So you’re thinking of starting a real estate blog. How exciting. Want a few tips to help you get started? Let’s go.
- Register your own domain name. This is your home on the net that doesn’t change, a place where people can find you when they tire with social platforms.
- Think carefully about your blog topic. Choose one that you’re enthusiastic about. If you’re not excited and passionate about your topic you’ll quickly lose momentum. And momentum and consistency are important to blogging success.
- Stay on topic. Don’t get distracted. If you want to blog about something else, start another blog.
- Blog regularly. According to Jeremy Wright, author of Blog Marketing, a post each day of the working week is good.
- Don’t try to get too fancy. Successful blogging is all about quality content not about fancy sidebar gadgets. Content first, pretty buttons later.
- Add value to your readers. Self-indulgent bloggers are boring. A great blog starts with great content that readers need and want. I can’t emphasise enough the importance of good content.
- Be yourself. Blog readers can pick a fraud a mile away so be authentic and open.
- Respond to comments quickly and keep the conversation going.
- Comment on other blogs. A lot. I’ve said before that comments are what makes blogs places where conversations take place. Plus, commenting helps sharpen your conversational writing skills and, if your comment is interesting, will often lead to more traffic back to your blog. That’s a good thing.
- Link to other blogs. Links are the currency of the blogosphere. Link to others and they’ll link back to you. The more inbound links you have the more Google love you’ll get. It’s a page rank thing.
- Build a community of fellow bloggers. Subscribe to the RSS feeds of people blogging about your niche, then add a comment to worthwhile posts. Or send them a link from one of your own posts.
- Leave a question unanswered. Ask your readers to help solve a problem or provide an opinion. Good conversation needs silence as well as words.
Have I left any out? What’s your favourite tip for newbie bloggers?
Photo credit: dbdbrobot on Flickr
