Yes, you read it right. We get at least 2 listings per week from our Active Rain blog and SO CAN YOU.
Would knowing you can add another $100,000 to your gross income just from your Active Rain blog be of any interest to you?
If you get 2 listings per week that is 8 new listings per month. That is 96 new listings in a year.
If only one of those sells each month for an average price of 300K; do the math! See how much that will change your bottom line?
Now look at your expense column. How much money are you spending on fishing for listings?
Compare that to how much money you spend when you blog on Active Rain. The investment is time.
The catch: It has to be you, not a paid assistant who does your blogging for you! You must walk the talk!
As for me, I would much rather be spending my time blogging and networking on Active Rain than any other form of marketing for listings. We do not have an outside blog. Active Rain is our main source of listings from online marketing.
How would you like to turn your Active Rain blog into a listing machine?
Here are some tips to help you get listings from your Active Rain blog:
Know Your Target Market
You must speak with your audience not at your audience.Hold a conversation with your sellers. Even before that you must know who your audience is. If you want to get listings stop writing to attract the buyers. That is the biggest mistake I see from those that email me or call me and ask me why they are not getting listings from their Active Rain blog. Most members are writing Localism posts that attract buyers not sellers. What does a seller want to know about? Read Who's Your Audience for more information.
Be Ahead Of The Curve
Blogging for listings on Active Rain is a very under served market. Agents who are online are usually targeting buyers and trying to capture those prospects who are looking at properties on line. So that means you are ahead of the curve since few, under 2% of real estate bloggers are really focusing on blogging in order to get listings.
Find The Pain and Offer the Relief
Write posts that address the 'pain' the seller is going through. Is your market full of short sales, foreclosures, overpriced homes? Address the pain, write posts about these issues and then given some options for relief. Read through our Localism posts and see some of the subjects that are of interest to sellers.
Build the Relationship First Online
Sellers who are looking for an agent to list their property with typically read more than one post before they call the agent. 99% of all the listings that we get from our Active Rain blog call us. They do not email us, they are calling us and it is like they are a long lost friend because they already know us. People do business with people they know, like and trust. The know, like and trust is built over time as they read your blog. So you better have content on your blog that will engage the seller and make him/her connect with you. Remember always that even though members on Active Rain comment on your blog, consumers very rarely do. That does not mean they are not reading. To find out more about who is reading your blog, use mybloglog stats.
Show Some Transparency
If your blog if filled with Vflyers, Postlets and Market Reports you may end up getting a couple of buyers but most certainly you won't be getting sellers to call you to list their properties. Where's the beef in these posts? Sellers don't care about your other listings and although market reports are relative to their situation they are not going to build a relationship. But testimonials from other sellers and endorsements from other agents will make a difference. Testimonials are very powerful. Documentation beats conversation. Show your personality on your blog. Talk about your family and your hobbies. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Share real life examples of your work in your community.
Here are some real life examples of how a few sellers connected with us:
- A mother was searching for information about homeschooling her children online and my Active Rain blog came up on her Google search. She started reading my posts about homeschool and noticed I was an agent. After reading our blog for 2 weeks, she called us to list her house because she connected with us through homeschool. This is just like going to a chamber of commerce meeting or some other networking event and you start conversing with people in hopes to get some business one day.
- 98% of our calls are for short sale listings. We come up first on Google for short sale information in our area. But I also wrote a series of posts on what you need to know about short sales. This is a great niche for us because we have experience and great success with short sales. Most of these sellers were told by their attorney or financial advisor to do a short sale and then they google the terms that cause our blog to come up. We address their pain and give them hope.
- A woman was searching on the internet for an agent to list her house. Our Active Rain blog came up in her search. She began reading our blog every day. She noticed that I wrote posts not just about selling houses and listing houses, but that I was writing posts to help my fellow Real Estate agents and mortgage brokers in their businesses. Allison was very impressed. Her comment to me was that she chose to work with us because of my helping other agents. She said that spoke volumes of the kind of person that I am and that is why she chose us to be her agents even before she called us.
These examples are just a sampling on how property owners have connected with us. When you want the phone to ring with sellers on the other end of the line; follow these tips and see what happens. This post is not about being found on Google, I have written lots of posts to help you with your Google placement. This is about the strategies we use to turn our Active Rain Blog into a listing machine.
Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtor ®, Business and Life Coach, Speaker and Author. Reach Katerina at: 561-753-0135
Disclaimer:The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Wellington Homes Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Wellington Homes Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Wellington Homes Blog does not express the views of International Properties and Investments, Inc or those of the broker.
Copyright © 2008 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.. *Turn Your Active Rain Blog Into A Listing Machine** Contact Katerina Gasset for Customized Business and Personal Coaching.
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
Nice -- post and intersting since I work only with buyers -- I think some of these ideas can be adapted to that audience... any suggestions?
I really like your ideas. I tried to subscribe to your blog, but the system wouldn't allow me to.
Great ideas we are working in that direction but have a way to go to catch up. Thanks for sharing.
Interesting concept. I'll have to do some seller-appealing blogs.
Lori- Go up to my blog above our photo on the right side of your screen and click that subscribe button. It worked there but for some reason when I hit the button on my post, it denied me too. I will look into that tomorrow night. Thanks for subscibing in advance:)
Joan- Yes, you can adapt some of the same. The main thing to remember with buyers is they have a very short attention span on your blog. While sellers will typically read a few posts before they call you, buyers on the other hand leave within seconds if you don't have what they are looking for.
Katerina,
I agree...if your going for listings you can get them for fre here. we gotten quite a few as well lately so we can't complain.
Katerina, you and Nestor are really something else. You seem to find the same energy I see behind that smile of yours with each and every post. I am in that makeover2takeover contest and oh how I wish you were by my side mentoring Melissa! You have my ultimate respect...thank you..
Later in the rain~Deb
I write for EVERYONE. I don't have a particular seller or buyer in mind but hope to be able to offer something of value to anyone who reads. Hopefully that's building transparancy in itself!
Love the post Katerina. You are right on the money about proper targeting being the key to capturing your audience.
Ron- As a coach I will say to you, 1. Thank you for commenting on my blog, and know I am only here to help you.
2. I am brutally honest so here goes,
How is that working for you?
If you are writing for EVERYONE, you are writing for NO ONE.
Laser focus generates far more results than an all over the board non focus.
Neal- Thanks for commenting. I think Active Rain is a huge well and avenue to great profits if you mine it well, looks like you are doing just that.
Terry- Just keep on working at it, consistancy and focus.
Brian- Is is about the focus and the laser tight niching for one target market. The others will follow but you must focus first.
Deb- Thanks so much for your wonderful comment. I was going to do the mentoring on the makeover but I learned some time ago when to say no. My plate if full with all I do and the agents that pay me to coach them come first before a contest. I did not want to spread myself too thin.
Bill- thank you for visiting and commenting. I like your new listing, hope you sell it fast up there:)
Nestor & Katerina - thanks for the great post. I went back and read a few of your others and you convinvced me to subscribe! I'll be watching you!
Katerina- Thanks so much for this post. It gave me a whole new perspective on how to use Localism posts. Now I just have to think of what I want to say to potential sellers.
Kat..been reading thru some of your recent posts..I may call you guys this week to discuss a new Real Estate plan I am getting invoolved in up here in Central, and on the west coast beteen Tampa and St Pete.... might help you too ............yes, it involves cash
On the nose as always... The transparency issue seems to be one that agents have a hard time getting, but IT IS A KEY to success in blogging in my humble opinion!
That was fantastic Katerina! I never really thought of it that way - but I guess you're right the bulk of 'localism' posts are geared at attracting Buyers to my are.....and Sellers are just as valuable so how can I help them? Pefect! I'll get to work on that end! Thank you.
One of the things I have noticed about many of the real estate blogs is that they read like a classified section. When you think about the billions of web pages online postings like that are just additional noise. Post information that is useful and valuable to your audience. If you want to maximize the potential of your blog focus on engaging your target audience. Make it interesting, make it interactive, and use the connections to convert prospects into clients. This is easier said than done and requires daily attention but the payoff is competitive advantage.
Katerina,
Nice post! It never hurts to learn how to 'tweak' our blogging for better results!!! Thanks, Fran
Katrinia,
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! .... If you can't see it, why be here. And it is only going to get better. AJ
Wonderful post, Katerina. If used correctly, this place is a lead generating machine like no other I've ever seen.
I had to bookmark this post, it's a bit late and this post deserves a clear minded reader. This is a great topic and I'm sure will serve to motivate me to get going!
Katerina: Great post and I can't wait for the results! I've featured you on the 'Online Marketing, Tips, Advice & Wisdom'!
Great post and information, thank you for sharing it!
Excellent, direct, informative and well layed out blog post that is useful too. I think this post deserves a feature. as it is good advice for both new and seasoned bloggers..so I flagged you ;-)
Katerina:
Read the post with great interest and bookmarked to come back again and again. It deserved the Freature Post rating.
I agree the ROI is just great.
Katerina, this is a great post! I am definitely bookmarking this to refer to over & over!
Bo- Thank you for subscribing. I aim to add value to the Active Rain community by paying it forward. I have been blessed in my life with so many blessings and business successes and I am passionate about touching and bringing about positive changes in others' businesses and lives.
Great stuff Katerina. I completely agree that most agents on the Internet are looking for buyers. That's one reason I never focused too much on my web sites UNTIL blogging came along.
Sellers are now out in force looking for agents on the Internet. Blogs are very attractive to them because they can read about what we do and how we do it. AR works and it works well. Keep up the good work Katerina and thanks for sharing this info with the community.
Kat,
You're brilliant, what can I say!!! Thank you for your informative posts!
Katerina...
We have. The "Listening" presentations now incorporate the Blogging. I never thought I would live to see the day when Blog Boy sat down and watched Blogging Bertha vids with our Seller's :)
TLW...ROAR!
Whenever I hear an agent say, "I just don't have time to blog", all I can think is, "Why wouldn't you have time to blog?" That's ok...let them spend their time wirting and paying for newpaper ads and the rest of us will keep this wonderful world to ourselves!
GREAT post!!!
Tina in Virginia
Katerina, You gave us some important information, thank you. I have been out much more in the summer now that it's finally warm but try to comment and post as much as I can.
KATERINA - Your posts are always packed with great information. The only thing that I would say about blogging for listings though, is that it is helpful to have an underserved niche. Short sales are an excellent niche, because they are very necessary, and not many people know how to do them properly. Without having that specialty, most people will capture more buyers with their blog and online presence than they will sellers.
Katerina,
I have had to bookmark your post there is so much information here I am going to take it one bite at at time. Thank you.
Don R.
Very interesting. Thank you for your comments. I'm going to work on this~
Katerina- great, informative post, I have bookmarked it and some of the links to your other posts as well. I just met with my first internet lead ( a buyer, but that is okay) today. It was our first face to face, and it went great.
Out of curiosity- how much time do you spend blogging and reading on AR?
Marilyn- Don't think about what you want to say to those sellers, think about what they want to know about from you. It is about them.
Adam- The only way to make it as a listing agent anytime, anyplace is to have laser focus on niches. There are a lot of specialized niches besides short sales and REOs.
These niches are great to work as a listing agent through blogging:
Boating, Waterfront properties, Golfers, Aeronautical communities, Equestrian properties, Historic homes, the list is endless. Our first niche is Wellington Luxury Homes. The short sale thing just fell into our lap. But we niche in properties in excess of $1 million dollars. This is a great niche online through blogging.
Most agents are afraid to niche because they think they may lose business but all the marketing evidence shows the opposite is true.
This is so eye opening - thanks for bringing this up. I will def keep this in mind from now on, and try to see things the way sellers would.
Georgina- I went to sleep finally, must have been right before you made your comment. Thanks for commenting.
Liz- I am glad you were able to get some info you can use from this post. Thanks for commenting too.
Our Monmouth- Very well written comment. Thank you for contributing.
Fran- You are welcome! Thanks for commenting.
A.J. Yes, it will only get better. Keep on blogging!
Jesse and Kathy- You are right. Active Rain is very powerful. I never understood those who put it down! It is working for us!:)
Matt- Thanks. Make sure to come back and read this post in the morning:)
Debe- Thank you for featuring this post in online tips and marketing. If you follow these steps you will get the calls and the listings.
Tony and Darci- You are welcome! Thanks for reading:)
Kristi- Thank you SO much! That was a wonderful comment. They don't like to have a person get more than one feature in a row because the members send in all these complaints when that happens and I just had a post featured right before I posted this post. Of course, the exception to that rule is my friend, Broker Bryant:)
Katrina - I agree with all of what you say here with one exception. I really dont understand why you would not also have a business blog on your businesses main domain. At minimum it would have SEO value but there are many other compelling reasons to have a blog outside of activerain.
Keep up the great work.
OurMonmouth- It is a personal decision for me. I write on Active Rain for more than just our real estate business. I also coach and get great clients by focusing my time on Active Rain. I believe in being very laser focused. With getting 2 to 3 listings per week from Active Rain- I just don't want to dilute my efforts as there are only 24 hours each day and I have to sleep about 4 to 6 hours a night to function. I also believe in mulitple streams of income and I do a lot on the internet with other entrepreuneur endeavors I am involved in. Since I am a full time agent and Nestor is a full time Broker, and I homeschool, Active Rain gives us the best results and I would rather stay focused here until I have it down like a very well oiled machine. Then again, too, I hope to be a speaker for the Active Rain gods one day and help them coach and teach blogging on a larger scale than I am doing now. Does that answer your question?
P.S. Our Monmouth- We do have a website and it is powered by a listing blog but that is not a very focused thing. I do alot of social networking for pagerank and SEO on other sites. But we rank #1 for all our main keywords on google, and very high on MSN and Yahoo.
great blog thank you for sharing this wonderful info.
Kat, yesterday I was in Miami to look at a deal, and had to come back the same day...as I was coming back thru I saw a sign that said Wellington, and I thought of you both... Great post..see ya
Great post and only reiterates that we need to post, as Realtors, for our customers needs!
Bob- Thank you for your nice comment. I think that this is an important post too!
Jeremy- Thank you very much! I hope you implement these strategies on your AR blog.
Bryant- Thank you! AR works great for listings. Most folks underestimate the power of this network.
Yvette- I got your email and I emailed you back today. I will email you again tomorrow.( Tuesday) Thanks!
TLW- That is a riot, isn't it! Now we have on the web actions for the visual and audio learners as well as the interactive learners. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Tina- I agree with you. It usually falls on deaf ears. This is just not our profession, this is a whole society thing going on, instant gratification. Well, I don't know about you, but newspaper ads don't do diddley squat anymore!
Carole- Take a bunch of your awesome photos while you are out this summer!:)
Don- Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. If you implement these tips, you will get results.
Dana- I hope you do work on these tips, they will make a difference.
Carol Lee- Congrats on meeting with your first buyer because of AR! That is exciting. To answer your question, I spend anywhere from 2 to 6 hours a day working on line, with 90% of that time on Active Rain. It is like having a part time job, however, the quality of the sellers we get are well worth the time. I can spend tons of money and get junky leads or spend the time doing what I love to do most, writing, and reap the benefits of listings that come to us.
Bryan- You are welcome!
Bryan- You are welcome!
Mike- How cool is that! You just drove by our town! Well, we are more to the west than the highway or the turnpike. I got your email, I will call you on Wed or Tues.
Frank- and those 'needs' incorporate a lot of details. Thanks for commenting.
Thank you for your responce, I appreciate your time. Best wishes!
Nestor and Katrina,
Your insight is especially valuable to me. I have always done the one on one relationship development. In the upcoming buyers market this web and all it provides is the key to our marketing long-range program.. My problem is I am truly a baby in this process compared to many.
Any advice above your wonderful blogs is greatly appreciated.
Mark
Great thoughts...it's perfect 'remotivation' for me to focus on the longterm success of prospecting for listings.
Kaleb Kunz
You are living proof of the Bible verse that says "Cast thy bread upon the water; for thou shalt find it after many days." You goodness to others is returning to you!
Pam- You touched my heart witht that verse! Thank you! That was so wonderful of you. I like what Zig Ziglar says," If you help enough people get what they want you will always have what you want." Givers gain and I hope to live that way always, of course, in a capitalist country though!
Mark- You will learn alot by reading many posts here on Active Rain. Look under my tags for blogging for business and active rain community support for more posts that will help you get on your way. Thanks for being here.
Kaleb- I have a son, 24 whose name is Kaleb, spelled with a K, like yours! Thanks for commenting.
I always say when I go to a seminar, all I really need is one great idea to pay for it.
Thanks for a bunch of great ideas for free, implementation underway! :)
Great post, Katerina. I have referred many of my clients to it. I had to chuckle about your comment, "Most agents are afraid to niche because they think they may lose business but all the marketing evidence shows the opposite is true." My favorite quote on that topic came from one of my clients, Linda Jefferson of GoArmyHomes.com, who said, "I was afraid to target a niche for fear that I wouldn't get all that business that I wasn't getting anyway." Needless to say, Linda is quite busy these days and has even sold several Oklahoma homes sight unseen to military famiiles overseas by sending them lots of videos and photos.
Great insight - thanks for the tips
Thank you so much for the information. I am a Certified Real Estate Support Specialist and a Virtual Assistant. I am always looking for ways to assist my clients with marketing themselves and their properties.
This post was quite helpful.
I loved what you said about helping other agents. In such a competitive industry, most realtors don't even take the time to consider their fellow agent. I think that is a wonderful concept and one that I will definitely begin to apply! This is afterall a business and not a war.
Scott- Free is only good with implementation. Glad to hear you are putting the ideas into practice.
Thanks so much. I read your blog religiously, and you both are so kind. No wonder you are getting so many listings.
Thank you for providing this helpful information! I found your blog from the new active rain newsletter just emailed to me. Congratulations!
Sweet - your blog is the first featured one on the brand new AR email newsletter! I'll bet that'll really up the posts for you! Congrats - great post.
Raleigh Realtor - Pamela St. Peter
I am speechless in Spokane! I need to know who my target audience is for sure. GREAT POST thank you for sharing.
Love all your tips! I really do need your help in getting my listing in gear. I will take a better look at how you are putting together your marketing posts so I can get more listings. I could sure use a couple a week. Many of mine just sold last month(I had my best month ever) and I need a new supply of sellers!
Nice post and great ideas to apply to our marketing strategies. More power to you guys.
Freddie Gonzales - CRS, GRI, Realtor (Exit Realty - WEM & Assoc's. Daly City, CA)
GREAT post. You covered all bases. I forwarded it to a Realtor friend of mine and told her she HAS to join AR.
Boy, is that great and inspiring informaion! I keep encouraging my agents to get involved in ActiveRain, not just for blogging, but for the incredible, wealth of information they will get from being part of this community. Your post proves that point! Thanks!
~Ninah
Katerina, Great post. I got a lot of information out of this post I can use to find those seller and get them to call me to finance their new home. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the info. you have some great ideas, which are especially interesting to me as am a new blogger and new to AR. I am specializing in distressed properties in the Miami area. Any other suggestions to obtain listings here is greatly appreciated. Do you guys utilize any Google Pay-Par-Click or run ads?
I am one week on Active Rain and am glad to have found your blog. You have given a great gift here. I'm on it!
Rick Frissell
Katerina, excellent checklist. It looks like a well rounded plan. Thanks for being so giving!
Great Post!! Thank you for sharing!! I have seen a lot of people post listings!!
Have a great weekend!
Andy Laughlin
Connect Realty
Thanks! Now, are you linking your active rain blog to your personal website? or are they just finding it through goggle? I am still learning the in/out of all this stuff!
Wonderful post! Thanks!
Thanks!! I appreciate you sharing your own techniques with everyone. Please do give me anymore ideas you may have, as I am new in the Real Esate market and the blogging system!
Nida Siddiq
EXIT Metroquest Realty
I have gotten a couple of short sale listings from my blog too. Thanks for the encouragement. I will blog more so that I will be able to reach more people.
Nida- Just keep on reading the blogs here on Active Rain. If you follow in the footsteps of those that are leading the way you will be successful. Get a mentor for your real estate career. That is the key to succeeding as a new agent. Get someone in your office to mentor you. Welcome to the world of blogging.
Scott- You GO Scott! With your great attitude you will make great strides!
Suzanne- I love the design of the sites you have done. Linda hit the nail right on the head. Niching is the key to success in any business. I love to coach anyone and everyone but that means no one. My niche is coaching real estate agents and if others find me well, that is fine. Niching does not mean you turn down everyone else it just means you have laser focus. Focus yields higher ROI :) I am recommending your services to those I coach.
Joseph- You are very welcome!
Robin- You can get a lot of listings this way. Talk about their problems and then the solution to their problem, foreclosure is the problem, short sale is the solution. Make sure you use good keywords, not too competitive at first.
Thank you for the information. I am encouraged to continue what I am doing. My first week on the Rain. I got two sellers and three buyers. Just recently, I got one seller that has 4 properties he wants to sell.
I just browsed over this real quickly, but BIG THANKS for the info!!! I will definitely be doing an in-depth read through of this blog later today!!!
Brian- Come back because it is really good information that if you apply it you will reap the fruit of your efforts.
Hi Katerina -- I'm with you; WOW -- thanks for the gift of inspiration and positive energy. Even thought I'm getting some listings from Localism, I'm now looking at Localism quite differently, and will add to my current usage based on your post. Thanks!
Timely post Katarina! I am quickly running out of my own listings to sell and have been trying to figure out some new approaches.
Great Ideas! I love the networking potential.
Keep up the good work!
Bill- Thanks for sharing these ideas!
Taylor- WOW!!!!!!!!!!! You should write a blog about your success! Where else can this happen but on the Rain! Welcome to Active Rain and Congrats on all this business you are getting! Share this story to help the newbies and the oldies get and stay motivated!
Terry- Share your success too! I am so glad that you get listings from AR and Localism. It is what you are focused on, you will get it:)
Kathy- There is your assignment, should you accept it:) GO for it and then share your success here on the rain.
Bill- You are very welcome, I hope you can use these ideas and implement them. Thank you for commenting on our blog.
WATCH OUT HERE I COME! I am completely inspired. I am new to realestate (2 years) and have basically just handled things as they come. I really would like to get some exposure on the internet and these tips are just the key to my future sucess!
I'll be reading you!
Lisa
Lisa- Welcome to real estate and you are welcome to come back any time to learn more. Consider subscribing if you have not yet done so, so you don't miss any tutorials or posts that will help you succeed online and offline. Thank you for taking the time to comment. If you apply these strategies you will be very successful on line.
Thanks for informative post. I think a lot of people start to blog, and are disappointed when they don't see results. This is great information that can help people focus on exactly how to start driving traffic. Thanks!
Rich- Yes, we get a lot of emails from bloggers who get discouraged because instant gratification of results was not achieved. First blogging is an ongoing process and it takes time to yield results.
Great post. I will certainly try this out. Although I am extremely intimidated about blogging I guess I need to just take the plunge and do it!
Thanks , Debbie Nateghi
Debbie- Read my post What's Holding You Back, face the fear and just take the plunge, you will get soaked! Beware of addiction! Warning, blogging may make you rich:) in more than just money too! ;)
Hi, love all of the great ideas. Keep them coming. Antoinette
Antoinette- I love your name:) Thank you for reading.
Thank you. I didn't like my name until I grew up!
Antoinette- You have to keep logging in now, I new it was you though. It is a beautiful and powerful name, it is Latin, one of the romantic languages of which much of English is derived from. Your name means, Priceless.
Nestor and Katerina,
Thank you for the history lesson on my name "Antoinette". It's true... You learn something everyday! Now I can tell everyone that I AM "Priceless"!
Antoinette- Yes, you go right ahead, you are priceless!
Great blog I am definately going to start imprementing some ideas Thanks a Million!
My brain is on Information OVERLOAD! But thank you for so much good information.
Interesting food for thought. As a fairly new ActiveRain member I've been grappling with how ActiveRain is viewed by the surfing public and how it can help me connect with them as well as other agents. This post has helped clarify things for me. Thanks for the great entry/post.
- Andrew Kyle
Hey guys, awesome content. I am book marking your post and intend on going through it with a fine tooth comb. I am ready to build a listing machine. Thank you for your time and effort in helping other agents find there way.
I want a listing machine too! I will have to read your post a few times to get it to sink in.
2 extra a week???? That's incredible
G
Gerard- Read our posts about how to blog for business, check the tags out. ALso, check out my tag for active rain community support for more reading on turning your blog into listing machine! Thanks for reading. I have a newer post about how we get 2 listings per week just from Active Rain blogging! It is incredible! And you can do it too!
Great information as expected from you both. Your blogs are always interesting.
Good post...okay, I am going to try some of it. I just need to apply it to title. The cool thing is we are doing things that no one else is, we just have to figure out how to take it to the market...nonetheless, thanks for the advice.
Stella- Thank you Stella! I am glad you read our blog. That makes it all worth while!
Bo- You can apply this to title work. These are the universal rules of copywriting for all industries whether you sell widgets or services.
Katerina: You are right. I get many many buyers calling me because of my blogs. Quite honestly, I need to increase my Seller pipeline. I will take your advice to try to increase it through my blogs.
Loreena- You can get a lot of listings from your blog when you apply these tips. Thanks for commenting on my blog.
Laser focus generates far more results than an all over the board non focus.
Good evening Katerina,
That's an excellent point that is true in many parts of business and sports. Your approach to securing listings is brilliant! Thank you very much for being so willing to share and educate.
Cordially,
Bruce
Good point, Thanks Katerina!......I am looking forward to tryng it out
i'm fairly new to blogging so all this information is really helpful.
Thanks for sharing
Have A Great Day
Again..more great info...I am still learning about "localism" and it's obvious from reading your post that I need to educate myself better...I would love 1 new listing per week!
Tara- We get 2 to 3 new listings per week from our blog just on Active Rain. I don't have an outside blog. Follow my instructions and do my SEO tips and you will get there too. Just don't give up!
Doris- Welcome to blogging. Just by you starting to blog puts you ahead of the pack of other agents! Not many agents blog and the ones that start, quit! Only about 3% of agents blog for business! Get on board!
Not yet licensed- Thank you. This is what has made us very successful, niche, niche, niche!
wow!! I got blogs everywhere!! Hopefully they will start working for me.
Frank- Focus! Are they all different content or duplicate content on all these blogs of yours? We get 1 to 2 listings per week from just this one Active Rain blog. We get one listing per month from our Website. We get at least 2 listings per week from our expired listing mailing program and a few listings per month from referrals.
the Gassets? (don't know who answered, lol). I'm focused, trust me. I post differently to all sites. I love the advice on AR, and contribute to the little sucess I have been getting to it! I learned early on, thru AR, not to re post content. I think time and patience will prevail. Thanks for the response.
Frank- It is Katerina. I am the one that blogs and writes. You have much to share here on the rain, I am sure. You can use duplicate content on 2 of your sites or blogs. As long as you are the owner of the content it, Google will not slap you for duplicate content, as long as they see you as the owner. What happens though is you only get 2 slots for the same content on the search return page from Google. It all depends what a person's goal is and what they want from the internet. You want not to be competing with yourself. It all depends on what you mean by 'different sites'. If you are talking about sites like facebook and myspace then yes, go for it, those are all going to pay you dividends. If you are talking about you owning a bunch of blogs and websites then that can be great or it can bite you, depends on what your strategy is and what the outcome you are looking for. Thanks so much for reading our blog.
Thanks Katerina. I see what you're saying. I've yet to do the facebook, Myspace thing, although I have made profiles (started, got busy, on the checklist, you know what I mean...). I see what you mean and have taken note, I'm going to take a day off and focuse on this and get it organized. Thanks for the response.
Katerina - Thanks for the post. I have it bookmarked. Like so many others, I have thought of AR for buyers rather than sellers. I may need to change my focus.
Pam- You are very welcome! You need to change your focus to sellers. The power is in the listing! GO for it!
If I may ask, when you first started blogging, how many hours did you block out for blogging? AR is becoming addictive..I love reading all the tips from everyone. Now I want to devote more time creating more blog posts for my local area. With the market transitioning and the internet having so much information to sift through, I am sure sellers and buyers will appreciate a real estate resource who can deliver the significant news to them quickly and in one spot!
Ronda- In the beginning I spent 2 hours a day, then I moved to 5 to 6 hours a day. I spend about 3 hours from 12 a.m. to 2 or 3 a.m. commenting and returning comments. Of course in the beginning I did not get the amount of comments that I get now. I write my posts and post 2 per day for 5 days for my 10 posts. I read the blogs on AR and network for an hour or so daily within that time period. If you are blogging just for consumers I suggest you network and blog on AR for about 2 to 3 hours a day in the beginning. Now I write some pretty detailed posts which take me 1 hour to 2 hours just to write, confirm my research, etc. My vflyer posts only take about 30 minutes for me to do. But I am here for listings and for coaching. SO I am basically running 2 businesses right here on my blog. It has more than paid off for the time invested. We get 2 to 3 listings per week from our AR blog! My coaching business is almost full to capacity with agents on AR that are now my clients. I could not get this return anywhere else on or offline like this, working from my home in my pjs:)
Hi Katerina,
Tonight I mentioned this thread to a mega agent from CA. His first name is Jim. Great guy. You might hear from him.
I agree. AR can be an excellent source of leads. The key is to have content that is relevant and useful to home buyers and sellers!
great help.........!
I guess the key is to remember that the customer always comes first, even when we blog - making good topic selections, using the appropriate language and ease of explaining things, easy access to the information and plenty more. Once the customers know we have their best interest in mingd, they will come. Thank you all for the great info!
Great information. How can I use it as a Mortgage Agent? I have no listings to show... I am new to active rain, and always interested in how to promote my services.
where have you been this year? I have no idea how I stumbled upon your blogs, but I'm glad I did! Would you recommend blogging on 2 different niches? How about multi family properties AND short sales?
I enjoy all your tips. THey are proven principles that I know work. I like the target marketing and the finding peoples pain and showing them what they have to gain. Good work.
Utah Dave
Utah homes for sale
John- I have been here blogging for a year! The question is, where have you been:)
I do recommend 2 niches and multi family and short sales would be great niches. We do a ton of short sale business from just our AR blog.
Great post! I have spent about an hour referencing all of the information and have just scratched the surface! IWorking more and more online is a new way of meeting and building loyalty with sellers and connecting is an even greater challengethanks for the huge amount of usuable info!
Russell
WOW! You are amazing. I only hope I can reach that kind of level some day. Thanks for the information.
WOW! You are amazing. I only hope I can reach that kind of level some day. Thanks for the information.
WOW! You are amazing. I only hope I can reach that kind of level some day. Thanks for the information.
I appreciate your insight into blogging and turning the effort into listings. This is an amazing web site and I like the diverse opinions as well as the enormous amount of truly useful information. Thanks again for contributing real info that can be put to good use!
Russell
I really appreciate the information that you provide in your blogs. From the couple that I have read so far I find them interesting and informative.
That is awesome you are getting that much activity. I am going to start writing about other things than neighborhood information and see what happens in my blog.
THank you so much I saved it to my Favorites so I can study it more.
Great information, found it useful as to how buyer and sellers connect with realtors through the active rain blog.
Great post, a lot of great information. Think I will start writing more for the seller.
Linda- Write for the seller! That is what we do to get listings. Speak to your audience. Good luck!
Amazing! I thought I had it all figured out, but you have some great points... I guess it's time to break out of my shell, and start really blogging!
It's great that helping other agents gets noticed!
Leigh- Just follow these guidelines and you will get the phone to ring, by the right people!;)
Lynn- Yes, it is. Helping each other also helps consumers to see that we can work together as well we should.
How much money are you spending on fishing for listings? Compare that to how much money you spend when you blog on Active Rain. The investment is time.
Hi Katerina,
That's a great point about investing time instead of money. I referred another agent to this great thread last night. What blogging strategy would you recommend for agents that tell me they just don't have any free time?
Cordially,
Bruce
Hi Katerina - you brought up some really awesome points I had not thought about. Thank you for your insight!
Tina in Virginia
Hello Katerina thank you for the information I am so new to AR I don't even know how perspective clients would find AR. But you bring up some really good marketing strategies that I will definitely utilize. Thank you.
Sounds like you do a great business!
Great Ideas.
Thanks for your knowledge.
Hi Katerina,
Another great post and good points. I will check out your localism posts and keep working away. Thanks you always have something helpful to read.
Thanks Katerina,
I enjoyed the info you shared. I am fairly new to this group and having you and your hubby's in another group I belong to in AR, I will now look for your blog posts on this subject. You all are great.
Thanks.
Lynn- I write about getting business from AR and blogging for business and SEO. Welcome! thank you for reading!
Bruce- I would tell them that they have choices to make. Blogging needs to be a part of their business plan. If they can't put in the time, they will end up always buying leads or doing more work than is necessary. It is all about prioritizing. Ghost writing is not an option when it comes to blogging.
Thanks Katerina,
I greatly appreciate your advice. You put your heart into blogging. About how long did it take you to see results from Active Rain?
Not Yet Licensed- I started blogging on Active Rain at the end of June 2007. We got our first listing referral from a mortgage guy on AR in September 2007. We got our first buyer referral from a mortgage guy local who was on AR in September. Those same two guys started giving us listing referrals in October. In September we got our first direct listings from our AR blog, one lady, 3 listings. We sold all three of her properties. In November we started getting listings each week, about one per week. In December we got an investor who listed an entire listing inventory of over 21 listings. The by February we were getting 1 to 2 listings per week and it has continued without stopping. Now we are getting the referrals from those satisfied sellers and attorneys who like the way we work. So it is snowballing in Florida! ( my dates may be a little off here and there. I have a post that has the correct order).
Snowballing in Florida? Now there's a mental image for you! :)
Not yet licensed- YEP! I thought that was cute:)
I agree that "blogging needs to be a part of their business plan"...and, believe it or not, a paid assistant or a virtual assistant can help you make the time to blog! I have a client who likes to explain her thought to me and I write the blog, but I have other clients who like me to do all their virtual tours, descriptions, online advertising, and even lead follow up if it's in email form (a lead who has given a phone number goes straight to the agent.) If I am routinely doing those things for them, their time is free to work with people and do other things that need their own personal touch - such as blogging. I have gotten some agents working on Active Rain with my "cup of coffee" program...I teach them how to get started on Active Rain over a daily cup - or two or three - of coffee. Since blogging is so personal, I have encouraged Realtors to write in their own style and not worry because they are not professional writers. I do have some who write in a hurry and ask me to proofread for them. Agents, think about your loyal clients, aren't they the people who know you personally, who connect with you in some way other than through real estate alone? Find more of them through blogging!
Elena Malfi
Behind Every Agent
www.behindeveryagent.com
609-760-0422
Elena- Thank you for your comment. You offer a valuable service.
Alot of information to take in but very helpful. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this information. I am going to work on my blogging skills! You gave me some good insight.
Thanks for the helpful information. Being a REALTOR who is willing to help other agents reminds me of Miracle on 34th Street, and the reaction the customers had to Macy's willingness to suggest other stores where the toys could be found. In the end, it brought more customers to Macy's.
Wow! That was great! I had to read it a couple of times, there was so much great information, I didn't want to miss anything. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with the rest of us!
Meli- You are very welcome. Please apply these tips and you will see your business grow.
wow! I get emails from this blog post for the last 2 to 3 weeks!! You have hit a great topic on this one!!!!
Frank- I know, this post has a lot of traction! It is quite exciting when that happens. Thank you for noticing!
how about giving some examples of the blogs that worked
Johnathan- I write to my audience which are sellers. That means to write about things that interest sellers not buyers. We have a lot of short sales and foreclosures in our area so we write about them. I write a series on short sales. Writing a series gets a lot of traction and traffic. Sellers will spend more time reading a whole post. A buyer will only glance and move on. The buyer wants to see photos of areas and houses, sellers want to see your sold properties and how you help serve your sellers. I coach the agents who hire me to coach them to be on top of Google, they dominate google in their key words within one hour to 4 hours; that gets the attention of sellers too.
Thanks so much for the great tips. I am very new to blogging so I will definitely change my mindset as I have been writing for buyers and not the sellers.
Kari- Welcome then to blogging! Blogging will bring you business. You must keep it up, be consistent and have a conversation with your audience. Subscribe to my blog to learn more about blogging on Active rain and SEO.
What a great post. I think that you are right about bloggers all going after the buyers. That, to some extent is how I think. As I am really just getting started with blogging, it is helpful to have people like you forging the way!
Brandon- Thank you! The power is in the listing! Keep on reading. I have lots of post on how to blog. Consider subscribing to my blog so you don't miss SEO posts and how to blog posts.
Wow, great stuff. I'm about 2 weeks into AR and it's like drinking from a fire hose! So many tools and tricks to implement. Time to go post a blog, and attract some sellers, thanks for the info!
Dan- Subscribe to my blog and then look in my tags under active rain community support for many posts about helping you blog and network for business and referrals. Welcome to Active Rain!
It is a great post indeed! I am fairly new to the AR and I'm learning so much from each and every one of our members. I have subscribed to your blog and try to get at least 30 minutes each nite to read your posts in detail. I feel like I have a personal coach available at all times! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience!
Extremely insightful and interesting. I have been wondering how to cultivate sellers vs. buyers with blogging. With 1300 agents in my market, I'd much rather have 1300 people trying to sell my listings rather working so hard to find a buyer for a particular listing.
Thanks for the thought=provoking topic!
This is a great post. Thanks for the wonderful ideas. I have been blogging to attract buyers but prefer to be a listing agent and am balanced between both so far. Been thinking about what to blog to reach out to those sellers, and you nailed them down. Thanks for sharing.
Great post. I'm new to active rain and it's nice to see successful people sharing information that can lead to success for others!
Very interesting and I must admit I am guilty of only writing for the Buyer in mind. I will definitely have to address the Seller side as well. Thanks for the great tips!
Thanks for showing us some other applications of the AR community. It definitely is a science to get your postings to have SEO value and attracte buyers and sellers. The road map you have drawn shall come in very handy
Katerina - I will always picture you working in your pj's after that remark above. Me, too.
Katerina~ I just happened across this blog and hope to apply your tips as soon as possible. Thanks for being so generous!
Vickie- You are very welcome! These tips will help you rise above the other bloggers and get the phone to ring.
Great posts! I am book marking this so I can study it!
Thanks,
Nick
www.NickGood.com
Hi Katerin: Thanks for the insight on gaining listing through blogging.... I have to spend some time and work on my localism.. you are always there for me.. I've completed my new expired letter and I made sure I took your advice... What did you think?... I'm going to follow through with this and make sure that I alsoPAY IT FORWARD.. just like you did for me...
Thanks.. Katerina.. I truly appreciate all that you have done for me.... may you and your family always be BLESSED...
Nestor & Katrina,
Thanks for the post. I find that the market reports help to attract sellers. In many instances you are providing something that no else seems to be doing. There is perceived added value in your ability to assist sellers.
Excellent well written blog and some good foood for thought. I also love the cloros of your fonts and have never been able to get my blog posts to look so nice and read so easy. Could you write a post on how to layout an easy to read blog post because I love what you have done....Blessings....Kelly
Woo hoo ! I am pumped up from reading some of your blogs. I read this one and commented on awhile back but am now more pumped up from reading it a second time !