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Real Estate Professionals are becoming more and more convinced that blogging is a necessary marketing tactic.  So, the question is steadily shifting from “Should I be blogging?” to “Where should I be blogging?”

For Real Estate Professionals, there are a variety of choices, ranging from real estate specific blogging channels to general blogging channels to self-hosted options.  And each of them has advantages and disadvantages.  Of course, for those that aren’t blogging, the first hurdle is to get started… and the actual location, while important, isn’t as important enough to stop the progress while working out the location…

Real Estate Specific Channels – Utilizing a network that is tweaked towards real estate blogging has some GREAT advantages for the new blogger.  From a technical standpoint, there is built in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) with the platform since there are multitudes of bloggers writing about real estate.  Search Engines see the content and make it a trusted source more quickly.  Also, some of the networks have great user communities, leading to opportunities to learn more about blogging and technology, as well as build referral relationships.

Image via CrunchBase

On the flip side, you don’t control the platform.  Management might be GREAT at the moment, but what it the platform is purchased by a company with poor practices, or worse… by a competing real estate empire? What if they introduce advertising on the blogs, and your competitors can by ad space on YOUR content?  The bottom line is that you don’t have control over what goes out to the consumer.  You only control your content.

But, on the balance, this might be a great place to start, discover your voice and stretch your blogging legs.  You might find yourself outgrowing it, though.

Image via CrunchBase

General Blogging Channels – These carry most of the pitfalls and none of the benefits of Real Estate Specific Channels.  You still don’t have control of what may be presented to the consumer alongside your content.  Of course, it is much less likely that a real estate company will buy the platform, but not a lot less likely that a competitor could buy an ad or end up with a link on YOUR blog, without your permission.  And since the content is general, the SEO benefits are gone, as well.

But, in the case of WordPress.com, you will have the opportunity to learn the WP-Admin console.  And you actually can start writing.  You also might have al ittle more control over the theme (design) of your blogs graphic presentation.

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Blogging on a general site is probably the weakest option, in my opinion.  It has all of the weaknesses of blogging on a platform owned by someone else, but few of the advantages of being on a site tuned for real estate blogging.

Self-Hosted Options – For the long term, this should be where it’s at, in my opinion.  You control almost everything about the platform and the content.  There are no worries about who may be advertising on your blog, nor about who might have their hand in the background.  You get the final say.

However, you also get to control things like SEO… and if you create regular and compelling content, you will be noticed by the search engines.  If you guest post on well known blogs, you will get important links back to your blog, and bring up your blogs SEO.

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The bottom line here is that YOU are in control…  For some, that is great.  For others, it is terrifying.  It might mean that your blog languishes with a lack of attention, or it might mean that you have to hire someone to make it rock.  Or, it might mean that you have a platform that is unique and compelling and that costs VERY little money and pulls in a tremendous number of leads.

In each case, there are exceptions.  And there are sites that don’t really seem to fit in their mold.  Posterous, YouTube and FaceBook Pages are all examples of sites that can be useful tools, regardless of where your other efforts are focused.  Using them as part of a network of your own can build your blog into something greater.

Here is a (non-real estate) network I am building…

CoolCaroftheDay.com (self-hosted WordPress site)

CCotD on YouTube (YouTube Channel)

CCotD on FaceBook (FaceBook Page)

CCotD Quick Hits (Posterous Blog, primarily populated via web links)

Related articles

• A Beginner’s Guide to Blogging Basics (blogworld.com)
• Free Real Estate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) And Social Networking Training For Real Estate Professionals (prweb.com)
• New Real Estate Advice Forum and Blog Goes Online (prweb.com)
• Lane’s Newest Toy… CCotD (gwinnettgarageguy.com)

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It was a LOT of fun.  As a first time organizer for this type of event, I had a few concerns.  My biggest one was that the attendees wouldn’t feel comfortable asking questions… which was not a problem.  Their questions allowed us to better tweak the information to their needs.

So, here are some random notes from Monday’s Lunch & Learn…

GoDaddy is great for hosting domain names.  Several of us are using them for that purpose… but for hosting actual websites, they aren’t so great.  A couple of the hosting companies that were mentioned were HostMonster (affiliate link), BlueHost (affiliate link), and GreenGeeks.  One of the advantages of these host (as well as many other… there are a LOT of hosting companies) is that they offer “one-click script installations”.  Through services like Simple Scripts, you can install WordPress VERY easily, without having to understand things like FTP and creating databases.

Blogging does NOT have to be time consuming.  Randy mentioned shooting short videos or pictures at local venues (parks, restaurants, city hall, etc) and posting those right from your phone.  I mentioned video blogging… if you can knock it out in one take, you can post a 3 minute video (try to keep videos short) in 5 minutes.  However, when you launch, you really need to have 10-12 good posts on the site.  After that, it does NOT need to be updated every day.  Updating a few times a week should be enough.  I would say that you should update as many times as you can while keeping your post quality high.

Image via CrunchBase

Use Landing Pages.  These are pages that are designed for readers from a particular ad or search to land on.  Give them what they want… don’t make them search around your site to find it.  People won’t search, they will hit the back button.

Have a CLEAR ‘Call to Action’.  What is the purpose of the site/post/ad?  Have you told the reader EXACTLY what you want?  Do you want them to sign up for the email list?  Do you want them to call you?  Do you want them to honk at Green Ford trucks?  Tell them exactly what you want, and make it as easy as possible for them to do it.

If you can’t measure it, it isn’t happening.  You have to know what posts are working to bring in traffic, what posts are working to convert traffic to leads, what ads or outposts bring in traffic, which search terms are most effective and who is looking at your blog.  There are several ways to accomplish this, including Google Analytics and Clicky.  Google Analytics is free and VERY powerful.  I use Clicky (which also has a free level) because I like the interface more.  The more advanced version of Clicky (affiliate link) allows real time tracking of traffic.

Search yourself.  And aim at the right target.  There are two points here.. the first one is that you need to pick a target and then seek to dominate it in the search engines.  And in order to really do that, you need to see the Google RAW search data.  You can search through Goosh.org and see the basic search… not the one that is influenced by your habits.  Secondly, you need to pick a target that you CAN dominate.  Face it, you aren’t going to be able to dominate “Atlanta Real Estate”… but you might be able to control the search for “Midtown Atlanta Lofts” (and no, I don’t know anyone offhand at the brokerages on that search).

Once you get WordPress, there are a few plugins you HAVE to have.  WordPress Editorial Calendar, Back WP up, All-in-one SEO and ShareThis are on the list.  There are several more, but these are a great start.

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WordPress (self-hosted) might be the best option, but it isn’t the only option.  Posterous, Active Rain (not really an affiliate link, but I will get points if you sign up through here…) and WordPress.com are all valid choices.

• Posterous is really cool.  You can email almost anything there and it will be a blog post.  Videos, pictures, text, pdfs.. whatever.  And it will push it out the Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, FaceBook and other places.  It is very easy and quite powerful.
• Active Rain has a great community.  Just reading blogs there is better than a lot of CE classes.  There are some sharp folks there, and between the knowledge and connections (both local and national) that you can make, it is well worth the time.  It is also a great option to dip a toe into blogging.  The basic platform is VERY powerful for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and the posts will do quite well if they are public-facing.
• WordPress.com is good because it is a valid way to learn how to wander around in the admin panel and learn the rest of the back-end functions of WordPress.  It is very similar to the self-hosted version of WordPress.

There was a LOT more.  It is hard to believe that we were only there for 90 minutes.

And you can learn all of this and a LOT more at rebarcampAtlanta2011.  It is coming up on October 28th, 2011 at the Mansour Center in Marietta, GA.  Tickets are only $10 until September 30th, and just $17.50 after that ($25 for registration the day of the event).  If you are a real estate professional, it’s the best $10 you can spend… and even at $25, it is a bargain.

Related articles

• Site traffic: Posterous vs. WordPress.com (halfblog.net)
• GoDaddy coupon: 31% off any order (9to5toys.com)

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On Monday, September 26th, I am hosting a “Lunch & Learn” at the NAMAR (Northeast Atlanta Metro Association of REALTORS®) offices in Duluth.  We will be talking about blogging for real estate professionals.

As part of the discussion, we will be covering a variety of topics, time permitting.  Among them…

• Blog Platforms
• Active Rain
• WordPress.com (remote-hosted)
• WordPress.org (self-hosted)
• Posterous
• Other platforms
• Content Creation
• Coming up with Topics
• Video
• Focus
• Details
• Conversion
• Plug-ins
• Hosting Companies
• DiY?
• Social Media Outposts
• Analytics

With only about 60-75 minutes to get it all done, there are a LOT of things to talk about.  We also want the specifics of the session to be determined by the people that show up to ask questions.  There is a good chance that we aren’t going to hit all of the individual bullet points.  In effect, we are going to take enough information to fill a three hour CE class and condense it down to around an hour.  Not only that, but we are going to allow time for discussion.

In order to make sure that the information gets out, I will be posting up follow-up posts AND hopefully kick out a mini-eBook… for free.  If you aren’t able to attend the NAMAR Lunch & Learn, it should still be a good resource… but if you ARE able to attend, it will be a great extension of what we talked about.

One last thing…  We are calling this prebarcamp.  If you aren’t familiar with rebarcamp Atlanta, check it out here.

Related articles

• Cha cha cha Changes… (lanebailey.com)
• WordPress.com or WordPress.org? (wpdrivenbusiness.wordpress.com)
• 52 Types of Blog Posts that are Proven to Work (problogger.net)

Let’s get this out of the way at the top of the show…  There are two “brands” of WordPress to pick from.  The one I will be almost completely ignoring is WordPress.com.  That is the version that is NOT self-hosted.  Basically, unless you pay to upgrade your account, the URL will be WhatYouPick.WordPress.com.  That isn’t the only thing, though…

• Related posts from other people’s blogs can show up on your post… and you don’t have control over whose posts those may be.
• There is little control over the theming and plug-ins of the site.

So, the main event…

Some people refer to this as WordPress.org… that is where you can go to get it… But most of us just call it WordPress.  It is an Open Source Content Management System tuned especially for blogging.  And what that means to the non-UberGeeky is that we can install content, separately from the style of the site…  This allows the theme to be (fairly) easily changed, and the site to be optimized by the individual user.

I should mention that I could write a LOT about WordPress.  It is VERY cool and VERY flexible.  In fact, I already have written a lot about WordPress on LaneBailey.info.  And that brings me to one of the coolest things…  The link I just gave you is a Landing Page.  Basically, instead of sending you to the front page of the website, or to an individual post, I gave a link to every post on that site that is tagged “WordPress”. Instead of having to wade through posts about other subjects, you get a site that is tuned to your expectations… Imagine sending buyers to a site that has just information for buyers, or a site just for sellers, or just local business reviews or even just posts about holiday decorations.  If you make a tag for it, the site can sift through all of your posts and present only the posts that have that tag.

Why Blog on WordPress?

Control…  Complete and total control.  For some, that is the scariest thing in the world… for others it is terribly exciting.  Plug-ins, design, function… everything.  You can get under the hood and tune it until it is optimal for you and your usage. And that usage can be wide and varied…

Some of the uses that can be applied are:

• Regular blog
• News magazine
• Property website
• Neighborhood news site
• Group blog
• Dynamic website

Unlike WordPress.com, Blogger, Active|Rain or most other hosted solutions, having a self-hosted WordPress blog allows almost an unlimited amount of creativity and flexibility.  And, after getting a hosting account set up, building blogs with WordPress is effectively free. Many hosts allow you to have scores of sites hosted for under $100/year…  I have more than a dozen websites on my host, BlueHost.  They also have a service called Simple Scripts.  This allows one-click installs of WordPress, Joomla and other web applications.

Whether you want to build out a website for each of your listings, a news site for neighborhood associations in your farm area or just a dynamic website for your business, WordPress allows that goal to be accomplished in a straight forward manner.

Why Not Blog on WordPress?

Now, this is specifically about blogging for business, not about maintaining a business website, personal blog, property website or neighborhood site…  JUST about blogging for business, for the real estate business.

Time.  Not the time it takes to blog, because I feel that is a worthwhile expenditure, but the time it takes to make the blog rank with search engines.  Also, sites like Active|Rain allow more community interaction.

When building a property blog, the primary means of promotion will be direct linking and advertising the link.  Using an Active|Rain blog to promote property blogs (by blogging about them), or promoting a dynamic website (by deep-linking) to pages inside or building a neighborhood news site by giving out the link in neighborhood newsletters are all ways to use WordPress that avoid the shortcomings of a normal self-hosted blog.

Also, allowing a business blog to take time building rank, while using a parallel platform like Active|Rain, is a solid strategy.

When I started my primary self-hosted blog, LaneBailey.com, Active|Rain didn’t yet offer “outside blogs” or RainMakers.  Had that choice been available, I might not have embarked on the WordPress journey.  I am glad that I did it, but there have been some tough times…  I have crashed my site more times than I can count.  I have made things disappear, re-appear, get changed around…  I have sat up all night trying to figure out why my site was inaccessible.  But I have also learned how to get past those challenges.  And I know that I can do almost anything I want with WordPress.

Obviously…

I can’t say everything about WordPress in one post.  Just like Active|Rain, it is a versatile and multi-faceted tool.  But, it is a tool that is worth learning about.  Hopefully the links above will help deliver a little more insight into ways to use WordPressto build a better real estate business.

from Lane’s Active|Rain Blog

Shifter

Clearview

Two are free, one is (kind of) paid.  Two support ‘Magazine’ layouts, one is blog focused.  And I am using all three on different sites.  Each is flexible, modifiable and free of footer links I find objectionable.

Let me give a brief overview of each of the three themes.  I will also link to where I am using each theme.  Except for Shifter, the themes are not fully deployed yet.  Of course these sites will never be “done”, but the Shifter based site is mature.  The other sites are quite new.

Ikarus

I just ran across this theme a few days ago.  It is VERY exciting.  There is a light version and a dark version.  I am running the dark version on the LaneBailey.com website.  The purpose of the site is to centralize the different businesses and websites that my wife and I have… we also wanted to own the domain since it was available.

Ikarus is a magazine layout theme, with the option of being a more traditional blog, or a hybrid.  it does take some work to use the magazine features, as images need to be prepped for each post, but the result would be a very uniform and attractive site.

Colors are changeable in the admin area.  There are also some sidebar features which can be turned on or off to suit your content.  The header images can be set to rotate, and can be modified from the stock images…

Basically, the theme is very tunable to make it not look like another Ikarus themed site.  I will be tuning my site over the next few weeks to add more content and make it more unique. And it is free to use.  The footer links can be removed for a donation of $30 to the creator, and I will likely do that in the near future.  I think that the theme is well worth $30, considering its premium nature.

Shifter

Shifter is another magazine layout theme for WordPress.  I have been using it almost since the inception of BaileyServices.com.  I couldn’t find anything like it when I was looking for a theme.  Magazine themes were all premium, and the $80 I paid for it was well worth it.  The theme uses something called a ‘skin’ which is kind of like a theme for the theme… basically, you can change the look easily without changing the layout.  I have 6 or 8 skins that I rotate through, and add a new one every once in a while.

Shifter can be optioned to be a blog layout, as I have on LaneBailey.com, or it can be a portal layout (magazine).  It allows feature content, and has ‘user positions’ which lets the site administrator deploy widgets in many different areas of the blog quite easily.

Colors and details can be changed in the CSS or they can be set up as a skin.  There are both light and dark versions of many of the skins.  Header images are also based on the skin in use.  Also, an interesting feature is that a user can move one of the sidebars from side to side based on their preference.

Shifter is unique in that the developers are offering a hosted solution as well as the actual theme.  The hosted version can be had for free… like WordPress.com.  The theme starts at $80, or the footer links can be removed at the $200…  I have an $80 license.

Clearview

The last theme is a blogging theme.  I ran across it last week and have enjoyed playing with it.  I am currently testing it here on LaneBailey.info. The cool thing about this particular theme is that viewers can move the widgets on the side to suit their own preference.  They need to stay on the same side, but they can be moved up or down.

Clearview is a free theme witha graphical post interface.  Basically, each post is represented with an image.  The drawback to the graphical post representation is that it takes a few minutes to prep the image for each post.  But, it is a cool idea.  The title also displays, but if I were doing an image based site (portfolio or gallery) I would be all over this theme… even as a specialized listing portal, it has some really cool features.  Like showing a picture to represent each of your listings.

I haven’t seen an option to buy out the footer credits, but they certainly aren’t objectionable.  The license does require that the credits stay in the style sheets and the footer.

At some point in the near future I hope to completely change the look by changing the background texture.  But, as it sits it is a unique theme with some interesting options.  it is also very similar in the admin function to most other WordPress themes, so there isn’t a learning curve as there is with the other two.

There are a few points to keep in mind.  These are for self-hosted WordPress blogs, with the exception of the hosted version of Shifter.  I do not know if they can be run on WordPress.com.

Enjoy.

Just a note here.  There are tthings to consider when looking at themes for WordPress.org.  This is the version where you load WordPress onto your own hosting account, not WordPress.com… the hosted type.

Fixed Width – As the name implies, the width of the theme is fixed.  The good side of this is that the blog owner knows how the site will display… it is the same regardless of the viewers computer.  The bad side is that if they have a wide screen, it will be a band down the middle.  If they have a narrow screen, they might have to scroll to the side to see everything.

Fluid Width – Instead of a fixed width, the theme expands or contracts to fit the monitor of the viewer.  On the good side, the display generally looks good… it fits where it sits.  But… that also means that different people will see different presentations.  Pictures may move around a bit.  Things might not fit the alloted area.

Widget Ready – This means that the sidebars are able to be modified.  The blog owner can add widgets to their blog… Even if a theme isn’t widget ready, it might be modifiable to accept widgets.

Plug-ins Required (or not) – Some themes need other plug-ins to be installed in order to function.  Others don’t.  I would select a theme based on that criteria… plug-ins are easy to deal with.

Picture Menu - Instead of having a post represented with text, the posts are represented with an uploaded image.  I am working on one here.  Each post will have a descriptive picture.  Of course, I won’t be posting every day…  These might also be called Graphic Menu or Image Posts… or a variation.