Introduction to Real Estate Blogging

With this article, I am launching a new series of informational posts about blogging for real estate professionals, which you will find here on Real Estate and How.I'm seeing several other businesses promoting their blogging services, or their advice, for sale regarding real estate blogging. I wanted to provide you with the same information for free.I've been blogging professionally since 2004, and have published websites going back to 1997. I've been engaged in affiliate marketing since 1999, and have been doing this as my full time career since 2003. So, I think I know something about it.Why Blog?The biggest reason is to build trust with your website visitors. An article written by you, in a first-person perspective, is a great way to break the ice and make your prospective clients feel comfortable.Search engine referrals are also a big reason. Google, Yahoo, and MSN, the top three search engines, seem to spider blog content immediately, often within minutes of it being published. There are also theories that Google gives higher page rank value to blog posts. I'm not sure if this is totally true, or if it has more to do with blog posts being indexed immediately. Either way, there's nothing like a blog to elevate search engine positioning of a website.Syndication of content is another big reason. How would you like to have other websites republishing your content, complete with links back to your website? Better yet, how would you like it to be automated as soon as you post an article? That's what an RSS feed does, and all blogs support RSS feeds.And speaking of automation, that's also what a blog does for you. Once a blog is set up on your website, you don't have to do much else other than write your article and click the "Publish" button. That's it. Perfect for Realtors, right?Will A Blog Cost You More Money?Technically, no. You can launch a blog for free. John Mudd, probably the most successful real estate blogger to date, runs a blog which he pays zero for. (Update, John Mudd has since passed away)However, there are other options that do cost money. Moreover, you may want to contact the person that built or maintains your website to find out about integrating a blog, or linking your website to your blog, or syndicating content from your blog into your website. We'll get to that in the future.Real Estate Blogging 101Real Estate Blogging 101 is my series of articles designed to help you understand what blogging means to your Internet marketing strategy, and how to actually get it done.Visit the Real Estate Blogging archive page to find an index of all articles in this series.Check back to this website regularly for more.