Laurie Manny of the Long Beach Real Estate Blog and myself helped the Barries to kick off their Real Estate Blogging Thursday over at Real Estate Radio yesterday.  And those poor boys had no idea what they were getting themselves into! Find out why Laurie started blogging, how it has helped her business and is putting money directly into her pocket.  Then, join me for a wild ride with the Barries where I make it clear that I don't want to help Realtors become great bloggers, I want to help them become better Realtors!  Then we delve into the art of backlink building and the traffic patterns of the real estate consumer.  This is infotainment at its best!  Listen to the podcast below.

 Real Estate Radio USA Episode 73 [84:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

http://www.rsspieces.com/0022D9

REBlogGirl: So, let's start this out with a little background on you and your blog. How long have you been in the real estate industry?

I have been in the real estate industry since 9/11/01 - Yes. What a day to start real estate.

REBlogGirl: And when did you start blogging? Where are your various blogs?

I started blogging after reading "Small is the New Big" by Seth Godin, and then being prompted to join Active Rain from an email from Advanced Access. I joined AR, not knowing what blogging really was, Sure, I had a MySpace account, but that doesn't mean anything. I posted a blog/book review on Seth's book, it got featured (??) and, well, the rest is history.

From there, I started a WP blog, which in conjunction with my AR blog, sent a lot of "link love" to my AA site. I started noticing my AR blog and WP blog and even my AA site start to rank for all kinds of interesting keywords, so I decided to take blogging more seriously.

I started a hyper-local niche blog www.LivingInGreenhaven.com that became a hit in my farm neighborhood (Greenhaven) and a sister-site: www.GreenhavenRealEstate.net which was equally as popular.

I researched custom blog platforms for almost a year and decided to hire RSS Pieces to build what I call a Blog Site = part blog, part website.

Read more »

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It’s getting hot in here: REBlogGirl Catches Up with Sellsius°

About Sellsius°:

Hey all, this is my interview with Real Estate Technobitionists, Sellsius° founders, Joseph G. Ferrara and Rudolph D. Bachraty III. Check out the Talkr automated podcast of this article at the bottom.  I am using the very same technologies that Sellsius uses on its own site to show how cutting edge these boys really are.  For those of you not in the know: Sellsius° is an all inclusive Real Estate Community where, anyone can post unlimited enhanced listings for any type of Real Estate, Business For Sale, or Classified Ad for related jobs, products or services, detailed professional profiles & more. If it's Real Estate Related, You Can Search, List & Compare It.  To learn more about Sellsius° and what they are doing, visit them on the web.  Wanna reach out and touch them? (None of that Michael Jackson stuff, buddy- I’m talking a phone call.) Give them a ring at: 347 535 0696.  Now that you know how to get in contact with these guys, let’s kick off my first interview in high style…

The Interview:

REBlogGirl:  Sellsius° thank you for giving me the time for this interview. I truly enjoyed Christine's interview with you and thought I could supplement that with some technical questions I have been dying to ask.

Sellsius°:   Mary, thank you for this interview.

REBlogGirl: You have truly mastered the art of "out-of-the-box" blogging for traffic with your 101 Post contest and Top women bloggers posts, what are your top suggestions for the typical real estate agent to drive traffic through content on their site or blog?

Sellsius°:   We have not mastered anything.  We have experimented with different ideas and some have worked. We are still learning and making mistakes along the way, which is fine.  We are not afraid of making mistakes nor should anyone else be.  We'd like to make clear to anyone reading this interview that whatever we say here is just our "opinion" & should not be taken as "gospel" truth.  We have done what we thought would help others because that is ultimately our goal in building the Sellsius° grassroots real estate community.  We are real estate people, plain and simple, who want to help other real estate people succeed.  Active Rain is a good example of how a community can provide benefit to its members.

One way we have used Sellsius° blog is as a vehicle to promote other real estate bloggers and real estate professionals.  As a real estate agent you can apply the same principle on your site or blog by focusing on your local community & sharing your particular niche expertise. You can highlight local neighborhood events, businesses and people. Get out in your community and interview for your blog (take your camera everywhere).  Be a local reporter on your community --people will love to visit your site to read your post & see the photographs (people love photos, especially when they're in them) or video or podcast.  In this way you involve your community in your blog.  Have the people in your neighborhood appear in your blog. They will be happy to recommend & promote you in return.  Throw a blog party (& invite us.)  Have some fun & entertain as you  inform--that's been our approach. Our friend Justin Farrow from JustNYC uses photographs to document New York City.  It's a great way to get people to come back to your site.  Here is an example of a post where we promoted a local business franchise in a blog post.

Use the latest technologies to keep your site up-to-date & interesting.  You can use Trumba to calendar local events. You can use FilmLoop in creative ways (we use it as an archive tool). You can sponsor interactive promotions & contests.  An easy one is a holiday themed contest, such as best decorated house for Christmas or Halloween. You can use print media to announce community events taking place on their blog or site. Offer free white papers. We are not SEO experts but we think it's wise to use neighborhood keywords in blog post titles, first sentences and links. You can even use your neighborhood name in your blog name.  In this way your blog should have a better chance in coming up in local searches. So we've been told.

REBlogGirl: Since Podcasting has become a hot issue for realtors and I see (and hear) that you use high quality autocasting technology on your blog, which autocaster do you use and do you feel that it increases your traffic, reach and/or adds SEO value to your blog?

Sellsius°: We like to experiment with new technology so we tried talkr. The idea was to add a unique feature so our readers could listen to our posts as another option. Each post, with text, is now an mp3 file which you can download to your computer. Theoretically, you can listen to them on your ipod while jogging or on your commute to work. Not sure if anyone has done this yet but it is possible.  Plus, the computer generated voice can be really funny in its pronunciation, e.g.  Ardell DellaLoggia. 

We're not sure what SEO benefits autocasting has, but it sure is fun. Uploading a podcast or video may have SEO benefits provided search engines can access the textual content via tags, headline, description, etc.

REBlogGirl: One of my recent posts covered the RSS reader in Windows Vista.  Do you feel that the integration of the reader in the OS will spike blog RSS subscriptions in 07 and lead to what you termed in Christine's interview a "blog over saturation?" What do you recommend Realtors do to combat (or differentiate themselves in) what might become an over saturation of blogs and RSS feeds in the marketplace?

Sellsius°:  Yes. It's possible that RSS subscriptions will increase as more people learn how to use the technology. Early adopters have already embraced RSS but we don't believe it is mainstream yet. The integration of the reader should help increase awareness of the great benefits of using RSS.

Oversaturation is an unavoidable consequence of a popular medium, including blogs.  The only thing we would recommend is that real estate agents who choose to blog do it with passion and be themselves. It's much easier that way. There are of course some "tricks of the trade" to get links and some notice but in the end it comes down to people liking you or what you have to say. Use your creativity and do not try to fit someone else's definition of what a blog should do. The medium is too young to be fully defined in its reach or influence. Creativity and innovation result from breaking some rules and blazing new paths.  That's one reason we LOVE new bloggers.  They bring fresh enthusiasm.  Focus on your particular niche, experiment and network (call email, comment) within the blogoshpere. We wish we had the "secret sauce" but we don't.

REBlogGirl: While we all see your Web 2.0 SEOmoz honorable mention award on the Sellsius° blog, some may not truly realize what an honor that is and what kind of competition you were up against. In what ways do you think web 2.0 design and technologies will revolutionize how Realtors do business?

Sellsius°:  We are very proud of that award. Web 2.0 technology should make it easier and more enjoyable for consumers using a real estate website.  But something more is needed to have them return.  We think interactivity will bring people back to your website.  Helping people will bring people back to your site.  Filling a need, solving a problem and giving them some kind of pleasure will bring them back too. Showing them new things will bring them back.  That was the effect of the 101 Blog Post Challenge.  We are working on another event called the Blog Debate, which we'll announce later today or tomorrow once we finalize the debate topic.  We'll encourage other bloggers to run their own debates.  One of the reasons we have Open Mike is to get non-bloggers involved.  (Unfortunately, only 1 person took the mike).  Web 2.0 will not replace the older ways to improve your business.  Getting referrals is still one of the tried and true ways to improve your business, in our opinion.  You don't even need the internet for that.

REBlogGirl: I love the idea of Sellsius° and can't wait to see what you have in store for us. What do you feel the most compelling component(s) of the Sellsius° package will be for Realtors and average Joes just trying to sell their houses?

Sellsius°:  The two most compelling components are that each member will receive ALL benefits without having to pay extra for anything and that we are passionate and committed to helping our members increase their business, without picking their pockets. We will be active promoters (in the best sense of the word) of our members.

REBlogGirl: I hail from the venture capital community and one of the things they always do in an interview is throw some crazy curve ball question at the end, so here goes. Why are man holes round?

Sellsius°: Easy to roll and no thinking required for proper placement. Plus, they got a good deal on them.

REBlogGirl: Thank you for your time and I am on pins and needles waiting to see what you guys do next.
 
Sellsius°: Pins and needles huh.  That's gonna leave a mark.

Bonus: Mary, we think that REBlogGirl is a great name. You should register rebloggirl.com because the domain is available, [you may want to register the domain before you post this :) ], and can become a great brand. A logo and character icon is something you should consider as well. Marketing wise, you can use your cool character on everything. You'd probably sell a good number of t-shirts too :)

Thanks for the interview,

Joseph & Rudolph

REBlogGirl’s Interview Rearview: 

Boys, thanks for this insight into your company and the future of real estate online marketing.   Ya’ll give good interview!  And, super thanks for the Bonus tip: I bought the domain and yes, I am putting together a rockin’ site there!  Stay tuned, REBlogGirl has arrived and I owe it all to you. 

Ladies, the boys of Sellsius° calendar drops in December… be waiting by the door because these guys are hot, hot, hot! Just kidding, there’s no calendar, but they will still raise your temperature, just like their name implies!

Joseph G. Ferrara
Rudolph D. Bachraty III
Founders

Sellsius°
If It’s Real Estate Related, You Can Do It

425 Madison Avenue, Suite 902
New York, NY 10017
347 535 0696 office
212 644 9802 fax

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