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The Lights of Blogway: Deconstructing the Group Blog

Published by Joseph Ferrara (2) January 19th, 2007 in Advertising, Branding/ Marketing and Real estate. Comments

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What is the marketing effect of the real estate group blog?
To whom do most of the benefits accrue?
Are there any risks to the contributors? The blog owners?

We were originally drawn to this topic by a blog post by Pat Kitano of Transparent Real Estate, Own Your Own Blog. A later conversation on the subject, at the Inman Conference, with Kevin Boer (3Oceans) also raised some interesting questions. Most recently, RCG published an interview with Ardell, where she wrote of blog personality. She said: “If the blog doesn’t have a personality I don’t read it.” Hmm.

The Value of An Individual Blog: Building Your Brand. Attracting Clients

In order to build and enhance your brand, you create a blog and post on topics relevant to your market. As your readership and reputation increase, you attract more clients. Perhaps you get invited to speak at conferences or contribute to the local newspapers. Maybe, with your increased traffic, you can attract advertising revenue to offset the costs of blogging. Your blog becomes a reflection of your personality and expertise. Sounds like part of a marketing plan.

The Group Blog Defined

By group blog we mean a blog whose content comes from diverse contributors, most of whom have separate blogs. We are not referring to group or team blogs of the same company where all the writers are united in interest or blogs that have guest bloggers. Nor are we referring to blog communities like Active Rain or MyHouseKey, which we characterize as community blogs (a new species). What are the ramifications of the group blog on the owner and the contributors? What are the advantages and disadvantages to each?

The Deconstruction: Advantages and Disadvantages

For the blog owner, we see these advantages:

  • More content for search engines
  • Varied content from different experts means more topic coverage
  • Less work in posting leaves more time for brokering
  • More traffic to owner’s blog
  • More inbound links
  • More consumer search engine traffic
  • Higher ranking of owner’s blog
  • Potential for more advertising revenue
  • Potential for more leads
  • If contributor leaves or stops posting, prior posts will still bring traffic
  • Building of the owner’s brand
  • Popularity breeds more opportunities for blog owner

Here are possible disadvantages to the blog owner:

  • Risk of irregular or inconsistent posting by contributors
  • Risk that contributors will stop posting
  • Risk that major (popular) contributor(s) will leave
  • Risk that contributor will keep better posts for their own blogs
  • Risk of internal dischord
  • Risk that your blog will lose it’s unique personality
  • Risk of readership loss due to loss of personality
  • Dilution of your blog voice

For contributors of the group blog, we see these advantages:

  • No obligation to post on a regular basis
  • Greater exposure
  • No obligation to post best material (keep for own blog)
  • Possible stepping stone to more or better offers

We see these possible contributor disadvantages:

  • Your content brings search engine traffic to another’s blog rather than yours
  • More work posting to group & individual blogs leaves less time for brokering
  • More inbound links to owner blog than your blog
  • More consumer traffic to owner blog than your own
  • Higher ranking of owner blog than your own
  • No share in advertising revenue
  • Your content remains with owner should you leave
  • Risk of running thin on material posting to 2 or more blogs
  • Blogger burnout

Questions. Questions. Questions

In our blogging predictions post, we touched on the topic of contributors’ participation in blog ad revenue and content ownership issues. But there may be more than ad money at stake. Here are some questions we pose to those contributing to blogs owned and registered to others:

  • Does contributing to another’s blog do more to build another’s brand?
  • Who owns the content? Can you take it when you leave or do you surrender it to the blog owner? In my legal opinion, the contributor owns the content, if there is no agreement to the contrary. Nonetheless, the blog owner may have a perpetual right to display it.
  • Since search engine traffic takes consumers to the owner’s blog, do you risk losing a lead?
  • With contributors bringing greater readership to the owner’s blog, will the owner stand to make more money from advertising, speaking engagements and all the other hoopla that accrues to the recognized blog brand? Should the owner share those gains with the contributors?
  • Once the main blog gets more traction/traffic or more contributors are added, can the contributor’s brand be further diluted, the contributor’s role lessened, while the blog machine continues to roll on?
  • Does the advantage of greater exposure of your writing outweigh any possible disadvantages?
  • If you had to make a choice, would you leave the group blog for your own?

The only experts in this area are Ardell, Dustin and the other contributors to RCG, the longest running group show on Blogway and the relative newcomers, the contributing writers at BHB. We welcome your views and perspective on the subject.

Postscript: Sellsius° is a team blog. We bounce ideas of of each other and usually write posts together. Although we do write individual posts ourselves too, we have not taken individual credit for posts in order to build our brand. Since we believe in brand, we think it works. We have been asked to contribute to the Inman Real Estate News Blog. And we will. While it is a group blog of sorts, there is no posted contributor roster. Maybe it makes it different. Maybe not. Nonetheless, we will wade into the Inman group blog dynamic and will see for ourselves how it plays out. Chances are, if it came to a choice, we would likely sacrifice the group blog to keep our own vibrant. One thing we will not do. We will not cut and paste and link to read more on our blog. We respect other bloggers doing it and have done so ourselves on sites like Active Rain and Real Estate Voices, but we’ll pass in this instance. All our contributions will be exclusives to Inman. We owe Brad and the group that much.

Further Reading:

Egos and the Group Real Estate Blog (real/diablog)
Do Real Estate Blogs Really Build Business? (Realtor Online)
Real Estate Agents Hang Blogging Signs (Chicago Tribune)
Group-Blog Etiquette (Ardell at RCG)
Group Blog Agreement (Truth on The Market)

Share This Post
  • That's very kind Pat. You know we try not to follow the pack. We could be wrong. And for long posts, your way does make more sense. I guess we have to get a feel for that blog. We do feel a little restricted because we don't know how far we can go. We don't know where the line is drawn (we know our broad lines in Sellsius). We have to be sensitive to the blog owner and his audience. Is our style of blogging going to mesh there? Will we alienate that audience or dilute that blog's voice? These are things we think about.

    Athol,
    We agree that good writing is important. But..
    Let's assume you are a good writer. The question remains: what is better for business (attracting clients, building your brand, blog income)--- Group + individual blogging or individual blogging alone? The ones who know (or will know) the answer are those that do both. Ardell is the expert as far as we are concerned. She has attained success in the group blog dynamic. Is she the exception or the norm?
  • Hi Joe, I like your postscript regarding the Inman blog posters about the protocol of linking back to the original story. I will also try to keep my posts inside Inman, but my articles tend to be so d... long... You're my "What would Joseph do?" source!
  • I think either group or single blogs work just fine, as long as each writer has their own sound that is meaningful. Once you can't pick out who wrote what anymore it's the beginning of the end.

    I agree with Jonathan that you can rush to create something and the quality is lacking, and Marlow is also right about the worth of many blogs.

    In the end group vs single may just be unimportant. If you can't thrive as a solo artist, you're not likely to pull your weight in a group either.

    The key to good blogging that I'm not sure we hear much of anything about, is simply an ablitity to write well for an audience. 99%+ of the general population simply lacks that skill. Likely 98%+ of realtors do too.
  • While I personally like a blog to have personality, that is because I am a people person. Not everyone will like the same blog anymore than everyone will like the same TV show.

    I also like that it attracts the kind of people who appreciate my unique personality. If I post a lot of stats, I may get a lot of dull people :)
  • Like real estate itself, the barriers to entry are low. Anyone can start a blog for free, and many are worth every penny.
  • Good idea. I'll get that post by tomorrow.
  • Very good point.

    I guess I need to take my blogging more serious.

    Maybe a copyright notice is appropriate. Now all I need to do is write something worth copyrighting. :lol:

    Comment moderation is done by others at BHB. I would guess Greg handles it, but I am not sure. I know I don't do it.
  • Danilo,
    Maybe put a post on your blog and see what feedback you get. Pass the question on to other bloggers.

    Doug,
    We agree the content belongs to the contributor but we also believe a contributor has the right to take it with them if they leave the house. I'll tell you why. Blog content may be syndicated for profit or even turned into books (Lifehacker did it) and if a contributor post remains with the blog owner, you have no right to royalties or other compensation unless you have an agreement. Personally, I would add a copyright notice on my posts (just in case).

    Question: Who moderates comments to your posts on BHB?
  • Thank you. And I'm curious as to the internal dynamics as well. How will you be going about finding that out? If I can help, let me know.
  • I forgot to mention - I also believe that if I put my content on someone else's blog, they are entitle to host that content into perpetuity.

    I figure if you say something in someone else's house - they should be able to record it. :)
  • Thanks for the feedback Doug.
  • I believe I own my content - unless I sell the rights. :)

    I find it difficult to write for EITHER blog. :lol:

    The questions you pose are great questions... just not ones I have put a great deal of thought into.

    As far as enhancing the brand - if I am helping enhance Bloodhound... that's cool. I would hope that any contributor would be enhancing the site for which they are affiliated.

    Monetization? I guess it's like MySpace and YouTube. They become a legal target after it's obvious the money is there (Murdock, Google). If a blog were truly bringing in the bucks, the writers would not only be expecting some compensation - they would deserve it.

    Good topic, for sure.
  • Good points Jonathan
    But we wanted to examine the group v. individual blogs in terms of marketing & attracting clients, traffic, branding etc. As Teresa points out, her individual blog DOES attract clients to HER brand.
    If you are blogging for other reasons, it really doesn't matter, does it?
    We really don't see it in black and white terms, as good v. bad, but as what better serves the professional who wants to build their brand & attract clients, i.e, "what's better for my business?"
    We do agree that quality is an issue but think that applies regardless if you blog separately or in a diverse group.

    Typos, phrasing and grammar can certainly be annoying to some(many), especially well, I mean good, writers :)(like you). But since blogging is more conversational, we would expect the run-on sentence, a few dangling participles, slang and some smiley faces, aye? The text book educational approach to blogging does not suit everyone either. Some may see it as dry versus educationally stimulating. But that's a question of personality and not really our focus in the post.

    Pat,
    Yes. The corporate blog, though it may be comprised of many writers, is building the ONE brand. There is a unity of interest. It makes it more like an individual blog, the individual being the corporation, than a group blog like RCG or BHB.

    Doug,
    Do you find it difficult to write for both your blog and the group? Are any of the questions we pose of concern to you, eg. content ownership, share of future ad revenue, enhancing the group brand more than your own, etc?


    Danilo,
    Like your blog, we are united in interest in enhancing the one brand.
    You raise an interesting point on group dynamics. We would certainly like to learn more about the internal dynamics of group blogging---egos being a component.
  • My friend/associate and I are the ones who post on our blogs. Though we both have the same general view on things, we each bring our own uniqueness to the table.

    Much like you guys here at Sellsius, we're not in it for the fame or the glory so we don't care which one of us wrote about something and who didn't, etc. Each of us seems to click with certain people more due to our personalities which come out in our posts. In our humble opinion, it adds to the dynamics of our blogs and it may appeal to a greater variety of personality types.

    NOTE: Please don't take that as if we're saying that there's something wrong with having only one author. Not the case at all.

    The biggest problem is see with multiple contributors is the human ego. Unfortunately, it gets in the way often in life. When one person starts getting more comments than others and becomes the "rain maker" of the blog, their head may become too big for their body and others may get their egos bruised.

    Thankfully, we don't have that problem.

    Great analysis and post!
  • Per above, the correct wording is corporate real estate blog corps.
  • Very detailed analysis on how a blogger can position his/her blog. One more avenue may be the advent of the corporate real estate blog. Redfin has been hiring bloggers to produce local content... other Real Estate 2.0 sites who understand the benefits of local content and its accompanying search engine recognition will also develop blog and other social networking related features.
  • As a contributor to BHB, my take might be a little different.

    I view my blog as my local voice. Issues that are consumer-oriented. Communication with my potential business audience.

    BHB is a national collaboration where the audience is usually others in the real estate business.

    I don't worry about whether a post would benefit my blog more than the collaboration. I only care about where a post is more appropriate.

    I am not a great writer, and the words don't come quickly... so having these two venues is more than enough to keep me busy.

    I do find it interesting that Sellsius uses the "group-think" concept to each post. I would have thought that to be more difficult.
  • I don't believe a group blog is inherently good or bad. For me, it's not an avenue I would want to pursue because I'm still working to win the trust of potential clients, albeit in an indirect way. Greg has said his interest is purely in education and raising the general level of the conversation. I once mocked this notion; I believe adding the other contributors proves his point as contradictory opinions to his have come forward.

    There's something to be said for local - Teresa and Maureen and others do it very well. But as blogs continue to proliferate, there's also something to be said for being less concerned with WHO you are and more concerned with HOW you are perceived.

    Typos, incorrect phrasing (i.e., writing an expression incorrectly - like saying what's good for the gander is great for the goose) and the like are irritants when reading to me and, I would hazard to guess, a great money others.

    In the rush to create a blog, the drive for quality has fallen by the wayside. Not that I hold myself above the fray ... some posts I have liked, others were written to get a post up. But I've found as many blogs that are borderline unreadable as of consistent quality.
  • I made a decision on this and that is the reason my blog works, the goal was to win clients, and it is working almost too well, is because it is unique and it is me. I have one guest writer so that I don't have to write a post 7 days a week. I honestly think it is the smallness of it all that somehow makes it more personal and that our voices are diminished when we become a crowd. My blog is older than most and I have more direct experience than many of the people you quote so I am just going to stick with it. So far my instincts have been right on target. I stopped taking advice on blogs in general in August of 2005 when I asked people what they thought about business blogs for realtors. They thought it was a waste of time. I did it anyway. I learn from my readers and it is their opinions that matter the most.
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