Bonnie Barbieri, TRC, GRI, AHWD, CIPS CANDIDATE

I was sitting on my lanai tonight wrapped in a thow under my heat lamp and wondering how my friends and family were faring up north. Not so well, I imagine. There is snow from the midwest to the northeast. In our part of Florida we have some cold spells but nothing to bad. Sometimes we get into the 20's but I think that has only happened a couple of times. It is usually a nice crisp morning and evenings where you put on a light jacket and its great. People play golf, tennis or whatever during the months of January and February. I hated the cold in Michigan. I had to walk my dogs in the morning in thigh high snow and ice on my driveway. I hated driving in the snow! Snow is not my friend! Some people say they miss it - I think they have been away to long. If I never had to leave my home in the winter and didn'tmind it - ok but that is not possible. I'm in real estate in Florida and I get calls every day from people who say they are so tired of the cold. Well, come on down. We will welcome you with open arms in Hernando County. Spring Hill, Brooksville and Weeki Wachee welcome you.

We are switching to Point2Agent for our website and I think we may have made a huge mistake. Our first website was cusom and it did nothing for us. Then we switched to someone who was going to do a custom and promised us the moon. First red flag! Then we went to a Craig Proctor conference and switched to his websites. They weren't bad but expensive and we weren't getting what we needed from the branded site. We also added Google Adwords. So we are spending a small fortune and our ROI isn't that great.

So, through Real Talk we started talking to someone about doing some consulting with us on our website. She suggested 3 companies and Point2Agent was their favorite. Its not expensive and we can add what we need. Well, now we can't open our website. We type in our url and nothing! Needless to say I'm a bit stressed! They must see "sucker" written all over our foreheads!

I know there are a lot of people who use Point2 but for some reason, our website isn't working. We were also keeping our unbranded site with CP for the time and it won't open! This is a problem. No one will answer my calls or e-mails.

I needed to vent .

Glen Lakes golf and country club community is a gated golf course community located about 45 minutes north of the Tampa International Airport. Glen Lakes is approximately 2 and a half miles from the Gulf of Mexico. We are Florida's Nature Coast.

Glen Lakes golf and country club community is not a 55+ community but the majority of the residents are over 55. There are a few children living in the area. There is a playground in the Crane's Landing area. Glen Lakes has many lakes throughout the community. Some of the homes are lakefront and you have spectacular sunsets.

We have quite a few listings in Glen Lakes and specialize in this area. The security is 24 hours, 7 days a week. Getting into Glen Lakes without someone signing you in is not for the faint of heart. They take their job very seriously. The seasonal residents appreciate this.

Glen Lakes is surrounded by more than 85,000 acres of nature preserves and because the preserves are protected, there will be little development around Glen Lakes. It will retain its out in the country feeling despite its close proximity to shopping, restaurants and the Suncoast Parkway.

There is a private 18 hole championship golf course designed by Ron Garl. There is a driving range, putting greens, heated swimming pool, Jacuzzi, clay tennis courts and a 35,000 sq. foot clubhouse with fitness center. There is a restaurant with a world class chef.

Glen Lakes golf and country club community is a great place to call home. Everyone you talk to loves living here. The families that have moved to be closer to children hate leaving their friends. Its a community where everyone waves at each other. Friends take care of friends and everyone is a friend.

If you think you would like to call Glen Lakes home, call us for more information or go to www.HomeInTheSunGroup.com and check out our listings.

Bonnie Barbieri
Remax Advantage Realty

I know about networking - have done it many years but in more of a business/social setting. Now we have online social networking. Facebook and there is another one - not sure what - but I keep getting e-mails that say I've been tagged????? I am a little leery about starting online conversations with some of these people. I don't know what the guidelines are. I know about Linkedin - that is more of a professional networking online. That one I have been able to connect with old business friends.

There is Twitter - signed up but not sure about the following people? That is almost like online stalking? Am I out there in left field on this stuff? I'm not real sure how to handle.

One of the Tagged profiles I got was - married but was a nudist. That's ok but I'm not. I'm not interested in dating (I'm happily married), but expanding my network of possible referral business.

I'm not sure how others handle this and what you do to let people know you aren't interested anything more than a social business netowrk.

I would love for someone to enlighten me so I know how to handle these "conversations." I know I need to move on to the 21st century.

Bonnie Barbieri
Remax Advantage Realty
Spring Hill, FL
www.HomeInTheSunGroup.com

I am the most untechnical person alive! I am a right brain person and very visual. I almost have to have a picture drawn.

We spend a lot of money on google adwords. But I didn't really understand the inner workings. While I was at Nar, I stopped at their booth and spoke to Chris Davis, a rep for Google. I explained we were spending a lot of money but not getting much return. He gave me a customer service number. Today I called them and it was amazing what I learned. He only gave me a small bit of information - I can't digest much more than that. It is incredible what changes I was able to make that will hopefully give us better exposure and higher ranking with the search engines. There is still much more to learn but it will take me awhile to digest some of it.

I am really hoping this will help. We want to let people around the world know about our little corner of the state. I am networking on other websites and letting people know where we are. This is the way to go. The only print we do is Homes & Land because of their website. We are doing the cover for 6 months and our sellers love it.

If anyone is struggling with your google adwords, give them a call. They are so great and I'm feeling much better.

Bonnie Barbieri
Remax Advantage Realty
Spring Hill FL