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School is out for summer, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t work to be done. I would like to revisit one of the simplest, yet most powerful tools for progressing in your career and life: Setting Goals.

That’s right, we all know about goal setting, realize the importance that setting goals can bring to measuring and assessing success and progress and yet many of us are not consistently setting and measuring our progress towards goals. I am guilty of this as well.

What are your goals / objectives for the day, week, month and year? Write them down, somewhere. Anywhere. Make that place the simplest place to access you can think of to achieve consistency in visiting your goals.

Once your goals are set, evaluate and assess your performance. Did you achieve your goal for the day, week or month? You can only know if you assess your progress. This means a short day end check and weekly and monthly checks….. it only takes a few minutes. Designate a consistent time slot for your reviews, this will help build the habit of reviewing.

If you don’t set a standard of performance or measure of performance, you will find yourself producing and achieving less…. you can’t hold yourself responsible for under performing if you aren’t aware that you aren’t where you should be! Many times we think we are performing at a higher level than we really are.

Most importantly, don’t be too hard on yourself if you are not progressing as fast as you would like. This is why it is important that your goals are realistic. The real goal here is to achieve an overall consistency in evaluating your progress…. not pushing yourself into depression because you didn’t nail your target goals. Not achieiving set goals is merely an opportunity to learn and evaluate so that you do achieve those  goals in the future.

When you are done, click here.

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Redfin suffered about the worst occurrence a datacenter can endure, fire. They still beat Realtor.com by 12 hours with only 5 hours of downtime compared to Realtor.com’s 17 hours of downtime or 53 hours of downtime if you include the 36 hours of in-action before going offline for 17 hours after  their blog was hacked. In fact, the once daily posts on the Realtor.com blog have ceased altogether for over  two weeks, so it is apparent that the problem is  not under control, unless giving hard working / blogging Realtors less exposure is part of an unannounced strategy.

That’s right, their datacenter caught fire and they still smoked Realtor.com, pun intended. There is only one right way to handle such a situation: quickly, honestly and transparently. If Redfin gets this, why can’t Realtor.com?

Chris Neitzert Sorts Through Charred Rubble of Redfin Datacenter

There was a fire in the Seattle-based data center that Redfin uses to host our web servers, causing a loss of service between approximately 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Pacific Time. The entire data center was shut down by the fire department, including universal power supplies. Thanks to Redfin’s Chris Neitzert and his team, the site is now up and running. Throughout the interruption, our agents have of course stayed at their posts working with clients. But as the data center installs new equipment, it is possible that we will experience much-briefer interruptions in our website service around midnight tonight. We will continue to be available by telephone at 877-973-3346 or through the direct number our clients have for their agents.
For now, we apologize for the interruption in our service.

Aftermath of Realtor.com Blog Hack

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BrokerScience is not affiliated, related or endorsed in any way, shape or form to or by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

You can find the National Association of Realtors at Realtor.org.

If you are interested in Real Estate and Mortgage news, you’re in the right place, take a look around!

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Are you a fanatical Title Insurance, Escrow or Appraisal blogger? Do you currently blog and need another avenue of exposure? BrokerScience will soon be launching new Title/Escrow centric and Appraisal Centric blogs and we need bloggers!

BrokerScience network blogs (WordPress based) are highly SEO optimized, utilize the latest bleeding edge plugins and can provide an optimal platform for insuring you get the best search engine coverage of your posts. We will obviously maintain the platform rigorously and will build out necessary features you find necessary. That’s right, if you have an idea or format you want us to build out for you, we will do it! Once we obtain a minimal level advertising we will gladly revenue share as well.

If you are interested or know somebody who is, let’s talk!

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We’re extremely excited to be taking a few weeks off starting tomorrow….. We are recreating a famed trip from two summers ago where we took our time taking the PCH up from Orange County, making our way through Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Napa Valley, the famed 128 highway (rolling hills, fruit stands, vineyards & apple orchards), Mendocino, Eureka, Arcata & beyond. After a gruelling 18 months non-stop, this is one deserved vacation.

The truth is that we may be gone for two weeks or it may be eight…. I just don’t know at this point. If I feel like working, I will, if not I will be busy sipping coffee at the local coffee shop, hiking in the redwoods, white water rafting, exploring small coastal towns and everything else we can think of that is fun. The truth is that I am addicted to the internet and social media, so I will likely not be too far.

Please Stand By For Further Communication …………

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(Disclaimer: This article discusses some concepts that require an advanced knowledge of WordPress, PHP, CSS and other web development strategies. If you are not familiar with these topics, it is unlikely we will be able to help you implement them. If you do have questions, please hit the forums to discuss.)

More and more Realtors are realizing the benefits of creating a new website for each listing they have. The goal in creating a website that is dedicated to a specific listing is to create a powerful online marketing tool, increase search engine exposure, obtain top positions in the SERPs (search engine results pages) and provide an online presence for promoting the listing’s benefits through useful and informative content and beautiful images. We are going to discuss how to build and optimize your single property website and are throwing in a new twist on where your content should be located.

Benefits of Using Single Property Listing Websites:

1. They can be a powerful listing and marketing tool referenced online and offline in marketing materials to help increase listing exposure.
2. They increase listing owners’ confidence in you.
3. They can help you gain more listings and are one more selling point / benefit you can offer when trying to obtain listings or convert FSBO’s.

1) Choosing a Domain Name

The first decision to be made is choosing a domain name. The most common route is simply using the listing address as the domain name, for example, 123MainStreet.com. Many agents cite that they use the listing address as the domain because it provides a keyword rich URL which can be beneficial for SEO / ranking purposes. The truth is that having a keyword rich domain name for SEO purposes alone is becoming less and less important as time goes on (some would argue it is a non factor already), is only one SEO factor among many and as we will explain, there are more compelling reasons to use non-address based domain names.

Make It Easy to Remember. The primary reason you may not want to use the address as the domain name is marketability. Buyers are much more likely to remember “TatumRanchHome.com” as opposed to “1934ViaLindaWay.com”. This holds true whether they are glancing through a magazine and see your ad, are trying to remember the domain name from a flyer they have thrown away, or even more importantly, if they are trying to remember your domain name for the listing sign they happened to glance at as they drove by the listing.

Usability Trumps SEO. The bottom line is that you may not want to sacrifice the overall marketability and utility that an easy to remember domain name provides (this is true of any domain name in any vertical) for SEO purposes (keyword rich URL).

Jay Thompson also points out another strategy for choosing domain names, using generic or neighborhood / community based names such as “TatumEstates.com” or “IrvineEsplanade.com”. He points out that these names can be recycled over and over which can save the time and money invovled with registering a new address based domain for each new listing.

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1) Learn the ePerks Basics with the Seminal Piece on ePerks:

ePerks.com: A Case Study in Greed and Self-Imposed Brand Destruction

2) Read the Blog Post / Comments That Started It All:

ePerks- A Scam or A Gem?

3) Read the Cease & Desist Letter, Threats and Lawsuit from ePerks CEO Ben Behrouzi:

Cease & Desist Letter: Chilling Effect: How A Behemoth Company Can Silence A Blogger

Threats from ePersk CEO Ben Behrouzi: Am I Being Sued By ePerks?

ePerks Lawsuit Against Vlad Zablotzkyy: ePerks Pulls the Trigger: I am being Sued

Read: BrokerScience Commentary on Suit

4) Read Vlad’s Response to Being Falsely Accused of Child Molestation:

How Far Do You Go To Silence A Blogger And When Does It Become Too Far?

5) Listen to the Shocking Ben Behrouzi Voice Mails:

ePerks CEO Ben Behrouzi Voicemails Exposed: Threatens to Blackball and Sue Employee

6) Learn about the ePerks Link to Vlad Zablotzkyy:

ePerks IP Address Link to Vlad Zablotzkyy: When the Hunter Becomes the Prey

7) Read about Behrouzi’s Threats Against BrokerScience

Ben Behrouzi Insinuates Legal Action Against BrokerScience, Cites “Damages” and his confirmation to take action against BrokerScience on Inman. Read BrokerScience commentary on Inman piece.

Take Action NOW:

Donate to the Vlad Zablotzkyy Legal Defense Fund

ePerks: A Case Study in Brand Destruction:

(These are the “minions” ePerk’s Attorney infamously referred to in this Inman Article.)

ePerks v Vlad: Strategies to Avoid a Viral World War

ePerks - I Am Not A Minion Mr Cook

Im Mad As Hell-You Will Be Too When You Read About Vlad Zablotskyy and ePerks

ePerks & Freedom of Speech?

An Open Letter to Ben Behrouzi

Real Estate Radio USA Interviews Mary McKnight

Zablotskyy the Scrivener

Vlad Zablotskyy V. ePerks The Cliffs Notes Version

Vlad Zablotskyy - A Martyr for Reputation Management

A Dark Day for Bloggers Everywhere

In Support of Vlad Zablotzkyy

Do I look Fat in This Lawsuit?

Nominee for PR Blunder of the Year - ePerks

Why Real Estate Agents Are Bailing on ePerks

5 Ways to Support Vlad Zablotzkyy

Suport Vlad Zablotskyy in his defense against ePerks.com frivolous suit

Some companies are stupid, and eperks may be the stupidest

ePerks: A brand going down in flames

ePerks vs Blogger Vlad Zablotskyy, Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace at Stake

Suport Vlad Zablotskyy in his defense against ePerks.com frivolous suit

ePerks Sues Real Estate Blogger

ePerks Using Questionable Tactics

Ben Behrouzi’s Fair Darts

Blogger Is Sued for Business Disparagement

Write a post supporting your fellow real estate blogger, Vlad Zablotskyy, in his battle with ePerks and I will give you a blog

ePerks Sues Real Estate Blogger, Blogosphere Unites to Destroy the ePerks Brand

RSS Pieces provides a rundown of how ePerks is destroying its own reputation

Want money back at closing?

ePerks Sues Blogger Vlad Zablotzkyy

Spreading the word about eJerks

Spreading the word about Vlad Zablotskyy and his battle with ePerks - Free Speech Issue For The Blogging Community

Is ePerks.com’s Ben Behrouzi, infamous for trying to censor a real estate weblogger, stealing content from Mervyns and Chevron?

Support the Vlad Zablotskyy Legal Defense Fund: A real estate weblogger is being throttled by corporate bully ePerks.com. The free speech rights you will be fighting for are your own…

Memo to ePerks.com: You idiots! Trying to censor a real estate weblogger is a poor way to defend your reputation — such as it is…

ePerks To Sue Blogger - Freedom Of Speech Threatened

Looking for lawyers…

Blogger is Sued for Business Disparagement

Sometimes everybody’s gotta take a side

ePerks: What Were They Thinking?

ePerks to Vlad: I’m Gonna Pound You

Blogging and Freedom of Speech

Blogger Get “Cease and Desist” from ePerks

iHype & ePerks - How To Kill A Startup

Memorial Day and the Plight of a Blogger

Open Letter to ePerks.com

ePerks Shafts Realtors

Are ePerks Spammers?

Real estate rebates and referrals with a twist

ePerks & iHype - Legal Kneejerk - Sues Blogger

Related BrokerScience ePerks / Ben Behrouzi Coverage:

ePerks.com: A Case Study in Greed and Self-Imposed Brand Destruction

ePerks CEO Ben Behrouzi Insinuates Legal Action Against BrokerScience, Cites “Damages”

Ben Behrouzi Updates Company “Values” and “Culture” Web Pages. Only One Problem: They’re Stolen

ePerks.com Link to Vlad Zablotzkyy

Ben Behrouzi / ePerks.com: A Case Study in Self Induced Search Engine Brand Destruction

BrokerScience Coverage of iHype.com Launch

BrokerScience Acquires BenBehrouzi.com

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Glenn Roberts Jr. at Inman has written a great article about Vlad’s plight and ePerks in which we were interviewed. It is worth noting that the exposure this article brings to ePerks is yet another clear defeat for ePerks and CEO Ben Behrouzi. Even if they had a possibility of a courtroom win, they and their brand are by and far the clear losers in any scenario involving litigation regardless of the outcome. Their actions are clearly an ego driven reaction and the results of having no strategy reflect that. The only victory they can obtain is by leaving the stage altogether and worrying less about others’ opinions and more about their customers.

From the Interview:

In an Inman News interview, Richardson said, “There is a principle involved of the ability of the blogger to express an opinion. To write a critical piece. That affects us all.”

He said he has been contacted by ePerks officials about his writings at the site, and he offered, “If anything is printed that’s wrong, we’ll print a retraction — make corrections.”

Richardson said that if he, too, is hit with a lawsuit from ePerks, he expects to prevail. “If you have to do it, you have to do it. When we win, we will have that much more leverage in the future when people come to us,” he said.

ePerks CEO Ben Behrouzi on BrokerScience

Behrouzi said that the company does “seek to hold people accountable,” and named Trace Richardson, creator of the BrokerScience blog, as another blogger who is posting items about the company.

Our Response: The only person you need to hold responsible is yourself Ben. Your failure to assume responsibility for your actions is the cause of this ordeal and ultimately, the destruction of the ePerks brand. Make no mistake, not a single page about ePerks would have ever been written on BrokerScience had we not heard about a company named ePerks with a CEO named Ben Behrouzi that was bullying bloggers.

ePerks Attorney Ron Cook on the Lawsuit Against Vlad:

“The issue we’re trying to promote is responsible speech. If you’re going to take us on and criticize us, at least do it with some comments that have some validity to them,” he said.

“The free speech aspect of all of this is an important consideration. We don’t expect to live in a bubble where nobody can throw darts. We want to make sure the darts are fairly thrown.”

This above statement is stark contrast to the request he made in an earlier C & D letter to Vlad where he didn’t simply request that “darts were fairly thrown”, he requested removal of all current and future digital, print, internet or verbal reference of ePerks related content or ePerks related links.

“You are hereby instructed to promptly do the following: (1) shutter and prevent access to all blogs with any ePERKS reference or content; (2)remove any record of their existence; (3) terminate any links pointing to any blogs that reference ePERKS; and (4) cease and desist from any and all current and future digital, print, Internet or verbal reference to ePERKS.com or Barbus Venture Corporation. This includes closing down your January 28, 2008 lbog that continues to direct readers to your previous remarks and postings.” - ePerks Attorney Ron Cook in C & D letter to Vlad

ePerks Attorney Ron Cook on the Overwhelming Support Behind Vlad

“Clearly, his minions out there are rallying behind him.”

On that Note: A Special Treat for BrokerScience Readers!

If you are part of the Real Estate Community: Click Here

If you are Ben Behrouzi & Company: Click Here

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Ben Behrouzi Bombshell

Since BrokerScience first began covering ePerks and ePerks CEO Ben Behrouzi, we have received a lot of reader submitted information in the form of: stories of first hand experiences with ePerks / Ben Behrouzi (as employees and customers), emails, voice mails, and other miscellaneous information and data relating to Ben and company. We have published virtually none of it and do not plan on publishing it in the future unless it is pertinent to the facts involved in our coverage. The following voice mails are an exception. They help establish a pattern of legal harassment by Ben Behrouzi that goes all the way back to his days at Reply.com.

One common theme among all current and former employees we speak to that have worked under Ben Behrouzi at Reply.com or ePerks.com is that they fear the consequences involved with sharing their story. The legal harassment and worse that ePerks critics such as Vlad Zablotzkyy, Dennis Pease and BrokerScience have endured are a testament to those concerns.

One person that is not afraid of Ben Behrouzi is former Reply.com employee Scott Chestnut. Scott worked under Ben Behrouzi (who was the Chief Technology Officer despite the fact that he was still in school working on a philosophy degree) as a Senior Network Engineer. While building out what was to be a million dollar network, Scott realized that working for Ben was an unworkable situation, so he walked out in frustration. The following voice mail from Ben Behrouzi chronicles Ben’s threats to blackball Scott and insure he is unable to gain employment, insinuating this will affect him for life and have deep reaching effects.

“My new goal in life is going to become to ruin your name across this entire East Bay……..you can take that to the bank, you can put your future kids or your girlfriend or whoever you want to put on it.” - ePerks CEO, Ben Behrouzi to employee that left the company

Ben Behrouzi Threatening to Blackball and “Ruin the Name” of Former Employee

Later, Ben left another message regarding a vendor, CDW. He again makes false allegations and threatens legal action. Even though he claims he is in the process of preparing legal action, no legal action ever took place, an experience similar to what others have faced.

Ben suggests “using dollars” to make up for the indiscretions he accuses Scott of, similar to the verbiage he used when he threatened BrokerScience and tried to set up a conference call to discuss “damages“.

At some point after Scott walked out, Ben and his team were reportedly let go from Reply.com and Scott was again offered his position back at Reply.com.

Ben Behrouzi Threatening Legal Action Against Former Employee / No Action Was Ever Filed

Conclusion. These voice mails are more evidence documenting a pattern of legal harassment and threats by Ben Behrouzi against anybody that gets in his way. While I am not familiar with the legality of of blackballing I am somewhat certain that “ruining someone’s name” for the purposes of insuring they cannot obtain employment is nothing short of defamation. Ben’s actions are consistent with the lack of ethics we have seen ePerks and iHype exhibit. There is now no question that in our opinion, Ben Behrouzi operates without an ethical or moral code.

Feedback: Do you have a negative or positive ePerks / Ben Behrouzi story you would like to share as an current or ex employee, colleague or customer? We can’t guarantee we will publish it, but appreciate your feedback and it may help bloggers like Vlad Zablotzky fight against Ben Behrouzi and company. Contact us here.

Related BrokerScience ePerks Coverage:

ePerks.com: A Case Study in Greed and Self-Imposed Brand Destruction

ePerks CEO Ben Behrouzi Insinuates Legal Action Against BrokerScience, Cites “Damages”

Ben Behrouzi Updates Company “Values” and “Culture” Web Pages. Only One Problem: They’re Stolen

ePerks.com Link to Vlad Zablotzkyy

Ben Behrouzi / ePerks.com: A Case Study in Self Induced Search Engine Brand Destruction

BrokerScience Coverage of iHype.com Launch

BrokerScience Acquires BenBehrouzi.com

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