Real Estate 2.0 Technology

Today, at the very last possible minute, we put together a RR Talk show that was ALL ABOUT TWITTER!  How do you get business from Twitter?  Do you need to have an account and be on Twitter?  How does it work, why would I want to, and who else is on there anyway?  This was a great talk show and the special guests and callers are really what make these talk shows so much fun, exciting, and successful.

At one point, we had over 47 people in the chat, 87 live listeners, 6 guests on the line, numerous call ins, and the show has already been reviewed or downloaded by 253 listeners.  WOW!!  This is a first, and new record for RAIN Radio.  Why such a crazy response?  As I said, it had to be our guests today.  We only started putting this together at 9:30am for an 11:00am PDT broadcast.  Thanks to Jeremy Blanton, we turned a discussion on the phone, into a Radio Talk show.  I think part of our success today was because some "TWEETS WENT WILD!"

My guests were Paul Chaney, Kim Wood, Jeremy Blanton and we had quite an audience today.  So if you are interested in finding out what the "Twitter Pros" are doing, and how they are using the Micro-Blogging platform to gain exposure, build relationships, and do more business, take a listen, and enjoy this broadcast.  I'm always looking for good topics for discussion, and expert guests to join us to share their voice, today was no exception. 

TWITTER IS HOT, so sit back, enjoy the show, and witness "Tweets Gone Wild" on BTR and Rain Radio.  Thanks for listening, we appreciate your ratings, comments, calls, emails, and chat room antics! LOL~

You can also "Follow" us on Twitter @BradAndersohn, Paul Chaney @PChaney, Kim Wood @KimWood, and Jeremy Blanton @MyrtleBeachBlog.  Feel free to tweet any of us if you have questions about Twitter.  The Twitterville community is also a great resource to find out just about anything you want to know.

                
Click the > Play Button Above    

Who says you can't make a Blog Post look like a website every now and then? Why not bring the boring links and text to life sometimes? Do you dare or desire to be different once in awhile? Are you stuck, and just part of the everyday Social Media Matrix? Ready to meet the Oracle? Has NEO peaked your curiosity yet? Are you an AGENT, or are you the ONE? Pick Your Pill...one of them, or both, might just help.

I've noticed the fonts on many Blog Posts are getting larger these days. 

I do appreciate any assistance I can get with not having to wear my glasses to read your posts.  Now there's a way to have your posts read themselves out loud to your subscribers and visitors.  It's called Odiogo.  It converts your entire post to audio for you.  I'll use Odiogo in this post to show you how it works.  I'm not saying that everyone should start doing this, but if your eyes are like mine, or starting to get that way, or, if you have viewers who you think would rather hear your post than read it, this may be for you. 

Here's my Blog converted by Odiogo.

Another great benefit of Odiogo, is that your Blog Posts can be downloaded, and listened to later.  You can't do that with just the written typed word.  The thing I like best about Odiogo, is that it takes literally seconds to convert your Blog posts to "Audio Podcasts."  Just enter your email address, then your Blog URL, and they email you the page that contains an RSS Feed, and another page with all your posts converted to audio.  Literally seconds, and you're done.  Give it a try, the voice is pretty clear and understandable.  It's easy to use, and just as most services and tools I post about, it's absolutely FREE.

To use these individual players and converted audio files on your Blog posts, (like the ones seen below), you will need to view the Odiogo page source of your converted posts, find the one that goes to your specific Blog post, then cut and paste the code using the HTML tab on your AR Blog post.  I know this may be a lot to digest for some, but as always, you know I'm here to help.  Give it a try, see what you think, I'm posting this because I made a promise to a few members that I would.  Test out the players below, and see how it sounds converting my last few posts into audio files for playback.

Odiogo.com, where "Saying It, is as simple as Playing It!"  (I just made that up by the way...LOL...I mean, laugh out loud. hahaha)

Bloggers: Sign up now for Odiogo and make your textual content podcast-ready - It's FREE!

I just got off the phone with Lenn Harley, one of our ActiveRain resident members and experts on the topic of Copyright, and I am excited to tell you, she'll be joining us, (The AR Staff) ";Live"; this Thursday on Rain Radio.  Lenn has even contacted her attorney, Paul Thaler, ESQ. from International Square in Washington DC to join us.  We'll have as many answers as we can, to as many of the questions you may have.  Copyright, plagiarism, cut and paste emails, screen captures, jokes, recipes, clip-art, logos, cartoon photos, and anything else you can possibly think of.  This is a rare, one time shot to get your questions answered by an Attorney, and an expert who knows the laws, and your rights.

I hope all of our members will participate by either listening in, or calling in to learn and discuss this really important topic.  We are trying to clean up the community and at the same time, help protect our members and friends.  After an extensive conversation with Lenn just the other day, I can't begin to tell you how important this is to us all.  Lenn made it a point to contact Paul to clarify a few questions we both had regarding email, screen shots, and photos, I was shocked by some of the copyright laws.  You might be too.   We'll be sharing this information with anyone who is interested.  It's important to know how this can, and will affect you now, and in the future.  I know for a few members, it already has.

The AR RAIN RADIO Broadcast is this Thursday, November 13th, at 11:00am PDT.  It's a one hour Talk-Show, and it will cover everything you ever wanted to know about the Copyright Laws, violations, and the repercussions of what happens if or when you get caught.  You can either use the "Live" chat, you can phone in and ask questions, or you can just listen in as we breakdown these COPYRIGHT LAWS into bite size and understandable pieces.  What questions are most important to YOU, I'd love to share them on the air?  If you have to miss this broadcast, I'll try and post the show here after, as I'm sure we'll be referring many here in the future.

The phone number to call in is:

Copyright Laws and You - Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:46:04 -0600  Download MP3  (2557 KB)

Here's a post that I just couldn't resist.  LinkedIn.com has announced some really cool new features to their site.  Up until now, I think many have just considered this site to be a place to have a profile, an on-line resume', or the place to be if you're anybody in any business.  I think most members on ActiveRain are probably on LinkedIn already, and if not, should be.

Just today, I have already incorporated two of their new features to my LinkedIn profile which is now a syndicated site to host my Blogs and other more useful information.  I just added the ability to have posts from my various Blogs show up right on the profile. Check out BlogLink. You can even have Google Docs and presentations there. 

Here's some of the other items they've added that you can include:

Box: Collaborate and share files with your friends and network.

Huddle: Create private work areas to share projects.

Amazon: Find out what the rest of your network is reading.

TripIt: Check out and follow your traveling network.

SixApart: Keep up to date with your networks latest posts.

Google Docs: Add and embed presentations on your profile page.

SlideShare: View, comment, and share presentations.

WordPress: Promote your latest WordPress Posts.

CompanyBuzz: See what others are saying about your Company.

I haven't had the chance to setup and try or test all of these yet, but at least we know that LinkedIn is trying hard to become more than just a place to host your Resume' and Profile.  They've built that reputation to some extent, and now looks like they might be trying and live up to the their name instead.  LinkedIn. 

I personally like what they've done.  That means this post should appear on  my LinkedIn profile now. (once you're logged in)  Don't forget to add YOUR AR Blogs there too.

See all their new "Featured Applications"

Copyright Violations and Plagiarism on ActiveRain are coming to an end, but it may not happen over night.

When you see a Police Car ahead, and you're speeding, don't you slow down?  Hopefully Harlen will have that same impact and affect as he travels around and throughout the Network.  I have heard he's already making a dent on AR.  His presence alone here should make a difference, knowing he's lurking in the shadows.

This post is in response to a thread of comments I read yesterday; The Active Rain Police: So now what, everyone gets booted?  Posts like Gregory Lohr's prove that the word is out, and that the message is starting to go Viral. Carolyn Tann has also written a post in the Club Chaos Group and even emailed the members regarding this topic as well.  It all stemmed from this announcement that Harlen had arrived on the scene.

Is the message clear?  Members want Clarity and Answers.   

Lenn Harley, as witnessed in the comments of Greg's post, is very well versed in the area of copyright laws and violations.  Still not clear on Copyright?  Just go read Lenn's Blog and all her posts on the topic.  She's a great resource for what you can and can't do.  Also review http://www.copyright.gov    

IN A NUT SHELL:

The idea of posting jokes, poems and recipes etc. is fine, it's your Blog, just don't copy and paste or plagiarize others sites and other authors material.  Create your own.  Be an author, not a copycat.  It's OK to take a small snippet, then add a link to the original source, but then write about it in your own words.  How much of a snippet is acceptable?  Great question.  I would never use more than a sentence or two max, just to be safe. (That's just my opinion, not sure it's a Harlen, Lenn, or copyright law)

Pictures, Graphics, Images, Screen Shots, Logos, Art work?  Simple, don't use them unless they're yours, or you paid for them.  Make sure you clearly understand the rules and copyright laws of the sites that offer them (questionably) for FREE.  Just be safe and not sorry.

ARE WE SAFE?

As far as Harlan and his role here, my understanding is that he is going through ALL Blog posts, both NEW and OLD trying to help clean up our network.  All he's requesting is that you go through your own Blog, and clean it up.  If you don't, the penalties here are pretty stiff.  CRUSH PLAGIARISM!

• One reason is to protect you, our member.  In my opinion, it's better that you find your posts before Harlan does, and it's even better if Harlen finds these posts, before the original authors do, wouldn't you agree? Have you seen some of these fines? OMG!
  

• Secondly, asking members to go through their own Blog posts and clean them up is alot easier and faster than Harlen trying to go through all of them himself.  You're helping him, he's helping you. 
  

• Thirdly, this effort makes our Community and Network a much better place and resource.  We want to provide ONLY original content for our visitors.  We get over 7,000,000 visits per month.  This adds Value and Integrity to the network, and it keeps our traffic coming back while at the same time referring us to others.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

One last important issue to consider about copyrighted material, you need to make sure you are copyright protecting your own content too.  Our members produce some of the best stuff on the Web, and we need to make sure we're protecting our own content as well.  Cleaning up our Blogs is a much easier process than going out there and trying to find out who has violated us in the same manner.  Shouldn't we be just as concerned about who's stealing our stuff?  Yes.  Check out Copyscape.com, I see many members use this site for their AR and other Blogs. 

I see a day coming soon when we will have to change Harlen's role on AR because he will eventually help Crush Plagiarism here.  Then we'll give him additional tasks like Smashing Spam, and Deleting Gamers etc.  Help us give Harlen that new role as soon as possible, clean up your Blogs, and get rid of anything that's not yours.  It should be clear as day!  Keep Blogs safe, stay clear of Harlen and the Copyright Police.

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