Home : Blogs : Ricardo Bueno : Ricardo Bueno

THE QUESTION: "Why do you like blogging?"

Jay Thompson at the NAHREP 2008 National Conference The Answer: "Because it gets me clients. It gets me commission checks. What's not to like?" -- Jay Thompson, Thompson's Realty in Phoenix, Arizona

The truth is, when is comes to blogging and social media, the results are going to vary from user to user. But, I'll tell ya this much, the results are real, they are tangible! Just ask Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy and otherwise known as "the man with a blogging problem;" he's built an entire business on it! Now fair warning, just because he did it doesn't mean it's going to be all 'easy cheesy' for everyone and anyone. It still takes: Hard Work, Consistency, and the ability to be Transparent (to be yourself).

Here's a quick chat with Jay himself...

Now, whether you're writing here on Active Rain or you've built your own outside blog, the important thing is that you're doing something to create a brand name for yourself! The great thing about Active Rain is that the immediate sense of community that is established will help you deal with the pressures of dishing out content. Jay says he "likes writing." But let's face it, many of us don't. In fact, when you first sit down and try to get down to it, you're scared of writing and putting your name out there...but then that's where the A|R community comes in. Active Rain and it's members do an excellent job of helping you cope with the anxieties of "putting yourself out there." They help you find your voice and grow your confidence. That's a good thing to have! Don't ya think?

So, how about it? How has blogging helped you? What are you having trouble with? What's not to like?

Best,

Ricardo Bueno

By the way, Join me at Ribeezie for an upcoming series on Social Media Starter Steps in Real Estate.

P.S. Jay Thompson, Kevin Boer and I were featured speakers at the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals 2008 National Marketing Convention & Expo. on a panel titled: Online Social Networking & Blogging for Business. A big THANK YOU to Brian Requarth of vivareal.us for having us and moderating the discussion. I hope you enjoy this quick video with Jay and that it serves as reinforcement for your efforts in engaging with social media. The link will take you to some of the flickr photos from the conference.

Posted by Ricardo Bueno on 10/04/2008 02:14 PM

Comments (38)

social media, blogging

Post is included in group: Blogging & SEO
Post is included in group: The Art Of Marketing You
Post is included in group: The Lounge at Active Rain

38 Comments on THE QUESTION: "Why do you like blogging?"

OCT

2008

Ricardo - That Jay guy has done a great job with blogging, one of the reasons I stay close to him is to make sure he teaches us all he knows!! He is a great guy and very helpful with our AZREBN. Why I blog? That's simple, I enjoy it! I love learning and blogging has definitely been a big learning curve for me. I stink at writing and love pictures.. what does that tell you? I didn't enjoy English class much!! But this pushes me to learn, share and connect. The side benefit is that I meet some amazing professionals and the grand daddy of it all is I'm building a social network with colleagues, building a strong presence online for my business and best of all prospecting for clients! I'm a blog happy chic!

Ricardo-As an infant to the process I am not sure why I like blogging or if I will like blogging! In one sense it will permit me to feed my bad habit of talking so much without bothering my wife-that is a reason to like blogging. I hope to learn more about people and real estate, development more contacts across the planet and if business comes back my way-WOW-that would be NIRVANA!!

Bob

Hi Ricardo! Blogging has been great for me and it basically is my business plan at this point. I have more contacts from my main blog as well as my Active Rain blog every day. Not to mention all the great friends I have made!

I like blogging for a number of reasons.... it allows me to get out what I want to say immediately without all of the fancy formating of a normal style of responding legally in the business. I enjoy it very much!

Ricardo, I like blogging, the relationships have enhanced my life. the technology has been a boost to my business, and I enjoy writing, always have even before blogging was a word.

I am not so sure yet either. I have only been doing it for a few months. I have been diligent and have great SEO exposure. Haven't seen anything in results yet. But I have made a few friends:)

I like writing - the main sticking point for me is that I want to be sure any information I put up is accurate and valuable.

Your hometown or city has a portal to the rest of the planet. You are at the helm of that stargate and produce, feed, add assemble helpful links to a variety of subjects way beyond the average mortal man in more than real estate for your area. Those helpful blogs help your primary website, broadcast your videos and podcasts for all to see that knew little or nothing about your area until you started producing these blogs. That's why I blog. Beat the area Chamber of Commerce drum by religiously blogging for your area.

Hey there Ricardo, good to see you posting again! I've missed you and your awesome articles.

Ricardo

I really enjoy your posts; I have from the beginning.

at first it took awhile to get used to Activerain, but now it is an addiction

Sincerely

Tom Braatz

I started blogging because of what it does in search engine placements, but I have found I really like the connection with other agents and I learn a lot from reading their blogs!

Yes, tremendously----although with the market being slower right now, it's difficult to see the results.

Ricardo - well you already know how I fell about blogging. I hadn;t seen this video of Jay so thanks for sharing. Glad to see you got the feature, after our joking in Las Vegas with Rich!!

Jeff

Very nice job with the video Ricardo. Both you and Jay are way ahead of the curve with social media. Blogging DOES work for business and it is also a cool way to make friends with guys like you and Jay. :-) It was great to see you and Jhanna last week!

Blogging has been a lot of fun since we have started and it has also helped us to gain more exposure personally and for our listings as well. I think providing that extra service for sellers is crucial in this marketplace.

I enjoy blogging and reading the other posts to learn more. I have found realtors in other areas that have helped me out.

I also am receiving more and more inquiries from the internet.

Ricardo, I'm just addicted! :-)

@Candace: hey, you put together some great images? Do you know how many people would LOVE to be able to do that?? Anyway, you all are doing some great things over there with your blogging network. Keep it up because it really is great stuff!

@Robert: well my friend, you came to the right place! Active Rain is sure to help you out and break past the learning curve. Just be sure to fill out that profile of yours. You gotta dress to impress :-)

@Susie: it's great for both the friendships you make and the professional connections you make! You've done a great job both here on A|R and your outside blog :-)

@Ryan: it's very casual and conversive and yet professional. I think that we all enjoy it for that!

@Missy: I think a lot of us feel that way. I mean how many friends and colleagues would we otherwise NOT have met if not for blogging. I know for sure that I wouldn't have met a lot of you! And it really does make it easier to connect with potential clients as well.

@Laura: well that's ok. I think that it took many of us who saw some business out of it more than a few months. But we stuck with it (consistency) and then viola! :-)

To Blog or Not To Blog, that was the question I faced when a friend of mine who runs Inman News (Brad) told me several years ago that I needed to start to Blog. I stupidly ignored Brad: with two young boys, extra time was family time. Now I realize that I can Blog when the boys (and wife, who falls out well before I do) are asleep and I can unleash my love of writing. We all have opinions and the Internet, through Blogging, is the great equalizer. Every opinion can be shared, everyone can self-publish. Edward Bernays, the father of Public Relations that I got the opportunity to meet when he was in his 90s, told me and a group of young PR professionals (at the time) that the most powerful force in the world was simply "People Power." This was before so many events in the world proved his point so vividly. Today, I beleive, Bernays would be bloggin' away. The ultimate form of "people power."

@Suzanne: accurate and valuable is good... It's also ok if it's a little opinionated :-) Just sayin'...

@Andrew: it seems to me you got it down! :-P We gotta create our own little empires within the blog-o-sphere and capture as large an audience as possible. More audience = potential for more clients.

@Jean: the seo is great, but the connections are better! You learn a lot from your colleagues and that enhances your knowledge and perspective on things (hopefully). It's good for business. And in the process, if & when you find a clients or two...well, it's just a great feeling!

@Diane: you know, I'll agree to an extent. With a slower market it is tougher to see the results. But if you're pushing your blog and getting people (past clients) familiar with it and engaged with it, it makes it easier to get them to refer other people to you. That sounds silly to say or maybe a little to simplistic, but it really does work.

@Christopher & Stephanie: people want information! And if your'e giving it to them, you're making it that much easier for them to connect with you. I say "good goin'!"

@Carol: don't you just love it! For all those reasons, it's great!

Ricardo- Nice piece here....you're getting to be quite the traveler and speaker lately :) I liked Jay's Video, so natural, and hey "what's not to like" :)

@Kris Wales: Hi Kris! It's good to be back around :-) Thanks for stopping by and the warm welcome. I hope to see you around again soon.

@Tom: Hiya Tom! Thanks for that! I think at this point, any one of us who is still here on the network is addicted to blogging, whether we admit it or not!

@Jeff: that dinner was great! Did you read Rich's follow up post on "The Active Rain Newsletter?"

With respect to the rest of the weekend at Blogworld...I think everyone got a little bit of what they wanted. Not all of the sessions were helpful, but there was enough of a mix there to get people thinking. And, you got to take your on-line connections off-line. If you ask me, there's nothing better than that!

@Nick: thank you for coming out and keeping us company! The conference was great and so was the weekend. Though I think I got Johanna tired of all this social media talk. I don't doubt all she started hearing by the end of it was "blah, blah, blah."

@Irina: Ha! You and I both at this point :-P

Simple, I like writing, it allows me to practice my second language skills, it is perfect for communication my point across, it build`s my confidence and allows me to reach my potential Clients!

I like blogging too, as I like to write and I learn from other bloggers as well. Blogging is just one more avenue in this tough economy to try to get the word out and reach more clients.

Hi R!! Blogging is not "easy cheesy" as you described - I am very very new to this and I agree that it is hard work and you have to be consistent - which I don't mind at all. What I like most about blogging so far is the chance to just be myself and share things I experience that might help another person. My first blog was about me being only as good as all of us together. It was the perfect place to share that thought! THANK YOU!

It fits our business model, it provides more exposure to our listings and potential clients, SEO and it's going to help me clean up my website.

Amber Gardner

Ricardo -

It was *great* to meet you at the NAHREP Conference! Thanks for posting the video. I failed to mention a HUGE benenfit of blogging and that is, as a few commenters have noted, how much you can learn from it. You can learn about real estate, about how people think and interact and you can learn about yourself. And the network you can build with agents across the country is nothing short of amazing. That's all really good stuff...

Ricardo, it was awesome having you out in Phoenix. I am so happy you made it. It was a good panel and I got a lot of really positive feedback from attendees. I have learned a lot about blogging from guys like you and Jay. It was exciting for me to moderate a panel of people where I have a lot of respect for the panelist and admire what they have done.

Jay, multiple people came up to me afterwards and told me how much they loved your story about your cat. That was hilarious! Thanks for your contribution to the panel.

It gives people the tools necessary to improve their typing skills, language and ability to write articles. There's so many plusses to blogging and too little negatives. I will say however that blogging has a terrible negative connotation with computer illiterates.

OCT

2008

I remember reading Jay on a daily basis over at Point2Agent and I have to say the guy did build his business as I have. Without blogging, I don't think I would be in the business today!

I like it. I enjoy writing. It seems to have helped my SEO significantly.

Great post Ricardo! I'm kind of a newbie to blogging having just started a blog less than 6 months ago. Still learning and hardly an expert but I've always enjoyed writing and taking pictures. The best part is the sense of connectedness through community. Also, I think that blogging makes you a better informed Realtor.

We have had few active clients mentioned about what they saw on our blog.

I like it that people actually contact from my articles... makes me feel like I have provided some value.

Many, many times I have received comments from people who decided to use me because I post helpful information

I also like the fact that I can blog and tell clients what they NEED to know, not what the talking heads tell them about the current market conditions. I get to explain in my own style real estate tips that I think are beneficial to sellers & buyers alike. I can't get my suggestions in a newspaper so this is another way. If people like what I have to say, they will remember me when they think of real estate. Primarily though I blog for business, not others opinions.

Ricardo: I like to write. I was told that blogging would increase my business exposure and that has come true. But this forum is truly amazing and I enjoy offering up my thoughts!

Ricardo,

Thanks for the interview and congrats on being asked to speak, way cool. I'm going to follow Jay and do likewise :)

OCT

2008

@Ricardo, I didn't know I liked to blog until I heard you, Jay, Kevin, and Brian at the NAHREP Convention. Thank you. I wanted to know more about it, and I just couldn't get the info in quickly enough. You all have opened a brand-new-world for me.

An added benefit, was that I am a frustrated writer, and I can't imagine a better place to release that energy. I'm having a blast! I may never make any money writing a blog, but I'm having a great time trying.

@Jay, I have met many agents, mortgage brokers, and other real estate professional here on A/R. I just love what I'm learning from them, and I now have a really great network for referrals. I wanted to thank you, too, for the time and care you took with me at the NAHREP Convention. I'm very jazzed to be writing and blogging away, day and night!

@Brian, I think the whole idea of doing a Social Networking and Blogging session at the NAHREP Convention was your brainstorm. Thanks! Thanks for getting just the right guys, too. I enjoyed it greatly! And your website, VivaReal.us, is a fantasic tool you've provided for the Hispanic consumer, and I'm glad to be there. I encourage everyone to check it out.

...Marianne

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?