I had a company set up something similar. They basically set up 10 blogs and have content generating and sending back to my main site. They’re really transparent and they use a wordpress management site to update the posts. Let me paste what they sent me below:

“Guys,
This process I am using is through a site called wpdirect.com. It has all the features of a normal wordpress blogs, but it automatically sets up all the cool SEO features and has an extra feature called traffic trappers that lets you update blog post in less that a minute. There’s some extra stuff I did in the background to make sure each blog is seen as unique and passes on the maximum link cred…”

I mean this stuff is way above my head and don’t quite understand what they are doing, but I know it works.

Good to hear something similar from another source aside from them. Sort of backs up what they are doing.

What we have done is set up five Word Press sites that all lnk to each other. Keeping up content is a challenge. One site does have a lot of content that can be shared, but since the content is already there I can turn it over to an editor, I think.

It has to be consistent. new posts need to be there at regular intervals. Real Estate is unforgiving in this. Without adding content to my main Real Estate site for about a month my organic search got pushed back two pages on Google. There a re a lot of busy beavers in Real Estate on the internet.

I actually do outsource some of this stuff but I am actually the rarity. I simply like to focus on doing what I do best, which is managing property and I must admit it sort of does my head in thinking I am competing with guys that do this stuff for a living.

I also agree with David when it comes to the mention of being more pro-active then simply building it and they will come. There is so much stuff out there and there are so many people competing for the same space that unless you’re doing something way out there than no-one will even notice you. A few of the guys within my industry have played around a bit with You Tube and have had some good results, but I still think it’s important to outsource the stuff.

“Now you can sell your services from what you do here. Your site has legs, and eye balls, but your money is in selling your personal services. In talking with other bloggers or other people who use the internet for business, it’s just an on line business card.”

(emphasis added by JG)

OK, you have this site that is a tech site, really, it’s a tech site. The content can be related to Real Estate, but ultimately I come here to see what you do. In the world of Real Estate, even though around 90% of people start a search for homes on line there is only a 3% closed sale part of the market. It’s a high priced ticket item that people want hands on attention to.

On the other hand our cleaning business, by taking what I have learned about blogging, has increased by 30% the last 18 months. I don’t link those sites to my name at any time, but the organic search for the domain name SeattleHouseCleaning is at the top of the list.

So in the world of Real Estate it’s hard to hit the top of an organic search, if you apply the same principles to other businesses it’s pretty easy.

Which brings us back to linkage. If I do link nationally, like with a Merchant’s Circle, or I have the option to buy the House Cleaning Alliance, my question would be what that does for me or my business? I understand the eye balls, but ultimately what does that do for our business?

Here’s an example; I have a blog at the domain name FixerFixer which I’m closing. It was immediately attacked with comments from contractors. My thing was that you are a capable person, you can do it, contractors wanted me to know that they knew better. After that it was a spam attack. Last, was the amount of time the site took to keep running, versus the return in dollars. Bottom line, house cleaning good, Real Estate bad, contracting bad.

Now you can sell your services from what you do here. Your site has legs, and eye balls, but your money is in selling your personal services. In talking with other bloggers or other people who use the internet for business, it’s just an on line business card.