So it is 2009 and the world is upside down. People are scared, buyers are scarce, and the media is in full voice on how horrible things are.

If you are a pessimist, crawl back under the covers or get in the recliner and watch football. This post is not for you.

(Are they gone? Cool.)

Now we can really talk, because I truly believe that this can be a great year for you. I am expecting it to be one for me.

Why you wonder? I am glad you asked.

Because we are in a time of great opportunity and you have something special going on. You are reading this blog post.

Well, not this specific blog post. But you understand that there is something out there that can reach thousands of people. And not just any old people, targeted people who care about what you care about. Face it, if your interests run towards WWE wrestling, The Real Estate Bloggers is not for you.

But if you do care about a topic, you can be an expert in that topic. 823,000 people came here last year. To a blog site. To see what I wrote. I do not know about you but it gives me shivers thinking about how many people I have touched.

So how can that help you?

Here’s how.

Go start a site.

Don’t tell anyone about it. Not your mother or wife, father or husband. Practice and learn to write. Do it first thing in the morning or the last thing at night. I promise you will not be great in the beginning so do not try to be. Just write.

Here is my confession on how I started blogging and how bad I was.

My first site, Scared Monkeys, was started late night in 2005 when I had a couple of beers and wanted to test this Wordpress software that had just come out.

Well, I wrote a post on Jeff Jarvis, who I still think is a brilliant mind in analyzing the news industry, is a less than sober state. Let me just say the writing was terrible. But it ended up getting linked to and I saw the power of the internet that day. And even got an email and link from a Yale professor calling me a moron. On my first day. Yikes!

But I did not let that bother me, I kept writing, learning, and found a passion.

Now I will never profess to be a great technical writer. Most days I struggle to be a mediocre writer at best. But what I do try to do is find interesting things for you to read and enjoy, and have a reason for you to come back.

But enough about me, let’s get back to you.

Blogging has 2 main components: passion and perseverance. (Sort of like selling real estate, it is not for the faint of heart.)

Technical skill is nice to have, but a Google search will solve 99 percent of your problems. Emails to other bloggers usually will fill that 1 percent gap. So do not get hung up on the technical side. Once a problem is figured out, it is gone forever.

The hard part is teaching yourself to write a lot.

If you are doing a blog on East Podunk, write about every subdivision in the city. Write about the cool architecture in town. Write about the Fall Turnip Parade, or the Crowning of Miss Sunshine, or how great it is Harry Smith won the award to top dog walker in town. Take lots of pictures. People love pictures, especially of things they recognize.

Write about things and people in a fun positive way most of the time, but call out those that need attention on occasion. Those will be the easiest to write but the toughest to hit the publish button. You may annoy a couple of people but odds are you will gain many more fans by being forthwright.

And put a link back and your telephone number so people can contact you. Not ostentatiously, but there big enough that all will know you are the expert in and about East Podunk.

Then one day something quite magical will happen.

The phone will ring.

The voice on the other end will be a little timid, or quite blustery, and will be calling to confirm you are the expert on your East Podunk. You will ask how they heard about you and they will say the magic words;

Your Blog.

You will then understand the power of the site. Not the stats where 100’s or 1,000’s of people come each month. That is great, but does not pay the bills.

What pays the bills is the expertise that you have illustrated on your site that has attracted this buyer or seller.

Now why with all this bad news is this going to be a great year?

Simple. Look around at your fellow real estate agents in East Podunk. How many know of this secret? How many have crossed the threshold into the new way to reach customers?

My guess, very few. Most like the answer is none.

But you have. Now I know you are smart so you recognize it will not be easy or fast to get the site going and popular. And if the market was rocking it may not make the most sense to do this from an ROI standpoint. But we both know that there is some down time out there for you.

Let’s use it and create something that will build lasting value for you and your business. Let’s take this New Years Day to start fresh and create some value for you and your future.

Take the negativity surround you and put it in a box. I promise you, if you want to look for it, negativity is easy to find.

Instead look at the downturn to build an infrastructure that will reward you for as long as you sell real estate.

The internet is here to stay. With a little effort you could be a big part of it in your small part of it.

Related posts:

1. Could Your Real Estate Blog Be In Trouble With The FTC?
2. Selling Your Home Using Twitter
3. Remember The AIG Bailout? It Should Be Called The Goldman Sachs Bailout
4. Housing Starts Down 54.2 Percent For April, 2009