blogging: Ask An Ambassador: Too Bzzy To Blog?
- 04/25/23 09:48 AM
I wear more than a few hats. so staying bzzzzy isn't an issue.
Engineer. Real Estate Agent. Zookeeper. Beekeeper. Homeowner.
So you may wonder how I get it all done?
The short answer, I don't, at least not every day.
Every day is a matter of prioritizing what MUST get done today and what doesn't.
Certain tasks are non-negotiable, some have a little wiggle room, others are "as time allows".
Evening feeding for the zoo (current count 17 cats and 9 Chihuahuas) is about an hour every evening, and those little furries are not going to let us forget!.
Church service isn't negotiable.
Beekeeping is seasonal, there are … (17 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: Is Daily Blogging For You?
- 01/17/23 07:58 PM
We've taken an interest in gardening, thinking forward to our next place and being more self-sustaining. There's a wide range of heirloom vegetables out there to explore. Yep, not all tomatoes are red or green, some squash are not smooth skinned, and there are various veggies out there with histories of many centuries.
There's a seed store in Michigan that caught my attention when I was researching seeds (MiGardner.com). They have a great variety of seeds, $2 a pack, free shipping at $12 or more in purchase, and some great information on their website with how tos, information about the various seeds … (15 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: Blogging Tap Running Dry?
- 11/01/22 02:46 PM
It happens to every blogger sooner or later. You're sitting at the keyboard...and sitting...and sitting. Nothing but blank space.
How do you break the blogging block and get the flow going again?
The ideas are out there, it's mostly a matter of tuning in and finding something that sparks your interest.
Maybe you just need to blog ANYTHING just to break the block, or maybe you still want to blog for your target audience and keep your blogging time productive, but there are choices out there, but where??
For starters, here are some sources:
All those real estate newsletters and magazines you get? Ideas can be … (19 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: How Do You Know???
- 05/23/22 08:49 PM
When you blog, how do you know it's working?
Are comments an indication?
Yes and no.
If you're writing to entertain or inform the ActiveRain community, then you MAY gain some comments and you'll know you're reaching your audience. Earlier in your blogging career while still building up your audience, comments might be few, but they're there and build up over time as you earn an audience.
But if you're writing to attract business from area consumers, comments might be the absolute worst way to gauge the success of your blog. While it's possible that a home buyer or seller MIGHT leave a comment on … (16 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: Low Hanging Fruit
- 05/07/22 07:24 PM
Sometimes coming up with ideas for blogging can be a challenge, and some days there is low hanging fruit right in front of us. It's mostly a matter of tuning in and recognizing opportunities as you go about your day to day life.
In the last 24 hours a handful of ideas presented themselves, and any or all of them could be developed into useful blog posts.
"You're probably going want to fire us!" (buyers who changed course in the middle of negotiations for a resale (but purchased a new construction later the same day). Both sides are judging the other side … (19 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: Efficient AND Productive Blogging
- 03/02/22 07:36 AM
Time is precious. Once gone, there's no getting it back, unless you're H.G. Wells it moves in one direction only.
We have to find a way to balance our personal and business lives in a manner that makes sense and doesn't red line our blood pressure at the same time.
So that brings me to blogging.
Realistically each post we write has a primary purpose:
1. To attract business
and/or
2. To entertain
For either type of post, I can be efficient, but not necessarily productive.
I can write most posts quickly. Source and add the eye candy. Start to finish 20 minutes or less unless I am trying … (13 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: Where Are Their Friends? Go There!
- 03/01/22 03:13 PM
Part of our bread and butter blogging are posts about specific subdivisions. We don't just stick to patio homes or condos, but cover "regular" home communities too.
Do those posts and IDX pages get us listings? As much as I'd love to say, SURE!!!, the reality is most of the listings we achieve from blogging are more fruit of the vine: a buyer finds us, develops a relationship and then hires us to sell their existing home.
The average home owner already knows 12+ real estate agents (hey, I see those magnet calendars on the refrigerators when I show homes...although funny how often … (11 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: How Much Blogging Is Too Much?
- 01/18/22 10:07 AM
How much blogging is too much blogging?
There's a lot of "it depends" involved in answering that question.
Yesterday ActiveRain rolled out a new limit of no more than 20 blog posts per 24 hours and 100 posts per week. Try for more and the software will refuse to allow you to post.
The general consensus seems to be that 20 posts a day, or even a week, is probably at least double what most would consider reasonable, and again, I'll say the answer is "it depends".
If someone is pumping out 20, 30, 40, or 100s of posts a day, there are some assumptions … (14 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: How Long To Get Blogging Results?
- 11/01/21 09:07 PM
"I'm new to blogging. How long will it take to get business?"
And the answer? The ever popular...
"It depends".
There are more than a few variables that directly impact your timeline to gaining business.
1. Do your blog posts have an opportunity to be seen by the public? Hint, if you're a Rainer and not a Rainmaker on this site, you can write the world's best public facing content and you'll get nada, zilch, zero publicity to your potential clients. Without a Rainmaker account, your work is not submitted to the search engines. No search engines, no consumers.
2. Are you writing content that meets … (17 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: It's Tuesday, Don't Letting Blogging Bug You!
- 09/14/21 04:32 PM
One of the biggest challenges when blogging can be finding a topic. Even experienced bloggers can fall victim to blogger's block, but there are ways to lessen the odds of finding yourself staring at a blank screen.
I've been on a pretty long extended blogging sabbatical for the last year, sticking to just Tuesdays and our Ask An Ambassador series, but I learned a thing or two about how to keep a blogging streak going day after day without sacrificing quality.
It's Tuesday so guess what? I'm writing an Ask An Ambassador post. Using scheduled blogging allows more focus. I KNOW every Tuesday … (21 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: "Blogging Doesn't Work"
- 04/27/21 04:58 AM
"Blogging doesn't work." says the blogger who doesn't get results.
"Blogging is dead." says the guru who has a new bright and shiny to interest you (and sell you).
Heard both statements more times than I can count over our years in the Rain, and while there might be SOME truth to each statement, there's no reason to turn in our keyboards and call it a blogging career.
To be blunt, for those that state "blogging doesn't work", more often than not it's a seat to keyboard interface error. If you make the "wrong" choices about how to blog, it's true, blogging won't work … (17 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: Old Posts Keep On Ticking
- 07/28/20 03:37 PM
Some posts I write are suitable for lining a birdcage within a few days of publishing. They were meant to be disposable.
Other posts I write to (hopefully) stick around for a LONG time.
This weekend I got a call from a subdivision post written in 2012. Now it wasn't to buy or sell a home (this time), but it was clearly from my ActiveRain blog and NOT the Wordpress search page I have using much of the same content for that subdivision.
How do I know it was ActiveRain? Because the caller mistook our Ambassador badge as being an "ambassador of the subdivision".
I've … (16 comments)
|
blogging: Picture to Post
- 05/03/20 07:53 PM
Sometimes coming up with a blog topic can be more of a challenge than you expect. Nothing quite sparks your interest. Too early in the month for a market report. No new developments from the new construction builders. Buyers and sellers are sheltering in place and relatively quiet, so no questions being asked to provide blog fodder.
But there's a source that can often provoke your next blogging idea and it's right on your phone. If you're like me, you take quite a few pictures with your phone, some serious, some just joking around. Some may have have been out in public, … (4 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: Black Dot Blogging
- 04/14/20 02:32 PM
Thanks to shelter-in-place requirements and a bit of a slow-down in the local real estate market, I've had some extra time to address some home projects. Among them is replacing a sillcock (outdoor faucet) with stripped hose connection threads.
The project is fairly easy thanks to an unfinished basement and a threaded connection to the water supply line. No soldering required, mostly just a matter of unscrewing the old sillcock and connecting the new one. The supplier of the sillcock did one little thing that made the job even easier. They marked the pipe with a black dot next to the threaded … (26 comments)
|
blogging: Puppies, Flowers & Engagement
- 02/06/20 05:30 PM
For a long stretch I posted daily on Facebook.
My purpose isn't to stir the pot. You want the social media argument du jour, there are more than enough places to find it without my help.
So mostly I post flower pictures from our garden, although this time of year there's almost a complete absence of anything new to post.
And I notice that engagement is a bit higher when the flower pictures have an extra element: a butterfly, a bumble bee, or a honeybee. Add those in and the likes & comments spike.
But you know what REALLY gets a response?
Something like this:
Or … (12 comments)
|
blogging: It's 10 pm, Do You Know Where Your Blog Is?
- 02/05/20 07:16 PM
It's been a long, busy day and it's 10 p.m. and I haven't written a post yet today.
What to write?
There's a host of topics I could do tonight with a little extra time and the willingness.
None of the monthly market reports have been written yet...but not tonight.
Monday I visited a new construction patio home community with a unique set up that I definitely want to blog about...but not tonight.
One of my buyer client's emailed me this evening some interesting thoughts on his impressions of the sellers and accountability (it was POSITIVE)...but not tonight.
I need to do some research on another topic: … (16 comments)
|
blogging: Ask An Ambassador: You're Surrounded!!
- 01/12/20 08:00 PM
I've been blogging for a few moon cycles and for many bloggers it can be a struggle to find ideas, so I'm going to give you an insider "secret" to blogging:
YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY IDEAS!
The challenge? To realize it and recognize the ideas as they present themselves.
The more attuned you are, the easier it gets.
Don't worry that someone else has already blogged about a topic. So what! They have a different audience, a different prespective, and a different way of writing. Do it your way!
I'm drafting this on Sunday, so let me take you through the blogging opportunities a typical Sunday … (14 comments)
|
blogging: Remember The Audience Before Going Off The Rails
- 06/21/19 04:30 PM
This afternoon I started reading an online article about the Women's World Cup (soccer aka football). As a guy who used to bounce around between the goalposts, I still take an interest in the sport.
The article was rather long, and I'm okay with long if the topic is appealing and the author keeps it interesting. I read to learn and to think a bit. The author does the job well and the words flow.
But the author broke the "rules". Out of nowhere he goes into a political tirade. A tirade that was totally without relevance to the topic, but off … (22 comments)
|
blogging: Blogging Under The Influence
- 05/18/19 07:16 PM
I think most of us have seen it.
The blog post or Facebook entry or comment where you just go "How many glasses of wine has THAT one had tonight???".
Things said that shouldn't have been said, but were.
And sometimes there's no fixing what's been done.
I've seen posts that if the agent's broker also saw, I'd bet good money the poster would be "seeking other job opportunities".
But booze and drugs (both legal and illegal) aren't the only risk to our social media presence.
I may be an engineer, and that might have many think I'm an emotional automaton. And while I've got a … (10 comments)
|
blogging: A Baker's Dozen Of Blog Post Ideas
- 09/02/18 05:41 PM
One of the challenges you may face as a blogger is coming up with ideas for posts. What I'll tell you is topics are all around us, once we tune in. I'm going to give you a quick run down of topic ideas from the last 48 hours of my life, any one of which could easily be turned into a full post.
1. Can agents fire their clients? Short answer, you bet! I've got a pair of buyers right now that have pretty much used up their max quota of insults. If this current contract doesn't stick, I'm pulling the eject … (33 comments)
|
I wear more than a few hats. so staying bzzzzy isn't an issue. 
;)
;)
;)
