There are no superstars in blogging.
First off, let me say that Amy Chorew will make a fine addition to an already outstanding blog. This post is not intended to be derogatory to her in any way. I wrote most of this post in my head while I was out tonight, not even knowing who Agent Genius’ new contributor was.
Earlier tonight, Lani Anglin, the new media director for agentgenius.com promoted this new contributor on twitter stating,
Lani motivated me to finally write a post that’s been sitting in the back of my head for weeks.
There are no superstars in blogging. Not anyone writing for AG. Not Greg Swann. Not Brad Inman, or Dustin Luther, or me. Not even if Gary Keller started blogging. Not even outside of real estate. Not Robert Scoble, or Guy Kawasaki.
I was told recently by a very good friend of mine, that before she met me, she thought I was a bit of a snob. Part of the RE.net elite. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that I intimidate people. Something I guess I need to work on. But I’d be very surprised if anyone thought that after meeting me in person. The truth of the matter though is that I’ve met almost everyone that a new real estate blogger might consider elite, and trust me, there is no secret hand shake. These are all just people with the same brilliant idea to blog as you now have, it’s just that they started a few months before you did.
The idea of no superstars is what I like best about blogging. The day of the super-influencers is dying. Most every decent blogger has something to bring to the table. Before REBlogWorld, who had any idea that Mariana Wagner and Kelley Koehler would be knocking people over with a feather in their sessions? OK, I knew, but that’s only because I took in interest in the way they do businesses through this blog, long ago.
That’s been the beauty of this blog all along. Even if I was the only person to read it, it would still be worth it to me. I have as much to learn from a blogger three months in, as I do from the folks you might consider elite. After a long hiatus, and a funny name change, I finally have time to fire up this blog again. Over the weekend, I’ll be reaching out to more bloggers for interviews. But if you think you have something to add, please don’t be shy. Some of the best interviews I’ve done are from folks I hardly know. Give me a shout at todd@bizomi.com.
Today, Rob Hahn asked what the official anthem for RE.net should be. Here’s my take. We have a lot to learn from each other people, this whole web 2.0 thing is still brand spankin’ new. Let’s talk.
Lucid Ninja Manifesto - The art of freelance marketing
I think most of this will migrate over to my about page, but I thought I’d share in a blog post the idea behind the new name and focus.
lucid (lū’sĭd) adj. Translucent or transparent.
Authentic in message but cunning in deployment. Yeah, that’s the ninja part. The way I see it, there are two really big problems with most web 2.0 marketing strategies.
- They don’t ask for the sale.
- They take up to much time.
I’m all for transparency in message. I think it’s vital. But that doesn’t mean you should wait for clients to come running to you with wallet in hand, just because you’ve shared everything you possibly can with them online. The first lesson I learned in sales is that you don’t earn a sale unless you ask for one. Many web 2.0 marketing strategies fail to ask for the sale, and that’s the main reason I think they fail.
In addition, web 2.0 marketing can be extremely time consuming. Larger companies are realizing this, and hiring Social Media Gurus, Evangelists, or even… Ninja. That’s great for a company like Zillow or Trulia, but what about freelance marketers?
Wait, what the heck is a freelance marketer?
Freelance marketers, as I define them, are independent sales agents who effectively market in a social media environment.They could be self employed, or head a small business. Or, they could work for a large company, but be on there own when it comes to marketing their services. Real estate agents are the perfect example of a freelance marketer. One could work for Keller Williams, or John Smith Realty. It doesn’t matter. Each agent really works for themselves.
Freelance marketers can’t hire a ninja, they have to be the ninja.
Moving forward, Lucid Ninja will explore how successful freelance marketers are operating in a web 2.0 environment. I’m still going to interview real estate agents, as they’re the epitome of success in this vertical. But I think that’s just the tip of the iceberg. More details to come. I don’t plan to post much more than once a week. We’ll see where this goes.
Personal highlights from REBlogWorld
REBlogWorld, the event, the learning experience, the opportunities it represents for the future, everything… more than anything, taught me a lot about myself. More on that in a future post. For now, I spent this morning trying to get my head around the last few days. Here are some of the highlights.
“I can’t believe you pulled this off”
Hearing that from more than a few people was very gratifying.
“This is the single best show like this I’ve ever been to”
That would mean a lot from anyone. But it came from Teresa Boardman, and she said it with the same “eyes wide open” expression on her face that I had when I went to Blog World in 2007. If Teresa’s compliment was the only one I received at the show, all of the the work would still have been worth it.
“You’re speakers on Friday were as good or better than anyone I’ve seen on Saturday or Sunday.”
We got this a bunch. Thank you. We spent the summer convincing real estate bloggers how much they could learn from other social media types. My realization now is that many of those same social media types have a ton to learn from real estate bloggers. Look for us to address this in 2009.
Meeting people at the IBNMA booth.
From Adam Hirsh of Mashable to Jennifer Lindsay at Eastwick, to my fellow IBNMA advisory board members, it was great to connect with people from all shades of the blogosphere.
LobbyConing it.
The conversations I had in the halls were awesome. Some of the most insightful moments of the show.
Meeting more real estate geeks.
People like ManaTulberg and Sam Basel, who I had not known at all before the show, not even online.
Connecting with my RE.net friends.
There’s no way I can list you all here. But is was great to see EVERYONE. Thank you very much for coming.
Seeing it all come together.
My business partner, Jason Berman had as much to do with making this happen as I did. I think only people like Greg Swann and Andy Kaufman have any idea at how much work it is to put together a real estate 2.0 show from scratch. Without Jason’s work, this would not have gone off as well. Thanks Jason.
Getting kicked out of the Zappos party.
Ok, I don’t know if it was a highlight in itself, but it spun into a few. My apologies to Tony from Zappos for my language on Twitter. You’re a class act.
And finally, behaving badly, far from home.
I told you all that we were planning to play just as hard we worked. We did. Want to know the details? Come to REBlogWorld in 2009 and you’ll know why we’re not sharing. Pacts were made. Alibi’s secured. Cameras left in the hotel room. Yeah, it was like that.
Why Ninja?
Because ninja are cool, and by that, I mean totally sweet.
Because cats can be ninja.
Because ninja are sneaky.
Because, even on Talk Like a Pirate Day, everyone knows that ninja still win out.
Because, you shouldn’t expect a guy who named his very serious mortgage industry blog “lenderama” to have a serious name for this blog either.
I’m having some fun at REBlogWorld and Blog World & New Media Expo this weekend. I’ll get serious next week. Stay tuned.
The sombrero dies at REBlogWorld.
This blog was born because I thought it would be a unique and cheap way to promote a social gathering of real estate bloggers here in Denver during the BlogTour USA. I held the event at Garcia’s of Denver, as they have pretty good food and a nice big private room for a crowd. The event was a huge success, the biggest of the tour, with over 40 people showing up with just a few weeks of preperation.
Because the event was at a Mexican restaurant, I called it Blog Fiesta. I’ve never really liked the name. But people seemed to like the sombrero icon so I stuck with it.
Before the event even took place, I saw the opportunity to spin this blog into a way to meet real estate bloggers nationwide. That has been the sole pourpose of BlogFiesta, and it worked fantasticly. I’ve interviewed over 60 real estate and mortgage professionals. Using every one of these interviews as an opportunity for me to meet these foward thing real estate profesionals, and learn what makes them tick.
About a dozen of REBlogWorld’s speakers have been interviewed on Blog Fiesta. In most cases, it was the first meaningful interaction I had with them. The most sugnigicant example would be Teresa Boardman, who I knew almost nothing more than that she was “big on Active Rain” when I approached her about an interview. Today, she is one of my best friends, inside or outside of our industry.
I knew that in planning both REBarCamp and REBlogWorld, and in managing Denver Modern and Lenderama, that I wasn’t going to have time for this blog this summer. But that’s about to change.
On September 19th, at REBlogWorld in Las Vegas, the sombrero dies. I want to break free of the sombrero. I want to break free of this blog’s exclusivity to RE.net. Real estate agents have been at the forefront of freelance marketers on the web, but I see some other emerging industries that are quite exciting and want to explore them.
Stay tuned! This space is in for one hell of a facelift.
