This was my first REBarCamp and I can tell I was NOT disappointed. I had been to RETech So
uth in Atlanta back in March and was really looking forward to seeing some of the same people I had met there. I loaded myself in the car and headed to Raleigh. Read about my Trip to Raleigh.
Thursday evening was spent at Beer for Bloggers where Heather O had the bar set up for Power Point Karaoke. I'm not even going to try to explain it but it was very funny as the contestants described the pictures she put up.
I don't know where she found some of these pictures but they were priceless.
It was Pam St Peter's Birthday so we had several rounds of "Happy Birthday to you"! The evening was spent with many just catching up with old friends.
Friday at BarCamp the first class I went to was Making Money from your Blog taught by C Tann-Starr. One of her first suggestions was to purchase the book Writer's Market. It's an incredible directory that lists the publishing opportunities available for writer to get paid for their work. She spent a lot of time
making sure that you blog about things that you care about. Not just Real Estate. One of her suggestions that I need to follow up on was creating a bounce page. It's very important that when you set it up that the link opens a new window so that they're still on your page.
My next session was Facebook 201. Presented by Hal Goodtree, Thom Abbott and Angela Conner. 
Many people have posted here at AR about Facebook and Fan pages but I really never "got it".
The fan page is to be used for business. I didn't know that it was against the terms and services of Facebook to have business on your personal page. The way to show your business things on your personal page, you fan yourself. Thom said that it was important to make your comments from the fan page. You can also create a fan page for specific neighborhoods.
I plan to go back and read some of the AR blogs to fill in the gaps of what I learned. I will have my fan page up and going this week!
Diane Tuman led the discussion for Blogging 201 - why your blog is not getting any traction.
First, you're not blogging enough. 95% of all blogs are abandoned. It's no wonder that readers get bored. Google likes activity too. They want to see new content.
Second, you're not blogging about pertinent topics. No one cares what your dog is doing!
Third, you're writing too long. No one wants to read a wall of words.
Fourth, you're not using SEO and strong Keywords. Determine the keywords you want to optimize for and sprinkle them and combinations of the throughout your blog post. The First sentence is VERY important to have them there.
Finally I bit the bullet and went to Twittering 101. Yep I'm a beginner. Deidra Hughey, owner of Buzz Builder, led us on a great discussion of do's and don'ts of twitter. Similar to Facebook, one needs to have a discussion with people on line. Tweets are limited to 140 characters and you can add tiny URL links to your blogs.
Just before leaving the speaker reminded us to leave our change on the table. REBarCamp was collecting money for Homes4NC.
Many people did just that!
We ended the day with lots of big goodbyes and headed back to to our hotel for a quick drink before going to the Bonefish Grill for dinner. My dear friend Patty Keller insisted on at least one picture of "food porn". Pictured is Blue Saga cheese with crackers and smoked almonds to go with our Goose martinis and cosmopolitans.
