Real Estate Agent Blog- Try Something Like This

If you put a little effort into a blog you can get some exciting results. This year we have been strongly suggesting that our clients start blogging. Three big benefits are increased traffic to your web site, a way to connect with clients and potential clients and low cost for the blogger.

After a quick review of the benefits I’ll show you a sample post based on our own actual experience.

Search Engines Love Blogs. The reason they love blogs is because blogs supply fresh content. Search engines strive to provide new and relevant information to people who search the web. Blogs by their nature supply fresh content. The more targeted the content the better. (By targeted I mean something more specific- for instance real estate would be too broad, homes in Lombard would be more specific.)

The higher you are in the search engine rankings the more traffic you are going to get. The more traffic you get the better your odds of converting some of the traffic to clients. This is very simplified but illustrates what I’m talking about.

You Connect with Clients and Potential Clients. A blog can be more similar to a conversation than a static website. It is much easier for people to get to know you when they read your posts. Your readers also have a chance to leave comments which can start a conversation. A blog also makes it very easy to deal with current topics in the community. If you do things correctly with your blog you can end up being considered an expert on your blog’s topic or topics.

The Price is Right. You can actually set up a blog for free and there are plenty of low cost options. In fact all of our new websites have blogging capability built into our price and we offer a couple of low cost options for people with existing sites. For most people it pays to have some expert help but if you have enough time to learn you can do it yourself.

This post was inspired by one of our clients’ blogs- Out and About in Lombard. Caryn Kuhlman of Coldwell Banker writes a blog that focuses on Lombard, Illinois, and the surrounding areas. We read all of our clients’ blogs and we always find Caryn’s interesting. Because of Caryn’s blog about the Lilac Festival in Lombard, we decided to visit the town and it’s famous Lilacia Park for Mother’s Day.

Benefits in Action. If I were a client I would definitely lean toward using Caryn for my real estate needs if I were moving in that direction. I think her blog does a nice job of bringing traffic to her website – the statistics show her number of visitors has increased since she started blogging; if we were clients we would definitely be thankful to Caryn for telling us about the area and would feel like she was a trusted adviser.  Caryn bought our Automated Blog For Real Estate Agents ($175 to set up her blog and to receive weekly reminders/topic suggestions as well as to help her with the actual posts.)

To give you an idea of a post that could be effective, below is a sample blog post I might have written if I were an agent.

Why Mom Loves Lombard Illinois

Lombard provides the perfect setting for Mother’s Day

Main Street Cafe, Lombard, IL

Main Street Cafe, Lombard, IL

This year I wanted to make Mother’s Day special for the mother of my children and my “current” wife of 30 years. I decided a trip to Lombard, IL, would be the perfect way to spend the morning.  Lombard and my wife have a lot in common. The words beautiful, warm and inviting come to mind when I think of both.

Lombard has a real downtown complete with charming shops and restaurants. We arrived in town at about 10 AM and were starved. As we drove around, we couldn’t help but notice the people streaming into the Main Street Cafe on the corner of Main St and St Charles Rd almost across from the Metra station. This looked like the place to go, so we parked on St Charles Rd although there was a parking lot for the restaurant.

Esquire M.E.N.S. Barbershop, Lombard, IL

Esquire M.E.N.S. Barbershop, Lombard, IL

Main Street Cafe was a real treat. It was a hustling, bustling family style restaurant with friendly efficient help, all dressed in some variation of purple (lilac). You could tell there were lots of regulars in the restaurant which is always a good sign. Breakfast was delicious and the servings were more than ample.

After breakfast, we were off to Lilacia Park, Lombard’s famous park devoted to lilacs and tulips.  First however we had to walk down St Charles Rd to take a look around. Worth the short walk was Esquire M.E.N.S. Barbershop at 22 W St Charles, complete with old fashioned barber pole. Wow!

I also spied Punky’s Irish Pub which looked interesting but it was Mother’s Day and before noon so we passed.

Lilacia Park, Lombard, IL

Lilacia Park, Lombard, IL

Off to Lilacia Park. Lombard isn’t called the Lilac Village for nothing –8.5 acres of purple and green beauty. A band was just finishing its free morning concert as we got to the park. We walked the grounds and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Who knew there were so may kinds of lilacs? I am going to write a whole other post going into much more detail about the fascinating history of the park and all you can find on the grounds.

"No Dogs", Lilacia Park, Lombard, IL

"No Dogs", Lilacia Park, Lombard, IL

Our one disappointment was that we couldn’t bring our grand-dog, Saydee, into the park but we walked her around the perimeter of the park and looked at some of the magnificent, classic homes that were in the area. If you are interested in what the local homes are priced at, Search Lombard Homes For Sale Here . (This would be where I would link to IDX). Even Saydee was impressed with the neighborhood.

If you want to find out more about Lombard, please don’t hesitate to call or email me.

Apr
24

Real Estate Changes

By Jeff Stone · Comments (0)

Change is a Constant in Real Estate Marketing

April 15th started our 5th year in business as Next Level Solutions. Doesn’t sound like a long time in years but in Internet years it seems like almost half of an eternity. I’ve been involved in real estate for over 35 years which is a whole eternity.

There is one fact of life that jumps out on looking back over the years—CHANGE.
Life changes.
Business changes.
Most everything changes.
(OK my hair hasn’t changed but there are more and more products on the market that promise to grow it back.)

We’ve changed our business model 3 times since we started.  Currently, we’re creating custom websites and customizing blogs in WordPress.  Our company has come a long way from the days of redoing Advanced Access templates! As a two man company (actually husband and wife), we’ve learned the fine art of give-and-take and constructive squabbling to hopefully produce some pretty darn good websites. All that happened over the course of 4 years. Wow!

To survive in the website business as well as in the real estate business you have to deal with and accept change.
The market changes.
Marketing changes.
Prospecting methods change.
The rules change.
What customers expect changes.

More…

You Tube and Real Estate Websites

Sometimes we get stuck in a rut and don’t see what is happening around us. I plead guilty! My crime- ignoring YouTube. Yes, I recommended using it but this week made me feel just how pervasive YouTube really is and that real estate agents should not ignore it.

You Tube for Real EstateTwo separate events this week opened my eyes. Both had to do with my sons. Both sons are very different –one is a teacher in an Eskimo village in Alaska and one is a stand-up comedian. Both events involved YouTube.

My son in Alaska has decided that one year teaching in the Alaskan “bush” is enough. He is on a nationwide job hunt. One of his main tools to find out about places that he is interested in is YouTube. In some of the places he is looking for a job (he has a tendency to want to be out in the middle of nowhere) the only info you can find are some clips on YouTube taken by people visiting these places.

The light went on. Hey, maybe people actually do use YouTube to search for information! Maybe there is more to it than amazing pet tricks and “Charlie Bit Me”.

OK so I made a note to write something about YouTube soon.

Charlie Stone Stands UpLast night we were at a birthday party in our neighborhood. Several people came up to me and mentioned that they had seen a clip of our son, the comedian, on YouTube and asked had he put up any more. Hmm… I’m starting to spot a trend here. These people were of a different age than my son looking for a job in the hinterlands. It seems like people of all ages use YouTube.

Late breaking news... we are working on a church website and we received an email telling us to make sure that they had the capability to put YouTubes videos on their site. Another totally different group again seeing the value of YouTube.

What to do now?

Go to YouTube and set up an account- it is free and easy.

Get a Flip camera- they are cheap and easy.

Shoot some practice videos over the weekend. The Flip camera may be one of my favorite toys of all times –you’ll love it.

Next, visit some of the hot spots in your town, record some video and talk about it while you are recording.

Post on YouTube and make another one.

Send me your videos and I’ll post them on this blog.

Coming soon: More ideas for using YouTube videos. (Feel free to share your YouTube ideas with me.  I would really appreciate it!)

Facebook Fan Pages

In the last week I have had several requests for help with Facebook Fan Pages.

Add a Facebook icon and a link to your Fan Page

Basically, a fan page is a page devoted to your business on Facebook.

The questions I have been getting are:

  • Should I set-up a fan page?
  • How do I get people to come?
  • How do I link my fan page and my blog or website?

The answers I have been giving:

  • Yes, you should have a fan page IF you are going to put valuable real estate information on the page.
  • The best way to get people to come is to invite them – more on that further down.
  • It is easy to link your fan page and your website – just put up a Facebook button and link it from your blog or website to the Fan Page.

Don’t know how to invite your friends to be your fan?  Here are two ideas.

1. Write on your wall that you have built a fan page for your business so that you can have all your real estate information in one place on Facebook and won’t be bothering your friends who are not interested in constant real estate info. Tell them that you will be sending the invite in the next couple of days and if they are not interested, just ignore the invite but just keep it in mind that your page exists if they know someone who needs help.

When they get the invite, they are prepared for it and are not offended.

2. Email people inviting them to your fan page. My wife received an email today from a friend of hers who writes children’s books. We asked permission to use it because it illustrated exactly what I’m talking about.  She wrote,

I needed to separate the author stuff from the personal stuff on Facebook.  It’s strange to ask, but I have a fan page on Facebook if you’re interested in knowing about book stuff as it happens. You can go on Facebook to Barb Rosenstock, Children’s Author or here’s the link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Barb-Rosenstock-Childrens-Author/306219448895?ref=ts

Click the “Become a Fan”  button at the top to the right of my name.  Feel free to pass it on to any relatives, teachers,  friends on Facebook who may be interested–it’s a public page.
I appreciate it!

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to invite people to be your “fans”.   Look for a future post detailing what should appear on your fan page.   One quick thought –if you put something on your fan page, make sure it has value for your fans.

Thanks to Barb Rosenstock, author of great children’s books,  for sharing her email. You can visit her fan page at the link above to see how she approached building a fan page.