Don’t despair.  It happens to all of us.  Sometimes it happens because you’ve been busy on a project or with a particularly demanding client.  Sometimes it happens when you’ve taken a short break or a vacation and stopped focusing or your blog for a few days.  Sometimes your creative juices just aren’t flowing.

I know the feeling because it has been happening to me; for several days over the last week, I attended a conference that had nothing to do with technology or real estate and for those few days, I didn’t even think about my blog.  The result is that now, I need to reprime the pump in order to come up with new ideas.

What to do when you can’t come up with a good idea for your blog?  Here are three suggestions.

• Write about what you’ve been doing.  If you took a vacation or spent some time with your family, write a blog piece about something funny or interesting that happened.  In fact, including occasional pieces about yourself and what you do outside of your professional life helps people identify with you.  But keep it short and don’t do it often.  After all, prospects are more interested in real estate than they are in you.
• Find the real estate connection in ordinary events.  For example, the venue for the conference I attended was a Michigan Avenue hotel in downtown Chicago.   I couldn’t help but notice the vacancies on and around the Magnificent Mile, including an indoor mall built on Michigan Avenue only a few years ago that is now shuttered.  My observation could spawn a series of articles about the state of commercial real estate.
• Write about your writer’s block.  People who write for a living will tell you that one of the best ways to outwit writer’s block is to start writing about it.  If you have nothing profound or earth shattering to say, write about that.  It won’t be long before you have an entire article and you’re back on track.

FreeGreen, the collaboration of a diverse group of progressive, energetic architects, engineers, and entrepreneurs, lets visitors view and download plans to many styles of affordable, durable, energy-efficient homes.

Select a home and view 3-D renderings of the interior as well as explanations of the home’s sustainability features.  A plan I previewed, for example had, among other features, a flat roof for solar panels and a south-facing orientation to facilitate solar heating.  Choose a home you like and download the plans along with information on estimated energy and building costs—all for free with a basic membership.  Premium members have access to additional features.

Prefer a custom-designed, sustainable home? FreeGree can prepare plans to meet consumers’ specifications quickly and inexpensively.

It’s a fun site to visit and a great place to send clients or builders looking for green home ideas.

Source: www.retrevo.com

A bunch of data on the Internet in recent days confirms it:  Facebook is where you need to be if you want people to know about you and what you’re doing.  Facebook is surpassing Yahoo! on a number usage measures and is slowly gaining on Google.

Consider the following:

• Americans spend more time on Facebook. The Nielson Company reports that the average American spent just under 6 1/2 hours on Facebook in February, 2010, compared to approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes on Yahoo!, which came in second.
• Americans get a growing amount of information from Facebook. A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle underscores how Americans are doing less navigating of the Internet on their own and more navigating and making choices based on recommendations from friends.  Facebook is a big part of this.  For example, Techcrunch reports that 44% of the items shared on the web in the past month were shared on Facebook.  (The next closest was Twitter at 29%.)
• Facebook is starting to challenge Google as the most visited website.  According to Experian Hitwise, Facebook received 7.07% of all Internet visits during the week ending March 13th—more than Google, which received only 7.03%.  This happened once before, during the Holidays in 2009, and experts expect that it will continue to happen.
• Facebook is a constant in the lives of many Americans. Consider the recent study , for example, that reported that 30% of social media users say they check for new posts during the night!

Facebook is where people are looking for information and finding it.  If you’re not there, you should be.

What if a consumer or another agent were trying to find you?  What would they get if they googled your name? How much searching would they have to do on the Internet before they found your contact information?  And if someone did contact you based on an Internet search, how long would it take you to answer?

Here are the five minimum things you should do to make sure prospects and colleagues can find you with ease:

1. Have a LinkedIn profile.  Your LinkedIn profile serves as an online résumé that will come up whenever anybody googles you name.
2. Have a Google profile. Google also lets you create a profile, in which you can write a description of yourself, upload photos, and provide links to other applications you use on the Web.
3. Be on Facebook. A Facebook Fan Page is ideal because it lets you keep your friends and family separate from your professional image, and because the person looking for you wouldn’t have to have a Facebook account to find you.
4. Check Your Broker’s Site. Make sure your contact information is easy to find and up to date on your broker’s website.  If you can’t control what’s on your broker’s site, get your own website.
5. Have Your Own Website.  Even if you do have input regarding what appears on your broker’s site, you should have your own website.  On your own website, you can express our individuality, show your professionalism, and demonstrate how you differ from your colleagues.  A blog is even better than a static website because it allows you to easily update the site’s content.

There is more you can do.  But if you can’t find yourself when you google your name, start with these.

A podcast is a special kind of audio file that you create and that your “readers” can download and listen to whenever they like. Typically, podcasts are made to sound like mini radio shows with lead-in theme music and a different topic each week.  Prospective listeners can subscribe to your shows so they never miss out and they can listen on an iPod or simply through their computer speakers.

Podcasts are relatively inexpensive and easy to make.  If you get in the habit of producing and posting them regularly, people will get in the habit of listening, especially if you offer information that’s valuable, informative, and entertaining. Podcasts can position you as the real estate expert in your community, the go-to person when a journalist needs a knowledgeable real estate resource.  They can also help you build a following among prospective buyers and sellers in your area.

To be fair, podcasting is not as exciting a tool as it was a few years ago.  The rise of YouTube, along with iPods and smartphones that can play visual content, have pushed podcasting to the side a little bit.  But it still has its place.

Take a look (or rather have a listen) at how these real estate professionals are using podcasts:

• Kevin Cottrell at Cottrell Realty Group sets up his site so that you’re immediately drawn in by the energy of the announcer’s voice on the St. Louis Real Estate Today Podcast.
• Connor McIvor of ReMax of Santa Clarita produces a 20-minute show on the Santa Clarita Podcasting Network in which he interviews experts on real estate related topics.
• Melinda Duncan at ReMax Creative Realty offers sound advice and useful information on Real Estate 101 with Melinda Duncan.

Fifty-four, actually.  That’s enough to get you through the rest of the year and easily into 2010.  Some may require a bit of research and some will require you to use pseudonyms to protect the privacy of your clients.  But all will help you position yourself as a mover and shaker in your community, and a knowledgeable real estate professional.

1. Describe how the Internet is changing (or has changed) the real estate industry
2. Write about how technology is changing how real estate agents work
3. Review the provisions for the first time home buyers credit and remind your readers to get moving if they want to get in under the wire
4. Offer a list with links to the best web sites for finding property
5. Write an article that reviews the best new homeowner websites, like HouseLogic or HomeSpace
6. Create a step-by-step lesson on how to log in and use the consumer features of your local MLS or your company’s property search website
7. Offer a list with links to local economic data
8. Offer your predictions for the 2010 housing market based on what you’ve seen so far
9. Write about neighborhoods or communities where buyers are finding real estate bargains
10. Create an article that offers resources for homeowners who need to refinance
11. Have a loan officer write a guest post
12. Offer links to useful, need-to-know information for homeowners who are thinking of renting rather than selling
13. Offer easy or inexpensive home updating ideas for sellers who will be putting their homes on the market this year
14. Post a list of questions prospective sellers should ask prospective listing agents
15. Write a down-to-earth article about the realities of selling in today’s market
16. Describe what to look for when choosing a home inspector
17. Have a home inspector write a guest post
18. Describe what to look for when choosing a lender
19. Post a list of financial documents and personal information prospective buyers will need to assemble in order to be pre-approved for a mortgage
20. Write an article (or a series of articles) about what buyers can expect when purchasing a foreclosure
21. Write an article (or a series of articles) about what sellers can expect when doing a short sale
22. Write an article for homeowners about how to contest a property tax increase
23. Describe how you help buyers quickly and easily find the perfect home despite the huge inventory
24. Offer several quick and easy home staging tips
25. Have a home staging professional write a guest post
26. Explain why buyers and sellers need a real estate agent (that is, describe what real estate professionals do that they can’t do for themselves)
27. “10 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Putting Your Home On The Market In This Economy”
28. Write an article for first-time home buyers telling them what they need to know about owning a condominium
29. Invite a real estate attorney to write a guest post
30. Consumers often don’t understand the difference between a real estate sales agent and a real estate broker.  Write a post that explains the difference between these two types of licenses
31. Write a post about how you use Twitter and how your readers would benefit by following you
32. Ask a question and poll your readers to get their response
33. “8 Social Media Tools I Use Each Day and How They Help Me Help You”
34. Or, “Why I Don’t Use Twitter, Facebook, or Other Social Media”
35. Tell about a client who sold a home quickly in the past few months and how they were able to accomplish that
36. Tell about a pair of homeowners at risk who were able to restructure their mortgage and keep their home.
37. Invite your readers to submit their tips for frugal living in the current economy and write a post which includes the best tips
38. Create an article with links to green living resources for homeowners
39. Describe 5 things you do for clients that most other real estate professionals don’t do
40. Describe 5 things your brokerage does for clients that most other brokerages don’t do
41. Summarize the conferences you’ve attended, the training you’ve undergone, and the required courses you’ve taken in the past 12 months and how those experiences translate into better service for clients who work with you
42. Describe the biggest problem a client had in the past year and how you helped that client solve their problem
43. Share a testimonial sent to you by a client
44. Write an article about the recent FHA changes and how they will affect buyers in 2010
45. Write an article to help sellers understand that they don’t determine the selling price of their home, the market does
46. Lease with option to buy: explain what it is and how it works
47. Post a story with pictures of an important local event (e.g., the high school team winning a championship)
48. Write about a person or an organization doing good things in your community
49. List the “best places” in your community (e.g., the best place to picnic, the best bike path, the best beach, the best place to ice skate, the best place for tobogganing, etc.)
50. Invite your readers to submit their lists of best places
51. “25 Free Activities for Families” (or singles, or couples, or seniors)
52. Write about a local organization in which you’re active and encourage your readers to get involved
53. Write an article about a special property (e.g., historic landmark, famous former owner, luxury property, etc.) your brokerage is listing
54. Write a article that reminds your readers of their fair housing rights and includes links to fair housing resources

The Tech Savvy Agent Channel on YouTube

A recent article on Social Media Examiner explored the marketing impact of YouTube.  Particularly compelling in that article were these YouTube usage stats:

• In 2009, approximately 100 million Americans watched 6 billion videos on YouTube each month
• Six out of seven U.S Internet users watch online videos every month
• YouTube accounted for 70% of all U.S. visits to some 60 online video sites (Google was #2 with a 4.6% share)
• In December 2009, U.S. Internet users watched an average of 187 videos per person
• Sixty-two percent of YouTube viewers are over 35; about half have college degrees and incomes of $75,000 or more
• In December, 2009, there were 9.7 billion search queries on Google, 3.9 billion on YouTube, 2.5 billion on Yahoo!, and 1.4 billion on Bing. (That makes YouTube the #2 search engine in the U.S.)

Yet despite the dominance of YouTube in popular culture and on the Internet, real estate professionals, for the most part, aren’t using it.

YouTube makes it easy to create a channel, allowing you to place all of your videos together in one place.  You can customize the channel with your company’s colors and logo, and you can upload the videos of your choosing to tell your story or showcase your properties.  Viewers can even subscribe, which allows them to stay up to date on your latest uploads.

Lots of companies and organizations have YouTube channels (click to view the YouTube Channel for Tech Savvy Agent, for example).  Yet despite the popularity of YouTube and the simplicity of the channel concept, there seem to be only a handful of agents, brokers or boards using YouTube in any organized way.  (One very notable standout is the Houston Association of Realtors, which regularly posts content to YouTube.  Click here to visit their YouTube channel.)

Most of us think of YouTube as the place our kids go on the Internet to watch silly videos.  And while that may be true, it’s also the venue more and more businesses and professionals are using for marketing and PR.  It’s a powerful tool that reaches millions of people. So why is real estate absent?

In Part I, we recommended that you visit a computer store, compare the machines for style and features, and make some basic decisions. Now that you’ve done that, you’re ready to select the components you want in your computer.

• CPU: the CPU (Computer Processing Unit) is the computer’s engine.  The more powerful it is, the better performance you’ll get.  And because it generally can’t be upgraded or changed, you probably want to select the most powerful computer you can afford. Intel is not the only maker of processors, but it’s certainly one of the most highly regarded.  Choose a computer with an Intel “Duo Core” processor (like “Core 2 Duo”).  Intel also makes “Atom” processors, a less powerful, single core component that you’ll often find in netbook computers.  But, if this will be your main computer for business use, we don’t recommend choosing a netbook computer with an Atom processor.
• Memory: Also known as RAM (random access memory).  Memory is what lets you run applications on your computer and switch back and forth between them.  The more memory you have, the faster you can work and the more productive you can be.  Many desktop computers allow you purchase and install additional memory chips, making it possible for you to save money on your initial purchase and upgrade later.  But with laptops, installing additional memory may be tricky and is often impossible.  So here again, you probably should purchase as much memory as you can afford.  Choose a computer that offers 2-4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM.
• Screen Size: Decide what size screen works for you.  As we mentioned in our earlier post, larger screens have higher resolutions, but they make the computer heavier.  If you’re going to be carrying your computer around, you’ll need to balance the size of the display with the weight of the machine.  Look for a screen size of 13”-14” if you need to keep the weight manageable. (The size of the screen, by the way, is measured on the diagonal.)  You can opt for a larger display if the computer won’t be carried around much.
• Hard Drive: Pictures and music can take up a great deal of space on your hard drive, so give yourself plenty of storage capacity—160 GB or more. Also, the speed of your hard drive is important. Look for drives that rotate at 5400 rpm or higher.  If you need to cut corners on price, you can consider a smaller hard drive.  You can always purchase an external hard drive later for long-term storage of pictures or documents.  Such hard drives typically stay at home, and can be connected to your laptop manually when you need to store and retrieve files.
• Optical Drive: This is the drive that reads media such as CDs and DVDs.  Some laptop computers come without optical drives.  This makes the computer lighter but places limitations on how you can use it.  It may also require you to borrow or buy an external optical drive when you need to install something that’s only available on disc. We recommend selecting a computer that has, at the very least, an internal DVD drive.  Depending on how you plan to use your computer, you may want a combined CD/DVD drive and a drive that can write discs as well as read them.  Newer computers may have Blu-Ray drives for watching content in high definition, and storing more data on each disc.  If you want to get ahead of the game, consider a combination BD/DVD/CD drive–that is, one that offers Blu-ray in addition to CD and DVD.
• Networking:  Your computer should have an Ethernet port for connecting to the Internet with a cable, and built-in wireless connectivity.  If you expect to frequently use your computer in your car, in public places, or in clients’ homes, consider getting a computer with a mobile broadband antenna.  That will allow you to use the Internet anywhere you have mobile phone service.  (If you get this, you’ll also need to purchase a data plan from a mobile phone company.)
• Weight:  Finally, for the greatest portability, select a computer that’s under 5 pounds.   Four pounds or less is even better.

If you’re a real estate professional who’s often on the go, you need a professional grade computer you can take anywhere.  Here’s what to look for when you’re ready to purchase your next business laptop.

First, make some basic decisions:

How Will You Use It? Will this computer mostly sit on your desk at home? Or will you be a true road warrior, taking your computer to the office, using it to do presentations in clients’ homes, and running slide shows at open houses?  If it’s the latter (and we hope it is), then you’ll need something powerful and well constructed, yet lightweight and easy to carry. (A computer that never leaves the office can be bigger with a larger screen.)

Netbook or Notebook? Small, inexpensive netbooks are growing in popularity.  They’re great as a second computer or perhaps for short outings where all you’ll be doing is checking e-mail.  But you probably shouldn’t select a netbook as your primary business machine.  Their computing power is limited and their screens and keyboards are often too small to do any real work.

Windows or Mac? Apple computers are also growing in popularity, and for good reason.  They’re well designed, they perform beautifully, and Apple support is exceptional. The drawbacks:  they tend to be more expensive than Windows-based computers and you’ll need to learn your way around the Mac environment (although Apple gives you lots of help with this).

Perhaps most important, however, is that some software can’t run on the Mac. Before buying one, you’d need to be certain that you could still access your local MLS and any software or products offered by your board, that you could still access any proprietary programs offered by your broker, and that you could still use any special software you’ve purchased on your own. (Top Producer 8i, for example, requires a Windows operating system.)

There are ways to get around some of these issues, but if you’re not especially tech-savvy, you probably should stick to Windows for your work-related computer.

Next, go shopping.

You’ll probably find the best deals on the Internet.  The Internet lets you do comparison shopping and can even allow you to select a custom-designed computer that includes the exact components you want. But you should probably “test drive” a computer before purchasing one on the Internet.  Visit stores that sell computers and try some out.

Decide what size screen works for you.  The larger screens have higher resolutions, but keep in mind that they also make the computer heavier.  If you’re going to be carrying your computer around, you’ll need to balance the size of the display with the weight of the machine.  Look for a screen size of 13”-14” and a total weight of less than 4-5 pounds or less. (Yes, there will be netbooks with smaller screens and lower weights, but as we’ve already noted, they’re generally not designed for full-time professional use.)

Also, try to tell whether the screen will work for you in other settings; in the store they all look good, but you may need to be able to use your computer in your car where the light is bright, or in some other less than perfect environment.

Pay attention to the keyboards and mice. Look for keyboards that feel comfortable and that fit your hands.  Also, some computers have a trackpad for navigation and some have a mouse pointing stick.  Try both and decide which one you prefer.

Once you’ve had the opportunity to touch and feel a few machines, you’re ready to make your purchase.  In our next post on this topic we’ll help you understand the technical aspect of the computer (e.g., what’s a CPU, the memory, how much memory do I need, etc.) so you can purchase the machine that’s right for you.