You can lead a REALTOR® to blogging, but you can't make them write.
Here is a great post about not giving up when it comes to trying something new. One frustration as stated below is running out of topics to blog about. Here is a tip, go out and introduce yourself to business owners and blog about their businesses. If help enough business owners win, you in turn will win....
You've probably heard the phrase "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink". It means you can tell someone how to do something, how good it is, and how it will benefit them but there's no way to make them actually do it. I've found this to be true with blogging. I've trained many agents in my local market, some direct competitors, and many have fallen off the wagon...so to speak. So, why do they give up? What makes an agent who could do this stop? I've got a few ideas:
Writing - It's hard to write and it's hard to come up with good ideas to write blog after blog after blog. Many agents do fine their first week or two with all the possible article ideas they get. However, after that they get a case of writer's block and can't seem to keep going. My suggestion to anyone with writers block is read the blog roll. Someone, somewhere will talk about something you find interesting and you'll get inspiration.
Time - The power-bloggers I know all spend 1-2 hours a day blogging. For the newbies, trying to put in that much time blogging is like asking a teenager to wash dishes for an hour. It's hard, mind-numbing, and it looks like there's no payoff. Blocking out the time is hard and staying with it each day is hard. They give up because something disrupts their schedule and it's easier to quit than keep on task. My suggestion to these agents is to add blogging to their calendar so it's always blocked out.
Results - Patience is a skill few people truly have down pat. As agents, especially those working with buyers that take two years to make a decision, patience is second nature. With blogging, we need to be extra patient. It takes weeks for your articles to build momentum online and while an article may rank #1 in Google right after you publish it, it may settle to page 3 after a day or two. So, the leads you hope to get from blogging may take some time. My suggestion for newbies is to be patient. It will take weeks and possible months before it starts to really pay off. However, it WILL pay off if you stay with it.
There are a lot of other reasons newbies quit their blogging but these seem to be the big ones. I welcome comments with others and hopefully a few newbies will read this and stick with it!
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Bryan Robertson, Broker Associate
Realtor, Developer, e-ProSereno Group - Los Altos
369 South San Antonio Road, Los Altos, CA 94022
DRE# 01191946
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