Real Estate Marketing Blog

Blogs, Emails and 2 point oh.

This is a snippet from a recent email thread I had with a UK journalist.  I cut her part out as she never did give me permission to print her part:

"Questions about buying a blog"

Real Estate Blogs

More from the Questions and Answers Archive:

Tim,

I'm real interested in using your services.

I am teamed up with my wife (a realtor) in the Las Vegas market...

We are struggling right now as most agents are, and could really use some help creating a blog and submitting the keywords to the search engines.

Links Matter

So I send out the final publicity letter for the contest, and I get a question.

"I do not know what 50 links Are"

Well, that not really a question, as it is an implied question. Nevertheless the message that I think she was asking was why do I care about links?

The short and simple answer is:  links from other sites to yours increases your sites value in the search engines.The more links to a page, the more value that the engine sees in your page.

Now I can give you a much more technical reason answer. But in the end the above is the reason links matter. The more links the more value. Better yet, the more valuable links to your page, the more value that your page will have.

You can build the most gorgeous, SEO'd website. Without links to the pages of that website, the site in affect will not exist in the engines eyes.

A Question About Getting into Google

We are having a hard time getting him good web optimization. I've had a hard time getting him up on Google. Got him on Yahoo but his name is somewhat problematic and he's in a saturated market.

It is always:

1.pages with keywords that represent your market

2. get the pages indexed

3. send in the links

You can rinse and repeat at this point but either way from here on out it is about links. Your success will be how many important links you have coming into your pages (notice I said pages not just your index), and how large of a network of pages you have that represent your market. Another reason blogs are cool as you can do this in a reasonably organized way. But without the inbound links it is a waste of time (thinking your internals will rank) from a search engine perspective. Sure you can get 2.0 non main engine type traffic, but those are the geeks and freaks that spend all day on the net like you and I. ;-) Probably not necessarily your market.

~Tim

A Question From Manhattan Beach

Thanks Tim. I have been checking out your blogs. Nice stuff. My problem is consistently on those things.

consistency and relevancy are the hardest part of blogging.

Tim

A Question from NY

We get a ton of questions and I am usually pretty good about answering. If the agents allows me to post the question and my answer I give them a link. Got a burning question? Send us a Q! The post below is edited for readability and to keep it concise.

Mine is new, and I just try and focus on the local markets inside the Adirondack park of upstate NY.  Since I am starting out in real estate blogging, I read your blog and others a lot.  I hope to make some sort of local impact up here in an attempt to keep people honest and blog about our local market.  Posts have been far between, but as i gain footing it will be consistantly updated.  Other people from my office post as well.  Any suggestions would be appreciated, including etiquette for linking which i feel there is a lack of....

I do appreciate your tips on the writing, and have been keeping track of daily conversations and going-ons.  One thing it seems though is that there are a lot of negatives in Real Estate, whether that's opinions about RE agents, or news of the housing 'bubble' or agents acting in unethical ways, it seems to me only natural to report it and suggest ways to make it right.  However, the last thing I want is to be viewed as a downer, or whining about this and that, but I feel that it is important for the general public to know (or those who read our blog) that not every agent is like that.  These are the types of things that I hear talked about on a daily basis, but realize that doesn't make for good blog posts.  Where is the happy medium?

May be getting a bit long winded, but I really do take to heart your comments on writing as i am still trying to make a splash in the RE blogosphere.

.

Thanks again for the email!

Kind Regards,

Josh Pratt, Realtor

Century21 High Peaks Realty

1st Question

Well, I get questions periodically. I welcome you to ask your question by sending us an email or posting a comment below. And if I chose your question you will get a free link at realtyblogger.com. If it is OK to post your blog and name I will. Just let me know.

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Tim, I just started my own real estate blog.  I hope to use it in conjunction with my current marketing.   Any tips to find content?  Any suggestions?  I really appreciate it and I think your blog is great.
Best, XYZ (named removed becaus eI do not have permission to list the name)

Answer:

Hi Judy-

I am glad someone new is blogging.

Personally, I think a realtor blog should focus locally. There is no way that your blog is going to have any meaning if you tackle the whole Valley.

I would focus on a neighborhood/development/farm.

Be the source. Use it as your way to farm from outside mailers to your blog. You can't do that for the whole Valley. Be personable. Be authoratative. Take a stand. People will repect your convictions.

Noone stands for anything anymore. Thus, you will stand out from the crowd. Also, you can post HOA minutes, and local Zoning changes. etc. Be a real estate advocate.

In the past to do this was a bit cheesy as you couldn't create the visibility like today. But now if the issue warrants it you can even interview neighbors, film an important scene that is involved in your issue, and video blog it. You can even start a petition with your site as the goto place.

You can take current meta events like national interest rates going up, or the so call bubble and either agree or disagree.

We are at a place right now whereby blogs are new. They will get more competitive. So why try to be everything? Capture marketshare at the local level.

Current Realtors who use blogs to stand out Nationally or Broadly are fooling themselves into thinking that they will own share for long. Once the money is proven to be large enough, the Players will come like todays Homegains, Zillow's and so forth. If they take spots ten thru 1 for a search term, then you don't.

So why fight them for broad leads anyway. Entrench into your niche whereby you can fight and win.

Hope that helps.

Tim