MIBOR and NAR need an internet education

I have watched a situation unfold that disturbs me greatly. MIBOR and NAR (that would be the National Association of Realtors and Metro Indianapolis) have turned a complaint (apparently from a competitive REALTOR) against several other REALTORS into a decision in Indianapolis that could change the shape of online real estate marketing. To wit:

Agent Genius broke the story (written by one of the affected realtors, Indianapolis REALTOR Paula Henry).  Please read the story before continuing. It is  important. Please read the comments by Jay Thompson. I totally agree with his take on this. NAR and MIBOR are tying the hands of REALTORS whilst freeing 3rd party lead aggregators to take over. Joe Lane echoed those thoughts about NAR and MIBOR on Active Rain.

Further details were added by Morgan Carey on his blog about his conversations (as the webmaster of two of the sites RedDoorIndy and HometoIndy)with NAR and MIBOR. (see that link as well). There were other borkerage sites affected that are not sites that Morgan’s company created. In Morgan’s post  I found NAR’s  misuse of the word scraping to be par for the course, sad to say. Google is NOT a scraper, Google is (essentially) the librarian of the internet. Morgan did a great job of explaining it and (in my opinion) NAR simply does not get it. Scrapers TAKE content. The librarian (Google) simply indexes it. (think: card catalog)

To force members of your organization to deindex pages from the internet library in my estimation is not unlike the decision to burn books at the real library because you find they are offensive to your beleifs or you are afraid of what they teach.

I don’t beleive in that.

Further, it is also bad for business. Google is going to ALLOW quality information to be published. AS THEY SHOULD. As Joe Lane indicated in his post, this will leave NAR members vulnerable to the likes of Trulia and Zillow for internet control of many of the long tail searches that people search for. Why? For the sake of ‘fairness”? Please.

Trulia and Zillow must be smiling while they watch the idiots at MIBOR try to legislate fairness by giving away the store to one third party after another.

In the comments on the AgentGenius post, NAR’s social media person, Todd Carpenter indicated that “maybe it wasn’t so bad for NAR to make it harder for the non listing agents site to rank for these terms.”

Special note to Todd. I have 110 agents (in the office where I work as a technologist) that pay dues that pay your salary. 50% of the deals they do are the selling side and NOT the listing side. If you are gonna be the NAR social media dude…PLEASE realize that buyer’s agents pay for 50% of your salary. Please let NAR in on that little secret as well.

Todd if you do not understand that concept, please resign before stepping on half of the people that pay you again. It is infuriating that you apparently do not get this. You are a nice guy, but favoring 50% of the REALTORS over the other half?

NAR is now left with no good choices.

Perhaps the best choice for the real estate industry as a whole is to do away with them (NAR). Google is a much better librarian than NAR and MIBOR EVER were at being judge, jury and executioner.

Blog Coaching: Less posts… More Substance.

I hear two common refrains when it comes to doing “the work” of a search engine optimization campaign. The first? “I don’t have time to blog and do all of this.” (even to the point that folks are happy to pay people to do it for them)…the second is “How many posts do I have to write on this blog before it will rank well?”

Have you ever found yourself in the “I do not have time to write on my blog” trap? I think we all have. This is especially true if you have bought into the notion that you have to write a post every other day or some such.

Is blogging work? (yes.) Does it take effort? (yes.) Is there some magical formula when it comes to blogging and SEO about how many posts you need to have? (NO!)

My high school english teacher, used a great analogy that applies here. When I asked him how long an essay needed to be, he said there was no assigned length. but gave me the following crucial advice.

“Like a miniskirt. Long enough to cover the subject, short enough to keep it interesting.”

Jeff Peckler

Bottomline? Write QUALITY and not QUANTITY. Write stuff that is newsy, well researched and that people will link to, quote, pass on to their friends, and so forth. Seriously.

If I see one more real estate blog with 600 posts about every single subdivision in town and why they are the greatest place to live, I am gonna hurl.

A single post, well structured, well written and ESPECIALLY well promoted and marketed can rank at the top of the search engines for a relevant subject. Search engines crave this relevance, but they don’t crave contrived crap. They want the RELEVANT stuff.

I can understand why Joost De Valk said in a recent presentation, “If you are gonna bait. Use the good stuff.” His powerpoint slide to illustrate this was NATURAL fishing bait. Good old fashined, aromatic, smelly, stick your hook through it type of stuff that fish love because it is REAL.

Write less posts and articles. Write better quality. Take the time to promote each one like its own mini book tour. Folks will link to you. Folks will traffic your blog. You will be very glad that you did.

Greatest real estate agent in the World – Your name here!

Are you the GREATEST real estate agent in the world?

There is a contest underway on the internet to see (according to Google) who the Greatest real estate agent is…not just in your location, but the world. Their contest ends on May 1, 2008. what I offered members of my team was IMMORTALITY!

How can you be the GREATEST REAL ESTATE AGENT IN THE WORLD?

The top 10 contributors to my TEAM Project win the Title! REMEMBER-Since I do NOT sell real estate, I am only helping YOU promote yourself! WIN-WIN!

Team Eric Member #8: There are several ways to contribute and EARN your way in– just like there are MANY ways that Google determines Authority, we need to credit the many ways authority can be built!

LINKS–linking to this page is a HUGE way (grin), but Links are only ONE way of authority building. The top six link contributors to our community project (as determined by the amount of quality links contributed) are in!

PUBLICITY–The two REALTORS providing the most publicity to this project also wins! This does NOT mean that they contribute links. Raising awareness BUILDS AUTHORITY and thats what Google wants.

IDEAS / INSIGHT / CREATIVITY: This contest is for 3 months…I reserve the right to award 2 of the ten spots to REALTORS who assist me with ideas and insight–EVEN insight into what competitors are up to! Want to be devious and help me out? (grin) You can earn a spot on TEAM ERIC and be the GREATEST REAL ESTATE AGENT IN THE WORLD.

GOOD LUCK!
So here are the members of Team Eric so far. They are listed in no particular order. You are about to find out who they are and WHY they are on my team!

Team member #1:

Jennifer Karlen (and her husband Jon)–aka the Greatest Real Estate Agents in the World for Horse Farms

Known officially as the K2 Group at RE/MAX Properties East in Louisville Kentucky, Jennifer has been in the real estate business for years and they have built up a GREAT business for clients with Kentucky horse farms. While due to the rules of this Contest I cannot put a link to their site here, you can call Jennifer at 866-353-6353. They are the best.

Team Eric member #2:

Greg Swann –aka–The Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World of Arizona.

Greg runs Bloodhound Realty and the Bloodhound Blog (Google that–then read it). He is a great guy and a writer in a league of his own. The Bloodhound Blog is hosting a conference in May called Unchained. Go to his blog and sign up! Best $199 you will EVER spend. The greatest real estate agents in the world understand their markets, the real estate business and technology and he is the quintessential example of all of that rolled into one package.

Team Eric member #3:

Ken Smith–aka–The Greatest Real Estate Agent in Arlington Heights.

Ken owns Suburban House Hunters, a team of real estate professionals that specializes in the suburbs that surround Chicago Illinois. He is a veteran broker with tons of experience who understands online lead generation like few others. I am honored to have him on the team and call him a friend. Thanks Ken …

Team Eric member #4:

Wayne Long–aka–The Greatest Real Estate Agent in the world of Columbus Georgia.

(We won’t tell anyone, but the Greatest is actually his wife Donna!) Wayne’s a great REALTOR who has seen a lot in the market. I would without a doubt send referrals to Wayne because I KNOW they would be treated to a world class experience.

Team Eric Member #5:

Judy Orr –aka The Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World of Cook County, Illinois!

Judy and I have moderated together on RealEstateWebmasters.com and she is one of the nicest people I know. She is experience and has been in the real estate game a long time (she must have started when she was 12!) Google Cook county real estate and you will see JudyO there…she knows her stuff and don’t let the sweet smile fool you. She means business-grin.

Team Eric member #6:

Cal Carter–aka The Greatest Real Estate Agent in Gulf Shores Alabama.

More people need to know about Cal…and the beautiful area of the country that he is from. He is incredibly smart and has the experience that comes from YEARS of online lead generation. This contest has allowed me to get to know him MUCH better. I am a better person for knowing Cal. And that’s EXACTLY how you’d define the Greatest Real Estate Agents in the World. They make you better for knowing them.

Team Eric Member #7:

Mike Dammann–aka The Greatest Real Estate Agent in the beautiful world of Costa Rica.

Mike is a search engine veteran who I bumped into a few years ago and instantly liked. We all have different levels of search knowledge and I (personally) have really benefited from his experience. We have spent a TON of time online during this contest. The banner ad below and donating the proceeds to the Eco Preservation Society was his idea and I am really enjoying hanging with him as part of the team. Get in there and Donate! grin

Team Eric Member #8:

Charles and Jacqueline Richey–aka The Greatest Real Estate Agent in the world of Las Vegas

I first met Charles at PubCon last December. I enjoyed the time that we got to kick back and learn there. Since that time, and especially as part of this contest, he has been a great source of authority for our little effort. If you are moving to Las Vegas, these guys truly are the Greatest.

Team Eric Member #9:

Matt Scoggins–aka The Greatest Real Estate Agent in the world of Atlanta

Matt is the guy behind his wife Louise’s site and he gives me the PERFECT opportunity to make a point. Even though I am great friends with Ryan Ward, one of his competitors in Atlanta (but who is competing with us in the contest), Matt has been a GREAT member of our team. Great Real Estate Agents work together with other agents, regardless of the competitive issues. They simply make them NON-issues by being great people. Thanks Matt, for being part of Team Eric and helping to demonstrate the true value in creating synergy where others would only create competition. The bottomline is that by giving, we get and Matt is a great example of that. Our friendship certainly will not end with this contest and I truly appreciate your quiet but unwavering supprt.

Finally, the Greatest Real Estate agents GIVE to causes that they support!

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: OUR “GREATEST REAL ESTATE AGENT IN THE WORLD” TEAM IS NOW PLAYING FOR A CAUSE!! JOIN US AS WE SUPPORT THE ECO PRESERVATION SOCIETY’S EFFORTS TO SAVE THE COSTA RICA ENVIRONMENT. WANT TO HELP?? HERE’S HOW.

Here is a video about them:

At the end of the contest, we will donate our winnings to this unique charity as well…

Oh yeah… there is a mystery #10 spot…Who’s gonna get it???!!
ANNOUNCEMENT:

TEAM ERIC has appointed a #10 MEMBER.

Team Eric Member #10:

Marc Rasmussen–aka The Greatest Real Estate Agent in Sarasota

Marc owns LUXURY SARASOTA REAL ESTATE .COM and he is a great guy that many of us have known for years. We have been STUNNED to see the way that the Sarasota Association of REALTORS has treated one of their own. In our view they are hypocrites and cowards. We therefore have given him an honorary membership on our team. We know how to treat “members”…

FINAL NOTE:

It is now just about 40 hours before the end of the contest, (but who’s counting-grin). One of the things that I needed to do as part of the rules was to comment on what I have learned from one of the other contestants…I am going to comment on two: Ryan Ward and Greg Boser.

Ryan is a consumate friend and professional. I would link to his post, but it is now linked to mine. I trust him and was he ahead of me coming down the home stretch, I honestly would have done the same thing. What did I learn from him? That friendship counts.

Greg is someone who I don’t know as well and yet, what I have learned from his contest piece was no less important. Greg was the un-contestant. It is a strategy that he used to great effect in the Dave Pasternak SEO contest, so I have to consider him a contestant despite his insistance to the contrary. What I learned from Greg was / is the skillful use of redirects. I am not going to go into it in public, but it was interesting to me… I admire Greg as a SEO technician and tactician. Both of those things are essential in optimizing a site.

Greg may or may not be bouncing up in these last few hours of the contest. Essentially I see three options:

a) He is too busy with company stuff. (totally understandable)
b) He is gonna come out of nowhere (possible but not likely in my book)
c) He is gonna redirect to one of the others in the contest and push them over the top. (a likely scenario as well)

The genius of Greg is–you NEVER know (grin). He plays this stuff close to the vest. So, whatever the case is, Greg, my hat is off to you. Even if you decided a few weeks back to focus on other stuff, it was fun. Even if you come out of nowhere and or push someone else over the top, let’s meet up sometime–have a few laughs and talk shop…sound good?

To all of the worthy competitors out there…(whether we win or lose), here a round of applause from Team Eric and my continued best wishes for all of you.

I’ve been MEME’d! My response…

I just noticed last night that I had been MEME’d by Lydia Taylor (a REALTOR from Savannah Ga) to post 7 interesting things about myself and then send on the challenge to 7 other unsuspecting souls…

So (if that’s how it works-grin), here goes…

Things that you might find interesting about me…

#1) My wife Jen and I have been married almost 19 years. We met in Korea, where we were both serving as missionaries – even though we are both American.

#2) My wife and I never dated before getting engaged (HUH?) Actually that is true. We became close friends as missionaries and I returned to the United States about 1 year before Jen finished her missionary work. We corresponded during that time and I knew she was the one for me…4 days after she came home I propsed. I didn’t want anyone else to have a chance (grin)…with good reason. Best decision I ever made.

#3) I am an identical twin.

#4) I used to work as a field rep for Diamond Walnut and probably know more useless facts about walnuts than most folks. (Test me…go ahead!)

#5) Jen and I have 4 kids, two of whom deal with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (one with Aspergers Syndrome and one with Autism). Our family speaks nationally on how to have a great perspective about Autism and the infinite potential of each person.

#6) I am a foodie and one of my favorite pastimes is watching Ace of Cakes (Food Network) and building amazing cakes with my son Craig. We have done dragons, cars, submarines, and even a bowl of chili cake that was EERILY realistic.

#7) Hmmm… what else…OK…we have two dogs..Boston and Cheyenne…my kids now want dogs for the other 48 capitals of the US…Ain’t gonna happen! (a dog called Sacramento or Indianapolis–don’t think so!)

OK…there’s my 7. Since Lydia shot down some of my posse with Ryan, Dave, Wayne, and Bramlett…I will have to opt for some other fun blogging friends! Greg, Kris Berg, Russell Shaw, all from the Bloodhound Blog…what do you say?

Two of my local real estate favorites Jon Karlen and Anne Mayhugh…are you up for it?

With my final two picks to tag people, I would like to try some elusive, but very helpful folks to REALTORS, Morgan Carey from REW-the world wants to know 7 interesting things about you! and finally Christopher (cK) Chung (who is not a REALTOR, but an outstanding Search Engine consultant and online marketer).

OK folks 7 interesting things about you and 7 other victims (grin). Thanks in advance if you participate (I hope you all do…)

In for a change? Want to sell your domain?

Southern Indiana web works has clients looking for local domains in a variety of industries. Domains have value. If you are closing down a shop, shifting to a new line of work, retiring, or otherwise in for a change, your website and its domain can have value to others. Here are a few tips to keep your domain value as high as possible:

1. Don’t let it expire- It has value. Many sales professionals (insurance, mortgage, real estate, etc) let their domains expire and needlessly throw away much of their value. It is like bending a baseball card can remove much of it’s value.
2. Plan ahead to sell it– It may be worth a little or a lot. The difference is often in PLANNING and taking time to find the RIGHT people to sell it to. Southern Indiana Web Works can help. We will happily offer free appraisals of your domains value and show you EXACTLY what adds value to your domain and who would be best to sell it to.
3. Avoid hustlers and shysters- There are a lot of people out there buying domains. Did you know that? You need to talk to experts and not simply take the first thing you are told as the gospel truth. Respectable people in the world of websites will be happy to give you a list of others to check with on the value of your domain.
4. Don’t be dissapointed if the value is less than you thought–you can increase it’s value and then sell it!! Unlike baseball cards, you can actively build the value of your domains! Want to know how? Give us a call, we will be happy to consult with you! The time to get started on this is NOW.

Network Solutions – Holding Domain Ideas for Ransom

So you are thinking about building a website or two. You go to Network Solutions and look up some domain names. But then you look around and decide to register them elsewhere and they are not available? WHAT!!!!????

Network Solutions (as reported in several places on the web–Like Here. ) is temporarily buying those domain names and FORCING you to buy them FROM them at 3 X the money! Talk about anti-competitive.

If indeed it is true and it seems to be since they themselves have called it a “security measure”…It is time to BOYCOTT them. The answer is simple. Search for your domains elsewhere. Any other registrar is fine.

In my opinion, Network Solutions’ move is LOW CLASS and we need to vote with our feet. Security measure my eye….this is a revenue grab plain and simple. They say it is to stop “Domain Tasting”. Ye, tasting IS a problem. No, I don’t participate in domain tasting. And No. This isn’t the solution.

This is simply a way for this overpriced company to charge unsuspecting searchers who are looking for possible domains much more money.

Just my opinion.

Eric

Southern Indiana Newspaper – Looking for a theme

Being the HUGE WordPress fan that I am, I have been working on a project for the last few months. I have been building the next Southern Indiana Newpaper. It is going to be an online paper and it will have some unique twists that you may not be expecting! (More announcement on this later…)

What I need is a SOLID WP them for an online Newpaper environment. There have been some valiant attempts made, but none seem to be ready for prime time… if you have some ideas, PLEASE post them here.(even if they need MAJOR modification and programming changes that is OK…We can handle it at the web works!

Also, if you can tell me what you think is relevant for an online magazine / newspaper. My vision is to create it as the love child of this online newspaper and this online “living” magazine…will it work? Only time will tell!

When I look at the profitability of the newspaper companies’ website (essentially online newspaper) divisions, I somehow think that it will…

Thoughts?

Eric

Blogging from your cell phone?

OK, so I am CHEAP. As intrigued as I have been with the iPhone, I didn’t buy one. I ESPECIALLY was cheap since I didn’t buy one even after the price reduction wars…(grin). I still keep telling myself that while it is cool, I still cannot see the practical side of what it gives me that is worth the extra dough to get it….

Enter Joost de Valk’s post on a new WP plugin…can you say WordPress blogging platform on an iPhone? or other web enabled cell phone?…Now we’re talking! Hat tip to Joost for enlightening me….

True, it will not lead to super long posts…typing a ton on that thing is just too tough. But it makes a pretty nice little mobile platform, WOW!

Here is the link to WPhone.

Now to convince my wife that i NEED an iPhone…(grin)

Enjoy!

Eric

Southern Indiana Web Works goes to PubCon 2007

We are headed to Vegas, baby!

I will be in Vegas at PubCon December 4-7th 2007!

While I am NOT what you call a party animal by ANY stretch of the imagination, I am looking forward to networking, sharing and learning with the best of the best in Search Engine Marketing.

I will be posting reports on this blog REGULARLY, so stay tuned and I will keep you posted.

I am looking forward to meeting many longtime acquaintances via the web in person. Many of my real estate industry friends will be atrending as well as a ton of my Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine marketing colleagues. I also looking forward to taking some time to strategize and plot the course for 2008 for the web work and our clients!

If you are there, look me up!

Online communities with strict laws & enough police…

There are many parallels between a great online community and a great community that you live in. One of the BEST examples of that is the fact that in a great community, there are adequate an abundance of laws to protect the citizens and there are enough police to enforce the laws.

Let me show you what I am talking by talking specifically about the real estate community. Please realize that I mean NO disrespect to any specific community. It’s just that since I am going to be LIVING there online for a long time, I might as well choose the best fit for me.

Example 1: Bloodhound Blog–This blog has moderated comments and VERY little spam. Nice work Greg. Notice that the thoughts are typically cogent and the discussion lively. Blogs are easier to do than blog farms or forums and many do not consider them a TRUE online community. I beleive that they are.

Example 2: Real Estate Webmasters–Yeah. I am a bit biased. I moderate there. But aside from that, Morgan and the REW crew put much effort into keeping the streets of REW city free from spam. Users are limited in the types of links that they can insert and self promo is not tolerated. Hmm..is there a correlation between that and their steady growth into the most active community of web savvy REALTORS? Don’t think so!

Example 3. GAREIA–This is IMO, how NOT to do it. They have a private forum, but once you pay to be a member, you can post almost ANYTHING. If you are going to grow a community, would paying a bribe to the local constable be an acceptable practice? My opinion is “No.”

Example 4: Active Rain–These guys are great. BUT they have not managed growth and their members. Link spam is getting out of hand here. Their community grew like wildfire, and like many boomtowns, soon profiteers rolled in to AR-ville to loot and pillage. In my opinion, they need a new sheriff. (see the next example) BTW-In my opinion, they have one of the

Example 5: Squidoo–While they are definately NOT just real estate 9anyone can squidoo!) they are : An online community reclaimed. Congratulations guys..IMO you are the online urban renewal project of 2007 so far. With a limited staff (reportedly 4 folks??) and a willingness to take on challenges, TeamSquidoo handled a penalty earlier this year from Google and eradicated the majority of their spam issues and have bounced back to be a vibrant community that is back to its winning ways (at least for now on Google.)

Congratulations, guys on a job well done.

Communities need a plan. They need to grow. They need to breathe and they need good rules and enforcement to keep them on track.

Just My Opinion…

Eric

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