Real Estate Marketing Ideas

17 Ways to Generate More Real Estate Leads Online

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Viable leads are the lifeblood of any real estate business. They are the seeds from which new business relationships grow. They are, in essence, the key to client acquisition.

But many agents are at loss when it comes to generating real estate leads on a regular basis. Sure, they realize the importance of it. And they know they have to be proactive in order to generate new leads and grow their businesses over time. But when it comes to the actual implementation of strategies and techniques, these agents get stuck.

In this article, I've compiled a list of 17 techniques you can use to produce more real estate leads online. All of the strategies involve the use of your website, your blog, search engine optimization and other web-based elements.

And if you're really serious about this topic, you'll be glad to know that all of these items are covered in detail in my lead generation book for agents. It's the best-selling ebook in the history of this website, and you'll find out why when download your copy!

But I digress. Let's move on to the mission at hand. Here's a helpful list of techniques for producing viable real estate leads through your website or blog:

How to Produce Real Estate Website Leads

Clean up your website. I am constantly amazed by how unbelievably cluttered a lot of real estate websites are. What hope do you have of generating leads if people can't find anything on your site? Start this process by determining your "action paths" (next item).
If you want people to take a certain action on your website, you need to (A) define what that path is and (B) make the path very easy to follow. Map it out on paper. Think about the goals people have when they visit your site. Help them find their way, and they'll be more likely to stick around.
Assign value to every action you ask people to take. Increase the value of what you're offering. Tell people what's in it for them. The stronger the value of your offer, the more real estate leads you stand to gain. If you have nothing of value to offer people, then you're not ready to market your services -- go back to the drawing board.
Understand the difference between web traffic and leads. I once spoke to an agent who claimed to have over 1,000 unique visitors to his website every week. Care to guess how many inquiries he was producing from that traffic? Zero! He thought traffic was the ultimate goal, when in truth it's merely a stepping stone. Don't make this same mistake.
Use multiple strategies to produce leads through your website and/or blog. As we progress through this list, I'll offer plenty of ideas you can implement across your site. But the best strategy for real estate lead generation is a combined strategy, one that employs various techniques.
Experiment with FAQ programs. These are software tools that you can install onto your blog or website. It adds interactivity to your site, which increases the likelihood that people will contact you in some way. (This is explained in more detail in the lead generation manual, by the way.)
Experiment with chat programs. You have no doubt encountered a customer service chat program while surfing the web in the past. Many companies use them these days. If you have an office manager or customer service rep who's in front of a computer during business hours, you could pick up some extra real estate leads with a chat program. (This is also explained in the e-book.)
If you don't have a real estate blog already, it's time to start one. You can have a blog up and running in a couple of days, and it's a great way to encourage participation from readers. Many of the people who leave comments on your blog will be local buyers or sellers, which means they could become your next client.
Blog often to increase traffic to your website. This is the primary benefit of blogging programs -- they make it incredibly easy to publish new content on a regular basis. The more information you publish, the more search engine visibility you'll enjoy. This in turn will increase your web traffic and (if you use the other techniques on this list) the number of real estate leads you produce. Here are some content ideas to get you started.
Create landing pages to capture more real estate leads through your website. A landing page is a "stripped down" web page that presents something of value and asks for a certain action on the visitor's part. It removes all other distractions and thereby increases the likelihood of a conversion.
Increase traffic to your key pages, the ones where you have lead generation techniques in place. Make sure they're a prominent part of your main menu. Practice cross-linking across your site to send more people to your key pages. Try using callout graphics / links to direct people where you want them to go.
Generate more leads by improving the overall quality of your website. If you have a well-designed and neatly organized website, people will be more inclined to trust you. Trust is the first step to encouraging a response from your visitors.
Put your phone number in a prominent location on every page. Hint -- mot people will look for it in the upper-right section of your header. This is where phone numbers usually occur on business websites. This simple technique has been proven, time and time again, to increase the number of leads and inquiries.
Why not launch a second website, blog or web forum? If you're still struggling with the first site, keep your focus on that. But if you already have a successful web presence that produces traffic and leads, why not duplicate that success? It won't cost you much, aside from your time and energy. And it could potentially double your lead-generation and client-acquisition rates.
Use your website in conjunction with offline events, such as home buying seminars and other educational events. You might even experiment with online "webinars" using a software product like GoToMeeting. Of course, you'll need decent levels of site traffic to get people to sign up, which is the key to success with all of these techniques.
Partner with local mortgage brokers, home appraisers and others in related fields. When used properly, cross-marketing can be an effective tool for business growth. And you can take this technique onto your website as well, by creating a separate "pitch" page for each professional in your network. Of course, they would do the same for you.
Come up with the next "big idea" in real estate lead generation. This list represents things I've done in the past, for my own websites and those of my clients. Often, however, the best ideas are the new ones -- the techniques nobody has ever tried before. So put on your thinking cap and come up with your own unique strategy for attracting clients online.

Top 10 Lead Generation Techniques - Explained

If you found this list helpful, and you'd like to learn more about the various ways to generate real estate leads online, you should download a copy of this e-book. You can get a copy today and start putting it to use tomorrow.

In this book, I've outlined the strategies that have worked best for me on the Home Buying Institute website, and also on the website of past clients. In other words, it's like a "greatest hits" collection of lead generation techniques.

9 Ways to Increase Web Traffic in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:55:00 +0000

Anyone with a business website can benefit from an increase in web traffic, and that obviously includes real estate websites. Increasing your traffic makes all the other aspects of Internet marketing a lot easier.

With more traffic, you'll be able to...

Increase your visibility within your market area
Generate more leads from your website
Enjoy more feedback from your web visitors
Make your website more profitable overall
Grow your business by tapping an infinite audience

In other words, when you increase your web traffic you make your entire Internet marketing program more successful. I think we can all agree on this so far. The question is, how do you get more website visitors? What kind of marketing techniques can you use to drive more traffic to your site?

This is where a lot of people get stuck, and it's often the result of vague articles and "tutorials" published online. These articles stress the importance of increasing web traffic, but they don't offer any specific tips for doing it. So in this blog post, I'd like to give you a list of specific techniques you can use to increase your web traffic consistently over time.

But first, a couple of key points:

Point #1 -- Website traffic is not the ultimate goal of your Internet marketing program. It's a good first step, but there are more steps to follow. To benefit from your web traffic you must find a way to capitalize on it. For real estate websites, this usually means generating leads and inquiries.

Point #2 -- Not all of the ideas on this list will apply to your business, your audience and your marketing goals. So you'll have to experiment with the strategies you feel are most applicable to your situation. But with so many ideas on one page, you're bound to find something that works for you.

Ideas for Web Traffic

With those disclaimers out of the way, let's jump right into the list. I've mined all of the articles and e-books I've written in the past to come up with a list of proven strategies. I hope you find it useful in your web marketing efforts.

Do a thorough round of keyword research to identify topics and phrases with the potential to drive web traffic, and then make sure you're covering them on your site. If you need to, add pages of content to cover all of your key phrases.
If you're not already blogging, start a blog and publish content through it on a regular basis. This is a great way to implement the topics you identified in the previous tip.
Add new content to your blog as often as possible. The more keyword-rich content you have on your site, the more search traffic you can earn. Here are some content ideas to help you update your blog on a regular basis. And speaking of blogging for traffic ...
Follow the news and blog about hot topics on your website. Nothing drives Internet search patterns like the media and current events. You'll get a lot more traffic from search engines if you do this on a regular basis.
Create your own real estate maps with listings, open houses and other events. You can use Google Maps to do this, and it's easier than you think. I've created a real estate mashup guide to help you get started. This will keep visitors coming back, and it will also make them more inclined to recommend your site to others.
By adding useful resources to your site (like the map idea above), you are also making your website more link worthy. When other bloggers and webmasters link to your site, it will boost your search engine rankings. And that means even more web traffic over time.
When you make noteworthy additions to your website, you can also distribute an optimized press release online. If you do it right, this can help you increase web traffic and search engine visibility at the same time. Just make sure you have something newsworthy to say before using this strategy.
Experiment with pay-per-click marketing with programs such a Google AdWords. You could put your sponsored listing at the top of Google for certain key phrases, and you could have it there immediately (depending on how much you bid). Just be sure to do some research into AdWords marketing before using this strategy. It's a good way to increase web traffic, but it can also be a money-loser if you don't know what you're doing.
Download your copy of Top Ten Agent and learn how to increase your search engine optimization with proven SEO techniques.

So there you them, nine ways to increase your website traffic for online success. Actually, each of these ideas will naturally lead you into other techniques for traffic generation. So you could use these ideas every day for the next year and never run out of ammunition. Good luck with your Internet marketing.

12 Ways to Find More Real Estate Clients in a Slow Market

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:26:00 +0000

Times are tough for most real estate agents these days. Slow markets and a general lack of clients have driven some agents out of the industry completely.

But then there's always that one guy or gal in every market who seems to whether the storm with ease, attracting more real estate clients while other agents come up empty. How do these agents do it? Well, they probably cast a wider marketing net for one thing. Smart agents realize the importance of diversity, when it comes to marketing. There are dozens of ways to find more real estate clients in your city or town, and the more channels you use the better.

Nobody can tell you how to run your real estate marketing program. You must find your own way, based on your own strengths and weaknesses, your specific marketing goals, and your personal preferences. But it always helps to have ideas to ponder, and that's what this blog post is all about. Below, I've made a list of ways you might be able to find more real estate clients in your market.

Ways to Find Real Estate Clients

Not every idea on this list will be right for you. How you promote your business will depend on what you're trying to accomplish. But with so many marketing and networking ideas in one place, there's bound to be something worth trying.

Conduct a home buying seminar for first-time buyers in your town. Now is a great time for this kind of strategy, because first-timers are apprehensive about the real estate process. Who better to talk them through it than you? It's also a great way to get clients
If you don't already have a Facebook account, set one up as a way to connect with old friends and colleagues. I've spoke to more than one agent who gets an occasional real estate client through their Facebook connections.
You can also experiment with some of the other networking websites. Here are some that have a business focus: LinkedIn.com, gibLink.com, Ryze.com and Spoke.com.
Start a blog, if you don't have one already. You can install a blog onto your existing website in less than an hour, and it's a great way to publish new content on a regular basis. This new content will help you pull in more traffic via search engines, and that could mean more real estate clients as well.
Keep a handful of business cards on you at all times. You could encounter a potential client when you least expect it. Imagine you're standing in line at a coffee shop and you overhear two people talking about the real estate market. One says she want to buy a home soon. There's nothing wrong with saying, "Excuse me. I couldn't help but overhear..." And then you offer a business card and go along your way.
Does your car advertise your services? If not, you might want to consider a magnetic sign. A lady who lives up the street from me drives around with her sign on her car, and I know two people personally who have contacted her for help selling their homes. Her magnetic door sign is generating real estate clients from the neighborhood, and it's not costing her anything extra.
Have you experimented with door hangers / flyers? I never put much stock into this before, as a marketing technique. But in the neighborhood where I've lived the last four years, there's an agent who puts her real estate newsletter on my door twice a month. It doesn't have the usual stock content and fluff -- it has real market data, recent home sales, local real estate news, etc. She is the only agent doing this, and as a result I hear her name mentioned by my neighbor's all the time. They say things like, "Did you see the Jenny report this month?" She's like the unofficial neighborhood agent for this whole area, and I'm sure she gets a steady stream of real estate clients from sellers in the area.
Networking with local bankers and mortgage brokers is always a good way to get more real estate clients in your town, especially if they're not already partnering with an agent. It's a mutual marketing technique that has a long history of positive results.
Does your local chamber of commerce have monthly meetings or social events? My wife used to attend these events all the time, on behalf of the bank where she worked. She said it was a networking extravaganza, and that there was always a real estate agent or two in the crowd. I'm sure those agents were getting clients from it, or they wouldn't have been coming back each month.
Have you considered expanding your services to include collateral area, such as home staging for sellers? This full-service approach is a popular trend among real estate companies right now. One of my former clients (a Dallas brokerage) had a lot of success with this. They paid a professional home stager to give an in-home consultation to their home-selling clients, and it set them apart from most of their competitors.
Real estate PR is always a smart (but often overlooked) strategy for agent marketing. Local news outlets are always looking for insight from the field, especially in times like this. For example, you could contribute to a newspaper article about how it's a great time for qualified buyers to purchase a home right now, despite reluctance many consumers are feeling. You've probably seen agents in your local newspaper before, or even on television. Why not let it be you next time? It's a surefire way to get more real estate clients -- and it doesn't cost anything but time and effort.
Many agents claim that referrals are their biggest source of new business. This comes from treating clients right during the relationship and, more importantly, helping them succeed with the sale or purchase of the home. When you add to this an effective follow-up program after the sale, such as birthday cards, you have another source of clients.

Hopefully, this list of marketing and networking ideas has caused those little synapses to start firing in your brain. What kind of ideas can you come up with? What motivates you toward action? Which marketing techniques do you get excited about? Those are the ones worth pursuing.

Attracting more real estate clients is not a "one-size-fits-all" concept. There is no right or wrong way to start the process. You have to experiment with different strategies and find something that works for you.

How to Make Extra Money From Your Real Estate Website

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Summary: In this article, I'll explain how you could generate extra revenue from your real estate website by using commission programs.

I think we can all agree that times are tough for real estate agents right now. Despite record-low interest rates, home sales are still down. So a lot of real estate folks are looking for ways to make extra money during these tough times. And that's exactly what I'm going to talk about in this blog post.

Specifically, I'll use this blog post to explain how you can make more money from your real estate website, by (A) helping the people who are already visiting your site and (B) partnering with trusted companies online.

Let's say I'm a real estate agent, and I get about 200 visitors to my website each week. Most of the people who visit my site are doing some form of real estate research, but only a small percentage of them will actually contact me for help. It's just an undeniable fact of Internet marketing. Most people who visit my real estate website will just pass on through, without contacting me in any way, shape or form.

But what if there was a way for me to earn extra revenue from my website traffic, for those people who are doing general research into the local real estate scene? In truth, there are plenty of things I could be doing to earn extra money from my website. In this blog post, I'm going to focus on the strategy I think works best for most real estate agents.

Commission Programs for Real Estate Agents

Let's say you a person visits your website when researching the housing market in your area. They are not ready to work with a real estate agent yet, but they might be ready to get mortgage quotes from lenders. If you were a member of a commission program with a trusted lending website, you could send those visitors to that website so they could request mortgage quotes. And if they did request a quote, you'd get a commission for it.

So in this scenario, you are accomplishing the following goals:

You're making more money from your website, particularly from visitors who were not planning on contacting you.
You are increasing the usefulness of your website, by providing links to related (but non-competitive) real estate and mortgage services.
You are guiding people toward trusted companies and websites, because you screened them in advance.
Most importantly, you are not interfering with your lead generation program. People looking for a real estate agent will not be distracted by a link to mortgage information, home insurance quotes, etc. They'll simply contact you.

Of course, for this kind of commission program to work, you would need a steady stream of website traffic. If you only get a handful of visitors to your site each week, I don't know that I would bother with this. But if you get hundreds of visitors each week, and most of them are not contacting you for your services, then you could create a new revenue stream for yourself -- while helping those anonymous visitors in the process.

What would you need to put such a program in place? Here's a list of the most important ingredients:

As mentioned, you need a website that gets a good amount of traffic.
You need to join a commission program, such as the comprehensive services offered by Commission Junction.
You need to identify advertisers to partner with.
You need to obtain the creative items for your website, such as links and banner graphics.

When choosing companies to partner with, you should make sure that their products or services do not directly compete with your own. You should also do a little homework to ensure they are reputable companies with solid products. You don't want to send your site visitors to sketchy websites!

Does this kind of strategy work? Well, it depends on the amount of website traffic you have, how well you implement the promotional items, and several other factors. I know some people who do this kind of thing for a living (and a good living at that). I know others who use commission programs as a way to supplement their primary income, especially in times such as these.

Is this kind of strategy right for you? This is a question only you can answer. I'm just putting this out there as something worth considering, particularly if you meet the real estate website "model" I described above.

Spam, Link Exchanges, and Other Real Estate SEO Failures

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Today, I received what must have been the 50th spam email from some company claiming to be a real estate SEO firm. Evidently, they rely heavily on link exchanges for their SEO clients, because all of the spam emails I've received from them have been the garden-variety link swap messages -- the kind of email that begins with the always awful phrase "Dear Webmaster."

Let me make offer some advice, based on nearly eight years of search engine optimization experience. If you pay money to a company that relies on this kind of tactic as the core of their real estate SEO program, you are missing the whole point of search engine optimization. You're putting your money in the wrong place at the same time.

Let me start with the "premise" of this blog post, and then I'll explain it in more detail:

If you rely on link exchanges to build your link popularity, your website will never live up to its full ranking potential.

High-ranking, quality websites (the kind you want to get links from) do not participate in link exchange programs, because such programs are the tools of the desperate. So when you spend all of your time and money on link exchanges, you are building up a link profile that puts you in a certain "neighborhood." Swapping links is a technique used by webmasters with inferior websites (and the lazy SEO companies that act on their behalf). Instead of building a quality website that naturally attracts links, the lazy webmaster tries to "game the system" by getting links through exchanges.

It's like saying: "Look, my website is not good enough to attract unsolicited links. And neither is yours. So let's commiserate by linking to each other."

One of my mortgage websites is fairly high ranking. It competes with LendingTree and the like for most mortgage-related key phrases. But I didn't achieve this by being lazy, or by wasting my time with link exchange programs. I achieved it by spending many hours, over many years, to develop a truly useful and unique website. As a result, other webmasters link to it without me asking them to.

This is the only way to get links from reputable, high-ranking websites. Why? Because such websites ignore link-exchange requests, for the same reasons I ignore them. When you rely too heavily on a link-exchange program for too long, you'll end up being "stuck," in terms of your search engine rankings. You will never be able to compete with the webmasters who know the "secret" to link building. And the secret is what I've just explained. Long-term SEO success comes from building a quality website with great content -- the kind of website that attracts links naturally.

Or, you can go the lazy route and hire a real estate SEO company to put you in a link-exchange program. They'll make huge promises, but they won't be able to deliver because you cannot earn top rankings for highly competitive phrases through link swapping. They'll say things like, "Well, we use a three-way triangle link swap, so the search engines can't tell they are reciprocal links." But this technique still misses the point. It ignores the fundamentals of SEO success that I've explained above, and it will forever keep you in league with other desperate webmasters. Good luck breaking out of that pool to reach the top of the search engines!

Professional Internet publishers (the people you want to get links from) ignore link-exchange emails. Why? Because they get tons of these requests, and just like me they are tired of them. I've gone so far as creating email filters to block all emails with the word "exchange" in the subject line, though some of them still get through. A link-exchange email request will only get the attention of mediocre websites, so it will result in a mediocre link profile.

When Google's ranking algorithm evaluates your website, it will check to see what kind of links your site has coming in. Does it get links from educational websites, journalistic websites, and high-ranking authority sites? If so, you'll be rewarded with good rankings.

Or does the site only have links from less-popular websites with little or no traffic of their own (the kind of webmasters who also rely on link-exchange programs)? If this is the case, Google's algorithm will put a lot of other websites above yours. Goodbye top rankings!

There's no reason to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to a real estate SEO company that is going to trap you into mediocre rankings. The best person to manage your SEO campaign is you -- and I've given you the tools for success already.

Here's another reason you should be concerned with the quality of your website. Search engines are beginning to consider usage data when ranking websites. And they should, because this kind of data suggests how useful a website truly is -- so it should definitely be a ranking factor. I blogged about this back in 2007, and it has become even more important since then.

Here's what it boils down to. If the majority of people who land on your website (from a search engine) leave the site right away, then it will hurt your rankings. On the contrary, if most of your visitors stay on your website for a while, it will help your rankings. Search engines use web browser "cookies" to track people who use their sites. If somebody clicks on a link through a Google search engine result, Google can track their browser activity until they end their Internet session or clear out their cookie cache. They do this, partly, to gauge the true popularity and usefulness of the website. And they adjust the site's ranking accordingly. This is as it should be.

How do you get people to stay on your site? You create quality content. You make your website easy to navigate. You offer useful tools that help people accomplish a certain goal. You make your website unique and better than the websites of your competitors. You let people interact with the site in some way (chat, FAQ programs, blog comments, etc.).

I'll get off my soapbox now. I hope I've made my point, for what it's worth.

Free Credit Help for Your Real Estate Clients

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:58:00 +0000

Do you frequently get credit-related questions from your real estate clients? Want to offer free credit help through your website or blog? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you'll be interested in the Consumer Credit Help blog we have launched over at the Home Buying Institute.

This blog is our way of responding to the housing and credit crisis that has wrecked our economy. It serves as a convenient Q&A tool, through which consumers may ask credit-related questions (any subject related to credit reports, scores, managing credit card debt, etc.).

All questions are answered by financial experts with a wealth of knowledge on the subject. Best of all, every Q&A session is posted on the blog, as opposed to being handled by email. This benefits the home-buying public in general. The more questions that get answered, the more valuable the blog becomes. At the rate we are going, I expect to have more than 100 Q&A sessions posted by the first week of January.

The ultimate goal of the new site is to create a better-educated group of future home buyers. That's also why I'm reaching out to real estate professionals with this awareness campaign -- we all benefit from an increased buyer pool. And you would be surprised how little the average American knows about credit scores, as they related to mortgage qualification.

Offer Links Through Your Website

We have also created some helpful links and graphics you can use to offer this service through your own website. You can find them here:
http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/help/share.html

How to Promote Your Website on a Budget

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:16:00 +0000

Many website owners are stuck between a rock and a hard place right now, in terms of promoting their sites. They know they have to promote their websites constantly in order to drive qualified traffic. But times are tough right now, and many people are cutting their marketing budgets in response to economic changes.

It's a classic catch 22. How do you promote your website on the cheap? What kind of low-cost promotional techniques can you use to generate valuable traffic without blowing your budget?

It's time for some hard truth about Internet marketing. If you don't create the kind of business website that promotes itself, you will always have to spend your precious time and money to promote the site. So the goal here is to develop the kind of website that other bloggers and webmasters talk about without being paid to do so. If you can achieve this goal (and you can if you put your mind to it), you will find that your website essentially promotes itself. And think of the time, energy and money you'll save when that happens.

Building Value Into Your Website

Buzz. Word of mouth. Citations and referrals. These are the things that every webmaster should strive for, and this goes double for those of us who rely on our sites for business purposes. If you can create the kind of website that generates constant word-of-mouth exposure, links and citations, the site will promote itself.

You see this kind of thing happen all the time online. In fact, as I write this blog post, I'm listening to an online music website that I heard about through word-of-mouth marketing. It's called Pandora, and one of my friends was telling me to check it out for the longest time. "It's so great," she would say. "So much better than the other websites offering free music." So I checked it out, and you know what? It is great. I'm now a member, and I use the website every day. I also tell people about it constantly! And that's why Pandora does so little marketing (if any). Their website promotes itself through buzz, word of mouth, and referrals.

Granted, most business sites won't have the kind of traffic and user base of a website like Pandora. But it's the concept I want you to grasp, not this particular manifestation of it. If you work hard to build value, usefulness into your site ... if you make it better and more unique than competing websites within your niche ... if you exploit an under-served niche or come up with some truly unique ... then you won't have to spend anything to promote your website online. The promotion will run on auto-pilot.

So how do you build this kind of site? Well, it's not easy -- I can tell you that much. If it were simple, everyone would have this kind of web presence. I feel I'm starting to achieve this goal on one of my other websites (the Home Buying Institute), because I can see that people are beginning to talk about and recommend the site to others, without any input from me. Here's a list of things I've put in place on that website in order to get people talking about it ... and to make the website promote itself. Note: For the sake of simplicity, I'll refer to the Home Buying Institute as "HBI" from here on out.

Content, content and more content. It's hard to get excited about a business website with five pages of information. But if you can develop extremely useful articles, tutorials, glossaries, learning center, blogs, market news and the like, you'll get some people talking. This is the hardest part about creating a quality website, because you can't "copy and paste" your way through. You have to develop highly useful and original content. This is the centerpiece of a website that promotes itself.
Organization and usability. With all of that great content, you have to make sure the site is nice and neat. Everything should have its own place on your website, and it should be easy to find through more than one path (navigation, search, site map, etc.). Clutter and disorganization will kill your online success before it even gets going. After all, why promote a website that people are just going to leave upon arrival?
Interactivity and feedback. People like to interact with websites these days. It's part of the social web, also referred to as Web 2.0. When you offer people more ways to interact, participate and respond, you'll enjoy greater success (more leads, more clients, and more business). On the HBI website, we recently launched the Consumer Credit Blog that allows readers to enter their questions for a response within 48 hours. This has not only generated a ton of interaction from site visitors, but it also gets links and citations from other bloggers and webmasters.
Being different and better. Find out what your competitors are doing with their websites, and then do something different and/or better with your own site. If you simply replicate what others are doing, you have little chance of standing out. That's now way to promote your website to Internet users! People are tired of the same old thing. So offer something unique -- great content and more of it, useful tools and resources, an interactive blog or community of some kind.

The Internet is an overcrowded place with an abundance of competition. Even if you serve a small niche, or you focus on a small geographical area, you can be sure there are other websites already occupying that web space. The key to promoting a website is to create the kind of site that promotes itself. This will save you time, energy and money.

How to Start a Blog Using WordPress

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:22:00 +0000

Once in a while, I'll receive email questions in response to a blog post or tutorial I've written. When it comes to the topic of blogs, the most common question is this: "How do I create a blog using the WordPress blogging program?" So in this tutorial, I'm going to explain how you would start a blog using WordPress.

Why Use WordPress in the First Place?

I'm not going to tell you which blogging tool you should use. That's beyond the scope of this lesson. But I will tell you that WordPress is one of the more popular programs among bloggers these days. The Blogger program (owned by Google) and TypePad round out the top three, in terms of popularity and usage. Now, I use Blogger for this real estate marketing blog. But I also use WordPress on some of my other sites, including my refinance Q&A blog.

So for the sake of getting on with the lesson at hand, let me just say that WordPress is a fine choice for someone planning to start a blog. It's versatile enough to support any goal you might have in mind, and they update the program frequently to add new features.

Back to the question at hand. How do you start a blog using the WordPress program? In this article, I'm going to give you an overview of how the setup process works, as well as some tips for success. I won't publish the complete instructions for starting a blog with WordPress because those instructions are already online.

Creating a Blog With WordPress

The first thing you need to decide is where you want to publish your new blog. When using the WordPress system, you have two options. You can publish your blog on their web domain or your own domain. If you publish it under the WordPress domain, the installation is very simple ... because there is no installation.

But I always recommend that people publish the blog on their own website (if it's truly meant to be an extension of that website). And this will require instructions, because you'll actually be installing the WordPress program onto your own web domain. In other words, the following instructions will show you how to add a WordPress blog onto your existing website, such as the refinance blog I mentioned earlier.

Before we get started, let me offer one word of advice. If this sounds overly technical to you, don't worry. It's really not as complicated as it sounds, for someone who is familiar with the basics of web maintenance, file uploading, and that sort of thing. So if you know anyone who has even the most basic website publishing experience, they can probably help you with this. When I start a new blog using WordPress the setup process only takes about 5 or 6 minutes. So take it from me -- it's not as difficult as you might think.

Step 1. Download the WordPress Program

To start a blog with this program, you will actually download the entire program (files and scripts) and then upload them to your own website hosting account. So you need to start this whole process by downloading the most recent version of WordPress to your computer. You can do this by visiting the website below:
http://wordpress.org/download

Easy enough so far, right? Let's move on...

Step 2. Set Up a MySQL database

You will need to set up a MySQL database on your web hosting account. WordPress will actually run on this database, so you can't proceed without it. This is where your web designer or resident I.T. person can help you. This is another one of those areas that sound harder than they really are. For instance, I use GoDaddy as the web host for most of my websites, and I know that they (and many other hosting companies) offer a way to create a database at the click of a button.

When you create the database, or have it created for you, you'll need to take note of a few items. You need to write down the database's user name and password, the name of the database itself, and the local host address. You may or may not need that last item, depending on your web host. But you'll definitely need the database name, user name and password.

Step 3. Modify Your "Config" File

After you download all of the WordPress files, open the folder and look at what's inside. You will see a file named "wp-config-sample.php" ... as seen in the image below.

This is the only file you need to edit before uploading and using the WordPress program on your website. Let me say that again. You must make some changes to the "wp-config" file before you run the WordPress system on your website.

Open up the file and look at the code up top. You'll see where you need to add the MySQL database information -- name, user name, password and (possibly) the local host address. The image below shows the code I'm referring to. Again, this is the only file that needs to be edited before uploading the WordPress files to your web host, and the lines outlined below are the only parts of the file that need to be edited.

As is says in the image above, there's a chance you won't have to change the line of code for database host (DB Host). If you use GoDaddy for your web hosting, you will have to change this line of code as well. When you set up your MySQL database through GoDaddy, their system will give you the host address that needs to go here. It will probably end in "secureserver.net" or something similar.

Step 4. Change the Name of the "Config" File

After you have made the simple edits listed above, you can rename the "config" file by removing the sample part at the end. So the new file name becomes "wp-config.php" after you rename it. This is all you have to do before uploading the files and using the WordPress blog on your site.

Step 5. Upload the WordPress Files to Your Web Host

Now that you've made the necessary changes to the program files, you can upload them to your web hosting account. First, you should figure out what you want the web address of your blog to be. For example, if I want to start a new blog on this website under the domain www.ArmingYourFarming.com/newblog ... I'll have to create a sub-directory folder by the name "newblog." Then I would upload the contents of the WordPress folder from my computer to this new sub-folder (using a file transfer / FTP program).

Step 6. Run the Install Script

This is the last thing you need to do before using the WordPress blog program. This will be the final diagnostic and installation step that's needed to get the blog up and running. All you have to do is visit http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php (with "example.com" being the web domain where you put the WordPress files. If you put them into a sub-directory folder named "myblog" then you would visit the install page at http://www.example.com/myblog/wp-admin/install.php ... you get the idea.

So let's sum up the steps you've taken to start a new blog using the WordPress blogging program:

You downloaded the WordPress program to your computer.
You created a MySQL database to power your new blog.
You edited the "config" file to include the login info for the MySQL database.
You renamed the "config" file by chopping off the "sample" part at the end.
You uploaded all of the files into the appropriate place on your hosting account.
You ran the installation script, as described under Step 6 above.
And if you did everything correctly, you can start using WordPress to blog!

So what's next? For one thing, you probably want to customize your new blog. And, of course, you'll need to start adding quality content on a regular basis -- because that's what blogging is all about.

Customization and Content

One of the great things about using WordPress is that you change the design simply by uploading a new "theme." This refers to the style and template files used to create your blog's design. Whether you realized it or not at the time, you actually uploaded the "themes" folder when going through the installation process outlined above. So you can change your blog's look and feel simply by uploading new themes, and then selecting those themes from within the WordPress control panel.

Also, if you have a webmaster or somebody who is familiar with HTML web code, you can customize your blog's design as much as you need to. Even if you start with a theme / template that other people are using, you can make it truly unique by changing the logo, colors, etc.

Of course, the most important aspect of your new WordPress blog is the content you put on it. You could have the best-looking blog around, but nobody will care if it lacks quality content. This is another topic entirely, and you can learn all about it below:

So there you have it. Nearly everything you need to know in order to start a blog using the WordPress blogging program. I know it seems like a lot of information, but it's fairly simple for somebody who is familiar with websites and web publishing. So if you really want to use WordPress on your website, but the information presented above sounds like Greek to you, then get somebody to help you.

Using Google Maps on Your Real Estate Website - The Mashup

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:24:00 +0000

Did you know you can publish Google Maps onto your real estate website and use it to display property listings, office location, open houses and more? It's true, and it's a lot easier than most agents realize.

This kind of technique is commonly referred to as a "mashup" -- a web program that combines multiple data sources within one application. In the case of a real estate mashup, you are combining your own data (such as property addresses) with Google Maps to create an interactive tool on your own website.

To show you how to go about it, I've just posted a new tutorial that walks you through the process. It shows you in step-by-step fashion how to get started using Google Maps on your real estate website, and it reinforces this with diagrams and a sample mashup I created just for the tutorial.

If you've been itching to use programs like Google Maps on your real estate website or blog, but you're not sure how to get started, this tutorial is for you.

Benefits of Using Google Maps

This web-publishing strategy might not be for everyone. For instance, if you have not data to display on the map, then there's really no point in pursuing it. But for many agents, this kind of real estate mashup offers endless possibilities. You could display property listings, open houses, your office location, local events, new subdivisions ... you name it.

Here are some more benefits of integrating Google Maps with your real estate website:

It's a way to make your website more interactive.
It adds value to your site by mapping out homes for sale or other data relevant to your website visitors.
The Google Maps program is free to use, as long as you abide by their terms of service.
You can save your maps within your Google account, to edit and update them later.
If you're creative with this tool, it can even help you generate leads through your real estate website or blog.

Read the full tutorial here:
Creating a Real Estate Mashup with Google Maps

Free Real Estate Leads Every Day

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:14:00 +0000

What could you do with a handful of free real estate leads each and every day? How much would that be worth to your business? It would be priceless, wouldn't it?

Well, in this blog post, I'm going to tell you how you can generate a steady stream of free leads through your real estate website or blog. And I'm going to use a pair of blogs on my home buying website as a real-world example.

A little while back, I converted one of the blogs at the Home Buying Institute into a Q&A tool for consumers. All I really did was add a box to the sidebar that allows people to type their questions directly into the blog. When they click "send," the question gets sent to me by email, and the visitor gets redirected to a thank-you page that tells them their question has been received.

Since I implemented this strategy, I've been flooded with questions about mortgage loans, credit scores, and other home buying topics. Now, I don't ask for people's name or contact info, because I'm using this as a free public service -- not as a lead generator. But you could easily adapt this technique on your own website to generate free real estate leads from buyers and/or sellers in your area. Take the technique I'm using, add a form field for the person's email address, and you have a lead generator for your website or blog.

Free Leads Are Only One of the Benefits

There's more to this strategy than meets the eye. At first glance, it appears to be a way to produce real estate leads online ... and it is. But it's also a strategy for content development and search engine visibility.

Each time somebody asks a question through my blog, I post my response onto the blog itself. The thank-you page tells the visitor this, so they know to check back in a day or two. So each Q&A session becomes a new page of content, in the form of a blog post. On average, I answer about three questions per day through the main blog and the credit help blog. So in a year's time, that adds up to more than 1,000 pages of keyword-rich content.

You can see the multiple benefits of this strategy. It can help you generate free real estate leads through your site, but it's also a great way to expand your content over time. This in turn will help to increase your website traffic.

Also, because each question is about a specific topic, the entire Q&A article is naturally optimized for good search engine visibility. Here's an example of what I mean:

Let's say you're a real estate agent in Columbia, Maryland, and somebody asks a question about home inspections when buying a house. If you answer that person's question on the blog, you would have some keyword-rich content about home inspections in Columbia, Maryland. So anyone searching that phrase would have a good chance of finding your website, and they would likely be impressed by (A) your real estate expertise and (B) your willingness to help others. Heck, they might even ask a question of their own, which gives you yet another real estate lead through the website ... and more keyword-rich content ... and more search engine visibility ... and more website traffic.

You can see how this would have a snowball effect over time. More activity means more free real estate leads for you. More responses mean better search engine visibility, which brings traffic and leads along with it. You get out of it what you put into it, and if you put a lot into it there's no limit to what you can do.

So the benefits are really three-fold:

You are positioning yourself as an expert in the local real estate scene.
You are establishing a channel for free real estate leads on a regular basis.
You are expanding your website with keyword-rich content relevant to your audience.
You are increasing your search engine visibility and potential for website traffic.

If you already have a blog where you could execute a strategy like this, you can put the whole thing in motion for free by following these steps:

Customize your blog so it looks and works like a Q&A tool.
Set up a separate blog for this purpose, if need be.
Put a form on the sidebar (or top) where people can enter their questions.
Include form fields for the person's name, email address and question.
Set up the form so it sends the question / lead to you by email.

You can post responses to the blog and then send the person a courtesy email to let them know it's online ... and to ask if they need help from a skilled agent like you.

Real Estate Website Content With an SEO Focus

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:08:00 +0000

Website content is the building block of any search engine optimization campaign. A successful real estate SEO program starts with keyword-rich content built around certain key phrases. And in this new SEO video, I'll explain what that means and how to incorporate the concept into your real estate website content.

Adding new content to your website is one of the easier ways to increase your web traffic, with all other things being equal. I also find that many real estate agents have too narrow a focus with their web content, which can reduce your overall success with SEO and traffic generation. This video explains (A) the importance of website content development strategy and (B) how to achieve it on your own website.

If you find this video helpful, be sure to check out the new SEO videos section of our website. I'm currently in the process of filming additional training videos, so I should have some more online later this week or early next.

Here's what to take away from this video and blog post. If you just "shovel" real estate content onto your website without even considering the type of information your audience wants, you are limiting your SEO success. However, when you take a more strategic approach to real estate content development, you'll enjoy more web traffic and a more successful website in general.

Related articles:

Real Estate Marketing Strategies for the New Economy

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:11:00 +0000

There's no doubt that 2009 will be an interesting year for the real estate industry. The economy is still on shaky ground, buyers are having a hard time getting financing, and foreclosures continue at record numbers across the United States.

The question is, how do you plan to adjust your real estate marketing strategy to reflect this new economy we are facing? And beyond that, how will you adjust your business as a whole?

These are tough questions, but they are questions you must start asking yourself. I've spoken to a few agents already who are making some serious changes to their real estate marketing strategies in order to survive and thrive in 2009. It's beyond the scope and possibility of this blog to offer specific advice on marketing strategy -- that's something you must develop for yourself. But I can tell you this.

In the near future, those real estate agents who take an educational approach to their marketing are going to get the biggest share of business in their market areas. It's not enough anymore to say: "I'm an agent in your area and I can help you. Give me a call." Actually, that was never a good marketing strategy, but it's even weaker in the new economy. Home buyers and sellers have more questions today than ever before. So if you want to sustain your real estate marketing program in that kind of environment, you have to adjust the strategies you use.

For example, home buyers today have a lot of questions about financing -- more so than in the past. They have heard about people making mortgage mistakes and getting foreclosed on. And they know it's harder to get approved for a mortgage loan these days. So the best real estate marketing strategies are those that address these burning questions.

Where Marketing Strategy Meets Education

There are plenty of ways to take an educational approach to your real estate marketing program. Here are a few off the top of my head.

Put on a home buyer seminar in your city. Give it a modern angle and theme, such as "Buying a Home in the New Economy." Promote it like crazy, and try to get your local news to cover it (the economy is a hot topic for them too). Attract enough people to your educational seminar, and you'll get some clients out of it.
You could even take a "virtual" approach to the seminar marketing strategy above by using a service like WebEx MeetMeNow
Another strategy you can use: Create a buyer's guide to the new economy (an e-book available on your website). Explain the importance of good credit, choosing the right kind of mortgage, etc. Position it properly from a value standpoint, and people will email you for a free copy.

These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. You get the idea, and the idea is that you can get more business in a troubled economy by educating potential clients about it. It's the kind of real estate marketing strategy that can help you survive -- and perhaps even in thrive -- in a down market.

Your Blog Marketing Plan - 5 Key Steps

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Article Summary: Your blog marketing campaign will deliver the best results if you plan for success right from the start. Here's how to go about it the right way.

If you have not yet joined the business blogging world, but you are eager to do so, this blog marketing plan will help you navigate the long road ahead of you. In fact, it might even help you shorten that road by focusing your energy on the proven techniques for success.

So without further ado, here's how to take your blog marketing program from zero to popular in 60 days or less:

The Path to Blog Marketing Success

This tutorial assumes that you are truly starting at ground zero (hence the title). In other words, it assumes you do not currently have a blog or know very much about them. If that's truly the case, start right here with step 1. If you've already been blogging for a while, and you simply want some tips for blog marketing success, feel free to skip ahead.

Step 1 -- Launch Your Blog (Of Course)

Some people love to argue over which blogging program is best, and for what reasons. Let me spare you a journey into this opinionated abyss by saying this. What you use to power your marketing blog is not nearly as important as the quality of information you publish through the blog. Your readers will not care what program you are using, as long as the blog is easy to navigate and read, and worth reading in the first place.

With that in mind, I recommend that you use either Blogger or WordPress to power your marketing blog.

Blogger (owned by Google) is easier to get started with. It's an external publishing tool, meaning you will go to Blogger.com to log in to the control panel. Once logged in, however, you can adjust the settings to that the blog is published onto your own website. This Internet marketing blog is an example of what I'm talking about. I use Blogger to power this blog, and I have it set up to publish the content onto a sub-domain of my website (see website URL above).
WordPress has more bells and whistles, but it's harder to get started with if you want to publish your marketing blog on your own web domain. Unlike Blogger, WordPress is a self-contained publishing system, which means you will need to download all of the program files and upload them onto your web domain.

Here's the good news. You can experiment with both of these blogging programs to see which one you like best, before installing anything onto your own domain. Go to WordPress.com and Blogger.com to set up a free blog on their hosting domains. Then you can play around with the features to see which publishing platform you prefer.

Step 2 -- Create a Content Plan

Long before you get to the outward aspects of a blog marketing program, you need to look inward and figure out what you should be writing about. What are your blogging goals? What do you hope to accomplish with your business blog? Who is your intended audience, and what information do they seek? These questions will help you identify the most important topics for your blog.

It's also a good idea to do some keyword research to see what kinds of relevant phrases people are searching through Google, Yahoo and other search engines. This is an important step for any blog marketing program, because it will partly determine the kind of search engine visibility and traffic you get. I recommend making a list of the top 50 phrases people are searching -- phrases that are directly related to your products, services and business goals. Put them into a spreadsheet for easy management.

Now that you've done some soul searching and some keyword research, you can start listing the topics you plan to blog about. It's not a rigid plan you have to slavishly follow. It's just a helpful document to give you guidance as you sit down to create a new blog post.

Step 3 -- Start Publishing Great Content

Before you start marketing your blog to the world, you should spend some time developing your content. Fortunately, blogging programs make this easy for you. If you can type an email, you can publish content through a blog. It has the same level of simplicity, so there's no reason you can't publish new information once a day, or every other day.

This is where your blog content plan comes into play. Refer to that document often for blogging ideas, and don't be afraid to deviate from your plan and write what comes to mind. Sometimes the best blog entries are the ones you never saw coming -- those ideas that just "flash" out of nowhere. So embrace them when they come.

Here's what you should take away from this step. There's no point in launching a blog marketing campaign until you have plenty of great content. In other words, you need to have a business blog worth visiting before you go out in search of visitors.

Step 4 -- Announce the Blog Through Relevant Channels

If you've been working hard on your content for several weeks, and you feel your blog is a valuable resource that people will like, you should start promoting it through relevant channels. Find other websites related to the topic you're blogging about, and email them about your blog. Explain why their readers / visitors would find your blog useful. Some of them will ignore you -- that's just a fact of life. But others will be happy to recommend your blog, especially if you've worked hard to make it a valuable resource.

While we are talking about resources, let me stress the importance of this. Your blog marketing plan will be far more successful if you strive to create the kind of blog that provides real value to readers. The best business bloggers realize that it's all about the audience, and giving them what they want. So they do exactly that -- they create content that helps their readers achieve a certain goal.

Step 5 -- Start Networking With Others

Blogging is part of the new "social" Internet experience. As a result, most business bloggers are eager and willing to connect with others online. By reaching out to other blog publishers, you can develop the kind of mutual relationship that benefits all parties involved. In the process, you can benefit from more search engine visibility, more traffic to your blog, and a greater degree of interaction and participation.

Web Content Writing Made Easy

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:50:00 +0000

Did you know that writing web content is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your search engine visibility and traffic levels over time? It's true. Sure, link building has a lot to do with search engine rankings. But you cannot even begin to rank well for a certain phrase until you have web content built around that phrase.

So in this blog tutorial, I'm going to talk about web content writing, and how you can take the mystery out of the process.

Web Writing Tips

Think of all the things you'll be able to do with some basic web writing skills and the confidence to use those skills: You can publish press releases online to drive traffic to key sections of your website. You can create new web content to make your site more valuable to readers. You can start a blog and publish new information on a daily basis (a great way to attract new clients). You can create informational articles and publish them all over the Internet with links back to your site -- more traffic and rankings!

With some basic web content writing skills, there is no limit to what you can do online. After all, content is the fundamental building block of your Internet marketing program. Search engine rankings, website traffic, lead generation, client acquisition ... none of it can happen without quality content. So let's dive right in to our lesson on web writing like a pro.

1. Put Content Over Form

Let me start by putting your mind at ease, with regard to a common fear people have about writing. When you publish information onto a business website, the content is more important than the form. In other words, you don't have to write like William Faulkner when you create web content. In fact, it's best if you don't. Sure, you have to write clearly and cleanly, without typos and major grammatical errors. But when it comes to website writing, what you say is more important than how you say it.

The best thing you can do when publishing information is to (A) select topics your audience really wants to know about, and then (B) explain those topics in clear, straightforward language. Be thorough and helpful with your writing, and you have won half the battle already.

2. Turn Off the Little Man Inside Your Head

Negativity and self-doubt are the enemies of web content writing. We all experience these things at one time or another, and when left unchecked they can block the road to success. So when you write content for your website (particularly the first draft), turn off the internal editor inside your head. Remember, you can always come back and edit the web content after you write it, and before anyone will see it. The first draft is all about getting your ideas down before they float away.

When you do this, you'll be amazed at how much easier the web content writing process is. Ideas will come to you more easily, and you'll be able to get them down without being impeded by your internal critic. Before you begin a writing project, say to yourself: "Nobody will see this until I'm ready for them to see it. I can write like mad and then come back to revise things later on."

3. Forget About the Search Engines (For Now)

Writing the first draft of web content with the search engines in mind is a recipe for bad content. Remember who your real audience is -- people! So create your content in a way that makes it useful to people first. Inform them, educate them, and help them achieve some kind of goal on your website.

When you have created the kind of web content that achieves these goals, then you can go back and make sure it's optimized for search engine visibility. You can even use my book as a guide for this secondary process. And while we're talking about SEO, let me give you a helpful tip for writing the kind of web content that performs well in the search engines.

4. Narrow Your Topics to Increase Relevance

Have you ever read a web page that tackled too many topics in one place? Instead of segmenting the topics into "digestible" parts, the author decided to lump everything onto one page. This is rarely a good strategy when writing content for the web. It's best to limit your internal web pages (those beyond the home page) to one or two topics per page. This helps you in two ways:

First of all, it makes your content much easier to read. Instead of sifting through five things they don't care about to find the one thing they do, readers can simply navigate to their topic / page of choice. So it helps with website usability.
Secondly, segmenting your content helps with search engine visibility. If a web page covers 12 different topics, you are essentially diluting the relevance of that page (in terms of search engine rankings). But when you have tightly focused pages that address a specific topic, you increase the relevance of the web content ... and the likelihood that it will be presented to a search engine user who is searching that topic. So it helps with visibility too.

5. Outline Before You Write

When I say you should "outline" your content when writing for the web, I'm not talking about that Roman numeral system you learned back in your high school English class. I'm talking about creating a simple outline before you write to help you stay on track when writing your web pages. I have been using this process for years, and it has helped me publish several pages of website and blog content every day! I often teach it to my consulting clients as well, and it always helps them increase their web writing efficiency.

Outlining your website content need not take a lot of time, either. If you spend more than ten minutes on the process, you're probably over-thinking it. All you need to do is jot down some notes on the topic you are addressing, the key points you will make along the way, and how you will wrap things up.

Take this tutorial on web content writing as an example. To outline this article, I started by jotting down some notes on what I wanted to accomplish: "I will write a brief tutorial to help people overcome their fear of website writing. Specifically, I will offer five tips that have helped me a lot over the years, when creating content for the web." Then I simply listed my five tips, with a brief note about each one, and presto ... I had an outline for my tutorial.

Then I followed the other advice presented above. I turned off the little editor in my head. I forgot about search engines for the time being, and I did my best to create a helpful article on the specific topic of writing for the web. And if you found this tutorial useful, then I've achieved my goal.

Hopefully, you can now see that website content is not something to dread. You don't have to be a professional writer, and you don't have to spend hours looking at a blank screen or notebook. When you break the process down like I've shown you above, you'll be writing for the web with more ease and efficiency than ever before. Good luck!

Top-Ranking Denver Real Estate Agent - A Hypothetical SEO Scenario

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:11:00 +0000

In this blog tutorial, I'll explain how a real estate agent in Denver could drive his or her website to the top of the search engines. Why Denver? Because I need a city for this hypothetical scenario, and Denver is just as good as any other. It's also a big real estate market with plenty of agent competition, so if this process works for a Denver agent it would work just about anywhere else.

Step 1 - Download a Copy of Top Ten Agent

My e-book offers nearly 100 pages of advice on the subject of real estate SEO. So any agent who is serious about website visibility should download a copy of this unique and helpful book.

Step 2 - Build Your Website

We are starting from scratch here! So let's assume that Jane Doe, our fictitious real estate agent in the Denver area, doesn't even have a website yet. Step 2 is to register a domain name and set up a website with quality content and useful tools for visitors (such as listing data, real estate news, virtual tours, maps, etc.).

Step 3 - Keyword Research

In most cases, this step is merely a validation of what you already know. You will make a list of the key phrases people are typing into search engines when they research real estate in your area. For this process, you can start with the obvious phrases and build from there. For example, Jane Doe would take a phrase like Denver real estate and put it into a keyword tool. You can learn more about keyword-research tools from the Top Ten Agent SEO book, mentioned above.

After some thorough research, Jane creates a list of 10 - 12 phrases she wants to rank well for in the search engines. They include Denver real estate agent, Denver Realtor, homes for sale in Denver ... you get the idea. Jane might even want to include a list of home builders in the area, because it's another way to pull traffic via the search engines.

Step 4 - Develop Plenty of Keyword-Rich Content

We touched on this under step 2 above, but it's worth revisiting now that we have done our keyword research. In this step, Jane will make sure she has at least one page of keyword-specific content for each of the Denver real estate phrases she has on her list. She can always expand her web content later on, as much as she needs to. But for starters, she needs to write one page per keyword. These pages are the fundamental building blocks that will help Jane's website rank well for Denver real estate agent and other key phrases.

Step 5 - Gather Links from Other Websites

This is an ongoing process that never really ends. Link popularity is one of the criteria search engines use to rank websites in a certain order. This concept confuses a lot of agents but it's really not that complicated. When other websites link to your site, they are contributing to your link popularity. This in turn will boost your search engine rankings.

When those other websites are well established, with a lot of link popularity of their own, they provide even more value through their links. Relevancy is also important. So Jane, the Denver agent in this scenario, should seek links from well-established websites that are related to (A) the Denver metropolitan area, (B) real estate or (C) a combination of these two topics.

This is where quality content comes into the picture again. It's much easier to get other webmasters to link to your site if it offers a wealth of useful information. If it's "just another agent site," it's not going to impress anyone. But if it's truly a resource for Denver home buyers, then other webmasters will be inclined to link to the site.

Step 6 - Repeat Steps 4 and 5 Indefinitely

This kind of process requires time, persistence and patience. So Jane must realize that the agents who rank well for Denver real estate phrases probably began the process long ago. At the same time, however, there's really no mystery to the process. If Jane repeats the steps I've outlined above (particularly the convent development and the link building), she will eventually be one of the top-ranking websites in her market. As a result -- and most importantly -- she will enjoy a steady stream of website visitors who need a Denver real estate agent just like her!

Real Estate Blogging Q&A

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:25:00 +0000

Has the market slowed to a crawl in your area, because of the economy? Have a little extra time on your hands? Why not channel that extra time and energy into your real estate blogging efforts?

Right now, all across the United States, some smart agents are gearing up their websites for the next upswing in the economy. Sure, 2009 will probably be a slow year for most agents, but it's bound to start picking up beyond that. And those agents who prepare for it now will take the lion's share of business later on.

This is why I always stress the importance of a strong web presence. If you work hard to expand your website and increase your search engine ranking here in the present, you'll be primed for a steady stream of web traffic in the future. Real estate blogging is a great way to achieve these things. Start growing your blog now (by adding plenty of content, features, etc.), and you'll be thankful for the effort later on.

Need help getting started? Here are some real estate blogging FAQs you may find useful:

Q: What is a blog?

A blog is simply a content-management tool that makes it easy to publish information onto the web. Real estate blogs are typically arranged in reverse-chronological fashion, with the most recent entries up at the top.

Beyond that technical definition, a blog is also an opportunity for real estate agents to be more active online and to grow their websites -- without the need for web coding skills.

Q: What is blogging?

It is the act of publishing information through a blog. Real estate blogging has been around for several years, but it started to become extremely popular around 2006. Today, there are thousands of agents publishing blogs, all over the United States and beyond.

Q: How do blogs work?

A blog is designed to be operational immediately after you set it up. The features will vary depending on the blogging program you use, but most of them perform the same basic functions. To publish information onto your blog, you simply log in to the admin area, type your message into a box, and then click the "publish" button. Your blogging program does the rest. It will convert your plain text into HTML code so it can be displayed online. It will also render any formatting you've included, such as bold text, italics, hyperlinks, images, etc.

Q: How do real estate agents use blogs?

There are endless ways to use real estate blogging as a marketing / communications tool. I see new ideas and techniques all the time. Here are five good ideas to consider. You can use real estate blogging as a way to keep your audience informed about local events. You can use it to showcase properties by posting digital pictures and descriptions. You can use it as a Q&A tool. You can even use it to generate a steady stream of real estate leads to support your business.

Q: What are the benefits of blogging?

Publishing new content on a regular basis makes your website more relevant and useful. It also helps with search engine visibility, because you can add endless amounts of keyword-rich content. Real estate blogging can also become an online conversation between you and prospective clients, because blogs have a reader-commenting feature built right in.

There are also some intangible benefits that real estate blogging can deliver. For example, a blog can make people more inclined to trust you (and contact you) because it's a showcase of your knowledge and abilities.

Q: How do I start a real estate blog?

My advice is to get help from somebody who has launched one before. If you publish a real estate blog under the domain of the blogging company (as opposed to publishing it on your own web domain), things will be much easier. But I recommend putting the blog onto a web domain you own. In this case, you will need to install the blogging program onto your web server. This is where an experienced assistant will come in handy.

I recommend using either Blogger or WordPress for your real estate blogging ventures. Blogger is easier to install on your web server, and you never have to update it. WordPress offers a few more bells and whistles, but it's also trickier to install onto your web domain. This blog is published using the Blogger program. I also have a few that are powered by WordPress. I like them both, but for different reasons.

It doesn't matter to your audience what blogging program you use. All they care about is the quality and timeliness of the information on the blog. You might want to experiment with both of these programs to see which one suits you best.

Q: Where / how do I host my blog online?

You can publish a blog onto your existing website, if you prefer. This is the publishing method I recommend. For example, if your website is www.AgentBobSmith.com, you could create a sub-domain for your blog such as www.AgentBobSmith.com/blog.

To put a Blogger blog onto your website, you would choose the "Advanced Publishing" options when setting the blog up through their website. To put a WordPress blog onto your website, you would actually need to download the WordPress blogging program (for free) and then upload all of the files to your server. You can find plenty of tutorials online to help you through either option.

Q: What do I write about?

This will depend on your real estate blogging strategy. I recommend you spend some time developing a content plan, or at least putting some ideas on paper. There's no limit to the topics you can blog about. In fact, here are 21 content ideas to get you started.

Q: How do I promote my new blog?

I would wait until you have a good base of content before you start promoting your real estate blog. If people visit for the first time and see that you only have two or three entires, they might not be inclined to come back. But if they find dozens of blog entries, and the newest entry is only a day or two old, they'll be more likely to bookmark the blog and visit often.

I've always thought the best way to promote a real estate blog is by publishing great information on a regular basis. When you do this, people will begin to recommend your blog to others. You might even land an interview with your local news networks. This has happened to a couple of my clients.

You can also use online press releases to promote your new blog. But again, I recommend you focus on blogging for a while before you announce it with the world.

Do you have a real estate blogging question?

If you have a question that hasn't been addressed here, feel free to send it to me. I plan to expand this Q&A over time. Just type your question into the Q&A box at the top of this blog.

How to Reduce Your Real Estate Marketing Budget - Without Quitting

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:29:00 +0000

Reader Question: I feel like I need to reduce my real estate marketing budget because of the economy (fewer clients, spending cutbacks, etc.). Any suggestions?

Without knowing what your marketing budget is, it's hard to make any recommendations. So let me use this opportunity to offer some general advice on real estate marketing budget matters...

We are certainly having some touch economic times right now, and agents are feeling it more than most. One of the biggest problems is that many buyers can't get mortgage loans right now. All of the banks are nervous, and they have tightened up their credit criteria quite a bit.

In most market areas (but not all), real estate agents are really feeling the squeeze. Business is down, so they are now examining their marketing budgets in an effort to control spending. Here are some ways to reduce spending without scrapping your real estate marketing program entirely.

1. Focus on Your Top-Performing Techniques

Identify your strongest marketing channels, and focus you energy on those. Actually, this is something you should do on a regular basis, to ensure you are spending your time and money on the right techniques. But it's even more important when looking for ways to reduce your real estate marketing budget in pace with the economy.

2. Eliminate Costly Marketing Techniques

If you use direct mail letters or postcards, and you outsource the printing and mailing to a vendor, consider scaling back or putting the program on hold. Of course, you'll have to consider your ROI before doing this. I just know from experience that direct mail can be a real money drain when used wrong. If you want to continue using it, check out my postcard marketing book for tips on improving your ROI.

3. Use Guerrilla Marketing

Use more networking and word-of-mouth techniques. It doesn't cost you anything to be more active in your community, except time out of your day. But this can also be a great way to gain new clients without spending extra on real estate marketing. Earlier this month, I blogged about buyer seminars and how they are a great marketing idea for the current economy (for many reasons). This is a classic example of doing more with less.

4. Prepare Now for the Next Upswing

I often get questions from agent who ask, "Why does this other agent's website do so well in the search engines? What does he / she have that I don't?" Usually, it comes down to the fact that the person started working on their real estate SEO long ago, and thus they are now reaping the rewards. This illustrates the need to plant seeds in the present that will grow in the future.

If you have some extra time on your hands, start working on your website to boost its ranking in the search engines -- and to reap the rewards when your market picks up again. Here is some step-by-step SEO advice that will help you get started.

Improvements to the Free Article Center

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:19:00 +0000

I'm happy to announce some changes to the Free Articles Center that will make it much easier to use. There are also several new articles to choose from that address recent changes in the housing market, the economic crisis and other current events.

Publishing Articles Just Got Easier

The first thing we did (after repeated requests) was add a link to the top of every article that gives you easier access to the HTML code for that article. In fact, this is the way we recommend publishing the real estate articles, because it offers several benefits. The image below shows this new feature.

When you click on the link that says "Get the HTML code," a new browser window will open. From there, you can copy the code to republish the article. It's pure HTML code too, which means you can put it wherever you want on your website (the article will take on whatever font and color styles you have in place).

There are no advertisements of any kind within the separate HTML code -- just pure content for your website. The mandatory citation / author links have already been included as well. In other words, we have done all the work for you ... all you have to do is copy and paste the code provided onto your website. Easy!

Featured Article - The Housing Crisis Explained

I've also added some new articles recently, to keep pace with economic developments. The latest piece offers an explanation of the housing crisis, as it relates to home buyers. It's a must-read for anyone planning to buy a home in the near future, so it will make an excellent addition to your website.

More Article Details:

Length - Approximately 1,100 words (it's very in-depth)
Audience - People planning to buy a home in the near future
Date created - October 14, 2008
Read or publish the article
Review our publishing guidelines if you are new to this process

I hope you find these articles useful in your web publishing efforts. If you need help putting them onto your website, please refer to our free tech support.

Real Estate Prospecting Tips - The Unprospecting Method

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:05:00 +0000

I have to goals for this blog post. The first is to create a disturbing image of an "old school" prospector panning for people. Mission accomplished! My second goal is to offer some real estate prospecting tips that will help you save time and energy down the road. Specifically, I want to explain how you can use the Internet to make your prospecting efforts much easier.

For those of you who are new to this jargon, real estate prospecting is the process of generating leads and inquiries from potential clients in your geographical area. For example, if you send letters or postcards to certain neighborhoods in your area, then you are prospecting for clients in that area. It's also commonly referred to as real estate farming.

Like the old-timer shown above, you are dipping your metaphorical pan into the "waters" and hoping to come up with something of value -- new clients.

Common Prospecting Techniques

I've already mentioned one of the most common prospecting tools used by real estate agents, and that's direct mail. Many agents send letters and postcards to residents in a certain area as a way of generating leads. The concept behind these prospecting letters is simple. That logic is that, if you send out enough direct mail pieces, you're bound to get some phone calls eventually.

Easy enough. But if you go about this the wrong way, you can end up wasting a lot of time and energy. That's why I'm offering you these tips for a smarter real estate prospecting system. There's a better way to go about it!

Before we get into this any further, let me admit that it's a long-term strategy. I would plan on getting real results from this prospecting system about a year out. So you might have to stick with your current methods while developing the one I'm proposing.

Real Estate "Unprospecting"

When you get down to it, real estate prospecting is an in-your-face approach to marketing. You are thrusting yourself in front of strangers in the hope that they contact you. But what if you had a steady stream of emails and phone calls from people who found you personally? That would be worth the effort, wouldn't it?

There's really no secret to all of this. What I'm talking about here is Internet visibility. Or more specifically, search engine visibility. I will say this from experience -- if you can earn maximum visibility for your real estate website, you'll never have to use traditional prospecting methods again.

I have former clients who operate under this kind of business model. Through my SEO consultation services, I've helped them achieve top search engine rankings within their respective cities. And now they focus most of their effort on sustaining (and even improving) what I helped them build.

In the past, they had to exhaust themselves with the usual real estate prospecting methods. But now the process works in reverse. Instead of thrusting themselves in front of potential clients, they let the prospects come to them. When people visit Google or Yahoo and type city-specific "homes" and "real estate" phrases, they often find my clients' websites right up top. One of my clients here in the Austin area gets 85% of his new leads in this way.

This is why I refer to this as "unprospecting" -- it reverses the dynamic. And it saves you a lot of time and energy in the process. You are still real estate prospecting in the sense that you are dipping your pan into the stream. But in this case, the pan is your website and the stream is the Internet. Big difference.

Yes, it takes a lot of work to reach this point. Boosting a website's rankings in the major search engines takes a lot of work, especially in a big city with a lot of real estate competition. I know, because I do it for a living. It's not rocket science ... it just takes a lot of time and persistence.

Here's a checklist of what you'll need to achieve real estate prospecting success via the Internet:

A website, obviously. It helps to have a professional, nice-looking website as well. In other words, spend the money to do it right. Don't have your neighbor's sister's niece design it to save money. This is the centerpiece of your online prospecting system.
Plenty of great content. This is the building block for your future search engine visibility. The more keyword-rich content you have on your website, the better!
A link-building program. By this, I mean you should consistently seek new links to your website (from other websites). This will help to increase your website's ranking in search engines, especially in Google. Publish articles online. Submit your website to real estate directories. Do whatever it takes to gain links from relevant, quality websites. Just avoid reciprocal linking schemes.
Lead generation tools. The goal of this web-based approach to real estate prospecting is to generate inquires through your website. Traffic alone is not enough. You have to convert those visitors into leads you can follow up with. Here's some help with this one.

There you have them ... the four primary components of your new-and-improved prospecting system. Build a great website and fill it with keyword-specific content. Add some useful tools while you're at it, such as property listings, local market news, etc. Improve your search engine rankings by adding new content often, and by conducting a link-building campaign. And set up some lead generation channels to convert your visitors into leads.

I began this article with two goals -- to create a funny image and to offer some solid advice. Hopefully, at this point, I've got a check in both boxes. If you have questions about this article, or about real estate prospecting in general, type it into the Q&A box at the top of the blog.

A Better Real Estate Marketing System With Buyer Seminars

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:15:00 +0000

Now is a great time to expand your real estate marketing system by offering seminars to first-time home buyers. In this blog post, I'll explain why this is a good strategy for the current economy, how to conduct a buyer seminar in your area, and how your real estate marketing system can benefit from it.

A Timely Marketing Technique

The current financial crisis has a lot of would-be home buyers confused and intimidated about buying a home. I know this for a fact, because I receive their questions and concerns constantly through my home buying Q&A blog over at the Home Buying Institute.

So my question is, why aren't more real estate agents using buyer seminars right now? Not only it is a worthwhile community service, but it can also help you strengthen your real estate marketing system with a timely technique. Now more than ever, consumers need help making sense of the economy as it relates to the home buying process.

People are afraid of making the same mistakes they hear about on the news. They think mortgage lenders are out to get them. They fear that the sky is falling.

But as you and I both now, a well qualified home buyer can still purchase a home in this market, and can often get a great deal in the process. Sure, you need a better credit score these days to quality for a loan and get a good rate. But that's the way it should be. The lending standards today are exactly where they should have been for the last decade, during the heyday of "easy money" lending. So a qualified buyer with good credit should have no trouble getting a loan.

The trouble is, many buyers don't realize these things. And that's why I feel that a real estate buying seminar -- if properly planned, promoted and delivered -- could be the perfect addition to your real estate marketing system and business promotion.

This article on how to conduct a seminar includes such things as planning the venue, promoting the event, delivering the presentation and more.

This is just one example of adjusting your real estate marketing system to reflect changes in the economy. You have to stay on your toes in this kind of market. You have to come up with creative ways to attract clients, and this is a perfect example.

Like many things in business, a real estate marketing system that doesn't change is one that's doomed to fail eventually. Be flexible and open minded. Look at what's going on in the world and ask yourself, "How can I adjust my marketing program to reflect consumer fears and concerns? How can I encourage qualified buyers to come out of hiding? Is my real estate marketing system well suited for the current and future economy, or is it outdated?"

Internet Marketing Ideas for Real Estate Listings

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:34:00 +0000

Reader Question: What are some Internet marketing ideas I can use to get more people to see my real estate listings online?

Somebody asked a similar question a couple of weeks ago, regarding real estate listings. But that question wasn't Internet specific like yours, so I'm happy to take another crack at it.

There are plenty of Internet marketing ideas you can implement to drive qualified traffic to your online listings. In this context, "qualified traffic" refers to people who are using the Internet to search for homes for sale in your area (i.e., the best kind of web traffic).

Here are some online marketing strategies for real estate listings that you can start working today:

Search Engine Marketing for Real Estate Listings

I just did a quick experiment using Google's keyword tool. I started with the phrase "Austin homes" and then ran a query to get some search history on that phrase. According to this tool, there were approximately 246,000 searches for this phrase in September alone! There were also plenty of searches for other versions of this phrase, such as "Austin homes for sale" and several others.

When you add it all up, that's a lot of potential website traffic for anyone who ranks well in the search engines for such phrases. Let's say you're a real estate agent in that city, and your website ranks within the first five Google listings for those phrases. You would have a steady (and significant) stream of web traffic. Each day, hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of people would visit your site looking for information on homes. So your real estate listings would receive excellent exposure thanks to the Internet.

You could also use that as a selling point for potential clients: "Your listing will receive maximum exposure on a top-ranking website..." Only a handful of your competitors would be able to say the same thing. Talk about differentiating yourself!

This is why I stress the importance of search engine visibility as part of your overall real estate Internet marketing strategy. If you succeed in this area, you wouldn't have to do much else in terms of marketing. You'd have a constant stream of leads, courtesy of Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. So this is one marketing idea for real estate listings that every agent should pursue.

When it comes to search engine marketing, you have two options for increasing your website's ranking and visibility:

Search Engine Optimization -- This is the act of improving your website for better "organic" or natural rankings. These are the main listings on a search engines, and they rank websites in terms of content, link popularity, and other factors. This is the long-term approach to search engine visibility, but it's well worth the effort. The Austin homes example above clearly explains what you stand to gain. We offer SEO services to help in this area, and the Top Ten Agent book offers step-by-step instructions.
Sponsored Search / Pay-Per-Click -- This is the quicker path to search engine visibility, but you'll pay for the privilege. With this option, you would bid on certain keywords or phrases related to your business, and your bid would partly determine your ranking for the phrase. These are the sponsored listings that appear down the right column (and sometimes the top) of search engine results. You pay a certain amount each time somebody clicks through to your website.

Both of these search strategies can help you drive traffic to your website and the real estate listings it offers. The first one, SEO, is the long-term approach to Internet marketing and visibility. The second one, PPC, is the short-term (but paid) approach to search engine visibility.

Submitting Your Listings to Other Websites

The Internet marketing strategies listed above will increase the exposure of your real estate listings on your own website. But you can also submit your listings to other high-traffic websites for even more exposure. This is an Internet marketing idea used by many agents.

There are dozens of websites that allow you to add your listings, but the process is usually the same across the board. You pay some kind of listing fee in exchange for the exposure it brings you. In other words, you are paying to leverage the traffic of a popular real estate website. The NAR website offers services like this, as do many of the big real estate search websites like Trulia.

Try it for yourself: Feature your listings and your brand on Trulia.com. Get Trulia Pro today.

Other Internet Marketing Ideas

These are by far not the only ways to showcase your real estate listings online. They are just two of the most popular ideas among modern agents. In truth, any Internet marketing strategy designed to increase web traffic can be adapted for real estate purposes.

For example, online press releases can drive targeted traffic to your website. And if your site offers real estate listings, then you've just increased the number of "eyeballs" on those listings as well.

Are You Ready for Internet Traffic?

This is a good time to touch on another important aspect of real estate Internet marketing -- website usability. If your site is difficult for people to use, then it really doesn't matter how much traffic you generate. Many of your visitors will leave in frustration if they can't find your real estate listings, or if the listings don't offer enough information (property details, photos, virtual tours, etc.).

So keep this in mind when using any of the Internet marketing ideas presented above. Make sure your website is easy to use, and your property listings are easy to find. You'll get even better results when you work from both ends of the spectrum like this.

Best Way to Mail Real Estate Letters

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:29:00 +0000

Reader Question: What is the best way to mail out real estate letters?

That depends on what you mean by "best." The most affordable way to mail real estate letters is to print, address and mail them yourself. Of course, that's also the most time-consuming way to do it.

The most convenient way to send out real estate letters would be to use a direct mail company that handles the logistics for you. Of course, that's the most expensive way to go about it as well.

So it's a question of cost versus convenience. If you plan to send letters to a big list, I would outsource the printing and mailing to a direct mail company. I used to work for Ginny's Printing in Austin, TX, and letter mailings were a big part of what we did every day. But not all direct mail companies handle letters -- some specialize in postcards and other "self mailer" formats. So you'll have to look around.

Related articles:
Real Estate Letter Writing 101
Real Estate Farming Letters

Hope that helps you some. Good luck.

Debt to Income Ratio - New Article Available

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:30:00 +0000

I've just published a new article to the Free Articles Center. This is another lesson that reflects our current economic situation. It explains the (A) concept of debt-to-income ratio, (B) how mortgage lenders use that ratio when qualifying borrowers, and (C) how all of this has been affected by the current financial mess.

If you're not familiar with our publishing guidelines, please start by reviewing those.

Here's an excerpt of the new article:

Today, lenders will require better numbers across the board before they'll give out loans. So as a home buyer, you must have a stronger credit score and a more favorable debt-to-income ratio to qualify. Many financial institutions today are also operating in "self-preservation mode," which means their underwriting criteria are in a state of flux...

More Article Details:

Length - About 600 words
Audience - Home buyers who plan to apply for a mortgage loan
Date created - September 30, 2008
Read or publish the article
Please see our publishing guidelines if you are new to this process

I hope you find this article on debt-to-income ratio and mortgage approval useful, and I hope your readers find it helpful as well. If you need help putting any of our free real estate articles onto your website, please refer to our free tech support.

21 Content Ideas for Your Real Estate Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:53:00 +0000

Have you been publishing a real estate blog for a while? If so, there's a good chance you've fallen victim to a condition known as content staleness. It happens to the best of us. After a while, you run out of things to blog about and your content becomes stale as a result.

Or worse, you stop blogging altogether. You throw up your hands in frustration and say, "The heck with it. What's the point? I'm tapped out. I have no blogging ideas left in me."

But then you remember the many benefits of publishing a real estate blog. You remember that it adds value and freshness to your website ... that it helps to engage your readers and move them toward contacting you ... that it helps you improve your search engine traffic, etc. So you regroup and decide to start blogging on a regular basis again.

Then you sit down in front of the computer. You log into your blog account. And you stare at a blank post. Nothing comes to you. Ideas evade you. The cursor blinks in a white field of nothing, as if to mock you.

You are, quite simply, stuck.

Blog Content Ideas for Real Estate Bloggers

Here is your key to getting unstuck. Bookmark this page, or print it out for future reference. Come back to it often for blogging ideas. If you do, you'll never be at a loss for blog content ideas, and your real estate blog will thrive as a result.

Here are 21 ideas for adding fresh new content to your blog on a regular basis. In doing so, you 'll also be improving your search engine rankings, traffic levels, readership, lead generation, and overall marketing success.

Repurpose your email content. Think of all the questions you have answered for your clients through email. Each one of those could serve as a blog post, perhaps with a minor amount of expansion. Why delete your old emails when you can use them for real estate blog content?
Blog about current events and how they relate to your readers. Do you primarily help buyers? Then use your blog to help them make sense of the current economic crisis, as it applies to home buying. Thus, your real estate blog becomes a valuable resource.
Use a keyword research tool such as WordTracker to identify real estate topics that pertain to your market area. This research will show you exactly what your target audience is typing into the search engines each day. Your list of phrases can serve as a content plan for your real estate blogging efforts.
Let your readers dictate your blog content. Reader-driven content is the purest essence of Internet publishing. You can even put an "Ask a Question" box onto the side of your blog, like the one I have on this blog. You'll never be at a loss for blogging ideas if people keep sending them to you!
Create a content series such as "21 steps to buying a home," where each item in the series serves as an individual post / article. Take this series of tips for example. Instead of compiling these content ideas into one blog post, I could have turned each one into a separate post. By the time I finished the series, I would have had 21 pages of new content. Here's an example of where I did exactly that.
Here's another idea for a blog content series. Create a list of reasons to buy real estate in your city or town. Example series: "50 Reasons to Buy Real Estate in Sarasota." Each reason is a separate blog post. You don't have to know them all in advance ... just identify (and write about them) as you go along. One reason per day.
Another idea for a content series. 50 little-known facts about your city. 25 questions to ask your agent about buying real estate in your city. 15 things to understand about the current economy. Once you have a plan, the blog material practically writes itself.
Get out a piece of paper and brainstorm. Right down your city name (or cities) along with the word "real estate." Jot down relevant topics that come to mind. Blog about the home prices in your area, as they compare to other parts of the country. Blog about the local schools or neighborhoods. You get the point.
Set up some Google alerts for real estate phrases related to your city. When news breaks online about your chosen topic (press releases, news articles, etc.), Google will send you an email with links to the source. Hello, endless stream of blogging ideas!
Follow the media. Nothing drives Internet search patterns like the mass media, particularly the television news channels. So if you keep pace with real estate-related news topics and address those topics on your blog, you stand to gain more traffic and visibility.
Blog about real estate developments in your area, such as new neighborhoods being built. If you "get in early" with your blog content, people will easily find your blog when doing Google searches for the name of the new neighborhood. And thus, they will have found you as well.
Blog about new homes listed in the area. This is a modern, web-based take on the "Just Listed" postcards that real estate agents have used for decades. You could even make your blog the place to go for information on new homes. Break out your digital camera and get to it!
Do profiles on local home builders, with their permission and involvement.
Invite guest authors to contribute to your blog, such as builders, home inspectors, mortgage folks, etc. You can motivate your guest authors by explaining the value they get out of it (free exposure).
As a twist on the content idea above, you could even create a multi-author real estate blog focused on your city. It would be a joint effort between you and other motivated people who realize the value of Internet visibility.
Explain the pros and cons of some real estate-related topic. Maybe the pros and cons of certain types of mortgages, the pros and cons of different neighborhoods in your area, the pros and cons of renting versus buying ... you get the idea.
Create a second blog with a different angle from your current one. For example, create a lifestyle blog that covers a broader range of topics for your area (in addition to real estate topics). Of course, you would feature your real estate services in the main menu area. Two popular blogs are better than one! Twice the traffic, twice the exposure, and -- ultimately -- twice the business.
Use our Free Articles Center to add some quality real estate articles to your blog. You could publish one article a week, in addition to your own blogging efforts, to increase the value and usefulness of your blog.
Use testimonials as blogging material (with the client's permission of course). To take this a step further, you could even...
Do client profiles / success stories on your blog. Each time you complete a transaction with a client, have them share their story through your blog. This will add more life and credibility to your testimonials. It will turn them into real-life stories of real estate success.
If you have a steady stream of traffic to your blog, you could conduct surveys for reader interaction. There are a lot of free online survey programs available these days, such as Survey Monkey.

I will add to this list of content ideas over time. But I think we can all agree -- there are enough ideas on this list to keep you blogging steadily (and effectively) for a long, long time. Good luck.

Related items:
Blog Setup Service
The Business Blogging Bible
Blog Writing Services