Comments on: 7 Myths About Real Estate Blogging

By: Joan Snodgrass

Joan Snodgrass — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:26:38 +0000

Active rain has not been a waste for me. Four sales last year from it and many more good solid leads from my Localism presence.

By: HouseBlogger

HouseBlogger — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:28:41 +0000

I agree with most of John says in this. I do take exception that “Real estate blogging has always been local”.
If that was the case you wouldn’t have issue with Active Rain.
Many agents write about things that have nothing to do with their community, let alone their business.
~Tim

By: Greg Tracy

Greg Tracy — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:56:19 +0000

Great post- Many of my clients read my blog before contacting me so it does have an affect- I’m not sure if it is the deciding factor for someone to work with me, but I think it either confirms with them what they already think, or it gives them an opinion either way.
There is lot of back-patting amongst real estate bloggers, but that’s no different than any type of bloggers and any type of group of people who do simliar things as one another. I like telling people when I like a post because I like to hear it. It gives you confindence and enthusiasm for blogging. Nothing wrong with that.

By: John Lockwood

John Lockwood — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:53:15 +0000

Thanks, Jeff. You’re right, though to give blogging it’s due there is some SEO benefit if you just stay on topic and pick your titles well and so forth — Jim Cronin had a decent article about that here recently. My beef is rather with the naive “if you blog it great things will happen even if you just write about pizza”. Well, that works, if you’re selling pizza. 🙂
I gotta run and go play with SettlementRoom. Cheers!

By: Jeff Brown

Jeff Brown — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:41:39 +0000

John – This post is on the mark.
After blogging for two weeks, I made the comment to my wife that if you took away other bloggers, nobody was reading anybody. 🙂
Activerain, in my opinion is neither champion or loser. It just is. There’s not much really to recommend about it.
They do know how to make noise though.
Realtors blog to market themselves. Period.
As an experiment it’s been a colossal failure.
I saw this after a month. But it is a great tool FOR getting folks to see what you do, and who you are. That alone though will generally get you…..not much.
Marketing success requires marketing expertise. Duh
Once Realtors figure out how to combine the two, then it will explode.
To deny the ultimate need for world-class marketing expertise is to sentence one’s self to……a bunch of writing.

By: Jim Cosgrove

Jim Cosgrove — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:38:20 +0000

Mea Culpa, that WAS impolite of me and I apologize. But, you DO come across as a bit of a curmudgeon and to find that in a spot where I usually find items of considerable interest was jarring. What DOES this mean: “…the discussion of the discussion started to displace the discussion, and though I’m as likely to lapse into it as anyone, I lapse into it as an outsider to it. I’ve pretty much decided that there’s no place for me in the discussion of the discussion, and I either need to have a discussion about the discussion of the discussion, or fire up the local MLS software and just go back home and have a discussion.”

By: John Lockwood

John Lockwood — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 03:32:40 +0000

Jon,
Regarding local keywords and mortgages, when I was doing keyword research into this area (using Wordtracker and Overture’s search terms tool), I found that people don’t search for “Yourtown mortgages” with anything like the frequency that they search for “Yourtown real estate”. Based on a quick check of my web site logs, the difference appears to be on the order of 400 to 1. You should verify that for yourself, of course, and Jim may know more about it.

By: John Lockwood

John Lockwood — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 03:18:44 +0000

Cosgrove, you didn’t have to read all the way through. I mentioned you in the last clause of item one — you could have stopped there.

By: Jim Cronin

Jim Cronin — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 22:06:59 +0000

Jay – Mo – John,
We’ll hold the bout here. I like Maureen’s idea of individual efforts and then a rally in the comments. Jay, if you want to referee…
Jon –
I have a couple of Mortgage only clients blogging. Marc Brinitzer from http://www.LendingClarity.com is a great example.

By: Jim Cosgrove

Jim Cosgrove — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 21:09:50 +0000

I just spent 5 minutes reading that post and can’t for the life of me figure out why I wasted my time. What the hell was the point of all that? I’m relatively new to blogging but I have noticed a propensity for people to take themselves way to seriously. Lighten up buddy, you’ll live longer.