I’m writing this post on my iPad. Why? I want to check out the experience using that and the WordPress iPad application. So far so good.

Of course the keypad on the iPad is far from ideal. It makes typing a little slower and, for me a little less intuitive. It’s a but harder to get into any sort of writer’s rhythm. That said it’s not too bad.

To make life a little easier I’ve attached a Bluetooth keyboard. It’s much better to type on although mistakes must still be corrected using the touchscreen. It’s a fair compromise.

Saving the post as I go is quick and easy. There’s a save button at the top right corner of the screen that allows me to save a local copy on the iPad.

Adding an image isn’t quite so easy. For a start the can only be sourced from the a photo album on the iPad. That’s not so bad but there’s no way to edit the image. The only alignment option is left-align so centering isn’t possible. It’s hardly ideal. Another problem with inserting an image is to wait for it to upload. Tapping back into edit mode too early causes the image to be lost. Adding another one in proved too difficult so I abandoned the task. On top of that as I saved this section the app fell over for the second time. Footnote: after it fell over I had another go and succeeded, this time I inserted a large image. It will probably be too big for the page.

What’s not available on the iPad is access to any of the rich features of the WordPress dashboard. That includes access to creating post thumbnails – a feature of this WordPress theme – and customising the SEO options.

I usually add a Tweetmeme button on my posts by adding the Tweetmeme [tweetmeme]. If this works a green button will display to the right of this paragraph. If not then you’ll see the word tweetmeme inside two square brackets.

What the iPad/WordPress app combo is good for is taking notes at a conference. Saving locally is a big plus because it avoids problems with losing notes as a result of a lost internet connection. In that sense it’s similar to using Evernote, only Evernote has lots more options.

One glaring omission is I can’t insert a hyperlink using an editor. It has to be done manually and that involves knowing a little HTML and how to insert a hyperlink.

As with many fledgling applications it’s important to save early and often. As I typed that last paragraph I lost some work when a dialog box popped up asking if I needed help with inserting a link. My first attempt at using it failed, the second worked.

My next task is to publish this post and share it on Facebook and Twitter. If you hear screams from Perth’s southern suburbs you’ll know it didn’t go according to plan.

[tweetmeme]I make no secret of my dislike of Posterous. It’s not that the Posterous system sucks. It doesn’t. In fact it’s a great way to take notes and keep thoughts in order. I use it on and off. But how it’s used it as a shortcut version of social media that sucks. As a corporate blog it sucks. As a way to curate content that represents a corporate brand it sucks. As a way to interact and create conversation, which is what social media is all about, copying and pasting stuff to Posterous sucks.

I’m not for it. Never have been, never will be. And I’m not on my own. Says James Dunaway:

DON’T republish other authors’ work. This will quickly get you labeled as splog (spam blog) or content farm. All your blog posts should be original work. It’s perfectly acceptable to respond to another blog post with your own, just make sure your site links back to the original post.

Note that James says responding. That’s what I’m doing here. Using what he said, then adding my perspective. It extends the conversation that James started and takes it in another direction. But it doesn’t simply grab a chunk of his work and copy it to my post.

Maybe I’m being idealistic. Perhaps I’m becoming plain ornery. But I’m backing my judgement on this. And I’m glad to have guys like James in my corner.

Photo: Maria Reyes-McDavis

[tweetmeme]Blogging every day is hard work. It’s fun when I do it, but it takes discipline. And I’ve worked out why I’m finding it hard.

What I’m clear about is my goal: write 365 posts this year. The problem is that sitting down to write a post is an invitation to participate in a writer’s block. What do I write about today? Not sure? Hmmm, how about I read a bit, see what’s happening? And the next hour or two is spent reading articles posted from Twitter or Google Reader. Pretty soon something else more important comes up and the blog post gets shelved for the day.

The lack of focus leads to inaction. What to do?

Looking for inspiration yesterday I stumbled across the suggestion to add a weekly photo. Now that’s a great idea! Couldn’t be all that hard to take a happy snap and add it as a post. Surely! So off I went and created the first of my weekly photo posts. Then I thought: ‘Hey, that’s such a good idea why not have a weekly everything?!” I’d know what I was going to be doing a week in advance and could start preparing mentally. Sounds perfect.

That’s when I came up with the idea of a weekly blogging plan. I know I write a weekly wrap up of my 5000/365 challenge. I know I write about Facebook, Twitter and blogging. And I know I’m going to create a weekly photo blog. Now it’s just a matter of putting these into a plan.

And – drum roll – here it is.

• Monday – Last week on Jacob’s Ladder.
• Tuesday – Links that caught my eye. A selection of interesting reading shared on Twitter and Facebook. To make this worthwhile I’ll need to read more in Google Reader and share these on Twitter.
• Wednesday – WordPress and blogging – how to use WordPress, how to produce more content.
• Thursday – Facebook – how to use Facebook to build a brand and make more sales.
• Friday – Twitter – how to use Twitter to build a brand and make more sales.
• Saturday – A summary of this week’s blog posts
• Sunday – Weekly photo

If there’s something else that catches my eye I’ll add these as additional posts. God knows, I need them as I’m a long way behind at this point.

Photo credit: antigone78 on Flickr

It’s been two weeks since my last 5000/365 report and, as reported last week it’s the blogging that’s causing me the problems. I had a couple of big posts in the works early in the week but, as is usual for me, I tried too hard to get them right instead of simply pumping them out. I’ve spent much of today (I’ll publish this post tomorrow) getting them finished and out the door. It’s a shame I spent so much time on them because they attracted almost no response on Facebook and no comments on the posts themselves.

Here’s my work for the past two weeks.

The One-Minute Guide to New Facebook Page Profiles. Big things happened on the Facebook Pages platform during the week and there are some major implications for marketers. This was my quick guide and marketer’s to-do list.

So Whose Client is That Anyway? I wrote this one after watching a discussion on a real estate industry Facebook group. It struck me that no-one owns a client and debates to the contrary are just a waste of breath. It was a post I put a lot into but it attracted few comments.

How to Measure The Effectiveness of a Real Estate Blog? Too many people use visitor numbers and unique browsers as measures of how well their blog is doing. In point of fact there amongst the worst metrics to measure the health of a blog.

Recommendations for Blog Commenting as a Marketing Strategy | SEOmoz This was part of an experiment I was doing with curating information using other web publishing tools. This one came from my Posterous account.

Building a Successful Team of Freelancers. Doing what I do for a living means working with people from all over the world. I have people in Sydney, India and Canada working on bits and pieces for me. It made sense to share a few tips about how to make these long distance relationships work.

Email Blows Away All Other Social Networks. Despite all the hoopla email is still the most common way for people to connect online. It’s easy for marketers to forget that.

Facebook Manners and You. I found this rather comical video explaining how to do relationships online. It’s well worth watching, particularly if you’re planning a breakup.

Facebooking the kids: 12 Dos & Don’ts. Alexandra Samuel is one of my favourite bloggers and her tips on ensuring the safety of kids online are right on the money.

Most of what goes on this blog is original content. When I use someone’s material it’s always displayed as a block quote. But that’s not to say I don’t use the web to create notes for use later on. I’m going to call these blog posts although they’re really even less of a blog post than a tweet. Still, I’m including a couple here from my Tumblr account as examples of how the web can be used to curate rather than create content. I use Tumblr especially for information that’s a bit off topic.

Spiralling Stairscraper Solves Suburban Sprawl.  The idea of a stairscraper solves a number of issues not the least of which is giving residents access to their own garden. I’m not sure if it’s technically possible but would love to see one built if it was.

RE BarCamp is Coming to Australia. It’s exciting to be part of a grass roots movement run by agents for agents. This post outlines what’s happening.

I created a post on my iPad using the WordPress application. It wasn’t lots of fun but I’ve had worse experience. As far as posts go it was ok.

The 5000/365 Report. I observed in my last post that blogging was the hard part of my challenge. Nothing’s changed. I’m struggling.

In total I’ve posted 39 posts in the 47 days so far this year. I’m slipping behind and need to up my work rate. If you have any ideas for a blog post let me know.

On the Jacob’s Ladder front I’m smashing it. As of writing this I’m at 845 for the year, which is well ahead of target. There’s a long way to go. [tweetmeme]

Image credit: Charles Danoff on Flickr.

I’m writing this post on my iPad. Why? I want to check out the experience using that and the WordPress iPad application. So far so good.

Of course the keypad on the iPad is far from ideal. It makes typing a little slower and, for me a little less intuitive. It’s a but harder to get into any sort of writer’s rhythm. That said it’s not too bad.

To make life a little easier I’ve attached a Bluetooth keyboard. It’s much better to type on although mistakes must still be corrected using the touchscreen. It’s a fair compromise.

Saving the post as I go is quick and easy. There’s a save button at the top right corner of the screen that allows me to save a local copy on the iPad.

Adding an image isn’t quite so easy. For a start the can only be sourced from the a photo album on the iPad. That’s not so bad but there’s no way to edit the image. The only alignment option is left-align so centering isn’t possible. It’s hardly ideal. Another problem with inserting an image is to wait for it to upload. Tapping back into edit mode too early causes the image to be lost. Adding another one in proved too difficult so I abandoned the task. On top of that as I saved this section the app fell over for the second time. Footnote: after it fell over I had another go and succeeded, this time I inserted a large image. It will probably be too big for the page.

What’s not available on the iPad is access to any of the rich features of the WordPress dashboard. That includes access to creating post thumbnails – a feature of this WordPress theme – and customising the SEO options.

I usually add a Tweetmeme button on my posts by adding the Tweetmeme [tweetmeme]. If this works a green button will display to the right of this paragraph. If not then you’ll see the word tweetmeme inside two square brackets.

What the iPad/WordPress app combo is good for is taking notes at a conference. Saving locally is a big plus because it avoids problems with losing notes as a result of a lost internet connection. In that sense it’s similar to using Evernote, only Evernote has lots more options.

One glaring omission is I can’t insert a hyperlink using an editor. It has to be done manually and that involves knowing a little HTML and how to insert a hyperlink.

As with many fledgling applications it’s important to save early and often. As I typed that last paragraph I lost some work when a dialog box popped up asking if I needed help with inserting a link. My first attempt at using it failed, the second worked.

My next task is to publish this post and share it on Facebook and Twitter. If you hear screams from Perth’s southern suburbs you’ll know it didn’t go according to plan.

• On 1000 Watt blog, Brian Boero offers some suggestions about writing blog posts based on content that agents already have. They’re sitting on a goldmine, he contends, and it’s time to step up to the plate and start delivering.

Right now you’re like a New York City department store with no windows, a Sushi place without the little plastic food in the window.

Hiding your goods from the marketplace. Failing to use their power to engage.

If you’re a brokerage of any size, you have tons of content to play with. You have access to an IDX feed. And, I would imagine, a camera.

There’s no excuse. No, not even MLS rules.

Come on agents, it’s time to get busy!

• Max Kalehoff provides a short explanation of content delivery networks (CDN’s). They’re used to deliver web content faster. And with Google including page load speed as part of their ranking algorithm it makes sense to look at using one, especially for high traffic sites. According to Max:

A good Web hosting provider with dedicated servers and clean coding are critical to website speed. But so is a content delivery network, especially if your site is subject to visitor spikes and geographically dispersed traffic, and contains large multimedia files (like video). The largest online publishers have already made CDNs part of their online infrastructures.

It’s probably not something I need to look at for this site but I wonder what the portals, franchises and marketing groups are doing.

• Jay Baer is right; we’ve seen this social media movie before. Where? Email marketing. Opt-in, subscribers, open rate, impressions, CTR: they all mean the same thing only just in a different setting. He concludes:

For more than a decade, the world of email has hoped to send messages of such vigor and verisimilitude that recipients would be compelled to click a “forward to a friend” button to send the message onward to their compatriots, who would surely benefit from its contents. That F2F rate has historically been tracked by email marketers, although it’s accuracy is poor since it’s easier to just click “forward” in your email software, than to click the button within the email itself.

In social media of course, this sharing behavior is the coin of the realm. Retweets, Facebook shares, Diggs, Stumbles, and now Linkedin shares are badges of honor, displayed proudly atop each blog post like family crests of feudal lords.

That’s a lot of similarities. Does anyone else feel like we’ve seen this movie before?

In short it’s time to stop thinking of social media as a special case. It’s not. It’s just a different horse in the same race.

• On the Geek Estate blog Drew Meyers recommends blogging about local free wi-fi hotspots. It’s a cool idea. He suggests doing more than just grabbing information off the web but actually going to the place (café, library, restaurant) and interviewing the owner or manager. Then he poses the real kicker:

To really maximize your time and effort, don’t just write about wifi options based on what you find on the web — go there, talk to the staff, and write from first hand experience — and send the owners of those establishments the link to your blog post once you’ve written about them. Better yet, use that email as a conversation starter and convince the owners to blog for you on your local blog (that’s the holly grail)!

Great idea, huh? Bet there’s no-one doing that in your patch. Know what that means? You could be the go-to person and carve out a niche for yourself. Much of this post was written at Rifo’s in East Victoria Park. They have excellent free wi-fi and even better coffee. So what are you waiting for?

• Finally, Kristin Rawski from Excite Media provides an analysis of the Oreo’s Facebook page. She explains that they could be more responsive about the content they share but praises their World’s Fan of the Week contest. That contest encourages fans to upload a photo of themselves in exchange for the chance to be featured on the page avatar. I wonder if they got Facebook’s permission to run that contest.[tweetmeme]

A lot of my friends tell me I’m crazy to climb Jacob’s Ladder 5000 times in a year. They may be right but let me tell you, writing a blog post every day is way harder. I’m not sure why but it is.

365 Blog posts

I wrote 6 posts last week and that puts me down on my target of one per day for the year.

This site is built using WordPress. To create advanced functionality I’ve installed a number of plugins and one of those gave me a headache last week. It’s all sorted now. But my headaches pale in comparison to the challenges some agents now face as new laws about pricing come into effect. Fun days ahead for many.

And speaking of fun, two of this weeks posts were created using the PressThis Chrome extension (available from the WordPress admin panel). When I came across The Anatomy of a WordPress Theme I clicked the PressThis tool in my browser, selected the image and away and then hit publish. It was a 5-minute operation start to finish.

I’m on a mission to generate more sales from this web site and I’m tackling a high bounce rate head on. Expect some big changes to the home page very soon.

Then yesterday I got into an interesting discussion on Facebook about advertising property prices on for sale signs. It’s my belief that holding information back from buyers comes at a cost to sellers and agents.

Total blog posts so far this year: 20.

5000 Laps of Jacob’s Ladder

I’m ahead of target. Getting fitter, feeling stronger. Twenty laps are no longer a concern.

Photo credit: qisur on Flickr.

Everything's big in Kalgarin

Blogging

I was in the zone this week. It began with a 5000/365 progress report, which led to the discovery of a great WordPress plugin that produces the table you see below. Inspired by the Daily Post challenge I wrote about my worst ever job interview and then about a grumpy real estate agent who happens to be a social marketing machine. After reading some ads online I thought it was time to make some suggestions about writing better real estate ads. I then found a great resource for agents wanting single property web sites.

How amazing is Anna Bligh? Her leadership during the Queensland floods has been exceptional.

The week ended with a trip to Kalgarin where I trialled the WordPress app for the iPhone.

All up that’s 8 posts for the week for a total of 13 for the year.

Jacob’s Ladder

It’s getting easier. I get a bit down when I think of the amount that’s still in front of me. When that happens I focus on taking the next step.