My First Post

Hello to all newbie bloggers.
I have had two, what I consider strange occurances already as a newbie!! First, when I took my quiz, I passed with 100%! I swear I don't know a thing about blogging. I wasn't quite sure what to do as the instructions said something about jumping to the link in the upper right hand corner. Not wanting to miss any training however, I watched the You-Tube Video and now I continued to where I am now. I certainally have read quite a lot about blogging trying to determine how serious I am about beginning a blog. This however didn't explain why I scored so high on the quiz. More about that later.
Second, as I was logging in so I could post this I was notified that, surprise, there was a problem verifying my password, you know, the one given to me by this course. I was to enter my cell phone number so the password could be changed. Now I have a differant password than was given to me and by some miricle I was lucky enough to pass the first quiz with flying colors. Quite a beginning if you ask me.
As far as my blogging future, I determined to take this free pre blogger class and then take the blogging 101 class to begin my blogging experiance. I generally have a difficult time beginning things and not finishing them. After much consideration, I have decided to take both classes and after that I have set a goal for myself to have a blog up and running within two months after completeing these classes. Also included in my goals is to post no less than twice a week and more aggressive as this blog grows.
My problems as I look forward are running out of interesting things to post as well as how to generate money from my blog. I do understand a bit about adsense as I tried network affiliation in the past. That didn't work out as I realized that alot of affiliates use landing pages to make sure that they get credit for the sale of a particuliar product and to be sure they collect their commision. Google was extreemly unhappy about this and they made it difficult for affiliate marketers to operate under those conditions. That is when I decided to begin a blog. Not only could I discuss things that were important to me but also work adsense, and other marketing materials into my blog without the wrath of Google being involved. As it turns out, as long as you are providing a service and not just a landing page, they don't mind a bit.
So, good luck to all of you other newbie bloggers, maybe we can come up with a solution for the world economy but that is another post. In fact there are probably at least 3 subjects to write about in this post. Good luck to all who are serious about blogging.

Using Blogging as a Branding and Marketing Tool

I own run a property management company and have seen that over the last 2 years advertising for apartments has changed dramatically. It use to be... and not so long ago that a classified advertisement int he Newspaper would get you tons of phone calls. Well not any more! Granted the economy has a lot to do with it. But there are people out there looking for apartments and I have to find them and they have to find us.
Newspapers have shrunk in size both in articles and advertising. Newspaper advertising is outdated and outmoded. There are many on line sites that will advertise your apartments but you are listed with every other apartment in the neighborhood and all the advertisements begin to look the same. We must find a way to differentiate ourselves from all the other apartments out there and I think that blogging is a great way to do it.
I am looking forward to a new marketing campagn this year using blogging as the back bone.
I have however zero experience in doing this so I signed up for the course. I am very excited and have great expectations for this new venture.