I think it’s great to hear from someone realatively new to blogging – who has been successful. I think too often, we meet agents who are breaking records, closing deals left and right, but have also been in the business longer than I’ve been alive(seriously).

Similar to you, I’ve only been doing this for a little while and in the last 2 weeks, I’ve picked up 5 clients – hopefully I can close them.

Thanks for the feedback and good luck.

Yes, it took me far too long to succumb to blogging and at first I didn’t believe it had SEO value. Then I believed noone would read what I had to say. Then I believed it’s just too much damn work. So I kept my focus on my web site and put blogging on the back burner. Well, not even on the backburner. I had three blogs scattered around the internet and no focus. I’d blog on each on rare occasion and that was often just to put my listings on them.

I had no clue at the time but I was missing my calling and there were people actually trying to help me see it. Business associates, friends, family and clients alike would tell me that I was an excellent writer. But I just didn’t know if it would translate into anything worthwhile when it came to writing about real estate. And, after all, those close to William Hung probably told him that he could sing. But he couldn’t. But darn it that son of a gun sure made a heck of a lot of money because he gave it a shot.

So one day I had just finished watching Forest Gump and, for no particular reason, I decided to write a little blog post. So I wrote a blog and then reluctantly hit the publish button. And when I pushed that button, I thought maybe I’d I start another, longer, blog post. And when I got that one done, I thought maybe I’d just start blogging weekly. And I figured, since I’d come that far, maybe I’d just become the best real estate blogger in the state of Kansas. And that’s what I did. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I blogged about real estate, momma and trains (well about real estate anyhow). And when I got there, I figured, since I’d gone this far, I might as well just keep on going.

Now I only committed to blogging at the end of this past year, but last week alone I picked up three half million dollar clients. So if you don’t jump in like William Hung, Forest Gump and I did, then you’re risking missing out on an amazing journey. It isn’t like I’ve been doing this for years, so it’s never too late to jump in and start carving out your niche via blogging.

Based on his feedback, he put too much into the beach life, whereas existence of your blog two years ago, with blips about the existence different “nooks” of life and culture…could have brought him greater perspective…broadening his perspective instead of being caught up in beach-only.

And Marc, thanks for the encouragement. I will definitely look into Webogrpahers more and take your advice on the neighborhood idea.

Thanks.

At Webographers per your note, we cover more than blogging…for many we are, a follow-on to e-PRO. That’s short answer.

Feedback…
Denny, one thing about San Diego that is interesting is how you can live in Pacific Beach, downtown and other areas…but the mailing address is San Diego. With many homes on the market…I’d love to hear about neighborhoods & districts inclusive of San Diego, the “vibe” of those neighborhoods, would be interesting…little tidbits to compliment your listings. Just 1 idea

“but what’s helped you the most?”

Reading other blogs. And not just real estate blogs. I read blogs on marketing, news, SEO, tech, and personal blogs.

Reading other blogs will show you both good and bad examples, and provide ideas.

Learning by example is huge for me.

Personally I don’t worry about the SEO aspects. Meta titles, tags, keywords, keyword density, blah blah blah. My SEO philosophy is simple — write for the readers, and the search engines will find you.

Personally, I think it is *critical* to inject your posts and blog with some personality. To me, the huge advantage blogs have over most other marketing methods is they allow you to show who you are, for better or worse. Posts that are devoid of any “flavor” (for lack of a better term) will swiftly turn people away. I also happen to think that the occasional “off topic” post is a good thing. Others disagree with me on that.

“And how do you take care of your clients, keep up with inventory and blog regularly?”

I am blessed in that my wife is also an agent. I do the site / blogging work to bring in the clients, and she does the bulk of the real estate work with them. I also don’t need much sleep

It would be very hard for me if I was alone in this. But for those that are, I think you can read and post to a blog with a couple of hours a day of work.

“A COUPLE OF HOURS!!” some people shout. “Where am I going to find that kind of time?”. A lot of these folks are the ones that will spend a couple of hours in their office, shooting the breeze with other agents. Or a couple of hours sticking on address labels and stuffing envelops. Or watching TV. Or whatever.

Blogging (for me) is prospecting. It’s about all the prospecting I do. And if you don’t have a couple of hours a day to prospect, I don’t know how you’re surviving in this business…