Is ghost blogging a violation of the NAR code of ethics?

I’m slated to speak on a panel on how blogging can get you sued, (or fired) at Inman Connect this summer. I’ve been exploring topics related this week and studying up on RESPA, Copyright Infringement, and even the NAR Code of Ethics.

One business practice worth looking at in this regard is the act of hiring a ghost blogger. Specifically, to hire someone else to write complete blog posts for you, then publish them on you blog under your own name. This is a fairly common practice in the publishing world, and amung big name CEO’s. But these folks aren’t bound by the NAR Code of Ethics.

In reading the first sentence of article 12, I think this practice could be considered a breach.

REALTORS® shall be honest and truthful in their real estate communications and shall present a true picture in their advertising, marketing, and other representations.

Representing yourself as an expert by taking credit for advice that you simply did not create on your own is not honest in my book. I think it would be different, and completely acceptable if you credited the ghost post to a “staff writer”, or something similar. But signing you name to that work is a different story.

What do you think?

Denver Real Estate Wire launched

I launched yet another blog tonight. The Denver Real Estate Wire is where I’ll be sharing interesting news and opinions about… you guessed it, Denver Real Estate. I hardly expect big shot bloggers for fancy smancy locals like St Paul to read it, but if you’re in Denver, I hope you’ll visit.

Meanwhile, I realize this blog has not been updated in a week or so, but it’s only half my fault. There’s plenty of Real Estate bloggers who have yet to complete their interview questions and get them back to me.

Ahem… this weekend might be a good time to do that!

Blogger Spotlight: Diane Cipa

I decided that I wanted a title professional as a contributor for lenderama, so I went on a scouting trip around the blogosphere.

My search ended at Dina Cipa. I only had to read two of her posts off of Radical Title Talk to realize she was one of the most interesting voices in our industry.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the haircut…

Hi Diane, what made you decide to start a blog?

I started blogging to defend title insurance as a product. The proliferation of lawsuits and penalties being imposed on the title insurance underwriters and many agents had, in my mind, caused the media and the public to blame the product rather than the bad actors who had corrupted the title insurance delivery system. Before even thinking of blogging, I followed the normal routes. I talked with my underwriters. I offered to teach some classes for title agents who might need help reaching consumers without paying referral fees. In desperation, I wrote an open letter to title agents and attempted to get it published in ALTA’s Title News magazine and/or PLTAs newsletter. Both trade associations refused to publish it because they said it was anti-affiliated business. In frustration, I faxed and e-mailed the letter to everyone in the PLTA and ALTA directories. It took a lot of time. I got a few responses from people who felt just like I did but who were terrified of saying anything in the open.

My niece and sister had been blogging so I was familiar with the medium. I decided to give it a go and created two blogs. Title Insurance Talk was designed as a consumer facing blog meant to help consumers understand title insurance and also to provide words and explanations for industry insiders who needed help. Radical was meant to be a forum for insiders to discuss what was going on the industry.

Radical Title Talk is hardly a, let’s be friends, smiley face, everything is keen, marketing blog. How do other professionals in your market react to it?

When I first starting writing Radical, I tried to get other professionals in my market to read it and participate. Most just could not grasp what I was talking about. They had never heard of a blog. Setting that aside, I’ve been in the business for long time. Those who know me know that I am passionate. The “radical” handle was first bestowed upon me by a group of attorneys from eastern Pennsylvania who had tried to change the mortgage banking laws in a way that would have forced many existing small companies out of business. Over that effort I ended up as president of the Western Pennsylvania MBA and lobbied strongly in defense of our smaller mortgage companies. We won. In the process, I was know as “that radical women from Western Pennsylvania.” So, old timers in the business who know about Radical, take it in stride.

While some blogs fade away and die on their own, you actually tried to kill Radical Title Talk. I have to honest, I never really understood why. Care to explain?

Radical Title Talk was born in anger. Every post was passionate and most people reading and commenting did so with passion. That takes a tremendous amount of energy. I am not a personal who walks in anger. I get angry, I deal with the issue and be done with it. I love to laugh and be a goof and have fun. Once Radical found its voice and its mission, I had to commit and follow it through which meant writing every day in a voice defining the argument against corruption. You have to understand that Radical was never meant to be a sales generating blog. It was a declaration of independence and the beginning of a war that only title insurance people can really understand. I carried the mantle until I felt that I had said everything that could possibly be said on all the various subjects. The stats showed me the readership and I knew Radical had been a bully pulpit the likes of which I had never envisioned. Once I felt the entire of what needed saying was said, I figured I could leave it up there for folks to use. They could continue to comment if they wanted but I felt that I need to walk away. So I said thank you, posted Desiderata and let it go.

I think that was in May of 2007. In July I started to notice odd transformation in what was then the subprime crisis. It seemed to me that it was leaking into prime lending and I just couldn’t trust that the “powers that be” would recognize that. I know that might sound egotistical but I never assume that people will see something. If my warning is redundant that’s okay but at least I did my part.

I knew there might still be some readership out there with feeds who would pick up posts so I shared my concerns. The Coalition Petition [a third and temporary blog] was followed by some federal folks because the petition had been directed to those offices. I started with a post or two on Coalition but decided almost immediately to start posting on Radical just to make certain someone who could help might see the message. The mortgage credit crisis then became the second life cycle for Radical. It regained its readership two-fold and then got caught in a sort of negative energy and I decided I really just need to get out so I deleted the entire blog, completely with no back up. [You can still find old Radical posts in search engines if you look for cached posts.]

I talked about it on Lenderama [blew my blog brains out] and the feedback I got was a great help. I kept Radical dead for a week then decided to put in into a virtual beauty sleep mode. Radical woke up as a sort of personal business space for me. I can still talk about hard issues but I don’t feel compelled to be at war. I am purposefully keeping it casual. I like it. I’ve lost some readership but that’s A-OK with me. In the meantime the readership of Title Insurance Talk has grown and I’ve been able to focus on the day to day business of selling title insurance.

I never ask when I’m recruiting people to join, but I’m always curious as to other’s motives. Why do you contribute to Lenderama?

I love Lenderama because it’s a lender community. Close to half of my career was spent as a lender. I am at home there. Being a part of Lenderama keeps me in touch with what’s on the minds of lenders, allows me to share the “title” voice with lenders and it’s part of the original crusade which was helping people to understand title insurance.

Recently, you started a new blog. Ligonier Living. I’m ecstatic that you’ve played off my idea that real estate/mortgage/title blogging does not have to be about the real estate, mortgage, or title business. Please share with us you goal for this blog, and how it’s going so far.

Ed Rybczynski on Title-opoly was really pushing personal - almost voyeuristic - blogging at the same time you posted Denver Modern Homes and a sales tool. Ligonier Living was born as a morph of both ideas. It’s less than a month old and is still finding its voice BUT community reaction is great. People are getting a big kick out of it and we’re about to teach Ligonier to blog. My plan for the community is to create a solid web presence for Ligonier as a destination and a great place to live. I plan to launch a sister blog, Ligonier Homes. Our company web site featuring the Choose and Save program, Title Insurance Talk, Ligonier Living, and Ligonier Homes - all linked together will be a solid marketing platform. We’ve always be consumer facing in marketing but I think these two blogs will bring a synergy we’ve not found before. I am very excited. It’s a whole new way of selling title insurance and it’s free and it’s fun.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

I visit some blogs everyday and some every once in a while. Rather than say I have favorite blogs, I should say I have favorite bloggers. My current favorite bloggers are Ed Rybczynski at Title-opoly, Tanta at Calculated Risk, Wine Dog at Pink Bunny Ears, Greg Swann at Bloodhound, Brian Brady at “everywhere”, Jillayne Schlicke at Rain City.

What advice do you have for prospective bloggers who are sitting on the fence.

Jump right in a start blogging. You’ll find out pretty quickly if you like doing it. It’s not that hard to learn. There are lots of people like you, Todd, who are offering assistance. Whether you’re blogging for business or blogging for fun or both, beware……it’s addicting. My name is Diane Cipa and I’m a blogoholic.

Blogger Spotlight: Cheryl Allin

I’m really glad Cheryl was interested in doing an interview. As I’ve said in the past, I think the vendors who serve real estate professionals offer a unique perspective that’s worth looking at.

Hi Cheryl, what made you decide to start a blog?

As is the case with many, it seemed that blogging was fast becoming de rigueur for effectively marketing online. I was already providing extensive content articles on my site describing the services I offered along with my methodologies and blogging seemed the perfect solution to further build the stickiness of my website as well as a means to provide fodder for the search engine spiders to eat. It’s hard to believe I took the plunge into blogging over three years ago. I may not blog as often as many others, but I do strive to create value with what I do post.

Your blog, and entire website is built on Joomla. How does this platform compare to more common blogging platforms like WordPress or TypePad?

I adore Joomla. I started with Mambo in 2005 and made the switch when Mambo forked off into what’s now known as Joomla. I was the first Virtual Assistant to implement a content management system of any kind, now you find a great many VAs implementing Joomla. I considered WordPress, TypePad and a few others before deciding on Joomla for my website. I was even an early adopter of blogger.com prior to starting my business in 2001. I looked at it from an SEO angle as well as an ownership angle. I wanted to own my marketing and promote my own URL and I wanted the most powerful system that would make my job as easy as possible. WordPress at the time didn’t have the URL structure I wanted, I needed my article keywords in the URL as well as the meta tags, header tags and I also loved the richness of the admin interface of Joomla. While many may be a bit daunted, once you’re past the initial learning curve in running the backend of Joomla you quickly see the power and richness of the interface. Also, as a designer I found Joomla templates a breeze while the WordPress templates were a bit clunky to implement. Blogging on Joomla gives me tons of power – the ability to have certain ‘modules’ that display only on my blog pages and other ‘modules’ display on alternate areas of my website, the ability to use CSS to vary the styling (colors, graphics) of those modules for increased variety. I also love that with Joomla, you can create or purchase a template that will make your Joomla site look totally custom whereas many WordPress templates all look very similar. Again, that’s my designer peeking through.

Some agents have different independent blogs and traditional web sites. Others are combining them. What do you recommend?

Mostly it’s just a matter of preference. I adopt the KISS or Keep It Simple Stupid methodology for my own site/blog mainly since I get so busy with client work, I seldom have the time to manage multiple sites. If an agent feels there’s value in keeping his opinions (blog) away from his storefront (website) and has the time and budget to implement and optimize both, (s)he should go for it. However, if you like the idea of having just one spot on the web to manage (aside from your Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed…), then Joomla gives you the ability to do so easily.

One of the services you provide is to help agents manage their presence on social networks like MySpace or Facebook. It seems to me that these sights depend largely on the personality of the agent themselves. How can one outsource social networking and retain authenticity at the same time?

Certainly, I’d never recommend fully outsourcing your social networking as that defeats the purpose of being social. While I have yet to have a client take me up on the service (it’s there more as a concept to encourage folks to consider social networking in the first place) I can offer some benefit by managing settings, accepting or rejecting comments/pokes/requests, finding more friends or associates for you on Linkedin or Facebook. If I can access your PC remotely, setup some basic social networking tools, create you a protopage.com browser homepage with links to all your new networks, create your MyBlogLog account and tie in your blog – basically get you started and advise you a bit as you get your feet wet, then I’ve done my job. It’s that initial inertia or fear to jump in that plagues many folks and I’m the ‘hand holder,’ if you will.

You market you services through these same social networks. In your experience, what is the most effective social network for connecting with real estate agents?

Hands down, Twitter. As a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, I work 100% from my home office staring at the same four walls all day and having a resource like Twitter where I can socialize and network with my peers and defeat the isolation – that is priceless. I’ve made fantastic connections - @gotbob Bob Carney was kind enough to allow me to save his website from Advanced Access, we converted it to Joomla www.gotbob4homes.com, I’ve found several new clients who need help with this or that and I’ve connected also to several wonderful Virtual Assistants with whom we share ideas and referrals. Every other social networking platform pales by comparison. What’s also fantastic is the ability to have clients stay connected and aware of my daily grind – they now can rest assured that I’m *real* and in the trenches working on their projects. I look forward to the time when social media will be more distributed – sites like FriendFeed and SocialThing are headed in the right direction, but the ability to pull all these great services into my website so you get the ‘big picture’ would be amazing.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

Oooh, that’s hard – there are so many! Here are several that I read regularly and why:

Agent Genius – If it’s tech and real estate, I love it and these folks *are* genius!

Chris Brogan – He never fails to leave an impression and topics are always spot on.

Freelance Switch – Terrific for entrepreneurs of all kinds, often they make me feel like they’re writing about me, very relatable

Future of Real Estate Marketing – always has the news you need to know first
Geek Estate Blog – They speak geek and they’re in real estate, brethren!

Problogger – Darren is a wealth of blog knowledge and his style is clean, love it.

Tech Crunch – I always want to know about the hot new toys

What advice do you have for prospective bloggers who are sitting on the fence?

Build it now! Even if you only post once per month to start, get that blog domain name into Google today so when/if you do decide to go full force into blogging, you won’t suffer the Google sandbox aging delay. Look at your local market – is anyone else blogging? You could build relationships with RE.net bloggers and perhaps grow friendships and referrals – you could become the authority on your market and have the local network affiliates calling you for your opinion. Carpe Diem, as Robin Williams said in Dead Poets Society. How will you know the amount of benefit unless you try?

My parting shot is actually to shoot myself – I promised myself I would work on blog posts over the weekend and got caught doing client work instead – thus, I’m the shoemaker whose children run around barefoot! I’ve improved, but I often blog in bursts when some bit of amazing news or creative idea strikes. My saving grace has been the book ‘Getting Things Done’ by David Allen which is a fantastic system of organizing your life in order to alleviate stress. Many other netizens agree as it has an almost cult status online.

How do you know you’ve won an argument with Mary McKnight?

I think her resulting to petty insults would be a pretty good indication. This one was particularly amusing, so I couldn’t pass up her offer.