The Top Ten 4-Letter Words of Real Estate Blogging

Real Estate Blogging is more than an online diary of listings … WAY MORE. When pondering the ins and outs of real estate blogging, MANY 4-Letter words come to mind, but here are the Top Ten 4-Letter Words of Internet Blogging that I felt were appropriate to share.

• TIME
  
  First, make sure that you have TIME to blog. And? Use your time wisely. Make sure that your Blogging ROI (Return on Investment) is WORTH your time. ROI is more than just closed deals directly resulted from blogging. Although THAT can be a very important factor, for me, ROI also includes education and friendships created. But make sure that your blogging doesn’t take needed TIME away from your business and family.
• BLOG
  Create a BLOG. (Duh.) Active Rain is a great place to start a real estate blog – a great place to learn about real estate blogging and read some great real estate bloggers. (Join Active Rain for free here.). Once you feel like you have some kind of a grasp of “this whole blogging thing” you need to get your OWN BLOG. There are all kinds of platforms for real estate blogging – from FREE to super-custom-full-service-bad-a$$. Here are just a few of the blogging platforms that you will find. (* denotes my personal favorites…)
  
  • FREE Blog Platforms
    
    • WordPress.com *– MY favorite FREE blog site. You can post directly from MS Word 2007, pictures and all and there are plenty of customizable features. Pretty user-friendly, too. For a few bucks you can even have your own domain name. (Sample WordPress.com Blog: SpringsRealtyScoop.com)
      
    • Blogger.com – Although this Google-Centric blog site is harder to use pictures with and there is less customization options, this is a great place to start and does have a nice WYSIWYG interface. (Sample Blogger.com site: LivingInGreenhaven.com)
  • CHEAP Blog Platforms
    
    • WordPress.org – The subscription version of WordPress.com. The features are better and the user interface is great. (Sample WordPress.org site: AirForcePCS.com)
    • TypePad.com – a Favorite among many real estate bloggers. (Sample TypePad.com site: NYHouses4Sale.Typepad.com)
  • CUSTOM Blog Platforms
    
    • RSSPieces.com *– Custom Web 2.0 real estate blog sites that could easily replace the conventional real estate website. They offer extensive SEO, training, support and some killer amenities and their different packages are comfortably priced. (Sample RSSPieces site: MIAMISM.com)
    • TomatoBlogs.com – The Real Estate Tomato offers custom blog sites along with training and full-service SEO. (Sample Tomato Site: RealOpinionated.com)
• NAME
  
  Create a compelling NAME for your blog. Make sure that it has something to do with real estate/ mortgage and maybe what area you are in. This can be the header for your blog, and should be a part of your domain name as well – if possible. Your NAME will be what you promote all over the internet. Make it good.
• IDEA
  
  Have an IDEA.
  • What are you going to focus on? (residential or commercial, condos or ranches, urban or suburban, …)
  • Who is your audience? (Investors? Relocation? First Time Buyers? Military? …)
  • What is your purpose for having and maintaining a blog? (It really should be for education and for making your and your business REAL to your readers.)
• PLAN
  “He who fails to plan, plans to fail” – Italian Proverb. Make a PLAN and follow it. How often are you planning on blogging? Once a week? Once a Day? Pick something and BE CONSISTENT. Once you have a PLAN that you are comfortable with, you need to time block. This will ensure that you are consistent with your blogging and that it doesn’t leak into parts of your life that it shouldn’t. (See #1, above.)
• FIND
  FIND your voice. Your voice is what makes YOUR blog different from every other blog out there. It is your Online Attitude. Now, you will not FIND your voice right away. It is a process that takes some time, but you will FIND it. Just be persistent and patient. (FreshBlogger.com has a great article on Finding Your Blogging Voice.)
• AREA
  If you are trying to become the “AREA expert” make sure that you have PLENTY of AREA information for your readers. (For some great ideas on Local-Content posts, check out Localism.com.)
• READ
  
  READ other bloggers. And not just other Real Estate Bloggers. I get some of my best inspiration from non-RE Bloggers like Seth Godin, Joel Spolsky and GapingVoid. Once you READ another blog, please comment on it. Comments are reciprocal (meaning that you will get what you give) and everyone loves them.
• NICE
  
  BE NICE. No throwing daggers and hatchets at your readers or other bloggers. Well, unless you WANT to be known as the Online
  Hatchet-Throwing-Dagger-Monster. Be respectful of others’ thoughts and opinions – no matter how “wrong” you think they are.
• BEER or WINE
  
  Please blog sober. Drinking and Blogging is never a good idea. Don’t risk your professional reputation. Take a tip from Ernest Hemmingway: “Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.”
  
  

All the other 4-Letter Words I will let you come up with on your own.
The longer you BLOG – the more you will have. Trust me.

Bonus #11: SAVE Save your work and save it often. Nothing worse than writing the best thing that you have ever written and losing it in cyber space.

Posted By: Mariana Wagner – Colorado Springs Real Estate – Visit my Colorado Springs Real Estate Blog