7th Place, 7th Street Downtown St. Paul, MN 

Here on Active Rain a picture is not worth anything unless it is accompanied by at least 50 words.  In the real world of real estate blogs, local blogs or place blogs, as they are sometimes called, pictures are gold, and are worth a thousand words. 

This week Vali and I have been working on putting some of the bells and whistles on her blog and Vali is out taking pictures.  When home buyers and sellers find Vali they will get a sense of Denver by looking at the pictures, and seeing it through the eyes of someone who knows and loves the area.  Pictures and real estate go together. 

For St. Paul I take shots of historic homes, churches and of the river.  The pictures reflect the historic parts of St. Paul and types of properties I specialize in and the areas of the city where I like to work.  They attract buyers and sellers with similar interests.  I used pictures from day one but did not discover how they work for me until January when  I ran a  week long series on architecture which focused on the late 1800's and early 1900's. As a result I was contacted by home buyers from New York, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin, all looking for the types of homes I had photographed. 

As an added benefit Google seems to like photos tagged with the names of places, street names, addresses, neighborhood names, and zip codes.  

Vali likes working in the downtown condo market, and enjoys out door activities in the Denver area.  She also likes to take pictures.  As we work on her blog it will begin to reflect her interest and attract the kind of buyers and sellers that she likes to work with.  She may also attract clients who have an interest in the same hobbies.

I have my camera with me at all times, a habit I got into two or three years ago, even before I started a blog.   Many of my pictures are taken from inside my car, sometimes without stopping, and without an expensive camera or any special equipment.  I estimate that I have close to a thousand pictures on my blog.  They are pictures of what I see everyday as I drive around St. Paul, Minnesota.

The South side of the Mississippi River near the Robert Street Bridge 

1840's Greek Revival house, Hamline University, St. Paul, MN

see Vali Wimberly's blog at: www.denverfresh.com 

 This post is part of the project blogger contest.