If You're Not Real Estate Blogging, Do It Like a Giant FAQ

The excuses for not real estate blogging are the same common ones over and over, including:

• I don't have enough to post about.
• I don't have the time to write blog posts.
• I am a terrible writer, can't spell, etc.

There are others, but those are usually the top three. Let's debunk these, starting at the bottom:

• I am a terrible writer, can't spell, etc. – You're the real estate expert, so you don't have to be a great writer. Who do you work with or who is in your family or friends circle who is a good writer and speller? If you write a 300-400 word blog post, one of these people can usually edit it in less than a half-hour. You can hire out editing work as well, and using one of the freelance sites, you can get it done cheaply.
• I don't have the time to write blog posts – Most real estate professionals are busy, and the only way you'll free up the time to blog about your business is to recognize that it's important to the business and your income growth. If you commit to it, around an hour per post is all you'll have to put into it, and you'll be glad you did.
• I don't have enough to post about – This one is often cited as the biggest reason, and it's not really a reason at all; see the rest of this post.

Prepare to Answer Questions

How many questions do you answer in the course of a year of doing business? You get them in person, during home showings, during contract negotiations, and during the transaction process and the closing. You get them via email just as often. How many do you think this is? Is it 50, 100, more? It's probably more than 100 questions. You can't just sit down and remember them though.

Action

Use index cards or an online note resource like Evernote, OneNote, or Google Keep. Every time you're asked a question in person, note it down on the app on your phone, or you can even record sessions where questions are almost always asked. Every time you get an emailed question, send it to the note-taking app.

Build an Editorial Calendar

Using your calendar application, create a blog posting calendar. You'll use this to schedule out over the year all of the proposed post titles that are the questions you've been recording. You need to build a process that spurs you to post instead of putting it off because you have something else to do.

Action

Determine first how many posts you'd like to do on a weekly basis, and consider your time so you do not over-schedule and feel bad when you don't get the posts written and fall behind. If you can only do one each week for sure, then only schedule one. If you can do two, even better. You should have enough questions to cover months or a year easily.

Think seasonally. Certain seasons see an increase in your business, and you get more questions at those times. If your blog visitor sees their questions answered in the season they're asking them, you're already looking like the local real estate expert. If you tend to get more listings in the spring, then write seller question/answer posts then. If your buyer surge is in the summer, then write more buyer-focused posts then.

Write Like You Talk

One reason many real estate professionals shy away from blogging is that they think they need to be Ernest Hemingway. You do not need to be overly business-like, as that's not how you speak to your clients, is it? You don't have to be overly legalistic or use a lot of real estate jargon. If you wouldn't say it to them in person, don't write like that.

Action

Yes, you're using the FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions, process to come up with your post ideas, but you're not writing it that way. Though you may find that the actual question is a great title, you could just as well find that there is a better way to say it in a catchy title. Instead of "What is the best first offer for a home?," you may title the post "Critical things to know before making that first price offer on a home." The "critical" word makes it seem very important to read to avoid a mistake.

This isn't rocket science, and if you just follow these simple tips, you're going to have an interesting real estate blog, and you'll even be telling others that real estate blogging has been great for your business.

To view the original article, visit the WebsiteBox blog.