I’m far from having any answers on what might make compelling content for a real estate blog, maybe this is a post full of questions. Was spending time reading old posts on the REW forum last night – the search function on the forum is like a reference library for me – easier to get solid information on how to build an internet based real estate business there than any other place on the net. I like reading the old posts now that I have a more solid base because there are great nuggets of information that I completely missed when they were first discussed.
One of the more interesting discussions I re-read last night talked about getting traffic to your site through blogging – ok that seems like a pretty basic concept – blog about local topics, market reports, go for mid-tail traffic in your titles and once consumers find you, try to get them interested in your real estate content (i.e. IDX/Listing data).
There was one lone voice advocating this might not be the best strategy – Halfdeck an SEO (not an agent) argued blogging soley for the sake of rankings is short sided – most of the time agent’s market updates and neighborhood events do not generate discussion either with the community or other real estate agents. He said:
Blogging is about reaching a target audience and gaining mindshare by engaging them in a conversation. It’s not about capturing leads off the SERPs; its about gaining authority in your vertical.
Read Halfdeck’s blog - it’s good. I don’t know him- commented on some of the same threads at REW but I was not really a part of these types of discussions last year and he hasn’t commented on the forum for quite some time. I think he is right in that blogging simply for backlinks or search engine placement gets boring – if it’s boring for me to write it, most likely not very engaging to someone who’s reading it.
The question becomes, how do you engage a local readership? Although this blog, It Keeps You Running, is new, it is already in the micro stages of building a community. However, this is not a blog for consumers and was never meant to be. My Davis real estate blog on my main site has probably never had enough consistency or nearly enouugh posts to gain a following. I have never thought of it as a place to build community either. Although that blog has decent authority I don’t take full advantage of it, even from the blogging for rankings standpoint. In a short time I’ll have a second blog to keep up on my Sacramento site so this is a great time for me to think about this.
One of my main objectives for my real estate sites is to create something compelling – that users want to visit multiple times and hopefully find value and feel like they want to work with me to buy or sell a house because of that value or trust I have created with them online. I don’t think that canned market statistics cut it from the blog standpoint. Maybe there need to be something more interactive on the site that is not as formal as blog posts. Most of the time when consumers fill out forms on the site – all they do is leave their name and email address – most often they do not fill in the comments section so I’m usually left guessing what information that they are looking for.
I’ve seen people argue that people in the home buying/selling market do not make for good community building because they lose interest once they are done with the process. However, even if these people are transitory, still might be worth trying to pull them in.
Back to finding ways to encourage visitors to leave questions on the site – consumers certainly will ask questions on sites like Trulia and Zillow – so why not have this information on a local site? Maybe the real question becomes how to create a space where consumers feel comfortable enough to ask questions and feel as if they will get a response they can trust.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Carolyn, I used to get google vision, now I just blog about what is going on in the area and stuff I like. It’s my blog and there are other people that will find my interests to be interesting to them as well. You can’t be everything to everyone, so be yourself. I picture you as the running, rollerblading, bicycling Realtor from Davis and I am sure that you will win over many buyers and sellers from those common interests as well as from your extensive knowledge of the mortgage and real property markets.
Keep up the great work and thanks for all the help you always give without even having to ask!
I would not call myself an expert on generating leads through blogging and I have gotten google tunnel vision before so take what I am saying with a grain of salt.
find a tight nitch that is not being served well, and start writing stuff that they would be interested in. Of course you need to through some real estate topics into the mix and be sure to brand your blog as a real estate blog and identify yourself well so they know who to call upon if they need your help.
Such a tight nitch might not be good to have a blog for on your main real estate site and if that is the case just start a stand alone wordpress blog for it, but be sure to link back to your main site and to your IDX page if you have it.
I am rather new to the idea of blogging to generate traffic. The idea of writing blogs about the local real estate market did not really grab my attention at first, as such I was not really motivated to do it. Then I started to think about my blog topics from the user’s point of view. What would a user want to read in an a blog talking about the Raleigh area, relocation, buying, etc. Although I don’t have a lot of content out there, I am at least motivated now to write.
Regarding user interaction on a blog, I do like the idea of putting more of yourself out there. Exposing more of your interests, hobbies, and life out side or real estate. These types of topics will should at least let the reader know you as the writing are putting more of yourself out there. This is where I see the social networking technologies come into play. Where a potential client can put your name in G and find you in more than one place and hopefully notice that you are active in more than one place. Hopefully all of the different online exposure will allow the user to develop some level of trust with you.
Interesting to hear the different perspectives. I guess I put blogging about my own personal interests in the same category as sending out recipe cards and football schedules (sorry _SCP_!). I just feel like real estate dominates so much of my life already (and happily so for the most part) that some things (like the little bit of free time I do have) is sacred and should be left private. Call me crazy but I for one am not going to start blogging anytime soon about all my wacky hobbies and past-times!
@Shane – I do like the idea of transparency – however our sites are much larger than what one individual can realistically manage – think while we can brand ourselves – it might be better to brand our sites. This blog here is my more personal side and not really one I’m expecting consumers to really see very often.
@James – this isn’t really about generating leads through blogging but more about how to create a community in part through blogging. I think a lot of us spend a good deal of time writing content that WE don’t even expect consumers to be engaged by. I know most of my consumer centric posts are geared at one thing – to get them to my IDX. Just thinking that if we can connect and build a community – we wouldn’t have to work as hard – wouldn’t have to write as many “forced” market stats posts – wouldn’t have to work as hard building links as people would link to us. I don’t know what this looks like from a consumer-centric end yet, but I definitely think it is worth investigating.
@Jolenta – I think you are already showing a lot of your personality in what you post – maybe too much when it comes to politics (but we can talk about that later). Transparancy is good but I think we as individuals have the ability to decide what we want to show to the world wide web.
@Cal – blogging about things you like is definitely an improvement in my eyes than blogging for serps – ultimiately don’t really know how successfull you can be blogging about things that do not interest you – just feel like there is something most of us our missing to get consumers talking to us on our sites – they talk to each other on city-data, they ask questions on trulia – why are they not engaging us – the local professionals on our websites – why haven’t we gained their trust or have we not given them the opportunity to really talk to us. We have a lot of data on what our visitors do on our site but a lot of it is a one way conversation – maybe the key is to create dialog.
One way to engage your community through your blog is to feature people, organizations, clubs, small businesses, events, on your blog. I always carry a camera and “blog” business cards and whenever I meet someone interesting, I ask if they wouldn’t mind me featuring them, their org., club, business, event, on my blog– and can I take your picture (or your business sign) and get the correct spelling of your name. Most will say yes and won’t mind the free publicity. Plus, they’re likely to tell their family & friends about the interview/feature. I encourage them to come by and leave a comment. I’ll also send them a link to the blog post.
In this way, you can become more involved (& known) in your community. Think of yourself as a reporter and your blog as a press pass.
Also try sending one of these posts (with the permission of the interviewee) to your local newspaper for publication. At least you can make an introduction to the editor or RE section editor who may use one of your articles for publication in the future.
I guess it comes down what to what you the author of your blog want to write about. That in turn will dictate good compelling content for a reader. If you the author are not excited about what you are writing about, then I think it will come across in your writing.
Great post Carolyn. Many of my blog posts were motivated for simply providing links to my website. I’ve tried to be better about it recently.
I just started http://www.realestaterag.com. I am trying to build more a community and worry less about getting links to my real estate site.
Joe, I really like your idea of featuring local businesses and people by asking them, getting a picture and their contact information to send them a link.
I would also then add them to my sphere to get regular mailings I send out, things of value like a coupon for a free car wash, coupon for a pumpkin at Thanksgiving, etc. I send something different every month so people remember me and don’t feel like I’m sending them junk mail, in fact they love it that I actually send cool stuff.
@Joseph – I do like your ideas – bringing it back to talking about people – something I tend to do here WAY more than I do on my real estate site – makes sense that would be one way to get more people involved.
@Mark – you know better than most people in the real estate world – that how most of us are going about building links is a lot of work and takes more effort than it should. I hope your community blog takes off. I still also like the idea of creating a site something like Nanaimo Information but from a real estate agent’s perspective.
@Joseph: I think you’re on to something there! The idea of “blog business card” as “blog press pass” is excellent. Building community while adding variation to one’s blog. Great!