I have spent the last couple of weeks contacting the Top 100 agents on their state's Leader Board and a surprising thing has surfaced. Many of these Top 100(per state) have not written a blog post since between 2009 and 2012 !!! As I've noticed this over and over I’'ve thought to myself, just what are these agents doing to market themselves(and listings). I mean clearly we are in the last days of print media and costly snail mail. Recent NAR surveys are proclaiming that nearly 100% of all buyers are starting their home search online. Then it dawned on me, have these agents left Active Rain just before their ship was set to come in?
You see the old school of real estate is still trying to wrap their head around the fact that
Blogging is Lead Generation ( http://actvra.in/4q ). Blogging as a form of Lead Generation is no different result-wise than old fashion door to door prospecting. But most former Active Rainers just don't get it ! You hear them say "I tried Active Rain (AR) and got nothing from it !" I hear this often and immediately attempt to look them up in AR. Guess what I keep seeing? The majority of them have less than 15,000 AR points ! Lack of points = lack of real effort. I mean they would be the first to remind me that you might have to knock on 100 to 200 doors to find a seller lead. Yet somehow they’ve deluded themselves to believe AR was the newest magic pill and that after 5-12 fledgling blog posts, they would be the "Listing Agent of the Month at their office.
So what are the realities of blogging as new age Lead Generation? No major difference, because blogging is also a numbers game. It's a process not an event. It's clearly a marathon not a quick fix sprint. It is a form of seed planting that we sew with a defined audience, faithfully believing with planned cultivation, we will one day harvest ! In my nearly 5 years on Active Rain , I have deliberately observed exactly which blogers were stating they were getting a good portion of their real estate business from AR. What was clearly visible (from AR's Leader boards) is that success seemed to be on the other side of
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1,000-1,500 well written and specifically directed blog posts, not 5-12 ! You see it takes great daily discipline (http://actvra.in/4jxs ) to write and launch 1,500 posts over several years ! Ah yes, the old 80/20 rule shows itself again here.
In his real estate/life changing book,The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, Gary Keller tells us that each agent really has TWO jobs, real estate and Lead Generation. I've choosen Active Rain blogging to be a huge part of my Daily Lead Gen discipline. Unfortunately, so many other former AR agents couldn’t see/comprehend that AR was far more than a website. But instead a huge differentiation tool and community of resources!
Sad, but these agents left Active Rain Just before their ship was set to come in !
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