Who wants to play the ProjectBloodhound game? Teri and I are avid to inflict some excellence on a few hapless volunteers, provided you will pitch in your own unique Social Media Marketing skills
By: Greg Swann,
Phoenix Real Estate,
Post Archive,
RSS FeedPosted: Wednesday, June 18th, 2008, 10:02 pm MST
Category: Blogging, Marketing, Real Estate
Hunter Jackson came up with the idea of revisiting ProjectBloodhound the other night, and that was a stroke of pure genius. It gnawed at me as soon as he brought it up, and I wasn’t alone: Teri Lussier was thinking along the same lines.
Here’s why: Even though we documented our thinking in RealEstateWeblogging101.com, we think differently now. There are things we’ve come up that we want to deploy, and there are a host of half-germinated ideas we want to bring to flower.
On my own plate:
- Teri and I need to rebuild TheBrickRanch.com to make it engenu-friendly
- Cathy has plans for me to build weblogs for our handy-man, for our doggie day-care provider, etc.
- I have had as a post-Unchained project the daunting task of moving all of our existing weblogs over to WordPress Multi-user
The last project subsumes the others, and it also creates a ProjectBloodhound opportunity. I have thought that, while implementing WP-mu, I would build a prototype of a perfect-in-the-abstract hyperlocal real estate weblog — best practices in everything.
And that’s where it all comes together. I kindasorta hated Project Blogger, because it seemed to me to become just another cliquescene beauty contest, and we never win anything like that. But I didn’t care about that, anyway. We got a frolicking book out of our efforts, for goodness’ sakes, influencing a bunch of real estate webloggers along the way.
And we can do our own thing now, with no contest to cause distractions: Invite one or a few wannabloggers over to play with us, help to build weblogs, help to build a Social Media presence, help to launch people who want to do better into a better orbit in their home markets.
What’s in it for us? By helping them, we’ll help ourselves. There are things that each of us could be doing better. By going through everything in detail, we can figure out what we should be changing in our own marketing.
But: There’s a catch: I’m overbooked on blue-sky projects, and Teri doesn’t want to do this alone. We want to bring the best of everything we have at BloodhoundBlog to this effort, so we want to hear some shouts of “I’m in!” — both from the folks in the sidebar and from the very bright people who read and comment here. This is potentially a scenius scene, the kind of thing I was talking about earlier this week. If we all work on this, we can get much closer to a perfect understanding of effective Social Media Marketing.
So: Speak up or tell us to go pound sand. I’d like to see what we can put together, but only if we bring the best that each of us has to teach.
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52 Comments so far
I am trying to flesh out an idea integrating evil vendor product, dealing with MLS realities into an excellent 2.0 lead capture. If I am right some of us can grab some clients, if wrong, maybe some poor Texan jamoke won’t get milched too badly.
I was going to broach this off blog, but what the heck, this way I can capture to brainpower of the collective.
I’ll help any way I can. Still trying to find the best place to add value, but I’m in.
I can honestly say I don’t miss Project Blogger at all, but it’s kinda nice to see the old Project Bloodhound logo again.
>This is potentially a scenius scene
How cool would that be?
“Hunter Jackson came up with the idea of revisiting ProjectBloodhound the other night, and that was a stroke of pure genius.”
need more to be said?
Greg,
Giving, Getting, and Needing.
Since coming back all fired up from Unchained I am trying to create weblogs for the team I’m on, myself (along with Brian Brady), my Chamber of Commerce, and my networking group. I’m Giving….Getting much more back…and Needing much more info and help every day.
I would appreciate the opportunity to be a foot soldier in your all-out campaign for excellence.
interesting ideas, happy to see your all fired up. I was wondering if you were abandoning, RealEstateWeblogging101.com since you had not posted to it for almost a year.
@greg – perhaps i simply haven’t had enough coffee this morning and my brain’s still muddled, but what exactly is it that you’re looking to build? do i understand it, a multi-user local real estate blog?
> what exactly is it that you’re looking to build? do i understand it, a multi-user local real estate blog?
No, one or more hyperlocal weblogs for people relatively new to our world, along with all the other aspects of a well-rounded Social Media presence. The original Project Blogger was a contents pitting teams of mentors and proteges against each other. We’re talking about doing something similar, but with a cooperative, shared-learning focus. Are you in?
@greg – yeah, if i picture it correctly, this is a very worthy project. holler at me
I’m in. Let me know what a lender and relatively new blogger can do to help.
Tom
Hyperlocal blogs? I’m already hyperventilating.
Like Mark..I wonder if someone put something in my oatmeal…are you looking to create a bloodhound type blog in say Atlanta just about atlanta?? Please expound more on this
I’m building a property blog for 1.25 acres of gorgeous, buildable, vacant land in the Hollywood Hills (spectacular views and movie star neighbors, of course) and I want it to be a prototype for RE 2.0. My limitations are: 1) no money to hire pros, so I have to teach myself everything, and 2) no time — I need this up asap! But I’m an eager and willing student. What now?
Todd: Show me what you have so far. Maybe I can kick you some quick help.
> are you looking to create a bloodhound type blog in say Atlanta just about atlanta??
No, we would be helping individual practitioners build out their SMM presence with a weblog and other SMM tools. (Teri: We should include a lender, just so we hit those deltas.)
Here’s my original post on Project Blogger last year. We want to do quite a bit more than this now, but we also want to do it in such a way that a lot of contribute and all of us benefit.
I could cover some “HTML Basics and Photoshop for Beginners” angles.
>I could cover some “HTML Basics and Photoshop for Beginners” angles.
Hooray!
One way or the other I’m in. That means if you need a project or just my opinion along the journey.
I followed the post project blogger round-up and book closely and since Unchained have been putting something together on a hyper-local level already. I could use ALL the help I could get.
Besides, Teri already posted the first comment on my blog that says “I love virgins”
Outed.
Greg,
I think I understand and while not a super techy guy, please let me know if I can help.
If you are going to support Microformats, Open ID and proper Twitter integration, count me in.
(Teri: We should include a lender, just so we hit those deltas.)
Hmmm, I think I know a lender or two who would like to be involved……
Tom
I think ew ( http://www.propertyqube.com ) already beat you to it… Hyper local blogs auto delivered to your user page along with any blogs you have favorite, distributed photos albums, groups, listings, recommendations, all the traditional Social networking compenents wrapped up in a very friendly real estate obsessed site.
Check us out, and add this blog!!! Importing blogs is easy, and we don’t try to own your content, we push your blog in front of people only to have them go to your site…
I like the idea, but i need ANOTHER weblog to support like a hole in the head. I would prefer to extend what I already have with more SMM functionality. After all, depending on how hyper you want to be, what i already have IS hyperlocal…now i just need to make it better.
In a perfect world, i’d like to see us develop a set of best practices and best plug-ins for the word press platform to support a SMM oriented realtor/lender.
Specifically, since Unchained, I’ve played with engenu so – and thank you, Greg, for skinning it for for me. The next step for it, though is to integrate it into WP as a plug-in so that we can take advantage of other photo management WP plug-ins (next gen gallery and piclens, to name two.) And what about the possibility of each engenu-generated page actaully being created as a WP page/post? Better SEO that way? Better indexing and searchability?
So, i like the idea, i’m just not sure what the deliverable was envisioned to be.
I’m in! (ya hear that Teri?-grin)
I will gladly dump some time into helping folks get hooked up. Pay it forward is how I roll. Greg- you know my skillsets and abilities…I don’t have a ton of time, but will gladly help where I can.
Always happy to make new friends and have new fun- and learn new stuff along the way.
Eric
Greg,
A fabulous idea, but like Kevin Warmath, I’ve had my hands full bringing my new RSSPieces blog to life, and implementing all the hundreds of ideas I brought back from Unchained. After Unchained, though, anything SM related, count me in.
This should probably be a post, but to keep things here:
Two comments recently made on BHB got both Greg and I thinking along the same lines. There’s some power there-”potentially a scenius scene” to quote Greg, which means that each of us has both the potential and the opportunity to add to this project, thereby making all of us better. A rising tide lifts all boats.
We are all at different points along the curve, but both the newest and the most advanced can share equally, learn a lot and develop as we go.
Anyone who commented here has something valuable to offer and while Greg might not cotton to collective think, I’ve seen it happen as one idea sparks another, and another, and it builds, sometimes that’s not a good thing, but here, with you all? It’s definitely a shot at brilliance.
All I’m asking (if I may) is that you keep your mind open to learning and also sharing. If you try something, whether it works or not, share it in a comment thread. There are no judges this time around, no popular vote to woo, just us, paying it forward because that’s how we roll, as Eric says.
back at ya, Eric.
Kevin, and Vance, and Don, Todd, Tom, Brad, everyone else who is commenting or looking in- you are the project here. We are all the project here. No caste system of teachers and students. We all share, we all learn.
phew. Caffiene just kicked in and I’m babbling. Off the soapbox. Glad to see so many people interested in this. Welcome!
Thanks, Greg. I’ll send you a link soon (when I’m happier with it).
@Teri-
“No caste system of teachers and students. We all share, we all learn.”
Amen. Greg got in the ring with Team Eric during the SEO contest. Most of the fun of that was that we were burning bandwidth day and night just tossing ideas around. No agendas. No teachers. No students. Just friends having fun working towards a goal. We ALL gained some excellence from it.
Our broker is fond of saying “If you each have a penny and give it to each other…you each still have a penny. If you do that with an idea, you each have two.”
That IMHO is why these projects work! (I why I love to pay it forward.)
Best
Eric
Did a blog post can just cross right over to business culture? I feel a groundswell.
>”Potentially a scenius scene” For once a “scene” I would like to be a part of
Eric-
>No agendas.
I forgot that part. While my interest is in rebuilding TBR, paying that forward, and the focus may be to establish best practices, there is no agenda or limit to the discussion. That’s where anyone who wants, can jump in and push us all ahead.
We will be throwing out questions, so we are counting on everyone for answers. It’s all potentially valuable to someone.
Brad-
Careful there. We’ll have no warm fuzzies on this blog.
Teri,
how about puppies? *woof*
Count me in. I am not sure what I have to offer but I am new and open to learning. I like the WP comments up above as my blog is in WP and any help I could get on that would be of the most awesomeness(oops – no warm fuzzy – I know)
I agree with Kevin ~ I like my WP format but would like to see more SMM integrated into it. As a side note RealEstateWeblogging101.com is what got me going, so thanks!
I’ve been playing with HDR and bracketing exposures on photos so I could throw a bit into the ring on that.
Brad-
I’m ignoring you and your puppies.
Heather-
>I am not sure what I have to offer but I am new and open to learning.
So being open to learning is the first thing you can offer, because you will figure out or stumble upon a unique way to do something that more experienced folks here hadn’t tried before. You be willing to share what you’ve learned is what this is all about.
>I’ve been playing with HDR and bracketing exposures on photos so I could throw a bit into the ring on that.
I don’t have a clue what you just said, so there ya go- Prepare to share!
Thank you, Heather!!! Including some HDR knowledge in the mix would be wonderful. I haven’t spent any time working with HDR yet.
Translating for @Teri HDR = High Dynamic Range, which is a photographic technique that blends three or more images… One sorta too dark, one sorta too light, and one in the middle. (Think Goldilocks)
By blending the tones from all three (or more) images you end up with a single final image that has a depth and richness that is almost hard to describe, but very recognizable once you are familar with it.
Cheryl ~ And there you have it ~ great description. I am fortunate to live in an area, Lake Powell, with mind bending colors, awesome landscapes and breathtaking scenery so I had to figure out how to implement HDR processing, just HAD to. Looking forward to going down this path (was that Goldilocks??)
If you are moving to WPMU- try B2EVO instead- it is a true multi user blog platform that is opensource ad unlike WP does not require a new install for each blog so you save server space and time. Plus it is known to be far more secure.
For your first template on WP-MU, if you are interested in hyper-local, niche performance please take a look at the following:
http://courtneytuttle.com/2007/12/20/introduction-to-keyword-sniping/
http://courtneytuttle.com/2008/06/04/dateless-sniper-20-now-available/
http://courtneytuttle.com/2008/06/11/dateless-sniper-theme-tutorial-video/
Making it all pretty is a simple matter of CSS.
Not sure what I can do to help, and I’m here to learn from all of you experts.
Hi All,
This sounds interesting. I’m in the process of switching platforms for my blog so this is timely. I missed the first Project Bloodhound so I’m kinda lost as to what it’s all about…
Steph
TRACKBACK:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/562164/Who-Wants-To-be
I’m still very new to all this and very much in the learning mode, hopefully I can contribute in some way. I’ve learned so much here.
I’ve recently launched 2 blogs and trying to find my way in all of this. Would love to participate. Sounds like such a cool and generous group.
So many great ideas! I love the idea that there’s not just one winner. If you get committed participants, then you’ll have lots of wins.
I look forward to taking in Project Bloodhound from the sidelines, and learning some new pointers in the process.
Best of luck to ALL involved!
Looks like fun. Good luck to all my bloggin’ buddies.
Silly String.
Our troops on patrol use silly string (spray foam thread in an aerosol can) before entering a room to find trip wires. If the “string” hangs in the air, there is a booby trap. Consider this my silly string:
I posted this at Brian Brady’s article today as well.
Our limitations as spouse team in the Houston TX market are the huge travel times which almost eliminate blogging/web 2.0 time. Part of solving these problems also involve working around local constraints.
If I could figure out how to scrape our MLS sold data at the property level, maybe I could avoid the evil vendor. The solution is fairly expensive, but not prohititive compared to some of our other forays into vendor excellence.
Here is what I have been working on. Our vaunted public facing HAR.com, (a billion hits a month, at those numbers, uniques must be fairly good) has an interesting gotcha. No agent feeds allowed-you have to frame the public site, albeit with a personalized page. The HAR IDX does not include sold data at the property level, because TX is a non disclosure state. Sales prices are not for public display by law. I have identified a vendor that can create a capture page for consumers that want to know sold data in a given area. I am allergic to spending money, but this idea is rattling around in my brain- use the vendor data linked to aggressive Zestifarming(Truliamazing linking as well) and viola- the data that everyone wants (real comps) offered up to those people in my computer who are interested in my Zestifarm on a regular opt-in basis. Seek me out, let me know where I can send you what you want, and I will deliver it. Automatically.
I think this tactic would have legs of at least two years even if the TX legislature decided to make sold data public in the next session. If not, I could have a robust long tail lead acquisition strategy. The vendor sold data/packaging is costly enough that it should discourage too much competition. Cost is less than a grand a year for the sold data plus the time I spend Zestifarming, which I do anyway.
What am I missing? Is there a booby trap here?
Here I am fooling with silly string while the rest of the kennel reprogramming the blogosphere…
Silly String.
Our troops on patrol use silly string (spray foam thread in an aerosol can) before entering a room to find trip wires. If the “string” hangs in the air, there is a booby trap. Consider this my silly string:
I posted this at Brian Brady’s article today as well.
Our limitations as spouse team in the Houston TX market are the huge travel times which almost eliminate blogging/web 2.0 time. Part of solving these problems also involve working around local constraints.
If I could figure out how to scrape our MLS sold data at the property level, maybe I could avoid the evil vendor. The solution is fairly expensive, but not prohititive compared to some of our other forays into vendor excellence.
Here is what I have been working on. Our vaunted public facing HAR.com, (a billion hits a month, at those numbers, uniques must be fairly good) has an interesting gotcha. No agent feeds allowed-you have to frame the public site, albeit with a personalized page. The HAR IDX does not include sold data at the property level, because TX is a non disclosure state. Sales prices are not for public display by law. I have identified a vendor that can create a capture page for consumers that want to know sold data in a given area. I am allergic to spending money, but this idea is rattling around in my brain- use the vendor data linked to aggressive Zestifarming(Truliamazing linking as well) and viola- the data that everyone wants (real comps) offered up to those people in my computer who are interested in my Zestifarm on a regular opt-in basis. Seek me out, let me know where I can send you what you want, and I will deliver it. Automatically.
I think this tactic would have legs of at least two years even if the TX legislature decided to make sold data public in the next session. If not, I could have a robust long tail lead acquisition strategy. The vendor sold data/packaging is costly enough that it should discourage too much competition. Cost is less than a grand a year for the sold data plus the time I spend Zestifarming, which I do anyway.
What am I missing? Is there a booby trap here?
Here I am fooling with silly string while the rest of the kennel is reprogramming the blogosphere…
I’m in. Have much to learn but perhaps little to teach.
[...] we were all real estate bloggers with a local focus. That is so-o-o 2007. This is 2008, and this is Project Bloodhound. This is a lender, and a true hyperlocal blog, and a green multi-user blog, and this a few [...]
I would like to create a WP-mu site focused on all things Green (emphasis on built) and Healthy (read: Alternative Health) trends and ideas. I want people to be able to contribute posts that are approved – and I’d like to start a local award for companies with Green Initiatives. I have tons of ideas -domain – etc – but not the experience to be able to pull something this big off.