Blogging is All Local

A recent post by the Real Estate Tomato asks:
Why is a nationwide audience a good thing if I specialize in local real estate?

I say its not a good idea as a local agent.

The number #1 reason realty bloggers do not make money is that they comment on larger geographies and issues that are outside the scope of their marketplace.

To quote Jerry Maguire: "Show Me The Money"!

In an interview heralding a couple of bloggers here on the West Coast, a prestigious paper paid tribute to the team's success. When asked however, have you made any money from your blog. The answer was no. I paraphrase as I would rather not mention the team as I am not here to lampoon them.

The Virtual Coffee Room

The common myth is that blog readership is skyrocketing. True, but by whom?

The main readership of blogs are an incestuous mix of other bloggers and Realtors that get caught up in the so called conversation.

If you are a Realtor, I assume that the reason you blog is for the almighty $.

Although it is fun to socialize with other Realtors doing Blog Carnivals and such. Listen to Super Agent Jerry as quoted above. Be careful of these Virtual Coffee Rooms as no one is buying anything from you there.

Most on line bloggers are fixated on the idea of the "conversation". I have just shown you why you are probably talking with the wrong person, if not talking to yourself. A conversation is cute, but how about making money?

The real power of a blog is the ability to create yourself as a thought leader. Now I see this in some cases with agent bloggers, but many times they are trying to influence the wrong person.

Thats akin to calling expireds by opening up the phone book. ( I just dated myself, can you  even call expireds anymore?)

The Blog Hype

I have been around the real estate industry for almost Twenty years as an agent and vendor. And I have never seen anything as over hyped as blogs.

A blog is simply a set of web pages. Commonly called a website. So why blog? It is easier to manage thats why.

Oh I can hear the cries, "But the search engines love them!". That is sooo 2004 people. They love and hate blogs like they love and hate websites. The only cool thing about blogs that everyone should understand is that it forces people to update their website.It is what you should have been doing in the first place!

Think about this, the common seller or buyer may very well land on your page of your blog. They probably don't know that we geeks call it a blog. Nor do they care.(Web visitors are very self indulgent that way).

They are at best a transient subscriber. Meaning even if they bookmark you, write your url onto a sticky note and post it on their screen(yah right), you only have them for a short amount of time before home searching is not of much interest to them anymore. Ie. They bought or sold and are now more interested in Johnie's Soccer game and Mary's recital.

My point is that trying to comment on national issues can only quickly frame you in the wrong place when you want local buyers.

What About Relocation Buyers?

Even someone on the other side of the pond is not going to type into a search engine, "real estate". They attach locality to the search. And they sure as hell aren't going to type in "blog" or "real estate blog". This is SEO 101.

Speak to your market by representing your market in keyword form.

I see way too many bloggers getting way too caught up in the so called blogosphere, instead of worrying about who is and should be reading the thing.

Thought Leader VS. Journalist

The real power of a blog is it gives you a simple interface to prove your credibility in the marketplace. You can even become an expert in your area by writing about local issues. Or even national events as they affect your local market.

After talking and consulting with hundreds of agents and brokerages about succeeding on line, it never fails to astound me at the profound need to please their Writing Teacher from the 7th grade.

What do I mean? Compelling writing, persuasive writing will not happen if you write like you were taught in school. If you can persuade people with your words in the real world, then you have it in you to write persuasively on line.

But to blog successfully, you must find topics that you can take a position on thus establishing your leadership on the subject. If you need topics that matter to your market go down to the local building department and Board of Realtors for a good start.

Remember just like a politician where all politics are local, all blogging is local. For a real estate marketer anyway.One more thing.....

After demonizing the whole "conversation" thing, I am not against participating across the web with other Realtors (If I was one). But I do it knowing that it is a good source of links, and maybe a referral.

Comments

[Account Deleted]

I am flatterted that the article I wrote on the Tomato inspired such an informative and insightful post.

I do feel however, that the topic I investigated has been misrepresented.

You state: My point is that trying to comment on national issues can only quickly frame you in the wrong place when you want local buyers.

The article that inspired this point never makes the claim to write articles that are 'national issues.' In fact it says the opposite:
"Take a moment to analyze the ethical boundary of allowing people with a criminal record to practice real estate (because of a local instance) and you'll find the topic globally interesting. Talk about a local sign ordinance that prevents advertising an open house with the standard signage, others will comment that you're not alone."

The real issue I was investigating is that the audience we reach can not be contained to local visitors, and in fact the local audience is the minority. Since that is the case, I was presenting the benefits that can be considered due to the above fact.

And the conclusion that may have led you astray was that by leveraging and accepting your national audience, you can in turn improve the effectiveness you have with the local audience.... which as we can all agree is where the money is.

[Tim O'Keefe]

Gotcha, thanks for setting me straight Jim.

[redcarpetwillcooperate]

In our local area,at least the city I do business in and live in most people are not internet savvy. However surrounding cities and communities have a more savvy crowd. My issue is giving local news to include the few in my own community who are internet literate and the many in neighboring communites who use the internet frequently. Because our real estate office is part of a chain, it's challenging to use our website/blog in a way that is useful to our client. I'm finding that I need to use other avenues such as craigslist and discussion boards along with the website/blog to gain any traffic. I have not thought about monetization at this time, but just building up traffic and finding a meaningful way to give the type of information people want. This is a new field. I love reading your suggestions.