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The Little Real Estate Blog That Could

We have been talking quite a bit about blogging lately on our Advanced Access Client Forums.  In the past we have written Marketing Tips about blogging and how it works, and why you should do it, and all of that.  But there continue to be questions about where to start, and what in the world to write about.

As usual our forum discussions have brought quite a few ideas to light that we hope will help you as well.  Of course, we invite you to join in our discussion any time by going to your Virtual Office Support Center and clicking on the 'Advanced Access Forums' link.  You will be automatically logged in.  You can feel free to post or to simply "lurk".

The burning questions...

How do you make a blog interesting?

What do you like?  It needs to be interesting to you to make it interesting to other people.  If you are passionate about something, start writing about it.  Hopefully you are passionate about some aspect of your work.  What do you like best about it?  Touring houses?  Negotiating?  Working with sellers?  Whatever you are passionate about, turn that into a weekly 'thing' that you blog about.  Really try to do one post about it a week.  That can be a great starting point for your blog.

How do you get buyers and sellers to keep coming back to your blog, not just other agents?

Virtual tours of homes, neighborhoods, and your personal take on good houses in the neighborhood are good topics.  Did a home for sale come up that has an awesome basement?  Great pool?  What about a bonus room that had an interesting twist to it?  Lots of people love seeing nicely decorated homes, because it gives them ideas for their own home.  Having good pictures always helps.

If I was a seller and I knew you worked in my area and posted interesting stats about homes, I'd be likely to check back.  Maybe you can highlight a 'farm' area or neighborhood once a month with the homes for sale, how long on the market, or a specialty highlighted home that you toured.

Mortgage rates can be boring to your average reader.  Instead of just posting rates, put a story on your mortgage related post.  Perhaps you and your lender have helped a family with bad credit get into a home.  A post about that would be better than the 'run of the mill' stuff that is often posted.

What else can I write about?

First, it's best to choose a general website address for your blog that does not "restrict" your subject matter to real estate or real estate news alone.  There are plenty of things that are relevant to your community that aren't specific to real estate.

Give a rundown of community events.  This is especially easy around the holidays.  You can talk about gift donation centers, neighborhoods with great light displays or block parties.  Those with children like to know what's going on in the area any time of year, but especially the holiday season.  From reading Orange County California blogs we were able to find some great holiday activities such as; Story time at the Ritz, the Christmas Train at Irvine Park, the parade at Disneyland, and Laguna Beach's Sawdust Festival.  Do your best to stay up to date with that stuff.

Other ideas...

Where are the best New Years parties and the "who's who" attending?  What's the best restaurant for Valentine's Day?  Who has the best beer or green food for St Patrick's Day?  Where is the Easter Bunny going to be for Easter?  There are a lot of possibilities.

Write a post about a great restaurant you visited recently and what dish you recommend.  Talk about a great website you found that would be of interest to your audience.  Don't be afraid to interact with the community.  If you see fund raisers at your local grocery store, post about them.  When you see the Girl Scouts starting to sell cookies, chat with one of the leaders and tell them you are going to blog about it.  You have to remember that just about anything can be a good blog topic.

The best advice is to just keep working at it.  Blogs can be very hard.  Just force yourself to write and publish posts.  It will get easier!  You will start finding your way!

Some links to check out:

Mary McKnight recently posted about how to write a blog that generates leads.

Famous Agents posted 106 content ideas for real estate agents.

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