Gabrielle Jeans’s Weblog

In part one of this article I discussed how having your own real estate blog can bring you more business.  Here are some additional tips on effective blogging.

Keep It Organized

Often blogs get loads of articles and if they aren’t well organized, you risk turning off your prospects because they can’t find the info they want quickly.  So be sure to have categories for all your blog articles.  For instance, you could have a category such as “X Neighborhood” with sub categories such as “Market Watch”, “Community Events”, “History”, and so on.  Also make sure you pick a blog where these categories are prominent on any page, and especially your blog’s home page.

Integration With Your Website

Look for a blog service that works in conjuction with your website.  For instance, you could have article headlines on your website in various places (especially the home page) to entice people to read it.  People may find your website and it’s content through many means, so make sure you are advertising your blog on every page on your website.  If you don’t, you decrease the chances of them signing up for your mailing list, and that’s really the whole reason you should have a website in the first place.

Social Networking Compatibility

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become increasingly popular.  Facebook is currently the third most visited site in the world and Twitter has had explosive growth in the past year.  So you want to have a blog where your articles are automatically and seamlessly referenced on these social networking sites.  This will also help with your website’s search engine optimization.  There is software available that will also post your listings to Facebook.  That gives you a good reason to have 100+ friends on there!

Focus On Prospect Generation

Pick a blog provider that optimizes your blog’s ability to entice your visitors into joining your mailing list.  Have lots of form pages on your site extolling the benefits of joining your mailing list.  For instance, on a listing page have a link entitled “Get New Listings For X Neighborhood Via Email”.  On a page with information about the neighborhood, have a link entitled “Find Out How Much X Neighborhood Listings Sold For Via Email”.  The more calls to action you have on your website, and the more aligned those calls are with the given page’s content, the more likely people will sign up for your mailing list.

Building your prospect database is one thing, but converting these people into clients is an entirely different thing, and many real estate professionals totally botch the latter.  Learn about how to convert your email prospects into clients by taking my course The Awesome Power Of Email.  This course has been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 4 credits.