A question that real estate blog marketers often ask is how can they consistently develop interesting content that will keep readers coming back again and again. After all, if people are primarily looking for information regarding property transactions, then chances are they won’t return after the purchase or sale is made.

While this is indeed true in many cases, there are things you can do to retain a significant portion of your readership — or at least maintain steady numbers by drawing in just as many new readers as you might lose.

One terrific strategy for attracting and retaining readers is by sharing your expertise on the subject of real estate in the form of weekly or monthly Q&A posts. Everyone has questions about various aspects of the home buying or selling process that they would love to see answered, so opening up your blog to reader questions would be beneficial to all involved. Your readers will get free advice, and you’ll get more readers — a true win-win situation!

All you have to do is set up a separate email account to receive mail from readers (unless you don’t mind your regular account being overrun with spam), make a post on your real estate marketing blog announcing the new feature, and then wait for the questions to come in. If response to your new Q&A feature is a bit slow at first, feel free to generate your own questions to get things started, and then be sure to promote the feature a bit more. Once readers are aware of the valuable service you’re providing (for free), they’ll want to participate.

By answering relevant real estate questions from readers a few times per month, you’ll continue to establish your reputation as an expert in your field and will also generate goodwill points for being open and accessible. Give it a try!

Although the bulk of your clients and readers are probably content with learning about the ins and outs of residential property transactions, it’s important to recognize that at least some of them are interested in commercial properties as well. Having a real estate blog puts you in a great position to reach out to this commercial crowd and draw in new readers — and perhaps a few new clients as well. How do you do this? Simply by making several posts a month that deal specifically with commercial or investment properties, of course!

A good way to start off would be by focusing on the business district of your city or town for a post or two. Talk about any available storefronts or office space, and if possible, tell about the previous occupants. Did the businesses fail because of low foot traffic or did they move on to bigger quarters to accommodate better than expected growth? Prospective buyers want to know this kind of thing before setting up shop.

Another good topic to talk about is taxes. Does your state or local government offer any tax breaks or incentives to entice new businesses to come to the area? If so, be sure to let your readers know about them and what they have to do to qualify.

Many people are also interested in investment or rental properties such as apartment complexes or duplexes, so be sure to highlight any good buys in your area. If your agency is actually handling any of the rental property transactions that you choose to talk about, then let prospective buyers know they can call you for rent rolls (lists of current renters and the amounts they pay) and vacancy rates for the past five years. If you’re not personally handling the transaction, then you might want to talk about the general state of the rental market in your area.

Just remember that even though residential properties are your bread and butter, there’s no reason to neglect commercial properties altogether. You might be surprised at what kind of clients come out of the woodwork when you start writing about this stuff!

I read a lot of real estate marketing blogs on a daily basis in order to keep up with the latest trends and to stay informed about hot topics in the industry. Reading relevant blogs also helps me come up with new ideas for this blog, and gives me some insight into what kinds of things make a real estate blog successful.

Recently, I’ve noticed that there’s been some debate about whether or not calls to action are appropriate in real estate blog marketing. A call to action, of course, is when you explicitly encourage your readers to make a purchase from you or to retain your services as a Realtor®. Some real estate bloggers feel this is perfectly appropriate, while others believe it’s a tacky approach to selling and will simply turn away readers.

So, should you include calls to action in your posts or not?

I think calls to action are fine, as long as they’re used moderately and are included only in posts where they actually fit. If every single post you write contains something along the lines of, “Call today for a free consultation!” then readers will likely just tune that part out after a while. If, however, you use that phrase judiciously and include it only in posts where getting a free consultation makes sense, then it could definitely result in a few leads.

If you’re still unsure about whether or not calls to action are a good fit for your real estate marketing blog, why not try one out just to test the waters? If you get a barrage of angry comments from readers, then you might want to rethink your approach. If it doesn’t seem to bother your regular audience and maybe even generates a phone call or two, then you know you’re onto something promising!

As I’ve mentioned several times before, one of the primary aims of real estate blog marketing is to attract and retain a solid readership base. The best way to do this is by providing readers with lots of fresh, useful, and unique content so they’ll have plenty of reasons to want to come back.

For Realtors®, this often means that your posts must go well beyond simple property listings to touch upon other subjects that would be of interest to your audience. Services related to real estate transactions would be perfect, which is why you should consider writing periodic reviews of local providers from time to time.

For example, if there’s usually a lot of new construction in your area, your readers would benefit from reviews of the different builders you’ve had direct experience with. Which builders pay attention to details and complete their projects on time? Which ones should be avoided because of high prices, lack of follow-up service, or other problems? I’m sure your readers want to know!

You can write reviews for home inspectors, painters, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, notary publics, and any other service providers that real estate buyers and sellers might end up using. Just make sure that you base your reviews on personal experience instead of speculation so that they’re more credible.

The next time you’re stuck for real estate blog marketing ideas, try reviewing a related service. As long as your posts are useful and relevant, your readers will keep coming back!

With the popularity of discount real estate brokerage firms on the rise and the nation’s economy on the decline, your commissions have likely dropped way off in the past several months.

It seems that everyone is suffering from a cash crunch right now, and both buyers and sellers are looking to save money on their transactions any way they can, whether that means going through a discount joint for a flat fee or trying to handle the entire process themselves. They figure the extra hassle is worth it if they can save 6% on the commission.

So how can you use real estate blog marketing to overcome this mindset? By justifying your commission to prospective clients.

You do this by telling them exactly what kind of service they can expect from you when you’re on the job. Talk about the steps you’ll take to list, market, and show a home for the seller, or the lengths you’ll go to in order to secure the perfect property for the buyer. Talk about all the paperwork, inspections, and price negotiations that you’ll handle. Talk about how you’ll use your years of experience in the local real estate market to get your clients the best possible deal. Then, use your past sales figures and customer testimonials to back up what you say.

When you’re upfront about your services like this, it puts people at ease and helps forge a trusting relationship right from the beginning, as you remove any doubts that the clients might have about whether or not using a Realtor® is worth the extra money, so give it a try!

If you’re like most agents, then the number one reason you got into real estate blog marketing was to try to increase visibility and sales. Blogs are a very cost-effective way to showcase properties to a wider audience than you’d get from your local newspaper, and this extra exposure often leads to a higher percentage of completed transactions.

But in order for your blog to perform well as a marketing tool, you’ve got to pay attention to important details — such as the quality of the photos you use in your listings. You’d think that using high-quality images to exhibit the properties you’re trying to sell would be a given, but that’s definitely not the case. Just take a look at this Bad MLS Photo of the Day page that shows some of the truly terrible pictures that homeowners and/or their Realtors® have used in listings. Unbelievable!

That’s not to say you have to be Ansel Adams with the camera in order to take good listing photos. All you have to do is use common sense to get the job done.

Go after clear, unobstructed views of the property that shows off its best features while downplaying any flaws. Take exterior photos only when lighting conditions are optimal (neither too dark nor too bright) and after any necessary yard work (mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges) has been performed. Make sure interior rooms are well-lit and tidy before snapping off any shots, and only go for closeups when there’s a feature worth displaying.

The bottom line here is that pictures really are worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to real estate listings. The photos you use to showcase your properties have the power to attract or repel prospective buyers, so take some extra time to get those perfect shots!

Thus far, most of my posts have discussed the different ways that you can use your real estate blog to advertise properties you’re currently selling or to increase general awareness of your agency. Obviously these activities should be the primary purpose of your blog, so the bulk of your writing time will be spent on them. But there are definitely times when it’s appropriate to break away from this formula to talk about something else in your posts — especially if you have an opportunity to promote yourself as an agent.

I don’t mean that you should list your certifications, licenses, and other qualifications; it’s best to save that stuff for your résumé. I’m talking about when you win local or national awards for outstanding service, sales volume, or completed transactions. Were you named the top Realtor® in your association? Did you recently join the multi-million dollar sales club? Then tell your readers!

I’m simply amazed at the number of Realtors® I know who don’t like to promote themselves by talking about their achievements. They’re afraid readers will just think they’re bragging, which is not a trait they want associated with their names.

While I can understand these types of concerns, I think they’re mostly unfounded. Sure, if every other post consists of you going on and on about how great you are, you’re going to turn people off and lose readers by the boatload. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a once-in-a-blue-moon post telling your readers that you’ve won a prestigious award or were selected as the keynote speaker for a national convention. These are noteworthy accomplishments that deserve recognition, so go ahead and write about them — or at the very least, provide links to make it easier for readers to follow up on their own.

Promoting yourself from time to time is an important part of real estate blog marketing and will help give you an edge on the competition. After all, prospective clients would much rather do business with the woman named Realtor® of the Year or with the man who received an award from the local Chamber of Commerce than an agent with lesser credentials. So the next time you accomplish something big, be sure to blog about it!

One of the most common reasons Realtors® get into real estate blog marketing is to help highlight various properties that they’re trying to move. This makes sense, as blogs provide a convenient, cost-effective way for agents to advertise to a wide audience. Plus, posts about specific properties are easy to write, and help keep your site active.

However, there are a few important guidelines that you should keep in mind when highlighting properties.

DO:

• Change your featured property on a regular basis. Nobody likes looking at the same pictures or post longer than necessary.
• Include reasons that you think the property is a steal. Sometimes it’s hard for people to make sense of numbers and statistics alone, so go beyond that data whenever you can.
• Compare similar properties to show why one is a smarter deal than the other. It’s even better when you can use a property from a competing agency as your “bad buy” example.

DON’T:

• Provide endless lists of featured properties. Highlighting a specific home can be a powerful real estate blog marketing tool when used sparingly. But if all you ever do is list properties on your site, you can bet readers will be turned off in a hurry.
• Leave a featured property up for more than a week or two. Doing so might lead readers to doubt your abilities as a salesperson.
• Forget to display your contact information prominently within the post so that interested buyers can easily get in touch with you.

By following these guidelines and mixing your featured property listings in with other high-quality content, your blog will become a hit with your readers!

All bloggers occasionally go through dry spells where they run out of ideas to write about. This is perfectly normal, and shouldn’t affect your readership numbers too much — unless the dry spell lasts for an unusually long time. Readers simply do not have the patience to stick with blogs that are only updated once or twice per month, so it’s definitely in your best interest to keep up a regular posting schedule.

One fantastic way for real estate blog marketers to keep posting and drive traffic even when they’re short on original ideas is to write about current events. Between the mortgage crisis, the record number of foreclosures around the country, and the slump in new housing construction, real estate topics are in the news nearly every day, which means you have plenty of posting material at your disposal.

Of course, you can’t simply link to a news article (or paste it into your post) and expect readers to flock to your site. You have to offer them something that CNN, Yahoo, and MSN don’t, namely, your personal take on the topic in question.

Here are three great ways to do just that:

• Explain the article in a way that makes it easy for non-Realtors to understand. If you’re dealing with a technical article that uses a lot of industry jargon, go ahead and break things down for your readers by defining special terms, etc.
• Tie the article in to local events. If you’re linking to an article about foreclosures, be sure to talk about all the foreclosures in your area and what’s being done about the problem.
• Use your expertise to predict a trend. If you link to an article that about mortgage rates, don’t just lay the information out there. Instead, tell readers if you think mortgage rates are likely to go up or down, and then give reasons supporting your position.

Talking about current events is a proven way to drive traffic to your blog. Just be sure to add your own twist to every post you make so that your readers will want to stick around for the ride!

If you’re serious about expanding your business and building your brand name through real estate blog marketing, then you’ll want to pay very close attention to your website statistics. You should already have some sort of stats package in place, whether it’s through your hosting company or a third-party such as Sitemeter. If you don’t, then I recommend you get one up and running as soon as possible.

Blog stats are important because they tell you three key pieces of information about your readers. First, your stats can tell you how many people come to your site every day, which in turn can give you clues on how to proceed with your blogging. If you’re getting lower numbers than you expected, then you know you’ll have to work harder on promoting your blog. If you’re getting a decent amount of traffic, then you know you’re on the right track and can continue along the same lines.

Second, your blog stats can tell you what kind of keywords are bringing visitors to your page. If you’re getting a lot of hits for keywords that you consciously try to promote, then obviously you’re doing the right thing. If you’re getting a ton of hits for relevant keywords that you didn’t even realize were popular, you might want to take advantage of the trend by writing about those words more than you usually would.

Conversely, if visitors are coming to your blog via keywords that don’t pertain to real estate at all, you might want to reevaluate your posts to make sure that you’re staying on topic. While the extra traffic is nice, it’s unlikely that you will retain readers this way.

And third, your blog stats can tell you where your visitors are coming from. Are they landing on your page via one of the three major search engines? Did they click through an online advertisement that you paid for? Did they arrive via a link on a social networking site that you joined? This information is important because it can tell you which of your marketing strategies are working well and which aren’t, thereby allowing you to tweak your approach accordingly.

All bloggers should pay attention to their stats, and I believe this is even more critical for those who maintain niche blogs. The only way you’ll be able to tell if you’re generating the right type of traffic with your real estate blog is to review your stats at least a couple times per week. Doing so will give you instant feedback on how well you’re connecting with your readers, and will help you become a better real estate blogger.