Writing about your community and (this is a big and) What you are passionate about is a way of keeping it informative and interesting. It is a real estate blog, but it can and should be so much more. If (and this is a big if) If you want regular readers.

Many of our future clients have found us by reading a post that was NOT real estate related. And coming back to read more. When they needed our services it was an easy choice.

One of the reasons so many get started in RE blogging and quit is because you can only write so many RE statistics and market reports before YOU loose interest. This is why those that succeed write about more than RE and include what they are passionate about.

Not only is it possible to do both, it must do both if it is really going to let you shine. When you approach it this way you don’t need to blow your own horn. They will get the message.

Dave

Do you feel it is possible to do both? Right now my blog is focused on community, but also real estate related “tooting of my own horn” and educating the consumer. I often struggle whether this is the best approach because I realized early in starting my blog that most people don’t care about real estate stuff once they own a home, just like your article states. I still feel it is my “job” to help educate though, and I want my community to understand real estate etiquette and do’s and don’ts a little better.

Struggling to find the fine line,
Shanna
Shanna´s last blog ..Kenny Loggins Headlines Dublin July 4th Festivities

Since this is about blogging for RE and has nothing to do with buying or selling a home I would hope you would never mention this post. Totally apples to oranges.

We know that the people on our news letter distribution list are homeowners presently. We try to send out information that will not only be valuable to them presently, but also keep their interest in their own home. Winterizing Tips. Product Recalls. Special offers from vendors we work with. Community news (recycling rule changes) and taxation issues. We measure the click throughs to articles and the helps drive our content.

We approach the blog similarly (in fact we use the news letter to drive blog traffic). We work to include community information that would be of interest to potential buyers, which also happens to be content that sellers will want to be aware of. We like to post local industry trends because looking at your home’s value is like peeking at your bank account – who is not interested right now? The fact is we have a 70% new visitor rate and are happy with that.We write content that we think is important to our present, past, and future clients.

Drop by the Lab as often as you like. Hope you always find something you can use.

Dave

Thanks to you both for sharing how this is working for you. Blogging about your community isn’t an instant fix or gratification tool. It is the building of a community reputation that takes time to establish along with a reputation as someone who knows about the community.

I think this is the absolute best way to establish ourselves as RE Agents in a community and region. Those posts we write never go away. They are out there working for us 24/7.

You both provide living proof and evidence that the time spent blogging this way is well spent. Quality community content providing a service to the community is much better for a local focus than a lot of opinions about national real estate trends.

And it goes without the need to say to both of you, but the more we are a part of the community and the less we try and “sell” the community the more we gain respect as individuals in our communities.

Anyone out there listening?

Heather and Chuck are building their business on a firm foundation of community representation instead of blogging for “Leads” and “Sales”.

Dave