I recently came across a couple of blogs that are worth a mention. Blog by the Bay won the 2010 Inman Innovators Award and it’s no wonder. It’s sexy. Then there’s Move North Shore based in NZ. It’s clean and simple but it does the job exceptionally well thanks to some great content.

Here’s why I think these blogs are noteworthy.

• Great images. Most of the pics have been taken by a professional. They make the posts sparkle.
• Hyper-local. Most of the posts are of specific interest to locals. They feature coffee shops and getaways and make the agent a genuine local expert.
• The posts are written in the first person. It takes the reader right into the action with the writer. I like.
• They provide lots of specifics: What, why, where and when. This makes the site much more useful to the reader. And it’s worth coming back to.
• They give their readers other options to connect–Twitter, RSS, Facebook–but importantly offer incentives to subscribe to an email list.
• The local area and lifestyle are the central themes, not properties for sale. It makes these site much more social.
• There’s some real estate information but it doesn’t overpower the lifestyle content.
• Each post contains social sharing buttons, which allow visitors to spread the posts through their online networks.
• The NZ site uses a basic WordPress theme. It could be set up by anyone with a moderate level of internet experience.

If you’re thinking of blogging the best thing to do is get started. It’s not that hard and Google will love you for it.

Just posted to The Real Estate Marketing Maven:

If you’re a newbie blogger you may be wondering what to do next. If so, you can’t go far past commenting on other blogs as a sure-fire way to learn the craft. Picture yourself at a barbecue. It’s not your usual crowd so you’re feeling a little nervous, a tad apprehensive. Aside from drinking your inhibitions away there are plenty of ways to start a conversation…read the full story.

After yesterday’s Facebook vanity URL excitement I thought it was time for some renovations to the blog. I’ve added a banner and a background. At the moment the background image repeats down the page, but I’m sure there’s some CSS that will sort that out. If you know what that is feel free to leave a comment.

My next project is a link roll. I’m going to add Disqus soon too.

And in unrelated news I thought it was kind of funny that Chris Brogan has snubbed common sense with his Facebook username. It’s a curious way of making a point. If he really believed that the URL is not the gold then why include his real name at all? But Chris is a smart man. Who am I to question his wisdom?

And someone pinched problogger off Darren Rouse. Ouch. Darren’s lodging an IP claim with Facebook.

Making Your Corporate Blog Presence a Strategic Priority « Bernaisesource

BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | North East Wales | Blogger fined for ‘menacing’ rant:

“A blogger who ‘let off steam’ about the way he was treated by police has been convicted of posting a grossly offensive and menacing message.

Gavin Brent, 24, from Holywell, Flintshire, was fined £150 with £364 costs by magistrates at Mold.

The court heard Brent had been charged with theft offences – which have yet to be dealt with – and posted a message about a police officer’s new-born baby…”

BBC NEWS | Technology | Blogger arrests hit record high:

“More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.”

In this article readers are advised that the First Amendment of the US doesn’t protect the free speech of bloggers.

Neat looking article found at Sage. Could be worth a look at some later date.

Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs: Personal Publication and Public Attention: “In the educational system, the system legitimizes itself through creating tools for self-criticism. In this manner, criticism, rather than destabilising the hegemony disseminated through the educational system, reinforces it (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990b, p. 61). This study of reproduction appears to trap a scholar in an unbreakable trap, where the authority the scholar wields in her own study of the meaning of society is supplied through the doxa of the society within which study ensues. The fact that this structure permits criticism legitimates it, the same way as the criticism of the democratic government in the political sphere of Habermas legitimates the government it criticises.”

A link in the curriculum in webct is to Blogging thoughts:
personal publication as
an online research tool. It’s a useful and interesting read about where how blogging developed and how it’s being used. Of particular interest is the way that it’s being used by researchers as a research journal and a storage space for links. For this purpose I find blogging very useful, blogging anything I find online so that it can be found later.

What’s also interesting in this reading is the quote from one of the founders of blogger, Evan Williams, who suggests that blogging is all about frequency, brevity and peronality.

To me, the blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity, and Personality.
(..) This clarification has evolved over time, but I realised early on
that what was significant about blogs was the format — not the content.1 – Evan Williams

The encouragement here is not to attempt to get blogging right but rather make a start and massage things into shape as you go.