blogging: So, A Real Estate Blog Should Be About Real Estate, Huh?
- 09/12/11 08:17 AM
But what about social networking? A few days ago I posted that (in my humble opinion) real estate blogs should be about real estate... not movie reviews, restaurant reviews, not recipes... Real estate. That is what the audience is tuning in for, give them what they want. I gave a few examples of what I see from my traffic patterns, and generally tried to support my opinion.
But, real estate agents that are marketing online (should) have a LOT more channels aside from their real estate blog. And I DO believe that there is a place in some of those other … (7 comments)
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blogging: I'm Going to Post RE Blogging Heresey...
- 09/11/11 02:14 PM
Image via Wikipedia I have been blogging about real estate since 2008... so over three years. I can say proudly that I have a few thousand posts. Of those, there are a lot that were NOT about real estate, but that appeared on my real estate blog. Some were about cars (I just started a car blog JUST for those posts). Others were about local news. Still others were about local businesses, entertainment venues, parks and recreational opportunities.
As long as I have been blogging, the mantra has been to "Be the source of information about EVERYTHING in the community".
But … (67 comments)
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blogging: Lane's Newest Toy... CCotD
- 09/01/11 04:43 PM
It is NO secret around here that I am a Car Guy. I guess that would be why I am THE Garage Guy, too. For the last 4+ years one thing I have had NO problem being transparent about is my love of things automotive. Here on this blog, as well as my blog, LaneBailey.com, and my website, GarageHomesUSA.com, I have written numerous posts about cars, garages and cool tools.
Recently, I started a blog solely targeted to other car lovers. It is called CoolCaroftheDay.com. And because I seem to be a glutton for punishment, I also created a network of … (2 comments)
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blogging: Cool Concepts = Hard Work...
- 11/06/10 05:16 PM
Image via Wikipedia This is a tough series... Here I am, up to 27 parts in the 53 part series, and I am having trouble coming up with cars and concepts week after week...
Let's see if I can tough it out.
But, there is a good part to a series like this, too. I can write the posts ahead of time and schedule them to go out on the blog. And that seems to push me to write... and not just the car series, but also the rest of the content for the blog.
So, if you have any ideas, … (3 comments)
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blogging: Before Tactics or Strategy, there is...
- 10/12/10 10:13 AM
Image via Wikipedia I hear a lot about Social Media Strategy or Technology Tactics... but there is something that seems to be missing from many of these conversations. Rather than framing the discussion in terms of the end result, it gets formed around how to use a tool.
First we need a GOAL...
The goal is the missing ingredient. In fact, not only is it the missing ingredient, but it is the most important part. Since I am a car guy, let me illustrate it like this...
The goal is to win races. We decide that we want to win a … (3 comments)
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blogging: I am "Blog Brawling" once again...
- 08/09/10 04:36 PM
And I need some help... Actually, I need LOTS of help.
I have entered the Carolina Real Estate Blog Brawl. It is being sponsored by my friends in Raliegh that sponsor rebarcamp - Raleigh. I was able to go up for their camp last year, which was a great event. And this year they bumped up the ante a bit with their Blog Brawl.
So... what I need from you... Votes. I just need your votes. It will only take a moment. Jump on over to the Carolina RE Blog Brawl post and check off the boxes next to my name. … (12 comments)
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blogging: rebarcamp Atlanta... A Date and A Venue...
- 06/17/10 06:09 AM
and a FaceBook Page... and a Twitter Hashtag...
That's right, yesterday on the FaceBook Page for rebcAtlanta, we announced the date and location for the first ever rebarcamp Atlanta.
Friday, October 1st, 2010
CoolRay Field, Home of the Gwinnett Braves
#rebcatl
At the moment, we are putting together the team that will put on the event. The search for sponsors is underway. In the next few days we will roll out registration. It is a busy and exciting time for those of us that have learned so much from rebarcamps and want to extend the reach of the experience.
So, you … (6 comments)
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blogging: Two MileStones...
- 05/09/10 03:18 PM
I haven't written "milestone posts" as often as I could... maybe not even as often as I should. But there are two milestones that are coming together... oddly.
In the next couple of days, I will hit 700,000 points. I have written my 1500th post on Active Rain I'm also about a month away from celebrating 3 years on Active Rain. But I don't think that one is ripe yet. Hover, I can't really seperate the last three years, the 700,000 points and the 1500 posts. They are gloriously intertwined.
Since joining Active Rain I have had the wonderful opportnity to … (6 comments)
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blogging: Social Media Breakfast - Atlanta, April 22nd
- 04/18/10 04:09 PM
It's the sensation that is sweeping the nation... OK, it is just sweeping Atlanta's northern arc...
Social Media Breakfast - Atlanta.
Each month, on the 3rd and 4th Thursday, we get together to talk about responsible and ethical ways to leverage social networking for business. From FaceBook Fan pages to Twitter, Foursquare and Posterous, we are touching on all of the newest and best ways to connect with our clients and customers.
Northwest...
Ken Cook leads the Northwest crowd on the 3rd Thursday in Cobb County. For April, FourSquare was on the menu, and James Ball (Hello North GA) was … (0 comments)
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blogging: Features I wish were on Active Rain...
- 02/09/10 09:02 AM
There are a few features I wish Active Rain would adopt... I love them on my WordPress blogs, and would like to see them implemented here as well.
Scheduled Posting. This is one of my favorite features on WordPress, and it is on many other platforms as well. When I took a vacation a couple of weeks ago, my WordPress blogs soldiered on, posts coming out as scheduled. It would even be cooler (on WP) if I could schedule a change to the post, but that is a whole different thing. Zemanta, Apture, PhotoDropper. These are all different, but do similar … (85 comments)
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blogging: Where do we go from here?
- 02/03/10 02:55 AM
Image by Yandle via Flickr What comes next? A few years ago, did we see Twitter and FaceBook dominating the horizon? Did we see MySpace falling off a cliff and becoming a place for bars and bands... and not much else? Did we see the mobile would still be "just around the corner"? Did we know that video would be EVERYWHERE... and still be almost here? Actually, two years ago at REtechSouth, Pat Kitano told me that Twitter was getting ready to go big and that in a few years it would be a dominant social media. But, while FaceBook … (6 comments)
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blogging: Is "Live Blogging" the Next Wave?
- 01/31/10 01:12 AM
I just got back from vacation... Thank you, I enjoyed it very much... The family went to Disney World for a week. While there, I was experimenting (again) with Live Blogging.
Basically, using my BlackBerry, I was uploading pictures, videos and text posts to a blog throughout the day. I did take a few moments out of the fun, but much of what was included were pictures or videos I wanted anyway. And they were things I wanted to share with friends and family (spelled M-O-M).
And that kept creeping a thought into my mind...
Information is speeding...
A couple … (6 comments)
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blogging: Posterous isn't alone... there is Tumblr...
- 01/20/10 03:50 PM
We've all been talking about Posterous. It is a seriously cool site. In fact, I have enjoyed using it so much that I am going to start up another Posterous blog to cover personal things going on (like vacation next week). It is a GREAT platform.
But it isn't the only platform. In fact, before there was Posterous, there was Tumblr. And they are very similar. Similar enough that many think that Posterous took direct aim at Tumblr when they introduced their platform.
There are some things that Posterous has done VERY well... to start with, the emial post capability of … (13 comments)
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blogging: Joomla Content Helpers... (WordPress, too)
- 01/18/10 03:22 AM
As mentioned last time in WordPress and Joomla and Active Rain… oh my!, dynamic websites are the direction the web is going. In order to live in the dynamic website world, you need to produce content.
That is the first problem. Good, engaging content doesn't create itself. Readers want to see pictures and video. They want interaction.
Image via Wikipedia
Image via CrunchBase I'm AT LEAST as guilty as anyone else of not serving it up sometimes. One one of my blogs I don't have any access to a plug-in called Zemanta, and I have to jump through hoops to use … (7 comments)
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blogging: I Suck at 'Internet Lead Conversion'
- 01/14/10 04:04 PM
It's true.
Almost all of my business comes from social networking... much of it on the internet, and I suck at internet lead conversion. There are a few ways I suck at this...
I don't have a dedicated database for internet leads... I don't have an email drip campaign to stay in touch with them... I don't have a checklist of 'touches' to go through with each lead... So, just how the heck can I stay in business?
I wonder sometimes myself... I know that I need to build a dedicated database of my clients and leads. I also know … (21 comments)
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blogging: Why do you blog?
- 01/13/10 12:14 PM
It seems to be a simple question... There are obvious answers...
To bring in business To share knowledge To vent I'm sure that you have reasons... I have mine.
The most popular answer I'm sure will be "to bring in business"... but is this really the most efficient way? I know that almost all of the deals I am working on have come about because of blogging and social media marketing, but maybe if I spent the time I use in social media and blogging to mow grass and shovel snow I could buy TV time. So... that isn't really it. … (12 comments)
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blogging: Happy New Year to my AR Peeps...
- 12/31/09 02:34 PM
It's funny... and fun. I'm sitting here on the couch fielding questions from the 5 year old... he is really tired, but wants to ring in the New Year... we have 55 minutes to go. My phone has been vibrating with text messages all evening... friends from the Rain, from outside of the Rain... family... all wishing me a Happy New Year and saying hello.
Life is good...
Over the last couple of years, I have had the opportunity... the wonderful opportunity... to meet with scores of my friends from here on Active Rain, as well as others from the … (8 comments)
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blogging: Lane's 10 Best Posts for 2009...
- 12/30/09 01:02 PM
'tis the season for 10 Best Posts. They are everywhere. Here two... Maybe I could even do a "10 Best of the 10 Bests" post... (that might be going too far)
I think these are my 10 Best Favorite Posts for 2009...
From LaneBailey.com
Think you have time to mull over that house buying decision for weeks? Cheap Sex and Real Estate... My home is worth what? Can a $29,000 Home be overpriced? Where in the World is Lilburn, GA? And from ActiveRain/GwinnettGarageGuy.com
The best agent to use is the one that tells me the highest price I turned down … (6 comments)
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blogging: Mini-Bar Camp...
- 12/10/09 01:40 PM
What do you get when you take 9 real estate pros in 4 states, Skype, DimDim and a blustery Thursday?
Mini-Bar Camp...
Half BarCamp, half accountibility group and half implementation assistance hotline, we "met" for almost 7 hours of hardcore tech and sales talk. Four of us were in the Atlanta area, so we all got together in a reasonably central location during the camp. The other agents, in North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama all called in.
Each person "presented" at some point during the day and we had some wide-open discussion periods as well. While we had planned on … (16 comments)
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blogging: My List of Indispensible WordPress Plugins...
- 12/08/09 03:15 PM
And I'm going to start off with two that aren't for WordPress, but that I use ALL of the time...
Zemanta - This is one of my "blogging assistants". Zemanta searches for relavent photos for posts, while I am writing them. It is a FireFox plugin, and functions on all of the WordPress blogs without installing a WP plugin. I also have it installed on my Joomla sites... I did have to install a Joomla plugin...
ScribeFire - Another of my "blogging assistants" ... and a commenting assitant, too. ScribeFire lets me format posts or comments, even adding video to … (18 comments)
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But what about social networking? A few days ago I posted that (in my humble opinion) real estate blogs should be about real estate... not movie reviews, restaurant reviews, not recipes... Real estate. That is what the audience is tuning in for, give them what they want. I gave a few examples of what I see from my traffic patterns, and generally tried to support my opinion.
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