He Asked Me, “Why Am I Blogging?”
Last week I was inspired to write an article about developing blog content because of a conversation I had with a client that we are training, well this week he asked the biggest one of them all: “Why am I blogging, again?”
At first it struck me odd that someone who has made the financial commitment to have a custom blog developed and trained on, would ask me such a question. As I began to answer, it occurred to me that the most valuable reasons for blogging may not be so obvious after-all. Our clients receive intense training that covers a broad range of topics from article formatting to social bookmarking, to community participation and search engine statistic analysis. I can see how one may feel that there are “too many trees in the way to allow for a good view of the forest.”
His question was followed up by a few attempts at answering it himself with more questions:
Am I writing to my clients?
Potential consumers?
Other agents?
The blogging community?
He wasn’t far off in the sense that he realizes that his articles can reach a broad audience, and will persevere to affect all of the above. But why he is blogging is much clearer than that, and it is for the following reasons that he needs to forever focus if he is to be successful.
Teresa Boardman’s article Keeping Local Real Estate… Well, Local touched on the subject recognizing that it is the local consumer that pays your mortgage, not the bandwagon. And this sentiment was seconded by John Lockwood. But the answer to our client’s question is a bit more than just keeping it local.
Internet advertising comes in many forms, most of them costly: Quality search engine optimization (SEO) can run into the 10’s of thousands; Pay-per-click runs the bill up like a 13 year old on their first cell phone; Banner ads and text ads on popular sites has never been considered a smart investment; and your fancy-pants, brochure style website has cost you more than you’ll ever return on it. Where most of these forms of advertising fail is that the investment is greater than the return, and the “what you have left to show for your investment” is thin.
Consistent, regular, quality, passionate, knowledgeable and relevant business blogging is the investment itself, and it’s return first comes in the form of CONTENT.
The quality of content is determined by your ability to understand your audience and your ability to write for them. When you make the commitment to be a business blogger, consistently writing for your consumer, you are depositing a most valuable currency into your internet marketing bank. The power of your content comes with regularity, quality and quantity.
Two months into blogging on the Tomato I began to notice that a significant percentage of visitors were making their way to my articles through their searches on Google.
Each article I write (although under the umbrella of https://realestatetomato.com) is essentially acting like a little website of its own. Each has a Title, Category, Keywords, Content and URL. Google is treating them as such, and as a result, they are all pulling unique traffic through unique search phrases. Now just seven months in, I have more than 200 ‘little websites’ pulling traffic for me. Currently, I pull over 200 unique visitors from Google searches every day. Let me say that another way: The content that I have ‘banked’ over the last seven months is responsible for hundreds of unique visitors every day. Not one of those visitors was ‘paid for’ and each article has the power to pull more traffic for any number of combinations of search terms directly corresponding with the article’s content.
Is all the traffic I generate targeted to my consumer? Heck no. But everyday, I know I uncover another potential consumer as I watch my Feedburner stats grow (today it’s at 584).
It is as if I have suddenly been recognized by Google as a ‘news source’ by being given a main-line to the Top 10 for many of the terms I use in my Blog Titles and Content.
Each and every article I write can be found in one form or another in the search engines in less than 48 hours. I wrote about ePro months ago and still out-pace the NAR and InternetCrusade for certain relevant search results. I wrote about ActiveRain CEO Matt Heaton when they first broke into the scene and the interview is seen every time you search his name. Need to post your listings for free? Look in Google and you’ll see this article. REBA Awards (2 days ago)? Top 10 again. Real Estate Blogging Advice? Yep… and on and on for hundreds a day.
Content has given me a Google Midas Touch and it is very exciting to know that I can double my exposure on such a platform by simply doubling my content.
So if you want to know why you are blogging, it’s because it is the most effective and affordable way to create an audience that is interested in what you have to say. The number of potential consumers you reach grows with every relevant article you write, so stay on topic and on pace, and this could happen to you.
