Today we had a meeting about the Work Blog, which has been in production for several months now. It’s been fascinating working on it, from the initial implementation to getting both bosses thinking in terms of blog posts and how they can translate some of the massive base of knowledge that they have between them into informative and interesting blog entries. This one is one of my favorites. I have learned quite a bit about the different blog platforms (more than I’d already known) and accessability, brushing up on my HTML (and working on beating CSS into submission), and all about various social bookmarking sites, and how to make the SEO optimizers work for you and how getting your name and your blog out there can really help drive business your way.

Now bearing in mind that neither one of my bosses are in any way unintelligent (quite the opposite, both of them are freakily smart), they decided that getting the work blog up and running and making it a success would be a Minion!Project. So I hit the books and the ‘Net, coming up with what I believed would the best options for them in terms of accessibility, user-friendliness, and professionalism. They liked what I’d thrown together and the project was implemented. Now we had more than a few quirks to iron out, but so far so good.

Today’s meeting was all about what we can do to further get our name and blog out there. I came prepared and both bosses were impressed with the due diligence I’ve put into this so far. We identified a few more trouble spots that I’ve been dealing with and a few more tips and tricks to give us that extra edge we need for maximum exposure.

They’re happy with it and I’m ecstatic that this Minion!Project has gone off swimmingly so far. It’s pretty cool to sit and get paid for doing something I love and I have to say, I have really loved doing this project.

Cross-posted from here

One of the things that I have noticed in working for two commercial appraisers as an executive assistant/mother hen and also being trained as an apprentice appraiser is that for such a dynamic field as this, organization is key. Until I get my apprentice certification, I’ve been doing all of the initial grunt work, pulling up all of the initial information needed for the appraiser to do their job. The tax info, the zoning, etc… all things for the most part easily found if you’ve got a decent internet connection and have an idea for what you’re looking for.

To this end, I suggest that having a company online bookmarks account is essential. It saves time and can be an invaluable tool for both appraiser and assistant. There are reams of what are called “social bookmarking sites” out there, most of which are free to sign up for. Lest anyone be wary of the name, social bookmarking is merely a method in which Internet users can store, organize, search, and manage web site bookmarks. In this sort of a system, users will save links to web pages that they want to remember (and/or share). These bookmarks are usually public, but they can also be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public/private domains. The users with access to the account can usually view these bookmarks in a number of ways, chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine. Organizing the bookmarks for maximum efficiency is not difficult. Some services will offer folders, most will also have tags.

Tags are one-word descriptions that you can assign to your bookmarks on various social bookmarking sites to help you organize and remember them. Tags are a little bit like keywords (but they’re chosen by you and there is no particular hierarchy to them). You can assign as many tags to a bookmark as you like and rename or delete the tags later. So, tagging can be a lot easier and more flexible than fitting your information into preconceived categories or folders. The service my firm uses, del.ici.ous also allows you to bundle tags together, grouping all the bookmarks with say for example, the tag “zoning” together so that all you have to do is click the tag and immediately all the bookmarks with that tag will pop up. In order to keep things as organized as possible, bookmarks in our account are broken down into city, county, state, and function (zoning, tax info, etc.) .

All of this makes it easier to locate a given site as quickly as possible from any computer at the firm without jumping through innumerous hoops.

There are some drawbacks to the tag system, lack of standard set of keywords (no controlled vocabulary), mis-tagging that’s due to spelling errors, as well as tags with more than one meaning, a personalized/unorthodox tag schemata from some users , and no real hierarchal structural mechanism. But all of these drawbacks can for the most part be overcome easily.

In the end, having one single central location for all of the day to day necessary internet bookmarks as well as being able to control what goes on the list and how it is organized is worth the effort expended to make it so.

Welcome to this blog! This chronicles the life and experiences of one person, entering the fascinating and exasperating world of commercial appraisals from start to finish.