5 Blogging Mistakes... and How to Fix Them
Blogging has been a pillar of a powerful marketing plan for some time now, and has the staying power of a long-term, sustainable strategy. It helps drive traffic to your site, effectively nurtures leads and can be an incredible brand enhancer by helping to position you as a thought leader. However, you can't just blog for the sake of blogging, nor can you think to cheat Google's algorithms with keyword stuffing just to get ahead in the search engine race for its coveted number one position.

The Dos and Don'ts of Content Marketing in Real Estate
"Content marketing" is a buzzy term, but it's basically what it sounds like: You create content of value (photos, blog posts, videos) as part of your real estate marketing plan. Different from — though complementary to — the ads you place with just your name and photo, content marketing pieces don't feel like marketing. They give buyers and sellers a sense of your expertise, while also building brand awareness and trust.

Blog Reboot: 5 Ways to Revive a Tired and Neglected Real Estate Blog
The new year is approaching fast and so is your chance for a blog reboot! If your goal is to put out more content in 2019, there's no better time to step back and reframe your blog ideas and posting goals. Before you get started, think about what makes you likely to come back to a website. People tend to revisit sites that offer value — and we don't just mean monetary value. As a real estate professional, you have a wealth of knowledge about topics that most buyers and sellers will have to research before they get started on a transaction. Put this knowledge to use to gain blog fans who come back for more. Below are five foolproof content ideas that you can deploy as you make a 2019 blog plan.

35 Awesome Blog Ideas for New Real Estate Agents (Part 2)
Real estate professionals: it's time to start blogging (or get back to blogging). According to WordPress, over 409 million people view more than 21.4 billion blog posts each month, which means there is no time to sit around uninspired. While you might be short on ideas (but not enthusiasm), we're here to remove any barrier between you and writing great blog posts. Previously, we covered real estate listings and local events, happenings, news and community insights. Read on below for suggested personal topics and tips and tricks.

35 Awesome Blog Ideas for New Real Estate Agents (Part 1)
Real estate professionals – it's time to start blogging (or get back to blogging). According to WordPress, over 409 million people view more than 21.4 billion blog posts each month, which means there is no time to sit around uninspired. While you might be short on ideas (but not enthusiasm), we're here to remove any barrier between you and writing great blog posts. Below is a list of blog ideas for real estate agents sectioned into groups: real estate listings, local, personal, and tips and tricks. Read on for some serious real estate blogging inspiration.

September Content Ideas for Your Blog and Social Channels
Creating fresh, unique content is an easy way to make an impact and grow your social media audience. However, coming up with content ideas to write about can be hard! Instead of spending hours trying to come up with new topics for your social channels and blog, check back with us each month for a list of ideas you can expand upon. Find September's topics below to get started!

August Content Ideas for Your Blog and Social Channels
Posting fresh, unique content is one of the best ways to make an impact and grow your social media audience, but coming up with content ideas can be hard! Instead of spending hours trying to come up with topics, check back with us each month for a list of ideas you can expand upon. Find August's topics below to get started! Tip: Sharing pictures of happy clients in front of their new home is great! Just remember to have them sign a photo release form first.

Why You Should (Really) Start Your Own Blog
At its base level, content marketing is simple: provide unique industry or product insight in exchange for personal information. Forms of real estate content can range from one-page infographics to an in-depth video series on staging. However, the time (and budget) to create unique content isn't quite as plentiful as the ideas on what you can offer. Thankfully, getting started with content marketing doesn't have to take too much time or money. A great option to distribute helpful, informative and even entertaining content is to start your own blog. Here's why blogging is important for your real estate business:

June Content Ideas for Your Blog and Social Channels
If you want to make an impact and grow your presence online, creating fresh content for your blog and social media channels is a great place to start. Unfortunately, coming up with content topics can be hard! Instead of racking your brain trying to come up with content ideas, check back each month for a list of ideas you can expand upon. Find June's topics below to get started! Tip: Repurposing your old content in new ways can result in great resources for your clients and save you time since you aren't starting from scratch.

Document Your Day-to-Day to Become Your Market's Thought Leader
There is a very common phrase when it comes to content marketing: Document, Don't Create. For you Realtors that want to beef up your content marketing strategy and build your own brand, this is going to be the magic bullet that allows you to do this--and more easily then you imagined. But how exactly does this work?

April Content Ideas for Your Blog and Social Channels
Creating fresh, unique content is an easy way to make an impact and grow your social media audience. However, coming up with content ideas to write about can be hard! Instead of spending hours trying to come up with new topics for your social channels and blog, check back with us each month for a list of ideas you can expand upon. Find April's topics below to get started! Tip: Use hashtags (#) to help people outside of your normal social reach find your content. Download a printable version of these topics here!

February Content Ideas for Your Blog and Social Channels
Creating content is an important, but time consuming, part of doing business online. Instead of spending hours trying to come up with blog and social topics, be on the lookout for a list of ideas from us each month that you can expand upon. Find February's topics below to get started! Tip: Keywords that can boost your SEO are an inherent part of your content when you choose topics that discuss local events and places. Download a printable version of these topics here!

8 No-Fuss Real Estate Marketing Ideas to Try this June
Are there tumbleweeds blowing through your blog? Is your Facebook business page gathering dust? For many agents, the biggest hurdle to an active online presence is figuring out what to post. And that's totally valid—you're busy doing at least 184 different things for your clients. But if you neglect your blog or various social accounts, you risk prospects thinking that you're either out of business or a bit careless. So lock up (set to private) or delete the profiles you don't use, and commit to a consistent posting schedule on the platforms you do use. Fortunately, June is a month rich in post ideas for real estate (it is National Homeownership month, after all!), so getting started should be easy. To make it even easier, we've outlined a bunch of blog and social media post ideas you can use to rejuvenate your online presence. Take a look at the ideas below:

6 Real Estate Blogging Tools and Gadgets Worth Considering
Here are a handful of blogging gadgets (tools, apps) that you might find useful. 1. Calmly – Writing App When I write blogs, I typically use a notepad program before publishing to my WordPress website. I find it easier to focus using the plain, no frills, no distraction approach of the simple notepad. That is until I stumbled across this online writing tool: Calmly. Calmly is professional text editor that is so inviting to just WRITE. You can format content, add images, save your work, etc. But it's the simple writing interface that me won over. Check it out – maybe it's a match for your blogging needs as well. 2. HemingwayApp – Readability Tool If you are concerned with the "readability" of your blog posts, then this is a great desktop app for you. The HemingwayApp grades your readability on a grade scale of 1 to 24 (higher is worse). Then it highlights the text in your post that it recognizes as troublesome. It even offers suggestions and solutions for your writing. I don't use it. But it does seem useful enough to recommend.

The Top 5 Digital Marketing Hacks for Real Estate Professionals
Real estate professionals must embrace savvy digital marketing strategies in our hyper-connected world. Within these strategies are specific tactics that can transform your marketing from the mundane to the magnificent. There's value in postcards, calendars, and business cards, but digital marketing is the best way for real estate professionals to leverage their money and time. Allow me to present the top five digital marketing hacks for real estate professionals. Blogging and SEO Many have extolled the virtues of blogging and its SEO benefits. It's for good reason, though. Consistent blogging on a hyper-local, neighborhood level establishes you as a trusted voice in your community. Consistent blogging also helps your name/brand show up higher in organic search results. Blog content is the foundation for search engine optimization (SEO). Blog content is also the fuel for your social media activity. Automate with IFTTT IFTTT stands for "If This Then That." On the basic level, you can use IFTTT to share your evergreen blog content to your various social media channels every day or even every hour. But beyond social media sharing, this internet tool can help you market and control utilities for a listing with your hands off. Smart-connected home tools and tasks (lights, Nest A/C settings, and more) are all manageable on IFTTT. Cool stuff like makes for neat "talking points" and digital marketing hacks for real estate. Have fun with social media marketing automation and more at ifttt.com.

Blogging for Dollars: Cha-Ching! (7/20)
Wednesday, Juy 20, 2016 at 10:00 AM PDT Join us for Power Hour this week featuring rock star agent Debbie Reynolds and learn how she turns her blogging efforts into hot leads. Choosing the right content can bring your website to the top of search engines results pages which in turn generates free website traffic. We'll show you exactly how to get started, make a schedule, and get your blog posts to generate leads—cha ching! How often to post for maximum dollars What to include in your posts to help convert leads Writing tips to yield the biggest return Register now!

Blogging BootCamp: Keywords and What to Blog About (5/19)
Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 10:00 AM PDT In our third bootcamp class, we will discuss keywords and what to blog about. It's important, if you are going to take the time to create content for your blog (or website) that you know what kind of things to focus on. In this class, Bob will share how to best go about deciding what to write about in your blog. We'll cover: What is the long tail and how do you target it What are the 5 best types of blogs you can produce If you only have limited time to devote to blogging, what gets the best return Register now!

5 Post Ideas to Kick Your Blog or Newsletter Into Gear
It's March and the busy spring selling season is quickly approaching. If your blog or business social media profiles have been in hibernation all winter, it's time to give them a nudge. Getting back to posting regularly can be a challenge, so we're making it easy on you. Here are five topic ideas that you can write about for your blog, Facebook page, email newsletter, and more. 1. Top 5 Mistakes Sellers Make About Pricing As an active agent, you likely have plenty of first-hand experience with sellers who have thought that their property was worth much more (or less) that it actually is. Use those experiences to write a post that educates potential sellers on sound pricing strategies. List common mistakes that sellers make and explain how your readers can avoid them. Don't forget to mention that homeowners can't rely on the automated valuations they see on search portals, and explain why. That opens up the opportunity for you to talk about how you price a home and the tools you use, like CMA software or RPR, that help you price properties accurately. 2. Local Spring Break Ideas for Families Spring break's not just for rowdy college kids; K-12 students typically get a week off during the spring, too. That means parents will be looking for ideas for family trips, or for entertaining the kids closer to home. Write up a list of family friendly "getaways" that are a short drive from the area you serve. This post can double as an informative post that attracts the attention of out-of-towners that may potentially be looking to buy or learn more about your area. Not all families have the opportunity to take a spring break vacation together, so, alternatively, you can list local activities or fun daytrip ideas instead.

4 Topic Ideas to Get You Back in the Blogging Game
If you're looking for a reason to start or get back into blogging... we've got your motivation right here. Every November, writers of all stripes participate in events that encourage them to kill the excuses for a month and just put pen to paper (hand to keyboard?). The idea is to create a writing habit that will last into December and beyond. National Novel Writing Month, where participants attempt to write a 50,000 word book draft in 30 days, is the original and most well known event. But for real estate purposes, we think National Blog Posting Month is the challenge to take on. While this event requires participants to write one blog post every day, we're going to make it simple with a mini-challenge--commit to writing just one post a week to shake the dust from your blog. We promise you'll feel accomplished by the time Nov. 30 rolls around. Like I said, we want to make it easy for you, so we've conjured up a list of topics that you can use to get the blogging juices flowing again. Week 1: Do You Need a Permit for that Remodeling Project? Many agents focus on topics relevant only to consumers currently in the buying or selling phase. Don't forget your past clients, though. Topics that are relevant to them as homeowners are the best way stay connected with them through your blog. In this post, provide a list of home improvement projects that do and do not need a permit. Explain why some projects do, and how they differ from those that don't (generally, projects that require significant changes--wiring, plumbing, additions--need a permit; cosmetic ones like new paint or countertops don't). In your list of projects that do require a permit, be sure to say who needs to obtain that permit--the homeowner or the contractor? Also, if you have knowledge of the average time it takes for a permit to be granted, include that information to help your readers plan ahead more effectively.

4 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Real Estate Blog
Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links and generate 67% more leads per month. Just having a blog, though, doesn't mean it will automatically produce leads. A real estate blog is no different. If you are going to spend all that time designing a website and creating content to publish, it just makes sense to do it well. 1. Know Your Audience Part of having a blog people like and share virally is posting good content. Keys to good content: Aimed at the right audience - You need to decide who you are primarily targeting. Whether that's other agents, home buyers, or a specific subset of home buyers, it's good to know who you are talking to, for it will affect your writing and how you market your content. It's relevant - If your audience doesn't care about your content, they won't read it. A good tip here is NOT to post "Pick me!" articles all the time. Once in a while is okay, but if your main aim is to promote how good your services are, it will be a big turn off to readers. For example, first time home-buyers care about how to navigate the home buying process and will gravitate toward insider tips and "what to expect" pieces. Agents, on the other hand, have different needs than clients and will therefore care about different things – like "How to manage your time well" and "What to do when your client goes crazy." Timely posting - Timing matters when publishing content. What time zone is your primary audience in? You worked hard on your content and you want the most amount of people reading it. Once you find a good time of day/week to post your content, stick to it. Readers respond well to consistency. Try to post at least once a week – you want familiarity. The more your posts get out there, the more people will remember you. If you start posting more than four times a week, though, it starts getting a little too post happy – you need a happy medium. You want people to pay attention to your posts, not ignore them because it becomes more like white noise.

The Best Worst Sales Call I Ever Received
Here's the scene: I'm driving home in my car after showing houses, and my phone rings. It's an out-of-state number, not atypical since I regularly get calls from home owners wanting to move to the Phoenix area. So I answer my phone and it's a sales call. Ugh. I'm almost never rude to sales representatives calling because I've done my fair share of cold calls, mostly when I worked in commercial real estate. I listened to his sales pitch. He's trying to sell me the number one spot on Bing.com for "new homes in Chandler AZ." I ask several questions and being polite I ask if I can call him back. He says, "No, I can't take incoming calls," and he's really pushing the "I can get you the top spot on Bing for $99." I end up hanging up after a while. Thank goodness this sales representative called me because it gave me keywords for my next blog post. I've been writing more articles about Chandler, Ariz. My office is in Chandler and I'm active with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce (which is the third largest Chamber in Arizona). I often struggle to find new article ideas, so this was a great help. Here's what I did: 1. I Googled "new homes in chandler AZ" to see who was on page one of Google's results. They were all big companies, mostly home builders. So my initial thought was, I can't beat out these big websites with a blog post. 2. "No Video?!?" I noticed there were no YouTube posts that popped up. Google loves to add YouTube videos to the first page of its results. Google owns YouTube, and if there are applicable videos (they have to include the keywords), they will be front-and-center in Google's search results.

10 Reasons to Start Blogging
There are articles and blog posts all over the Web about blogging for real estate. Most of the "experts" agree that blogging can be very effective if done properly. So how can blogging be beneficial to your real estate business? A Blog is about creating a relationship with your potential prospects and clients. It can and should be one of the tools in your marketing toolbox. By creating a real estate blog about your area, happenings and commentary, you can begin to position yourself as an "expert" on the area and real estate trends there. Readers of your blog can then "subscribe", like in a magazine subscription, and have your real estate blog comments and articles delivered to them daily in their "news reader". 10 Reasons You Should Be Blogging If You're In Real Estate 1. It's a great way to build a brand and grow an audience. Lots of real estate agents have built a name for themselves by creating a real estate blog. Focus on writing relevant and useful blog content over the long-term and soon enough, you'll be known as the "go to" agent for real estate in your area. 2. A blog is much more than just an online journal, it's a cost-effective way to market your business and attract a steady stream of buyer and seller clients. If you focus on creating community and real estate content that appeals to the interests of buyers and sellers, a real estate blog will easily help you sell more houses. 3. It's a great way of establishing yourself as a credible expert by consistently publishing articles that share your knowledge over the buying and selling process. The key is to write content that directly addresses the type of client you want to work with. In other words, if you want to work with buyers, write helpful articles that help explain everything there is to know about the buying process.

What's So Great About Your Real Estate Market?
Recently CNN Money profiled Oregon in an article called What's so great about Oregon? Everyone's moving there. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they have a great football team and an ongoing hit show about their biggest city (Portlandia). But your real estate market has just enough going for it, and you're the one to communicate that message to your customers and potential clients. For many people relocating to your area, the real estate agent is going to be the key to understanding the neighborhoods, schools, job market and so on. This will be enacted through a content strategy on your blog and social sites. But before you dive headfirst into your real estate content strategy, it's important to know what your audience is looking for, particularly at different stages of the buying and selling process. Customers have a fairly one-track mind when it comes to their real estate path. Buyers want home listings, sellers want to know the value of their home, and neither are really interested in you as a person, but rather what you can do for them. It's as simple as that, and that realization should shape your real estate agent marketing. So how do you stand out from the crowd? Too many real estate agents make the mistake of talking about themselves in a sales meeting or real estate agent marketing instead of directly addressing and offering solutions to a prospect's needs. An agent's content strategy should be the following: Who do I want to reach? What do they want? How do I get what I want by giving them what they want?

December Blogging Plan: 5 Topic Ideas
Here we are--the last month of 2014! If you've been following our monthly blogging plan series, you've got nearly a year's worth of posts that are helping you to establish your brand. If you haven't been keeping up, now's a great time to start. The holidays offer plenty of easy topic ideas, making it easy to stay on the blogging wagon even amidst all the seasonal hustle and bustle. It's a busy time of year, so we're offering just five topics ideas--roughly one per week--for the month of December. 1. The Holiday Post(s) Tree lightings, parades, charitable causes, and more--these are all candidates for blog topics. Know which neighborhoods have the best holiday light displays? Share your knowledge! Like we said, there are plenty of easy post ideas during the holidays so take advantage of them. There's no need to cram it all in one post, though. Identify a few topics you'd like write about and you can drip out the seasonal posts all month long! 2. How to Appeal Your Property Tax in [City/County Name] Depending on your area, winter property taxes may be due very soon. Chances are good that there are consumers in your locale who think their home's assessed value is too high. Write a "how to" post that tells homeowners how they can appeal their tax bill. The idea here is to demonstrate your expertise and capture those searching for info on appealing their tax bill in your. The key is to encourage searchers to reach out to you for information on comparables or tax records. Don't forget to include your phone number and email in your post!

Four Ways to Increase Blog Traffic
The company blog is here to stay and is still one of the best promotional tools agents and brokers have at their disposal. A well-crafted blog will drive traffic to your website and increase your visibility to potential customers. It's a great place for agents to showcase their talents and expertise. Scroll down and read our four easy tips for driving traffic to your real estate blog. You don't have to create the original content: Well, you do but the content does not have to created in-house. It just has to be published on your company or personal blog for it to count. Busy agents and brokers should consider hiring a local freelancer to generate quality content. If your real estate business has a tight budget you still have options. Try looking to local universities for help finding quality writing interns. Talented students are always looking for professional experience. Bonus Tip: When you hire out for a blog post, make sure to let the writer know about any search engine optimization strategies you're running so the article is written SEO perfect. Write about what's hot: You don't have to go in blind when it comes to content creation for your blog. Look to Twitter to see what is trending with your customers and tailor posts that hit on these subjects. This will increase the chances of customers reading your blog. Keep an eye out for popular news stories circulating among your customers and identify opportunities to add your own commentary. Bonus tip: This is where you can check for what's trending on Twitter!

Anatomy of the Perfect Real Estate Blog Post
Lately, we've been speaking with more and more clients and prospective clients about the intricacies of inbound marketing for real estate. When discussing these concepts and best practices, blogging, of course, comes into the conversation. Aside from the obvious "I don't want to blog!" objections we get from Realtors®, the surprising thing we are finding is that many agents have no real ideas as to what the best practices are for blogging and what steps to take in order to create the perfect, optimized real estate blog post. Because of this, today I'll break down for you the anatomy of the perfect real estate blog post. Before You Start, Remember Your Ideal Clients I've blogged about client personas many, many times. The reason I keep touching on client personas is that they are critical in every way to the success of your marketing efforts. This has never been more important than in your inbound marketing efforts. You need to know who your ideal clients are, what their interests are, what life stages they are in, and how you can appeal to those things. If you do not know these things, what you write will not appeal to them, they will not be typing long tail searches into sites like Google, and you will never show up in their search results. This is the WORST CASE scenario. Not only are you not getting seen by your ideal clients, but you are also wasting tons of time writing about stuff that nobody is ever going to look at. Use those client personas to pinpoint the topics you are going to write about and the keywords you want to rank for in the organic searching your ideal clients are going to be doing on the web.

Tips on Making the Most of Your Real Estate Web Space
At the end of the day, judging success in real estate comes down to closing deals and putting people inside homes. Studies show that 20 percent of agents are responsible for 80 percent of all the homes sold. This is a frightening disparity because no agent wants to be in the bottom of the barrel. Here are some quick tips to help your business get the most out of your blogs and lead capture forms. Be the local expert: Really be the master of the market you're selling homes in and try to be a local resource for homebuyers. What's the city or town known for? Where is the best spot to grab a beer? See live music? Educate young children? But knowledge is only half the battle. You can use this knowledge to develop blog posts that boost your competitive advantage. For example, an agent working out of Minneapolis probably already knows the city has some of the best public parks in the country. With this information you can write a blog titled something like, "10 Best Parks in the Minneapolis Area" or "Top Kid Friendly Parks in Minneapolis." Posts like this will increase your businesses website traffic, local creditability and visibility within the community. If you turn yourself into a resource for local information, the leads WILL follow.

4 Techniques for Generating Blog Topics
Each month, we provide a blogging plan that you can follow. But what if you want to post even more frequently than twice a week? It's extremely difficult to come up with topic ideas! That's why I was so interested in an article I spotted on HubSpot: 7 Quick Ways to Curate Industry Content for Your Blog. I wasn't in love with all their ideas, but I do think a few are worth sharing. 1) Check out trade show blogs. As I write this, the NAR® Midyear conference is in full swing. Their blog is a great source for ideas an inspiration. And, as HubSpot points out, "Trade show blogs are some of the best places to find content, because they give good signals as to what's changing in your industry and what trends you should keep reading more about." There's also the Inman Connect conference and NAR® Annual convention which should provide excellent blog fodder. Many MLSs and Associations organize events, as well. Check out your local MLS or Association to see if there's any events coming up and if those events have a blog. (And if they do, offer to contribute a post or two to their blog while you're at it. It's a great way to get your name out there.) 2) Use Google Alerts. I've actually written about Google Alerts in the past. It's a good way to monitor what's being said about you online and, as it turns out, also a good way to generate blog topics.

ActiveRain Has Moved: Why You Should Care
Blogging is a real estate strategy that started around 2004 and picked up steam in 2006. Rather than agents purchasing blog frameworks and having custom blog sites built, many choose to join real estate specific blog networks like ActiveRain. ActiveRain was aligned for a short time with MOVE, operators of Realtor.com, which led to a lawsuit. After that, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Market Leader. When Trulia completed the acquisition for Market Leader, ActiveRain came along with it. Today, Trulia announced that ActiveRain is now being rolled under the Trulia domain name as a subdomain – activerain.trulia.com. This is good news for a variety of reasons. First, one of the benefits of blogging is search engine optimization. It is very difficult for agents to get good SEO that allows consumers to visit their website. ActiveRain helps with that. You will find that a post on ActiveRain is often ranked higher than the same post on an agent’s website or blog. That is the benefit of being a blog of blogs – all of the agents in the ActiveRain network help each other out by blogging under the same network. Combining the excellent SEO of ActiveRain with the SEO power of Trulia will benefit both sites.

February 2014 Blogging Plan
Is one of your resolutions to blog more this year? It should be! You blog is a great way to remain top-of-mind with current contacts and potentially reach new customers. Our monthly blogging plans make this easier by taking on the hardest part of blogging: topic generation. We're a little late this month, so we'll give you 3 weeks worth of topics and alternatives. Week 1: A [Your City] Classic Each city has an architectural gem – a building new or old that helps tell that city's story. For instance, in my hometown, we have a building created by Julia Morgan, the noted architect of Hearst Castle. In this blog post, you should include: Photographs of the noted building A brief history of the building An explanation of how it is representative of your city A discussion of the neighborhood in which the building can be found A discussion of homes with similar architectural features that are currently on the market or were recently sold

Michelle Obama, a Gown, and Blog Comments Gone Bad
A few weeks ago, I was checking my Yahoo! email and spotted a headline about Michelle Obama's outfit at a Kennedy Center function. I'm often an admirer of her fashion choices, so I clicked on the article. After glancing through it, I made the mistake of scrolling down to the comments section. I have rarely ever seen such hateful, racist, awful language – even in fiction. These were not comments about Michelle's politics or her husband's job performance (subjects upon which everyone is entitled to their opinion) – instead, these were vulgar slurs about her physical appearance, specifically her body shape/size and the color of her skin. What does this have to do with real estate technology? Quite a bit actually. Many agents and brokers have blogs. And, if you're actually getting traffic on your blog, you might be getting comments. And if you're getting comments, you might be getting inappropriate comments. Here's how to deal with it. 1) Require a login. The people writing the comments about the First Lady were doing so anonymously, with names like Truth Is Out There (who wrote of Ms. Obama in her elegant gown, "I saw something at the zoo like that"). Would they have said these things if their real names were attached to the comments? I certainly hope not.

Your 2013 Holiday Blogging Plan
With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it's easy to let your blogging habits fall by the wayside. The festive season presents a wealth of easy post ideas, however, so make sure you're not neglecting your blog! We've rounded up a few topics that will help you connect to consumers by providing useful information. Thanksgiving Post Ideas Thanksgiving opens your blog to a wealth of topics. Start by scouring Pinterest or other online resources for recipes or serving presentation ideas. For consumers who prefer to avoid making a labor-intensive holiday meal, create another post that lists which restaurants will be open Thanksgiving day. Don't forget to play up the "giving back" aspect of the holiday. You can write posts about local charities, food drives, and volunteer opportunities in your community all the way through Christmas! Holiday Shopping in Your Area The period from Black Friday to Christmas is the biggest shopping season of the year. Kick things off by curating a list of Black Friday deals in your area. If you can, list specific deals and discounts, the store name and address, and when doors open. Bonus points for using maps. You can update and repeat this post throughout the holiday season, highlighting deals and sales from local businesses with each new version.

Statistics: The Content That Keeps On Giving
This post comes to us from the WebsiteBox blog: How many ways can you explain title insurance, real estate negotiations, repair negotiations, surveys, or appraisals? It's all great content for your real estate website, and you can write it with enough originality to get SEO credit for it. "Original" for the search engines and "original" for the site visitor can be very different. What can you put on your website that is different from 90+ percent of your competitors' sites? What do you have to offer that your competitors do not? Actually, it's not much except personal information. However, there's something few of them are offering, or they're doing it in a lame and ineffective way. It doesn't matter if your site visitor is a buyer, seller, investor or appraiser. They're all very interested in market statistics. Which homes are selling and for how much? How many homes are selling each month, quarter, or year? What's the absorption rate? This type of data, or most of it, is available from most computerized MLS systems as market reports. In most cases, you simply click on the report link and give the system a date range, and you get an on-screen formatted data report. Once you've created the report, it's simply a "print to PDF" routine using any one of a number of very inexpensive PDF creation software tools. Over 99 percent of computers can open a file in the PDF format, so it's the way you want to produce it. Of course, you can also do these reports as blog posts or website articles. Here's how one successful website lead generation program does it.

Guest Blogs and Other Content Strategies to Enhance Your Web Presence
This post comes to us from BrokerageU: Over the past several years, the number of bloggers populating the web has grown drastically. With so many individual voices vying for readers' attention, it's crucial that you know the right steps to take to make yours stick out and get the page views necessary to further enhance your business. Of the emerging industry blogs sprouting up across the internet, the housing, mortgage and real estate sectors are seeing noticeable growth. With the housing market on an upward trajectory over the past year or so, and sales and prices rising as inventory declines and attractive mortgage rates increasing affordability conditions, more prospective home buyers are coming off the fence and looking to make a home purchase. This has led to a renewed demand for real estate agents, as well. So how do you attract clients while adding insightful and original content to the blogosphere? Guest blogs are a good start. Real estate guest blogs Authority is key in any industry, so you will want to work to get your content published on industry-leading blogs like Zillow. Where your content is posted is crucial to where it ends up. If you write an engaging, relevant and original piece about the housing market and it gets picked up by an established blog like Zillow, you will likely see it shared across the social media spectrum.

99 Blog Topic Ideas for Real Estate Agents
Guest contributor WebsiteBox says: A lot of real estate agents are using a blog to promote themselves online. A blog is a great way to share your knowledge and generate leads. If you create quality content and share it on the right social media networks, you will be able to drive traffic to your site and use lead capture tools to turn those visitors into leads. This idea sounds great, but putting it into practice can be a little difficult. Creating good content is hard and constantly coming up with new topics to write about can become frustrating--especially when writer's block sets in. So when you are feeling frustrated don't bang your head against your desk, check this list of 99 blog ideas for real estate agents. Here you will find blog topics which appeal to homeowners, buyers, sellers and anyone that lives in your city. 1. Basic Tips for Home Buyers 2. Basic Tips for Homes Sellers 3. Tips on Open houses 4. Tips on Home Staging 5. How to Market a Property Online 6. Tax Tips for Homeowners 7. Renovation Tips for Homeowners 8. Using Social Media to Sell Your Home 9. The Improving Real Estate Market 10. Basic Mortgage Tips

Real Estate Blogging Success Profiled
Lori Turoff of Hoboken, NJ Website: HobokenRealEstateNews.com Tomato: How long has blogging been a part of your real estate marketing strategy? LT: Well, ever since we first connected way back in late 2007. I had been running my own travel business at the time, had been a corporate lawyer and an MBA in finance so I was no stranger to complex spreadsheets. We had recently moved to Hoboken from Manhattan, where Barbara Corcoran had founded The Corcoran Group Brokerage and she was something of an icon in the NYC real estate world. In 2004, the year I got my real estate license, she wrote (and I read) a book called If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails, also know as "Use What You've Got." Well, let's just say her book got me thinking about what my best attributes might be and how to use them. Few agents – actually no agents in my market, had my combination of education, legal background, financial savvy and entrepreneurial experience. There were my ribbons! The other thing I kept hearing at real estate seminars was "become the local area expert" if you want to be successful. It didn't take me long to realize that blogging was the way for me to 'show my ribbons.' Ten years and one blog later, I truly do have a reputation as the local market expert.

RSS for Real Estate
RSS: You've heard of it and seen the icon (that little orange broadcasting symbol to the right), but are you using it for your real estate business? RSS is a form of website syndication that shares content from a blog or webpage with other websites as a way of marketing the site. When a visitor clicks on that icon, they subscribe to the website's feed – meaning they will receive all new updates from the site, whether they visit it or not. RSS is syndication for written content. Similar to what Point2 listing syndication does for your listing data, RSS does for your written content... pushes it out into the world to boost your exposure and increase your online marketing. What is RSS? RSS is essentially a data feed that collects and shares frequently published web content – like blogs, news headlines and wikis – with online users, not altogether unlike the data feed used to share your listings with syndication partner sites. In fact, RSS is commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication. Why do you NEED it? RSS lets you and the rest of the internet-browsing public keep up with your favorite websites easily, in the format of your choosing. Stay updated on new posts from your favorite online places using an RSS feed reader to subscribe to the feeds of your choice. The reader will check your subscribed feeds for new work, download it and present you with all of that content in an easy, one-stop interface. Instead of visiting every site independently, you get to see everything you're interested in, all in one place! More importantly from an agent's perspective, you can use an RSS feed in combination with your website to collect and display relevant real estate and neighborhood news – it basically 'feeds' your website with fresh content from your choice of sites constantly and automatically.

Blogging On-the-Go With WordPress Apps
The life of a real estate agent is far from easy. In fact, when you are doing any level of business at all, it can be quite hectic. Between showing homes, taking photos, gathering documents, listing properties, and coordinating transactions, we belong to a busy group. What's more is that all of these activities comprise your everyday duties as an agent. There is more to be done if you are tacking on additional tasks such as promotion by way of marketing. Much of our work is done on-the-go and, as a result, sitting at a desktop computer attempting to post to our WordPress site often has to get in line behind other activities. What's a real estate agent or broker to do? We could always carry around a notebook computer, fire it up and post. But then we're subject to the limitations that brings, such as dwindling battery power and the reality that despite their name, notebooks really aren't all that portable anyway. Making the WordPress App the Solution Since just about every real estate professional on the planet is carrying either a smart phone or a tablet computer, it certainly would make life easier if we could post from those devices. That's where the WordPress apps come in. These apps are a perfect, on-the-go solution for creating fresh and diverse content for your site. Here are links to the apps and a short WordPress video for each: WordPress App for iPhone and iPad Video: WordPress for iOS WordPress App for Android Video: WordPress for Android

5 Real Estate Blogging Tips
We're going to guess that many of our blog readers are also blog writers. Blogging is part of a complete real estate social marketing strategy. It keeps you relevant in your market place, boosts your SEO and gives you content to share on social media. Your blog also gives prospects a way to learn more about you before they interact with you, functioning as a sort of indirect sales agent for your personal brand. But, we'll be the first to admit it: blogging isn't easy. It's certainly not for wimps. Or quitters. But neither is real estate. This post is inspired by all of you out there that bravely face the blank page, whether it's once a month or once a week. Today we have five real estate blogging tips that will, hopefully, make your blogging life just a little easier. Don't have a blog yet? If you've been hesitant to get started, let this be the push you need to take the plunge. 1. Brainstorm Stop! Step away from the keyboard! Before you do anything, take just 15 minutes to disconnect from everything (except your cell phone – clients always come first!) to brainstorm potential blog content. Grab a pencil and paper and make four lists: Questions buyers frequently ask you Questions sellers frequently ask you Real estate things you know a lot about – terms, niche markets, mortgages, etc. Real estate things that interest you (but you may not know a lot about) Ta-da! You just came up with piles of content for your blog. Way to go! Keep these lists somewhere handy so you'll be ready to add to it anytime inspiration strikes. Did a prospect ask you something you had to look up? Add it to the list. Read about a great new house-hunting app? Put it on the list. Now you've got the swing of it!

5 Real Estate Content Marketing Ideas
Guest contributor Inside Real Estate says: Real estate marketing and lead generation can be a tough sport. No wonder we have a hard time sometimes in getting people to like, comment, and share our marketing – so often, we forget the core of what our marketing needs to be about. In a rush for SEO, SEM, leads and the like, we forget that real value draws a real return. So how do you make sure you are getting all of the content setup just the right way and pushing it out? Well, here are five content ideas for your real estate marketing efforts that can drive some real results: 1. Market Data & Statistics Note that you can always find information about your market. This can be very helpful for clients and potential clients that are looking for the smart real estate agent to work with. When you are looking for real estate leads, make sure that you look to provide value. Using recent trends from around your area, along with targeting specific locations is a valuable way to get attention to your site and social media. 2. School & Community Information With school and community information, try to make it applicable and actionable. There is the data itself, then there is the data combined with actionable real estate information – like, for example, showing some community parks or highlights, and the surrounding neighborhood that has some homes for sale. Interesting for all, but actionable for the home buyers.

Blog With a Purpose
This post comes to us from BrokerageU: I'm sure you've all seen a blog on just about every single website you go to nowadays. Sports sites, fashion sites, and yes even real estate websites now feature a blog page. The question is why? Once you understand the purpose and strategy behind successful blogging, it will make the time spent writing them seem SO much more worth it! Before we even begin to talk about a strategy, we need to clarify what a "good" blog post is made of. Here are our guidelines: Make sure your content is unique! We will go a little deeper into this topic in a minute. Your title should be descriptive of your topic. For extra punch, try to work in the area name you focus on into your title. Try to have at least one main photo for each post that you write. Think about length. We think the 250-600 word range is a great place to start. Mention the primary property type and the area you work in at least 3 times throughout your post. Example: "When planning a remodel of your Charleston Home..."

Unlocking Fresh Ideas for Real Estate Blogging and Content Marketing
The average attention span a web user is less than that of a goldfish. We as a species are at eight seconds. Do I still have you? Staying relevant, fresh and holding the attention of your audience is a challenge. With the explosion of choices on the Internet, real estate bloggers and marketers are paying attention to how home buyers see the world from their perspective and adding a little smidgen of shock and awe to hold them. Capitalizing on the interest of Internet users is easier than ever with tools such as Google Trends and Hot Searches for ideas on how to bridge topics that relate to current events. For ideas and breaking news in the real estate industry, I regularly browse sources such as Inman News, RE Technology, AGBeat, RISMedia and Yahoo! Homes. I also regularly prowl Twitter using the hashtag, #realestate and #realtor and use Google Alerts to send results directly to my email inbox. Google+ is another excellent resource as the savviest people on Internet have been pioneering that platform since its release. Circle us and we'll circle you! How do you connect with a younger audience? Memes are a favorite of mine because they are simple and quick and provide a picture to break up the monotony of actual information. I like humor, I think other people do as well and if you have a favorite T.V. show or movie character, their image should be easy to find on sites like memegenerator.net. (If you are easily offended, do not use this resource, you have been warned.) You can create witty or not so witty quotes to spruce up your image and show people some personality in your marketing.

Your New, Weekly Content Plan
You've heard it before. Content is king. Sure, you know you're supposed to blog to help your SEO, and we've all heard how social media is a necessity today. It can be hard, though, for busy agents to keep up with their Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/whatever accounts, let alone blog. That's why we've crafted an easy content strategy plan for you to follow. We simplified it, paring a mix of blog and social media content down to just three posts per week. Create Your Own Content Blend Some people love social media, but dread blogging. Others are happy to sit down and write a blog post, but don't understand what the hype over social media is all about, anyway. Both are important, though. With over 50% of Facebook's 500 million active users logging in each day, social media is the way to remain visible to your connections. If you're not using it for your business, your competitors are who your clients and potential clients are seeing instead. Blogging is the slower and steadier workhorse of this pair, however. While social media keeps you top-of-mind day-to-day, blogging bolsters your reputation as a local real estate (and community) expert and strengthens your site's SEO. Because you may prefer Twitter's "microblogging" to actual blogging, we've made our plan easy to customize to your particular tastes. The thrice weekly schedule features one blog post, followed by two days of planned social media activity. Prefer two blog posts and one day of social media? Go right ahead. We won't even get mad if you spend three days social networking! The point is to consistently build and maintain your online presence. (We still recommend the blogging, though.)

December Blogging Plan
Week 1: All things holiday related The December holidays provide a wealth of topic ideas that can inspire multiple blog posts. You can cover seasonal events like christmas tree lightings and parades, or direct readers to the best neighborhoods to see holiday light displays. Recipes, decorations, and homemade crafts are always a favorite, too (find ideas on Pinterest). Whatever you do, don't try to cram all that seasonal information into a single post! Start dripping out the holiday articles early and continue to post them throughout December. Additional or alternative topic: Staging your home during the holidays This month isn't all tinsel and light--serious real estate business is still going on amidst the hustle and bustle. And with homes harder to sell during the cold months, it's important that your sellers stage their home properly. Advise them to make sure their holiday decorations don't clash with their home's interior or overpower its best selling points. Seasonal decor can actually draw attention to great features. A beautiful fireplace, for example, can be tastefully staged with hanging stockings.

Tips for Creating and Distributing Blog Content
Blogging is a great way to develop your online presence, share information with your clients and connect with fellow experts in your industry. With busy schedules, the pressure of coming up with creative content can sometimes be overwhelming and even present writer's block. Whether you currently have a blog, are thinking about starting a blog or are new to the blogging world, these tips for creating and distributing your blog content will help you get started. Identify a Problem The first step in creating your content is identifying a problem and your solution to create your headline. Problem: A client's home is not selling fast enough. Blog idea: Three reasons Home Staging helps sell your home faster. Keyword Search Performing a keyword search is essential for the relevance of your blog post. Identifying your keywords and placing them in the Title, URL, Description and Headline of your blog post will make your content more searchable.

The 4 Ws of Guest Blogging for Real Estate (and one "H")
If you're looking for a new way to generate leads online, consider guest blogging. Long used as an effective tactic for driving traffic to websites, guest blogging is also a creative way for real estate professionals to establish themselves as local experts. If this concept is new to you, don't worry. We've boiled the basics of guest blogging down to the four Ws: Who, What, Where, and Why. Read on to learn more. What is Guest Blogging? Guest blogging is a way to grow your audience by contributing content to sites other than your own. It benefits both you and your host--you provide great content and they provide high quality links back to your site, as well as exposure to a new audience. A variation on this is the "guest post exchange," where both site owners write articles for the other's blog. This is a great way to add variety to your content, and get your feet wet with guest blogging! Why Should Guest Blogging Matter to Me? First, the obvious: guest blogging drives traffic. It's not "just" traffic, though. The people who come to your site as a result of your guest post are interested in what you have to say. Compared to other visitors, they are stronger potential leads that are more likely to take action.

Elements Of The Perfect (Longer) Article
This is the second half of an article by Jim Cronin on creating the perfect blog post. Yesterday, we learned the minimum effort required to make such a post. Today, we go more in-depth, learning how to write the perfect, longer blog post. Simply look at a longer article as if it were just a series of pithy articles under one main title. 1. Headings – Another Chance at Headline Writing (see yesterday's post). The best way to keep your audience reading through longer copy is to break up the content with Headings. Establish a solid point and write a rich title right smack in the middle of the article. For more info on how to properly use Headings in your articles, check out our WYSIWYG article. 2. Formatting – The Best Way To Ensure Your Long Article Is Read Making an article a joy to read goes beyond the content itself. An attractive article, one that is easy to read and follow, increases the chance that it will be read and finished. Learn to master the use of Headlines, Pictures, Links, Short Paragraphs, Pull Quotes, Block Quotes, and Lists. 3. Add Additional Images More images means more unwritten, yet clear message impact.

October Blogging Plan
October may mark the start of the final quarter of the year--but there's still time to turn your real estate blog into a robust part of your marketing plan! Use our latest blogging plan to kickstart your writing habits. Looking for more ideas? Check out our previous plans for more inspiration: June Blogging Plan July Blogging Plan August Blogging Plan September Blogging Plan Week 1: Where to See the Best Fall Colors The seasons are changing and so are leaves on trees across the country. Use this blog post to position yourself as a local expert. Let your readers know when the colors in your area will be most vibrant. Then, recommend nearby getaways--or even great "Sunday drive" routes--where the changing leaves can best be seen. Additional or alternative topic: Best Seller Incentives in [Your City's] Market Some sellers can struggle to get offers, despite a well-priced home. Create this post as a list of incentives that owners have successfully used in your area to sell their home. This could include things like interest rate buy-downs, credit at closing, or even lease-to-own options. Be sure to let readers know the benefits and drawbacks of each option.

7 Ways To Instantly and Greatly Improve Your Real Estate Blog
The following are tips that will instantly improve your website's SEO, Aesthetics, and Visitor Experience. The goal of this article is to quickly and significantly improve your site's visibility and user experience. If you have been actively blogging for a while then I can guarantee that you will find great value in it. SEO Improvement I'm not here to shove keyword density, PageRank, or backlink strategies down your throat. Here are just a couple of simple (and easily overlooked) tips for improving your website's SEO. 1. Run a Check for Broken Links Broken links refer to any link on your site where the destination is an error page. This can happen when URLs that you link to have changed, been removed, or they were entered incorrectly in the first place. Broken links on your site can not only be embarrassing to you and frustrating to your visitor, but they can also have a detrimental affect on your SEO. The good news is that it is easy to search for and repair your broken links.

99 Problems, but a Niche Ain’t One
99 Problems, but a niche ain't one. If you having SEO problems, I feel bad for you, son, I got 99 problems, but a niche ain't one. (With apologies to Jay-Z) So often when I hear real estate agents complain about their lack of leads or lack of web presence, I try to explain to them that it might be a lack of focus that is keeping them from success. It's so much easier to be a big fish in a small pond than vice versa. Are you a beginning real estate blogger trying to figure out how you will compete with the budgets of Zillow, Trulia or REALTOR.com? Washington State real estate brings 395 MILLION results on Google, and Seattle real estate, 174 million. A bigger city like Chicago brings 450 million results for the term Chicago real estate. These are horrible odds. Unfortunately, I hear of agents who actually try and service an area that size. If you serve five counties, four congressional districts and three area codes, I would argue that you aren't a "local expert" in much of anything.