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8510 Reasons To Have an Active Rain Outside Niche Blog!

By
Real Estate Agent with Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com SAL.2002007747

Warren County Patio Homes8510 Reasons To Have an Active Rain Outside Niche Blog!

If you're looking for a list of 8510 reasons to have an Outside Niche Blog, well it would just be the same reason 8510 times.  Picture the one dollar bill, and stack it up 8510 times.  That was the payoff for us last Monday for putting up an Active Rain Outside Niche Blog earlier this year in addition to our regular outside blog.

Because let's face it, as much as we love Active Rain, when you factor in all the time spent here, there needs to be a business payoff....some benjamins going in the bank account.  And for us, the most effective way of getting consumers to call us (at least so far) has been that Outside Niche Blog on patio homes. 

Consider this, so far on our regular Outside Blog (www.LizSpearTeamNews.com), we've posted over 500 times.  There's a heavy focus on general information and local events.  And while we've gotten calls about the local events, not one of those callers has (yet) said I'm looking to buy or sell a home.  Don't get us wrong, we love Localism posts.  It helps us know our market better, it's an easy way to send links to someone relocating, and perhaps there are buyers/sellers reading them and just haven't called YET, but they're recognizing we know our area! 

Now our Outside Blog (www.WarrenCountyPatioHomes.com) with the niche Warren County Patio Homesmarketing on patio homes?  Now THAT one is getting us calls on real estate!  So far we've had the one closing on a new construction patio home (thus the 8510 dollars), another caller checking out an area, and we spent a day with another buyer showing patio homes (nothing firm out of them yet).  

Now how many posts do you think it's taken to get that kind of response?  300?  200?  50?  How about less than 20!  20 VERY focused posts is all it's taken, and we're continuing to steadily add to the content.  There's a fairly limited number of communities with patio homes in our market area, so we're featuring each one with a post with a few photos and the key stats and attractions for the area.  Our plan is to work through each one until we've completed all the developments in our local market.  Top that off with the occasional market report focused on patio homes and we seem to have a winning formula for capturing an underserved niche. 

And if you like statistical proof, Google Analytics gives us that.  Our normal Outside Blog reports 448 visits for the last 30 day period (I know, NOT huge numbers for the amount of posts). On the other hand, the Outside Niche Blog had 252 hits for the same period, so over 10 visits per blog post, and we expect that traffic to build as we add more content. 

Focus the content and Google will love you!  We've got the first 4 spots on Page 1 for the term "Warren County Patio Homes".  No payments to SEO placement companies, no ads, just strictly ORGANIC work. 

So if you've got a niche to target, we'd highly recommend a dedicated Outside Blog.  It's easy, it's cost effective, and it gets RESULTS, and isn't that the Holy Grail of Real Estate? 

Outside Blogs, They Make The Phone Ring! 

Liz and Bill aka BLiz

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Serving Warren County Ohio & Adjacent Areas

The Liz Spear Team of Transaction Alliance
Elizabeth Spear, ABR, Ohio License SAL.2002007747

William (Bill) Spear, Ohio License SAL.2004011109  Kentucky 77938
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EHO
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Liz Direct: 513-265-3004     
Fax: 866-302-8418

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Comments (108)

Gene Riemenschneider
Home Point Real Estate - Brentwood, CA
Turning Houses into Homes

I had never thought of having more than the one I have.  Good post and gives me something to thing about.  

Nov 08, 2011 02:46 PM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Gene, that 2nd outside blog is the one ultimately getting the results for us :)

Nov 08, 2011 04:15 PM
Kasey & John Boles
Jon Gosche Real Estate, LLC - BoiseMeridianRealEstate.com - Boise, ID
Boise & Meridian, ID Ada/Canyon/Gem/Boise Counties

I think that is awesome.  But I'm also already feeling really overwhelmed with this blog.  How do you do it all!!??? :-) Kasey

Nov 08, 2011 04:51 PM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Kasey, It's not so bad once you get in the rhythm, and there are two of us, so we split up the duties to our strengths.  Our main website is pretty static, and the blogs require some daily input, but the niche blog only gets a few new posts a month since most of those take 1-2 hours to put together, plus whatever time we spent going to get pictures.

Nov 08, 2011 10:17 PM
Karen Crowson
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Rancho Bernardo, CA
Your Agent for Change

Bliz - so far, I have not done a blog other than the one I have on AR. I have a website in development though (should be done in a few weeks), and I plan to blog there as well. The trick is always, how to find the time to do both?  There is just one of me.  I have not done a niche approach, but rather have done my blogs with the website in mind. I'm blogging about each development in my city. Almost done - but it does work. I have had phone calls from those blogs. I have a listing right now from a gentleman looking for an agent, and he found me by the blog on his neighborhood.  Advice on doing blogs in two places, with just one person? ;)

Nov 09, 2011 01:28 AM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Karen, In this case, while it's two blogs, we're just selecting where to distribute, whether blog site A or B.  I know what plenty of folks here do is post FIRST to their own site, then a few days later post to AR to get the extra Google Juice.  It's probably the same route we'll go when our WP site is fully up.  We won't argue it's a time challenge.  Much of my posting is done while multi-tasking or bouncing between tasks.  What you're doing with the communities is very similar to what Anita Clark is doing in Georgia.  It seems to be working for both of you.

Nov 09, 2011 01:40 AM
Bob Miller
Keller Williams Cornerstone Realty - Ocala, FL
The Ocala Dream Team

Hi Liz and Bill,  Great blog! Great analogy!  I definately need to work on it!

Nov 09, 2011 11:40 AM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Bob, It does the trick :)

Nov 09, 2011 01:35 PM
Elva Branson-Lee
Solid Source Realty GA - Atlanta, GA
CDPE - Atlanta Real Estate & Short Sale Agent

Where is the one place where a person cn get all of her outside bog questions answered? From the comments here, ther are many others like me who have heard of it, even check it off with every post, but haven't a clue as to how its is perfomring or how to measure performance or...well, anything. And I think mine is rather anemic, it comes with my rainmaker account, but I see that I have to Upgrade to make if fully robust. I just don't get it. Someone please point me to the Outside Blog HELP file!

Nov 09, 2011 01:36 PM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Elva,

There are several options for information on Outside blogs:

From your My Home page, extreme bottom left of the sidebar is "Start Outside Blog" and that will take you to this page:  http://activerain.com/action/custom_blogs/

Another good source of info is on the top bar, go to University.  You'll find outside blog tutorials and webinars to give you some info.

Lastly, you can always call the Active Rain staff and they can readily answer any questions.

And unless I'm misunderstanding, you don't have to Upgrade to have an effective Outside Blog.  In our case we decided to have a 2nd so we could concentrate on a niche.  In our case, we installed the Google Analytics code into a widget to be able to track the performance.

If you still have specific questions, please drop us a line and we'll do the best we can to help :)

 

Nov 09, 2011 02:08 PM
Caroline DeVore, Stowe Vermont Lodging, VT Bed and Breakfast Inn, Vacation Homes
Stowe Meadows Lodge, Stowe VT Romantic and Luxurious Inn - Stowe, VT
Caroline DeVore | Stowe Meadows Lodge, Stowe VT

Terrific post and more fuel for my plan to launch another outside blog on AR.  I've been googling to see what folks think about the 2nd outside blog and your post is by far the best evidence that it works.  I wanted to separate my blogs because I have businesses in two states...and I don't want my readers to have to fish through posts about NH when they are really only interested in VT news.   Thanks for solidifying my thinking!

Nov 10, 2011 04:37 AM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Caroline, It makes perfect sense for what you're trying to do.  I'm sure the AR Staff will be thrilled to get you set up :)

Nov 10, 2011 04:40 AM
Kasey & John Boles
Jon Gosche Real Estate, LLC - BoiseMeridianRealEstate.com - Boise, ID
Boise & Meridian, ID Ada/Canyon/Gem/Boise Counties

I need to get in the rhythm I guess...I am still barely in the rhythm of one blog :-) Kasey

Nov 10, 2011 12:34 PM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Kasey, Whatever works for your business and personal plan and you can maintain.  Consistency is key to developing your following and obviously the more posts out there, the better the odds that the consumer finds you via a search.  Good luck!

Nov 10, 2011 10:20 PM
Kasey & John Boles
Jon Gosche Real Estate, LLC - BoiseMeridianRealEstate.com - Boise, ID
Boise & Meridian, ID Ada/Canyon/Gem/Boise Counties

Thanks Liz!  I'm working on it...I've gotten much better since I started blogging.  My broker (who's also my father) also just began an AR blog, so maybe between the two of us we will be able to take our town by storm!  Have a great day! -Kasey

Nov 11, 2011 08:04 AM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Or attack two different niches and rule!!

Nov 11, 2011 08:07 AM
Kasey & John Boles
Jon Gosche Real Estate, LLC - BoiseMeridianRealEstate.com - Boise, ID
Boise & Meridian, ID Ada/Canyon/Gem/Boise Counties

Yeah, I think he is going to focus extensively on short sales - we'll see.  He's never been much of a blogger so he's definitely in the Newbie realm when it comes to this stuff! :-)  Alright, I'll quite commenting on your blog now.  Thanks for responding!

Nov 11, 2011 08:12 AM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Kasey, There's no limit to comments, feel free!  And if your dad doesn't blog much, short sales is perfect to establish a niche.  Get key short sale info out there, tie it to your zip codes and town names.  Keep it focused and let the buyers/sellers find you.  It's a winnable situation.  Good luck!

Nov 11, 2011 08:14 AM
Sylvie Stuart
Realty One Group Mountain Desert 928-600-2765 - Flagstaff, AZ
Home Buying, Home Selling and Investment - Flagsta
Great testimony for the outside blog. I have one with ActiveRain, but am now thinking to work it towards a certain niche. Thanks!
Jan 26, 2012 12:11 AM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

Sylvie, We've got a 2nd closing coming up soon from the same clients.  We've got their condo under contract and will close tomorrow or early next week :)

Jan 26, 2012 12:19 AM