The Many Forms of Blogging Success
The October Challenge, hosted by Carol Williams , Aura Alex , and Leanne Smith , is all about sharing success stories from our blogging. While there are some who claim that blogging doesn’t work, there are plenty of AR Members who have a variety of success stories they can share.
Blogging success stories come in many forms, real estate-related and otherwise. They can result from a post we wrote, the general information we share on AR that creates a significant online presence for us, or even our AR Profiles.
You might set a blogging goal for yourself and achieve it, or maybe there is a special post of your that gets featured, and with lots of comments. Perhaps it's about finding a great referral source for that special client! Or you hosted a successful meet-up. The list goes on.
However YOU define blogging success, reading this month's entries, and hopefully participating, is sure to provide inspiration and affirmation that blogging does, in fact, work and in many ways.
One of my early success stories arrived in 2007 in a phone call from W who was relocating to the Carlsbad area for a new job. In his research he found me on AR, but more importantly liked my profile. The reason for the call? Well, I had a 16-year background in corporate Human Resources and he was a Sr. HR Director, and it felt like a good match. Indeed it was, and he and his family bought a $1.3M home a few months after we started working together.
The lesson? Don’t discount the power of your profile and what you share about yourself. You never know who might pick up the phone or email because of some commonality, or an interest in your life experiences or past profession.
In my earlier years of blogging (2008 – 2010) I was asked to teach classes about blogging at several San Diego-area Realtor Associations as well as in AORs in Orange County and San Barbara. I was on a blogging panel at the California Association of Realtors Convention in 2009, presented at the Womens’ Council of Realtors (WCR) in Simi Valley and to the Rancho Santa Fe Professional and Business Women’s Association, and led discussions at a number of RE Bar Camps (remember those?). I was also on a blogging panel at the San Diego AR RainCamp (not sure about the year).
While I shared a lot in these experiences I also learned a lot, too!
I know plenty of Rainers have been interviewed by reporters, or mentioned in the media or a publication as a result of an article they’ve written. I’d say that’s another form of success, wouldn’t you? These get shared from time to time here, however I suspect there’s a lot more happening with our members than we hear about.
Why not share the good news? Margaret Rome Baltimore 410-530-2400 did just that in a recent question on the Q and A about Jim Paulson .
I’ve had a number of interviews resulting from articles I wrote. One particularly interesting one with reporter Kenneth Harney developed from a 2014 article written about buyers and sellers not relying on Zillow for their decisions.
Ken called me up one day, we had a great chat, and his article appeared in the LA Times in 2015, and was syndicated in other major news publications. You never know when the information you share is newsworthy, although perhaps these days it’s a bit harder to get noticed.
And of course client transactions can be a wonderful success from our blogging, and you never know when they might happen.
Bill Spear of Liz and Bill Spear has reminded us many times, with plenty of personal successes, of the value of evergreen posts.
One story in particular comes to mind. In 2011 I was contacted by J and J who found my AR blog and who were moving from CT for his new job near Carlsbad.
I helped them find a rental in Carlsbad, then they later purchased a home here (see photo above). Time passed and we sold that home so they could downsize, and they purchased another in a neighboring community.
But it gets better. J also referred one of his employees to me in 2013 and they purchased their first home with my assistance in 2015. We also just sold that home (at the right) a couple of months ago so they could relocate to the SE. And I’ve referred them for their purchase in the near future to a CRS agent there.
So how do you define your blogging successes?
Let's hear about it!
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