Real Estate Blog Service

Blog + Website = Blog site:Combining the blog and website for a supercharged Realtor® blog site.  If you think that this article will be about how you make a better WordPress or TypePad blog, think again.  I’m talking about making a better blog from scratch.  We’re going to really talk turkey here- how to build a better blogging platform that will do what Realtors® really need.  What’s wrong with WordPress and TypePad, you ask?  Nothing, if all you need is a blog.  However, Realtors® need both a website and a blog.  So, the key for Realtors® is putting the chocolate in the peanut butter and combining the best of blogging with the best of the website into one cohesive product.  Fact is that if you unify your blog and website you will not have to manually market your blog/site as much because the search engines will do it for you.  This is one of the primary concepts of search engine marketing. 

The benefits of combining a website and a blog are simple.

• There is only one place a visitor has to go get all the information they need from you (listings, articles, tools, etc)
• You have a single interface to update your website and blog
• Your website and blog are on the same server which creates value for search engines

What features do Realtors® need in a blog site?

• An easy content management system
• Automated marketing with ping services
• Automated SEO of content
• MLS/IDX searches and featured listings
• Lead generation tools like CMA, newsletter, open house, email marketing and RSS syndication tools
• Mapping
• Automated content builds with RSS feeds
• Automated local area weather, crime index and attractions with Yahoo! Neighborhood and census data
• Zillow API integration for Zestimates, Z-Indexes and Comparable homes
• Mortgage calculators, mortgage rate feeds, cost of living/moving and event calendar tools
• Podcast/Vcast and Virtual Tour generation, publishing and hosting
• Monetization tools like Amazon affiliate shop and AdSense integration
• I’m sure there are more, but you get the picture.

Why hasn’t this been done already?

Blogging began as a personal medium.  For people using a blog as an online diary, adding the features of a website weren’t really necessary.  However, as the corporate world took on blogging- combining the two worlds of websites and blogs has become increasingly more important.  For Realtors® specifically, this is essential.  Why isn’t anyone else doing this?  Who knows. I think some people find writing a new blog platform daunting.  Personally, I saw it as a challenge.  So, RSS Pieces did it.

Technical development of a blog site platform

As a developer, building a blog that can function as a website isn’t rocket science.  Basically, a blog is nothing more than a primitive CMS (content management system) like Joomla, Mambo or PHPnuke.  So, if you can do full MLS searches from a PHP site- you should be able to do it from a blog.  Granted, you’d have to be a geek like me and code a new blogging platform from scratch, but it is possible.  For example, look at RSS Pieces, this is a blog pure and simple but it looks like a website and behaves like one.  Now look at myRealtyBlog- same thing- it’s a blog that can pull MLS, Zillow, RSS feed data, etc.  For a site pulling live listing data look at Best Cape Coral Realty.  Yep- that is a blog too.  See, there is no reason you can’t make a blog look, feel and behave like a website.  It’s just a matter of having your blog developer use the right platform.

Conclusion

Fact is, I think it’s sad that RSS Pieces is the only company providing a unified product for Realtors®.  I’d actually like to see some competition, because it would make us better.  I also think it is out of laziness that other companies are offering blogs as add-on products to websites instead of as a unified solution.  At the very least, these companies selling you a Realtor® blog should make sure your website and blog are on the same domain and sub-domain so you benefit the most. 

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