Mike Parker

Mike Parker mparker@theblackwatercg.com Right, Lou. Let's all have a weak dollar so that everything costs more, including oil! Oh, wait a moment--if the dollar cheapens much more, maybe the Arabs and Chinese will follow through on their plan to switch from dollar based oil transactions and your economic anemia will turn into full-fledged terminal pneumonia. That an old Red-baiter like you should forget the first rule of how to defeat Capitalism, as taught by Karl Marx--first, debase the currency--shows just how intolerant critics of the administration have become. Ruining our currency will ruin us. I'm not interested in those who would rather see Obama fail than our country succeed. I trust there are others with the same viewpoint. As for "fiscal fools," I assume some folks have forgotten just who has been in charge for the pat eight years and who destroyed our country's currency in the world and our moral position, too? That would be Bush and Cheney. I haven't seen much on them lately, but maybe they are out looking for Saddam's WMD.

Mike Parker mparker@theblackwatercg.com Dear Teresa, I don't always agree with you but I could not agree more with you on this issue. When I hear "experts" telling agents to "set up two websites, one branded and one unbranded" I want to scream. The agent is the brand; the big realty company is overrated, the C21 model is bankrupt. In the days of this home buying paradigm, power has shifted to the savvy agent and away from the big name company. Now, if only agents realized that and refused to buy in to the corporate marketing baloney.

Mike Parker mparker@theblackwatercg.com Dear Bernice, It is so easy to develop hypothetically great strategies, but so hard to actually gauge their effectiveness from behind a writing keyboard. Did you actually try your own idea? The one about buying all sorts of URLs and redirecting them back to your site? No? Had you done more than suggest what sounds like a good idea, you would know that doesn't work. Furthermore, that strategy (of buying desirable search names as your URL) has been pretty well hammered to death by now. It is so five years ago. Further, long tail search does not derive from a URL. To suggest that it does is mixing metaphors for the uninformed reader, and will not help them in their efforts. I have said this before to you, and I think you are really a great sales coach, so I am not seeking to offend you, but: Please, your ideas confuse the readers. Leave the tech stuff to the techies, please, and teach the readers how to sell. God knows many of them would make far better use of good advice like that than of this week's hot tech idea that doesn't work. I know you are spurring thinking and trying to be a positive force for good. I think that columns like this one thwart your otherwise excellent position as an authority. No disrespect intended.