Blogging on a Saturday – How Rewarding It Can Be
Blogging everyday is not easy. I know. At best, I’ve got a pace of 3–4 times a week.
However, Teresa Boardman, our resident real estate blogging goddess, is pretty darn consistent. Looking back through her archives it’s rare to find a day left unblogged. So how does she find the motivation and creativity to keep it up? Here’s a peek into the history behind Teresa’s Saturday offerings (to the gods).
Blogging on a Saturday – How Rewarding It Can Be
Jim and I have both said this a million times, well now a million and one times: it is content that makes our blogs work. It is nice to have a pretty blog, and a blog that wins awards but if the intent is to meet people who have real estate needs then content should be a priority.
Saturday’s are my lowest readership day. At one point I considered not posting at all on Saturdays. However, one Saturday I was driving downtown and I happened to notice a church that I have seen so many times that I have stopped noticing it. I was at a stop light and was amazed by how beautiful the building is. An old church made of a kind of brownstone that isn’t used any more. It has a Gothic architectural style that makes it stand out, as it is surrounded by modern office buildings.
I took a few photos of the church while I was waiting and the stop sign … and yes while I was driving away. I got home and did a little research and wrote a short post about the history of the building and the architecture. I posted it in the afternoon and called it “Saturdays Church”. My readers really responded to it. They asked questions about architecture and commented on the photo. I started featuring a church every Saturday. I went out and took photos of every historic church I could find and started researching them. In the process I learned a lot about about the history of the neighborhoods I work in and the general migration patterns in and out of St. Paul.
Unfortunately, many of my photos were lost when I tried saving them to a DVD and then for some reason could not retrieve them. I went for a few weeks without posting any church pictures. My readers responded by asking me when I would be doing it again. A close friend started bugging me about it too, and a broker from one of the Keller Williams offices mentioned it as well. I started taking pictures of churches again and writing my Saturday post.
In addition to learning more about architecture, and history and brining my readership up on Saturdays, people now call me when they want to buy or sell a church. I had no awareness of it but at any given time there are a dozen or so churches on the market in the twin cities. My specialty is residential real estate and I have no experience selling churches. In fact I have no interest in selling churches. I called a friend of mine who is a commercial realtor and have been referring the leads to him. We have not had our first closing yet but we will and when we do it will be nice for me because churches are more expensive than homes are, and the commissions on the referral fee will be more than I would make for selling a house or two. What I love about it is all I have to do to earn the check is take a picture, write a short post and make some phone calls.
Other real estate agents in the area have started contacting me and asking if they can advertise the churches they have for sale on my blog. I have been invited inside a couple of the churches by local ministers so that I can take more pictures. Out of town buyers love it when I show them St. Paul and explain the various churches and other historic landmarks around town.
This experience has taught me a some important lessons:
-One way or another we get back what we put out there.
-Creating content even on a low readership day can be rewarding.
-Doing something simple and easy can pay off.
-Experimenting and trying an idea out can be very rewarding.
-Doing something when I don’t know what to do is often better than doing nothing.
-Content is king and my readers know what they like, I need to listen.
-I love taking pictures of churches and doing the research.
Writing a blog can lead to new opportunities, but it won’t lead anywhere unless we keep typing.
Here is a link to Saturday’s church posts
Here are some church pictures that have one some awards:
Award winning church photo
Award winning church photo
…this one has only been up a day but it looks like a winner.
Use them … or not. (I think the churches have improved my photography skills too)
Teresa Boardman is an exceptionally professional Realtor in the St. Paul, Minnesota area.
Her website: www.TBoardman.com
Her blog: www.StPaulRealEstateBLOG.com
Voice: 651-216-4603
Thank you Teresa.
As always, it’s a pleasure having you ‘on the Vine’.
Other Articles by Teresa on the Tomato
Teresa has done an excellent job with her photo taking and has become quite the expert. Glad to see this article here on the vine from St. Paul’s greatest Realtor.
It was so funny at the REALTOR Rally yesterday. Kristal Kraft was advising a new blogger to go to St. Paul Real Estate Blog, and “copy Teresa”. Great advice.
I can’t agree any more that content is King. Great article.
Jim – By way of a preemptive guilt strike, I want Teresa to know that if she EVER misses a Saturday post…or Tuesday…or Thursday…I will be devastated. There are few things you can count on in life anymore, but her wonderful posts are one of them. I guess one of the big lessons here for beginners like myself is: just do it. Or: ready, fire, aim! Better to miss the mark now and then, than to not have fired at all. I’m not quite a daily poster myself yet, but I’m getting my fanny there just as quick as I can.
great article. i have found that even though i do not have the photography skills of teresa, people love local photos because no one else is posting them of smaller towns. i think it reminds viewers that you are a local. also, it is good to hear that i am not the only one that gets less views on the weekends.
I agree with you and think this is a great post on how to expand the funnel. When I read this article http://www.rsspieces.com/driving-qualified-traffic-to-your-site-through-the-search-engines-will-increase-your-traffic-to-lead-conversion-ratio
I though it made a lot of sense and it’s a great article but I want to address what you have said; “In the process I learned a lot about about the history of the neighborhoods I work in and the general migration patterns in and out of St. Paul”.
It’s all about the long term relationships and you need to risk being different and caring. Yes content is king and we need to find a balance between selling real estate and finding leads who want to sell property. But when we *control* minds of the listing community we’ll be King/Queen. And now I have pick-up another idea.
Have fun and take risks.
Johan
One thing I would say for those of us not blessed with daily inspiration is that I will write 3 posts on a day that I am very creative and will “bank” them for days when I am not feeling like posting. On a side note I really enjoy your blog and seeing the area near where my husband grew up (he is a Minnesota man!).
You have to be dedicated. I am shooting for doing one every other day. I too read her blogs a couple of time per week.
Thanks for this great and inspirational post. I have been experimenting with my blog (trying on different platforms) and have settled on WordPress.com for now. I would love to blog every day but I’ll be happy if I can get 4 to 5 posts a week. The Saturday Church blog is a great idea, and thanks to Theresa and The Tomato for sharing.
Great ideas. Thank you. My girlfriend and I take pictures of homes all the time we love. I should share them with others.
Teresa,
Nice post to share the niche that you have created and continued to have success with. Finding a passion on a Blog can be hard for many so I think it is great that you shared about how you came up with your concept. Taking just a little bit of time to take a photo and supporting it with research will really show your readership that you care.
We took the same approach on our Long Beach sites as we didn’t know the neighborhoods when we first arrived to the city and now we have a good portion of the city documented with pictures (of course there is always more pictures to take :))
I do all of my blogging on the weekend (or on another more creative day), then schedule it to go out using delayed/scheduled blogging. That way, I know it’s taken care of and I can focus on selling real estate.
Currently, I am about 4 months ahead of the game…
John