Mar. 30, 2009 - When Will we Ever Learn? Visual Tour of Chernobyl

There has been a lot of talk lately about alternative fuels and trying to “green” our energy usage. Some of the big talks during the elections and since have been that nuclear fission is somehow safe and green. Yet it’s clearly not either of those things. Nuclear waste is being stockpiled throughout the country with no safe way of storing or disposing of it. On top of that nuclear fission is far from safe but sometimes we forget. Sometimes we need to be reminded of why we don’t do certain things. I came across two different articles recently that highlight not only why nuclear fission is not safe but also why we should be avoiding adding more nuclear plants.

First let’s take a visual tour of Chernobyl today. Along the way you can take a look at the Geiger counter to see how “safe” it is.

Just follow the link below for a tour. It’s actually a real tourist get away and you can book a tour for Chernobyl today at http://www.tourchernobyl.com.

http://www.grcade.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2217

If you did scroll down the pictures I am pretty sure you are feeling what I am feeling right now. There is a real sense of loss. It’s very sobering. I don’t think words can accurately describe how you feel after you view those pictures.

Some might argue oh but that was in Russia and we are much safer here now. Well that sounds reassuring only if it were true. Here in the United States year after year nuclear plants fail safety tests and most of these are brushed aside. We also forget that a nuclear catastrophe happened right here as well. It wasn’t as bad as Chernobyl but it could have been and that’s the scary thing.

Remember Three Mile Island?

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/03/27/27greenwire-three-mile-island-still-haunts-us-reactor-indu-10327.html

Some argue this was a good thing since it made us aware of the potential for disaster in our own backyard. Since then nuclear fission has been basically put on hold and with good reason. Had Chernobyl happened in our backyard would we even consider nuclear fission as an option? I doubt it. This really feels like one of those things where we have to really learn our lesson. But do we need a gigantic concrete dome in your town USA? I hope history has taught us better and we can truly look to safe, alternative fuels.

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Mar. 29, 2009 - The War on Spam Goes 3-D With new 3-D Captcha

A while back I wrote a post trying to warn everyone that Captcha as a security measure has been defeated. This basically means that anyone who has a blog or any site that uses Captcha for security pretty much has no security. Spammers could easily hit your site with whatever they want and that’s not good. Well it’s good for them but bad for us. So I had a feeling people were scrambling to find a new method of security. Then I saw this article here.

This new technology makes it pretty much impossible for a computer to crack so automated processes like this are eliminated but there is a catch. There was another article that I can’t seem to find right now that basically said Indian firms are hiring hundreds of people to physically defeat the Captcha system. That is they hire out humans to go through Captcha systems by hand and then spam away. Apparently its cheap to hire out this labor and then they can spam websites (you can probably figure out which kind) Want more Viagra ads? Well these are the people that do that kind of crap.

Bummer :(

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Mar. 29, 2009 - Twitter Coming to a Car Near you With OnStar??!!

Ok at first when I read this my first thought was wow are they crazy or what? Then when I figured out how it works I wasn’t quite so shocked. Apparently they are working on a way or are going to just integrate Twitter into OnStar so that you can Tweet while you drive. Sounds dangerous right? Well it actually works using a voice activation system so that it is entirely hands free. Still sounds a bit dangerous to me but much less so than Tweeting with your fingers. I would think it is distracting though but probably no more so than talking on the phone. But that is dangerous too. Hmm…

Anyways if you just have to Tweet this much then having this setup in your car might be the thing for you. I guess I never realized how much people are in love with Twitter. Apparently it’s so much that engineers are making it even easier for people to do it everywhere they go!

You can read this article to learn more.

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Mar. 26, 2009 - Facebook: Your Privacy is now Your Option… Why Would you not Want Privacy? Read on…

For most people privacy is not only a concern it’s an absolute must. This is especially true when it comes to minors on the internet. Privacy matters as well when it comes to spam because in this day and age no one likes to give out emails because of the inevitable onslaught of spam that ensues afterwards.

While all the above is most certainly true you must be wondering why on earth anyone would want to give up all that privacy. Well for some of us we don’t want anything private. Every bit of information about us is shared on the internet. I don’t mean personal stuff, I mean business related stuff. My email, cell phone number, business address, pictures of myself, and website are all freely shared to anyone on the planet who wants to contact me. Unfortunately that’s the price of doing businesses nationally or globally. The price is no privacy and the payoff is plenty.

So Facebook did some tweaking because it realizes that not every Facebook user wants complete privacy. So now you can actually make your profile even more public and let people contact you even easier. You can read this story here for more information. I highly suggest anyone that is using social networking as a means to compliment their business to check into this.

Oh and while you are at it....

Want to be my friend?!  

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Mar. 26, 2009 - Twitter Turns Three and Dozens of Other Twitter News

 Twitter turned 3 years old the other day and for most people that number probably seems strange because for most people Twitter is rather new. I admit I didn’t know about Twitter 3 years ago but I guess I was into social networking when hotmail was new and am only getting back into it now because of necessity. Not to be anti-social but I really don’t like it for the most part. I do enjoy meeting new people from all over the country but being poked 12 times a day is rather tough to deal with when you work a lot.

So what else is new with Twitter?

Twitter is being taught in UK schools. Can you believe it? I can and I wish it were being taught in our country as well. Not just Twitter but more advanced computer knowledge such as web programming and design and things like that. Why? Because computers aren’t going away and a typing class just isn’t cutting it anymore. Typing is like breathing and Tweeting is like speaking. If you are human you have to learn this stuff, even if it’s just baby steps.

Twitter broke recently. You might not have noticed since apparently it happened at night. I must say for a service that sees exponential growth to only see it go down occasionally isn’t bad. Whoever is behind the scenes does a good job.

Twitter in the news! That is Twitter might start serving up local news. I think that’s a good idea. I can see it being popular and convenient.

Twitter in the news again! Ok this time it really was in the news. In fact it’s been all over the news. If you have been watching you might have noticed that quite a few news programs etc are starting to Tweet and gaining followers. I guess its going mainstream. What it is doing is driving incredible traffic to Twitter.

New Firefox app for Twitter released. This new extension looks rather useful if you are a FF user. It definitely adds quite a bit of functionality.

Twitter starts serving up ads. This was probably inevitable. No one is going to keep pumping money into this no matter how popular it is unless it can make some money.

Twitter serving text ads. This goes with the one above. I guess it’s just a different approach or a solution to the same problem.

Twitter is growing and growing on businesses. How much is a lot of traffic from Twitter worth to you? This is an interesting question but certainly a big reason why so many people are using Twitter and trying to get a massive cult following.

How much is Twitter worth to you for increased revenue? Well here we have an answer and apparently its $250,000! That number seems large but if you read the story you can see that it is quite lucrative to have a big following or at least some are willing to gamble that it will be in the future. 250,000 clams to be a suggested Tweeter to follow might seem hard to swallow but it’s true.

Twitter in the future? As this article points out what better way to find out what Twitter’s future plans are other than looking at who they are hiring! Ahh tricky!

I don’t know if that was a dozen but it was pretty close. I think I could have found a few dozen more. Those stories were just from this month!

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Mar. 23, 2009 - Got Backup? Turns out Cloud Storage Fails Sometimes-Carbonite

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I often write about the importance of backing up all your files. Why? Because it’s important duh! I am actually shocked at the number of people with websites that don’t even know you are supposed to back up the data let alone have a backup! The same goes for any of your personal data. Think of it as a safe with all your most valuable child hood possessions. If you don’t keep them safe they are but a memory. Why take chances?

That’s why I recommend that you have more than one backup solution. If a backup fails then you are just as out of luck as not having a backup. There is no one safe method and the key is redundancy, having many backups. You really can’t have too many. That’s why I recommend trying cloud storage as well because it’s convenient and for the most part safe. But accidents happen and when big companies lose a lot of data really bad things happen like in the case of backup company Carbonite where apparently they lost 7500 customers data. I really hope that wasn’t you and that wasn’t your only backup. It does seem crazy that they wouldn’t have some sort of backup backup and another backup of that but I guess not. From the looks of the updates they deny this happening but then someone says it did. Who knows what the truth is, the point is never rely on one system because you are doomed to failure. Having a backup decreases those odds but not by much especially if time can degrade the source.

Here is a story of a company out of business because of not having a backup. Imagine that.

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Mar. 23, 2009 - The Twitter Effect: A Model to Follow—Check out Jive.ly a More Mobile Twitter

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It was just announced over at Tech Crunch that there is a new social network in town that works a bit like Twitter. Of course a lot of people are trying to work on things similar to Twitter because if it worked for Twitter why wouldn’t it work for me? Duh! Well that’s not always how things work. You can’t just copy something and expect it to work. That’s why they tried to make Jive.ly a bit different and offer more. That’s the thing that might make this thing take off. The review didn’t seem to put much thought into Jive.ly taking off but who knows. I am sure not many thought Twitter would be where it is today in only 3 years and the same could be said about a lot of networks and sites.

So what’s different about this one? Well you can check it out yourself. They seemed to have sorted out most of the issues with a server overload. It wasn’t too hard to send a message there as you can see from the picture. I think trying it out and seeing if it can work for you is important. The difference is that this lets you work with video and other media formats whereas Twitter really doesn’t let you do that. Jive.ly has a real big emphasis on mobile which with how fast the mobile market is moving you just never know anymore.

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Mar. 20, 2009 - Could the AIG Debacle get Worse? Simple Answer? Yes! Much Worse!

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Ok for the most part I have stayed out of the talk surrounding the bailout(s) and the rest of the fallout. Not that I am not interested but for the most part I have little or no control over what is going to happen anyways. I don’t have stocks and I just have a strong belief in the old saying if it’s something you can’t control then there is no need to worry about it. I prefer to worry about the things I can directly control.

But this AIG thing is really starting to well not starting to it’s just completely out of control. I don’t even know what to think anymore. Literally not just every day but every hour there is a new story out about something else they are doing. It just doesn’t seem like it could get much worse until I just read this story. Apparently the bailout hasn’t been quite enough and now AIG is suing the government for more money. While that doesn’t seem like much on the surface you see the thing is that they are using our money to do it! Yes it’s the taxpayer money that we gave them that now they are using to sue us! I just can’t even believe this anymore. While I think some people have been a bit violent in their reactions to AIG such as threatening to kill them and burn it down, at the same time I can’t feel anything but anger. I don’t even know who to be angry at anymore but I do feel that this is way beyond simply out of control. I don’t think there is a word to describe this anymore.

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Mar. 20, 2009 - Want Another Reason to Get Yourself and Listings on YouTube?

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As if I have to tell you another reason to get yourself and your listings on YouTube but if you are not thinking out of the box then you might not realize there is a vast, hardly tapped market. How about mobile video? This is a pretty new area for a variety of reasons. First of all it was nearly impossible to have enough bandwidth to view movies on a phone. Secondly it was pretty much impossible because phones just couldn’t process movies. They were basically too limited and the resources necessary would kill an older phone. But then the age of 3g networks and the I-Phone / Blackberry craze hits and voila you not only have a market you have a need.

So this is a no brainer for those of us in the Real Estate industry to get ourselves and our listings more exposure. Have any idea how much a potential buyer would like to see a virtual tour of a house while they are standing outside looking at the house? Have any idea how much a potential buyer would like to see what the listing agent looks like or more importantly what kind of personality they have beyond the simple photograph while they are looking at your sign? Have any idea what kind of an impact being out there and reaching the mobile market could have on future listings?

Well now this is all possible thanks to the above technologies and m.youtube.com. While the site isn’t as new since it was actually released about a year ago, a new application has dropped which makes it accessible through Windows Mobile and Nokia Phones. I am not sure if there is an I-Phone app or not, I would assume so but I could be wrong. Regardless this opens up a huge market for mobile video. Like I said before as if you needed another reason to get you and your listings on YouTube this is yet another reason!

You can read more about this over at Tech Crunch.

You can download the new app at www.m.youtube.com. You can also check out the site using your normal browser if you want to see what it looks like.

If you are looking to sell your home in Eau Claire Wisconsin or any of the surrounding areas please give me a call. I promote all of my listings through video on YouTube which is the largest video site in the world. This offers more exposure for your listing than any other medium. It might not be the one particular reason that your house sells or not but additional exposure is an important factor in a house selling. In this market I like to give my clients every advantage possible.

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Mar. 19, 2009 - If a Tree Falls in a Forest Would Anyone Care? Internet Explorer 8 Released

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Honestly I wish I could ditch IE once and for all. I just hate it. It sucks and there is no other way of looking at it. It’s just another example of how monopolistic practices result in crappy products. No wonder Firefox and the rest are eating up such a large market share. It’s no secret they are simply much better than IE. While IE 8’s release is certainly good news it’s not really going to shake up the computer world when at best it simply offers some of the features that these other browsers already offer and at worst is just much slower! Who wants slow when it comes to the internet? I want a browser that can keep up with how fast I read. I hate waiting for pages to load. It’s not for lack of attention span it’s because I have better things to do. Why don’t I just switch? Unfortunately our MLX requires IE. I just wonder if IE 8 even works on it. Oh I guess it does lucky me.

Anyways for us stuck using IE still this is good news I guess but for the rest of the word, some 30% that have moved on to bigger and better things they are probably not going to look back.

Oh and what really sucks is that you have to restart your machine to even see it in action. That right there tells me I probably don’t want this hunk of junk installed on my machine. I can tell already it’s slower than before.

You can read more about IE8 here at Tech Crunch.

You can get IE8 here.

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Mar. 19, 2009 - Did Jon Stewart of the Daily Show Save America?

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Maybe you don’t watch the Daily Show or follow the news closely but there has been a lot going on lately in the news and as usual the Daily Show has done a better job of covering it than most news outlets. Jim Cramer of CNBC fame was talking as usual and things heated up and well it’s such a long story that it really doesn’t matter anymore. But it led to Jim appearing on the Daily Show where Jon Stewart figuratively took him over his knee and spanked him. It was pretty rough to watch and I think well deserved. You can watch it here.

 Some people are arguing that it’s unfair and that the media is hardly to blame but really? Isn’t it their job to report on what is going on especially when they have intimate knowledge? Look at this video:

Here is an article discussing more in depth on how Jon Stewart may have saved us all. I think it’s pretty fair and accurate. The response by NBC to Jon Stewart is pretty much ridiculous. Seriously when a comedy show has higher standards and more journalistic integrity than a so called serious news program then we have a real problem. I for one enjoy watching the Daily Show and as their tagline says “where more Americans get their news” and why not? They offer more coverage than other stations, they have legitimate interviews with important people and they actually let people talk during an interview instead of yelling at them the whole time. Not to mention its more entertaining.

 
Another casualty of the Jim Cramer interview was that street.com CEO quit right after the show aired. Street.com is Jim Cramer’s online financial news website. I don’t doubt that Jim Cramer is next. How ironic for such a strong proponent of capitalism to become a victim of capitalism.

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Mar. 19, 2009 - Ever Concerned About Whether Your Website Traffic is Local?

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I don’t know about you but a lot of my business depends on local traffic to my website. I like having a national presence and I have had people from all over the country call me as a result of being on the web but keeping it local is important as well. The majority of people who should be using my site and hopefully find it useful would be the people in and around Eau Claire Wisconsin. I do my best to get myself “out there” so to speak and I have a variety of blogs and other information on dozens of different websites. This creates a funnel that inevitably leads to my website. But the real key to my success is having the people in my market call me to list their home for sale because of my websites or potential buyers using my site to search for homes and calling me to set up an appointment.

This might not be true of everyone but I think for most real estate agents this is an important consideration. But the question is how do you know if your site is local enough or how do you know where all your traffic is coming from? Well the answer my friends is blowing in the wind, well it’s not really is Google Analytics.

Ok this is probably the millionth article written about GA but hopefully you can find some value in this.

This will be easier if you sort of follow along. I normally publish quite a bit of my own website statistics but I know other people have been watching my sites lately so I am sort of being shy now. So if you open up GA now and go to the top left you can see where it says visitors. Click that. The default screen is now where it says map overlay. If you are in the US this probably doesn’t show much information.

 But the key is to zoom in and then this map really lights up. Click on the map part where the US is and you can see more detail.

Guess what state I am in?

 If you know Wisconsin guess what city I am in?

What’s funny is that Google thinks Eau Claire Wisconsin is Altoona but its close enough for me. The data is what is important here. Take a look at these numbers for instance.

What this tells me is that 45% of my traffic is from within my city. That’s pretty good considering that my efforts are national as well. A big chunk of traffic comes to my site from Tech Crunch for instance because I post there so much. That would be great if the visitors wanted to buy a house in Eau Claire but that’s not likely. This in turn leads to a higher bounce rate for people who just click to see what my site is and then leave when they find out. If you notice the bounce rate of my local traffic is actually quite a bit lower than my overall site bounce rate. That’s good news as well because it means the people who went to my site intentionally for Real Estate stayed on my site and you can see by the page views they took a look around as well. I hope this helps anyone who wants local traffic because it’s important to know this information. Just because you get a lot of visitors to your site doesn’t mean much if they aren’t interested in what your site offers or they aren’t from your target market.

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Mar. 19, 2009 - How I Feel Sometimes as a “Computer Geek”

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You know it’s hard to explain what it feels like when you consider that most people know little about computers so the smallest computer feats make you seem like you are some sort of computer genius. The reality of computers is that most of this stuff is pretty easy it just takes time to learn. Most people are not inherently good at working with computers; they have merely spent more time learning all the nuances. I am often approached by people who are just amazed at what I can do and yet I always say that I am self taught. It’s true. I did take a few programming courses but I am no computer programmer. I designed a few websites but this time last year I had never designed a website in my life. That’s why I keep telling people that anyone can do this no matter if you are young or old. In fact I think it’s so important that you do learn how to do this. Some very simple skills learned in how to tinker with your website could save you thousands of dollars over the years. All it takes is some time and dedication. Trust me it gets better as you go and it is very rewarding. While it might seem hard or frustrating at first but it’s well worth it.

So I came across this picture today and I think it sums up how I feel. It’s pretty funny. But I guess you have to be a geek to get it.

http://graphjam.com/2009/03/18/song-chart-memes-computer-skills/

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Mar. 19, 2009 - Once Again the so Called Secure Mac Falls to Hackers

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I guess you can only praise Apple for their marketing efforts because they have done the impossible, take an insecure computer platform and market it to the masses as infallible. How else can you look at it when anyone even reading the words I just wrote is already calling me a liar? In fact the last time I even suggested something to this effect I was practically run out of town by an angry mob with burning torches screaming at me for even suggesting that a Windows pc could be more secure than an Apple computer. Yet I provided proof and people wouldn’t even bother to click on the articles and read them. It’s no wonder because when you show people that a machine running Vista was more secure than a Mac you probably seem to sound like an idiot but it was true and the truth is very powerful.

So the contest is running again this year and within seconds the Safari Macbook fell to a hacker. Before you say oh but the Windows machine must have been even quicker just take a look at this “Several hackers are currently attempting exploits against Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox but those browsers are still standing.”

The point is that while a Mac may on the surface be secure so is a Windows machine and without knowing about security one is not necessarily safer than the other. Almost any security expert will tell you that while a Mac may run a UNIX kernel it’s not UNIX. Nor is any computer completely safe from hackers, viruses or a variety of other exploits. A lot of people argue that the myth of the “safe Mac” is not only perpetuated by a lot of misleading advertising but really the safety lies in the numbers and the fact that the majority of computers are Windows. Although there is a great push to hack Macs and the sheer joy of accomplishing that is what could lead to many more exploits. But when you present people with the truth sometimes it hurts and just like last time when I showed how a Mac can have viruses, I am sure that people will disbelieve this as well.

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Mar. 18, 2009 - Not Discounted Services… How About all my Services for Free??!! Wired’s Chris Anderson

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The legend of free marketing and offering your services for free certainly seems like a gimmick. But is it? Think about this for a moment because as strange as this sounds it’s not really a gimmick at all but a fact of marketing that a lot of people might overlook but not Chris Anderson. If you don’t know who that is he is the head of Wired magazine as well “the guy behind the long tail theory.” You can just do a search for long tail if you aren’t sure how important that is to marketing and websites.

So can you run a business and make money when your services are free? Maybe. In fact it works all the time. You can check out this article here for some interesting ideas as well as some historical facts around this marketing oddity.

In fact this could really mean an historical shift in modern marketing. Chris believes so strongly in this that he is actually giving away his new book on the subject called Free for free.

I have actually been doing this idea with my website for some time and not even realizing it. I have tried offering the most information and capabilities absolutely free. I try making it the easiest to use and basically ask for nothing in return. If I provide this valuable of a service for free then I can be paid for other services I offer. Makes sense to me.

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Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!

Mar. 17, 2009 - Oh Dear… More Social Networking But This one is Just Plain Crazy!!

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First of all I would like to say that I am probably as sick of hearing about every new social network that comes out as anyone else. In fact I probably read about more of these things every day than the average person. Some are just plain not very useful and when new ones come a long you have to question if it’s even possible to actually have something new!

Well in the case of unhub you would be dead wrong because this thing is freakin’ crazy. Want to see what it looks like? Check out the page I created.

http://unhub.com/Shaneogorman/

That took me about 30 seconds to make. You literally just add whatever links you want.

Not sure what you are looking at? Well unhub works by letting you finally have a place to call home for all of your social networks. Instead of having to list 10,000 different profiles this thing acts like one central storage dump. But it’s not a dump at all because you can make it look like anything you want! In fact you just click which page you want to show as your profile and it makes a frame of whatever site you pick. It seriously couldn’t get easier than that. So now instead of saying catch me here on Facebook or here on LinkedIn on and on into infinity now you can just send them there and you can add every single profile you want. You can customize every single detail as well. For only taking these guys a couple of days this is probably one of the biggest things to hit social networking in years.

http://unhub.com/

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Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!

 

Mar. 17, 2009 - Everything you say and do Will be Used Against you

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As Real Estate agents we know how important our word choice is and how we must be constantly careful of what we say or do or risk certain liability. Often we are placed in situations that we must know every detail of the law especially such areas as agency relationships or we risk some very huge consequences. Without proper agency disclosure, the simplest thing such as discussing price could get you in trouble with either the seller of the home, the buyer or the licensing board. Not only is it important that you constantly adhere to the law you have to realize that everything you say and do will be used against you.

This is even more important today as technology improves and it becomes even easier to record conversations on video or audio. Even a tiny mp3 player can have a voice activated recorder or a camera the size of a pin located in a house. I am not trying to say that we have anything to hide but you must understand that even the slightest stray from these strict standards could land you in a world of trouble.

As a seller it might seem like a great idea to be able to monitor people visiting your house. It might even feel a bit sneaky as you are able to listen in on conversations and it might even be overly tempting to want to know what people are saying about your house but this too could lead you into trouble. Without giving visitors the right to consent to being recorded you might even be breaking the law. I am no lawyer but regardless if it’s in direct violation of a law or not, it’s really just not nice. It could also lead to a lawsuit if a buyer chose to pursue it further. And really doesn’t everyone deserve some privacy?  This isn’t a reason to find an even smaller camera or try to hide it even better. Rather it’s a matter of respect. As Realtors we are very discretionary when it comes to who we bring through your house and if you are truly uncomfortable with having strangers in your house then maybe you can ask to be there.

Please try to put yourself into the buyers’ shoes and imagine what it would feel like to suddenly find out that you are being recorded. Do you really want people to have this kind of reaction when you are trying to sell your home?

Everything you say and do Will be Used Against you

You could be scaring away potential buyers so why take the risk?

Check out my Eau Claire Real Estate Agent Website!

If you have something to say please leave a comment. I will try to comment on your blog as well.
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If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!

Mar. 17, 2009 - More Reasons Why Bloated Blogs and Websites Suck

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As if you needed any other reasons to slim down your bloated blog and website there might be something else you never considered.

Ok first of all you probably assume that everyone has broadband which is a bad assumption because not everyone does so if your site loads slowly on a fast connection it’s terrible to people on dialup. Now imagine what it does to people accessing your sites from their phones? I can tell you for sure that they will move onto the next site that isn’t chock full of slow loading widgets and images.

Here is some more information:

“ComScore indicates the number of U.S. mobile phone users who use their devices to access news and other information online is now totals more than 63.2 million.”

“Social networking sites and blogs served as the content that increased in viewership the most, racking up an impressive 407 percent increase in daily access.”

While speeds have increased when it comes to mobile phones not everyone has access to 3g networks and until they do you are losing out on a very large share of the internet market.

Do you really need any more reasons to remove all those widgets and large images and backgrounds?

Check out my Eau Claire Real Estate Agent Website!

If you have something to say please leave a comment. I will try to comment on your blog as well.
If you really like this story flag it for a feature!
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!

Mar. 16, 2009 - Facebook Connect For the I-Phone

If you wonder why I keep writing so many posts about Facebook Connect it’s because everyone is talking about it and it’s probably the biggest thing to hit social networking all year. It’s certainly even bigger than all the changes on Facebook itself.

Well now Connect is coming to the I-Phone and I think this will be a big hit as well. I don’t own an I-Phone but a lot of people do and one thing for sure is that the 3G means connectivity and combine that with Facebook and you have a winner.

So far it looks like a lot of games are using Connect but I would think that’s just the tip of the iceberg. An interesting idea might be to figure out how to make this work better for you or your website.

Check out my Eau Claire Real Estate Agent Website!

If you have something to say please leave a comment. 

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!

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Mar. 16, 2009 - Facebook Connect, Twitter, and TweetDeck Unite!

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Everyone has been talking about how important Facebook Connect is and with good reason. The API lets you do so much with Facebook that it’s a no brainer that this would spread like wildfire to other websites and apps. Who wouldn’t want to connect to perhaps the biggest social network there is? I did within 30 minutes of the news dropping and you can actually see it in action on my Eau Claire Real Estate website. In fact I already had one person comment as to how I did it.

Then you take Twitter’s great API which is perhaps one of the most important reasons for Twitter’s success and certainly why there are so many great tools available for it and combine that with Facebook and you have basically have a triple punch knock-out combo. I don’t know what that really looks like but it hurts in a good way. So now you can use TweetDeck to send to both Twitter and Facebook, big news of course if you like to social network. You might have to wait just a teensy bit to actually get to see it in action.

You can get TweetDeck here.

You can follow TweetDeck here.

And you can follow me here!

Check out my Eau Claire Real Estate Agent Website!

If you have something to say please leave a comment. 

If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.

Buy or Sell, I'll Treat You Well!

Search Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate!

Buy Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate

Sell and List Your Eau Claire Wisconsin Home

Work with Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate Agent & Realtor® Shane O'Gorman