6 Great Blogging Questions from Realtors® of Long Island
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Just getting settled in from the MLS of Long Island Tech Fair in Woodbury, New York where I was lucky enough to sit on the ‘Blogging: Bringing Value To Your Business’ panel… and to meet lots of great folks from Long Island’s real estate industry. I’m finding that there’s more and more interest in real estate blog solutions, content and education from amongst Realtors®; however, there’s also a great deal of caution and confusion. Below are some of the most common questions I was asked by various Realtors® of Long Island during the course. I hope you find them [including my answers] useful:
Que. “What is a blog?”
Ans. “A [real estate marketing] blog is just a website; however, it’s a website that allows the layperson to publish easily and at will. This is almost revolutionary in that the creation & the distribution of publishing has always been very expensive and very time consuming. To a large degree, it’s why we have counted on the resources of big media to carry our ads to an audience [disintermediation having leveled the playing field.] With blogs, the business person can publish all they know, see, hear & have to offer to the web… and as often as they like. As for content distribution, reliable search means that there’s nothing standing between a real estate business person’s timely useful knowledge and those home buyers and sellers who want it.”
Que. “Can a blog be, or can it replace, advertising?”
Ans. “It certainly can. Everyone searches and Google needs the most timely information on every subject to satisfy it’s own desire to be the best conduit to all answers possible. If you can be visible for topics, keywords and key phrases in the search engine results pages [see 'the long tail of search'] than you are in effect advertising your services where many home buyers or sellers are looking for them. What’s more and unlike traditional advertising [thanks to search], where lots of uninterested people see your ad, the only people visiting are those actually looking for what you have to offer. Good blogs make search advertising happen for a business!”
Que. “How do you make time to blog?”
Ans. “It’s like anything else that’s valuable and worth doing. If reducing the cost for advertising, while raising the qualified visibility you want is important… than you develop a discipline for doing it. I couldn’t begin to describe the real life discipline for real estate blogging better than how the top ReMax Agent in Illinois does here. And if not, consider paying someone [with search optimization training] to blog based upon the things you want visibility for.”
Que: “Don’t I need to generate comments and discussion with my blog to be successful?”
Ans: “By all means *NO!* The fact is, researching buyers are not typically looking to join a conversation so much as they are to engage a potential service provider. They’re looking for a person who offers the service they need. They’re looking for a person they may feel comfortable dealing with. As Eastern CT Realtor and client Linda Davis, who shared the panel with me yesterday, will attest… buyers and sellers typically search, research and then they get in touch direct via phone or email. The fact is, *most consumers don’t socially network* over real estate. What’s more, they may not want to discuss personal matters such as buying a home publicly. Don’t be confused by those who would classify blogging [completely] as Social Networking. It’s not, necessarily. For clarity, here’s an interesting piece on blog commenters.”
Que: “Should my blogs URL and tagline or title be related to my local business?”
Ans: “Yes, if possible they should. First off, a blogs domain or URL can be a competitive search engine optimization advantage; however, lets not over estimate this point. If the blog site isn’t active and ‘on topic’, which are higly weighted signals, search engines will lose interest quickly. Remember, search engines want timely content and the blogs or web site’s that are NOT giving it are of little use
Second, the title is descriptive text that helps to define a blog site both for search engines and for humans. Remember, this is about marketing local real estate to the average home buyer … so make it clear as possible.”
Que. What’s the difference between a free blog and and a paid for blog?
Ans: “Namely, service and value. There are good free blog technologies out there; however, not one is completely prepared to meet the exact brand design, feature, security, ownership and search optimization needs of a business. Even the folks who released WordPress for free, upsell services for a living. Like any other technology, blogs need management. Without IT management there will inevitably be maintenance challenges. I can assure you, there are even large corporate webmasters who have had trouble managing free WordPress. Some bloggers are able to do it themselves, but even those may sacrifice time, effort, money and precision versus a dedicated service. If well managed blog solutions, service and a reduced learning curve [via education] are available affordably, it’s probably worth a great deal to a business. Free is never what it seems!
In all, Real Estate Blogs are powerful advertising platforms when used to their full potential. Sure, they require a paradigm shift versus traditional forms of advertising, but it’s a needed shift in what are tougher times ahead. Blogs raise your real estate advertising visibility for a potentially unlimited number of topic keywords and phrases, while reducing traditional advertising costs. And then finally, please allow me to use this opportunity to thank the MLS of Long Island, panel moderator Dan Green of Bring the Blog, Eastern CT Realtor panelist Linda Davis and esteemed New York Attorney / Online Marketing Consultant / Sellsius Blogger Joe Ferrara … who were all terrific!
Related Posts: Star Power ‘08: “What can your Business Blog/ Business Blogging service do for my business?”
And then if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to get in touch as I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.
Contributed by Chris Frereckschris@kineticknowledge.com
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Comments
It was a great panel, Chris. It was a pleasure being there with you and Linda. Dan Green was an excellent moderator. He moved things along by taking questions from the audience via cell phone.
My pleasure Joe… good to see you again.
Nice post. I don’t entirely agree with your last point, but paid for blogs would certainly take less time to put up.
Thanks Jason and let me know what point you mean. Maybe I can add some depth that’s useful?