Good friend John Harper kindly offered this article so I could laze around on my birthday (Thx JH). John enjoys exposing the hidden tension between real estate agents and the world of vendors and affiliates. It's a good topic... is there any way a vendor can market to agents without insinuation or the hint of obligation?

From John Harper:

The other day I answered this question on Trulia Voices

About two minutes later my phone rang. It was Homes.com? Trulia? Well, it was one or the other or both. It was about 5am and I had not had coffee yet.

The gentleman on the phone wanted to sell me some keyword positioning. Evidently Trulia Voices is being monitored and agents of the new evil empire (watch out Microsoft) are working overtime to relieve us suffering real estate agents of what meager commissions are left in this challenging real estate market.

Just kidding about the evil empire thing and suffering. I have no problem with Trulia, Zillow, or the other 987,263 business entities that think your average Realtor has an extra $100 to throw at everything that comes along. Last month it was search engine optimization companies wanting to sell me positioning on Google and Yahoo. I guess July is Trulia month.

When the call came in, I have to admit my first response was *&^&%$@! Trulia. But that was just irritation from "interruption marketing" cutting into my early morning routine when I expect to get a lot done without the hassles of telemarketing.

So - to get to the point - the gent wanted me to consider forking over some dough to have our site come up on the first page of Google or Trulia or Homes.com or something for the phrase - San Ramon Homes for Sale. He had me Google - san ramon homes for sale - and asked me where our site came up. It did not come up on the first page which was his point.

Well, I'm not willing to pay for any search terms, so I thanked the gent and went on about my business.

My first order of merry business was to write a post for our blog on San Ramon Homes for Sale. Today, when I Googled - san ramon homes for sale - my post came up in the number five position. Thank you very much Trulia for bringing it to my attention! Please have your rep call me with other search terms I need to write about.

I'd like to see if I can move that post up a couple of notches. Anyone who links the phrase - san ramon homes for sale - to my post will receive one text link from our site to any post they choose.

This experience is just one more example of the power of blogging.

I owe a measure of gratitude to Pat Kitano for his support and mentoring in the early days. And even though he's much older now (today is his birthday), he is still on top of his game! I asked him if he wanted a day off and would accept this guest post so he could watch basketball reruns instead of blogging on his birthday.