Active Rain - Week in Review 01/08/07-01/14/07 (Modified)

Welcome to Active Rain Week in Review for January 8-14th!  Wow this is really tough to pick! Which we probably should break this up at some point.  I have a new appreciation for Matt and Caleb and how hard it is to pick featured posts.  I had great hopes of doing something fancy, but I was rather busy showing lots on a Harley between Marco Island, Golden Gate Estates, Immokolee and Everglades City and back-- which only made Monika's post Biker Chick from last week even funnier for me.  Figures that the week that I do the review, I was off the Internet for 2 1/2 of the days.  

Thanks to the lively discussions I thought that I would start with LOCALISM, since it seems to be a lot on our minds this week.  But first -- Hey Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Vermont, Oklahoma, Mississippi, North & South Dakota -- how come no pictures on Localism at the state level (ok, as of Saturday 6pm that is)? ActiveRain gained quiet an endorsement at the Inman BLOG on Tuesday!  This is big news!   And I believe it is the reason we are all excited and writing about it.  Matt wrote about in Cat Out of the Bag which had a healthy amount of discussion.  Others that wrote about Localism:

• Maureen McCabe shared with us Activity at Localism, which she references Susan Marriott's BLOG LOCALISM.COM 
• Chris Tesch wrote a great post about connecting with her local communities by taking pictures and getting to know the condos!
• Laurie Manny was very insightful in her Catch me if you can and Building a Foundation which summed up much of what I believe we are all feeling.
• Cheryl Johnson wrote Another Local Blog outside in
• Diane Rice writes A Little Boost for Active Rain which shows us the new Group (Localism Beta) that John Occhi  created for Localism discussion. 
• Then there was the lively debate that I had with John Occhi  between our two very different posts Colleen - Localism Some Ideas and John - Lets Discuss Localism.  What I cam away from that was wow we both respected the other's opinions, and had a great dialogue, agreeing to disagree!
• Even Len Harley took from our debate and wrote More Categories in Localism. 

Unlike others that have taken on this monumental task, I have decided to venture a little differently in the week in review.  First off this week that we had 683 New Members Join Active Rain (1/7-1/14 - Oops, I added a day in the count)    Wow!  We have come a very long way! 

I joined back in July and still remember the sweat that poured off my forehead after I hit the first Post This BLOG button.  Then the frantic checks to see if any one commented.  It never happened until much later.  I thought it only fitting to take a look at some of the first Blogs of those that joined Active Rain this week. 

First BLOGS was a BLOG I did a while back, so since I am doing the week in review, I thought it only appropriate to share some of the First BLOGs that were written this week (my cutoff was 5:30 Sunday night).  They are in no particular order, and I did not show every first BLOG this week, but I did read all of them (thanks Matt for giving us a way to do this!  It was something that was in my wish list).  So go by and give some encouragement to those that are looking at just breaking 5,000 points as huge:

• Rochell Heininger - Losing My Blogging Virginity
• Dave Hill  - Tips to Make your home show better for an inspection
• John Ziemba - Buying vs. Renting
• Patricia Beck - Thinking of Finishing Your Basement
• Josephine Liascas - Hello from Brooklyn
• Drew Macdonald - Best Golf in Naples
• Ruth Jacobs - Building Your Business
• Coach Karin Hanna - Be The Most Loved Agent
• Joanna Bonicker - New Member Referred by Margaret Rome
• Vince Scuncio - Dirty 11 letter word
• Lucy Kotelnicki  - Fortune Article - MidWest Forecast
• Richard Hoffart - Greetings from WNC
• Karla Bass - Hello From Jupiter Florida
• Ray Cobel - Gold Star - Guerilla Relationship Marketing
• Edith Karoline Jasser - New Construction in Chicago
• Teresa Franco - Welcome to Amarillo Texas
• Paul Higgins - CT State Wide MLS system
• Sandy Pfister - All Real Estate is Local
• Gary Urich - Grand Strand Investments
• Sylvia Wells - What a Great Site!
• Ray Hukill - How About this Weather
• Luke Constantino - My Neighborhood
• Hector Gonzalez Santoni - Tampa Realtors - Online Advertising Opportunities Reaching the Hispanic Population
• Chris McNamara - The Seperation of Title & Escrow
• Andrew King - First Impressions
• Jake Luehrs - Prospecting

Other Articles You Might Want To Read From the Week that caught my attention (and in alphabetical order):

• Blanca Cholewczynski - Welcome Wagon for Newbies -- Excellent Resource for those new to this resource
• Ann Cummings - History & Charm Galore
• Kathy Engel - Delaware is the Best
• Steve Holcomb - Realtor Rainman
• Teri Isner - Interruptions
• Kristal Kraft - The Official Unofficial Guide to Getting involved at AR -- If you are reading this and thinking there is no way I can do this -- your no longer have an excuse -- JUST DO IT! 
• Colleen Kulikowski - Alamode Websites You can get your AR BLOG directly feed per Jeff Belonger "It was after the 7th of January. So, you should have a mention...."
• Jason Price - Would You Sell
• Shannon Sims - From the Mouths of Teenagers
• Lisa Kauffman Tharp - Responsible Staging
• Tim Maitski - My 8x4 Map
• Chris Ward - Property A Limited Resource
• Loreena Yeo - Real Estate Rookie

** 1/16/07 Thanks to Ann Cummings, I missed one that hit me to the very core and felt it important to add to this list:

First Year Review, by C. Mark Willix which also was his first post, not sure when he joined or how I missed this, but it Chronicles his first 125,600 minutes in Real Estate.  Definitely worth checking out!

And to finish off, as I was dancing around the puddle this week, I noted some interesting photos:

	Bill Fletcher - Keller Williams  - if his profile photo is so creative, I can't wait to see him start BLOGGING!
	Andrew King - Photographer - he doesn't do weddings.... I am glad though that he does photograph homes -- check out his BLOG!
	Bonnie Erickson - The Realty Matrix I was eating potato chips as I came across this one!
	Elaine Reese - HER Real Living, Worthington Ohio Just thought that with Active Rain, that this was just too creative!

I hope that you all have a most productive week and that you enjoy my version of the week in review... Ines Hegedus Garcia will be next week's host. 

Colleen Kulikowski is your Western New York Real Estate Expert focusing on Buffalo and Niagara Falls neighborhoods of Western New York.  If you are on Twitter, please follow me... If you enjoyed this post by your Buffalo & Niagara Falls Home Sales Expert, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Email Colleen Kulikowski | All posts by Colleen Kulikowski 
(716) 743-5297 Voicemail

Home  About  Buffalo NY  Niagara Falls NY  Contact Us Sellers  What's My Home Worth?  Buyers  Relocation Guide  Archives  Categories  Glossary  Blogroll