Content is king, as the cliche goes. But writing blog entries can seem so unrewarding when you factor in the time and talent it takes to compose them. Sure, they may bring readers your way, but is it worth it?
Simply rearranging your blog to look like a book doesn’t quite cut it. Credit: Bibliothek Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau
One way companies skirt this value proposition is to make their blogs work double duty by publishing the best pieces in physical and/or digital formats. This way, they bring in people who prefer paper or tablets to desktop reading (who might even be convinced to pay for the privilege of alternative access to content).
This tactic was recently undertaken by real estate marketing and design firm 1000watt. They grabbed 40 of their blog posts and republished them in Turn On: Selected Writings About Real Estate 2007-2011. While you can buy the “booklet,” as Inman calls it, direct from the printer or via Kindle and iBooks, 1000watt also put out a free PDF version on their website. Presumably they asked themselves how many people would pay to read content that is already freely available online.
But just because it’s free doesn’t mean there isn’t a transaction involved. In exchange for giving away their content in this new format, the firm gets new eyes and new mailing list members. And, on a personal level, I received four lessons in how not to repurpose blog content in PDF form in return for reading this online version.
Lesson One: Link Smart or Don’t Link at All
Real estate is experiencing an evolution where traditional marketing may no longer be effective. REALTOR® and first-time author Michael J. Maher sums up an emerging entrepreneurial philosophy as a move from the “ego era” to the “generosity generation.” Maher lays out this business and life strategy in (7L) The Seven Levels of Communication (AuthorHouse, 2010), a narrative-style novel telling the story of Rick Masters, a fictional salesperson who learns the transforming lessons of selflessness.
Maher spoke with the Weekly Book Scan to talk about 7L, the generosity generation, and the power of word-of-mouth.
Your book starts out with a very intense moment – your own cardiac arrest. How did that event motivate you to write this book?
Maher: Well there’s “motivation,” and then there’s “MOTIVATION” in all caps, bold letters, underlined and italics. There’s never a moment where you really see or think about your legacy more than when your mortality is in front of you.
My father passed away from cancer in 1992. I had the opportunity to hang out with him during the final three years of his life. I learned more in those three years than I had in the previous 19. He was the father of five, and also a coach and a teacher, so he was busy all of the time when I was younger. But at the end of those last three years, he said his one regret was that he had not written his memoirs. They would’ve been very powerful memoirs because he was a very influential and highly respected man in our community. I can just imagine reading those memoirs to my son Max. That thought crossed my mind as they were wheeling me to the surgery room to put in a temporary pace maker — that night in ICU I started writing. I just thought, I’ve got this information in my head, I’ve got this system that is producing business for me, and I need to share it.
Can you describe the main character, Rick Masters? Continue reading »
By Mariwyn Evans, Commercial Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
By the end of the 21st century, the real estate where we work, shop, and play will look more like the Starship Enterprise’s holodeck than bricks and drywall we know today, says Marcel Bulling, futurist and author of Welcome to the Future Cloud—2025 in 100 Predictions. “Commercial space will be physical and virtual world in one, sort of a gaming zone. Tap a wall and you see new fashions, tap again to make a purchase, tap again and communicate with your colleagues,” he says.
What are the best types of structures to meet those future uses? Multifunction buildings that can shift from office to hotel to entertainment center almost instantly. “Stop seeing a building as a combination of walls. See it as a combination of apps that can be updated continuously and can change the functionality of the building according to day-to-day needs,” Bullinga says. Another trend: self-supporting mega-cities that no longer depend on the transport of goods but obtain most goods and services locally. “Globalization is out; walk and bike around cities with offices, farms, and homes, are in,” Bullinga says.
Interested? Read the full interview with Bullinga:
What trends do you see in the way and manner people work in the next decade?
Learning and working turns into a game. The virtual and physical world is one. The quality of a virtual meeting will equal the quality of a physical meeting, and we will turn more and more into virtual meetings for learning, working, and shopping. Our buildings will start to look like a holodeck: a sort of gaming zone with gaming walls. Tap the wall and pay, tap the wall and shop, tap the wall and fit new clothes, tap the wall and do your homework, tap the wall and sell to your clients, tap the wall and communicate with your colleagues.
The strict difference between office buildings, warehouses, apartments, and retail space will disappear. The new workplace is mobile. The new workplaces are surprising places: Starbucks, an old petrol station, your own attic, your self-driving car. And, oh yes, sometimes you will also visit your physical office to meet your colleague for a coffee. You tap into the cloud around you for all your information and contacts.
Local is the trend; DIY is the trend. Continue reading »
By Erica Christoffer, Multimedia Web Producer, REALTOR® Magazine
A few months ago, Dan Burrus was sitting in a café in Istanbul making a call to his wife in Barcelona using Apple’s iPhone-to-iPhone FaceTime video chat. He was able to see her in high definition and hear her as clearly as if she were sitting next to him, even though he was in the Middle East and she was in Europe.
This example of technology provides us a small glimpse into our future, says Burrus, a futurist and author of Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and do the Impossible (HarperCollins, 2011).
Are you interested in predicting the future? Try this:
How much do you know about the iPhone 6? No one’s talking about it because we don’t even have an iPhone 5 yet. So you might say, “I don’t know anything about it.” But in actuality, you know a lot, says Burrus. Will it have a faster processor than the iPhones that came before it? Of course it will. Will be have more memory? You already know. Will it offer more cloud computing options? You bet. Might we be able to tap into a “Watson” computer in the cloud, giving us a supercomputer in the palm of our hand? The possibility is very likely.
There has never been more opportunity than there is today because technology is leveling the playing field, Burrus says. He predicts that in the next five years, you’re going to see a continued technological transforming in how we sell, market, communicate, train, innovate, and collaborate.
“One of the reasons I did not call the book ‘Flash Hindsight,’ is because we’re already good at saying we should have done this or that,” says Burrus. “The beautiful thing about foresight is you can take actions today to shape that future.”
The Flash Foresight methodology can also be used as a crystal ball to reveal what’s in store for the real estate industry. Continue reading »
By Erica Christoffer, Multimedia Web Producer, REALTOR® Magazine
Vicki Doudera started gathering fodder for her mystery novels from day-one of her first real estate class back in 2003. Real estate intrigued and inspired her. She remembers sitting in the classroom, listening as the instructor discussed all the things that could go wrong in a transaction, while jotting down ideas in the margins of her paper. “Bludgeoned Buyers! Slaughtered Sellers!” And who would solve these crimes? Why, a savvy real estate agent, of course!
But before she put her pen-to-paper to tell the tales of suspense, murder, and real estate that danced in her head, Doudera got to work becoming a savvy real estate agent herself. A resident of mid-coast Maine since 1986 and a former inn owner, Doudera directed her skills and knowledge of the area to grow a successful business with Camden Real Estate as a broker and top-producer. She also wrote a book called Moving to Maine: The Essential Guide to Get You There and What You Need to Know to Stay (Down East Books, 2007).
In 2010 came her first novel, A House to Die For (Midnight Ink, 2010), which launched Doudera’s Darby Farr mystery series. Darby, the main character, is a vivacious real estate agent with a tragic past she is trying to leave behind in Maine. But she goes back to close a multimillion-dollar sale of a waterfront estate and ends up in the throes of a who-done-it murder after a man is found dead on the property.
Doudera’s second book in the series, Killer Listing (Midnight Ink, 2011), was released last April, which has Darby investigating a mysterious murder once again – this time a Florida broker who was in the fast-lane of multimillion-dollar listings, big-time commissions, and real estate deals (and love affairs) gone bad.
Doudera spoke with the Weekly Book Scan about Killer Listing and the Darby Farr series – including a sneak peek of Deadly Offer coming out this April.
What attracted you to the mystery genre? Continue reading »
Deadline to Enter: March 15, 2012
Did you publish a real estate-related book in 2011? This competition is for you!
The National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE) is now accepting entries for the fifth annual Robert Bruss Real Estate Book Awards Competition.
Authors of books published in 2011 in the broad field of real estate — including finance, mortgage lending, foreclosures, investing, green building and sustainable design, as well as home buying and selling and commercial real estate — are invited to enter. NAREE, a non-profit association founded in 1929, will name gold, silver and bronze award-winners. In addition, NAREE will give a special award to a first-time author.
The awards, which include $2,000 in cash prizes, will be presented at the NAREE Real Estate Journalism Conference in Denver, Colo. in June. The Bruss Awards presentation will be a highlight of the 46th Annual NAREE spring conference, June 20-23, headquartered at the historic Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver.
The deadline to enter NAREE’s Bruss Book Awards Competition is March 15, 2012. Entrants should submit three copies of their book and a 5,000-word excerpt (many authors pick a key chapter or two).
Download a Bruss Call for Entries brochure (PDF)
NAREE also has a separate journalism competition for news and feature articles published in newspapers, magazines, and online. The Journalism Awards Call for Entries brochure is available in a PDF format — www.NAREE.org under the Journalism Contest tab.
NAREE’s book awards are named for the late Bob Bruss, syndicated real estate columnist, prolific writer and NAREE leader. Bruss frequently wrote reviews of realty books.
For more information: Mary Doyle-Kimball, NAREE Executive Director 561-391-3599 MADKimba@aol.com
NAREE DATES TO REMEMBER
FEBRUARY 9 – ORLANDO, NAREE Media Reception at IBS - 5-6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 9, Room: W202C at Orange County Convention Center, Orlando. Building Products Editor Jean Dimeo will speak on: “What’s the Real Scoop on New Products at the Show? Are the Headline-Grabbers Green or Over the Top?” RVSP for this complimentary networking event by e-mailing Mary Doyle-Kimball at madkimba@aol.com.
MARCH 1 - 62nd Annual NAREE Real Estate Journalism Competition Entry Deadline (Entry must be postmarked by March 1 and received by March 6)
MARCH 15 – 5th Annual Bruss Book Competition Entry Deadline (Entry must be postmarked by March 15 and received by March 25)
APRIL 15 – 10th Annual Bivins Fellowships Application Deadline
JUNE 20-23 – 46th Annual Real Estate Journalism Conference, “Covering Real Estate with Altitude,” June 20-23, 2012 - Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colo. Early Bird Registration on www.naree.org under the Spring Conference Tab until Feb. 15.
Last month we asked readers to share their favorite real estate book. The responses were overwhelmingly in favor of three books in particular: Rich Buyer, Rich Seller!, (7L) The Seven Levels of Communication, and Underwater Home. Although we couldn’t reprint all the recommendations, here’s a few of the lively comments real estate pros wrote about these three books. Find out why they’re worth putting on your must-read list in 2012.
Rich Buyer, Rich Seller! The Real Estate Agents’ Guide to Luxury Marketing Luxury Homes by Laurie Moore-Moore
Gretchen Lambeth
“
Fabulous insight into how the luxury market works! A must read for all agents who want to work in this niche.” — Gretchen L. Lambeth, Hawaiian Isle Real Estate, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
“Hands down, it’s the best written, most comprehensive yet concise real estate book I have read. It provides unparalleled insight and value to all luxury real estate professionals, from novices to the most experienced.” — Darren Weiner, Antigen Realty, Miami Beach, Fla.
Petra Fahey
“I was one of the early members of the LHMS designation and have attended two of Laura’s classes over the years. This book is the most successful tool I have and the information has allowed me to become and remain a strong presence in the luxury home market for my area. The most important insight was learning the housing market at the various price points. Many of the homes I list are custom homes, so this pricing strategy is paramount in helping me get the price point across to my sellers. I use this strategy when pricing all my luxury homes and homes that are in other price ranges as well. After years of following the steps in Laura’s book, I am now regularly interviewed by the local paper when they are working on a real estate specific story. I can’t thank Laura enough for her efforts that have resulted in my success.” — Petra Fahey, Real Living Country Ranch, Bullhead City, Ariz. Continue reading »
By Agnes Masnik, Freelance Writer for REALTOR® Magazine
For real estate professionals, the bottom line is business. While some people become complacent in their job, others seek opportunities to create more business prospects.
To avoid complacency, think of one personal life change to focus on. It could be attending a networking event each month, brushing up on social media and technology-based marketing tools, or cracking open that book you have been meaning to read.
Making a small, imperceptible life change can be the secret to achieving your personal goal, says Darren Hardy, publisher and editorial director of SUCCESS Magazine.
In his new book, The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success (Vanguard Press; November 2011), Hardy reveals why small, consistent changes and smart choices on a daily basis can equal big rewards in the future.
With 17 years experience studying personal development and achievement, Hardy covers many of life’s bases and he helps readers explore options for creating good business habits, a healthier lifestyle, and a more fulfilling personal life. This book is not real estate specific, but it does capture the essence of Hardy’s passion for success.
Hardy got into real estate when he was 20 years old. He remembers entering an office of 44 veteran agents with thick Rolodexes full of clients. During a meeting, one of them even called him “a naive snot nosed kid.” That encounter, he says, was a turning point in his career. Three months later, he was outselling the entire office. Continue reading »
Tell us your favorite real estate book of all-time.
Send an e-mail to Erica Christoffer, echristoffer@realtors.org, that includes the following:
- Title of the real estate book
- Author’s name
- Your name
- Your contact information
- Why it’s your favorite book
Send us your photo, too, and we’ll feature you on the blog!
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