Blogs Are
Not Newspapers

Real Estate blogs are not newspapers, they're stories - so blog like you are selling homes, not writing for your local paper. Would you replace the listings in your real estate office's front window with your home town's event calendar, restaurant reviews or local business profile?

No. So why would you do that on your blog?

I'm going to say this up front so there is no misunderstanding. The entire point of this post is to get you to understand that blogs are not newspapers and if your business is about real estate, you want to attract customers that have a real estate need so you MUST write about real estate not skateboards and restaurants.

Why?

Because a home is not purchased on a whim, it is typically a well-planned and thought-out decision. There are very few of us that pass by the local real estate office and say, "Hey honey, I know we set out to buy a skateboard for Timmy but I'd like to buy a house instead because I think this store has nice ones".

Therefore, it is inconceivable for me to believe that by driving people into your blog with an article about local skate parks, you think you can snag a home buyer. Seriously, find me one person that ever set out in the morning to buy a skateboard and came back with a house.

Yes, I'm sure that the people or person who wrote about skateboards in their blog or blogs were only trying to let outside people or potential clients know what there is for children to do in the neighborhood around the property for sale but come on now, be for real here, blogs are not newspapers.

Real estate blogs are not newspapers but they can be used as stores.

What do I mean by this? A newspaper is something that usually gets read every day. Your real estate blog won't.

Let's take our skate shop example again: if you are looking for a skateboard today, you will likely go down and buy one at the local skate shop. But once you have that skateboard, are you going to go visit that skate shop every day?

NO. Why?

Because you had a need and you filled it. When you have another need that requires you go to the skate shop, you will.

Similarly, real estate visitors will only be surfing your site while they are in the real estate market. So, it is simply a waste of your time to cover anything that isn't real estate related.

Guide to Real Estate Blog Traffic:

People that searched for real estate and end up on you blog are potential visitors that you can easily convert into leads with the right tools.

When you include local real estate terms in your blogs and are searchable by them, you get people who are interested in visiting a real estate site because they more than likely have a real estate related need. And last I checked, you are like the Doctor of real estate that can cure any ill with your house peddling pill.

So, when someone searches for real estate and ends up at your blog, you have the Internet version of the couple that walks into your brokerage to deal with the agent on duty to put their home on the market.

People that search for skateboards and end up at your real estate blog still want a skateboard at the end of the day, not a house.

Let's flip that coin.

Let's say you are sitting in your cushy real estate office, behind your desk. The door chimes and you get up to greet the couple entering, you shake hands and ask how you can help them and they proceed to ask you where the local skate shop is because they want to buy a new skateboard for their little Timmy.

Would that annoy you?

Maybe you are nicer than I am (OK, no maybe about it, you probably are) but that would annoy me. The point is that your business is not being the local business directory or restaurant reviewer or cruise ship director. Your business is real estate. You want people contacting you that have a real estate need. Not people that want a skateboard.

It is a lot easier to convert someone that came to your site looking for a house than the one who came in expecting to spend $40 on a skateboard.

You see, someone looking for a house is a qualified visitor to your site that you should have no problem converting into a lead but it's going to be one hell of a battle to get that skateboard guy to buy a house.

This is what we call "bounce" traffic - people who visit your site because of one article, possibly reads that post but then leaves the site before reading other posts because the overall content on the site wasn't relevant to their search.

Chasing the long tail with off topic community pieces doesn't get you any closer to generating qualified buyer or seller leads.

It makes me laugh when I tour the real estate blogosphere and read post after post about where to buy the best skateboard or the bid to save the town's old oak tree or when the next PTA meeting is or where the best places to eat are - yadda yadda yadda.

It makes me belly laugh when I read other vendors touting the value of the real estate blog as a community network and how the Realtor should become a journalist covering local shindigs, cool eats and political shananigans so they can "connect with the community".

Are you kidding me? How the heck is driving in blog visitors interested in skateboards, restaurants, politics and the hours of the local library going to bring ANY real estate business? Trust me when I say. "that AIN'T it".

And if anyone brings up the long tail of keywords, I will slap you silly. Only losers chase the long tail.

Why?

Because successful bloggers know something you long tail chasers don't - that if you chase the short tail (i.e. valuable keywords that are harder to rank for but have hundreds or thousands of searches per day) the long tail comes with it. It's a side effect of the short tail. And in the indominable words of The Artist Formerly or Possibly Once Again Known as Prince, "You can be the president, I'd rather be the pope/You can be the side effect, I'd rather be the dope".

What happens when you blog about community events or businesses and basically become the town's newspaper?

If you blog about off topic community stuff, your phone will ring and you will get traffic. The problem is it won't be qualified traffic, so you will spend your time answering phone calls and emails that want to know when the next Red Bull Air Show is or when the water park opens. Not exactly your best use of time.

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