Writing an Article on Your WN Real Estate Blog
I have been receiving a few questions on who to write an article on their new WN Real Estate Blog, so I will cover the steps below.
- Log into your WN Real Estate Blog.
- Once you are logged in, you will be directed to your “Dashboard” and it is from here that you can manage your blog.
- To write a blog article, click on “Write a New Post”.
- Create a “Title” for your blog article.
- In the “Post” section, write your article.
- If you need to add a link, bold a word, use italics, etc… use the icons.
- Once your article is complete, add tags (tags are keywords).
- Select a Category you want your blog article to organized in or add a new category if there isn’t a category that fits the description of your blog.
- Click on the All in One SEO Pack.
- Complete the fields
- Title should be the title of the blog article
- Description, a short summary about the blog
- Keywords would be the same words you used in the “Tags” section - Publish your article
If you have any questions, please feel free to reply to this blog or submit a ticket in the “Help Desk” section of your “Dashboard” or submit your question in the WN Blogs Support Forum.
Happy Blogging!
I Don’t Have Time to Blog About Real Estate?
I had a great conversation today with a real estate agent in California. He was asking me questions about using real estate social networking sites, custom website vs. template websites and why should he be blogging. After we finished the conversation, he was excited about blogging on his Wanna Network Real Estate Blog!
One of the first things that he said, which I hear all the time was, “I just don’t have time to blog, I need to close real estate deals, so the best use of my time is working with my clients, harvesting leads and conducting open houses.” I do agree that as real estate agents, our clients come first but if you aren’t investing into your future, you won’t have any clients.
It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be investing a lot of his time in social networking sites, writing press releases, building links to his real estate website so I felt the most important thing he could do to build future business was to blog. Since he wanted to generate business from his efforts today, I advised that he should be using platforms that will help him generate business today. Creating a blog on Wanna Network or Active Rain allows you to get instant traffic as both platforms are authority sites and blog articles tend to rank very well. Obviously, I am biased, so I encouraged him to use the WN Real Estate Blogs as they are built on the WordPress platform which is the best blogging platform on the Internet.
I advised that all he needed to do was invest about an hour a week to write one or two blog articles that were geared towards his real estate market. For example, if he wanted to talk about short sales, he should Title his blog article, “Las Vegas Short Sales” or “Short Sales in Las Vegas” and to make the article educational and the last paragraph should be the closing where you encourage the reader to contact you for more information! Make sure you include your phone number and a link to your website.
Since your articles are published on an authority website, they should rank well in the search engines and begin to generate calls or traffic to your website. In time, you will have 30-40 blog articles that are working for you 24 hours a day!
Once you begin to close deals from your efforts online, start investing into your website and turn your real estate website into an authority website!
Happy Blogging!
New Themes
I just wanted to let those of you signing up for your FREE real estate blogs that there will be some new themes released soon.
We’ve been working on getting together a large theme release so we can let out a bunch all at once.
If you know of any great WordPress themes that you would like to use then please let us know and well try to add them.
Thanks guys!
Dustin Dempsey
Wanna Network Real Estate Blogs
Question I Received Regarding Generating Traffic to Your Real Estate Website
Could you please email with some basics to start with. My website is almost done. I am having a pro web designer build it. They are going to provide SEO for 3 months. I am sure it is the pay per click kind.I am interested in becoming the GO-TO agent in this area…especially my website! We have a very transient population, so I feel it is very important that my site come up at the top!
Chris Brown Gives Feedback on his WN Real Estate Blog
I know it is still to early to say how well the WN Real Estate Blogs will do, but if initial tests are any indication, you can expect to receive great results by using a WN Real Estate blog. I have been testing sevaral blogs and have received nothing but positive results.
Just today I received a youtube video from Chris Brown who is also using a WN Real Estate Blog. I have been receiving emails from him over the last few days about his excitement and suprise of how well his WN Real Estate Blog is doing in the search engines.
So if you were having any thoughts or skepticism on how well a WN Real Estate Blog will do, watch the video!
Active Rain vs. Wanna Network, Why?
To all of those real estate professionals who love comparing Wanna Network to Active Rain blogs, we’d actually like to encourage challenge you to continue with the discussion.
When I first launched Wanna Network in June of 2006, my initial vision was to create an online real estate social network that contained profiles, a real estate forum, colleagues, a listing section… and all of the other stuff that was not available specifically for our industry at the time.
Ironically, the features that got the most action when we first launched had nothing to do with blogging - but the industry evolved quickly.
While it is apparent that we didn’t build our network on a blogging platform, I’ve been reading articles for the past two years comparing WannaNetwork and Active Rain based on our ability to connect real estate professionals through blogging.
We all pretty much know who won that debate as it was shared through the real estate blogging community.
Fair enough.
However, the needs and expectations of real estate bloggers have changed along with the web 2.0 landscape.
Discussions have shifted from the excitement of being heard to the need of being found. Where is the true return on investment? Do all of these connections or time commitments really close transactions?
People love sharing their voice, education through conversation, and networking. This is part of our human need to connect.
At the end of the day though, participating in social networks and blogging has to generate income so that real estate professionals can still consider it part of their business marketing routines.
So here we are, October 2008, two and a half years since the launch of WannaNetwork.com. We’ve listened and learned.
And then, we listened some more.
Wanna Network has recently developed a blogging platform that promotes the professional instead of the social network. This gives real estate professionals the ability to leverage our site’s power for exposure, without having to worry about losing potential clients within our network.
One reason people participate on social networks is so that their content will have a chance at being found in the search engines. Well, if everyone is being found as a result of your great content, then where is the money motivation?
What ever happened to just blogging for business? You know, writing something that your target audience needs to find at moment they are ready to buy, sell, or refinance.
Wanna Network has just released a few beta WordPress blogs for our members to try out and will be releasing them to the real estate industry for FREE very soon!
The strategy with our Wanna Network Real Estate Blogs is to be the only voice and option being found by your target audience.
Need proof? Ask any real estate agent with a top 10 ranking site where they get more business. Then, ask them a little about the time and financial commitment it took them to get there.
Is this a magic bullet? No - we just give you a slight unfair advantage and head start. Check out our features for more information.
Do You Have a Web Presence?
Are you taking the time to invest in your future? What you do today, will effect you months and months from now. That holds true with your marketing for your real estate business.
If you spend money on an ad in the newspaper or local real estate magazine, your hope is to generate business as soon as the ad or magazine hits the stands. This type of marketing is only good for generating business today. The question you need to ask yourself, “What are you doing today that will help your business grow for the future?” The answer should be, “Investing your time in your website!”
Just having a website is not going to bring you in business, there are things you have to do to help your website grow and get stronger. It’s like having a baby. When you are blessed with a newborn, all the newborn does is eat, sleep and cry. But over time your baby begins to grow, starts to crawl, then walks, speaks their first words, begins to run, form sentences and then off to school. All this didn’t happen over night. You as a parent devoted your love, nurturing and encouragement that led to these events. Well it’s the same concept with your website. It takes you investing your time by adding fresh and unique content, gaining theme and authority links, blogging, submitting articles and press releases and the list goes on and on. As your website begins to age, it grows with content and gains valuable links, people begin to find you and over time your website becomes an authority website.
Your website should be your focal point of your universe! If you don’t have a blog attached to your website, get one. I recommend WordPress! Everything you do from this point needs to be directed back to your website. If you post an ad on Craigslist, make sure you have a link going back to your website. If you write a blog article on Active Rain, make sure you have a link pointing back to your website. If you submit a real estate press release, make sure you have a link pointing back to your website. As silly as it sounds, many real estate professionals aren’t doing it.
Your real estate market might be competitive on the Internet and I say so what! Until your website gets stronger, go after long tail search phrases. If your website still won’t rank for long tail search phrases, then use other resources that will rank. Real Estate Blogs like Active Rain and WN Real Estate Blogs are authority platforms that usually rank for your blog article title. Use them! I recommend writing the blog article on your real estate blog and then submitting the same title on Active Rain or Wanna Network with a summary of the blog with a link back to your main real estate blog. When the Active Rain or Wanna Network Blog ranks, the consumer will click on the link and begin to read your article, more times than not, they will click on the link to go to your main real estate blog to finish reading the article. This is where you want the consumer, on your real estate blog or website. This increases your chances of turning them into your client as they are on your website!
Remember, you are blogging for business not for other real estate industry professionals!
Use the tools and resources that are at your disposal to build your web presence!
Do You Blog for Business or Other Real Estate Industry Professionals?
I see many real estate industry professionals writing informative blogs about their real estate markets, neighborhoods and local communities. Unfortunately, many of these great blog articles are written on sites like Active Rain and Realtown. What’s so wrong with writing blog articles on sites like these?
- Once you submit the blog article, the content now belongs to those sites! If you decide you want to close your account and take all that great content to place on your own blog, get ready to spend a lot of time copying and pasting all your blog articles to a word document.
- These sites rank very well in the search engines which help your blog articles to be found by your target audience, but when they click on your blog, you are taking them back to your article and all your competitors. Instead of increasing your chances of capturing your audience and directing them to your personal website or having them contact you directly; you are doing the exact opposite.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t use sites like Active Rain or Realtown, what I am saying is, they aren’t the best option for capturing and increasing your chances of generating business. These sites are great for networking, gaining exposure and getting referral business from other real estate industry professionals.
So what should you be doing?
- Your focus should always be on your real estate website and/or blog. You should be directing all traffic back to your website and/or real estate blog.
- Use Real Estate Social Networks as a tool and not as the focal point.
- Look for other platforms that can increase your exposure and/or potential to increase your business, such as the WN Real Estate Blogs.
How can the WN Real Estate Blogs help you increase your business?
- Your blog is located on the WannaNetwork.com domain which allows you to use the strength of the WannaNetwork.com domain to be competitive in the search engines instantly.
- You own all content on the blog. If you ever decide to close your account, all blog articles will be removed and emailed to you in a zip file, which allows you to republish the articles on another blog if you desire.
- When your target audience finds your blog article in the search engines and they click on the link to the article, they will only see your blog, no links directing them to anywhere unless you add the links yourself. This prevents you from directing your target audience to your competitors.
- All WN Real Estate Blogs are hosted on the WordPress Blogging platform which is the best blogging platform in the industry!
- The WN Real Estate Blogs have the best plug-ins and is fully optimized ensuring your blog articles will do well in the search engines. You can even measure how well your blog is doing by looking at the Stats in your blog dashboard.
- All blog articles are streamed over to the Blog Homepage.
- As soon as you submit an article on your blog, it instantly updates multiple services and search engines about updates to your blog through Pingomatic.com.
- The WN Team provides complete support and coaching on how to use the WordPress platform. In your Blog Dashboard you can submit a ticket with any problems or issues that gets sent directly to the WN Team!
There are so many more cool features and reasons why you should a WN Real Estate Blog! If your business plan is to grow your real estate business using different tools on the Internet, the WN Real Estate Blogs should be included in your business plan!
Remember, if you are blogging to increase your real estate business, make sure whatever time you invest in blogging, your time is being spent wisely. Good luck and happy blogging!
Blogging With Purpose
At Blood Hound Unchained, Mary McKnight spoke about “Blogging with Purpose” and she gave excellent points about the purpose of your blog. Your real estate blog is to be used as a tool to generate business and in order for you to do that, you need to be where the consumers are at. She made it a point to say that you should not be spending too many hours in the day on Active Rain commenting on blogs as this does not bring you any business unless your target audience are real estate agents and loan officers.
3 Things Make a Real Estate Blog Successful
Over the past year, real estate and mortgage professionals have been overwhelmed by the noise about how blogging is a great way to generate more business.
While there are several industry professionals that have proven it is possible to produce income from an online marketing campaign, most people are still skeptical about the return on investment.
Blogging is about communicating with your clients, establishing yourself as a thought leader, being in the right place at the precise moment your target audience is looking for specific information….
I can go on and on about why you should have a real estate or mortgage blog.
Bottom line - When will my real estate blog start making me money?
Fair question, and probably one that most of our significant others are asking while we blog and post on forums until 2 in the morning.
There are three things that a real estate blog needs for success:
1. An awesome design that your target audience likes -
Every blogger has their own idea about what works and doesn’t. Google analytics will tell you the specific search phrases visitors find your blog from and what pages they leave on. Word Press has thousands of different design templates and widgets that will allow you to fully customize your blog.
If that doesn’t fit your needs, find some college kid to design one for you.
Regardless of the look and feel that you like, the most important thing is that your blog encourages your target audience to contact you.
Connections = Money
2. Content, and a lot of it -
Once you’ve figured out how to drive visitors to your new blog, you have to give them a valuable user experience.
Not that people are going to read every thing you have written, you just need to earn their confidence based on that first impression. They need to know that you have the ability to answer their questions and communicate with them on a level that they will understand.
It is all in the presentation.
“I am a professional that is here to serve your buying needs” on your About page isn’t enough! If you are a loan officer, and the only content on your site is a glossary of mortgage terms, you are really not going to build any trust.
3. Traffic and search engine exposure -
Being where your buyers are is a fundamental of Internet marketing. Since an established blog generally catches the attention of search engines every time you post a new article, you’ll have the opportunity to get in front of those buyers.
Think about the power of being able to connect with potential clients simply because they found one of your recent articles on a topic that influenced their buying decision.
Getting your blog articles found in the search engines takes a significant amount of time and commitment. Participating in real estate social networks, commenting on other high traffic blogs, and some basic knowledge of SEO is required to generate traffic to a blog.
This is the main barrier to entry and why most real estate professionals have been reluctant to jump in the game.
However, if a blog platform came with all three of these items from the beginning, I think most people would consider joining the online real estate and mortgage blogging community.