Blogging

Shannon RegisterRegister Real Estate Advisors

Spring, TX @ShannonRegister

No matter what, the very first piece of social media real estate I would start with is a blog. Chris Brogan, Founder, New Marketing Labs and Author of the New York Times Best-seller “Trust Agents”

• 10% of Realtors blog regularly (NAR 2011)• Most of those do not blog effectively• The most common blog post is on the

agent’s listings• 3% of blogging agent’s business comes

from their website.• 80% of my business comes from my

blog/website (Makes it a priority)• Effective blogging Readers Contact

info Leads Closings

Blogging Platforms

Free(multi-user)

Wordpress.com

Blogger

BlogSpot

Tumblr

Real Estate Specific

(multi-user)

Active Rain

Trulia

Realtor.com

Self Hosted (inexpensive)

Wordpress

Movable Type

Joomla

Drupal

Most Successful* Real Estate Bloggers…

• Have an integrated website• Self Host (Wordpress or similar

platform)• Learned to adjust the site themselves

/ minimal code

* Generates a significant portion of their business from their blog

Which to Use? – My Online Strategy

• Blogging as an SEO Strategy

• Wordpress Self Hosted• Use real estate multi-

author blogs for syndication

• Fully integrated website using WP as platform

How to Get Started

• To get started– Domain name– Hosting package w/ database– FREE software

• To reach the goal ($)– Learn some technology–Willing to spend the time– Build a platform that works

Tech Tips

• Get out of your comfort zone• Learn some code• Tutorials / videos / books / trial and

error• Learn to add posts and pages

yourself– Self publishing = freedom

• Learn to make videos• If it were easy, everyone would do it

Beauty of Wordpress as CMS

• Plugins– Adds functionality to your website– Tens of thousands available for almost

anything

• Themes– Themes are a set of files that determine how a

website will be displayed. – Usually the only modification that needs to be

made to a Wordpress website

Why Bother?

I am a literary genius that feels obligated to grace the

world with my wisdom.

Search – a marketing method that didn’t exist a decade ago, provides the most efficient and inexpensive way for businesses to find leads.John Battelle, Journalist and Founder, Federated Media Publishing

• Google owns YouTube• Content is King / Post daily• Vary your content• Blogs feed search engines which

drive traffic

Variety

• Variety of Style– Videos– Photos– Text– Links– Quotes

• Variety of Subject– What to blog about?

What To Blog About?

• Listings• News stories• Events• Neighborhoods• Economic issues• Educational posts• Areas of town• Local neighborhood

events• White Board Monday

• Vendors • Other thought

leaders• Radio shows• TV segments• Viral videos• Local politics• Market trends• Allow guest posts

Longevity of a Blog

• Shelf life of a tweet = seconds• Shelf life of Facebook post = minutes• Shelf life of a blog post = YEARS!

Free Blog / Non-integrated Site

CONTENT

TRAFFIC

“MONEY SITE”

BLOG

SuzieTheRealtor.Blogspot.com

SuzieTheRealtor.com

Self Hosted Integrated Blog

CONTENT

TRAFFIC

LEADS!

BLOG/“MONEY SITE”

COMBINATION

SuzieTheRealtor.com

The Center of Your Online Universe

Website/Blog

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

LinkedIn

Business cards

Stationary On air promotion

T-shirts

Signage

Email Marketing

Print to web

EVERYTHING!

Drive traffic to your website!

A steady stream of high quality content + a search engine

credible website = TRAFFIC!

Traffic = LEADS!

Leads = $$ CLOSINGS! $$

Syndication

Blog

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Active Rain Trulia

Realtor.com

Other News Sites

Over 55 Social

Bookmarking Sites

Syndication

• Automate where you can– Social Media– Social Bookmarking

• Generate backlinks• Drive traffic back to your

site

Now You Have Traffic, Now What?

• CONVERSION!!!• Draw them deeper into your site.• Ask them to connect. Calls to action– Social Media– Opt-in email lists– Comments– Contact forms– Capture contact information– IDX Search for listings– eBook offer

Measure Everything!

• Google Analytics• Other analytic software• Google alerts

Where is your traffic coming from? What are your clients searching for?

But I can get a blog for free…

• Ticket to NAR Tech Edge - $49.00• .com domain name for 1 year - $12.99• Hosting package - $4.25 / month

For the price of your ticket to this event, you can have a domain

name and 8.5 months of hosting.

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

“I tried blogging for almost a month and I didn’t get anything out of it” -Frustrated Agent

Half Effort less than Half Results

Time

Resu

lts

Search Engines started driving

major traffic at 8 monthsMost quit at 6

weeks

Key Tasks

• Steady stream of high quality content– Articles– News Stories– Blog Posts– Segments (audio and video)

• Syndication– Biggest Impact / Least Effort– Automated / Semi-automated

• Connect– Turn visitors into clients– Convert to sales

Free Tools

• Wordpress.org– Tutorials– Themes– Plugins

• Filezilla – FTP client – allows you to transfer files from computer to web server

• Gimp or Paint.net– FREE photoshop

Secret to Blogging

• Supplemental marketing• Focus on consumers with quality content– They will find you eventually

• Consistency– Takes time– Cheap– Easy

• It only works if you do it• Don’t outsource

Results

• Thought Leadership• Credibility• Personal SEO• Create a following• Build your database• Shortens sales cycle• Lead Generating Machine

THANK YOU!

Shannon RegisterBroker/Owner

Register Real Estate AdvisorsRREA.com

s@rrea.com@ShannonRegister or @RREAdotcom

on Twitter

281.288.3500For a copy of these slides, visit

RREA.us/NAR