Daily Archives: June 11, 2012

3 Quick Tips to Get Your Next Post Out On Time | Mount Kisco NY Real Estate

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The old cliché, “time is money” is particularly true for any professional writer—especially when you’re on deadline. The consequences of missing deadlines are lost money, work, and credibility.

As a former journalist (a.k.a hourly deadline writer) for more than a decade, I know that deadline writing is a skill that can be enhanced. Here are three unconventional tips I learned from the newsroom, which might just help you meet your next post deadline.

1. Treat every writing assignment as a project

Most of my journalism career was as a radio news anchor and TV reporter in Rochester, NY—the home city of five different Fortune 500 companies.

Most of the news in that market had a business focus, and I enrolled in business courses to help sharpen those skills. The course that most improved my ability to write to deadline was not a writing course at all—it was a Project Management class.

Every writing assignment should be viewed as a project with actionable tasks, milestones, resource needs, time management requirements, and a final deadline.

While each writing project plan will vary based on its specific needs, they all have some common steps to help organize your writing.

Steps such as developing timelines, identifying content experts, listing story dependencies, and task prioritization dramatically helped me become a more disciplined and deadline-driven writer.

2. Create an interview log

Eventually, every writer talks to another person or expert to gain information regarding a writing project. A digital recorder is a very useful time-saving tool in this regard.

The time-saving trick occurs when you jot down the time code, listed on the device’s display, each time your expert gives a great answer. That written interview log will save tons of time as you select quotes for the writing project.

Another tip is that, since every state has different wiretapping and recording laws, it’s useful to have your expert acknowledge the fact they’re being recorded on the actual recording itself before you start asking questions.

Also, when you’re up against a deadline, it’s useful to capture your own thoughts on the recorder since the average person can talk nearly three times as fast as they can type. Dictation while driving or standing in line helps transform “dead time” into “deadline-driven” time. You can then transcribe your recorded thoughts later, and create that post much more quickly.

3. Enhance your ability to focus

Your ability to focus is the single most important aspect of writing to deadline.

Every newsroom I’ve every worked in has a large bank of Bearcat-type scanners monitoring hundreds of specialized frequencies for police, fire, ambulance and rescue activity to track breaking-news emergencies. On top of that is the auditory barrage from the block of elevated TV screens to keep an eye on competing news outlets. Plus, there’s the obligatory newsroom noise from 20-30 reporters, editors and producers clattering on keyboards or chattering on phones working toward their respective deadlines.

The ability to focus and write meaningful content in that cacophony was a necessary skill for deadline writing that extends beyond the newsroom.

Even if you never set foot in a newsroom, you can practice your ability to focus.

Start by turning up the volume on your television to a distracting decibel, as well as a nearby radio, while someone is simultaneously vacuuming the living room. Do it, really.

Then give yourself 30 minutes or so—in the midst of that noise—to write a blog post that you fully intend to use, or some other writing project you’re working on.

If you do this focus-challenging exercise once a week your ability to focus, think, and write under extreme circumstances will improve—as will your ability to write to deadline.

Bottom-line: deadline

These deadline-driven tactics can result in real time-saving benefits for virtually any writing project or writing ability.

If you practice them, they could be the difference between making or missing your next deadline‚ and when it comes to blogging deadlines, the time and money you save is most often your own.

via problogger.net

Stock Market Correction Ending? | Bedford NY Real Estate

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The stock market has sunk by 10 percent from the March peak periods.  Back in March, I alluded to a likely topping off in the stock market because of impending soft economic data over the horizon.  Read that blog entry here >

With an understanding that forecasting is a hazardous sport with many misses, I will attempt to make another call on the stock market.  The current correction is likely coming to an end.  The basis for this projection is principally due to

  1. The U.S. economy is in no danger of an impending recession
  2. Corporate profits are sky high with huge cash reserves sitting on the sidelines
  3. Greece dropping the euro will devastate Greece, but not others

After every recession there is a recovery. The current problem is that expansion to-date has been frustratingly slow.  But America is in no danger of falling into another recession of the GDP falling for two consecutive quarter or net job losses occurring for several consecutive months.  The key is that housing market is recovering.  Increased home sales and housing starts leads to income generation and induces many secondary spending impacts, such as at furniture stores and for lawn care.  Housing, or more formally called residential construction spending in GDP accounting, will be growing by 13 percent in 2012 and a further 18 percent in 2013.  Such a growth rate will be pushing up the GDP by at least 0.5 percent points going forward, which is much better than the net negative that occurred during the housing market bust periods.  With housing recovery and the fact that the overall national income is rising at 2 to 3 percent, it is hard to foresee how the U.S. economy could go into a recession.  One notable short-term subtraction to the economy is the cuts in government spending.  When jobs are cut at state and local government levels, there is less money circulating in the local economy over the short haul.  However, an improvement to the government finances will help long-term economic growth.  The U.S. economy (GDP) is therefore forecasted to rise 2 to 2.5 percent in 2012 with job creation to the tune of 1.5 million to 2 million this year and the next.

The second factor that will help support the stock market from sinking further is that corporate profits are at a record high.  The latest $2 trillion is more than double the amount in late 2008.  The stock market valuation in the end is a reflection of profits, current and future, and given the high current profits further declines in the stock market is not necessary.

Finally, the Greek problem will be limited.  Germany, the European economic powerhouse where people retire at the age of 60 to 65, has no interest in helping out Greece where many people retire with good pensions at the age of 55.  The borrowed money to pay for the generous pension will soon end.  Greece, whether from its own choice or from being forced upon from outsiders (as no new loans are provided), will leave the Euro currency.  The Greek Drachma, its former national currency, will return.  Unfortunately, the value of the Drachma will be essentially worthless, so the Greek citizens will suffer a drastically lower standard of living.  Fortunately though, other countries with high debts, such as Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Italy will witness the harm of leaving the Euro and they will quickly understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Economic restructuring of Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Italy will then help these countries as well as the broader global economy.  Greece will take a longer time to recover, but its weak currency over time will draw many tourists to travel to Greece on the cheap.  The bottom line is that Greece will be an isolated problem and not a big European problem that can meaningfully alters the global economy.

The bottom line: U.S. economy expands, though slowly; jobs get created, though slowly; home sales continue to do better this year compared to the last; and finally already high corporate profits will rise even more.  Therefore, a further measurable stock market correction is no longer required.  Keep in mind, however, that the stock market has repeatedly proven to be highly irrational, with big, unjustifiable ups and downs over the short term.

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Realtors® Confidence Index: Cash Sales 29 Percent of Residential Sales in April | Pound Ridge Real Estate

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The high preponderance of all-cash sales appears to be due to a number of factors:

  • unrealistically high loan underwriting standards
  • a significant level of investor participation in the market
  • and sales of properties as second homes.

Additional information on a variety of topics related to current residential market conditions may be found here.

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

International Trade and Real Estate | Bedford Corners NY Real Estate

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In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses international trade.

  • Fresh data from the Federal Reserve showed that housing equity (home value minus mortgage outstanding) rose to $6.67 trillion in the first quarter, a gain of $425 billion.  A small gain in home prices has a sizable impact in the aggregate to the homeowners’ net worth.  But at the height of the housing bubble, the net worth in residential real estate was $13.5 trillion.
  • International trade pulled back in April with both exports and imports falling.  Exports fell 0.8 percent, while imports fell 1.7 percent.  Despite a one month setback the overall trend is still a healthy recovery in the sector.  Export growth has been particularly strong from mid-2009.  Many U.S. companies from Coca Cola to Caterpillar and from Intel to Microsoft sell more abroad than in the U.S.  However, exports need to steadily grow faster than imports to meaningfully narrow the trade gap.
  • A wrong way to narrow the trade gap would be by enacting tariffs.  Note in the chart below that sharp declines in exports and imports occur in times of economic recession.  So let’s hope the April decline is a one month anomaly.
  • One of the most important historical examples occurred in 1871 when German-speaking people in formerly independent-like countries Hanover, Brandenburg, Bavaria, and the like united to create a country called Germany.  This formation removed all tariffs between the provinces and therefore naturally accelerated the trading of goods and services across provincial border lines.  The increased competition thereby turned Germany into a major economic player.  America likewise is very fortunate to have no tariffs between states, say of selling Maryland-made goods in Virginia.
  • Increased international trade will also mean a greater number of REALTOR clients with international backgrounds in rentals and home buying.  For commercial practitioners, there is always an increase in demand for industrial and warehouse spaces when international trade rises.

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org