Young Blogs Be Free Tonight

John Coley, my favorite real estate blogger in Alabama, has been making strides since his blog launched earlier this year.  His strategy has been simple: Write about local topics to attract local interest traffic; Uncover an audience searching for the content he delivers.  John’s blogsite content focuses on the interests of a somewhat small community around beautiful Lake Martin. 

His commitment and consistency to that aim inspired me to invite him to take a stab at calling it like he sees it when it comes to real estate blogging technique.

Young Blogs Be Free Tonight
By John Coley

Are you considering starting your own blog, but think that you have to be a huge national player to make an impact?  Wrong.

One of the great things about web 2.0 is that anyone with good content can make a difference.  Anyone that is willing to work hard and play fair can have their voice heard. You don't have to have a million dollar marketing budget and hire a team of copywriters.  Web 2.0 levels the playing field for the new guy - and your blog can be your best friend for getting new business.

Not that I think Rod Stewart is cool, but…

Time is on your side.

Most large brokerages have a tremendous amount of bureaucracy to deal with.  They have committees and councils, rubber stamps and red tape.  The young real estate blogger has none of that - you just need the will to start.  When talking to listing prospects, tell them about your new blog.  If they don't know what a blog is, all the better.  While you explain what a blog is, you are demonstrating your knowledge of the business to your prospect. After that, go for the close ... "If you allow me to help you, I would love to write an article on your home." (Don’t call it a post.  If they don’t know what a blog is, they don’t know what a post is.)

Don't let ’em put you down,

No one in your area has a blog yet, and they might make fun of yours?  Maybe even your own broker is discouraging it.  Don't listen.  Don't start by trying to conquer the Google search for "Springfield real estate."  Start with "Evergreen Terrace real estate." Let the Long Tail work for you.  Spread your posts around to places that will appreciate them, and watch your blog rise in the search rankings.   

Don't let 'em push you around,

Are you trying to break into a neighborhood that another brokerage has locked up?  Write a post (or three) about the neighborhood, on breaking news or a local hot-button issue, print it out, and physically mail copies to homeowners.  Snail mail meets web 2.0.  It stands a lot better chance of getting read than yet another postcard.  Prominently display your blog's URL.  Pretty soon you will establish a beachhead against Big Brokerage. 

Don't let 'em ever change your point of view.

If you fill your blog with jargon and the company line, you might as well not even do it.  When you spend all that time and effort to get people to visit your blog, and they actually do visit it, reward them.  Give them real opinions, give them free information, give them some reason to come back.  People appreciate honest, candid advice.  My blog is very new, yet I have already picked up new leads from people who read it and called me to tell me thanks for the information.  What a great ice breaker.
—

Thanks so much John, and welcome to the Vine.  We hope to have you back soon.

John is an exceptionally professional Realtor in Lake Martin, Alabama.
His writings and real estate tools can be found at www.LakeMartinVoice.com
Voice: 334–221–5862

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Comments

[Daniel Bates]

Great Article John! I'm blogging for a town of 500 and you've given some inspirational advice. I often look at my topics, knowing that the rest of the world may not care, but the people in my town and people wanting to move here may, and that's what matters.

www.MyMcClellanville.net

[Jonathan Greene]

I'm honored to have been mentioned, John. Keep writing great articles.

[Lake Martin Voice]

Keep at it, Daniel! Give them great insight and your target audience will find you. Also you may want to troll around any local forums and post linbacks to your blog there.

[Stacey M.]

This is a very inspirational post for anyone thinking of starting their own blog.

While many, such as myself, may not have the time nor talents to produce exceptional posts and enter the carnivals, yet. Anyone can still have a huge impact within their market with a little planning and relatively frequent posts. It takes work to stay on track, but the payoff is rewarding not for just the potential leads, but also from the enjoyment of controlling your own destiny.

The born naturals such as Jonathan G. and John C. hit the ground running and are both great recourses for style and form.

[MaryAnn Morrar]

Sounds like great advice. I have number of similar blogs going - I'm still looking for the right fit. What blog address is best to give out?
Activerain
point2agent
blogger
wordpress - just started it - it's messy right now
The idea of mailing is great.

[John Fell]

You spend a lot of time talking about ways to drive traffic to your sites. I am sure you know who Derek Burress is as he occasionally blogs about real estate topics when he is not writing history stuff for school or pretending to be a novelist, but the kid has some pretty neat marketing tricks that he uses to drive traffic to his site.

Derek writes a lot of history stuff so he occasionally goes in and edits sites like Wikepedia and adds his site in the references. Being a student, he also writes a lot about the lectures and books that he and his classmates are reading as he knows when it comes exam time, his fellow classmates will be googling the subject and book so he tries to become an expert in those areas. IF you live in a college town, this is a pretty unique way of driving local college kids to your site – especially if you have rental property as they will not only find what they are looking for but also see your listings as well.

The most creative thing I have seen him do is use rubber stamps. Instead of writing his address on the top of letters, he stamps his URL address right across the side of the letter. I asked why he did this and his response was. When you write in ink your address, no one cares but if you stamp a URL on it and leave out what the URL actually is, people will get curious and check it out. For example, his url is derekburress.com he doesn’t mention real estate or anything, just his name as the url. IF someone saw a stamped envelope with REMAX REAL ESTATE they wouldn’t care about the site as they know what it is without having to visit but with a name and a .com at the end, it strikes their curiosity a bit. Even the mailman will remember the stamped envelope and visit and not only does he have one visitor (the recipient of the letter) but also the mailman. Two visitors for the price of one, and both are local 90% of the time. With letters traveling long distances, well that’s 4 or 5 new visitors for the price of one depending on the number of postal employees who visit.

[Deborah Burns]

That is the thing (I hope!) with blogging...blogging is the fulcrum that an agent can use to position themselves in the marketplace of their choice. Size doesn't matter...quality/content does!

An individual is more nimble, personable, and offers a unique perspective that a corporation will never be able to.

Thanks John for the clarity!

[Lake Martin Voice]

Stacy m - I don't know about the "born natural" part - (blush) but I definitely was inspired once I saw some results. Keep working hard and writing about what your prospects want to learn.

MaryAnn - I would advise you to get your own unique domain and point active rain, etc., to that.

Deborah- agreed! Power to the people!

[shaun mclane]

With all the new blogs being created daily, I hthink people are starting to figure them out and see the benefit. Spending as much time as I do blogging, I'm always a little surprised when I meet someone who has never even heard of them. Quote of the day: "Snail mail meets web 2.0"

Nice work as always!

[Arlington Virginia Condos -- jay]

Excellent post. The website lakemartinvoices is incredible! Great design as 9 out of 10 real estate sites just suck. The only suggestion is maybe bumping up the MLS search tools button on the sidebar towards the top as well as I missed it initially on the top menu bar. Good article though. I think one should put in the extra SEO effort which takes a lot more time and attention to detail on certain posts--not all of them. So I agree a lot time one should not even worry about SEO. I've had one post made a month ago read 2200 times so far--I paid attention to detail (seo) on that one though.

jay

[Keith Jeppson]

Hey Jim, thanks for sharing Johns insights. and I loved the ride to www.lakemartinvoice.com. I also love the integration of snailmail with web 2.0. I launched a monthly newsletter in March with the lead article being the launch of my blog. It will be interesting to watch the traffic at mailing time each month. There was a definite spike with the first mailing, but not what I was hoping for.

I think good content is the key as John said. Still working on that one.

[Jim Cronin]

Jay,

His header menu has a big ol' button on it that reads Property Search - That;s the MLS Search that also has a back-up on the sidebar in case you missed it :)

[Lydia Taylor]

That idea about using snail mail for posts about a neighborhood is brilliant! I love it!

[Lake Martin Voice]

Thanks all! One other thing that has worked for me is getting a seperate domain for each listing (www.123Mainstreet.com) and printing this in my ad materials, superimposed on the bottom of the pic for each property. That domain points back to my blog post on that listing.