What would you do differently?

Like Ines, I am hardly old-schooI…but if I was I would have kidnapped Mary mcKnight , held her for ransom and made her tell me everything she knows…and then I would have recorded it all to keep forever. Then maybe…just maybe I would have let her go!

I am still fairly new at the blogging side of the game compared to some…especially on the RE.net. I would gone with more pictures–sooner. Graphics have a way of breaking things up and making a point. I would do a little less writing and a lot more photoshopping..

I think there are some great points already made by some very smart people who are very modest. Here are a few thoughts that should help most new bloggers.

IMO You should own your own content and not be building someone else’s brand. Don’t invest to much time into REW, AR, or a “something.blogger.com” blog. The content isn’t yours and you aren’t building your brand.

Many bloggers seem to like to figure things out on their own, many times they just end up reinventing the wheel. IMO there are parts of online marketing (including blogging) that you shouldn’t fsbo, hire a professional and get professional results. What should be hired out will be based on your knowledge.

IMO consumer interaction is the key to a real estate agent blogging for business.

Remember your target audience is buyers or sellers, not other real estate agents. If you want to write to Realtors start a separate blog for that purpose.

Things I wish I’d known the first time are:
#1: Pick a URL keyword rich domain name and
#2 Wish I Understood categories better when I began. I would have limited the number of non-real estate categories (group many lifestyle ones in to a main one) and chosen different names on some.

I’m with Ken – maintaining one blog is time consuming enough. Scott, I do think that if you organize it well enough you can really achieve the different topics with categories within the blog – I do it with mine, but ultimately, you would be the only one to know what works better for you, that’s the beauty of blogging.

Scott –

Re: #1 – why not advertise the category “Foreclosure”, rather than duplicating the process on multiple blogs? http://www.harrisonburgforeclosures.com, for instance, than have it point to that category? You’re not “depriving” readers by putting the information on there, so why not leave it there? I think you do a good job with that stuff anyhow, and I’m sure the everyday reader likely does as well.

Jeremy — good thought (I registered the domain and pointed it there, so it should be live in the next hour or so). My only hesitation in configuring it as such is that the “foreclosure blog” (that isn’t really a free-standing blog) thus won’t be branded with an identify of its own. I think it could (possibly) have more impact and gain more of a following if I branded it separately…..

That’s what I meant, Scott – it’s just a hunch, but I think you’re okay by pointing https://www.harrisonburgforeclosures.com to the category …

Scott, I think you have to make a decision on whether you want to give juice to a single domain and what those implications may mean (what are the advantages?) or if you want to run 2 different blogs. I can tell you that it is definitely more efficient to stick to a few keywords to a blog but I’ve done mine completely different and after almost 1 year I am seeing unbelievable long tail results. I have different neighborhoods and write content for all of them – also have domains pointed to the categories.

I know Mary McKnight has a client with a foreclosure site that is getting unbelievable results (I just can’t remember the URL) – you can always start a separate blog with all the content you have now at a later date – talk to Mary.

Scott you can create a different “look” for any category on your blog (for sure with WP, haven’t used any others). It can actually look like a completely different site if you want, pull in different CSS and everything. At the very least you might want to pull in a different header and change up the navigation to make this idea really work.

Exactly. The main blog can use all the content, but make the foreclosure category function like a stand alone blog focusing purely on that content. Naturally I would still link to other areas of the blog, but make the above the fold navigation all related to foreclosures.

I don’t know if there would be anything I would want to change. It has been a wonderfully enriching learning curve, with many extremely helpful mentors along the way. That perhaps is the key in all of this – to simply ‘Pay-it-Forward’ – to take all that we’ve learned and be as willing to help/share with others as those mentors did for us. I would have started subscribing to more blogs sooner, to expand my blogging horizons, rather than being so focused on how and what I should write. I desperately need to read more than I do. I use to be a voracious reader, but life got in the way a few years ago, and I’ve lost that discipline.

I would have selected a separate domain name long, long ago instead of waiting until nearly two years into the entire process.

Disagree with Jay on reading more as not reading the rest helped me find a voice. But it’s almost a moot point as the options were pretty thin even just two years ago.

If I write about prospects, it’s almost always stripped down to be more generalized and it’s virtually always positive and/or instructive. Things that could help others down the line …

I’m so new I still squeak!
I started this blogging thing in Nov 07. Why you ask?

This answer will haunt me – an RE client talked me into it. He also designed and built the site, got me pointed in a direction and said “there yah go – now start typing. Write a post a day – it’ll do you good” he said. Talk about blind faith. I have yet to figure out if anybody is hearing me splash and thrash.

What would I do different.

Like others, retrospectively I might have chosen a more area related blog name. It may have helped but I’m not certain if blog life is over without it. Certainly being first on the bus has it’s advantages if you are clairvoyant.

Contrary to many, something I’ve chosen not to do is have all the gadgets, widgets, counters, smileys and other toys I see on many blogs. To my eyes they distract from the essence, style of the site and the writer. I see each blogger’s visual voice clouded by all that stuff. It reminds me of web 1.0 junk. You get used to it, but it is I think, counter productive to the purity of the message. I live with the conviction that if the medium is the message – then why put junk in the message. Hell, my writing style by itself, is a sufficient distraction from the message.

I’m not very smart about the linking. Although for some reason others are linking to me. I don’t know why? I’m not that pretty! My town is not as intense about real estate blogging as say, Phoenix, so my excuse is that linking to others in the real estate community is more restricted.
Those few I do link to are non realtors who have something to say of value and for the most part live with a glass half full.

Something I hope proves valuable is to meet other bloggers who are not realtors. It’s my attempt at keeping perspective and making time for a beer.

whoops – the crooked cane is pulling so……………….

I’m not laughing. She made me feel o-l-d – she took a college course on email and forum etiquette??? We were just figuring out email when I was in college!

I would have started blogging much, much sooner!