I believe Hilary Marsh has a better grip on who needs to fill this position than anyone else in RE.net. I will not be second guessing NAR’s pic.

I first connected to Hilary a couple months ago. She visited the REBlogWorld site. I know because she is a member of MyBlogLog. When her unfamiliar avatar graced our MBL widget, I investigated. I thought to myself, “wow, Hilary is in charge of content for realtor.org, what a great connection to have.” I followed her on Twitter, she followed back.

Then, just a couple weeks ago, a friend of mine DM’s me (through Twitter) a link to Daniel’s post about the new Social Media Position being created by NAR. Most of RE.net was bearish, but I’m always the bull. I think to myself, “who was it that I met that worked at NAR?”. Hilary Marsh of course. Now, here’s the kicker. It didn’t take any time for RE.net to bash NAR for posting an ad for the job on Monster.com. How web1.0 right? What they should have done is reached out by social media right?

Hilary did exactly that. I wonder how many “S.M. aware” RE.net pundits even noticed? I set up a phone call with her through Twitter. It was a great call in my eyes.

Most people think I’m crazy for wanting that job. Not everyone will say it publicly. But trust me, that’s the overall opinion I received by phone, DM and email. However, one person really did get where my head was. Someone whom I have the ultimate respect for. He told me, “everyone seems possessed with how NAR’s Social Media Manager will fail. What if NAR get’s it right”. Hmmm, exactly how I felt.

Why on Earth would I want that job? Because what if it it worked?

Earlier tonight, Lani Anglin, the new media director for agentgenius.com promoted this new contributor on twitter stating,

“announcing a SUPERSTAR writer on AG in 1.5 hours“.

Lani motivated me to finally write a post that’s been sitting in the back of my head for weeks.

There are no superstars in blogging. Not anyone writing for AG. Not Greg Swann. Not Brad Inman, or Dustin Luther, or me. Not even if Gary Keller started blogging. Not even outside of real estate. Not Robert Scoble, or Guy Kawasaki.

I was told recently by a very good friend of mine, that before she met me, she thought I was a bit of a snob. Part of the RE.net elite. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that I intimidate people. Something I guess I need to work on. But I’d be very surprised if anyone thought that after meeting me in person. The truth of the matter though is that I’ve met almost everyone that a new real estate blogger might consider elite, and trust me, there is no secret hand shake. These are all just people with the same brilliant idea to blog as you now have, it’s just that they started a few months before you did.

The idea of no superstars is what I like best about blogging. The day of the super-influencers is dying. Most every decent blogger has something to bring to the table. Before REBlogWorld, who had any idea that Mariana Wagner and Kelley Koehler would be knocking people over with a feather in their sessions? OK, I knew, but that’s only because I took in interest in the way they do businesses through this blog, long ago.

That’s been the beauty of this blog all along. Even if I was the only person to read it, it would still be worth it to me. I have as much to learn from a blogger three months in, as I do from the folks you might consider elite. After a long hiatus, and a funny name change, I finally have time to fire up this blog again. Over the weekend, I’ll be reaching out to more bloggers for interviews. But if you think you have something to add, please don’t be shy. Some of the best interviews I’ve done are from folks I hardly know. Give me a shout at todd@bizomi.com.

Today, Rob Hahn asked what the official anthem for RE.net should be. Here’s my take. We have a lot to learn from each other people, this whole web 2.0 thing is still brand spankin’ new. Let’s talk.

lucid (lū’sĭd) adj. Translucent or transparent.

Authentic in message but cunning in deployment. Yeah, that’s the ninja part. The way I see it, there are two really big problems with most web 2.0 marketing strategies.

1. They don’t ask for the sale.
2. They take up to much time.

I’m all for transparency in message. I think it’s vital. But that doesn’t mean you should wait for clients to come running to you with wallet in hand, just because you’ve shared everything you possibly can with them online. The first lesson I learned in sales is that you don’t earn a sale unless you ask for one. Many web 2.0 marketing strategies fail to ask for the sale, and that’s the main reason I think they fail.

In addition, web 2.0 marketing can be extremely time consuming. Larger companies are realizing this, and hiring Social Media Gurus, Evangelists, or even… Ninja. That’s great for a company like Zillow or Trulia, but what about freelance marketers?

Wait, what the heck is a freelance marketer?

Freelance marketers, as I define them, are independent sales agents who effectively market in a social media environment.They could be self employed, or head a small business. Or, they could work for a large company, but be on there own when it comes to marketing their services. Real estate agents are the perfect example of a freelance marketer. One could work for Keller Williams, or John Smith Realty. It doesn’t matter. Each agent really works for themselves.

Freelance marketers can’t hire a ninja,  they have to be the ninja.

Moving forward, Lucid Ninja will explore how successful freelance marketers are operating in a web 2.0 environment. I’m still going to interview real estate agents, as they’re the epitome of success in this vertical. But I think that’s just the tip of the iceberg. More details to come. I don’t plan to post much more than once a week. We’ll see where this goes.

REBlogWorld, the event, the learning experience, the opportunities it represents for the future, everything… more than anything, taught me a lot about myself. More on that in a future post. For now, I spent this morning trying to get my head around the last few days. Here are some of the highlights.

“I can’t believe you pulled this off”

Hearing that from more than a few people was very gratifying.

“This is the single best show like this I’ve ever been to”

That would mean a lot from anyone. But it came from Teresa Boardman, and she said it with the same “eyes wide open” expression on her face that I had when I went to Blog World in 2007. If Teresa’s compliment was the only one I received at the show, all of the the work would still have been worth it.

“You’re speakers on Friday were as good or better than anyone I’ve seen on Saturday or Sunday.”

We got this a bunch. Thank you. We spent the summer convincing real estate bloggers how much they could learn from other social media types. My realization now is that many of those same social media types have a ton to learn from real estate bloggers. Look for us to address this in 2009.

Meeting people at the IBNMA booth.

From Adam Hirsh of Mashable to Jennifer Lindsay at Eastwick, to my fellow IBNMA advisory board members, it was great to connect with people from all shades of the blogosphere.

LobbyConing it.

The conversations I had in the halls were awesome. Some of the most insightful moments of the show.

Meeting more real estate geeks.

People like ManaTulberg and Sam Basel, who I had not known at all before the show, not even online.

Connecting with my RE.net friends.

There’s no way I can list you all here. But is was great to see EVERYONE. Thank you very much for coming.

Seeing it all come together.

My business partner, Jason Berman had as much to do with making this happen as I did. I think only people like Greg Swann and Andy Kaufman have any idea at how much work it is to put together a real estate 2.0 show from scratch. Without Jason’s work, this would not have gone off as well. Thanks Jason.

Getting kicked out of the Zappos party.

Ok, I don’t know if it was a highlight in itself, but it spun into a few. My apologies to Tony from Zappos for my language on Twitter. You’re a class act.

And finally, behaving badly, far from home.

I told you all that we were planning to play just as hard we worked. We did. Want to know the details? Come to REBlogWorld in 2009 and you’ll know why we’re not sharing. Pacts were made. Alibi’s secured. Cameras left in the hotel room. Yeah, it was like that.

Because  cats can be ninja.

Because ninja are sneaky.

Because, even on Talk Like a Pirate Day, everyone knows that ninja still win out.

Because, you shouldn’t expect a guy who named his very serious mortgage industry blog “lenderama” to have a serious name for this blog either.

I’m having some fun at REBlogWorld and Blog World & New Media Expo this weekend. I’ll get serious next week. Stay tuned.

Because the event was at a Mexican restaurant, I called it Blog Fiesta. I’ve never really liked the name. But people seemed to like the sombrero icon so I stuck with it.

Before the event even took place, I saw the opportunity to spin this blog into a way to meet real estate bloggers nationwide. That has been the sole pourpose of BlogFiesta, and it worked fantasticly.  I’ve interviewed over 60 real estate and mortgage professionals. Using every one of these interviews as an opportunity for me to meet these foward thing real estate profesionals, and learn what makes them tick.

About a dozen of REBlogWorld’s speakers have been interviewed on Blog Fiesta. In most cases, it was the first meaningful interaction I had with them. The most sugnigicant example would be Teresa Boardman, who I knew almost nothing more than that she was “big on Active Rain” when I approached her about an interview. Today, she is one of my best friends, inside or outside of our industry.

I knew that in planning both REBarCamp and REBlogWorld, and in managing Denver Modern and Lenderama, that I wasn’t going to have time for this blog this summer. But that’s about to change.

On September 19th, at REBlogWorld in Las Vegas, the sombrero dies. I want to break free of the sombrero. I want to break free of this blog’s exclusivity to RE.net. Real estate agents have been at the forefront of freelance marketers on the web, but I see some other emerging industries that are quite exciting and want to explore them.

Stay tuned! This space is in for one hell of a facelift.

This three day blogging event will take place September 19th-21st in Las Vegas and is part of the largest new media conference and trade show in the world. Needless to say, in the future months leading up to the show, my time is going to be dominated by making this event the best it can be.

I simply will not have time for more interviews until after the event is over. In the mean time, I’ll still be blogging about blogging on RE Blog world’s new blog. Here’s a list of recent posts.

RE Blog World Blog
©

Personal highlights regaurding REBlogWorld
REBlogWorld Live!
Carnival of Real Estate, the winner is….
Are You Bringing Your Fancy Pants to REBlogworld?
REBlogWorld Pre-Conference Meetup; Thursday 6pm-10pm, September 18th.
You just ran out reasons not to come to REBlogWorld
Blog World Schedules, Networks, and Buzz on your iPhone, Blackberry, or N95
Help Cheryl Allin get to REBlogWorld
Squirt Guns, Parties, & Carnivals
Visitors, Readers, and Customers… They’re not the same thing.
REBlogWorld Meetup in San Fransisco on September 10th
Win a free blog theme and E-book from Liz Strauss
David Gibbons joins us at REBlogWorld.
See Guy Kawasaki & Steve Rubel at REBlogWorld
Dan Green or Teresa Boardman? Thanks to Turn Here, now you don’t have to decide.
Morgan’s looking for a roomate, let’s fire up the Facebook group
How to Maximize Value from REBlogWorld
Shift happens, will you be prepared?
Darren Rowse on blogging trends
Why REBlogWorld is unlike ANY real estate or mortgage conference you’ve ever been to.

:-)

Hi Chris, what made you decide to start a blog?

Well, I was blogging on Live Journal all the way back in 2001, mostly about my goals and dreams. The odd thing was is that I picked up transactions by being part of communities. I was 25 at the time, so a lot of the stuff I saw I absolutely cringed at, so when RE blogging took off I decided it was a great channel to reach out to people and to make myself available.

When the market turned in late 2005, I thought it would be a good time to start really advocating good business practices. You told me that people that blog to advocate last.

On the Ten Day Team blog, you recently wrote about finding you niche in blogging. What advice do you have for real estate agents as to just how focused their blogs should be?

Lenders and Real Estate Agents should create a ridiculously compelling reason for someone from the outside to contact them, or they should simply not blog. It doesn’t have to be hyper-focused, but it does have to have a reason to come back. Some breathtaking content. It’s hard to achieve, but once you find something you believe in, you’ll know right away. In this business it STILL doesn’t take a lot of transactions to make a great living, so instead of focusing on subscribers, I’d focus on providing quality, organic and authentic content.

The great thing is–that you and others have proven–is that there’s no limit to what can get accomplished by blogging correctly.

I was kind of blown away at something on your other blog, Genuine Chris. You’ve actually listed your personal goals, AND exactly where you stand in meeting them. I know the blog is an, “Experiment in Personal Online Transparency”, but where does one draw a line between public and private with regard to their blog.

I did that–and I’ll do it again–to help me “walk the walk.” Google docs and other programs help us to do that quickly, and if I’m going to hold myself out as someone that knows how to survive the loan industry, then it’s helpful to show that I’m actually following the plan that I preach.

I don’t know where the line is drawn–because I love accountability. I don’t want to go off the deep end, but if I voluntarily expose wide swaths of my life, then I will live better in those areas. If I know people (and some people that dislike me) are watching, chances are that I will live beyond reporach. Am I there yet? Hell no, but it’s the direction I am going..

Your blogs are all about helping other people get better at their jobs. There’s ways to monetize this, but with everyone and their brother racing to share their knowledge on the blogosphere, do you see a day when the asset of knowledge will have no value?

Not really. I am combining knowledge with accountability in the projects that I have coming out. Personal trainers make a great living not by helping people do proper exercises, but by creating a control that ensures that people do it. We’re not being paid so much for the information itself as being a trusted filter. Brian Brady made the comment that he learned nothing new from my book, but still found it a great value.

The models and info is out there, but what I’ve done is distilled it. Did David Allen’s GTD teach us anything new? No, not really. But what it did do was gave us some of what he calls ‘enlightened common sense.’ A trusted filter will be viable for decades into the future.

I never ask when I’m recruiting people to join, but I’m always curious as to other’s motives. Why do you contribute to Lenderama?

It was the best Lender blog around. The people you’ve collected are all outstanding and solid examples. I wanted to have to create content that was as good as the stuff that was coming their way. I had had a good experience on Blown Mortgage when Morgan was experimenting with being multi author, and I wanted to help originators in any way that I also wanted to kick it up a notch or two, as far as quality goes, and I was new at making a name for myself on the internet.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

Instead of listing the ones that everyone knows, I’ll try and get some of the ‘unusual’ suspects.

Bliss Point Blog, Confident Writing, I like the Art of Manliness, JustDugUp is fantastic. I like the Xbroker and BawldGuy because they let their guard down and aren’t afraid to call out the BS that is in the market.

What advice do you have for prospective bloggers who are sitting on the fence.?

Get started on your own blogging, leave comments, don’t be afraid to disagree. You have to be both remarkable and good if you’re going to do this long term, so learn from people. Also, subscribe to the Long List on Bloodhound, and poke around Rembex a good bit. Then when you engage, listen first and talk second. I am honored to get to be on Lenderama and to get to be on Bloodhound and to get to be on the Cicerone. There is some work creating original content for 4-5 places, but it’s really rewarding.

I’d also say that it’s possible to be relevant WITHOUT blogging, and if you don’t see it as a “get to” vs. a “have to,” it’s 100% OK to skip doing it.

Chris Johnson is a loan officer, and author of the Loan Officer Survival Guide. You can buy his book at losurvialguide.com.