Archive for June, 2007
Choosing a Real Estate Blog
· CommentsIf you don’t have a blog incorporated into your website, here are a few places you should evaluate for starting a blog.
Find a Free Real Estate Blog in an Established Community
There are many places to start a free blog. You’d want to find a blog community that focuses on real estate to give your blog more credibility than a general site like Blogger, for example.
You’d also want to establish your blog in a community that will improve your chances of being noticed by the search engines. Just as Squidoo lenses get more attention from the search engines because of the strength of the Squidoo community, there are equivalents in the world of real estate blogging.
Check These Real Estate Blog Communities
Here are three communities that fit the criteria mentioned above, in alphabetical order.
Active Rain – If you’re not a member of the Active Rain community yet, you might want to join even if you don’t host your blog there. The community has over 36,000 members from many different real estate related industries. It’s a great place to chat with and learn from other real estate professionals.
A free blog is included with your membership, and you can indicate whether your blog entries can be seen by community members only (for topics you want to discuss with other professionals) or by consumers (home buyers/sellers). I have seen feedback on several blogs that indicate consumers do contact members based on their consumer-oriented blog posts.
RealTown – RealTown is a real estate community founded by the folks at Internet Crusade. You may be familiar with their RealTalk listserv/forum, e-Pro courses and forum, and they provide a variety of other services to the industry.
I tried out one of their blogs and found it very user-friendly. And your blog will get the advantage of being in a strong authority site for the industry.
Real Estate Webmasters – This is the newest community from a blogging standpoint. It is sponsored by the same people who established the Real Estate Webmasters forum. So, while their blog community is relatively new, the blogs share the search engine love from their established forum. If you want a free listing in the directory, keep in mind that a link on your home page is required, but there are other alternatives (see this post’s comments).
Five Steps to Create a Squidoo Lens
· CommentsWhy Squidoo?
I know, you’re thinking: “But, I don’t have time to manage another website!” The good news is that a Squidoo “lens”, which is just another word for web page, doesn’t require much upkeep. This article will talk about ways to tweak the lens so that you have fresh content without a lot of ongoing maintenance.
The reason you need a Squidoo lens is that the search engines love Squidoo lenses. So, if you’ve decided the time has come to jump in, here are five steps that will make creating a lens as painless as possible.
There are lots of things you can do with a Squidoo lens. And, if you look at a variety of them, you’ll discover all the different variations. These five steps describe a way to create an interesting lens that will attract traffic and help you drive that traffic to your website.
Then, once you have the basics down, if you want to get fancy, there’s plenty of opportunity!
This is a long post, and I didn’t have time to upload any pretty pictures, so prepare yourself!
Making the Most of Your Real Estate Blog
· CommentsYou can make the most of your real estate blog by 1) providing useful content for your visitors, 2) including the keyword phrases you are targeting, and 3) using your blog to link to your website.
Put Useful Information on Your Real Estate Blog
I’ve talked about ideas for topics you can write about before. Another way to come up with great content is just to keep your “antenna” out as you go through your day. If someone asks you an intelligent question, your response might be a great blog post. If one client asked the question, odds are there are other folks who are confused about the same issue.
The other day, I was talking to one of my clients about the subject of blog post topics. Our conversation reminded her of a telephone call she’d had that day with one of her clients. The couple had recently written a contract on a new home. They told her they were very excited because they’d just purchased new applicances for their new home – on credit.
June 07 Real Estate Results Newsletter
· CommentsThe June Newsletter is published, and you can read the online version or sign up to receive a copy in your mailbox each month.
In summary, there are two resources you really should review. First, an article about voice mail etiquette caught my eye when I discovered that the five things you shouldn’t include in your outgoing message were in mine! Don’t frustrate your callers – read this article and you might make a quick change to your outgoing message like I did!
The second is an article about the 10 steps you can take to become a neighborhood expert. Everyone says that you should be one, but this article has 10 very innovative ways to actually make it happen. And, even better, the ideas aren’t expensive or nearly impossible for a normal human being. Quite refreshing and very informative.
Enjoy!
Help with Starting Your Own Squidoo Lens
· CommentsIf you want to start your own Squidoo lens, there is a lot of information to help you out.
- A lensmaster named Jack Lee has some great pages devoted to getting started on Squidoo. Refer to the list of his lenses on his profile page.
- The Squidoo FAQ page
- SquidU (the Squid University)
- Squid Forum
- Lots of lenses on how to Squidoo
Since the Squidoo pages can often rank well in the search engines, it can be an excellent way to improve your real estate website’s ranking by establishing quality incoming links to your site. Want to give it a try? Get Started Now!
If you want to know how to add links and bold text on your Squidoo page, read on!
