Hi Bob,

Great post and I do appreciate the information, very good idea and I will think about a website.

Bob,

Great post!  Does blogger already have a template setup for your neighborhood farming or do you have to design that yourself?

Aloha Bob,  I had been to one of your presentations last year.  I had called your son about web positioning at one point.

Good info. I will check it out!

Great blog, I would like to add something. Most agents are sendingtheir sphere emails with no branding. Branded email will set you apart.

This is the second of your post to catch my attention.  I really like the idea but I don't know that I have the time to run a blog for a community on a daily basis.  I have a hard time keeping up with my AR blog.

Tino

You have to set it up yourself. It's not that hard to do

Gary:

Thanks for the note Gary. I appreciate your comment

Darrel

I understand. Blogging is time consuming. But I think you will find that once you have a neighborhood blog, the neighbors will do most of the work for you. 

Excellent idea.... but not to sound negative, but it will take longer than 60 days to make inroads with the idea. Well certainly in most communities it will take more than 60 days. My 2 cents.

Hi Bob,

Well, I've thought about this for years and never looked into it but you have peaked my interest and I'm going to check it out.  Thanks!

Great idea!  Thanks for the resources.

Now this is the type of farming I can believe in.

Great tip!  I remember not too long ago there was a company trying to sell neighborhood websites for exorbitant amounts of money.  This is ultimately a more suitable forum and much more cost effective!!!

Real good post with a lot of good information.  I have a website but not enough activity at this time to make me happy.

I started doing this!  I am watching the snail mail farmers pull back also.  Very interesting to see results so quick too!

Nice to see you around Bob! 

Hello Bob,

I enjoy reading you blog and the information provided.  I'm targeting a farm with 400 homes and working on a business plan, budget, etc. for the next 12 months.  I realize a farm sometimes takes a few months before people begin to respond and some important key is to stay consistent, as the goal to stay at "top of mind" when a client is ready to buy, sell or refer you to another person.  I have a personal website via Advance Access and under utilize its potential.  I'm quite excited about adding a farm/community page filled with community and specialized real estate/marketing information.  After reading your post, I'm inspired to go in forward.   I will refer to your community sites for ideas....     

In your experience, how long did it take you to start getting responses from you farm?  Thanks again, Cesar  

WOW! I've had the same thoughts about doing this to replace the neighborhood websites I already have that I pay $30 - $60 a month each for right now! - They don't get any google juice at all, are static, boring and hard to maintain. 

This is just what I need! I am ordering your CD today.

Thanks, 

Bob.. Great post.. I'm a firm believer in using a blog as a farming tool.. it takes awhile  but once you get a few loyal fans it's a terrrific tool and beats the heck out of mailers that never make it past the circular file..

Hi Bob,

Great Blog Post.  Very Informative.  Very Helpful.

I am in the process of setting up some community blogs myself.  Doing it though Wordpress though, since if you have the domain hosted off of the wordpress domain you can make changes which will allow comments to get link credit back to their own sits, which then you can encourage others who have websites to come back and comment on your blog which further increases the PR of the blog and makes it even easier for newcomers to the area to find it.

Great information, Bob. I started a website for our community when my husband promised the HOA he would create one and never started it. I didn't follow through because he showed lack of interest. I wasn't an agent at the time but looks like I've already created the foundation. I just need to pick up where I left off.

I had reservations about farming my neighborhood since I wasn't interested in listings. But the whole idea is building relationships with people you know or have something in common with. The people in my neighborhood are the people I will have encounters with at school, at community events, at church...and if I start doing the shopping, at the grocery store. LOL!

We have a guy in our neighborhood that does door-to-door advertising. What a way speedy way to get the word out. I can even sponsor my own neighborhood contests...yard of the month!

Thanks a gazillion for firing me up!

And...

If none of this works...

There's always the option to 'adopt' a small farm area and hang in there while it and you grow.

That's what we did. Thirteen years ago our farm area boasted a population of 6,000 and no one wanted to work the area. So we adopted it. 

This same area now has a population of 67,000. They know who to call when it's time to sell :)

TLW...ROAR!

Thanks your your comments everyone. Here are a few additional pointers.

1. You do  not want to host your community blog on your website. Here are 5 reasons why.

www.farmingwithblogs.blogspot.com/2007/06/farming-off-site.html

2. When you farm a community on the Web, you are not only farming for sellers, but home buyers who are interested in the neighborhood as well.  Imagine that you're the one interested in moving into a community and you wanted to do research on that community ... where would you go? Would you look for community information on a Realtors website or would you look for information of an active Community site?  You would go to the active community site, and so would home buyers interested in the community.

3. Don't try to farm a community that is either too big or two small. Maui Meadows is about 600 homes. This is a good size to strart.

Take a look at some examples of how you can get the word out about your new community blog. We have some example marketing materials here.  Make up your own. Neighbors are 1,000 times more interested in going to a community site than they are your real estate site. It's just human nature.

Great idea, here.  I did visit your website and didn't see a cd for sale. 

How do you best market the neighborhood blogs and let people know they're out there?

Where do you "host" the sites and is there a company who has a great set up already?  How much are the costs associated with a community blog? 

Bob,

Great post.  I'm the Manager and Marketing Technology Trainer for Windermere Real Estate/PhoenixNW.  I am constantly looking for new marketing ideas for my agents to try and say them money.  In the last several months I've been researching blogs and their usefulness in marketing.  This is a great idea.  Thank you for sharing.

Chris Mattix

Hi Natalie:

Here is a website we created to help you market your community blog http://visonthenetmartketingyourblog.blogspot.com

You can find examples of yard signs, postcards and door hangers. 

You can find the CD for sale at www.visonthenet.com/store/farming-with-blogs.html

I recommend using Google Blogger to build and host your Community Blog for five reasons

1. It's free

2. It's hosted by Google (they have a vested interested in making sure their blogging platform works)

3. It's the easiest blogging platform to use (much easier than Wordpress.org)

4. You can build as many community blogs as you want ... all for free

5. It is very SEO (search engine friendly) out of the box. 

I've done this and it provides a lot of buzz. On the other hand, if you don't live in the neighborhood or have  "bird dog" watching out for you it's a bit tricky establishing your name.  My two cents.

Thanks for the post. We've done well competing with established agents in our area and it is due to our innovative ideas and use of technology to differentiate ourselves.

The greatest step is to find the market that few agents knew existed... every area has one.

Cool idea. I'd like to learn more.

I think this is a novel idea.  I am going to bookmark this post so I can take a look ata the link when it is not so late. 

Bob, thanks for sharing.  I like the idea of "starting a new game" instead of competing head to head.

Excellent advice and information.

Today you can't wait for anew community to be handed you on a platter. You have to go head to head with other realtors. I love your thoughts on all of this.

Great Post and what a concept!!

TWL has a very valid point about how a community grows. You might have to stake it out.

Bob,

To host a neighborhood website is quite an intriguing concept. If done professionally it can make you the expert residents will call on when needed. It can work for lenders, too, I'm thinking. It has to be updated regularly to be effective.

Esko, I thought this was such a great idea that I started on it right away. You make an interesting point that I thought about as well. Our HOA is managed by a third part. Although we have a board of directors we still have to contact the management company for everything. By becoming the neighborhood expert guess who my neighbors will call when they want to know something about our community.

Bob, did I already say "THANKS" for sharing this. Thanks!

Bob, Toni Ellis spoke very high of you and recommended I come over to start with your advice first. She said in her blog that you gave her the idea for the neighborhood blog. Her's looks great. Thanks for the tips, you will be bookmarked for further study.

Great post and great idea bob. I saved your blog to my del.icio.us account to get back to it later. Thanks for the idea.

Bob,

Great idea! Thanks for sharing!

Dave