How to write interesting things on your real estate blog

"In fashion one day you're in and the next day, you're out" - Heidi Klum

Heidi Klum, the Supermodel and TV Producer, is famous for saying: “In fashion, one day you’re in and the next day you’re out”.

Marketing is very much like fashion, and what’s “in” right now, according to the experts, is New Media.

Right now, new media is all the rage. The experts say: if you are not in it, you are missing out.

One of the things that the experts recommend doing within the new media umbrella is blogging. But not just any blogging. They recommend “blogging for business” (i.e. having a business blog).

What exactly is a business blog?

A business blog is a blog in which you write about business topics. In our case as Realtors, we’d be writing about real estate matters (as opposed to writing about our trip to the beach or about the latest cookies that we baked).

But a business blog doesn’t have to be boring, it just has to be professional and stay on topic. In essence, a business blog is good way to provide valuable content for your readers (your current and future clients).

Having a business blog is a good idea because:

* It helps your website be found because of the unique content on your blog

For example if you have a post on your blog about a neighborhood and someone searches for that info, your website would come up as a result of their search.

* It helps potential clients trust you

Clients will get an idea of how you can help them; and what makes you unique.
Using the above example, if you are the expert in a neighborhood, and you blog about it, clients who are interested in that neighborhood will trust you as a good source of information, and they’ll be in a better position to trust you with a transaction.

But not all information that you could have on a blog leads to being found or trusted.

The trick to being found or trusted is to write about topics which your readers find valuable and interesting

How do you find what to write that would be interesting to your readers?

1. Visit forums and create an answer to real-life questions

One of my favorite ways to create blog posts is to go to the forums which your readers frequent and see what kinds of questions they are asking.

The idea is to take one of the hot questions, and answer it in detail in a blog post- ideally complete with pictures and anything else that would be helpful to complete the post.

2. Expand on current events

Another way to create an interesting blog post is to write about current events, such as mortgage changes, or legislation which affects real estate transactions. Simply copying the news item isn’t going to cut it. Your readers will want your editorial telling them how this event affects them and how to make the most out of it.

3. Revisit past comments

When you have a blog going for a little while, you will have comments on your posts. These comments are a conversation between the readers and you. From these conversations, you could extract a few new ideas which could be the beginning of a new, fresh and interesting post.

It all seems pretty straight forward, but I’m sure that you’ll briefly consider a couple of shortcuts to make your writing faster and easier.

Here are two of the shortcuts to avoid:

* Copying someone else’s content. Even if it is free, public content, it won’t have your usual style. You’re better off quoting the source and adding your own opinion/comment to it. Much like you would do if you blogged about current events. This way, it will have additional value which your readers will appreciate.

* Blogging exclusively about your listings. Avoid posting a listing just for the sake of it. Blogging about a listing could be done gracefully, and made interesting for everbody. Write an post like the way that newspapers write an article about a fancy home for sale; with lots of juicy details that are not found on the MLS listing, info on the neighborhood, things to do around, where to go shopping, etc. Make it a story interesting to read for anybody who lands on the site.

Summary

* New media experts recommend blogging for business
* Blogging for business means writing business-related articles on a blog
* A business blog can help your website be found and can help you gain trust among your readers (i.e. potential clients)
* Three ways to find inspiration on what to write about: Forums, Current Events, Past Comments
* Two shortcuts to avoid: Copying content, blogging about listings

Next step

Do you have a blog? What is your favorite source of inspiration for writing your posts?