Eric Blackwell's Blog: All Categories

I really enjoy sharing some of the more creative things that some of the 120 REALTORS in our office do. They are amazing. One of the more unique and creative teams for us is the Medley - Sokoler Team. They are always coming up with new and inventive ways to effectively brand themeselves.

The funny part about a slower market is that it typically has one of two effects on people. Either they spend more time hanging out at the office and commenting on the economic weather, or they "double down" and use the available time to dig even harder to differentiate themselves. Bob called some of his favorite past clients, asked them to visit him at the office and as fast as you can say "Bob's your uncle." He created a testimonial video. Bob just sent me the ROUGH…

As winners of the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World SEO contest, Team Eric has chosen to raffle off the generous prize of one template REW site with CORE IDX -- Hosted for life!

Special thanks to Morgan Carey and REW for the prize . We will be promoting it all over the real estate internet space and hold the raffle on June 1st 2008.

NOTE: There are restrictions as to who can win the prize! We want it to go to a REALTOR who can truly use it to its potential.

All of the proceeds from the raffle go to the Eco Preservation Society of Costa Rica.  Entries are $35 for one or $100 for 4!

Heres the link to the PayPal info and Rules and Regs for the Raffle!

Thanks for the great prize Morgan!

Best;

Eric

Many of you know that I am not a fan of third party sites, like Trulia, Zillow, hey, even REALTOR.com for that matter. But there is one thing that is getting out of hand that needs to be addressed and the Realtor community made aware of.

Galen Ward wrote an excellent post on the Bloodhound Blog exposing Trulia for link hoarding in an effort to get the top spot on the search engines for many of the addresses in the country. The response to that has been the usual corporate spin of "what...us???" "We wouldn't do that!" and etc.

Then came the topper. One of the trulia guys had the gall to say that they were not returning the favor of a link because they didn't want us "spamming" them...WHAT?

Hey Trulia! as REALTORS it is OUR information. Who died and…

Well,  it almost is!

According to my understanding, the contest gets over at midnight on this coming Wednesday. it cannot be soon enough! Not because I don't like hanging out with the team (grin). They have been great and we will be hanging out a lot in the upcoming future. More just because I am road weary. 3 months is a long time to have this on the back of your mind.

I have learned a lot and made new friends along the way. For the record, I think that SEO contest like this are kind of like a dance that my middle school aged kids might go to. They have the potential for the experience to be good or bad. If you join in the fun and make friends, they can be unbeleivably fun. If you are a wallflower or hang back and do not dig in to what is going in, it…

One of the things that many people don't realize about the Kentucky Derby is that is is actually about 3 weeks long!. No I am not kidding. Every year, the Derby festival starts with Thunder over Louisville and culminates with the actual race. Here is a video of Thunder over Louisville.

It is (reportedly) the largest fireworks display in the U.S. (the calm parts feel like the finales of most fireworks shows) and I can tell you first hand that it is fun. You can see for yourself what the finale is like...amazing! Between the airshow that goes on all day and this, it is a huge family event. It is also one of the reasons I like living here. Enjoy!

Best;

Eric

Amazing how time flies, but somehow, i don't think it is fast enough!

Team Eric is holding our own in the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest, but threats seem to loom everywhere! The team has been staying busy building links and authority from around the web. We were lucky enough to get the support of Ryan Ward and others. Truly amazing.

We got the week kicked off right with some discussion about an SEO gathering in Costa Rica. MIke Dammann is getting ready to host one down there later this year. That got the discussion started right away!

We noticed some interesting activity going on down at Greg Boser's place and Mike Dammann pointed that out on his blog. We just wanted to make sure that it did not go unrecorded. Our team would much…

Every year, I love to check out the latest and greatest that Louisville area home builders have to offer. HomearamaIt  2008 is an opportunity for local builders to showcase their "prototype" or "ideal" homes all within one neighborhood and all open to tours for a two week stretch.

Since the homes are all near each other, the builders are competing "head on" to see who can be the most innovative and can provide the most bang for the buck. Last years most memorable home for me was an energy efficient house that featured the ability to heat and cool a 3500-4000 square foot home for something ridiculous like $30 a month. They used the latest technology in insulation and windows, etc. It was truly amazing to see a home that was this cost efficient and yet…

Up until now, Team Eric has worked on winning the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest by (for the most part), simply touting the fact that we are a team. That all changes starting today.

If you click on the link above, you will see that we have made a change and are now going to support a CAUSE as part of our effort. Personally, I am not much of the "tree hugging" type of guy, but as one of the team members presented the idea to us, I found it compelling. So here goes...

The Eco Preservation Society down in Costa Rica works to preserve the Costa Rican environment and to minimize the impact of development by promoting green development and other nature friendly techniques...awww heck-- they explain it far better than I do...simply go to our…