On this episode of the Long Island Business Networking Events Podcast, I not only announce the networking events for the first week of April 2009, but my special guest is Ellen Richter from the Long Island Grapevine who discuss the article with me, 10 Proven Ways to Say No When Someone Picks Your Brain. We had fun. Check it out.

We launched a new podcast which features a list of the upcoming business networking meetings all over the island each month. Provided by networking veterans themselves, including David Gussin, Yvonne Bisk, and others, we created an audio show out of this popular topic.

Now, local entrepreneurs and business owners have a place to download or listen online the upcoming events in one place instead of scrambling to 5 different web sites. The problem with all of the email blasts for networking events is that they all have different events. On this podcast, businesspeople can subcribe and download onto their ipods.

Bruce has been attending the Startup Long Island and Long Island Entrepreneur events hosted by Yvonne and Howard Bisk. Usually, these events get from 40 to 60 people each meeting, which is held on the second Tuesday of each month.

The new business networking podcast features some jazz and Bruce’s voiceover, as he delivers each event one by one in chronological order. You can visit the Long Island Business Networking Podcast on the Long Island Podcast Network at http://www.hotwebideas.com/lipc/podcasts.php?show=libusinessnetworking or subscribe directly to at http://www.switchpod.com/users/biznetworking/feed.xml.

With all the business networking meetings in Long Island, it is hard for an entrepreneur to find them all. Several web sites in Long Island list them, but people need to visit all of them, which is time consuming.

Show 1 of a new podcast featuring the best female songwriters:

Listen here: Women of Rock Podcast Show 1

Jag Star (Sarah Lewis) – Missed Out

Led by lead singer and songwriter Sarah Lewis, Jag Star’s sound is more polished and radio ready than what you’d expect when you hear the word independent. Yet, this band is as “indie” as you can get, building their story and fanbase from the ground up over the past 7 years.

Enchanting and passionate singer/songwriter Laura Smith is a talented multi-instrumentalist who has been singing and playing piano most of her life. Just 20, she is in her second year as a vocal major student in Capilano College Jazz studies program.

Various tracks written by our hitmachine producers. there’s stuff in many styles, from dance to hip hop.

Young female from Holland. Artistic person, singing, painting. Will sing the stones out of the street(s). Passion. Rock.

Energy. Live performances since 2000.

Blind Girl is a well produced pop track!

Sophia Ramos, an excellent, contemporary rock singer & songwriter based in New York City, has won the October SingerUniverse “Best Vocalist Of The Month” Competition, for her performance of her song “Girlfriend’s Ghost” (co-written by Kyle Kelso).

This song is from her 10-song CD, Her Majesty, which she released independently in November 2005.

Casey Desmond is a singer/songwriter/multi instrumentalist currently working on her 3rd release.

This track, Sorry Ain’t Enough, has been played on our Fresh Music Series podcasts for the last two years and we felt this was appropriate for Show #1 of this new podcast.

The pop/rock duo Hollins Steele’s debut CD, Songs from Vanderbilt Ave, features this multi-talented pair’s smart rock approach, sparkling production & all-star talent line-up. Their conservatory training lends their music a sophistication that goes beyond the usual Xeroxing that occurs in pop music.

My name is Todd and I have been looking for a house for years. It is interesting how the Long Island housing market has dropped and a lot of the “new homeowners” are foreclosing. Everyone cries when they hear how homeowners all over Long Island are foreclosing and their credit is going down the tubes. Shame! What a pity!!! I do not in the least feel sorry for them at all. Instead, I am pretty happy that foreclosures are rising in Long Island and it serves most homeowners right. I also do not feel sorry for the real estate agents who cannot sell homes because it is now a buyer’s market. Some of them are to blame as well. I won’t mention names, but you know who you are.

I am not talking about the people who lost their jobs. I understand them. I am talking about the people who purchased homes for over $500,000 two years ago and thought the value would go up, so they would have a nice “investment”. Those are the people who prevented me from being able to afford a house, you know, law of supply and demand. They purchased a home that they KNEW they could not afford and thought they could sell it two years later for a profit and look at them now! They are losing money instead of making it. So, now these people are trying desparately to sell their homes before their homes are worth nothing and they lose money resulting in a foreclosure or a short sale. It’s too late, folks. You should have thought of that when you decided to take on a loan that you knew you could not afford for a house that you knew you could not afford. It is a buyer’s market now and you will never recoup your loses. So, don’t even try. Let people like me buy a house for the price that I want, because you know it’s a buyer’s market and cut your losses while they are minimal.

Getting back to the issue at hand, homeowners selling their homes in Long Island must realize that it is a buyer’s market and if you sellers don’t come down in price, you will never sell your home or it will be or already is very hard for you! Period. I don’t feel sorry for the stubborn sellers out their who just won’t budge in price. I hear stories about homeowners who want to sell their homes but cannot because the offers are too low. Wake up, homeowners, and stop being stupid. There’s a reason why you cannot sell your home: Because your price is too high!!! Do you get that or are you just plain ignorant? I hear of sellers who have received a ridiculous number of offers like 20 offers and STILL cannot sell their homes. Face reality. It is not that you cannot sell your homes. It is that you WON’T sell your home because of how stubborn and inflexible you are with prices. If buyers are offering lower prices, than that is the perceived value of your home, not the price that YOU think it is. Does that make sense to you? If not, then you need to wake up or grow up or wise up.

Maybe now, I can finally afford a house. Only time will tell or maybe the stubborn homeowners selling their homes will tell…

In lieu of the new release of new Long Island Real Estate Video Podcast Series at http://www.lipodcastnetwork.com/RealEstateVideoPodcasts.asp, Todd P will be writing blog posts on the Long Island Real Estate Market. As Todd puts it “I am in the market right now and will be writing from the heart. Some people may find my posts too honest, but that’s what makes me a good writer. My posts are very strong and not for the faint of heart”. Good luck, Todd and welcome to the Long Island Mega Blog sponsored by the <a href=http://www.lipodcastnetwork.com”>Long Island Podcast Network</a>.

Howard and Yvonne Bisk held the latest meeting for Startup Long Island  tonight at Ground Round in Levittown. It was my first time at this meeting and I met a lot of great people. Each of us introduced ourselves and we made some great contacts.

I decided to be a little bold and offer 30 second podcast intro commercials for anyone who wanted to come on the camera. For some entrepreneurs, I decided to extend that 30 second intro and ask them questions to just make it more interesting. It was fun watching challenging people to come up with intros and no rehearsal, but everybody pulled it off. The videos will be on in the middle of July and will also be used for video podcast commercials. Who turns down free advertising?

Happy 4th of July. We have been busy launching our new video real estate podcast. Our mission is to educate buyers and sellers in the Long Island Real Estate market on all topics related to real estate including mortgage loans, foreclosures, FHA loans, closing costs, state assisted funding programs, and more.

The show at http://www.youtube.com/user/LiRealEstatePodcast feaures real estate professionals educating the local  public. Already, as of this writing, we have 9 videos including a walk-through of an open house in North Babylon with Paul Dougherty of Real Executives and Wells Fargo mortgage consultant, Steve Ochs.

The video podcasts are short and answer questions such as “What is the difference between a foreclosure and short sell?” and “Fixed mortgages vs Adjustable Rate mortgages…”

Our You Tube site at http://www.youtube.com/user/LiRealEstatePodcast will keep growing with new videos each week as trends in the real estate and mortgage markets change. The podcasts will feature new professionals to talk about the trends, issues, and deals.

The Mondays, an alternative rock band who we have been podcasting for over 2 years now will be busy this weekend playing four gigs in two and a half days. Thanks in part to their new airplay on Q104 (104.3 FM), Ken Carmen’s exact words to me yesterday that “the phone never stops ringing now”. And why should it? This is one talented band.

The Following is the amazing itenary coming up for the band this weekend:

• Fri 5/16 Fisherman Quarter at 9:00 in Hampton Bays with special guest John Alberti
• Sat 5/17 Central Park South NY City at the Healthy Kidney Martathon Finish Line at 8:30 AM. This band is certainly worth getting up for.
• West Nyack, NY at 2:30 at Palisades Mall held by the Q104 Nascar event
• Sunday at Murray Hill festval on 35th street at 5:30 PM

You can also vote for The Mondays on the Long Island Online Battle of the Bands at http://www.lipodcastnetwork.com/battleofthebands.asp

Good luck this weekend, guys!

Hot Web ideas, a web design firm in of Long Island, has integrated Long Island businesses with internal Google information. Now, local Long Island web sites can tap into Gooogle Maps and spread their company news and products through the new iGoogle community.

Hot Web Ideas also promote Long Island based businesses on Facebook and Myspace and update their web site for Web 2.0 with Social Networking features.

For information call Hot Web Ideas at 516-263-9529