Blogs are a reflection of their authors. What you do, what you say, your opinions, sharing of experiences, providing content that consumers want and need and how you present it are the most important factors in a successful Blog. Here are the do's and don'ts from some of the best:

The Do's...

• Write from the heart.
• Be open to criticism (you'll probaly get some).
• Express your honest opinions.
• Find a niche.
• Use keywords in your article titles.
• Read other Blogs and comment on them (provides links).
• Get listed in Blog aggregators (Technorati, del.icio.us, etc.)
• Be patient, it takes time.
• Frequent short articles are better than an occasional long one.
• Have a long article? Break it into shorter tidbits.
• Make your topic categories keywords.
• Write a series...keep readers coming back for more.
• Read...then comment on what you read...in your own words.
• Link to other Blog articles you read and publish an article on it with your opinions.
• Start a Blogroll of your favorites.
• There's s lot more...research the web for blogging tips

Then the DONT'S...

• Don't self promote! This isn't the place for it. Consumers want to get to know the real you through what you provide in your Blog articles.
• Don't use canned content...it's not unique and not you.
• Don't copy others content...bad...bad...bad. Respect © notices.
• Don't do property advertisements...this is debatable (I do).
• Don't censure...people won't comment
• Don't publish multiple Blogs...do one outstanding Blog (I violate this one)
• Don't wait too long between publishing articles...Blogs get stale fast
• Do not name names in negative context...use: "a recent client" or "an agent I recently dealt with."
• Don't have others write for you.
• Don't give up.

A final note: Blogging is not for everyone. It takes a tremendous amount of effort, stamina and creativity. Blogging is hard work. I have seen many blogs started and then abandoned after just a couple of articles. It was either too hard or the return was not immediate.

Here are a couple of good links to read from ParticleWave:
Why Start a Real Estate Blog? and
Promoting a Blog on the Search Engines.

Here are some statistics and a series of links to our Blog (s) illustrating our results from the past 17 months:

• 283 articles that generated 143 comments, about a 50% comment rate. About 16 articles per month or one every other day on average.
• Google rank of 4 out of 10. Good but not great (5 or greater would be considered great for a real estate website). Nonetheless, we had over 5,000 unique visitors, over 14,000 visits and nearly 65,000 page views in August. The graphs are here.
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• We are receiving 2 to 3 SERIOUS leads a week. People are asking questions about buying and selling. Of the last three listing appointments, two were from the Blog and one referral.
• We are constantly creating and changing content. Example: The Daily Market Watch and the associated graphs for Loudoun and Fairfax Counties.
• How do you know where visitors are coming from, what they look for and what the are viewing? A simple, inexpensive tool like Site Meter imbedded into your web or Blog pages.
• The Blogging platform is also used to create a Raspberry Falls community Website. We created a Renowned Properties portal showcasing our unique and/or high end properties on the web. Here's another example of a very unique property with a dedicated Website.

If you are interested in assistance getting started with a Blog or additional Website capabilities, I would be happy to help.

This has been a whirlwind tour of Real Estate Blogging. We have just scratched the surface. I could probably spend an entire day providing much more comprehensive information including showing you how easy it is to setup a Blog.

Here's what we covered in a little less than 45 minutes.

• Introduction to Blogging including trends
• Handy resources available to you
• Getting Started
• My current results

The conclusion: Blogs are an excellent way to create web-based relationships that can feed your business.

I am sure there are many questions. I can take a few now, or you can post your questions on any topics of interest in the "Comments" of the article pages listed in the "sidebar" on the right. If you post them, I promise to answer all of them. If you would rather have a private discussion, I can be reached at:

by email, or
703-431-2145 by phone.

Blogging is the next new thing capturing a growing share of real estate agents across the nation. To learn more, click here.