I am Jeff

If you’re like me, in that you’re constantly writing “to-do’s” on post it notes and sticking them around yourself, you might want to take a look at TeuxDeux.

TuexDeux is a “simple, designy, browser-based to-do app”.  And they do mean simple.  For those of us who just need a quick and easy place to store to-do’s, TeuxDeux delivers.  As you can see in the above image, each week is broken down by day, and each day is broken down by…  well, nothing actually.  Using simple drag and drop technology, you can arrange your to-do’s in whatever order they need to be completed.  A quick click will cross the item off the list as being complete, and another click erases the item.  If you don’t finish a task, it will automatically carry over onto the next day until you mark it off as complete.

That’s it. No scheduling, no reminders, no bells and whistles. Just a simple, clean, to-do list in all it’s glory.

But, what about when I’m away from my computer?

Never fear, TeuxDeux just released an iPhone app.  The app, which costs $2.99, automatically syncs with your account on TeuxDeux.com and provides you with all the simplicity of the browser based version, from the convenience of anywhere. Don’t have an iPhone? All is not lost! They’re working on a Blackberry version, and releasing the API for other developers as well.

So, when you have a lot of stuff teux deux, get TeuxDeux, and get it done!

What if you took a list of the top 10 (top of mind) “new media” folks on Twitter and threw them into some crazy algorithm that calculates a bunch of numbers and spits out an even larger list of the people that those 10 are following, which then gets thrown against a peer ranking system to rank who the most connected people are?  What would that list look like?

Well, I did just that.  The results are below in the form of my Top 100 Most Connected “New Media” Peeps:

The above list is the list of people that came to my mind when I started thinking of “new media”.  They’re in no particular order.  But, the list below is.

So you can see, just by seeding the system with a few names we’re able to get a pretty extensive list of “new media” types, using a fairly simple (yet fairly complex) algorithm and a couple calls against the Twitter API.  Cool huh?

Although this list was created just for my personal curiosity, one thing I thought to be pretty funny was that someone like @ChrisBrogan was so far down the list. Just barely above @MCHammer, who I’ve never really thought of as a player in the “new media” world.  But, maybe I’m wrong…

Connect with me on Twitter:  @JBern

…if you tried just a little bit harder?

Apparently the “sales team” from a company called Inside Real Estate (normally I’d provide a link here, but it’s against my “no links for sleazy companies” policy) is making the rounds in Portland selling their “blogging services” to agents.

For the low price of $75 a month, plus a small $199 “creation and setup fee”, you get a… Drum roll please… WordPress blog. But wait, wait, wait, there’s more…

For an additional $10 per month they’ll set you up with your very own Twitter account, Facebook account and even an RSS feed!

You thought I was done?  Oh no my friend, oh no.

Don’t have time to write your own content?  No problem, they have a cure for what ails you! For only $27 per month (on top of the $85 you’re already spending), they will provide you with Real Estate related articles for you to publish on your blog.  Presumably the same articles they’re providing every other agent in the Nation who is foolish enough to fall for their sales pitch. Think about that for a second…

So what is it that has me so worked up about this?

Is it a bad product? Nope. WordPress is my platform of choice and what we build for our agents at M Realty (examples). It will do pretty much everything they say it will. No issues there.

Is it the price? Yes. $75 a month for a WordPress blog?  Come on…  The other fees/services are equally ridiculous. Unless you’re getting a top notch IDX home search and contact management system (like HomeQuest) along with that fancy WordPress blog, you should only be paying about $5 a month for hosting. I guess they have to pay their traveling snake oil salesmen somehow, right?

$10 a month for a Twitter/Facebook/RSS feed? Sorry to say, but if you need to pay someone to setup your social media accounts for you, you’re never going to get it. Don’t even try.

$27 for ghost writing? Same deal. This is your blog, you need to create the content that expresses your personality, your attitude, and the way you run your business. Plain and simple.

I think more than anything, I was a little perturbed by the sales tactics these guys were using on the agents. Telling them there are only a limited number of “spaces” available in a market, guaranteeing top placement on Google search results, you know all the usual bullshit sales tactics companies like this would have to use to get people to give up their credit card info and get the sale. When I heard several of the agents in the office fell for it and signed up, all I could do was shake my head.

On behalf of all the honest vendors out there, I apologize that we couldn’t get you more information in time to make a better decision.

Focus, consistency and a clean message. Rinse and repeat.

If you struggle with marketing, try sticking to this simple mantra. You’ll be amazed at how these simple words, once mastered, can make a huge difference.

Bern out!