It’s a fact of Internet marketing that website usability direct affects website success in general. And the same fact applies to real estate blogs.

If your blog is easy for people to use (read, navigate, search, etc.), then you’ll have better success with reader interaction and lead generation.
On the other hand, if your blog is difficult to use, you will severely undercut your chances for real estate blogging success.

Real Estate Blogs and Clutter

When you first set up your blog, it will be straightforward and easy to use. Most blogging programs are designed this way “out of the box.” But the more you learn about blogging, you more tempted you will be to clutter up your blog with all those nifty (but often unnecessary) plug-ins, add-ons, and bells and whistles.

My recommendations are three-fold:

1. First, don’t add anything to your blog that does not (A) improve the user’s experience, (B) support your primary marketing goal, or (C) a combination of the two. If you start adding junk to your blog just because you can, you will do grave injury to your blog’s usability.

2. Secondly, have a friend or colleague check out your blog and ask their honest opinion about things like neatness, organization, usability and purpose.

3. Lastly, don’t assume people are going to hunt for the things you want them to find. If there is an item (or items) that you really want people to find, such as listing info, then give it prominence on your real estate blog and demote everything else.

Remember, your online audience is highly skilled at hopping from one website to another while gathering information. You want to create the kind of real estate blog that they land on and stay for a while … not the kind of blog that they quickly hop away from. Quality of content is a big part of this, but blog usability is just as important.

Let me first start off by stating that most blogs are a waste of time, money and “prehistoric” when it comes to online marketing.

While real estate agents specialize in physical real estate, most of them need a lesson or two on how to take over “online real estate,” which is the best way to think of online marketing. In order to be successful online, you need to learn how to take over “online real estate.”

Generally, most real estate agent blogs all look the exact same: They have links to a few old listings, mortgage calculators & the same general real estate news one could find on a million other websites.

This is why most real agents end up joining large blogging networks like Active Rain or Trulia, in an attempt to gain a competitive edge over their peers. While Active Rain and Trulia helps the average real estate agent have a “better than average” online presence, agents still find themselves stuck among a sea of other Realtors with no real “point of differentiation” to really help them stand out. They end up being another “profile picture” on these networks and their online presence is thus limited in both power & influence.

In order to stand out, you must focus on a niche and create an individual blog that is self branded. For example focusing on short sales will enable you to do other things such as adding partner services like credit repair, loan modifications, debt settlement, etc which is the key to passive income online, especially if you’re simply marketing other companies.

Imagine blogging about short sales and making money off your “blog partners” in your sleep!

You see, online marketers have been branding themselves as “industry experts” and making money off their blogs for YEARS.

Yet real estate agents still haven’t fully embraced the opportunity of doing business online since they are, by trade, “industry experts.” If real estate agents were to apply online marketing techniques to their own websites & begin upselling different services to a target market, they too could be generating passive income while generating more leads for their business then they every dreamed possible.

I personally generate, on average, hundreds of leads per day, a few listings a week & multiple streams of income online ALL through my blog, and I very well might be one of the only Realtors doing this.

But setting up a real estate blog does not necessarily generate success overnight. In fact, you need to continuously work on it to be able to maximize its capability as an Internet marketing strategy for your real estate business on the Web; and giving you the profit and success that you solely deserve.

Blog Site Creation

The first step to a successful real estate blog is to make sure that the content will reflect your theme. The physical attribute of your site will be one of the factors that will keep the interests of your visitors solely on your venture.

Keep well in mind that you need to provide your potential clients and customers with an online page that caters to their needs — making sure that the features of your site are made accessible to them, and organized in a professional manner that speaks of a good business. Choose carefully the color, design, layout, and background of your real estate blog, keeping up an effort to make it all fit for the success of your business.

Powerful Content

After creating a blog site following the precepts of Internet marketing, you need to make sure that you provide only informative and quality posts to your visitors. You need to keep in mind that not all of these Web surfers are planning to purchase a property from you; in fact, most of them will just be checking your site for relevant information they need to satisfy their curiosity or to answer their inquiries about the real estate market.

Such is the case; you need to avoid putting up content that reeks of direct selling, since this will practically scare your potential clients and customers away without even giving it a second thought. Also, your content will improve your reputation as a credible real estate agent knowledgeable in the business, or as a desperate individual hell-bent on making a sale without even taking the consideration of the needs of their clients.

Also, the posts on your real estate blog can be given a comment by its readers. You might want to make use of this handy feature as a means of communicating directly with them — even if the comment is a negative one. Make sure that you are polite and professional with your replies to increase your reputation as a real estate agent rendering quality service on the World Wide Web.

If your blog site generates a good amount of traffic in a certain period of time, then that would only suggest that a lot of people find your real estate blog interesting enough to come back for more; and the more visitors you have, the bigger the possibility to generate a tidy profit for both you and your venture.

Market Your Blog

The first step is to spread the word around of your real estate blog. You can do so by optimizing your site with search engine optimization. Since search engines are considered as a primary tool in looking up information on the World Wide Web, then it would be best to apply SEO methods so that you can expand your search engine coverage.

One method of search engine optimization is to customize your blog site with keywords so that it can be picked up by searches performed by search engines. The more keywords you have, the wider your coverage would be.

Another way to market your site is to propagate your blog’s address to various areas on the Internet. You can build links with other real estate blogs or sites that has the same venture as you do. Web directories are also useful when you plan to spread your site address around the Internet.

You may also want to advertise your real estate blog in your profile in forums, chat rooms, and so on. The more people who are aware about your blog site, the better your traffic would be.

Tickle The Interest Of Your Visitors

Once you have implemented all the Internet marketing strategies to promote your real estate blog on the World Wide Web, all you to do is to make sure that your visitors will find your site interesting.

Aside from posting your complete profile and business info, you might to want to incorporate interesting content that will grab the attention of your readers. For starters, avoid putting up hard-sell information regarding different properties under your banner; but instead, stick with informative topics that will slowly interest these visitors and turn them into potential profits.

You can posts real estate information, such as market status, property acquisition tips, sellers guide, seminars regarding real estate, and so on. Also, you might want to communicate directly with your visitors by constantly checking on the comments of each posts and answering back as politely as possible.

Speaking of communication, you might want to include chat rooms, forums, and guest books into your real estate blog so that your visitors will have a place to state their comments regarding your business or simply a place to inquire about real estate in general.

Blogs Produce Higher Search-Engine Results

It’s a fact that it makes all the difference to a real estate Web site to be located on the front page of search engines like Google when a keyword query is performed, both in terms of the traffic it receives and in the amount of leads and business acquired as a result.

In today’s Internet marketing realm, search engines hold premium value, as most studies have indicated that up to 70% of all traffic to a particular Web site comes through search engines and that 77% of home shoppers use the Internet during their home search. In order to build an effective Internet marketing strategy, focus on using methodologies and techniques that will attract the attention of search engines, particularly Google.

And though search engines have been around quite a long time already most real estate brokers and agents have yet fully optimizing their Web sites sufficiently in order to be ranked highly in primary search results for major search engines like Google, Yahoo!,MSN and others. A blog is a wonderful tool to produce high search-engine results. Blogging helps property market professionals acquire the most value for money when it comes to search engines.

Blogs Could Serve As Effective Link-Builders

In the Web, a Hyperlink can be a real estate agent’s potent weapon for getting better search engine rankings, as the more links you get, the better your site would be . The more relevant the link, the more importance that link has for search engine results. An inbound link from another Web site or blog would symbolize a vote of confidence in your Web site and its content. It’s like someone putting up a sign saying “go to this site, it’s worth it.”

Blogs are viewed by most to naturally generate inbound links, because in the world of blogging, it’s the thing to do. You should be aware that today’s bloggers are a part of a larger community, and linking to other worthwhile content would be a normal part of participating in the larger “blogosphere.” Good-quality content is found by others in the world of blogs and linked to on a regular basis, therefore creating top-quality and interesting content will get you much better inbound links.

Blogs Can Be Keyword-Optimized

Real estate professionals need to take note of the effectiveness that blogs can be, as these can be naturally keyword-optimized to allow for much greater appeal to search engines. Keywords are search terms that Internet surfers use when searching for information or Web sites. For instance, the phrase “real estate” is one of the most frequently-searched term in the industry.

However, its unfortunate that the chances of your site, or even a blog, for getting ranked higher in the search engines are quite remote, as today there is too much competition from firms and agents who have deeper pockets and area spending millions in order get much higher rankings for this general term. You have a substantially better chance of attaining targeted traffic to your Web site by focusing your keywords on more local and much specific geographic areas.

It’s time to put on your thinking cap. (Did your elementary school teachers say that too?) But seriously, we are going to think long and hard about real estate blogging for a moment here.

Why?

Because the more thought you put into your real estate blog, the more effective your blog will be. By “effective,” I mean better content, more visitors, and greater overall success. You can achieve these things with your real estate blog, but it’s going to require some thought.

Here are some key areas of blogging that require careful thought:

1. The Blog’s Purpose – Earlier in this series on real estate blogging, we talked about creating a purpose for your blog. This is one of the first occasions where you’ll have to don your “thinking cap” for some careful consideration.

2. The Blog’s Audience – In the early days of your real estate blog, you will be writing to an audience of one (yourself). Then your friends and colleagues will pop in. Then the search engines will get wind of it. And before you know it, your audience has grown beyond your expectations. But always remember who your core audience is. Who are you writing to? How can you help them? What do they want and need to know?

3. The Content Plan – It always helps to have a content plan to keep yourself on track. You should think about this in the early days of your blog, as it will make things much easier as you move forward. How often will you publish? What topics / blog categories will you cover on a regular basis? Will you allow guest articles and collaboration? Answer these content questions as early on as possible.

4. The Individual Blog Post – Some agents think of their real estate blog in purely holistic terms, considering the entire blog as once entity. But when you do this, you devalue and de-emphasize the individual blog posts. You have to remember that people could enter your blog from one of many entry points — not always the main page. So each blog post should stand on its own as a single unit, in addition to reinforcing the blog as a whole. Give thought to each and every blog post you create.

First off, should you sign up for free blog services? Many top real estate blogs use the services of the likes of Blogger and Wordpress. The point is, it doesn’t really matter if you use free web space or if you get your own domain. The deciding factor of the success of your blog is and always will be the content. The design, of course, is also a serious concern. You don’t have to pay for someone to create the layout of your blog-all you have to do is get one that’s easy to browse and supports certain applications for differently-abled.

Of course, the most important part here is the content. How will you create content? Will you personally write them or will you task someone with the job? Before setting up the real estate website, it is important to sort out a schedule which you will and you can follow. Nothing can annoy regular readers more than irregular publishing of post. Therefore, before you make the blog active, make sure you have content good for a few days, then work out a more feasible schedule for there.

As for the content itself, it has to be written in a way that it attracts visitors. This means you have to deal with topics that people are interested in. But more than that, the content has to be written in a certain way. While blogs adhere to the tenets of good writing-and as a blog owner, you have to know these-it is important to realize that Internet writing is different compared to writing for other mediums. For instance, sentences should be short, and it is advisable to break paragraphs to make it easy on the eyes. Make your content relevant to the concerns of the general public; do not write fluff and do not rant.

But beyond the aesthetics is the general purpose of your blog. Of course, the real agenda of the blog is to generate interest for you as an agent and to generate online presence. However, before that, you need an angle. What will your blog be about? Some real estate blogs serve as some sort of real estate website listing own great properties in specific areas. For instance, there is a real estate website/blog about real estate in Canada; obviously, the owners of the blog are realtors from Canada. The blog has done a great deal in promoting Canada as a good place to invest on real estate. And since the readers, thanks to the content on that blog, are conceived that Canada is a great place, it isn’t easy to guess that prospective buyers will contact the blog owners.

In truth, not all of these real estate blogs will return a successful online venture. In fact, some of them fail to understand the concepts of Internet marketing strategies when they apply it on their blog site, thus, a useless effort. If you want to make sure that you get it right on the first try, then here are 3 easy steps to blogging your real estate business to success.

Step 1: Blog Design

After you have completed the registration of your new blog site, you must be quite excited to start getting your real estate business in full gear. But before you post your content that will serve as advertisement for your business, you need to carefully design your real estate blog to attract the attention of your online visitors.

To do that, come up with a theme that best reflects your business. Pick the right color and theme that will be quite friendly to the eyes of your visitors. Choose a layout that will allow these individuals to see all the features that you have on your site without spending more time looking for them.

Step 2: Quality Content

Rather than spending so much time posting “for sale” and “buy now” content on your real estate blog, it is a more positive approach to fill it up with relevant, quality, and informative content that your online visitors will find useful.

You need to realize that not all of your visitors to are paying customers; in fact, some of them will just be looking for information that they need regarding real estate But it is quite possible to turn them into one by continuously feeding them with quality information until they become interested in your venture.

Step 3: Internet Marketing

Next is to implement Internet marketing strategies to increase your real estate blog’s accessibility on the World Wide Web. In truth, having a blog site that is not known to individuals on the Internet is practically a waste of time.

For starters, you need to optimize your real estate blog so that it can be picked up by search engines. Next, you can increase your accessibility by propagating your links to various sites on the Internet. You can also publish articles with your link embedded into its content so that you can increase the ranking of your search engine results by increasing your page rank.

But before you start your real estate blog, you first need to take into consideration the factors affecting its popularity, as well as its overall impact both on the real estate venture and to your online presence.

Avoiding Hard Sell

One misconception about real estate blog is turning it into another advertisement for your business. In truth, marketing is one reason why we set up the blog in the first place, but it would be best to do it right to increase the chances of visitors coming back for more.

Content is very important in a real estate blog and making sure that it is interesting to your visitors should be your paramount concern. Always update it frequently with posts regarding the real estate market that your reader might find to their liking, such as real estate tips, market status, selling and buying info, property description, real estate trends, and so on.

Many blog owners are focusing too much on search engines rather than concentrating on the actual content of their site. Remember, information is the number one service of Internet, so it would only be best to turn your site as informative as possible to the online public.

Internet Marketing Strategies

Now that you have an idea on how a proper real estate blog should be, the next thing we need to consider is how to make it accessible to various surfers and Web spiders on the World Wide Web. Here are some tips to consider in improving your site’s popularity and accessibility:

1. Search Engines Optimization (SEO)

SEO is quite useful in boosting your site traffic for a profitable venture. For starters, you can optimize your site with relevant keywords so that it can be picked up by search engines. The more keywords you have in different areas of your site, without compromising its content, the better the results would be.

2. Generating Links

You can spread your blog site’s popularity by spreading links around. Implement link building strategies with popular real estate blogs or sites on the Internet. You can also subscribe to blog and Web directories as well.

3. Blog Add-ons

Another marketing strategy in improving your real estate blog’s success is to make use of applets that will improve your site’s traffic. You can include an RSS feeder into your site so that your subscribers will be updated every time you have a new post. You can also insert a chat room, forum, or guest book on your site to increase interaction with your visitors, thus promoting proper communication with potential clients

Although each blogger’s methods and techniques may differ, there will always be some form of disagreement among real estate bloggers as to what the mix of content should be placed or written, or should you simply stick to writing purely real estate content. The argument generally hinges around the premise that the blogger will be more successful in generating business if they can catch the home buyer and seller when they’re actually wanting to buy or sell real estate.

However, there are those who argue that spending a lot of time posting about the community, events, business and other area happenings is totally a waste of time, which some have even compared to as advertising that you sell real estate on the window of a local department store. To be exact, the truth is that most individuals begin their real estate property search much earlier on the Internet, and only a tiny fraction of the population is currently interested in buying or selling real estate.

Tips To Follow, And Avoid When Blogging For Real Estate

In the process of locating and buying homes, the Internet today serves as an essential tool to help bring consumers the information they truly need. The Internet is home thousands, or even millions of Web sites, therefore the first thing one needs to do, is to go over these Web sites and choose among their available selections.

This is advisable for those who have no specific plans or location in mind. To be more effective, you should be able to thoroughly set a target location on where you are going to buy something like for example a home. As real estate blogs these days help to establish an agent or broker’s credentials, here area few tips on which advice to follow, and what to disregard, when blogging.

- Excessive Self-Promotion Won’t Help. Most readers I think would probably stop reading blogs that include a paragraph or more about the author’s industry record and exceptional services at the bottom of every post, particularly if the full paragraph is filled with links. If unless you were one of the originals, you’d probably can expect no one to read your blog.

- Don’t Expect Everyone To Comment. Just because you asked a question for instance, you shouldn’t expect people to comment quickly. If you want a response out of your readers, you really have to make your blog’s content very interesting, and before asking a question,ensure that you’re providing content that is going to provoke your readers to respond.

- Read Other Blogs As Well. When you do not dare to read other people’s posts, they’d most likely won’t read yours, and won’t likely link to you as well.

- Do Not Use A Generic Theme. You should always remember to take some time to personalize the theme of your blog. Doing such simple steps such as adding your photo or editing the header graphic and changing the page’s colors would truly make a large difference.

- Do Not Create Multiple Blogs. Most good real estate bloggers maintain a single blog, to help them focus on their content and niche markets. It probably helps to keep your focus on a single blog first, than ty to maintain different blogs, and find it hard to make each one of them interesting.

- Do Not Post Your Listings. When you treat your real estate blog as a community resource, you will be rewarded by your readers. However, when you treat your blog as an advertisement, most would skip it and won’t mind reading it.