Disqus - Friends of bnix

Re: The Torn City of Bangkok

meckenrode — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:46:35 -0000

i should be back up in BKK arond the 29th or so before i head to laos. i'll be sure to ring you back up, i enjoyed hanging out :)

Re: The Time I Kissed My Ass Goodbye (or, How I Found Zen at 30,000 Feet)

meckenrode — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:24:32 -0000

yeah, man, true story. don't ask about the time we were taxiing for take off and a passenger actually fell out of the plane and onto the runway. we had to turn around and go back to get him. yes, another true story.

Re: Every Reason Under The Sun Why You Should NOT Travel

meckenrode — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:08:28 -0000

diggin' the enthusiasm, man. thanks.

now about those tigers, i once had the opportunity to play with a group of 4 month old tigers. babies, really, but their teeth could still do some serious chompin' business.

Re: About

meckenrode — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:30:07 -0000

thanks, justin. i'm getting a lot of good feedback on the title... a bit of fun, some daring-do, and a nod to some of the more enjoyable travel writing that's out there. now as the sidebar says, "what could happen?" :)

Re: Hello world!

meckenrode — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:07:15 -0000

thanks. the domain's sort of tongue-in-cheek fun and hopefully not necessarily something to live up to :)

Re: My Weapon Of Choice For Email Marketing: Aweber

meckenrode — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:58:42 -0000

yeah, i was having a hard time explaining my issue - it took me several tries to fully explain what was going on. in the end, though, all was well. one thing that did impress me was how quickly customer service responded to my tickets.

Re: Why You Can’t Sell Real Estate Online

meckenrode — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:53:09 -0000

paul, glad you're finding value in them and i appreciate the feedback. keeps me inspired :)

Re: What’s Most Important in a Website?

meckenrode — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:12:50 -0000

totally. your site is your macro goal, but each page has it's own goal, too (the micro-goal).

and oh yes, macadamia nut cookies will do just fine (so goood) :)

Re: Include Wordpress pings as Disqus trackbacks

meckenrode — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:51:35 -0000

this plugin provides a pretty good work around for the time being:

http://blog.slaven.net.au/archives/2008/06/12/s...

Re: Is Zillow Really Helping Your Sales?

meckenrode — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:52:49 -0000

as a business model, it's a proven winner. especially when you're not the content producer, you simply publish. not too difficult to see the profit margins can be dramatic this route.

the questions raised revolve more around whether or not the practice conflicts with broker interests... serving two masters often does.

Re: Is Zillow Really Helping Your Sales?

meckenrode — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:38:50 -0000

much agreed, jim. most mls have a long way to go to be search competitive. they mostly keep their tasks to simply "listing" homes rather than being a "search" provider. it'd be nice if they'd move more in that direction... everyone would be the happier, i know. (or at least function with the end user in mind)

Re: Is Zillow Really Helping Your Sales?

meckenrode — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 02:18:47 -0000

hey dave, thanks for contributing.

checked out the study and the rankings look well for you. out of curiosity, i'd be interested to know how the study was conducted: what was considered a lead, how folks were tracked, from where on the source site visitors clicked through, the value of the lead, etc. i imagine that'd only be available through the Threewide. I'm surprised that the variables taken into consideration weren't qualified in the study.

back to the topic at hand... will a similar survey be conducted once 3rd party ads are being run through zillow?

obviously, how the ads will all be implemented needs to be looked at. for some brokers it may make sense to roll with it, for others it's definitely an increased turn-off.

Re: Get New Streams of Traffic From Old Blog Posts

meckenrode — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:59:03 -0000

kevin = man of action ;) looking forward to seeing what you come up with for it.

Re: Get New Streams of Traffic From Old Blog Posts

meckenrode — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:58:25 -0000

kevin, i added a couple of screenshots in the post to show 1) where you enter the resource box info from the member side and 2) how it shows up when done.

when you're entering your article, there's actually a box that says "Resource Box" for you to type in.

And yeah, if you were browsing through the submitted articles and didn't see any is because a lot of folks aren't wise on how to effectively use the resource area. i just went and browsed through about 8 of them and only 1 had a resource box.

in fact, if you look at the bottom of all my psts here at HomeStomper you'll see i have a little mini-resource box so that new visitors can get a feel for who i am after reading any of the articles.

Re: Are You Marketing To Your Prospects Hearts or Their Minds?

meckenrode — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:31:27 -0000

yeah, builders definitely try to hit emotions... they know they can't simply sell a home, they have to sell a vision.

i was watching a BMW commercial the other day (they do a fantastic job tying emotions into their ads.) same thing... they created a vision full of emotional appeal without saying squat about the features of the car.

however, i don't think they're necessarily trying to create disenchantment with current products (homes, cars, whatever)... i think, for the most part, that's already present in a person's mind to some degree.

as people, we tend to have a "grass is greener on the other side" point-of-view of things ("i could of, i should of") that comes from the fact we're emotional creatures and, i don't care who you are, you've probably got low self-esteem somewhere in your life.

this isn't the fault of marketers. it's simply how we're hardwired (and why the self-help yahoos make bank).

i believe it's copywriter john carlton who sits down and imagines that he's writing to some fat lazy slob, sitting in a reclining chair, glued to the football game with a six-pack, potato chip bag and remote control at his fingertips.

why does he write to this person? because that person, no matter how many facts and figures you throw at him, he is not going to move out of his chair. probably won't even listen.

to make this guy move you have to appeal to him at an emotional level he understands... like telling him the cast of "Girls Next Door" are giving away free Harley-Davidson's right outside his door. he'll move for that.

now, i realize this could be read as a rather bleak outlook on humanity but it's not... emotions are our driving force. they are how we seek to connect with people. my friends aren't my friends because they were a logical decision... but because of some emotional connection we made.

frankly, it's how we really think (in emotions). think back to when you were a kid and the first time you rode a roller coaster... you remember the fear and exhiliration more than the number of seats the car had.

people seek out emotional connections... whether it be to other people, or to products. and marketers try to create those connections.

for marketers, emotions are a direct path of least resistance to another person's "get up and go."

now, there are definitly unethical businesses out there that promise the moon but deliver cheese... that ain't cool and i hope they keel over and die. that's my emotions talking ;)

wow... i've really wandered on this comment so let me bring it all back around.

emotions transcend anything we could ever hope to describe in language and figures. if you're leaving emotion out of your marketing then you're performing at 1/100th of what you could really be doing.

Re: Find Valuable Keywords With A Little Help From Your Friends

meckenrode — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:26:45 -0000

right on! thanks for two things... 1) for writing seedkeywords, 2) for stopping by and being open to user feedback

i'd love to see the scenario question be featured more prominently so it's the dominant feature on the page... it's relatively the same size and color so it doesn't stand out from the rest of the copy. this causes the visitor to slow down a second to try to figure out what's most important on the page, what to read and what to do.

still a cool tool, though. dig the fact that the results are downloadable.

Re: Find Valuable Keywords With A Little Help From Your Friends

meckenrode — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:33:12 -0000

no doubt... there's a big difference between quantitative research (search volume, etc) and qualitative research (behaviors). when it comes to keywords and target marketing, then my money's on qualitative

Re: 10 Other Ideas For Your Email Autoresponder

meckenrode — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:18:12 -0000

great idea, sean. it may be a bit long for a single email, though. consider breaking it up over several, like you said...

here's a different angle on the same thing...

"name, i feel odd about bringing this up but last week i had a phone call with a family i worked with last year. we moved them into a killer home but today they were kind of upset with me. see... all this time we've kept in touch and they just realized they've never given me a referral.

"it's no big deal, really. you know by now that i'm not your typical Realtor that keeps telling you "I'm never true busy for your referrals." the truth is, i am pretty busy and most all my business does come from referrals from past clients.

"but, when this other family found that out they got a little miffed and felt left out. now, i'd by lying if i said i wasn't a little flattered. so, i gave them some pointers on how best to refer me and they were happy again. they might even know of someone who needs my help. of course, that made me happy, too :-)

"here's the thing: i don't want you or anyone else to be "left out" but i don't want to come off sounding like those "i'm never too busy" goofs, either. what should i do?

"if you have any ideas on this then hit REPLY right now and let me know. i'd really appreciate it,"

follow that email with one where you do the actual teaching of how to refer you... a video would be good, actually.

the thing with referrals is to get folks to want to give them to you... even feel "left out" if they don't. big difference from "do you have any referrals for me?"