“You should start a blog.”
That’s the advice they tell you when you share your new business idea with someone.
“It’s easy” they say. And “you’ll get tons of traffic.”
Here’s what they don’t tell you…
1. It Costs Money.
If serious about your business, you have to treat your blog like your business and invest some money into a good design. Why? Good design matters. It builds trust. Think about it… When you come across a rinky-dinky website, do you trust what they’re selling? No, you click away and go somewhere else (at least I do). So if you want to do it right, if you want to market your business right…invest in a good design.
Investing in a good site design goes a long way. Real Estate Agent Lori Bee for example got 2 buyers leads within two weeks of launching her new site design.
Don’t have the money to pay for a custom site design? No worries, for less than $80 you can get a great design template from StudioPress Themes for WordPress. These are a good starting point for a couple of reasons:
- They’re well designed,
- They’re optimized for SEO,
- They have an excellent support forum, and
- They’re affordable.
2. Blogging Takes Time & Energy.
You’re going to spend lots of time tweaking the design trying to get it just right. Then, you’re going to spend time researching and writing your articles. You’re going to spend time researching a good photo for your post. You’re going to spend time editing your post. And THEN, you’re going to spend time promoting your post.
Just because your wrote it doesn’t mean traffic is magically going to gravitate to that post. You still have to get it out there and do the blog marketing yourself.
Read: 15 Ways To Market Your Blog Effectively
3. No One Is Going To Comment.
You wrote a great blog post. You know it’s a great blog post. I might think it’s a great blog post. Other people might think it’s a great blog post. Still, that doesn’t automatically guarantee blog comments. People won’t always have something to say. If you close your posts with a question, that’s a good starting point. But again, people won’t always have something to say.
And if you have a Real Estate Blog, site visitors aren’t always going to comment on your Market Reports. That doesn’t mean they’re not great or useful… People just don’t comment on such things.
So remember, don’t get discouraged, just keep writing.
Read: It Only Takes One
4. It’s Hard To Get Subscribers.
Just as it’s hard to get comments, it’s even harder to get subscribers. You’re not going to wake up next week and find that your Real Estate (or other) blog has 1,000 subscribers. It’s just unrealistic. Focus instead on setting proper goals and objectives early on and track your progress monthly. Something like, “I want ‘X’ number of subscribers by the end of the month.” Or if you have a real estate blog, “I want ‘X’ number of home registrations by the end of the month.”
This way, you’re setting yourself up for success little by little.
Read: How To Set Proper Blogging Goals & Objectives
5. Your Post(s) Won’t Go Viral.
Again, just because you (think) you wrote a great blog post doesn’t mean the rest of the world thinks it’s great. A blog post about local market stats isn’t going to go viral. It’s just not. And that’s ok. As long as your intended audience is reading it and finding it useful, you’re making progress.
Here’s what you need to do… Determine what kinds of questions your readers are asking that you can provide answers to. Write those posts and then market them accordingly. With a little help from your friends, and if it’s a relevant article, your post might go viral. A couple of the most successful posts here have been:
17 Ways To Deliver Killer (and Useful) Blog Content
15 Ways To Market Your Blog Effectively
13 Must Have WordPress Plugins for Every Blog
Over to you…
What would you add? What do you wish they had told you about blogging when you first started your blog? If you knew then, what you know now… How would you do things differently?
PHOTO CREDIT: Vintage Collective
If I knew then, what I know now, I honestly don't think I would do anything differently.The only change would be my expectations. I'm a very casual blogger. I'm also lazy. I have learned the mixture of casual blogger + laziness won't equal to an A-list blogger. I'm fine with that. For now.
Hi Marianne,
Nothing wrong with being a casual blogger! Still, I wish I had learned my way around design a lot better early on… 🙂
Thanks for the comment Marianne!
I spoke with a real estate agent about a blog and he didn't seem too interested.
It surprises me how little businesses want to get into this when relationships are the core of their business.
As for your question, what would do differently – the answer is easy for me – I would have done a better job engaging in the comments.
Hey There!
I'm in agreement with you (for the most part, heh)… On the one-hand, yes, there's a tremendous marketing opportunity. It's a great way to build awareness for yourself and for your brand especially in a crowded market-place (and let's face it, real estate is a crowded market-place).
Why should I work with you versus any other handful of agents in the area? A blog allows you to showcase your knowledge, counter those objections, and give people easy access to you. So that when it comes time to choosing an Agent, there you are.
On the other-hand, there's a good deal of work that goes into it too! And that's the part I think people undermine. A good design matters. A poor design will make people run. There's a statistic that says 57% of people leave a website within the first 3 seconds. Than again, 73% of statistics are made up (hehe, see what I did there?).
If I'm an Agent, I'd use my site to hi-light the local community, build an FAQ of most commonly asked Buyer and Seller questions, and give people easy access to preview homes and contact me. Easier said than done, I know. But it's better than the alternative which is having no presence at all.
As for what you would have done differently? Well, welcome to the blog amigo! And thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
What I used to do early on was send people a video email using Eyejot.com welcoming them to the site – of course I do this far less these days, but it was a neat way to interact and connect with folks.
Thanks again for the comment! Look forward to seeing you around…