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Kudos to Clients Who Pay Attention!!!

By Suzanne Stephens

Services for Real Estate Pros with Stephens Design

June 12, 2008 02:23 PM

As a Web site designer and Web marketing consultant, sometimes I feel as though my primary role is to nag, nag, nag and then nag some more. So I love to see that my clients are paying attention to and using my advice.

Recently one of my nagging themes has been about blogging often. I've been encouraging Amelia Island REALTOR® Jim Williams to blog on his and his wife's Point2 site. Their site itself is young and has been bouncing around in Google, everywhere from page 1 to page 7. Apparently this pattern is common now with new sites.

Needless to say, I am gratified that Jim has worked up the courage to take the blogging plunge. One of his first posts on their Point2 Amelia Island real estate blog was about Kathy getting her foreclosure specialist certification. Earlier today, I copied that article, edited it a little, and posted it in their Active Rain blog. And look at the results! I see that we need to tweak their title tag, but this is great for a newbie effort. Interestingly, their site also jumped from page 6-7 to page 3 for "Amelia Island real estate" today. I don't know whether than can be directly attributed to Jim's blogging, but I'm sure his efforts didn't hurt.

Congratulations, Jim!

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Greg Hampton

Re/Max Around The Mountains - Blue Ridge, GA

North Georgia Mountain Property,Blue Rid

Blogging is a great way to speed up the process for free.

Jun 12, 2008 02:31 PM

Larry Brewer - Benchmark Realty llc

Benchmark Realty LLc - Nashville, TN

Suzanne - the bog platform in Point2 is a little bit harder for me to use that the active rain blog. But I try to use them both. Keep working on us, we need your help.

Jun 12, 2008 02:50 PM

Suzanne Stephens

Stephens Design - Battle Ground, WA

Real Estate Website Design

Ahhh Greg, I envy you for living in God's country! Now that's something to write about. A big part of my heart is still back in Bryson City, NC!

Oh no, Larry, you mean I've gotta nag you TOO! Yes, I'll be happy when Point2 makes those changes that are said to be in the works,, though I hope it doesn't mean that my time that I've spent customizing a bunch of Point2 blogs was wasted!

Jun 12, 2008 03:29 PM

Debbie DiFonzo

Debbie DiFonzo - United Country VIP Realty, SW Missouri - Lebanon, MO

Lebanon MO and Buffalo Missouri Real Estate

Great reminder Suzanne! Like Larry, it's easy to blog about new listings when I post on P2 or a post about a sold. It's more difficult to post something more original.

What are your feelings on posting the same article to both P2 and AR? Seems that is what was done in your example. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea -

Jun 12, 2008 03:31 PM

Bill Gassett

RE/MAX Executive Realty - Hopkinton, MA

Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate

There is no question that blogging is one of the best ways to get online exposure. With some dedicated time an agent can do really well with their SEO through a blog.

Jun 13, 2008 01:13 AM

Dirk Johnson

DomainDrivers.com - Potomac Falls, VA

Suzanne,

Great observation and work there.

The great thing about these secondary and liong tail keyword term is that it takes only a modest number of links to a domain to get them to rank well. They are there fro the taking, in most markets, even if the main keyword terms are a lot more competitive.

Jun 13, 2008 01:43 AM

Suzanne Stephens

Stephens Design - Battle Ground, WA

Real Estate Website Design

Hi Debbie -- I posted their blog on Active Rain just as experiment to see what would happen with it. I did, however, edit it quite a bit so that the wording wasn't exactly the same. I would have guessed that because AR is higher ranked than Jim and Kathy's site, the AR blog post would have come up above their Point2 blog in Google, so I was surprised to see that their Point2 blog stayed on top. Perhaps Google sensed that the Point2 blog was written first? Who knows? I was happy to see that posting it both places had no detrimental effect.

Bill, Dirk -- I particularly like the fact that by simply writing about a timely topic, Kathy's foreclosure certification, Jim almost accidentally scored a success. I've been encouraging Jim to "just do it" instead of worrying about doing it right, and look where that got them!

Jun 13, 2008 03:46 AM

Kimberly Underwood Kostescu

Coldwell Banker Crampsie Realty - Windsor, ON

I have tried to blog on both AR and P2. I feel that sometimes though, the AR blog is of no significance to the P2 blog readers, so I only post it to AR. Perhaps I need to be proven wrong? Sometimes, I change up the wording a bit and post to both. I'm not really sure what is best. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Kimberly

Jun 13, 2008 08:26 AM

Katerina Gasset

The Gasset Group & Get It Done For Me Virtual Services - Provo, UT

Amplify Your Real Estate & Life Dreams!

Suzanne- Blogging is the fastest way for a newbie to get their site up in Google. Google loves fluid content. I l, like you, can not stress this enough to clients. And Consistency is the other thing. Many people start out with a bang and then fizzle down to less than a drizzle and wonder why they are not getting calls. Blogging makes your phone ring.

Jun 14, 2008 02:57 AM

Paul Viau

Nova Scotia Real Estate Blog - Halifax, NS

Nova Scotia Real Estate Blog + Photo Services

Blogging just won me a client today. An old one too! All this focus on my website and what do you know!
Just goes to show that blogging on AR is king!

Jun 15, 2008 11:48 AM

Suzanne Stephens

Stephens Design - Battle Ground, WA

Real Estate Website Design

Katerina and Kimberly: the experiment described in my blog post here has shown that ActiveRain and Point2 blog posts can hit page one Google within hours of being posted. For purposes of SEO for an agent's Point2 site, blogging on the Point2 site should be of more value. I've been watching the Williams' site listing in Google, and Jim's efforts with blogging seem to be helping pull the site itself up in the rankings: it's moved from page 7 to page 5 for "Amelia Island real estate" over the past week. I suspect that it's been helped by Jim's blog post being ranked #1.

But as Katerina wrote, persistence is the key. This little success seems to have been quite inspiring, encouraging Jim to keep plugging away!

Paul, congratulations on your lead!

Jun 16, 2008 06:23 PM

The Brewer Team - Benchmark Realty

Benchmark Realty - Franklin, TN

Suzanne - It is nice when clients listen, our too. You would think that they hire us just for fun. Use the knowledge we have to make the best decisions. I would guess that your business is the same.

Jun 22, 2008 02:59 PM

Frank Bailey Sr.

Keller Williams Realty - Schertz, TX

Your retired Veteran, your Full-Time REALTOR

Suzanne, I was in NC last Friday and Saturday and thought of you. I didn't knw you could post the same blog on 2 different sites.......

Jun 22, 2008 03:58 PM

Suzanne Stephens

Stephens Design - Battle Ground, WA

Real Estate Website Design

Hi Frank. Where were you in NC? Yes, you can post the same content on different blogs, but to get the most benefit, do a little editing on every sentence so that Google won't see both articles as identical. Apparently just a slight revision of each sentence is adequate.

Jun 22, 2008 04:09 PM

Frank Bailey Sr.

Keller Williams Realty - Schertz, TX

Your retired Veteran, your Full-Time REALTOR

Hello Suzanne,

I was down in Hertford NC, (near Elizabeth city), I dropped my son off to my parents for a couple of weeks for the summer. I really enjoyed my short stay, but business called and I had to come back quickly. The good news is my parents will be in town second week of July (hmm.... sounds like a reason for a barbeque.....)

Thanks for the info, I'll start doing that.

Jun 22, 2008 04:15 PM

Suzanne Stephens

Stephens Design - Battle Ground, WA

Real Estate Website Design

Frank, are you originally from NC?

Elizabeth, don't you know that they really hire you just to see how much of your gas and time they can waste? -:) I can't tell you how many gorgeous sites I've designed that just sit there doing nothing because the site owners are doing nothing. Makes me wanta cry!

Of course, I think there are tons of agents out there who simply don't know the potential sitting there untapped. One of my clients was telling me that Friday she was in a training meeting at her brokerage, and some old guy piped up and asked why they were spending so much time talking about web sites... "why would anybody want a web site?" My client and another agent in her office both piped up to say that they had each made over $100,000 in commissions last year (in a city of mostly $100-200k houses), with over 90% of their sales coming from their Web sites. Why indeed...

Jun 22, 2008 04:22 PM

Frank Bailey Sr.

Keller Williams Realty - Schertz, TX

Your retired Veteran, your Full-Time REALTOR

No, I was born and raised in NY, but my parents are both from there, moved to NY, after about a year after I left to join the Air Force, they moved back.

Jun 23, 2008 12:32 AM

Kathy Anderson

Arizona Luxury & Lifestyle Living - Cave Creek, AZ

Arizona Homes For Sale

Hi Suzanne! What changes are supposed to be coming to the P2 blogs? I hadn't heard the news.

Jun 23, 2008 02:47 AM

Suzanne Stephens

Stephens Design - Battle Ground, WA

Real Estate Website Design

Kathy, I'm pretty sure that I read on Saul's blog that internet Crusade had been contracted to develop a new blog platform for Point2. I asked some questions in a comment, but never saw an answer. This morning I went back looking for it and could not find that post.

Jun 23, 2008 04:42 AM