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How To Make Almost Any Real Estate Blog Appear "Local"

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Vidlisting.com

Local blogging is all the rage right now. Many real estate bloggers are beginning to maintain separate blogs for each local area (even down the street area).

But would it be possible to make any real estate blog transform itself into a local blog when needed?

Here are some basic assumptions:

- local blogs are generally found through web searches

- it's the organization of related content that makes local blogs "local"

- Today's blogs have blog posts that are organized chronologically and not by content relevance

- We can catch the terms for local searches y visitors using major search engines and reorganize the content on our blogs to prioritize the local information that is being searched for

- the reorganization of content would happen dynamics before any content is displayed

Our post at http://forsalebylocals.wordpress.com/2007/04/16/linking-real-estate-content-with-user-context-putting-better-faces-on-contextual-content/ discusses how to put a local face onto any real estate blog. Instead of managing several blogs, all content for real estate blogs can be centrally managed - the system described will make the blog appear local when required. There are a number of ways to accomplish this but we have documented at least one in ths article. 

You can even post your cat photos!

Luke Constantino
Brooklyn/Manhattan Real Estate - Brooklyn, NY
Residential/Commercial Real Estate Brooklyn NY

Sorry, I have two dogs. I post to localism every chance I get. It's a great feature here on AR. I'll read your article later, thank you.

Apr 30, 2007 12:28 AM
A. Grey
Vidlisting.com - Bremerton, WA
Real Estate Video Mentor - Vidlisting.com
Luke:  we aren't talking about the localism feature here on AR (which we agree is a great feature)...just about alternatives to maintaining separate locally focused blogs.  :)
Apr 30, 2007 12:32 AM
Brian Schulman
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Lancaster PA - Lancaster, PA
Lancaster County PA RealEstate Expert 717-951-5552
I read your article but can't say I really understood the technical aspect.  Wouldn't your system bring up a lot of results to a search that LOOKED relevant but weren't really relevant?  Also, don't the tags on AR & Localism give the reader the chance to go to related topics already?
Apr 30, 2007 12:49 AM
A. Grey
Vidlisting.com - Bremerton, WA
Real Estate Video Mentor - Vidlisting.com

Brian: great comment and perspective.

I agree that much of the "heavy lifting" of such a system would depend on determning relevancy of various serach terms. Then again, after about 5 seconds of thought, tags aren't always required to be fully representative of context either, are they? Tags may represent context but not all tags are required to be representative. They can just be tags. Example: I could just as easily create a tag of "nuclear power" for this post and it would be a valid and legitimate tag. I could also say that "nuclear power" is a context for this post, but if I did that, it wouldnt be valid by definition.  I would define tags as a much looser and less relevant form of metadata than contextual metadata.

 

Apr 30, 2007 12:59 AM
Robert Whitelaw
Whitelaw & Sons Real Estate Services - Morgan Hill, CA
Broker, CEO, Realtor , ePro
Since most of what I write on areas relates specifically to data such as sales figures for for that area, I think I am pretty much stuck doing things the way I am doing them.
Apr 30, 2007 01:40 AM
A. Grey
Vidlisting.com - Bremerton, WA
Real Estate Video Mentor - Vidlisting.com
Robert: Good point...I have yet to a "one size fits all" solution on the internet.  The flexibility in the system does make a decent potential fit for many users however...and at least something to think about.
Apr 30, 2007 02:00 AM
Phillip Cross
TBD - In transition... - Seal Beach, CA
ePRO Realtor - Relocation Spec
A. Grey - I am currently in the process of creating my own personal/business blog. Although I use the system here - it has been pointed out that your own blog can certainly help increase exposure. I will certainly review and use some of the techniques that you provided in your (non-AR) article. Thanks for the info.
Apr 30, 2007 02:05 AM
A. Grey
Vidlisting.com - Bremerton, WA
Real Estate Video Mentor - Vidlisting.com
Phillip.  Thanks for stopping by.  I love to share and learn about technology and programming....let me know if you need someone to bounce ideas off of. 
Apr 30, 2007 02:08 AM