Site search

Site menu:

Seattle Home Search


Search Powered by:

Similar Posts

Recent Posts

Blogging is one great big Come As You ARE Party!

DSC01245That’s my daughter the day she got her braces removed a week or so ago. More of a “Come as I WAS” shot :) No make up needed. No hair brushing. Just a “smile for the camera” shot.

Blogging and “Being a Blogger” are really two different things. Having “a blog” and being a blogger are also two different things. One of the obstacles you may face down the road after you HAVE a blog is the “fellow blogger whips out cell phone” problem. Or worse yet, “fellow blogger whips out video camera and turns your “coffee meetup” into a podcast problem.

Fellow Bloggers will want to meet you. When you DO agree to meet them, they may whip out their cell phone and you will find yourself all over the web. Time to get over that right now. Every day may not be “picture day”, but that won’t stop your photo from showing up all over the Internet.

If you are lucky, fellow blogger will use a real camera and maybe even crop the photo and clean it up before public consumption. But if you think for one minute that you can “be a blogger” and not come out of the closet, think again. The more successful you are at blogging, the more likely Google Images will capture you in all kinds of compromising situations.

Oddly, one of my photos when you put Ardell DellaLoggia into Google Images is actually Dustin Luther, one is Greg Swann, one is Kevin Tomlinson, one is Dear Abby VanBuren and one is even a monkey sitting it a laptop. LOL!

So don’t think for a miniute that you are going to hide behind anonymity if your blog takes off. Even Anonymous Blogger Extraordinaire Hanan Levin doesn’t escape the occasional surprise photo op, like when he visited Dustin :)

So hoping your blog will get popular, does not go hand in hand with being camera shy. Wishing the cell phones and podcast requests will simply go away is not realistic. Just smile for the camera and be who you are. Reminding myself of this before my Inman TV Podcast goes live :) I had no idea when I started blogging that I would be bearing myself to the world in a Podcast.

Men seem to take to the Come as You Are medium much more easily than women. We are the pioneers. Who you ARE is good enough. Time to trash the professional photos, or at least get used to seeing many variations of yourself in Google Images and You-Tube “info-podcasts” on the internet.

About the Author: Ardell DellaLoggia

An Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker Bain - Kirkland WA. ARDELL was named one of the 25 most Influential Real Estate Bloggers in the U.S. for 2007 by Inman News, and has over 18 years exeperience in Real Estate up and down both Coasts. She represents buyers and sellers of real estate on both sides of the 520 Bridge from Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond on the Eastside to Green Lake and surrounds on the Seattle side. You can reach her at 206-910-1000 or by hitting the email the author link above.

Comments

1. Comment from Rhonda Porter
Time July 2, 2007 at 2:04 pm

So does this mean you’ll send me a copy of the photo from GNO at the Roanoake? I’m happy to promote our night out and give what ever extra exposure I can. It’s a fun place. :)

2. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 2, 2007 at 2:13 pm

I already posted it. Just click on it in the comments section of the Girls’ night out post and copy the properties or copy the photo direct. Usually copying the properties is better.

3. Comment from Rhonda Porter
Time July 2, 2007 at 2:28 pm

I saw it. I was hoping for something a little bigger than a thumbnail. ;)

4. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 2, 2007 at 2:52 pm

LOL Here’s where you get to write “in code”. Just change “thumb” in the properties to full. That should do it. Same as when you post, you can always change that one word and convert your photos back and forth from thumbnails to full by changing that one word in the code. You don’t have to re-upload it.

I know that works when you are posting. I’ll test it in a blog article and post a full shot for you at the same time.

5. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 2, 2007 at 2:57 pm

We need the geeky boys for this answer.

When I posted the full shot it was too many pixels and I get the dreaded red X. When I processed these photos originally, I took the size way down, but we got fuzzy without the pixel clarity. So I posted it in the large version but as a thumbnail.

So file size or photo size or pixel size becomes the issue. To get a big clear photo, you may have a slow load or dreaded red x problem.

I’m still not sure where the magic size falls for good quality and fast blog loading.

The code change out of thumb to full works fine, but if I try that here in RCG I get the dreaded red X. Try it on your site, maybe yours allows a larger file size.

6. Comment from Rhonda Porter
Time July 2, 2007 at 4:06 pm

Ardell, ya taught me something new! I’ll give it a try. :)

7. Comment from Kevin Boer
Time July 2, 2007 at 4:42 pm

At least when your name is Ardell and somebody takes an unexpected picture of you — and then posts it — you know you’re always looking like a million bucks, so nothing to feel self-conscious about!

8. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 2, 2007 at 4:59 pm

LOL! It takes me two hours and a tub of spackle to look like that photo. Are you kidding me?

9. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 2, 2007 at 5:00 pm

Oh, reminds me. Karen recognized me immediately when she came into the Roanoke on Saturday night. I gave her a big hug and said, “Hi, I’m Rhonda!”

LOL Wish I had a picture of her face when I did that.

10. Comment from Rhonda Porter
Time July 2, 2007 at 5:04 pm

Ardell, you’re too much! We should have messed with Karen more. The few blogging events I’ve been to, it is funny how everyone whips out a camera to document the moment! I typically always have a camera, note pad (or Jott) now…ah how my life has changed. ;)

11. Comment from Karen
Time July 3, 2007 at 12:01 am

LOL, Ardell!! I thought you just might have had a few too many drinks when you said you were Rhonda, I knew it was you :) I’ve read all of your blogs enough to know your faces, your face is practically famous, Ardell, lol! We definitely have to meet up again, the Roanoke was so much fun! I’ll have to furtively take some candid shots next time of everyone so we have more pics of Seattle’s favorite real estate experts on RCG!

12. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 3, 2007 at 10:23 am

ROTFLMAO!

13. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 3, 2007 at 10:29 am

I’d love to make the Roanoke a regular RCG meetup place, as long as we don’t go on Thursdays. It’s “Stitch and Bitch” night :) On the other hand, I’d love to see what a “Stitch and Bitch” looks like.

Don’t know about you, but I’m really curious about what Beer Pong is and would like to take up Adrianna’s offer to show us how to do it. When I saw the sign that said “pong” I thought it was a nostalgic machine with the old video game.

Anyone know what “Beer Pong” is?

14. Comment from Adrianna
Time July 3, 2007 at 11:13 am

Stitch starts up in the fall - too hot to knit in the summer, and the night may change, depending on schedules. BUT beer pong is definitely a summer sport! Add beer to ping pong, and you’ll start to get the picture. Be glad to give you girls some pointers. The photos from that would be priceless.

15. Comment from Rhonda Porter
Time July 3, 2007 at 4:29 pm

I’m more of a wino than a beer drinker. :) Do you have wine pong?

16. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 3, 2007 at 4:38 pm

LOL…I almost said it but decided maybe drinking a beer wouldn’t kill me :)

17. Comment from Adrianna
Time July 4, 2007 at 7:20 am

Sure, you can drink tequila if you want, as long as it’s in a pint glass! Hard to get a ball in a wine glass - even harder in a shot glass…

18. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 4, 2007 at 7:35 am

Great! I’ll go with the rum and coke in a pint glass then.

19. Comment from Adrianna
Time July 4, 2007 at 8:58 am

Never said anything about Coke. Mixer is cheating.

20. Comment from ARDELL
Time July 4, 2007 at 10:38 am

Oh. Must be a whole lot more to this game than getting the ball into the glass then :)

21. Pingback from Why Text Message? | Rain City Guide | A Seattle Real Estate Blog…
Time July 19, 2007 at 8:32 am

[...] So why text message?  Andrea was diagnosed with cervical cancer last week.  I find the need to tell her how much I love her more times in a day than I can reach her by phone.  She’s only 19 and lives in L.A.  Some of you will remember that she got her braces off just two short weeks ago.  From braces off to cervical cancer.  I don’t think it has really sunk in yet.  But it’s definitey time for Mom to learn how to text message. [...]