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Blogging turns 10 and turned Me into a Hermit Crab on Clearwater Beach!

Blogging Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Birthday cake blogging turns 10 years oldI was reading Paul Chaney’s blog today, Conversational Media Marketing and he shared that blogging has actually been around for 10 years. As a tribute to blogging he shared his blogging story and encouraged others to do the same. It got me thinking and reflecting and I thought I would take a break from writing about Clearwater Beach Real Estate today and share a little about our blogging journey so far… 

Blogging isn’t a Sprint it’s a Marathon

We first learned about blogging a little over a year ago when I attended an Internet Academy with Dean Jackson in Orlando Florida. It was a weekend dedicated to learning how new technology could enhance our real estate business – just one of the many opportunities Jack and take to constantly gain additional education and skills. While there I was able to meet with successful real estate agents and mortgage professionals from around United States and Canada who shared their blogging success stories. They talked about how we could provide more community and real estate information in a more client friendly way by blogging. From there we left with the inspiration to begin our own blog.

Blogging is like the Ironman Triathalon - not a sprintOur first try at blogging was actually a Typepad blog. It was just in it’s infancy (2–3 months old) when I received an invitation from a Brea CA Realtor to join Active Rain, a fast growing real estate social network. We did and it allowed us to learn and improve as bloggers by working with over 20,000 other real estate professionals then – now it’s over 60,000 and still growing. 

Well the dirty little secret is “blogging is addicting” and before long we were hooked because it created a great way to share information about Clearwater and Clearwater beach and also start a dialogue with our readers in a safe, no pressure environment.  

Ironically we learned that working in a community like Active Rain was a much smarter first step in becoming effective bloggers so we quit working on our typepad blog (only so many hours in a day) and focused all our efforts on our Active Rain blog because it was easy to use and comprehensive for both fellow REALTORS and consumers. 

Like many before and after us, once we started blogging on Active Rain and Localism we were able to jump start our effectiveness and got a real blogging education from helpful bloggers like Paul Chaney, Jeff Turner, Ines Hegedus-Garcia, Kristal Kraft, Laurie Manny and too many more to name here. That’s where I learned that blogging’s not a sprint – it’s a marathon and the best blogs, like fine wines when done right get better and better with time as their content grows.  

Blogging turned Us into Hermit Crabs

Hermit crab in shell isolated on whiteSo while it is great being a part of a dynamic community like Active Rain we decided we were ready, like the hermit crab, to expand into a larger shell and to start our own website and blog with  the things we’d learned.  We move into a GoDaddy Blog Shell…while it was easy to get started with their turnkey offerings, over time we found that the things we wanted to include on our blog weren’t available through them so we experienced growing pains again and needed to trade in our shell again – we’d outgrown this one and so we went in search of a much bigger shell – something we could grow with and not have to change so quickly.

Now that we knew what we wanted we researched and sought out the best real estate blog design company . Ultimately we chose The Real Estate Tomato, recognized innovators in real estate blogging. We were sold when we shared our vision for our new website/blog and they “got it” – we were then able to work together to create this Clearwater | Clearwater Beach Real Estate Blog – the ultimate hermit crab home.  

So today, a year later We’re reflecting on all we’ve learned about blogging and the only thing we know for sure is that while we love our current shell here on Sandbars To Sunsets – we will definitely continue to grow and evolve. For example, we already know more and more video will be coming and so in the future, like the hermit crab, we’ll keep expanding our shell to keep delivering the best information for you – our valued readers.

Thanks for letting me share a little about our journey this past year. How fitting that New Years is around the corner…a great time to reflect and plan for the coming year of improvements and innovations.

So, I’m curious, what’s the pending New Year got you thinking about? 

 Cyndee and jack haydon signature

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The above information and images are Copyright © 2007 Jack and Cyndee Haydon,  REALTORS and your Clearwater Beach Real Estate Consultants and may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed or published. All rights reserved. Plagiarism will be detected and is punishable by law.

About Cyndee Haydon

Cyndee Haydon, Realtor with Future Home Realty specializing in luxury waterfront and beach homes of Clearwater Beach - St Pete - Tampa Bay area with her husband and partner, Jack Haydon Cyndee's Google Profile

  1. Ines [Visitor]

    Cyndee – thanks for the mention…you’ve had a heck of a journey and have done it quickly and with finesse! Blogging is such a powerful tool that let our customers know us and understand what we’re about.

    You are doing an awesome job and here’s to the next 10 years of bloggin!

  2. Kristal Kraft [Visitor]

    Hi Cyndee ~ What a nice story! It’s always a pleasure reading how others have come around to blogging. I had no idea the practice has been around 10 years! I know I did an early version of blogging in 2000, but it was more of an online journal/website not actual blogging software. I wish I had then what we have now. It would have been a no brainer for sure!

    Thanks for the link love and the mention! I’m glad you are enjoying the Blog!

    kk

    P.S. You new blog looks wonderful! Congrats and good luck with it.

  3. Jeff Turner [Visitor]

    Cyndee,

    It’s been a pleasure getting to know you through blogging. That’s the real joy – the relationships. The format allows us to reveal ourselves to others and “know” them without ever actually meeting. And every person you mentioned in this post is someone I’d love to meet in person. Luckily, I’ve had that chance with Paul and Kristal. I’m hoping the rest will come soon!

    Thank you for the kind mention and the link love! 🙂

    Jeff

  4. Laurie Manny [Visitor]

    Hey marathon girl, thanks for the link love. I never doubted that you would do it, do it right, and do it well. Happy Holidays Cyndee, hope yours are great.