5 Ways To Keep Your Blog Content Fresh

Most people start their new real estate or small business blog with a healthy does of enthusiasm.

They start of posting daily. Then, it turns into once or twice a week. And then, before you know it, it’s been a whole month since you’ve written anything new.

Now, some people will tell you “you should only write when you have something to say.” But in real estate, that’s bad advice.

Do you know why?

Because real estate is an always changing market and your prospects want to stay on top of current events. Reading something that’s a month (or more) old is bad information. And you can bet that if your content is outdated, they’re going to turn elsewhere for information on the local marketplace.

So if you’re not keeping your content fresh, you’re losing customers. But we don’t want that to happen, so to help, here’s 5 ideas to keep your blog content fresh…

Idea #1. Develop a realistic posting schedule early on.

It’s important to develop a realistic posting schedule early on for two reasons:

1. To set proper expectations with your readers. If your readers know that you consistently post fresh new content on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s for example, they’ll keep coming back to your site week after week on those days. If however, you post once or twice a month whenever you feel like it, you’re prone to lose a reader or two (if not more) because you’re not posting often enough for them.
2. To hold yourself accountable and keep yourself from burning out. Committing to “writing daily” is a quick way to burn yourself out. Instead, set a realistic goal/expectation with yourself and lighten the workload. Commit to publishing something new say once or twice a week (on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s for example). This way, you won’t crash against the added pressure of having to publish something daily, but you’ll still have something new written often enough to keep your audience coming back for more. 

You don’t need to write daily to build your business. Instead, set a realistic weekly/monthly goal for yourself, and commit to sticking to it.

Idea #2. Keep an idea journal.

There’s going to be days when you don’t know what to write about next. That’s why it’s important to keep an idea journal–something that you can pick up and dig through for something to write about when you’re short on ideas.

You can write post ideas in your moleskine notebook or share articles and headlines ideas into Evernote.  The goal is to simply keep a running journal of post ideas for easy reference later when you’re running short on things to write about.

The next time a customer asks you a question, log it into your journal. Or the next time you think of a good post headline while you’re waiting in line at Starbucks, email a note to save it into Evernote and keep adding content to that idea journal for later reference. This way, you’ll never run out of post ideas when you need them.

Idea #3. Schedule blog posts in advance especially if you know it’s going to be a busy week.

The lead generation process in real estate always ebbs and flows. Sometimes it’s slow, other times, the leads just keep pouring in. Either way, you have to keep feeding the content beast especially when it’s an integral part of your marketing process.

And since real estate is always an ever-changing market, it’s important to stay up-to-date with current events. If readers are searching for updates on the local market, they can’t come across a blog post you wrote 3-4 months ago–you’ll lose readers and prospects that way.

So if you know you’re going to be busy, or you’re heading out of town the next week, try to publish your blog posts a week in advance. Use WordPress’ post scheduler to publish your article(s) in advance.

Idea #4. Lighten the workload by allowing guest posts.

A great way to lighten the workload is by allowing industry experts to contribute guest posts to your site. If you’re a real estate agent, there’s two types of professionals that come to mind here:

• Home Stagers. Let home stagers write about how staging a home for sale can lead to selling a home faster and for top dollar. 
• Mortgage Professionals. Let mortgage professionals write about the qualification process and the latest mortgage rates.

It’s a win-win.

You get fresh new content for your site, and they get access to a new, relevant audience for their business.

Idea #5. Create a weekly/monthly theme for your content.

A great way to get yourself to stay consistent with your post schedule is by creating a theme for your content. For example:

• On Tuesdays, you’ll share the week’s “Home of the Week.” Simply write a blog post profiling a unique home for sale. What makes it unique? Is it a fixer-upper? If so, how much do you estimate it would cost to remodel this home and is it a good investment in your opinion?
• On Wednesdays, you’ll write a mortgage update to share the latest in mortgage rates: [Your City] Mortgage Rates Report – [insert date]. 
• On Friday’s, you might publish a list of upcoming Open Houses and other things to do for the weekend.

It’s often easier to stay consistent with a posting schedule when you develop a consistent theme for your content.

Always Keep Your Content Fresh!

Sure, there will be days when you’re feeling stuck over what to write about next. But by implementing at least a few of these ideas, it’ll help you get un-stuck so that your content never goes stale again.