The platform

Now that you have learned a bit about the blog, and thought about your prospective relationship with your blog (your niche, committment, topic, brand, etc), you need to decide where to start blogging. If you are already blogging somewhere, you may now be in a position to upgrade your blog platform.

Don’t get trapped into feeling that you need to get it all done, all ‘right,’ immediately. As with your theme/topic/brand, your blog platform may well (and probably should) evolve over time. Hopping from platform to platform is neither easy nor fun, so there are real advantages to taking small, explorative steps as you increase your confidence level in what you want to commit to.

The assumption of this course is that you are considering blogging as a potentially important part of your business model. Blogging can be a very fun hobby, but our focus is a little more serious and professional. As such, we will assume that you will be willing to allocate some budget to your blog and its platform and positioning.

While much of this ‘budget’ is measured in time and effort, there is also the potential for some modest dollar costs. Think of your blog as your baby. You are about to give birth to that baby and observe its life. Your choice of a platform plays a large role in determining the type of life your blog will have, and the cost of that life.

Free or ‘hosted’ platforms (blogger.com, wordpress.com, activerain, Inman.com, etc) are a great way to get started and experiment. You can get the blog setup, hosted and a name (a subdomain like ccarhelp.wordpress.com) for free. In short, the free option gives you a quick, easy setup that is often free and maintained centrally by professionals. They also typically have much more weight or presence online than your own standalone web platform implementation might. Of course, the traffic that weight brings gets divided among the many hosted blogs there. Still, your blog will also inherently be easier to find on search engines compared to a brand new standalone blog, at least initially.

By their nature, however, free solutions are homogenous and lack the flexibility and adaptability that we equate with a ‘quality’ life.

On the other end of the spectrum is the stand alone platform. This is a website that you maintain (or a webmaster/hosting provider maintains for you) that is yours alone. The web blog is implemented on this host.

For example, ccarhelp.com, this blog site, is a stand alone platform implementation. The domain name ccarhelp.com is owned by CCAR. That name points to a webserver that CCAR maintains (the server can and usually is a shared server with any other websites on it, but most users never know this). The ccarhelp.com website content (this blog) sits within a wordpress installation on that server (basically a folder named ccarhelp with a database connection and the installed wordpress architecture). This setup provides complete control. I choose the theme, the packages that are downloaded and installed as plugins, the security, etc.

That all sounds rather complicated, but with the advent of modern, packaged platforms like wordpress, it is really rather simple. There is a cost, in dollars and time, but it is not large. It is, however, ongoing. You cannot just install a platform like this and forget about it. Updates need to be applied from time to time, customizations need to be done, often a reorganization of the whole structure is required as you learn how to better approach your setup.

If you have some degree of technical aptitude and knowledge, this can be a rewarding pursuit. The wordpress ‘famous 5 minute install’ really takes less than that, if you have everything ready. If you are not technically inclined, then you may want to either opt for the hosted solution, or get professional assistance through your webmaster and/or hosting provider.

Summing it all up

links to blog platform reviews

Bells and Whistles

Statistics

• Wordpress stats plugins
  
• Sitemeter
  
• Google Analytics
  
• My Blog Log


• Alexa

Advanced Topics

• Google webmaster tools
• SEO & SEM
• Affiliates (inman, etc)
• Blog maintenance

Have an additional tool, plugin, website, or feature that we should add to this list? Give us a comment and we will add appropriate materials to this resource.

Naming your blog

Whether you choose a standalone platform or a shared solution for your blog, you will need to name it. Naming it is of course a part of the branding, and ties into the theme and topic matter. It all ties together into a bit of a chicken and the egg problem. I personally suggest that you explore your sphere of influence and how to project that online, pull your theme and topic matter from that, and then name and brand it accordingly.

A name can be very hard to come up with. There are innumerable guides online that can help in this decision, as well as some free tools. Searching for a great name can also be a fun, addictive pursuit all its own.

I would advise that you avoid stressing on this point early on. Get a sense of how you want to blog, and about what, and most importantly whether you genuinely enjoy it, before committing too much to this decision. Avail yourself of the free options to blog in the meantime, and be sure to keep a local copy of your posts so that you can easily populate a new blog and back date the posts when you go make the ‘final’ decision.

As you consider the name(s), however, remember that you cannot use a trademarked term in a url name. Seeking legal advice before trying to deploy a site with the term realtor, or mls, for instance, would be highly advisable.

One basic way to conceptualize the naming choice is first decide whether you are hoping for easy keyword recognition, or a brandable stylized name.

‘MyContraCostaRealtyBlog.com,’ for instance, is employing keywords. A series of terms relevant to the content make up the url.

In contrast, ‘zarealafu.com’ has no clearly definable ‘terms’ within it. Sure, the word ‘real’ can be seen in there, but without any recognizable context, it is lost to you, and will be lost on google as well. One advantage of such a stylized name is that if branded well, it can become a household term synonamous with its content.

Just ask someone if they can google something for you. Or get you a Starbucks. They will know what you mean. Ultimately this is a much more powerful, but difficult to achieve phenomenon.

The other advantage to stylized names is that you can achieve a much shorter domain name. Of course a keyword name can be branded, but it is tricky to do. CCAR created HomesOpenToday.com - HOT, as an acronymical keyword domain name… the keywords boil down to a brandable acronym. Thus HOT and the HOT logo; but this can be tricky as of course that is not ultimately the domain name.

Some tools you might like to use in selecting a domain name include:

godaddy.com

dotomater.com

domainsbot.com

nameboy.com

Your Sphere of Influence

You are creating a real estate blog, so obviously your topic matter will somehow revolve around real estate. But that being said, there are still innumerable ways to define your topic matter and style. Since we are presumably trying to maximize our return on investment, our goal will be to help you project your sphere of influence into your blog.

Your sphere of influence, in real estate terms, is the group(s) of people that you might have influence over. Many factors may combine to determine your spehere; gender, generational cohort (baby boomers or Gen X?), prior occupation, education, recreational habits, etc. I would argue that this sphere of influence will translate well to your blog. As I will say many times, you want to write yourself. be authentic and transparent. Whatever your particular niche is in face to face interactions, your sphere and style of influence, should be poured, as is, into your blog.

The topic matter that you excel in should also become your primary focus for materials, of course. Do you have genuine, hard earned knowledge of a particular community? Transaction type? Property class? Are you adept at providing consumers with advice, guidance and tools on financing? Do you know more about in-law unit zoning regulations than most?

The topic can be as core or esoteric as you like, with the obvious drawbacks to both. If it is too ‘core,’ too standard (e.g. My guide to how to buy a house) then it may be lost in the noise. Too esoteric and no one might care. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and remember that it takes time to create a brand and a style, and that an adventure into blogging needs to be viewed as a long term commitment to growing the resource. If you follow that path, you will doubtless reinvent your blog(s) many times.

Of course you can vary your topic matter, but it is difficult to be expert on many subjects, and your blog will benefit more from real expertise in a small area more than a diverse but less potent variety of materials.

Understand your liability. Your blog posts need to be considered as your most sensitive communication form. Exercise extreme caution throughout the entire process to limit your liability. As a general rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t put it in an email to 5000 people, don’t put it on your blog.

Blogging cycle

Don’t get trapped into the idea that you have to create content out of thin air, or at a certain frequency. Certainly the more quality content, the better. It is painfully obvious, however, when you are posting just to post.

What you should focus on is putting yourself in a position to blog as often as possible. This basically means three things.

First, don’t lose the ideas. Ideas come at us at the weirdest times. Keep a notepad, or send yourself a text from your phone, etc. Make a habit of reviewing these little self reminders so that you never have a shortage of topic ideas. We will review some other tools to help you both keep track of this sort of list from anywhere, and also some high tech tips for mobile blogging later.

Second, convert interesting questions or circumstances into posts. Get a great question from a consumer? Give them the cliffs notes answer in person, but then later send them a link to the completed ‘post as anonymous response’ (do not use their name) and tell them that you liked the questions so much you sat down and wrote out your thoughts. They will likely think this is cool, and you get ‘legs’ out of the answer (which you needed to provide in any case). This is the key value to blogging, in my opinion. Get repeated return on your investment in an answer. Those answers are your trades artform - frame them as such.

Third, get into the habit of writing when the mood strikes. A post can often be rattled off in less than 20 minutes once you get proficient. Write anywhere, just try to keep it digital so you don’t have to transcribe. Write yourself an email if you happen to be in email when it hits.. keep notepad open on your computer. If you have to write on paper, actually sit down and transcribe it ASAP so it doesn’t get lost. The growing wealth of information that you have ‘created’ will eventually be its own reward.

s is about include Google News, Topix, href="http://news.search.yahoo.com/">Yahoo! News, href="http://www.bloglines.com">Bloglines, href="http://www.technorati.com">Technorati and href="http://www.blogpulse.com">Blog Pulse (among others).

Questions to ask before getting started

Why not just a website? Why a blog? As you consider blogging you may ask why you shouldn’t just stick with the real estate website that you have (or could have)? First, I am not suggesting that you necessarily replace your traditional ‘consider me/search for properties’ website with your blog. Certainly you can. I think that a blog is likely best used as an ancillary resource to such a web presence, although I can perhaps see this shifting over time.

Why have a blog? What differentiates a blog from such a traditional website? For starters it can really help put you in control. You yourself can add content, whenever and as much as you wish. Both consumers and search engines can find this content very attractive.

I categorically disagree with some of the heady things that were being said in 2007, my favorite of which was virtually the theme of the Inman SF connect that year: "everyone should have a blog, it helps distinguish you.’ This is nonesensical in several ways. It is not a cureall. It will not instantly propel your website to the top of google. And it is not for everyone.

All of that being said, I firmly believe that a well crafted, passionately maintained blog is probably the single best thing that a REALTOR® can do for their web presence. Achieving that is not easy, but if you do the rewards are well worth the investment. You might find that along the way you have a lot of fun and learn quite a bit as well.

Before you begin this journey, you should ask yourself the following.

Are you arare of the downsides? You are about to make your opinions, your expertise, your thoughts, very public. This has very real implications. Read other blogs in your sphere to see how others approach this dilemna. Always be conscious of your liability. If you would not put it in an email to 5000 people, don’t even think of putting it on your blog. Don’t post anything until you have reviewed from this perspective.

Are you a good communicator? There are lots of effective writing styles. You do not have to fit into a perfect category. As I point out, you can paint your blogs if you wish. The ultimate question remains, are you a good communicator? If the answer is truly no, then you may not wish to pursue this. I am inclined to believe that virtually everyone who can practice this complex trade effectively can find an effective niche to communicate online. Are you a numbers person, not a words person? Then post spreasheets. Like to doodle? Make a caroon blog to convey your message. Are youa great conversationalist but not a great writer? Consider either posting podcasts on your blog or just go with your expertise but use technology to do voice recognition conversion and create the written version for editing and posting.

Do you have a genuine area of passion or expertise related to real estate?

Recognize that it takes time. This actually means both that it takes time out of your day to blog effectively, and that it takes time to realize the real returns on that investment.

Consider help. Are you a part of a real estate team? Perhaps the blog is created as a joint resource. It is undeniable that content momentum is a key to a successful blog. The more authors, the more expertise and perspective, the merrier. There are challenges to this of course, but ultimately if the group dynamic works, the whole becomes greater han the sum of the parts. That is the sort of experience and return that we are all looking for.

Link, Link, Link. Get your blog link out there. This is typically called a blogroll. A series of links to other blogs on your site, because they in turn link to you on their blogroll. Exchange links with a coworker or title company, with peers that you have worked with, etc.

Links are the currency of the web, period. The quality of your site as viewed by google and other search engines is determined by many factors. The two that are of greatest importance are also the two that are most directly in your control. The quality of the content, and the quality and quantity of inbound links to your website. The importance of this cannot be overstated, so I will repeat it. Your websites ‘value’ online is determined primarily by the quality of its content, and the total number of websites that link to yours (as well as the quality of those sites). This is the ‘democracy of the web.’

Be patient and adaptable. You are building a virtual relationship with an unseen audience. Don’t anticipate them, just write your heart. find your bloggers voice, and the rest will sort itself out. But understand that there will be ups and downs. You may get a negative review, or a bad comment. Take it in stride. You are not trying to please everyone. In fact you are not really trying to please anyone - if you are you have it backwards. Write yourself. That will please the consumers that you are ideally matched to serve.