What Can Real Estate Bloggers Learn From Betty Crocker and Oprah?

Mary,

This a question that comes up every once in a while on my posts because I routinely 'chop' the article, and send readers to my blog to finish the article.

I have posted many reasons as to why, they are sprinkled throughout AR: the topic has been hot at times.

But after thinking about it again, I believe that the most compelling reason for the link away to the real estate tomato is because the content is mine.

The time and effort I put into every article is precious, and I take the time to deliver what I feel is compelling content for my audience.  If I were to post the entire article here on AR, then this content would essentially become 'property' of AR.  Sure, it's still actually mine, but it is AR that leverages it so effectively to broaden their exposure in the search engines, and keep you in their web for whatever it is they plan to do with it.  I feel that if anyone is to be the greatest benefiter of my efforts, then it should be me. 

Bottom line: If the content I write is going to help attract an audience in the search engines, and it certainly does, then I feel that I deserve the traffic to the environment where the article originated.  Otherwise, it is AR that gets all the traffic, riding my content to the bank.

The link to my site ensures the connection between my effort and my business. 

To me, just being recognized as the author here on AR is not enough.  It may seem to be a bit of an inconvenience, 1 click to read the rest of an article... but I feel that the alternative is not an option.  If you deem that the content is valuable enough to click, then I have done my job.  If not, then oh well, I lose.

Mary,

I am not sure what you are referring to.  The content I write for the audience of AR is offered for free, at the expense of no one (well... me, I guess).  Clicking to RET, provides you with over 300 articles geared to educate the online agent, all for free.  I have no networking service - just fans.  Nothing fishy here... in fact I have never made a single outbound effort to solicit business from anyone, ever, here on AR.  I just post what I expect might be seen as valuable, and in return ask for a click to continue reading if you were so compelled.

Mary,

I am in no way a competitor of AR.  I love AR.  I have written at least half a dozen articles about AR on the RET, and have linked back to this site hundreds of times.  In fact, Matt Heaton and I have met over beers talking about how great it is that this platform exists for Realtors and for entities like the Real Estate Tomato.

At one point, just a few months into AR's existence, I was their #1 referrer of traffic with as many as 100 visits a day coming from my site to here.  These days are long gone, now that they have really exploded... and I can be certain that it is Google that is now the largest referrer.   

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A major part of the blogging culture is linking away to other blogs, in order to provide more content on a subject.  It would be shortsighted to expect to have everything on AR... although I hear they're working on it :).

Mary, RET is just a destination where I and several guest authors have created a resource for blogging advice.  It is not a networking platform or some competitor to AR.  It is an advice column for most.

Regarding getting back to my site from AR or vice versa: It is as easy as the Backspace button on the keyboard, or the back arrow on the browser.

I think you must have mistaken what you have experienced.  Sorry for the confusion.