The Contra Costa Times ran a story last year on a blog site they created and host for East Bay high school students to contribute to. The Life in Perspective blog was an immediate hit with me.

I was impressed with the writing and the issues the young authors were contributing and taking on. I noticed pretty quickly that there were about half a dozen active authors and only two that I would call prolific.

One of these authors, Joseph Natividad, is a guest author on our blog as a result of his efforts on LIP.

Here’s how I think the CC Times dropped the ball. They had a two page spread in their paper introducing the LIP blog and the authors to their readership. As far as I can tell that is the end of the story.

So far this school year, I think I have seen only one post. This is a shame. Is the CC Times not interested in investing any real time in our students journalistic efforts.

I sent to editors at the CC times the following PR release on Joseph thinking it would make a great follow up article and it’s also a local interest story. Neither editor bothered to reply or forward it on.

Contra Costa Times Teen Blogger is a Success Story

Joseph Natividad one of the first bloggers for the Contra Costa Times LIP (Life In Perspective) Blog has entered the world of business blogging as a result of his participation on the CC Times LIP Blog.

Joseph was contacted by John Harper of The Harper Team, a local residential real estate team in San Ramon, CA. Mr. Harper had been following the LIP Blog since its launch and was impressed with the quality and diversity of writing by the teen contributors. “I noticed that Joseph was one of the most prolific bloggers and when I read his post on looking for a summer job, I offered him a paid position as a guest author on The Harper Team Blog,” said Mr. Harper.

Joseph attended the recent Inman News Bloggers Connect in San Francisco where he met with top real estate industry bloggers from across the nation. He is now a paid guest author on three real estate blogs including Caribbean Islands Realty.

A result of all of this is that Joseph has started his own blog  which he hopes to use to build his blogging business to support his way through college. Joseph is a graduate of St. Mary’s High School in Berkeley and will attend UC San Diego in the fall where he plans to major in economics.

“I have a strong interest in journalism and hope to build my blog into a business resource for myself as I work my way through college,” says Joseph. “Meeting The Harper Team has been amazing. They are helping me to see the potential that blogging has for my future and I am actually getting paid for what I love to do!”

Patrick Kitano, consultant to the real estate industry and author of the Transparent Real Estate blog, says, “The Harper Team is providing an innovative, practical service to college students like Joseph by mentoring them on the real estate business and having them research and write blog articles about it. In return, the real estate community benefits from new local voices who explain the intricacies of how to buy and sell real estate. In effect, it is vocational training that prepares college students for a career… every industry should be looking at blogging as an intern and recruitment strategy.”

"I first met Joseph in the hallways at Inman's Real Estate Connect. I was taken by surprise. I'm not sure what I expected, but what Joseph presented was a young man clearly on a mission. He was polite, respectful, engaging, eyes bright and yet, did not seem the least bit intimidated by the surroundings of the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference. I've since added Joseph to my friends list at Facebook and have enjoyed our communications since that meeting. I'm looking forward to following him as he progresses through college and into his chosen profession. Needless to say, I'm already impressed, but I have a feeling I have only an inkling of the impact he'll have on his world."   -  Jeff Turner, President – RealEstateShows

“Helping Joseph into the blogoshere is not only important for the practical experience, the writing practice, and the research involved-it helps him craft an on-line presence/internet resume for colleges and employers to tap into throughout his career.” – Dean Guadagni – Dean’s Guide

Joseph was recently interviewed by Inman news which caused traffic to his site to spike as well as increasing interest in his story. As he heads off to college, he is wrestling with how to keep his lucrative blogging business going as he faces the demands of college life in an increasingly wired world.

Joseph is at UC San Diego studying journalism and economics. He is still contributing to four real estate blogs, though not as frequently.

There are a lot of smart, motivated students that could really profit from what blogging has to offer. It can be one of the greatest business tools they can use. It could help pay for their college education and it would probably put them in the position of having multiple job offers before their senior year of college begins.

I am more than happy to address any high school group or individual to share what we know about blogging and how it can be used effectively in varous business and personal scenarios.

Pat Kitano, Dean Guidani, Kevi Boer and I were at Keller Williams Realty today teaching our fourth free blogging class to local real estate agents.

About 20 agents showed up and as the class progressed more and more hands kept going up as interest built.

Keller Williams has been very generous and supportive of our efforts to help local Realtors understand blogging.

We use our blog on The Harper Team site to help educate buyers and sellers about the community, real estate industry news, and the local real estate market trends.

What is a blog?

A blog is nothing more than a website. It’s a website that is more dynamic in nature than the “static sites” you are used to seeing. A blog can “stand-alone” or be integrated into your website.

Features that make a blog different:

• A blog runs off a database
• A blog allows you to post articles in a very simple manner that are displayed in reverse chronological order – the most recent post is at the top of the page.
• The content you post on your blog can be syndicated (via a feed) (rss – really simple syndication) – readers can subscribe; when you post new material, it is automatically delivered to them.
• Blogs incorporate a method of search technology called tagging. This allows a blogger to help define what his post is relevant to. This makes it easier for people to locate posts of interest to them.
• Blogs allow visitors to your site to leave comments on what you post. You get to dialog with your audience.
• You can categorize your posts
• Your content is stored forever in your database and each post has unique web address that is permanent – permalink.
• Blogs allow your posts to be easily incorporated into other people’s blogs while giving you credit for your content through a trackback link which is nothing more than the permalink to your post with a feature that notifies you when people are tracking back to you.
• Blogs have feature that allows you to easily notify search engines and directories when you post new content to your site – pinging. (this is usually an automatic process)
• There’s more and some of it is technical, but you wanted simple, didn’t you?

What remains the same?

• Most blog sites also have traditional site pages – About, Services, Contact, etc.
• Blogs have a list of links to other blogs so instead of a “List of Links” you have a “Blogroll”

Are blogs important?

Yes, very much so. If you are in business, you need a blog. Blogs represent the next evolution of the Internet. Blogs make it easier for your customers and clients to find you and get to know you. Blogs are a PR and marketing person’s dreams come true. Blogging can do more to help you promote your business for free than anything you have ever seen.

How do I get a blog started?

If you want a blog, contact john@theharperteam.com . I hold free classes and clinics on blogging locally. You can get a blog for free. It’s easy to blog. If you can type in a word processor, you can blog.

How do I subscribe to blogs?

This is the most difficult question to answer, because there are so many options. All of Microsoft’s new products have rss technology built into them (it’s going to be that important for business). Most new browsers have rss built into them.

I am going to limit this to one recommendation. It’s what I use. If you learn to use this, you will become familiar enough with the whole process to be comfortable switching to anything later.

I use Netvibes. I have Netvibes set as my home page. When I get on the Internet, it automatically starts downloading my feeds (subscriptions). I like Netvibes. I’ve used it for over 6 months and am quite happy with it. Netvibes allows you to separate your subscriptions in files with tabbed headings.

Here is a great tutorial on using Netvibes

Questions, comments, suggestions –

John Harper

john@theharperteam.com

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Stacy and Rodney Kennedy of Pacific Auction Exchange (PAX) in Pleasanton, CA. I know Stacy from the Realtors Marketing Association and the Valley Marketing Association meetings.

Stacy is another blogging convert. That Pat Kitano is a blogging evangelist!

It took about 4 minutes of listening to Rodney and Stacy to realize that I had a total misconception of what the PAX business model was. I had assumed that Pacific Auction Exchange dealt with clients who needed to auction their properety under financial duress.

As it turns out, PAX auctions all kinds of property in all kinds of situations. They have had some terrific results auctioning properties that were sitting on the market and seeing no action for more money than the original asking price. 

PAX made the front page of the Contra Costa Times on Nov. 14, 2006 when they succesfully auctioned a Discovery Bay home. The auction took 4 minutes and, according to the article, left the sellers happy with the price and PAX.

Stacy and Rodney are great people.

Friday night, I met up with Pat Kitano of TransparenRE, Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing, and Theresa (Caro Consulting) and Dave Caro at MoMo's in San Francisco. Pictured here are Theresa, Dave and Toby.

Theresa and Toby were in town to talk about social networking to the Fancy Food Show folks. Pat and I hooked up with the ladies to talk about blogging. Pat and I see the tremendous affect blogging is having on the real estate business, but we wanted to get some insight from these marketing professionals on how blogging is affecting their business and their take in general on the impact of blogging in business.

We all seem to agree on the overwhelming positive effects blogging has on business whether it is a small business or a large corporation. Another big plus of blogging is connecting with bloggers. Pat recently returned from the NYC Connect, a gathering of bloggers connected with real estate.

Pat and I will be teaching our first blogging class on Monday over in Marin at Keller Williams in San Rafael. We still have about 5 seats available. On Thursday we will be at Keller Williams in Danville for our second class. Email me for details.

We will be organizing several new blogging classes for the Bay Area in February.