A siesta for the Fiesta

I have way to many blogs. For the last ten months, Blog Fiesta has been my own little social networking experiment to help my meet more blogging real estate and mortgage professionals. I’m taking what I’ve learned, along with what my own three years of blogging experience has taught me, to create RE BlogWorld.

This three day blogging event will take place September 19th-21st in Las Vegas and is part of the largest new media conference and trade show in the world. Needless to say, in the future months leading up to the show, my time is going to be dominated by making this event the best it can be.

I simply will not have time for more interviews until after the event is over. In the mean time, I’ll still be blogging about blogging on RE Blog world’s new blog. Here’s a list of recent posts.

REBlogWorld » Blog

Things To Do After A Conference
REBlogWorld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Meet Gahlord Dewald
REBlogworld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Meet Jay Thompson
REBlogworld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Meet Rob Hahn
REBlogWorld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Meet David Armano
REBlogWorld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Meet Reggie Nicolay
REBlogWorld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Meet Todd Carpenter
REBlogWorld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Meet Stacey Harmon
REBlogWorld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Meet Jeff Turner
REBlogWorld 2009 Speaker Spotlight: Rhonda Porter

:-)

I’ll be on Real Estate Radio USA Thurdsay with a big announcement

For the last few months, I’ve been working behind the scenes on a huge new project for real estate and mortgage bloggers. Thursday, I’ll be on Real Estate Radio USA at 4:30 Eastern to share it with you.

Blogger Spotlight: Chris Johnson

Can a someone by ubiquitous, relevant, and transparent, all at the same time? Chris Johnson seems to be giving it his best effort. Chis is a contributor Lenderama, The Mortgage Cicerone, Blood Hound Blog, and authors Ten Day Team and Genuine Chris. Yet, he’ll be the first to tell you blogging is not for everyone.

Hi Chris, what made you decide to start a blog?

Well, I was blogging on Live Journal all the way back in 2001, mostly about my goals and dreams. The odd thing was is that I picked up transactions by being part of communities. I was 25 at the time, so a lot of the stuff I saw I absolutely cringed at, so when RE blogging took off I decided it was a great channel to reach out to people and to make myself available.

When the market turned in late 2005, I thought it would be a good time to start really advocating good business practices. You told me that people that blog to advocate last.

On the Ten Day Team blog, you recently wrote about finding you niche in blogging. What advice do you have for real estate agents as to just how focused their blogs should be?

Lenders and Real Estate Agents should create a ridiculously compelling reason for someone from the outside to contact them, or they should simply not blog. It doesn’t have to be hyper-focused, but it does have to have a reason to come back. Some breathtaking content. It’s hard to achieve, but once you find something you believe in, you’ll know right away. In this business it STILL doesn’t take a lot of transactions to make a great living, so instead of focusing on subscribers, I’d focus on providing quality, organic and authentic content.

The great thing is–that you and others have proven–is that there’s no limit to what can get accomplished by blogging correctly.

I was kind of blown away at something on your other blog, Genuine Chris. You’ve actually listed your personal goals, AND exactly where you stand in meeting them. I know the blog is an, “Experiment in Personal Online Transparency”, but where does one draw a line between public and private with regard to their blog.

I did that–and I’ll do it again–to help me “walk the walk.” Google docs and other programs help us to do that quickly, and if I’m going to hold myself out as someone that knows how to survive the loan industry, then it’s helpful to show that I’m actually following the plan that I preach.

I don’t know where the line is drawn–because I love accountability. I don’t want to go off the deep end, but if I voluntarily expose wide swaths of my life, then I will live better in those areas. If I know people (and some people that dislike me) are watching, chances are that I will live beyond reporach. Am I there yet? Hell no, but it’s the direction I am going..

Your blogs are all about helping other people get better at their jobs. There’s ways to monetize this, but with everyone and their brother racing to share their knowledge on the blogosphere, do you see a day when the asset of knowledge will have no value?

Not really. I am combining knowledge with accountability in the projects that I have coming out. Personal trainers make a great living not by helping people do proper exercises, but by creating a control that ensures that people do it. We’re not being paid so much for the information itself as being a trusted filter. Brian Brady made the comment that he learned nothing new from my book, but still found it a great value.

The models and info is out there, but what I’ve done is distilled it. Did David Allen’s GTD teach us anything new? No, not really. But what it did do was gave us some of what he calls ‘enlightened common sense.’ A trusted filter will be viable for decades into the future.

I never ask when I’m recruiting people to join, but I’m always curious as to other’s motives. Why do you contribute to Lenderama?

It was the best Lender blog around. The people you’ve collected are all outstanding and solid examples. I wanted to have to create content that was as good as the stuff that was coming their way. I had had a good experience on Blown Mortgage when Morgan was experimenting with being multi author, and I wanted to help originators in any way that I also wanted to kick it up a notch or two, as far as quality goes, and I was new at making a name for myself on the internet.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

Instead of listing the ones that everyone knows, I’ll try and get some of the ‘unusual’ suspects.

Bliss Point Blog, Confident Writing, I like the Art of Manliness, JustDugUp is fantastic. I like the Xbroker and BawldGuy because they let their guard down and aren’t afraid to call out the BS that is in the market.

What advice do you have for prospective bloggers who are sitting on the fence.?

Get started on your own blogging, leave comments, don’t be afraid to disagree. You have to be both remarkable and good if you’re going to do this long term, so learn from people. Also, subscribe to the Long List on Bloodhound, and poke around Rembex a good bit. Then when you engage, listen first and talk second. I am honored to get to be on Lenderama and to get to be on Bloodhound and to get to be on the Cicerone. There is some work creating original content for 4-5 places, but it’s really rewarding.

I’d also say that it’s possible to be relevant WITHOUT blogging, and if you don’t see it as a “get to” vs. a “have to,” it’s 100% OK to skip doing it.

Chris Johnson is a loan officer, and author of the Loan Officer Survival Guide. You can buy his book at losurvialguide.com.

Inman was going to host a blog network.

I’m so glad they didn’t. There’s enough of them already, and I would have felt obligated to join it.

Blogger Spotlight: Jan O’Brien

Of course, the primary goal of most real estate blogs is to sell houses. But that’s not the only thing they are good for. I caught up with Jan O’Brien to ask her about the unique ways she leverages blogging.

Hi Jan, why did you adopt blogging as a marketing medium?

I have always loved technology, the internet, website design and development. Around October of 2006 I started researching and learning about blogging. My first blog attempt was on LiveJournal.com – just keeping an online diary. I launched my real estate coach blog in January of 2007 and started posting regularly in March. I absolutely love the blog platform as a marketing medium and enjoy the overall process, the building of community and connecting with others and the search engine rankings!

I have studied SEO and web design and have experimented with pay per click for other websites. So, I was ecstatic to discover how quickly my blog and various posts came up in Google searches for the keywords I was targeting.

I have connected with so many interesting people in the last year and developed business relationships all as a result of my blog.

Your most recent real estate blog is quite unique. It’s a recruiting blog for Prudential Americana group. How is this blog progressing?

The LVRealEstateCareer.com blog has been an experiment and a pet project of mine. My goal is to demonstrate how the blog platform can out-perform a traditional website in lead generation and overall effectiveness for businesses. In this case, the goal is to attract new and seasoned real estate agents to contact Prudential Americana regarding Las Vegas career opportunities. We are using the blog as the home page and have added several pages to detail the tools, services and benefits of a real estate career with Prudential Americana,

The site really looks like a website with the added benefits of what a blog provides. We are also using the blog to provide career information, share tips and strategies, educate the local real estate community while inviting a conversation.

The blog has only been up and fully operational for less than two months and the results have been amazing. We have soared in the search engine rankings for our targeted key words in a few short weeks. We are also starting to get inquiries and comments. I highly recommend brokerages and real estate agent team leaders consider using a blog as a recruiting venue.

I know you also teach a blogging class to real estate professionals. What is the most often asked question you receive in these classes? (and please answer the question).

Probably the most frequent question besides “What is a blog?” is “Will I really be able to find the time to maintain a blog or How much time does it take?” My answer usually involves reviewing the questions to consider before launching a blog first:

1. Do you enjoy writing?
2. Do you have something to say or contribute? Are you passionate about what you want to blog about?
3. Can you provide compelling, informative, valuable content for readers?
4. Are you familiar with and involved in the blogosphere? Do you participate by commenting on blogs or posting in forums?
5. Do you have a clear mission and purpose for your blog?
6. Have you defined your targeted audience?
7. Do you have an existing website with articles, content and information you can link to from your blog?
8. Are you committed to posting on a regular basis? Once a week at a minimum; 3-4 times a week to daily for optimal exposure.
I really cover in my classes that blogging is not for everyone and that’s okay. It’s better to explore and seriously consider the answers to the above questions and decide if it’s for you then jump in only to abandon your blog shortly thereafter.. If blogging is for you and you are having fun, you will make the time to blog. Ultimately, the time required will depend on how frequently you want to post. In my experience, I spend an average of 4-6 hours per week working on my blog.

On your Real Estate Coach blog, you link to several tech blogs in your “More Favorite Blogs” section. I also know you attended the Blog World Expo last year. What can real estate bloggers learn from the tech world?

I believe it’s critical for both real estate agents and bloggers to stay informed about the latest trends and developments in technology for many reasons.

• The consumer is using technology. More than 80% of today’s buyers and sellers start their search for a home or in some cases to find a real estate agent via the Internet.

• The new generations of buyers (and many others) prefer to communicate with everything from text messaging to Twitter. The buying process is different for today’s younger buyers – it’s social networking in action. Decisions are made via group sharing and input. You’ve got to adapt and learn the new social media – or they will find someone who understands their needs.

• There are so many online marketing site and opportunities to promote your listings as well as yourself. Virtual tour sites, Trulia, Zillow, Oodle, Craisgslist, vFlyers, Postlets just to name a few.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

Bloodhound Blog – This was one of the first real estate blogs I subscribed to. Greg Swann and all of the contributors are truly on the cutting edge of real estate blogs. A must read!

TransparentRE – I met Pat Kitano at Real Connect 2007 in San Francisco and we discovered that we “knew” each other via our respective blogs. Pat has a great blog on the real estate industry, technology, marketing, business strategies, web 2.0 and more. I refer to it often and recommend it to everyone.

Dustin Luther’s Blog – I discovered Dustin on Rain City Guide. Met him at Real Connect last year also. Dustin is an innovator and one of the elite real estate bloggers. I recently found his blog www.4realz.net and love it.

Real Estate Tomato - Jim Cronin’s blog about real estate blogging and marketing is one of my favorites. It is packed with great tips, advice, and strategies for novice and advanced bloggers alike.

R Blog - Rosie O’Donnell’s blog. I find her blog entertaining and irreverent. I love how she is so transparent, authentic and speaks her mind. She’s one of the best celebrity blogger in my book. I also love how she integrates video and pictures.

What advice do you have for prospective bloggers who are looking to start a blog.

1. Review and really answer the “questions to consider prior to launching a blog” I outlined above.
2. Be authentic and transparent.
3. Find your own voice. Understand and accept it takes a little while to find it sometimes!
4. Make sure you are passionate about your topic(s). Keep your blog focused on the 3-5 things you have chosen to write about as much as possible.
5. Just start posting… don’t be such a perfectionist and self-critical! (And we all are hardest on ourselves by the way.)
6. Develop a schedule or writing commitment and stick to it.
7. Quality not quantity – don’t force it.
8. Develop a mindset and awareness of how your everyday experiences, questions from clients, and random thoughts can all become blog posts.
9. Carry around a blog notebook or tape recorder so you can record the ideas that start flowing when you are focused and aware of the process.
10. Have Fun!