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Your blog is like a Reality TV Show

First off, let me disclose that I am a "Traffic Guy" who had resisted blogging until last year. I resisted because I have always been able to get plenty of buyer and seller traffic, and thought that blogging wasn't worth the time investment required. In fact, I grew my Boulder real estate company to nearly 60 agents, and I generated the majority of their sales because of the traffic I was able to generate. I figured: "With that kind of traffic - who needs to spend time blogging?" (And to be honest, I envisioned the thought of myself being "a blogger" very much like the image to the right.)

Now, you could say I'm a convert, and I'm trying to motivate the agents on my team to start blogging as a way to convert more of the prospects I'm already giving them, as well as to become less dependent on me for bringing in new business. Some of our agents have jumped in with both feet, and some still haven't. As I was working with the ones that have jumped in with both feet, I realized that most of them were only focusing on one aspect of blogging or the other, but none were focusing on both.

Blogging is like a reality TV show. When I say "one aspect or the other", I am referring to my belief that blogging is like a reality TV show (or any TV show for that matter) in the fact that it has two parts, and neither can survive without the other. TV is paid for by commercials. Without commercials, or sponsorship, network television (as we currently know it) wouldn't exist. Likewise, without good content (the show itself), commercials wouldn't get watched.

Blogging is the same thing. Writing informative & compelling articles about the area, and sharing your thoughts about certain topics (whether real estate related or not) is the equivalent of the TV show. Getting your readers to know and trust you by writing your innermost thoughts, and sharing fun stories is what will keep people coming back to your blog for more. HOWEVER, it's the topics that aren't as fun to write about that will bring in the traffic in droves. Those topics are your city and neighborhood descriptions & market reports.

The funny thing is that most of the agents I'm working with are ONLY writing from one perspective or the other...

Approach #1: The "TV show approach". Many Bloggers take a journalistic approach and write solely about what topics they think are important thinking "SEO be damned - I'm writing for my readers." I applaud that approach (and agree that it should represent the majority of your writing efforts). Afterall - it's that content that your readers (potential clients) will keep coming back for. Unfortunately -- taking only that approach means a slow, uphill climb in terms building a loyal list of readers. (This, BTW, is why I see so many bloggers say it takes 6 to 8 months to "get any traction" from their blogging efforts.)

Approach #2: The infomercial approach. Other bloggers approach it from the other side of the fence, and focus solely on writing "search engine food" for what the majority of people are searching for. By that, I'm referring to people searching for "INSERT-CITY real estate" or "INSERT-NEIGHBORHOOD INSERT-CITY real estate". The good news is that if you do it right, you will get visitors... However, just like a 30 minute infomercial -- they won't keep coming back to your blog because if you're only writing about city and neighborhood descriptions and never anything else -- they'll get pretty bored -- pretty quickly, and won't find a need to ever return to your blog.

The key is balance, and following a similar ratio to what the national TV networks follow is probably a good rule of thumb. Since a 30 minute TV spot consists of about 24 minutes of interesting content, and 6 minutes of commercials, you could try to follow the same rules. Dedicate about 20% of your writing to the local area, and then you can write about whatever you like for the other 80%!

When I say write about whatever you like, I mean it!

Case Study #1:

Ines Hegdus-Garcia - a prolific Miami Beach Real Estate agent (currently ranking #22 on Google for that term) dedicates a day a week to pictures in the area (and she makes an event of it by calling it "Miamism Fridays"). Some people visit her blog just to see those pictures! She also dedicates a lot of time talking about Mojitos. What the heck does an alcoholic beverage have to do with real estate?!?! It doesn't matter - because she gets it... Ines gets the fact that blogging isn't just about showing off your expertise. It's about being who YOU are, and letting those who can relate to you keep coming back for more episodes of "you". When the time is right, they'll watch your commercials (read about neighborhood market stats and search for homes, or ask for home evaluations) so you can pay the bills too, but if you want to make sure your potential customers keep coming back for more, write 80% of your posts to entertain your readers, not educate them. (I'll show you at the end of this post a strategy you can use to get more traffic to your "boring, but traffic generating" city/neighborhood posts - despite them representing less than 20% of your blogging efforts.

Case Study #2:

Another example is Jay Thompson (AKA - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy) who currently ranks 13th for "Phoenix real estate" on Google. Jay knows the area like the back of his hand, and he writes about his opinion on the market quite often. However, he writes about more interesting topics (that aren't written with Search Engine Optimization in mind) far more often. I took a quick perusal through the front page of his blog, and of the 5 most recent posts. One was written with people looking for Phoenix real estate in mind... One out of five. The other 4 posts were written about topics that have very little to do with Phoenix real estate - but all 4 were posts that kept me reading. One has to do with service at a hotel he stayed at in Colorado Springs, another has to do with one of his favorite places to "eat, drink & be merry", another was a quick note to express his frustration with his inbox being full and the fact that emails weren't getting through to him, and the 5th topic was defining a legal term. (Granted - that could be considered real estate related, but when I read it - it was written purely to help anyone who wants to learn about the term "Lis Pendens", and had not even the most remote scent of "local SEO enhancement" associated with it. In other words, if he even closed his post with "if you're ever in the market for a Phoenix home for sale", he would have blown my 80/20 theory out of the water, but considering he wrote that post as a free tidbit for anyone reading his blog (regardless of where they're shopping for a home), I'll count it as "a part of the show vs. a commercial". I bet if you visit his site at any given time, you'll find a similar ratio of 1 "keyword optimized" post for every 4 that are written purely for the benefit/enjoyment of the reader. It's that strategy (and the fact that Jay even makes his keyword optimized posts a very interesting read) that has Jay known as one of the best real estate bloggers in the country.

Case Studies 4, 5, 6, the list goes on...

Kristal Kraft - a fellow agent ranking #6 on google for the term Denver Colorado real estate agent (who I admire despite the fact that she's a competitor), and Teresa Boardman - a St Paul MN real estate agent (#5 on Google) are two bloggers who share their passion for photography first, and real estate second. Jason Crouch (#10 for Austin TX Realtor), and Marc Rasmussen (#7 for the term Sarasota FL Realtor) are both very open about their families in a lot of their writing. When it comes time for a buyer or seller to choose from the dozens of Realtors they have to choose from, I bet dollars to donuts that those buyers & sellers pick their agent based on a shared passion first, and their real estate knowledge second.

Don't get me wrong - I can't turn a boring neighborhood description into poetic prose like Jay & Kristal & so many other bloggers I've had the privilege of knowing can do, but that's not necessary. My goal is to get 10 times more visitors (who are 10 times more likely to buy) coming to my clients' real estate sites by using those "boring neighborhood description commercials" as a gateway to get more search engine traffic. Once those visitors enter my clients' sites, if all they find is a bunch of other neighborhood descriptions used to please the search engine gods, they'll leave. However, if they find 10% to 20% real estate information, and 80% to 90% things to do, funny stories, thought provoking discussions, and things that make you unique - you'll exponentially increase your odds of getting those readers' business.

Now how do you get 10 times as many people to find your blog? The best way to do that is whenever you write a post about a neighborhood in your area (which, remember, should only be 10% or 20% of the time) - don't just settle for that post ranking in the top 10 or top 20 for that neighborhood... If you notice that you only ranked #8, go out and get a couple links that point directly at that neighborhood post. With the exception of highly competitive neighborhoods, you'll be surprised at how often that extra 10 to 20 minutes of effort will get you to #1 for that neighborhood. That #1 ranking will get you 5 to 15 times as many visitors as compared to a #8 ranking, and considering the customers that find your Neighborhood post already have a better idea of what they are looking for than those who are just searching for "INSERT-CITY real estate", you'll be dealing with a far more motivated buyer.

My challenge to you is to put my theory into action and get one of your existing blog posts not in the top 10 - to rank #1 on Google.

Take a look at your existing blog, and find a post you've written about a neighborhood in your area. I don't care if it's only 150 words long - just humor me.
Now, go and search Google and make note of what position you are in when you search for "INSERT-NEIGHBORHOOD INSERT-CITY real estate".
Point a link or two at that exact post. If you're too bashful to ask one of your Active Rain friends to throw a link your way, and don't know where else to get links, write a general interest article about real estate, and throw it up on a free site like GoArticles.com or EzineArticles.com At the end of your article, you'll be able to insert a "resource box" - which will allow you to say something like "If you're ever in the market for INSERT-NIGHBORHOOD INSERT-CITY real estate, visit my site. (And make "INSERT-NEIGHBORHOOD INSERT-CITY real estate" a hyperlink that points directly at your post about that neighborhood.)

**The reason I am giving this advice about a less competitive neighborhood is because you'll see almost INSTANT results, and those results will mean exponentially more visitors to that page from the search engines. The same principle applies to "CITY real estate", but it will take a bit more link-building effort to see a measurable result. Focus on a neighborhood, and you'll likely get a boost to the #1 position (with only one or two links) within a week or two, and it will happen 7 out of 10 times.

Still hesitant? This experiment will take you a half-hour at most, and depending on where that post currently ranks on the search engines -- the results could mean 10X more highly qualified traffic to that page.

STILL hesitant? Now it's time to put my own advice to the test. Just for grins - I picked out a friend Jim Duncan's post from nearly a year ago about Fifeville Charlottesville real estate. Despite the fact that he has an EXCELLENT blog with commanding authority in his area, that post is currently only ranked #7 for what is not a very competitive phrase. (Screenshot below.) Whaddya wanna bet that this silly little link (whose "link juice" has been diluted by including about a dozen other links on the same page), from my silly little blog will boost his post to the top 3 for the Google term "Fifeville Charlottesville real estate"?

When is "now" a good time to start strategically building links so you can start getting more traffic to your blog?

For the record, here is a screenshot of RealCentralVA's ranking as of 3-21-09 -- before I sent a link his way:

Posted by Joel McDonald on 03/31/2009 07:47 PM

Comments (86)

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86 Comments on Your blog is like a Reality TV Show

MAR

Interesting post. You are correct -- a person's blog is like a reality TV show.

Joel- Really interesting post! You've certainly followed your own advice by posting quality content.

Joel...This was great! Ive bookmarked it for further reading as Im sure I will need to read it again in the future!

Clint - Thanks! Be sure to bookmark it to come back in a week & see if my claim about Fifeville holds up to the test, or if it's a bellyflop ;-)

Ilyce - thanks. I try to practice what I preach (even as I preach it.)

Bob & Carolyn - thanks for agreeing with me. I try to keep my blog posts as interesting as those other reality shows, but they're usually more along the lines of "inspector gadget".

Great post Joel (and thanks for the mention. It's an honor to be included with such lofty company).

Neighborhood posts CAN (and do) rank well in Google, and people definitely search for them. In my case, I'll get far more visitors for a search term like "phoenix real estate", but the ones whose searches are more narrow convert MUCH better.

I think (obviously) that it's more important to write for the readers than for the search engines. And the search engines are getting smarter every day. Writing about a local restaurant or a local event is sort of real estate related. It's at least location related, and those "SEO points" eventually add up to make your blog more of an authority. And Google likes authority.

I think this post is gold star worthy!

Great post Joel,

These agents are doing "it" right and thinking outside the box while making it fun! I've got some flair to add as almost every post pertains to real estate ~ http://MiamiBeachRealEstateBlog.us

Thank you for opening my eyes to building a better blog,

Ashton

Joel, Great advise once again, thanks got to get the creative juices flowing again

Thanks for chiming in Jay.

I fully agree about "INSERT-CITY real estate" getting exponentially more traffic than any single "NEIGHBORHOOD CITY real estate" or "RESTAURANT in CITY" long-tail post.

My post was mostly for the benefit of folks who are months or years of hard work away from the first page "brass ring" of obtaining first page rankings for "INSERT-CITY real estate", and pointing out the more immediately gratifying benefit of long tail such as:

combined, dozens of long-tail posts that rank can add up to almost as much traffic (with less time spent to get that traffic).
As you mentioned, that long-tail traffic is usually farther along in the sales process.
Short tale can take months or years to obtain a first page ranking (let alone a #1) & long-tail could take as little as a few hours to make #1.

In addition - as you stated in your comment - those long-tail posts can eventually add enough authority to your site, that your more competitive phrases will eventually rise to the top as well, but by focusing on the hyper-local/long-tail stuff, you can pick up some business along the way vs. waiting until "CITY real estate" makes the first page.

Hey Michael,

Nice seeing you! (BTW: That email I sent you the other day about someone having some leads in Bellingham WAS a broker recruiting vs. offering referrals. Oh well. I'll have a referral for you one of these days ;-)

I do a Friday fun post. It is the most popular post on my blog and becasue of it several bloggers have added something special on Friday or on some other day that isn't business.

Joel - 80% of my content is real estate related - it's the 20% that stands out though (as you can see by your mention) - and how I "brand" myself to other Realtors (mojitos, miamisms) - I do think it's a matter of achieving a balance and definitely letting your readers know what you are about. And BTW, you are kicking it! love what you are doing here. :)

A pretty nice analysis. I am convinced by your conclusion. --huiting,

I bookmarked it and putting it to the test! Thank you for sharing this info.

Joel - Have I got alot to learn. Thanks for the info. I'll try and follow your advise.

This a great post. Creative and thoughtful. Thank you for sharing.

Joel - I appreciated this analysis and will have to put it to the test. Yes it is important to write about a variety of things which will keep your audience engaged,

This is great information! I love what you had to say about the 80/20 rule. I'm a stager, and I run out of "staging" things to blog about. (I mean, it ain't rocket science!) But with your post you have freed me up to spread my wings and blog on other things. Thank you! I have been liberated!

Can't wait to try it! Hope you are right! This was a great post, very informative and motivating. Thanks again!

Is a good article.i sure,everyone be hope it.They have blog can to show in the TV.

Semenax

Reverse cell phone number look up

I'll have to do that. I need to visit some neighborhoods and profile them anyway...

Wow - what a great post ! I will have to come back and reread this again ! Have a lot to learn regarding linking.

This is some of the best blogging info i have been given. Thanks for such a quality post. Ill give it a try

Joel - First, thanks for the mention! I have been very pleased with my results for "hyper-local" terms. I captured about 5 or 6 of the top 10 spots on Google for my neighborhood. Talk to you soon!

Interest post for sure. I'll read it later again to absorbe more.

Portsmouthh NH Real Estate

I do too much neighborhood blogging according to your number. But who knows it is working for me.

Joel, good points, as a lot of it is about climbing in the rankings and exposure.

Hi Joel ~ This is a super post. I'm printing it out for my how-tos notebook. Love it. I have to confess that my on my blogsite I'm definitely guilty of writing almost all posts to educate - even my mother commented that my Acitive Rain blog was more fun. I'm going to have to think about this....

Liz

Joel- You are so right on with your findings. That is why in my SEO webinars I always start the agents off with getting to the top on longtail keyword phrases without a lot of competition but also not widely searched because the confidence building and the excitement in seeing oneself on top of google for blogging that you have done yourself is a very powerful booster! Then we move on to more competive work:) Katerina

Loved your blog. Ate up every word like fat kid on cake. Sure going to place those tips to use. That friend of yours is ranking a 9 now. The other links on that area of real estate must of read your blog and jumped up on the rankings

Very cool info Joel - I like working in neighborhood names into my posts - kinda like those long tail keywords - all good stuff for SEO. Great feature!

Hi Joel~ Thanks for sharing this with us. I am bookmarking it and coming back to it when I have more time to focus and follow the directions!

Great article...yes it is like a reality show...I would still like to be on Survivor though....

Joel, I do a ton of blog posting for my clients and did a check on a couple of the neighborhood blogs - I am going to add a couple of backlinks on the verbiage of a few listing virtual tours I will be posting on Youtube and see what the outcome is too - do you know how many days/weeks it take for a change to occur in the positioning? Thanks for your indepth post - it was well worth the read!

Hi Joel - this is a great post. I am so appreciative of the education you just provided! thanks.

Joel, Great post, great info.

Hi Joel -- Makes sense to me. I have heard the SEO experts proclaim that if one writes about non-real estate matters on a real estate blog, the search engines will penalize you. Don't know if that's still (or was) true or not?

When blogging we are putting every thing out there like a reality show.... Interesting case studies

GREAT BLOG!!! Very true

Hey Joel - Thanks for taking the time to write this interesting post! Great information!

Mary

I like your analogy of our blogs being a reality tv show. I like to write about my family. It just gives me joy and others a bit of insight into my life.

Joel,

thank you for this post. I am going to save this and come back to it to study later. I need to re-think my blogging. I really haven't written anything specific to just one neighborhood,

Joel - Speaking about reality shows, I wrote a post about it here on AR. It really is true what they say about life imitating art, or art imitating life.

OK competitor, so where do I mail the check? I'm not sure if I should thank you for exposing my cheesy trick of writing a post just so I can show off my pictures. :) And yes, I taught Teresa everything she knows. (wink)

I thought Jason Crouch was a home inspector

Super! Well Well written! Great pics and excellent value! An A++++ Blog! Thanks for sharing! I love this: Passion 1st, Real Estate 2nd...This is what allows real estate to really FIT! Isn't it?

APR

For a real reality real estate tv show check out my blog here on AR!

Joel- can't wait to come back and see the results... loved your ideas...

Interesting. I guess I need to think about my bloggging a bit more. Your ideas are worth a try.

Joel -

Thank you for thinking of me for this post.

Funny. When I read your post, the first neighborhood I thought of was Fifeville. I'm still #4 for "fifeville charlottesville real estate" but #2 for "fifeville charlottesville"

Neighborhood info are what buyers (and sellers) want - the more and better and deeper and more relevant information that you can provide about neighborhoods, the more traffic you will get.

Now with video proliferating and google street view, the possibilities are endless ....

You've spurred me on. I'll let you know how my next 'hood post goes.

Very good small is the new big. I just recently did that with my active rain membership. Shrunk my area of influence. It's awesome.

Oh yeah... I meant to mention that I will still avoid the drama that gets reality watchers back...

Joel - Great post! Thanks for showing me that I need bring balance into my blog :)

I really enjoyed reading this post Joel! It is so funny how many people enjoy reading a variety of topics and I try not to limit mine to just real estate, although it seems to be the market reports that people keep coming back for!

Hey Jim,

Thanks for being a good sport about me using your blog as an example.

When you say you're showing #4, is that because you're not counting the double listings that yahoo, zillow & the city of charlottesville have, or might it be that your results are getting pulled from a different data center? (ie: do your search results show in the same way that mine do in the screenshot below?)

I'm also still seeing you as #3 for "fifeville charlottesville", but the "google map" link doesn't really count. It'll be interesting to see if you now bump up for that phrase too.

Teresa - Thanks for sharing that tip! (I haven't yet come up with a day of the week theme, but I need to. I'm familiar with Wordless Wednesdays, but need to get better at taking pictures. I like the idea of what you & Ines do on Fridays more.)

Ines - thanks for the encouragement! It means a lot coming from the Mojito Queen! ;-)

Huiting, Midori, Kim & James - thanks for the comments! Be sure to come back to see how Jim's "fifeville charlottesville real estate" post ranks once Google crawls this page. (They haven't yet). That will be the true test of this post.

Jennifer & Patsi - thanks for the compliments! I agree that it's hard to come up with topics, but realizing that it doesn't have to be 100% about business 100% of the time sure helps both with readership and creativity.

Bridget - I can't wait to see your results! Be sure to share them! (I'll be sharing the results of my experiment hopefully within the next few days.

Bilyfrans (post #19) - uhhhh... Thanks. Instead of deleting your post, I've left it up as an example of how NOT to get links.

Lane - Thanks for dropping by! Be sure to share your results!

Thanks for making it so simple and understanding I am going to try this as well.

Christopher & Stephanie - I'm glad it was helpful and thanks for the compliment! Remember almost more important than just getting links is where you point those links and the anchor text you use. (I hope to be able to demonstrate that after Google crawls this page and registers all of the links (and anchor text) I put on this post.

Walter & Patricia - Thank you very much. What a nice compliment!

Jason - You da man. I've learned a lot from you and admire your writing style. I look forward to doing a lot more business together in 2009!

Russ - I agree - it's hard to tell if you don't dive into your site analytics. If you don't use Google Analytics, it could be a very enlightening thing to look at, and could shed a lot of light on where your traffic is coming from, and even better - which traffic is converting into business. Our hyper-local pages convert visitor inquiries 2 to 3 times as often, and those leads are almost always FAR more qualified.

Gary - Thanks! I can only aspire to one day have as many AR points (& more google juice as a result) as you!

Lis - I'm guilty of doing the same (even on this blog). My only defense is that I AM writing about my biggest passion. (I know, I know - boring & geeky..., but what can I say? I consider myself lucky to get paid for my favorite hobby. ;-)

Katerina - I couldn't agree with you more. No matter how long you've been doing it, sometimes, it's just plain fun to Google a phrase you know you dominate, and see yourself in not only the #1 position, but also the 2, 3 and 4 spots. It may only get 10 or 20 searches a month, but those searches are highly qualified.

Winston - Interesting! I'm still showing Jim's page as hovering between #7 & 8. The only time I can get it to come up #9 is if I display 100 listings on the page - and in that case, it's not a matter of someone else getting ahead of him, but instead one of the listings getting a double indented listing. What listing are you seeing ahead of the screenshot I included?

Joel - Mine kind of resembles The Osbournes. The ratings aren't bad, but the show is a mess:) Seriously man, super post. For seasoned or newbie bloggers, this is a great read.

WOW_this is one o the best posts I've read. Thank you.

Kim D - Thanks for dropping by! Often, working a neighborhood name into a post is all it takes - that's what is so cool about long tail marketing! The even cooler part is how much more traffic you'll get by being #1 for that phrase, and how little linking effort it takes.

Vickie - I can't wait to hear your results when you put that "deep linking" strategy into action!

Pat - I haven't watched it for years, but Survivor was one of our favorite reality shows too.

Suzanne - it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks - it entirely depends on how quickly Google crawls the page that has links pointing at you. (You can always use the cache command to see if they have crawled your page. In fact I've checked the cache of this page several times, waiting on the edge of my seat to see when my links kick in and what impact they will have.)

Lisa - thanks! I hope it is something you can put into action and share your success with us soon!

Jean - thanks for the re-blog! I'm honored!

Joel,

Great blog! I'm new to blogging and AR. My "issue" is what to write about without divulging too much personal information and not enough real estate info. Well, you just summed it up for me. Now, I'm not sure what is meant by the "links", but I'm sure I'll find out!

The Real Estate Investment Lady

Chris - Google "penalties" are a big mystery to everyone. The only "penalty" I believe you receive is the fact that if you write something that isn't real estate related, it probably won't rank well for a term that people are searching for, but when you write posts like that, you're not writing them to get found on Google. You're writing them to keep the readers (who found you via another post that does rank well) - engaged, and coming back for more. IMHO -that benefit far outweighs the fact that you won't necessarily get traffic as a direct result of an off-topic post.

Roland - thanks for dropping by and for the comment. It means a lot from a 200K+ pointer as yourself!

Stephen, Bruce & Mary - Thanks for the comments!

Christine - Family posts are a touchy issue. Some like to keep their family life separate, and others are an open book. I'm sure those that are an open book tend to attract others who have similar family values, and have a very high ratio of clients who actually become friends as a result of that transparency.

Linda - Thanks for the comment! I look forward to hearing back from you about what kind of results you see. (Remember - don't just write a neighborhood post, and have it only rank in the top 10 - take that extra step to get a link or two pointing at it, and be #1!

KK - you can hold off on the check until we see if you get a boost for "Denver Colorado real estate agent" from your current position of #6 ;-)

Let's do lunch again sometime soon!

Greg - Ouch on Crouch! You're funny ;-)

Elizabeth - Thanks!!! I think that's the first A++++ I ever received! (I got an A+ in college stats class once, but that's about it.)

Pete - I look forward to seeing more of your reality show. After I get caught up on all of these responses, I've got to go and check all of your blogs out!

Jim - I look forward to "watching" your show too.

JB - I fully hope you do (And so I don't have egg on my face, am crossing my fingers that Jim gets a boost from #7/8 on Google for Fifeville Charlottesville real estate too ;-)

Irene - I hope you do, and come back here to share your results!

Connor & Paris - Thanks for sharing! I'm not necessarily saying you can't have both - just that it's easier to slowly climb to big and collect high quality traffic along the way, rather than focus only on "big" and waiting for who knows how long before you start to see results.

Lane - Everyone has his/her own style - and as the #2 AR guy for the state of Georgia, your style obviously works. BTW: It was nice meeting you at REtechSouth!

Great case studies for blogging, those are some of my favorites also :)

Maria - thanks so much for the kind words.

Emily - Sounds like you've already got a good handle on the balance concept! I wonder if putting a little extra linking effort into those market reports would get even more traffic to your site!

Carles - I hope you share your success! It's awesome seeing how such a little "tweak" can make such a big difference in your rankings for a certain search phrase.

Jason S - The Osbournes - Great analogy! From the comments & posts I've seen, I believe it! I bet you get some of the most fun clients out there just because of your style!

Cathy - thank YOU for the wonderful compliment. I'm honored to be included in that category.

Amy - Links are the most important part of how well your site ranks on the search engine, and it's not that difficult of a concept. For example, I just linked to your blog here. Technically, that link should help increase your site's authority, which in turn helps your site rank better for various phrases. There's more to it than that, but that's the basics of linking.

I'm sold! I have bookmarked this post, and will be going through and creating links to/from my blogs. Thank you for a well-researched, well-written article. Congrats on the well-deserved gold star! Cheers,

Amy's Sweet Signature

Thanks Amy! Good luck on the link-building.

(And forgive the unsolicited advice, but while you're at it, you may wantt to consider putting some nofollow tags on all of the links out from your page that aren't intended to share the valuable Pagerank on your site. (ie: the San Juan Islands & Bellingham Bay links are excellent resources for your visitors to check out, but unless you're getting links back, you should nofollow those links. That alone could give you a boost in the search engines!)

You raise some great points. A well rounded blog makes sense and probably will give those of those of us that suffer from "bloggers block" some additional material.

Joel - I love your post. Great ideas and points of view. I will also check out your website as I need to work on mine. Thank you!

I am finally catching onto the link thing - it took me a little while to get "it".

But I have seen some very rewarding results since incorporating more links into my sites.

Mark - isn't it like learning a magic trick? I still remember the first time I learned the magic of on-page & off-page (linking) SEO. I took a relatively non-competitve city from 78th on Google to 1st - in a matter of a week! I just checked and I've still got 3 of the top 4 spots!

Thanks Marzena - Good luck with it!

Yeah Simon - blogger's block is a lot less often when the pressure of needing to be a real estate expert every day is lifted. It's a lot more fun too!

I think I need to read this post in the morning not after a hard day. This would have been interesting as a two parter. Jay is really good in Phoenix and he takes chances. He posted months back about a possible investment fraud, and he is still getting comments months later. He is also the same person when you meet him as how he seems on his blog. I believe that is important to. Loved the links ideas. Thanks.

Joel, thanks for the post. I'm guilty. I write the brainy, but dull articles...usually with only a hit of personality. My ratio is probably opposite of what you suggest...yes, it's time add a bit of fun to the mix. The linkage info. is something I need asap...thanks for the tip.

Interesting perspective. I guess I will have to inject a Vodka-Cranberry into my blog ;-)

A post with case studies...interesting. It is late, and I'll have to re-read this post tomorrow morning.

Great stuff. You mentioned alot of great tips here and quoted some of the top real estate bloggers. Good job. No wonder this gets featured.

APR

Great job Joel! Thank you for sharing more great advice.

Thanks for the experiment. I'll try it tomarrow.

Wish I could understand what you are sharing because I think it would really help if I did, thanks anyway.

MAY

Joel, I went back to read your other post on this and finally came over to read this one too. So much good information. I did google a couple of the neighborhoods that I blog about. One of them, where I live, I had the top 5 spots. I need to work on those others! Thank you.

Thanks for dropping by Connie!

Congrats on the #5 ranking. I wrote another post about how a #1 ranked site gets 2 to 5 times as much traffic as a #5 ranked site. The cool thing is that at the neighborhood level, it's a piece of cake to boost your site to #1. Good luck!

JUL

Hey Joel,

Thanks for the awesome post, I need to get to more TV time, and less commercial time. I will let you know the results! :)

-Lisa

AUG

I was rereading your post and wondered can you recommend a web site like point2 or something along thise lines. I do not know this SEO stuff but want to figure it out.

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