Geez, seems like ages ago (well, almost two years now) that I have been on the Rain. I have seen it all. Rants, whines, controversies, points, photos, you name it, it has been here on this blogging network. I have never thought it a useless system, nor have I thought blogging to be useless either.
When my husband bought me the book "Blogging for Business" back in early 2006 as I lay in bed pregnant with my second child, who knew I would grow to love communication through blogging so much that I would have four blogs! So maybe because of this love, and what blogging has brought to me, I can easily so get riled up when someone calls me a useless real estate agent.
The other day I was given a package put together by a fellow real estate agent here in the Twin Cities, which highlights ways to get your listings high in the search engines by putting them on Craigslist, stuffing them with keywords, and you guessed it, putting them on Active Rain, and using its Google juice to rev up your listing.
It is mentioned that blogging is great for only the promotion of your listings, and any agent that blogs for anything else, has "too much time on their hands". (can you start to understand how I was getting slightly annoyed by reading this?) It is also mentioned that bloggers produce a lot of useless articles about nothing, that do not generate business at all.
Hmm, that's interesting. I blog. I thus have too much time available to myself. That in turn makes me a useless agent. Hmmm, I write posts about my niche market, local news, and local real estate, but all those posts, according to this package, are useless.
I guess I should follow the old real estate business model which would have me going into my broker's office, sitting at a desk from 9-5, and praying that business walks in the door or calls me on the phone. But since the Internet has changed everything, do real estate agents really have to work 24-7 to be successful? Do we really need to be "working" to not be useless?
My blogging has not only helped me create a strong niche here in the Twin Cities, but I have gotten most of my clients through blogging, and the google juice it has awarded me. Clients want to see who their real estate is as a person, and what type of marketing they provide. The only way to do this succesfully in today's market is to blog, blog, blog...about useful things, not just about your listings.
About a month ago I bought a Blackberry Curve...finally upgrading my phone to something that can help my business get better. Sprint has a fantastic "Everything" plan for $99/month, and I would never have gotten this phone if not for this plan.
