1. Exposure:

One of the top reasons for starting a real estate blog is to gain exposure for your business. Search engines love updated content, and adding a new blog post a couple of times a week or more helps you rank higher in the search engines. With each step you take towards the first page or even towards the number-one search engine spot, it becomes easier for your target audience to find you. This can mean the difference between a slow trickle of visitors to your site (or none at all) and a steady flow. And of course, more exposure means more chances to gain clients and obtain referrals.

2. Reputation:

Regular blogging can help you establish yourself as an expert, But the key is choosing a niche to explore and using your knowledge of it to establish a strong online presence. There are many bloggers who focus on general real estate topics, and you can eventually build a reputation for yourself doing the same thing. However, you might establish your reputation faster if you choose a real estate niche and focus on that instead. This way, you aren’t telling your audience you are a jack of all trades. Instead, you’re telling prospects that you are the expert with a particular type of real estate, transaction type, client profile or area. This doesn’t mean you can’t offer them a full range of services, but you’ll draw them in with your expertise in a niche or two.

3. Differentiation:

A well-developed real estate blog also helps differentiate you from other agents. It provides a platform from which you can share all that’s unique and special about you. With ads, you have only so much space to make yourself stand out and show your prospects why they need you. A blog, on the other hand, provides a perfect platform for separating yourself from the competition. You have the space to really make yourself shine, and each time you write a post, you have the chance to demonstrate that you are both dedicated and different.

4. Connection:

When you establish and maintain an interesting and informative blog, you aren’t just sharing with your audience; you’re also encouraging dialogue. Though it can take time to build a loyal audience, you will eventually discover that people want to discuss your posts. Your audience may begin to ask questions, leave comments, and share thoughts and opinions with you. Your prospects might share your posts with their friends, family members and business associates who are also in need of real estate help. This engagement provides ongoing chances for you to generate leads and further establish yourself as a go-to person in the real estate industry.

Let our REVStaffing virtual assistants give your blog the lift it needs for success in 2012! Learn how we dramatically boost our clients’ productivity. Take the next step towards better organization of your residential or commercial business by sending us an email, or give us a call for a free needs analysis.

Start by avoiding these common blog killers:

1. Irrelevant Content:

Your target audience has no shortage of real estate blogs to consider. With so many other agents vying for attention, you can’t afford to give your visitors anything less than exactly what they want. To do this, you have to learn what your audience searches for online and then write about those topics. The topics your readers want may not always interest you, but that’s really not the point. You have to write content that is of real value to your audience to ensure that people will visit your blog, become readers and keep coming back for more.

2. Poor Formatting:

Many new bloggers make the mistake of just writing posts without giving a care to formatting. Often, they post long blocks of writing without using subheadings, bolding, lists or whitespace. Long blocks of text are the kiss of death online because Internet users won’t bother with them. As they read, they get bored, their eyes start to cross or they get a headache. Then, before you know it, they’re moving on to another agent’s real estate blog.

Improve your formatting by writing shorter paragraphs and using a significant amount of whitespace. This breaks your text into bite-sized chunks for your readers and pleases those who like to skim posts. Likewise, use subheadings and bulleted or numbered lists to your advantage. They not only help you break up your text, but they also help skimmers see what each paragraph will cover at a glance. Good subheadings and lists also help generate interest, as they capture a reader’s attention and encourage him to keep reading.

3. Irregular Posting:

Blogging success depends on regular posting. Your readers visit your blog looking for information, news and updates that are of value to them, and they expect these things on a predictable basis. To establish reader loyalty and encourage your readers to share your posts online, set a regular schedule of posting and stick to it. For example, you might decide to post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or every Tuesday and Thursday. Your readers will expect new content on these days and come to your blog looking for it. Posting sporadically disappoints your readers and sends them off in search of a new real estate blog to frequent.

4. Building Without Marketing

Your blog will only help you meet your goals if your target audience finds it. Search engine optimization can help you get traffic from the search engines, but alone, it’s just not enough. To draw more visitors in, use the following methods to market your blog:

• Add blog updates to all your social media accounts

• Use social bookmarking

• Submit your posts to relevant blog directories

• Ping your blog posts

• Write for other sites and link to your blog

• Add your blog feed link to your email signature

Let our REVStaffing virtual assistants give your blog the lift it needs for success in 2012! Discover today how we dramatically boost our clients’ productivity. Take your next step towards better organization of your residential or commercial business by sending us an email, or give us a call for a free needs analysis.