"Why Have A Website At All?"

Last week's article: The Business Blog vs. The Real Estate Website   prompted the same question from both Bonnie Erickson and Teresa Boardman:
"Why have a website at all?"

It seemed like a great opportunity for a blog post, to defend the standard website, so thanks ladies.

We, who are avid bloggers and proponents of blogging may feel that there is no longer a need for a standard real estate website.  You remember the good old website; static pages of relevant content, lead generation forms, contact info, branded homepage, some IDX and featured listings sprinkled in...  Oh the memories, right?  Don't be so quick to stick a fork in them just yet.  The standard website still has a place for many (if not most) in the real estate industry.

Here are 4 BIG reasons why.  You got anymore?

1.  Blogging is not for everyone.

"To blog or not to blog?" is a good read on this topic.  Basically, successful business blogging is not easy, and fortunately it is not a requirement to have an effective online presence.  The complete, standard website will have all the branding you need and all the real estate tools your audience needs.

2.  Sometimes the business card is better that than the newsletter.

As of late 2006, most internet users over 30 have not embraced the blog. They don't know what one is, they don't recognize or read them, and they certainly aren't writing them.  I don't care what the stats say, we are trailblazing with the business blog. 

Because your audience may not recognize what they are seeing when they come to a blog, the first impression you want (or intend) to create may not be the one they receive.  An active blog can look cluttered, and confusing.  A poorly maintained blog will appear forgotten.  The article seen on the homepage may have nothing to do with their reason for the visit.   Unless you can address these issues with a clean, clear message and a well organized and brilliantly branded first impression, then it may just be better to maintain the standard website.

3.  Plug-and-play can fill the void and serve your needs.

I now train all new blogging clients with a 12-hour blogging success course. That is a lot of work, knowledge and understanding on all our parts. Before even getting started, I need to qualify my clients to see if this is a commitment they are willing to make.  If not, then the blog is not for them.  An easily set-up plug-and-play model, that fills the void of not having an internet presence, is a better solution.

Not only will plug-and-play have all the tools, but in most cases they come with customer service (including a monthly fee) that you can tap for all the training and marketing help you need.  Blogging itself is free, and in exchange, you are on your own.  So if you think you can just drop your old site, grab a free blog and ride the wave of real estate 2.0 to emarketing success...I got news for you. 

4.  Pay your way in to the search engines.

Bottom line, the efforts you put into online advertising is to generate business.  Blogging your brains out doesn't guarantee it.  However, if done correctly, it can be a fantastic content generator and in turn, a perfect  Search Engine Optimization tool.  However, buying your way into the search engines with pay-per-click campaigns such as Overture (Yahoo) and GoogleAdwords is quicker and offers a more focused result.  This approach coupled with good website landing pages   (read: lead generation forms), although costly, is a proven technique for targeting high traffic and quality lead capturing.
(Hat tip to John Lockwood and Chris Daley)

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Comments

[Bonnie Erickson]

Jim, You must hate Minnesotans. Neither Teresa's link nor mine work! Hmmmm. . . It's nice to know that I'm hanging out with a younger crowd. My generation has not embraced blogging? But my generation is KNOWN for talking too much. The under 30 crowd is the one that doesn't do conversations! Everything is in code. I still think Teresa's blog beats her website anyday. Me? I'm still trying to figure out Zookado. Is that Zoo-ka-doo or Zoo-kay-doe? Plus, you've obviously made an impact. Point2Agent now has a TOMATO banner in their standard free templates! Go figure!

[Jim Cronin]

Bonnie,
All fixed. Sorry about that. Not sure what happened there. Must not be part of that younger generation anymore.

[Norma Newgent]

Hey Jim,great post as always. There is a place for the "static" site just as there is for the blog. Know your audience. Blogs don't appeal to everyone and sometimes there is just too much information out there, creating confusion for those subscribing to the KISS methodology. Just as some will actually read a post card (?!?), others will take the time to read the vast amount of info out there. Others just want a house NOW. I really don't think any ONE method is better than another unless you only want to sell to one specific group. This is sounding like my next blog. It's about balance and what works for you as a practitioner.

[teresa boardman]

Good points Jim. I am just slowly becoming aware of the fact that some of the things that come easy for me are hard for other real estate professionals. Some of my neighbors who read my blog don't understand that it is a blog and call it my web site. For lead generation purposes my blog only really reaches a certian demographic, probably also true of my web site. They do work well as a couple so I guess I will keep them both. :)

[Bonnie Erickson]

Funny. Teresa is probably realizing what's easy for her is hard for others because I keep telling her she's light years ahead of me. She doesn't realize how much she knows and I don't know what I don't know yet! ;-)

[REBlogGirl]

I think the blog of the future will be a completely unified blog and website. Since Realtors® need both a website and a blog combining the best of blogging with the best of a website into one cohesive product will be next generation of Realtor blogs or blogsites as I call this next of breed product. It does require a new blog platform more like www.myrealtyblog.com but I think over the next couple of years, more real estate website providers will be developing their own blog platform for this purpose.

[JaneNB]

Just another perspective....

I've been real estate blogging since January 2005. We have (I think) the second oldest real estate blog in Minnesota, and in the beginning it was fun and interesting. I didn't post every day, but quite regularly. I tried to speak in my own voice (I think I succeeded pretty well), blog on a variety of topics, and create a visually interesting blog within my technological capabilities.

However, in almost 2 years of blogging, I can tell you that we have had ZERO business come to us this way. When I mean "we" I am referring to my husband, in-laws and myself (we are an affiliated team of 2 couples).

Now, you might not consider my site the slickest one out there (I *cannot* find out how to create a better banner for my blog, even though I'm dying to try), and my frequency of posting has dropped off considerabley.

But - I get 35-45 hits a day no matter what I do or say. That's not huge numbers, but I'm willing to be it's a darn sight more than most bloggers right now.

If you google variations of "twin cities real estate", "minneapolis real estate" or even "zillow", we come up on the first or second page. Again, not too shabby in my estimation.

But - as I noted before...not a drop of business for all that effort. Now, granted the market has changed considerably this year. But, we didn't get business all last year, and the market was quite good.

Sooooo...what's a blogger to do, eh?

I've actually dropped my license and work strictly on the marketing side of the business, and both my husband and I have other jobs (anyone need customer service training?).

It's been a terrific learning experience - and one of the lessons for me personally is that I can write. That's been worth the price of admission, actually.

Not sure where we'll go in the future, but it's been fun to be at the leading edge of this tech wave.

[Jim Cronin]

Jane NB,

Thanks for the perspective. Thinking about your question: "what's a blogger to do, eh?"

Have you had any form of lead generation tools on the site?

I looked around on your site, and the opportunities to either sign up for the newsletter, search the MLS, or to get the value of one's property are all just linking back the front page of the site. 3 lead generating opportuinities, and none of them work. Getting 30+ hits a day shows that the content you are producing is working well for you. Your traffic is coming in from relevant searches... Without offering the opportunity for someone to provide you with their contact info in exchange for something (like the MLS or newsletter or home value), you are missing out on any opportunty.

Before I added the form on this blog for visitors to inquire about my servies as a real estate blogging consultant, I had no inquiries from nearly 22,000 visitors. Within 12 hrs of placing the inquiry form, I had 2 inquiries, Since then, I have had at least 2 every 3 days.

Hope that helps.

Regarding the design of the top banner - I'd be happy to talk with you about it. Drop me a line if you'd like to hear more.

[JaneNB]

Yes, I agree completely with you about 3 wasted opportunities. When the team was with local powerhouse Edina Realty, I linked all 3 of those back to our Edina website. Edina has a great MLS search functionality, so I linked to their MLS search. We had an Edina-provided e-newsletter, so I linked to the sign up page for that service. Lead generation wasn't a strength of the Edina page, so I linked to what we had available - but not a single lead came in that way.

Now, we are with a lesser known broker (Real Estate Masters) and one reason we can offer people lower commissions is because we are on our own technologically-speaking. It's a good company, just a different business model.

So, that makes me the tech/marketing specialist in a very real way. I have the in-laws signed up with Top Producer for contact management and we have our web site through them as well (www.BustadGroup.com). TopP wants to charge us an additional $25 a month to set up and run an MLS search on our site. On top of the $35 for TopP and $35 for the web site, that's not going to fly right now. Sounds like a small amount of money, but since this is the dryest spell they've had since entering real estate over 17 years ago, any extra expense isn't going to be approved.

Same thing for an e-newsletter. I actually have an account at Constant Contact and send out an unrelated e-newsletter on a periodic basis - but for real estate I'd need to create content as well as send it out, and frankly, I don't have the time right now.

As I'm typing this, it's occuring to me that TopP does offer a lead generation page capability, but I've not played around with it for quite a while. I'll have to reinvestigate - but as you noted, we'd need to offer something compelling in exchange for that personal info.

The real estate market here in the Twin Cities is pretty dead at the moment...not sure what's going to happen.

Um, regarding the banner - love to hear more.

[Carole Cohen]

Hi Jim, Bonnie Erickson got me over to your blog; and of course there has been a lot of talk about The Real Estate Tomato since I joined Active Rain. I'm thinking I agree with Jane that a combined presence would make so much sense and that it could easily be the wave of the future. And btw, I am one of those over 30 bloggers; I have a feeling there are more of us than there used to be. Very thought provoking blog. One question: I'm not from Minnesota, am I allowed to be here? :-)

[Jim Cronin]

Carole,

Welcome! We love having you on the vine.

I think you were agreeing with REBlogGirl (aka Mary McKnight), not Jane. I too agree that there will be an inevitable evolution blending the blog and website into blogsite. In fact I offer such a solution. However, the post above was simply an effort to illustrate that it isn't time to stick a fork in the traditional website just yet. Blogging isn't for everyone and that will always be true.

I too am part of the over 30 blogging crowd. I see us as early adopters - the first strong wave of over 30 blog users is on its way... but still about 12 months out (at least).

RE: Minnesota
I have nothing against the most northen of the lower 48, nor the people that live/blog in the land of the Dakotas. Any place that has a temperature range of -60F to 114F must produce some extremely intersting folk: Bonnie and Teresa being 2 of them.

Cleveland on the other hand...

I hope to see you back soon. You comments and readership are always appreciated.