Back in September 2008, we profiled James Selig for his blogging effort to try and get people information amidst the destructive aftermath of Hurricane Ike. At the time Selig decided to shift focus from business and dedicate his Galveston TX real estate business blogging to local information, progress and the recovery in Galveston. The blogging, he says, helped many folks to know him as someone trying to help get them information at a time when they really needed it.

As karma would have, we were excited to see CRS ‘The Residential Specialist Magazine’ profile James in JAN/FEB issue in their ‘Up Close Profiles of people to watch’ .  What I thought was most impressive in the piece is his lifetime dedication to the Galveston TX area, not only as citizen, local business person but nowadays  as Galveston’s leading real estate agent.  Considering the above, he certainly deserves the praise!

Interested in the article about James?   You can review it in it’s entirety here Up Close James Selig in ‘The Residential Specialist Magazine’.

Can Blogsites Replace Websites?

A number of people ask us about blogsites versus websites and whether or not blogsites can replace websites. In a nutshell, the answer is “yes.”

“The average age of sellers is 57 while the average buyer is 32… We are now in a buyer’s market, so there is a strong need to ensure that our marketing appeals to a younger demographic. NAR stats support the decision to focus on the web, with the majority of buyers beginning their search online. I just knew I wanted to have a site that was absolutely current, and a forum where I could communicate with clients and the public about local real estate. We are aiming to use the current market as an opportunity to increase our market share in 2009 and see our new Edmonton AB Real Estate Blogsite as an integral part of that process.” Kathy Schmidt Edmonton AB Real Estate.

Know that websites can do a number of great things, features depending on the company building them; however, blogsites differ in that they allow the layperson unlimited publishing without any need for programming. It’s a huge advantage for the average business person concerned with visibility, time, resources and cost because search engines [and most humans, for that matter] favor sites that produce timely coverage. Unless you pursue additional advertising, SEO services or PPC, you’re unlikely to drive visibility or traffic with a website; whereas, blogsites can make visibility standard, cheap & simple!

Blogs also auto-prepare content for syndication, meaning that all content can go anywhere it is wanted or needed. Another huge advantage!! Blogs can also support the optimization of an existing website, via strategic linking strategies… so they can easily work well together. 

“Kinetic has the comprehensive platform [branded design, self publishing, lead capture, SEO, IDX Integration, service] to provide exactly what I need! Goodbye status quo website, hello dynamic blogsite!” – Kathy Schmidt Edmonton AB Real Estate.

Summarized, blogsites [used correctly] are advertising, branding, lead capture and direct marketing tools… all in one!With Sites, What Do Real Estate Marketers Need?Ultimately the question stems from what *the real estate marketer* needs online and that probably includes:1)Brand Design… Sustainable, Long Term Repeat Impressions
2)Search Engine / Web / Social Network Visibility… Broad Advertising
3)Subscription… Repeat Direct Communication
4)Lead Capture… Get Them Whenever Possible
5)MLS Search / Featured Listings / Lead Capture / Email Drip = IDX / MLS. IDX / MLS is integrated into a website or blogsite environment in essentially the same way.
6)Customer Service… got to have it!
7)Marketing / Advertising Education… Without it, Learning Curve Can Be Enormous“Get in touch, we’d love to answer any questions you might have.

Real Estate Blogsites, in cooperation with Kinetic Knowledge, recently surveyed a couple hundred real estate agents and brokers… that blog. We wanted to see what top real estate agents prioritize as the most important content coverage topics.

We were able to gather detailed answers from 40 people in 23 states & 1 Canadian province. The following chart discloses the results of our simple survey.

Ultimately, real estate professionals are advertising ability as knowledgeable, enthusiastic & trustworthy agents of their communities. This survey, the first of many, sheds some light on how they’re doing it.

Based on the 3 most popular topics [listings, local statistics and community events], you could draw the conclusion real estate agents are writing up what information is most readily available. Listings actually offer an opportunity to generate lots of relevant search engine indexing, hopefully drawing the attention of highly specific home buyers for various streets, neighborhoods and ’sought after features’. An optimal search presence for various local key words & phrases is also quite impressive to the prospective home seller looking to list. Most agents also have an abundance of data & statistics at their finger tips. With interpretation, there’s an opportunity to show a depth of authoritative local knowledge. And then it’s always important to show enthusiasm for local events and the kind of community they represent.

After the top 3, content topics got a bit more skewed. Maybe they represent a personal style, focus or expertise. Maybe they represent the direction content is going in. A few clients have suggested that writing up new local businesses isn’t just good will, it brings them leads. Others have drawn the attention of builders & developers, who are often loaded up with new listings. 

Hopefully you find the data useful:-D 

Related Posts:

• 13 fresh content ideas for your Real Estate Blog!
• Are You Getting The Targeted Real Estate Traffic You’re After?
• Real Estate Marketing Opportunity

A client recently mentioned her attorney said blogs will only bring cold leads. We’d certainly disagree. For starters, leads are simply a more qualified opportunity to sell something. What comes of a lead depends on so many variables, but mostly it depends on the business person.

Clearly anything that brings lead opportunities is a good thing, but what happens next mostly makes a lead warm or cold.

Rather than our [partly] biased opinion, here’s what clients say:

• “I can’t necessarily say it about websites, but my Blog makes me money.” – Bryan Bomba Hinsdale IL Real Estate
• “We would argue that the return on investment is higher than any other advertising we do.” – Brett Ellis Ft Myers FL Real Estate
• “Blogging has caused quite a stir for us and continues to be our main thrust for generating leads and securing contacts.” – Connor T. MacIVOR Los Angeles CA Real Estate Relocation Specialist 
• “In my first 30 days I had two new clients and should close at least 8 sales my first year. If only all my marketing gave me this $150 to $1 return!” – John Toner Howard County MD Real Estate

Folks, blogs offer the opportunity to differentiate & distinguish: blog driven leads usually depend 1st on a display of knowledge and 2nd on an offer that’s enticing enough to justify personal contact information. When every competitor has some form of static web presence, it’s the enthusiasm for sharing good information that qualifies you as trustworthy. Good marketers usually take it a step further with some form of universal discounted or free offer. For real estate, maybe it’s a free home evaluation, a local market report or some other added value.  

With blogs ask yourself, “does my business blog come off…”:

1. Active – does it demonstrate commitment?
2. Focused – is it regionally specific and / or useful to the target market?
3. Knowledgeable? – does it demonstrate subject expertise?
4. Appealing? – would you call yourself if you were a consumer searching and found your blog?

If so, expect hot leads from your advertorial business blog!

Is Blogging a form of SEO?

If you listen to some of our clients you might think so:

Bryan Bomba Hinsdale IL, “The search engine optimization realized from blogging is the best value for the optimization dollar.”

Judy Kunisaki Malibu CA, “My clients are constantly saying they found me via, or that they have read, my Blog.”

Artur Ciesielski Phoenix AZ, “…so far the results are page one placement for many of our target terms, direct contact from readers and 3 ready and qualified buyers.”

John Toner Howard County MD, “In my first 30 days I had two new clients and should close at least 8 sales my first year. If only all my marketing gave me this $150 to $1 return!”

Connor MacIvor Los Angeles CA, “It does not seem that they [SEO Guys] can compete with the power of a consistent – on topic blogger. I wrote two posts – within 48 hours I am the top of page two in Google when running the keywords REMAX Relocation. That was only 2 posts!!!”

For the record, we’re not SEOs. We are a marketing/ advertising services firm. We help clients create the content that can lead to new business. We build and manage branded [open source] blog platforms so clients can publish for their marketplace. We continually inform and educate on the platform, it’s features & additions, on search engines, social networking opportunities and on better blogging techniques. Why? The organic search engine results pages are arguably the most relevant modern day advertising medium. Nowadays, it’s a world where consumers research product & service providers online prior to actually pursuing them. In fact we follow many SEOs for their insight, but we have always said good blog solutions & good blog content is *the purest, most cost effective way to become relevant online and in the search engines.*

Be careful: what Google does with its algorithm is proprietary [unknown] and they change it almost every day… so SEO is never exact. No no one knows exactly what tomorrows’ search engine results will hold. Google’s Udi Manber says, “The goal is always the same: improve the user experience. This is not the main goal, it is the only goal.”  Part of Manber’s point is, despite how some may suggest you can manipulate search results, Google uses its’ resources to level the playing field for good content. They fight to find, to index and to organize the right content every day. And by the way, Google’s vast data shows them that the highest quality organic search results foster higher search loyalty. More searching at Google, as opposed to the competition, fosters more pay per click – the primary source Google’s revenue.

So, is Blogging SEO? Sure, we think it plays an important part. We believe in content, in trade coverage for a marketplace, in being informed about how to create content and in having the best blog platform to format & publish content. We know blogging is a cost- effective and sustainable approach with limitless potential. Our clients prove that blogging can be SEO every day!

For folks that aren’t familiar with load times it refers to a page load sequence that occurs [when CSS, JavaScript, Plugins, RSS, Flash, etc. objects are being called up] for any site visitor, human or bot.

It’s possible that certain design files, plugin features, widget additions, traffic analysis or even a web host may delay load times. In fact there can be many things at play like, for instance, server attacks are fairly common. In this case, security matters! It’s all important because no one likes to sit and wait while a site loads, including the Google Bot. The consensus is that humans, on average, get impatient at around 9- 10 seconds. The Google Bot, which you count on to index and rank your content, actually evaluates loads too. It doesn’t like slow loading pages, particularly if you are using them to promote Google Ad’ programs. Why? Driving human visitors away could eat into click revenue stream! With regards to organic page indexing, load time will actually affect how much of a pages’ content gets indexed – see Google Crawl AND Business Blog.

One of the standard services Kinetic Knowledge/ Real Estate Blogsites offers clients is ongoing IT/ Site Management. While we’re always looking to add great new features, we’re also weighing them against an ongoing evaluation of load times, etc. We evaluate design & plugin features before accepting and, while we want for folks to have all their favorites, we often discourage the addition of too many widgets as well.

If you asked us, “do I need to be a good writer to be a successful real estate blogger?” we’d most certainly ask “what is a good writer?” Rather than those who may judge, consider the audience. How discerning are they? What are they looking for?

Sure you need to be grammatically correct, but when there are readily available tools in the average word processing software, in blog editors and even in the Google Tool Bar  that’s nothing to worry about.

As for a style, isn’t the real estate business relationship oriented? It is and you have a local style that makes you unique. You need to project that special style when sharing the knowledge you have of ‘what’s new’… to your blog.

Don’t make the exercise more difficult than it has to be. Posts can be short, so long as they enthusiastically cover the current events in a marketplace. So long as they share the useful targeted knowledge you have - Blog what you see, hear, know and have to offer.

• Did you see something new & useful to blog today?
• Did you hear something new & useful to blog today?
• Did you have a client experience to blog today?
• Was there an example of success to blog today?
• Do you have a new product or service?
• Did you answer a question today?
• Is there local community news today?

We often say that blogging is advertising, but NOT in the traditional sense where that kind of messaging is fading as noise. Home buyers have an ability to research what they want, when they want it. The question is, are you there with current coverage & information? And if so, are you just data OR are you more appealing? They have the ability to find and to appreciate your knowledge, your experience and your enthusiasm. They’re ability to understand is only limited by how much you’ve put out there.

Folks, your future clients are searching for your knowledge. Rather than save for a limited audience, blog it to the web so they all can find & appreciate you!

Related Posts:

• Business Bloggers, You need to consider yourselves a source of [modern day] Trade Media!
• Question of the Day: Is Real Estate Blogging… Advertising?
• Real Estate Blogging: What Makes You Appealing to Home Buyers Online?

There are lots of definitions for the word advertising out there, mostly pretty similar, but this one will do just fine - advertising is an effort to attract attention to a product or business.

As real estate marketers that blog about real estate and community oriented news, I believe the intention is definitely to attract attention. So yes, real estate blogging is advertising!; however, it’s slightly different than what most folks have been accustomed too. Let’s try and look at why.

In the past marketers mostly looked to media for an audience… and they still do. Depending on the target, a real estate firm might look to traditional TV, Newspaper, Magazine, Radio or even Outdoor for an audience, but now there’s also the choice of Search.

Very much like *and also very much unlike* traditional, you can reach a search audience by interrupting their activity with advertising. This is called Pay Per Click Advertising. It’s immediate, guarantees an audience AND it actually improves upon traditional advertising by [pretty much] eliminating the cost of waste in uninterested eyeballs. After all, if a searcher sees your local real estate pay per click ad’ it’s because of what they are looking for. Pay Per Click Advertising sounds great and it really is, but it has also developed some down side. Pay Per Click Advertising has become very expensive, it has time, space & sustainability limitations. What’s more, because most consumers are leery of advertising, it can lower the quality of [even qualified] visitors.

That down side actually supports an enormous advertising opportunity for real estate marketers, who can penetrate the organic search engine results for an unlimited number of relevant topics, keywords & key phrases with their real estate blogs. In fact, approximately 90% of all searchers choose the organic search results over pay per click ads when they search. Good blog sites are inexpensive, they have no time or space limitations, their content is sustainable in the search indexes AND they build trust!

In effect, with real estate blogs, real estate marketers have all been handed a printing press. With search engines real estate marketers have distribution to the people who want their product & service knowledge. And remember, home buyers aren’t searching for advertising they’re [re]searching answers from people. So, real estate blog to attract their attention!

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.

The phrase ‘The Long Tail’ was made popular by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired Magazine article to describe certain business and economic models. Later Anderson, the editor of wired, authored a best selling book on the subject.

Not to say that one should disregard the ’short tail’, but from an economic standpoint it may be cost- prohibitive. The importance of the ‘Long Tail’ theory as it relates to a regionally- based Real Estate business is demonstrated by a Realtor that has achieved search engine visibility and/ or discover- ability for the maximum no. of variations on a highly targeted [or more ambiguous/ short tail] search.

Long tail key phrases are those topics & keywords affiliated with one’s primary targeted search terms & phrases (i.e. Malibu Home) also considered ’short tail’ terms & phrases. It suggests that, while a prepared Realtor may generate less individual discovery for those variations of a highly targeted search phrase (i.e. Malibu home near Pacific Ocean with views) than for their primary short tail target (i.e. Santa Barbara Home), that the collective impact from buyer discovery for those variations can be much greater. Let’s face it, the battle to rank for ‘Aspen Home’ is expensive and it’s fought for by thousands; whereas, ‘Vail CO home walking distance with view’ is likely far less competitive and/or costly to compete for. The fact is, people are searching differently these days. They search more words OR much more specifically… but most Realtors aren’t necesarily targeting them. Blogging consistently on one’s marketplace, by the way, is an incredibly cost- effective means for maximizing visibility OR for achieving ‘Long Tail Search Engine indexing.’

Enough rhetoric, let’s look at the genuine article. A deeper look into a Resort [area] Real Estate client demonstrates a commitment to blog [and to be indexed] on virtually everything going on in a marketplace. In this example, we’ll examine one month’s worth of client data [rounded/6 search engines tracked] to demonstrate the kind of Home Buyer & Seller ‘Long Tail’ search discovery they have generated… and how:

I. Short Tail Discovery: 19% [190/1,015 = The town looked at including the words Property, Real Estate, Home or Homes 190 Total]
II. Long Tail Discovery: 81% [825/1,015 = ...]
 * Specific Communities: 10 different/ 130 Total Searcher Discoveries
 * Condominium/ Time Share Complexes: 10 different/ 299 Total
 * Developments: 7 different/ 89 Total
 * Clubs: 3 different/ 101 Total
 * Restaurants/ Local Business: 3 different/ 27 Total
 * Listings or specific Street names: 5/ 32
 * Developers: 1/ 56
 * Random/ Miscellaneous: 91

Again, this only represents search discovery and does not inlude repeat visitors, subscribers or folks who come to the site directly; however, the firm makes a commitment to blog [and to be indexed] on virtually everything going on in their marketplace AND, in our view, they demonstrate how blogging is not only a successful ‘Long Tail’ execution strategy, but cost- effective versus the war waged by thousands for the most obvious organic search results OR ‘Short Tail’. Beyond cost, Blogging requires a small commitment of time and we’d argue the firm is benefiting from a much, much more qualified buyer search discovery than those solely focused on the most highly sought after [i.e. Vail Real Estate] key phrases.

Folks, you can achieve the ‘Long Tail’: we recommend consistent, on- topic blogging!