Is it developing any leads?

Only one concrete lead that I can pinpoint and say it was from the blog. That's not important at this stage because this is the kind of marketing that creates a new awareness and name recognition and lays a longterm foundation for future business.

This is more in the style of farming, which all real estate agents understand.

If you visit the blog you will see that I have linked even those attorney offices who compete with our office for title insurance. This is a very soft sell image enhancing marketing program. I like it because it's positive and exudes confidence in our product and service.

Diane is correct in comparing hyper local blogging to a 'farm'. Here's the critical difference though.

Instead of what I did as a farmer back in the '70's -- knocking on their doors once a month, they're coming to Diane's door. They're not coming once a month either. Some won't miss a day, but most will come by at least 1-4 times weekly.

Before long she'll be getting more leads than she ever expected.

You're right, Jeff. This is the most exciting break through we've had in our consumer facing campaign.

Diane, if you could get Edgar Wiltrout to post a comment on Ligonier Living, then that oughta light things up.

Paul - That is hilarious.

Actually I had him up last night. WTAE out of Pittsburgh was calling him "Crazy Eddie" and I linked to their video. I ended up taking the post down - while laughing my you know what off - because it just seemed too bad for my merchant friends. I had posted the Dovecote Flickr slider show and I thought - wow that's not a good vibe next to "Crazy Eddie".

So, today, I had an e-mail from the library letting me know they had linked to the blog and we were chatting about the expanding readership and she mentioned that someone had updated her on The Hollow arrest and she realized that they were getting their info from a library computer viewing Ligonier Living.

Soo,,,,, in the interest of good journalism, I thought, jeez I better put it back up. I just toned it down a bit.

The entire experience is a bit disconcertng. I was walking up Main Street and I overheard the women behind me discussing what they had read on Ligonier Living. Last week I was sitting at the open stage in the Ligonier Tavern and we were chatting about the Roadhouse opening a new pizza place and a woman starting telling me all about it when she suddenly said, HEY, I read that on your blog and I just smiled..... ;)

The point is that, even with Crazy Eddie, who everyone was dying to see, any community can use a hyper-localized blog and I am convinced that it will generate business and it's a blast in the meantime. ;)

Wait a minute....ROFL... I am so thick. Paul, that IS hilarious. Light things up....you kill me.

Thanks Diane, you and Todd always have great ideas to better my business, It is so great to be able to come to lenderama and see what others are doing.

Got this e-mail this morning.....

[Hi, Diane,

Let me introduce myself. My name is ***, I currently live in the Pittsburgh area and am in love with the idea of living in Ligonier. This has been a dream of mine since growing up in Scottdale, going off to school in Boston , working in Pittsburgh and settling down in Plum Boro running an internet cookie business! Well, this is just how I found your new blog, Ligonier living. Every now and then, I just google “ living in Ligonier” . Ha, found you 3rd place!

I wanted to compliment you on your blog, it has refreshed my dream of moving to Ligonier. I love the site, from an outsiders point of view, it captures everything I love about visiting the wonderful town of Ligonier . Yes, the town is charming and beautiful but the real draw for me is it’s residents, the individualism , creativity and intelligence reminds me of a larger urban area. Am I dreaming?

Thanks for listening and much luck with your new blog. Hope you don’t mind me emailing you, I haven’t yet progressed past the “reading blogs” stage!]