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So, you’ve begun your blog, and it has been online for a few weeks… now what? Where do you go from here?
Onwards and upwards. That initial excitement may be gone, and you may be wondering when your first lead will come, but don’t worry. Remember, blogging is a commitment. There are very few bloggers that become successful in the first few weeks. You have to build a strong reader base, and grow your content.
The interesting thing about blogging is that it really exercises your mind. You may have found that it takes alot longer than you thought to write a post. Don’t worry, that will change with time. Once you get some experience, you will be able to knock out a 1 page post in under 30 minutes. Or you could advance to the big leagues and write 102 posts in one day like Ardell or Greg.
Are you having any trouble coming up with topics to write about?
Don’t worry… you are not alone. Everyone comes up against writers block. Here are a few of my own blogging ideas, along with a few other ideas that may help:
- Write about your neighborhood — Ok this one may be obvious, but just think… there are probably not alot of websites out there about your neighborhood, especially if you start getting into the smaller subdivisions. You know that mail that you used to throw away about your home owners association, or about community events?? Hang on to it. It probably has a wealth of information that you could blog about
- Create a Community Calendar — This could be as basic or as elaborate as you want it to be. Compile all of the events you can get your hands on, along with information, phone numbers, websites, etc. Again, there probably isn’t anyone writing online about this stuff. It’s a golden opportunity for you.
- Get ideas from the local newspaper — A local newspaper can be a great resource to a real estate blogger. Often they will have community news, neighborhood statistics, and other great info that you can use. Make sure to cite your references. On a side note, you may even consider forming a relationship with one of the editors… maybe one of your articles may be considered for their paper, or if you become a good local resource and one of the first bloggers in the area, they may even want to write an article about you.
- Post your listings — You might as well! Your blog is a great place to promote your listings. Add lots of pictures and long descriptions, your current customers will appreciate the effort, and you may snag some buyers. Some real estate bloggers I’ve seen even add a side toolbar that sort of acts like a category for each of their listings. When a customer clicks, they are taken to all the posts written about that property. There is also a great new widget by Vflyer that can be placed right into a post. Here is an example from Leigh Brown.
- Announce open houses and other events — These announcements can be short and sweet and only take a couple of minutes to write. A good friend of mine has wine and cheese parties all the time for his clients… that would be another example of something to announce. When combined with a tool like Twitter, this can be pretty effective.
- Take tons of pictures — This is probably my favorite suggestion. It’s easy, it’s fun, and anyone can do it. Local community events, nice restaurants, local nature, new construction, neighborhood housing, local attractions. These are just a few ideas of what to take pictures of. Start carrying your camera around with you everywhere you go, and enjoy it! If you’re really motivated, and have some time on your hands, take some video too.
- Local Real Estate news — You’ve probably written a couple of posts about this already. In my opinion, this is what most of your effort should be centered on. You are an expert in real estate in your market… it’s only natural that you would have a thing or two to say about it. Try to expand in this area as much as possible, because it will build your perceived expertise. Write about local market trends, statistics, new housing developments and construction, average time on market, home pricing trends, unusual listings, etc.
- Community Statistics — This is pretty straightforward. People want to know stuff about their community. Plain and simple: crime rates, income, median home prices, weather, taxes, etc. Fedstats.gov works pretty good for this kind of thing. For something visual try Neighboroo.com
- Local Interviews — I won’t go into too much detail here because I’ve written a pretty lengthy post on how to conduct a real estate interview. But I will say that it’s a great way to build trust in your community, and is something that every real estate blogger needs to consider.
- Write about your personal experiences in real estate. This is another one of those easy suggestions because it can almost act like a journal entry about your business. Just make sure not to completely “go off” about a customer, or another agent. That isn’t professional. But what you can do is write about funny, interesting, or thought provoking experiences you’ve had in the field. Be creative… writing from the first person about your own wacky experiences is what blogging is all about.
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As I don’t claim to have a corner on blogging ideas (far from it), I thought I’d post a few links here to articles that I have found helpful when trying to stir up ideas on what to write about:
– Mary McKnight has an ongoing post that features a year’s worth of blog ideas
– Here are 10 killer post ideas from performancing.com
– Breaking Writer’s Block — by Mariana Wagner
– Teresa Boardman has a great article on blogging ideas, or rather, what not to blog about. (for Active Rain members only)
– 101 Blog ideas by Philip Liu
There are so many great resources out there for other blogging ideas. Be creative, have fun, and keep writing!
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Resources:
**If you are following along, and and have started your own blog, I’d love to hear about it! I will even add it to my blogroll so that I can follow along with your progress.
Thanks for joining me in this series on how to start a local real estate blog. I wlll take you through step by step instructions on how to set everything up from start to finish.
Follow along with me as I give you hands on examples as I start my own local real estate blog from scratch: “THE ROCK” - Castle Rock Real Estate Blog
If you need help at any time with your new real estate blog, please let me know and I would be happy to assist you.
Sincerely,
Justin Smith
justin(at)hismove.com
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