As you may remember, I recently wrote a post about Tynt, a company whose software allows you to learn what is being copied from your website and leverage those copies into more traffic.

I’m sure it works great for some folks.  But, I may have to give it up to save myself from a heart attack.

Actually, this is only a Whimsical Wednesday post because it is slightly unrelated to real estate marketing, and because I’m taking this opportunity to vent.  Internet theft is a pretty serious subject as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve been getting the Tynt reports on our main site, BuildRealEstateResults.com.  During the month of May, there have been 53 copies made from the site, 43 new links created, and zero people who landed on my site from those copies.

So, just for fun, I checked the page that had the most copies made, the home page of the site, on Copyscape.   I don’t have a premium Copyscape account, so I only got the first few results.  And, what I found is shown below.

There are two plagiarists:  the first company that stole Internet content, and the second company that stole Internet content.  As you can see, Goldstar put the content on their services page, and the stolen content comprises 21% of the text on the page.  Spacecoast Marketing populated 16% of their home page with my copy.

Great!  So, GoldStar and Spacecoast, if you’re listening, I’d sure appreciate it if you’d hire me to write your copy rather than steal it.  And, if you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate it if you removed the copy from your pages.  You’re both overseas, and my content was way ahead of you in being cached with the search engines.  That is the only reason why I’m not following my own advice in terms of dealing with Internet plagarism.

C’MON GUYS.  YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE SOME COPYWRITERS OVER THERE!

I don’t always look at the caller ID before I answer the telephone.  Sometimes I don’t think about it, and sometimes the phone is buried under a few things on my desk.  Well, sometimes more than a few.

Besides that, I’ve found that there are some people I’d really like to talk to who have strange things showing up on the caller ID.  Some say private number, some just give the city and state with no name.

So, I often just answer the telephone and suffer through the pain if I end up with a telemarketer.  I have gotten to the point where I don’t suffer people trying to take up my time very well.  I find the best thing for me is to tell the person that I am not interested in their product/service, but that I appreciate their call.

I know they’re just trying to earn a living.  But, then there are those people who will start talking faster, rushing through their script and asking me questions designed to make me feel stupid.  At that point, I’ve really had enough.  So, I’ll just apologize for hanging up on them, and then hang up.

But, I didn’t need any tricks to get rid of a telemarketer who called the other day.  It happened that I looked at the caller ID when the phone rang.  And, it is sad because whoever was calling just hadn’t figured out the technology piece yet.

So, what, you ask, showed up on the caller ID??

TELEMARKETER

Now that’s the idea!  Stop it before it starts!!!

Here’s my latest green idea.  Well, actually, it’s the first green idea I’ve published on this blog.  But, I think it’s a good one.

It should be a law that if you have initial contact with a person or business via email or the Internet, that’s how they should communicate with you in the future!  Simple, huh?

Why did this idea come to mind?  Two reasons.

The first has to do with online stores.  Since I live out in the middle of nowhere almost, I tend to do a lot of shopping online.  I find products online, make a purchase online, and the company ships the product to me.

The only paper involved is the packing slip.

So, then, what does that online store do?  They start mailing me catalogs.  Large, shiny, full color catalogs.  Now, what sense does that make?  They’re also sending me emails constantly (unless I opt out) with specials, new products or just reminders.

Given all that electronic communication, why in the world would they ever mail me a catalog?  Just to kill a few more trees??

The second reason is because of the Congressman who represents my district in Washington.  I have been writing Georgia Senators and the Congressman from time to time.  Unfortunately, none of my elected officials agree with my point of view, but I keep bugging them anyway.

The Senators always send me a nice long email ignoring my opinion and telling me why they are supporting the opposite position.  But, my Congressman always sends his discussion on why I don’t know what I’m talking about in writing.

And, it’s not just a quick postcard.  I receive an official envelope (that he didn’t have to pay the postage on) with 4-5 pages of reasons why my point of view is ridiculous.

It’s a silly situation.  Maybe on their off days the Congress could pass a law outlawing contact in writing to something that started electronically.

However, I’m afraid to make that suggestion since I’m sure it would just trigger another 5 page reply!

All of you have heard that prospecting for new clients is a critial part of being successful in real estate.

Some of you even believe that.

Some of you actually do that.

But, since prospecting is often the least favorite activity for many real estate professionals, it’s often overlooked or put off.

This is especially true for professionals who have been in the business a long time.  I’ve talked to many who say that they used to be able to rely on their sphere and referrals to maintain their business at a fairly consistent level.  They’re not very excited about doing more prospecting.   And, they’re frustrated because they don’t understand why — all of a sudden — it’s necessary.

If this describes you in any way, I think you’ll find this post by Mary Nack in Chicago to be very interesting.  Mary has analyzed the reasons why prospecting is more important for her business.  And, sometimes I think that understanding a problem makes it easier to deal with.  So, enjoy.  Or, at least get a new perspective on the issue!