Increase Your Blog Traffic with Real Estate Keyword Strategies

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Summary: Real estate blogs and search engine optimization (SEO) go hand in hand. In this lesson, I'll explain how you can increase your blog traffic with a little-known keyword strategy. It's an easy way to bring more local visitors / potential clients to your site.

I know a lot of real estate agents who spend countless hours trying to improve their Google rankings for leading search phrases. They choose the number-one search phrase for their geographical area, such as "Austin real estate," and then they focus all of their SEO efforts on that single phrase. It's a form of tunnel vision that is best avoided.

In this article, I'll explain how you can increase your website and blog traffic with a seldom-used (but highly effective) keyword strategy. But first, let's talk about the distinction between short-term and long-term SEO goals.

Long-Term SEO Strategies

Climbing to the top of search engines for the most popular keywords and phrases is a long-term SEO strategy. Sure, this kind of achievement can increase your blog traffic significantly. But it's also hard to achieve due to the high level of competition for such phrases. For example, a brand new agent in Richmond, Virginia will not earn first-page rankings for "Richmond real estate agent" for quite some time (if at all). It's a competitive search phrase, and there will already be hundreds of agents in that area vying for top position.

You should certainly include such high-traffic keywords in your website content plan, but it should be a long-term goal. In the meantime, here's what you can do to boost your blog traffic in the short term.

Don't Forget the Short-Term Approach

Many real estate agents don't realize just how many keywords and phrases can send qualified traffic to their websites. "Qualified" in this context means local folks who are researching the real estate market, either to buy or sell a home. Yes, many of these people will use the popular high-traffic phrases we talked about earlier. But just as many will use a variety of phrases that are less competitive -- and therefore easier to rank for in search engines.

For example, a lot of home buyers in Charlotte, North Carolina will do Internet searches for best areas to live in Charlotte and similar phrases. So if I were to develop some web content around that subject, I'd be able to "pull" those people into my real estate blog or website. And it would probably be fairly easy to do. Why? Because most agents are so focused on high-traffic phrases that they completely forget about the lower-traffic phrases. As a result, they neglect to write any web content around these phrases. So the traffic is there for the taking in many cases!

Keyword Strategies to Increase Blog Traffic

Specific keywords and phrases (like the "best places to live" example above) may not drive as much traffic as the generic real estate phases. But when you add them up, they can drive plenty of qualified visitors to your blog or website. That's why I recommend this as a blog strategy in particular -- it's easy to create new content through blogging. Using a real estate blog, you could write a page per day with very little effort.

Here are some keyword strategies you could use to increase your blog traffic over time:

• "Best places to live in [your city]"
• "Best areas to live in [your city]"
• General city data (population, economy, etc.)
  
• Reviews of popular neighborhoods in your area
• New construction / development
  
• Information about local schools
• A list of relocation resources (movers, utilities, etc.)
• Home values and home sales data for your area
• Foreclosure activity in your city
  
• Other real estate stats and trends with a local angle
• 21 additional ideas for blog content
  

All of these topics can help you attract local people who plan to buy or sell a house in the near future. In other words, they can attract prospective clients. This is a smart way to increase blog traffic in the short-term, while also working toward your long-term SEO goals.

Let's take a closer look at one of the items on this list -- neighborhoods. If you write a one-page overview of every major neighborhood in your city, you'll be able to pull in a lot of new traffic via the search engines. People will be able to find your blog by searching for each neighborhood individually, and also by doing a general search for "neighborhoods in [your town]." You can get information from the HOA website for each neighborhood, and then write up a report in your own words. It has to be original content, or it won't perform well in the search engines.

I recently started doing this for an Austin, Texas real estate website I own. I used WordTracker and Google's keyword tool to find out what neighborhood keywords and phrases people were searching. In the end, I had created a spreadsheet with about 25 neighborhoods on it. When combined, these phrases accounted for more than 150 searches per day through Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

By the time I finish blogging about all of these neighborhoods, I will increase my blog traffic significantly. Granted, I won't get all of those 150 searches per day -- there are plenty of other websites with information about these neighborhoods. But I'll get a big chunk of it.

You can use this same strategy to generate more traffic and leads online. It's perfectly suited for real estate blogs and websites, and there is no limit to how far you can take it.

How to Start a Blog Using WordPress

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Once in a while, I'll receive email questions in response to a blog post or tutorial I've written. When it comes to the topic of blogs, the most common question is this: "How do I create a blog using the WordPress blogging program?" So in this tutorial, I'm going to explain how you would start a blog using WordPress.

Why Use WordPress in the First Place?

I'm not going to tell you which blogging tool you should use. That's beyond the scope of this lesson. But I will tell you that WordPress is one of the more popular programs among bloggers these days. The Blogger program (owned by Google) and TypePad round out the top three, in terms of popularity and usage. Now, I use Blogger for this real estate marketing blog. But I also use WordPress on some of my other sites, including my refinance Q&A blog.

So for the sake of getting on with the lesson at hand, let me just say that WordPress is a fine choice for someone planning to start a blog. It's versatile enough to support any goal you might have in mind, and they update the program frequently to add new features.

Back to the question at hand. How do you start a blog using the WordPress program? In this article, I'm going to give you an overview of how the setup process works, as well as some tips for success. I won't publish the complete instructions for starting a blog with WordPress because those instructions are already online.

Creating a Blog With WordPress

The first thing you need to decide is where you want to publish your new blog. When using the WordPress system, you have two options. You can publish your blog on their web domain or your own domain. If you publish it under the WordPress domain, the installation is very simple ... because there is no installation.

But I always recommend that people publish the blog on their own website (if it's truly meant to be an extension of that website). And this will require instructions, because you'll actually be installing the WordPress program onto your own web domain. In other words, the following instructions will show you how to add a WordPress blog onto your existing website, such as the refinance blog I mentioned earlier.

Before we get started, let me offer one word of advice. If this sounds overly technical to you, don't worry. It's really not as complicated as it sounds, for someone who is familiar with the basics of web maintenance, file uploading, and that sort of thing. So if you know anyone who has even the most basic website publishing experience, they can probably help you with this. When I start a new blog using WordPress the setup process only takes about 5 or 6 minutes. So take it from me -- it's not as difficult as you might think.

Step 1. Download the WordPress Program

To start a blog with this program, you will actually download the entire program (files and scripts) and then upload them to your own website hosting account. So you need to start this whole process by downloading the most recent version of WordPress to your computer. You can do this by visiting the website below:
http://wordpress.org/download

Easy enough so far, right? Let's move on...

Step 2. Set Up a MySQL database

You will need to set up a MySQL database on your web hosting account. WordPress will actually run on this database, so you can't proceed without it. This is where your web designer or resident I.T. person can help you. This is another one of those areas that sound harder than they really are. For instance, I use GoDaddy as the web host for most of my websites, and I know that they (and many other hosting companies) offer a way to create a database at the click of a button.

When you create the database, or have it created for you, you'll need to take note of a few items. You need to write down the database's user name and password, the name of the database itself, and the local host address. You may or may not need that last item, depending on your web host. But you'll definitely need the database name, user name and password.

Step 3. Modify Your "Config" File

After you download all of the WordPress files, open the folder and look at what's inside. You will see a file named "wp-config-sample.php" ... as seen in the image below.



This is the only file you need to edit before uploading and using the WordPress program on your website. Let me say that again. You must make some changes to the "wp-config" file before you run the WordPress system on your website.

Open up the file and look at the code up top. You'll see where you need to add the MySQL database information -- name, user name, password and (possibly) the local host address. The image below shows the code I'm referring to. Again, this is the only file that needs to be edited before uploading the WordPress files to your web host, and the lines outlined below are the only parts of the file that need to be edited.



As is says in the image above, there's a chance you won't have to change the line of code for database host (DB Host). If you use GoDaddy for your web hosting, you will have to change this line of code as well. When you set up your MySQL database through GoDaddy, their system will give you the host address that needs to go here. It will probably end in "secureserver.net" or something similar.

Step 4. Change the Name of the "Config" File

After you have made the simple edits listed above, you can rename the "config" file by removing the sample part at the end. So the new file name becomes "wp-config.php" after you rename it. This is all you have to do before uploading the files and using the WordPress blog on your site.

Step 5. Upload the WordPress Files to Your Web Host

Now that you've made the necessary changes to the program files, you can upload them to your web hosting account. First, you should figure out what you want the web address of your blog to be. For example, if I want to start a new blog on this website under the domain www.ArmingYourFarming.com/newblog ... I'll have to create a sub-directory folder by the name "newblog." Then I would upload the contents of the WordPress folder from my computer to this new sub-folder (using a file transfer / FTP program).

Step 6. Run the Install Script

This is the last thing you need to do before using the WordPress blog program. This will be the final diagnostic and installation step that's needed to get the blog up and running. All you have to do is visit http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php (with "example.com" being the web domain where you put the WordPress files. If you put them into a sub-directory folder named "myblog" then you would visit the install page at http://www.example.com/myblog/wp-admin/install.php ... you get the idea.

So let's sum up the steps you've taken to start a new blog using the WordPress blogging program:

• You downloaded the WordPress program to your computer.
• You created a MySQL database to power your new blog.
• You edited the "config" file to include the login info for the MySQL database.
• You renamed the "config" file by chopping off the "sample" part at the end.
• You uploaded all of the files into the appropriate place on your hosting account.
• You ran the installation script, as described under Step 6 above.
• And if you did everything correctly, you can start using WordPress to blog!

So what's next? For one thing, you probably want to customize your new blog. And, of course, you'll need to start adding quality content on a regular basis -- because that's what blogging is all about.

Customization and Content

One of the great things about using WordPress is that you change the design simply by uploading a new "theme." This refers to the style and template files used to create your blog's design. Whether you realized it or not at the time, you actually uploaded the "themes" folder when going through the installation process outlined above. So you can change your blog's look and feel simply by uploading new themes, and then selecting those themes from within the WordPress control panel.

Also, if you have a webmaster or somebody who is familiar with HTML web code, you can customize your blog's design as much as you need to. Even if you start with a theme / template that other people are using, you can make it truly unique by changing the logo, colors, etc.

Of course, the most important aspect of your new WordPress blog is the content you put on it. You could have the best-looking blog around, but nobody will care if it lacks quality content. This is another topic entirely, and you can learn all about it below:

• 21 Content Ideas for Your Real Estate Blog
• Web Conent Writing Made Easy

So there you have it. Nearly everything you need to know in order to start a blog using the WordPress blogging program. I know it seems like a lot of information, but it's fairly simple for somebody who is familiar with websites and web publishing. So if you really want to use WordPress on your website, but the information presented above sounds like Greek to you, then get somebody to help you.

Your Blog Marketing Plan - 5 Key Steps

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Article Summary: Your blog marketing campaign will deliver the best results if you plan for success right from the start. Here's how to go about it the right way.

If you have not yet joined the business blogging world, but you are eager to do so, this blog marketing plan will help you navigate the long road ahead of you. In fact, it might even help you shorten that road by focusing your energy on the proven techniques for success.

So without further ado, here's how to take your blog marketing program from zero to popular in 60 days or less:

The Path to Blog Marketing Success

This tutorial assumes that you are truly starting at ground zero (hence the title). In other words, it assumes you do not currently have a blog or know very much about them. If that's truly the case, start right here with step 1. If you've already been blogging for a while, and you simply want some tips for blog marketing success, feel free to skip ahead.

Step 1 -- Launch Your Blog (Of Course)

Some people love to argue over which blogging program is best, and for what reasons. Let me spare you a journey into this opinionated abyss by saying this. What you use to power your marketing blog is not nearly as important as the quality of information you publish through the blog. Your readers will not care what program you are using, as long as the blog is easy to navigate and read, and worth reading in the first place.

With that in mind, I recommend that you use either Blogger or WordPress to power your marketing blog.

• Blogger (owned by Google) is easier to get started with. It's an external publishing tool, meaning you will go to Blogger.com to log in to the control panel. Once logged in, however, you can adjust the settings to that the blog is published onto your own website. This Internet marketing blog is an example of what I'm talking about. I use Blogger to power this blog, and I have it set up to publish the content onto a sub-domain of my website (see website URL above).
• WordPress has more bells and whistles, but it's harder to get started with if you want to publish your marketing blog on your own web domain. Unlike Blogger, WordPress is a self-contained publishing system, which means you will need to download all of the program files and upload them onto your web domain.

Here's the good news. You can experiment with both of these blogging programs to see which one you like best, before installing anything onto your own domain. Go to WordPress.com and Blogger.com to set up a free blog on their hosting domains. Then you can play around with the features to see which publishing platform you prefer.

Step 2 -- Create a Content Plan

Long before you get to the outward aspects of a blog marketing program, you need to look inward and figure out what you should be writing about. What are your blogging goals? What do you hope to accomplish with your business blog? Who is your intended audience, and what information do they seek? These questions will help you identify the most important topics for your blog.

It's also a good idea to do some keyword research to see what kinds of relevant phrases people are searching through Google, Yahoo and other search engines. This is an important step for any blog marketing program, because it will partly determine the kind of search engine visibility and traffic you get. I recommend making a list of the top 50 phrases people are searching -- phrases that are directly related to your products, services and business goals. Put them into a spreadsheet for easy management.

Now that you've done some soul searching and some keyword research, you can start listing the topics you plan to blog about. It's not a rigid plan you have to slavishly follow. It's just a helpful document to give you guidance as you sit down to create a new blog post.

Step 3 -- Start Publishing Great Content

Before you start marketing your blog to the world, you should spend some time developing your content. Fortunately, blogging programs make this easy for you. If you can type an email, you can publish content through a blog. It has the same level of simplicity, so there's no reason you can't publish new information once a day, or every other day.

This is where your blog content plan comes into play. Refer to that document often for blogging ideas, and don't be afraid to deviate from your plan and write what comes to mind. Sometimes the best blog entries are the ones you never saw coming -- those ideas that just "flash" out of nowhere. So embrace them when they come.

Here's what you should take away from this step. There's no point in launching a blog marketing campaign until you have plenty of great content. In other words, you need to have a business blog worth visiting before you go out in search of visitors.

Step 4 -- Announce the Blog Through Relevant Channels

If you've been working hard on your content for several weeks, and you feel your blog is a valuable resource that people will like, you should start promoting it through relevant channels. Find other websites related to the topic you're blogging about, and email them about your blog. Explain why their readers / visitors would find your blog useful. Some of them will ignore you -- that's just a fact of life. But others will be happy to recommend your blog, especially if you've worked hard to make it a valuable resource.

While we are talking about resources, let me stress the importance of this. Your blog marketing plan will be far more successful if you strive to create the kind of blog that provides real value to readers. The best business bloggers realize that it's all about the audience, and giving them what they want. So they do exactly that -- they create content that helps their readers achieve a certain goal.

Step 5 -- Start Networking With Others

Blogging is part of the new "social" Internet experience. As a result, most business bloggers are eager and willing to connect with others online. By reaching out to other blog publishers, you can develop the kind of mutual relationship that benefits all parties involved. In the process, you can benefit from more search engine visibility, more traffic to your blog, and a greater degree of interaction and participation.

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.

21 Content Ideas for Your Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Have you been publishing a real estate blog for a while? If so, there's a good chance you've fallen victim to a condition known as content staleness. It happens to the best of us. After a while, you run out of things to blog about and your content becomes stale as a result.

Or worse, you stop blogging altogether. You throw up your hands in frustration and say, "The heck with it. What's the point? I'm tapped out. I have no blogging ideas left in me."

But then you remember the many benefits of publishing a real estate blog. You remember that it adds value and freshness to your website ... that it helps to engage your readers and move them toward contacting you ... that it helps you improve your search engine traffic, etc. So you regroup and decide to start blogging on a regular basis again.

Then you sit down in front of the computer. You log into your blog account. And you stare at a blank post. Nothing comes to you. Ideas evade you. The cursor blinks in a white field of nothing, as if to mock you.

You are, quite simply, stuck.

Blog Content Ideas for Real Estate Bloggers

Here is your key to getting unstuck. Bookmark this page, or print it out for future reference. Come back to it often for blogging ideas. If you do, you'll never be at a loss for blog content ideas, and your real estate blog will thrive as a result.

Here are 21 ideas for adding fresh new content to your blog on a regular basis. In doing so, you 'll also be improving your search engine rankings, traffic levels, readership, lead generation, and overall marketing success.

1. Repurpose your email content. Think of all the questions you have answered for your clients through email. Each one of those could serve as a blog post, perhaps with a minor amount of expansion. Why delete your old emails when you can use them for real estate blog content?
2. Blog about current events and how they relate to your readers. Do you primarily help buyers? Then use your blog to help them make sense of the current economic crisis, as it applies to home buying. Thus, your real estate blog becomes a valuable resource.
   
3. Use a keyword research tool such as WordTracker to identify real estate topics that pertain to your market area. This research will show you exactly what your target audience is typing into the search engines each day. Your list of phrases can serve as a content plan for your real estate blogging efforts.
   
4. Let your readers dictate your blog content. Reader-driven content is the purest essence of Internet publishing. You can even put an "Ask a Question" box onto the side of your blog, like the one I have on this blog. You'll never be at a loss for blogging ideas if people keep sending them to you!
5. Create a content series such as "21 steps to buying a home," where each item in the series serves as an individual post / article. Take this series of tips for example. Instead of compiling these content ideas into one blog post, I could have turned each one into a separate post. By the time I finished the series, I would have had 21 pages of new content. Here's an example of where I did exactly that.
   
6. Here's another idea for a blog content series. Create a list of reasons to buy real estate in your city or town. Example series: "50 Reasons to Buy Real Estate in Sarasota." Each reason is a separate blog post. You don't have to know them all in advance ... just identify (and write about them) as you go along. One reason per day.
   
7. Another idea for a content series. 50 little-known facts about your city. 25 questions to ask your agent about buying real estate in your city. 15 things to understand about the current economy. Once you have a plan, the blog material practically writes itself.
8. Get out a piece of paper and brainstorm. Right down your city name (or cities) along with the word "real estate." Jot down relevant topics that come to mind. Blog about the home prices in your area, as they compare to other parts of the country. Blog about the local schools or neighborhoods. You get the point.
   
9. Set up some Google alerts for real estate phrases related to your city. When news breaks online about your chosen topic (press releases, news articles, etc.), Google will send you an email with links to the source. Hello, endless stream of blogging ideas!
10. Follow the media. Nothing drives Internet search patterns like the mass media, particularly the television news channels. So if you keep pace with real estate-related news topics and address those topics on your blog, you stand to gain more traffic and visibility.
11. Blog about real estate developments in your area, such as new neighborhoods being built. If you "get in early" with your blog content, people will easily find your blog when doing Google searches for the name of the new neighborhood. And thus, they will have found you as well.
12. Blog about new homes listed in the area. This is a modern, web-based take on the "Just Listed" postcards that real estate agents have used for decades. You could even make your blog the place to go for information on new homes. Break out your digital camera and get to it!
13. Do profiles on local home builders, with their permission and involvement.
14. Invite guest authors to contribute to your blog, such as builders, home inspectors, mortgage folks, etc. You can motivate your guest authors by explaining the value they get out of it (free exposure).
    
15. As a twist on the content idea above, you could even create a multi-author real estate blog focused on your city. It would be a joint effort between you and other motivated people who realize the value of Internet visibility.
16. Explain the pros and cons of some real estate-related topic. Maybe the pros and cons of certain types of mortgages, the pros and cons of different neighborhoods in your area, the pros and cons of renting versus buying ... you get the idea.
    
17. Create a second blog with a different angle from your current one. For example, create a lifestyle blog that covers a broader range of topics for your area (in addition to real estate topics). Of course, you would feature your real estate services in the main menu area. Two popular blogs are better than one! Twice the traffic, twice the exposure, and -- ultimately -- twice the business.
18. Use our Free Articles Center to add some quality real estate articles to your blog. You could publish one article a week, in addition to your own blogging efforts, to increase the value and usefulness of your blog.
19. Use testimonials as blogging material (with the client's permission of course). To take this a step further, you could even...
20. Do client profiles / success stories on your blog. Each time you complete a transaction with a client, have them share their story through your blog. This will add more life and credibility to your testimonials. It will turn them into real-life stories of real estate success.
21. If you have a steady stream of traffic to your blog, you could conduct surveys for reader interaction. There are a lot of free online survey programs available these days, such as Survey Monkey.
    

I will add to this list of content ideas over time. But I think we can all agree -- there are enough ideas on this list to keep you blogging steadily (and effectively) for a long, long time. Good luck.

Real Estate Blogging for a Better Image

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

What does the general public think of those in the real estate profession? Ask 50 different people this question, and you'll probably get 50 different answers. In truth, it's hard to roll the perceptions of so many into such a simple assessment.

But it's not hard to find the negativity:

John Tuccillo, former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors(r), was quoted as saying: "With the expansion of the number of Realtors, the level of competence has fallen to its lowest point ever."

In 2006, a consumer poll by the global research company Harris Interactive ranked various occupations by how prestigious consumers thought they were. Real estate agents were at the bottom of the "prestige scale."

Hey, don't shoot the messenger! I'm just reporting what I found on this subject. But it's not the point of this article to support or refute any of these perceptions. They are what they are. So let us simply agree that real estate agents -- like any other service professionals for that matter -- can benefit from inspiring a higher level of consumer confidence.

How Real Estate Blogging Can Help

I would like to offer a suggestion toward the above-stated goal. Blogging. That's right, publishing a blog. Based on my experience over the years, real estate agents can build trust and improve consumer perception by doing the following:

• Publishing quality information online
• Doing it on a regular basis
• Engaging in a dialogue with their readers
• Showing some personality
• Demonstrating their professional skills and talents

And what better tool to accomplish these things than a blog? Now, I'm not going to tell you that a real estate blog will perform some act of magic and transform the public's perception of you overnight. In fact, I'm not even saying you need to change public perception at all. I don't know anything about you. As an agent, you could be doing just fine in this department.

But I will tell you this. Any real estate professional can benefit from demonstrating knowledge, skills and competence, and a real estate blog can help you do exactly that.

Think about it from a consumer's perspective. If somebody visits your website only to find the standard resume or bio page, they really haven't gotten to know you at all. But if they find your blog -- and you've done a good job blogging in your natural voice, and on a regular basis -- then the reader will feel almost as if they know you. As a result, they'll also be more likely to contact you about your services.

Of course, there are many other advantages to publishing a real estate blog. You can use it to start a dialogue with your visitors (through the comment feature). You can use it to keep people informed about your local housing market. You can use it to boost your search engine traffic by publishing keyword-rich content on a regular basis. The benefits of blogging are nearly endless. So why not start a blog today?

Starting a real estate blog is fairly straightforward. Of course, it's easy for me to say that because I've created many blogs for clients over the years. For some, it can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. If you want to get your blog up and running fast, and it you want a custom design that matches your website, check out our blog setup services.

5 Ways to Use Your Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Blogs are an excellent tool for publishing information online. Blog software programs are versatile, flexible, easy to install and easy to use. As a result, professionals in many industries have started blogging in creative and effective ways to support their business.

Real estate agents have also found many creative uses for the blog. So I would like to fuel this by offering a few ideas of my own. Here are just a few of the ways you could use a real estate blog to support your business:

1. Blog = Timely Market Updates

By their very nature, blogs are perfectly suited to publish new information on a regular basis. You simply type your information like you would type an email, add whatever images or links you want, and click the "Publish" button. The blog does everything else, and within seconds your information is live on the web.

This is why a lot of smart real estate agents use blogging programs in the first place. They know that home buyers and sellers want fresh information about the local housing market. So these web-savvy agents will use their real estate blogs to share information about new homes for sale in the area, new neighborhoods being developed, etc.

2. Blog = Client Information Portal

You could create separate sections of your real estate blog for each of your clients, and password-protect them for privacy. This would allow you to keep a running tally of email communications, notes and updates about the status of their purchase or sale.

If the client wanted to get an update on their transaction, or review previous correspondence, he or she could simply click a link everyday and see your notes and instructions. Or you could be proactive and send the client a link by email each day. In this scenario, the blog becomes an easy-to-manage online reference tool.

3. Blog = Relocation Advice and Support

You could create a real estate blog specifically for people relocating to your area from out of town or state, and keep them informed on local real estate news / conditions. In fact, because a real estate blog is so quick and easy to set up, you could create a separate blog entirely for this purpose.

This would be especially useful if you live in an area with a high rate of buyer influx. For example, here in the Austin area, there are quite a few people moving in from California. If I were an Austin agent I would have a blog that catered to California relos!

4. Blog = Intranet or Collaboration Tool

You could use a real estate blog internally as a collaboration or note-sharing tool between yourself and other agents (or mortgage professionals, etc.). Like any other type of website publishing system, a blog can be put behind a firewall for privacy, thus allowing it to function as an intranet within your company. In this scenario, the blog becomes an easy-to-manage collaboration and project management tool.

5. Blog = Real Estate News Source

You could launch a blog on an entirely separate web domain (from your agent website) and manage it like a real estate news website. You could give it a name like the "Raleigh Realty Weekly," or whatever is relevant to your city and specialty. You could invite guest writers to publish information onto the news blog -- home inspectors, mortgage brokers, staging experts, etc.

This approach would actually benefit you in several ways. For one thing, you would give people another way to find you online, by having two websites instead of one. A real estate news blog could also serve as a networking tool between yourself and others in related industries. Lastly, the news blog would be a big credential for you! Few agents in your area would be able to say, "Jane is also the publisher of the Dallas Real Estate Review..."

I hope this article has opened your eyes to the possibilities inherent within blogs. Not all of these ideas will be right for you, but one of them may be. More importantly, these five points will fuel your imagination about the endless possibilities of blogging. Good luck.

For more great tips on this subject, check out the Real Estate Blog Alphabet -- an online tutorial that you can also download for free in e-book format!

Home Buying Buttons for Your Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

If you like to add helpful buttons to your real estate blog, then you'll be glad to know we have created some "Home Buying 101" buttons for your use. Get your buttons here.



These buttons will add value to your blog by allowing visitors to get home buying advice at the click of a button. The links are set up to open the Home Buying Institute website in a new browser window -- that way, your visitors will stay on your site while also gaining access to the home buying information.

If you click the button image above, you'll find some simple instructions for adding them to your real estate blog. But if you have questions, just send an email to brandon@armingyourfarming.com.

I hope you find the buttons useful.

Free E-Book on Real Estate Blogging

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

I finished the blog series entitled "The Real Estate Blog Alphabet," and I've recently compiled the series into an e-book that you can download for free.

You download it here

Here's the press release about the book:

The number of real estate blogs has increased exponentially in the last five years. This means that the individual agent who uses a real estate blog must work harder to distinguish that blog from others within the same market area. A real estate marketing company recently published a free e-book that shows agents how to do exactly that.

The “Real Estate Blog Alphabet,” as it’s called, began as a series of posts on the popular real estate marketing blog of Brandon Cornett, owner of ArmingYourFarming.com. The blog series quickly expanded, became popular among real estate agents, and evolved into an e-book format for easy reading. The price tag — free.

Author Brandon Cornett explained his motivations for creating the blog series and the e-book that goes with it:

“I created the alphabet to compile what I feel are the 26 most important benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog for marketing purposes. After finishing all of the A-through-Z entries, I wanted to make the information more accessible to agents, so I converted the blog series into a free e-book.”

The Real Estate Blog Alphabet offers one blogging tip for each letter of the alphabet, hence the title, and also provides a list of blogging resources at the end of the book.

About the Book and Author:
Brandon Cornett is a real estate marketing specialist and veteran blogger. He is also the founder of the real estate marketing website ArmingYourFarming.com, which has been educating real estate agents since 2004. Brandon also provides Internet marketing services to real estate agents who wish to capture more business from the Web.

To read the rest of the Real Estate Blog Alphabet, or to download your copy of the free e-book version, please visit:
http://www.armingyourfarming.com/knowledge/article63.php

Inject Energy Into Your Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This is the final post of the real estate blog alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog. This blog series will soon be compiled into a free e-book that you can download from our site.

'Z' is for Zippy

The dictionary defines zippy as "lively and full of energy." I can think of no better traits to apply to your real estate blog. Here's why.

Have you ever been to a business website that literally bored you into hitting the "Back" button? You know the kind of language I'm referring to ... "Our scalable solutions will help you leverage your companies true potential ... blah, blah ... pedantic pomposity, etc. etc."

Well, consumers have the same reaction toward real estate blogs. A real estate blog that is stuffy, pompous, dry or dull will repel readers -- even if it has information they might otherwise have found useful.

When I say to be "zippy" with your real estate blog, I'm not telling you to be artificial or annoying (like a waiter at Applebee's). I'm telling you to have some energy, passion and -- yes -- even some fun with your blogging. You can educate people about your local real estate scene without being boring.

Dull real estate blogs do not get people talking. Nor do they excite or motivate anyone into action. Thus, a boring blog is doomed to failure from the start.

I must caution you on something though. The first thing you have to do is create a high-value blog full of useful content (property listings, home photos, market updates, community news). Once you have that kind of real estate blog, you can inject the personality to make it memorable and enjoyable -- since it will already be useful and informative.

Show People Who's Behind Your Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blog alphabet, which offers 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'Y' is for Yours

Whether you choose to manage your blog alone, or you invite a team of bloggers to collaborate with you, make sure you have author information somewhere. Aside from the obvious, here's why...

Blogs tend to be associated with an individual author (or several authors), as opposed to a faceless company who hides behind pronouns like "we" and "us." The same goes for real estate blogs. This is why -- right now, at least -- blogs enjoy more popularity than "plain old" websites.

After decades of corporate standoffishness (is that a word?), the general public sees business blogs as a refreshing change of pace.

When you step up and "own" your real estate blog, people will be more inclined to trust both the blog's content and you as a person. And let's call a spade a spade here ... real estate agents, like many service professionals, can benefit from a little extra dose of public trust.

The first step is to create a high-quality blog that is worth the time it takes for people to read it. Without this first "step," everything else is a wash. The second step is to make it clear who is publishing the blog, and how that author is also qualified to help readers.

The first step (quality content) takes some work. But the second step (tying the real estate blog to the author) is quite simple. Just put a small thumbnail photo of yourself in the blog's menu bar, with a link that says something like "Meet the author."

While you're at it, you might want to create a highly visible "Contact me" button as well. That, combined with your smiling mug, will help you capture a few extra leads per week ... provided that you have some blog traffic.

Expanding Your Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate real estate blogging alphabet -- 26 best practices and benefits of using a blog for real estate marketing purposes.

'X' is for Xstensible

Okay, so I cheated with this particular letter of the blogging alphabet. But a real estate blog truly is extensible and expandable (and you try to find a decent adjective that starts with the letter 'X').

I've spoken to quite a few real estate agents who were leery of starting a blog for the same reason -- they thought they would be "stuck" publishing it a certain way. "What if I decide to change the format or purpose of the blog down the road," these agents wanted to know. "Will I have to start over and recreate the whole blog."

In a word, no.

Blog programs, by their very nature, are designed to be easily expandable / extensible. They are designed to allow the addition of new features at a later date (an exact dictionary definition of "extensible.")

All blogging programs can be expanded, modified, extended and customized. Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, etc. This blog is powered by Blogger, by the way.

My SEO blog for agents is an example of WordPress customization. This blog has been customized to display only a summary of each article on the home page (as opposed to the full articles, which was the default setting). And I have total control over how long the summaries should be, how they should look, etc.

Expanding a Real Estate Blog

So let's say you start out using your real estate blog for one particular purpose, such as home buyer advice. But then later, you decide to create a news channel as well, covering local happenings that are somehow related to real estate. You could do this simply by adding a category for the news stories and incorporating "News" into your main menu.

Actually, you could go about this in many ways, depending on what suits you the best. The point it, your real estate blog can support just about any type of configuration you can imagine. They are designed to be modified, customized, extended, expanded, and otherwise "tricked out."

Real Estate Blogging Wisdom and Public Perception

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blogging alphabet, which offers 26 benefits and best practices of using a blog for marketing purposes.

'W' is for Wise

Previously in this blog series, we talked about the authority that can be gained from a well-planned and properly executed real estate blog. It's worth restating in this post, albeit in a slightly different way.

Real Estate Blog Wisdom

Everyone knows that real estate is a knowledge-based industry. You are not selling products. You are selling your professional insight and experience (hopefully), which can help your clients buy or sell their homes.

Real estate is much like the legal profession in this way. People seek lawyers for their professional knowledge and guidance -- the same characteristics that make people pursue and hire real estate agents.

You can use your real estate blog to demonstrate your professional wisdom in a number of ways. For example, simply by covering your local real estate scene through your blog, you will automatically position yourself as an agent who is on top of things.

But you can go beyond this, if you choose...

For example, you could use your real estate blog to position yourself as the foremost expert in your niche. Do you focus on first-time home buyers? Seniors who are downsizing? Condo buyers? Luxury home sellers? Whatever your niche, you can use your blog to develop yourself as THE agent to go to for that particular field.

Think about the professional websites you visit frequently ... the ones you go back to time and time again for advice on marketing, customer service, or other business topics. What is it about these websites that keeps you coming back? How can you do the same with your real estate blog? The answer is there. You just have to look for it.

Do You Really Want to Blog?

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blog alphabet, which provides twenty-six benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'V' is for Voluntary

The number-one reason to start a real estate blog should be because you want to. If you start a blog for any other reason, you will find you lack the motivation needed to make your blog a success.

Of course, there can be many additional reasons for starting a real estate blog -- such as brand building, lead generation and search engine visibility. But the primary reason should be a good-old-fashioned desire to write / blog / educate / communicate!

I publish several blogs, and I have set up countless blogs for friends, clients and colleagues. I've seen more than my fair share of blogging scenarios, so let me make you this guarantee based on that experience. If you start a real estate blog just because everyone else is doing it, your blog will lack the heartfelt enthusiasm that's a trademark of popular blogs. Blogging will become a chore in your mind, as opposed to something you look forward to.

And then this happens...

• You find yourself putting it off. "Oh, I'll get back to it next week."
• Then your blog begins to become outdated and stale.
• Then it becomes a big hurdle in your mind, a source of procrastination.
• Then you abandon the blog altogether. "Yeah, I have a blog. But I haven't really done anything with it. I don't even remember the password for logging in."

On the other hand, if you meet the number-one blogging criteria of desire, something like this happens...

• You find yourself eager to log in and post to your blog each day.
• Your blog becomes a timely resource for readers.
• Before you know it, your blog is large, informative and popular.
• People begin recommending your blog to others, useful as it is.
• An online conversation begins to unfold, and before you know it your real estate blog has begun to produce a regular stream of leads.

Which of the above scenarios you experience will depend on whether or not you really want to blog.

Is Your Real Estate Blog Easy to Use?

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blogging alphabet, a list of 26 best practices and benefits of using a real estate blog.

'U' is for Usable

It's a fact of Internet marketing that website usability direct affects website success in general. And the same fact applies to real estate blogs.

• If your blog is easy for people to use (read, navigate, search, etc.), then you'll have better success with reader interaction and lead generation.
• On the other hand, if your blog is difficult to use, you will severely undercut your chances for real estate blogging success.

Real Estate Blogs and Clutter

When you first set up your blog, it will be straightforward and easy to use. Most blogging programs are designed this way "out of the box." But the more you learn about blogging, you more tempted you will be to clutter up your blog with all those nifty (but often unnecessary) plugins, add-ons, and bells and whistles.

My recommendations are three-fold:

1. First, don't add anything to your blog that does not (A) improve the user's experience, (B) support your primary marketing goal, or (C) a combination of the two. If you start adding junk to your blog just because you can, you will do grave injury to your blog's usability.
2. Secondly, have a friend or colleague check out your blog and ask their honest opinion about things like neatness, organization, usability and purpose.
3. Lastly, don't assume people are going to hunt for the things you want them to find. If there is an item (or items) that you really want people to find, such as listing info, then give it prominence on your real estate blog and demote everything else.

Remember, your online audience is highly skilled at hopping from one website to another while gathering information. You want to create the kind of real estate blog that they land on and stay for a while ... not the kind of blog that they quickly hop away from. Quality of content is a big part of this, but blog usability is just as important.

Related article: Blog Usability Increases Readership

The Real Estate Blogging Thought-Process

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blog alphabet, which offers 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'T' is for Thoughtful

It's time to put on your thinking cap. (Did your elementary school teachers say that too?) But seriously, we are going to think long and hard about real estate blogging for a moment here.

Why?

Because the more thought you put into your real estate blog, the more effective your blog will be. By "effective," I mean better content, more visitors, and greater overall success. You can achieve these things with your real estate blog, but it's going to require some thought.

Here are some key areas of blogging that require careful thought:

1. The Blog's Purpose - Earlier in this series on real estate blogging, we talked about creating a purpose for your blog. This is one of the first occasions where you'll have to don your "thinking cap" for some careful consideration.

2. The Blog's Audience - In the early days of your real estate blog, you will be writing to an audience of one (yourself). Then your friends and colleagues will pop in. Then the search engines will get wind of it. And before you know it, your audience has grown beyond your expectations. But always remember who your core audience is. Who are you writing to? How can you help them? What do they want and need to know?

3. The Content Plan - It always helps to have a content plan to keep yourself on track. You should think about this in the early days of your blog, as it will make things much easier as you move forward. How often will you publish? What topics / blog categories will you cover on a regular basis? Will you allow guest articles and collaboration? Answer these content questions as early on as possible.

4. The Individual Blog Post - Some agents think of their real estate blog in purely holistic terms, considering the entire blog as once entity. But when you do this, you devalue and de-emphasize the individual blog posts. You have to remember that people could enter your blog from one of many entry points -- not always the main page. So each blog post should stand on its own as a single unit, in addition to reinforcing the blog as a whole. Give thought to each and every blog post you create.

A Straight-Shooting Blog is Best

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blog alphabet, which offers 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'S' is for Straight-shooting

I'd like to ask you to step outside your own shoes for a moment. Imagine that you are a home buyer in San Diego, California (since I don't know your actual city).

One day, while researching the local real estate scene, you come across two real estate blogs published by local agents:

• The first blog offers biographical information about the agent, some generic articles about the home buying process, and little else.
• The second real estate blog showcases current homes on the market, offers information on new neighborhoods being built, and provides useful lists of local mortgage professionals and home inspectors.

As a home buyer, which real estate blog would you be more likely to bookmark, revisit and recommend to others?

If you're like most people, you'd favor the second blog. Why? Because it's a straight-shooting real estate blog full of useful information relevant to your area -- not rambling bios, generic home buying tips, or other "fluff."

The truth is, nobody can say for certain what all home buyers or sellers do online, or how they behave. But when you've observed the behavior of people conducting online real estate research as long as I have, you begin to accept certain realities. One of those realities is that a straight-shooting real estate blog that focuses on useful content will outperform all other blogs in the same market area.

How to Recycle Your Blog Content

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blogging alphabet, which offers 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'R' is for Recyclable

Another great thing about using a real estate blog is that you can recycle your blog content for other purposes, and vice versa. A few years ago, as a marketing writer for a direct mail company, I quickly learned that you never use a written piece only once. You can "recycle" quality content to get more out of your writing efforts.

You can apply this lesson to your real estate blog in a number of ways. Here are some techniques for reusing blog content for other channels, and vice versa.

• You could use email content for blog posts. Think of all the content contained within your business emails -- all the questions you answer, all the information you provide. Why not recycle that into blog content? Perhaps you could use it for a steady stream of real estate Q&A blog posts.
• You could compile some of your blog posts, or maybe just expand on particular post, into a full-article length. Then you could publish this article online for additional website traffic, exposure and search engine benefits.
• You could convert blog posts into material for an online press release ... or publish your online press release onto your blog.

These are just a few ideas of the top of my head. I'm sure you can think of more ways to recycle content from your real estate blog. The end result of this is more exposure, more visibility, more potential web traffic ... and all with less effort!

Quality and Quantity of the Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blog alphabet, which offers 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'Q' is for Qualitative ... and Quantitative

If you publish useful and timely content to your real estate blog, and you do it consistently over a period of time, it will have both a qualitative and quantitative effect.

The Quantitative - The sheer quantity of content you produce will benefit you in several ways. First, it will help you rank higher in search engines, and will help you appear in more searches for a broader range of phrases. If your real estate blog has hundreds of posts / pages of content over time, you will be casting your SEO net much further than with a static 10-page website. The size of a website is also one of the top-three ranking factors for most search engines.

[Accomplishment: search engine visibility]

The Qualitative - The quality of content you produce through your blog will also help you in a number of ways. For one thing, it will help you establish your expertise on the subject(s) your blog covers. It will also keep people on your website / blog longer. Some agents say, "All people want is house photos when visiting a website." But this is shortsighted. Sure they want to see listing photos. But they also want to research the market, and the useful and timely information on your real estate blog can deliver.

[Accomplishment: potential lead generation]

Tips for Real Estate Blog "Q&Q"

So now you know the quality and quantity benefits of using a real estate blog. Here are some tips to help you maximize each of those benefits:

To Produce Quantity:
Create a content plan for blog writing success and simplicity. Set up Google Alerts so you have a constant stream of blogging ideas. Make a publishing schedule for yourself, and follow it as closely as possible. Try to blog regularly ... at least three times a week.

To Produce Quality:
Make sure each of your blog posts can stand alone from a quality information perspective. These posts are part of a larger whole, but each post should also bring value to the reader on an individual basis. When you've completed a blog post, ask yourself: "Does this blog post help the reader in some way?" If not, consider expanding or revising it.

Good luck with your real estate blog adventures!

What is the Purpose of Your Blog?

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This article is part of the real estate blog alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog for marketing purposes.

'P' is for Purposeful

For what purpose do you use your real estate blog? What is your blogging mission? What do you hope to achieve as a result of your real estate blogging effort?

These are all questions you should answer in advance, long before you start publishing to your blog.

Sure, you can just wing it, if you want to. But you will get more from your blogging efforts if you identify your real estate blog's purpose in advance. On top of that, your blog will be much easier to manage if you have a purpose and mission already laid out. Let's look at an example of a purposeful blog.

A Real Estate Blog Scenario

Let's say I'm a real estate agent in Chicago, Illinois. I'm looking for a way to distinguish myself, and I also want to capture more business from the Internet. I hear about the benefits of real estate blogs and decide to launch a blog of my own.

But I don't want this to be just any real estate agent blog. I want it to be special, unique, and attention-getting. So I sit down with a piece of paper and start brainstorming. In order to succeed, my blog has to be useful and valuable to my audience, so I write the word "Daily" on my piece of paper.

It also has to be relevant to my business (to help me build my reputation and attract clients), so I write the word "real estate" down on my paper.

Lastly, I want my real estate blog to be unique and memorable, so I write down the word "angle" on my paper. This tells me that I need a good angle to help differentiate my blog and make it interesting (in addition to being useful).

So far, my purpose statement only consists of a few words -- daily, real estate, angle -- but it's taking shape!

I know my blog will offer daily real estate news and information. But what's my angle? This is where you would delve into your own personality to find out what makes you or your business unique ... or how you might use your blog to be unique.

For the purposes of this scenario, let's say my angle is humor. It's not the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of real estate, but that could be just the thing I need to differentiate my blog.

So now I have a purpose and mission for my real estate blog. I will create a blog that provides daily real estate information about Chicago, but with a humorous touch. Maybe I'll create "Top Ten" lists in a David Letterman style. Maybe I'll hit the streets with my camera and create neighborhood profiles (with a special focus on pigeon populations).

Obviously, I'm just brainstorming here.

But you can see the result of this brainstorming. I have the beginnings of a real estate blog that will be useful, timely, relevant, interesting, and memorable. Will it make people talk? Very likely. Could it lead to media coverage down the road? Quite possibly. Will people respond to it in a favorable way? Time will tell.

But it all starts with the purpose.

Operational Uses for Real Estate Blogs

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blogging alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'O' is for Operational

Blogs are great as a communication tool, but that's not by any means the extent of their capability. You could also use your real estate blog for a variety of operational purposes.

Here are just a few of the ways you could use a real estate blog in an operational way:

• You could use a real estate blog internally as a collaboration or note-sharing tool between yourself and other agents (or mortgage professionals, etc.).


• Like any other type of website publishing system, a blog can be put behind a firewall for privacy, thus allowing it to function as an intranet within your company.


• You could create separate sections of your real estate blog for each of your clients, and password-protect them for privacy. This way, you could keep a running tally of email communications, notes and updates about the status of their purchase or sale. They could simply click a link everyday and see your notes and instructions. Easy reference!


• You could create a blog specifically for people relocating to the area (if they're part of your target audience) and keep them informed on local real estate news / conditions.
  

These ideas only scratch the surface of operational uses for a real estate blog. With their ease of use and platform flexibility, a blog can support just about any online operation you have in mind.

Blogging Your Way to a Higher Plane

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blog alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'N' is for Non-invasive

Here's a marketing prediction for you. I predict that as the years pass, invasive marketing will become less and less effective (and thus less common in our daily lives). By "invasive marketing," I'm referring to the type of marketing that is thrust in our faces.

Telemarketing is invasive marketing, and we are currently witnessing the death of cold-calling as a viable marketing medium. Unsolicited emails are another form of invasive marketing, and we all know where spam belongs.

Direct mail marketing is one of the last holdouts. Direct mail is a form of invasive marketing that still holds its own in terms of results and profitability. But who knows if that will be the case five years from now.

And then we come to the so-called Web 2.0 "revolution." This is the new social concept of online behavior that shouts "Power to the user!"

Web 2.0 is not a new type of software you have to purchase. It's a phrase coined by O'Reilly, a publisher of technology books. In fact, if you Google the phrase "What is Web 2.0?" you'll find the O'Reilly website at the top of the list, discussing the origins of the phrase.

Here's an excerpt of that discussion:

"The concept of Web 2.0 began with a conference brainstorming ... Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O’Reilly VP, noted that far from having ‘crashed,’ the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity." (Article by Tim O'Reilly on www.oreillynet.com)

How Real Estate Blogs Relate

Business blogs are part of the Web 2.0 approach to online communications, and that includes the real estate blog. When you create a popular real estate blog and allow readers to comment on it, you are embracing the concept of having an online dialogue (as opposed to a lecture). This is also a great way to attract new business, because people who have "spoken" with you online are more inclined to trust you and contact you.

In other words, you are incorporating non-invasive / conversation-based marketing techniques into your real estate marketing program ... in addition to any invasive techniques you might currently use (such as cold calling).

Just another benefit to using a real estate blog as part of your overall marketing program.

Manageability of Real Estate Blogs

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This article is part of the real estate blogging alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices that come from using a real estate blog.

'M' is for Manageable

I've spoken to quite a few real estate agents who were intimidated by the idea of blogging -- not because they feared the act of writing, but because they feared the technical side of managing a real estate blog.

"I don't know anything about web coding or web development," they would say. But in actuality, anyone can manage a real estate blog regardless of their technical knowledge. That's because the blog program does most of the technical work for you.

Sure, it might take a bit of technical knowledge to get the blog up and running. But once that's done, the basic process of publishing content to the blog is as simple as typing an email or a Word document.

How simple is it to manage and publish a real estate blog? Here's the process I'm going through right now to publish this blog post:

1. Log into my Blogger dashboard (this particular blog is powered by Blogger)
2. Select my Real Estate Marketing Ideas blog (the one you're reading)
3. Click the "Create Post" button
4. Give my blog post a title
5. Write the body of my blog post
6. Proofread and add hyperlinks where needed
7. Click the "Publish Post" button ... and I'm done

As with any other blogging program, the Blogger tool converts my typed message into a web page. I happen to know HTML / web coding, but it wouldn't matter if I didn't because the program writes the HTML code for me.

WordPress (another popular program for real estate blogs) requires a little more technical knowledge to get set up. But once the blog is created, you can publish with WordPress as easily as what I've described above. WordPress also has some great features for creating pages and sub-pages, categorizing blog posts, and more.

Collaboration is also made easy through the various blogging programs. For instance, if you wanted to publish a group blog with other real estate or mortgage folks, you could designate each person as an author. This way, they would have their own login information and would only be able to edit their own contributions to the blog -- only you would have full admin access.

This article only scratches the surface of real estate blogs and their manageability. Once you start publishing your blog on a regular basis, you'll begin to see the full capabilities and possibilities.

Real Estate Lead Generation With Blogs

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This article is part of the real estate blog alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog for marketing purposes.

'L' is for Lead-producing

A good blog will elicit a response from readers. Actually, let me back up a minute. A good real estate blog will attract readers through various means (mostly by word of mouth), and then it will evoke a response from those readers.

This response often comes in the form of reader comments left on the blog. But it can also come in the form of direct contact via phone or email. About once a week, I'll get a call or email from somebody who has been reading my blog. Sometimes they just want to talk about real estate marketing ... sometimes they end up becoming clients. Either way, it demonstrates the lead generation powers of an informative blog.

Interaction is the first step in attracting new clients. Think of all the clients you've acquired in the past. They all began with some form of interaction -- a phone call, an email, a seminar, an open house, a chance meeting. If you publish an informative real estate blog and work hard to make it popular in your area, you have one more way to spark the interaction that leads to new clients.

How, specifically, can you use a blog for lead generation?

• You could go a step beyond the blog and create a web forum as well. The blog could then have an "Ask the Expert" button / link on it that would take people to the forum.
• You could encourage comments and make it really simple for people to leave comments (by practicing web usability).
• You could write an e-book on your local real estate market and offer it through your blog, in response for a newsletter sign-up or an email request. (Yes, I said an e-book. Forget about those "Top Ten Tips for Buyers" special reports ... times have changed and they won't generate much response).

These are just three ideas of the top of my head. I'm sure you could come up with more.

So to recap. The first step is to create a real estate blog that is worth people's time and attention. The second step is working hard to attract readers and make your blog more popular than others in the area. The third step is to use your blog for lead generation purposes. Just know that it can be done!

Sharing Knowledge With a Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This post is part of the real estate blog alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'K' is for Knowledgeable

Former Chief Economist for the NAR, John Tuccillo, recently said: "With the expansion of the number of Realtors, the level of competence has fallen to its lowest point ever."

This should worry real estate agents for several reasons, but primarily because it suggests a negative perception that could be applied in wholesale, stereotypical fashion to real estate professionals in general. If real estate industry experts think this way, what's to stop the public at large from developing unfavorable views of real estate agent competence?

Now, I'm not here to tell you that a real estate blog will magically transform the public's perception of you, as a real estate agent. For that matter, I'm not even telling you that you need to change public perception. But I will tell you this -- any real estate professional can benefit from showcasing knowledge and competence, and a real estate blog can help you do exactly that.

Let me offer an example from one of my new blogs. I am selling a new book on real estate SEO, entitled Top Ten Agent. This book reveals the exact process I use to drive real estate websites (like this one) up the search engine rankings. Like real estate, search engine optimization is a knowledge-based service. So I am using the website's accompanying blog to demonstrate my knowledge, and thus make people more inclined to purchase my book. Granted, the new blog is very young ... but you get the idea.

Now, most people who visit your real estate website will want to get straight to the good stuff -- viewing property photos, prices, virtual tours, etc. But when they get beyond that point, and they are deciding whether or not they want to contact you, wouldn't it help if they perceived you as being competent and knowledgeable? Use your real estate blog to create an ongoing base of expertise, and they will perceive you in this light.

Blogging In Your Own Voice

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This article is part of the real estate blogging alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices that come from using a real estate blog.

'J' is for Jargon-free

When you use a blog to communicate with your audience, you have an opportunity to strip down the traditional barriers of marketing communications and speak to people from the heart.

Most real estate blogs (and business blogs in general) are closely associated with a single author. This makes them an online manifestation of the author's personality and knowledge. Because of this "intimate" nature, a real estate blog can help you earn the trust of your ideal audience. But to achieve this, you have to shoot straight and be yourself.

The best business and real estate blogs are written in the author's true voice, avoiding the use of jargon (unless that jargon is essential to the subject at hand). Don't use your blog to impress people with your vocabulary. Use it to educate people through plain language and sincerity. Use it to inspire their trust and confidence ... and, ultimately, their action.

In other words, corporate speak has no place in a real estate blog.

Create an Informative Real Estate Blog

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

This article is part of the real estate blog alphabet -- 26 benefits and best practices of using a real estate blog.

'I' is for Informative

Home buyers and sellers are an information-hungry group of folks. This is especially true of first-time home buyers, for whom the real estate process is new and often confusing.

This is another way you can use a real estate blog to connect with your ideal audience -- by providing the information they're looking for, and plenty of it.

If you use your real estate blog to keep people in your area informed about the local real estate scene, you increase the value of your blog. This has a direct (and positive) impact on the number of readers you will attract, the amount of information they read, the frequency with which they visit, and the likelihood they will contact you.

I think we can agree that these are all good things!

Start by asking yourself what kind of information your ideal audience might be interested in. This might include property listings, statistics on the local market, new developments / neighborhoods, information on local mortgage companies, etc. Then, all you have to do is develop your real estate blog around these topics.

What's the Point?
When you publish your blog in this way, you are achieving several things at once.

• First, by creating an informative blog about local real matters, you will make yourself more visible to search engines for important search phrases.


• Secondly, you will give people plenty of useful information that will keep them on your site longer (which directly corresponds to the likelihood they will contact you).


• Thirdly, you will be establishing yourself as an expert authority on the local real estate scene. People want a real estate agent who is on top of things, and always abreast of changes in the market. An informative real estate blog can help you convey this.

If you'd like to learn more about creating an informative real estate blog and driving it up the search engine rankings, check out my e-book on the Triangle System to blogging.