Late last July I began to inform the World about my passion for the Caribbean…
WOW! Yesterday I received a call from Marisa Katz who is doing an article for the London Financial Times regarding what is happening in the Caribbean real estate market, specifically in The Turks & Caicos. I asked her why she called m
e for this information. She stated that my Caribbean Islands Realty blog site, that I launched the last week of July, was viewed as one of the most credible and easy to read blogs in the Caribbean! I have to tell you that I was blown away.
You know that I have been hanging out in the Caribbean since 1975, sailing and participating in the real estate markets of the Virgin Islands. I still have much more to discover, but I DO know the Caribbean – from the Turks & Caicos to Aruba. And, I have my “shellback” earring as a symbol of sailing across the equator. All I am doing with this blog site is being a “…citizen journalist noticing what is going on in the world in which I live, work and play.”
My original intent with this blog site was to learn how to implement what I learned from the books “The New Rules Of Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott, and “Influencer – The Power To Change Anything”, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. My thoughts last July were to learn the rules and strategies of blogging on a site that no one would really notice, and then implement the strategies with my San Francisco real estate company. My game plan was to really focus on the Caribbean in about five years. However, the world discovered what I was writing about regarding the Caribbean, and the power of blogging surfaced in such a dramatic way that it has launched our Caribbean real estate business five years early!
Since late July we have signed over 15 marketing agreements with int
ernational Caribbean real estate developers who are creating full-deeded and fractional-deeded ownership properties. The access that has been created in the Caribbean for me with influential elected Caribbean officials, and the Caribbean sailing community has been amazing. Because of this access I did the internet reporting on my blog site for the Virgin Island Charter League’s 33rd Annual Boat Show in St. Thomas, USVI. That experience allowed me to interview Gov. deJongh, Lt. Gov. Francis, and Senator Hill from the USVI.
During those interviews I was able to introduce them to one of the key issues facing the charter yacht community – the U.S. law that limits the number of charter yacht guests that can be picked up from the USVI to six guests. If there are more than six charter guests they need to be picked up on some other island – 99% of them are picked up in the BVI. This issue alone robs the USVI of all the money spent by charter guests being picked up in the BVI for hotels, taxis, restaurants, souvenirs, etc. If the USVI were allowed to have charter yachts pick up seven or more guests it would significantly increase the tourist dollars spent in the USVI! Each of these elected officials listened to my opinions and are now in negotiations with the Virgin Island Charter League to see how this law can be changed – a very specific example of the POWER of blogging!
Who would have ever dreamed that this “Old Salty Dog” at 60 years old would ever be noticed by anyone in the Blogisphere? See…there is hope for all of us who are willing to notice what is happening in the worlds we are living and working in, and putting our experiences into writing. Until next time…Comments?