The Real Estate Tomato

How Do You Define Content For Your Real Estate Blog?

Today we have the pleasure of publishing a tale of inspiration from our favorite Real Estate Blogging Goddess, Teresa Boardman. 

How Do You Define Content For Your Real Estate Blog?

By Teresa Boardman

My friends have been telling me for a couple of years that I need a photo blog.  Honestly I didn't want to take the time, but a couple of weeks ago, on a cold Saturday night I built one.  It has energized me and gotten me more engaged with my blogging efforts.  So far all of the photos I have posted are out of my collection so I have not had to work at all to generate content.  I could probably post every day for a year without ever taking another photo.

The reason it has energized me is because in recent months it has been a challenge to find good news in the housing market or even new news.  I often feel as though I have written everything I have to say and that there is no more.  The photos are not news, and I enjoy taking them and I have plenty to work with.

When my photo blog was just a couple of days old some local photo bloggers paid me a visit. We are going on a photo shoot this weekend.  I just met them but photos and blogs have a way of creating bonds.  The photo bloggers also had questions about my theme and some of the custom tweaks that I put into my blog.  I was amazed at how much I knew and had planned on asking them for help if I were to get into trouble with the thing.

The process of creating this blog also brought me back to the basics; the things that I have forgotten about over the years.  It forced me to think about what the blog looks like and how it is organized.  I was forced to think about things that I figured out once a long time ago when I set up my business blog.  As a result I ended up tweaking that blog too.

During these challenging times it isn't always easy to write blog posts.  Those of us who have local real estate blogs don't have much happy news to report.  When business is slow it is difficult to want to write a blog post.  In my case most of my "blog food" comes from selling real estate.  The writing machine needs fuel and when there isn't much the quality of my posts deteriorates and my readership declines.

There isn't any rule that says a blog needs to have a lot of writing on it. A blog can be photos, video or audio with little writing.  Creating a video blog or a photo blog might help with creativity.  If the goal is to meet people I am finding that the photo blog works for that too. There is an about page and a link to my business blog and one or the other has already prompted a reader, or I should say viewer to send me an email with a real estate related question.  My business blog was around for about three months before anyone contacted me because of it.

The photo blog also demonstrates that I know my way around the twin cities and I have already gotten notes asking for advice on where to go to get certain shots.  In my spare time I will be building a map for the blog so that people who don't know where to go to shoot will get some ideas.

I have concluded that a blog is a must have for Realtors.  I have also concluded that while quality content is important that content does not have to be writing.  My photo blog is becoming more of a networking blog. Local photographers have homes too.  Now they know a Realtor, and we all know that in this business people like to do business with people that they know.
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Thanks Teresa!

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Teresa Boardman is an exceptionally professional Realtor in the St. Paul, Minnesota area.

Her website:www.TBoardman.com 
Her blog:www.StPaulRealEstateBLOG.com
Voice: 651-216-4603

Tags: Photo+Blog, Real+Estate+Blogging, Teresa+Boardman

8 Things That You Are Not Doing On Your Real Estate Blog, But Should Be.

1. Microblogging

Twitter is all the rage… and yet most blogging agents aren’t using it because they don’t grasp the value. 

Here’s another way to approach the Micro-Blog: Instead of catering to the audience in a Twitter Community, consider those that are actually coming to read your blog.  Short updates from you about the market, your efforts as an agent, new listings, and news flashes are just the sort of thing that your readers will appreciate.  Now pop them on your blog, and syndicate that back up to Twitter instead of the other way around. (More on this in coming weeks)

Hot tip: When it comes to your blog, avoid the community babble that gave you the creeps when you first looked at Twitter: “Having a hard time deciding what cereal to get.”  Your audience came for tangible real estate topics, not the stream of consciousness that you feel the need to share.  Try: “Cleaning out the gutters for the today’s 2pm open house at 123 Elm St, Eastville.”

2. Video Blogging

With high quality and too-easy-to-use video cameras available for under $150, you’d be a fool to not start including local video clips on your blog.  Whether you post yourself vlogging, or replace the photo-op with a quick clip, your audience will appreciate it. 

Hot tip: Try to keep videos under 2 minutes.  That digestible expectation will have them watching every video you publish.

3. Extending Your Soapbox to Other Community Experts

At Inman Connect last summer, we held a panel on Taking Your Blog to the Next Level.  My take then (and still) is that there is way too much Realtor-on-Realtor action happening in what are supposed to be local level real estate blogs, aimed at developing an audience of potential clients.  It took several paragraphs to cover all the bases in an article, so I will save the space and provide a link to the benefits of getting other local voices to carry the load of your blog content.

Hot tip: Once you know you have a local audience that cares about your efforts, it won’t be difficult to get others to provide valuable content.  Trying to put the cart before the horse will be a hard sell.

4. Using Google Maps

I’m not talking about just popping a map on the site to showcase a location.  Google maps are so incredibly versatile now, that the range of resources you can create for your audience is endless.  To whet your appetite, here is a link to Lori Turoff’s post that describes her Open House Map for Hoboken, NJ.

Hot tip: Next week, I will be publishing a comprehensive overview on how to leverage Google Maps on your real estate blog.  It will include several exciting map examples like Lori’s above.  I feel that the proper use of Google Maps will be what makes your site an invaluable resource unlike any other in your community.

5. Including Unique Calls To Action

What separates a real estate blog that generates appointments from one that doesn’t?  More often then not, it is Call-To-Action.  As bloggers you are writers/reporters, but most importantly, you are real estate agents that need to have appointments with clients.  Writing alone will not always be enough to get someone to act in a manner that leads them to working with you.  Place visible calls to action in your navigation, in your sidebars, in your footer, in your articles, in your videos and in your email blasts.

Hot tip: Spend some money to have someone design something nice for the calls-to-action on your site.  These graphics can be what get people to ‘act’ so it is worth a small investment.  Mix in a theme to the graphics that you use for your calls-to-action.  Cool looking icons, or a mascot will stand out, and yet not be seen as ‘pushy’. 

6. Advertising Your Contact Info in a Visible and Unique Manner

Teresa Boardman has expressed more than once that one of her biggest pet peeves is how so many real estate bloggers make it difficult to locate contact info on their site.  How can you take the time to create so much content, only to overlook that having someone contact you is the most important element of your online presence? 

Take a quick look at your site from the visitor’s perspective.  Who is the proud author, and how can I reach him/her?  Similar to the take above on calls-to-action, take the time to do something unique with the areas of your site that should be grabbing your readers’ attention.

Hot tip: Leverage the online network that you are building and showcase one click icons to your profiles on Social Networks that people recognize; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.

7. Policing Your Links

It’s common knowledge that dead links can affect your SEO, but just as important, dead links make your site look unkempt to your visitor.  Routinely check the links that you offer in your blogroll, resource lists, and community pages, and make sure that they are still active.  Recently I weeded out over 20 bad links from by blogroll, and it occurred to me just how poor that must have appeared to anyone looking at the sites I claimed to care about.

Want to go even deeper?  Run Xenu’s Link Sleuth and find every dead link in your archive. 

Hot tip: Are you into Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn?  Pay it forward with a short ‘social-roll’ link list to your favorite local profiles.  Yes, local… think about your audience’s needs.

8. Writing to Your Ideal Reader.

Your knee-jerk first thought: My audience is far too diverse to have a specific Ideal Reader in mind when I write.  It’s the same argument I hear when I try to pin an agent down to commit to focus on one specific niche community with their early blogging efforts; I’ll work everywhere, why would I want to pigeonhole myself to one location?  I will be missing such a greater audience.

The answer is that it is much easier to write fluidly and constructively on a micro level then it is when approached broadly.  Sure the topics seem endless, at first with the broad stroke, but the value comes in your ability to hone in on the endless topics of a narrowed focus.  It is much easier to position oneself as the expert on a limited range of topics than on everything, everywhere.

Who you are writing to works in a similar manner.  When you can visualize the reader, it is much easier to explain things to them.  What’s easier, explaining something to a friend or to a room full of strangers?  When you ‘know’ your audience, it will be much easier to deliver your ideas.  My advice: force yourself to consider who you are writing to; define them, and write to them.

Hot tip: Try to avoid writing for yourself.  Write to educate.  Your audience has questions, and you and your blog are the answers.

Have you got some examples of your implementation of the above? 
Please share them with the community, we’d love to learn from you. 

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Tags: blogging+advice, real+estate+blog, blog+coach

Maureen Francis Captures Top Spot For The Inman Real Estate Blog Makeover

This week hundreds of real estate agents will gather in New York City for Inman Connect, a bi-annual conference where the real estate industry comes together to discuss new ideas, technologies, niches, and trends.

Our role in this year’s conference is to help one real estate blogger take their efforts to the highest level with a complete makeover.

Fortunately, we won’t have to carry the burden of determining what the “highest level” is, all on our own.  In addition to our two cents, we will be leveraging the wisdom and pocket change of Dustin Luther, Jeff Turner, Joel Burslem, Benn Rosales, Jay Thompson, Gahlord Dewald, and Daniel Rothamel.  And, to make things that much more interesting, we will also open the discussion to the audience, who will be able to Twitter their thoughts on the project.

We (the collection of names above) selected the winner of the Blog Makeover Contest from nearly 30 very deserving submissions.  The voting was done Heisman-style where every judge submitted their top 3 choices.  A first-place vote was worth 3 points, second-place worth 2 points, and third-place 1 point.  When all the votes were in, and all the points tallied, Maureen came out on top, in a very close race, winning by 1 point.

Below is Maureen’s winning entry.

(I do have to admit that my vote was swayed by the plea made by of one of Detroit’s best known rockers.)

Rockers aside, Maureen’s blog is going to be a perfect specimen for our Makeover Project.  Maureen has been blogging about real estate in Oakland County, MI since March 5^th, 2005.  She has posted over 600 articles, and boasts that this year has been her best for business generated by her internet presence. 

So why would someone who has been blogging for nearly 4 years need a makeover?

The answer is simple: She wants to focus less on the management of the site, the design of the site, the updates of the site, the upgrades of the site, and the functionality of the site.  It all has gotten in the way of allowing her to FOCUS ON BLOGGING.  In her words, she finds herself frustrated and bored. 

Well Maureen, we’re all here to help.

If you are planning at being at Inman NYC this week, and you’ve got blogging on the mind, you will not want to miss this event with some of the best minds in Real Estate Online Marketing.  We will be on stage at 1pm, on Wednesday the 7^th – See you there!

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Tags: Inman+Connect, Real+Estate+Blogging, Real+Estate+Blog+Makeover, Blogging+Advice