How To Use a Blog to Promote a Real Estate Business

This article assumes that a Realtor already has a website to promote their business. If not, getting involved with a blog (web log) is really putting the cart before the horse. For Realtors with their own website, having a blog can be an invaluable tool to promoting their site and themselves.

For those not familiar with blogs, a blog is a web-based method for an individual to provide commentary or news on a particular subject. They typically can combine text, images, and links to provide information that will be of interest to their audience. Blogs allow readers to leave comments and thus promote an interactive exchange of ideas and information.

Why Should a Realtor Have a Blog?

There are two reasons for a Realtor to include a blog in their on-line web presence:

• A blog can help a site to gain more visitors (traffic)
• A blog can help a site to gather links from other sites, further helping to increase traffic to the site

What Does Having a Blog Entail?

Blogs require several basic things:

A blog must be setup on a Realtor's website (unless the site hoster already includes a blog with the real estate website). Typically, the support staff at the hoster can help to set up a blog for a Realtor. There are many software platforms for blogs. Three of the more popular are:

• Moveable Type
• TypePad
• WordPress

The Realtor must write content for their blog. Blogging is not a task for individuals who do not like to write. A Realtor does not have to be excessive writing for their blog, but they should plan on writing at least two posts (articles) per week and the Realtor must promote their blog.

1. Blog setup. Unless a Realtor is technologically savvy, they should not attempt to setup the blogging software themselves. They should work with the support people at the vendor who hosts their website to get their blog set up. Often, these support people will already have experience with one of the popular blogging platforms, taking the guess work out of selecting a platform. If they do not have experience, technical specifications may dictate one package over another. Either way, a Realtor should work with their hoster to get their blog set up.
2. Blog content. When deciding what to write about in their blog, a Realtor should realize that blog readers are not looking for a never-ending stream of sales pitches or commercials. They are looking for content that they find interesting. In short, content that keeps them informed or entertained - content that they will want to read. It is acceptable to include a description of new listings in a blog, but the Realtor should focus on things that the reader could not simply get from the listing service in addition to putting in new listing information. Realtors should not view posting listing info as one of the minimum of two posts per week.

   Blog content should be highly relevant to the rest of a Realtor's site. This means that they should be writing about real estate, housing, and community topics. Some topic ideas may include:

   • Profiles of unique historical houses
   • Overviews of architectural styles, especially those that are prevalent within the communities they serve
   • Trends in decorating, furnishing, and landscaping
   • Overviews of new housing developments
   • Interesting local news
   • Information on local arts and entertainment happenings and attractions
   • Information about school systems and schools

   As a general rule of thumb, if it is something that the Realtor would find interesting to read, there are others that will probably feel the same way.

3. Promoting a blog. The work is not done once a Realtor has a blog. Now they will want to promote that blog. They need to let the world know that it exists. The first step in this process is to place a prominent link to the blog on their real estate website. Realtors may also want to modify their e-mail signature file to include their blog address in addition to their website's address.
4. Promoting the blog's RSS feed. Most blogs also automatically have an RSS (Really Simple Syndication Feed) associated with them. This is a feed of the blog's posts that allows people to access the blog in RSS readers such as MyYahoo. The Realtor should also add "auto discovery" code to the home page of their website. Many browsers can read RSS feeds. Having the auto discovery code on their website will make people aware that the site has an RSS Feed, and it will make it easier for them to access the blog's RSS feed and its contents, bringing additional traffic to the Realtor's site.

   Realtors will most likely need to ask their hoster to do this for them. If that is the case, ask the hoster to add the following code to the "head" section of the site's home page:

   <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="YourBlogRSSFeedTitle" href="YourBlogRSSFeedAddress" /></textarea>

   Please note that "YourBlogRSSFeedTitle" and "YourBlogRSSFeedAddress" must be replaced with the actual title and address of the Realtor's Blog RSS feed.

   Realtors who have gone this far promoting their RSS feed should also submit it to a few directories of RSS feeds. Submitting to Syndic8.com and Technorati should suffice.

Any Realtor who goes through the trouble of setting up a blog, diligently posting interesting information to their blog, and promoting their blog should be rewarded with additional exposure, additional traffic (visitors) to their website, and additional home buying and selling prospects.