You want to blog. You may have already started to blog, but you worry about the content… and your concerns are being fed by reports of bloggers not having the same rights as journalists. You wonder:

• What if I get in legal trouble?
• What if someone sues me?
• What if a typo changes something I’m trying to say?
• How can I protect myself?

Bloggers are communicators. We (as a group) need to be heard, to share information and to stand surefooted alongside our opinions. We need to know where to go to get the real story about our rights, or protection and how the current legal climate may affect our blogs. (more…)

Kimberly Thomas-Catanzaro (a peer professional who specializes in bookkeeping) recently sent me a note on a new productivity product (currently in public beta) that I think would be quite a boon for most real estate folks.

I’m going to be testing it over the next few days myself as a way to keep up with expenses. (I’m always out — and usually driving — when I think “oh, I should record this before I forget it.”) I always have my cell phone and can’t drive and use my tablet at the same time — at least not very well or very safely. (more…)

Miguel Berger, broker/owner of TechValley Homes Real Estate in Albany, New York was just awarded Realtor® of the Year by the Greater Capital Association of Realtors (GCAR).

GCAR is a trade association resulting from the merger of two individual associations: The Albany County and the Rensselaer County Boards of Realtors. The merger occurred in 1992, but the two associations themselves dated back to the 1920s. This association of 3200 members gives annual awards including community service, unique transaction, and committee recognition awards. The two primary awards are the Realtor of the Year and the Ralph P. Dupont Award for community service.

I caught up with Miguel this week and asked if he would be willing to answer a few questions on his award, the real estate market in New York and across the nation and his own business. He agreed to the interview.

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I recently received the following email from Lisa Mahoney, a real estate agent in Uxbridge, MA working with RE/MAX American Dream, and am reprinting (and answering) it here with her permission:

Hi there, I am just starting out and have paired up w/ a “team.” No one else uses any real mobile technology (except cell phones). I would like to suggest a few ways to move towards being more efficient and mobile.I spend hours sometimes at an open house, where I could be working etc. So I am wondering what should a good agent have??So far I have a wireless Laptop (not sure if it would work w/ on the road) and a blackberry. Of course a printer/fax but those are not portable. Also what kind of software would I need to have to be able to fax through email online and connect to the internet? How does it all work together?

Sorry for all the questions……this is all so new to me but I LOVE YOUR IDEAS!!!

Thank You,

Lisa Mahoney
RE/MAX American Dream
508-802-3436
www.NewEnglandAmericanDream.com

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You just landed a wonderful listing. Congratulations! It’s a tough market right now, but the home is in a good neighborhood and with just a little work it may be sold in a couple weeks.

Then you actually start working with the client. This client is motivated to sell the house, but is completely unwilling to raise a hand to help you stage, show or sell the home.

They want to move because they already have a new house. They don’t want to organize, paint or be bothered with “the old house” and they don’t believe it matters. Your suggestions are meeting with resistance and you get the distinct impression that your recommendation that they paint the dark blue entryway a lighter color is… well… rude.

You don’t want to upset the client, but you can’t engage them in the project. You need them to be cooperative. How do you achieve that goal?

In three easy steps… (more…)

So you have decided to go smaller. Depending on your age, you have probably shocked your parents or your children (or if you are a true rebel — maybe both generations in one dramatic swoop!)

Now that you have committed yourself to more sustainable living and a more enjoyable existence with less worry, less responsibility and less “stuff” — you want to determine how to scale back comfortably and fit your desired lifestyle into a tiny home. I have a few tips that may help ease your transition and create a living space that you simply adore!

Smaller does not mean less interesting, it usually means just the opposite. You will get more impact with fewer furnishings and your personal style will shine through. Your tiny house should fit your life while keeping you safe, happy, organized and unfettered. It should be designed to tremendously reduce the time, energy and money required to repair, maintain, clean and finance your living quarters so you can spend more of your personal resources enjoying your life. (more…)

While Google is competing with Microsoft’s products online, Zoho is competing with Google’s offerings and is raising the ante. Zoho already has Zoho Writer (word processing online) and Zoho Sheets (spreadsheet online).

But Zoho also offers a PowerPoint competitor: Zoho Show and a OneNote competitor: Zoho Notes (coming in March).

Zoho is also increasing the buy in with products such as…a customer relationship management product, a project management program, a “virtual office” solution, a calendar and email program, a wiki and an online database application.

For small business owners, this may be just the ticket to lowering the cost of software. And for those considering the launch of an online business, this may lower the cost for startup. For anyone collaborating across geographic boundaries, this is another way online work can lighten the load.

And isn’t it nice to have options?

So, you want to have your computer run smoothly, keep your information safe and you don’t want to make keeping your stuff safe a second full-time job?

I found just the thing for you! Go and read the article “The 20 Minute Guide to PC Security” over on ITSecurity.com. It’s a great little article that covers most of the basics and give you an excellent collection of links and resources. If you are worried about security (and you should be!) go here. Go now. (heads up provided by Tracy at StudentTabletPC.com)

If you read my articles, you know I think you should be blogging. You should. Period.

But if you read my stuff, you also know that I don’t advocate ghost bloggers, nor do I ghost blog for others. But, I have run into a writer who has a firm handle on the ethical side of helping business people blog — and her name is JJ Murphy.

She offers blogging assistance to the shy would-be blogger to help you get your ideas — your OWN ideas — down in print and published on your blog. So if you know the articles you should be writing, but never have the time to finish up the ideas, she may be your first-class ticket into the blogosphere. (more…)

Perhaps you have decided to create a blog for your business. Let’s say, just for argument, that you have already selected your blog software, you have selected a name and a tagline, you even have an idea on how to approach your first post… but what you don’t have is a good, well-branded and beautifully colored blog template.

I found a wonderful little online tool that will hold your hand through the process of color selection — (more…)

When I returned from my blogging lunch (in comparison to a working lunch), I attended a speech by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. I’d just managed to wrap my mind around what I could do as a single person for this cause when he urged the audience to “light a match” explaining that in a room of darkness, a single match throws out alot of light.

I must agree…

In an effort to light my own match, I started working to gather more effective tools I need to explain the issues to my own “sphere of influence” when I return from Memphis.

During a later afternoon session on Net Neutrality, I had the opportunity to talk briefly with Tim Wu (probable author of the term “Net Neutrality”), professor of law at Stanford and proponent of Net Neutrality.

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The conference is off to a great start. I’ve heard speakers and issue activists Danny Glover and Bill Moyers. Personally, I’ve been battling with what, exactly, my role should be in this fight. I’ve been battling with it for weeks. I now believe that by the end of the conference, I’ll have my game plan.

So far, I know I’ll continue to be vocal to my local political representatives (Not that it’s been a particularly productive pasttime so far). However, I must continue to try. My interests are broad — but interrelated.

• I think that the Internet is required for economic development in rural areas. That requires access.
• I think that our current defunct educational system could be better served by relying more on online resources to educate our children. (I have children that ride a rural bus for over an hour and a half each day to get, what I consider to be, less-than-adequate education). If it were possible to do online courses that were state approved in KY as they are approved in other states, my children would be studying online at home.
• I think independent workers and small businesses can compete more effectively with online tools and that the removal of geographic boundaries is advantageous to the businesses and our economy overall.
• I think NOT being required to commute and pollute our environment in order to do your job is a good thing. The Internet permits me to do just that and I want others to be able to do the same.

I think all these things are important. And although I find media reform a sticky and difficult to fully recognize, much less fully understand, I do know that these issues are what impact my own issues.

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If you are a real estate broker … and one of the things you plan to do this year is get more organized (but the thought of doing the WORK to get more organized makes you decide this task can wait) — you may be interested in a new service I’ve found!

Long-time transaction coordinator (and the person I recommend to my own clients for these services), Karen Drebes of The Coordinator Group (www.CoordinatorGroup.com), has recently launched a new division, DocManagers. This service takes the burden of paper management off any weary broker’s back and makes life inside your office easier. (more…)

The real estate industry has experienced an amazing boom cycle during the past 11 years. Most of today’s agents have experienced only a raging market in the midst of incredible growth.

In 2005, according to recently published survey by NAR, 24% of all Realtors® have been in business one year or less and fewer than one third were in business last time the market took a dip.

Since the housing market has been a bit bumpy, some real estate agents have become alarmed. Newer agents, in particular, hesitate to spend any money to build their business. Even some “old hands” have cut or eliminated their marketing and advertising budgets and are running their offices with a “bare bones” approach.

Normally, I’m all for simplification. Usually, I would agree that if you aren’t making money, you should be wary of spending it. But in the current housing climate, I’d like to offer a few thoughts. (more…)

When you blog, you should always give serious thought to the headline.
After all, many RSS feeds will only pick up your headline for the
initial display. People browsing your blog won’t make it past a
headline that leaves them cold. And, from a search engine perspective,
the keywords in a headline are “weighted” much heavier than simple body
text.

Blog Headlines

• Keep your headlines snappy (brief and interesting) for your readers
• Use keywords, but don’t overuse them – this is the opportunity for
  you to use a variety of terms that relate to your specialty or your
  real estate niche as used in that particular blog entry
• Capture the eye of searchers who may otherwise miss your primary keywords.
• Be bold

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I love Firefox. I despise IE. I use IE only long enough to ensure that my own webs and my client’s site resolve properly using that browser. Then, lickety-split, I’m back to FireFox where I can browse in tabs, where I can worry less about security issues, where I can customize my browser to serve me the way I work, and where I can be a part of a community of software developers and users that create objects for their peers. It’s a geeky community, but an enjoyable one.

Yeah, I know the new IE 7.0 offers its own “tabbed” browsing, but they are too late to this party, IMHO.

I could wax poetic about Firefox for hours (I’m verbose that way, at times…)

But, rather than doing that, I thought you may be interested in what Firefox add-ons I use and why I love them. That way, if you want to give Firefox a spin, you will know some of the bells and whistles you can add. And, if you already adore Firefox, you can peruse a list of “must have” add-ins that are tried and true (and won’t crash your Internet sessions).

1. Want to know all the cool stuff that the new release offers (for those of you that have an old release, or those that have never used Firefox)? - Get the Scoop Here!
2. Want to give it a spin? Download the latest release Firefox 2.
3. Want to waste about six hours of your life reviewing all the widgets you can get that will customize the devil outta your own copy of Firefox? Visit the add ons Page.

Or, perhaps… you would prefer to see some of the top Ad ons — the ones I’ve tried and found to be true? Well here they are…

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Most of you have probably heard of — even played with — the new Yahoo! Real Estate Search Tool, but I’d be willing to bet that very few of you have seen a “sneak peak” of the new Google Real Estate tool.

It’s still in what I’d call “pre-alpha” — although I have no idea what the Google developers are calling it — and has been discovered via the back end by some people so geeky they make me look chic!

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In my series on reviewing some of the coolest offerings of free online tools by the daddy search engine, Google… I just love SketchUp. It’s a CAD-style drawing device available online for download. The price is right, the features are cool and it’s like creating SIMS houses! If you want to check it out…

Visit http://sketchup.google.com and have some fun. Ever want that little cabin in the woods, want to design that cool loft apartment, how about creating your perfect office space? Here’s the tool!

technorati tags: CAD+Drawing, Online+Tools, Sketch+Up, Sketchup, Google, House+design

As I mentioned the other day on WickedBlog, I broke my precious little, ultra portable (and great-picture-taking) Canon SD 500 Power Shot. I broke the little LCD screen. Now, although it still takes photos — I can’t see them, preview them, or sort them until I plug the sd card into my Tablet PC. So, it’s really cramping my style.

With that said, I called a client of mine (photo buff and Georgia Realtor Jeff Aughey) and asked if he knew anything about replacement of the screen — was it possible, or did I need to budget for a whole new camera? He went on his favorite forums and did some legwork for me and found the following forum post… (Thanks, Jeff!)…

Photography on the Net Forum on LCD Camera Screen Repair. These forums require a log in — but I must admit that I didn’t find them to be extremely helpful, other than learning that it could be done — and of course the phone number for ordering the part. So, I decided to write my own “how-to” to help anyone who would like a cheaper solution for a heart-breaking gadget problem.

Since the guy that posted said he hadn’t actually DONE the replacement himself, but had pulled it from another post, I thought I’d give a blow-by-blow on how this goes for me… and, just maybe, my hands will be steady enough to do the deed.

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I got an email today from a fellow writer who asked if she should offer project rates or standard hourly rates for her copywriting services. Some of her potential clients had been advised by a real estate coach to always get per-project rates. She asked for my advice.

For anyone who plans to hire a writer, you may want to consider the following, before signing on the dotted line: If you have a standard/recurring project (like writing a 250-word property description, if you are are a real estate agent) you can easily hire a writer and pay them “per listing.” But this is pretty “rote” writing and you aren’t pushing the creative envelope much. Some writers are willing to do other projects based on a per-word or a per-page calculation.

There are a few things you should consider on each of these “product-based” approaches to writing services:

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