Almost four weeks ago, I decided to return to blogging here on ActiveRain. Well, to be fair, I decided to return to blogging in general, and this is my platform of choice. This is my 26th post since then (if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will be kind enough to point it out - I counted quickly). Frankly, I needed a break, but then I just fell out of the habit for a long time.
I joined this community seven years ago this month, and I think there were roughly 12,000 members, which actually seemed like a lot back then. AR is about 30 times larger now, as you may already know.
I remember when I secured my first business website domain name in 1998 (it's still our site today - www.austintexashomes.com). People reacted like we were crazy. "What are you going to do with a website?" Obviously, I was hoping someone might actually find it and want to call or email us to buy or sell a home. My business partner and I even came up with a crude but effective version of the IDX, although it was hard to keep it updated.
I was originally thinking of going with austinhomes.com, but after asking around, it seemed prudent to include "texas" so that people moving from other states would find it. If I were smarter or if I understood the importance and value better back then, I would have just bought both of them. Regardless, it turned out to be one of the most lucrative decisions I ever made. We have closed tens of millions of dollars in sales from that site.
When I started blogging for business, I pretty much got the same reaction: "Why would you want to spend time doing that?" Needless to say, I had similar goals in mind. I wanted to see if I could attract some business. As it turns out, I have closed millions of dollars in sales from this blog as well, including a ton of referral business from agents around the country. In fact, I closed one yesterday. :)
I had similar reactions about Facebook, Twitter, and my podcast. All of them brought results at varying levels. Last month, I got FOUR referrals from Facebook friends.
Next on my agenda are two items:
1. Grow my company with more high-quality agents, with a stronger focus on systems.
2. Lots of video marketing/blogging. I have put this off for too long. This is still largely untapped, and I think there's a big opportunity. Much like with blog posts, if done correctly, this is "evergreen" (i.e. valid and timely) content for years to come.
I have a gut feeling that someone will probably ask me one of the following questions about video:
"How will you get business from that?" and/or "Is that a good use of your time?"
To answer both, I have a method to garner business, and yes, I'm relatively certain that it is a good use of time.
Thanks for reading!
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