RSS Pieces Will Remain Dark Today to Mourn Our Friend, Bear. For those of you that do not know, a dear friend and part of the RSS Pieces family unexpectedly passed away this past weekend. While many of you may not know the name Bear, you probably know Ann Cummings (New Hampshire Real Estate Blog) very well. Bear was Anns significant other and a well known figure in New Hampshire real estate.

John and I had the pleasure of having both Bear and Ann visit with us last autumn. The four of us and Laurie Manny spent a weekend at our home sitting by the pool, talking SEO, blogging, life and some other crazy and irreverent stuff that only 5 New Englanders could truly relate to. What was most evident during that weekend was how much Bear and Ann adored one another.

Whenever I saw that 603 number on my cell, I could always be sure it was Bear calling to ask me something about the blog or even just checking in with me that they were doing all the right things.  He even once called me up to tell me how worried he was about Ann that she was spending so much time buiding backlinks.   That was Bear, someone who always wanted the very best for Ann, always looking out for her.  And that is what I am sure he will continue to do.  Bear was funny, smart as heck and real joy to spend time with. We will miss him and always treasure the brief time we spent with him.

To Ann, there are no words to express how our hearts ache for you.  Please know you are in our prayers and feel so priviledged to have been able to know Bear.

For those of you that know Ann, please reach out to her as best you can to let her know she is in your thoughts and prayers.

Here is a post Midori Miller wrote last year about meeting Bear and Ann

Please visit Monika McGillicuddy's blog for service information and more information about Bear and Ann

Bear's Obituary

If you have other posts about Bear and Ann or want to share images, please place the links in the comments below and I will be sure to post them here as an online Memorial to our friend. 

No One Can Know

No one can know just what you've lost;
No one can understand the cost;
But when you feel your energy drain,
Please count on us to help ease your pain.

Let us help you cope with grief;
We hope with time you'll feel relief.
We can't replace the one who's gone,
But let our concern help you carry on.

By Karl and Joanna Fuchs

There are two me-s in meme because it's all about me. Meme's are the perfect way to let other bloggers know about you, let your audience know about you and get to know and relate to other bloggers, expand your network and watch your sphere of influence expand outwards. If you ever posed the question to yourself, "how many degrees are between me and Kevin Bacon?" this is the way to find out.

I am asking 8 questions because when tipped over the number 8 is the infinity symbol and that is totally geeky and 8 is my favorite number and it is 2008. Oh, how the stars have aligned!

Last year's meme: What you don't know about Mary McKnight could fill a book

So, without further ado, get to know me and see who I know:

1. Who is your favorite musical artist? (post a youtube video)

Stevie Nicks - we're talking full-on cocaine addicted Fleetwood Mac Mirage era, Stevie Nicks here! And don't think I didn't look for one of the videos where Lndsay Buckingham kicked her on stage. The best I could do was a 90's era vamped up phoney sexual tension clip from the Chain tour.

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OK, so I never make blog announcements but these two are extremely cool. We are welcoming the blogs for 1parkplace and Russell Shaw and announcing the approval of 1parkplace for offering it's IDX search and lead generation solution to the ARMLS.

Real Estate Lead Generation Blog: Steve Hundley

The first is that of Steve Hundley, CEO of 1parkplace.  For those of you that don't yet know just how much I love the 1parkplace IDX search and lead generation solution, just talk to our clients using it- Laurie is generating between 5-30 leads per day, Ines, Mariana, Teri and others are also raking in leads daily. Most of you may also know that we have had a very strong relationship with 1parkplace and exclusively offer their RSS feeds through our blogging platform.  Steve is a newbie blogger- so be gentle and give him encouragement.  He's a fast learner and is happy to share what he knows- so if you have questions- go to his blog and ask away.  Or, better yet- register for a webinar - his presentation and tips on lead generation can change your business.

What's the product?

1. A map based IDX search

2. Search, CMA, VIP Sign in etc lead generators

3. Back end client management and drip email campaign system

There are other features but these are my top 3 picks.

Read also: How to generate leads from your real estate blog: we have proof

Why am I excited about Steve blogging?  Because I have been telling him he should for almosta  year now- he is a master at crafting online strategies that get results for top producers liek Ruth Pugh and Gregg Neuman and amazes me with his knowledge of how to use on and offline marketing to generate more leads and grow your business.  His new blog will focus on tips, tools and ideas on how to improve your bsuiness, online presence and lead generation. 

Check out his "Steal This Post" blogs - these are articles he writes that you can use on your own blog - they are mostly controversial, research or entertainment pieces meant to be linkbait.

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RSS Pieces introduces a native form builder in our real estate blog platform. Every real estate and mortgage business has different outlooks on what type of information they want to collect from their website visitors, so, we built a fully customizable form builder right into the back end of our system so you can start generating more real estate leads with completely customizable data collection. This system is so simple, you can build a 20 field form in under 10 minutes.  All you need to know is how to click a mouse and the type of data you want to collect.  Just check out the tutorial at the bottom of this post.  This is a standard feature of every RSS Pieces blog.

Who is using RSS Pieces Custom Form Builder to generate more real estate leads?

Jeff Belonger, FHA Loan Officer

Jeff is using the form builder to collect basic loan application information. His form which has over 20 fields took less than 10 minutes to build.

The form builder is so versatile that I create all my forms for ordering ebooks and SEO reports through it.

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Your advice works! Within a day of putting this button on my BLOG - I got my first lead directly from it... 4 CMA requests and 2 Best Property Requests within 1 day of you suggesting it! Wow! Thanks! But I have to say Thank you to you... That would not have happened had I not put them on after your prodding... I am sitting here putting together a list and a CMA. I am showing property tomorrow and worried there isn't enough hours in the day...

Collen Kulikowski, Buffalo Waterfront Living