Blogging Part II: What to Write

Do you have writers block? Even if you’re a proficient blogger, it’s not uncommon to struggle with fresh new topic ideas. In Blogging Part I we talked about how important it is to stay frequent with your blog postings – and how posting regularly can really help your bottom line (more leads, more clients, more referrals, more money!).

As a quick refresher: a blog, or web log, is an online journal that’s kept for business or personal use. There are a few purposes to having a blog, including:

1. Blogging allows you to share valuable information with others (positioning yourself as the real estate expert)
2. Blogging, if you do it right, will drive traffic to your website
3. Blogging also can boost your search engine ranking (which means people searching online for, say, “Phoenix real estate agent” are more likely to find you

So the benefits are huge. Yet keeping a blog fresh with new ideas can be challenging. The key ingredient to a blog is the topic. Having a great topic to blog about makes for smooth writing and a catchy storyline – which makes your blog intriguing and easy to read (which will keep visitors coming back for more).

Not feeling off-the-top-of-your-head inspired? Have a set of inspiration tools you can turn to.  For example:

• Books
• Magazines
• Online reading…blogs, articles, news sites, etc.
• Your personal experiences
• Your client’s experiences
• The real estate market
• Television
• Newspapers

We ghostwrite a number of highly-trafficked blogs for a number of very successful real estate agents – each and every day – and yet we still sometimes turn to our own tried-and-true real estate blogging topics.  Those include:

1. Renting vs. buying a home
2. Featured schools (be hyper local  – neighborhood level)
3. Home improvement tips
4. The ins and outs of selling a home
5. The ins and outs of buying a home
6. Foreclosures
7. Moving tips
8. Is it the right time to buy?
9. A client story
10. Pros and cons of working with an agent

Once you find a topic to blog about, make sure it’s a large enough topic so it’s easy to write in depth. In other words, pick a strong topic that is easy to talk about and is loaded with information. You don’t want to have to spend a lot of time doing additional research on a topic or stress about having enough to say.

And remember, each blog post shouldn’t be very long (600 words max) – it’s not a PhD dissertation. Find some inspiration and keep your writing simple, and you’ll find blogging is relatively easy (and even fun!).

All that said (and we really mean it!) do-it-yourself blogging is not for every agent.  That’s where we come in.  We’ll ghostwrite your blog for you, so you reap all of the benefits – increased website traffic, becoming known as the expert, turning web visitors into leads – without any of the hassle.