Those that have been reading here for awhile know I love Gary Vaynerchuk. I had the pleasure of hearing Gary speak live not once but twice tonight. The guy gets it. “It” being business, and life. He took a good business (his families $3 million a year wine business) and grew it into an great business – to $60 million in five years.

Thanks to Doug Sutton with Keller Williams Realty East Valley for bringing Gary in for a special session just before his book tour signing event at Changing Hands Bookstore.

I got to the KW event early and grabbed the front row center seat. Below is a video of Gary’s entire talk, and most of the Q&A at the end. Sorry for the abrupt cutoff at the end, but the Flip cam only records for 57 minutes.

Disclosure: Gary isn’t one to mince words. If “colorful” language offends you, you may not want to watch. Yes, it’s almost an hour long, but it’s well worth it if you are even remotely interested in growing your business, social media and / or how to get more out of life…

And keep reading below the video to find out how you can win a FREE autographed copy of Gary’s New York Times bestselling book, Crush It!.

Patience please (even Gary says so!). It’s a HUGE video file and can take a sec to get going once you hit the play button.
[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Win an autographed copy of Crush It!, Gary Vaynerchuk’s best seller

I have two autographed copies of Gary’s book to give away. And it’s easy to enter.

Just leave a comment.

That’s it. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what Gary says, but any comment will do.

I’ll pick two winners randomly by drawing on Sunday Nov 1 at noon Arizona time.

Be sure to leave a real email address in the email field so I can contact you for a shipping address!enthusiastic

Every year I come back from REBlogWorld and BlogWorld with new ideas and toys tools to try out here at the Lab.  This year one of them is Zemanta.

Last year it was Apture.  I’ve had that installed here at the Lab since I got back last year.  I’ve used it a couple of times.  I’m wondering if I won’t find the same issue with Zemanta I did with Apture.  The issue: I’m not struggling for content.  I know what I want to write, what I want to say and where I want to link out to for you the readers.

Maybe it is different here at the Lab as a tech blog.  So I’ve installed it on the Tucson blog as well. (Had Apture there to till it started slowing up my load times).

Therefore, this is an introductory post which will require a follow-up.  (It might be a short one)

Zemanta Plugin

The plugin itself is pretty straight forward.  Use the New plugin search, “zemanta”  it pops up, install it.  The API is automatically inserted.  Register on Zemanta website and set up some preferences there.

If you want to include third party images on your post then you can do that as well with image suggestions.

There isn’t anything to see till you open the editor and start typing.  As you do, it refreshes suggestions along the bottom of the editor.  Highlight where you want a link and select the link you want from the dropdown lists provided.  As you select links to include the dropdowns turn Orange to indicate there is a link on the post.

Zemanta Adding Links

I’ve used it to add links to REBlogWorld and BlogWorld in this post.  I have to admit, I like this feature.  I didn’t have to open either of those sites on another tab and copy paste the links.  Zemanta Link Suggestions [x] I Like it.

It did insert some class code in the links which I  see no need for it.

Zemanta Image Insertion

This plugin selects images which might be associated with content in the post.  It makes no distinction between copyrighted images and public domain.  It does indicate if it is public domain or “need to check with owner”.  (Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen very often.)  It also uses the image caption field for it’s own link to the image which you can’t seem to override.  Every time I change the caption it changes it back.

I want to write my own captions, thank you very much.  This is a “feature” I DO NOT LIKE.

Zemanta Reblog

It also added a div tag and code to “reblog”  I’ve not read about this “feature” but I don’t like anything that adds code to my posts without my asking.  I’ll look into this more on another post.  I deleted the div and it has been added back in as soon as I saved.

For some reason they think you want to have others blog your content. (This is a feature I wish I could turn off).  I’m leaving it on this post for your review/perview.

First Impressions of Zemanta

Overall, I give it a D.

I like the links suggestion and ability to insert them directly by highlighting.  But most of the other “Functionality” has too much overhead and too many restrictions.  I’m not sure it is worth keeping it installed on a blog.  I’ll give it a little more time.  But I doubt it will change my mind much with use.

If you are using Zemanta drop by the Lab and let me know what you think of it.

Post from: Real Estate Blog Lab

Zemanta Plugin and Content Suggestion Tool

The Edmonton REALTORS ® Community Foundation supports many local charities one of which is the Terra Centre for pregnant and parenting teens. Their "diaper drive" ended yesterday - they were asking for donations of boxes of diapers. Diapers are a...div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/EdmontonRealEstateBlog?a=Zu1NQsCubxc:jT7-aO25aSw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/EdmontonRealEstateBlog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EdmontonRealEstateBlog/~4/Zu1NQsCubxc" height="1" width="1"/

I’ve sold a ton of REOs (Real Estate Owned homes – foreclosures) to first-time homebuyers – many of whom I’ve met through HomeGain.com. Before we start looking at homes, I take time to meet with them and explain the entire process in as much detail as necessary. I hate surprises, and I’ve discovered buyers don’t [...]img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HomegainBlog/~4/Tl7kjzqfeDs" height="1" width="1"/

by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B Real Estate Lawyer Qualified Practising Conveyancer Victoria Director Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd We now have the REIV inventing, and forcing its own legislation on real estate consumers. When will journalists, regulators, lawyers and consumers start thinking for themselves instead of simply watching Enzo Raimondo and the crew at the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) make fools of them. It's time to put vendors and purchasers back in control, and to return the real...(a href="http://reic.com.au/blogs/australian_real_estate_blog/archive/2009/10/25/reiv-pricing-ploy-relies-on-lies.aspx"read more/a)img src="http://reic.com.au/aggbug.aspx?PostID=7118" width="1" height="1"

There has been a ridiculous amount of material written about the (up to) $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers. I’m guilty as charged (here are links to my 16 previous posts on the 8K tax credit).

The current incarnation of the tax credit ends on December 1. You must close on a home by November 30 to qualify for the tax credit. Given that today is October 24, if you aren’t under contract to buy a home right now, there is virtually zero chance you’ll qualify for the tax credit as it currently stands.

Lawmakers are scrambling at this very moment to extend or possibly expand the existing legislation. Here is a summary of some of that activity:

• UPI is reporting that Senator Johnny Isakson, who has lead the charge for a home buyer tax credit in the Senate since Day 1 has reached a point of compromise. Isakson has always wanted to see the tax credit at $15K, not limited to first time buyers, and the income limits increased. According to UPI, Isakson will introduce an amendment for a six month extension rather than 12 month and keep the credit at $8,000. He will still try to expand it to all primary residence buyers and raise the income limit to $150K for an individual or $300K for a couple.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that Isakson is “cautiously optimistic” that an extension – with procedural safeguards attached to stem the ever-growing tide of fraudulent credit claims – can move ahead in the Senate next week.
• CNBC is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is making a counter-proposal to Isakson’s tax credit extension that will phase out through 2010:
  

  Under Reid’s plan, the $8,000 tax credit would be phased out over time, dropping to $6,000 in April, $4,000 in July, and $2,000 in October, before expiring at the end of 2010. The plan could come to a vote as early as next week.

Opinions are mixed about whether the tax credit should be extended. As I’ve said several times here, buying a home just to get an $8K credit is not a good idea. That 8K will be long gone before your commitment to buying is complete. There are many good reasons to buy a home, but if the tax credit is your primary reason, or if the only way you can get into a home is with that money, then (in my opinion) you’re making a mistake.

It looks like next week is going to be an interesting one on the legislative front with regard to the impending end of the homer buyer tax credit. We’ll keep a close eye on things and report back what we hear!

I’m a nut for photos, I love graphics and they way they catch the eye better than words alone. WP Thumbie caught my eye about a month ago. I love it.

If you put photos on most of your posts and use contextual related posts you will LOVE Wp-Thumbie.

Here is a screen capture from a recent post.  The forth one down is the default thumbnail if there is no image on that post.

I like the way they are reduced on the fly and they do grab your attention more than just a list of related posts.

I don’t have any stats on how often they get clicked or if they get more clicks than a list.  My personal opinion is images grab attention more than words.  (I said that already didn’t I.)

This plugin adds more color to my posts and site pages.  If you don’t use photos in your posts then stick with contextual related posts plugin, but if images are a regular part of your posting try WP Thumbie.

Post from: Real Estate Blog Lab

WP-Thumbie for Graphic Impact of Contextual Related Posts

Happy 2nd anniversary to the HomeGain Real Estate Blog! Over the past two years, the HomeGain Blog has won awards and been recognized by organizations including WebAwards (Web Marketing Association), FrogPond, Inman News, and World Wide Web Awards, as well as hundreds of supporting real estate bloggers, Realtors, real estate organizations and publications, and members of [...]img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HomegainBlog/~4/Vz0Ny60Aj8o" height="1" width="1"/

Here is our update on the Edmonton real estate market as of noon today. (Previous week's numbers are in brackets). For the past 7 days: New listings: 370 (333, 414, 361) # Sales: 261 (256, 227, 287) Ratio: 71% (77%,...div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/EdmontonRealEstateBlog?a=-W-69iD8BYA:zmQ6TugPeSk:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/EdmontonRealEstateBlog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EdmontonRealEstateBlog/~4/-W-69iD8BYA" height="1" width="1"/

A new dawn is here in Edmonton real estate. Today we are launching the first website of its kind by an Edmonton Real Estate Company. It's super fast, very easy and will allow you to search for things that you...div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/EdmontonRealEstateBlog?a=_yHuuVB4Pr8:_h_ALIQ1Py0:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/EdmontonRealEstateBlog?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EdmontonRealEstateBlog/~4/_yHuuVB4Pr8" height="1" width="1"/

This is it! Last video from HomeGain Nation 2009 Live Real Estate Forum in San Francisco. And it#8217;s a really good one, too! This video features some of the best in the business for online marketing and social media experts #8211; Jay Thompson, Thompson#8217;s Realty, PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com Robert Hahn Robert Hahn, 7DS Associates, Notorious R.O.B. Patrick Kitano, Domus Consulting, Transparent [...]img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HomegainBlog/~4/1ed44JZc2wc" height="1" width="1"/