Blogging and the Web: How it’s Helped Me and can Help You.

When I started this blog, it was because I had a lot of ideas and I wanted to organize them. For a few months I had been keeping my thoughts offline in a journal and realized that if I published them, I would have an opportunity to help others and not just myself. The secondary benefits of this website have been to search engine optimize (SEO) myself as well as create a living, interactive resume. This is especially important to me because I was switching positions and have to ensure my online “brand” is professional. Appreciation goes out to Alex Hillman; a friend of mine from college, who helped me find hosting and setup my blog.

With the necessary infrastructure in place, it was time to fill the site with content. I chose to focus primarily on real estate because that is where my experience is concentrated. I started with basic ideas and have begun moving towards ideas that go into further depth. While updates have slowed slightly, it is due to a position change and updates will resume shortly. My new position will allow me to continue talking about real estate, and enhance my knowledge of commercial and industrial (C&I) lending.

Immediately I noticed the importance of Technorati and it’s tagging system, which is used to continuously index blogs. Within a days of posts, a search for my name in Google came up with this blog and my “about me” or resume page. I have also noticed that once my blog was filled with content, it was being accessed by a number of customers across the country. With my primary and secondary goals on track, I started to look into the numerous web applications available to help make my life more efficient.

Emurse is an online resume tool that allows you to create and store your resume online. A great feature of the site is that your resume is easily viewed with an option to download in a number of formats including rich text, pdf, and Microsoft Word format. Emurse also has a great profile section, which can be viewed from your resume page.

Twitter is a a mini blogging tool that asks one question: What are you doing? The service allows you to follow users or be followed. Posts are short; 140 characters to be exact, and can be sent or received through the web, standalone programs like Twitterific, text message, or the AIM instant messaging client. The service has been used in a number of manners including posting articles, documenting trips / events, and letting your friends in the area know where you are.

Netvibes was introduced to me this weekend by my friend Brad Levinson, and offers its users the ability to cater the web to their needs through RSS feeds. Content pages are organized by tabs and the pages are customizable from one to four columns. Here are a few examples of how I have my Finance and Philadelphia tabs setup, just click on the thumbnails.

It is important to remember that none of this is possible without those that create all of this content. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to get together with a coworking group that Alex started called Independents Hall. The premise of these communities is to allow the independent community a physical location to work, brainstorm, and create discussion. It was an excellent chance for me to sit, listen, and learn for a few hours about what is developed, being developed, and etc. I encourage anyone who would like to learn more to contact Alex directly.

Technorati Tags: Alex Hillman, Brad Levinson, coworking, emurse, Independents Hall, Netvibes, Twitter

Posted on April 23rd, 2007 | By: bootstrap economist | Filed under Web Technologies

2 Responses to “Blogging and the Web: How it’s Helped Me and can Help You.”

1. David Litsky :: A guide to bootstrapping Says:
   July 7th, 2007 at 6:49 pm

   [...] Bootstrapping reminds me that there are several parallels between companies and individuals. Before my 24th birthday, I asked myself how much money do people really have? I was frustrated with myself for the mistakes I made in college, which I detailed last month in Let My Loss be Your Gain. After my 25th birthday, I gave an introduction and two months later gave an update. [...]

2. The Bootstrap Economist :: Talking about Others Says:
   March 13th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

   [...] Blogging and the Web: How it’s Helped Me and can Help You. I came across trulia while completing market research for a potential customer. The site puts together a myriad of data in an easy to use format, that was previously difficult to find. Although the focus is for retail customers, there are a number of tools to aid your search of a potential investment property. My personal favorite is the “heat map” feature which compiles popularity trends on a state level to the neighborhood level for select cities. Data; whichincludes both actual prices and year-over-year percentage changes, can be sorted by average listing price, average sales price, median sales prince, price per square foot, and search popularity. [...]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.