A recent conversation on Tribe got me thinking about my experiences with being a real estate blogger. Here are my seven reasons real estate agents should consider blogging:
- Fun. I really enjoy the many conversations that I’ve had with real estate professionals from all over the world that would never had taken place had I not started this blog!
- Expertise. By simply writing about real estate and your local community in a public forum (like this!) you become an expert. Anna gets emails and calls from people on a regular basis asking for her opinion on real estate issues. I’m a transportation engineer, but even my opinion on real estate issues holds some weight! For example, someone from my wife’s corporate office recently called to get advice on how to better use technology in real estate.
- Trust. A client recently told my wife that he completely trusted her advice because of the honesty in her writing! That’s darn near impossible to get with a regular website.
- Knowledge. I follow local news, national news, local blogs, real estate blogs, tech blogs, etc, because I feel a responsibility to my readers. Maybe you won’t feel that internal pressure, but it definitely drives me to ensure that I’m up-to-date on real estate news.
- Ranking. Because of all the unique content, we get hits on all kinds of unusual real estate searches. In addition, because we’ve gotten some links from some high-ranked websites (mostly other blogs), her site ranks really well when compared to most real estate sites. Additionally, on typical real estate searches like “Seattle real estate”, we’re ranked very high (#7 on Google) for such a new site and I know that we’re beating out sites that are spending $1000s a year on marketing their site.
- Cost. Compared to most marketing techniques that agents are using, blogging might as well be free. I pay $100 a year to host this site. That’s it! The cost of blogging is measured in time, not money!
- Potential. Rain City Guide is not even 10 months old yet. Give us two or three years of blogging, and we’ll easily be the most popular real estate site in Seattle. Ideally, the site will continue to grow as the web technologies evolve and more perspectives are added. I’d love to do more podcasting and videoblogging. I’d love to have someone document the building or remodeling of their home. I’d love to have some more real estate agents blogging about their local areas (Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, etc. neighborhoods). I’d love to have someone take on some more analytical issues (Tom?). There are so many interesting ways that Rain City Guide can evolve that I feel like we’re only touching the surface of it’s potential.
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When I look into my crystal ball to see the future of real estate blogging, I see one or two real estate blogs in each major city that have really captured the local market by having a group of prolific real estate professionals (agents, brokers, lawyers, etc) writing about local issues. I see people turning to these blogs to get unique and personal perspectives on issues like moving, building, buying and listing. I don’t think you’ll be surprised to hear that that is where I plan on taking Rain City Guide!
Anna, Dustin,
You hit the nail square on the head. My biggest challenge is to find the time to publish articles. I want other agents to join me on my blog. I’ll get them exposure, they get us exposure. Maybe in this slow period I can do some recruiting.
Merv and Pam
Anna
I regularly read your blog and it’s really great to see you’re having success with it, even after only 10 months. I’ve been at mine for just a couple of months and I see some increased traffic.
Even thought I blog about mortgage issues and some very progressive concepts to pay down your mortgage, I still get interested parties and skeptics to read it. It’s a slow road, but I’ll keep at it. Good luck Rain City — Keep on blogging!
Merv and Ed,
Thanks for the compliments… One of the other reasons that I enjoy blogging (and should have added to the list!) is the near instant feedback. I really enjoy being able to post a real estate related idea and get feedback from the community!
-Dustin
Dustin,
I couldn’t agree with you more about the reasons for a real esate agent to have a blog! I started my blog for the fact that it was a cost effective way to have an online presence. However, now I have become somewhat obsessed with it and blogging is a fun way for me to keep myself and my readers up to date with what’s going on in my local market.
The potential is unlimited!
-DainC
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I enjoy reading your blog, and have had a link to it on the front page of my blog ( http://www.CarolsWenatchee.com ) for some time. Check down the left side for the link. Do you suppose you could link to my blog too? Thanks!
Carol: I’ve had your blog in my blog reader for quite some time and never noticed that it isn’t in my blog role. Keep up the great work!
A blog is a great place to put your website too.
http://pismo-beach.inside-real-estate.com/
In searching for real estate blogs, I started seeing your site appear all over the place (reason #5). In my mind you’ve definitely demonstrated “authority” in your marketplace (Reason #2). Great work on the site! We are developing our idaho real estate blog and will be gleaning ideas! (With permission, of course?)
Hey the site should be almost a year old now, huh? Happy birthday!
Jason, you made some fun observations.
And rain city guide is will be a year old in march… (although Anna and I started blogging about real estate a year and a day ago over on this blogger site.
I’ll keep my eye out for you blog!
Best.
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This article is right on. Thanks for the info. I just started a local real estate blog about 2 weeks ago for my town of Tracy, California which is about 1 hr east of San Francisco. No one has really done it in my area and I am networking with the other blogs in my city.. I am going to read your post about putting up your own re blog. I was wondering about Meta tags and why some blogs have tags at the bottom of the posts. Thanks for the ideas and support.
Brian Barringer
http://tracyrealestate.blogspot.com/
Thanks Brian,
This article has definitely been one of the more popular posts I’ve written. Someone even sent me a newsletter that their broker had put together that used the text of the post exactly! Too funny!
hey great article! i hope you don’t mind, i reference and use a couple of your points in a post: http://dynamo.co.za/journal/2007/01/21/the_perfect_publishing_tool_for_estate_agents/
we’re building an app that you might find interesting… 😉
I’m glad you enjoyed it… You’re definitely on my radar and I look forward to learning more about what you are up to!
Just ran across this article. The above are certainly true for us. We are having a great time and learning lots in the process. We really believe we are offering a service with valuable information for clients, prospects and the community.
Hi Dustin,
It is true. The blogging experinence is great and you got the opportunity to share your thoughts not just hundreds or thousands peoples but millions of online users.
I have added your site as my del.icios favourite. Please check my blog which talks about real estate’s career. If you found it interesting, please add my blog to your favourite as well.
Thank You
Regards
I can’t believe I’m just starting this now, April 2008 and you wrote this back in Dec. 2005. Boy, am I behind the times!!!
Don’t sweat it a bit Mary! Even over two years later, you’ll still be ahead of the game if you start blogging now! 😉