A RealTown Blogger will win a Full Conference Registration to the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco, July 22 - July 25, 2008, one of the most highly touted real estate events of the year.

Write a winning blog post on a RealTown Blog within the next week for a chance to attend ths event! There is no limit on subject matter or length of post. Entries will be judged on the merits of creativity, inspiration, and construct.  Judges from the Publishing Team at RealTown will select a semifinalist winner each day next week, Tuesday through Friday. The winning entry and Grand Prize Winner will be selected from the semifinalists on July 7, 2008.

If you do not have a RealTown Blog yet, you can get started by visiting http://RealTownBlogs.com.

GRAND PRIZE: The contest award will be 1 free “Conference Package” to attend Inman’s conference and 1 workshop (Internet Marketing or Bloggers Connect or Foreclosures) an $859 value.

SEMIFINALISTS will each receive an autographed copy of The Real Estate Technology Guide by Saul Klein, John Reilly, and Mike Barnett.

Conference Highlights:

RealTown Blogger Mary Pope-Handy will be featured on a panel at Bloggers Connect, "Case Study: How Four Bloggers Are Closing Sales -- What tactics work for generating business?" Mary was last year's winning Blog Apprentice and Frances Flynn Thorsen was the winning Blog Coach in the Inman News/ActiveRain Project Blogger competition.

Frances Flynn Thorsen, Managing Editor of RealTown.com, will be a featured panelist in a session titled, "How to Help Homeowners While Closing Business" in a Foreclosure Workshop moderated by Bernice Ross, Ph.D.

Saul Klein, CEO of InternetCrusade and Point2 Agent Technologies, will be featured in "Change or Die - Does the MLS Risk Becoming Irrelevant?"

Webinar Handout

Podcast (Audio Only)

Yesterday's Webinar with Blanche Evans (Realty Times) and Hilary Marsh (Realtor.org) offers valuable information about online publishing rules, including copyright considerations and new Blogging Guidelines being developed by the National Assn. of REALTORS. One of the most interesting issues in the guidelines is the position that the NAR legal eagles are taking about comments. They are insisting that the NAR blogmasters moderate their comments: 

"If you have a blog, accept comments. Develop a comment policy outlining the types of comments you WON’T publish: e.g., those that are offensive, illegal, irrelevant, or are sales pitches."

The webcast, podcast, and handout contain information that real estate agents and brokers will find valuable in developing a Blog Business Plan.

The following resources are mentioned in the Webinar: 

• RealtyTimes
• Articles for Rookies
• Economic Research
• Build a Better Web Site
• Start a Podcast
• Architecture Guide
• Handouts for Buyers and Sellers
• Field Guides
• 8-Step Personal Marketing Plan
• Download e-Mail Banners
• Fill--In-The-Blanks News Releases

The next 8-week Blog Coaching Webinar program starts next week. Join us and take your blogging to the next level at No Blogger Left Behind.

 -- Frances Flynn Thorsen and Joeann Fossland

Tired of Negative Headlines? Write Your Own!

Hilary Marsh of The National Assn. of REALTORS offers a preliminary peek at NAR's new Blogging Guidelines in next week's FREE No Blogger Left Behind Webinar. Real estate brokers, agents, and bloggers will gain valuable insight into an online publishing tool that is changing the face of online real estate. The Webinar will be held June 17.

Hilary joins Blanche Evans ofRealty Times, Joeann Fossland, Master Certified Coach, and Frances Flynn Thorsen, RealTown.com. (Joeann and Fran are the Co-Creators of the No Blogger Left Behind Blog Coaching Program.)

Hilary Marsh, Managing Director, Editorial Development for Realtor.org, is a Web content guru. Before joining the National Assn. of REALTORS® , Hilary led Content Company, an online consultancy specializing in Web content strategy and management. Among the clients were the American Hospital Assn., the University of Chicago, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. A frequent national speaker on Web content issues, Hilary founded NetContent/Chicago, an organization for the online content community, and is a founding member of CM Professionals, the content management community of practice. She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. (Courtesy Realtor.org.)

Register here.

One of the bonuses of traveling to meetings around the country is the chance to meet fellow bloggers and e-PROs in person. Last week Joeann Fossland and I were in Ocean City, MD, to present an e-PRO Workshop for local REALTORS and we had the good fortune to meet e-PRO Susan Pruden, who drove up from Prince George's County. Susan has been an e-PRO for years, blogs at RealTown (Real Estate Bits and Pieces), is a No Blogger Left Behind alumna, and she uses a Point2 web site quite effectively! Susan is doing things right!

Joeann and I will be hosting additional workshops in June. We hope to meet more e-PROs and bloggers as well as REALTORS taking the next steps to advance their tech expertise.

Joeann's June schedule (Arizona):

Fran's June schedule (New Jersey):

Sign up and meet us in person. If you would like to get a head start and save $25, sign up here and use the code: 9378.

PDF files can offer real estate consumers valuable content. There is a great example of maximizing the use of lead capture technology on Joeann Fossland's inspirational blog, RELAXED Real Estate for MAGNIFICENT Agents. Joeann is a Master Certified Coach and is widely regarded as a premier coach in the real estate industry, if not THE premier coach. Her blog content is rich and I can personally testify to life changing shifts that I have made after reading select posts at her blog in the last couple of years.

Assess your forms software. Point2 Agent web site owners have access to some great, easy-to-use forms software on that web platform. Top Producer users also have access to forms.

Today's offering to Joeann's blog readers is a 30-day plan that can change your life. (I am presently working on Day 8 of the same book.) Joeann has a PDF file and link that blog readers can click to collect this prize. The link takes readers to a page with a link to the PDF. She follows up seconds later with an autoresponder. (Can you tell that Joeann is a Certified e-PRO Trainer?) Simple. Easy. A gateway to a plan that can change your life. How many blogs have you read today that can change your life forever? Don't miss this one!

Invite interactivity on your blog in more than just the COMMENTS section. Invite guest authors to write stories that you can share. Mary Pope-Handy, a REALTOR in Los Gatos, CA, publishes Live In Los Gatos for her local market. She was the winning Blog Apprentice in last year's Inman News/ActiveRain Project Blogger competition (photo at right l. to r: Mary Pope-Handy, Frances Flynn Thorsen, and Joeann Fossland hold check for CARE, the grand prize in the contest). Mary also publishes a niche blog, The Haunted Real Estate Blog. I wrote a piece for her yesterday about a an experience that I had when I was showing a house in eastern Pennsylvania.

Teresa Boardman publishes a highly successful  blog, St. Paul Real Estate. She has a regular contributor, Erik Hare, who writes a post for her every Sunday. It is one of the many ingredients in Teresa's formula for a highly successful real estate blog.  

In 2006, Joeann Fossland popularized Blog Guest Posting with her Coachadelic Blog Tour for CARE. She visited numerous blogs over several months with guest posts to raise money for humanitarian programs around the globe. Her Web Women Giving Circle raised about $25,000 for CARE.

RealTown Blogs has a multi-author, time-saving function that lets you grant author privileges to others.