Why blog?

[cgillespie]

This may be a ridiculous question, but does blogging actually generate a substantial amount of business for you? I do it because people always say how it will help boost your sales, but I'm not sure how much it is working...

[RobM]

You blog to become an authority on some topic, gain readership, and hopefully eventually, gain clients. And it is also excellent for SEO

[underbr00m]

Also you can always find out fow other people are doing business in real estate

[vbcannon]

You have to use creativity in blogging. Really think about what you can do. IF you are providing useful information you will be so surprised is to how you generate business. I got a sale from a friend of one of my contacts. the friend referred me to her friend. Big sales!

[billnad]

I think that there are several reasons to blog and in saying that one of the great things about blogging is the simplicity of being able to get new content on the internet easily and very quickly.

As for blogging itself, blogging is a great way to stimulate conversation about real estate among people in your community. The other great thing about blogging is that if you blog correctly then every post that you make can be indexed by Google and you will rank very highly for that term. A simple example is a blog post about homes in a certain neighborhood, blog about a neighborhood and you will likely come up number one in Google for that term.

[rainier]

blogging is the best way to promote your site.

[GetSmart]

Google actually loves blogs from my opinion. Usually when i post a blog, the entry is in the serps within a few minutes. My fastest blog to hit google was 8 minutes. Just think how much faster you can gain good positions with google, instead of waiting weeks for the spiders to crawl your site.

[vbcannon]

What blog do you use? Do you use something like wordpress that you can integrate into your site or do you use Blogger or something of that category? Just curious as to if it is easier to rank high or even "at all" in the serp's if you are using blogger or something of that nature?

[GetSmart]

Just curious as to if it is easier to rank high or even "at all" in the serp's if you are using blogger or something of that nature?IMO, wordpress is better than blogger, since it seems like with wordpress the blogs stay at a strong position longer than blogger. Keep in mind that when i first started using both, i didn't know how to use keyword density. I really don't have it down packed yet either but that is one of the keys to getting your blogs positioned good.

I just like wordpress because they have all types of plug ins and a forum that tells you how to maximize your experience with them.

[vbcannon]

IMO, wordpress is better than blogger, since it seems like with wordpress the blogs stay at a strong position longer than blogger. Keep in mind that when i first started using both, i didn't know how to use keyword density. I really don't have it down packed yet either but that is one of the keys to getting your blogs positioned good.

I just like wordpress because they have all types of plug ins and a forum that tells you how to maximize your experience with them.

That is what I was hoping you would say. Blogger is done on a community basis that basically gives all the SERP credit to Blogger.com. Wordpress is what I am about to integrate into my site because it can be "a part" of your site.

There are some great articles on Keyword Density by the way at SEOChat.com. In the Search, type in Keyword Density and you will see all of the different threads.

[seo-expert]

not to say that putting wordpress on your domain is not a good idea
you're right, a popular blog can add SERP value to your domain

BUT

many of you are not going to necessarily build a big following right away.

The fact that BLOGGER is owned by GOOGLE

means that it gets indexed regularly

SO putting your blog there and then making sure to link back to your site using your keywords can actually be very helpful to your SERP.

So don't think that it has no value, it's actually part of a sound traffic building strategy.

[proleads]

The simple answer:

If you have information related to your niche and that could be fruitful and visitors really likes to read it,
And getting benefited after reading your post, than i can say blog is useful for you.

otherwise concentrate on the real estate projects, and let give your website to seo's to perform their work.

[portland real estate]

I think blogging helps build your online reputation as an authority in your market. So regardless of which platform you use, it's a way of sharing your knowledge and experience in real estate with potential customers. Admittedly there are so many blogs out there now, that you are competing with many other blogs for readers attention.

[TimuM]

You blog to become an authority on some topic, gain readership, and hopefully eventually, gain clients. And it is also excellent for SEO

I personaly think blogging does make you an an authority. It helps you to let people know that you are an authority, if you are already one in your industry.
You do need to have some skills to let readers to follow your blog.

..You will at least get SEO help for your site by blogging.....

[kevin huntley]

Blogging to me is basic writing about anything that you feel like or letting people know about certain things going on in your world. It also helps build links to help your own website grow.

[seo-expert]

sorry Kevin, I have to pipe in here.

That's the "discovery" periode of blogging. Once you understand how keywords work a little better and how to focus your blogging on stuff that is important to your business, you'll start to see some return from your efforts.

Focused blogs on "of interest" topics always get lots of fast traction in the market place.

[OregonLO]

well most of the people have covered the basics. I've gotten business on the lending side from my blogs so yes it is a good idea. I need to do it more frequently though..

[jamesww]

well most of the people have covered the basics. I've gotten business on the lending side from my blogs so yes it is a good idea. I need to do it more frequently though..

How frequent should one blog? Is there a certain frequency that helps the most? Is there a point where posting more does you know additional good?

[OregonLO]

How frequent should one blog? Is there a certain frequency that helps the most? Is there a point where posting more does you know additional good?

I know some people that blog 10+ times a week. I think if you blog 2, 3 or 4 times that will help your business.

[anoop]

Definitely blogs will boost your business. Its a very useful SEO technique also.

[RobM]

Blogging will help define you as a expert to whatever it is that you are blogging about. Eventually, you will gain a readership and eventually, that readership will buy homes and will think of you first...which is only half of the game here when it comes to blogging

[anoop]

Blogs definitely boost your business if it get good content and get placed in SE.

[rainier]

it works when you get more visitors and more visibility that converts profits.

[agentwhiz]

It does require time and effort to build an income from blogging, but it sure can be done. There are hundreds making a full time living at this. As a real estate professional, your goal is mainly to attract buying customers.

[jvcus17]

I'm not good with this however.. i think blogging is one way of promoting your client's link..it's somehow hard to make an article but it's somehow worth it..

[rainier]

exactly!blogging is not that just promoting your clients products or services but you can also link it to the other site or blog which is related to yours.

[panamairp]

Its very easy to post content. Wordpress has a very user friendly back end interface. All you need for wordpress is a php account.

[dpylyp]

On my website I installed a google search widget for my sites only.

The Blog is easier to post news items to or specific legal, home inspection pages. News roundup etc.

Anyone searching content has greater search ability thru the widget.
Every post made on the blog is related to the source (core) theme.

[wchua24]

blogging is basically advertising your product or services to people.. but of course your blog should have good contents to attract more traffic to your site.