Sellsius real estate marketing blog

Justin encapsulated my comments more eloquently than I.

My guess is that it's someone no one of us has ever heard of. They could care less about networking, and only care about generating leads off of hyper local content, purely focused on the consumer. The CORE podcast had a guy on a few weeks ago, that is a no name in the RE blog community, but generates 3-5 leads/week from his blog... there have to be more people like him out there. Just a thought...

“She’s too busy writing deals from her weblog to self-promote”
who is this mystery lady?

That's my point. We don't know her (or him). They're blogging in St Louis or Harrisburg, kicking ass and taking names. There's a young man in San Diego that pulls more business from Myspace than anyone I know doing it from blogging (he closed about $15MM last year, generating well into the mid six figures...from MYSPACE!!!) Along those lines, check out Kal Wayman on YouTube. Tasteless but effective use of Web 2.0

"I once heard a smart lady say that blogging is a form of prospecting. If that’s so, shouldn’t you understand if the time you put in is worth the effort?"

Of course. I self-promote all the time. Doing less would be a waste of effort. If I saw no results I'd stop.

I don't want to take away from the success many of us have had this year blogging but I really think there is somewhere doing it bigger and better than any of us. We'll find out who they are one day.

I love Christina's comments. The real estate agent bloggers here are all saying the same thing. I am one agent and my blog can generate more business than I can service. Not everyone has those kinds of results. Some never get any business. I don't think a blogs work for everyone and I am beginning to understand why.

Yep, you betcha. Joseph hit the nail on the head. It's all about your personality coming out which automatically narrows the client prospects to people who will enjoy working with your personality! That makes the job that much easier when you actually meet. Not to mention what Teresa has said over and over, the trust has already started to develop because of what you are writing. The prospect feels like they already know you and your ethics.

Comment preface: Blog how you like, measure success how you like, or don't. Count your clients or count your links (and publish them on your blog), or count nothing at all. Go your own way. This has always been our blogging philosophy.
(that's what prompted the Zen Blogger's Manifesto, which says "all manifestos are dung": http://tinyurl.com/35h348)

That's why we do not particularly like rules or what art form is best, etc.--- we would never presume to tell anyone how to write their blog. In fact, when I read someone had an online blog how-to book of sorts (and in it had a post knocking others' blogging styles), I wrote a "Non-guide to blogging" (somewhat tongue-in-cheek).

Comment: Perhaps bloggers interested in knowing the economics of blogging may consider, if they haven't already, devising a "blog ROI" in some fashion (for themselves). Maybe they keep a tally on the clients or leads they get, how they got them (was it based on a particular post, a long time (or short) reader, the about you page, a google hit, whatever. The point is-- if you choose to measure, how do you measure & what are you measuring against?

-jf

I definitely don't think the question was inappropriate, just that the answer is not attainable. There are multiple reasons why, one of which is disclosure. Are all agents willing to disclose the # of transactions they get from their blog? If they are, are they being truthful? How do we prove it? How does one track the 'integration' of marketing where the blog is a definite strength to their entire strategy and all clients are touched in some way by the blog whether directly or indirectly. Do we track only clients who googled and found the blog and subsequently contacted via the blog? So many questions, so many answers. :D

hi ardell!

from my comment on active rain:

hi ardell!
quoted from my post:
"Success is measured in many ways.
For our purposes, let’s keep it simple. The real estate agent that has closed the most transactions resulting from clients and customers obtained directly via their blog would be the winner."
for the purposes of the post, i defined how success was to be measured based on the most transactions closed. is this my definition of success? of course not. not even close.
-rudy.sellsius°
p.s. i'm not a real estate agent, i'm a licensed real estate associate broker :)
hi christina!

thanks for commenting - twice :)

i really don't know how it could be known or ranked either. where's an algorithm when you need one? i was just curious. maybe one day, i'll jump back in the ring myself and learn first hand so i don't have to ask these ridiculous questions.

when you asked someone who is the best basketball player off all time, can we really know the answer? i think not. it's subjective. everyone has their own opinions. that's what makes the conversation fun and informative. who's the greatest boxer of all time? whether true or not, somehow we can all answer that question.

maybe you're right. a more concrete question would have been:
which real estate agent/broker blogger has closed the highest number of transactions from clients and customers obtained from their blog?

maybe my question was inappropriate, i don't know. i was just curious.

hi sandy!

maybe i should have just asked, what's your blog roi? this way, people could define it themselves.

i agree with you that many are still really trying to figure out what their blog is or what type of blogger they are. that's a good thing. we should all reflect upon what we are doing and what it means to us to be a real estate blogger. for me, it changes every once in awhile but that's ok.

whether or not you close 1 deal or 20 from your blogging efforts really doesn't determine how "successful" you are. you determine what makes you successful.

blog on!

It is your blog, so you ask the questions.

My first reaction to your question was negative (‘here comes the bragging’) but in looking at the thread I see a typically Sellsius success: lots of discussion prompted by (not necessarily ‘answering’) the question.

Ardell rings up $$$$$$. Teresa does marketing she enjoys doing and avoids doing things she does not like to do.

So far no one has cited either specific dollars-and-cents or specific closed transactions – thankfully, as that would get us into an unseemly mess, methinks. ROI is important (especially compared to other expenses of promotion / marketing).

I am still struggling with figuring out what my blog *is*, without yet having discernible dollars-in-pocket from the blog. It is (vaguely) part of my general promotion of my expertise, part of my storehouse of commentary to refer prospective clients to, part of my continued focus on staying on top of my market, even parts of my internal talk therapy, keeping me sane (I hope).

The (few) people who have reached out to me because of my blog have been pretty easy to identify. I suspect that will continue; I hope more people reach out. I hope I keep learning … THX to all.

Oh and I didn't even think that volume won't cut it - it's more about units sold isn't it (helps level the varying area's median sales price).

This is an interesting exercise, but I do think it probably is futile. As someone else said, many agents aren't willing to share their volumes. Perhaps it should be changed from 'most successful' to 'top income producing' or 'highest number of transactions' which is more easily ranked than the ambiguous 'most successful' (as others have already pointed out).

Interesting.

Are you ranking based upon the most vocal person? I ask because I wonder how you'll ever know who gets the most business from their blog? I mean, after all, if someone does yearly sales volume at $20m and they say 50% of their clients come from their blog, that's pretty darn good. But what if you don't know the volume of someone else (and say it's $70m) and they get 90% of their clients from their blog. You don't know because they don't talk about it as much.

I'm just perplexed why or how this could every be known or ranked.

Rudy,

If you were a real estate agent you would realize this...You shouldn't be asking it at all.

hi teresa!

you bring up some interesting points of view that make me go hmmmmmm?

- location (coasts, north, south - small towns, big cities, neighborhoods etc.....)
- audience (high,low,middle,relo,first timers,second home)
- market conditions
- individual vs. team vs. group
- goals of the blogger (go big or be comfortable)
- old school vs. new school
- niche expertise (some niches may attract more clients - foreclosures, new construction, co-ops, etc.....)

it really does depend on many factors which makes the question even more interesting. just because you're a blogger, it does not mean that the conditions are the same for all. the internet is not an even playing field in some regards - local conditions and audiences matter. some may have it tougher than others and vice versa. interesting.....

hi laurie!

right back at cha :)
hi ardell!

gessh....now you've given me even more to ponder :) what is the criteria for being a blogger?

agreed. having your personality shine through is crucial in order for the audience to connect with you on a deeper level.

the question remains....Who is North America’s Most Successful Real Estate Agent Blogger? or should we be asking this question on a more local level?

I think does it work or doesn't it? Is it worth it or isn't it? Really doesn't say much if the person thinking it works can't blog. Not everyone is a blogger, and being a blogger is more than writing blog posts.

If the personality of the blogger doesn't shine through, it doesn't say "hire me" it just an online magazine.

:)

Rudy - I get what you are trying do to here. When looking for numbers, consider the location of the blogging agent. My statistics indicate that there are more blog readers on the coasts and I get much of my blog business from the coasts. Consider also how many transactions an agent can handle. A team of agents should be closing more transactions from a successful blog than a single agent. Also consider market conditions. there are markets that are slow right now.

Also consider the goals of the agent blogger. How many transactions do they want in a year? How many transactions did he or she get before they started a blog?

Then consider that deals fall through. I had one such deal that came through my blog. The buyer simply decided not to relocate. That would lower my numbers. That client could have come from another source and still would have decided not to move. Does that make my blogging efforts less important?

Also consider that attracting someone who will sign a contract with an agent is different than having a closed sale. Hard to imagine but we have homes here that take a year or more to sell.

Is having a blog a good idea for all agents. I would have to say no. I don't like open houses so I am not going to use that as a method of prospecting. We need to go with our strengths, mine is not open houses. There are top agents in my market who do not need web sites. they have been in the business for 20 years and have past clients and a reputation that is big enough so that they do not need to advertise much at all. There are also agents who work foreclosures. they are doing great in our market and do not need to waste their time with a blog.

If you want to find out who is number one look for someone who has had a blog for at least a year and is in a fairly hot market and has a team of agents to handle the business.

hi teresa!

the reason i asked who north america's most successful real estate agent blogger is because i simply did not know. and as some have pointed out, maybe we will never know unless i called or emailed every real estate agent blogger out there and asked them - how you doin? hey, can i get an algorithm or spider for this?

seriously, i thank you for giving us some benchmarks to consider. it has helped me visualize what it would take to get to that level.

your success story is inspirational to me. just like the quote from the movie clip above, if you want something, go get it - period! well done teresa!

hi jon!
you made two wonderful guesses - ardell and laurie are both in my feed reader you know and they are both great bloggers. is it one of them? maybe......

hi lar!
thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, we love ya!

impossible exercise? maybe? but, we all sure can learn from it don't you think? in this real estate age of transparency, what really do you have to fear by saying how many deals you closed from clients and customers that came via your blog? why the big secret? it's part of your blog roi. shoot, i would be proud to say that my hard work is paying off. maybe even some blog testimonials would be great from satisfied clients.

if you dedicate lot's of time into your blogging, what's wrong with trying to understand if it's worth it or not? or what it takes to make it worth it? do you think most real estate agents blog for fun or because they just love to write?

as teresa mentioned, her blog is a major part of her business and she is good at it. now let's look the flip side of that. if you or teresa did not see the the return (monetary) on your blog investment (time, dedication, passion) would you still do it?

hi brian!
they are unknown to us....which is why i asked the question.

does a mountain climber start climbing a mountain without doing their homework first? don't they need to prepare and study the mountain and others who have climbed it successfully? and to study those that have failed? shouldn't they know what it takes to be successful? (in this example - getting to the top) i would hope so. otherwise, it would be , well, you know what..... just because the mountain is there to climb, doesn't mean anyone can do it and do it well.

"She’s too busy writing deals from her weblog to self-promote"
who is this mystery lady?

i once heard a smart lady say that blogging is a form of prospecting. if that's so, shouldn't you understand if the time you put in is worth the effort?

by the way brian, as america's most opinionated mortgage broker, i value your opinions and love the way you promote yourself all over the internet. if some people call that self promotion, so what. if you don't promote yourself and your business who will? you are proactive and a go getter and i love it!!!

Here's the real answer:

The most successful real estate blogger is unknown to us. She's too busy writing deals from her weblog to self-promote

I think this is an impossible exercise. Ethical agents won't give you a big number because they value their credibility. I won't. Also, like in my case, many only pursue a certain number of clients. I had to pass on a buyer from Detroit as my schedule was too busy. How do you measure that one?

What a great comment Teresa! Right after I left my initial comment I regretted leaving you off my list. I don't know what I was thinking.

I liked the second to last paragraph you wrote above so much I forwarded it Matt and Caleb. What a great summation of why someone would choose to real estate blog.

12 closed transactions a year from a real estate blog is a reasonable expectation and 20 transactions are quite possible. I would suggest that it takes an average of three months of posting before most blog writers see a contract or closing from it. It took me 5 months to learn from my readers and figure out what to write. Our market here has changed quite a bit and is no longer hot and is saturated with agents and listing that don't sell. Several agents I know have taken part time jobs. I spend 6 to 8 hours every week working on my blog, most of the time is spent writing. My top source for generating listing appointments is my Friday fun post. I can attribute 2 listings to it so far this year, with another going on the market next week and another on August 1st. I have a closing on Thursday from buyers that found me through my blog and another in July. I do not get business from every appointment, and not every buyer buys, I attribute this to buyer angst brought on by listening to the news and by local market conditions because in prior years every buyer I worked with bought and every deal I wrote closed. Most agents are reporting working twice as hard for half as much business, I also find that to be true. My top source for meeting new buyers is the photos on my blog. So far St. Paul re has reduced my marketing costs significantly which is a great reason for having it.

My blog is also a life style choice. I detest open houses, and do not believe in cold calling. I choose to market my business by word of mouth, and limit the amount of business that I take. My goal has never been to be the biggest, I strive to be the best. I think blogs are a long term type of marketing that take commitment. I personally have not found any other method of generating business that I am as comfortable with and that works as well.

My goal is to make a comfortable living while having time to enjoy other things. I enjoy the blog and the people that I have come to know because of it. It has been a tremendous educational experience and has led to new business ideas and new ways of doing business. I am going to state that I have learned enough at this point to be able to take my blog to the next level. I feel as though I am only beginning to scratch the surface and that both my blog and I have a lot of untapped potential. My personal and business goals involve beating my own personal best, and I do not spend time comparing myself to other agents. I don't want to get into a contest, but I do want other agents to know that blogs can generate revenue.

ardell,

each local market is different. depending on many factors, getting to six figures($100k-$999k)can vary drastically. that's why i'm really not interested in the amount of money you or any other real estate agent blogger makes. rather, what is more interesting is how many closed transactions have been the result of your blog(s). volume speaks louder than...

Rudy,

If you find someone who made more than six figures from blog clients, let me know. Until then, that's all I'm saying :)

I don't have to ask my blog clients how they found me. They always talk about my blog at first contact. It's not a mystery.

hi ardell!

let me digest your first comment a little more.

re: your second comment - writing about how much money you make from "blog clients" and writing about how many satisfied "blog clients" you have successfully helped are two very different things.

i you were to mention the number of happy and satisfied "blog clients" that you have had in a section on your blog, i would think of it as more of a success story than anything else.

here's a quick story (not sure how it relates but anyway...)....the barber that i have used for the last 18 years has pictures of most of his clients all over his barber shop - a collage if you will. every time he finishes cutting my hair (or anyones hair) he says, "another satisfied customer". that makes me smile every time.

although i blog about real estate just like you do, we have a different audience so to speak. the end game may be different although our passions may be similar.

ok....back to comment numero uno:

a good way to know if a client or customer knows about you or called you because of your blog is to just ask them :) in an effort to better understand my marketing roi, i always asked my clients how they heard about me or my listing. it helped me understand what worked and what did not work.

i understand your point about credibility. how do you prove your success? for our purposes of understanding who has benefited the most from blogging, i would trust your word and that of other real estate agent bloggers as well. besides, as real estate agents, we are superhuman you know - fiduciary responsibilities (most states i think) and a code of ethics which should make us more honest and trustworthy.

if a blog client refers you to someone else and they become your client, then in my book, i guess that would be also considered a blog client too (no need to get too technical here at the moment).

whether you blog on multiple platforms or not, the end result is still the same - they found you because you blog here, there and everywhere - blog is a blog (but, a further analysis of which blogs produced the most clients would also be interesting on a whole other level).

based on your answer, i can see that blogging sure has produced results for you. congratulations ardell! but, it's really up to you whether or not you feel comfortable enough to disclose the number of deals (or approximate #) that have resulted from your blogging efforts.

i still don't know who north america's most successful real estate agent blogger is, but i'd like too :)

Hey Rudy! Wouldn't I LOSE business if wrote and talked about how much money I make from blogging. Isn't that self defeating?

I often hear agents say they can't tell if someone came from the blog. I don't understand that as often the clients who come to me as a result of the blog are quoting me. They know what I said better than I do! I don't remember what the heck I've said, and they are telling me :) Good thing I don't change my mind much when it comes to client advices.

I never want to give an answer that is not credible. Lots of my blogclients come from my other blogclients who also go to my blog. So my blogclients refer people to me and my blog, but are they "business from blogging"? Oh, and correction, are they coming from "my" blog or RCG? By the time they call me they've read both. So what do you do with that?

Say Client 1 comes from my blog. Then he tells a guy at work thinking about buying and selling to read my blog. Did that second guy come from my blog or my blogclient?

It's not as black and white and I don't want any confusion. At this point some of my blogclients represent more than one transaction. Either the one client bought 2 or 3 times or the one client sent 2 or 3 people to the blog and then those people hired me too.

How do you calculate that? Sometimes I don't know that blogclient #7 was referred to my blog by blogclient #1. I guess if they called me after reading my blog, it doesn't matter if client #1 "referred them to me". But some would say that it isn't a blogclient if they were referred and others would say it is a blogclient if they read your blog before deciding to call you, even if they were referred to your blog by a former client.

As usual, I have no simple answers other then better than a six figure income from blogclients.

CJ,

You make a good point, since blogging is a component of your online presence and may not be directly responsible for a client.

But others have gotten a measureable amount of deals directly from their blog. We were curious as to what amount of deals that is----maybe there is a benchmark --- so someone, who wants to blog for clients, can decide if they want to devote their time to blogging (or whether they will use other means & just blog for fun)----- just as there are benchmarks for a successful agent by number of deals or annual gross sales. Maybe # of deals from blogging is a statistic not worth knowing.

We should be clear on this point--- to each his (or her) own when it comes to reason to blog or what measure they use for success, if any.

Truth to be told, most folks that come in to our office do NOT say, "We want to do business with you because we saw your blog, website, ad in Homes Magazine....."

What they DO usually say is "We want to do business with you because we've seen you EVERYWHERE......"

furthermore.....that's right john, what if?
what if it is some blogger who isn't as well known in the real estate blog circles as some of the people mentioned? that would interesting.

it would open up a whole other conversation.....which wouldn't be a bad thing. i guess we could then ask, "who is the most successful real estate agent blogger in north america that no one has heard about?"

the point is that people blog for many reasons. some blog because they love to write, some because they think its fun, some because they hope to build their business, some because they want to meet other like minded professionals and consumers, etc......

it's not a likability or popularity contest! we were just curious about who is actually thriving by blogging. for our curiosity, we are interested in who has had the most success (closed deals) via their blog. this is a valid question. we get asked questions from people who are thinking about starting a real estate blog to provide them with some success stories of other real estate agent bloggers. we can point them to a handful that we think are successful based on what they write on their blog but we don't have any "concrete" examples of anyone breaking down the success they achieved via their blog.

maybe we call it blog roi? or what's in it for me? altruistic bloggers are few and far between. and as you pointed out, maybe the most successful real estate agent blogger we never heard about is so successful because they don't play with other bloggers. rather, they take care of business. maybe they are too busy closing deals and working with clients. and maybe bloggers who do write more than others or play nice with other bloggers really do not have all that much business from blogging. i don't know, but i'd like too......

maybe it's a hyper local blogger? maybe it's a neighborhood blogger? maybe it's a national blogger? maybe it's a state blogger? maybe it's a province blogger? maybe it's a niche blogger? maybe it's a place blogger? canada? united states? mexico? an island blogger? i don't know but i'd like too.....

then the question becomes, does this successful blogger care about their techorati ranking or their alexa ranking? did it play a role in their success? do they care about their seo? or do they just write? does meta this and meta that really matter? so many questions.

if i'm a new real estate blogger, i have to ask myself why am i starting this blog? what's my goal? how do i get there? what does it take? if the most successful real estate agent blogger closes 10 deals a year is that considered good? how much time, effort, passion and dedication did it take to get to that level? am i willing to do that?

because remember, if you are not passionate about blogging consistently, then it will quickly become a chore. do it because you love it.

i don't know who the most successful real estate agent blogger in north america is, but i'd like too.....

John,

Perhaps you miss the import of the post. Though there is certainly more than one way to skin this blog post.

Since it's baseball season, some fun with numbers--

Why do we keep track of batting averages, on base percentage, stolen bases, etc? Methinks it conveys useful information for future decisions. That's why you walk the man to load the bases to pitch to the pitcher (unless the stats show he is a good hitting pitcher). Do you bother to keep the man close to the first base bag when you know he has never stolen a base in his career? Do you shift the outfield for a pull hitter? What relief pitcher to you bring in against a righty low ball hitter?

OK now let's try real estate and blogging?

Why do agents post the number of transactions they did? To show they are popular or successful? Why do they measure the number of visits to their listings, pay for zillow EZ ads based on clicks, advertise based on subscribers? I suspect to measure the course of your conduct and measure ROI in some way.

So, maybe if you measure blog success by getting clients (and we dont say that is the only measure of success), and you are not getting any, maybe you could learn something from those real estate bloggers who ARE getting clients, a lot of them.

As far as popularity based on knowable numericals, that's OK no? (but again we never called it a popularity contest). Would you hire a lawyer to represent you if he never won a case? I don't know about you, but I'd chose the guy who wins most of his cases for big bucks as my man. I'd guess I'd call him popular.

Re: Voting: If we were intersted in a vote we'd put up a poll.

1-no 2-no 3-yes, I quess.
I probably have more to say but this is getting too long.

You guys manage to turn even something with a knowable numerical answer into a popularity contest you can vote on. Someone comes by and posts numbers that you don't want to win, and you go over to Athol's place for a bout of espistemological hand-wringing -- "Oh, how murky is the answer, how will we ever know, can we ever really know anything with certainty, oh my my, would that someone would post numbers." As soon as someone you do like posts a number, you'll declare a victor.

OK, if you want to get philosophical about it, let's start with some fundamentals:

1) Just because you don't like someone, does that prove they're lying?

2) Just because you do, does that prove they're not?

3) Once you've got a sample from those you like and those you don't, and assuming you've sorted out issues 1 & 2, isn't it reasonable to assume that the person with the most deals is also the busiest, and therefore not reading you at all? What if it's Gary Woods or one of the many other competent local bloggers who don't fritter away their days as I do, stupidly peering through the windows of the No Homers Club?

Granted, "The Most Successful Real Estate Agent Blogger in North America" is a catchier title than "The Most Successful Real Estate Agent Blogger in North America for an English Speaking Blog Who I Like and Believe and Who's Not So Successful That He Doesn't Have Time To Read Me".

Since Boardman's name is already engraved on the plaque, shouldn't somebody go collect her and get her over here?

hi everyone!

the only way we will really know who has had the most success (closed deals via their blog) is if these real estate agent bloggers present us with their results.

will the top real estate agent blogger please stand up?

I second Teresa Boardman.

Joseph,

As regards the hat, I believe I just did, but now I'm hoping to get it out before the crowd gets here and it gets footprints on it.

John,

If dancing rat turds brings in the clients, we say dance on :) What kind of music got those rascals bobbing? Hmm...
http://tinyurl.com/yq88bk

Throw your hat in John.

Of course it's me ...

Seriously, if you're measuring in tangible business results, it almost has to be Teresa or Ardell.

So having a blog as one of the components of an overall SEO / marketing strategy on a domain and having a team (later: company) closing between $125,000 and a quarter million in commission volume every year for three years in a row doesn't count? They have to say, "I loved your link to the Youtube video about the dancing rat turds" or something so I can prove they came from the blog "directly"?

Dang. See that's what I get for not buying a bus picture -- no respect.

Where's the love?

Oh yeah:

"Your lovin' gives me a thrill.
But your lovin' don't pay my bills."

Can you elaborate Toby?

Toby Beavers used to be but has since gone Blackhat on the whole blogging scene.

i'm thinking it could be one our our own new york city bloggers that have done the most deals.......

teresa - is it you?

Good guesses except for G Swann. I believe he is on record saying his blog is nationally focused and not specifically designed or intended to be for attracting clients but instead meant to be a resource for professionals. I could be mistaken. --jf

Teresa Boardman

I would bet money it's one of the Three Musketeers (Jay Thompson, Greg Swann or Jonathan Dalton) out of Phoenix, the proven epicenter of the RE.net. Call me crazy...

My guess is ARDELL, but I bet that Laurie Manny is gaining on her fast. I have no real basis for this guess.