Before you can decide what to write about you first must know who your audience is and what is your goal, long term and short term for your blogging?
Ask yourself the following questions:
Are you getting all the business you want through your blogging?
Are you getting referrals from other members on Active Rain?
Are you getting calls from sellers who need to sell their homes and want YOU to be the one that lists them?
Are you getting calls from buyers who call you and talk to you as though they have known you for months before they call?
Are you getting calls from Active Rain members and emails to chat and get together?
Are you getting closed transactions that you can trace back to your blog here on Active Rain?
Are you happy with your results and the amount of time you put in in relation to the money you are bringing in?
The first thing you need to decide is what is your focus for your blog. I have several purposes. First I blog for business, but that is very general. What specific business do I blog for?
Since we are listing agents;. we focus on blogging for sellers. We want sellers to call us and be ready to list without shopping agents. We want customers, not leads.
The other reason I blog is for my coaching practice. I coach agents on expired packages and to break through self imposed ceilings and limited beliefs that hold them back from being all that they can be. So that means I also must write good content coaching pieces while moving the free line in order to allow the right agents to hire me.
And of course since now most all my friends are the ones I have made here on Active Rain; I also write for my friend and my subscribers. I want to keep my subscribers entertained, learning and coming back for more. You can have a multi purpose blogging plan as long as one does not conflict with another.
Once you figure out who your audience is going to be you can then begin to make a plan as to how to structure your blog and with which content models.
Here is a list of audiences you can or should be writing for:
The Active Rain Community for referrals.
The Consumers who are reading your blog but not commenting.
Sellers who need to sell their properties.
Buyers who need to buy a property.
Your subscribers both in and out of the rain.
You can break down your list into writing categories. I have mine broken down like this:
Our Listings; I usually post about at least one of our listings each week. I can not stand the blogs where all the agent does is just post listings. That is not building relationships. The consumer can find that on any ol' site these days. You need to really keep it toned down. The Vflyer listing widget on our blog gets a lot of views. So we try to do one Vflyer per week and one blogged listing per week complete with a story about the property filled with lots of photos and a real estate show.
Seller information: Right now I have been doing a series on Palm Beach County Short Sales. We listed 2 homes last week as a direct result of our posts about Short Sales. You give the audience what they want. How do you find out what they want? Read my post about doing your Keyword Research. The sellers also look at our listings; they want to see what we do.
Localism posts about our area for the consumers who read our blog but do not comment. There are a lot of consumers reading our blog.Here is a featured post about how to make your Localism posts shine. Once you start writing your Localism posts about your area neighborhoods, events and places of interests you can get your mybloglog stats script to place on your blog so you can see what people are searching for. Then you write more about that those keywords. You can also get the cluster maps to track where in the world your readers are coming from. You may also be interested in reading my post on blogging for the longtail and also about making sure your titles are search engine friendly.
Subscriber posts: most of my subscribers are agents and mortgage brokers. This category also encompasses my coaching clients and prospective coaching clients. In this category go my posts about the real estate business, our successes and obstacles, inspirational and motivational posts, tutorials and SEO posts and last but not least, my personal posts.
Buyers are NOT our focus but we still get buyers. We may have a buyer's agent join us in the near future. We may decide to incorporate buyer posts so we can get him some great leads at that time.
One word of caution: I do not promote writing a lot of members only posts. Try to keep all of your posts public. This transparency is good for business but more importantly, you do not get the Google juice you need with members only posts. Spend that valuable time getting Google to know you and like you. I have written I think 3 or 4 member posts out of over 400 posts. I have read a lot of posts that are labeled members only but when I read them I wonder why didn't they let the post be public. Reconsider this strategy if you are writing a lot of members only posts.
Choose your audience and start giving them what they want and you will gain a loyal following to fulfill whatever your goal on Active Rain is.
Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtor ®, Business and Life Coach, Speaker and Author. Reach Katerina at: 561-753-0135
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.
I must make sure that I am hitting all the people that I want to hit with my blog. I want to teach, entertain and rant. I will make sure I do the best I can and just not toss one togehter
Katerina: Excellent post for those new to AR. Very well said and I couldn't agree more with all of your reasons for posting in this forum. You do an excellent job of showing well-rounded knowledge of your area, real estate in general, and sharing yourself with us personally. All newbies should pattern themselves after you!
Great information Katrina. I always look forward to reading your posts. I am fairly new to AR and haven't posted a listing because I didn't feel like I wanted my posts to look like advertising. I will read your link on posting listings and also on Localism.
Katrina: Thank you for taking the time out to complie this post it's very informative and It also helps me to take a look at what my purpose is here at A/R... thanks again.....
Chuck- Thank you for your compliment. You can read all the newbie posts and tutorials under my tags. I am trying to get them all placed under the tag, active rain community support. I have added that tag to some of them so it is easier to find them. I write at least one tutorial like this per week, so stay tuned. I hope you can use the material to blog for business.
Monika- I like to tell bloggers to get into their audience heads. IF you are writing to buyers than write to mothers because they are the ones online searching for homes, 85% of the time. So think as a mother and write like you are having a conversation with a mother. That is just one example. Thanks for commenting.
Debe- I smile whenever I see your blog pop up at the top on my subscribed side. Besides, you are very pretty too. Thank you for reading my blog. I appreciate it a lot!
Robin- IT took me a long time after I joined AR to advertise a listing, I thought it was so tacky. But then I learned that there is a tasteful way to do it. Besides our sellers just love their listings up in lights. I try to do 2 of our listings each week, one Vflyer and one blogged listing. Sometimes I have to do two vflyers because we have a lot of listings and we need to get them exposed. You can do them, just make sure you add your personality and write other posts too.
Donna- Thank you for reading this post. Put together a plan, implement your plan but be flexible, things change. Every Sunday I write down the posts I am going to write that week, but sometimes things come up that are great to blog about so you need to be flexible too. Lead with your heart and you will attract the clients you are supposed to attract to you.
Brian- A members only post is just that, only for members to view. Google is not supposed to index private posts, making your post members only is like making it private. Sometimes they do slip through. Members only posts are also meant for really private stuff that you don't want non members of AR to see.
This is important to me. It will help me keep focused on future posts. Thank you for this helpful information. I always look for your help in this new arena for me (blogging).
Excellent tips, I love how you break it all down into categories! I am soo guilty of too many members only, but I am working on that. Thank you for sharing this with us. :)
Katerina, you hit the nail on the head with this one. Knowing who you audience is for a post is important. On the member posts, I don't worry about keywords, for example, but I do (or should) for the consumer-oriented posts. You do a good job of keeping me on track with that through your comments, and I appreciate that nudge when it's needed.
I ws going to recommend this for a feature but I was too late...someone already saw to that.
I'm going back to re-read your "Make Your Localism Posts Shine" post - I need to brush up on my localism.
Now, I'm wondering how to get other AR members to refer to me. :?
I did receive two referrals - one is for a small land deal, and the other was for a listing that didn't pan out (seller wanted too much money for the home and they listed it with a realtor who said they'd get the higher price...and now it's off the market unsold.)
Patricia- Thank you. When I first started blogging I had a plan but it was not very focused. Now my writing is very focused with the intent and purpose to bring the results intended. Everyone and anyone can do this.
Don- I am glad that I wrote about what is important to you. I hope everyone read your comment. This is why and what we need to blog for and about. It is not about me and what I think is important. It is about you and what you feel is important.
Wonderful breakdown and pointers for why we blog although I do write a few members only here and there too. I like to have a little fun sometimes...and it has nothing to do with business.
I have been thinking a lot about who my audience is, because I have been to vague, and unfocused. Your points are good for me review and implement! Thank you Katerina!
Suzanne- You are not getting anything out of member only posts as far as google goes so just change the content just a bit to make it public and then if it for members you will still get the pleasure of some google power.
Margaret- When I write posts for active rain members I still do not make it private by making it members only. I have even received comments from sellers and prospects that they like the transparency of how I interact with my peers. I think that this speaks volumes of who we are. You do not do a lot of members only posts so I would not be concerned. And as I said, many members only posts don't really need to be members only. I email at least 5 times a week to let someone know I think their post should be public. And you are right, for private members only keywords do not need to be in the title! Even my tutorials I will title cleverly because even though they are public I don't care about google juice on those posts.
Fred- Thank you! You are so kind and such a great support and client too! You are doing a great job and I have seen you come a long way in a just a few short months!
Katerina, I can't believe you started just two weeks before I did. You know SO MUCH MORE than I do. I have tried implementing your suggestions. You advised posting to Localism. I have been doing that. It hasn't worked for me yet but I have hopes that it will.
Great advice if you are here to get more business. There are so many people who blog about recipes or other stuff that has no bearing on Real Estate. A little bit is fine too much and you are going to dilute your rank in the search engines. When Google spiders your site they expect to find Real Estate info not your long lost Aunts favorite brownie recipe.
Karen- You need to focus on commenting on the agents blogs that are in areas where your buyers are coming from. These are your key agents. Reach out to them, help them, make friends with them. This is why Active Rain is so powerful and too many people overlook this networking opportunity. Find out from your local board where people come from.
Katerina, congratulations on your gold star!! GREAT post - as always. I read it all. I am absorbing - as fast as I can - all of the great information in this arena. Interesting about the members only idea though. I can't imagine why the public would want to know the tips I provide for the Rainers as I did in my last post. I'll have to revisit that idea. ;-)
Sally- You blog enough that it does not hurt you to write a few members only posts. I get a lot of emails of members who are not getting any business and wonder why. When I look at their blog I see tons of members only posts. If you are posting 3 to 5 new public posts per week Google will place more relevance on your blog. You meet that minimum by far, but many people do not. You get good Google juice so you are allowed to play a little:)
Also, I find that most members only posts do not need to be members only posts. Transparency is huge to consumers. I had a new listing tell me she chose me because of the posts that I was writing to help other agents. She said if I was a giver like that and took the time to help my peers then that is who she wanted to work with. She said that spoke volumes to her of my character.
Deborah- Great, get down and get that plan down with laser focus. I make a list each week of what posts I am going to write, of course, you have to be flexible because things come up that are great to write about. Focus with intent leads to closed sales as results.
Bill- Thank you! I study and research and ask a lot of questions. I had my goal set right as soon as I knew the SE power of Active Rain. I do not have an outside blog because I focus my energy here on the Rain and still have not maximized the google juice that AR offers. I have always been like a sponge. When I was in Elementary school, the teacher could give me a book to read and I could write a detailed book report with great comprehension. I was always asking for more to read, to learn, to do. I am an avid reader and learner. I crave learning. I have a passion to learn all I can and pass it along to others. It is who and what I am.
Bill- For instance- I just ordered over $200 of books from Amazon on subjects that will help make me a better coach for my clients. I will absorb all the info and then I can take all that I learn and turn around and teach it to the agents that I coach. I ami looking forward to getting that package in the mail!
Lenn- And YOU DO SUCH A GOOD JOB OF IT! You are an Active Rain Star with a loyal following. We all LOVE YOU and love what you give to this community. You are the creme' de la creme'!
Lindsay- It is in the gene pool. I can not take the credit. My family is filled with genius and I am not one of them. My mother's IQ was SO high that she had a standing scholarship to Stanford University. My brother's IQ is so high; I taught him how to read when I was 6 and he was 4. He had scholarships for his IQ to law school of Michigan. He was offered all kinds of deals. He was so smart he passed with one of the highest passing scores for the SAT until his son passed him up with even a higher score. I did not go to college. I am an entrepreneur and discovered that the first time I tried to work for a company, that lasted 2 weeks and I was outta there! But I an an avid reader and read, read, read. I have a passion to learn. You can read my comment to Bill.
I have been noticing you posts. I bookmarked this blog and plan to visit some of the other blogs you suggested reading. I am fairly new and definitely learning.
Katerina, you are honestly so sharing of information and this post is an incredible guide for any newbies on A/R and for those evaluating their results and how to get more. Well Done.
Katerina - Great post my friend. You always keep me entertained and learning. You are one of the true "Givers and Educators" here on Active Rain and I feel truly priviledged to not ony have you share with all of us freely here on Active Rain but to call you 'Friend".
I don't know precisely who my audience is when it comes to the public. I'm still growing week by week and post by post. I still feel like an adolescent in terms of the quality of my blog, but hopefully will be able to provide a greater number of positive answers to your questionnaire.
There are some amazing thinkers here in the rain. Adam Waldman has had the hugest impact on me in many ways, but shares the company of people like you, Brad, and Lisa H. to name a few. I guess I'll continue to write about what excites me, keeping the long tail, SEO and WIFM (well, my readers) attributes in mind.
My efforts in the rain have actually landed me a phone call regarding a number of land listings where some one told me that they've seen what I can do, would I consider working with them?! If you think about it, AR has helped me circumvent the Good Ol' Boys Network.
Great post, looking forward to the links and congrats on the feature!
Bill Gassett- I am here to do business with agents and the consumers. I think transparency is a good thing and even though I don't get google juice for sharing photos of my granddaughter; I share them because that is a part of who I am. Those that relate to me choose us as their agents. Blog for the google juice to bring them to you and then when they get to you, also keep them relating through your personal experiences and opinions. There are great and loyal clients that come to us through this format of my blogging style. Passion speaks volumes.
Great info Katerina. It's so important to know who your audience is. I like the way you not only know who you are writing to but you have an entire plan mapped out. I wish I was that organized. Well done!!!
Katerina, you are right. Focus on what you are about, what you have to offer and who you are offering it too. Tailor the message for the biggest bang for you buck. Great post. AJ
Katerina ~ Thanks for the great reminder on who we need to be writing for. Active Rain offers so much to us, we need to take advatange of it. Thanks for the shove.
Those are good questions, Katerina. I've just blogged whatever I've felt like blogging. I never really had a plan. Perhaps that's part of my problem! I'll have to think about this. By the way, I did try to call you, but I missed you. I'll try again this week.
OOPS, I blew it did I ? wish you have posted this few days ago. It seems to me that I'm starting everything backwards but I notice something it all turns out good.. so far,there is a lot of support here .Thank you !
Marlene- When did you try to call me? If you call use my home office # 561-753-0135 instead of my cell. Cells down here don't always get the messages. Have a plan and work your plan!
Excellent advice for both new and experienced bloggers. It can be very easy to get caught up in the mechanics of putting a post together and forget about why you're writing it and who you're writing it to in the first place. For the second quarter I'm going to write out a detailed content calendar and focus on specific reader groups. This post was a timely reminder for me!
Katerina - I spent a couple hours yesterday working on my 2nd quarter marketing plan--your article was a timely reminder to keep my audience in mind when I plan my posts.
I am so glad I found your post!! This is a great one to give someone new to blogging (ME!) direction! I am bookmarking it to continue to come back to. Thank you!
You mean I have to chose one. I have always been a proponent of the shotgun approach. Try several different ways all the time. Spend most of your time on the one that is working, but have the otheres there in case your bread and butter dries up.
Matthew- Thanks for your comment. To each his own. There are those who blog just for the referrals and if that is their plan than whatever floats your boat as long as you have a purpose, goal and a plan to get'r done.:)
I write for agents and newbies to pay it forward because I have been so blessed with a successful business and life.
I write to get sellers and educate the consumer.
I will be writing a bit for buyers since we just hired a buyers agent and I want to keep him happy:)
I write to spread the work about what I am passionate about making my blog very transparent, therein lies the secret to all the business we get from our AR blog! Katerina
John- I am glad that you are making a plan for your audience. After all, are they not deserving of a well thought out planned blog? Thanks for adding to the conversation.
I love your color in your posts. I tried it, but I forgot to add photos in and such. So when I added through here, it messed up the look. Great post. I ask myself those questions frequently.
David- Thank you for letting me know and I hope that you have lots of fun blogging here in the rain. Welcome to the rain and it is a great place to learn and grow and make money.
Christy Powers- Just do it again. Sometimes with all the color you get to use you don't even need any photos. Write your whole post and then go back and add your photos.
Katerina, when I was in my early 20's and wildly just a tiny bit out of control, a very wise woman used to say to me, "Amanda, know your audience and you'll be fine." I've never forgotten the advice. Thanks for the reminder! :)
Hi Katerina~You are always giving back and that's what we adore about you. You make such a point to keep us all on track and I've missed that over the past couple of weeks. I'm glad to be back to read this wonderful post. Have a great week!
Michael, Wow, that was a nice compliment. I sure appreciate your readership and hope to bring good quality content to you each week. I write about one or two tutorials like this one per week. Katerina
Hi Katrina, That was a good post. I am going to go and read some of the links now. I have been blogging mostly to sellers and buyers, but I have only been at this for a little over a month now so I am still learning a lot about SEO and all of that stuff.
Megan- Well, learning SEO is an ongoing process. IT is always changing but the core principles remain the same. Check out my tags with SEO and blogging for business to get some more info.
This is EXCELLENT INFORMATION Katerina! Thank you so much for posting it. I will start absorbing this and implementing it immediately! Thanks again! Steve
IT took me a long time after I joined AR to advertise a listing, I thought it was so tacky. But then I learned that there is a tasteful way to do it. Besides our sellers just love their listings up in lights. I try to do 2 of our listings each week, one Vflyer and one blogged listing. Sometimes I have to do two vflyers because we have a lot of listings and we need to get them exposed. You can do them, just make sure you add your personality and write other posts too.
Hi Katerina,
You hit the nail on the head with your audience topic! Excellent post. I do have one question for you about listings and SEO. I found this outstanding community because I noticed listings posted to Active Rain were popping up on some Google searches. Have you noticed the same thing?
I also want to say a big Thank You for all the excellent blogging information that you have provided over the months. It's going to take me some time to digest all of it. If I ever have referrals for your market, I will definitely send them to you.
You are a terrific writer, Katerina. It feels almost as if you are sitting in front of me talking to me instead of reading. That in itself is a special gift. I wish I could have a better writing style. I just think I say too much sometimes.
Loreena- Thank you so much. I am humbled by your heartfelt compliment. I have loved writing since I was 12 years old and always planned on becoming an author. Blogging is a great short cut to that goal. I have studied and developed communication skills that I apply in my sales as well as in my writing. It is all about painting a picture with words. It does just flow from me. I pretend you are in front of me and I am talking with you. Since I love to speak to groups, this comes naturally for me. I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my blog. Thank you.
Not Yet Licensed- Thank you! And You are Welcome! Yes, AR listings do get lots of google juice and ours even go above our website for google search results. There is so much to learn in the area of SEO and I love it, I love a challenge and to compete for a prize. Google #1 is the prize, the game is on!
I keep going to your blog as its very informative. i like this one in fact I save to my favorites so that I can go back through it and work on it piece by piece.
Jeff- Just take it one step at a time. Apply one strategy, make it a habit then add another! Thank you so much for subscribing to my blog and I am glad that I can help you with your time here on Active rain.
Tara- If you have not subscribed to my blog yet, I invite you to do so. That way you won't miss these types of posts. Also, if you read my localism posts it will help you to learn how to do your keywords, titles and linking. I want to go to sunny Cape Cod one day! Thank you from sunny Florida.
You guys are really a tremendous attribute to AR and the realtor community in general. I really appreciate the content and info you share on your blog, especially, the online marketing and expireds. Thanks.
Katerina - THis is a great post for those of us who lose our focus. I'll come back and read this from time to time to remind me of what I should be doing.
This is probably one of the MOST helpful blog posts I've read on AR so far... THANK YOU! I know that my current blog is not focused on a particular audience or sales strategy, but you have really motivated me.
Michael Sahlman- Thank you for such a wonderful compliment, it is very much appreciated. It is our goal to pay it forward from all we have learned and do in our business.
Larry- :) we use this post as a reminder too! IT is easy to get off base and lose focus or get diverted into things that really are not on the path of your audience.
Kerry- You are very welcome! I find this is the case with 98% of the blogs I read on Active Rain. I also find that many people write for buyers only and ask me why they are not getting listings.
Very good. How did you get the special effects in your post? I am trying to figure out how to put a "Voting Button" on a post. Do you need certain software for it?
Kevin- I use Nvu to do a lot of my editing, it converst to html easy and painlessly. Nvu is free. I use snagitor for all my fancy borders, torn page looks etc/ If you look in my tags under snagit you will find the post about using snagit. Snagit is $49 , best buy of the year. IT is a one time charge. I don't get anything for promoting them, I wish I did! For my images, I use iclipart. There is a link on my sidebar for iclipart. I use it for all my images except my photos. I am an affiliate for them, so I do get a little morsel out of it for each person that uses my links to become a member of iclipart. If you go to my tags, you can find the tags with the words, clip art or iclipart, etc and those will take you to my posts about the product.
Wellington Florida Real Estate Blog By Katerina Gasset of International Properties & Investments, Inc. is a Great Place For Real Estate Agents and Potential Buyers and Sellers to get to know more about Wellington Florida as well as other parts of Palm Beach County.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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