Mhaaaaa..the mAgicK BuS!..and a thank you across the bow.

...Real work has been interfering with my blogging, but not my desire to blog. I apologize again to all my readers and 5-second looky-loos (according to Google analytics) for my absence, the topics that never were covered or properly expanded on and the generally lame attempts at being a bad real estate blog.

Meanwhile, back at the blog:

...I would love to be on the Sellsius bus, so to speak - the requisition has been made through the proper channels and a response is forthcoming in the next 24-36 hours.

...of course, if Teresa Boardman, Pat Kitano, JimmyZ, ZIllow, niknik, Joel Burlsem, REBlogGirl, JeffX, MaureenFrancis and Inmannews would offer me $300 dollars not to place my face on the bus..., well?????

By the way:...Joel has been a busy man lately pushing web RE video. He looked really Gen-Neutral during his Inman interview. His is a worthy cause for those selling digital video equipment - but likely not a great marketing solution for most single listings for Realtors.

Here is why:

Video Tours Lack Traffic and Aggregation: If you Alexa the companies that are doing RE video and stack them up, the traffic pile is not as deep as you-know-who-E-O. Video works great for building affinity for a community, a charismatic Real Estate agent/team or for showcase properties where the money is there to support video production values.

Video Tours are Tooooo Linear: They drag you though a property like a bull with a ring through its nose. Plus you usually have to look at some broker or agent hind quarters, making you feel like a sled dog.

Video Tours Lack Production Values: As a photographic mentor once told me, you cannot make chicken salad out of chicken guano. Find me ten RE video tours - done by agents or brokers at any site anywhere on the web that have any production values at all and I will eat this blog. The vast majority of RE video tours are so poorly executed with lousy lighting, fuzzy focus, shaky shooting, poor panning and awful audio it really isn't any wonder why this hot new trend is flailing to sizzle-yes, flailing.

EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS:

... to Voyager International, a kind-of competitor: Hey! You spelled Obeo right! And it's great to know our name leads on your web page presentation. Just so you happy-go-lucky gang of marketing mash-ups know:

-We are tops with Realtors in the NAR Vertical Metrix : money follows market leaders, and Realtors know their money works hardest with us.

-Obeo posts the vast majority of its tours on 4 days.

-And sorry about your traffic accident: One of my current clients has had a tour with you at Kayyah and the listing has been viewed 38 times since 09/06/2006. Get well soon !

More later, if you can stand it...

Steve

How does your blogging grow?

Disclosure: I am a member of the WannaNetwork Forum.

Inman News' recent three-part series on social media is sparking questions about what is advertising, the value of content-and who decides.
The rub comes in the second part of the series. Author(s) Jessica Swesey and Glenn Roberts Jr. mention all the usual big players: ActiveRain, Google, YouTube, RSS Pieces, Groundswell, Robin McKnight-and the not-so-big WannaNetwork, created by Tony Sena, a Las Vegas Realtor.
McKnight comments ActiveRain is getting bloggers noticed because of the relevant content on the site. By comparison, she said the agents using WannaNetwork "...were using it to advertise and Google never trusted it because of the quality of the content just isn't there."
Whoa - them could be fighting words. But here, the weary-fingered blogging expert McKnight appears right -relevancy and timeliness of content can push a blog up in a search engine. Content is still king. Credibility still is a keystone in what I call the "information is more important than influence" game.
But what if something different is going on at WannaNetwork - granted the blogging tools are a bit limited, but the forums are lively and anyone who looks there will see business is being done.
Hmm. Making money without SEO or blog content. Happened before the web, why not now in the web? This alone will probably not put Google out of business, but it does highlight the constantly changing realities of new emerging markets and web-resident consumers.
Roberts points out in the final Inman piece today that Web 2.0 and the way it works "...can lead some of these web sites and tools to jump from oblivion to immense popularity while others dim to virtual obscurity in viral fashion..."-Newer ways of doing new business may not be immediately obvious to those watching, reporting or blogging about it. And not getting the right information out could put a damper on a pretty good new thing – whatever it is at the moment.
Inman is giving a broad view of what is happening right now. Wright has a presence at WannaNetwork and has some great blogging tips posted there in the forums. Sena is developing a networking community. And Google is getting bigger, of course. Blogging? Perseus.com reports after randomly surveying eight leading blog sites: “...1.09 million blogs were one-day wonders, with no postings on subsequent days.”
Maybe information can be kind of like the Emperor laughing because he knows he has no clothes on.

If you can hear him laughing.

Thanks for stopping by,
Steve
steven.stearns@obeo.com