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Oct
30
Posted by Teresa Boardman
Notice I didn’t put the word “photography” in the title, I find the word intimidating. I also find it fascinating that when I write a really great blog post, no one ever asks me what kind of a keyboard I have but when I take a great photo I get emails and comments asking me what kind of a camera a I used. The pictures I have on my blogs are the most popular feature, or at least what is commented on the most by other bloggers and by people who are looking for information about real estate or about my market area.
There is more to writing than keyboards, and more to photography than camera’s. I was asked to write a post for a social network that I belong to about photography. I started like I always do when someone brings up the topic: “I am not a photographer” I did mention the camera in my post and three people immediately went out and bought one. I recommended a book too and at least one person ordered it.
Camera
I have a couple of them, but the one I use the most is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX07, that I bought at best buy, an “open box” special. It has a wide angle lens and takes 7.1 Megapixel pictures. It also has extended optical zoom, which means I can take pictures from far away.
The camera is small so that I can have it with me at all times. I have actually read the manual and have learned how to use all the features, so I get more the most out of the little camera. It is very possible to have a great camera and take lousy pictures. There is more to pictures than cameras.
When I choose a camera I see five factors as being important:
- A camera that I can figure out how to use.
- A camera that is small enough so that I can have it with me at all times. A camera is useless sitting at home in a camera bag.
- The camera has to have a rechargeable battery, mainly because they seem to have a much longer battery life.
- It has to have a stabalizer, I shoot pictures from my car.
- A wide angle lens, is a must have for interior shots. (Pictured below: Schurmeier Lofts - Unit #204)
Taking Pictures
Light is everything. I took the picture posted above because I saw it as I drove by. The light was perfect, and the clouds were perfect, stacking the odds in my favor that I would get a good shot. The photo was the first shot I took. I named it “lucky shot” because I used the extended zoom feature without a tri-pod, a big no no, if the goal is to get a sharp, clear picture.
- Don’t try to take pictures into the sun, a well duh! but I see it all the time, or photos taken in such intense sun light that they have that washed out look.
- It is possible to take a great picture on a dreary day or in a dark room but it isn’t easy.
- When taking pictures of houses or people they seem to look best at a slight angel instead of head on.
- Your tripod is your friend. I found one that folds up to less than a foot long. It is like my camera, always available. I keep it in my car with a small screw driver, a flash light and a magnifying glass for those photo emergencies. I can set it up in a minute or less.
What to take pictures of
I take pictures of anything that I see that I either want to show my blog readers or that I like looking at, or that might make an interesting post. For a real estate blog, pictures of real estate, like houses and buildings seem to work best. I take pictures of the Mississippi River because I see it every day and I walk along the walking paths.
Sometimes when I go out taking pictures every picture turns out. Sometimes none of my pictures turn out. I save the good photos on CD’s so if I need a photo for a blog post I can usually find one.
Digital Camera’s and PC’s
With my last two digital camera’s I never hooked them up to my PC to down load pictures. I have SD card readers built into my computer, and put the card in the reader to down load the pictures. I also have a separate card reader that plugs into a USB port. My daughter took her digital camera to France. She did not take the card reader I gave her. I asked her why she wasn’t uploading pictures, there has to be something to take a picture of in the south of France. She said she couldn’t get the pictures off of her camera and onto her computer. I mailed her my card reader, now she is uploading pictures a couple of times a week. Don’t mess around with hooking a camera up to a PC, use a card reader. She is my daughter, I thought I taught her to never leave home without her card reader or attempt to connect a digital camera to a computer, in the field.
How to get the pictures ready for the internet
I use photoshop elements 5.0., but there is a newer version, 6.0. It costs about $100 but is worth every penny of it. The features I use the most are the automatic fix, the cropping tool, and the re-sizing tool. Most photos need to be brightened before they are put on the Internet.
Raw photos from a digital camera are too large to put in a blog post. They need to be made much smaller. Often the software that comes with a camera can be used to make pictures smaller. If not photo shop elements, will do the job. Picasa and PhotoFiltre are free programs that will resize photos and much more.
Digital Photography
The best thing about digital photography is that I can take as many pictures as I want. If they don’t turn out I can delete them. Sometimes I just keep taking pictures until I get it right. I use a 2 gigabyte SD card, so I won’t run out of space. The more I practice the fewer shots I have to take before I get what I want.
A photographer recommended a book on photography that I really like, the author Scott Kelby, has a wonderful sense of humor and the book is just fun. I use it for reference and read his “recipes” which are how too guides for taking pictures. From the book I learned how to photograph landscapes, sunsets and how to take pictures at night.
The Digital Photography Book, by: Scott Kelby
Pictures are an essential ingredient on a real estate blog. Not pictures of me, but pictures of St. Paul and of houses. I also belong to a group on a photographers web site and have met some interesting people that way. I have a Flickr account, pro level, only $25 dollars a year and worth it. I have participated in some local groups and projects through Flickr and have met some neighbors. Take advantage of your flickr account, it is a great way to network.
** note - the pictures at the top of this blog were taken by Neighborhoods Undressed bloggers, we have some excellent photographers in the net work, visit their sites and check it out.
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Oct
24
Posted by Teresa Boardman
In a previous post Kathleen Cragun pointed out that blogs are social. One of the most important ways that a blog differs from a web site is that they do promote social interaction through comments. Readers can comment, which allows both the readers and the writer to have a conversation. Blogs are a conversation and a way to meet people. Some of those people will become clients, and some will become friends.
Only a small percentage of readers comment on blog posts and blog writers are more likely to comment than non-blog writers are. Don’t gauge the quality of a blog post by the number of comments.
The easiest way to encourage commenting is by responding to comments with a comment. If you ignore commenters they will go away. They are social, just like you, and don’t like to be ignored. Does anyone like to be ignored?
A great way to meet others, create back links, get comments on your posts, and increase traffic to your blog is to leave comments on the blogs that you read. On most blogs the comment section allows the commenter to leave a link back to his or her own blog. These are called back links and they help build readership and blog authority.
Commenting on local blogs in your community or market area is best. Commenting on real estate and mortgage blogs is also a good idea. That is how I met the Cragun’s. My St. Paul Real Estate Blog has close to 2000 comments on it and the last time I checked there were over 4000 links to it. A percentage of those links come from comments that I made and the rest are from articles that I have written that were cited, or linked to by other bloggers.
It isn’t OK to stop by a blog and leave comment spam. Comment spam is when commenters say “nice post” and then write a short ad for their business and leave a link back to their blog or web site. I delete those comments on a daily basis. Only comment if you have something to say. It is alright to disagree with the blog writer but make sure that your comments are respectful. There are no do-overs on the internet and comments with your name on them can be found through Google, forever.
Perspective clients and other bloggers will judge you by your comments and by the way you handle comments. If someone leaves a comment on your post disagreeing with what you wrote, leave it alone, or respond to it with a comment. Resist the urge to attack commenters, respect their opinion and know that you wrote something that was read and that had an impact. Personally I would rather be argued with than ignored.
I have had a few hecklers on my blog. In most cases we either agree to disagree or we become friends. If someone leaves a comment that you don’t understand, send them an email and ask about it. I never attack and seldom delete.
Visiting blogs and leaving comments and responding to comments on your own posts are an essential part of writing a blog, and are the essence of what makes blogs a social web 2.0 media.
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Oct
19
Posted by Teresa Boardman
It is just too much fun! Can I say that on the internet? What is Squidoo? It is a way that anyone, and I do mean anyone can whip up a web site. The idea is to focus on a single topic. I picked my topic a couple of days ago and did most of the work while I was on the phone . . with someone really boring. 
Introducing the Squidoo Lens of Neighborhoods Undressed, complete with feeds from each members blog.
Here are a couple of my favorite lenses; Non-Electric about power and this little beauty is about Funky Chic, Cool Lap Top Bags. As you can see my tastes are a bit eclectic but my point is that a lens can be about anything. Larry can create a lens about bugs. Bad idea. Bad, bad, bad idea.
Squidoo is free and easy to use. It consists of individual modules. The lens master chooses the modules, arranges them and puts in the content. The Lens was invented by Seth Godin and first launched in October of 2005. They are supported by advertising which is shared with the lens master. A portion of the money goes to charity, and lens masters can set a lens up so that all revenue from it goes to charity. . . all $.49 of it . . .
Lenses have RSS feeds and move up in rank as they get traffic and good ratings. The best way to get traffic to a lens is to put links to it from blogs or web sites, build a great lens, and of course write a blog post about it. The neighborhoods undressed lens will promote each blog in the network.
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Oct
15
Posted by Teresa Boardman
Content is King is not a new concept and I have written many posts on the topic, including my most recent post on The Real Estate Weenie, the bad blog cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand. There is a battle going on for our content, I say we should keep it. It is ours and it is a powerful tool for generating business.
In my last post I suggested that R E bloggers have become obsessed with SEO, when what they should be obsessed with is content. If the goal of the a local Realtors blog is to meet people and win clients content is key.
Writing about other blogs or writing about what everyone else is writing about isn’t the answer, unless of course you are the very best writer then you can do anything you want to. There are many excellent writers out there writing real estate content every day but not many if any writing about your neighborhood or town.
The best blog posts come from last nights conversation with the sellers of that new listing, or some comments buyers made while they were in your car. The question a neighbor asked, or your mothers remark about Realtors.
Numbers make great content but if they are charts or numbers that are available through multiple sources they are not as powerful. Your commentary or analysis of those numbers as they pertain to your neighborhood or town are needed to make the content unqiue. Providing facts and figures can make a blog boring to read so don’t do it everyday.
Humor works well in local real estate content. People seem to appreciate posts that make fun of Realtors or maybe something in the city that isn’t quite right.
Local content comes from being local, your own observations about your city or neighborhood. Show blog readers your town or neighborhood through your eyes, it is the best way for them to get to know you and at the same time learn about your market area.
Photos make great posts. Not everyone has spectacular views of oceans, mountains or rivers to photograph but that is OK. Taking pictures of the ordinary helps blog readers see your town and understand it. Pictures of houses, buildings, local shops and parks work just fine.
Often real estate bloggers don’t understand the importance of posting every day. It does take discipline. I consider writing a blog post to be part of my job and I treat it as such. When I can’t write a blog post and have no stored content to draw from I find a guest author, or take a picture. A short post is OK too, it is usually better than no post.
Keep it focused. Google will do the rest, and people will find your blog. Posts should be about your town or about real estate. Keep in mind that while it is nice to have other real estate professionals and friends reading your blog, they are not your audience. Write to your clients past present and future and to your neighbors. It doesn’t matter what other bloggers or other real estate professionals think of your content or if they read it at all.
The biggest obstacles for real estate bloggers are writing and coming up with topics to write about. I can’t believe I am doing this but I would like to say something about writing. I am not a writer and I don’t see writing as one of my strengths. I pull it off because I think about the reader.
I hear, or read people commenting on posts that are “well written”. I don’t understand what that means and I never have, it is subjective. I think the point is to use a conversational tone and create posts that are easy to read and to understand.
Keep it simple and most importantly keep it real. Imitating someone else’s style or their blog isn’t going to work. Find your own style. It will be comfortable and easy. Get ideas from the blogs you like to read but make the posts your own.
