How to Start Your Own Real Estate Marketing Blog
How about this for an incentive to starting a blog…
During the final wrap up session of the Real Estate Connect San Francisco Diane Cohn of Chase International Reno Sparks Real Estate got up from the audience and said she’s closed $10 million in business in the last year, and that 95 percent of it came from her blog.
On July 19 I posted the question “Should you start your own blog?” In that post I went more into the strategy side of starting a blog, like identifying your niche and how to create cornerstone content.
In this post I’d like to address the question of where do I start? How do I even get a blog? (Btw: this post came from Brenda’s cry for help.)
Paid v. Free Blog Services
First, decide whether you want to use hosting or web browser software.
Examples of hosting blog software are WordPress and Typepad.
Both have great features like professionally designed themes you can choose and customize over time, WYSIWYG editors for easy posting and functions to categorize your posts and create automatic archives, allowing your readers to find exactly what they want.
For $29.95 a month Typepad will give you advanced administration tools, priority tech support and custom invoicing. You can also build your own design and customize fonts, colors and borders.
Both WordPress and Typed will allow you to insert photos quickly with automatic resizing.
WordPress costs about the amount of hosting, normally under ten dollars. If you don’t need the flexibility of a full web host, you may consider getting a free blog on WordPress.com.
Or go with a free Blogger account.
Keep in mind, free blog accounts typically don’t allow you to have a custom domain name. This is a drawback when trying to blog for search engine results.
So it may be worth the effort to go with a paid service.
For further help, check out these resources:
Phil Windley’s Tecnometria: How to Start a Blog
Here’s a Washington Post article worth reading: Start a Winning Blog.
And before you launch your brand new blog, make sure you read this post by Copyblogger Brian Clark who shares 5 ways to open your blog posts with a bang.
Conclusion
So, did I answer all of your questions? Am I missing anything?
Let me know by giving me some feedback.
Also, if you are a successful blogger like Diane, how successful have you been? Is blogging having an impact on your business, whether good or bad?
Okay, a majority of you might be generating business out of blogging? Does anyone think that it’s hype? An out of control bandwagon effect?
And what about horror stories as a blogger? Anything juicy you might consider sharing?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
And if you haven’t done so already, subscribe to the Real Estate Marketing Blog today!
