You CAN do it!  I did, and I was just as much a Newbie as you are now when I found the Active Rain Real Estate Network a couple of years ago.  My first post found its way onto this site in July of 2007. 

Since that time, I've blogged consistently, week in and week out, except for one month while my Darlin' was laid up.  It's the consistency, more than anything else, that's taken me to the top of Arizona's 5,880 + bloggers in the Rain. 

You CAN do it!  What you can't do is give up.  Someone I signed up told me they were quitting this week, after less than three months in the Rain.  That made me think about my own experience with Active Rain.

• It took four months of blogging before I got my first referral that turned into a closed transaction. 
  
• It took another three months before a second referral put money in my pocket. 

By the end of my first year blogging on Active Rain, I noticed a change in my business. 
People who would have never known me found me because I blog consistently on Active Rain. 

Here's what I do:  (1) I take a photo, and save it to my computer.  When I run out of ideas on subject matter, my photo folder never lets me down.  It gives me an idea.  (2) I turn the idea into a story, and post it on Active Rain.  (3)  I answer my phone when it rings. (EDIT: Here's a perfect example.)

Here are a few stories about how that's working out:

• March, 2008.  My phone rang, and someone I had never met, whose REALTOR wanted him to get pre-approved with HER lender, was on the line.  He was laughing, and he begged me not to hang up, because (he said) this wasn't a prank phone call.  "I'm on the internet looking for a lender in Tucson, and everywhere I look, I'm finding you, and these stories you write."  He hired me as his lender, and the home he bought had a contract price of $940,000.
• September, 2008.  My phone rang, and the woman on the other end had sold her home out of state and had taken a job in Tucson.  She wanted to buy a home, and went to the internet to see who she wanted to use for the mortgage.  "I found your blog, and you seem like someone I can trust."  We pre-approved her, and referred her to a REALTOR who sends me business. 
  
• October, 2008.  My phone rang.  The person on the other end found me on the internet...
• January, 2009.  My first "out-of-town" REALTOR referral came about when the REALTOR called me and asked "Can you do loans outside of Tucson?"  My response: "I can do loans out of the country!" 
  

Half of my business now comes from first, second and third generation referrals that I can tie back to the Active Rain Real Estate Network members, and people who accidentally find my blog. 

The key word, dear Newbie, is "consistently."

You can DO it!  Blog consistently, and a wide audience will come to know you and trust you.  Write what's on your heart. You don't have to write tutorials or really bright stuff.  (I'm not all that bright.)  I am, however, very competent at my job as a lender, and I'm trustworthy.  You won't find the words "competent" and "trustworthy" in my posts, because saying so don't make it so.  Trust takes time, and it comes from the reader, not from the blogger.

This post is getting wordy, so I'll quit. 

One last takeaway?  You CAN do it!  Need help or encouragement?  Email me.  I'll find time for you.

 ___________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, and I blog here on the Active Rain Real Estate Network just about every day.

I'm an internet based mortgage lender who happens to reside in Tucson, Arizona.  Read my blog, and get to know me.  The internet allows me to perform at the highest level of trust and productivity for clients anywhere in the world.  At the moment, we're completing purchase loans in less than 30 days for US Citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Click the Active Rain link below to see my guarantee of service.

SUNSTREET MORTGAGE, LLC
a correspondent banker
Call me if I can help you or someone you know
with a purchase or refi mortgage.
(520) 349-9090