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No Leads in the Blogosphere?

Jim Cronin of the Real Estate Tomato published an interview today with Greg Swann of Bloodhound Realty. Greg is a frequent contributor to his own BloodhoundBlog. I have visited both of these blogs on a daily basis and and enjoy them very much. The interview titled, "Straight from the Hound's Mouth" is certainly an interesting read.

Here's what really got me thinking. Jim asked Greg, "If you were to recommend one blogging strategy for new real estate bloggers, what would it be?"

Greg's response was, "Depends on the objective. If you want leads, don't weblog." I also got the impression that Greg doesn't think there's much of a market for a blog which primarily appeals to consumers.

So, how about it? Are there agents out there who have managed to build a blog which primarily targets buyers and sellers of real estate that is actually delivering a measurable return? I've been spending a fair amount of time on my other blog and I would hate to think that I'm neglecting my family and my business just for the pleasure of hearing myself talk. :)

Posted by Norm Fisher on 12/06/2006 06:46 PM

Comments (43)

blogging

43 Comments on No Leads in the Blogosphere?

DEC

2006

Norm,

I'm not much of a blogger but I have done a couple which I thought might be of interest to the public. Well it hasn't really produced anything at the moment. It's fun anyway. LOL

Norm,

I read your blog, then the interview "Straight from the Hounds Mouth". I suddenly realized that since I started blogging, I have been expecting that eventually there will be more interest from the public as time passes, and that might lead to leads. I assumed that if one can position temselves with blogging, the community will eventually find you there. Now I am not sure.

Norm,

This was the one part of the interview that would have gotten the most attention. Sure the reading was a bit long... but would you expect anything else from myself and Greg?

Anyhow, it would be great if you could take some of your thought and post them to the comments section of the original article... I'm not trying to pull the 'juice' from AR - I hope the conversation can continue here as well (we all love the points) but to at least address the topic on the interview itself would be a great firestarter, and it is not my place to do so... at least first.

Lemme know

Michael, here are some solid articles supporting the lead generating aspect of blogging. I can find so many examples of blogging success that will contradict Greg's experience, so don't be disuaded so easily:

The Real Estate Tomato: 3 Soft Barriers - How To Generate Leads ...

The Real Estate Tomato: Carnival of Blogging Success - Tomato Top 10

The Real Estate Tomato: Your Blog Is Bait

The Real Estate Tomato: Why Is A Nationwide Audience A Good Thing ...

Have you not read my Activie Rain blog entry Blogging For Bucks? There are definitely leads (and dollars) generated from good, consumer oriented, blogging. I am having phenomenal results. Only those who don't have the patience will tell you differently. I am a small fry in a small market. If it works here for me, it can work anywhere for anyone!

I use my other blog as a way to keep my clients and potential clients informed about the Richmond business climate and goings-on, not so much as a "lead-generation" tool, but more as a credibility builder.

I want to be seen as an expert on the local scene. So my goal is not to immediately generate leads, but to establish my presence. Some of my clients, especially ones that are doing business in Richmond but not physically located in Richmond love my blog.

I can't say whether or not I have gained any new clients from the blog, though. I believe it has to be part of your overall marketing plan, not a stand-alone piece.

I know for a fact that there are leads to be found in Blogging. I've received them from the direct hits of consumers, AR real estate agents and even lenders out of state..Say what you want...it's less to read through..lol

Scott

Greg is a smart guy. His goal is not to generate leads, so he doesn't have those expectations. However, when you set your sights on focusing your content to attract buyers and sellers and put qualifies lead gen tools like CMA's, personalized RSS feeds for listing searches, and include a clall to action or link back to a lead gen tool at the bottom of each post- you will generate leads.

@Jim

First, I apologize for picking up on this without leaving a comment on your blog. I am fairly new to this and not completely up on the etiquette, although I should have recognized the rudeness in that. Perhaps I felt like a party crasher questioning Greg's comments right there and as Greg said of himself, " eviscerating criticism comes to me as easily as breathing." With only one month of blogging behind me I still feel like a fish out of water and I'm reluctant to draw too much attention to myself. :)

I did venture back to the Tomato and left you some thoughts. Thanks for the push.

I too have heard of a fair amount of lead generation from blogging. Now, I've just had 2 entries so far, so maybe a littler early for me to expect returns, lol.

Yes, blogs generate businees. I can attest to that.

@ Carol. Sorry, I've only managed about 10,000 of the bazzilion blog posts out there so far. Lol. Now that you've called my attention to it, I will check out 'blogging for bucks." Thanks.

@ Mary. I did understand that Greg wasn't really trying to get leads from his blog and he did actually say, "I can give you a weblogging model that will work as a lead generation system." There were at least two other points in the interview where he was pretty down on it as a lead generating tool. Your points are valid about incorporating tools. I have learned that lesson through my primary website. You do have to "ask for the order." Thanks again.

Thanks to everyone else for your insights. I'm off to check out some of these links.

Now we're talking. Looks like I may need to run another Carnival of Blogging Success soon... Perhaps first quarter. Last quarter we had at least 15 good examples of success throught blogging. I am sure that we can double or triple the entries come January.

Any quick examples are welcomed over at the Tomato on today's article

When buyers register on my IDX site, I am able to tell what link they clicked to get there. Buyers are coming to my IDX site from my blog and registering.

Norm... I know. I was just teasing you a bit. With 10,000 members it does get overwhelming. That's one of the main reasons the groups were started.

Norm - (your always sitting in the same bar stool) SORRY, I just could not resist.

I have in fact obtained leads from my regular blog. I keep it very area specific and people who do searches for my area - find me. Here is what I noticed.. They know ME before we start the selling process

Christine,

A long time ago, when I was in the radio business, my sales manager's name was Cliff. Cheers was pretty popular then and we always got some laughs when the receptionist announced, "Cliff and Norm are here."

We know for a fact that our blogs have contributed directly to our client acquisition. You just need to be consistent, patient and make sure your topics stay on point.

I just wrote this: http://activerain.com/blogsview/23695/KUDOS-to-AR-and in which I sent 10,000 happy bows and a big HUG (((())))) to the creators of AR for what has happened for me as a result of being here... We are in the eco-friendly niche market and we are talking with any number of contacts as a result of AR. We are excited about the PR aspects of this wonderful venue.

Norm- Well done !! Great Post !!

I agree with Carol's first comment and what Scott had to say.

And Mary McKnight brings up a good point. Thanks...

DEC

2006

Of course I'm going to build my blog to attract buyers and sellers. It may be by creating a presence, establishing myself as the neighborhood expert, providing information or generating leads -- but in the end it needs to have a positive bottom-line impact on my business in order to survive.

hello

i have not seen a significance between my blogging & leads generating. but i think that may be largely due to my lack of time to really develope it (social blogging, etc.). definitely will invest some time in that now there are some downtime.

cheers,

cindy

i stage & redeisgn to sell, live and work in san francisco bay area cindy@staged4more.com
www.staged4more.com
http://stagingtipsandmore.blog.com/

Gosh, don't tell that to my client that's coming in Friday looking to buy a condo! He emailed me directly from AR and we've communicated several times. I was out for the last three days with clients from out of state and he called me multiple times today to get ahold of me and book an appointment. To my competition: Nope, they are right....no leads here!

I have a hard time getting clients to tell me where they found me on the internet, but the fact that they are finding me on the internet is good enough for me.

Is it my blog? Active Rain or my two websites? It's Active Rain or the blog... because the one website has been up for years and the other gets little traffic. My websites are getting traffic from Active Rain and my blog.

From a consumer perspective, most realtor blogs don't offer any real content. No local flavor, no stats (both GOOD and BAD, got to show the warts too otherwise people won't trust you), it is usually at best parroting the local or state realtor association report and maybe some cut and paste from other sites.

I enjoy 2 realtor based blogs (and I've been looking for good blogs for over a year, which shows you the quality to quantity ratio).

1) www.realtyworldcal.com : Someone actually not caring if the market is good or bad, he is simply presenting the stats (locally and nationally) in various manners to give everyone a real sense of what is going on. Someone not afraid of the numbers or trying to always spin things, he is just a "the numbers are the numbers" kind of guy. I love it.

2) www.bubbleinfo.com : pretty good site, Jim the realtor posts about the good and bad things of the SD market. He looks at past sales, current listings, things he can do for buyers and sellers, etc. If I was in his local area I wouldnt have any trouble using him.

Be brutally honest and post often, you'll gain a following soon enough.

I'm with Christine. I've gone to homes where I have never met the people before and they say to be, "but you said..." and quote something from the blog.

In my modest opinion blogging is sort of like talking over the backyard fence, or shooting the bull when you're at the gym, favorite bar or cigar shop. It could open up a potential contact but it by itself offers no steady stream. But connect it to a structured informative website that is positioned high on search engines due to your successfull use of keywords, meta tags and links and you maxumize the possibilities that someone jsut might contact you.

Wow. What a spectrum of opinions and insights. I agree with Mary McK that GS probably isn't really interested in generating leads by traditional definition. There's a luxury car dealership in Paris that only has one car on a revolving pedestal in the store that once inside, appears to be an art gallery--from the side walk it looks like a boutique with a clothing window display. Inside the atmosphere is like an espresso bar in the day and a wine tasting party at night . No cars are sold there I wouldnt think. Its all about branding.

My primary blog from which I pull my AR postings is linked to my web page which is linked to our office site which gets several thousand visits per day which results in a half dozen to a dozen or so bona-fide registrants each day from the internet. (And really, we all know that Google doesn't even care what your blog says as long as the words in the content seem genuinely organic. Blogs with good content make your primary site fatter--I know this and I couldnt spell B L O G a year ago) There are many ways to tweak the system without being blatant. My blog is linked as a signature to every e-mail I send out and I send out a lot! Of course, if your blog is weak in content....

Well, I have to say that I've gotten 4 leads from my blogs, both my blog on Active Rain and my other blog on RealTownBlogs. Three were seller leads and one was a buyer lead. Unfortunately, none of them were for areas that I service, but I did refer them out to various friends who do work the areas that the leads came in for.

Ann

Norm - I would suggest logic dictates otherwise. If a "static" website generates leads, how can a "dynamic" blogsite fail to generate leads?

I think a lot of it has to do with what you write about. I am by no means an expert since I only started blogging about 6 months ago. A lead might come through a form on my website but it might have been a blog or something that came up on google that could have been a blog and then they linked to my website and filled out a form.

I recently made a stategic decision about my blogging. I've decided to only write about my market, neighborhoods, apartments, history things that I really am an expert about.

No more thought provoking opinions. I'm a realtor not a journalist. I thought about some of my blogs. The ones that are hot real estate topics like about zillow or craigslist get more comments and featured on AR but I'm starting to think those are more for my ego than generating business. My ego tripping days are long gone.

Craig Newmark commenting on my blog was cool and I liked AR members telling me I'm a rock star blogger but I don't see those kind of blogs generating business. The ones with key words that buyers and sellers will type into google like the name of a building or a new condo or neighborhood I think will.

You can't write locally and mention Zillow, Mitchell? Maybe you can't because you are NYC... I think you are smart to blog to people, not other agents but don't give up good bait words. Buyers and sellers in my area respond to Zillow...not all, but a good entry about Worthington and Zillow has served my blog well....

It's just like any other marketing activity really. f you can attract the same people repeatedly visiting you blog, then I don't see why that won't eventually translate into referrals.

If there are no fish - you are fishing in the wrong place. If there are no leads from blogging - you are blogging in the wrong place!

Maureen.

Good point because I really don't know what the consumer types in to google. I stay up at night trying to figure out google.

I'm going by two recent sales that I made. They were specifically about 2 new condos that I wrote about and had a picture of them. They were both out of town buyers that were specifically interested in the building that they already knew about. One of them is from Ohio (cincinatti) they bought it for their son who just graduated Harvard law school and was hired by a NY law firm.

You may have the best of real estate blogging Mitchell since you (NYC) are so different from all of us with our MLSs.

Norm's blog is one of the new Point2 Blogs... I had to go look. Looks good.

Maureen I think you are right. Also I can't compete with Curbed and gawker, matrix ones that are nyc real estate blogs but not from Realtors. I will never come up in google for new york real estate but I come up for very high for chelsea condos or harlem townhouses or upper west side apartments.

Some of these nyc re blogs don't give the names of the writer, they are anonymous like property grunt who is supposedly a nyc broker. They can say anything. I will check out Norm's. Thanks

Norm, Nice blog does point2 include the blog if you buy a professional website from them?

In my mind, no press is bad press and exposure is good. Keep blogging away my friend.

Mitchell,

Thanks. Yes, the blogs are included with the Point2 Professional sites. They are currently in a beta stage but I'm thinking they will likely remain as part of that package. They're fairly easy to use and integrate nicely with the main site.

I have been publishing my site myself for the last ten years and just recently moved to Point2. I'm quite impressed with their product.

I don't think I've ever read through 40 comments before.
I appreciated it all

I'm jealous - I have never had this many comments on a post that I have actually written... and now this is the 3rd time that a post that has a lot to do with me has broken the 40 mark. :)

Jim,

You were the rainmaker here. Thanks again for an interesting interview and all of the evidence which you brought forward during the discussion.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment. You've certainly convinced me that blogging is a worthy activity in the overall business plan. I will be spending some time on your blogs to see what you're doing and what's working for you.

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