With real estate blogging, when someone asks
“Does it work?” they mean, “Does it generate business?”

It does.
Here’s why:

Your potential clients have questions.
You have the answers.
Your blog is the vehicle that delivers the answers to your potential clients.
It delivers them through Google.
It delivers them through Email.
It delivers them through Social Media.
You build trust and earn new clients through reliable counsel.
The formula is simple:
For Google: The more your create >> the more you are “spidered” >> the more you are “indexed” >> the more you’re found >> the more you’re read >> the more you’re trusted >> the more new business you generate.
For Social Media: The more your create >> the more you are shared >> the more you’re found >> the more you’re read >> the more you’re trusted >> the more new business you generate.
NOTE: There are just 2 little caveats to making sure that the above is going to to work out as planned.
1. If you don’t have a well defined target audience, you won’t be answering the questions that they are asking.
Learn more about how and why to define a limited target audience.
2. Every bit of your content needs to be unique. The ideas, and the topics, and the questions you answer don’t have to be unique. It’s the content that you publish that needs to be unique if you want to have any chance at success.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post Why Does Real Estate Blogging Work? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Those huge photos on your website are driving away your visitors.

Creating a strong first-impression-emotion in your audience is a great strategy to keep visitors on your site. But when that first-impression-emotion is annoyance your bounce-rate will skyrocket.
The current trend is to use large, full-width, high-impact images to create emotion in your visitor. But improper use these images are killing your website.
I see it everywhere. Click to visit… wait, and wait for the top of a site to load.

Expect that 7 seconds is the very longest your new visitors will wait for a page to load. For repeat visitors it is a little longer at 10 seconds. But both of these load speeds are unacceptable; you should be impressing your audience in the first 3 seconds, no excuse.
Google states that it takes load speeds* into account with their SERPs Ranking.
Granted, there are many factors that can slow your site (server speed, coding, plugins, redirects, etc.) but as a casual website owner, it is the improper use of larger images that you can quickly overcome and avoid.

How To Optimize Images On Your Website.

Let’s take a common scenario just to illustrate how effective the following steps can be.
Here is a standard photo taken with an iphone.
When you click on the image, you will notice how large it is (actual dimension is 4032px by 3024px). The largest, common resolution dimension of monitors today is 1920 x 1080. That image is 200% larger than your largest common monitor is going to display.
The image also comes in at 4.3mb (its file size).
The average size of a webpage in 2016 is 2.5mb
That means the image I have uploaded is 172% larger than the average webpage!
The fastest sites are loading less than 2mb, total.
If I were to use this image, as is, it would crush loading speeds. And yet, it’s common to see sites using multiple images of this size on a page.
So what can we do about it?

• Resize
• Reduce
• Optimize

For resizing and reducing, I use a tool called IrfanView. But you can use just about any image editing tool to get similar results.
The file size is governed by 3 things. The dimension, the resolution (dots per inch, or DPI), and the stored data (everything from a time-stamp to camera type depending on the file type).

Resize (or crop)

First thing, let’s bring the dimensions of the image down to your optimal size.
If the image is intended to be full width, then it doesn’t need to be wider than 2000px (Remember: The largest, common resolution dimension of monitors today is 1920 x 1080). If the image is meant to be placed within content, then consider how wide it needs to be, and crop it to that exact size. This is always going to be less than 1000px. The computer image at the top of this article is just 700px.

Reduce DPI

The web doesn’t demand high DPI levels like print does. 72 is standard, and you can even get it down to 60 DPI if you don’t mind the image a little less than crisp.
Here you can see those settings
Just those 2 adjustments above have brought the image down from 4.3 mbs to 954kbs (22% of the original). Cropping it a more sensible height (750px) reduces it further to 549kb (13% of the original)

Optimize/Compress

And finally, by running the image through a file optimizer, I am able to strip the unneeded photo data bringing the final file size down to 499kb. (11.6% of the original)

I use a desktop tool called FileOptimizer but there are less intimidating image optimizers/compressors that you can use online like the following:
jpegmini.com
compressor.io
optimizilla.com
499kb is still a big file to have on a webpage, but after running some speed tests, it looks to load at around 0.2 seconds. So, that’s certainly acceptable, especially if you are hoping to get your visitor’s attention with a high-imact image. As a comparison, the original image was loading at 1.1 seconds.

What if I have a website full of over-sized images?

The last thing you want to have to do is go through your entire website, and resize, reduce, optimize, and replace dozens and dozens of images.
If you are using WordPress, you’re in luck.
There are at least 2 plugins that will make things easier for you.
Ewww Image Optimizer
Imsanity
Why we love them:
These plugins automatically resize new uploads and library images to a reasonable size. This is ideal for users who don’t want (or understand how) to scale images before uploading.
Imgix is another amazing option (that works with or without WordPress).
What Imgix does is like magic. Upload any image size you like, and this service displays an optimized, resized, version of that image dynamically adjusted for any device. When your site loads on a desktop, a desktop appropriate image size is displayed. But when your site is loaded on a mobile device, Imgix loads a different version of your images that is appropriate for mobile. It’s amazing.
*Note this is a paid subscription service.

Very important note about IDX Listing Images.

You should also be sure to use this same approach to optimizing images for the listings you input in the MLS.
When you showcase your “Featured Listings” on your website, through your IDX program, it displays the images as they were uploaded to the MLS. You are going to suffer the same load speed challenges with these images on your website as you would with images directly uploaded to the website.
^{*Google is deliberately vague as to which particular aspect of page speed impacts search ranking – but I think it is safe to assume that if your site’s content is not quick to display, it is not satisfying Google’s aim of getting their results in front of their users as quickly as possible.}

The post Large Images Are Killing Your Real Estate Website appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Photo by Evan Swigart.

In order for something to be made perfect we need to determine what criteria we’re aiming to satisfy.
For me, when you publish an article, you should aim to accomplish at least the following:
1. Help you be found by the target audience, including search engines and your social media reach.
2. Communicate an effective message to your visitor as quickly as possible.
3. Bring your audience closer to doing business with you.
Sounds easy enough…
So what’s the least amount of content you can create in order to satisfy all the above?

Minimum Effort To Perfection:

1. Write A Great Headline.

If you fail at headline writing you will never be a successful blogger.
Why?
If your blog headlines aren’t compelling, no one is going to click to read them. Fail to connect with your audience and they will never visit in the first place.
The headline is the best and easiest place for SEO success. By using keywords and being descriptive in the headline you now have a competitive piece. Google wants to present the results that matter to people’s inquiries.
When your headlines satisfy both what attracts Google and your visitors’ clicks, you win.
Remind me to write: How To Write The Perfect Blog Article Headline.
I took a stab at it some years ago – but I think I can expound.

In order to make something perfect we need to determine what qualities we’re aiming to satisfy.

2. Always Always Always Include An Attractive Picture

So you got them to click because of your great headline… now you have to deliver that next punch that will set the tone for the blog article; eye candy.
In order to gain and maintain your audience’s interest you will need to make an instant connection and offer continuous stimulation (eye candy). Leveraging an image (or 2 or more) to enhance your message can mean the difference between a 5 second glance and a 3 minute read of your content.
The Essentials For Using Images In Your Real Estate Blog Articles

3. Write Pithy Content

The faster you can connect with and deliver the message to your audience, the more effective it will be.
Here’s the trick to writing high-impact, concise content:
– Pretend you are paying someone $3 a word for copy.
This will force you to get to the point and cut out the unnecessary fluff.
For example the above could be more economical like so: “This forces you to cut the unnecessary.”
7 words instead of 15. Or $24 cheaper =)
– Practice writing 5 articles in a week, all under 200 words each.
(For context, I average ~1000 words a post. )
– Pick a picture with the most impact.
If it can be worth a 1000 words think of all the typing you have just saved yourself.
–  Instead of using in-depth explanations, link (in a new window) to additional commentary, definitions, and/or related content.

 4. Properly Categorize and Tag Each Article

Every article you write should fall under (at least) one of your well planned categories.
This helps communicate the agenda of your consistent message to the visitor and to the search engines.
Similarly, tagging one’s article by it’s topic(s) is a crucial step in organizing your content. While your categories help you identify the general agenda, adding tags to an article help you identify the particular subject matter.

An article can’t be perfect unless you are enticing your audience to take an action that leads them closer to doing business with you.

5. Link To Related/Relevant Articles In Your Database

Similar to properly categorizing your content, by offering links to related content from each article, you are satisfying all 3 of the perfection criteria above.
The links encourage your audience to continue reading, in turn building trust and showcasing your expertise.
The search engines are able to spider deeper into your archives and make connections as to the relationship between your content and keywords.

6. Locate Clear Calls To Action

Whether they are designed into your article template (automatically included on each post) or you craftily weave calls-to-action into your copy, an article can’t be perfect unless you are enticing your audience to take an action that leads them closer to doing business with you.

Additional Elements Of The Perfect (Longer) Article

Simply look at a longer article as if it were just a series of pithy articles under one main title.

1. Headings – Another Chance at Headline Writing (see above).

The best way to keep your audience reading through longer copy is to break up the content with Headings. Establish a solid point and write a rich title right smack in the middle of the article.
For more info on how to properly use Headings in your articles, check out our WYSIWYG article.

2. Formatting – The Best Way To Ensure Your Long Article Is Read

Making an article a joy to read goes beyond the content itself. An attractive article, one that is easy to read and follow, increases the chance that it will be read and finished. Learn to master the use of Headlines, Pictures, Links, Short Paragraphs, Pull Quotes, Block Quotes, and Lists.

3. Add Additional Images

More images means more unwritten, yet clear message impact.

Examples Of Perfect Real Estate Blog Articles

Here are a couple that satisfy most of the Perfection Criteria:

Complete Guide To Coconut Grove’s Gated Communities
Great headline, great picture, very useful map, easy-to-read formatting, great integration of CTAs, great resource links, well categorized and a great text template CTA at the footer of the article.
Suggestions: Additional reading/related-posts – and maybe another image to break up the content (but not necessary).
What Does $1 Million Buy in Today’s Very Strong Santa Barbara Real Estate Market?
Great headline, great pictures, very easy-to-read formatting/font, great integration of CTAs, great resource links, great related posts, it is well categorized and a great use of quick-search links.
Suggestions:  None.
Hat tip to Steve Beam for requesting this topic to be covered here.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post Is There Such A Thing As A Perfectly Written Real Estate Blog Article? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Biting off more than you can chew will be the death of your real estate blogging.
But I hear it all the time: “My blog needs to showcase that I specialize in these 10 communities.”

You have 2 hands/10 fingers and only so many hours a week to dedicate to content creation (blogging). How can you possibly create enough content to come off as the expert, equally, for all 10 communities? You can’t. Not alone, anyhow.
“But I want to make sure that people know how much ground I cover.”
The best way to do this is two-fold:
1. Write up profiles for as many communities as you reach. Showcase this group in either a carousel or a sidebar group/list linking off to each profile.
2. Leverage your IDX functionality to offer property searching in a wide range of locations. This can be done in a quick search dropdown and/or in a sidebar list, not unlike the profiles above.
But successfully covering this range of communities with blogging content is another story.

In order for blogging to work, and work swiftly, you need to illustrate to your audience that you are an expert on your topic(s).
This is done by comprehensively covering a niche from many angles (housing market, entertainment, landmarks, schools, parks, events, listings, etc). By spreading your efforts across many locations, you water down your impression to whimsical.
Look at it this way:
If water (success) is 100′ deep, you don’t dig five 20′ holes.
You get started digging to 100′. Once you have reached success for that niche, you can set out to dig subsequent holes. Your experience will be better because now you can apply what you have learned to be more effective, more efficient and more properly expectant of your effort.

The Bottom Line For Blogging On Multiple Communities:

I understand that you want to showcase the range of ground that you cover locally. So do this with property search options and community profiles. But leave the blogging effort (at least in the beginning) to at most a couple (that’s 2!) communities. The audience that you attract with your blogging will respond to your efforts. This will in turn encourage you to continue blogging, opening up the opportunity to cover a greater range in the future.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post How Much Ground Should I Cover With My Real Estate Blog? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

SEO Improvement.

I’m not here to shove keyword density, PageRank, or backlink strategies down your throat.  Here are just a couple of simple (and easily overlooked) tips for improving your website’s SEO.

1. Run A Check For Broken Links

Broken links refer to any link on your site where the destination is an error page. This can happen when URLs that you link to have changed, been removed, or they were entered incorrectly in the first place.
Broken links on your site can not only be embarrassing to you and frustrating to your visitor, but they can also have a detrimental affect on your SEO. The good news is that it is easy to search for and repair your broken links.
Here are 3 options:
1. The WordPress Plugin: Broken Link Checker.
Support for this plugin.
2. Online Web App: BrokenLinkCheck.com
3. Desktop App: Xenu Link Sleuth (hint: use the Direct Download Link)
Funny name, but this is the original power search for broken links.
Broken Links are going to continue to happen. It is part of owning a website full of content. So another (bonus) suggestion here would be to have a custom 404 page (the page that loads when a broken link is clicked). A functional 404 page will offer clear calls to action, a content search box, and sometimes something clever – just for fun. A quick Google image search returns some examples of what I am referring to.

2. Link New Articles To Relevant Older Articles and Vice Versa

Linking one article to another is one of the easiest ways to improve the performance of your website.
Improvement is twofold.
First, your are now providing a link to additional content on the topic to your engaged audience. This keeps your visitor on the site longer, improving your chances of conversion.
And secondly, there’s great SEO value when linking in this manner. The more you link around your website, the more the search engines are able to index deeply into your pages. Linking to old posts allows them to be reindexed, in turn giving them new life.

Overall Housecleaning

3. Clean Up Your Sidebar(s)

If you’re not careful your website sidebars, because they are widgetized, could end up being as cluttered as your attic. Your general rule of discard should be, if you haven’t used it in a year get rid of it.
Categories
Revisit your choice of categories. If there is one you haven’t been using delete it, or hide it. If you have two that are similar, combine them. Consider renaming categories if they’re not descriptive or keyword rich. Click to read a more comprehensive blog category strategy.

Archives
If you haven’t already, change your Archive list to a drop-down menu using the standard WP widgets.
Clutter
The goal of your site it to make your site as simple as possible for your visitor, clutter causes confusion.
Toss outdated badges, awards, affiliations, chiclets, groups, ads, and other completely unnecessary items.

4. Clean Up Your Footer

Like the sidebar, it’s time to remove items that offer no value to your visitor. Common useless items I see in there are badges for (now defunct) blog directories, blog rankings, and webrings.
The very bottom of your site should have, at most, a selection from the following items:
Contact profile, including a business address
Your DRE #
Real estate affiliations
Equal housing and REALTOR® logos
Site credits
Login link
Copyright Info
A reprise of your branding/logo/company logos
Text navigation matching your header’s nav.
That’s it.

Simplify the Visitor Experience

Certainly the above items could fall under this heading, but the following are specifically geared to making sure that your visitor’s experience is as good as it can be.

5. Improve Your Fonts

First of all, you have a blog, right? And you want people to stay and read your articles? MAKE THE FONT BIGGER! Make it easy on our eyes to read your writing. But, do not do this in the text editor. All your font changes need to be done in the CSS Stylesheet.  For more on this, Learn To Use The WYSIWYG Properly.
Secondly, Google now allows us to choose from hundreds (and growing) of unique fonts for our web content. Break out of the Arial/Verdana/Tahoma funk and spice up your fonts! This touch of personality will make a difference in first impression and overall attractiveness for your content.

6. Reconsider Your Calls-To-Action (if you even have any)

What are the first action items that your visitors see on the site? Make sure that these are in consonance with your visitors’ expectations. But most importantly, make sure that your CTAs are driving your visitors one step closer to doing business with you.  This is all that matters: Are you giving them the experience that they are anticipating, and does that experience lead to working with you?
OK – so this might not be an “instant improvement” but it is something that you really need to take care of immediately. Otherwise your site is not going to perform to its potential. Contact us on this if you are not sure how to make the most of this consideration.

7. Re-evaluate Your Niche – Have You Strayed From Your Intended Audience?

A formula for successful real estate blogging is hammering a niche. But if you have been blogging for a while, there is a tendency to waver from that focus and just publish to publish without much consideration for who you are reaching.
Every year, every month, every week, every day there is a new audience visiting your site. They rarely dig deep into your archives. This means that they are not reading all the great, relevant, niche posts you published over the last few years. Start that niche again – dig in and publish on the same topics/neighborhoods/niches that you have built your site to satisfy.
There is more than one way to pin a tail on the donkey.  Just because you said it once doesn’t mean that there isn’t another way to say it, and there’s a whole new audience that has yet to hear it from you.
Some of these tips might require working with a designer to accomplish, and if you find that you need this level of support, contact us first – we’d love to help!

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post 7 Ways To Instantly and Greatly Improve Your Real Estate Blog appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

It took a lot longer than I had anticipated to design the infographic, so I hope you all enjoy it!

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post How To Ensure Your Success As A Real Estate Blogger – The Infographic appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

I’ve written a lot of posts.
Some might say I have the hang of it now – but this wasn’t always the case.
I used to hate writing.
I did poorly in English classes in high school, poorly on the Reading/Writing portion of the SATs, and got a C- in the only writing class I had to take in college.
A future as a writer was not in the cards.
But I love discussions. I love to share experiences. I love to teach. I love solutions. I love being a consultant.

The Real Estate Tomato was born from the idea that my (online marketing) advice needed to have a more permanent location. The progressive ideas escaping my mouth and passing into the collective ear and out the other of my audience was unsatisfying and (I believed) under-appreciated.
I needed to reach an audience that was going to leverage the knowledge I had to share, and not just nod in agreement.
I started reading blogs about my own interests to see how others were sharing their insight online. I was sold immediately. I had to try and be a blogger myself. It seemed the perfect medium to be heard and appreciated.
The fact that I am no Ernest Hemingway couldn’t compete with my determination and enthusiasm.
Looking back on some of my first articles (you’ll be hard pressed to find them) I cringe at their state.  But after plugging along and reading 100s of articles from bloggers better than I, the format to developing an effective article became clear: Give the audience what they came to read as quickly and obviously as you can.
We’re all consultants, right? We spend our time with clients either answering questions/concerns or teaching and sharing wisdom.
It would seem that since we have no issue communicating effectively enough to have people continue to do business with us, we should be able to deliver this same message, just as effectively through the keyboard.

The trick is the following:

1. Don’t be afraid to jump right in.
Your audience when you first start blogging is you. No one is going to laugh at you, or point out how terrible a job you’ve done. There is no criticism to fear.
2. Blog about what you know & don’t over think it.
Pretend you are composing an email to a new client. You are direct, clear, confident and helpful.
Don’t try to sound like a writer. Compose on topic and make it easy on yourself and your reader.
Don’t try to write everything you know in one article – leave something on the bone.
Don’t try to be clever/funny if you’re not.
Get comfortable delivering sound information and you’ll find your voice.
3. Learn to write effective headlines.
This advice is the linchpin to your success – and I have written a ton about it and so has Copyblogger.
4. Use the Cookbook Recipe Format to compose quick and easy-to-appreciate articles.
Delicious Title.
Scrumptious Picture.
Warm Intro.
Tasty Bullet Points.
Satisfying Conclusion
Sweet Calls-To Action
Leave them wanting more.
5. Develop the habit.
Consistency is key to your success in the search engines and with your readers.
6. Bad artists copy. Great artists steal – Pablo Picasso
Learn from the bloggers that you most respect. Be inspired by their techniques and leverage them as your own. To be successful, you learn from the successful.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post What If I’m Not A Good Writer But I Want To Be An Effective Real Estate Blogger? appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Taking time off from writing on your blog whether intentional or just an effect of your focus on other elements of your business does not need to be its demise.

Note: If you have taken a break, inadvertently or not, and you don’t see yourself getting back on the train soon, then you should consider a few actions:

1. Removing it from the first impression of your site
Place your blog behind a button as opposed to leaving it on the homepage for every new visitor to see that you have failed to update for months.
2. Removing visible dates from posts to make it difficult to discern when articles were posted.
Typically this is a simple code edit that any savvy service provider can tackle in seconds.

I have taken several breaks from blogging, and am just getting back in the swing from one now.

Even though I have written hundreds of informative articles, the most common emotions I feel because of the lapses are guilt and embarrassment.  We have trained 1000s of real estate agents how to leverage blogging for business and here I am not applying rule #1: Create content.

The only consolation is that I can certainly relate with those in our audience that have slipped similarly in trying to maintain a consistent blogging effort.  I understand how business can get in the way, how days of lapse turn into weeks which turn into months.  But, be assured, I am never far from this blog.  I have dozens of new ideas sketched out, headlines written, half posts never completed, and I, like all of you, am always pushing forward with sound advice albeit not in written form.
Recommitting to blogging is a great idea for all the same reasons that it was in the first place. Blogging helps you be found online because of the expertise that you took the time to share. Gaining exposure to your new content and the re-spidering of your older content is a huge boost when competing to be found for the topics you cover. There is arguably no better way to make a first impression to your visitor.

Once you get excited about blogging again, try not to lose that momentum.

Instead of writing that Epic Post, try just publishing a little bit at a time.
Frequency is the key – the habit is the muscle that needs to be redeveloped.
Imagine trying to get back in physical shape after a long break. You know what it takes, you’ve done it before, and you know it is going to be a shock to the system to dive in full force. You don’t just start running 5 miles a day, every day. This is a sure way to injure yourself or at a minimum put up a pace that you can’t maintain.
You ease into it, but with discipline.
Some might need to walk for several days before they can even jog, some start jogging short distances, slowly increasing their goal.
But the key is the discipline. Whether it is just a short jog, or a slow walk, it needs to be done regularly to reestablish the habit.
Similarly, after not blogging for a while, the goal of trying to fit in 5 hours a week of writing is usually unreasonable.
Begin with short, high-impact posts that can be published in less than 20 minutes.

Here are some ideas to get back to blogging with the least amount of impact on your keyboard.

1. A Teachable Moment from a Listing
I love the idea of taking the experience of visiting a listing on tour, snapping a couple of quick images with your phone and making a teachable moment out of the experience.  Perhaps it is a great example of curb appeal making it stand out in the neighborhood.  Or perhaps it was staged brilliantly and showcases to be worth more than comparable homes on the market.
These examples could be posted in just a few minutes and the impact is clear; use your everyday real estate experiences to showcase your experience on your blog with a picture and a paragraph.
2. A Multiple Part Series of Quick and Easy Points.
Got a great idea for a post, but immediately recognize that it is a doozie?  Don’t look at the mountain and get overwhelmed, just break it up into multiple articles.  Turn what could have taken you 2 hours to write into 2 weeks of content.
3. Photo Blogging
With today’s smart phones you can snap great photos and even dictate a description to your blog in minutes. Once you get the hang of using apps to snap, dictate and publish, you’ll be updating the blog every time you leave the house.
4. An Email Re-Published
You write a lot of emails, a LOT of emails.  We all do. Lots of times it is a very well thought-out answer to a client’s question. How many others could benefit from this answer? Clean it up, make it anonymous and put it on your blog for your whole audience to appreciate.
5. Rewrites of Oldie-But-Goody Posts from Your Archive.
You can never step in the same river twice. There is more than one way to pin a tail on the donkey.  Just because you said it once doesn’t mean that there isn’t another way to say it, and there’s a whole new audience that has yet to hear it from you.
6. Pearls of Wisdom
Post quick, 1 or 2 sentence nuggets of sound advice.  It is just enough to get you back in the swing of publishing, and back on the train.

What to avoid?

1. Long Winded, Analytic Posts.
I know I am guilty of these every time I sit down to blog.  But this is a case of do as I say and not as I do.  All my blogging is analytic, which is probably the cause of my own blogging lapses.  Knowing that you have to commit an hour or more for each post sure makes it difficult to reestablish the habit.
2. Copied Content
Avoid the short cuts to get back into blogging.  Copying a post, or linking off to someone else’s article is not blogging. This is garbage and won’t help you reap the benefits of the exercise.
3. Research Posts
This should not be work, especially when you are trying to get back into the swing of a regular blogging.  Similar to the analytic posts, a research post (market statistics, laws, etc) will leave a bad taste in your mouth when it comes to duplicating the effort.
4. Listings
Republishing MLS data is not blogging.  I’ve read the apologists that claim it’s a sound strategy and I fail to see their logic. I see your role as a real estate blogger as one providing wisdom, not regurgitating what is on the MLS – that’s what your Search for Homes button does.
5. Excuses
Don’t feel like you need to explain your absence.  Just get back on the train and blog what people want from you – wisdom, insight, expertise, opinion, news, knowledge, tips and entertainment.

The best strategy is to never stop developing content even if it is not ready to be published.

If you enjoy blogging and the success that comes with it, but yet still find yourself unable to maintain the commitment that you know it takes, I suggest not letting yourself get too far from the blog in the first place.
Write what you can, even if you aren’t close to ready to publish it.

Ways to stay connected to your blog without having to get back full steam:

1. Keep a list of great blog ideas.
2. Write blog headlines for future articles.
3. Sketch out bullet points of future articles.
4. Write the first paragraph for future articles
5. Try publishing something at least once a month.
6. Go thru your older posts and do a little housecleaning: Locate potential re-writes, do some proofreading, or even delete articles that you no longer want to be a representation of your focus/expertise
All of the above exercises take the minimum effort and will be a great repository of content for you to delve into once you are ready to reestablish your commitment.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post Wipe The Dust Off Your Real Estate Blog – How To Get Back In The Swing Of Blogging Again appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

As mentioned in the recent article about using images, we’ve received great feedback during our live reviews of the websites submitted by our free webinar attendees.
I bring it up again, because another common infraction we see during our website reviews is an inconsistent use of fonts.
Here are some sound tips on how (and why) to maintain a consistency of font usage as well as how to best take advantage of the font styling tools in your WYSIWYG.

Use the WYSIWYG Editor to Compose Your Articles.

Many beginner bloggers are used to composing documents with tools like Microsoft Word/Works/PPT.
Their first impression of the WordPress WYSIWYG editor is that it is limiting, and it is (this is on purpose, I’ll explain later).
Since the common concern is that there is (seemingly) no way to adjust font sizes in the WYSIWYG, they fall back on tools that they are comfortable with and copy/paste their content back into WordPress. This causes all sorts of issues not the least of which is a lack of uniformity.
The proper way to adjust font sizes in your blog articles is to use the Heading options in the drop down menu (under ‘paragraph’).  The only instances where you should have a need for a larger font are in the Title of the Article and when you create subheadings within the article.  All other text should remain in “paragraph” form.
Here’s a crash course in using the Heading Options:
Heading 1 – Ignore this for now. This is the main Title of the Page (not the article)
Heading 2  – Ignore this for now. This is reserved for the Title of the Article.
Heading 3 – Use this for Major Breaks in your articles such as each of the 3 items in a 3 item list.
Heading 4 – Use this for breaks between Heading 3s
Heading 5 – If you must… use this for breaks between Heading 4s
Heading 6 – Forget it.

Let Me Introduce You To The CSS Stylesheet

The stylesheet of your blogsite sets the standard for the text formats including font family, sizes, colors, links, and styling.  These standards are global, meaning that they are set to be consistent throughout the site, maintaining a uniform appearance.  Conform to these established rules and work within the WYSIWYG to achieve the best results.
If you are not happy with the the current font styling on your articles (or any other location on your site) then you’ll need to make changes to the CSS Stylesheet.  If you are unfamiliar with CSS, ask a tech savvy friend, or learn from W3Schools (Text and Font).

The Look Of The Text Editor Version Is Nothing Like The Live Article

I admit that this can be a frustration, but it needs to be overcome.
As a blogger, it is crucial that you are comfortable blogging from the WordPress platform.  The best suggestion is to regularly preview the article to get a sense of how the live version will appear before publishing.  I usually end up previewing an article several times before I publish it to make sure that everything fits properly.

Do Not Copy/Paste Into the Visual Editor

If you must paste content, do so in the HTML editor (see tabs on upper right of WYSIWYG).
By placing it here, you are able to eliminate all formatting from the selection. This avoids the potential inconsistencies you get when bringing content from a different source.

Use Bold/Underling/Italics To Add Stress, Not Color

Cut the crap with all the colors.
I can see using a color to draw attention to a word or phrase, but please, please, please leave it to a single instance.  A post full of colored words looks amateur.  Respect your content. If you format the article properly, you’ll have no problem adding stress to words and phrases with the standard options.
Similarly, please be conscious to limit your use of the bold/underline/italics.  The idea is to draw attention to particularly strong phrases.  Trust me, your article is not strewn with impact.

Use The Spell Check

Spelling errors do make you look less intelligent and lazy.  With all the spell check options at your disposal, you have no excuse.
Now if they could only provide us with grammar, syntax, context and logic checkers 🙂
If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.

The post Blogging Basics – Learn To Use The WYSIWYG Properly appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

During some of our blogging/social media webinars, we have been known to give honest, first impression reviews of websites submitted by our attendees.  No punches are pulled and the feedback is often direct and unfiltered. I’m sure some feelings are bruised, but they are asking for an honest assessment and we give it to them.  The feedback we have gotten from attendees on the website reviews has been overwhelmingly positive.
I bring this up because of all the common infractions we see in the real estate blogs submitted for review, the lack of imagery in the articles is most apparent.
There are many elements to developing blog content that gets read, but arguably the most important (after the headline) is the inclusion of interesting imagery.
Most online readers need an instant connection and continuous stimulation (eye candy) in order to gain and maintain their interest.  Leveraging an image (or 2 or more) to enhance your message can mean the difference between a 5 second glance and a 3 minute read of your content.
Here are some sound tips and tools for finding, editing, enhancing, and inserting images.

Where Do You Find Great Images For Your Blog Articles?

The wrong answer is Google images.
You must resist stealing, borrowing, improperly and/or ignorantly using images on your site.  Regardless of how easy it is, how little the odds are that you’ll get caught, or whether you knew your were illegally using the images or not, it is still against the law.  The penalty for getting caught illegally using just a single image can cost you of 1000s of dollars.  Here are a few articles to scare you straight.
In fact, there’s a browser plugin called TinEye that allows you to do a  reverse image search, exposing other uses of an image on the internet.  It’s amazing.

The Most Sound Resource Should Be Your Own Camera.

Every real estate agent should know their way around a camera and keep one in the car.  Taking better than average photographs of property is an essential skill.  Now apply this to the world about which you are blogging.  Our regular guest author Teresa Boardman personally snapped the majority of the images she uses in her blogging.

Browse Affordable Stock Image Websites

At around $1 an image you can’t go wrong or broke selecting images from millions of quality images.
Here are a few of my favorites:
123RF.com
iStockPhoto.com
VectorStock.com
EveryStockPhoto.com
BigStockPhoto.com
DreamsTime.com
Fotolia
In addition to the pay-per-picture options above, Stock.xchng is a great library (400,000+) of free stock images. (continue reading below for more free image resources) Please note: Not all  of the images presented in their database are free.  The results of searches provide both free and premium results.
The premium results require a financial investment.
Disclaimer: Use images from all of the above services at your own risk.
There are detailed restrictions, rights, usage options and licenses for every image your download from these services.  Read each carefully in order to understand your rights.  I specifically suggested the above because as far as I understand, once purchased, you have the right to use them in your online marketing efforts, including blog articles as long as they are not used for pornographic or unlawful purposes such as spreading hate, discrimination, or defamation.

The Little Known Creative Commons Option

The Creative Commons Copyright License allows the work (in this case, image) to be taken advantage of as Reusable Material.
The work is still owned by the individual creator, however it may be freely reused without the creator’s permission according to the terms of a CC Copyright license.
In most cases a simple attribution (“Photo by Artist Name and a link to their website if possible) to the original author of the work is all that is required for it’s lawful use.
Again, you must not violate the terms of use as disclaimed above, and double check the license of each and every image you consider reusing. If you want to be super secure in your use of an image, you can always email the author to ensure your lawful use.
Preferred Creative Commons Databases:
Wylio (Awesome CC Search – Hat tip Bill Wilson)
Wikimedia (your rights to use images)
Flickr Creative Commons (Attribution License)

Expired Copyrights & Public Domain Images

Images in the public domain got there because they either had no copyright, it expired or it was released to the PD by the original author.
Currently, for images that were published before 1923 in the United States, their copyrights are expired and free to use in a medium such as your real estate blog.
Here is great list of Free To Use Public Domain images:
StockXchng (over 400,000 images)
TotallyFreeImages.com (~500,000 images)
PublicDomainPictures.net (over 10,000 free images)
StockVault.net (Over 20,000 images)
Photos8.com (over 12,000 free images)
Sunipix.com (over 10,000 images)
FreeStockPhotos.biz (over 10,000 images)
PDPhoto.org (1000s of images)
Bestphotos.us (1000s of images)
CopyrightExpired.com (large collection of illustrations from popular sources pre-1923)
HistoryPicks.com (Large database of free to use historical photos and illustrations, pre-1923)

Fair Use of Copyrighted Works

The biggest concern that I have with people using copyrighted works and claiming “fair use” is that fair use is actually determined on a case by case basis.
My suggestion is that if you are unsure as to whether or not you are protected under a “fair use” scenario then you should avoid using the work for fear of subjecting yourself to legal challenges.
Some Examples of Fair Use
Parody
Criticism
News Reporting/Commentary
Teaching
So it seems, that if you are making fun of, criticizing, reporting on, or teaching about something that would be enhanced with a copyrighted work, then you are protected by fair use.
For example, I could include the logos of any of the services/websites/tools that I have mentioned in the article because I am teaching and providing commentary on them.  Or, if a real estate company just launched a new iPhone application, I could use both iphone and the real estate company’s logos or product images as a reporter of the news.  And finally, if I wanted to photoshop an image in such a way that I am parodying the work then I am also (potentially) protected.
There are so many grey areas and stipulations, however, when it comes to being protected under the fair use law that I recommend further reading, or complete avoidance.

Asking Permission of the Photographer or Artist.

Coming across the perfect image doesn’t always happen in the stock image databases.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t legally use it. Being granted permission is sometimes as easy as a quick email or phone call to the artist.  I would expect an attribution requirement at a minimum, but for the perfect image it could just be worth the effort.

Clip Art, If You Must

To me, most clip art cheapens a blog article.  But if you want to poke around and look for that exception, feel free using this list of Public Domain (free) clip art databases:
ClipArt-History.com
http://www.PDClipArt.org
http://www.OpenClipArt.org
http://www.WPClipArt.com
In case you missed it above, I must stress that you are responsible for the lawful usage of any images you find online.  I have tried to provide you with excellent resources for affordable and free images to use in your blogging, but I can’t be certain that all images you find are indeed licensed in a manner that permits you to do so.  Use these services and images at your own risk.

Image Editing for Your Real Estate Blog – My Favorite Tools

Cropping, resizing, flipping, colorizing, brightening, framing, etc. need to be easy in order for most to take the time to do it.
The following list are the free tools we use and train our clients to use.
IrfanView (Funny name, amazingly easy and versatile desktop program.)
Photoshop Online (takes some practice, but it is crazy good – online editor)
Pixer.us (easy and basic online editor)
PicMonkey (robust online editor)
If you are a dedicated blogger, I highly recommend becoming familiar with these types of programs.  When your blog articles are the first impression received of your business online, it only makes sense to put your best foot forward.  Styling images to look great and fit within your articles is crucial.

Watermarking Images – Protect Your Art

Just because you are careful not to use work without proper licensing, doesn’t mean that others are as moral and law-abiding.   Tastefully watermarking your unique images can help protect you from theft and reinforce that you are in fact the artist as well as the author!
Using either the Photoshop Online or the PicMonkey applications you can easily add tasteful watermarks to your images in seconds.  Your first attempt may take you a few minutes to navigate through, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly.
The steps are easy.
1. Visit application of choice.
2. Upload image
3. Navigate to “Create” on PicMonkey or “Decorate” in Photoshop Online.
4. Select Text
5. Choose a location, font, color and size.
6. Adjust “Fade” (PicMonkey) or “Opacity” (PSO) to preference.
7. Save and Done.

How To Properly Add Images To Your Blog Articles

One of the other immediately recognized challenges we saw during our “first impression reviews” was the poor placement of images within blog articles.
Common examples of this challenge are:
Images are too small
There is no breathing room between the image and the text
Text is not being ‘wrapped around’ the image
Poor placement choice of image within the text area
The images are placed ‘below the scroll’
Less obvious challenges are:
No descriptive ‘alt title’ or image name added
Lack of a border around image
Failing to use the image as a Call To Action that links

Basic Suggestions for Placement of Images in Your Blog Articles.

1. Place your first image toward the beginning of the article.
I generally place mine above the first paragraph, but I also really like when the image is placed to the right side of the paragraph.
Placing the image in the upper part of the article guarantees that it will be noticed and you’ll gain the desired effect of including the image in the first place; it helps tell the story.
In order to get the image level/even with the first line of text (which I think looks very clean) you need to place the image before the first letter of the first word in the first paragraph.  From here you use the image formatting tools to align it to the right.  This will allow the words to wrap around the image that now sits to the far right of the container.
Similar to the first image, the rest of your article images should either be formatted to fit at the beginning of paragraphs (or similar break in text) OR placed between paragraphs in the case where you have a wide horizontal image.
2. Advanced Editing options make images look more professionally placed.
In WordPress, after you have an imaged located in your article, you can access the advanced options by clicking the image and selecting the Edit Image icon (tiny landscape).  At the top of the interface that appears select the option for Advanced Settings.  From here you can add a Border (I regularly use “1” to add a 1 pixel thin black line around the image) and Horizontal Space (I usually use “10” to give my images a 10 pixel empty space of padding from the article text).
3. Don’t be afraid to use large images and please stop using tiny images.
If you have selected images that are worth displaying, then showcase them properly.  Determine a common size that looks great in your articles and stick with that for most of your images.  Go bigger if the story is the image.  But little images just look like a cheesy afterthought without much consideration for their impact.
4. Name your images something that is relevant to the article.
Far too often I see images named something like IMG_1024.jpg.  The only way that image will be found in a Google Search is if someone happens to be searching by image number.  By simply changing the name to something more appropriate such as “6 Shipman Rd” (given it is a picture of a house) you can almost guarantee front page exposure. Consider the context and keywords of the article and use those.  There’s no excuse, it’s too easy to not be doing this.
5. When appropriate, link the image to something of value.
Generally, If something that attracts attention is clickable (within an article) it gets clicked.  Use your images as Calls To Action to related articles, categories, home searches, galleries, etc.  You’ve got the audience, now lead them where you want them to go.

If you can’t make the content happen because you don’t have the time, or interest, or language skills, then you need to seek someone who does. Having strong content on your website is crucial for connecting with your visitor and that is the first step in “generating leads.”

Don’t just hire whomever to help with your website’s content. Hire someone who cares and understands your business. Hire someone that you are willing and able to spend time with to train to write on your behalf. This relationship needs to be healthy and maintained in order for you to get the results you want.

Let us do it!

• We research it
• We write it
• We polish it
• We optimize it for Google
• We publish it to your website

You get to sit back, look amazing, and take all the credit.

If this sounds  interesting, let’s have a 10 min call to show you how we’re the reason you’re going to be found in Google.

Curious to learn more? Visit: TomatoCopy.com

The post The Essentials For Using Images In Your Real Estate Blog appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.