Ever since I joined aol in 1995 I have been fascinated with the Internet, most folks my age I have found are generally pretty clueless about it, I have delightfully become an exception.

Many of you know in 1999 I developed a residential real estate mortgage brokerage website, to attract and process loan applicants (that worked quite well!) - then started to teach a live class (after I got my State teaching certification) "Website & Internet Originations" five years ago, which subsequently expanded into what is today the Secret! University learning center.

Since I first started my career in our industry, I have been very anal about statistics, never could figure out how or why that began inside my head - since I never was that much into math things in school - yet it is what it is.

One of the very first tasks I complete every morning, is to download and study our website visitor log ( I use three different software products to do that, they have different features is why I use 3 of them). As a result I have grown into a semi-knowledgable 'tech' sorta person about SEO and the like.

Today I was excited to note, we are ranked Number One on Google for the search term: "Mortgage Industry Education" ... even though we rank in the top 10 on many many dozens of keywords (in our industry niche), in the top 5 on more than a dozen or so, and number 1 or 2 in several as well ... our various results I track (and save in an excell spreadsheet) and am pretty proud of so far.

This particular one, just struck me today ... so I thought I would share ....


PS: Now, for those of you that don't know this, organic ranking in the major search engines change all the time, so we might not be #1 in 20 minutes (if you wanna check) but we should be close !

Put the finishing touches on our August 1st free newsletter this morning; my shovel story will interest most who read it with an open mind. It's an example I have used verbally with most of my personal Mentor students for quite some time - thought putting it down on paper for all to see today, is just the right time. Our entire industry is going through a long over due Extreme Makeover.

BTW, our Dodger's are still in First Place in our Division!! Looks like besides Penny (agruably the best pitcher in the Big Leagues), Billingsley (7-0) is my new BFF! He's developed into a strong starter; and like I say "He's strong as garlic."

For those of you who follow my thoughts here, I apologize for not adding anything in more than a week.

With all the turbulence in the industry, I have kept my focus on the many individual State law changes, and there's been a bunch - more than I'm sure the average LO or independent Mortgage Broker can keep up with. That's going to be another can of worms once those State lawmakers realize many of the originators are not in compliance with a lot of their changes, as that population generally doesn't follow industry news in trade publication - so they frequently miss the specifics, let alone the big picture.

The proposed Federal "Fiduciary Duty" Bill will have the most significant impact on the entire industry once it passes in my view. And ya know what? I'm puzzled to see just how many industry insiders (the big-shots I mean by that) are fighting it! Forcing a 'fiduciary duty' to their borrower/customer and making everybody comply with 'good faith and fair dealing' standards is NOT something anyone should resist, as I see it.

Way back (a hundred years or so) when I started off as a snot-nosed twenty-something type A high-charger know-it-all, my first industry employer insisted that we behave that way ... from day one! Therefore everyone that ever worked for me (there) or when I went out on my own, had the concept stuffed inside their brain - a good idea as I have always seen it. It protects all of us in the long run, to do the right thing by our customers. I hope it passes and becomes National law soon.

I think I have previously mentionmed my oldest works at Dreamworks (recently merged with Paramount Pictures). He got moved over to Paramount from Dreamworks earlier this week and sent me this picture this afternoon! Look familiar?

This is the 5th year we have held our Website & Internet Originations live class here in Southern California, it's the one class I personally teach that I enjoy the most. This week-end we're having our latest session, and I'm looking forward to it. The internet has changed a great deal since this class started, but the basics which surround the things we focus on haven't, even though I have constantly updated my presentation - so it stays right on target!

I see zero signs of even 'remote pockets of improvement' in our industry, I'm afraid the pendulum will swing back in the other direction (like it always does during these correcting cycles) for as many years as there were 'good times' with soaring home values and historically low rates (Fall 1998 to late 2005). Considering all the egregious activities of loan providers (both retail and wholesale) - this deep clensing is the punishment so many so richly deserve - when you look at it through the eyes of what they did to so many unsuspecting homeowners.

When consumers are engaged working with loan officers and mortgage brokers/bankers they never understood they are dealing with 'high commissioned sales people' - when in their hearts they felt they were working with professionals with a fiducary duty to act in their interests first. The degree to which so many were taken advantage of, is sickening.

On a lighter note the All Star break is now behind us and they're off and running for a divsion championships -- that is our home team (the Brooklyn Dodgers of Los Angeles NOT the Anaheim Angeles of Los Angeles) I'm going to continue to support - next game we go to - is Wednesday the 18th! Goodie! Dodger dogs!!