Addressing Two Groups of Readers with your Blog
I have two principal groups of readers - about half are Realtor and mortgage broker clients in California, the other half are the real estate bloggers with whom I've developed many valuable relationships. There's a smaller third group - I also get inquiries from home buyers and sellers.
Over the past two weeks, I've been setting up articles on the fundamentals of blogging I've been calling the Blogger Starter series for the benefit of the Realtors and mortgage brokers I work with.
Here's what my Realtor client base is telling me:
"BTW, I really liked the info on blogging! Keep that up as it's very good and valuable information for us..." -
"...because the learning curve (to blogging) is HUGE. I feel like a Kindergartener who was just given a College Entrance Exam (with no professor, textbook, or cheatsheet). I have read through your inital Blog Setup page and, although I did go to every site you listed, I still have no earthly idea what I am doing. It's like learning a whole new language - the terms and jargon for EVERYTHING is utterly foreign to me."
(and yes, I'm helping her get a handle on things...)
On the other hand, blogging basics makes a boring read for the veteran blogger set.
Teresa at St Paul Real Estate has her own solution for addressing her two readerships - her realty clients and the bloggers:
"As someone who has had blogs for almost 2 years I am noticing that when bloggers start blogging about blogging the content is similar to what I saw last year. They all kind of go through the same cycle. New bloggers don't notice because they did not read it last year. It is difficult not to write for other bloggers, I guess that is why I like active rain. I can communicate with other bloggers, and keep my real estate blog focused on consumer content. "
For Transparent Real Estate, I'll continue to address the two audiences with articles that inform but also challenge. It's a bit like Hollywood producing a kid's movie with enough double entendres to entertain the grownups.
Bear with me bloggership... we're finished with the tutorials and will be returning to substance...
Technorati tags blogs real estate blog blogging
But Pat, there are hundreds of blogs about blogging. The rules and technology are the same for RE blogs as they are for everyone else. There is only one Transparent RE, intelligently written with unique content that I look forward to. Yesterday many of the blogs about blogging both real estate blogs and others covered the same story "blog juice" after I saw it on 6 major blogs I just turned off my feed reader. Yawn. I even sent the Tomato a thank you for not writing about blog juice. He had some great origional content, it was about blogs but about what to write.
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Hi Teresa, I completely agree with you... and I always value your feedback - it has always been right on. I put together a quick tutorial because I am working with a lot of my Realtor clients to develop blogs. Out of expediency, I just posted the tutorial on the blog so as many of my clients can use it. Yes, I know many new bloggers drop out, but I am working with clients who I think will be successful with it, otherwise it is a waste of time.
Anyway, I am following your advice to the letter. No more tutorials, I think I've given enough instruction for my clients. I said as much in this post you commented on. I'll be going back to substance. I'm glad you could bear with me...
And I have the same opinion about "news of the day" posts like blog juice... I try not to write about topics that are or have been covered in detail, including the amazing "101" a week ago (although I stand in awe only as a reader).
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We set out to blog to the consumer. Most bloggers out there are writing for each other.
We believe the future is in blogging about local stuff. Realtors are the perfect blogger. You are linking to some of the best.
Anything you can do to drive the consumer to the blogosphere or teach the blogger new tricks and technology would be valuable. I think you are doing a great job. Lar
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Thank you humbly Lar! Blogging makes things happen... I could hardly predict I'd be helping Realtors blog, especially those who I see have great potential to be successful bloggers and truly benefit from it. And you are the one who gave me the "aha" to blogging... and we met only 2 1/2 months... I am putting that introduction we had in that SF conference room as one of my life's defining moments (umm, granted, not in the top 10 moments... just so some people don't get a funny impression of me)
--pk
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I've just started a real estate finance blog for Salt Lake last month. I've been able to get a nice amount of traffic by following the steps in this post: http://slcrealestate.blogspot.com/2006/10/salt-lake-real-estate-my-blogging.html
My challenge has been finding the audience of first time home buyers. I've found some good investor sites. Does anyone know where on the internet or blogosphere first time buyers frequent? Thanks for your input.
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Nice blog start Nigel, special praise for your advice to Casey Serin. As a part of my business, I guide Realtor clients in developing their blogs with focus on lead generation to their target audience. My initial take is first time buyers haven't yet discovered blogs for real estate information and rely on google which tends to point them to sites like RealEstateABC. Also, first time buyers will initially gravitate to the Realtor.com and idx sites for home search.
You pose an interesting query... here's one hint - research how to find these first time home buyers online and post articles using keywords attractive to first time home buyers.
Here's an extreme example I noticed from examining some of the odd keywords that trigger my blog popping up on google (using hittail, a search keyword utility that focuses on these odd keywords). Input ( "motivated sellers" leads ) into google... even though the keywords would seem to be fairly high demand, I pop up first (as of today) based on one article I wrote a while back. Maybe you can apply similar tactics to your first time home buyer posts.
Thanks for writing me...
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Addendum to first comment:
Note that if you google( first time home buyer blog ), this post from Twin Cities Real Estate Blog pops up... it's a long tail keyword that you may want to address in your future articles.
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You are the man. It was great for me, being there the Inman Conference. You were one of many important contacts I made. lar
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Pat thanks for your feedback and your kind comments about my blog. In response to my original post about finding the blog first time buyers "hang out" I think I've come to the conclusion there isn't one.
There are a lot of sales sites for realtors and mortgage brokers, but not really a place total newbies could go for straight (non-sales) information.
I don't know if that's because of the local nature of real estate and the global nature of the web. It could be realtors and mortgage brokers have been sooo busy in the past few years they haven't needed to, or had time to market to this consumer.
Quite frankly, I'm thinking of starting my own place for these consumers. Hopefully, it could be monetized by advertising and it would be just a place for newbies to ask questions and find answers to real estate questions. What do you think?
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Hi Nigel, I was in the middle of a post about why I thought first time home buyers couldn't find blogs that explain the home buying process based on your past inquiry... and then your new comment popped up. I published the post tonight.
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