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Active Rain- Blogging For Listings! It Works If You Do!

We all know or should know that Active Rain is great in getting solid and loyal buyers to call you which translates into closed deals. blogging for business active rain

But I hear a lot here on the Rain that Active Rain is not a great tool for getting sellers to call you or for getting listings. On both accounts I wholeheartedly disagree! I just read a post where the author says that Active Rain is not for getting listings. Nothing could be further from the truth. Of course, if you don't think you will get listings, you won't.

We currently have 64 listings in our listing portfolio. You can view most of our listings here on our Palm Beach County Listings blog post. I compiled them for some of our Active Rain friends who have investors and clients moving to Palm Beach County Florida. You can earn a referral fee for sending us a buyer who closes on any of our listings!

Here is the breakdown of our listing sources:

43 are from Expired Listing Packages that we mail out to Expired listings.

7 are from referrals from clients.

2 are from a foreclosure letter that we sent out to lis pendens filings.

11 are from ACTIVE RAIN!

From those we have from Active Rain:

3 were direct referrals from Active Rain members

9 were direct phone calls from our Active Rain blog. Some of these 9 went to our website but only after reading our blog on Active Rain.

One of the listings that we received from our Expired Listing Packages was an investor who has a webmaster who was so impressed with our blog and website and the search results that he told his boss to list $22 Milliion dollars worth of listings with us. Blogging on Active Rain wins again!

If sellers are not calling you to list their homes with you; you have failed to engage them in your blog and you do not have a call to action.

If sellers are not calling you to list their homes with you; you are not writing what they want to read about and you are not transparent enough for the sellers to build an online relationship with you before they choose you as their listing agent. Pure and simple; if your blog is boring, not easy to read and not engaging- the sellers are not going to call you.

Look at your blog from a seller's point of view. IF you are a seller what would you want to know about? IF your blog is all about moving to your area than it is focused on the buyer not the seller. You need to have a balance of both.

Are your titles geared towards sellers? Are you using the word Sellers in your title and posts? Our short sale series really engages the sellers. If you look at our stats from Active Rain statistics you can see that just this one post in our series since 02/05/2008 has received over 700 views. That is a lot of views. Remember, consumers read but rarely comment.

blogging for listings

We have sellers call us while they are reading our short sale posts to list their houses. They have already chosen to do business with us. They have made up their minds that we will be their listing agent. The interview is done in the privacy of their own homes behind their keyboards without stress, without pressure and on their own time. We do not need to have a sales presentation. Our blog does that for us. So keep on blogging and compel those sellers to call you and start getting those listings!

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Contact Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtors®, International Properties and Investments, Inc. Licensed Realtors® in Florida at 561-753-0135 to list your property for sale or to purchase a property in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Lake Worth, Hypoluxo Island, Lantana, West Palm Beach and the rest of Palm Beach County Florida. We are accepting referrals.

Visit our profile to find out more about our services. Call us today at 561.753.0135 or Toll Free 800.444.3316. Contact us by email if you prefer by clicking on email me on the right side of this page under our profile.

To view all the Wellington Florida Luxury Homes For Sale Click here and then click on Multiple Listing Search where the globe is on the right side of the screen that opens up. We know Palm Beach County and will help you get your home Sold if you need to Sell your home and help you buy your Wellington Home or Land ; call us today.

Disclaimer:The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Wellington Homes Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Wellington Homes Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Wellington Homes Blog does not express the views of International Properties and Investments, Inc or those of the broker.

P.S. If you are listing your home as a short sale in Palm Beach County Florida make sure you hire an agent who knows how to do short sales and has the experience to get the job done. We are doing successful short sale packages. Call us at 561-753-0135 to find out more.

Posted by Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes on 02/16/2008 10:32 PM

Comments (61)

blogging for listings, blogging for business, active rain blogging for listings, active rain gets us listings

Originally posted at: South Florida Real Estate and...: Active Rain- Blogging For Listings! It Works If You Do!

Post is included in group: Dedicated Bloggers

61 Comments on Active Rain- Blogging For Listings! It Works If You Do!

FEB

2008

I love the blog just a little to long for my ADD. But yes it works and works well.

Good for you guys, Katerina. I know you are doing great and it is encouraging to us all. I definatelly have business form activerain, but not like you all do.

John Walters

John- Well, you can avoid the part below the line, that is our call to action, signature and disclaimer. :) Thanks so much for leaving a comment, that was very nice to do with ADD :). Katerina

Katerina - This is awesome to hear. I actually got a call yesterday from a guy wanting to list his house with me based on a post I wrote about Hutto recently. Great advice!

Jason Crouch, Broker - Austin Texas Real Estate

Jason- Great! We are working it! And so are you! It works! Loving it in the rain! Katerina

Missy Caulk Ann Arbor Real Estate

Missy- Thanks Missy! It takes time to set it allup and you need to write to the sellers you want to call you. I know you love football and sports so you can connect with sellers who like sports. Relate sports to real estate and use the right keywords that sellers are searching for. Your area is ripe for these same results. Katerina

FEB

2008

Hi Katerina...remember to tell everyone on the benefits of long tail key words again, when posting their Blogs. Being Consistant by Bloging regularly helps keep your Blog fresh.

Cheers, Congratulations on your success.

Cool to see that 11 of your listings were sourced to Active Rain! Very encouraging.

Katerina - I have five so far and another potential I will be meeting with this week. I know it works. I would love to know the title of the post. It would be interesting to go read :)

Katerina,

Great advice. I have been tarketing more of my localism posts toward the listing side. Those homeowners are online as well.

Great info! Like you said "engage the public" with your blog. You will become a local expert in there eyes!

Katerina, I do not have any current listings that can be directly tied to my Active Rain blog. I do agree though that your blog can bring you sellers. On my Spring Texas Real Estate Blog I write for both buyers and sellers. I can tell that potential sellers are out there reading my blog based upon the number of views that the blog posts have received. The Internet is not just a tool used by Buyers. Sellers use it too.

Katerina, Thanks for being a great example of using your blog to build your business.

Katerina - Even though I am very new to AR and to blogging, and still learning, I have had communication from potential clients that came from my blog. This is a great way to get the public to feel that they know you and be comfortable calling with questions, or for an appointment.

Great info, thank you!

Katerina, I never really thought about making sure I had a balance between seller and buyer focused posts. Now that I look back, I'm not making a strong enough call to action for sellers. Thanks for the nudge!

Katerina~Congrats on all your success! I agree with you so strongly on this. Although I haven't had a closing from AR as of yet, it is coming. I have received 3 phone calls for business all due to ActiveRain. 1 a seller, 1 a buyer relocating from NM and 1 a referral here on AR. The time we spend here is very valuable and we can make such a difference for our communities if we just grasp a hold of the opportunity and blog our hearts out.

Thanks for always providing that little nudge, encouraging me to constantly focus on the who and why.

Katerina, I think you hit the bullseye with this post. People put up junk posts and wonder why their phone doesn't ring off the hook? Pul-eeze!

Katerina, I believe why people don't like to get consumers here is because they get to see your competition. However, when you write the quality posts that you do you really don't have any competition. Which goes back to what I have been saying people need to stop worrying about what ranking they are and concentrate on writing quality not quantity.

Blogging for business....for listings, sales, mortgage, feng shui, staging, home inspections and anything related to the real estate industry....we get what we put into it :)

Thanks once again for an inspiring post, your constant urge to help the rest of us is great, if we could only glean some writing lessons.

Katerina, It surprises me that people are not getting work or calls from Activerain. I come up very high in many places from AR and people often connect with my posts; it has worked for me (and you and Nestor and many others).

Great advice. I never thought about writing posts to engage seller's but that makes perfect sense. I will work on that, hopefully today. I've had writer's block, so that may be the nudge I need to get me going again.

I need to focus more on sellers in my blogging. I have had good business from buyers but not sellers (other than referrals). Your suggestions and advice are most helpful, Katerina. Clearly it is working well for you.

Jeff

FEB

2008

Katerina- This is great, concrete evidence of the business you are getting from A/R. Obviously your blogging efforts are paying off. Hard work will get you somewhere (and the great thing is, it's fun too).

Nestor & Katerina, would you mind posting a link to one of your best listing lead generating posts here? I'd like to see and learn from the format of the one or two that worked best. Thanks muchooo!

Fred Carver,Victoria BC Realtor

Fred- Thanks so much! For your support and confidence in me. Blog that longtail! You are getting fabulous results.

Sandra Carlisle - Corona del Mar Real Estate

Well, I do not consider it lead generating. These are not leads that call us, they are buyers and sellers who have already made up their minds to work with us. The sellers- most all of them are coming from our short sales series of posts that I am doing. If you go to my tags and look under short sales, there are 9 short sale related posts. Those get the most listings and of course those sellers are listings short sales. The other draw we have is our company name. We are in Florida where international buyers are buying, 1 out of every 4 international buyers buys in Florida. SO sellers know that and are attracted to the name of our company. They click on our profile and see the name of our company. Our company name also comes up on google in our AR blogs sometimes and we got 3 listings from one lady just because of that.

The buyers we get all come from our neighborhood posts on Localism. All of them. Since we are listing agents we do not focus on that as much as we would, we may be hiring a buyers agent and if so, we will post a lot more for neighborhoods. Thanks so much for you comment and stay tuned for more posts on all of this. Katerina

Cathy Beam

Cathy- It did not happen overnight, it was a few month, I think it was 4 months of blogging before we got our first listings. Patience is key.

Bill Gassett Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate

Bill- Right now it is short sale post titles rich in keywords and of course long tail, so it is, Short Sales in Palm Beach county- what you need to know etc. Those are a gold mine right now.

Mike Frazier, Dyersburg Tn Real Estate

Mike- You will get the calls because they are looking for an agent on line who will market their property online.

Paul Viau , Guaranty GMAC ,Halifax, N.S.

Paul- Thank you for your comment. You are seen as the expert when you blog about an area or a niche subject.

Jill Wente - Spring TX Real Estate

Jill- Sellers do read blogs, they are on line and you just need to connect with them. Make sure to write personal stuff too,. That is one of the keys to the quality of calls we get.

You guys have one the best blogs here on AR. Thank you for all the helpful posts you put up on a regular basis!!

Joseph Ellman

Joseph- You are very welcome. I so appreciate your compliment. That was very nice and uplifting as I woke up this morning to your comment. You brought a smile to my face and remind me of the reason I blog for Active Rain, paying it forward, sharing and coaching are my passions. As I go through this day drafting my posts for the week your kind words will be right along side me in my mind keeping me on my path of purpose here. I strive to write 2 to 3 coaching type posts each week and then some localism posts to get business. Katerina

I have been reading your posts ever since I was introduced to AR a few months back, I have learned more from what you write than any other source. You guys are amazing, your post on expired listings has motivated me to take action. Thank you so much..........

Manny Reynaldo, PA,CIPS,TRC Boca Raton, Florida

www.2BocaHomes.com

I've received calls, listings and sales from advertising listings in Active Rain. It does work.

Manny Reynaldo,PA,CIPS,TRC

Manny- THANK YOU! That was so wonderful of you to make such a wonderful comment about our blog. I want to know that our blog is useful to you. Expireds are a great niche and since you are in Palm Beach County, they are a gold mine! Perhaps our paths will cross one of these days! We are CIPS too. Katerina

Katerina -- I read your blog consistently and appreciate all you share. . . AR works.

Lori Gilmore - Will County Illinois Realtor

Lori- Thank you for your wonderfully warm comment and letting me know you are reading my blog, that makes it all worth my while to keep writing. I hope it benefits you and your business. Katerina

Chuck Willman, Realtor®, ABR, TRC

Chuck- That is great! We get a lot of folks who see our listings on AR and then call their agents to tell them they want to see one of our listings. That is also unusual that they are calling direct from your listings on AR. I find that they call more from reading my personal posts and posts about their neighborhoods and short sales. Keep doing what works! Katerina

Bradenton Florida Real Estate - Dan Forbes REALTOR®

Dan- I felt I had to write this post because I read comments where they say that you can not get listings from AR blogging. That is not true. We do and I wanted to share that so others can get listings too! Thanks again for reading my blog. Katerina

Learning to blog for success is an ongoing process. I am learning something new from AR everyday. When I first heard about it, my reply was HUH? Thank you for the great info, and another added direction to take my blogging.

Thanks for the timely reminder regarding the importance of maintaining all your irons in the fire on a consistent, timely basis. Creating effective daily habits of blogging for 45 minutes each morning pays off over the long run. It's creating the daily habit of having numerous approaches to reaching your market. - Thanks, keep the reminders coming, I certainly need them!

Elaine A. Cook-Bellingham Real Estate

Elaine- You will get it! Just keep on plugging away. It will all come to you. Believe in yourself and it will be so.

Mark Selmi

Mark- Thanks for your great comment! You are right, if you get the blogging out of the way in the morning you can make some great progress. Of course, I have to do the opposite, I start blogging and I don't want to stop. I do the drafts for 10 AR posts on Monday and Tuesday so that I can get them done and move on to other projects. Then I publish them throughout the week. Katerina

Marzena Melby

Marzena- You are right, this is a great way for your potential customers to get to know you, blogging builds loyalty to you. It is the best marketing tool I have ever used. Katerina

Lisa Heindel, New Orleans West Bank Real Estate

Lisa - You are welcome for the nudge.I like to write for sellers so it comes easy for me. Now that it is in your mind you will write some great posts to attract sellers to you.

Julie Neerings

Julie- It takes some time, but once it starts, it is like the flood gated open up! Keep blogging because your blog is fantastico! Mucho Fantastico! Make it a great week!

What fabulous statistics. Congratulations on using Active Rain in such a positive way and thanks for such wonderful advice.

FEB

2008

Katerina - You must spend half a dozen hours a day in ActiveRain - there is so much to learn from your posts!

Katerina - very uplifting results for anyone who wants to succeed in blogging for business. Congratulations on a well deserved recognition by your readers.

MAR

2008

Nestor & Katerina - I am so grateful to you for providing us here in the Rain with such valuable information. Please continue to do this because it really helps out so many. You are greatly appreciated.

Martha Brown CRS GRI

Martha- Thank you for commenting too! I love Active Rain! I have a great testimony of how well it works if you work it.

Barbara-Jo & Bill - - Florida Realty Professional - AHWD

Barbara and Bill- Yes, I usually spend 3 to 6 hours a day on Active Rain. I want to help people and also get business.

Faina Sechzer - Princeton, Montgomery, Hopewell, NJ Real Estate Expert

Faina- Thank you so much for your comment. I love blogging for business and for my friends here! :)

Sonya Rosser

Sonya- And you are SO welcome! It does feel good to be appreciated and I thank you for telling me so. :)

Great information! Activerain builds your business in several different ways! You will learn more here about building your business, then any other real estate site !

Great post, Katerina! As with everything else in life, you get out of AR what you put into it. I haven't gotten a listing yet out of AR...but I know if I am consistent and disciplined, my time will come.