{"id":2458,"date":"2007-12-31T18:50:42","date_gmt":"2008-01-01T01:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2458"},"modified":"2008-01-01T11:28:43","modified_gmt":"2008-01-01T18:28:43","slug":"the-peoples-choice-award-real-zillow-mortgage-predictions-the-real-fake-greg-swann-and-real-life-traffic-building-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2458\/the-peoples-choice-award-real-zillow-mortgage-predictions-the-real-fake-greg-swann-and-real-life-traffic-building-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"The People’s Choice Award: Real Zillow mortgage predictions, the real Fake Greg Swann and real-life traffic-building strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you know if you’ve been paying attention, Todd Carpenter exposed himself<\/s> revealed himself to be the real Fake Greg Swann last night<\/a>. I confess myself to have been totally sussed by the prank, despite Todd’s having hidden several Easter eggs along his trail that, had I not been completely clueless, I might have used to solve the mystery of his secret identity. In any case, it was a lot of fun, and Todd got to make his point in a gentle and even-handed way.<\/p>\n

I think Todd was surprised by the venom of some of the reactions his alter ego got, citing one commenter in particular as being particularly vile<\/a>. Welcome to the world of the real Greg Swann. People say the dumbest stuff about me and about BloodhoundBlog as a whole, and it means nothing at all to me — one of Todd’s clues to me was echoing back my own self-description as an armadillo. If you demonstrate to me that I’ve made an error, I’m in your debt. If you rant about something I already know is correct, you will have induced me to question your mind, your character — or both. If you expect me to be emotionally involved with you, you had better be my wife — and you should try to catch me when I’m not too busy.<\/p>\n

But: The bogus claim itself is interesting, first because it’s really stoopid, and second because thinking about why<\/i> it is so stoopid leads us to a better understanding of how to be wise instead. Angry bullshit piles up everywhere, but, if you’re willing to use your mind, it can make for good fertilizer.<\/p>\n

So this is the claim from the comment on the Fake Greg Swann site<\/a>:<\/p>\n

greg swan’s playbook<\/p>\n

[….]<\/p>\n

Generate Traffic to your Site in 24hrs or less<\/p>\n

[….]<\/p>\n

Linkbaiting<\/p>\n

[….]<\/p>\n

Awards<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have five arguments to make against a strategy like this.<\/p>\n

1. We don’t behave this way. I don’t give a rat’s ass about traffic. What I care about is telling the truth as beautifully as possible — saying what we want in the way that we want. If we’re right, we’ll attract people who Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you know if you’ve been paying attention, Todd Carpenter exposed himself revealed himself to be the real Fake Greg Swann last night. I confess myself to have been totally sussed by the prank, despite Todd’s having hidden several Easter eggs along his trail that, had I not been completely clueless, I might have used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,6,5,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blog-carnivals","7":"category-blogging","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-the-odysseus-medal","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8372,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8372\/caption-this-photo-todd-carpenter-at-the-nar-mid-year-flamboozlepalooza\/","url_meta":{"origin":2458,"position":0},"title":"Caption this: Todd Carpenter at the NAR Mid-Year flamboozlepalooza","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My votes: \"MIBOR? That's above my pay grade.\" And: \"No, this is not a clip-on tie!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":548,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/548\/drinks-with-todd-tarson\/","url_meta":{"origin":2458,"position":1},"title":"Drinks with Todd Tarson . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Todd Tarson from MOCO Real Estate News stopped by the house last night for beer and chips before rushing off to a WARDEX dinner, this in advance of an AAR conference. I'd like to tell you that we cut through every knotty problem facing the real estate industry, but that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":318,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/318\/and-a-tenth-911-link\/","url_meta":{"origin":2458,"position":2},"title":"And a tenth 9\/11 link . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Todd Tarson at MOCO Real Estate News has a fond remembrance of the Twin Towers... Technorati Tags: blogging, puppy","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2472,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2472\/loudoun-county-tax-assessor-todd-kaufman-has-a-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":2458,"position":3},"title":"Loudoun County Tax Assessor Todd Kaufman has a friend…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"...in our world, no less. A brand-new LiveJournal weblog exists to document Loudoun County Tax Assessor Todd Kaufman's brave battle against the dark forces of First Amendment defenders. You could say that it's lame and testy and more than just a little bit tetched, but it ain't easy to compete\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2444,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2444\/best-of-the-worst-bloodhoundblog-in-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":2458,"position":4},"title":"Best of the worst: BloodhoundBlog’s most popular posts for 2007","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a comment that got deleted earlier tonight, a pearl of wisdom issued from one orifice or another by a less-than-brilliant pundit who chose to keep his or her identity concealed. The soul and substance of this partial portion of wit:this is easily the worst blog on the RE.netTodd Seavey\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":454,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/454\/blogoff-post-77-weblog-review-moco-real-estate-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":2458,"position":5},"title":"Blogoff Post #77: Weblog Review: moco real estate news . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Todd Tarson's moco real estate news is a great read, particularly for people who live and work in Arizona. Todd is right in the middle of the debate over what to do about Mohave County's growing pains -- as it becomes a de facto suburb of Las Vegas -- so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}