GeekEstate Blog: A New Adventure?

by Jay Thompson on August 8, 2007 · Comments

in Real Estate Tech Stuff

GeekEstateBlog.com is a new blog founded by Zillow.com as "a resource for real estate professionals who want to learn more about how they can grow their business through smart use of technology."

Yesterday, Drew Meyers announced that yours truly had been added to the list of regular contributors.

Why would I do this?

A couple of reasons… primarily, I enjoy writing about and sharing my thoughts on real estate technology and tools. Posts that "fit" on GeekEstate don't really fit The Phoenix Real Estate Guy plan (yeah, like there is some master plan here… but you get my drift). Writing for GeekEstate gives me a venue to post techy stuff, and it lets me feel like I'm helping other agents. So it's part selfish, part wanting to help others, and part "what the hell, let's give it a whirl and see where it goes".

I'm not a programmer. I know just enough PHP, CSS and HTML to blow this blog up on a semi-regular basis. I don't run a real estate tech company. I'm just a real estate agent wanna be propeller-head who is fully convinced that the agent who incorporates technology into their business model will leave those that do not in the dust.

Here are the other current regular contributors:

  • Michael Price – President/Founder of MLPodcast, a video pod-casting service for the real estate industry. Mike’s background includes experience with most facets of applied real estate technology and its convergence with marketing, including data distribution, Web application development, listing enhancements, marketing metrics, and new media.
  • Damon Pace – Founder and CEO of Incredible Agent, a provider of real estate marketing systems for agents and brokers. Damon has also been an active Realtor with RE/MAX Excalibur in Scottsdale, Arizona.
  • Stephen Jagger – Co-founder of Ubertor, a real estate technology company that builds websites for real estate professionals. Stephen is actively involved in the real estate industry as a public speaker and co-founder of the largest real estate agent meet-up in North America. He has been an avid real estate blogger since 2004.
  • Brendan King – COO of Point2 Agent, a national marketing and advertising platform exclusively for real estate professionals. Brendan is responsible for the strategic vision, direction and execution for the company. He has more than 17 years of business, sales and marketing experience in the information technology and software industries.
  • Matt Dunlap – CTO of Realivent Corporation, a marketing platform for real estate agents, brokerages and communities. He has more than eight years’ of software and online application development experience.
  • Cory Miller – Founder of Cory Miller Design, a web development and marketing studio, focusing on WordPress blog design. He has more than eight years’ experience in journalism, marketing and Web design. (Note: Cory designed the GeekEstate blog).
  • Drew Meyers- Community Relations Specialist at Zillow. Co-founder and administrator of the Carnival of Real Estate, he is a regular contributor on Zillow Blog.

I think injecting an agent or two into the contributor mix is a good idea, and I'm excited to participate and see what we can make of this thing. Yeah, it may "compete" with some others out there, but there is ample room in the blogiverse (it's infinite you know!) and is really just another perspective and tool for others to use.

Greg Swann wrote a rather scathing analysis of his impressions of the GeekEstate idea. Don't get me wrong here. I respect the hell out of Greg. He's a marketing wizard, an innovator, and he's the best writer in the RE.net — arguably one of the best writers anywhere. I probably agree with 98% of what Greg writes. This just happens to fall into that 2% I disagree with. Who knows, he may wind up being totally correct. Time will tell…

If there is something anyone would like to see on the GeekEstate blog, drop me a line. 

 

[tags]GeekEstate, geekestateblog.com[/tags] 


 

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  • Glad to have you on board Jay!

    I'm with you on disagreeing with Greg on this particular issue -- if I agreed, we wouldn't have launched/organized the GeekEstate Blog.
  • I think this is a good idea, Jay. My primary objection to GeekEstate is that it is a Trojan Horse vendor blog. Having even one non-vendor on the roster is better.
  • Glad to be there Drew.

    Thanks Greg. It's no doubt "vendor heavy", but I think that will change a bit soon. I don't want to see it turn into an ad fest. I don't think it will. *I* clearly won't contribute to that, though "fair and balanced" product reviews are likely.
  • Great. Now I'll have to read the damn blog. Thanks a lot, Jay.
  • Jay,

    Good for you. I hope you can bring some balance to the list of contributors.

    I look forward to reading your posts.

    Geez! does this mean you will be getting a new pocket protector and some tape for your glasses?
  • Phoenix Arizona Relocation
    Brent specializes in Phoenix Arizona Relocation Services. For people coming from out of state who are looking for an easy reliable service for phoenix relocations, Brent is your man.

    Jay's note: edited to remove spam... see below
  • Great blog! thx for the insight and tips here
  • Lani is the specialist on Real Estate snarkiness and her blog is so wonderful and you should pay to subscribe to her blog. She's your man.

    Wait- this isn't an ad portal? I'm lost... where am I?

    *wink
  • Brent -

    I did something to your comment that I *rarely* do. I removed the link to your site and your last name.

    You see, to come on to a real estate weblog, one based in Phoenix no less, and post a comment that is nothing but self-serving, self-promotion is considered..... well..... rude. Spam. Wrong.

    I *could* have deleted it, and relegated it to my spam catcher, which in turn would flag you as a spammer to many other sites. Instead I edited it. Partly because I'm *hoping* it was just an honest mistake. And partly because Lani's following comment would make no sense without yours. And we don't want to make Lani look foolish.

    Hopefully you understand. This is the blog of a Phoenix real estate agent (who also does relo). I allow a lot on here, just about anything. But free advertising for other agents? I don't think so.

    If you want to know a secret, I have installed the "do follow" plug in. This means that URLs left in comments get followed by the search engines. You are more than welcome, encouraged in fact, to add to the discussion and leave your URL.
  • Jasmine S
    Hi! You asked for suggestions on things we'd like to see on the GeekEstate Blog, and I have one for you! (Although I'm not quite sure if it fits better into your blog or the GeekEstate blog...that would be up to you!). I came across this the other day...it's a facebook-type network just for the real estate industry. I am wanting to start looking into real estate investing across the country, so I was excited when I found this site, so I can start meeting people to maybe do work with. I'd be interested in you telling other people about it, so it can help me build my network faster! (Selfish? I'm not quite sure!) But take a look at it anyway, I'm interested what you think about it:

    http://www.realedin.com/

    Thanks!
  • Thanks for the info Jasmine! I'll check out realedin as soon as I get a chance and let you know my opinion!
  • Nice and interesting post... I really enjoyed and learned a lot for this post... Thanks... =)
  • I would like to read about Google changing their algo. What do you know about this? I can't get a difinitive answer to wether it has been changed or is changing.
  • Paul,

    I can answer that one for you. Google is constantly changing their algo. We call it the Google dance.
  • You've mentioned before that you have some extra nasty anti spam gear Jay, is that the "do follow plugin"? Do you have other stuff that you can share as well? I'm speaking of course about what you can tell us without having to terminate us.

    You are after all the spam terminator, are you not?
  • Scoot - the DoFollow isn't anti-spam. It allows search engnie bots to follow links in comments, sharing the "link love" with people that comment here. It may in fact promote more spam.

    I use Spam Karma and Bad Behavior to try to stop spam before it even gets here. I also use the "captcha" thing where you have to enter a word before posting. This eliminate most human spam/

    Trackback spam seems to becoming a problem of late... Bad Behavior helps some, but not enough. As I get time, I manually add these trackback spammers to Spam Karma's "blacklist".
  • Great post, Jay. I couldn't agree with you more. I am the trainer/recruiter/fulltime realtor in my office and try me best to convince and show newer agents the power and importance of technology. In todays market many newer agents, especially those with little to no sphere of influence, have few avenues to market themselves and aquire business. Every bit of my business this year has come from my website, referral from forum or social networking site, or some other internet source. Its sink or swim. I prefer to swim, swim in the vast blue waters of the World Wide Web!
  • Congratulations on being added as a regular contributor to Zillow's blog. Your blog has a lot of great information as well. I do wonder how you can write so much and not get writer's block.
    Now I am going to bounce over to geekestateblog. :)
  • "I do wonder how you can write so much and not get writer’s block."

    I don't know if it's a gift, or a curse Naples. Writer's block has never been a problem for me. The opposite usually holds true -- I often can't shut up....
  • Great blog! Looking forward to your next articles :)
  • Great. Now I’ll have to read the whole blog! :D
    But anyway, gj Jay ;)
  • Gone through the blog. It was informative, but there are few things needs to added while you are searching for something special in this real estate industry.
  • I love the GeekEstate logo- a cottage wearing geeky glasses. LOL.

    <abbr></abbr><abbr>Laguna Niguel Real Estate´s last blog post..Dana Point 2009 Doheny Blues Festival…</abbr>
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