I also attended the CRS conference and finally understood the value of blogging.  Hence my New Active Rain blog!  This is new to me, but I'll be checking it out in the days to come to see how it works.  (It was hard coming home to No. Cal. with freezing nights after balmy days in Waikiki and Maui!)

Ooh, I get to be one of the first to comment on this one!  I guess it pays to be up at 2:02 ET, eh?

I was just commenting on Bryants post about points, and also Stephanie Edwards post about blogging on behalf of others for money.  I recently saw my first ad in a major RE publication for a company that would create and manage a blog for you, stuffing it with content under your name.  Sort of like ghostwriting, but more like those generic newsletters forever being offered to agents for prospecting.  Is this going to be to logical step for the blogosphere...?  I hope not.

ChicoLaura - Welcome to Active Rain.  You will find this a great place to share knowledge. 

Be sure to log in to Active Rain when you leave comments.  That will put the link back to your blog.

Jeff - I will never have someone else write my blog.  The blog is personal.  The type of folks who have someone else write for them probably cheat at solitare.

Can you imagine the conversation?

"OK, you can have the basic blog where we post 20 articles for you per month, or you can step up to the deluxe blog where you are an expert on everything real estate"

"Um, what else can I get for my $200 per month?  I really don't have time to WRITE anything...Will you drop 10 comments a day too?"

"Not unless you select the AR God package..."

What really jumps out at me is that the top agents get about 1/3 of their closings from the web. Through our participation in ActiveRain, we have the tools and techniques needed to be successful online. Now it's just a matter of effectively using them to build our business.

Randy - From all the post I have seen on your convention it seems to have been a great success.  Yes everyone is realising how important blogging is. I am not surprise top agents are doing so well with their online marketing.

Marketing has been shifting away from traditional print mediums to an Internet based model for a few years and it works.  As the battlefield changes we'll have to hone our skills to maintain our market share. By the time the majority of agents jump on (and successfully use) the Internet those of us on AR will have solidified a hefty lead. 

Randy, this sounds like a big change from CRS Sell-a-bration 2007 in Las Vegas.  I recall that there was little or no discussion of blogs at the CRS tech seminars a year ago and the agents I asked about blogging at the event didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about.

My MLS now has a place with a link to your own blog...interesting that they included it in my personal set up.

Randy, while the idea of blogging is catching on and there is more talk about it, I doubt that we'll see an enormous increase in the amount of REALTORS who actually blog on a consistent basis.  Once many of them realize the time and effort involved, they will leave their blogs dormant.

Sounds like a great program Randy. Just like at NAR convention in Vegas this year, Blogging was everywhere. I can't wait to read about your prize.

Blogging is what the successful agent is doing. Nice list of tips, too.

Randy so much to learn. Thanks for sharing the insight of those speakers.

Randy- Yes, do tell about the Prize :)  I find it quite interesting following the comment thread here.  It appears that more and more people are actually promoting blogging now, which is good for all of us that have been doing it for awhile now.

Jeff G - I am sure there is a certain amount of that already going on.

John - That number kept coming up when I took the classes and when I spoke to these top agents.  The other thing was most have them spent a lot of money on websites and SEO.  Also most of them added blogging in the last 12 months and are already seeing the impact.

Jennifer - They have a plan and are willing to invest the time and money.  That is the definition of a successful business person.

Jesse & Kathy - One thing that I heard several times was that these top agents were not trying to maintain market share, they were looking to gain market share.

Eric - You are so right.  A few of us Active Rainers met up in Las Vegas, but there was no mention of blogging at that event.  We were ahead of our time.

Neal - We have a place for virtual tours in our MLS, but not blog yet.  I bet that changes soon.

Brian - That is true of taking classes and getting designations also.  Only a small percentage is willing to put in the time for most things.

Monika - I did see a big presence of blogging at NAR.  It will be much bigger next year.  My grand prize will be the subject of some blog posts later in the month.

Gary W. - Agents with many times the transactions I have, talked about blogging.

Frank - There is always so much to learn.  That is why I attend those conferences.

Kathy - The most important thing is our clients are finding our blogs.  In the future they will be going there more and more.  Look at the presidential election.  The news keeps referencing the blogs as a playing a major role in the campaigns.

I will be VERY interested in watching how blogging matures over the next year...

Jeff - It definitely is going to be a bigger part of our industry.

Randy, all those suggestions are right on the money, and yes websites and blogging is like other tools in this business, they are changing and if you don't change with them they stop being effective.

    Randy - I think blogging will follow websites - in the early stages, the individualists were out there doing their own thing, and then it evolved to template sites with duplicate contact. We early bloggers always posted for ourselves, now we're seeing template blogsites, many of which will probably have duplicate content. I'd imagine that would either a) get them penalized on the search engines or b) get them ignored on the search engines.

George - You are right they are only a tool, but like all tools they need to be sharp and used to be effective.

Sharon - It will probably also get them ignored by clients.