There’s always something to howl about.

Month: November 2011 (page 2 of 2)

Here’s what you missed at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim.

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How much attention have you devoted, over the past few years, to so-called on-line real estate marketing experts? How stupid do you feel now that those unwitting judas goats have sold out your IDX feed to Zillow?

Nobody likes to be mocked for being a dupe — the prospect of which, I freely admit, can make BloodhoundBlog a daunting place. But: Which is worse — being called a doofus or being a doofus?

BloodhoundBlog Unchained is a completely different way of learning net.wise real estate marketing. No dupes. No doofuses. No hype. No cant. No vendorsluts. We work as hard as we can for as long as we can, and we send our students home poor in sleep but rich in ideas.

Here’s what you missed yesterday at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim:

I demoed half a dozen ways of creating web pages and web sites automatically from raw content.

Scott Schang showed us how he has used WordPress and select plug-ins to create a lead-conversion machine.

Mark Madsen and Tony Sena illustrated the web marketing ideas that have launched their property management business into orbital velocity in just a few months.

And Eric Blackwell was the show-stopper as always, taking us through all the latest twists and turns emerge from from the Googleplex — and documenting a killer strategy for attracting sellers on-line, the holy grail of Internet real estate marketing.

We had other speakers as well, and Brian Brady regaled us with email marketing strategies until almost 10 pm.

But the highlight of our day was Realtor magazine’s on-line editor, Brian Summerfield, pictured above, who bearded the Bloodhounds in their own den. Brian very graciously and calmly defended the NAR’s more controversial stands, and the dawgs acquitted themselves admirably, engaging Summerfield with insight and without rancor. More that one person compared the talk to Nixon’s visit to China, but I’m not sure who was whom. 😉

Everywhere you turn there are so-called experts peddling so-called solutions — but the problems being solved are not your problems generating leads and closing sales. Instead, almost always, you are being sold, the the problem to be solved is the speaker’s carefully-concealed poverty. But Read more

“Live Chat” Facebook Capture Trap Magic? (or waste of time?)

Just build a quick prototype for this “247 Floortime” idea that’s been rattling around the noggin…

Here’s how it works.

  • Simple page
  • Autoplaying youtube video of an agent
  • Quick blurb about what that agent specializes in, and how he/she can help you
  • Live chat box — (You have to be logged into Facebook to use it.)
  • Traffic Driving Strategy — Facebook Ads, DEMOGRAPHICALLY TARGETED TO PEOPLE JUST LIKE THE AGENT
  • Incubation Strategy — Anyone who chats, well you just shoot over a friend request with a message and get the relationship going…

You can open the demo in a new window by clicking here.

Thinking that if we only show this ad to 25-40 year old males in the Harrisburg area, folks are going to think… “hey that guys just like me, I like him, sure… I’ll interact with him a bit… ”

Of course the trick will be to properly word/structure the ad so only folks likely thinking about real estate will click thru…

What d’yall think?

Will this flop?

Or work like gangbusters? (will update in a few days once we have some datastuffs…)

Hey, Ron Phipps: I say the National Association of Realtors is a rent-seeking Rotarian Socialist conspiracy against the American consumer. Can you offer even one argument to refute that claim?

My friend and partner, the ever-more-Unchained Brian Brady, posted a Facebook link to a Wall Street Journal article on the current push by the National Association of Realtors for extended loan subsidies for the rich:

To understand why 90% of U.S. mortgages are still underwritten by taxpayers, look no further than the nearby letter from Ron Phipps of the Realtors lobby. He makes clear that the Realtors, like the rest of the housing-subsidy crowd, are working hard to get Congress to reinstate a $729,750 loan-limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantees.

Why do rich people need taxpayer-underwritten home loans? They don’t, of course. The NAR needs loan subsidies at all income-levels to keep churning the real estate market.

In case you haven’t looked at your bank statements or retirement accounts lately, the NAR has already churned the American economy into a five-year coma. But like every other legislative vampire, the NAR won’t stop sucking away at unearned income until the body politic is entirely exsanguinated — bled to death.

This latest Five-Alarm Urgent Action Item — one of three or four a week Phipps and his minions spam-spew — is nothing more than an extension of the original NAR philosophy: Milk consumers, taxpayers and real estate salespeople for the benefit of brokers.

Do you doubt me?

The real estate licensing laws, written in their original form by the NAR, exist to limit competition in real estate brokerage, eliminating alternative sources of real estate brokerage to artificially sustain higher commissions for NAR brokers.

The sales commission co-brokerage fee — the vaunted “cooperation” among brokers — exists to create the Multiple Listings Service oligopoly, the golden handcuffs by which real estate salespeople are bound to their brokers and to the NAR — and which, not-coincidentally, continues the viciously anti-consumer NAR policy of de facto sub-agency.

The IRS “safe harbor” exclusion shielding real estate brokers from having to report income for their employees makes it possible for brokers to churn-and-burn gullible real estate salespeople like a toy store burns through your kid’s allowance money. No other business can afford to treat human capital — that would be you — like so Read more

On the Education of an 11 Year Old…

REWIND: Roughly one month ago, an 11 year old boy was in an altercation during recess. A classmate, known for his “unorthodox” playing style, decided to turn and throw a ball into his face from nearly point-blank range. This “unorthodox” classmate apparently thought it was very funny, and as the boy got up off the ground – hurt and embarrassed – the classmate continued laughing; so hard, in fact, that he fell down. The boy promptly kicked him in the ribs.

This being a public school and the classmate being not only a punk, but a crybabby too… an ambulance was called. The punk went to the hospital (nothing wrong), and returned the next day on crutches. (Why crutches? Because it’s hard to attract sympathy with a fake injury that no one can see…).  The boy was suspended for 5 days. No, not the punk who assaulted his classmate; the boy who responded.  You see, our public school system believes that only in the most extreme case of self-defense – one in which even the cowardly opportunity to run away is absent – will you not be punished for violence (and truth be told, it’s zero tolerance… so you’ll still be punished).  The punk received less days of suspension. Apparently, faking an injury relieves one of responsibility for one’s actions.  Upon returning to school, both boys were told in no uncertain terms to stay away from each other.  Thus far, a disappointing but not surprising trip through the education industry.

FAST FORWARD: Last week both boys find themselves in the same group.  The punk steals some candy from one in the group, and the boy – Mr. Five Day Suspension – elects to join in the chase. The punk falls down and the boy stands over him, one leg above his torso, in a universal sign of male dominance.  No one touched anyone.  Just then, two parents come around the corner and, based on what they are seeing, interpolate what must have happened previously.  This same 11 year old boy is reported to have, once again, kicked the punk.  The principal launches an “investigation” and commences to Read more

What’s your marketing plan for 2012? Set a Bloodhound’s pace this Friday at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim.

We’re having a Scenius this Friday in Anaheim, a BloodhoundBlog Unchained event that we’re running, subversively, during the NAR Convention. We’ve done this before, but the NAR was a lot more powerful the last time. By now it just seems pathetic — but we don’t much care either way.

We care a lot about the Scenius, though. What we do is put a lot of bright, ambitious people together and then revel in the great ideas that emerge from the synergy. Our guests are some of the inventors of the wired world of real estate, and they will have lots of new ides to explore.

Just think: Since the last time we did BloodhoundBlog Unchained, Google has come to be beset by Bing, Twitter by Facebook and the web by app-centric mobile computing. Seems like a good time to rethink your marketing strategies, doesn’t it.

If you’re going to be in Disneyville for the NAR Convention, or if you’re within driving distance, join us.

Here are the details:

BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim
Friday, November 11, 2011
12 Noon to 10 pm
Cortona Inn & Suites Anaheim Resort
2029 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802
714-971-5000
Mapped.

The dogs will hit town Thursday afternoon, so, if you’re around, look us up. But the main action will be Friday. I know there are seats left, I’m not sure how many. If you want to get your 2012 off to a running start, assert yourself:

Make the Scene: $99


















A cocktail to keep a Bloodhound hunting: Thirty-Six Hours in Vegas.

It would be not-quite-correct to say that I don’t drink. I don’t object to casual drinking intellectually or philosophically, but it has never appealed to me. I will toast with Irish whiskey when appropriate, and I will sometimes have a beer with pizza-and-wings or Mexican food, but my absolute favorite beverage is dihydromonoxide, and alcoholic drinks of any sort are well down the list for me. De gustibus non est disputandum.

But I wanted to come up with something that I could stand to drink when I want to drink with Cathy on our date nights — at home, in town or in Las Vegas. So I invented my own cocktail, the top-secret recipe for which I will now share with you:

Thirty-Six Hours in Vegas

In a 24-ounce glass, pour over 8 ounces of ice:

One shot (or more) Tequila
One bottle of Lemon-Lime flavored Five-Hour Energy
12 ounces of Mountain Dew

Quite a bit sweeter than a Margarita, and very nicely caffeinated. That much liquid lasts me a long time, so I don’t notice the alcohol much, but I get all that good Mountain Dew stuff — hydration, sugar, sodium.

I’ll be in Anaheim for 36 hours later this week, but I doubt I’ll have one of these. If you make one for yourself, I’ll be interested to hear what you think about it.

Who said this? “The Federal Government must and shall quit this business of relief.”

Witness:

But the stark fact before us is that great numbers still remain unemployed.

A large proportion of these unemployed and their dependents have been forced on the relief rolls. The burden on the Federal Government has grown with great rapidity. We have here a human as well as an economic problem. When humane considerations are concerned, Americans give them precedence. The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able—bodied but destitute workers.

The Federal Government must and shall quit this business of relief.

These games are no challenge in the Age of Google, but I think you’ll be surprised to learn the name of the author of this text.

The role of information hiding in keeping all of us enslaved to the state.

This is from my book Janio at a Point. I wrote this in 1988 as a sort of blueprint to Agorism, anarcho-capitalism. It questions everything, which is why its proscriptions often meet resistance from people who are in love with human freedom except when it’s inconvenient or prevents them from pushing other people around. I would write the book differently today — and I plan to rewrite it before I die — but there is almost nothing I would change in its philosophy.

 

Information Hiding

We have looked at a number of the obviously tragic consequences of government, but there are others of which we can take account that are not so obvious. You can call it “beating a dead horse” if you want, a Madness. So be it. I want to make sure that horse stays dead…

All of these non-obvious effects are the result of what I call Information Hiding. We can easily see that government commits crimes: it taxes, regulates, conscripts, murders — all in a day’s work. And there is no barrier to our noticing that the state is lousy at keeping Crime from occurring and recovering losses. What is not so easy to notice is the way the government, by its crimes, contributes to non-governmental crimes…

This is no absolution. The man who wields a gun deserves to be shot. If he is misled by the state into thinking that this is an intelligent solution to the problem of survival, it is still only he who is in charge of his brain. It is still only he who motivates himself to pick up that gun. No matter what “egged him on” and how, it is still only he who is acting. If he commits a crime, he is at fault.

But it is worthwhile to look to the actions of government, to see if they do induce people to commit crimes. I say they do, and, moreover, that the actions of government tend to dilute the value of self-preservation and self-love. Beating a dead horse though it may be, I say that the idea of government is at war with human Read more