Living on Euler's Line

Are you addicted?

72%How Addicted to Blogging Are You

Found a funny site that you can answer 14 questions to see how addicted you are to blogging.  They even provide some html code so you can share your results with others.  I think this is a great marketing idea.  See for yourself how bad you have it.

Real Estate Tomato vs. Coldwell Banker's Canned Blogs

Jim Cronin from The Real Estate Tomato wrote a scathing post about Coldwell Banker's new blog platform.  In my opinion, the biggest areas of concern on the long list of problems are the canned content, the lack of search engine presence and faux permalinks. 

Blogs in their truest form are about expressing yourself and/or your business.  In the mortgage world, there are companies that will ghost write articles for your blog to make you sound like a professional.  I fall into the category of wanting to publish my own content - my High School English Teacher might not agree.  It would be awkward to have information and/or advice published on my blog that I don't fully embrace. 

I know some of the Coldwell Banker Realtors on the Outer Banks are using tools such as ActiveRain to blog.  It will be interesting to see if those Realtors decide to switch to the Coldwell Banker blog platform. 

Top 500 Real Estate Blogs to Watch

The folks over at Pittsburgh Home Daily created a massive blogroll of the Top 500 Real Estate Blogs to Watch.  What a job that must have been.  The great news is that my blog - Outer Banks Real Estate made the list along with another local blogger Matt Huband at Hometown Realty. 

Blogs better than Newsletters...

I read a recent article on Realty Blogging that listed 9 Reasons Why Blogs Beat Newsletters.  The list has some good points about the benefit of blogging.  I especially agree with the Trust - A blog is your voice and 100% Google Juice points - these are some of the greatest benefits of blogging. 

Does this mean you can trash your newsletter campaign?  I don't think we are quite there yet because there is still a segment of the population that shuns technology.  I believe Realtors should offer a combination of the two - a traditional newsletter for the old school and a blog that offers the newsletter plus additional value added articles.  Over time, your customers will shift towards the "premium" service offered through your blog.  This turns into a win / win proposition - your customers get more and you spend less.

Blogs and Marketing

Have you seen this icon popping up all over the web lately?  It has become the standard logo for blog feeds.  Blogs and similar technology such as Podcasts (audio blogs) and Vlogs (video blogs) are growing rapidly in popularity across the web.  Many news organizations, companies and individuals are harnessing the power of RSS syndication to push their message to the masses.  So why do 49% of interactive marketers say they don't plan on using blogs in the next year? 

I am not quite sure they understand the power of the technology. Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book - Absolutely everything you need to know to get it right. which is due to be released August 3, 2006 will help answer the questions many executives and entrepreneurs have about blog technology.   

Blog comics

Hugh Macleod writes Gapinvoid - "bleeding-edge marketing and Web 2.0".  He draws artwork on cards about the size of a business card.  Some of it is NSFW but his sometimes dark humor really makes me laugh. 

He recently did a post about stats and blogging - oh it is so true. 

New Email Subscription Tool for Blogs

There is a new product available for email subscription of blogs.  Squeet allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds and you can even customize when the messages are delivered. 

Realty Blogging

Realty Blogging defines itself as "A Network of Blogging Evangalist writing on effective Real Estate Blogging".  This is a great resource for anyone interested in starting a blog for their business. 

Bloglines - A great tool for reading Blogs

Want to know more about blogs.  This is a great place to start.

Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install -- simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device.

And did I mention that it's FREE!

Follow the Link to the homepage - register and start a whole new way of getting information from the web. 

Blog Directories

Blogorama is a directory of... you guessed it - blogs.  You can find more blogs about any subject you can imagine here.