REALTORS.com Creates Blogging Tools “Featured Blog and Let’s Talk Real Estate!”
Realtors.com has come out with a new blogging tools for their membership called Featured Blog and Let’s Talk Real Estate. The new blogging tool will be linked to at the top of their Realtor.com page that gets 6 million visitors a month. If I was a Realtor I probably would create a blog on the site because it would be another avenue to marketing my farm.
I also will be curious to see where the direction of the project will end up. Will it keep it’s focus on the consumer or will it morph into a professional discussion for Realtors like Active Rain has. Something I have watched as an outsider writing about real estate and reading the blogs out there is that real estate agents have a hard time focusing their writing on the consumer. Conversations and posts that start discussing splits, marketing, and other inside real estate sales topics will make this site a one and out for consumers. And this is not to disparage Active Rain, it has become the water cooler for the real estate industry.
Likewise, if the agents keep themselves from selling constantly on the site, there could be some success. But to be honest I have a hard time seeing this. Very few of those who start blogging continue and are successful, mainly because most fail to write what the readers want. Instead, I expect to see a plethora of hard selling, inside the industry discussions, and sabotogue in the comment sections if someone starts doing well. All things that will turn off the consumer.
I wish much luck to the conversation that can be held on the new sites, but in all reality I expect this site to bring out the worst stereotypes of real estate agents and leave a blemish on the industry before it helps.
“Featured Blog and Let’s Talk Real Estate! give REALTORS another way to have direct dialogue with consumers that have questions about market trends, a neighborhood, or even local community events,” said REALTOR.com President, Errol Samuelson. “Through these no cost real estate blogs, REALTORS can share their knowledge, build relationships, and expand their overall referral network while talking about their favorite subject — real estate.”
REALTORS will find it easy to jump into the blogosphere on REALTOR.com. Click to http://www.featuredblogsignup.com, register for a Featured Blog and post an initial article, comment or message that can be visible as a stand-alone website page or within a personal web site. Elevating the dialogue to a national forum, the REALTOR.com editorial staff will select the freshest and most interesting Featured Blog posts and spotlight them in the “Let’s Talk Real Estate!” section on the site’s home page visited by approximately 6 million consumers each month.
“Another great benefit of Featured Blog is that we’ve engineered search engine optimization (SEO) features into the platform to increase the odds that a post will get picked up by major search engines and receive a higher placement,” says Samuelson. “This means REALTORS that keep their posts fresh, relevant and interesting have a better chance of attracting interest and driving traffic to their sites without the marketing costs associated with key word purchases or pay-per-click.” PR
Great points Tom - the flavor of the day solution is only adding to the instability and volatility.
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please contact me via e-mail if interested in the home listed
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Comment by Ernie Tabel on 28 August 2007:
I’m also wondering a bit if Realtor.com will do something SEO-paranoid like adding rel=”nofollow” attributes to all of their blogs’ (and blogs’ comments’) links, and whether that will affect the perceived value fo the blogging tools by the Realtor community. Thoughts?
Comment by Dustin on 28 August 2007:
I can tell you that the blog team at REALTOR.com is working pretty darn hard to keep the focus on uncovering consumer-focused content. Let’s hope is stays that way into the future!
In terms of rel=”nofollow”, we’re just using the standard configuration that comes with a wordpress install. For example, the outbound links on posts and/or side panels do have have a nofollow attribute, while the URLs associated with comments do. If we have a good reason to change that in the future, we might… but this hasn’t been an issue yet.
Comment by Tom on 28 August 2007:
Thanks for dropping in. Dustin Luther is the head blogger type dude at Move and Realtor.com. For those of you following the Real Estate Blogosphere he create the landmark site Rain City Guide and has been a leader for many.
What I really appreciate is that Dustin’s vision for the space has been consistant since day 1 and he is a good steward. My concern for the challenge facing the Realtor.org bloggers is to remain consumer focused remains, but if anyone can overcome it, Dustin has the best chance. Most attempting this project would crash and burn.
Comment by Dustin on 28 August 2007:
Thanks for the vote of confidence!
While I’m definitely excited about the opportunity, I’m definitely working hard to keep expectations low!
Pingback by Realtor.com Blogs…. The Horror on 28 August 2007:
[...] now hosts/promotes some craptacular real estate blogs as the best in the business. The Real Estate Bloggers and Jonathan [...]
Comment by Jonathan Dalton on 29 August 2007:
The hard-selling, poor advice already is there … I came across one that I wrote about, basically telling buyers not to worry about their loan. Just sit back, relax, and start to get excited about your new home and let the lenders take care of all the loan stuff because you’re guaranteed to close.
If anything, the paraphrase made the post sound more coherent.
Comment by Diane Cohn on 2 September 2007:
Hi Dustin, I’ve applied for a Realtor.com Blog twice now, and I never get any response. Have I been rejected?
Just curious…
Diane
Comment by Dustin on 4 September 2007:
Diane,
I just saw your comment now… I’ll send you an email to follow up. I can’t think of a reason you would be rejected!
Best.
Comment by Brian on 18 October 2007:
I am always looking for ways to help Realtors & Real Estate Developers synergize their on-line marketing efforts. Their are many companies such as mine that offer tools to help Real Estate Agents sell more homes during this down market.
http://www.agentshield.com
Comment by Warrenn Buffett on 29 September 2008:
This is very awesome…..Mr.Brian wat you are saying is correct…these tools really helpfull to the Real estate Agents sell more homes during this down market…