Updated on March 10, 2020
Real Estate Blogging
One of the best ways to establish yourself as a local real estate expert is through the creation of a real estate blog. An active blog will also help keep yourself top-of-mind with your sphere of influence.
Creating and writing a real estate blog with a frequent new post is a lot of work. Creating a real estate blog like ie-realestate.com can be tough, you will wonder if anyone is reading your website and if they are are they even finding it useful.
Why blog? I’m going to share why I blog and how it has helped me build my real estate business. Hopefully, my story will inspire you to start blogging.
The main reasons I blog
- A few months ago, while at a local high school fundraiser, I won a raffle. The announcer said, “The winner is: Greg Howard, Moreno Valley’ social media star. I see his posts all over Facebook.” I was in total shock. I was amazed that random posts had had me kind of a local celebrity, and not only that, made me a credible agent in front of a high school stadium full of potential clients.
- Most of the real estate leads that I acquire through my website are targeted leads. Targeted leads are leads that are looking for the product or service you offer with the intent to buy or use your service. The quality of leads is far better than cold calling or emails.
My blogging strategy
I have a routine of writing my blog posts over the weekend and publishing them every Tuesday. The extra day or two allows me to reread and refine the post if needed. It gives me posting some sense of regularity and consistency.
Finding good blog topics?
My main three blogging categories are market updates, real estate strategies (that are timeless), and lifestyle. I will try mixing it up by alternating between the categories when I post.
I get most of my blogging ideas from my clients. They will often ask questions about real estate, and those questions become a blog post. I keep an Excel sheet with all potential topics and work through that list to create blog posts. I never mention the clients in the blog posts to respect their privacy. I simply answer the questions that they presented to me.
It surprises me which blog posts resonate with people. I wrote a post about a housing project a few years ago. My blog post will show up when people search for information about that neighborhood. I get a lot of traffic from that one post.
Outsourcing your blog writing?
The hardest part is writing the content. While you could outsource some of the content, you will want some of it to come from personal experience. I often outsource the market updates, occasionally the lifestyle posts, but the real estate strategies are mine.
Where should the blog live?
I use a hosted website using WordPress as the content management system. Word press is relatively easy to use and if you are only posting blog posts and not designing it is super easy. I simply post the blog on my website and then share it on social media. I post it to my business page and then share it on my accounts.
This strategy helped me grow quite a large social media following.
How does the blog generate leads?
I have an email list that I send out when there is a new blog post. The email list contains past and present clients, new real estate leads, and other real estate agents in and out of my area.
This gets my information in front of colleges and clients and potential clients. My information also can be found through search engines. Google is a great way of bringing in new leads, which I capture through a form.
Don’t forget to have an unsubscribe option. It is best to use a professional email service to handle this. They make it easy. You do not want to violate the CAN-SPAM Act by not having a way to opt-out.
Why does blogging work?
Blogging is a huge part of my marketing strategy. While so many real estate agents rely on cold marketing and open houses to find leads, my website produces far more leads and a fraction of the effort.
While blogging is not easy, it works and is far more efficient than other marketing tactics in real estate. It is currently very underutilized, and when used, it is often not done correctly. The important thing is consistency, the results don’t come immediately, and you need to keep posting. Even when you are not seeing results keep going. This is where so many fail, the post 10 or 12 blog posts and stop. This is a huge mistake. It takes at least 30-40 posts for the search engines to start noticing you.
Updated on March 10, 2020
Write your blog as smoothe as a stripper moves her body
Never, Ever Make Chapter One, a Background Dump!
Among the toughest? But best? Writing lessons I learned was sent to me publicly, in a restaurant. At the moment, I held a college degree in Journalism and was operating for a community newspaper. Nevertheless, my Dream was becoming posted as an author of Historical Romance novels.
My newsprint editor assigned me to meet with an author, who published Contemporary Romance novels. After the interview, this particular fellow Texan graciously agreed to examine the manuscript of mine and offer me a story critique.
Writing a Novel: seven Stages of Fiction FrenzyAs the waiter cleared away supper, my brand new guide finally volunteered the opinion of her. Patting the hand of mine inside a gentle manner, she blurted out:
Adrienne, you have to cut the 1st forty-five pages of the manuscript of yours.
I almost bit off the tongue of mine. I really mean, I was a writing PROFESSIONAL. As a journalist, indeed, I understood what I was doing! (Little did I realize that creative writing and journalism classes programs don’t cook an aspiring writer to create salable, professional fiction. But that is a story for one more post.)
Why? I whined, also stunned to recognize I was bending the salad fork in the fist of mine.
“Because your story starts on page 46,” she discussed in her perfect professional manner. “You’ve composed these very first forty-five pages on your own, not the readers of yours. You are attempting to discover how you can begin a novel. These forty-five pages do not shift the plot forward. In published sectors, we phone the issue of background dumping.
Are you writing Action in Scene One? For starters, you have to Set it Up!
As a contest judge, I were again on which (traumatic) story critique and then attempted to determine how you can help the contestants of mine. I needed these authors to learn the criticism of mine of the Chapter One opening.
Not every contestant was background dumping. Some were staying very sketchy (a substantial issue when opening with dialogue) which I did not have a clue what was going on.
Term to the wise: The reader of yours is going to be extensively lost if you add over two characters in the very first three sites. Whether those figures are drinking tea or even lopping off of heads, it doesn’t matter
. (What, you believe I jest?)
I needed to offer detailed direction (not merely a score) to assist the contestants. After that, I remembered a further piece of excellent advice, sent to me by a published Historical Romance writer. This moment, I was taking a course on how you can create professional fiction. My the class: was told by the teacher
You have to create Scene One from the view of the character who’s got probably the most to lose. Open this particular scene five minutes before your protagonist’s living is intending to change once and for all.
So I nurtured my hand. Why five minutes? I ventured to question.
Writing a Novel: seven Stages of Fiction FrenzyBecause, my mentor stated, you do not wish to talk about an excessive amount of info though you do want to show what is on the line for the protagonist.
“Just as significantly, you want to show just how the protagonist thinks about whatever ‘s on the line. Next, moreover, only then, will the audience understand why there is an issue when you threaten that thing or even go out.
The guidance was a vast, Aha moment for me. Lastly, after many years of rejection letters, I have known that I would go from a single extreme (writing a lot of backgrounds) to another extreme (striking out essential components of the story plot.)
Far more (Outrageous) Writing Techniques to Start a Novel:
So modern objective is helping you know the ideal opening for Chapter One. There is simply no answer which meets each story. Nevertheless, the following rules are going to steer you in the proper direction:
Smack Your Readers Upside the Head
The first sentence of yours should read as a slap in the face. (In composing parlance, we phone this the Literary Hook.)
Whether it is dialogue, or introspection, narrative, humor, make sure your literary connect does what it is claimed to do: get your reader ‘s interest.
Want an example? (Sure you do!) Visit the literary connect in my award-winning Western Historical Romance novel, Texas Outlaw.
Create how a Stripper Dances
After your literary hook has caught your reader ‘s interest, Don’t Allow it to GO! How? Practice the Gypsy Rose Lee Rule of Writing.
(Yeah. She was a stripper. Your point? If you want to see some strippers I suggest checking out Skin City Entertainment.)
The Gypsy Rose Lee Rule of Writing is simple: expose the fascinating parts, gradually. How? Build momentum, section by part – other pieces of persona exposition with bits of a story plot. Tease the reader of yours with relevant information, do not drown him in the specifics.
And in case I have been obtuse: Chapter One isn’t the best place showing off all of the research you have completed on the British tea ceremony. (Come to consider it, absolutely no Chapter could be the spot to dump reams of research.)
Nor is Chapter One the best place to release into paragraph upon the part of narration about the protagonist’s history, such as his lunatic family, lousy like human relationships, and also work failures. (Moderation, people!)
Believe in The Reader of yours to have an Imagination.
The best way to create novels, guide coaching keep the tempo quick as well as the emotions high. How? Be judicious when describing clothing and scenery. Allow the reader ‘s creativity to fill in some information.
Let us face it: all of us have televisions. We have all seen pictures of ball gowns, castles, dragons, vampires, stealth fighter planes, and so on. We Also can imagine the action of opening a door or even launching an automobile.
Do not bog down the speed with minutiae.
Still not clear how you can produce a literary hook? Don’t leave the reader wanting to know if you may have started the story at the wrong spot? Are you struggling to create the figures that editors will be able to appreciate? I am accepting a small number of pupils for individual coaching. You can discover more about my story critiques with these. In the meantime, hold confidence, and keep composing the novel of yours!
Updated on January 19, 2019
Blogging When You Have No Followers
At times I like to imagine I’m a picture taker. Generally with other individuals’ cameras. Also, the outcomes are regularly… not terrible.
I don’t investigate the subject, I don’t take classes, I don’t find out about photography, I don’t effectively plan to wind up better.
However, by one way or another, I am ending up better with each photo I take.
What’s more, I asked why.
Wouldn’t you?
Here’s an odd actuality about me: I am a craftsman. I have been composing for a long time now. I cherish workmanship. I adore specialists. What’s more, excellent craftsmanship has made me cry unquestionably more regularly than genuine at any point did.
This conviction of dig works for me in every single aesthetic field. I don’t feel much weight, only the longing to have a fabulous time, to have a good time, to partake in the custom of creation.
I see excellence and I need to catch it, reproduce it, change it, share it with the world.
, reproduce it, change it, share it with the world.
It’s not the information but instead the aptitude. Also, I trust that it’s not what we gain, but rather who we turn into that impacts our outcomes.
It’s about outlook.
“It is your demeanor, more than your bent, that will decide your elevation.”
– Zig Ziglar
No doubt, knowing the strategies and being an extraordinary storyteller matters, yet everything boils down to self-assurance.
On the off chance that you sincerely trust that you’re an incredible blogger, you will compose an amazing blog entry on a napkin, or in the event that you consider yourself an extraordinary picture taker, you’ll make due with a multi year old cell phone. A similar way people who are into wellness figure out how to work out, regardless of whether they’re stranded on a tropical island with just two coconuts and a volleyball.
I am almost certain you’re supposing something along the lines of, “It’s simple for you to state this, however I don’t have any devotees.”
Give me a chance to make an inquiry: how would you characterize accomplishment as a blogger? Who revealed to you that you must have a specific number of devotees or that you need to gain a living out of it so as to call yourself effective?
Imagine a scenario where there was another accord seeing accomplishment as a blogger: you should punch the damn keys and do your absolute best to create incredible work, regardless of whether you have 0 adherents. Particularly on the off chance that you have 0.
On the off chance that you have 50, you’re as of now a blogging god.
Gary Vee rambles about Macro and Micro dimensions. He’s expressed that he completed a great deal of meetings that got 50-60 sees well before being on CNN and turning into a major web based life star.
Furthermore, I trust this is the sort of frame of mind most bloggers just need.
As such, a few people motivate eager to compose their best substance notwithstanding when nobody is understanding them, while others are subtly sitting tight for some time or another when they’ll be Internet popular to compose their best thoughts into reality.
That is about it.
There was this post on Tumblr about this lady who had lost a great deal of weight. She at that point saw her better half was progressively friendly towards her, and this made her dismal, on the grounds that she pondered her looks. At that point she saw how individuals acted distinctively around her: clowned more, were kinder…
It took her a while to make sense of things: it was her who had changed. From the minute she originally looked herself in the mirror to when she rested, she felt unique. She was more joyful, increasingly alive, progressively sure. Grinned more. Wore diverse garments. Her demeanor towards herself was unique, and accordingly the frame of mind of others.
Individuals were just responding to the manner in which she saw herself.
On the off chance that you don’t think anything else of my posts, on the off chance that you take only a certain something, let it be this:
Attitude is everything.
On the off chance that you have the correct attitude, in the event that you are self-assured, independent, filled from inside, clear in your aims and reason, free from result, social weight, or difficulties, at that point you will transform those 20-30 supporters into thousands, much more, in a matter of seconds.
That is the reason the exhortation is to compose for yourself. Compose the sort of substance that you’d love to peruse, on the grounds that you should have a good time while doing it, and not on the grounds that another person likes to peruse it (or necessities to or would pay great cash to).
Do you know why we make jokes? State or do stuff we discover amusing?
The vast majority would expect this is on the grounds that you need to make others giggle. It’s most certainly not. You make jokes since you discover them interesting, on the grounds that maxim that joke so anyone can hear makes you feel better. It hoists your very own mind-set, and that is the main objective.
The equivalent goes for blogging. Build up the sort of mentality that appreciates the craft of blogging:
Searching for motivation anyplace you can discover it
Siting at the work area to compose.
Having a calendar
Appreciating the cooperation with individual bloggers
Perusing different sites
The numbers diversion will disturb your head
When I originally began blogging in April 2012, I was relentless. I’d blog each and every day, despite the fact that I got 2-3 likes for each post, somewhere in the range of twenty odd perspectives daily.
It didn’t make a difference.
I realized achievement was simply an issue of time. Good fortune, additionally, yet I realized that the harder I worked, the more fortunate I’d get.
In any case, indeed the more supporters I got, the more I forgot about the significance of only one peruser.
My words ended up weakened by one way or another. I lost a lot of lucidity.
What do a hundred thousand individuals need to peruse? What do they care about? They originate from somewhere in the range of 200 nations, they talk incomprehensibly unique dialects, have diverse traditions…
Blogging is around two individuals: me and you.
That is it. I compose what I need, since I appreciate composing, since this is my obsession, and in light of the fact that I need to do this until the point that they toss soil over me, and you, the one peruser, the individual who is perusing these blog entries, who remarks, who sets aside the opportunity to like the substance, or offer it, or print it out…
In the event that you can get amped up for the demonstration of composing a blog entry, and after that get considerably increasingly energized with each and every like, remark, or pursue, at that point you’ll be effective as a blogger.
If not, there’s no learning, strategy, trap or tip that will enable you to end up fruitful.
Updated on March 10, 2020
Editing Blog Posts
Compose. Alter. Compose. Alter. Alter. Alter. Compose.
Does this sound commonplace?
I wager it does.
Frankly, I used to state that one knows a bit of composing is appropriately altered when he feels wiped out simply pondering understanding it once again.
What’s more, it’s anything but difficult to make yourself insane attempting to alter that way.
insane attempting to alter that way.
So… what do you need to do?
Competency is your cerebrum’s definitive objective
Competency occurs after you’ve sufficiently committed errors that your mind can release everything.
It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. It’s not about what you do well – it’s about what turns out badly. The mind needs to make hundreds, a huge number of mix-ups – and beat them – to achieve competency.
You can see this for yourself in the event that you watch a two-year-old figuring out how to walk. Inspire the youngster to stroll on grass, and after that on rock. He’ll battle, and he may fall.
Inspire the tyke to state a sentence, and he’ll battle to locate the correct words organized appropriately.
The tyke still can’t seem to commit enough errors. That is all.
When the cerebrum commits enough errors – and rectifies them – has achieved its dimension of competency in that field, be it strolling, talking, or composing.
Being “familiar”
It appears to be enchanted. It’s what others call “ability” or “virtuoso.”
As a matter of fact, it’s achieving such an abnormal state of competency that you are familiar with whatever you’re doing. You are finding and rectifying botches in your intuitive, and it scarcely needs a cognizant choice for your sake.
Consider it figuring out how to drive a vehicle. At the point when that occurs, it’s horrifying to listen music, or to chat on the telephone. You have to concentrate on the undertaking (driving the vehicle) yet as you achieve competency and move toward becoming “familiar” at driving a vehicle, you can do it while accomplishing something different.
This is the means by which you alter like a manager
I could have composed the most brief blog entry ever, however you would have thought I was simply disturbing you.
Truly, it’s extremely straightforward.
Make hundreds, perhaps thousands, of errors. Compose, alter, compose, alter, compose, compose, compose, punch those damn keys, and alter some more…
The thought is that you learn. All that you are, all that you do is scholarly conduct. From your interests to your feelings of trepidation and fears, all is found out conduct.
In case you’re battling now, breathe easy because of realizing that there will be multi day when you won’t battle. For whatever length of time that you commit enough errors to wind up familiar at it.
That is enormity in under 500 words.
What’s more, trust me, I used to battle to compose. In English. Which isn’t my local dialect. I once gone through 9 hours endeavoring to think of a smart sentence for one of my books.
I used to go through 8-9 hours composing and altering a solitary blog entry.
Presently I can do it in around 60 minutes.
I can compose blog entries in transports, at gatherings, in coffeehouses, on a workstation, on my telephone, on a bit of paper with a pencil if needs be.
The present exercise:
Try not to BE AFRAID TO FAIL. YOU CANNOT SUCCEED UNLESS YOU FAIL.
Updated on January 19, 2019
Writing Creative Blog Posts
Inventiveness is critical with regards to making powerful substance. Furthermore, truly, substance ought to likewise be helpful and important to the peruser, not a liberal exercise in self articulation.
In any case, inventiveness is key with regards to content that works, content that draws in your gathering of people, content that advances other individuals’ lives. While innovativeness for the good of its own is a brilliant method to reinforce your horizontal reasoning aptitudes and to adjust your work to what you want to do, it’s the point at which you make something helpful to others that you increase the value of the world.
Innovativeness is tied in with being a purchaser
Motivation from different sources is the thing that innovativeness is about. It appears that numerous individuals trust innovativeness includes pulling a totally pristine thought out of nowhere. In truth, innovativeness is a versatile procedure that comprises of taking a gander at the equivalent existing thing every other person is and considering it in an unexpected way.
Indeed, even Michelangelo trusted that “the best of craftsmen has no origination that the marble alone does not contain inside itself.” He saw his models inside the mass of marble, and just expelled the parts that didn’t have a place all together with “free the figures sleeping in the stone.”
Look in improbable spots for associations and edges that can improve your substance. In the event that just a single part of another branch of knowledge addresses your issues, move like Michelangelo and dispose of the parts that don’t have a place.
This implies watching films, perusing books, tuning in to music. Spying on other individuals’ discussions.
Where do we discover motivation?
Honestly, motivation originates from the most far-fetched of spots.
As it were, what you learn outside of your specialty likely could really compare to whatever else. Peruse all that you can crosswise over differing point territories, and live without bounds for motivation every step of the way.