us marketing ourselves - that's one of the main reasons we're on here.  I will go as far as to say it would be foolish for us not to market.  But if you read my post carefully, I'm not complaining about marketing, I'm concerned that there isn't any "meaningful real estate information", just spam.  Click on the 1st link in my post to get an idea of what I mean.

Granted you can't get too much info out of pics, this isn't much of an attempt.  Let me put it this way, if I drove down Hollywood Blvd (one of our main streets) and took a picture of each home, posted on Localism with just my name and a link to my website, would that be acceptable as "marketing"?   

In my opinion, no.  But I'm eager to hear from everyone (who knows, maybe I'm wrong here). 

- Tchaka 

"... if I drove down Hollywood Blvd (one of our main streets) and took a picture of each home, posted on Localism with just my name and a link to my website ..."

Tchaka, I understand what you're saying. You make a good point. There is not much purpose in doing that.

I'm not a real estate agent, but I see a lot of exciting things going on in my community. So I post pictures with the hope of being a "tour guide", so to speak. And that is one of the benefits of localism. All of us can play a small role in letting the world know something about where we live.

Caleb has posted that they are going through and deleting pictures that you speak of:  artist renderings and descriptions that blatantly are sales pitches with contact info (after we are already given a link).  The process is long and tedious for them.  Give it time!  GO in there and upload yours, put great descriptions and you will set yourself apart from the rest.  

I feel that "touristy" pictures add no value on what "localism" is and it makes me insane everytime an AR'er comes to vegas and then drops the bomb of strip pictures.  I am fighting a never ending battle of adding homes and neighborhoods to this project.  People may work on the strip but for locals, it isn't our lives! 

Tchaka -  We do agree that there are certain measures that should be taken to make photos more specific in their intent.  However, there is somethhing else that we feel is even more important and that is adding other areas to a tag line in an effort to have Localism pick it up and display it in the section for Listings in that area.  This is what I would consider to be spamming someone else's area and very rude as well as blatently wrong!

You're right Tchaka, those are blatent advertising. One has a URL's and the other one are advertising for their sites and phone numbers. Very weak.. but it shows how they do business. As a consumer, I would not use them.. maybe use the site to find a property and then another Realtor®. Thanks for pointing it out. someone had to say it.    (are graphic sigs cool here? no phone numbers is there.. haha )

Tchaka- I see what you are questioning and agree however I will say that the folks at AR pushed hard for us to post pics for areas....truthfully it never made much sense to me. Pictures as part of an article with some descriptions.. yes.. but just throwing up pictures with no focus was something I never really understood....I suspect that they were hoping for some stunning  and artistic photos  but it didn't work that way..

The photos may have been added before Active Rain had guidelines about photos.  Some of the photos that some considered spam in our market have been removed recently I understand.  I think when you look at your own market it looks spammy, if you look at another market it is more difficult to see that it is spammy.  How clients see it may be totally different depending on if they are local or coming in from out of town.  Hopefully Localism will be cleaned up soon.  I think if you read Caleb's link that Renee shared you will see the direction. 

We weren't given much direction at first as Kaye wrote. Just told to add pictures.  I never thought of adding photos of people, houses (except historical homes), floor plans, renderings but others saw an opportunity and seized it. 

Guidelines have changed since the start up of Localism.  I believe people are starting to contribute better information now that Localism is better understood.  It takes time to find content and interesting subjects to place.  I look forward to contributing more and better content.

Hi All,

I waited a bit so as to get as much feedback as possible and I'm glad because I feel that I've learned.  I also think that we're mostly on the same page.

Renee - HUGE thanks to you for providing the 'Caleb link' as that pretty much sums up what I need to know about Localism.

Maureen - I didn't think about the possibility of 'delayed' guidelines, so thanks for that.

Everyone else - thank you for contributing, your posts were valuable to me.

- Tchaka

Localism is a great resource for listings and local information.  Unfortunately bloggers, driven solely by the insane AR point system will post anything, anywhere to chalk up those almighty points.

AR would improve about 1000% if they did away with the point system.

BTW - Score 25 for me for responding....lol.

Localism is a great resource for listings and local information.  Unfortunately bloggers, driven solely by the insane AR point system will post anything, anywhere to chalk up those almighty points.

AR would improve about 1000% if they did away with the point system.

BTW - Score 25 for me for responding....lol.