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Top 5 Real Estate Blogging Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

Suzanne Roy — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:00:53 +0000

Top 5 Real Estate Blogging Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

I would guess that by now, millions of people (as well as businesses) have a blog. But when it comes to making them profitably effective, I would say that the vast majority are falling short. Really short.

So here’s an overview of the top 5 real estate blogging mistakes you don’t want to make, so on the flipside you can gain more readership, more eyeballs and more income.

Mistake #1 – Sporadic Blogging

How Often Do You Blog?
If you answer that question with once in a blue moon, then you are losing customers and ultimately wasting your time doing the little amount of blogging that you are doing. You need to have regular interactions with your readers, so they are drawn to come and read about what is going on regularly. Even if you only post new blogs once or twice a week, you must stick with those regular intervals. Anything can create a quick post, be it something in the news, an upcoming local event, or information you saw somewhere else that you can write in your own words. Be creative, think outside the real estate box that you may be stuck in!

Mistake #2 – Talking To Yourself

How is Your Conversation Going?
If you don’t open yourself up to conversation, your blog will die. You must open yourself up to allowing others to talk with you, and share their thoughts and ideas on the information that you are sharing. While you can certainly keep it all about you, sometimes people want to interact and leave you information you might be able to use. In fact, you can devote a day of the week to their questions and comments. Take it to a real-life scenario: You’re at a party and all you do is talk about yourself to yourself! Is anyone going to listen or engage in that conversation? I don’t think so!

Mistake #3 – Keeping Your Blog Hidden

Where is Your Blog?
This is one mistake many real estate agents fall into. Your blog will remain useless to many people if you don’t give them easy access to your content. Make sure that you have a blog that is linked to your social networking and website spokes. REMEMBER: YOUR BLOG IS YOUR ONLINE HUB! There are dozens of ways to link your blog automatically to your Real Estate Facebook Fan Page, your Twitter account, your LinkedIN profile and your website. Always include a link to it in your signature (or better yet, a revolving RSS feed) and on business cards as well. And of course, make sure it is optimized for search engines.

Mistake #4 – Confusing What Your Blog Is For

Your Blog Isn’t For Press Releases!
Sure it might seem like the perfect place to promote you and your business, but that is why you send out press releases, and place news on your website. The blog is designed to be conversational, relationship building and interactive – not for shoving information down the reader’s throat.

Press releases are designed to target a separate audience looking to try a new business, or product. Keep that in mind, and allow your social interaction to shine in your blog, and keep it free of self promotion.

Mistake #5 – Expecting Immediate Results

Results Take Time (but not as much as a conventional website!)
You might want to see people flocking to your blog with your introductory post, but, just as everything that is worthwhile, it takes time and work. There will never be an overnight success to a blog, but with consistent, relevant, user-interesting information, you will see results much quicker than your static website does. If your blog is easy to find, and is full of interesting information, people will be drawn to you, and they will take notice of all you do.

While it is true that blogging can be overwhelming to many real estate agents out there, when you break it down to bite size pieces and concentrate on what is important to include and remember what your ultimate goal is, it can easily become a routine like… brushing your hair! Make a point to add it to your calendar or task list.

In summary, be consistent, engage don’t promote, cross pollenate and most of all, have fun!

Real Estate & Social Media – What’s Your Goal?

Suzanne Roy — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:00:24 +0000

Real Estate & Social Media – What’s Your Goal?

As a professional Real Estate Virtual Assistant, I am constantly looking for ways to help improve my client’s real estate business. Recently I have been looking into the documentation of how Social Media is benefiting realtors throughout the US and came across some really great information I felt I must share with you.

One of the questions that is recurring in my conversations with potential (and existing) clients is, “how can I see the return on investment (ROI) within my Real Estate social media efforts?” This is such a great question, and through my research, I found this slideshow (from “The Brand Builder’s Blog” author, Olivier Blanchard) that really sums it up (don’t be put off by the number of slides, it’s really well worth the few minutes it takes to view):

Real Estate & Social Media ROI

By putting your social media pieces in place (read my previous post for Top Tips for Free (But Highly Profitable) Advertising Online for social media ideas) within a short period of time you will find yourself being able to clearly see the effects these pieces (when used effectively) will have on your real estate business.

There are several tools, that I’m sure you have at least heard of, that you should have in place that will give you clear, concise proof of your increased exposure, traffic and leads. These include RSS fees statistics (through your blog, such as Google’s Feedburner), and Analytics (through your website, with Google’s Analytics tool). Below are screen shots of these examples:

These examples show the obvious and highly trackable data that you too can have in place and chart when putting your social media efforts into effect. The peak shown is from my previous blog post which I posted throughout various social media sites (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, etc.,) and social bookmarking sites (such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and Reddit). Couple this with the increase in leads (and subsequent sales) plus your on-going online marketing of your listings (also through these venues), and you’ll be well on your way to the best year ever.

For more information on social media and where you need to be in 2010, please visit my previous post, Social Network Ads in 2010 – Get Ready!

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Top tips for making blogging worthwhile

Suzanne Roy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:42:19 +0000

Top tips for making blogging worthwhile

There are many aspects and tricks of the trade when it comes to being a successful Real Estate Virtual Assistant. One of them is using tools that are available online at zero cost to you and your clients! A favorite tool that fits this description is an online program/tool called Photobucket. This is a great tool that I use almost daily when creating eye-catching blogs for my real estate clients.

Blogging is an ongoing project that I have been completing for many of my real estate clients for the past few years, and is becoming more and more popular as the months and years go by. Real estate virtual assistants are able to complete hundreds of blogs on behalf of their real estate clients by blogging about dozens of different topics just as easily (if not faster and better!) as the real estate client themselves including:

Local Events
Neighborhood Information
Community Spotlights
Area Attractions

One aspect of blogging is the content and making sure to have backlinks to other web pages within the real estate blog and website, while making sure that the blogs are easy to read – first written for the reader and second for the search engines!

Don’t forget to add bookmarks to websites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, etc., which will provide you with amazing incoming links from high ranking sites into your website – the difference this simple addition to each blog that you write is staggering! It’s a must-do in my books!

Another aspect of blogging that is important is being pleasing to the eye and including some “interactiveness” to the content. To do this I have utilized several online programs, one of which is Photobucket.com which allows me to create slideshows of pictures. An example of how I would do this is when I am highlighting a subdivision within one of my real estate client’s market area and I include a slideshow of photos of several of the homes within the subdivision currently for sale, some photos of the amenities (if applicable) and also of the surrounding area and attractions.

Here is a sample of a Tulsa Real Estate blog slideshow which I created in about 2 minutes using their online program – simple, effective and eye-catching.

Virtual Assistant vs Hiring An Employee

Suzanne Roy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:08:15 +0000

Virtual Assistant vs Hiring An Employee

An entrepreneur or small business owner who attempts to be a “One-Man Show”, who continually works IN their business not ON their business, is essentially losing around 50% in lost revenue due to unproductive time management. The more time the business owner can work ON their business, focusing on activities that bring revenue (such as networking, marketing, planning, and delivering) the faster their business will flourish and they will profit. Enter: Virtual Assistant.

Virtual Assistants

are less expensive than employees and often offer specialized skills. At an average of $35 per hour, you may be wondering how an employee could possibly be more expensive.

Here’s a breakdown of what an employee may cost you versus a Virtual Assistant:

	Full Time Employee	Virtual Assistant
Hourly Rate	$12.00/hr	$35.00/hr
+ Benefits	$9,500.00/yr	$0.00
+ Overhead	$12,800.00/yr	$0.00
+ Sick Time	$4,300.00/yr	$0.00
+ Supplies	$1,800.00/yr	$0.00
=Actual Hourly Rate	$25.65/hr	$35.00
Hours per Year	2,080	416
= Actual Annual Cost	$53,360.00	$14,560.00

By obtaining the right Virtual Assistant, you will create an environment which will provide you with more time to work on the things you do best (whether it is real estate sales or graphic design), and become more productive in the additional time that you will now have, and, of course, increase your revenue.