I set up real estate blogs on a regular basis.  Several a month, and I enjoy the promise that comes with creating a new blogger.  But…there are ingraned habits that come with being a Realtor that absolutely, positively kill the chances that an Agent has at making a blog work well.   The leap of faith to make a blog that makes money for the clients, AND follow best practices (which are across the grain).

So, in order to help Realtors blog better, I’ve made a list.  And even if you’re not a Real Estate Agent, you’ll probably benefit from this list–but the problems are most specific to Realtors and the way that they blog.  Real estate is an image conscious business, and Realtors want to present an image that they have in mind.  This runs at odds with the current transparent Real Estate vibe.

1. Not blogging frequently enough. Once a month?  Don’t waste your time with a blog.  Once a week?  Maybe, but if you’re just starting, especially, you need new, fresh, local content 3 times a week.  It’s not as hard as you think to be consistent–just do some MLS math.  People wanna know what’s up with that.
2. Not keeping It Local Enough: All real estate–in particular–is local.  Obama’s housing plans are cool fodder, but how are they gonna impact smaller areas?  Nobody cares about the WHOLE market, people care about their little niches.
3. Saying Preposterous Things: “Now is a great time to buy, or sell, a house,” is my favorite.  That’s a classic.  WTF?  Which is it?  Just time for a transaction?  That’s not believable.  Similarly, people have big time BS filters.  EVEN if you believe a big bold statement to be true, you gotta watch it, and not shock people, or else they’ll put you in the category with chicken little.
4. Not being themselves, not keeping it ‘real’ Loads and loads of Realtors try to be all things to all people.  Tim Ferriss said that this was the surest way to insanity.   Brian Brady is america’s #1 mortgage broker.  He’s also a Republican.  And he admits it.  And his clients that supported Obama still work with him,.
5. Ignoring Search: Again, you don’t need to have national prominence in your blogs.  You gotta be hyperlocal.  Chicagoland Realestate = Fiercely competitive.  DuPage County Real Estate = better.   Naperville Real Estate = Possible win.   Eagle’s Edge Naperville Condos = GREAT.   The more specific you get, the more traffic you get because you create pages that beat back the competition.  You can’t win by fighting Yahoo Real Estate Search.
6. Spending too much time keyword stuffing. Look, putting stuff in metatags is probably a waste of time.  People put every possible keyword in a metatag i.e. “search for homes 90210, Beverly hills homeseearch, 90210 house prices”.  Waste of time.  Good search optimization starts with good headlines, good metadescriptions, and good content.  That’s it, baby, end of story.
7. Not linking to other (even competitor) Realtors. You gotta give to get.  And you should be exchanging links with established and trusted real estate blogs.  Even in your area.  You and the person you’re sharing links with both rise above all the people that don’t.  What I’d do would be pick up a couple of  people on the otherside of town.
8. Not killing your trolls: Read this post. Good Realtors have some blogging issues.  Is your number easy to find, or do you funnel people arrogantly to a webform?  (Customers like control).  Is your face up there?  People wanna deal with people.  Not fill out webforms.  Put your contacts in there.  If you’re frightened about spam, get Gmail.
9. Making It All About You It’s about your customer, not your sales records.  It’s about having real people on your website saying good things about you.  Go, today, buy a flip cam.,  Carry it with you.  Put it up & make sure you have it linked from the main page.  You can brag about yourself, or you can do a good enough job to have other people do it for you.  Your choice.
10. Not Having a Real Offer. It’s 2009.  People still pitch a free CMA as if that was the end all, be all.  Not happening.  People want custom search.  People want an information advantage over their neighbors.   People want something that they can’t get.  Guess what, that might take work.  (Tim and Julie Did a decent job helping you with a quick offer).

What other mistakes do Realtor bloggers make?

If you want to get on a path to blog right, just visit this link.