Why Do I Do This?
I’ve been asking myself for months now, “why do I do this? Why do I continue blogging?” For 20 months I’ve been writing a little blog about real estate in the New River Valley, and when I read accounts of what others are doing with their blogs (at the risk of leaving someone out let’s just say you can find many of them here at Agent Genius), I wonder where I’m missing the boat. Tales of clients lining up by the truckloads after reading Agent A’s blog … hearing that Agent B gets 90% of her business from online sources and blogs, while Agent C reaches international clients his peers just ignore (there’s J Dalt’s shoutout). I wanna be one of the cool kids!
Tonight, I was reminded why I do this. I met with a customer who wants to list a home in our area this evening. He sent me an email a couple of months ago and said he and his wife would be looking to sell in a couple of years. While it was great that he contacted me, we were still a few years away and I didn’t think much of it. Last week, he emailed me again to say that their timetable had changed and they wanted to get together soon. And tonight I met him and his wonderful family … when I asked him how he found me, he said “your blog – it’s working.” You’re damn right it is! THAT’S why I blog! For the icing on the cake, he asks “we want to buy a house in Salem, and we were hoping you could help us with that.” As a matter of fact I can, thank you for asking.
Someone’s Listening
This post is written to those of you who have been lurking and wondering what this whole blogging thing is about. You might have been reading about all the success so many people have been having with blogging – look at Agent Genius, Inman’s Innovator Award winner for 2008. It doesn’t get much better than that, and there are agents all over the Interweb experiencing success as well! If you’re a blog writer and you’re not seeing the success you’d like – don’t give up! If you’re considering a blog but don’t know where to start – just start!
I included the two quotes above, by Ben Martin of VAR and VARBuzz.com and Jeff Corbett of thexbroker.com, because they speak to where I am right now in our writing, and where I think many of us have been. Writing a blog isn’t a therapeutic thing for me … it can be hard! I have trouble coming up with ideas I think someone might care about, and I struggle with putting my thoughts into a coherent thought. To date it hasn’t – to my knowledge – contributed a dollar to my bottom line. But by being consistent, by following Ben and Jeff’s advice and putting my voice into my content, one word at a time, it’s working.
Find Your Voice
Maybe you’re reading and saying “one client after 20 months doesn’t a business make”, and you’re right. But I’m not relying on my blog for my business, it simply supplements what’s already working for us, it’s another arrow in the quiver. If one day we begin to see more business from it, great! Whatever you’d like to see, I’d encourage you to keep pushing, to keep writing, to keep finding your voice. Someone’s out there listening, and they want to know who you are.
Will you tell them?
