At R/E Connect in San Francisco, we all got caught up in the Blogging Frenzy — we heard from several bloggers who generate more business than they can handle from their blogs.  Some also earn revenue by selling ad space on their blog.  They said that their leads were hot and qualified – and they were through making cold calls.  It sounded great. 

The reality is, blogging takes time and effort, and you really need to set aside time each day or every other day to write and post, as well as consider every conversation, every experience, every piece of research or industry related news that you come across as possible blog topics.  Whew!  It’s sort of exhausting just thinking about it.

But, we asked our Enterprise Network clients in a survey earlier this week if they would blog if they KNEW that it would improve their Google ranking, and every single respondent said yes.

According to every speaker in San Francisco, blogging DOES improve your Search Engine Placement, because fresh daily content is the most effective Google Juice.

So, if you must do it, how do you start?  You set up your blog account at WordPress or ActiveRain or Blogger, and then you are staring at the blank “Write Post” section — what now?

Just start writing.  Get past the block.  Talk about what’s going on in your neighborhood and community.  Relay your take on the Real Estate industry and how it’s changing your business.  Take some cool pictures of your listings and the area that surrounds them, and provide links to nearby organizations and businesses.  Jump in.  Get your feet wet.  It feels good.  Blogging is almost therapeutic – you can write like no one is reading, because, let’s face it, it takes a while to build up traffic to your blog.

But then, it happens.  Someone leaves a comment.  Someone else asks a question about a picture on your blog.  Someone emails you and wants you to find them a house.  And there it is, the payback, the ROI.  And suddenly blogging doesn’t seem so difficult, after all!

Blogging tips from the Inman experts:

- Give a voice to your professional personality.

- Write about things that interest you.

- Be passionate about your topics - readers can tell when you are just cranking out content.

- Address local issues and interests. 

- Remember, Google picks up content from all of your posts every time you update your blog, not just the most recent posts, so you might write something in August that brings you business in December.  How cool is that?!

- Answer questions from clients in your blog – other people are probably looking for the same answers.

- Provide unscrubbed facts and your analysis of them.

- Encourage commenting by asking open-ended questions.

Need some inspiration?  Check out these R/E blogs:

Rain City Guide - this is an example of a fantastic team blog.

St. Paul Real Estate – Teresa Boardman is number one if you Google “St. Paul Real Estate” or related search terms because of her fantastic blog!

And, last but certainly not least, check out Gaping Void.  Hugh MacLeod is a blogger and artist who spoke in SF, and he woke up the crowd (they should have had him speak first, not last!) he has a lot to say about…well, everything.  Once everyone got over the shock, I think they realized how powerful the message was!

Good luck, and happy blogging!

- Stacie