I am always asked by agents that maintain their own blogs, "where to go to find content and how to find frequent content." Over the past year, blogging has hit the net by storm and the number of bloggers grows by the thousands every day. When I first join Active Rain, I think there were less than 2,000 bloggers on the site. Now the number has grown to 43,554. I joined in August 2006.
The best places I have found for blog content can come from individuals we work with on a daily basis or the sites we visit frequently. These individuals are filled with information and would love to have their content added to your blog.
Where to find topics?
- Transaction Vendors - with the assistance of your transaction vendors, you can get at least one blog per month and a regular basis from your Title Company, home inspection company, pest Inspection Company, preferred lender, appraiser, bank contact, etc. You will receive at least five blogs for your site giving you a new blog at lease every six days.
- Home Stagers - Team up with a home stager. Home stagers provide a lot of helpful home selling and buying ideas for seller and buyers. I am always looking for new decorating ideas. One or two blogs per month will benefit each of you.
- Subscribe to other Blogs and Community Newsletters - Subscribe to other blogs and online newsletters on topics of interest. Often and article written on a topic will generate a fresh new review or generate new content for a new blog on the same topic. Avoid plagiarism and avoid blogging to criticize the information the other person discussed. It will make you look like the bully on the playground trying to attract attention. Your post should always respect the views of others even when you don't agree.
- Ghost Bloggers - If you do not have time to blog or would like to have additional content added to your blog site, consider hiring a Ghost Blogger.
- Company News - Blog about the latest company news. If you or your team have made great stride, achieved a goal, will host a seminar, have a new listing, etc., write about it.
- Google News - I like to use Google News to find targeted content on topics that I am ghost blogging about for agents. I even subscribe to Google news feed in the specific areas of the agents.
- Your Assistant - Involve your assistant in the writing process. Your assistant sees and hear a lot of information and can provide a lot of insight to what buyers and sellers would like to know.
- Forums - Watch the forums for topics. What are others talking about, complementing, complaining about, etc.
- Buyers and Sellers - What type of questions are they asking during your presentations, showings, and contract phase? Create your blogs based on those questions. One question asked and answered will often provide an answer to hundreds or thousands of buyers and sellers.
- New Listing Area - Just picked up a new listing? Blog about the area surrounding the listing (Park and Recreation, Mall, community events, etc), and add a simple link about the listing in the blog. Don't use the entire blog to talk about the listing. That should be kept separate.
- Yahoo News - Like Google news, subscribe to news in your target area.
- Topix.net - Subscribe to Topix.net and receive update national and local news stories.
PS: See Bobby Carroll's comment below. He has included several great add-on resources.
Of course, there are many other resources available online that will help you locate content for your blog and I am sure others will provide additional information.
Regards,
Carolyn Nelson, NAR Certified Real Estate Assistant | Carolyn@OnlineREPA.com | http://www.onlinerepa.com/ | Bus: 877.717.4491 | Fax: 866.590.2269
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