Even my refrigerator magnets were informational. I had one with the heimlich maneuver and one that showed the conversion of teaspoons to tablespoons. Agents thought the one with the heimlich maneuver was too “dark”, but hey, if someone’s chocking on their dinner, you’d be glad it was right there on the fridge! LOL. My sister has 18 years of my refrigerator magnets on her fridge and she doesn’t read my blog. You’ve got to mix it up. What one person loves another will hate…so we do 10 things at once. But blog readers, generally speaking, don’t like a consistant commercial. Someone can happen on to your blog from google and not care. But consistent blog clients who read almost all of your posts, don’t want the commercial and repeat commercial at the bottom of every post.

Hope you like AG!…and hope to see you at Inman.

It takes some practice and observation for most Realtors to “get” blogging. It’s natural that they use the “bang ‘em over the head” method with “me, me, me” because that is what we have been taught by the marketing pros.

Personally, I don’t find that consumers want to participate in a conversation on my blog. But they do contact me all day long about the things they read and about their real estate needs. Its just almost never through the comments.

I agree — I spent 10 minutes on the phone last week with one of the more popular template web site vendors who was trying to convince me that their request for contact info prior to the IDX search was a good thing, and generated qualified leads. I asked him what he thought about transparency and web 2.0 — he said “web 2.0, is that some new technology thing?”

But yes..you are correct. The consumer wants AND deserves the goods. I think too many agents can’t deliver. or don’t know how to deliver or have a hard time defining..”the goods”.

Rich, Personally I feel the consumer, at least in my area, wants good useful information given to them in an entertaining way. Kind of what Barry does. Of course his way is more like a freight train coming at you. My way is a little more laid back BUT both ways work and that’s because neither are boring “hire me” crap. You have to get the consumers attention first. Give them a reason to come back. And you can’t do that by posting static info on a living web site(blog).

Rich..no doubt AR is in good health. I actually like AR.. One day I will tell you how it REALLY helped us. Used it like a $5.00 crack ho…but it most assuredly works and has tremendous benefits no doubt…and wazzup with the “spotted dick” avatar..show me the love man!

You know what I really hate??? Give me all of your information BEFORE I let you search my IDX! What’s up with that! Where’s the transparency there. Love the way Jay Thompson does it. “Feel free to look” I’ll get ya when you want to actually save something. MUCH more qualified lead…Jay don’t you agree? Jay you around..Hey Jay..I’m talking to ya!

All the more reason to give them the ‘good’ stuff, and not insult their intelligence with promotional drivel. Consumers are much more likely to ‘lurk’ for extended periods of time without commenting. But you better believe they’re reading. And they’ll return, as long as you keep consistently serving up quality content.

With so many real estate agents out there, there is a constant “in your face” marketing aspect that is highly irritating to many buyers and sellers.

Gen X (which I am a part of) and Gen Y want to get online and get our information. My friends agree with me that it is a total turnoff to have complete in your face marketing. We want to read and figure you out first. We bookmark you, then call you when we are ready.

I have read your blog and you don’t write in every paragraph “Call Barry for all of your real estate information,” or “I am the best so work with me.” YUCK!

I certainly wouldn’t call that a ‘revolt’ per se. There’s bigger issues of concern than that which get debated often. The overall health of the network is pretty good right now. But I digress….