Comments on: Young Blogs Be Free Tonight

By: Lake Martin Voice

Lake Martin Voice — Sat, 12 May 2007 12:25:57 +0000

Thanks all! One other thing that has worked for me is getting a seperate domain for each listing (www.123Mainstreet.com) and printing this in my ad materials, superimposed on the bottom of the pic for each property. That domain points back to my blog post on that listing.

By: Lydia Taylor

Lydia Taylor — Fri, 04 May 2007 22:53:12 +0000

That idea about using snail mail for posts about a neighborhood is brilliant! I love it!

By: Jim Cronin

Jim Cronin — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 02:45:38 +0000

Jay,
His header menu has a big ol’ button on it that reads Property Search – That;s the MLS Search that also has a back-up on the sidebar in case you missed it 🙂

By: Arlington Virginia Condos Real Estate

Arlington Virginia Condos Real Estate — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 20:18:35 +0000

Excellent post. The website lakemartinvoices is incredible! Great design as 9 out of 10 real estate sites just suck. The only suggestion is maybe bumping up the MLS search tools button on the sidebar towards the top as well as I missed it initially on the top menu bar. Good article though. I think one should put in the extra SEO effort which takes a lot more time and attention to detail on certain posts–not all of them. So I agree a lot time one should not even worry about SEO. I’ve had one post made a month ago read 2200 times so far–I paid attention to detail (seo) on that one though.
jay

By: shaun mclane

shaun mclane — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 12:52:51 +0000

With all the new blogs being created daily, I hthink people are starting to figure them out and see the benefit. Spending as much time as I do blogging, I’m always a little surprised when I meet someone who has never even heard of them. Quote of the day: “Snail mail meets web 2.0”
Nice work as always!

By: Lake Martin Voice

Lake Martin Voice — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:24:43 +0000

Stacy m – I don’t know about the “born natural” part – (blush) but I definitely was inspired once I saw some results. Keep working hard and writing about what your prospects want to learn.
MaryAnn – I would advise you to get your own unique domain and point active rain, etc., to that.
Deborah- agreed! Power to the people!

By: Deborah Burns

Deborah Burns — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:22:08 +0000

That is the thing (I hope!) with blogging…blogging is the fulcrum that an agent can use to position themselves in the marketplace of their choice. Size doesn’t matter…quality/content does!
An individual is more nimble, personable, and offers a unique perspective that a corporation will never be able to.
Thanks John for the clarity!

By: John Fell

John Fell — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 04:29:21 +0000

You spend a lot of time talking about ways to drive traffic to your sites. I am sure you know who Derek Burress is as he occasionally blogs about real estate topics when he is not writing history stuff for school or pretending to be a novelist, but the kid has some pretty neat marketing tricks that he uses to drive traffic to his site.
Derek writes a lot of history stuff so he occasionally goes in and edits sites like Wikepedia and adds his site in the references. Being a student, he also writes a lot about the lectures and books that he and his classmates are reading as he knows when it comes exam time, his fellow classmates will be googling the subject and book so he tries to become an expert in those areas. IF you live in a college town, this is a pretty unique way of driving local college kids to your site – especially if you have rental property as they will not only find what they are looking for but also see your listings as well.
The most creative thing I have seen him do is use rubber stamps. Instead of writing his address on the top of letters, he stamps his URL address right across the side of the letter. I asked why he did this and his response was. When you write in ink your address, no one cares but if you stamp a URL on it and leave out what the URL actually is, people will get curious and check it out. For example, his url is derekburress.com he doesn’t mention real estate or anything, just his name as the url. IF someone saw a stamped envelope with REMAX REAL ESTATE they wouldn’t care about the site as they know what it is without having to visit but with a name and a .com at the end, it strikes their curiosity a bit. Even the mailman will remember the stamped envelope and visit and not only does he have one visitor (the recipient of the letter) but also the mailman. Two visitors for the price of one, and both are local 90% of the time. With letters traveling long distances, well that’s 4 or 5 new visitors for the price of one depending on the number of postal employees who visit.

By: MaryAnn Morrar

MaryAnn Morrar — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:59:42 +0000

Sounds like great advice. I have number of similar blogs going – I’m still looking for the right fit. What blog address is best to give out?
Activerain
point2agent
blogger
wordpress – just started it – it’s messy right now
The idea of mailing is great.

By: Stacey M.

Stacey M. — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:57:20 +0000

This is a very inspirational post for anyone thinking of starting their own blog.
While many, such as myself, may not have the time nor talents to produce exceptional posts and enter the carnivals, yet. Anyone can still have a huge impact within their market with a little planning and relatively frequent posts. It takes work to stay on track, but the payoff is rewarding not for just the potential leads, but also from the enjoyment of controlling your own destiny.
The born naturals such as Jonathan G. and John C. hit the ground running and are both great recourses for style and form.