Archive for December, 2007
Whimsical Wednesday: Talking to Myself
· CommentsGeorge Carlin said: “The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.”
That’s not why I talk to myself. Actually, I don’t really know why I talk to myself, but I know I do. Not only do I talk to myself, but I talk to inanimate objects.
Well, maybe part of it is because I’ve worked with computers for so long. Anyone who doesn’t talk to, threaten, cajole, instruct, question or plead with their computer just isn’t normal. I have turned off my speakers unless there is something I want to listen to, hoping that would help. I think it’s going to be easier not to talk to the computer when it’s not making that annoying noise if I hit the wrong button.
And, I think it’s talking to computers that started me talking to other inanimate objects.
I’ve been known to apologize to things. Guess it was my strict upbringing. If I drop a plate, I might mumble, “Oh, sorry” as an automatic response, while cursing is reserved for times when the plate is rude enough to break.
I don’t usually embarrass myself by talking to things in front of other people, with one notable exception. It was a dark and stormy night. Well, not actually, but it was cold and the wind was howling. I owned a car with a lock on the gas cap and I was running on fumes.
I stood at the gas station, fumbling with the key to the gas cap. Of course, the gas cap chose that particular moment to refuse to open. I probably mumbled a few “Oh, c’mon” type comments under my breath, but I didn’t realize I had finally raised my voice until I heard a loud belly laugh coming from the man at the pump on the other side of mine when I said, “OK, look! If you don’t open up, you’re not going to get any gas!!!”
Don’t forget to answer the Share Your Experience poll. The poll is located in the left column of the blog. Look for the header “Share Your Experience”, click on the response of your choice, then click the Vote button!
What Will Make Your 2008 Great?
· CommentsMany, if not most, real estate markets are pretty quiet right now. That makes it the perfect time to get your plans for 2008 nailed down.
I came across an article on Broker-Agents News that identifies a very specific list of “To Dos” to get ready for next year. These ideas are focused on handling sideways or down markets.
A strong theme in the article has to do with a focus on increasing listings, but if you’re a buyer agent, the article also includes a number of ideas for managing buyer relationships.
The concept of time-blocking is also discussed. Time-blocking refers to setting aside time in your schedule for specific activities, and it’s a basic principle of good time management. What you’re really doing is setting an appointment with yourself, and treating that appointment with the same seriousness as you would a client meeting.
Take a moment to review these 14 points – you may reinforce things you already know or commit to making a change that will make a difference in your bottom line in 2008!
Do-It-Yourself-SEO: Part 3
· CommentsUse this link to see all the posts in this series: Do-It-Yourself SEO.
Think Like a Search Engine
The place to begin learning SEO is to start thinking like a search engine. Well, search engines don’t really think, and we don’t know how they’re programmed down to the last detail. If the search engines published their complete algorithm for ranking sites, the Black Hat folks would go even crazier finding ways to trick the system.
But, all that aside, here’s a very high level overview of how search engines work. And, keep in mind that the assumption for the rest of this series is that your website meets the minimum requirements for being search engine friendly.
If you’re not sure what those are, check out the series on Real Estate Website Content Mistakes.
A Search Engine’s Goal: Satisfying Their Customers
Everyone has customers – even search engines. For a search engine, their customer is the person who types a search phrase into their search field. The search engine wants to provide the best list of web pages that offer the most in-depth and accurate information on the keyword phrase that has been entered.
And, that is a pretty aggressive goal. You know from using search engines yourself that there can be anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of web pages that are listed for a particular search term. So, how does a search engine possibly figure out which pages to include in a list, and what order to put them in?
Read More→
There’s a reason why I don’t have a truly real estate marketing post today. I have been unable to update my blog because of a change to the anti-spam plug-in, Bad Behavior.
I try not to get on a soapbox on this blog, but I just can’t help myself tonight. Yes, it’s about midnight and I’ve been going nuts with this blog all evening.
Bad Behavior is a great anti-spam plug in for WordPress blogs. However, there really ought to be a better way for the developers to do business. Yes, I realize this is free software, but the developers have to know that people do come to rely on it.
In trying to update the blog today, I was kicked out to an error page that told me my IP address was identified as a spam site. The page gave me nothing useful about how to fix the problem, and suggested that I ask for assistance at a non-existent e-mail address under my domain name. It looked to me like a hacker had gotten into the site or my computer.
I was going crazy doing virus scans, contacting my host, and trying to figure out who or what was behind the problem. My host finally figured out that it was a Bad Behavior problem and came across this post on the Bad Behavior blog. And, to top it all off, when I land on that site, my anti-virus software tells me that the site has a dangerous web advertisement on it!
The problem can be fixed by uploading a new release, which my host did for me. You can get the download at the post I noted above. And, based on the comments on the developer’s site, I’m not the only one who has been going through this.
So, if you’re having a problem with your WordPress blog, this could be the cause of it. And, Michael Hampton, if you’re listening, at a minimum, couldn’t the error page that is initially displayed be updated with a link to your post with the download fix?
Also, many thanks to Vince at www.HostRefugee.com for the research and fix on the problem. If you’re looking for a new web host, you might want to check out Host Refugee.
Thus ends my rant for the day.
Update: Michael Hampton has been very responsive to this problem. I’ve been monitoring the post on his blog. He has updated the error page to indicate that Bad Behavior is involved, and he said he would be updating the Bad Behavior information on the WordPress.org site. So, if you’re running WordPress 2.3.1, you’ll get a notification of an available update on the Plugins page once those updates are being completed. Thanks Michael!
Here’s a response to my Whimsical Wednesday post about people who really annoy me. Rose Sellers, who markets Athens GA Real Estate had this to say:
“First, isn’t it interesting how unique we are…the things that annoy you most, don’t even ruffle my feathers. BUT what really annoys me is people who BUTT in line or try to. Especially at the airport or in traffic. I consider this really, really rude!”
I agree, Rose. And, it’s a good thing that different things bother different people, or we’d probably have bloodshed on our hands!! Although I’m sure that no one is ever that rude when looking at Athens GA real estate, right?
Take a look at Rose’s real estate website – the before - and I’ll let you know when her new site is live – she’s getting a brand new design with search engine friendly content! Update: The switch has been made to the new site. When you see a header with three photos in it, that’s the new site.
