Comments on: The Real Estate Blogsite Myth

By: Rick Belben

Rick Belben — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:43:40 +0000

For some one just starting out it seems that a blogsite would be the natural thing to do combining the Blog & website into a blog site versus having 2 seperate ones. My own personal website generates traffic but I now want to get more into the blogging end of it. Am I better off just starting a new seperate blog or starting working on building a blogsite while keeping my current website.

By: Bill French

Bill French — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:36:53 +0000

Jim:
I’m almost a year late to this conversation, but I found the advice to be sound and reasonable. I too have seen a greater shift toward the idea of consolidation of small business web properties into a unified blogsite. It makes really good sense and there are some very positive advantages especially for small business people that really don’t have the skills or resources to deal with their content at the HTML level.
At MyST we also define a blogsite differently from a blog or website, but however that definition is made, the idea is clearly something that companies should consider. The “it depends” advice is critical because some businesses define their online marketing strategy between website and blogsite with far different objectives. Many of our customers recognize that the face of the company is ideally communicated with the website and the voice of the company is best achieved with their blogsite.

By: Jim Cronin

Jim Cronin — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 05:03:51 +0000

Phil,
The comments section does recognize URLs that start with ‘http’ such as http://www.tomatoblogs.com
The printing thing is an issue I have with TypePad. I have not found a ‘printer friendly’ option for articles yet. If anyone out there knows of a hack, that would be great.

By: Phil Hoover

Phil Hoover — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:58:54 +0000

I now have three blogsites:
http://www.BoiseBlog.com ~ which covers the Boise Region.
http://www.EagleBlog.com ~ a community blog that targets the community of Eagle, where I live.
http://www.OurBrookwood.com ~ a subdivision-specific blogsite for my own subdivision, which I also farm with a print newsletter, Just Listed, and Just Sold postcards.
All three have photo galleries, MLS search, etc.
The Brookwood site displays all homes for sale in my subdivision, offers free ads, and even free FSBO ads ~ plus CCRs, community calendar, etc.
I now get more business from these blogsites than I do from my regular website http://www.BoiseReal.com
I believe the future of real state on the internet will include blogsites when people realize that the boring static real estate websites are dinosaurs.
Question: Why doesn’t your platform recognize URLs and create hyperlinks automatically?
And, why do I get 10 blank pages with a green border when I print out a post?

By: Brad Nix

Brad Nix — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:56:59 +0000

We have been incredibly happy with our new blogsite designed by the guys at Tomato! We also continue to climb Google rankings and our subscribers are growing as well. Check us out at http://maxsell.net

By: James Crandall

James Crandall — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:30:10 +0000

Me, being new to the blogosphere, I see this as a needed tool for the real estate professional to keep present clients on the site with current issues, answering questions and making the process totally interactive. New clients, especially the younger computer-saavy generation will embrace this and make the turn-around time for the internet buyer a whole lot faster as they become interactive with the agent. I see this as great tool to show expertise rather than to wait for them to come. When the internet searcher becomes a buyer and the first meeting takes place, the rapport is already built. I know I’ll have a lot of fun once I’m fully engaged. I am going to shift one of my sites to a blog/website.

By: Joanne Hanson

Joanne Hanson — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 07:32:52 +0000

My 13 yr old, archaic, and poorly designed website was recently replaced with a new blog/website, completely done on wordpress. It is easy to change information, add custom pages, and best of all, easy to blog with. We lost some traffic at first, but it seems to be coming back now, and although not high ranking with google yet, I am working hard to get it there. I am a believer!

By: NM real estate

NM real estate — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:51:26 +0000

Great article, I totally agree. Blogsites are so much more versatile and require a lot less maintenance. They are also very customizable these days, so you can use a lot of the same features you would have on a traditional website anyway.

By: Linda Slocum

Linda Slocum — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:54:11 +0000

The real estate blogsite allows you to address more current issues in your community, where the real estate website usually contains more static information. As Jim says, both can use the same MLS searches. I find that the blogsite visitors are looking for different types of information than the visitors to my regular website.

By: Brian Miller

Brian Miller — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:38:44 +0000

Jim,
The timing of your post is amazing. You are talking about a subject I am right in the middle of now. I’m paying a monthly hosting fee right now for a web site that has terrible traffic. My blogsite (thanks to the Tomato)seems to be doing quite well in only a month or so… I’m leaning very strongly to pulling the plug on my standard web site…stay-tuned