Real Estate Blogging Q&A
© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.
Has the market slowed to a crawl in your area, because of the economy? Have a little extra time on your hands? Why not channel that extra time and energy into your real estate blogging efforts?
Right now, all across the United States, some smart agents are gearing up their websites for the next upswing in the economy. Sure, 2009 will probably be a slow year for most agents, but it's bound to start picking up beyond that. And those agents who prepare for it now will take the lion's share of business later on.
This is why I always stress the importance of a strong web presence. If you work hard to expand your website and increase your search engine ranking here in the present, you'll be primed for a steady stream of web traffic in the future. Real estate blogging is a great way to achieve these things. Start growing your blog now (by adding plenty of content, features, etc.), and you'll be thankful for the effort later on.
Need help getting started? Here are some real estate blogging FAQs you may find useful:
Q: What is a blog?
A blog is simply a content-management tool that makes it easy to publish information onto the web. Real estate blogs are typically arranged in reverse-chronological fashion, with the most recent entries up at the top.
Beyond that technical definition, a blog is also an opportunity for real estate agents to be more active online and to grow their websites -- without the need for web coding skills.
Q: What is blogging?
It is the act of publishing information through a blog. Real estate blogging has been around for several years, but it started to become extremely popular around 2006. Today, there are thousands of agents publishing blogs, all over the United States and beyond.
Q: How do blogs work?
A blog is designed to be operational immediately after you set it up. The features will vary depending on the blogging program you use, but most of them perform the same basic functions. To publish information onto your blog, you simply log in to the admin area, type your message into a box, and then click the "publish" button. Your blogging program does the rest. It will convert your plain text into HTML code so it can be displayed online. It will also render any formatting you've included, such as bold text, italics, hyperlinks, images, etc.
Q: How do real estate agents use blogs?
There are endless ways to use real estate blogging as a marketing / communications tool. I see new ideas and techniques all the time. Here are five good ideas to consider. You can use real estate blogging as a way to keep your audience informed about local events. You can use it to showcase properties by posting digital pictures and descriptions. You can use it as a Q&A tool. You can even use it to generate a steady stream of real estate leads to support your business.
Q: What are the benefits of blogging?
Publishing new content on a regular basis makes your website more relevant and useful. It also helps with search engine visibility, because you can add endless amounts of keyword-rich content. Real estate blogging can also become an online conversation between you and prospective clients, because blogs have a reader-commenting feature built right in.
There are also some intangible benefits that real estate blogging can deliver. For example, a blog can make people more inclined to trust you (and contact you) because it's a showcase of your knowledge and abilities.
Q: How do I start a real estate blog?
My advice is to get help from somebody who has launched one before. If you publish a real estate blog under the domain of the blogging company (as opposed to publishing it on your own web domain), things will be much easier. But I recommend putting the blog onto a web domain you own. In this case, you will need to install the blogging program onto your web server. This is where an experienced assistant will come in handy.
I recommend using either Blogger or WordPress for your real estate blogging ventures. Blogger is easier to install on your web server, and you never have to update it. WordPress offers a few more bells and whistles, but it's also trickier to install onto your web domain. This blog is published using the Blogger program. I also have a few that are powered by WordPress. I like them both, but for different reasons.
It doesn't matter to your audience what blogging program you use. All they care about is the quality and timeliness of the information on the blog. You might want to experiment with both of these programs to see which one suits you best.
Q: Where / how do I host my blog online?
You can publish a blog onto your existing website, if you prefer. This is the publishing method I recommend. For example, if your website is www.AgentBobSmith.com, you could create a sub-domain for your blog such as www.AgentBobSmith.com/blog.
To put a Blogger blog onto your website, you would choose the "Advanced Publishing" options when setting the blog up through their website. To put a WordPress blog onto your website, you would actually need to download the WordPress blogging program (for free) and then upload all of the files to your server. You can find plenty of tutorials online to help you through either option.
Q: What do I write about?
This will depend on your real estate blogging strategy. I recommend you spend some time developing a content plan, or at least putting some ideas on paper. There's no limit to the topics you can blog about. In fact, here are 21 content ideas to get you started.
Q: How do I promote my new blog?
I would wait until you have a good base of content before you start promoting your real estate blog. If people visit for the first time and see that you only have two or three entires, they might not be inclined to come back. But if they find dozens of blog entries, and the newest entry is only a day or two old, they'll be more likely to bookmark the blog and visit often.
I've always thought the best way to promote a real estate blog is by publishing great information on a regular basis. When you do this, people will begin to recommend your blog to others. You might even land an interview with your local news networks. This has happened to a couple of my clients.
You can also use online press releases to promote your new blog. But again, I recommend you focus on blogging for a while before you announce it with the world.
Do you have a real estate blogging question?
If you have a question that hasn't been addressed here, feel free to send it to me. I plan to expand this Q&A over time. Just type your question into the Q&A box at the top of this blog.
Right now, all across the United States, some smart agents are gearing up their websites for the next upswing in the economy. Sure, 2009 will probably be a slow year for most agents, but it's bound to start picking up beyond that. And those agents who prepare for it now will take the lion's share of business later on.
This is why I always stress the importance of a strong web presence. If you work hard to expand your website and increase your search engine ranking here in the present, you'll be primed for a steady stream of web traffic in the future. Real estate blogging is a great way to achieve these things. Start growing your blog now (by adding plenty of content, features, etc.), and you'll be thankful for the effort later on.
Need help getting started? Here are some real estate blogging FAQs you may find useful:
Q: What is a blog?
A blog is simply a content-management tool that makes it easy to publish information onto the web. Real estate blogs are typically arranged in reverse-chronological fashion, with the most recent entries up at the top.
Beyond that technical definition, a blog is also an opportunity for real estate agents to be more active online and to grow their websites -- without the need for web coding skills.
Q: What is blogging?
It is the act of publishing information through a blog. Real estate blogging has been around for several years, but it started to become extremely popular around 2006. Today, there are thousands of agents publishing blogs, all over the United States and beyond.
Q: How do blogs work?
A blog is designed to be operational immediately after you set it up. The features will vary depending on the blogging program you use, but most of them perform the same basic functions. To publish information onto your blog, you simply log in to the admin area, type your message into a box, and then click the "publish" button. Your blogging program does the rest. It will convert your plain text into HTML code so it can be displayed online. It will also render any formatting you've included, such as bold text, italics, hyperlinks, images, etc.
Q: How do real estate agents use blogs?
There are endless ways to use real estate blogging as a marketing / communications tool. I see new ideas and techniques all the time. Here are five good ideas to consider. You can use real estate blogging as a way to keep your audience informed about local events. You can use it to showcase properties by posting digital pictures and descriptions. You can use it as a Q&A tool. You can even use it to generate a steady stream of real estate leads to support your business.
Q: What are the benefits of blogging?
Publishing new content on a regular basis makes your website more relevant and useful. It also helps with search engine visibility, because you can add endless amounts of keyword-rich content. Real estate blogging can also become an online conversation between you and prospective clients, because blogs have a reader-commenting feature built right in.
There are also some intangible benefits that real estate blogging can deliver. For example, a blog can make people more inclined to trust you (and contact you) because it's a showcase of your knowledge and abilities.
Q: How do I start a real estate blog?
My advice is to get help from somebody who has launched one before. If you publish a real estate blog under the domain of the blogging company (as opposed to publishing it on your own web domain), things will be much easier. But I recommend putting the blog onto a web domain you own. In this case, you will need to install the blogging program onto your web server. This is where an experienced assistant will come in handy.
I recommend using either Blogger or WordPress for your real estate blogging ventures. Blogger is easier to install on your web server, and you never have to update it. WordPress offers a few more bells and whistles, but it's also trickier to install onto your web domain. This blog is published using the Blogger program. I also have a few that are powered by WordPress. I like them both, but for different reasons.
It doesn't matter to your audience what blogging program you use. All they care about is the quality and timeliness of the information on the blog. You might want to experiment with both of these programs to see which one suits you best.
Q: Where / how do I host my blog online?
You can publish a blog onto your existing website, if you prefer. This is the publishing method I recommend. For example, if your website is www.AgentBobSmith.com, you could create a sub-domain for your blog such as www.AgentBobSmith.com/blog.
To put a Blogger blog onto your website, you would choose the "Advanced Publishing" options when setting the blog up through their website. To put a WordPress blog onto your website, you would actually need to download the WordPress blogging program (for free) and then upload all of the files to your server. You can find plenty of tutorials online to help you through either option.
Q: What do I write about?
This will depend on your real estate blogging strategy. I recommend you spend some time developing a content plan, or at least putting some ideas on paper. There's no limit to the topics you can blog about. In fact, here are 21 content ideas to get you started.
Q: How do I promote my new blog?
I would wait until you have a good base of content before you start promoting your real estate blog. If people visit for the first time and see that you only have two or three entires, they might not be inclined to come back. But if they find dozens of blog entries, and the newest entry is only a day or two old, they'll be more likely to bookmark the blog and visit often.
I've always thought the best way to promote a real estate blog is by publishing great information on a regular basis. When you do this, people will begin to recommend your blog to others. You might even land an interview with your local news networks. This has happened to a couple of my clients.
You can also use online press releases to promote your new blog. But again, I recommend you focus on blogging for a while before you announce it with the world.
Do you have a real estate blogging question?
If you have a question that hasn't been addressed here, feel free to send it to me. I plan to expand this Q&A over time. Just type your question into the Q&A box at the top of this blog.
Labels: Real Estate Blogs
posted by Brandon at
2:25 PM
