Spoken Gently's Blog: All Categories

The Parade of Homes is a yearly event whereby the region's builders, subcontractors, and construction vendors showcase their work. This year's Parade of Homes showcases 30 homes throughout the Tri Cities Washington area during September. Tri-Cities residents can view these spectacular homes for a fee of $7.00 The viewing dates are September 8 & 9, 12, 15 & 16. For more information, maps, and the previous year's winners, click on the Home Builders Association Parade of Homes image.

In terms of real estate, the Parade of Homes is a great opportunity for real estate agents to show their listings. Many Parade of Homes viewers come from out of town to view the best that Tri Cities has to offer, often times the catalyst for relocation to the Tri City Washington…

Real estate on a global scale. Semper Fidelis!

Tri City Herald writes:

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., would like to open public access to Rattlesnake Mountain and the Hanford Reach to bring more tourists to the Mid-Columbia. Hastings spoke to a sold-out crowd of about 240 people at the Tri-Cities Regional Chamber of Commerce's annual state of the congressional district luncheon Wednesday at the Shilo Inn in Richland.

Thumbs up for Doc Hastings for supporting Tri-Cities Eco Tourism. As a Tri City Wa REALTOR® this can only mean a boom for an already thriving housing market. A Michigan State University eco-tourism study shows eco-tourism having a significant effect on a region's economy and industry.

Related Reading: Heritage and Eco Tourism | Environmental Tourism | Hanford Reach | Bateman…

In light of Rand Fishkin's blog about Wiki Jacking, I thought I would provide a great resource on how to use Wikipedia ethically and for what Wikipedia's intended purpose is. Search Engine Roundtable did a service to Wikipedia by posting an article on appropriate ways to utilize Wikipedia's influence for search engine marketing. In the article a few recommendations are made. Among several points, a point on Wikipedia as a link building resource stands out to me. The article suggests not using Wikipedia as a link building resource, however, when garnering links, the article notes, and I quote from the article:

How to add links:
- Develop a reputation as an editor.
- Add information first, links second.
- Follow the Notability rule.

If you are…

Microsoft launches experimental search site Tafiti (you will need to download and install Silverlight). I find this interesting in light of the rumors behind Microsoft acquiring Yahoo. Let's look at an analogy here. IBM slept, and Microsoft took over IBM's share of he PC market. Now let us compare Google to IBM. Google, at the top of the market and resting on it's laurels, all the while Microsoft has Microsoft Live, Yahoo (let's imagine for a moment), now Tafiti. As real estate agents staying the next step ahead on the tech path, we might consider keeping an eye on what Microsoft is up to these days.

The point here is Microsoft is not simply focusing it's attention on areas other than the search engine market. While Google appears to be content with their…

We cite other resources when blogging for the visitor's benefit, right? Certainly we do. However, co-citation has a SEO benefit. I have recommended this article many times in support of co-citation. It is a classic among the resources I recommend for citing other sources when blogging. Essentially, the author makes the point that citing other authority sources strengthens your content relative to search engine positioning. The author Jim Boyken, is well respected in the SEO community. Consider reading some of his posts. Perhaps upon finding this blog entry, Jim will cite me for citing him! Yeah, right!

Once again our community is represented in the Little League World Series. This baseball season our Kennewick Babe Ruth Team has made the cut. Currently, the Kennewick 13-year-olds are sitting atop their World Series Pool with a 20-0 win over Manchester, N.H. Today, the Kennewick 13-year-old All-Stars have earned a bye into the semi-finals. Go Kennewick!

A few years ago, our Richland Little League was our local team making it to the Little League World Series. The Richland Little League was the Northwest champions, but were eliminated by the Southeast champions in the finals.

As Tri City Washington REALTORS®, we follow our local sports teams with keen interest. One of the many draws for relocation to the Tri Cities is the support of the family for…

Living in Pasco Washington, we are in the Pasco Wa School District. Of our five children, we have one in the Pasco public schools, our oldest Cassandra. We're proud of her as she is in Pasco's Running Start program whereby the student enters college as a freshman in place of the student's junior year in high school. Upon earning a 2-year Associate in Arts degree, the student receives a high school diploma. Our daughter is 17 and will have her Associates in Arts degree (and high school diploma) from Columbia Basin College this year.

We are also proud of the Pasco School District's High School. Newsweek Education has selected Pasco High School into the top 1200 high schools in the nation. Out of 28,000 high schools across the nation, Pasco High School is in…