Blogging became popular in the real estate community about 3 years ago and we have come a long way. One thing I have learned is how important your blogging platform is.

Just like it mattered to the 3 Little Pigs if their house was made of straw, wood or bricks, it matters to you what blogging platform you are on.  For this example, I have broken down blogging platforms into 3 types: website integrated, free platforms and paid platforms with SEO optimization built in.

1. Website Integrated
Website integrated platforms do not have a separate, keyword rich url of their own, but are internal pages on a website. This blog is a good example. There is a url, http://www.vagrapevine.com/, but it is merely pointed to an internal page of my website, www.myreassistant.com/blog. Yes, I am guilty as charged and am not doing what I am suggesting you do, but as you will see, I am remedying the situation.

After a year and a half of working in these platforms and not seeing much in the way of results, these platforms are like having a house of straw. You can say you have one, but page views are at a minimum and they really aren't generating you business. The main reason for the poor performance is the content and links are embedded so deeply into the website, the search engines never find them.

2. Free Platform
Free platforms, such as WordPress, are definitely a step up from website integrated options. This is a platform made of wood and if done right can be extremely effective. What makes them effective? Good keyword rich content and SEO work on your part.

3. Paid Platform
As you can imagine, the paid platforms are your house of bricks. BUT, not all paid platforms are created equal. I will use my husband's (Dave Macklin) real estate blog as an example. Dave had a blog on a VERY expensive platform for 1.5 years. He wrote keyword rich content and the most page views he ever had in a day were 84. He put much time and effort into a mere 84 people reading his posts. To give credit where credit is due, the blog did pull his website, http://www.bulterteamhomes.com/ up in the search engines.

Dave is now using an http://www.rsspieces.com/ platform, http://www.allvirginiabeachrealestate.com/. It has only been online for a month and is not ranked by Google yet. He is writing the same keyword rich content and his best day, to date, for page views is 337. Certainly better than the previous 84 page views. With the SEO built in this platform, the results in a few months should be even more dramatic.

I am so impressed with Mary McKnight and the RSSPieces.com platform, I am in the process of moving this blog over to them...so stay tuned!

Questions about blogging platforms or how I can help you with your blog as your real estate Virtual Assistant? Visit my website, http://www.myreassistant.com/ or give contact me at 757-271-6047 or info@myREassistant.com.