Turner's Perspective

The one thing I told Julie Ferenzi I wanted her to concentrate on this week is making connections with  living, breathing human beings in Plainfield, Illinois. It's about YEO She's going to be venturing out of the house to make contact with local organizations to encourage them to use the Event Form on her Living In Plainfield blog, and she's going to be following up with some people she has already blogged about.

But I also want her to make an attempt to meet new people via the Internet as well and add quality content to her blog at the same time.

The thing is, Julie's blog is local, her goals are local, so I want her to try to connect with people who are local. One of the ideas I'm throwing out for everyone to consider is this: use flickr to find local photographers you can feature and write about. Do it once a week as a set feature of your blog. Over time, it could be something readers would look forward to, like Teresa Boardman's Friday Fun posts.

How would I do that? 

Good question. The best way to get this idea across is to pretend, for a moment, that I'm a real estate agent in Santa Clarita, CA. I would be interested in meeting and featuring photographers who photograph Newhall, Saugus, Valencia, Santa Clarita and Castaic. So,  The first thing I would do is search on one of those areas using a Santa Clarita California for this example. In this case there are 8 photos to choose from, but I could easily expand my search or choose a landmark, like Towsley Canyon or Six Flags Magic Mountain to get to a photo assortment.

Once I've found a photo I like, and there is one in these 8, I do a bit of research. Who is the photographer? Where was the photo taken? Can I find anything on the Internet about the location? Etc.  Then I write my post.

Here's what my post might look like: 

Photo Of The Week: Sable Ranch

This weeks featured photo blew me away and allowed me to see a part of Santa Clarita I've never seen before... Sable Ranch.

The Story Behind The photo 

This high contrast black and white photo by mewtate makes me want to step back in time and experience what this ranch must have been like when it was originally built in 1920 by Frank Sentous. It's been the scene of numerous TV Shows and movies, including, "Ride 'Em Cowboy" (1940), "Bells of Coronado" (1950), "Diplomatic Immunity" (1991), "A Message from Holly" (1992), "Robin Hood Men in Tights" (1993), and "Deadwood" (1997).

I can almost see Roy Rogers and Dale Evans resting in the shade of the tree,  taking a break from their lead rolls in "Bells of Coronado." This looks like a truly magical location. No wonder so many people are attracted to Santa Clarita real estate. Even today, the views of the canyons and mountains are captivating.

How To Find It

From Los Angeles, take the Golden State Freeway (5) north to the Antelope Valley Freeway (14) north. Exit at Sand Canyon and turn right. Go past Placerita Canyon Road. The ranch is on the right.

Santa Clarita (Canyon Country), where Los Angeles County meets the Angeles National Forest,  California, USA 91351

When I finished the post, I'd go and comment on the photographer's flickr page and make sure to let them know that I had featured them on my blog. Don't be rude and put a direct link to your blog there. Just say "on my blog, TheSantaClaritaVoice." They'll be able to find it. 

The end game is quality content that allows you to engage others in a real way. In this case, the prime target of your engagement is the photographer. You get to applaud the photographer and showcase their work. You get to connect with them and through their work, connect with others. They get their name out. And you get inspiration for posts and beautiful photos to dress up your blog. 

I think it's a win for everyone.

If you have a wordpress blog, you've probably seen the Hello Dolly plugin. It's automatically installed with every wordpress blog. It's cute, but I've never "got it." It puts the lyrics to Hello, Dolly! in snipits in your admin panel. I've never seen the value in having those lyrics on my screen, so I've always deleted the plugin just to get it out of the way.

Here's what Wordpress.org has to say about it: 

"Hello Dolly: This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong. Hello, Dolly. This is, by the way, the world's first official WordPress plugin. When enabled you will randomly see a lyric from "Hello, Dolly" in the upper right of your admin screen on every page but the plugins page."

Today, as I was getting ready to delete this from Julie Ferenzi's plugin folder at LivingInPlainfield.com, I decided to open the .php file. I was just curious. Since this was the original plugin, I just wanted to see how it was written. Well... it hit me as I looked at it, that it's just pulling in the lyrics based on the lyric lines in the hellodolly.php file. I know some of you reading this are probably saying, "Duh, it's just php, Jeff." But it was a light bulb moment for me. "I can change this!" So, why not use it to help "coach" Julie when she's inside her blog? It would be like I'm always right there beside her. :)

Here's what I did.  I replaced the lyric lines with this:

// These are the lyrics to Hello Dolly
$lyrics = "people matter
think about how to engage your reader
it's all about relationships
key words are meant to attract consumers, not other agents
kiss your husband
pick one or two categories for a post, not six :)
are you having fun? if not, stop... come back later
your voice is good enough... don't try to be anyone else
hug your kids
how would you say it to a friend?";

Now... when she logs into her account and cruises around the back end, each time she goes to a new page she gets a different message... from me! Here's an example, highlighted in yellow.

You can change it too.

I'm doing this as a coaching tool. And I'm going to add more as time goes on.  But if you have a blog built on the Wordpress platform, you can do this for yourself as well. All you need is a text editor. Open up the hellodolly.php file and replace the lyric lines with quotes that you like, or reminders about where your focus should be or hints on how to be a better Dad... whatever you feel will add value.

Hello Dolly! I'm never going to delete you again.

I can  find "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla", but I can't find "he, him, or his."

It hit me as I was actively singing along to my kid's Schoolhouse Rock CD, that I unconsciously use pronouns for exactly the reasons that my favorite Schoolhouse Rock song describes. My favorite is called "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla." I loved it when I was a kid and I love it now. My kids get a kick out of me belting it out at the top of my lungs.

Here's the best part of the song:

Now I could tell you Rafaella Gabriela and Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
and Albert Andreas Armadillo found an aardvark, a kangaroo, and a rhinoceros. 
And now that aardvark and that kangaroo and that rhinoceros belong respectively to
Rafaella Gabriela Sarsaparilla and Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla and Albert Andreas Armadillo!

Whew! Because of pronouns I can say, in this way:
"WE found THEM and THEY found US and now THEY are OURS
and WE're so happy."

Thank you, pronouns!

You see a pronoun was made to take the place of a noun,
'Cause saying all those nouns over and over
Can really wear you down.

Yes, it can really wear you down. That's why we use pronouns. But if I say that's why "WE" use pronouns, then I miss out on an opportunity.

Here's the problem. Type he, him, or his into a google search and see what you find. Search results for he, him, his. The results are all over the board. Here's what you get when you search on Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla: Search results. There are 816 results and even if you go the last page of the results, they all point to Schoolhouse Rock references. 

Make Jeff Turner's point, Jeff Turner! (Jeff Turner is now going to show ActiveRain members Jeff Turner's point by over exaggerating Jeff Turner's point. Because Jeff Turner really does have a point.)

If ActiveRain bloggers want to get the biggest bang from the Active Rain bloggers' ActiveRain blog posts, ActiveRain bloggers need to look the ActiveRain Bloggers' posts over carefully. When ActiveRain bloggers can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as this paragraph sounds, ActiveRain bloggers have increased the chances that the posts ActiveRain bloggers write will show up in search results.  

That's obviously ridiculous. Here's how we would all normally write that paragraph:

If you want to get the biggest bang from your blog posts, you need to look your posts over carefully. When you can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as that paragraph sounds, you have increased the chances that the posts you write will show up in search results. This is subtle, but effective, and won't take much time.

Write to engage. Read to improve.

Don't even think about nouns or pronouns when you're writing. Just write. Write to engage the reader. Then save it as a draft and go get a cup of coffee, or take a nap, or kiss your loved ones, or mail me a dollar. When you're done, come back and read it to improve it's search engine attractiveness.

Example: Julie Ferenzi wants to be known for Plainfield Real Estate. So, whenever she gets the chance, those words need to be in a post. So the same rule applies to words like "here" and "there", when "here" and "there" are taking the place of nouns. Why say "here" or "there" if you can say "in Plainfield?" "I love living here" does not work for you like "I love living in Plainfield" does. The same holds true for the areas around Plainfield that she touches.

In Julie's last post, Where to buy near Plainfield, IL: River Hills, Bolingbrook, IL, she ends one paragraph like this, "...the 1st phase of the beautiful new community being built there." Where? Of course you and I can tell Julie is referring to Naperville from the context, but saying "being built in Naperville" gets "Naperville" in the copy one more time. You don't want to go crazy, but finding a few places to replace a pronoun can really add up over time.

Laurie Manny wrote a great post along these lines back in March, titled "Do You SEO?"  She shares the same basic message: "Just go ahead and write your article.  Go back into it and slide in your keywords where ever possible, as many times as you can without making it impossible to read." And she gives some great examples.

Ok, that's the SEO part. What does this have to do with YEO (You Engaging Others)?

Remember Julie's post about Casey Fisher? It's a great example of YEO, and she used very few pronouns. Julie used Carrie, Rich and Casey as often as was appropriate, even in cases when she could easily have gotten away with she, him or her. And it works for YEO because Carrie, Rich and Casey will love seeing their names in your post. Will "they" also love the pronoun replacements of Carrie, Rich and Casey? Not so much.

You see a pronoun was made to take the place of a noun, but saying all those pronouns over and over again really brings your SEO and YEO results down. :)

Enjoy my favorite Schoolhouse Rock Song:

Since Julie Ferenzi is a couple thousand miles away, we use a variety of methods to communicate. 

Of course there's the old school telephone conversation. There's email and instant messaging as well. But my favorite is Video Chat. I'm on a Mac, so I'm using iChat and Julie is logging on via AIM on the PC. Today I recorded one of our sessions. I thought I'd record one of our sessions for a couple of reasons.

First, I wanted you to get to know Julie a little bit better. She's a Mother of four, so dealing with the pressures of starting out in real estate and finding time to deal with me and this Project Blogger event is a bit of a challenge at times. 

Second, I wanted you to see how ideas are shared and how they progress through this Project Blogger event. A few days ago I presented a great website for creating online forms, WuFoo.com. Sunday night, Martin Rodriguez sent me a loan pre-qualification form to test. I obliged, of course, and in the process, an idea hit me.

Everyone's time is stretched, but with four kids, Julie's time is really stretched. She knows she needs to populate her Living In Plainfield real estate blog. And I know she doesn't have a lot of extra time. So my ideas are always going to lean toward reducing her involvement or creating blogging opportunities based on activities she already participates in. All this while making sure she actually gets to meet people in the process.

The Idea: A WuFoo "Broadcast Your Community Event" Form

The idea is community event posts that write themselves using the Wordpress blog's ability to create posts via email. This also gives Julie an excuse to go get face-to-face with local community leaders. That face-to-face is critical. Remember, this is about YEO! She provides a way to help them promote their events and everyone wins.

So, watch the video below, get to know us both a little better, and then go check out her new EVENTS form.

Popular Wordpress blog themes are popular for a reason. They're good and they work. They're well written and come with the most features. But it also means lots of blogs will have the potential to look just like yours.

Julie Ferenzi's blog, Living In Plainfield, uses the Misty Look Theme by Sadish Bala. It is one of the top ten most downloaded themes for Wordpress. We chose this Wordpress theme for its clean look, wide post window and customizable header. But even after we changed the header, I would see other blogs using the same theme with the same basic color scheme. Changing the header graphic just wasn't enough to differentiate it.

Here is what it looked like before:

 
So, we decided to give it a new paint job.

The green hued theme is fairly recognizable. Several AR members have their other blogs in this theme and this color scheme. So, we decided to change to a new color palette by editing the CSS (Style Sheet) information. There are a number of places you can turn to for help in choosing a color scheme, CoulourLovers and Kuler are my two favorites. I actually subscribe to the Kuler's "Highest Rated" RSS feed. Yes, that's another sign that I'm a geek at heart. 

But I found another way to find at a good color scheme that I liked even better for this purpose - The Color Palette Generator. It reads the colors in an uploaded photo and generates a color scheme, compete with hex codes. We had already created a header image we liked, so I uploaded the image into The Color Palette Generator and it spit out the scheme you see on the graphic below.

So, using those colors as the reference, we went in and edited the styles for her post headlines, the sidebar headlines and the sidebar links, as well as the overall background of the page. We actually mixed the dull and vibrant palettes. The change we made is subtle, but it does the job and the colors match perfectly with the main header image.

Here is the new paint job:

Editing CSS is not for the faint of heart. If looking at pages of code makes your head hurt, TLW [SVW], then find someone who can assist you. It won't cost you much. The actual CSS change took less than 5 minutes.  The time consuming part is usually coming up with the color scheme. But not this time. The Color Scheme Generator did it for us in seconds.

Try it with the main image from your blog and see what it comes up with for you. 

Where Is The Short Tail And Where Is The Long Tail In This Photo?

The following is based on a true story.

Every Saturday morning, I walk with my kids to the donut shop that is almost exactly 1 mile from my home. It's our local donut shop. They know us. We know them. The owners live in our neighborhood.

Saturday, as we were walking along our normal route, we saw a group of kids up ahead trying to attract attention to a garage sale. Some of them had signs. Some of them were just screaming at the passing cars. One was screaming, dancing and holding a sign, all at the same time. 

The short tail is always easy to identify. 

It hit me as I walked closer, that this scene was a good analogy for someone trying to capture the attention of locals on the Internet. For our analogy, the street with the cars speeding by represents the bulk of the Internet... they may or may not be local and they may or may not be looking for a garage sale. If they are looking for a garage sale, the short tail in this photo, "garage sale" will get their attention. Simple enough.

But what if each of these guys were advertising a different garage sale? That's more like the Internet, isn't it? In this case, each one of them is holding a "garage sale" sign. Each one of them is on the same corner, or the same page of a Google search result, if you will. As the Internet shopper, I have to make a choice. Which one of these guys is going to get me to come to their garage sale? The one with the best position? The biggest sign? The best looking? Let's see.

Best Ranking. Pretty Face. Wants Me To Initiate The Conversation.

Look at the first kid we came to in the photo above, let's say he's the one at the top of the Google rankings. He had a nice smile, a good sign and he made eye contact. Not bad. I waited a beat. Nothing. So, I said hi, then he said hi. That's as far as it went. That's polite, but that's not a conversation. He was depending entirely on his position and his good looks and his friendly smile to get ME to engage with him.

Great Ranking. Not Interested In Engaging At All. No Desire For Conversation.

The next kid in the photo, had a good ranking. He was number 2. But he had no desire to engage at all. He never made eye contact, even when I tried. As a result, I had no desire to initiate a conversation with him. So, I didn't. For me, he represents the vast majority of websites on the Internet. They just stand there. They put out their sign and they hope people pay attention, but they show no desire to engage in any way. I was not impressed.

Good Ranking. Wants To Be Seen And Heard. Conversation Is All About Self.

The next guy had a good position. But he had no sign. He was screaming and dancing. He was shouting at the cars that came by, "This is the best garage sale ever." (I'm not joking) He even tried some innovative catch phrases. Like this one, "This garage sale is totally extreme!" He paid no attention to us at all, his local shopper, even though I had 6 kids with me. We're hard to miss. But he was so focused on putting the attention on himself, that he failed to give US any attention. Some people might be impressed. I wasn't. 

Good Ranking. Is Paying Attention To His Local Content And Audience. Initiates A Real Conversation.

All of these guys had a good position. They were on the same corner, our analogy to the same page of the Google rankings. But one of them, not only made eye contact, he asked a question. He said, "Are you looking for some really cheap toys for your kids?" I could only smile.

The entire time walking up and through this I was thinking about the internet and this guy represented the long tail. You can't identify him in the photo. But he was the one paying attention to his neighborhood, to his "niche."  He engaged in a real conversation. And I engaged back. "I've kind of got my hands full right now," I said. "I can see that," he replied. "Wow. You've got a lot of kids." The conversation continued. "Yes, I do," I said. "What kind of toys do you have?" All kinds, board games, some old PlayStation games, Action Figures, all sorts of cool stuff. I've just outgrown them." "Well, I can't stop by right now. But maybe later we'll stop by. Thanks for asking. I really appreciate it." He showed he was paying attention, understood my needs, respected my time and was willing to engage at a personal level.

Now, imagine these are real estate websites. Which one are you?
  

Just so I make this perfectly clear... I did not set out to be the "gadget guy," Ines!

Or the "Wizard of Widgets" or the "Potentate of Plugins." Project Blogger is making me do this. I swear. Julie Ferenzi needs things for her Living In Plainfield, Illinois blog. One of my jobs as her coach is to teach her how to find and use really great tools. So I search until I find something I think will work for her.

Julie needed a contact form. 

Now... when I am looking for a tool, there are a few filters I pass it through. Here they are:

1. Does it do what it needs to do?
2. Is it cost effective?
3. Is it easy to use?

If a site can pass through those filters, I'm one happy little camper. And it's one very good tool.

Wufoo.com is one very good tool.  Wufoo.com passed through the filters above with flying colors. It is mind numbingly simple to use. It is free if you don't need more than three forms. That's pretty cost effective. And it does everything you could want it to do, including notify you when someone fills out a form, send the user a confirmation email and collect and store the data entered into each form. When I read about it, my first thoguht was... "too good to be true." I've tested lots of form creation tools. This one works as advertised. 

Do you want to see how cool it is? Click the play button.
 

Here is the form we created in our tutorial video, you can't embed it here an ActiveRain post, but you can still link to it. Sample Form. Feel free to test it. I promise not to put you on any real mailing list!

If you need a form, for any reason, Wufoo is for you.

For this Project Blogger event, I decided to find a disinterested third party to grade Julie Ferenzi's blog, Living In Plainfield, Illinois.

I'm going to use Website Grader.

While my focus with Julie is not about the technical issues, but about the content, knowing this information is important. You should know it about your site as well.

We just moved Julie from her old, free, Wordpress.com hosted site, to her new self hosted Wordpress blog on our servers. So, it's only been up less than 48 hours. That means not a lot of activity should be reflected. That means that NOW is the right time to do a baseline grade.

A link to the report card is Here. Based on the overall rating, the only place to go is UP! (The original blog we created at Wordpress.com was given a 62/100 overall rating. You can see that report here.) For comparison only, the same report run for Greg Swan's apprentice's site, TheBrickRanch.com, which has been up just a bit longer, yields a score of 40/100 for all websites and 26/100 for business blogs. That report is here. Time and content alone will cure many of the woes that create the low scores. That is evidenced by the exact same content being rated higher on her old blog. In fact, the scores may not even be the same when you click on the links above, perhaps influenced by this very post. The links in this post will help both Julie and Terri. :)

Here are the major details on what Website grader came back with at the time of the report:

WebSite Grade For http://www.livinginplainfield.com : 29/100 (overall)

A website grade of 29 for http://www.livinginplainfield.com means that of the thousands of websites that have previously been submitted to the tool, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 29% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over a dozen different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.

The software is constantly being upgraded and the algorithm enhanced. The number of potential recommendations provided by the tool is also increasing frequently. Please check back often.

Compared To Other Business Blog Websites : 22/100

Google PageRank : 0

"Google PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves important weigh more heavily and help to make other pages important."
-From Google 

Google Indexed Pages : 0

Measures the approximate number of pages on http://www.livinginplainfield.com that have been stored in the Google index. The Google web crawler will visit the website periodically and look for new content and store it in its index. Generally, the more pages a website has within the Google cache, the better.

The last time that Google has crawled http://www.livinginplainfield.com was March 26, 2007 @ 03:11 PM

Google Crawl Date : March 26, 2007 @ 03:11 PM

Google will periodically crawl websites looking for new and updated content. In general, it is desired to have the frequency with which Google crawls a site to be higher, rather than lower. Sites that get crawled more often have more frequent updates and more authority.

Inbound Links

Technorati Ranking : N/A

del.icio.us bookmarks : 0

Alexa Traffic Ranking : N/A

Readability Level : 11th Grade

The focus on search engine optimization in blogging is a distraction.

For the Project Blogger competition, I've actually told Julie Ferenzi to stop thinking about it. She was becoming a little fixated on the search engines finding her and was spending a lot of time reading about how to get good search engine placement. It didn't surprise me.

SEO tends to dominate discussions about the benefits of blogging and it shouldn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm a geek. (Did I say that out loud?) I like the "science" of SEO. I read as much as I can on the topic. It helps keep Alzheimer's at bay. So I know it plays a role in a blogs success. I'm not saying SEO isn't important. I'm just quite certain that all too often it's prominence in our conversations leads us away from the meat of the issue. Successful blogging, in the long run, has nothing to do with search engines or the bots they send out each night to scrape our sites.

Focusing so much on SEO seems like a good deal of overkill anyway. A good blog platform, like Wordpress, does most of the SEO heavy lifting for you. Use a blog platform like WordPress and consistently write a lot of original text about your topics and search engines will like you. Let me say that agin... write good content, make sure you are talking about what you want to be found for, do it consistently, do it frequently, and the search engines will find you. I know that's over simplifying things a quite a bit, but it's not far from pure fact.

Case in point: Julie hasn't been writing that long, but today if you search on family activities in plainfield, il, her not very populated Living In Plainfied, Illinois blog comes up as the number 2 unpaid link. If she doesn't continue to write consistently, it won't stay that way. But her blog is already working for her, without really focusing on SEO.

Besides, I'm not sure the way SEO works today will be the way it works tomorrow. And if everyone starts blogging it may become harder and harder to get consistently good SEO position. So, I'll say it again, in the long run, success in blogging has nothing to do with search engines.  It has everything to do with relationships and seeing your blog as a way to enhance and add value to those relationships.

Relationships won't be impacted by changes in how Google ranks pages. 

So, as we officially kick off Project Blogger, allow me introduce a new acronym into the discussion: YEO

YEO: You Engaging Others.

If you want to be successful in blogging, you need to understand how to engage others in every aspect of the blogging experience.

Where Engagement Begins

Of course content is important, but it has to go beyond that. And it starts before you begin to write a single word.   .

You live in the area you write about. So it's the people that really matter. The relationships you develop as you go out and meet the folks at the new home sites, at local businesses, at association meetings and anywhere else you choose to focus your writing, those real, live human beings are your ultimate target. Why wait for them to find you in a search?

Introduce Yourself & Your Blog

Before you write a single word, make sure you introduce yourself, tell the people who are associated with your post that will be writing about them. Explain why. Explain the purpose of your blog and why people want to read it and why you think people will be interested in them, their business or their mission. Ask if you can quote them. Take their picture. More often than not, they'll be more than willing to talk to you and share information you may not be able to obtain any other way. 

Harness The Power Of Their Relationships

Obtain their email address and phone number, then send them the link to your post. Be sure to use their name in the posts and a photo if you took one. Most people don't get to see their name in print very often, so it's a big deal to be written about by someone else. They WILL remember you for that. Here's something else they will do, they'll forward the link to friends, family and business associates. You extend your reach virally. And you don't have to just depend on someone finding the story on Google to make it happen. 

That's the point. Other people know other people. Connect with them and they'll connect you. This works whether you're writing about a local restaurant or whether you're writing about a historic building. Put the focus on them. If you engage the people behind the stories, the chance that they will actively participate in your success, in spreading the story, go up dramatically.

Follow Up... But Not Via The Internet

I'm an internet junkie. I love all the gadgets and goodies and ideas. But nothing replaces a telephone call, a handwritten note or a personal follow up visit to say "thank you." Treating them like your customer before they're your customer. Show them, by your actions, how you would work with anyone they might consider referring. If you can execute on the actions around writing the post, engage them and keep them informed, they will rightly assume you'd do the same thing in a real estate transaction.

Meet the people behind the stories and they'll be happy to share. Share the stories with them and they'll share them with their friends and business associates. Go out of your way to treat them with respect and those same friends and business associates will hear about that as well. Your actions will do all your evangelizing for you.

SEO is great, YEO is better.

You Engaging Others. That's what this is really about.

I've been searching for a good polling widget for a long time and I think I finally found one.

PollDady.com is the best implementation of polling software I've seen for blogs. I've tested 6 or 7 others over the past few months, each time with some degree of dissatisfaction. Either they would not post easily to the sidebar or they forced you to go to their website to view the results. We all go to a lot of trouble to get people to visit our blog posts. The last thing we need is to install something that forces them to leave!

PollDaddy.com does not. You can view the results right here on this page, without being taken to their site. There are also 14 different templates for their polls and changing the template dynamically changes the look on your site. You don't need to copy a new version of the code to see the new look. That's a major plus.  

So, after a quick test in private, I decided to do a public test here on ActiveRain... with a question I'm dying to know the answer to:

How much time do you spend per day on ActiveRain?

This is an anonymous poll, so don't be afraid to tell the truth. No one is going to point fingers and say, "Holy crap, how do you get any real work done?" If you're like me, you have a significant other who already asks that question.

So, take the poll over in my sidebar >>>

I have taken this poll down from my sidebar. Here is the link.
http://www.polldaddy.com/p.asp?p=27460

And if you have been looking for a good polling widget, go check out PollDaddy.com.

:: 

Technical note: The sidebar widget being used for this poll uses their "Javascript Method" for posting the poll. This is their preferred method. They also have a "Flash Method" that uses an embed code. As you can see, the Javascript version works great here on ActiveRain. However, neither of those methods are supported in the body of a blog on ActiveRain.  

Because of a brilliant movement called Creative Commons, you can be creative on your blog and still live guilt free.

The subject of copyright abuse has come up many times here on ActiveRain. I know others have probably written about this exact topic, but I have never given it much thought, since I subscribe to some pricey stock photo services and like to write my own stuff.

The Project Blogger effect: how to videos 

When the Project Blogger process began, Julie Ferenzi wanted to know where to find good, free, stock photo content for her Living In Plainfield Illinois blog. She's not alone. We get this question a great deal at our customer service desk. So, since Julie and I are thousands of miles away from each other, sometimes we talk on the phone, sometimes via IM, sometimes we use GoToMeeting so I can show her what I'm talking about, and sometimes I just record what I'm doing on screen. I'm finding that doing the latter not only allows me to help Julie, but others as well. 

The three photos you see here on the side were found using a Creative Commons only advanced search on Flickr. The search term was "house" and I limited the search to only Creative Commons-licensed photos. I also limited the search to those I could use commercially and could modify, adapt or build upon. Adding the borders, in my opinion, is modifying. That's probably open for some debate. It looks like this:

All of the photos photos found in the search simply require that I give credit to the phtographer. This is called attribution. I have done so for these three at the bottom of this post.

Some Creative Commons licenses require attribution and can be shared freely. Others forbid commercial use or forbid that any derivatives be made from them. These rights are clearly spelled out in each flickr members account and a full resource for Creative Commons definitions as they pertain to Flickr can be found here.

Watch the Flickr Creative Commons Search How To Video.

Want To Know The History Of Creative Commons?

This is a very creative video about the history. It's a great video, really. It's actually inspirational. I have been playing it in the background as I write this post... as inspiration.

The Creative Commons movement brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, "taking creative license."  :)

Photos: Crab by Drown, Houses by eymon, White House by TopTechWriter.US

I'm a firm believer that you can tell a great deal about a person by browsing through their library.

Unless you get invited to someone's home, your opportunity to do this is somewhat limited. When I commented on Sarah Cooper's review of Naked Conversations, she commented back that she'd like to know what I was reading and what books I might recommend. That made me pause a bit. I love sharing, but I'm also looking for the best and simplest way to do anything. So I went searching for a way to allow people to see into my library, and by extension, get to know me a little better as well. 

I found several "online bookshelves" that were in beta. Two of them, Shelfari and Library Thing, really caught my eye.

Shelfari has the better "Web 2.0" feel. It allows you to categorize your books into various lists, top 10 list, books your currently reading, etc. But it's widget is a bit over the top. The metaphor of the bookshelf is take a bit to far for my liking. 

Library Thing does not have as elegant an interface, but it's search seems faster. And I like Library Thing's sidebar widget better, so that is what you see down the right side of my blog now.

Both sites act as a social network for book sharing. The links above take you to my home page on each site so you can see the differences. They both allow you to join groups, share reviews and recommendations and you can include our Amazon.com Associates ID in your widget so that a portion of sales generated by your links go to you. If you don't have an Amazon.com Associates ID, you should.

I think both are simple to use and are a great way to allow your blog readers to see another side of you.

It's all about relationships. 

Yeah, I'm reading all the Zillow posts too, mostly in my feed reader... 

That's why I'm writing this post. I monitor anything that has "realestateshows" in it. If it appears on the web, I'm probably going to see it. So when the following came over the reader... i was intrigued.

Maxsell Tumbles for Agents

It's just a headline in my feed reader. No indication of why it came into that folder. So I click the link and find a lone headline in the "blog" and this message at the top of the page:

"We love our agents and we want them to attain Maximum Success. Here you will find links to stories, tools and knowledge that will help you better your clients and your community. The results will be Maximum Enjoyment for everyone."

So, the first thing I do is find out who it is and see "Powered by Tumblr" at the bottom and click. What I found was not what I expected. It was something called a "tumblelog."

Here's how Wikipedia defines "Tumblelog." 

"A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary."

You may be reading this and thinking... wow that's news! Well, like me, you'd be wrong. It seems the concept of Tumble Blogs has been around since 2005. Tumblr is a free website used for creating Tumble Blogs.... so I created one. Why not? If you want to follow what I do with it, just click on the RSS feed at the bottom. Here it is: JustDugUp.com

They provide a really simple to use toolbar widget that let's you quickly "post" about any page or image you happen to be looking at. I have to tell you, it's intriguing and I'll probably create several widgets for different topics. I know Maxsell is a real estate company in Atlanta, but I don't know who put up the Maxsell Tumblr. They have a "TwitThis" button on their website, so I just tweeted them. Whoever put it together... my hat is off to you. Learning something every day is my goal. You helped me achieve that goal today. 

So, what will I do with this new knowledge... you can bet I'll come up with something. ;) 

Well... we did give them a heads up. :) 

New features will be launched tonight at RealEstateShows.com.  Chief among them is the ability to embed a YouTube video in your Shows, so they can be included where ever your Shows go... including Realtor.com, and our new Panoramic Player for panoramic photos. Here is a complete list of the upgrades taking place:

• YouTube Video: You can place a YouTube video inside your Show and retain your branding and all of the other information related to the Show.
• Panorama Player: A new way to view wide, panoramic shots.
• RealPing Integration: RealPing customers will be able to have a “Talk With Me Now” button in their personal branding area.
• Uploader Upgrade: this will require a reload of the ActiveX plugin, but fixes some issue with the uploader in Internet Explorer.
• Player Redesign: The player has been completely revamped and redesigned to allow space for these new features.
• Duplicate A Show: You’ll now be able to click a button and instantly duplicate a Show without having to upload photos again or input information. You can then make the minor changes to the Show as needed.
• Related Shows Menu Improvement: We’ve dramatically improved how the related Shows function works inside the player.
• Schedule An Appointment Form: A new link will appear in the personal branding area that will allow a viewer to fill out a form to request a meeting or showing. This email goes directly to you.

If you'd like to see a video of the new features.... you can view it here

A scaled down view of the new design: