Turner's Perspective

If Ardell can hand out homework, I can certainly call for recess.

Here is the latest AR Word Search Puzzle.

The goal? You must find the names of the Project Blogger apprentices and coaches. Words can be backwards, forwards, and diagonal. You may need to use Google to figure out some of the clues. :)

Also, most of the answers use the last names of the participants, but some of our coaches and apprentices are better know by their first names. They are the Madonna's of this competition.

Enjoy!

The boys at Sellsius have planned an excellent Blog Tour USA.

Not to be outdone, the Turner family has their own blog tour planned. It begins in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 28 at 4am. And there are LOTS of similarities between the Sellsius Blog Tour USA and our Blog Tour USA - Family Style.

• They've got two bloggers. We've got two bloggers.
• They'll be traveling cross country in time for Inman's Bloggers Connect. We'll be traveling cross country AND BACK in time for Inman's Bloggers Connect.
• They've got a big RV. We've got a big SUV.
• They'll be traveling with no kids. We'll be traveling with 6 kids.
• They'll be stopping in 24 cities in one month. We'll be stopping for 24 bathroom breaks each day.
• They'll party themselves into a unconsciousness each night. We'll fall into bed unconscious each night.
• They'll be staying in exotic cities like New York, Miami and Las Vegas. We'll be staying in exotic cities like Grand Junction, Lincoln and Plainfield.  

As you can clearly see, Sellsius aint got nothin' on us! :)

Starting on June 28th, we'll be speeding through Las Vegas, Nevada, across Utah, through Denver, Colorado, up through Lincoln, Nebraska, across to Plainfield, Illinois, down to Indianapolis, Indiana, over to Dayton Ohio and on to Grafton, West Virginia. Then, on July 20th, we'll head back through Nashville, Tennessee, Little Rock, Arkansas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Amarillo, Texas, Albequerque, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona, and back to Los Angeles.  

I'll be updating via photo blog along the way. You can check out the progress here at CA to WV... And Back Again.

Steve,

I love you, man. You know that already. I love your products and I love your customer service. So, please read what I have to say here in that light. I want what is best for Apple and for your iPhone launch on Friday.

In advance of buying my own iPhone, I traded in my faithful Verizon Wireless card for an ATT/Cingular Wireless card. It was not being seen by the Mac, so I went to my local ATT/Cingular wireless store and asked for help. The girl at the counter couldn't help me, I knew that would be the case. The first technical support person they called couldn't help me. I wasn't really surprised by that either.

But I was surprised by this portion of the phone call with the "advanced" technical support guy. I thought you'd like to see how the conversation went.

AT&T Support: So, can you tell me what operating system you're using? Is it OS X?

     Me: Yes. It's version 10.4.10 to be exact.

AT&T Support: Ok, well just so you know we don't really support Macs.

     Me: Really? You know you're launching the iPhone on Friday right?

AT&T Support: Yes.

     Me: You know that's a Mac product, right?

AT&T Support: Yes, but Apple is going to do most of the support for that. [I am now silently thankful]

     Me: Yeah, I get that, but you realize others like me will be buying peripherals to consolidate accounts. Right?

AT&T Support: Yes, let me go see what I can find out for you.

[VERY LONG WAIT]

AT&T Support: OK. I'm back. I'm being told by my office neighbor here that you need to update your operating system.

     Me: Really? That's odd. To what?

AT&T Support: He's telling me you need to update to OS 9.

     Me: Is your office neighbor an IV drug user? Or have they ever been an IV drug user?

AT&T Support: Excuse me?

     Me: I'm asking if the person who told you this is or ever has been an hard core drug user.

AT&T Support: Why?

     Me: Because they are either trippin' right now or having a flash back. OS 9 hasn't been the most up-to-date OS for Mac in years.

AT&T Support: No. He's not on drugs.

     Me: Well then, no offense, but he's an idiot.

AT&T Support: Well, I don't know about that.

     Me: Really? I told you my OS version is 10.4.1. When was the last time any company went backwards in numbers in their upgrade path?

AT&T Support: [Laughing] OK. I see what you mean. I'll be back.

Steve, can you see why I'm worried? 

In the end, the person who put the SIM chip in the phone put it in the wrong way. The problem had nothing to do with my Mac or the software. But it concerns me that your beautiful new iPhone may be left in the hands of folks who don't understand what we Mac users expect in terms of customer support, ease of use and technical knowledge.

I'm begging you. Please call up your contacts at AT&T and tell them not botch this for you. I've waited a long time for a new phone. I really want this to work for both of us. I just don't think I can handle another conversation like the one above.

Thanks for listening. Good luck with the launch. It looks like you're going to need it.

Jeff

P.S. I'll be driving to West Virginia with my family at the time of the launch. Is there any way you can have one put on hold for me at an AT&T store in Morgantown. Thanks!

I received this YouTube video in an email from Mike Whitman.

It came with this message: "Pass this on to your friends who live in Santa Clarita. This is an important issue." And it is. But this post is NOT about the Santa Clarita City Council's tax idea to buy open land outside of the city.

I want to talk about how valuable this technique could be to you, as a real estate agent.

I believe, with all of my heart, that YEO is the most important aspect of blogging. I also believe that your blog can drive more than virtual contact. Used correctly, it can give you the ability to connect directly with live human beings.

This video illustrates another way. Why not take your video camera out on the street to get feedback on an important local issue? In this case, the issue is directly related to real estate.

The benefits?

• You get to meet people face-to-face.
• They get to express their opinion and 15 minutes of blog fame.
• If you're lucky, you get a viral impact like this one is getting.

Ask yourself if this is something you would be comfortable doing. If it is, I think it's worth a try.

Here's the video that triggered this post.

Ardell gave out some homework to the apprentices.

I already did, My Ten Favorite Blogs Outside Of ActiveRain, and My Ten Favorite Blogs Inside of ActiveRain.  And since I've always been one to get homework out of the way... Here is my one piece of advice from each coach that taught me something valuable. (I did not take that to mean, go find something from EVERY coach, even if they didn't really teach you anything valuable during this competition.)

--- 

Ardell Dellaloggia "A blog is not a magazine.  You do not simply want readers... It is not enough for a blog to say READ ME...a blog must say HIRE ME in a very subtle way." My translation: simply writing great content won't cut it. The underlying message must be, "I'm the one you need." 

Teresa Boardman "Smaller might just be better - Writing to a huge audience doesn't make sense." My translation: focus on the market you can connect with physically. That's going to be small.

Greg Swann "To create the community that will fuel your real estate practice, be that community." My translation: turn your readers into writers, your audience into your partners. 

Paul Cheney "Never blog alone." My translation: Join a community or build a community, but don't try to be an island.

Jim Cronin " Blogging doesn't have to be an essay, and it doesn't have to be prose.  Blogging doesn't have to be funny nor clever. 
Blogging has to be clear and targeted." My Translation: you don't have to be a great writer to be a great blogger.

And I'm done with 55 minutes to spare before it turns Sunday here in CA and I turn into the blogging equivalent of a pumpkin. 

Assignment complete.

Ardell gave out some homework to the apprentices.

I already did, My Ten Favorite Blogs Outside Of ActiveRain. And since I've always been one to get homework out of the way...

Here are my top ten ActiveRain Blogs. In no particular order, and with very little commentary. This was hard, since some of my favorite people only post local content these days. 

• Broker Bryant's Real Estate Ramblings Bryant Tutas - Poinciana, FL (He makes me scratch my head and say, "really?")
• Sarah's Hurricane, WV Real Estate Blog Sarah Cooper, Realtor, Hurricane, WV - Hurricane, WV (She just gets it)
  
• "The Lovely Wifes" Blog.... "The Lovely Wife"...Broker Bryant's...Wife! - Dundee, FL (Here energy is palpable and infectious and she cracks me up)
• Unseen Forces Bill Leider - Marina del Rey, CA  (If he'd write more he'd be other people's lists as well)
• For What it's Worth! Ed Rybczynski - Mortgage Fraud Speaker & Expert - Parkville, MD (Kindred Spritis)
• Property Merchandising & Home Staging Blog Craig Schiller (Real Estaging) - Chicago, IL  (Positive energy abounds)
  
• Teresa 's Blog Teresa Boardman - Saint Paul, MN (Because she makes me laugh)
• America's Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker Brian Brady - San Diego, CA (Brian's just bright.)
• Rick & Ines's Blog Rick & Ines - Miami Shores Real Estate - Miami, FL (One of my first AR friends)
• Real Estate Web Design Blog Brad Carroll - Real Estate Web Designer - Raleigh, NC (A newcomer, but filled with great stuff)

I needed this to be a top 30.

(update: here is the link to the final assignment, Great Advice From Some Project Blogger Coaches)

Ardell gave out some homework to the apprentices.

I'm not big on whining, but I thought I'd do the assigments anyway. Here are my top 10 blogs outside of ActiveRain. In no particular order.

• MacRumors.com - I check this one every day even if the feed reader says it hasn't been updated, just in case it's wrong.
  
• How To Change The World - Guy Kawasaki. It's Guy Kawasaki. Nuff said.
  
• Good At Getting Better - Kim Rickenbaker. I love Kim's writing and even asked her to be a guest writer on StopChildSlavery.com where she has contributed some good content . It's mostly poetry, with some experimental prose thrown in for good measure.
  
• I, Cringely - Robert X. Cringely. This guy just "gets' Internet techology. An insider, like Robert Scoble, with his own unique insights.
• Daily Writing Tips - I need all the help I can get. This blog covers the gamut, from grammar to writer's block.
• Engadget - Because I kinda like technology.
• Extemporaneous - Naughty Heather. You almost have to read a blog when that's the author's pen name. Heather writes from a place that most of us have trouble finding, let alone exposing. Some might even object to it being so exposed. It's raw, often erotic and filled with visual imagery.
  
• Scobleizer - Robert Scoble. The straight scoop from a geek insider. Scoble knows everyone. I think I mean that literally. His insights are valuable to me. And I loved his book, Naked Conversations.
• Mashable - This blog is about anything and everything Web 2.O. The post from today is killer and comprehensive... 90+ ONline Photography Tools and Resources.
• Mothers Fighting For Others - this blog was started by my wife and now has 10, soon to be 12 writers. I'm proud of the content they put and and I enjoy reading it and watching it grow.
• John Battelle's Searchblog - I get many SEO blogs in my feedreader, but I like this one the best.

I needed this to be a top 20.

(update: here is the link to My Ten Favorite Blogs Inside ActiveRain, and Great Advice From Some Project Blogger Coaches)

For some reason I've got photos on my mind this week.

I wrote about how far we should take digital photo retouching earlier in the week and last night about Autostitch and three inexpensive apps built on it's imaging technology.

On my way to the donut shop this morning (maybe that's the real cause Ed!), I saw a home for sale up ahead that looked like it might be the perfect marriage of the two posts.

Here is what I saw:

From the best vantage point for seeing the entry and landscaping for the home, there is a huge light pole in the way. Of course, I could edit that light pole out, any good Photoshop wiz can. But, as the comment stream in How Far Is Too Far clearly indicates, we shouldn't. So what do you do? Well if you have an ultrawide angle lens like the one on the Kodak v705, you might be able to get a decent photo of the house if you stand to the side of the pole to give yourself more distance from the house. Like this:

But in this case, the tree is in the way of the roof line. So the ultrawide only helps a bit, but not much. You really want to get a view of the walkway up to the house, but if you've just got a standard 35 mm lens, this is what you see if you stand with the telephone pole out of the way.

This is where a program that can stitch both horizontally and vertically can come in handy. You know I love my Kodak v705, and one of the reasons why is that it can stitch right in the camera. But on a sunny day like this, it's sometimes hard to line things up correctly in the display. And even when you can, as I did below, you're still limited to a horizontal plane.

If you don't have the v705 and are using a standard 35 mm lens and typical stitching sotware, you can only stitch horizontally, and here is what you get from the 35mm perspective:

But, if you can stitch both horizontally and vertically, you can get this:

From the same vantage point, we've got the main entry, landscaping, full view of roof line and full view of stairs leading to the house. (You'd probably want to move the cars) And, it was all done automatically, with no tripod and no photo editing. 

How long did this take? Well, I was walking with 5 children, all under age 7, to the donut shop. They really like donuts. How long do you think they gave me to pause on our journey and make these photos? Yeah, about two minutes. :)

To be able to spontaneously do something like this is why I love point and shoot cameras. Mine is almost always with me. And that panorama above is why I'm digging my new stitching software. It's nice to have the right tool in the toolbox when you need it.

I've been casually following Autotstitch for a long time.

It was experimental for some time, not available on the Mac and the claims they made were pretty bold. "Autostitch is a breakthrough technology for panoramic photography, VR and visualisation applications. This is the first solution to stitch any panorama completely automatically, whether 1D (horizontal) or 2D (horizontal and vertical). Autostitch is built using cutting edge research from the AI lab at UBC, but it's incredibly simple to use! Just select a set of photos, and Autostitch does the rest: digital photos in, panoramas out."

The first time I read about Autostitch they were looking for partners to license their code. You couldn't even test it directly. That's all changed now.

A few weeks ago I looked at their site again and saw they had a free downloadable demo version for Windows, but more importantly, I saw that several very inexpensive applications had been built on their code. Autopano Pro ($119, Windows, Mac), Serif Panorama Plus ($49.99, Windows), and Calico ($39, Mac). I tested all three applications and the free demo version as well (which is fully functional with no watermarking). I finally chose Calico for my own personal use, because it was the least expensive of the three. Except for a few bells and whistles, they all work on the exact same base code. They're all brain dead simple. And they all yielded the exact same result.

The example on the main page of their website is pretty amazing, because of how it's done. So I set out to test it with some difficult scenery. The example below was done without a tripod.

Here are the 15 photos I snapped in a heavily brushed trail at Towsley Canyon.

As you can see from the thumbnails, there is a great deal of complexity in the images. Lots of intricate detail. And the photos all have a different color saturation. I shot using the automatic setting for scenery with the Kodak v705. The Kodak v705 I own does autostitching in 1D, horizontal, but in some situations can be daunting. It's hard to line up the sample swatch on the small screen. Autostitch can handle 2D, both horizontal and vertical, so you don't have to be precise at all... and I didn't attempt to be. Again, no tripod, just standing, pointing and shooting.

Here is what the program spit out, with zero input from me.

The result is pretty amazing, given the detail and absence of tripod. The file was 8773 pixels wide by 3781 pixels high. If you'd like to look closer at the details. A 4000 pixel wide version is linked here.

The resulting cropped image:

Here's a shot with some tough tile floor lines. No manual involvement on my part at all.

I like simple and fast. I'm an expert in Photoshop, but I don't want to spend my time doing anything I don't have to do. I've used many stitching programs in my life. They have all required some level of manual intervention in the process to get decent results. Not these. The programs built on the Autostitch technology are truly automatic.

Here is an example to show how it deals with wood flooring. I thought this would be a tough test, since there are lots of straight lines and I was, again, not shooting with a tripod. But as you can see, it nailed the myriad of straight lines in the wood floor.

And here is the detail on the floor. The program connected all of the straight lines with no input from me at all.

If you don't currently have the ability to stitch photos for a good panoramic shot, this is for you.

The demo is free and whether it's Windows for $49 or Mac for $39... it's a no brainer. There's nothing to learn. Upoad photos. It does the rest. And if you're using a stitching software that isn't this simple, you may want to give this more than a casual glance.

Here are a few more from Towsley Canyon, all shot without tripod:

Test it for yourself and let me know what you think.

A few weeks ago, I wrote Microsoft Surface - Something Truly Amazing Out Of Redmond.

On Monday, SarcasticGamer.com put out a "twisted take on one of Microstoft's latest and greatest announcements." Boy, do I love a good parody.

Excerpt:

"Instead of using one of today's more popular compact devices to get directions to where you're going, why not use a device the size of a small car to do the same job?"

Steve Zehngut sent this to me and I laughed my butt off at the ending. I won't spoil it for you. But if you know how much I like Apple, you'll know why I laughed so hard.

As their FAQ states, SiteNeighbors.com is a "non-hierarchical alternative for finding interesting blogs."

That's a fancy way of saying, they're trying to make connections that wouldn't be made in a normal fashion. And for a new blog, this may drive some traffic your way.

What they do is simple, though I'm sure the math involved on the back is complex. By placing their badge code on your site, they can see referrer traffic from the search engines. They compare that referrer traffic with other blogs referrer traffic and they make a connection. The blogs who get visitors through the same paths as you (who live on the same street) are your neighbors.

What makes SiteNeighbors.com different?

They don't rank blogs based on number of links, traffic or influence of the sites that link to them, all the typical SEO stuff. They match blogs based on "the similarity of the blogs visitors." Huh?

"A key distinction of our approach is that every blog has a neighborhood and no neighborhood is better than any other neighborhood. This enables visitors to the neighborhoods to find other similar blogs that they might enjoy, even if those blogs are not very popular (based on link counting).

Our hope is that siteneighbors can become a valuable, and fun, resource for big and small blogs. Well established bloggers can use it to discover new blogs with similar content. New bloggers can use it to begin to build their audience."

I buy the logic. So, I signed up for an account and attempted to put it on several personal blogs.

For starters, I was happy to see I could block adult content from showing up as a neighbor. And you can also limit the mapping to just blogs, but that's it. Setting it up was simple. Unfortunately, two of my personal blogs are Wordpress.com blogs, which reject the javascript that SiteNeighbors.com uses to track incoming traffic. The third blog I set up is The JottBlog Experiment. You can see their sidebar panel there. Theoretically, the "neighbors" will change as they analyze inbound traffic and learn more about who comes to the site and how they get there. It should be interesting to see what they come up with.

I'll report back on how it's working. Time will tell whether it's beneficial in the long run. Look it over and give me your thoughts.

Just because you CAN digitally retouch a photo, it doesn't mean you should.

Some digital retouching is obviously overdoing it. I'm a fan of photo retouching in general. Because a great deal of digital photo editing is perfectly appropriate and certainly would not be misleading the consumer. It's a life saver for dark rooms, for example. I received a spam email this week from a company offering digital photo editing for real estate. You may have received one too. The text of the email seemed innocuous enough.

Do you have Real Estate Photos that could have been better if only...?

• A car wasn't in the driveway or on the street
• Trash cans were not visible or objects on the lawn or signs :)
• Camera flash in bathroom mirrors along with photographer
• Dark rooms that are poorly lit

All of the things described seem appropriate to me. But the image that was included to illustrate their work caused me to pause. I'm not unfamiliar with high end digital photo editing, so I know what's possible.

The image to the right was the comparison illustration that was included.

Most of the edits were fine, in my opinion. I don't have an issue with the for sale sign being removed. I don't even have an issue with the sky, except for the fact that it looks completely fake. The sky and the for sale sign are not part of the product being advertised. For the same reason, I don't have a problem with Victoria Secret editing the models to make them look better. I know they don't do that with the clothes. In fact, they spend millions each year making sure even the color printed is exactly what you would find on the real product in the store.

In this photo comparison, some things do bother me a bit. The stains on the driveway are not there. That's part of the product, in my opinion. Less offensive, but still raising an eyebrow is the fact that the mailbox has been removed, and so has the telephone/electric pole behind the house. Maybe I'm being picky. Maybe. I've seen more heinous examples of photo manipulaton than this one. This is quite tame in many ways. It was obviously sent to thousands of real estate professionals, so this company must not see any issue at all.

But it made me pause and wonder: Where is the line?

I know where I would draw the line, but I didn't know where others might. So, I forwarded the email to several real estate pros I respect and the response was mixed. So i thought I'd see what the AR community had to say about this specific example and on the subject in general.

How far is too far when it comes to real estate photography?

Related links: Ethics Of Photography: Career Suicide by Photoshop : On Photo Retouching, A Third Time : The Ethics of Photoshopping Real Estate :  Little Grey Lies: Photshopping Listing Photos

8/17/06 Update: “Remember, if a consumer claims they relied on a representation as real and true, and it turns out to be an enhancement and false, the licensee will have to defend the action. Why would anyone wish to incur this risk?”

Jott has turned out to be a great tool... but not for blogging.

Back in March, I wrote about Jott in a post entitled Jott: My Head Is Spinning With Ideas And later that day we launched The Jottblog Experiment to test how well Jott would work to create "in the moment" blog posts, and a second post was written... Show Me What You Jott, Baby!

What transpired as a result of The Jottblog Experiment was a change I thought I'd never see.

I have been keeping my to-do lists on yellow legal pads for almost 20 years. In fact, over those 20 years, I've had the exact same routine, broken only momentarily by failed attempts to move my to-do list to the computer. I could never find a system that allowed me the same level of spontenaiety that paper and pen gave me.

The routine was simple.

If the to-do list got full, I'd rewrite my list, leaving off the things that were scratched through and adding the new to-do items that were now scribbled on the list. It helped me to focus on the tasks yet to be done. Sometimes it reminded me of how much I had accomplished and sometimes how much I did not accomplish. And I still have every page of those to-do lists. I often referred back to those sheets of paper to remember a phone number or to recall a name. I could never have dreamed of changing that system. As much as I love digital, when it came to to-do lists, it was all analog, all the time. 

Then came Jott and Vitalist. I wrote the following over at The Jottblog Experiment on April 22... 

"Vitalist and Jott might be the perfect combination of two websites. I am just beginning to test this but i found a great article that I was pointed to last night in a link from Technorati from Jott’s website that is just making sense so lets see how that it all works. I have been testing this for the past few days and I like it a great deal. I first read about the possibilities at Shainemata.net in a post entitled, 'Jott-alist.'"

Liking it a great deal turned into getting rid of my 20 year old way of making to-do lists. Jott allows me to add things to my Vitalist to-do list while I'm in the car or when and idea pops in my head, and the Vitalist email address allows me to forward emails that need action to my to do list. I also gave my Vitalist email address to my team members and my wife, so they could add important items to my to-do list for me.

And I don't miss the paper. Because each morning I print out my Vitalist to-do list and take it with me. It has allowed me to keep all of the benefits of my old system and marry them with more efficient digital methods. After 20 years, I've given up the legal pad. I really thought that would never happen.

Today, the Vitalist Blog referenced The Jottblog Experiment.Their post is entitled Voice New Actions To your Vitalist Account with Jott. It gives the three required steps to get up and running with Jott and Vitalist. 

Check it out. 

This is one of the reasons why Ardell DellaLoggia is so good at blogging.

I love the comment stream on Ardell's recent blog post: What Does "Bait and Switch Blogging Say About You? It's heated, but respectful and honest. When I started this it had only 70 comments. It now has 103. That's a lot in a very short period of time. But I have to believe she had an idea it might. :)  

Ardell has an innate understanding of the hot buttons. Using the term "bait and switch" was sure to raise eybrows and it did. The "read more" practice she described is technically not bait and switch. But it is certainly a form of link bait, by strict definition, which is not always a bad thing. I've never encouraged Julie to use the "read more" tactic, and to my knowledge, she has not. I prefer, like Ardell, to create a different version of the same topic in each place I write.

I did use the "read more" tactic yesterday because there was NO WAY to illustrate my point in the AR post. The post required a specific Wordpress plugin to accomplish the dynamic Google map I was trying to illustrate. I think that is clearly the right way to use that, if there is a "right" way. I don't personally mind it at all, but I know many who do. It's been a topic of conversation here before.

Now, the irony... and the reason for the headline.

It may or may not have been her intention, but her post could easily be looked at as a form of link bait known as an "evil hook." This is a form of link bait where the writer says something they feel may be unpopular or something that is not appealing about a someone who is popular. Some evil hooks take a flat out wrong position, knowingly, simply to bring traffic. All of these versions of the evll hook are incredibly powerful when used correctly, and Ardell certainly used it correctly in her post. As Ted Murphy points out, it's also one of those tactics that should be used sparingly. Again, Ardell doesn't overuse this format, but when she does, she does it well.

That's another reason why she is so good. And, as everyone can see... it worked. Her post will probably get linked to from other posts many times in the future, the comment stream alone is just too rich with commentary. Heck, I've already linked to it here. :)

::

For the project blogger apprentices...

This is post was written to illustrate something I learned from Greg Swan at The Bloodhound Blog. I commented on one of his posts and he wrote Whatever It Takes: A determined Realtor is a bargain... as a response. In the intro he said, "I think my answer to him justifies a post of it's own." He was right. And he taught me a valuable lesson at the same time.

I started to put all of the above in the comments on Ardell's post and I was just about to hit the submit button, but I had links in my comment that weren't invited by Ardell and I was reminded of Greg's lesson simple lesson. So here we are.

There are times when a comment should be a post. I thought this was one of those times.

When two people email you in the span of three days with the exact same question, it's time to throw the answer out into the blogosphere for more people to find it. 

The question: Can I embed a Google map right inside my Wordpress blog post?

The answer: Yes, you can embed a Google Map right into your Wordpress blog post. (This is only for self-hosted Wordpress blogs, not wordpress.com blogs). It requires the Geopress plugin.

I put up an example on the RealEstateShows.com Blog, which is run on Wordpress.

Read more and see the example here. 

EDIT: if you don't click that link above, you will have not be able to see the "dynamic nature" of the map. It's not an image in a post. It's a truly functional google map embedded in the post itself. You can see another working version here on Julie's Community Page.

If your blog loads slow, people won't stay to read it...
no matter how well written it might be.

If I've never visited a blog before, nothing will make me leave faster than slow load times.

And nothing contributes to slow load times more than large photo files. I've been working with Julie Ferenzi on this for a while now, and this morning I did a little "training" video to illustrate how to us Picnik, a free online photo editing tool that may make your life easier. I'm a Photoshop freak, but not everyone is or will be.

Picnik makes doing most of the things you need very simple. You can rotate, crop, resize, fix exposure, colors, sharpen, remove red-eye, and apply a number of "creative" effects to your images. And you can do all of this without even signing up. Being able to see it exactly as it will appear online, because you ARE online, is one of the benefits. For the novice photo editor, this is simple and effective.  

This video will show you the basics and talk a bit about sizing your photos for a post. But I recommend you go take a look at Picnik. I did this video this morning and Jonathon posted a little blurb about it today as well. You'll also notice that Julie's Living In Plainfield blog loads a lot faster now. :)

Inman News is launching their Inman Talk channel on TalkShoe.com.

They are kicking it off with a question-and-answer style discussion around the topic of blogging and the Project Blogger competition. The guests for today's introductory show will be Jackie Colson-Miller, Julie Ferenzi, Jim Cronin and me.

Jessica Swesey, Managing Editor of Inman News will be hosting the TalkShoe Talkcast

Talkcast information:

• Talkcast Name: Inman Talk
• Host: InmanNews
• Next episode: EPISODE1 - Real Estate Blogging, Mon, June 11, 2007 02:00 PM EDT
• 'Building from the Ground Up' - Starting a real estate blog doesn't have to be hard. Learn from first hand experiences from the Project Blogger participants to hear what it really takes to get a real estate blog up and running.

Building from the Ground Up. Real Experiences Starting a Real Estate Blog from Scratch

An edited version of the podcast is now available here. I edited out the first 8 minutes of chatter while waiting for the start time. 

Buying a home is not about information.

If you've ever bought a home, you know this is pure fact. Searching on the Internet for a house may be about information, at first, but the act of actually BUYING the home is not. It never has been. It never will be.

Sex And Real Estate, by Marjorie Garber, beautifully illustrates why.

If you read my first three posts on this book, Sex and Real Estate :: Part 1, Sex And Real Estate: The House As Beloved, and Sex And Real Estate: The House As Mother, you already understand the major cultural reasons why buying a house is such an emotion filled decision.

The fact that we "fall in love" with houses can't be ignored at any level. And while the first two chapters of Sex And Real Estate clearly speak directly to the real estate industry, the final chapters are dedicated to illustrating the depth of our cultural and literary fascination with homes. They focus on the concepts and archetypes of home in literature and culture throughout history. And while these final chapters do contain nuggets that a real estate agent or home stager could benefit from greatly, they are harder to find. The final chapters are the material of college literature courses, not business reading. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, I'm just not sure everyone will as much as I am sure everyone will love the intro and first two chapters.

The House As Body, chapter three, came close to matching the chapters one and two but left me searching for analogies that I shouldn't have had to search for. Chapters, four through through seven, The Dream House, The Trophy House, The House As History and The Summer House, were all literary and historical treasure troves, but they served simply to amplify what The House As Beloved and The House As Mother so clearly and easily illustrated.

This reinforces something I said earlier - after reading just the introduction. I said that the introduction to the book is worth the entire price. After reading all of it, it's even more true. So, you want to get the most from this book in the shortest amount of time? Buy the book and read just the intro and first two chapters. You'll still think it was a deal.

Buying a home is NOT about information.
It's about emotion.

So those selling the home need to understand this at the action level. But sadly most don''t. The vast majority real estate marketing that I see completely ignores this. And it's simply wrong. Loreena Yeo hit the nail on the head with her post, Sell A Lifestyle.

I will scream the next time I see someone put "front of house" as the description on the photo of the front of a house. I'm not talking about a figurative, silent scream. I mean a real physical outburst. It floors me every time. "Living Room" under or over a photo of the living room. WOW!

But it goes further than that. The vast majority of the listing posts I read on AR and nothing more than a regurgitation of MLS data that someone could find on Realtor.com, or Trulia, or Zillow. It does NOTHING to distinguish the unique and compelling aspects of the house that will make someone want to come see it more than they want to see a house with the exact same specs listed by someone else. And it certainly does nothing to distinguish the agent from other agents.

This kind of purely information laden language is powerless. It whispers, "me too," when, with just a bit more effort, it could be screaming, "ME ONLY! I'M THE ONE. I'M THE HOME YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR."

And by default, "I'M THE REAL ESTATE AGENT YOU NEED. I'M THE REAL ESTATE AGENT YOU WANT."

For me, this Garber quote from the epilogue ties it all neatly together:

"Perhaps increasingly, for busy people, space has come to substitute for time, and the house becomes the unlived life. In an era when the "welcome mat" and the "answering machine" all-too-often stand in for personal greeting and human voice, the house - with its "living" room, "dining" room, "family" room and "media" room - is the place where we all too often stage the life we wish we had time to live."

If you don't believe this, then just keep on pumping out data. Keep on putting "front of house" on photos of the front of the houses you sell. Keep on writing as if a home could be defined by stats and numbers.

But if you recognize that buying a home is really about emotion, about an ideal, about a hope, about a dream... then take action NOW to make sure you do everything you can to ensure your writing paints the picture of a home, not just a house.

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This post is being written entirely by my voice.

I'm not going to type a single word and all I'm going to do is go back and edit this. And I'm doing this in response to Ardell DellaLoggia. So, Ardell, this post is for you.

"I would like people to have the option to listen to the posts, while they are working on other things, and hear the meaning, that maybe they don't "hear" in the written word. More like radio than TV. You can get away with doing one in your T-shirt better than I can get away with doing one in my bra :) (And she put a little smiley face) Also, I know that many deaf people use the internet to "read up" on stuff and read conversations, so I don't want to turn blogging into videos. I just want the option for people to hear it said by me, especially for the reasons you indicate."

So I purchased a product called iListen. It's speech recognition for Mac OS X. I have no idea whether or not this is available on the PC side, but I have to tell you this is amazing stuff. I'm watching it transcribe my voice as I speak and it's doing an amazing job with the accuracy on this post. So not only does it transcribe the speaking, but you can train it to do all the commands as well and naturally it's got some built in commands like. [i say "PERIOD" and "PARAGRAPH"]

And you can see what it did was it put that into play, stopped my sentence and created that new section of this post. And I'm just typing, I mean, excuse me, I'm just talking. I'm not even trying to slowdown. It's really amazing.

It's a great little piece of technology and I think Ardell is right. The ability to hear my voice... speaking these words, hearing the in flexion, hearing the pauses, hearing how I put emotion into the words, can have at an incredible benefit.

Now, I'm doing this right now by recording what am typing on the computer, but I could just as easily have my Olympus voice recorder in the car with me or someplace else and download the sound file and have it transcribe all my words for me. This is what I had hoped to have happen with Jott. You know, we started The JottBlog a while back and Jott for me was a tool that I felt could really deliver on some of the emotion that gets lost in writing. But I think this does a really great job and again this is iListen and it' speech recognition for Macintosh OS X.

If anyone out there knows of a similar product on the PC side... I'd be happy for you to put that in the comments and please put a link to it. But I gotta tell ya, this is pretty amazing stuff. I'm really pleased.

And Ardell, I hope you're pleased as well. Everybody, thanks for listening if you listened and thanks for reading if you were reading.

--

Listen To This Post In my Own Voice:

Watch a demonstration of iListen in action.

8:00 PM, Saturday, June 9th - Parker's Lighthouse - Long Beach, CA

Parkers’ Lighthouse is Long Beach’s premier waterfront restaurant.

Parkers' Lighthouse is located in Shoreline Village overlooking the Queen Mary and the Long Beach Harbor. Parkers' Lighthouse is just minutes from the Convention Center and downtown hotels, as well as the Aquarium of the Pacific.

I want to thank Laurie Manny, our resident Long Beach expert,  for providing me with a long list of restaurants to call. Laurie wrote a post about Parkers' Lighthouse. I have to say, I'm pleased to have found anything at all. The first three restaurants to respond were all completely booked for that evening. It seems June is a big month for graduations and weddings. Who knew. :) This looks like the perfect location to enjoy each other's company, mingle and engage in that other form of communication people keep raving about - talking.

Luckily, we didn't get as many RSVP's as I thought we might. We only received 36 firm RSVP's for the event. I say luckily, because most of the locations could not hold much more than what we're anticipating.  I know there will be some stragglers, so the room holds 60 at a time.

A Casual Cocktail Party Atmosphere

The gang at ActiveRain will be providing hors d'oeuvres and, if it fits in the budget, wine. If you want some hard liquor... you'll have to foot the bill for that yourself. 

Parkers' Lighthouse Restaurant
435 Shoreline Drive | Long Beach, CA 90802

Website: www.parkerslighthouse.com |  Google Map