No Leads in the Blogosphere?

Gosh, don't tell that to my client that's coming in Friday looking to buy a condo!  He emailed me directly from AR and we've communicated several times.  I was out for the last three days with clients from out of state and he called me multiple times today to get ahold of me and book an appointment.  To my competition:  Nope, they are right....no leads here!

I have a hard time getting clients to tell me where they found me on the internet, but the fact that they are finding me on the internet is good enough for me.

Is it my blog? Active Rain or my two websites? It's Active Rain or the blog... because the one website has been up for years and the other gets little traffic.  My websites are getting traffic from Active Rain and my blog. 

I'm with Christine.  I've gone to homes where I have never met the people before and they say to be, "but you said..." and quote something from the blog.  

In my modest opinion blogging is sort of like talking over the backyard fence, or shooting the bull when you're at the gym, favorite bar or cigar shop.  It could open up a potential contact but it by itself offers no steady stream.  But connect it to a structured informative website that is positioned high on search engines due to your successfull use of keywords, meta tags and links and you maxumize the possibilities that someone jsut might contact you.

Wow. What a spectrum of opinions and insights. I agree with Mary McK that GS  probably isn't really interested in generating leads by traditional definition. There's a luxury car dealership in Paris that only has one car on a revolving pedestal in the store that once inside, appears to be an art gallery--from the side walk it looks like a boutique with a clothing window display. Inside the atmosphere is like an espresso bar in the day and a wine tasting party at night . No cars are sold there I wouldnt think. Its all about branding.

My primary blog from which I  pull my AR postings is linked to my web page which is linked to our office site which gets several thousand visits per day which results in a half dozen to a dozen or so bona-fide registrants each day from the internet. (And really, we all know that Google doesn't even care what your blog says as long as the words in the content seem genuinely organic. Blogs with good content make your primary site fatter--I know this and I couldnt spell B L O G a year ago)  There are many ways to tweak the system without being blatant. My blog is linked as a signature to every e-mail I send out and I send out a lot! Of course, if your blog is weak in content....

Well, I have to say that I've gotten 4 leads from my blogs, both my blog on Active Rain and my other blog on RealTownBlogs.  Three were seller leads and one was a buyer lead.  Unfortunately, none of them were for areas that I service, but I did refer them out to various friends who do work the areas that the leads came in for.

Ann

Norm - I would suggest logic dictates otherwise.  If a "static" website generates leads, how can a "dynamic" blogsite fail to generate leads?

I think a lot of it has to do with what you write about. I am by no means an expert since I only started blogging about 6 months ago. A lead might come through a form on my website but it might have been a blog or something that came up on google that could have been a blog and then they linked to my website and filled out a form.

I recently made a stategic decision about my blogging. I've decided to only write about my market, neighborhoods, apartments, history things that I really am an expert about.

No more thought provoking opinions. I'm a realtor not a journalist. I thought about some of my blogs. The ones that are hot real estate topics like about zillow or craigslist get more comments and featured on AR but I'm starting to think those are more for my ego than generating business. My ego tripping days are long gone.

Craig Newmark commenting on my blog was cool and I liked AR members telling me I'm a rock star blogger but I don't see those kind of blogs generating business. The ones with key words that buyers and sellers will type into google like the name of a building or a new condo or neighborhood I think will.

You can't write locally and mention Zillow, Mitchell?  Maybe you can't because you are NYC... I think you are smart to blog to people, not other agents but don't give up good bait words. Buyers and sellers in my area respond to Zillow...not all, but a good entry about Worthington and Zillow has served my blog well.... 

It's just like any other marketing activity really.  f you can attract the same people repeatedly visiting you blog, then I don't see why that won't eventually translate into referrals. 

If there are no fish - you are fishing in the wrong place.  If there are no leads from blogging - you are blogging in the wrong place!

Maureen.

Good point because I really don't know what the consumer types in to google. I stay up at night trying to figure out google.

I'm going by two recent sales that I made. They were specifically about 2 new condos that I wrote about and had a picture of them. They were both out of town buyers that were specifically interested in the building that they already knew about. One of them is from Ohio (cincinatti) they bought it for their son who just graduated Harvard law school and was hired by a NY law firm.

You may have the best of real estate blogging Mitchell since you (NYC) are so different from all of us with our MLSs.

Norm's blog is one of the new Point2 Blogs...  I had to go look.  Looks good.

 

Maureen I think you are right.  Also I can't compete with Curbed and gawker, matrix ones that are nyc real estate blogs but not from Realtors. I will never come up in google for new york real estate but I come up for very high for chelsea condos or harlem townhouses or upper west side apartments.

Some of these nyc re blogs don't give the names of the writer, they are anonymous like property grunt who is supposedly a nyc broker. They can say anything. I will check out Norm's. Thanks

Norm, Nice blog does point2 include the blog if you buy a professional website from them?

In my mind, no press is bad press and exposure is good.  Keep blogging away my friend.

I'm jealous - I have never had this many comments on a post that I have actually written... and now this is the 3rd time that a post that has a lot to do with me has broken the 40 mark. :)