Do Your Leads Trickle? 
Or Do Your Leads Flow?
I run two blogs and two websites. I track where each and every lead comes from. I know the search terms where I rank well on google and Yahoo! I know where I fall short. And I can tell you, hands down, that I get more exposure through Active Rain and localism than I do from any other Internet source. And in the last two months, that includes any other source...period.
It disturbs me to read comments from competent real estate agents saying that they don't receive very many leads through the Internet. So this post is to help you get started blogginig for leads and not just for points and fellow REALTOR recognition. To remember that blogging is supposed to be fun but to have a business purpose.
UNDERSTANDING SEO
There are far too many excellent posts on this subject easily found on Active Rain for me to tell you what I've learned from others. Just visit these sites before or after reading this post. Bookmark them. Learn them. Be them.
- It's Not About SEO. It's About YEO. by Jeff Turner
- Do You SEO? by Laurie Manny
- Page Rank and Links: My Last Post On The Topic by Karen George
UNDERSTANDING YOUR NICHE
I'm going to try to put this as politely and succinctly as I am capable of doing:
QUIT TRYING TO BE ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE!
It seems to me that blogs do very well because they are content rich in subject matter that actually matters to the person reading it! Take my niche, for instance. I live in Olathe, Kansas and present myself as a real estate agent who specializes with investment property in Kansas City and it's satellite suburbs.
Now, you don't have to do investment properties to have a niche. Here are some niche ideas:
- Women in Transition
- XYZ Neighborhood Expert
- Mr. XYZ City
- Waterfront Properties
- Condo & Loft Specialist
- Empty Nestor Advisor
That should get you started to come up with some more on your own. And the advantages of working and blogging about one particular niche are:
- Content rich blogs since you are continually writing about the same things over and over
- You become the expert because you are continually researching and now working in that niche!
- People ready to act within that niche will find you easily through web searches
- People ready to act will consider you an expert in that niche because you write so much about it and you were so easy to find on that subject
WRITE BLOGS DIRECTED TO THE CONSUMER WITHIN YOUR NICHE
I was so excited in January of 2007 when I stopped and realized that in January of 2006 I had started my other blogand throughout the year I had only sporadically posted to it and yet still 545 or so visitors (over the course of the year) stopped by to see what I think. Don't you know that I realized, after looking closely at the amount of visitors, that from those visitors I had sold 4 sides. Four. 4. Quatro. I threw out to cyberspace what I think without any rhyme or reason (go back and read my early posts...chuckle) and still four people thought I was worthy enough to represent them. And it didn't cost me a dime!
Why did this happen?
Because even though I had no idea what I was doing I wrote about what I know. What I know is Kansas City real estate investment properties. And low and behold, people interested in Kansas City investment property found me. Per visitor I sold .0072 homes. That's a much better conversion percentage than the $4,600 I spent on mailings last year. By about double.
PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING
Since I have ramped up my blogging in the last week of January this year, I have had one closing that I can directly relate to my blogging. But here is the deal. I have 6 pending right now and four of those came directly from blogging! In addition I've set 3 more initial buyer appointments from the 7 leads I've collected in the last 10 days and all of those came from blogging/Internet.
It seems like it took about 8-10 weeks of consistent blogging effort to begin to build the readership I was after. A few weeks of good readership was necessary before I started getting inquiries. And I don't have the largest readership. I'm not really looking to have the largest readership. What I do want is every possible real estate investor in, around or interested in Kansas City reading my blog. That is my target audience and that is who I write to most of the time.
It may not happen over night. It didn't for me. But like a good real estate investment it builds and builds over time until you look back and say "Hey, I'm glad I did that." 
ONE LAST BRIGHT IDEA
Make your blog work for you in one additional way. I actively promote my blog to anyone I come in contact with. Calling me off an add? "Great. Also, why don't you stop by my blog at BBQ Capital to find out more about real estate investing in the Kansas City area."
Calling off someone else's listing? "Great. By the way, you should stop by my blog at BBQ Capital to find out more about Kansas City real estate and how I might be able to be of service to you."
We just met in line at the grocery store and you ask what I do? "I help people like yourself build a retirement worth having. The vehicle I use is real estate for investment purposes. Here's my blog. <Hand them a card.> Check it out sometime. It may get you to thinking."
By providing something of value in the form of credible content to the potential client they stay interested and judge for themselves whether or not you are the real estate agent for them.
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