Joe Spake's Weblog https://joespakeblog.com Memphis and the World Wed, 03 Feb 2021 16:55:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 30199706 Galloway Mansion -1974 – Midtown Memphis, TN https://joespakeblog.com/2021/02/03/galloway-mansion-1974-midtown-memphis-tn/ https://joespakeblog.com/2021/02/03/galloway-mansion-1974-midtown-memphis-tn/#respond Wed, 03 Feb 2021 16:55:15 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=23733
East side of Galloway Mansion (on Overton Park Ave.) 1974

I am going through my old photos and thought some might be interesting to Memphians and others who were around in the 1970s.

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Joe’s Tips for NYC Tourists https://joespakeblog.com/2014/08/29/joes-tips-for-nyc-tourists/ https://joespakeblog.com/2014/08/29/joes-tips-for-nyc-tourists/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2014 18:44:58 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21797 I lived in New York City for a while, so it wasn’t hard for me to get back into the groove of navigating the City.  There’s a lot of energy there; a lot of residents doing their NY things; and a whole lot of tourists that stand out mainly because they disrupt that energy with their navigation stops in the middle of busy sidewalks, their selfie sticks, and their inability to walk any way other than 4 abreast.  I am writing this post with thoughts of how much more New York tourists would get out out of their visit if they just took a little time to prepare.  So here are a few basic tips:

1.  Get some idea of NY etiquette basics

It’s mostly common sense.  This book  will be both helpful and entertaining.

2.  Do not fear public transit.

P1030794Public transit will take you within an easy walk of just about anywhere you want to go.  And it’s cheap. You can get a 7 day MTA pass that works for buses and trains for $30.  You can pick up subway map and bus map easily, or download some of  the MTA Apps.  Locals and MTA employees are generally pretty helpful if you become disoriented.  Tourists don’t seem to take buses much, but the routes are laid out efficiently with good information at the stops.  They are quicker than walking for short trips, and can be give you a unique taste of the city on longer trips (Hint: Take the M4 bus to the Cloisters).

3.  Check out the New York Pass.

If you are planning to pack in all the tourist attractions you can in the shortest period of time, and a $25 admission for a museum, and a $40 admission for a boat ride, or view from a highrise creates some anxious sticker shock for you, you may want to deal with all of  it in one payment by acquiring the New York Pass.  It could be a real deal if you are doing power-touristing.  Of course if you are power-touristing, you miss a lot of the nuance that makes New York the greatest city on earth.   If you don’t have a lot of time you may want to avoid the bus tours that are hawked so heavily around Times Square.  The tours move very slowly with long stops.   You would do better (and save a lot of money) navigating by foot or city bus to see the sights.  Remember, your MTA pass will give you unlimited rides, so use it in place of the hop-on-hop-off tour buses.

4. Food

When we got back from our recent NYC trip my son said he wanted to concentrate more on food on his next visit.  You will be overwhelmed with Yelp! reviews, but it’s a good place to start.  From fine restaurants, to street food, to ethnic food from places you have never heard of, it’s all there in New York.  Follow my simple rule about eating while traveling:  Go where the locals go.  And don’t depend on the folks at the hotel front desk to know the best places. 

5. Don’t fear the Boroughs.

We stayed in Long Island City, about 15 minutes by train from Grand Central Station, in a nice modern hotel in a safe neighborhood for 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of a similar hotel in Manhattan.  Also your best views of Manhattan are from Queens and Brooklyn.  I also had the best meals on this trip in Queens in Astoria and Long Island City. I didn’t make it to Staten Island or the Bronx on this trip.

New York View from Sheraton 4PointsView from 4th floor room at Sheraton 4Points in Long Island City

 

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Looks like Zillow is here to stay https://joespakeblog.com/2014/08/11/looks-like-zillow-is-here-to-stay/ https://joespakeblog.com/2014/08/11/looks-like-zillow-is-here-to-stay/#respond Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:50:18 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21786 I have decided to start doing some real estate oriented posts on this blog.  I realize many readers are happy in their homes, but others who know me know that I have been a real estate agent since 1996, and I do try to stay very current with the happenings in the industry.  If you are currently in the real estate market as a buyer or seller, or if you have done any Google real estate searches in the last few years you have probably noticed that the local real estate companies, even the big ones, are not generally at the top of the search results.

zillow downloadUsually the results take you to the national real estate portals like Zillow and Trulia.  You can get all the info you need about properties that meet your criteria as well as demographic, financing, and valuation information, framed by easy links to contact a real estate agent for assistance.  Zillow has become the go-to site for consumers shopping for real estate.  Consumers can search anonymously, and get a lot of data in one place that might otherwise take a long time to compile, all without the assistance of a local agent.  The real estate community has all sorts of complaints about the big portals: inaccurate data, making agents pay for leads, and de-emphasizing the listing agent’s role in the published listing.  In my opinion the tipping point has been reached as folks go directly to Zillow to start their search rather than doing a Google search for a term like “condos in 38103”.

So why do some real estate companies hate Zillow?

Without going into thousands of words of explanation, national portal sites like Zillow and Trulia (BTW, Zillow has just acquired Trulia) get their local listing data via local Multiple Listing Services if the MLSs are allowed by local RE companies to share the info.   Most companies allow this syndication with the thinking that the more exposure a listing gets, the better chance of its selling.  The portals make their money by selling zip codes and shares of zip codes to agents, who get leads from the potential customers who visit the sites and request more information.  Some RE companies, including the largest company in the Memphis area, feel that syndicating their listings forces their agents to pay for leads on their own listings, so they do not allow their listings to be syndicated to the portals.  Their listings don’t show up on Zillow unless individual agents input them.

Giving Consumers what they want

The real estate establishment seems to be having a rough time coming to grips with  21st Century consumers – how they shop, how they purchase, and how they find the people they need to help them.  Consumers are no longer bound to calling the phone number on the for sale sign for information about a particular listing.  They don’t have to call a real estate office or listen to an aggressive sales person.  They can just go to Zillow.  They may become very familiar with Zillow and pretty serious about a purchase before they ever contact an agent.  Chances are they will find that agent via Zillow, which provides agent sales histories and reviews by former clients.  The information may not be totally accurate and up-to-date, and the Zillow business plan may fly in the face of traditional real estate.  Consumers are comfortable with it, and isn’t that what really matters?

 

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Writer’s block and other pressing issues https://joespakeblog.com/2014/07/22/writers-block-and-other-pressing-issues/ https://joespakeblog.com/2014/07/22/writers-block-and-other-pressing-issues/#respond Tue, 22 Jul 2014 12:58:23 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21775 It’s hard to believe I haven’t posted here since March 7.  It’s not like I don’t have time to post regularly;  I mean one can’t spend EVERY waking hour binge watching  the must-see TV series, or crafting witty posts and replies on Facebook and Google+. And I have kind of a job I have to deal with to take care of the bills.

Knowing full well that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, here are a few things I intend to write  about :

That “I’m so Memphis…” thing

Open carry

Win-Win negotiations

Food Trucks

Disintermediation

Reviews of restaurants and businesses I like

Beale St. Landing

Portlandia,  Hipsters  and  Artisan anything

Cooking

Well, maybe, when I get around to it.

 

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Daylight Saving Time starts March 9, 2014 https://joespakeblog.com/2014/03/07/daylight-saving-time-starts-march-9-2014/ https://joespakeblog.com/2014/03/07/daylight-saving-time-starts-march-9-2014/#respond Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:32:40 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21767 Daylight Saving Time starts March 9, 2014

Whether you call it Daylight Saving Time or Daylight Savings Time, it will be nice to have some extra evening light.   While you are setting your clocks, change the batteries in your smoke detectors and CO detectors and test them.

When Daylight Saving Time kicks in, Spring can’t be far behind.

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Facebook missing the target https://joespakeblog.com/2014/02/18/facebook-missing-the-target/ https://joespakeblog.com/2014/02/18/facebook-missing-the-target/#comments Tue, 18 Feb 2014 15:59:11 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21750 Facebook Fraud?

Over the past several days Veritasium has drawn a lot of attention and comments both in favor of and attempting to rebut his video Facebook Fraud:

After watching the video, I looked at the insights for my own Facebook page. My Facebook business page as about local real estate here in Memphis, a pretty specific market and  target demographic, and I have worked hard over the years to develop an organic following of fans who either live in the area, have interest in the area, and/or fall into a certain age demographic for the home buyers and sellers I normally work with.

As any small business person who uses Facebook as a marketing tool knows, Facebook throttles your page posts, serving them to only a small percentage of your fans.  I think everyone agrees that this limitation is engineered to encourage businesses to buy more advertising and “boost” more posts.  But I have found an issue I have overlooked in the past: The audience that Facebook allows  to see my posts does not reflect the general demographic of my fans.

This is the demographic of my fans.  It’s a demographic that reflects my clients, and home buyers in general.  Note the age ranges of 25-64, a total of 85% of all my fans.  They are folks of home buying age, and a great audience for what I do.

FB fan demographics

Here is the demographic that Facebook has chosen to share my posts with:

FB reached

Nothing like a reflection of my fan base, with 25% under 25 (I like dealing with younger home buyers, but I would imagine that many in that group are too young), and only 10% in the 45-64 sweet spot for empty nesters and retirement buyers.

How does this tie into the Veritasium video?  Suppose you don’t agree with the hypothesis or quality of the research in the video and continue to spend good money boosting your posts and building your fan base.  It appears, that even with tight targeting of ads Facebook could choose to skew who gets your content, while staying within your general parameters.  For example, if I targeted an ad to 18-34 year olds, what’s keeping FB from only offering that ad to 18 year olds and not 19-34?

Conclusions

  • Facebook is in business to make a profit, even the vast majority of Facebook users, even businesses, consider it a free service and never pay Facebook a penny.
  • You can’t depend on Facebook’s organic trickling of your posts to get to those folks who you really want to see them.
  • When you are paying to boost posts or to advertise your page, target, target, target.

What’s your opinion?

 

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TSA Pre-Check – Pretty Cool https://joespakeblog.com/2013/11/15/tsa-pre-check-pretty-cool/ https://joespakeblog.com/2013/11/15/tsa-pre-check-pretty-cool/#respond Fri, 15 Nov 2013 15:33:43 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21735 TSA Pre-Check Ticket

The new TSA Pre-Check expedited screening thing seems to be in service.  The TSA website indicates that passengers desiring the Pre-Check service must pay $85 and “verify identity and provide fingerprints at a TSA Pre✓™ enrollment center.”

Strangely, the symbol appeared on our boarding passes for a recent trip to San Francisco.  To be honest, I had never heard of the program.  Being an infrequent flyer, I had never applied.  As we were departing MEM, the TSA greeter asked us if we were familiar with the Pre-Check procedures.  He said we could leave shoes, jackets, belts, watches, on and not empty pockets, and that we only needed to take out our laptops.  That was it – they didn’t even want to see our one-quart bags of gels and toothpaste.

Departing SFO, we were only asked to remove metal (keys, coins, cellphones) from our pockets, and were whisked through a special “for Pre-Check Only” line.

I have no idea how or why we received what seemed to be this special treatment.  Maybe the government has Katy and I on a “good guys” list somewhere.  It definitely made that part of the flying experience a little more pleasant.

 

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Breaking the “rules” of blogging https://joespakeblog.com/2013/10/17/breaking-the-rules-of-blogging/ https://joespakeblog.com/2013/10/17/breaking-the-rules-of-blogging/#comments Thu, 17 Oct 2013 16:12:55 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21719 If you are doing something online that is against the law, you should be concerned about the police. There is really no reason, whatsoever, to worry about breaking blogging “rules” or dealing with  the blogging police.  I am amazed at how many blogs there are about blogging.  Google returns over 18,000 results for the term “blogs about blogging”.  Narcissistic?  Well isn’t that what blogging is all about anyway?

If you are burned out with your blogging efforts, or if you have been reading the blogs about blogging, considering starting a blog of your own, keep one thing in mind:  If you have good content, the word will get around, and the readers will come.  The “rules” exist to get more views for mediocre content  that probably didn’t deserve any views in the first place.  That’s why you see more blogging instruction on SEO (search engine optimization), formatting, keywords, meta tags, image optimization, lists, and links, rather than on producing quality  content.

If anyone in the world of business could  honestly be labeled a guru, it would be Seth Godin. I admire Godin’s blog. He runs it as a sub domain on  typepad.com, not a self-hosted platform.  There are no well placed, keyword and context heavy pictures, and his posts are not open for comments.  The pundits would probably label this blasphemy.  Seth doesn’t have to worry about SEO, meta tags, and that H1-H2 stuff, because his 600,000+ monthly visitors (343,000 of them unique visitors) probably share his posts across the media, and he probably sells a lot of books and books a lot of big dollar speaking engagements because of his blog.

If you are going to blog, then blog.  Blog about something you are passionate about; blog about something you are an expert at; make it a picture blog if you are into photography.  Don’t get all hung up on self-hosting, custom URLs, plugins, and widgets until you get a feel for producing good content.  Get started with a free platform like Blogger or WordPress.com.  But if it doesn’t feel right after a reasonable trial period, it’s OK to quit.  If you get in the groove with your content then it might be time to hone your skills by reading some of the “blogs on blogging.”

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5 signs its time to quit blogging https://joespakeblog.com/2013/10/12/5-signs-its-time-to-quit-blogging/ https://joespakeblog.com/2013/10/12/5-signs-its-time-to-quit-blogging/#comments Sat, 12 Oct 2013 18:22:37 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21713 I have juggled with blogging for almost a decade now trying to maintain and post to a real estate related blog and this personal weblog of thoughts, observations, events, tech stuff, pictures, and miscellaneous topics that intrigued me for a moment.  I guess at some point in every blogger’s life, the blogging becomes much more of a chore than a pleasure – the hassles outweigh the rewards. As I make the move toward decommissioning my real estate blog I am thinking of signs that its time to quit.  One of the first rules of blogging is to post lists and get more readers:  10 best…, 12 most effective,  7 reasons…, etc.  Here’s my list of 5 signs it’s time to quit blogging.

1. Lack of readers – you are agonizing over your posts and the stats are showing you are only getting a handful of visitors a month and to top that off, your bounce rate is in the high 70s.  Blogging has just become personal journalling; you might as well be doing it in a Moleskin as wasting the resources putting it online. And, oh, don’t let anyone give that line about the long tail.

2. Lack of passion – If you are doing a topical blog like real estate, you must have passion to crank out interesting content.  Otherwise you find yourself  posting monthly housing stats, and links to interesting real estate stories rather than seeking out the unusual and the interesting.

3. Lack of financial reward – whether you are blogging to build or promote your business or blogging professionally – monetizing your site through ads or affiliations, if you are not seeing suitable rewards, either monetarily or through increased business, name recognition or credibility, it is probably time to move along to another medium that has a better possibility of helping pay the bills.

4. Lack of talent – I know it may be hard to admit, but maybe you just don’t have what it takes to be a blogger. Maybe constructing a sentence is a challenge.  Maybe you just can’t get all that stuff about keywords and metatags right.  Maybe you don’t have the thought patterns of a writer.  Maybe you suck as a blogger.  Don’t hang on and torture yourself, find something else. In my case, I realize that I am a better curator than blogger.   Maybe your calling is sharing stuff rather than creating it. You may get loads of interaction on Google Plus or Facebook and enjoy that type of interaction rather than waiting around for someone to comment on your blog posts.

5. Attitude – You have followed all the “rules” the blogging gurus have taught you, and still aren’t quite where you want to be.  What’s your attitude?  Are you whipped? Tired? Burned out?  Why not join me and try Defiant for a while.

In future posts I want to discuss ways we can share our thoughts and ideas most effectively.  The next post will be about breaking the “rules” of blogging.  I will also share the progress of dismantling my real estate blog.

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I’m making a list, and I want your help https://joespakeblog.com/2013/08/23/im-making-a-list-and-i-want-your-help/ https://joespakeblog.com/2013/08/23/im-making-a-list-and-i-want-your-help/#comments Fri, 23 Aug 2013 17:50:39 +0000 https://joespakeblog.com/?p=21707 If you are tired of those “Best Of…” type popularity contests in the local media, help me with my list of Memphis’ best eating establishments  that visitors and tourists never hear about.  I am making the list for newcomers and visitors, like the out-of-town folks I meet almost daily in my business.

Criteria:  It must be in Memphis or very close by.  If it’s a chain it must be a local chain (i.e. Top’s Bar-B-Q).  It must have some unique, memorable, and un-duplicatable menu item(s).

We will start with these categories:

  • Barbecue (Bar-B-Q)  Joints
  • Ethnic Restaurants
  • Delis
  • Diners
  • Home Cookin’  (Soul food, veggies, local Southern fare)

I will be adding my favorites and updating this post.  Please add your suggestions in the comments. Include address and phone number, and a very short statement as to why you recommend the establishment.  My goal is to represent REAL Memphis food.

 

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