Posts Tagged ‘new home’

Social Media, Web 2.0 and Internet Stats

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

I came across a terrific post from Adam Singer listing some mind-blowing statistics. These numbers tell a very powerful story about the power of Social Media.

As our digital and physical lives blur further, the internet has become the information hub where people spend a majority of their time learning, playing and communicating with others globally.

Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of just how staggering the numbers are of people collaborating, researching, and interacting on the web.

Google search stats:

1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) - approximate number of unique URLs in Google’s index (source)

2,000,000,000 (two billion) – very rough number of Google searches daily (source)

$110,000,000 – approximately amount of money lost by Google annually due to the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button (source)

24,400 – number of people employed by Google (December, 2008)

68,000,000 – the average number of times people Googled the word Google each month for the last year (source: keyword tool)

$39.96 - the average cost per click for the phrase “consolidation of school loans” in AdWords (source: keyword tool)

1,430,000 - the number of Google results for “Robert Scoble”

136,000 - the number of Google results for “Admiral Ackbar”

Wikipedia stats

2,695,205 - the number of articles in English on Wikipedia

684,000,000 – the number of visitors to Wikipedia in the last year

75,000 - the number of active contributors to Wikipedia

10,000,000 – the number of total articles in Wikipedia in all languages

260 – the number of languages articles have been written in on Wikipedia

(source)

YouTube stats

70,000,000 – number of total videos on YouTube (March 2008)

200,000 – number of video publishers on YouTube (March 2008)

100,000,000 – number of YouTube videos viewed per day (this stat from 2006 is the most recent I could locate)

112,486,327 – number of views the most viewed video on YouTube has (January, 2009)

2 minutes 46.17 seconds – average length of video

412.3 years – length in time it would take to view all content on YouTube (March 2008)

26.57 - average age of uploader

13 hours – amount of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

US $1.65 billion in Google stock – amount Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for in October 2006

$1,000,000 – YouTube’s estimated bandwidth costs per day

(sources here, here and here)

Blogosphere stats

133,000,000 – number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002

346,000,000 – number of people globally who read blogs (comScore March 2008)

900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period

1,750,000 – number of RSS subscribers to TechCrunch, the most popular Technology blog (January 2009)

77% - percentage of active Internet users who read blogs

55% – percentage of the blogosphere that drinks more than 2 cups of coffee per day (source)

81 - number of languages represented in the blogosphere

59% – percentage of bloggers who have been blogging for at least 2 years

source

Twitter stats

1,111,991,000 – number of Tweets to date (see an up to the minute count here)

3,000,000 – number of Tweets/day(March 2008) (from TechCrunch)

165,414 - number of followers of the most popular Twitter user (@BarackObama) – but he’s not active

86,078 – number of followers of the most active Twitter user (@kevinrose)

63% – percentage of Twitter users that are male (from Time)

Facebook stats

200,000,000 – number of active users

100,000,000 - number of users who log on to Facebook at least once each day

170 - number of countries/territories that use Facebook

35 - number of different languages used on Facebook

2,600,000,000 – number of minutes global users in aggregate spend on Facebook daily

100 – number of friends the average user has

700,000,000 – number of photos added to Facebook monthly

52,000 – number of applications currently available on Facebook

140 - number of new applications added per day

source

Digg stats

236,000,000 – number of visitors attracted annually by 2008 (according to a Compete survey)

56% - percentage of Digg’s frontpage content allegedly controlled by top 100 users

124,340 - number of stories MrBabyMan, the number one user, has Dugg (see updated number here)

612 - number of stories from Cracked.com that have made page 1 of Digg (see all 41 pages of them here)

36,925 – number of Diggs the most popular story in the last 365 days has received (see story here)

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Posted in Social Networking, The Right Site | 1 Comment »

Bare Adequecy

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Jeff Shore gets it right again. Here’s a great new blog from his site, JeffShore.com. I love that he’s offering comments on his articles! So make sure you stop over to his site and share the love :)

Several years ago I read a book by Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi entitled, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. I found it to be a fascinating work on the meeting place of productivity and happiness. A major premise of the book is that there are a whole lot of people who are productive but not happy, and vice versa.

One particular point the author made has stuck with me; to this day I think of it often. He stated that one aspect of finding the blend between success and happiness is a trait that he calls “Bare Adequacy”. Paraphrasing, this would suggest that I’m good at what I do, but not that good.

I’ve translated this concept into my own language as follows:

I’m good at what I do, and people appreciate that. But I am one step away from being irrelevant and tired to the people I work with, and so I must constantly push to renew, re-create, and re-invent. The strategies I teach must be fresh, and that is a constant challenge. I am adequate, but barely. I had best make sure I am striving to stay ahead of failure.

 

This concept applies to everyone, but let me speak in particular to the veterans out there. If you’ve lost the joy of a business you have always loved, it might stem from a lack of a sense of ‘bare adequacy’. It might mean that you have reached a plateau and you need to push yourself to entirely new levels.

Let’s look at it this way: you might be completely adequate for a strong market, but that would make you an incomplete sales professional. Perhaps you need to re-think your sense of adequacy for a tough market, where the buyer psychology changes dramatically, where macro-economic shifts effect every single transaction, and where the sale is made in the tiniest corners of the sales process.

Figure it out, and you’ll change the world!

Read the whole article here.

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Posted in Sales Training | 1 Comment »

T-minus 2 weeks!

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

The countdown is on! We close in just 2 short weeks!

I haven’t been posting very much lately because the house has been going through some preliminary walk-throughs and punch lists (that’s where the builder comes in and takes notes about everything that they see that needs to be fixed before we do our walkthrough on July 2). It’s all pretty boring from the outside - but the last main step was just completed! We got our blinds and appliances in last week. So that was very exciting!

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So we’re finalizing everything with the underwritter, Ken, and our mortgage consultant, Roxanne. We’re getting the last set of conditions approved - which is mainly a bunch of paperwork I need to send them for any “conditions” they would like to clarify. It sounds a lot like, “hey, I see in March you had an inquiry on your credit. Can you write a letter about what that is and if it resulted in a new debt?” It’s seriously major brain damage - but must be done! They also look at all of our bank statements and require paperwork on any non-paycheck deposits. And it’s not just a copy of the cleared deposit - we need to prove where it came from, why we received it and all that good stuff. I can honestly say that I cannot WAIT until this part is finished and the loan is approved from the final underwritter.

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Meanwhile, there’s a lot in the works with our Closing Coordinator, Kim. She sent us our first closing letter that gives us our dates for walkthroughs and closing. Right now, we have a preliminary walkthrough on July 2 at the new house to show the builder everything that we see that needs fixed (another punch list). Then, we return on July 8 to make sure it was all completed to our satisfaction, before traveling downtown to the closing. We decided to take the whole day off so we could go back to the house and just sit on the floor.

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I can’t believe we’re going to own our own home!

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We also met with a friend on Saturday who helped us pick out paint colors and where they should go. The first week after we close will be a lot of painting parties! I’m very excited to show it off :)

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Posted in The Journey | 2 Comments »

Amazing mobile app lets you see the world ‘through online eyes’

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Written on June 17, 2009 – 2:12 pm
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester

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LayarWhile the tech blogosphere goes iPhone 3.0 crazy today, here’s a reminder that there’s a lot to be excited about elsewhere in the mobile world too.

Layar is a new ‘Augmented Reality Browser’ for Android phones. Forget everything you’re used to about searching the internet, Layar throws that all away. By holding your phone in front of you and looking through its camera lens you can actually see the world ‘through the eyes of the internet’.

Imagine you want to know which houses in your area are for sale – just hold up your phone and Layar will point out which ones around you are on the market and how much they are. Phoning the estate agent is just a touch of the screen away.

Created by Dutch firm Sprxmobile, Layar offers a range of different ‘layers’ of information that can be displayed. This could be really useful for all sorts of applications from tourist guides to browsing shop stock without having to bother going inside.

Layar is due to launch today in the Netherlands on the Android App Store. Releases in other countries, including the UK, USA and Germany are planned for later in the year. Sprxmobile will be working with commercial partners in each country to ensure plenty of local data is available on launch.

This video shows just how exciting Augmented Reality in mobile devices can be.

link to video

link to article

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Posted in Social Networking | 1 Comment »

The Journey Begins

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
Here's the finished version of the townhomes.

Here's the finished version of the townhomes.

A lot of people have thought I’ve hit the crazy-fever lately. Not only did I come to work for a homebuilder on the verge of a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, but now (over a year later and in said-bankruptcy) I’m purchasing my very first house with them. And I couldn’t be more excited!

I wanted to share a little about me, and my story, and share this process with the readers of our blog. While working for Engle, I’ve had the opportunity to walk in the shoes of sales associates, builders and sometimes even Realtors - but I’ve never had the opportunity to be a homebuyer.

I wanted to - I even tried awhile ago - but I just thought it was something OTHER people did. Not me. I’m really excited (maybe it’s anxiety, nerves or a melting pot mixture of the 3), but I’m definitely not afraid. Honestly, it confused me a little bit why other people were. I’ve said over and over again how I’d love to buy in today’s market. Every benefit is out there, from Obama’s tax credit for first time homebuyers to all the incentives builders are offering and historically low interest rates.

We considered a short sale, resale or foreclosure - but not knowing what I was walking in to scared me, a lot! I’ve heard the stories from other customers of the long waiting periods, bank politics, stripped homes and “toenails in the carpet”. We talked to a Realtor at first when we were looking at resales, but ultimately we knew the best decision was to work with Engle.

Now, I’m not trying to plug Engle (although I could if you wanted!). It was the best decision for us once we factored everything in. I’d also like to say that I’m a huge fan of working with a Realtor for such a large purchase. If it weren’t for my affiliation with Engle, I definitely would have used one. For us, and my history with the company, it just made sense to go it alone.

So let me get you up to speed.

I live with my fiance and his 2 children (ages 10 and 8). We moved in together about 2 years ago to 3 bedroom apartment in Maitland. It was a nice place, but we hated living above someone else, and the kids had no where to play outside. In fact, they never went outside. About a year ago, we moved in to a beautiful, but large, house in another Engle community, Live Oak Reserve. I had wanted to live there since I started working for Engle. It has such a nice “neighborhood” feel to it, and that’s what I wanted. I do a little photography on the side - and the home had the perfect space in the back addition for my studio/office. We were very content there, but couldn’t help but feel like we were missing the boat on this “Buyer’s Market”. If there were ever a time to buy - this was it.

So with our lease nearing an end, I started looking in to some options (like I mentioned earlier, mostly re-sales where we could stay in the same school district and the kids had a neighborhood environment). An opportunity came up at work for a townhome that was supposed to be a model, that they decided to sell as inventory. I jumped on it. I harassed our Operations and Sales team until they gave in on changing a couple of options and crossed my fingers for the pre-qual approval from our mortgage team at Preferred Home Mortgage.

The location is perfect - right down the street from our current rental - and the kids can stay in the same school if we ask nicely :) I actually pointed out this townhome community to my fiance back when we broke ground on it. We pass it every day coming home from work and point it out to the kids. They’re just about finished with the pool and cabana for the community, and it has a cute little playground, too!

Meanwhile, we visited our design center (I was dreading this because I thought it would be so complicated - but it wasn’t! It was actually really fun!) and I picked out the most gorgeous granite countertops and kitchen cabinets… and after a little begging to the fiance, I even got my jacuzzi bath tub in our downstairs master.

Our kitchen granite and cabinets with floor tile

Our kitchen granite and cabinets with floor tile

Our bathroom finishes, cabinets, tile and listello tiles!

Our bathroom finishes, cabinets, tile and listello tiles!

When we got home, I had an email from Leona with some pictures of the home under construction! I was so excited and sent them to half of my family in Ohio bragging about my first hopeful home purchase!

My first home!

My first home!

Here's our unit

Here's our unit

To my surprise, we just got the go-ahead yesterday! Tomorrow is the big day of filling out paperwork at the sales center. I’ve already warned my sales associate that I would be “that” customer - anxious and excited, calling every day to check on the status.

So that should get you pretty well caught up. I’ll be blogging about the house, the progress and everything else I can find to worry about in the near future! We’re looking at a July close date… so I have a few more months, at least, to take you on my journey!

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Posted in The Journey | No Comments »