Active Rain came to town!

It was a full room last week when the Rain Gang showed up.  They came armed with T-shirts, goody bags and a ton of great technology tips with practical applications for them.

This day wasn’t for the weak of heart, the information came with the force of a fire hydrant unleashed on a hot summer’s day.  No one complained we just wrote as fast as we could taking notes and hoping against hope we could remember it next week!

Here’s my Top TEN Tips from RainCamp:

1. Brad Andersohn’s presentation on the Top FREE Real Estate Tools 2009 http://slidesha.re/2rHprP
2. Find out what influencers are talking about on Twitter, use Klout
3. Active Rain now has a University where each day there is another interesting presentation you can tune into from the comfort of  your chair!
4. Agents are still using Archtelecom to capture leads with success
5. 74.1% of the population is  now online, 32% spent their spare time on the social web, 94% home buyers are between 24-44, 32% found their actual home online.  If you aren’t online you don’t exist. (I said that! So Google Me already!)
6. Ben Kinney is a real Pain you might want to friend him on Facebook and find out why. (hint, he sells a lot of real estate)  Ben likes to SaveAWorm Facebook is really about building community and marketing your listings (not so much!).
7. Save time by syndicating your posts to go from one network to the next. Then all you need to do is show up and respond to the comments.
8. Twitter is a great way to prospect for leads, if you know how to set up searches. Geo chirp
9. Feed your website to Wordle, it not only gives you a cool looking graphic, but you can see what words you focus on. Hopefully the consumer and not egotistical you!
10. Build your brand, become and live the Purple Cow

Lessons From RainCamp is a post from: Kristalks

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There is so much great content already in place on the Internet, it seldom makes sense to repeat what others have done.  I thought I would share this very good presentation authored by Linda Davis from Connecticut and presented a few months ago in my home State of New Jersey.  Yes, it would be  much better to view Linda presenting these tools in person, but seeing it on Slide Share is the next best thing.

Enjoy!

Linda Davis Presents 60 in 60 is a post from: Kristalks

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It’s Not Technology but It’s Good!

By popular request (from my lovely daughter, Vali) I am slaving in the kitchen on Thanksgiving eve, making a very untraditional Thanksgiving dish.  When I Tweeted what I was doing, several mouths started to water and my recipe was requested!

Being a dedicated blogger I decided the best thing to do was to share not just my recipe but the actual process of making this delicious treat.  There are a few nuances in preparation that have come to me over the years as I goofed up.  So on this eve of Thanksgiving I will share with the world my treasured family recipe.  (OK that’s a joke, the original recipe came off the side of the box. Really.)  Of course I’ve tweaked it to perfection.

Here’s what you need:

• A bowl
• a pan
• measuring cups
• a pastry brush (to brush melted butter)
• a 9×13” shallow baking dish
• a nut chopper (mine’s a Cuisinart)
• a range and an oven of course!

Ingredients:

• Filo dough (premade dough is found in the frozen foods section of your grocery store.  At my store, it’s located by the frozen pie crust
• 2 cups blanched almonds or walnuts.  I use almonds as my son, Zack is allergic to walnuts
• 1.25 cup of melted sweet butter
• 2 1/2 cup sugar
• cinnamon and clove powder
• cinnamon stick
• 1 cup honey
• orange or lemon rinds (I leave this out because my kids don’t like it.  I love it – such a sacrifices I make for the offspring!)

Before you start:

Fillo dough is a very, very fine pastry.  When you purchase the frozen kind it needs to thaw out at room temperature for an hour or so.  I never open the package until it is thawed. The dough dries out extremely fast, so leaving it encased in the packaging is the best way to thaw it.

When you open the package gently unfold the dough, laying it completely flat on a cutting board or some other flat surface.  IMMEDIATELY cover it with a dish towel.  As you are working each time you remove a piece of dough, IMMEDIATELY cover up the remaining dough.  If you don’t, by the time you get to the last piece it will be dry and brittle.

I use a Cuisinart to nearly pulverize the nuts.  They are reduced to a fine texture much like the texture of the sugar.  It can be done chunky too, guess that’s a matter of taste.  My style baklava melts in the mouth, no teeth are necessary to chew.

Let’s begin:

Mix these dry ingredients together in a bowl:

• 2 cups nuts (almonds or walnuts)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• cinnamon and clove powder to taste

Brush melted butter along the bottom and sides of baking dish.  Place two Filo dough sheets in dish, brush with butter.  Lightly spread dry ingredients on top of the dough.

Repeat using one sheet of dough, spread melted butter then dry ingredients.  Continue until you run out of dry ingredients.

Finish by placing Fillo dough and butter until all the dough is used up.  Typically this is 4-6 more layers.

The final sheet of filo should be brushed with melted butter.

Use a very sharp knife (I like my paring knife) to slice through the dough, cut diamond shape bars.  Yes, this is done prior to baking!

Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Then reduce heat to 300 degrees and continue baking until top is a golden brown.

Remove from oven. Cool.

Time to make the syrup, in a sauce pan combine:

• 1 cup honey
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• a few lemon or orange rinds, 1 cinnamon stick

Boil for 10 minutes, allow to cool slightly.  Pour  syrup over the light flaky Baklava.  At first it will seem like a lot, but the dough will soak up the syrup until there is just a small amount in the bottom of the dish. You will have to use your judgment here.  Depending upon the amount of Filo dough you use, you may or may not need all the syrup!

I’ve been told you must wait for the Baklava and the syrup to be completely cool before you combine the two.  But I’ve never done it that way.  Typically I poor the syrup on after the pastry has been out of the oven for about 30 minutes.  The syrup is cooled but still hot.

Now for some tips and tricks

Cutting a rectangular dish into diamond shapes leaves four pieces of baklava that don’t match the rest of the dish.  This a a serious problem when trying to present a perfectly aligned, impressive dessert. So it is necessary to immediately consume those four pieces.  Don’t worry they won’t be missed.

I do suggest you ask for help in consumption as this creation is extremely rich.  Once I didn’t have help and I ended up sick.  Well I thought I was sick, but I was actually pregnant.  His name is Rich. Really. I kid you not!

Happy Holidays to All!

D3ATB23959TB

KrisTalks Bakes Baklava is a post from: Kristalks

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RSS Feeds are the best time savers for anyone who wants to keep up on the latest posts from favorite blogs.  I know I find myself getting behind or worse yet forgetting to visit some really terrific blogs, just because time seems to pass so quickly.

Every blog has a feed, or if they don’t they should!  It doesn’t make much sense to write fresh content and then not provide a way for your readers to actually read it at their leisure!

So when you want to consolidate look for and subscribe to a blog’s feed by finding an icon with this symbol on it.  My Denver Real Estate site has custom RSS Icons (see example on right). But even with it being custom it still has the universal orange dot with broadcasting waves on it.  You will see this symbol in all sizes and colors, just know it is an RSS subscription link.

What do you do with it?

There are many ways you can collect RSS Feeds, some have a fee and are very sophisticated in that you can make categories for your different types of feeds.  Then there is my old favorite the Google Reader which is free and very simple to use.  The only issues I have with it, is once again remembering to visit it!

Lately I’ve decided to build my RSS List in my Outlook mail client.  Considering my daily routine, much of which is spent reviewing and answering my email, this is the perfect place for me to gather RSS Feeds.

Watch the Screencast for a quick demo.

How To Add An RSS Feed to Your Outlook Email is a post from: Kristalks

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Blogging has become a popular way of expressing one self.  For many business people it is a way to expand the online reach, connecting with potential customers for now and in the future.

In many ways our blog topics are critical as they will either attract or repell. The blogs are getting indexed by the search engines.  By this I mean what we say is being stored for future reference to the world. Considering the millions and millions of pages on the web, is this really important?

You bet it is.

Blogging may feel like play at times, but in reality we are opening our minds and exposing our thoughts to the digital world. As our consumers begin to research us they are looking for reasons why they should work with us or not.

All this just adds to the importance of building a strong body of work that reflects well on the blogger.

My preference has always been to deliver benefits and add value.  When blogging about real estate, I enjoy showing off my state by presenting pictures of places and things that happen here.  I also find great blog topics in the questions routinely asked of me from my current clients. Reflecting back upon a conversation with a client, I can always pull a blog topic out of my memory!

Here’s an easy formula for blog topics: (If you are not a real estate blogger replace that term with your focus market.)

• Present a real estate problem and solve it
• Feature a focused topic on real estate (in your town)
• respond to comments
• look to trigger thought, support or suggestions
• stimulate real estate discussion

Finding your very own personal voice that will be heard in the blogging community and beyond is important. Realizing what we do today will impact what happens tomorrow is exciting and frightening at the same time.

Outstanding Resources to Study:

• Is Writing Great Content Enough to Build a Successful Blog?
• How to Find Your blogging Voice
• 4-Steps to Finding Your Voice

Are you having trouble finding your voice? Get your feet wet by commenting on blogs first.  Do a few a day (start here if you like!) after awhile you will gain more confidence, posting a blog will become second nature to you!

Add Value by Creating Content for the Future is a post from: Kristalks

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Let’s talk about the Wall of Words.

How often do you visit a blog or a website only to find nothing but a ton of words. How appealing is that?  I guess ultimately it depends on your motivation.  If you really want/need the information you may read it.  If you are like me you may just skip it or better yet skim it.

Skim it?

Yes, that’s what I said. Most readers don’t read, they skim over the words, to see if they want to read it. So this being the case, let’s format our wall of words for the skimmer.

Give them Headings and word breaks.

Isn’t this easier to read when the copy is broken up into smaller parts?  Each header should be relevant or at least catchy to keep the reader’s interest. Keep pulling the reader’s eye down your copy, giving them the “gist” of the content in each header as you write.

How do you format headers?

Using HTML it is easy to format a header.  It looks like this (only omit the spaces after the < )

< h1>This is the largest header</h1 >

There should only be one <h1> tag on a page.  Obviously it would come first.  After the <h1> tag comes a series of 4 more tags, each getting progressively smaller.

< h2>This is the next smaller size< /h2>

< h3>This is smaller yet< /h3>

< h4>How small do we need to go?< /h4>

By now you get the general idea. Use the H tags to help the reader skim the copy and give  visual appeal to your content.

Don’t want to try HTML?

OK, HTML can be a bit scary at first, if you are timid at this point, never fear. Most blogs offer the same result in the editor.  Just look at the Bar Above when you are in “Visual” or “WYSIWYG” (what you see is what you get) mode.  Here there is a drop down box that will provide <h1> tags for you.

Here’s how it works:

1. Highlight the text you want as a Header or heading.
2. Click the Format or Paragraph drop down box
3. Select the <H> tag you like
4. You are done. No step 4!

Be Nice to Your Readers is a post from: Kristalks

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