Kaira Sturdivant Rouda, president of national real estate franchisor Real Living, released a book today, "Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs."

Guys -- stop rolling those eyeballs -- this isn't one of those "break the glass ceiling" or "how to lead like a man while still being a woman" kind of books. It's relevant to real estate agents as it focuses a lot on finding your own authentic brand.

Rouda also shows readers how to use a personal brand as a competitive advantage.

Phoenix real estate blogger Jay Thompson points out that the book applies to men as well as women. He mentions in the comments of this post that he's not afraid to be seen thumbing through his copy.

Copies are available through the book Web site, www.realyouincorporated.com.

An InmanTV video interview with Rouda can be seen here.

...and avoiding the lazysphere.

If you read real estate blogs, some or all of these names will ring a bell: Maureen Francis. Brian Brady. Kristal Kraft. Rhonda Porter.

You will find those familiar names -- and faces -- on Trulia Voices, a corner of the real estate search site where consumers can pose questions to experts.

Together, the four have answered more than 500 queries. Francis, a Michigan realtor who is the author of the miOaklandCounty blog, has provided more than 244 answers since joining Trulia Voices in September of 2006. Looks like the rest of this group (which I just assembled at random surfing the site) signed up on the same week in May.

Why would these folks -- who all have well established, well read blogs -- be spending their time helping out hapless consumers? I can't speak for them, but you might assume that they're doing it for the same reason many people blog -- to raise their profiles and get business.

In a story filed from Real EstateConnect NYC on Wednesday, Glenn Roberts Jr. rounded up some insight from several prominent bloggers attending the conference.

Curbed.com founder Lockhart Steele said that the field is getting more crowded, and that there's a "constant battle for people's attention." What brings people to blogs is the news value and overall quality of the content -- which means providing fresh information or meaningful insight, Steele said. Steele discussed a recently coined term -- the "lazysphere" -- for bloggers who take a herd approach and don't add much to the conversation.

Not something Francis, Brady, Kraft and Porter have to worry about, as their answers on Trulia Voices demonstrate. If readers are attracted to quality content on blogs, the same principle seems to be operating on Trulia Voices, where stats are kept on not only the number of answers provided, but "best answers" and "useful answers."

Brady, author of the blog Mortgage Rates Report, has 33 best answers, putting him in the top 10 for that category on the Trulia Voices leaderboard. Francis, with 29 best answers, is up on the leaderboard too. Kraft, who writes Denver Dwellings, has 19 best answers while Porter, the author of The Mortgage Porter, has tallied 12 best answers -- even though she's made her views known just 39 times.

By contrast, one San Francisco Bay Area realtor who's answered more questions -- 1,698 -- than anyone on Trulia Voices has only 13 best answers. (Another broker who works both New Jersey and Florida, Deborah Madey, is dominating the leaderboard with a quantity plus quality approach. Madey has 103 best answers and 1,992 "useful" ratings in 1,676 tries).

Two possible takeaways: One, even the best bloggers are stepping outside of their blogs (many are already writing for more than one) to raise their profiles. Two, when they do participate in other sites (which can include commenting on other blogs), they don't lower their standards.

While all these efforts can lead to financial rewards, you also get the sense that the best bloggers are motivated by more than that. When I talked to St. Paul Real Estate Blog's Teresa Boardman last year for a story on real estate bloggers, she said she spends about two hours a day blogging. About half of that time is spent reading other blogs, Boardman said.

"I read about 100 blogs a day -- about half directly industry-related, and other like TechCrunch and BoingBoing, don’t ask me why," Boardman said. "My whole product is imagination driven, and input from other sources helps me write." (Click here to hear Boardman discuss her "hyperlocal" blog on Inman TV).

The bright orange polyester plush toys pictured here come to Inman News from China, courtesy of the folks at HomeGain.

"Behind the cute and cuddly nature of this critter is a profound message for real estate agents to 'stop monkeying around' and fight the effects of a challenging market with HomeGain's help,' " each Inman staff member who received one was informed in a letter from company execs.

We could just do what we usually do when promo stuff like this arrives -- ignore it and go about our daily business. But instead of a "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" approach, I thought it would be interesting to hear from readers whether you think HomeGain will get much mileage out of this campaign.

Last year, I was somewhat appalled when a well-known company that provides fraud detection services for mortgage lenders sent us fortune cookies with slogans like "Confucius say: Loans to crooks/Make problems with books."

At least HomeGain is not likely to offend anybody with its new campaign (Isn't the first rule of marketing, "First, do no harm?" Or is that some other profession?). Stuffed animals do seem to be the rage this year. Here's where these guys came from if you want to jump on this trend.

Real estate marketing consultant Marc Davison usually has something provocative to say in his regular Inman News columns, and today he argues that rumors of the newspaper's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

"If you think that print media -- and in particular newspaper advertising -- is a waste of money, think again," Davison writes. "Considering all the honest-to-goodness garbage found in most papers, a well placed, well written, neatly conceptualized ad could do wonders for your brand, your business, your properties and your customers." 

When it comes to newspaper ads, the founding partner of 1000watt Consulting  recommends "doing the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing. Take your face out of your ads. You don't matter anymore (it's nothing personal). Your services do. Your technology does. You insight does. Your call to action does. Your properties, especially if they aren't reduced to tiny thumbnails, matter most of all."

As somebody who still gets a newspaper delivered to my door, I am often impressed with the full-page ads that grace the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle's "Saturday New Homes" advertising section. In September, 2006, I was so impressed by an ad that touted the local schools as a selling point for homes in San Ramon, Calif., that I took a picture of it and posted it on InmanBlog.

"What's interesting about this ad for Windemere Ranch is there is literally not one word about the homes themselves," I wrote back then. "The entire ad ... is filled with statistics trumpeting the quality of the local school district ... Schools have always been a selling point for homes, but it seems that's even more true when competition for buyers is intense."

I don't know if I even needed to take a picture of the ad to share it with InmanBlog readers -- these days, at least, the Chronicle reproduces the section online just as it appears in print. The latest edition of the Saturday New Homes section promotes a new development in Dublin, a Silicon Valley bedroom community east of San Francisco that sits on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train line. 

"For the cost of a comparable condominium in San Francisco, Elan at Dublin Station residents can buy a home, pay for 10 years of commute expenses and enjoy many luxuries," the ad boasts. "D.R. Horton is making this situation a pleasant reality for home buyers at Elan at Dublin Station, a stylish new community located adjacent to the Dublin BART station."

The ad then reverts to the usual pitch about the features and amenities the homes offer. But once again, it's local services (schools, transportation), that are highlighted as the biggest selling point. I realize these ads were placed by homebuilders, not real estate brokers or agents. But is Davison right? Are newspapers still a place to sell consumers on your services, technology, insight, call to action -- and, most of all, your properties?

Now that newspapers are publishing their classifieds ads on their own Web sites -- and even pushing them to other sites like Yahoo!, Homescape and now Zillow (see today's Inman News story) -- it's getting harder to distinguish between a print and online ad.

Someday all newspaper classified ads will presumably have a parallel existence online (we are probably close to that day now). Newspapers have to get classified ads into digital form as part of the process of printing them, and putting them online doesn't take much additional effort or expense.

But many online ads -- like those carried by Craigslist -- will never exist on the printed page. For realtors and many other advertisers, having a classified ad appear in print may not be that important.

In the battle for traffic, many Web sites do something that newspapers don't seem to think they can afford to: publish listings or classified ads for free. Web sites view your listings as content that will draw consumers, and allow them to sell ads to other companies with deep pockets. 

Newspapers -- which have all sorts of additional pesky expenses like reporters and editors, printing presses, and newsprint -- haven't gotten around to seeing listings and classified ads as content.   

Which raises a question. Why do newspapers have to publish classified ads in their print editions at all? With the cost of newsprint on the rise, many newspapers have stopped wasting paper on information that readers can get online, such as stock prices.

As the big advertisers -- the folks who buy display ads in their print editions -- migrate to the Web, why aren't newspapers doing the same thing as Web sites like Craigslist, and offering their readers the opportunity to post online classified ads for free?

Those who want to buy a classified print ad would still be free to do so, but newspapers would have to make most of their ad revenue by charging for display ads, whether in print or online. Realtors, for example, could feed listings to newspaper Web sites at no charge, but brokers would have to shell out for display ads if they wanted to showcase their firms and agents.

Makes too much sense. Please tell me somebody is doing this already.

An effort to squeeze lemonade from a bitter pill: Zack Preble, the Internet marketer behind CondoFiasco.com, has a plan to come up with $285,000 that he needs to complete the purchase of a Miami condo unit that he reserved with a $70,000 down payment in 2004.

His plan, outlined at the site (see Inman News), relies on other people supplying that money to complete the purchase. He says that when he sells the condo unit he plans to return the money to the folks who pay for ads at the site, but offers no guarantees. "Does this mean you won't get your $35.50 back? No. It only means I can't promise you anything. It is a chance you are taking," the Web site states.

While he had initially planned to sell shares of the condo unit for $35.50 apiece, legal complications with U.S. securities laws have blunted that sales pitch, and Preble says he is only selling pixel ads links at his Web site and associated receipts, at $35.50 per tiny pixel ad. There are spaces for 10,000 pixel ads -- Preble owns 1,971 of those based on his down payment for the condo unit.

Others have pulled off some creative Internet marketing campaigns, namely www.millionairehomepage.com and www.oneredpaperclip.com.

By the way, it looks like GiveMeMoneyForMyMistake.com is unregistered.

Google Maps' controversial Street View feature (for more, see Google Maps Hits the Streets) expands to six more cities today with the addition of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson to its database. As a bonus, the images in Phoenix, Tucson and parts of Chicago are all in high resolution and the service has added the ability to pan up in any of the views, which is especially useful when looking at tall buildings.

Here's a quick marketing tip. Google Maps allows you to email a link to any location, so if you have clients currently looking at properties (especially if they are relocating from another city) email them the link to the Street View so they can take a virtual walk through the neighborhood.

Now, what they might see on those streets, is a whole other question all together...

With the latest numbers from HUD and the Census Bureau showing home sales continue to slow, will realtors, mortgage lenders and others in the industry reduce spending on online advertising and leads, or jack it up in a bid to claim a share of the dwindling number of buyers?

Joel Burslem has been following the issue for some time on Future of Real Estate Marketing. His last post on the topic rounds up several media reports suggesting that Internet ad spending will go down.

Others -- such as Eric Bader of MediaVest, quoted in a recent Financial Times article -- say online advertising will continue to grow as Web sites take market share from TV, newspapers and radio, where return on investment is harder to measure.

Another recent piece in SmartMoney, "Bankrate thrives in mortgage mayhem"  notes the provider of mortgage and bank rates raised its hyperlink ad rates between 15 percent and 25 percent this summer. While mortgage accounted for a amaller percentage of total traffic to the company's site, "mortgage and refinance activity was still strong," the story said, while traffic to pages providing rates on deposits grew.

It would be interesting to hear from other Web destinations about what's happening to your real estate ad revenue.

Parsipanny, N.J.-based Real estate brokerage and franchise company Realogy Corp. is teaming up with the New York Jets pro football team. Realogy announced this month that the company and subsidiaries Burgdorff ERA and Cartus will serve as sponsors for Jets community relations programs. Cartus is Realogy's relocation services company and Burgdorff ERA is a New Jersey brokerage company with about 700 sales associates.

Dave Weaving, Realogy’s chief administrative officer, said in a statement that in addition to the sponsorship, Realogy is "working with the Jets on the relocation of their people and operations into New Jersey in 2008." The Jets are moving their training camp and corporate headquarters from Hofstra University on Long Island, N.Y., to Florham Park, N.J.

(This begs the question: If the team trains in New Jersey, plays its home games in New Jersey, has a corporate headquarters in New Jersey, and wears new jerseys, shouldn't they be the Jersey Jets?)

A real estate Web site, HoodEstate.com, claims to to offer "Truth for the Street" on topics ranging from credit repair and mortgages to flips and short sales.

Of course, this wisdom doesn't come cheap. The site promotes a Hood Estate book, dubbed the "real estate bible for the hood," that retails for $39.99 and supposedly will help its readers "go from ashy to classy."

A "credit restore" section at the Web site states that Hood Estate offers a three-step process to dispute the credit problems and that the company has lawyers who "will aggressively represent your best interests.” Also, the site suggests that "nine times of of 10, big companies ... (with) millions of customers are not going to show up in court for each individual collection accounts." And if they don’t show, "your collection account that’s being disputed is automatically thrown out."

Sounds a lot like those “fight a traffic ticket” pitches: “the police officer who gave you the ticket must show up for the court hearing. If he or she fails to show, your case will be dismissed.”

Hood Estate’s Web site also states that to perform this so-called “credit restore” process, the company charges the consumer for a “one year membership” that is not “reversible or refundable.”

The Hood Estate Web site states that Hood Estate LLC is related to Heaven Homes LLC, and that the company “formed when CEO/founder of both companies, Leonard Person Jr., came up with the idea to teach the younger generation and the urban communities the basics of the Real Estate Game. He named it Hood Estate because he will be teaching people from the ‘hood’ about real estate."

The site beckons: “Stop stressing for a second and listen. Why be a soldier when you could be a chief. Create your own Dynasty. CEO, Leonard P., knows better than anyone because that use to be him. The book is not here to discourage people from chasing their dreams but just to show them that there are other ways to help make your dreams a reality. It’s a Reality Check. The opportunities are endless if you want to make it 'Big' in life. Seriously. Instead of chasing the dream, why not control the dream. Only you can chose your destiny! Do you know what you’re destined to be in life?”