Just got another call for a real estate practitioner asking “What’s a real estate blog?” So don’t feel bad if you don’t know either.
The term “Blog” is a shortened form of “Web Log”. Think of the log of a ship’s captain for a basic definition.
In the beginning, blogs were personal journals posted on the web for everyone to read and upon which readers could comment. They started out with very limited circles of readership and a lot of personal journal type stuff with photos and links to things of mutual interest.
You might have a personal journal blog and post your thoughts on books you’ve read recently or movies you’ve seen. You would be able to place links in your blog to reviews of those books and movies.
Well, we’ve come a long way! CNN news regularly covers comments of political bloggers and social commentary from blogs. They’ve become hugely popular ways of rapid dissemination of commentary and opinion on developing stories and events. There are many millions of them covering almost any topic you can dream up. Want to see? Go to Google BlogSearch and pick a topic!
What we want to look into is how blogging can be beneficial to your real estate business. It can and should be one of the tools in your marketing toolbox.
By creating a real estate blog about your area, happenings and commentary, you can begin to position yourself as an “expert” on the area and real estate trends there.
Readers of your blog can then “subscribe”, as in a magazine subscription, and have your real estate blog comments and articles delivered to them daily in their “news reader”. You can create a blog about “YourTown Real Estate” and post articles and comments regularly that will be of interest to residents and potential buyers for the area.
It’s a commitment, as blog content needs to be updated frequently to keep readers’ interest, repeat visits and subscriptions. You can, if you have the proper blog service and setup, have guest authors that will help you keep your blog fresh with new material.
Perhaps your favorite mortgage broker would like to write some articles for your blog with links to his/her site – or a title company, or home inspector, etc. Let your competition keep plugging away at “newsletters” and email delivery. You can get a jump on the “new world” of publishing with a blog and have your subscribers get your posts immediately without email or action on your part.
Get started as soon as possible in positioning yourself as the expert in YourTown real estate with a blog.
Source: realestate.about.com
