Las Vegas Strip
Being a Gambler
I took a gamble and spent the weekend in Las Vegas where I attended, and spoke at the first REBlogworld conference and then attended the Blog World and new media expo.
It was an amazing learning opportunity for me. Even though I did learn about some new technology that I am going to experiment, it wasn’t about technology. It was about the people I met. There is a whole world outside of real estate. I learned from journalists, artists, authors, professional bloggers and small business owners of all stripes.
New Ideas
I came away with new ideas and approaches to the web 2.0 world. I learned that I know more than I thought I did and that people in other industries can learn as much from me as I can learn from them and that we should talk to each other. We as real estate bloggers are not at all behind the times when it comes to how we use technology, and that surprised me since we work in an industry that is behind the times. We had a great group of speakers for the RE Blog event, the presentations were specialized and each was presented by the expert bloggers in our industry.
Here are some of my take aways about authoring a blog:
1. Write about what you are passionate about. Blogs take a lot of work, and if the passion isn’t there the blogger won’t put in enough time.
2. It is better to be helpful than to be authoritative.
3. It is better to start a new category than it is to work to be number one in an existing category.
4. Blogs are a lot of work and they take time.
5. “Do more stupid shit” a quote from Chris Brogan Jeremy Wright when he talked about blog content.
My other big take away is that very little of the conference was about blog platforms or installing plug-ins. Most of the sessions dealt with content, social issues and how to monetize a blog, and even how to take a blog from hobby to business. Blogs are not just about technology, they are about content and we can’t lose sight of that all important truth.
The conferences were the best educational opportunity I have had in the last three years. Through REBlog World I learned more about how my peers use social media, and as always I loved being with the people who live inside of my computer. Bloggers are social and I am no exception.
I would like to thank Todd Carpenter and Jason Berman for putting the REBlogWorld event together. They did a great job, and I consider myself very lucky to have been part of it all.
