Bart Wilson

NEW FLASH ---- NEWS FLASH: Twitter Might Just be Another Time Waster.

10:43 pm. Thrusday night. Bart's house. Eldorado Subdivision, Santa Fe.

Bringggg Bringggggg.

My iPhone chimes go off with an Instant Message. It's from Anthony Robbins. Famous motivational guru sending out a Twitter blast. Not one, but three in a row.

I was sort of nodding off on the couch and I just started to reach the land of Nod when I get rudely interrupted by my iPhone vibrating and Bringggggg Bringgggggg chiming off every 90 seconds. Apparently he felt like he had to broadcast three messages in a row, all of them quotes from other people. "If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to meet it." Jonathan Winters. Tiny letters say it was sent from Tweetdeck.

You know, I'm following a lot of Twits on Twitter and for the life of me I don't know why. Aside from CNN, Dr. Oz and others I like to follow... who ARE these people? sacbookwoman, EZMoney101, ijustine from M-TV...

The one thing in common with all of these millions of people is that none of them seem to have a lot to say that's not a lot of any real value.

I really don't care what someone had for lunch. I could care less that they are watching a rerun of Boston Legal. iJustine from M-TV asks about changing her Verizon phone plan to something else. It's a complete sea of nothing but digital noise. And stopping to read all of this crap is taking me away from getting my deadline done. What is the fascination with all of this time wasting nonsense going to do? Make Americans a lot more lazier. Do we now have to get corporate America to install filters on everyone's computer and personal phone so employees can't waste time by lolly gagging on Twitter or FaceBook?

Maybe Twitter and FaceBook is responsible for the drop in American workforce productivity?

Maybe GM would never had to go bankrupt if their assembly line workers stopped goofing off on Twitter and FaceBook and stuck to making cars.

I mean, at 140 characters of chirping allowed, there's a lot of people all chirping things that really don't make sense. It's bad enough I have to wade through all of this on my 4 inch iPhone screen let alone subscribe to someone broadcast chirping what they're watching on TV.

But for two months, I really gave Twitter the good old "College try." I spent five hours designing my own Photoshop Twitter theme page. You can check me out and go have a look.

Sure I was proud about the design and I blogged about it, called my family, sent emails to a few dozen clients. My mom in Alamogordo who doesn't have a computer didn't get it at all.

I linked my Twitter account to my Blog on Active Rain. How I did that, I have no clue. Now every time I blog, I get more people following me on Twitter. And I get invited to follow them. EXERCISE: This one blog post will result in five more people following me on Twitter. I guarantee it.

But why? Who cares about TwiTGirl96 following me who lives with her half brother in Los Angeles? Her profile says she dropped out of school and does nothing all day but watch M-TV. Is that going to help me sell more homes, get more clients or help me lose some weight? I don't think so.

Then there's this Onion News thing that's sort of 50% news and 50% National Enquirer. Okay, so its news? But not really. I don't get it so I'm not getting it anymore.

I was even following Ashton Kutcher, but after he was punk'd on his Twitter fiasco when we learned his Twitter-dom 1 million followers came with the help of 1,192 digital billboards across America... I stopped following Ashton weeks ago.

I get Wired Magazine delivered to me and I read an article about the explosion of garage-developers cranking out apps that run on Twitter and FaceBook. An old classmate of mine sent me Flip Flops on FaceBook last week. It was a pair of multicolored flip flops. Just a photo of them. They looked like the cheap kind you buy at WalMart for $2 bucks. But someone had used Photoshop and made a lot of different colored flip flops. I even created my own pair and I sent Flip Flops to a friend of mine in Boston.

He calls me up the next day and asks if I'm okay. I say sure, why? He asks, "Why did you send me a picture of colored flip flops? Am I getting a REAL pair of these in the mail from you as a gift?" I say, "No." So he asks his original question. "Why did you send these to me? It's stupid. Where's your head at, Bart?"

At the end of the day, I can tell everybody that I've tried Twitter and I can now attest to everybody that joining them has not made me one nickel richer and I am still trying to lose 20 pounds.

- Bart

I am thinking of doing what Aaron Wall is doing with SEO Book and doing a Real Estate SEO Book. What do you guys and gals think?

Here's why.

I printed up 10,000 copies of my SEO Book last year, "The Problems with Real Estate Search... Getting FOUND."

But the problem is, I am about out of inventory and some of my content is dated. There's maybe 320 or so left and now I have to update some new things about Google's major change they made in April. So maybe a Real Estate SEO Book online will be more attractive and useful? Lots of new things happened this year with Ashton Kutcher getting punk'd on his Twitter fiasco, FaceBook, Linked In and the huge explosion in Social Networking. My thinking is a daily Real Estate SEO, "How To Book," delivered as a blog might be a better way to replace an SEO Printed Book and workshop?

This is a scary thought just by itself. But think about this for a minute.

When the subject matter deals with hot technologies like SEO, Social Networking, how to Chirp on Twitter... by the time the book hits the street, new things already out there have made parts of the book obsolete. So the Web is the new way we get our information now.

PLEASE let me know what you think about a Real Estate SEO Daily Book/Blog. I encourage all comments or critiques.

There's so much to learn by posting SEO by actual examples and real case studies of BEFORE and AFTER.

On that very note, this chapter of SEO installment is How to Recognize the DARK Side or Black Hat SEO.

I will teach you one of the Black Hat SEO Techniques that some companies right now are doing to destroy your competitors in hard markets like San Francisco, Miami, Dallas, Houstin, Chicago and others.

I do NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE TRY THIS.

AND If YOU FIND THAT YOUR SEO ROCKSTAR IS DOING THIS --- OMG Be Careful so you do not get sucked down and burned at the state like TrafficPower.com did a few years ago.

Brokers and agents are getting squeezed pretty hard to get their presence up on page one of Google. Google receives about 5 billion searches every month and still drives 68% to 74% of all real estate home searches.

I am seeing lots of honest, hard working REALTORS become frustrated and many are now considering Black Hat SEO tricks to get their websites ranked higher and I do NOT RECOMMEND THIS.

Let's assume you have been good, and you've been paying your SEO firm (or SEO Rockstar) a lot of money but after a year, you still can't climb up on page one. The Dark side of the Force can be attractive and what I am telling you below is for informational purposes only. Because if you really want to kick Broker Bob's ass, this is the one of the fastest ways to do it and this technique is being done right now by several firms you might be hiring right now.

Here is the technique....

Step One

You create two web pages and create a LOT of text links pointing to Broker Bob's website. Include three different text link phrases, like "dallas homes for sale," "homes for sale in Dallas," and "dallas real estate."

Step Two

You put hundreds and hundreds of these text links into these two html documents and drop them on a server somewhere with only one (1) IP address.

Step Three

Wait three months.

Step Four

Go to Google and enter in "link:broker-bobs-website.com" and if you see the four hundred new links coming into Bob's website from your one way links, you go to to Google and report Broker Bob as spamming or SPAMdexing as it is now called. Your SEO company will report them to Google using this link: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

Within a few days, a live human will review the report and sure enough, will find the four hundred or so links coming in from one IP address and Google will end up black listing Broker Bob.

With one LESS broker or agent website taking up residence on a page one Google search results, the odds are in your favor, that your SEO firm can move you up a notch or two.

There are lots of ways to get black listed by Google and unfortunately, I am about to blow the lid off several firms who are right now, doing this practice for hire for their clients. I just approval from my attorneys before I post the information.

Stay tuned for more...

- Bart

It started off as a pretty busy day.

I had some new business coming at me from a client in Cabo, Mexico who needed a 360 virtual tour kit. I just finished up some work for a vacation rental client in Aspen who happens to live in Norway and as I scanned my emails... I came across a link for a five minute survey with the promise that I'd be entered into a contest that might land me a shopping spree courtesy of American Express. The survey was offered by Vision Critical

The phones were quiet, I was enjoying my 2nd cup of coffee so I thought I'd take the survey as I had time to do this.

Five clicks into the Survey, it wanted to know about my feelings after looking at ads posted in Forbes and Wired magazine.

Unfortunately, I clicked and clicked on the graphics, thinking the ads would enlarge like an Acrobat PDF. No such luck.

Like 94% of all advertising agencies, we are MAC based. I just got the free upgrade to Safari 4 and I thought there might be some bugs, so i switched the survey over to Mac FireFox. Same thing. I clicked on the ads, but nothing wuld enlarge.

I then had to answer multiple choice questions on the survey if I felt more or less positive about the ad. More or Less informed, etc. I blasted them and said I could not feel this way or that way because I could not read the ads.

After 30 minutes of clicking, and saying the same thing over and over again I was compelled to know WHT and WHO was wasting my time and the time and money from Forbes and Wired magazines. Obviously the propeller heads at Vertical Response had no interest in TESTING their survey on Advertising Agency execs because we all use Mac.

I finally complete the survey and at the END I enter in my name, mailing address and email. I click submit and the FORM will not submit. It keeps telling me i have to use a VALID "@" symbol and a period. I'm not an idiot. I entered in my email correctly. Not knowing if this was a SCAM or not, or just a pure blunder on the software engineer's part... I sent an email to several Chairman and principals of Vision Critical detailing my unhappiness.

I copied in MSNBC, CNN and I sent a personal letter to Forbes and CEO telling them they should get their money back. The firm they hired was a complete flop with my experience. It was obviously never thoroughly tested before the firm launched the survey. If it wasted my time, it certainly wasted a lot of people's time, too. Ergo -- Wired and Forbes should get their money back.

This morning, I get this apologetic letter from Vision Critical. There is nothing of any substance here, just back tracking.

When Forbes and Wired gets my letters, I am thinking they will scream and demand their money back from this firm.

What do you think?

-- bartman

My name is Shane Singh and I work with Vision Critical. Your email below was forwarded to me so I wanted to reach out to let you know that we’re taking your situation very seriously. We happen to be the software vendor who supplies the underlying technology to companies in order for them to deploy these types of surveys. Naturally, we’re very concerned anytime we hear of stories such as your experience. At this point we’re not certain whether this is a defect in our software or whether this particular survey may have been constructed with a potential flaw in its workflow. As the software vendor, we often have little to no control over how surveys are programmed and deployed from our tool since we license the software to many end clients for them to conduct research with. That said though, we really are sensitive to anything which may indicate a fault in our software, and more importantly, cause frustration for people such as yourself.

I can assure you that the survey you were asked to participate in is fully legitimate. As an organization we go to great lengths to ensure that our tool is not being used in a malicious manner. I’m going to follow up on your issue to uncover the reasons behind why you weren’t able to complete the survey. I will be sure to let you know what we’ve found.

On behalf of our organization I would like to apologize for the experience you’ve had Mr. Wilson. I’m fully cognizant of your frustration and I sincerely hope that we can take the necessary action to rectify the situation.

Sincerely,

Shane

I was watching a TV commercial about Shredded Wheat the other day.

It was interesting. The spokesperson asks the viewer, "What has technology done for you? Has it brought you to a better place?"

At Shredded Wheat, we put the NO in Innovation.

I use this visual to bring you to the inaccurate Home Inspection Reports offered us today by Zillow or the so-called, New and Improved CyberHomes.com

I just paid $9.90 to Cyberhomes and wanted to see a house value report on the home in Santa Fe.

The price was more than $70,000 off.

The house I am in was NOT a stick built on site home. There is no concrete foundation. The home is manufactured and was brought in in parts and assembled on site. therefore this home cannot and will not appraise as high as a stick built home with a real concrete foundation.

Last March 2008, I had a local VA approved home inspector appraise the home. He has more than 18 years of experience in this area.

Suffice it to say, I am renting this place and the home is falling apart. In short, it's a real disaster.

This kind of information will not be readily available as the home needs a bit of TLC to the tune of $42,000 of repairs. The back door and back large windows to the deck has to be completely replaced. The large windows with double seals are all broken. A cost of over $18,000. The electrical in the garage needs work and the drip water system is dead. None of the outside lights work and the home's stucco is a bit yucco. And the hot tub in the studio has windows that also have cracked seals. All of these need to be replaced, roof leaks and needs that 10 year roof foam stuff.

The house appraised for $305,000 - $310,000.

CyberHomes said the homes value is $391,644.

Zillow says the home's value is $340,500.

Both are wrong. Zillow's Zestimates have been wrong from day one and continue to be inaccurate.

Nothing replaces the need for a LIVE human body, trained in how to inspect homes and provide accurate estimates of a home's true value.

Steve Balmer screwed up again. I'm a Mac-head and I love it.

Put the AOL sound here: BING You got mail.

Thanks to Steve Balmer's most recent screw up, you can now make this: BING! You Got Porn! I have GOT to find that guy that does the AOL Voice, YOU GOT MAIL so he can record this for me -- YOU GOT PORN!

This is what happens when Microsoft lets the original founders go. When Bill Gates left, Microsoft just started screwing up left and right.

Screw Up #1

Microsoft launches Vista. The worst operating system since Windows ME. Microsoft will replace VISTA with Windows 7 in Spring of 2010.

Screw Up #2.

Steve Balmer attempts a hostile take over of Yahoo by going after their shareholders after the board told Steve, "NO."

No means no. So what does he do? He can't buy his way into the Yahoo play pen. So like a soiled little brat, he runs off to hatch BING. Another stupid, yet weak attempt to gain them more of the search market. Sorry Steve. It will never work. Give it up now. If you really want to toss your money down the drain, here is my address. Send your checks to me at this address, please:

Voyager International: 7 Avenida Vista Grande, B-7 #428 Santa Fe, NM 87508.

Screw Up #3

Microsoft launches BING a stab at Google's dominance at the search market with nothing remarkable other than a few weak TV commercials that might make you smile. Today, AVN the Adult Video News network reported that BING when users turned off the SAFE mode, the users get flooded with PORN. Despite the fact that you might have MacAfee or Norton installed, you might want to make sure your kids don't have access to your PC and are anxious to try the new BING search engine.

If your kids do manage to get to this and they ask you why there are naked people on your computer now, you'll know what happened.

Steve Balmer's lawsuit in basket should be getting pretty full here by the end of next week when this happens.

Get a Mac. These things won't happen if you get a Mac.

- bartman