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A Neighborhood Blog for 2008
This is an opinion, but it is based on two years of personal experience, and the experience of others, so I think it has some validity. A business blog is not very useful if no one reads it. According to Technorati there are over 90 million blogs in there directory and only a small percentage get any traffic.
People who write real estate blogs are writing to a niche, composed of the people who are interested in real estate. Real estate professionals are the most interested in real estate. With a lot of hard work and writing this group can be attracted to a blog. Larry’s real estate undressed blog is a great example. He has a large national following, and has the talent and imagination to keep them coming back.
It doesn’t work that way for everyone, and if real estate business is the goal, consider a local blog. Larry has a couple of them and they do generate business. My local blog has as many readers, but it does not have as many of the same readers coming back everyday. Since the focus is on St. Paul and on real estate, who would want to read about that every day? Yawn.
My blog works more like a web site. It covers a small niche that few others are writing about. When people are interested in St. Paul and in buying or selling a home in the area they find me through Google. The competition for my product is much smaller than the competition for a product like Real Estate Undressed, so I come up first in many searches.
The regular readers that I have are area residents who either know me or who just like seeing a blog about St. Paul and are interested in the local market conditions posts which show home prices and sales by St. Paul neighborhood. They don’t necessarily read me becasue I they think I am a great writer, they read me becasue I provide information that no one else is publishing and in a unique format. They can’t go to a national real estate or news blog and find the same content. I only have to compete with a few excellent local bloggers.
That is the beauty of a local or neighborhood blog. Coverage of a niche in depth. Kind of like selling real estate. Most of us are licensed in a state, or maybe two but we sell in just a few neighborhoods, some specialize further still, becoming experts in one type of housing or clients. As I drill down on the internet to the neighborhood level there is less competition than there is at the city or state level.
If you are a real estate professional who would like to start a blog that will help generate real estate business consider writing a neighborhood blog. You may not get national attention or a huge following but the people who are interested in your area will find you and you will stand out as an area expert. Your readers will also get a feel for your personality and if you are lucky you will build trust with them to the point where they will contact you and ask for help with a real estate transaction.
REALTORS who use business planning usually work on the plans this time of year. If you are considering a blog for 2008, put it in your plan and allot time each day for reading and writings. Make some projections. In your first year with a local blog you can count on your posts resulting in real estate transactions. I was going to throw out some numbers but there are many variables. Traffic increases when market activity is up and there are seasonal variations too.
The number of blogs on the internet is growing and will continue to grow. A local blog is a way to compete, and win business in your own niche. If you currently have a blog, don’t be discouraged if it isn’t paying off yet. Blogs are like farming in that to get results you have to stick with it for awhile. Also keep in mind that Who is reading your blog and why, may be more important than the number of readers. We have not yet found a correlation between the number of readers and the amount of business a blog can attract.
Artwork is of downtown St. Paul, with the Mississippi River in the foreground.
