by Allen Butler

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

I came to the conclusion (in about 1990) that text based communication was destroying the intricacies, nuances, and intimacy of verbal communication.  There are non-verbal cues that lend a richness and meaning to verbal communication that cannot be achieved with emails, text messages, instant messaging, and most pertinently, blogging. I do not mean to belabor the virtues of oratory or rhetorical skill, but perhaps I should. Because we have many gifted writers here on Bloodhound Blog, our writing skills enable us to infuse our text with meaning and richness, humor, pith, sarcasm, and emotion. The use of visual images in the form of emoticons and jpg images has helped to facilitate some of the lost intricacies of speech. Is this enough? Maybe, but I think we could do better. Now on to the potentially stupid part.

Imagine that I have something that I want to say (verbally) on Bloodhound. I open up the link, I click a button that says “Post,” a window opens up, and the beautiful botton says, “Click Here When Your Camera is Ready.” So, I straighten my tie and hair, make sure my portliness is portrayed from just the right angle, and launch. . .my webcam. So there I am, in all my humanity, sitting in front of the camera, saying what I want to say. Now, if and when someone wants to comment on my blog post, they do the same thing. Click the link, and start recording their response. Oh the richness! The humanity! Now, I realize that there would need to be a few advances in technology to facilitate this, and perhaps some ungodly amount of bandwidth potential, but think of the coolness! One of the things that really fills me with trepidation and hope is actually meeting the people who write here. I have met a handfull personally, and I must say that this opens up a whole new dimension to my reality. It really lets me know a lot more about these people. Some things I would like to know, for example:

Is Kris really that pretty, or is that a high school photo?

Does our Read more

by Eric Bramlett

Real Estate

Author website

Back in the day, I wanted it all. I obtained my real estate license, then my property/casualty insurance, then my life & health, and I was ready to get my mortgage broker license, as well. I wanted to OWN the transaction – and every transaction. Are you looking for a house in Kyle? I’m your man! Do you need a C-class multi w/ at least a 6 cap? Over here! And you know what my closing ration was? Neither did I, because I didn’t track it! I was too busy being the jack of all trades – and master of none.

Experienced agents have found their niche – residential or commercial aside, they’ve found their real niche: Downtown condos, specific areas, specific neighborhoods, specific lifestyles, and a host of other choices. You tend to gravitate towards what you like, or where you live. But while agents have gravitated towards their niches, most websites remain broad & sweeping.

Case in point

What did I sell? Who knows…looks like all of Austin. If a searcher found this site, they get NO specific information on anything. They can search the MLS – but they can do that on ~3000 other Austin agent websites (thanks Jim Olenbush!) They might as well have landed on ripoff.com realtor.com and if they enter their contact info there, they’ve entered it everywhere.

Web surfers are getting more & more sophisticated with their searching. While you still get a ton of “city real estate” searches, you’re also seeing more & more “neighborhood real estate” searches. Those browsers know exactly what they’re looking for, and they know when they’ve found it.

Niche websites won’t get the same traffic as a “jack of all trades” website, but they’ll convert like crazy. I’m in the process of working on Life in Steiner Ranch – because I know the neighborhood like the back of my hand, like working it, and love selling it.

In my humble opinion, this website is pretty – I happen to be very good friends Read more

by Eric Blackwell

The Real Estate Group, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake VA

Author website

In the beginning was the Keyword…just kidding!

But that is how many SEO focused obsessed people look at it. After reading Kris’ post I could empathize with her position. Why spend hours fretting over well placed keywords. It is enough time to find the right methaphor and not leave dangling participles. One cannot (without divorce and a 30 hour day) do both…right?

And even if we get beyond the aspect of time. Then there are all of these pages of content to write that are stuffed with keywords…a journalistic sacrifice at the altar of the almighty Google. You feel like you are selling your soul for traffic…and at that traffic that may or may not be interested in buying or selling a home in your area. Why bother. Either we have standards or we do not as bloggers, right?

I am sure that there are other concerns as well…for brevity’s sake I will confine the concerns to those..just understand that I can empathize.

You are RIGHT. Taken on the whole and not individually.

Frank admission #1: There is only so much time. Too often SEO focused folks DO sell their souls for traffic in my opinion. We all have to make decisions and I have made many decisions in the past that I have looked back and regretted. I hope that is honest enough and blunt enough. They focus on how many links and how many keywords that they can stuff here and there.

They often lose journalistic integrity. They often do not write for the love of the industry or the love of convincing others of their value. They are writing to please an algorithm. Scratch that…they are simply writing to get over on an algorithm.
That said, the reality for search engines is that they are after essentially one thing–relevance. Relevance = traffic and success for search engines. This is something that TRUE blogs (and yes, TRUE bloggers) deliver better than almost anyone else.

The content is fresh and frequent. The points that are made are direct and on target. They are convincing.  And good blog writing is a talent and gift. Geno, Russell and Kris (just Read more

by Eric Bramlett

Real Estate

Author website

Hello to everyone! Let me start out by saying that I’m flattered/excited to be here…I’ve already received two congratulations from colleagues who (already) read Greg’s post (about 5 hours ago) and my Google alerts have already hit me for “eric bramlett” with the same post. Let’s just say that BHB carries some weight, sucka!

Well, since I completely copped Blackwell’s style by asking to write here, I thought I’d continue my “flattery by imitation” and start out with an intro post that shows my point of view, and you guys can go ahead and infer how my occupation(s) shape that POV.

1) Entrepreneur. This is first & foremost because it’s what I am. I love to think outside the box, hate having a boss, & love making money. As an entrepreneur, I’ve come up with a total of 3million business plans, successfully implemented one, and successfully failed one. I have a couple more I’m seriously brewing right now.

2) Realtor. Because it pays the bills, and I’m good with people. I take pride in my work, and treat people fairly. I disclose any bonuses before contract (Greg) and honestly look out for my clients’ best interests at all time.

3) Broker. I wish it paid the bills, but it doesn’t. I hang anywhere from 8-12 agents’ licenses at any given time, and about half of them depend on it for income. I like helping them, and love watching them succeed.

4) SEO/SEM. I’ve jacked w/ TONS of marketing, and online fits me well. I’ve successfully marketed multiple websites, and think I know a little bit about the subject. I’m looking forward to (finally) meeting a bunch of friends @ Pubcon this year.

So…that’s where my head’s at, and those are the subjects that I will bring to the table. Hopefully, I can start some lively debate, and I hope I can contribute as much as I will learn!

By the way….Where’s YOUR Read more

by Kris Berg

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

I found myself this morning checking out our blog traffic stats. I don’t know why I do this exactly – It’s idle curiosity, I suppose. I’ll know when my blog hits the big time. That will be the day when I am so busy meeting with clients and closing escrows that I won’t have time to visit our site’s back end.

We blog for sport, we blog for exposure, but mostly we blog for business. There – I said it. Anyone who says otherwise is not being honest. Oh, sure, it has become an addiction, and I sincerely believe that if I retired from my day job today, I would still be blogging tomorrow. It can have that kind of hold on you.

In the meantime, blogging needs to either be a hobby or a component of my business plan. As of press time, it is a little of both. Speaking to the business side of things, my Google-ability is generally of very little concern to me. “Blasphemy!” you say. Let me explain.

Unless the person stumbling on to my site through a search bar is looking to buy or sell a home in San Diego, they are of no value to me from a business perspective. Further, I am most interested in the person who is looking to buy or sell a home in San Diego and who actually lives in San Diego. Sure, there is the potential to attract the eyes and business of people relocating from Duluth, but relocation business is time intensive, needle-in-the-haystack work. We welcome the work, but it is a lower percentage play, much more difficult to cultivate and convert. So if you agree that the local audience is the audience for which you perform, why give a fig about SEO?

Everyone give a warm welcome to Panama!

Jay Thompson through one of his posts turned me on to Who’s Amung Us. They have a nifty little map widget that allows you to display current and past visitors to your site and their location. Here is what my visitor map for the San Diego Home Blog looks like:

(Note: The previously posted real-time map has Read more

by Geno Petro

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

LIFO: an acronym which stands for last in, first out. In computer science and queueing theory; a historical method of recording the value of inventory (Wikipedia)

FILO: an acronym which stands for first in, last out. I may or may not have invented the term but It pretty much describes many aspects of my life up to this point in time. It’s also the name of a dough, an ale house in the U.K., and a clean alternative to the F word when I’m around my sister’s children. (Geno Petro)

Rewind

Let me begin by saying that not every event in my life is a funny episode. There have been a few that brought me to my knees in quick fashion and many more woes that still rent space in my head when I allow them to. It’s just that I inherited a skewed sense of humor from my mother along with a ‘this too shall pass’ point of view. Such an axiom hangs framed in her kitchen to this day. And being the first born in a short but staggered line of siblings, the joke, in those early days, was apparently on me according to the family picture album. Oh, and my name back then was Genie. Little Genie.

…which somehow became Eugene by Grade One. Nobody bothered to tell me this (or if they did, it didn’t register) and I vividly recall the nun on that first day, Sister Mary Timothy (so very confusing, were those hermaphro-monikered creatures in long, black habits), repeating the roll call words, Eugene… Petro, Eugene…Petro, up and down the aisles like a resounding echo (yes, that would be an echo within an echo) off the leaded paint block walls and buff waxed linoleum floors of St. Michael the Archangel Classroom 1A, until she was suddenly standing above me, pitched to scream, the black Attendance Book clutched with gnarled fingers raised overhead…

“My name is Genie,” I believe I said, which was followed by an immediate explosion of laughter from my new found peers. I realized at once I should have taken my Eugene from the old lady, and been done with it.  I swear, I thought she was going to murder me in my splintery, ink stained desk. God and all his homeys were very mean to little children back in the early Read more