Craig's List Job Posting (Seriously)

"Dear New York Times Op-Ed Department . . ."

Just in case any readers of this blog know anyone, I just posted the following on Craig's List:

I write a highly-regarded (but relatively lightly read) real estate blog, and am looking for someone who can help get my pieces/posts published on high traffic, national sites (The NYT, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, etc).

Location: Twin Cities
Compensation: commission
Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

As far as commission goes, what I had in mind was a "bounty" ($250 - $500) for each successful appearance on one of the aforementioned sites (Hey! I'm a Realtor -- I believe in paying for results!).

And yes, I know about search engine optimization, but I'm not convinced that anyone offering to do that (for a big fee) really knows what they're talking about, or can deliver the promised results.

And, just so I don't sound too forlorn, my pieces are published nationally on a surprisingly regular basis, including more than a dozen times now on RealClearMarkets.com.

Amazingly, another 50(!) or so posts from this blog currently show up in Google's "top 10" hits by subject matter (try typing in "Freakonomics rebuttal").

In Gold We Trust

Do I hear $10,000 an ounce??

There seems to be a "can you top that?" competition going on at the moment regarding gold prices.

As gold has inexorably risen to about $1,200 an ounce today -- up 15% just in the last month, and four-fold since 2000 -- analysts have scrambled to raise their projected price targets.

Predicting $2,000 an ounce now barely raises eyebrows; to get anyone's attention, you have to double or triple that.

Going for the Gold

So, just to get ahead of the pack . . . you heard it here first: I predict that gold is going to $10,000 an ounce.

When, I have no idea.

P.S.: Actually, it's not true that no one has yet predicted $10,000 an ounce gold: run a Google search, and you'll get dozens of hits. The catch? Many of them go back years.

In fact, most of the "gold $10,000" Google hits relate to fundraising. It turns out that $10,000 is the "gold" level for literally hundreds of charities nationwide. You'll have to fork over another $5k- $15k to rate "platinum."

City Lakes "Hits"

"Top Ten" Google Hits . . . Worldwide!

OK, so no one would confuse the traffic on this blog with The Drudge Report or The Huffington Post.

Still, run a Google search on any of the following 56(!) key terms, and you'll find the related City Lakes blog post ranked in the top 10 hits . . . worldwide! In fact, many of the posts are ranked in the top three.

Go ahead, try it (posts with an asterisk* have been especially popular):

"Financial-Industrial Complex"
"Real Estate & Inflation"*
"Freakonomics Rebuttal"*
"Realtor Demographics"
"Realogy Bankruptcy"*

"The Loop Calhoun"
"Westin Galleria Edina"
"Highest & Best - Explained"
"Lakefront Premium"
"'As Is' Misconceptions"

"Realtors & Angie's List"
"Zillow & Social Networking"
"Bracketing, explained"
"Bernie Madoff & the Path to Recovery"*
"Price Reductions: A Realtor's Take"

"Foreclosure Feeding Frenzies"
"Contractor Etiquette"
"Real Estate Auction Checklist"
"George Soros on CDS"
"Firing Your Realtor"

"Dear Client Letter"*
"Financial Son of Sam Law"
"Peggy Noonan Recession Trends"
"Marooned in the Exurbs"
"Vanishing FSBO's"

"Defending Sodom & Gomorrah"
"Warren Buffett's Crystal Ball"
"Taking Trulia for a Spin"
"Light Rail Impact on Property Values"
"Underwater vs. Drowned Mortgages"

"Consumer Payment Hierarchy"
"Rehab Mistake"
"Investing in New Windows"
"Mpls St. Paul magazine super real estate agent"
"Title in a Nutshell"

"Worshipping Villains"
"Price Reductions -- A Realtor's Take"
"Highest & Best - Games & Abuses"
"Home Buyer Incentives Multiply"
"Moral Hazard, Illustrated"

"Hijacked Listings"
"The Bob Newhart Economy"
"Enron Just Ahead of Its Time?"
"Bear Market Winners: First-Time Buyers"
"Is There Capitalism Without Capital?"

"Foreclosure Bait & Switch"
"Real Estate Misunderstandings"
"The World's Most Powerful Realtor"
"Deconstructing AIG"
"Realtor-to-Realtor Letters"

"You Know It's a Tear-Down When"
"Lying Realtors"
"Financial Reptiles vs. Mammals"
"John Paulson's Billons"
"Lake Calhoun Visitor"

"Cedar Lake Specialist"

Not bad for a blog ranked 1,603,173 by Technorati! (the Nielsen's of the blogosphere).