Heidi HO! Welcome. Thanks for coming. You might want to grab myRSS feed. I also welcome calls at 614-312-1941 about just about anything.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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,.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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I would kind of disagree with #7. I think Realtors spend too much time linking with random other Realtors because it’s so easy. We are all in the same boat, it’s shop talk, you link to me and I’ll link to you, isn’t that cozy? And not enough time developing real genuine online communication with other local bloggers of all areas of interest.
Visit local blogs, share the natural common bond of one person to another. Everyone loves to see an authentic comment on their blog. It’s local relationship building. Find those bloggers with whom you share an interest- pets, cars, knitting, dining out, wine, kayaking, local college basketball team- and connect just like you would IRL.
More so than any others on this list, number one stands out to me because I’ve struggled with blogging frequency myself. The solution is to give your blog a structure: Set hard deadlines for your posts, create post themes etc. In our ErionHouston.com, we have TipTuesday and ForeclosureFriday in addition to monthly video market reports, news summaries etc. If you treat it more like an assignment than a hobby it tends to get done.
I’m with Teri on number seven. Realtors do too much schmoozing and moping with each other as it is – blogging doesn’t need to be another. They should, however, link to quality local blogs, comment on them and make connections.
Number 11: Got to use Wordpress.
#.5 or #12 –
Realize and accept that it’s work. Real work that requires a commitment. If you do something half-assed on your blog, it shows and reflects how you might treat your customers and clients.
Also, agreeing partly with Teri – it’s important to participate on other re.net blogs, but the real value of the conversation is local – find, build and nurture local blogging relationships.
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Good list.
Regarding #7, I actually think it is important to link out liberally. Not just to other real estate bloggers, but to anything that is pertinent to your article. It can add “depth” to an analysis, it can add another viewpoint, even an opposing viewpoint.
Also, in the beginning of a blogging “career” it is a sure-fire way to at least get on some people’s radar so you aren’t blogging in a vacuum.
Link randomly or for “popularity”? No, that would be silly and pointless. But outbound links to quality, and applicable, material is a good idea.
Sure. Folks though avoid linking to anyone that is “competition” there’s a zero sum game mentality that Realtors have. Don’t dig it.