Content Ideas for Realtors

Every once in a while, the dust settles.  This would be one of those times.  Working in technology and working with REALTORS® requires a constant seeking of knowledge on our part.  The web, without a doubt, is ever-changing as is the Real Estate market, both for consumers and for agents.

Today, we’re tasked with maintaining our education, our technology, our marketing, accounting, paperwork, taxes, websites, design, our phones and who know what all else?  We’re overwhelmed with OPTIONS> This is the quicksand of our businesses.  Reading about everything yet doing nothing – or nothing much, that is.

If you feel overwhelmed by technology, I know that’s our thing and we can help you.  If you’re overwhelmed with your taxes, sorry.  Point is, if you are freaking out about all the things that you should be doing but aren’t, then don’t.  Find what works for you – if blogging every day is in your wheelhouse, then go for it.  If you won’t, then find something that does work for you – and if you do that – you’ll be better off at the end of the year – in many ways.

Well, I guess we all have decisions to make with regards to the Real Estate business – As a provider, we surely feel the hurt from the recent recession just as you do – so when it comes down to it – what are you going to do?

We have seen so many good REALTORS® leave the business – but could they have done something differently?  Probably – but even the best of the best can show you their bottoms lines have gone down from years past – SO – If you are in it – you are in it.  Have you done anything at all with your website?

Have you taken off all of the old tax information?
Have you updated it with the new programs like HAMP, HAFA, HARP and the rest of the acronyms that are being tossed around?
Have you updated your marketing plan for your prospects?
Have you given your site a facelift or added anything to it at all?
Have you changed the meta data to relflect your new markets?
Are you short sales centric? – Your site needs to change or additions should be made.

So this is what I’m saying – if you are in this business for good – do something to help yourself down the road.   You can do it……

Related articles

• Best Places to Invest in Real Estate – Now? (pcunning.wordpress.com)
• Over 75% of Housing Counsels Think HAMP Sucks (news.firedoglake.com)
• How will the legal system handle the coming onslaught of lawsuits? (agentgenius.com)
• Realtors, is Posterous more enticing with new notification features? (agentgenius.com)

Image via Wikipedia

People will be surfing for things to do this summer – What do you have up on your Real Estate website?  Do you have the local pool info?  The skateparks?  The parades?  The fireworks schedule?  The local Farmer’s Markets?  Recent home sales in your neighborhood?  What are you doing to attract your market?

Hard questions, easy answers……

Image via CrunchBase

I’ve been teaching some free technology available to REALTORS® this last 2 months with mixed reviews.  Since the market is still very soft, I thought that offering these classes on the free technology would be well recd.  Don’t get me wrong, they are well recd, but implementation is where it usually falls apart. 

There is still a large contingent of agents that will not embrace technology.  If you are reading this, you are not one of those agents.  The mere fact that you are reading a blog makes you a go-getter in our industry. 

That being said, make sure you and your business are listed on Google Places and Yahoo Small Business.  I’m unsure of Bing as far as their rules for submitting your business, but it’s worth submitting there too.  What else?  IDX is free for almost all of Illinois and many other parts of the country from 2 vendors that we work with.  FREE!!!  Now you can have your own search for homes feature, branded with your info on every listing.  More?  How about Squidoo or Hub Pages?  You can set these up for nothing and it’s easy. 

C O N T E N T – how about content?  Always free to write about your market, the summer events, the myriad government programs and anything pertinent to your real estate market.  Always keep in mind that Content is KING on the WEB….

Part of what we do is teach, the other part is motivational – which can be accomplished by providing stats and a kick in the butt with love……Of course, you can just hire us to do these things for you at a cost that no other company will match….

But whatever you do – you should be helping yourself for next year by working on your website this year when you have time…..How’s 1 hour every 90 days?  If you did that, you’d be doing more than your competition and you would reap the benefits of your work – this I can promise……

Related articles

• 9 Great Ways to Gain a Competitive Edge Online and Attract New Clients (famousbloggers.net)
• The Benefits of Getting Listed on Google Places | Make Money Online. (marketersdaily.com)
• Bing Makes Facebook Data To Use, Personalized Bing Results By Facebook (seroundtable.com)
• Bing Adds The Friend Effect To Search (ghacks.net)
• PubCon South 2011: Local Search and Hyperlocal (wpromote.com)

Have you ever thought of documenting the “short sale” or foreclosure process without naming names?  I bet all of us would be enlightened if an agent took the time to put this on their site or blog. 

After “working” with the banks firsthand – I can tell you that the process is laborious, aggravating, unbelievably maddening and is guaranteed to have you on blood pressure meds if you are tackling this for the first time.  That being said, experience is everything and I’m sure that there are REALTORS that can report the opposite of my experience(s).

So – How about it?  How about taking the time to put this down on your site or blog?  I PROMISE – you will get traffic and interaction.

It’s time for some more work on the website I would think. Since I’m near Chicago, it’s almost time for snow, which means, winter sports.  As a father of 3, I  need to either embrace winter or get the heck out of Illinois, and since we tried leaving with no luck selling our house, I’ve decided to embrace winter.  Where am I headed with this?  Start putting some winter fun stuff up on your Real Estate site. 

Where can I tobaggan?
Where and how much is skiing in the area?
Where are the local ice rinks?
Are there any hockey leagues?
Where can my kids sled safely?
What kind of programs are offered by your park district?

Now some might think that anyone can find this info on their own, and they can, BUT it takes way too long.  You are the expert in your area, just take an hour and get this up on your site, it will pay dividends.  What else?

Winter Pictures (people stay on websites longer)
Video?
Best hot chocolate in the area?  :O)
Winter Staging Tips perhaps?

Again, these are just ideas and we’re leaning on you for the expert advice in your area.

Stay warm!

OK, this bugs me quite a bit.  I used to work with the largest Real Estate Web Design company in the world – and they were wonderful, for a time.  Their sites, like most companies, are template sites that you can customize.  You can change the design, add pages, change meta data and basically, you have complete control over the site.  Here’s what’s bugging me – I can give you 10 examples of websites that have the EXACT SAME homepage text, word for word.  Now – who to blame?  Most of the agents that have these sites may have never even logged in for a myriad of reasons, but suffice to say, it’s up to the agent to make the changes.  And since this involves writing, the wall goes up for a lot of people. 

I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years and what I have found is that most people (not just agents) do not like writing or have a hard time writing about themselves.  This is normal and I completely understand BUT you still have to make some changes to your text, at least a few, if you want your site to have any success. 

SO – here are a few ideas to get you going and hopefully help knock that wall down!

• How do you market your clients’ properties
• Have a small list of recent sales that you’ve transacted
• Put your testimonials on your home page
• Put market stats on your home page
• Put some staging advice on the home page
• You can list a couple of featured properties there
• You can put upcoming local events there as well
• How about a local synopsis of the market you’re serving with your comments
• Put any new government programs for consumers there
• Differentiate Foreclosures and Short Sales for consumers (In your own words)
• Give them an honest assessment of yourself and how you can best serve the viewer/prospect

Again, here are just a few ideas – take what you can and make a difference on your site and search engine placement – Content is King!

(Following up – here are a bunch of sites with the exact same introductory  text – sorry if you are one of them – no offense intended)
http://www.brendalanders.com
http://www.fbaumann.com
http://www.edmachomes.com
 www.melaniebickley.comÂ
www.wsrtx.net Â
www.iowahomes4u.com Â
It goes on and on – see the search here….

One of the questions I ask at every seminar that I give is:  “Do you have a hobby?”  I would say out of a thousand REALTORS that I’ve asked this to, maybe 100 raised their hands.  Now this might be because we are not defining what a hobby is or it could be for any other reason but what I’m driving at is writing about your hobbies. 

This is just another idea for your blog or perhaps your website if you think it’s suitable.  Geography is going to play a part in this.  Let’s say you sell property in Northern Utah and your hobby is riding horses.  Well, in your area, there are a lot of people that share your same hobby, obviously.  This is great but let’s say, same scenario, you sell in Northern Utah and your hobby is putting ships in glass bottles.  What or how is this going to help you?  As long as it’s not off-putting or something you think you should keep to yourself, it will increase traffic, move you up the search engines and will continue to grow since you LOVE your hobby thus blog writing isn’t so horrible – which is point of this story.  It’s hard to write a blog except when you are writing about something you love, hobbies. 

Here’s a short list that certainly could be implemented contingent upon your geography:

• Fishing – What works, pictures, clean lakes
• Swimming – Where is good, what kind of prices, best bang for the buck
• Horses – a million things can be written about this
• High School Sports or Pro Sports (keep it clean)
• Photography/Videography
• Music
• Dining Recommendations
• Theater Reviews
• Staging Tips
• Handyman Tips
• Tennis/Golf/Racquetball etc.
• Antiquing
• Musical Instruments – Guitar Tips etc.
• Gardening – Flowers Etc.
• Amassing Wealth – IRA’s,  Annuities, Tax Shelters
• Whatever you are interested in

Again, these are just ideas – use them if you think they are applicable and throw away any that you deem unworthy.

Paul

You are the community expert in your market and with the changing of the seasons come opportunities to let your readers know about what’s going on in your area.  What’s coming down the pike?  Here are some ideas for this part of the year:  

• Add High School sports schedules to your site
• Add local fairs/festivals to your site
• How about costume ideas for Halloween?
• You can add info on pumpkin farms
• One of the biggest searches coming up will be for Haunted Houses
• Hayrides for the kids
• Oktoberfest Festivals

Sometimes I am asked what does this have to do with Real Estate.  Honestly, nothing, but it does give you the chance for increased traffic which will also move you up in the search engines which is the main goal.  It also gives the impression that you know what’s happening in your area and increases the chance that surfers bookmark your page for future reference.  

These are just ideas – hope you can use some of them. 

Anyone can tell you what Google is looking for with regards to site rankings BUT are they right? We honestly cannot say that we know exactly what goes into their algorithm, same with Yahoo and all the rest, but we  can say we know what works. 

Here’s what I know works:

On page optimization

• Name your pictures with keywords (ALT tags)
• Have concise yet targeted Title and Description tags for each page that are consistent with the content on the page
• Optimize graphics to a manageable size – to say no more than 20 KB – smaller than that is better
• Write your own content – content is KING!!
• Use keywords in your anchor text or hyperlinks – ex:  Custom Real Estate Website Design
• Use keywords in your content without sounding redundant (hard part)
• Add content to your site – You don’t have to go crazy with it, but if you spent an hour every two months on your site, you’d be ahead of the curve

Off Page Optimization

• List your site on the search engines (actually this will happen anyways but it’s still best to do it for a new site)
• Get reciprocal or one-way (better) links from local businesses or submit to directories (online phonebooks)
• Market yourself through your social media sites – (This is a subject unto itself)
• Put your website address on all of your marketing material (this may sound obvious, but I can tell you it does not always happen and is another subject that will be addressed)
• If you can, post your link anytime you can, be it a blog, a forum, your company site, community sites etc.

Summary

OK, there is W A Y more to talk about than this, but these are the things that work for sure and I know I’ll need to articulate further on the other subjects soon.  Every time I take it for granted that most people know these things, I’m quickly reminded that I’m wrong.  Please forgive the vanilla post, but sometimes it’s best to start with the basics and expound from there.

Have a good weekend!