Getting to work with Realtors so closely, I’ve had the privilege to see first hand what problems arise in the process of building an ‘online presence.’ Two of the biggest complaints I hear are “I’m not a good writer nor do I have endless amounts of time to grind out a post.”

So today, I want to try to solve these problems in the easiest way possible.

First of all, I don’t consider myself a natural ‘writer.’  In fact, if you read any of the stuff I put out three years ago, you’d probably laugh at how bad it was! Seriously, a 3rd grader would have shaken his head. But in the process of writing junk, I eventually found writing was just like riding a bike; you fall a lot but eventually you get the hang of it and figure how to string a few words together in a way that makes sense.

So below, I’ve laid out the process I use when writing a blog post.

Choosing a Topic

Writing an Outline

It’s good to know what you’re going to write about before hand.  This prevents rambling and getting off on unnecessary tangents that have little to do with the topic at hand. I know it’s hard to NOT relate the current market conditions to your recent fly fishing trip but keep it relevant or you’ll just end up confusing people.

-Short conclusion

Priming the Pump

The best writing is that which delivers the most value and flows naturally.  The flow part is always the most challenging.  One of the best ways to get into ‘flow’ is it to first speak what you’re going to say, out loud.  If you want to take it a step farther, stand up and pretend your delivering it as a motivational speech to a knowledge hungry crowd.  And what this does is allows you to articulate your thoughts and connect to your voice. If you haven’t tried priming the pump like this, I highly suggest giving it a go.

Putting it on Paper

The next step is taking a seat at the ol’ computer and writing it out.  Don’t worry too much about perfect spelling and grammar just yet, simply get the words out of you. Working with your outline, create sub topics (like this post) and write within each.  It doesn’t have to be flowery or use big words that make you sound smart, in fact it shouldn’t. Your language should be in line with your target audience namely buyers and other Realtors; not Shakespeare critics!

Edit

Though I’ve grown tremendously, this is still probably my weakest link.  I hate editing with a passion but it’s very important and can make or break the authority of what you’re trying to say.    Nobody is going to care how much you know about real estate, if you cannnt dun rite it douwn gud.  The easiest way to edit is to reread your post out loud.  This will show you what works and what doesn’t allowing you to make appropriate changes.

Titles and Tags

Interestingly, the last thing you’re going to do is come up with a title for your post.  Yes, google is our internet superpower and right now everything you create should be done so with the intent that it will eventually show up in the search results.  The first step is going to google keyword tool and doing a little research to see what keywords get traffic but don’t have an overwhelming amount of competition.  Once you’ve got your title, go through your post and see if you can’t change some of words to match the optimized keywords you’re going after.  Though keyword density is far less relevant than in the past, it can still make a difference.

Warning: Don’t go overboard here, stuffing too many keywords in the post, will compromise your content and can get you slapped by google. Moderation is key!  Lastly, tag the post with the proper keywords.  Use anything you can think of that would be relevant.  If you’ve got Wordpress there’s an excellent plugin that allows you do all of this called Headspace.

Credits to other developers of the sites mentioned in the video-  1parkplace.com and Dakno.  Though both are considered competitors, we respect and appreciate their work!

The biggest problem I see day-to-day are websites owners with little to no control of their websites.

This has happened for a couple reasons.

1. Template websites are priced right and consumers don’t necessarily know what they are buying. I’m not going to say every template website is bad, only the ones that restrict access to the website so much that even small changes are an added charge, a week delay, or impossible. For me as an owner of multiple websites myself, that is unacceptable. If there is one thing I have learned it is that Speed of Implementation is essential to success and survival in a changing Internet world.
2. Many web design companies have built a subscription based service into their revenue model. The client pays the monthly and the company evolves the platform. This can work if the design company is as enthused about change and the future as the client and they consistently evolve their services. The problem here comes when the company stops evolving and the site grows outdated while the client is stuck paying monthly. Now if the client wants to move away from the companies services (and monthly payment) their website is so entrenched, and possibly under design ownership rights of the company, that to really get away involves the client paying someone to build an entirely new site to making the switch.

TIP: Find a company that gives you FTP access to your website. It’s your own website and you deserve to have control. If a company insists that they can’t let you have FTP access, there are plenty of other companies that will.

An evolution of design and control

With new open source publishing platforms like WordPress designers can now offer clients a customized website built on a framework that allows for complete ownership and control. No more monthly maintenance fees. Open source means that community based collaboration has developed and will continue to evolve the platform, at no cost. As the web evolves, search engines evolve and design evolves the community as a whole participates in the growth for the benefit of everyone.

Here are a few examples of sites we’ve built on the WordPress platform:

• SeattlePowerSearch.com – #1 on Google for Seattle Real Estate
• PhoenixPowerSearch.com – #3 on Google for Phoenix Real Estate
• MalloyVillage.net
• YourIndyHouses.com
• OrlandoBuyers.com