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cutting down on pie charts

pie

I had a business cartoon on my Discover Columbus Blog recently, an "Andertoon" by Mark Anderson.

In the Andertoon there's a business meeting going on, there are bar graphs being projected onto a screen in a power point presentation. The caption reads "Finally, to help those of us counting carbs we've moved to bar graphs instead of pie charts."

Top third from the left? Maybe you had to be there.

Maybe you have to be a fan of charts and graphs to think it is funny. Not a fan of graphs, pie charts? Move along, there's plenty to read on Active Rain.

I love pie charts. I like bar graphs too. I told Caleb Mardini of ActiveRain / Localism.com in March that I did not think that Localism could work because of the mischief.

In April I got a call from a local reporter. A reporter looking for a bar graph about Central Ohio's real estate market. She found a bar graph for the Central Ohio market I had done "on the internet" and wondered whether I had anything more recent....

I moved my evil green bar graphs back to my Discover Columbus site in February? When the reporter called and asked me where she could find an updated version of something she found "on the internet"... she was vague about where she saw it, what she saw... she knew it was old news.... outdated but she wanted to see the updated info about the market in Central Ohio.

I asked "was it a green bar graph?"

It was. It was on ActiveRain. A week or so ago I actually did a bar graph by request for the reporter. Will it end up being quoted? I'll let you know if I see anything about it.

Although it is more difficult to post the TrendGraphix bar graphs on Discover Columbus I went to posting them there because of mischief on Active Rain that's spilled over onto my other blogs and websites. Thanks for the traffic Active Rain can you corral your mischief makers on Active Rain? My other blog Discover Columbus is a RealTown blog... another Real Estate network kinda sorta. RealTown blogs are the folks that do the e-PRO certification, RealTalk, BlogTalk, etc. stealing pie

"Mischief happens in real estate sometimes... Fun and games? Real estate hijinks? Boys will be boys.." .... An odd story about the Central Ohio real estate licensee using the internet in his business.

The good news? ActiveRainers are creating and adding good content for consumers on ActiveRain including charts and graphs. Not everyone likes charts and graphs, but lots of people do. Lots of consumers do.

Ines Hegedus-Garcia in Miami even has pie charts on her market reports... watch out for those carbs....

Graphs from William Robbins in Columbus Ohio...

Graphs from Steve Mun, Campbell, CA

Graphs from Ben Kakimoto - Seattle Condo Specialist

Who else has great graphs on their ActiveRain blog?

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Posted by Maureen McCabe Central OH Homes on 05/10/2007 06:45 AM

Comments (18)

activerain, blogging, blogs, market report, columbus ohio, central ohio

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18 Comments on cutting down on pie charts

MAY

2007

Maureen, was your evil bar graph on Localism? (I'm continuing to survey where these posts are going and if/how they're being received!)

Lisa when was Localism introduced? I posted market reports on Active Rain in November and December mainly, categorized for consumers, as market reports. I had posted one or two previously, in the category for consumers, marked as market reports. I think that was pre-Localism or maybe early December was when Localism was introduced to us? As I remember it my entries that were market reports were on Localism when it was introduced to us. Some of the market reports did not format well, they looked fine on Active Rain as local content but when you looked at the Localism page they were funky. I think they were OK once you opened the entry on Localism though.

I love graphs
I love charts
I love pies

Now, if only Google would read them.

That was part of the problem when I talked to Caleb in December. Consumers look at market reports on blogs but Google has to pick it up for them to find it. When another member made a stink about "no fair", and "she's blogging for points" I tried to figure out a way to post them without getting points but then Google is not going to pick up the keywords.

They are just graphics so they are totally for consumers eyes.

What a great and fun post Maureen - I have found that including different types of information within my market condition analysis works for different types of people. Some are looking for more visual information and others are not, by doing a combination not only does it help with Google Juice, but it satisfies those visual brains like mine. Thanks for the mention!

Converting the graphs to a pdf file would solve the formatting issue and allow for ALT tags, but I don't think AR/Localism provides a means for adding a pdf. Maybe I'm wrong.

Ines: My market reports posts always had words on them, commentary and have always shown up on Google. I just tried to see if there was a way to post them so the Active Rainer in my market would stop urging people to rate down my market report blog entries down.

Elaine: I don't get why you would want to use a pdf. I don't think pdf documents are appropriate on blogs at all, mostly because I read that comment from a blog platform geek about this time last year and have wondered about what he meant since. I was thinking about that comment for the last few days because I have something I want to post to one of my other blogs that is a pdf. I really dislike .pdf documents on our intranet, I think they are great for contracts, addendums, etc. but not blog content for the most part.

On my web site I used the Trendgraphics stuff and I converted it to a jpg file which allows it to be used as a photo with ALT tags. The drawback was that it was "fuzzy" and hard to read unless it was large. I seldom use Trendgraphics info because it's distorted info for southern Delaware county because all the many condo complexes can't be removed from the data.

Regarding the pdf, it would be a link to wherever the file was stored. How is that different than the links you use in a blog for reference to other information on a subject? Am I missing something?

I believe I always use a PNG because the JPEG is fuzzy. A pdf is not an image file so I don't think any entry editor would allow you to post a pdf as an image. In the pdf there are image files and text files and a bunch of stuff.

My problem with PDF files is that the reader opens relatively slowly. When I am reading a blog I click on the links, sometimes read the page it takes me to, sometimes click right back to the entry. I feel trapped in a pdf. I think they should warn you that they are sending you to a pdf.

The article I read was from Bloggercon and I can't find it. I think it just said that using PDF in a blog was not a particularly good way to share information, that there are better ways to provide it.

MAY

2007

Maureen I hope the reporter comes through for you! What kind of Mischief were you referring to?

Danny,

I have mixed feelings about being mentioned by the press.

During the two months I posted market reports on Active Rain someone started taking an extreme interest in my other blog and websites. You know the anonymity thing... that brings out the best in people? The kind of mischief you think people should have outgrown long, long ago.

MAY

2007

Late to the conversation...I've had to resize the Trendgraphix charts to find in my Worpress blog and it gets blurry. Though, it's even more so here on AR.

Anyway, this is what I've been doing to get a .jpg image from Trendgraphix - (1) Alt-PrtScr, (2) past into Photoshop, (3) crop, (4) save for web. Is there an easier way?

Ben I think I have always used a PNG (like a gif but bigger than a gif?) I think that is what the image is on Trendgraphix and I just right click and save as... on Active Rain and on my blog. I know I tried changing the graph once made to a JPG but it got fuzzy and the background got gray. I changed the size of my column on my template on my RealTown blog so it would fit in the size I saved it in, but I am now using a different template (skin) there because it is so much easier to put in graphs, tables, etc. I think there is a button to make a jpg now but they are fuzzy.

I tried to put a market report graph on my WP blog and it was a mess.

JUN

2007

Danny wrote: "Maureen I hope the reporter comes through for you!"

According to Elaine Reese I am mentioned in the latest Columbus Monthly Magazine for my evil green bar graphs that I just do for points on ActiveRain!

APR

2008

Yes the market reports were mentioned in Columbus Monthly magazine.... last June.

It's nearly a year since I posted this... interesting comment on a post that Rich J has today about balance in blogging from a technology vendor on AcitiveRain who is not a fan of those licensed to use TrendGraphix to create market reports using them on AcitiveRain. Rich J recommends "Generate eye-catching and informative monthly market reports for your region."

Here's a comment from a tech vendor his bio says "Technology for Real Estate Professionals" but I guess someone else's technology... should not be used by R. E. Professionals.

"Yes, generate market reports rather than copying and pasting copywritten material from Trendgraphix and other third party sources."

Perpetuating the myth that brokerages who pay to use TrendGraphix to create market reports just cut and paste the reports and are violating Copyright.

I went to a class at my brokerage in 2006 where they urged us to post TrendGraphix to our newsletters, on our websites. Why not post it to my blog? Because a fussbudget in CA has a bug up his butt that it's not fair.

Of course this does touch on topic of paid comment.

MAY

2008

I am hoping to experiment with some graphs soon. Thanks for more info

JUL

2008

Seth Godin is a fan of Pie Charts... Seth Godin is not a fan of Bar Graphs...

Todays's post Bar Graphs vs. Pie Charts

He is writing about presentations not blogging...

JAN

Ooops "Of course this does touch on topic of paid comment." should have been paid content. You (your brokerage) buys the right for you to create the graphs and tables, so is it paid? Nope paid content is buying blog posts or hiring someone who can write to blog for you. IMHO.

Wonder why no edit button on comments here anymore. I have noticed it b4 on old comments. I could delete.

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