Real Estate Blogging - Filling The First Gap
A New Direction For Mike's Corner
As you may have noticed from my new bio and tag line, this blog is taking a decidedly different approach. I'm going to start bridging the gap between perception and "realty" (you can cram that pithy little i in there yourself and make it Reality :) I was going to write a long post that explained why I decided to make the change and then I realized nobody really cares. They either read me, or they don't. I'll bet you're glad I spared you the Dennis Miller rant!
My first "Gap" post: Real Estate Blogging
I have a new featured REALTOR® Blog coming up after this post. It's been ages since I've picked one and I wanted to set the stage for it, basically to "say it again for the first time". The world is full of experts on real estate blogging, I know both of em.. but I digress.
Perception: A good blog should cover a wide range of topics from around the world to impress the search engine gods. Putting things like a celebrity name in the title will get you a ton of traffic! Better yet, Piss em off!, contrived controversy is a great traffic builder.
Reality - It Has To Be Local. Writing random thoughts about the industry or diatribes that are off topic and have no real bearing on what a prospect wants to consume will generate nothing but crap that nobody will read or care about. A person interested in listing or selling probably has a pretty good idea of the national market already. If you think stuffing keywords or talking about Britney leaving her drawers at home will get you traffic you're right, that is if your target market is prepubescent punks. People are looking for the real meal. If you give em peanuts, you're only going to get monkeys.
Perception: Blogs Are For Generating Hot Leads!
Reality: Don't get caught selling. If your blog is stuffed with keywords and every third sentence is designed to get someone to "look at my listings", forget it. Go back to mailing just listed and sold cards. Your blog is a resource to help consumers consume content, good content. If it's written correctly the SEO gods will smile on you without the need to listen to carnival barkers or pay some Shylock your last commission check for absolutely no useful purpose at all. Blogs build long term relationships and "top-of-mind" awareness and branding with potential prospects. You will do business from a blog if you do it right. If you're like a lot of agents that spend an hour or a dime on something and expect immediate results or a dollar back the next day. Blogging is not for you.
Perception. If it's on the web - it's there for the taking.
Realty: Don't Be A Common Thief. It seems to me that the leaders of the industry coddle people too much when they tell them not to copy and paste content. They always come from the angle that re professionals don't know any better. I have to call BS on that one. People learn in kindergarten that it's wrong to steal. They learn the hard way too. They don't listen to the teachers. They find out when they steal little Sally's candy and she bitch slaps your butt into next Sunday that it's not right to take something that doesn't belong to you. So, go ahead and rip off your colleagues. Don't come crying to your AE at the board or me when you get nailed for it.
Perception: I can just copy and paste data and stats from the MLS for readers.
Reality: Control-V Stats & Data = Fail. If your posts are a string of copy and pasted stats from the MLS. You're wasting the 3 minutes of time you put into "writing" a blog post. As you will see with our next featured blog, without putting your personal thought and analysis to the stats, they are just numbers and it sounds like the Charlie Brown teacher to readers. If you add your well thought back story and deliver stats in a way that will have an impact on your prospects' potential transaction, you've established yourself as a real professional. If not, you've established yourself as Captain Obvious. You might as well print out the stats drive to random houses knock on the door and say, I have some stats for you. I'm not sure how they apply to you but here's my business card. Call me if you decide to sell this house. Hey, it may work for you.
Perception: Blogs are all about the SEO (search engine optimization)
Reality: BS! I have a pal I talk about too much. Since we are so much alike in our thinking, I will just put it his way. BS! Basically that's it. As he says, SEO means "write good shit". If you're concentrating your time and efforts on trying to be found in search engines based on terms that you probably didn't even research in the first place, you should put down the mouse and get out the do-not-call list and smile when you dial. Blogs are built to be search engine friendly out of the box. The content you put into it is really all that matters in the end. I know this will bring out the so called experts and the people that claim otherwise (haters) but I don't care. My comments are moderated and I reserve the right to ignore you if I think you're spewing crap all over my sphere of influence. There's nothing wrong with paying attention to the basics of SEO, but it's not a panacea. If you're paying for the effort, there's a 99% chance you're just getting separated from your money. There are some people out there that are honest in their approach to SEO and get paid to consult on it. I'm guessing since they are SEO experts you should be able to find both of them on Google.
Perception: I should blog every listing I get.
Reality: Blogs Are Not Advertisements. Look, there's nothing wrong if you feature a really cool house now and then. But once again, don't get caught selling it. If it has a history, tell the story from that perspective. If you just slap it up there with a lame "doll house" mls description and feature list, you've created an ad, not a story.
Perception: All Real Estate Professionals Should Have a Blog
Reality: Most Shouldn't. We're in a brave new world. If you're going to be a real estate professional of the future, you'd better be armed with some basic business acumen - acumen that is in short supply today. The ability to communicate, both in business situations and for developing marketing copy, will be integral to the success of a contemporary real estate professional. You'll need to be able to do it transparently and without the constant WIIFM that seems to permeate the communications of the average agent and broker today. I predicted almost 3 years ago that there would be more abandoned than active real estate blogs by now. It's worse than I thought, a recent stat said that of all blogs, 95% had been abandoned. I'm not sure but I would have to guess that puts RE blogs at 99%. If you really don't think you have the stuff to write a blog and are not prepared to bust your butt and write good shit - Don't bother. Just because everyone else in your cube farm has a blog doesn't mean you absolutely have to have one too.
As you may have noticed from my new bio and tag line, this blog is taking a decidedly different approach. I'm going to start bridging the gap between perception and "realty" (you can cram that pithy little i in there yourself and make it Reality :) I was going to write a long post that explained why I decided to make the change and then I realized nobody really cares. They either read me, or they don't. I'll bet you're glad I spared you the Dennis Miller rant!
My first "Gap" post: Real Estate Blogging
I have a new featured REALTOR® Blog coming up after this post. It's been ages since I've picked one and I wanted to set the stage for it, basically to "say it again for the first time". The world is full of experts on real estate blogging, I know both of em.. but I digress.
Perception: A good blog should cover a wide range of topics from around the world to impress the search engine gods. Putting things like a celebrity name in the title will get you a ton of traffic! Better yet, Piss em off!, contrived controversy is a great traffic builder.
Reality - It Has To Be Local. Writing random thoughts about the industry or diatribes that are off topic and have no real bearing on what a prospect wants to consume will generate nothing but crap that nobody will read or care about. A person interested in listing or selling probably has a pretty good idea of the national market already. If you think stuffing keywords or talking about Britney leaving her drawers at home will get you traffic you're right, that is if your target market is prepubescent punks. People are looking for the real meal. If you give em peanuts, you're only going to get monkeys.
Perception: Blogs Are For Generating Hot Leads!
Reality: Don't get caught selling. If your blog is stuffed with keywords and every third sentence is designed to get someone to "look at my listings", forget it. Go back to mailing just listed and sold cards. Your blog is a resource to help consumers consume content, good content. If it's written correctly the SEO gods will smile on you without the need to listen to carnival barkers or pay some Shylock your last commission check for absolutely no useful purpose at all. Blogs build long term relationships and "top-of-mind" awareness and branding with potential prospects. You will do business from a blog if you do it right. If you're like a lot of agents that spend an hour or a dime on something and expect immediate results or a dollar back the next day. Blogging is not for you.
Perception. If it's on the web - it's there for the taking.
Realty: Don't Be A Common Thief. It seems to me that the leaders of the industry coddle people too much when they tell them not to copy and paste content. They always come from the angle that re professionals don't know any better. I have to call BS on that one. People learn in kindergarten that it's wrong to steal. They learn the hard way too. They don't listen to the teachers. They find out when they steal little Sally's candy and she bitch slaps your butt into next Sunday that it's not right to take something that doesn't belong to you. So, go ahead and rip off your colleagues. Don't come crying to your AE at the board or me when you get nailed for it.
Perception: I can just copy and paste data and stats from the MLS for readers.
Reality: Control-V Stats & Data = Fail. If your posts are a string of copy and pasted stats from the MLS. You're wasting the 3 minutes of time you put into "writing" a blog post. As you will see with our next featured blog, without putting your personal thought and analysis to the stats, they are just numbers and it sounds like the Charlie Brown teacher to readers. If you add your well thought back story and deliver stats in a way that will have an impact on your prospects' potential transaction, you've established yourself as a real professional. If not, you've established yourself as Captain Obvious. You might as well print out the stats drive to random houses knock on the door and say, I have some stats for you. I'm not sure how they apply to you but here's my business card. Call me if you decide to sell this house. Hey, it may work for you.
Perception: Blogs are all about the SEO (search engine optimization)
Reality: BS! I have a pal I talk about too much. Since we are so much alike in our thinking, I will just put it his way. BS! Basically that's it. As he says, SEO means "write good shit". If you're concentrating your time and efforts on trying to be found in search engines based on terms that you probably didn't even research in the first place, you should put down the mouse and get out the do-not-call list and smile when you dial. Blogs are built to be search engine friendly out of the box. The content you put into it is really all that matters in the end. I know this will bring out the so called experts and the people that claim otherwise (haters) but I don't care. My comments are moderated and I reserve the right to ignore you if I think you're spewing crap all over my sphere of influence. There's nothing wrong with paying attention to the basics of SEO, but it's not a panacea. If you're paying for the effort, there's a 99% chance you're just getting separated from your money. There are some people out there that are honest in their approach to SEO and get paid to consult on it. I'm guessing since they are SEO experts you should be able to find both of them on Google.
Perception: I should blog every listing I get.
Reality: Blogs Are Not Advertisements. Look, there's nothing wrong if you feature a really cool house now and then. But once again, don't get caught selling it. If it has a history, tell the story from that perspective. If you just slap it up there with a lame "doll house" mls description and feature list, you've created an ad, not a story.
Perception: All Real Estate Professionals Should Have a Blog
Reality: Most Shouldn't. We're in a brave new world. If you're going to be a real estate professional of the future, you'd better be armed with some basic business acumen - acumen that is in short supply today. The ability to communicate, both in business situations and for developing marketing copy, will be integral to the success of a contemporary real estate professional. You'll need to be able to do it transparently and without the constant WIIFM that seems to permeate the communications of the average agent and broker today. I predicted almost 3 years ago that there would be more abandoned than active real estate blogs by now. It's worse than I thought, a recent stat said that of all blogs, 95% had been abandoned. I'm not sure but I would have to guess that puts RE blogs at 99%. If you really don't think you have the stuff to write a blog and are not prepared to bust your butt and write good shit - Don't bother. Just because everyone else in your cube farm has a blog doesn't mean you absolutely have to have one too.
Labels: real estate blogging
posted by Mike Price at 7:23 AM
12 Comments:
Looking forward to the new direction!
You captured one of my pet peeves right there:
"If your posts are a string of copy and pasted stats from the MLS. You're wasting the 3 minutes of time you put into "writing" a blog post."
Hey Mike, You brought up some great points here, ones that could be debated at length as you know. With all the noise that buzzes around the net on the practice of RE these days, it's only every once and a while that you come across a post that's worthy of bookmarked as an influence to help you change direction. Thanks for having the cojones to write such a post and taking your blog in that very direction. I'm all ears.
>We're in a brave new world. If you're going to be a real estate professional of the future, you'd better be armed with some basic business acumen - acumen that is in short supply today.
From what I've learned over the past couple of years about 'a brave new world', It takes hard work in determining how wide and how deep that gap that you speak of can be. No place for the lazy, which I was just talking to one of my partners about with regards to our competition. Now is a great time to focus on what you can do to generate future business that puts you SO far ahead of them, they'll be choking on your dust for years until they catch up, if they can. Just make sure you mind the gap. ;)
Brad,
I really hoped that people in the industry like yourself and Mike Mueller and many others, the deep thinkers, would realize where I'm going with this. It's not an indictment of an industry. I've realized that people are listening, but they don't hear. Maybe a different approach will change that a bit. Time will tell.
"It has to be local"
Amen, brother. Pass the tambourine!
All these real estate bloggers want to talk about national issues; i'm no more qualified to talk about those than joe the plumber. But what i do know is about the house down the street - and the neighborhood being built around the corner. That is what i blog about: laser, local focus is the secret. No paid writing staff of ten can root be out of my position as local area expert, either in actuality or according to google. Blogging ain't dead contrary to Rough Type's opinion, at least not in my neck of the woods and for my business.
If i could do only one thing each day to promote my business, it would be blog!
Keep the common sense coming...great fundamentals in your advice.
"Don't get caught selling" is the hardest for me. It's drilled into agents from day 1 that we must be "selling" 24/7.
Any advice on how to provide solid consumer information and a call to action without coming across as selling?
Lisa,
How goes it in NOLA?
Here's my answer.
A blog isn't a platform in which to create a "solid consumer call to action". Would you subscribe to a blog that popped up an ad every paragraph with a buy now button?
A blog can help you establish your brand, extend your credibility and provide a place for prospects to come to you in the event they should decided to use the services you represent. It's not a direct marketing tool. It's a communication tool.
There isn't enough room in a comment to talk about contemporary sales, but suffice it to say, the day of "selling 24/7" are over. People want to work with professional consultants, not someone looking to push their "call to action" buttons. It's a shame, but there are a lot of people out their trying to "drill" old sales techniques into new mediums.
Well put. I'm realatively new to the RE Blog world, but have found that good unique, local content works well. I had an inverview with the local news station because of one of my recent blogs.
The future of real estate professionals is changing rapidly. This "brave new world" is going to weed out the competition. Only the strong will survive. Blogs like yours will help all of us! Awesome post. I'll be back regularly.
Its a nice step that you people have taken and the general consensus is that blogging will become the mainstream method of communication between real estate agents and their prospects and clients. Growing at a frenetic pace, the quality of real estate blogs isn't consistent and a poorly conceived or badly written blog can do more harm than good.Whether you're already blogging or considering it, this book provides must-have information and guidance on doing it the right way, participating in the blogging community and actually generating leads and business from the real estate blog.
Myrtle Beach Real Estate
The one problem I have with my blog is that it is one of the last things to do on my list. When I do post, I feel they are meaningful and I spend time writing them. The problem is that I don't do it enough.
I guess the key is to put some time away every day and post, so that it will be of interest to my visitors.
Thank you very much for your blog, which we just discovered. You have some excellent advice and ideas which will be very helpful to us as well as others. We are about to create a real estate blog for our real estate business in La Jolla. We will take your thoughts to heart as we develop our blog. Thanks again.
great information.
I hate canned blog posts, My attention span is so short anyway. Great post
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