Blogging for Real Estate Agents

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Blogging Fundamentals

Getting Started

• Where to get a Blog – Wordpress– Blogger– Type-pad– Active Rain

• Several options are free, however for best results look for blogs that come complete with SEO (search engine optimization) packages like Yoast for Wordpress

Getting Started

• After you choose your blog platform, select a visually appealing theme for your blog

• Make sure to complete your online profile to 100%

• Don’t be afraid of your first post, find a topic and “press it”

Blogging fundamentals

Blogs are one of the most important aspects of your online life.

• Why Blogs are important• Using blogs in the Business of real estate• Bringing in the Money

Why are Blogs needed in Real Estate

• A business blog is optimized to achieve real business and marketing goals

• Specifically designed to provide relevant, interesting, and educational information to your targeted buyers.

• If you want more leads and clients, blogging is a must

• Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors and 70 % more leads then those who do not.

• 57% of companies have acquired a closed customer transaction through blogs

• Blogs are great for SEO • Each post is indexed as a webpage; more

posts= more potential visitors, leads, customers.

• Use posts to optimize your information to your target market. Solve their problems.

• It takes time, put a 3-6 month timeframe to grow your keyword footprint

• Keyword footprint is the number of keywords that are indexed

• As more are indexed, your industry rank will increase

• This allows you to attracts new traffic to your site

• Dominate Google, Bing, and Yahoo

• Convert your blog into a lead generating machine

• The more posts you have, the more opportunity you present to customers

• Online monopoly; Location, Location, Location

• Thought leadership– If you have years of experience, convert your

understating of the market to text and develop your leadership in the industry

– If you are new to the business, research and answer questions of your target market

• Trust building– Providing the right answers to the right people will

build trust with the online community

• Showcase expertise in your industry– Show how you are different– Develop content that answers the questions your

target market is asking – Teach them what you know, they are looking to

learn• Prospects will see you as an expert and they

assume your service is expert service

• Gary Keller says build a database and feed it every day

• A blog provides you the fuel for increasing your database

• Over time your post will be indexed and interest will grow- translation, you will receive leads through your blog posts

Blogging Basics for Real Estate

• Content is king• Inbound marketing is all about content that is

worth talking about• High quality content is rewarded with social

shares and inbound links– Inbound links are huge in SEO– Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links

• Think of your target market • Create content for this market to ensure that

it is content that your target market is interested in

• Use their terminology• Focus on the target market first, not Google

• Know your target market• What topics appeal to them• Make a list of the 5-10 most common

questions they will ask you• Provide practical solutions, not products or

services

• Solve problems of your target market– Building trust– They will come back to your blog– Assist in the action they will take

• Best Practices– Write eye catching title – Address one topic per post– Write relevant, educational content– Be consistent and frequent – Optimize for target market– Include images and format well– Do not miss out on conversion opportunity

• Eye-catching titles– Create action direction – entice action– Must contain keyword – only one KW– Brief – no more the 90 characters

• One Keyword per post– Do not move off topic– Use the Keyword as the main topic for the post

• Write relevant, educational content– Answer questions about trending topics– Showcase your knowledge of industry

• Be consistent and frequent – For the best results at LEAST 2x week– Allows SE to crawl our website

• Optimize for target market– Create multiple articles on different topics– Answer questions that target markets have and

don’t have– “Best Of” lists and “Worst Of” lists are a great way

to start– SEO• Keyword in title, page title, and meta description• Keyword should be on image files and Alt tags

• Formatting– Some posts can be very long– Use bolded text– Include sub headings, numbers, and bulleted lists– Use images(creative commons;

http://us.creativecommons.org– Include links within the text

•Do not miss out on conversion opportunity– Include call to actions in different areas of your blog• Bottom of every post• Within the text of the blog, when relevant• On your sidebar

Blogging = Money

• How to transform your blog into a money making entity– Follow the steps above and now develop the

content– Be educational, trustworthy, and relevant

• What to blog about…

Blogging = Money

• Topics to blog about– Recent Industry news– Common questions– Long tail KW– Respond to other blogs– Invite guest bloggers– Hot topics in the industry

Blogging = Money

• Promote your blog– Website– Social Media – Email marketing– Press releases– Business cards

Blogging = Money

• Measurability – Number of views– Subscriptions– Inbound links– Article strength– Trends

Takeaways

• Create Remarkable industry related and educational content

• Be consistent and frequent • Optimize for target market with keywords for SEO • Include calls to action in each post • Promote your blog content through several

different channels • Measure and analyze your blog for updates

Blogging Fundamentals