I've read a lot of real estate blogs and for the most part, they are  boring with a capital B.  What's sets the bad, traffic challenged blogs apart from the good?  Quality content that drives quality traffic and leads.  The rub is, striking the right balance of content can be tricky.  So, what kind of content will drive traffic to your real estate blog?  And what kind of content will keep people coming back?  Aside from your MLS searches and automated RSS news feeds, you need "sticky" articles that either create controversy or give away truly valuable information.  This article is a very specific guide to successful real estate blogging.  Read on and findout how to kick the dickens out of your real estate competition.


Stir up controversy. 
Once you have have some decent traffic, get people talking.  Turn on commenting and then turn up the heat by stirring up some controversy.  Controversy makes you newsworthy and word-of-mouth worthy.  So, what qualifies as controversy in Real Estate?  Are builders going bonkers in your area while house prices are falling?  Make a couple of digs at them in blog articles.  Are insurance agencies refusing to issue new policies?  Do some research on their national bottom line and weigh in on the situation.  Is a certain councilman or state official making policy that affects the market- let your readers know.  Now, being controversial only goes so far.  Don’t make every blog post a nasty attack on someone and if people comment negatively on blog don’t get defensive- the idea of the controversial post is that it stirs up traffic and interest in your blog.  Always follow up a controversial post with a quality education one- perhaps on the market- so when readers come back they start to see you as an expert. 

Give away valuable real estate information to become a leading expert on buying, selling and/or your local area. 
This goes back to one of my previous posts on creating your real estate expert status.  Remember, good copy has a decent conversion rate, so write good, quality articles that offer real helpful advice.  Not only do you become a local real estate expert and increase your search engine positioning but your visitors will keep coming back to your site time and time again.  And, that, my dear, is the point of having a website- getting found on the web and providing information that keeps people coming back for more.  Examples of quality real estate blog posts are: “How to Sell Your Home in 90 Days,” “How to Buy a Home for Less,” “Top 10 Ways to Prepare for an Open House.”

Follow the rules of copy writing:

• Use varying styles of writing and never use corporate speak
• Be yourself.  Make the post a conversation and never use industry jargon- use plain simple language.
• Use shorter test.  Posts should be between 250 words to 500 words
• Break up text by using headers, sub-headers, bulleted lists and other text breaking devices
• Stress benefits before features

Go “Hollywood.” 
If you have a local celebrity that is buying or selling a home in your town- write all about it even if you don’t have the listing.  The idea is that you want the traffic from what we term “the celebrity fall-out” so blog all about your local celebrities.  People love gossip and are bound to find your blog if you do that.  Fact is some of the most successful blogs in the Internet are gossip blogs, just look at thesuperficial.  For example, we live near the Red Sox Spring Training Facility, so we recommend that Realtors® in our area follow what the hot young hitters and pitchers are buying and selling in the Fort Myers area. 

Include a call to action. 
Make sure that in every article you flat out tell people what to do.  If it’s an article about selling, direct readers to your CMA lead capture tool.  Highlight your call to action by making it different a color from the rest of the text in the article or making the text bold, so eyes are immediately drawn to it and people know exactly what to do next. People like to be guided, especially on the web, so be a leader and direct those lemmings!

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TURN YOURSELF into an expert
5 TIPS TO BLOG for local traffic
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