Or…

The good ones are too expensive and already too busy to take on new business.

The problem with paying someone to blog for you is that if you don’t know what it takes to be an effective blogger in the first place, it is hard to be a good judge of who you are hiring.

Content is king.

But…crappy content is just crap.

People will take your money and they will Plagiarize.
They will rip it off Wikipedia.
They will copy your competitors.
This is crap and it can get you in a lot of expensive, hot water.

People will take your money and use AI (Artificial Intelligence) to generate content.
This shortcut leaves you with questionable claims.
This shortcut does not identify sources.
This shortcut is not fact checked.
This is still crap and can make you look like a fool.

People will take your money that do not have native command of American English
This cheap route leaves you with odd grammar and spelling mistakes.
This cheap route doesn’t grasp cultural nuances.
This cheap route will cause you to edit it yourself.
This is crap and it will make you look like you paid for a cheap service.

People will take your money that have no understanding of basic SEO or Copywriting.
Lack of SEO understanding can bury the best written article.
Lack of Copywriting skills will bore your readers.
This is crap and you’ll think that blogging just doesn’t work.

We are the pioneers of Real Estate Blogging; teaching agents how to be incredible bloggers since 2006. Now we want to write for you!

Don’t pay more than you should to a contractor in high demand.

Don’t take the cheap route and regret the crap you get back.

Let us do it! In 2022 we wrote over 1,250,000 words for our clients!

• 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 It Is So Hard To Find Someone To Blog Effectively For You? 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.

Our blog articles, like this one, are often inspired by the challenges that we encounter on a daily basis with new clients.
One of the most common pitfalls for a new, excited blogger is overlooking the importance of properly categorizing their content.
Note: This post is not about what Categories you should use. That falls under “What I Should Be Blogging About.”
For more info on what you should be writing on your real estate blog visit these articles

• The Real Estate Business is Content not Home Selling
• 10 Real Estate Blog Topics
• The Secret To Developing Real Estate Blog Content
• Secret Resources Finding Real Estate Blog Topics That Attract Buyers
• Hear Real Estate Blog Articles As They Happen

Because blogging is a marathon, and not a sprint, one has to expect that they are going to publish 100s of articles, possibly 1000s.
One must employ a plan of organization at the outset so as to avoid an impossibly complex mess in the future.

The Goldilocks Zone

Too Many
To understand what blog covers, I generally look at the Categories to see what range of content it offers. I should be able to determine what your focus is at a quick glance. If you have dozens of Categories, I fail to see a strength of topic and your expertise is clouded.
Too Few
Less is more, in the sense that the idea is to establish focus and expertise, but you can have too few. I’ve seen blogs that have the content categorized by “Buyers”, “Selling” and “Mortgage”. At a minimum the Categories should at least be more descriptive and possibly segmented into some specific topics that fall under the umbrella of Buying, Selling and Mortgage.
Just Right
Typically, we recommend (to new bloggers) that one keeps their initial Category count to under 10. As content piles up, and focuses shift like the market, it’s understandable that this number will swell.

Garbage

Uncategorized and Miscellaneous
The default Category in the WordPress platform for content is “Uncategorized”. Leaving this Category in place is a sign of laziness. And worse, it gives the impression that whatever is behind it is worthless.
Subjects vs Topics
A common mistake when categorizing content is the use of the subject, and not the topic for the category. For example, if I am blogging about preparing to sell my home around Christmas, this does not call for me to create a Category for “Christmas”. I would only do so if I regularly dedicated a significant portion of my content to Christmas.  Otherwise, “Christmas” should be reserved as a “Tag” and not a Category.
The One Timer
You had every intention of blogging on a topic, but it just hasn’t panned out. Now you have a lonely post sitting in a Category showcased along with all the other areas of real focus. Move that post to a different Category and it (the unwanted Category) will disappear.

The Plan

Your Blog Is Your Newspaper

[From the above linked article] Improve your chances at subscription by having the discipline to develop clear and predictable divisions in your blog.  Whatever you choose to maintain as your focus, whether it be Home Buying Advice, Local Events, Market Statistics etc., try to develop content that continues to fall under these Categories.  Breaking your current and future content into strong Categories help you develop a format which your readers:
Appreciate.
Develop an expectation of.
Clearly discern your focus and expertise.
Recognize the value of your effort.
All of which beg for subscription to your blog’s RSS feed/email blast.

Length of Each Category
Using descriptive terms in your Categories is important, but if it is going to throw off the aesthetics of your sidebar (and/or navbar) to squeeze in that extra keyword, you might need to reconsider. Use as many terms as it takes to effectively describe your Category without compromising the look of your site. We’ve had to redesign clients’ sidebar widths to accommodate longer Categories, and that is always an option, albeit somewhat extreme.

Order Consideration
Organize your Categories by their value to your ideal audience. The topics that most apply to their needs should be listed first.
SEO Value
Your Categories carry strong SEO value. By using Keywords (neighborhood + “real estate” for example) you are doing yourself a great favor. Your site can appear in search results in many forms, and the Category page is one of them. Each time you publish an article into a Category, you are effectively reinforcing this keyword association for your content.

Other Category Tips

Single Posts Added to Multiple Categories
One of my blogging pet peeves is when a post is placed into several Categories. It looks terrible in the article credits (listing all the Categories that a post falls under). It looks like you are keyword stuffing by including all those Categories. And, it looks like you didn’t organize your site very effectively if a post falls under so many sections.
Back to the Local Newspaper analogy, an article about Baseball falls under Sports (and maybe Baseball), but not under Business, Arts, Food, Real Estate, Comics and Classifieds.
The Whimsical Category
Random musings need a Category as well. Don’t be afraid to include your whimsical posts into a catchall Category, especially if they veer from the general focus of your site. Real-life examples: “Friday Fun”, “Whimsical Wednesday”, “Just Because” – you get the idea.
Linking to Categories Within an Article
This is a bonus SEO tip, as well as just smart blogging. Link to a Category within an article at every opportunity. For example, when we mention SEO, we commonly link to our Blogging SEO Category. This allows that Category to be spidered again, as well as offering a valuable link to the reader.
Exclude Outdated Categories
Most blogs will have the feature to exclude a Category – use this when you no longer want to showcase it along with the others.

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 Choosing, Using & Organizing Categories For Your Real Estate Blog appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Almost all of our clients are real estate bloggers. However, they are not all showcasing their blog articles in the same fashion.
Some put the blog at the forefront of their website’s homepage, while others tuck it back onto a secondary page only accessible by a button on the navigation. Some use sidebar widgets to showcase recent articles, others leave truncated articles on the homepage, just below the fold.

How does one decide how to present blog content to their audience?

What are the pros and cons of showcasing or not showcasing your real estate blog content?

The Front and Center Blog

Placing your real estate blog content on the homepage as the prominent content under the header/navigation is the most aggressive way to showcase your blog.
The blog articles are positioned to be a main impression of your online presence. Whether you choose to blog about market statistics or announce the grand opening of a new ice cream parlor in town, your audience is going to notice. (So are the search engines – but I’ll get to that in a few paragraphs)
If you are a dedicated real estate blogger, and you are using this to your advantage in your marketing strategy then pushing your blog on visitors is a sound approach. But the key to success with this plan of attack is the dedication. If you are not blogging regularly (2-3 times or more a week) then I would consider a different approach.
By putting the blog front and center, you are making a commitment to your audience that you will provide them with relevant and fresh content. Content that is going to bring them closer to doing business with you – because they read and appreciate it. By putting the blog content front and center, you are begging for it to be noticed at the cost of your audience not immediately locating the ubiquitous Search for Homes call-to-action.
If you are unable to keep up a patterned posting pace, the first impression you end up making is a Stale Blog.

A great motivation to maintain a Front and Center blog on your real estate website is the SEO benefit.
The Weight of the Homepage:
Publishing new content onto the homepage not only gets it spidered most frequently and effectively, but it is also giving it more authority. Your homepage is considered the most relevant page on the site (so far as the focus of your site is concerned) and the content that hits this page is going to be given more weight than if it were buried in the secondary.
More Headlines = More SEO
By adding the blog to the homepage you are also showcasing more Heading Tags (H2) there. Headings are given more weight than the rest of the articles’ content.

Truncated vs Full Articles on the Homepage.

If a homepage blog is the answer for you, you’ll need to decide whether or not to showcase full articles or truncated versions, or even a combination of the two.
The full article’s greatest benefit is amount of content on the homepage that will be spidered, but it comes at a cost.
If your articles are lengthy, the display of just a few in a row can result in the ‘toilet paper roll effect’ where it just scrolls and scrolls.
Besides the unkemptness, large amounts of content (including images and multimedia) can stall load-times for your site.
The truncated approach allows for a much tidier appearance* as well as the instant presentation of several articles without the need to scroll too much.
It can be argued that the SEO value is not as strong as the full article showcase, but at some point you need to consider form over function, and I believe this is one of those cases.
After all, the idea is to connect with the visitor and by giving them a broader sense of the range of content you create, you improve your odds of doing so.
*In order to effectively use the truncated approach you need to have this as an option in your design/theme. If you don’t, then you will need to change themes or have one designed to automatically truncate with style.
Pro tip: Place a keyword rich, static, introductory paragraph (or 2) above (or below) the blog articles on the homepage. Include a heading, descriptive text, links to relevant pages and some calls-to-action. Because a regularly updated blog will constantly be changing the content that is on the homepage, this will secure an anchored description for the search engines.

The Blog Headlines Widget in the Sidebar or Footer

A widgetized website allows you to place a Recent Blog Articles list of headlines on your sidebar or footer (should your theme permit). You can choose how many headlines you want to show and exactly where you want this list to appear.
Some bloggers that have a Front & Center blog will also add a recent article widget to their site. This allows for easier navigation to the content as well presenting a permanent list of articles on all pages of their site.

The 2 main reasons to not showcase your blog articles Front & Center are:

1. The frequency of your posting is not something to showcase.
If you are not writing regularly (at least a couple of times a week, faithfully) then you’ll want to put less emphasis on this fact.
2. The organizational strategy of your site is strong calls-to-action, leaving no room for space hogging blog articles.

Putting the Blog Behind a Button

The most inconspicuous way to present your blog on the homepage is behind a header navigation link or call-to-action button.
This works best when the blog is a less relevant element of your site, but not something that you want to bury altogether. Linking to the blog from the homepage ensures that it will be indexed properly.
This can be a great option for those that have blogged a ton in the past, but are burned out and not keeping up with the pace that a Front & Center position demands. Visitors can still enjoy the bank of content without recognizing immediately that you fail to post regularly.
Pro tip: If you are in this position a good trick is to remove the display of the posting date from the articles making it difficult to discover when the posts we published.
Pro tip 2: Under the Blog button list your most popular blog categories in the drop down menu as shown in the example.
If however, you have never been able to keep up any consistent pace of regular blogging and you have just a few dusty old articles, it might be time to remove any exposure to that blog from the homepage.

The Blog Below the Fold

One final option is to place the blog below the fold (or scroll) – meaning it is not a top tier item nor part of the visitors’ first impression.  This strategy allows you to take advantage of having some dynamic content on the homepage without using up real estate reserved for branding and call-to-action.
Typically this approach uses truncated articles as illustrated in the example.
The live examples of the screenshots* presented can be seen here:
TheRealEstateCoconut.com
SantaMariaHomesOnline.com
Hibanism.com
ArbourRealty.com
*Please note that the live example format may no longer match the screenshots in the article.
If you would like to learn more about how to most effectively include a blog on your real estate website, contact us for a free consultation.

The post How Should I Showcase The Blog on My Real Estate Website? 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.

1. Why Are Your Visitors On Your Website?

What brought them there, and what are they expecting?
Did they do a search on Google and find an article that you wrote?
Did they click from a link in your email signature?
Was it a Tweet? a Facebook status update? a YouTube video?
Did you tell them to go there? Did someone or something else?
You need to consider the reason and the context of every actual and potential visit.
This understanding will help you determine the 2 most important things about your online marketing strategy.
a. Am I reaching my Target Audience?
b. Are my visitors getting the experience that they came for?
The root of all significant Bounce Rates is based on this immediate experience.
If you fail to satisfy your target audience’s need, instantly, then you should consider your site a failure.
Defining your target audience is up to you, but I can help a little with the “experience that they came for”.

There are 2 reasons that most visit a real estate website:

1. Listings. Listings. Listings.
Both buyers and sellers need a place to live.
Make the ability to search for and sign up to receive new listings a huge priority in your navigation and/or clear calls to action.  This is a no-brainer… no excuses.
However, listings are not a unique commodity.  Every real estate site worth a darn has an MLS search feature.
They come for the listings but stay for the content.  Build value beyond the database.
2. Finding A Resource They Can Trust
Looking from the outside in, the real estate industry is one that often suffers a bad rap, but much like the legal industry, it doesn’t eliminate the need to for a capable consultant that buyers and sellers can count on to:
Clearly answer questions
Provide expertise
Offer savvy opinion
And make the whole experience as low stress as possible.
From a website, this can only be achieved with content, content and more content.
The content needs to be incredibly well organized and it needs to be focused on the target audience’s needs.
The same applies for the Calls To Action – You need to make it clear to your audience that you are there to satisfy their needs, and you can only do that if you are connecting with the audience that you are reaching.  More on this later.
I can’t present examples for all potential RE topics that attract an audience, so I’ll just use one.  Take for example a website that is geared to satisfy the needs of someone in need of Short Sale advice and information.

The Short Sale is not your average transaction, and requires a whole different set of skills, knowledge, experience and communication.  (Disclaimer – I have no experience with short sales, I only know what I have heard… but humor me with this example, and apply the lesson to your own niche.)
Upon their landing on the site you want to present solutions to the things that keep Short Sale Buyers and Short Sale Sellers up at night.  Anyone who has been doing short sales knows that there’s a lot of that.  You need to make it as clear as possible that you are there for their needs.
My suggestion would be to create calls to action for something like the following:
For the Buyer:
1. Search Short Sale and foreclosure listings
2. Search all available MLS listings
3. What you need to know before investing in a Short Sale.
For the Seller:
1. We’re here to help; learn about our Short Sale services.
2. Testimonials of successful Short Sales.
3. Do you qualify for a Short Sale?
With those 6 Calls To Action, you can cover the needs of almost all your short sale traffic.  Make them make a decision to dig deeper into your site, whether it be a database of listings, or articles positioning you as the expert on the niche.
From there, it is all about the quality of your content.  Once the organization of connecting effectively to your target audience is tackled, win them over with your knowledge and experience.  The more questions that you are able to answer directly and preemptively the more trust you will build.  Trust leads to contact, and contact leads to relationships.
Bottom Line: Create the experience which provides the best access to the reasons that your visitors are there.  Everything else is tertiary.
More info on the topic:
Giving Away Trade Secrets Is The Secret To A Successful Blog
How Does Blogging Actually Generate Leads?
Why Blogging Makes You A Better Realtor®
The second thing that you need to consider about your web presence is:

2. Are Your Visitors Getting Any Closer To Doing Business With You Because Of Their Experience On Your Website?

Of course if you blow the “Why are visitors on your website?” question, then this one becomes irrelevant.

Nobody is managing a real estate website or writing a real estate blog just for fun, they’re doing it to improve their business.  If it is fun, then that is because it improves their business.
Consider an inbound phone call, an opportunity to gain a client.
How do you handle the situation?
Appear professional
Have an engaging personality
Clearly answer questions
Provide the resources they seek
Gain trust
Close on opportunities
It is the Closing Opportunities that makes the whole thing work for you. In a “selling” situation (e.g., getting someone to agree to make an offer… or accept one) you have to close the deal.  Just providing all the information in a complete and easy-to-understand manner and waiting for the client to make the decision is not going to get the deal done.  When you are connecting on all points, and they trust you, it is your opportunity (read: responsibility) to BRING them to make a decision.  Walk them to the other side of the deal.
Your website can have this power as well.
Create opportunity that makes it clear to the engaged visitor that you are here to WORK WITH and FOR THEM.

Calls-To-Action that specifically explain how you can, will and are already helping them.
(Sticking with the short sale theme)
“I am here to help you with your short sale, contact me NOW.”
“Subscribe NOW to our weekly newsletter educating you on everything you need to know about short sales.”
“Subscribe NOW to receive instant updates of new short sales that hit the market in your criteria”
Everything else is just a shiny object to distract them from following through with you, for the reasons that you connected with them in the first place.
If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.

The post The 2 Most Important Things To Consider About Your Real Estate Blogsite-Website appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

This article is a rewrite of an article I wrote a few years ago.  It  is an exercise to show you that you can never step in the same river twice, and finding relevant blog content to publish is as easy as looking in the rear-view mirror.   The irony of that article is that I had been blogging for less than 3 months, and here I was the expert.  For some time now I have been wanting to add emphasis to the points in this post, so here goes.

The logic of this post was to consider what your readers are thinking when they come to your site.  If you can see things from their side of the keyboard, then you can more effectively connect with them.  Connecting with your reader, that’s what it’s all about.

New To Reading Real Estate Blogs?  6 Steps Get You Started.

You are beginning your real estate search online, and have just come across a real estate blog that catches your attention.  You thought you were online just looking for listings, and now you have found an agent that has written hundreds of articles, aimed specifically to educate you on the entire homebuying experience.
How can you get the most out of what seems like more content than you could ever read?

1. Determine The Mission of the Blog

In most cases, you arrived at an article on the blog, rather than to the homepage.  Given the article helped answer your online inquiry, it’s time to dig deeper and determine what value this website has for you.
Does the Mission Statement make you feel as though you are one of their intended audience?  In order for it to attract you as a regular reader, it needs to have been fashioned with you in mind.
If there is no published mission statement, scan through 5 to 7 of the most recent articles, from the homepage, and ask yourself, “Is this content relevant to my real estate needs?”

2. Focus On The Continuous Core Message In The Blog

Although you may have missed a ton of interesting content in past articles, a blog with a solid focus will continue to deliver their core message.  When exploring the archives of a blog, look for that core message to bring you up to speed.
Business blogs, like the Real Estate Tomato are written in a circular manner.  We develop our content with an ideal reader in mind, around a specific range of topics.
News, reporting and personal blogs are generally written in a linear fashion where the content is governed by the events and items they aim to cover.  Take BoingBoing.net for example.  The only consistency with this blog is the randomness of its subject matter.

3. Blogs Are Not Books, They Are Editorials.

Following a blog is about the daily, relevant message, not the chronological organization.  Although the articles may be chronologically relevant, it is not the inspiration.  As the authors are inspired to write by the events happening around them, they will publish to the blog.
As a reader of both circular and linear blogs, the idea is not to try and catch up, but rather to enjoy the ride.  Commonly the writer will come back to past topics as they become relevant again, even linking to past articles for support and reference.

4. Categories Are The Pillars Of A Well Organized Blog.

(Because this is a rewrite, I can now leverage this point with an article that I wrote subsequent to the original.)
As a new reader to a blog, you can quickly determine the worthiness of subscribing to it by the categories in which the content is divided.  This is no different from how one would choose to subscribe to a magazine based on its consistent subject matter.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you most likely entered the blog through an article, an archived article (meaning it is no longer on the homepage of the site).  If the blog is well organized, by clear categories that define the range of regular content on the site, it is easy to follow everything the author has covered on a subject by clicking the appropriate links.  There should be no need to visit the homepage of a blog to navigate your way through the content and the tools that are geared to support your real estate search.

5. Sign Up For RSS Feeds And/Or Email Feeds Of The Daily Articles.

What the heck is an RSS Feed? Click here.
Not having to remember to visit blogs that you are interested in, to see if they have published content to the site is the main value of subscribing to a blog’s feed.
You should know by now, that in order to get what you want out of a website/service, you need to sign up for something.
RSS feeds deliver the headlines to your favorite news reader.
Email feeds will send the headlines of current articles to your inbox.

6. Get Involved.  Participate.  Be Heard.

Blogs are meant to be a two-way street.
The agent has put their thoughts, opinions, observations, wisdom, and expertise online to engage you.  They want to have a relationship with you.  Their blog articles are the answers to your questions. So don’t hold back.  Ask away, offer your two cents, agree, disagree, compliment, question… be heard.  It will help you get the answers you are looking for as much as it will help inspire the author to continue to publish, knowing that they are being ‘heard’.
Here is a recent comment left by Sacramento Real Estate Broker Bill Joyce, expressing exactly what you want to have your visitors experience when they read your blog. (Just change blogging to home buying)

I am a real estate broker in Sacramento, California and just beginning to discover the value and challenges of blogging. Just reading your blog I find I have to stop before long. Too much good info (if there can be such a thing) and I’m at capacity. Why seek more…I should act on the seven ideas I just picked up. I value your expertise and contribution to the topic of real estate blogging…I return time and again. And, by example, that’s who I would like to become for local home buyers.

If you want to master these techniques alongside a personal trainer, contact us right away to schedule a session.

The post New To Real Estate Blogging? 6 Simple Steps to Get You Started. appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

• To see the Original Article click the Before image to to the right.
• To see the New Version, click the After image below.

Listed Below: The Edits Made During The Blog Article Makeover

The Headline

• Improved article headline to be more emotional, descriptive, keyword rich and compelling.

The Lead Image

• Aligned Right to drag away from natural left line of the reader.
• Added Anchor Text to image (easter egg) to be more descriptive.
• Added border to the image for a touch of elegance.
• Added more horizontal padding making article seem less crowded around image.

The Body

• First paragraph has been broken up into multiple, double spaced lines to draw attention to the impact phrases, and to appear as less of a mental commitment at the start of the article.
• Capitalized the ‘S’ in Starbucks.com
• Added an Anchor Tag Title (easter egg) to Starbucks.com
• Added bold formatting throughout article to the sentences that tell the story; “the killer” lines.
• Dropped many sentences to appear right below one-another to prevent the ‘run-on’ feel, and hopefully avoid it being overlooked so easily by a scanning reader.
• Created a Heading <h3> in the center of the article to break up and draw attention to the message.  Because it is a heading, the words will also carry more SEO weight.
• Added link to Starbucks stock profile and included a witty anchor (easter egg).
• Broke up the large paragraph towards the end of the article to avoid it being ignored completely by the scanning reader.
• Updated the closing message to include the marketing of the blogsite so that the article jibes more effectively with my contemporary message.
• Capitalized the first letter in each Call To Action example to improve their impact and visibility.
• Went through the whole article one last time and cleaned up grammar, tenses, minor formatting elements and may have even added a word or two.
• Added Related Must Read section.

Block Quote and Icons

• Added thumbs-down and thumbs-up icons to the two thoughts that previously made up the large paragraph.  This was to break up the bolding habit, and draw attention to the emotion of the message.  It’s a little cheesy, but I bet it improves its readability.
• Polished the Block Quote with an updated style, and changed the message to be more concise.
• Added the Red Call To Action button that links to our Tomato Inquiry Page.
• Swapped the Social Bookmarking links for the Share This script.

This exercise has inspired me to go through the archives of my early posts and make sweeping improvements to their readability.  Hopefully it has inspired you to embrace the techniques you can use to ensure the reception of your message. Keep in mind that the blog reading audience is generally more fleeting than any other type of reader.  Bending the rules of English 101 to keep their attention can mean the difference between being understood and being ignored.

The post The Before and After – A Real Estate Blog Article Extreme Makeover appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Today’s article is the final installment of a series called “Why Real Estate Blogging Makes You A Better Realtor” that has been inspired by conversations I have had with the hundreds of real estate blogging clients we train and ourselves learn from.
The idea is that the act of blogging as a Realtor actually has the unintended, yet beneficial consequence of improving your skills as a Realtor in addition to improving the perception of you by your current, past and future clients.
Click for Part 1
Click for Part 2
This final installment is focused on how there are certain disciplines required of a successful blog, and how the development of these disciplines will improve your personal skills and the perception of these traits by your audience.

Dedication

Blogging is a Marathon, not a Sprint.  This point becomes all that much more clear the more you look around the real estate blogosphere and see just how long and how regularly the top bloggers in the industry have been blogging.
Success, both in the Search Engines and in the Incubation of your Audience is achieved with Perseverance and Consistency
Related Articles:
How Often Should I Blog?
The News Source Theory
Is 12 Months Too Long?

Focus and Organization

Presenting a clear organization of the focus of your blog is essential to your audience’s understanding of your strengths and interests.
The Categories of your Blog define the Outline of your Content.  Much like a newspaper organizes their media into dependable categories (Front Page News, Local News, Sports, Business, Life, etc.), your blog’s focus and overall perceived value can depend on a similar approach.
Related Articles:
New To Business Blogging
Your Blog Is A Newspaper

Networking

It can be argued that networking with other bloggers, in and outside of your niche (or area), is absolutely essential to your blog’s success.
Yet, it also seems to be the most commonly overlooked effort by newer, invigorated bloggers.
Blogging is a relationship building tool.  The outward effort of publishing articles and responding to the comments is just half the battle.  Reading and participating with those in your industry helps build your knowledge, reach, referral base, and exposure.
Related Articles:
The Secret To Successful Comments
Running Into Oncoming Traffic

The 3 elements above improve your life as a Realtor in TWO significant ways:

1. Personal Change

By embracing the above to improve you skills and develop your success as a blogger, you in turn find these disciplines popping up in other aspects of your personal and professional life.  Blogging forces you to raise your game to meet the challenge and it exposes where there is room for improvement.
Dedication, focus and organization are traits of any successful business… and the implementation of them in your career can be the spark that you need take your business to the next level.
Here are two recent testimonials that illustrate this effect:
“Jim – Thanks again for being the single most positive impact on my real estate career.”
John C. Coley – LakeMartinVoice.com
“What you learn from them [the Tomato Team] is leaps and bounds beyond anything in the epro class or any other real estate class for that matter.
I haven’t been this excited about real estate….well since never.”
Mary DeLuca – BeltwayRamblings.com

2. Audience Perception

Your audience recognizes the effort you consistently put into your business and will look to work with someone with your diligence.
Your audience recognizes the dedication you consistently put into their learning and will look to work with someone with your passion.
Your audience recognizes the wisdom with which you write and will look to work with someone with your experience.
Your audience recognizes the humanism with which you pen your articles and will look to work with someone with your personality.
Your audience recognizes your participation in the comments and will look to work with someone with your availability and transparency.
Thank you for following our 3 part series.  If you have some examples of how blogging has positively affected your skills as an agent, we’d love to hear from you.  We think it is so important that beginning bloggers understand how blogging can be so much more than simply writing.

The post Why Real Estate Blogging Makes You A Better Realtor – Part 3 of 3 appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.

Category Organization Will Give Your Real Estate Blog
A Long And Successful Life.

Throw down 75 cents and pick up your local daily.
You are willing to invest in the pile of paper because you have an expectation of the value that it contains.
The format for most major city newspapers is predictable:
(Any combination of the following)
Front Page News
World News
Local News
Sports
Business
Lifestyle
Classified
with some Comics, Crossword, Horoscope and Television thrown in.
And on weekends, sprinkle in some of the following:
Real Estate
Travel
Cars
Tech
Food

Subscription is earned when readers recognize the value of your format and want to be afforded it regularly.

Improve your chances at subscription by having the discipline to develop clear and predictable divisions in your blog.  Whatever you choose to maintain as your focus, whether it be Home Buying Advice, Local Events, Market Statistics etc., try to develop content that continues to fall under these categories.  Breaking your current and future content into strong categories helps you develop a format which your readers:
Appreciate.
Develop an expectation of.
Clearly discern your focus and expertise.
Recognize the value of your effort.
All of which beg for subscription to your blog’s RSS feed/email blast.

Disorganized categories lead to confusion, clutter, and a loss of message… all of which prevent subscription.
Keep in mind, all your regular content doesn’t need to be rigid and overly focused on real estate topics, or predictable at all for that matter.
Just as newspapers expand their coverage on weekends to colorful comics, travel editorials and restaurant reviews, recognize that your blog’s offering of something ‘on the lighter side’ will keep your audience engaged.

A great example of this technique is illustrated by Tomato guest author, Teresa Boardman’s blog, St Paul Real Estate Blog.  Teresa regularly shakes things us with her Friday Fun posts.  Another fun example is Jay Thompson’s “Real Estate Photo Of The Week”.
The one rule I propose for your real estate blog categories is that only include categorical that you post content to regularly. If there will only ever be a few posts, at most, to the category, then do not display it as a major division of your content.  Use your blog’s tag option for whimsical topics, and place the article under a category to covers it more generally.

The post Your Real Estate Blog is Your Newspaper appeared first on WordPress Real Estate Website Design | Real Estate Tomato.