The volume of home sales in the Hamptons has nearly returned to the highs set in 2007, well before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, according to a report released Thursday morning. Meanwhile, luxury home sales numbers hit a record.

In the second quarter, there were 539 sales in the second-home market, up 9.6% from the same period a year ago, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Inc. The number of sales was the second highest in more than five years, just missing the all-time high reached in the first quarter of 2007 by three transactions. Unlike the Manhattan home sales market, where inventory dipped in the period, the supply of houses on the market in the Hamptons increased right along with sales. Inventory rose 10.8% to 1,798 in the second quarter.

“There were a large amount of sub-million-dollar and high-end transactions,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel. “There is robust sales activity, and prices are stable.”

Sales of homes under $1 million, represented 63.2% of the total in the quarter, according to the report. Meanwhile, the sale homes at the high-end—upwards of $5 million—hit record levels. There were 38 such sales in the quarter, the most since Elliman/Miller Samuel started tracking the high-end market in the fourth quarter of 2010. Back then, sales of $5 million-plus homes were spurred by erroneous, as it turned out, fears that the Bush tax cuts would be allowed to expire, Mr. Miller said. He added that in this year’s second quarter, there was nothing artificially inflating luxury home sales.

“The Hamptons is hot; people want to be there, and with everything that is going on in the world, people see it as a good investment,” said Dottie Herman, CEO of Elliman.

But don’t expect homes prices to go up any time soon, Ms. Herman added. According to the report, the average sales price remained unchanged at $1.7 million, down 0.7% from the second quarter of last year. Similarly, a separate quarterly report by The Corcoran Group said the average sale price for the second quarter was $1.8 million, up 3% from the same period a year ago.

“We are seeing bidding wars, which tells us that people are pricing their properties well,” said Ernie Cervi, executive managing director for Bridgehampton for Corcoran.

In another positive sign for the playground for the rich and famous, land sales increased for the fifth consecutive quarter, according to Corcoran. Some 62 land parcels sold for a total of $76 million in the Hamptons, including Shelter Island, during the quarter. The number of sales rose 11% from the same time last year.

“This is significant because it sends a message about future home sales,” Mr. Cervi said.

Geoffrey Rush the Oscar winning actor said he has strived to accomplish two things in his life…”Credibility and Visibility“. 

If you are a job seeker then standing out is important in securing that next job.

Business owners and entrepreneurs need to be noticed to obtain funding and sell their products and services.

To succeed as a musician and artist your work obtains visibility as it is played, displayed and seen.

Authors have the challenge of writing a book that has to stand out in a mountain of 15 million books that will be published in 2012.

If you want to stand out, Seth Godin recommends “Purple Cows”

Do something unique and different.

Pick Yourself

We live in an age where we have the means and the machines to self publish and self market. Technology is democratising publishing and marketing.

The Gutenberg press has been superseded by the digital press. The written word has been set free from the confines of time and space.

On a social web  you don’t need to wait to be picked to publish. You can “Pick  yourself”.

No longer do authors have to pitch or beg a publisher. Amazon is providing the platform for self publishing.

The tools and technologies now allow you to publish short form content in an instant. That could be on Tumblr, Facebook or Google+.

Even your smart phone is a publishing machine in your pocket that can publish images and text whether that is on Instagram or Twitter.

Emulate then Innovate

Online video adds to the publishing mix which provides the means to communicate with all the power of face to face communication with all its associated subliminal messages.

The motivating power of face to face communications is not restricted to the boardroom or the town hall. YouTube is leveraging the transmission of skills that cannot be transmitted just with words.

You can’t show someone how to dance with text.

Video transmits the non verbal such as facial expressions, gestures, passion and eye contact where serious magic happens.

Reading and writing are fairly recent inventions whereas face to face communication has been honed by tens of thousands of years of evolution.

“What Gutenberg did for writing video is doing for face to face communications“.

Video enables people to view how something is done, then emulate and finally innovate.

Radical Openess

The hardest part though is being prepared to open up and expose yourself to the world. Content needs to be set free and giving away your secrets is part of this new paradigm of radical openness!

Credibility is achieved through the display of your skills via your content whether it is carried by music, words or video. Visibility is achieved by building online tribes and followers and sharing with them  your ideas.

So what can you do to stand out on a very crowded web?

1. Tap into your passions

Some  people know from the first awakening of awareness, what they will do for the rest of their life. We all have an inkling of what we love. What keeps you up late at night, what do you read about, what makes you leap into your car and drive for hours?

This is your engine room.

2. Leverage your innate abilties

What are you good at? Reading, learning, loving, writing, video production, speaking, cooking or running? This is where you start. Along the way you will discover other skills that you didn’t know you had.

3. Build your Soapbox

This can be a Facebook page, Google+, Tumblr or a WordPress blog. My pulpit of choice is WordPress technology, with my own domain and self hosted. It is mine, I own it and I have control.

I like that.

Don’t  hand over the keys of your content hub and home to a social network  that can banish you without an explanation.

Some people have made their home on a Facebook page or Google+. If you are removed (and it has happened and regularly) then I can only wish you good luck in calling their help line.

4. Start

This is where the rubber hits the road.

I remember reading a blog post on Hubspot and it said even if you aren’t exactly clear on what you should be publishing ….just start. This could be writing, creating YouTube videos, posting fashion photos, Publishing images of your art, paper folding or infographics.

In short create content. Don’t wait for the design and branding to be perfect. The refinement can happen on the journey as the crowd tells you what works and what doesn’t.

Just do it!

The magic is in the movement.

5. Know your audience

Understand the persona of the audience(s)who you are targeting.Don’t over complicate this, the audience will become clearer over time. You will hear their voice and see their shadows. You will sense what they want.

Just listen.

6. Educate

“How to” articles are always popular. It is the fastest growing category on YouTube. Educate with stories. A story’s power is twofold. It provides knowledge of how to act and inspiration which is the motivation to act.

Don’t underestimate people’s desire to learn.

7. Inform

In your target niche people want to know what is happening. Keep them up to date with the latest facts, figures and news. Articles that provide insights into the latest industry news will keep your audience coming back for more.

8. Inspire

Show people the potential to change their life and show them a future with potential and let them know that dreams can come true.

A vision is vital.

7. Stay on topic

We are all tempted to go off on tangents. You need to keep asking yourself “does my audience want to read about this”. You can try new angles but the crowd will tell you via the retweets, Google plus ones, shares, likes and comments what they like and don’t like.

Focus is vital.

8. Keep it  simple

As you build knowledge through researching, reading and creating you will be hit with the “Curse of Knowledge“.

“The better we get at generating great ideas—new insights and novel solutions—in our field of expertise, the more unnatural it becomes for us to communicate those ideas clearly. That’s why knowledge is a curse.”

So keep the message simple and clear of “industry speak” and acronyms.

9. Market and promote everywhere

Create a brand and presence on the large vibrant social networks. Publish and promote your content from your blog to as many social network platforms as time and resources allow.

Be “ubiquitous”

10. Build for search engines

Google with its latest updates called “Panda” and “Penguin” is valuing unique content that receives social votes, whether that is a “plus one” on Google, a “Like” on Facebook or a retweet on Twitter. Use WordPress plugins like “SEO all in one” or “Yoast” that create search engine friendly titles, descriptions and tags that make it easy for Google to crawl your site and show up in search engine results.

11. Build your tribes

Tap into the power of reciprocation. Follow people on Twitter and they will follow you back (some of the time). The great content on your homebase (blog) and the essential engagement with your followers will help you build a tribe. Be real and be willing to show the human side of your self.

Open the hood and reveal your secrets and the tribe will leap in.

12. Communicate with multi-media

Everyone learns differently. The younger generation prefers a short video. Baby boomers would rather read an article. The LinkedIn types like powerpoint presentations on Slideshare.

Provide the same content in a variety of media.

13. Hone your writing skills

If you want to write then you need to “read”. Writing can be learned. The basics are vocabulary, tempting headlines and well structured articles.

Tempting visuals (eg Infographics) will add a little bit of content contagion.

14. Be relentless

I can’t stress too much how important this is. Producing content once a month isn’t going to cut it. It is like flying plane.

Full throttle for takeoff until you reach cruising altitude.

 How About You

Are you visible online? What has worked for you in getting attention? Is it video or is it writing articles and blog posts?

Have you tapped into the power of writing great headlines? Do you need to build a larger and more engaged tribe.

Look forward to hearing your stories