Hi everyone - this is an email that I MIGHT send out to our customer base. I was curious what you think of it? Is it valuable, is it accurate, etc?

THANKS FOR ANY COMMENTS, GOOD OR NOT SO GOOD:-)

We think Blogs are critical for Realtors' success. 

Blog is short for web log. Wikipedia defines a blog as "providing commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic."

Blogs establish you as an expert quickly.  Think about the speed at which social networks form on the web, versus in the real world. Contrast the number of "friends" your teenager has on Myspace to the number of friends you have in the real world. Or think about the speed of email versus postal mail.

No matter which analogy you choose, the bottom line is you can have a more influence over more people faster by using a blog than you can pounding the pavement.

In fact, realtors that create credible blogs quickly become the leaders and experts for their topic or area, in both the virtual and real world.

The secret is to go local. Become the expert for, and write about your local area because (1) People looking for homes highly value local information; (2) It's hard for them to get this anywhere else because of the continuing demise of newspapers, and the lack of local Internet content.

Entertain and inform. First, make sure you are entertained - have fun with your blog. Otherwise you won't keep it up. (Anecdotal evidence says that 50% of the blogs on the web are inactive.)

Don't be too concerned about following business etiquette. Blogs are supposed to represent the personality of the author, so let your natural style be your editorial voice.

Make sure you contribute original content based upon your personal experiences. People are looking for your unique opinions, and will quickly skip canned newsletter content.

Pictures are IMPORTANT! Keep your camera in your pocket or purse, and always be on the lookout for pictures. The recent San Jose Grand Prix, and the Gilroy Garlic Festival were both great picture opportunities. How about a picture of the Rose Garden in the Rose Garden section of San Jose? (There really is one!) Or shoot quaintness of Hwy 49 thru downtown Sutter Creek.

But keep in mind the smaller but significant local points of attraction: How about the new Gym at the Redwood middle school? Or pictures of Pine Grove Community Park, with a short report on the Hot August Nights Entertainment series.

Success depends upon consistency: The price for success is to work your blog on a regular basis. Maybe create a team of 2-4 folks if you can't commit to at least a bi-weekly update. Perhaps you can each take turns writing.

Link to Other Websites: When you link to other people, you hope that they link back to you. The combination of in-bound and out-bound links is used by search engines to compute your rank. This is a completely free way to increase your rank in search results!

Your website may become redundant: Your blog's content is your true expertise and value. We suspect that most everything else on your website is redundant content licensed from a 3^rd party.

We would also speculate that buyers are not going to come to your website to search for listings. That market has been taken over by a plethora of Venture Capital funded websites.

We might argue that the only unique content left for you is your local expertise. Why not set up a Blog, focus your energy on it, and get rid of your website?