The demand for new and original (real estate) content is insatiable.
Duplicate content is making its way around the real estate blog world, and I am trying to determine if this is a necessarily “bad thing.” There are myriad discussions and opinions about duplicate content’s impact on search engine results. Google had a recent blog post specifically addressing duplicate content due to scrapers.
One of the key concepts of the real estate blogging space has been the original content and unique voices found at each different site; this originality seems to be waning a bit this year as the medium grows and the same content is published at different sites. It’s not spamming, but does it dilute the message and/or the content? Or does this dispersion broaden the reach? I don’t know yet.
Producing quality content consistently for different audiences is immensely challenging, but often times the same story will appeal to different audiences, and it’s important to reach those audiences. For example, and I’m not alone in my writing responsibilities, I write at a couple of places –
– RealCentralVA – a blog focused on the Charlottesville/Central Virginia real estate market and trends affecting same. Readers here tend to be (thankfully) more local – local buyers, sellers, consumers, media, Realtors, etc.
– Agent Genius, a national real estate magazine that discusses industry trends, news and opinion. I perceive this audience to be national real estate professionals, affiliated/related people and real estate industry voyeurs.
– VARBuzz, the blog of the Virginia Association of Realtors that focuses mostly on state-level real estate issues and general trends. The audience is primarily Virginia Realtors and Virginia real estate professionals.
Why write in so many places? Simple – and for the same reason I read each site – each forum speaks to a different audience, and the overlap of readership is perhaps (unless you’re a real estate dork like me) low.
One of the leading visionaries/thinkers in this space is Pat Kitano of TransparentRE. He has discussed Content Distribution, Blogging and Journalism, real estate blogs’ inherent “niche” qualities, and The Real Online Real Estate Magazines. Everything he writes is worth reading.
Change/education happens nationally and locally, and I want to be part of it, and part of that effort is to reach the maximum targeted audience possible.
One day soon we may see exclusivity demanded by readers and publishers – and we may see syndication networks. Would that be a desirable evolution? I don’t know that yet either.
Naturally, I am posting this in two of the places I write – because each reaches different audiences. Going forward, I am going to strive to publish unique content once – at one location.
