Blogging
I'm new at blogging but very interested in starting. How do I get started?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Andrea Farrell on -
I feel the same way Rheta, maybe Rajeev can come to the Blue Bell office (or Springhouse) and have a class.
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Permalink Reply by Rajeev Sajja on -
Please read up on blogging but don't start it prematurely. Time, discipline and "how to blog" training are ingradients for success of your blog. We will discuss with our marketing folks and come up with a best practices seminar.
There are two companies that specialize in RE blogs that I have looked at. One is Dakno marketing (www.dakno.com) and the other is Real Estate Tomato (www.realestatetomato.com).
For an example of a blog, you can see Judy Peterson's blog (Devon office) at www.mainlinepatoday.com
Rajeev
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Permalink Reply by John M Lauber on -
The best way to get started is to read and observe others, like Rajeev said. Blogging is about finding your "voice", i.e. putting some of your personality into a post. It's not strictly about selling. There are many good real estate blogs besides Judy's (which is good, btw).
Some more noted RE blogs:
Phoenix Real Estate Guy
St. Paul Real Estate
That's just a few I read regularly. You can learn a lot about blogging by reading the information on a multi-author blog like Agent Genius
Reading through blogs like this will help you get a feel for how they project their "voice". There's even some basic tutorials or links to them at the Agent Genius site. Many people start with free blog sites like Blogger.com and Wordpress.com to get themselves started and move up to paid solutions as they get comfortable with the medium.
General about blogging sites like Problogger will give you the basics about blogging, as well as more advanced topics regardless of industry.
But the best start to a blog is reading, reading and then reading. Just like the best way to solve your clients problems is to listen (2 ears and one mouth in that order). So, I guess it's 2 eyes and one "mouth" in that order. Once you get a feel for how they work it will make it easier for you to PLAN your strategy for your own blog.
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Permalink Reply by John M Lauber on
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Fixed the link to Problogger: www.Problogger.net
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Permalink Reply by Jay Thompson on -
Thanks for the mention John!
In the blogging classes I teach, I encourage people to read read read some real estate blogs before you even think about starting your own.
Active Rain isn't a bad place to learn, but I think you're going to need your own blog at some point so you are building content for YOU, not for some network where you'll get lost in a sea of others. You may want to think about joining AR to "get your feet wet".
You can (and should) also participate in other peoples blogs. Leave comments, engage the blogger and their readers.
Setting up a blog can be done for a very minimal cost (including free, but again, I feel you need your blog that you host). There are also some very expensive solutions. Until you find out if you are going to enjoy it, and do it regularly, going the expensive route seems silly to me. I know a lot of people that paid a lot of money to have a blog set up and then they gave up on it within a few months.
Blogging, like any form or prospecting and marketing, takes time. A lot of time. You have to read, research and write. And you have to do that consistently for months. It can get discouraging, but just keep at it.
I'd be happy to help if anyone has any questions!
My blog is at Phoenix Real Estate Guy
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Permalink Reply by Judy on -
Hey Rajeev and John - Happy New Year and thanks for the shout out. My take on your beginning blogger questions would be like Nike says, "just do it". There are as many ways to be a good Blogger as there are people. Don't do it if you know that you hate to write or question whether you have the discipline. Otherwise, go for it. You'll get better with experience and develop your own voice. Yes it's a commitment of time, but Blogging and Social Media Marketing is where the action is and will be for some time to come in real estate. Do begin with what's called "open source", like Wordpress, for your blog. I'd advise against Blogger as a professional, primary blog,but ok for secondary or personal blogs. The reason is that it's harder to optimize for the search engines. (My blog and all of my pages are www.mainlinepatoday.com not www.blog.mainlinepatoday.com or activerain.mainlinpatoday.com) No good if you can't be found, right? Jim Cronin at The Real Estate Tomato has a well planned training program and blog design service that helped me to hit the ground running. It's a investment of time and money. You'll want to offer IDX property search ASAP. Blogging is really fun! Mastering the art of lead conversion and blog placement are frustrating and aggravating IMHO. But listen to Jay...he's the expert! I'm still a newbie. HTH
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Permalink Reply by Rajeev Sajja on
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Judy - I talk about your blog in my blogging conversations with our agents. You are definitely someone that has incorporated blogging into your business plan.
In the age of the internet, it is very easy to observe the good blogs and learn and then dive in with proper training. I have been through the blogging bootcamp that Dakno Marketing puts out and is value for the money you put in.
Judy said:Hey Rajeev and John - Happy New Year and thanks for the shout out. My take on your beginning blogger questions would be like Nike says, "just do it". There are as many ways to be a good Blogger as there are people. Don't do it if you know that you hate to write or question whether you have the discipline. Otherwise, go for it. You'll get better with experience and develop your own voice. Yes it's a commitment of time, but Blogging and Social Media Marketing is where the action is and will be for some time to come in real estate. Do begin with what's called "open source", like Wordpress, for your blog. I'd advise against Blogger as a professional, primary blog,but ok for secondary or personal blogs. The reason is that it's harder to optimize for the search engines. (My blog and all of my pages are www.mainlinepatoday.com not www.blog.mainlinepatoday.com or activerain.mainlinpatoday.com) No good if you can't be found, right? Jim Cronin at The Real Estate Tomato has a well planned training program and blog design service that helped me to hit the ground running. It's a investment of time and money. You'll want to offer IDX property search ASAP. Blogging is really fun! Mastering the art of lead conversion and blog placement are frustrating and aggravating IMHO. But listen to Jay...he's the expert! I'm still a newbie. HTH
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Permalink Reply by Judy on
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Blog and Web Design 2.0 has moved away from designs that are all about the Realtor or what's known as "ego designs" and focused outward more on the needs of consumers. When I was doing my initial research, I was careful to leave a design Company Blog with some names and geographic locations and then plug them into Google, MSN and Yahoo to see how well they really placed in the search engines re: page rank, Alexa rank and compete rank. I also knew that I didn't want "canned" or template content. Many template website designs have become less effective lead generators.
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