Real Estate Blog or Real Estate Blogging
December 4, 2006
Post Tags: real-estate-blog , real-estate-blogging , real-estate-community , tucson-real-estate-blog
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Before I started this blog a couple of months ago I did a lot of research and read a lot of real estate related blogs. Because I would really like some input from some of those sources and because I like reading them here is the list not in any order:
- The Phoenix Real Estate Guy
- Phoenix AZ Real Estate Blog
- The Real Estate Tomato
- RSS Pieces
- Future of Real Estate Marketing
- Sellsius
- The Real Estate Guide
I noticed that a lot of these, are more about real estate blogging than they are real estate blogs. I hope that makes sense.
I wanted this site to be a source of information to anyone wanting to know about residential real estate in Tucson. I have kept the writing and posts to topics pretty specific to Tucson.
All of these sites above have played a significant part in the building of this blog.
There are a number of topics related to real estate blogging and not to Tucson specifically I would like to write about. At the same time I don’t want to turn people away from the site because they could care less about real estate blogging, they want information about Tucson.
And here in lies the dilemma I’m seeking input from those I read and trust. The funny thing is, this very post is a divergence from posting about Tucson on this blog.
State it with a story and some good backlinks.
Single Listing Websites have been a topic of interest to me ever since I got an email from a vendor telling me how for $99 a year this would make a great marketing tool for getting listings. I thought it was an interesting idea but just let it simmer. I thought about buying domain names and hosting them, then I heard about doing it with subdomains which I knew nothing about other than the name. I was reading Phoenix AZ Real Estate Blog his post “More Individual Listing Pages“ Next came RSSPieces post “Myth Single property websites drive traffic“. I set out on a quest to find out more and I have.
But how do I share it? No one reading about Tucson Real Estate in the News cares about this. It is a topic for Realtors Blogging about Real Estate. I love having realtors come to the site and read. I salivate all over a comment, “Yes! someone read what I wrote” if the spam wasn’t so related to specific body parts I would read and post those, but . . .
I’m at a cross roads and need to make a decision and that is why I’m asking for as much help as I can get on this.
Do I mix those posts here with the Tucson news posts.
Do I set up a new Catgory, Real Estate Blogging?
Do I risk loosing those readers wondering what this has to do with Tucson Real Estate?
Do I create a new blog for real estate blogging?
Jim Cronin at The Real Estate Tomato asked “Who are you blogging for?” I want to blog for both. I want fellow real estate bloggers (hopefully who aren’t in my market) to pick up on things that will be useful to them. I want to share with this community I’ve come to love reading and respect and give back from what I’m learning along the way.
At the same time, we are building our real estate business, and I don’t want to lose potential clients because they find the blog off topic for them.
I know traffic to the site will pick up, that it great, but are any of you guys and gal going to buy a home in Tucson?
Before I close I want to thank Athol, Jay, and Tobey’s best friend, for reading and commenting, it means a lot.
So there it is for what it is worth. I hope I have enough links here to draw some attention and a comment or two. : )
I have learned some great things about single property sites, I’ve created 5 in the last week, hence the limited number of posts.
I set up a new site Golbetatselaer Contest and saw it indexed in Google in 9 days, and no sandbox, (yet). There is more, but first I have to decided how to proceed so now I ask the community I respect for input.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:05 am
Do you know who your current readers are, Dave? How many, how often, what they read, etc.? That will go a long way in deciding which way to go.
Taking the single-property site, it’s not really a topic about real estate blogging to me. To me it’s a marketing strategy I use and that I’m promoting on my blog while also promoting the listing. Does it work? Not on all but on some, absolutely.
I’ve stopped worrying about whether I’ll turn off the non-Realtors because I want them to see the depth of my opinions (if not my knowledge) on these different topics. I want them to know not only that I emphasize marketing outside the MLS but why I believe it’s necessary.
Maybe this won’t appeal to a wide base of clients, but it will appear to the type of clients with which I’d most like to work.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:43 am
Dave, There are a lot of us out there that are looking for great data on real estate and great data on blogging. I am a fan of both sellsius and the real estate tomato. However, I would much rather have some real data on how the market is doing in various areas of the country. I think your blog does this exceptionally well. Keep up the good work.
Barrett
http://realtorleads.blogspot.com/
December 5th, 2006 at 4:25 am
Dave and Barbara,
I have what might be the solution. Over at the Tomato, we have been giving some talented real estate bloggers our soapbox to offer their advice and observations when it comes to the real estate blogosphere. So as to avoid the conflict that you are experiencing when considering what audience you want to write for from this blog, the Tomato may make a nice platform for you to express yourself regarding the blogosphere. If it is something that you would like to consider, feel free to contact me and we can work out some topics.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:33 am
Barrett, Thank you, I have really been hooked on blogging as a means of getting our content and data to the public very quickly. I have hated how long it takes to put up a page on our website and then wait until the content was no longer cutting edge before it was indexed. For me blogging is like having near instant access to the web. Just like this post, already I’m getting input. Blogs are so under utilized and I think the real estate community is one of the first to see the real potential.
December 5th, 2006 at 8:05 am
Jonathan, Great question. No I don’t really know who reads this blog, I do know that we are picking up clients from the blog 3 to 1 over the website. They work hand in hand, but the blog has really brought a lot more traffic.
You are right about the single property site topic, it isn’t about real estate blogging, but it is blogging about real estate. And I think most of what I have to write on is in that vein of SEO and Marketing, as a part of blogging.
Here is where you got me;
“I’ve stopped worrying about whether I’ll turn off the non-Realtors because I want them to see the depth of my opinions (if not my knowledge) on these different topics.”
I hadn’t really thought about this much, but it really rings true, why not broaden the audience and share some things I learn along the way about the medium as well as the message.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Barbara-
To me the answer is clear.
How do you make your money?
From agents or from local buyers and sellers?
Blog locally.
I think agents make mistakes by seeing online marketing firms like Spider Juice Technologies speak nationally and about marketing and that is what agents talk about.
Unless you want to be the next online Mike Ferry that is usually a bad approach.
So speak to your local audience.Follow the money.
If you have something about your visit to NAR and how you saw a cool laptop as your first post.
And your second post is how a new variance may slash the value of homes in Cave Creek, well that Cave Creek resident may never see the post. As they lost you when you talked about the laptop.
We only have so many chances to catch a visitor and convert them.
Thus I wouldn’t risk talking to National Realtors.At all unless it can get you relocation business.
If you want to do that, make two blogs. You can do it on the same URL if you wish, just add the “other” blog to a subdomain. Call it http: //og2.url. com
We live in an online world of ADD. People scan for what they want. If it isn’t obvious that you are speaking to them because you posted about Caravan or whatever, you probably will lose the buyer or seller forever.
I believe that many agents get online and see online marketers like Spider Juice and want to blog to a macro audience.Well when I blog my money is from a national audience. Thus, I talk to that audience.
But real estate is as they say local in the real world and the online world (as far as how they find you thru keywords).
If you do focus like that, you will be unlike the vast majority of local agents that are talking about everything but their potential buyer or sellers interests.
Go get ‘em!
Tim O’Keefe
http://www.houseblogger.com
December 6th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Tim,
Thanks for your thoughts. I do find that most of our traffic comes from searches to specific posts and not a general readership. Maybe we are too new to have readers.
I like what Jonathan said about being rounded with more topics than just the local real estate market.
I also want to share what I’m finding out about blogging along the way that might help someone else.
This blog isn’t a subdomain, it is just a folder on the main site. I think I’ll just add another folder, and a new blog title and start another blog. At least that is where I’m leaning right now.
Keeping the message clean really seems to be the leaning, and I can do that better with separte blogs for each area.
Starting another blog will give me a better place to address marketing, SEO, and commenting on other real estate blogs.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:59 am
Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to comment. It really is good to have the thoughts from you about this blog our message and audience.
I really enjoy the fellowship of real estate bloggers and those blogging about real estate. It has been a serendipity to blogging about Tucson.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
I’m kind of honored to get kind mention in that esteemed group. I’ve only been doing this since October.
The issues you touch on I think about a great deal. Is it business? Is it personal? National? Local? Should I spank the bubble boyz? Write nothing but buyer rep stuff? Sign my posts Athol Kay, or my gamer leet Atholk? Should I be writing for realtors or potential clients? Should I mention my family? Or keep them out of it?
Aaaaarrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Frankly I’ve just given up trying to sub-divide my personality to try and please a certain reader. It’s all one big ball of stuff to me. My business is real estate, and I’m personally committed to my business and my clients. Blogging is I believe going to be a vital part of my lead generation. Blogging is part of my business, and so I’m also personally committed and involved in blogging. It’s all one grand passion.
The internet isn’t going to disintermediate realtors, because clients are still hungry for a relationship with a realtor. Being a business robot blogger doesn’t make me approachable. When Kris Berg screams “Just Shoot Me Know” about a dumbass realtor, I just love her.
Maybe clients don’t care about me writing about mailing expireds everyday, but it’s better than letting them think I just sit on my butt waiting for the phone to ring.
Just follow your interest and your passion, and write what you can. You’ll find as you write you’ll develop your own voice better and better, and the questions you ask just get answered in time.
Right now I’m still in the hell of page rank zero, so it really matters little whats on my blog in terms of potential paying clients. I’m really just finding my way, and am basically invisible. A blog is never a finished product, just start with the belief something good will come from it. I look ahead to the end of next year as when I would have likely completed the basic framework for what I hope to create.
All that matters really is that I hope I can establish myself in the mind of any reader that I’m honest, motivated, and skillful.
That being said, as you find your voice, when you find you’ve produced something good, that would be better on someone else’s blog. Give it away to them. Trust me, it comes back to you tenfold.
I’ve come to regard dozens of people in the RE blog community as my friends, and each blog has it’s own quirks and personality. I’ve gained such strength and focus from writing and being part of this community, it’s been life changing.
That positive mindset and energy results in happy co-incidence. Just allow it to be.
(wow long comment - see what I mean about passion?)
December 6th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
I’m trying to comment, but I think after a certain word limit I’m considered a spammer by all Wordpress blogs. I’ll post a reply tomorrow.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Dave -
First, thanks for the mention! To be included in that list of blogs is quite an honor. You did put the link to Dalton’s blog under The Phoenix Real Estate Guy. I swear it wasn’t like that yesterday. Dalton can only dream of being THE Phoenix real estate guy
Great comments by all. The PREG has changed and morphed almost constantly. While some would say it lacks “focus”, I’ve received positive comments and off-blog email from people saying they appreciate the variety.
I think what you focus on depends on what you want out of your blog, and why you blog. We most definitely get more traffic when posts are geared toward the real estate professional. Why? Because let’s face it, most readers of real estate blogs ARE real estate pros. However, we get more off-blog inquiries from more local, “non pro” content.
I don’t really blog to get leads. I blog for a writing outlet, to get some of my personality out there for potential clients to see, because it’s fun, and most importantly because I learn a tremendous amount reading and writing blogs.
As Tim said, you may lose people by drifting between the two types of posts. But over time, I think people will come to realize (and perhaps appreciate) that your content is varied. In the beginning of PREG, it was almost exclusively local content. I slowly added in more “pro based” content. Not really by design, it just happened. But I think it worked well as the readers we had for regular content quickly realized that if they just came back later, there would be more local content.
Having two blogs isn’t a bad idea. You might even consider doing that as you build a readership, then you could (in theory) “merge” them at some point. But then of course, there probably wouldn’t be any point at doing that at that point.
You’ve got a GREAT thing going here Dave, just keep doing what you’re doing and I think you, and your blog, will be hugely successful.
December 6th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Jay, Thanks so much, I’ll blame the link to your blog on Wordpress
It works now, thanks for pointing that out, I’m sure Jonathan can live with one less link.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Athol, You are correct, Wordpress stuck you in spam as it did J Dalton yesterday, but I pulled you out of the spam holding cell and put you where you belong.
I know what you are saying about passion and writing, I’ve always been a writer, I stopped writing a few years ago for reasons I won’t go into here. Creating our web site got me started writing again, but starting the blog has rekindled an old fire I’m drawing heat from again.
I know the PR will come. Our web site is now PR4 for the home page and PR3 for most others. I used one of the RSS Pieces PageRank predictor tools and it shows the blog will be PR5 on this next update and it is just two months old. I showed something like 3600 backlinks after two months and the web site has 1600 after almost 9 months. The test site I mentioned in the post was indexed in google 7 days after the domain was purchased and the site was put up. I can still search it and it is indexed, of course no PR, but no apparent sandbox either. Same is true for 5 single listing websites I’ve create in the last week which are indexed and coming up when searched. You have inspired me to take more time to post comments. I read a lot of post, but don’t see that my saying anything will add to the post, almost felt like an intruder to post a comment. Then I saw you commenting all over the blogsphere and about the third blog I visited and saw one of your comments, I had to find out who you were, I love your blog.
It seems like we are a new wave of Real Estate bloggers just coming on the scene and having the time of our lives.
Because of blogging I’m learning more about Tucson, our market and statistics. I’m the one Barbara often asks to write a client or talk to them on the phone because I’ve just written a post on a condo conversion, or a projected build out on a gated community. I find myself sharing statistics of all kinds anymore, all because of the blog.
Now I’m off to try and pick a template to modify and a format for a new blog I’m thinking of calling Tucson Real Estate Blogging. At least that is the working title.
Why not have two blogs, I find many of the bloggers I read have an Active Rain blog as well as their own. So it doesn’t matter much where I post, I’ll keep the message clean on both blogs and probably get them both read since they will be interlinked. Twice the blogs twice the juice?
December 7th, 2006 at 3:17 pm
Well Active Rain is almost a no brainer - 10,000 RE professionals interested in blogging. Talk about a target audience. I think I might leak a few of my older posts into AR to snyc up my blog while I’m in NZ.
Exact same material though will only get page rank credit one place likely though.
The trouble with “two blogs” in my mind is the output required. I’m of the opinion that a two post a day average is needed to really reach the high end of the blogosphere. (Thats not a goal for everyone of course).
December 7th, 2006 at 8:16 pm
Stay on your side of Central, Jay!
Notice that I didn’t rush to correct Dave, of course.
December 11th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Dave! What a timely article for me! I am currently at the point where you were a few months ago and I’m so appreciative that someone put into words what I’m feeling. I have found a passion in RE blogging and in my research, have been inundated with blogs about blogging but not necessarily about RE.
I have a fairly focused blog that needs to be targeted towards clients. However, I know that using the RE blogging community is how I’m going to attract business. And in order to do that, it seems I need to write articles daily and in a certain “style”. However, my articles are incredibly client-focused and need time to develop. What a catch-22!
I have found the same heavy hitters that you listed and wonder, how in the world do I get them to notice me? But on the other hand, they aren’t my clients…but there’s a good chance my clients won’t even find me if the heavy hitters don’t see me. Does that make sense?
Anyway, I think your blog has a great balance of client content without being boring. And thanks for the article I needed to see.
December 15th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I thought I’d follow up: I decided to create a new blog for the real estate blogging and keep the focus for this blog on Tucson Real Estate.
The new blog is Real Estate Blog Lab. I hope you will all visit and benefit from its existence.
Thanks to all that commented and help make this decision and hopefully give birth to a new blog that will contribute to the real estate blogging community.
December 28th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Dave - I was talking about this very thing with Pat Kitano of TransparentRE.com on Tuesday. I cover a lot of territory on my AR blog, but have been keeping our local site more local in content.
AR is a great place to network, but I am not sure it will ever affect your relationships with your local clients. It certainly won’t affect your SEO rankings, but may lead to others linking to your local site as they get to know you.
What I decided was to migrate some of the material on my AR blog onto my local site. In the long term, I imagine my local site will carry the most content.
At the end of most posts on our local site we encourage readers to use the tag cloud to find articles relevant to their interests.
December 29th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
John,
I took a look at your AR blog and your web site. You have some great content on your AR blog that would work nicely with your local site.
It will certainly add more “juice” to your site and help your SEO if you post to your local site.
AR is a great site for networking and that is exactly what it is worth to you and your business, if you want to get the most out of your posts, put them on your local site when they pertain to your local RE market.
I think you will be surprised at the increase in traffic you will receive to your site.
On a personal note, I would love to have a conversation with Pat Kitano. I love his blog and always find it interesting and thought provoking.
December 31st, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Happy New Year Dave! I’ll catch up with you in 2007!
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Happy New Year Pat, I hope our paths can cross sometime this year. I’d love the chance to meet and talk.
June 7th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I really struggled with this while developing my blog. Still don’t have it down but primarily post toward local consumers. Even on AR most of my posts are not on localism. I love the socializing with other professionals but have to focus on putting food on the table.
Great thoughts here. Thanks.