Sellsius real estate marketing blog

We share these random crib notes gathered from the Inman News Blogger Connect. Much of this may be old hat to veteran bloggers and chain smoking conference regulars (arf), but it’s good stuff for the new kids on the blog block.

• Did you see who was live streaming the event? Live streaming is yet another tool for your blog or website. If you’re putting on a seminar, or covering an event, and you want those folks who can’t attend to see it, live stream it for them. You can also use it to loop informative video.
• Real estate blogs provide value to consumers by providing news to their community as well as personal insight into the news. (Lockhart Steele, Curbed). If you cut and paste news, give your slant on it– heck, mainstream media does it with the latest Britney Spears story.
• “Write quality content and they will come” is dog do-do. Yes, content is king, but every king needs a queen. The queen is distribution. You must find avenues of distribution. Email your blog posts to those higher in the blog food chain or main stream media (especially in your home town), comment on other blogs (including main stream media blogs– aside– one of our comments to Business 2.0 was actually published as a post and got us entry to their esteemed blog roll), submit it to sites like digg, delicious, real estate voices and outsidein. Call a damn reporter if you have to– the telephone is still a tool.
• Learn and implement basic SEO techniques (headline keywords, synonyms for search, alt, header, and image tags, linking techniques) so you expand a consumer’s ways to find your content via the search engines. This is not a license to keyword stuff but content must be highly spider-able. Just read SEOmoz.org learn more (or call us).
• Get a translation plug-in for your website or blog. Not everybody who buys (or sells) in your market speaks English as a first language.
• Get an “Ask the Broker” button. It works. (Kris Berg, San Diego Homes Blog)
• Put your contact information on your blog so your readers can contact you.
• From the eggheads on the general state of the real estate business for 2008: Doom, doom and more doom, with pockets of gloom– except for micro markets that, for one reason or another, will continue to grow. We say go green, go young, go women. Hmm.. that didn’t come out right (smiley face to true d).
• If you want to understand your readers habits try tools like Feedburner, GetClicky, CrazyEgg, Google Analytics. From where are your readers coming, how long are they staying and from where are they leaving your site? Measure stickiness by Page View per Unique Visitor. Reggie Nicholay from MyTechOpinion and the McKnights from RSS Pieces are the must read blogs on these subjects. Heck, just email Reggie or Mary McKnight directly and tell them Sellsius sent you. Oh yeah, the Wordpress blog guru we like is Dave Smith over at the Real Estate Blog Lab out in Tucson, Az.
• Your sidebar is hugely ignored (yahoo dude).
• RSS buttons and subscribe by email should be in multiple places– highly visible on the top of the blog and at the end of each blog post.
• Your blog name and URL should be on all your marketing materials– business cards, postcards, mailers, heck, put it on your calendar and magnets. (Drew Meyers)
• Most real estate professional bloggers still do not favor advertising (aside: Sellsius is a marketing/information/how to/ entertainment blog– so send your ads and ad money)
• Video should be visually entertaining, educational and humorous. Content is still king, but it should wear some nice clothes and smile. Avoid common errors like shooting into the light. (Rachel Natalie Klein, IntoTheBox.tv). If you are not comfortable in front of the camera, stand behind it. You may know diddly-squat about video technology but you take still take advantage of the marketing potential of video if you hire the right people. (Doug Heddings, True Gotham –aside– congrats Doug on making New York Magazine). Check out those video aliens from WellcomeMat.
• Video can be effective without being polished (see Zapruder). Daniel Rothamel (Real Estate Zebra) marched bravely forward despite stepping on some crap left by a lost rabid hound. Experiment damn it! But watch out for the poop. Arf.
• Deal with negative or anonymous comments with intelligent retort so that you make the commenter look like the idiot. (Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy). Censorship and the blacklisting (except for spammers, libelists and blatant self promoters) appears to this writer (jf) as a coward’s way out. If you know what the heck you’re talking about, stand your ground and defend it. Truth (and your readers) will reveal the fool in the debate. The censor/blacklist-er fears they may be revealed the fool. Censorship and propaganda are bed-mates.
• Personal posts do much to convey a real estate professional’s humanity and helps dispel the public’s negative perception of realtors. (Teresa Boardman, St. Paul Real Estate Blog)
• Blogging gives readers a “peek into your mind” (Lockhart Steele, Curbed)
• Blogging can bestow indirect benefits– think book deal, speaking offers, your own TV show.

Technorati Tags: Inman Bloggers Connect NYC 2008, blogging, blogger tips