3.1459265… I could go on and on.
This is the one of the posts which has been sitting in my draft folder for months. It actually isn’t a post at all, but rather a title that amused me. The article doesn’t exist and probably never will. Neither do the others that greet me every morning in the back panel of our blog:
Gefilte Fish – A Much Maligned Edible
Things to do with string.
Two Reasons Why Birth Control Should be Retroactive
It’s a Great Time to Buy!
It is sort of a little game I play with myself, a game I devised to serve as a grounding mechanism. My Posts that Never Got Written are my constant reminders to not take too much too seriously, and they are constant reminders of how seriously silly the whole blogging thing can get if you elevate it to some mythical level of import. If you don’t blog, then you can substitute any activity which is valuable and fulfilling but, if you are honest, is non-essential, at least from the standpoint of “things I must do today lest the human race face extinction.”
I took a few days off from posting this past week. Some call it burn out. For me, it is more like having four stockpots on the stove at once, all boiling over, and finding myself momentarily paralyzed by the notion that I have to start turning down the heat somewhere.
So, I left the kitchen. I abandoned my feed reader. I set my instant chat status to Unavailable, and while other agents have most certainly been Twittering and getting LinkedIn and pounding out epic save-the-industry tomes, I have been a human busy signal.
Spring has sprung, and the signs are everywhere. Wildflowers are in full bloom at the lake, Steve had his first roadrunner sighting of the season, and I am sporting a new and overdue “do.” The only thing now separating me and Posh Spice is some serious plastic surgery. On a more personal front, if that is indeed possible, we are knee-deep in heated negotiations at our house with the female offspring regarding seasonal wardrobe needs. Our next meeting is scheduled for Geneva. We are also dealing with the Prom Dress Debacle (one high school senior who shall remain nameless and is named Becky has determined that the only suitable gown for this milestone event can only be found in a boutique in Milan), and graduation and then college are just around the corner.
There’s more, of course. We got “the letter,” and I am now faced with finding a good week to take an 18-year-old to New Orleans (if there is such a thing), compliments of Drew Carey. Hopefully the hideous and, therefore, theft-proof orange luggage arrives in time. Our youngest has decided that this will be the year she must go to summer camp, but the camp she chose involves death defying (we hope) adventure on sheer cliffs and in high Sierra rapids, thus requiring completion of 87 pounds of medical release forms. And my tax returns are sticking their proverbial tongues out at me. So what is an overtaxed mother to do?
Channel Martha Stewart.
Her job is safe.
And did I mention we still “do a little real estate?” The phones are starting to ring again. I always marvel at how this happens during the busiest times of the year. You can set your time bomb by it. I can’t possibly be the only one dealing with these domestic distractions, yet somehow at a time when the world by all accounts should be otherwise occupied with more pressing and personal issues, people are thinking about (gasp) moving! Which brings us back to that real estate truism. Whatever the market, whatever the season, people will want to buy and sell. For many this is the “more pressing and personal” issue.
This Spring will be very telling. There are four basic indicators of market health and demand: Price, inventory, pace of sales and market time. Prices are – how do you say? – softer in San Diego. The pace of sales year over year is indisputably slower. Inventory and market times, however, are holding rather steady. We expect both seller and buyer activity to increase during the season, but for now, we seem to be slip-sliding sideways. Consumer confidence and economic indicators suggest that we might we finally nearing the valley. Of course, we won’t know until we have pulled ourselves up the other side, but from my vantage point, the buyer campground is getting a little crowded, and I am starting to see a lot of them pulling up stakes.
Prom dresses and bunny cakes (in case you didn’t recognize it as such, it was a rabbit), four listing appointments and three buyer interviews, warmer weather and caps and gowns, taxation and, well, taxation - This has been my week. Then, one of the first posts I read once I rejoined the blogging ranks was a list of questions a seller should be asking their would-be agent at the Listing Interview. Aside from the fact that addressing each of these questions at my afternoon appointment would have me staying for breakfast, there were some good points raised. And then this:
What is your Alexa traffic ranking?
Excuse me? That’s just seriously silly. I don’t know what my Alexa traffic ranking is, and I rather doubt that 1 out of 1,000 home sellers even knows what this means or if it matters (it doesn’t). What they want to know is how much their home is worth, how much I charge, what I am going to do to get it sold, and why I am going to deliver the best possible bottom line.
What does this have to do with scary looking cakes and 1040 forms? More than you think. My personal anecdotes are not at all unrelated to my business of real estate. The same things that occupy my time, consume my thoughts and compete for my attention are the same things that challenge my clients. When we blog for any period of time, there is an ever-present danger that we will become detached – detached from our client’s worlds and detached from the true value we should be, could be, bringing. We constantly run the risk of getting so wrapped up in the technical that we lose sight of the human factor.
For me, periodically detaching from the online conversation is essential. It allows me to come full circle, and to remember why I am doing this and for whom. It’s a rebirth, kind of like Spring.
And I still don’t know what my Alexa ranking is, so don’t ask.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kris Berg is Co-Owner and Designated Broker of San Diego Castles Realty. If not-so static web sites are your thing, go here at once where you will find loads of real estate information including homes for sale, market trends, floor plans and more. Kris's hobbies include fencing and spot welding. She likes kittens. 
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Hello Kris,
Knowing your Alexa ranking is not an obscure question and is most assuredly not silly. The reason we all blog is for traffic. Meaning we all hope people actually read what we write.
Many agents are now placing their listings on their blogs as a form of additional marketing to help move a listing.
If you are , or are planning to show your listings on your blog then your Alexa ranking would be pertinent to your presentation.
Having a hyperlocal blog that makes you an authority in your farming area would translate into people in your area, and prospective buyers and sellers visiting your blog.
So if a part of your package would be to tell the Seller that you have a great blog and many readers come to it and that you intend on featuring their property on your blog, as many successful realtors do, then one in turn would want, and should be entitled to know if anyone is actually reading your blog.
Hence..the Alexa ranking helps determine the validity of the traffic visiting your blog.
FYI…yours is a very respectable 584,173.
It always cracks me when I write a post about everything and nothing to see from what angle the comments come. I was pretty sure my first would be along the lines of “nice cake.”
Barry, I have to disagree that my blog rankings, Alexa or otherwise, are important to anyone but me. Now, if my web site and blog were one and the same, maybe, but they aren’t (for now, at least). And, at least in my experience, no one has bought a home off a blog. If we are entirely honest, we will admit that what we are advertising on our blogs is ourselves and our services. Yes, our listings show on the side bar, and yes, we link from here to there and there to here. Yes, the fact that I have a blog with a few readers may attract more eyes to our listings, but in terms of getting the homes sold, this is a low-percentage play. To suggest anything else is deceiving. Buyers search for homes on agent and company and third-party websites. I would argue that they search for agents on blogs.
I am not discounting the importance of a blogging presence to the agent and their business, but simply saying that I do not believe that my listings will sell sooner or for more because Alexa likes me. And I KNOW that my selling clients don’t give a squat about whose top ten list I am on this week.
By the way, a number exceeding a half-million sounds pretty dismal to me. I should probably be a little more worried about how I am going to eat in May. Having said all of that, I will restate that I thought your post raised many, very good questions which sellers should be asking.
So, now, admit it. The cake is cute.
Kris,
With all due respect, while your cake may be cute, your rationale is a bit askew.
This is your blog so I will be cordial and just say that I could send you much proof to the contrary of what you wrote but would it really matter. Enjoy the cake.
Ouch.
Nice cake. What are the eyes? Marzipan?
Barry:
I’m not sure where to start. Let’s try this – If you had read a few of the hundreds of posts on this blog you would have noticed we are living on a different planet from you. The reason we don’t know about (nor care about) an Alexa ranking is that our business model is not blog-based. It is really just a fun hobby that we hope informs (and/or mildly entertains) those who care to take the time to read it. It is mostly a medium through which our true personalities are revealed, for better and for worse. It’s reality. And yes, it is a component (a very small component) of our business plan, but not the basis of our existence. We have never cared enough to look up our Google ranking, much less our Alexa ranking, because that is not what we are about. I know, I know, it’s irrational.
This will also sound all wrong to you but here are a few other things we are not about: SEO, page hits, cheesey real estate seminars (99% of the seminars are rip-offs), “lead” generation (sorry, we have “clients” not leads) and most certainly “push(y)” marketing. So now you’re thinking, “Blasphemy!”
We are, however, into “pull” marketing. Our transactions (they are not “deals”) primarily result from people calling us, not us calling them. People who become client’s, not conversions. We are hyperlocal, but it’s not because of our blog but the many components of our business plan working together. First and foremost, we understand and respect our core market. The locals here are pretty smart (actually very smart). In a heartbeat they would see through those who are gaming the system through just SEO and page hits on a blog. They also know when they are being patronized. It’s sad actually that blogging, Google ratings or Alexa ratings is being promoted and is perceived by so many agents as a panacea. I suspect that the harsh reality is that many of the so-called real estate blogging “experts” out there have probably averaged fewer than half a dozen transactions a year. They are realizing that they aren’t paying the bills and, as Plan B, are desperately trying to monetize their blogs through advertising, seminars, etc.
You probably frown upon us because we are doing so many things wrong and I’m certain we have a lot to learn. But for us it’s about being real and forming lasting relationships that, in effect (and in reality), allow us to succeed in both good markets and in bad, and on our terms, contrarian and old fashioned as they may be.
One more thing – Kris, I love the cake!
Dear Kris,
So many things to worry about online, what about the quality of your readers? I know if that if I have someone to refer in San Diego that they are coming your way. There would be no one else, even though you are at a different brokerage than I am – WHY YOU ASK? Because I have read enough of your posts to know that you are very dedicated to your work and also fun SO if someone likes me (I am fun too!) they will surely enjoy working with you.
Also I would tend NOT to refer people to some of the blog authors I read diligently every day. While they are very informative, it is in a teacher-y way that makes me think that they wouldn’t be much fun to work with. Since I am generally hesitant to post a comment for fear of being lectured about my short-comings, I am surely not going open myself up to that kind of scrutiny on a referral!
Keep up the great work – I truly enjoy reading your blog and seeing what goes on in a (twisted) beautiful mind!
Tara – That was the nicest thing anyone has said to me all week. Thank you for that!! (Even the “twisted” part.)
Jakob – I am impressed that you even knew to ask if it was marzipan. Very enlightened. Sadly, they are just gummy thingies from the grocery store bulk candy bin. For Memorial Day, I am thinking of making a meatloaf reinacting the Battle of the Bulge.
Steve and Kris,
You must have some misunderstanding. I am not at all criticizing the way you do business., What works for you is fine.
If you remember, it was Kris who initiated my response by calling my post “silly”. It might have been more appropriate for her to say she did not agree or perhaps that it was not important to her but it most assuredly is not silly.
You subscribe to the belief that some who blog are somehow not getting any real estate sales done or are somehow doing other things like seminars or advertising to somehow overcome some inadequacies.
Why is it that you feel attacked. If you are referring to us or the guys at bloodhound or perhaps 4realz.net or maybe more than a dozen others who do the same it’s because they like us follow a well rounded business plan.
We move homes…plenty, yes we have advertisers, and they are EXTREMELY happy, and we also do seminars based upon demand from the market.
In addition to that we also do personal coaching for real estate agents, and further more we also opening a new agency.
I never said you were wrong and I never said anything disparaging about how you do business.
What I did say is that your assumptions were not founded, and neither was your last comment.
I am not looking to rile your feathers. Like I said, it was Kris who called our post information “silly” and I believe it’s more than a bit presumptous to think that a business that avails itself of all of the opportunities in a market is somehow doing so because of some perceived inadequacies.
It would be hard for you to understand the benefits of the Google impact and ranking influence as it pertains to leads and the conversion thereof if you are not utilizing the system.
Just as I can not judge your business, you can not by any means judge mine or those who are running hyperlocal successful blogs.
What I said in my post is that in your area specifically I know very well of a prominent blogger who is obtaining over 1,000 leads per month and capturing so much business he has had to hire additional agents. His business is pre-dominantly blog related.
He is right in San Diego. It’s not about “gaming” the sysytem. It’s about using the tools available in a wired world where over 80% of the consumers looking for homes begin their search.
However, like you have stated what works for you and how you run your business is fine.
I just wish you would not be so quick to point fingers and look down your nose at alternative ways of doing business and assume people are somehow inadequate if they are blogging.
That my friend was down right rude.
Lastly, I subscribe to a core principle of “permission marketing”. 100% of our business..100%…comes from people who contact us.
So to that end we agree.
Come on, Barry. I did not call your post silly – I called that one sentence silly. Twice, however, I commended you on the other points you raised. And, I don’t see anywhere where we have suggested “people are somehow inadequate if they are blogging.” Now, THAT would be silly, wouldn’t it? (In case the subtle irony is lost, this is a blog on which we ourselves are blogging.)
>It would be hard for you to understand the benefits of Google impact and ranking influence as it pertains to leads and the conversion thereof if you are not utilizing the system.
No one here was questioning the benefits of Google ranking. I was simply suggesting that the seller in a listing appointment might not be as inclined as you think to care about my Alexa ranking. Simple statement, single issue. Now, if you had said that the seller should care about whether or not my site comes up on page one or page twelve in a Google search for my neighborhood real estate, that would have been valid.
For whatever it is worth, I was not intending to pick a fight. I was just sharing an opposing point of view.
Not saying people are inadequate…I must have misunderstood Stev;e intended thoughts in his post. He seemed to be pretty clear in pointing a finger but if I misread then so be it.
No fight waged…just discourse with opposing points of view.
“The only thing now separating me and Posh Spice”
Kris: Can Steve Berg bend it like Beckham? Inquiring minds want to know.
I think Alexa is one of the other Spice Girls.
Thomas-
And the answer is…
Steve: I knew that- Posh Spice wouldn’t hang around for anything less!
Yet another example of “men will be boys.”
We missed you while you were out of the kitchen, but it looks like your pi/cake hasn’t suffered a bit….so what if Alexa doesn’t get a piece!
Duet on the veranda after coffee and cake: Posh Spice and posh Alexa for your afternoons delight. The redoubtable Mr Berg will bend it like Beckham as if there is nothing else to say but
Go Davidson Wildcats!
Might want to double check that you have pi typed correctly… “3.1459 etc…”
That’s funny — 3.1415… Happy now?
Who said our readers aren’t smart?