The Economist recently published the results of a survey of the blogosphere that revealed that – gasp – “the rate of growth of blogs has slowed in many parts of the world.”
My take: Content creation is hard. Great blogging is tough. And the rewards remain fleeting.
So that’s why I’m calling it, on the eve of Real Estate Connect 2010:
The death of the real estate blog. July 9, 2010.
It’s over.
R.I.P.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
For every Phoenix Real Estate Guy, there are likely umpteen dozen soulless me-too real estate blogs in any given metro these days. Many are filled with meaningless “market reports,” meandering “community updates” – and most were last updated many moons ago.
These blogs float like drift nets on the web, hoping to snare the clueless web visitor who stumbles in through some long tail Google search.
And where it was once possible to get decent search ranking for a blog post, it is becoming harder and harder to do it solo.
We now see content farms like Demand Media starting to flood the search result pages. They use sophisticated algorithms and large networks of low-paid “producers” to create single pieces of keyword-rich pages they can load up with advertising.
Demand alone (through a network of sites like eHow) is cranking out over 4,000 pieces of content a day. And AOL (through its Seed.com initiative) and Yahoo (through its acquisition of Associated Content) are going to get into this game too.
These guys have industrialized content production.
Just like big agribusiness decimated the family farm, the content farms are beginning to seriously challenge the humble business blog for position.
To be sure, like in the real world, some hobby farms will continue to eek out an existence. But in the real business of blogging for Google traffic, the big guys wil be hard to beat.
Attention Shift
So what can we do about this? Here’s a few ideas:
Go Social. Facebook (through Facebook Pages) has become a legitimate publishing platforms by bringing to the table a massively engaged audience. If blogging for Google traffic is like casting a drift net, social sites like Facebook are like casting in ponds full of fish.
Best of all, It’s quick. It’s easy. And it’s cheap. Start-up costs are negligible so there’s room for rapid iteration. Witness the growth of “365 days in Community X” pages.
Tumblr is another emerging platform with an active, engaged community that’s well worth exploring.
Start an email newsletter. We’re bullish on email (hence our own 1000watt spotlight newsletter). The inbox is intimate, personal and perfect for immediate one-to-one conversation. Startups like Letter.ly are pushing the barrier to entry in this space even lower.
Create video. Try new media. Video blogging & podcasting in particular are poised for a big surge (or resurgence, in the case of podcasting). New devices like smartphones, tablet computers and Internet-enabled televisions are making it easier than even to consume this media everywhere and anywhere. There’s a reason why the big blogs are making significant investments in video.
I realize this topic is a controversial one, and my stance is a little bold. I debate this position fiercely even with Brian and Marc. And frankly, I still believe there’s room for a company “blog” (like this one). Blogging software continues to move in interesting directions.
But where there once were many, it seems now there are few. Beyond a few pioneers who’ve stuck it out, I don’t see much that’s new out there.
So the real estate blog as we knew it is dead. Which means the category as a whole is ripe for a rebirth.
Personally I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
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Joel,
Hmm. How would the content being generated by a ‘content farm’ resonate with my readership? And how is that any different from the canned content that consumers shunned on the old static websites from pre-blog times? You point out that it’s important to write to an ‘engaged audience’ on Facebook, but that’s just what the good blogs do as well, with meatier content too. Those successful blogs are writing for their readership, not for google, anyway. (Which is why they work, they have created their own communities…)
~Heather
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joel Burslem, Ryan & Stephen and others. Ryan & Stephen said: The Death of the Real Estate Blog: The Economist recently published the results of a survey of the blogospher… http://bit.ly/91UFO5 ^Ryan [...]
Heather,
I think you pegged it. A blog is about community – the good ones, like yours and Jay’s, were built around that.
But over time, my observation has been that the focus of much real estate blogging these days seems to have become obsessed with content generation. Content, that through SEO, is a means to bring in traffic.
I think that approach is soon to be dead.
I still believe in the spirit of the community – but I think it’s time to redefine what that means and where it lives.
Besides, I’ve always hated the word blog.
Interesting thoughts Joel (and thanks for the kind words/linkage).
Speaking of linkage, here’s something I’ve been pondering a lot lately.
“Back in the day”, say as little as a year ago, I could write a “linkworthy” post on TPREG and almost guarantee you that 10 or 20 real estate blogs would link to it. That’s why my blog enjoys the power of 50 – 80K backlinks (depending on whose numbers you believe). And Google loves backlinks.
Today, I’m lucky to get one or two. My most recent article on deleting my ActiveRain posts is a perfect example. A year ago, dozens of people would have linked to that. Today, two have, and one did it with a nofollow link.
But that post did get 48 Facebook “likes” and 23 retweets. 767 people visited that post yesterday.
But only two people linked to it.
This is fascinating to me. There is no question that FB and twitter are changing how people “vote” for a blog post.
And this has to have SEO implications.
But Heather makes a great point. A good blog can be far “meatier” than a Facebook post, and certainly more than a Tweet. Case in point, on July 4th, over 15,000 people viewed my blog post on where to see fireworks in the Phoenix area. Several thousand more viewed it in the days leading up to July 4.
I don’t think there is anything I could have done on Facebook that would come remotely close to generating that level of traffic (all of which by its nature was very localized traffic). People still go to Google to find information (like where fireworks shows are, or where to search for homes online). They don’t go to Facebook for this kind of information.
At least not yet.
I’m lucky in that I started my blog almost five years ago. I was able to garner 70Kish backlinks and build up some Google “authority”. Doing that now from a cold start? Could be problematic…
Definitely food for thought….
Joel,
I am happy to say that you’re not my doctor. Dead, really?
Here are a few comments from one blogger that does not think real estate blogging is dead. Maybe it’s just bad real estate blogging that’s on it’s death bed. Kinda even doubt that as a new blog pops up every 5 minutes or so.
Take some time and actually go out and find some examples good blog content serving their local communities – we can’t be full of posts written for comments and discussion be we can provide some solid information for the real estate consumer.
First it’s really tiresome that when you read all the rhetoric on the Internet these days it sounds like the only one in the Country blogging is Jay. Don’t get me wrong Jay has done a exceptional job over the years and has quite a following, myself included.
I however think that Jay may have gone a bit over to the dark side, in my opinion, since his blog seems to be more and more about advertising and less about real estate content. A recent visit to his site surprised me to have to hunt around for the actual blog post – nothing wrong with that and this is America – Go Jay.
Market statistics may not be exciting to you, but if your a buyer or a seller try finding them without spin or questionable presentation. Companies like Altos Research provide excellent statistics which I can certainly tell you are read by my audience, those interested in the real estate market. What should we write about if not what is going on in the local markets.
You know there for a while there was a lot of brave talk on how the little guy finally had a voice and that media as we know it would be forever changed if not completely out of business. I think it’s pretty apparent that big media is not dead and has re-invented itself with these new mediums thus attracting eye balls. I don’t write for Google and yet I have a decent amount of people that visit SDL on a daily basis to keep my business strong and while most users will never pick up the phone, I feel I have given something back to the consumer.
In my opinion there will always be a place for well written, good sourced, local real estate blogs. Does that take effort? Of course it does. Is it for everyone? Not even.
BTW I read over 300 blogs per day in an RSS feeder throughout the course of my day. Some in the morning, a few on my iPhone between appointments, and many at night after I am done working. I skim for content that interests me and it’s very efficient, the last thing I want is another e-mail newsletter clogging up my in-box.
Viva the blog, long live the blog, just another viewpoint!
Joel -
There is a key differentiation between the content farms/networks and the successful real estate/community blog.
If you’re pronouncing the real estate blog deceased because so many
lazy agentspeople don’t update their blogs or because they regurgitate uninspired posts, then the format was never born.Real estate blogging has always been hard, and it’s always been necessary to combine the online with the offline to develop, curate and build community, recognition and business.
Don’t declare the format’s death because it hasn’t been/can’t be leveraged successfully by the masses, or because content is being generated at a significantly greater pace.
Readers find (and return to) great real estate blogs because they have developed a connection to the authors – whether that’s a single author or a team. You can’t identify with AOL or a farm; you can’t bump into that farm on the street or meet the
The 365 emergence is a fad; what is one to do on the 366th day? Or 954th?
Build a presence on FB, but don’t put all of your eggs in that basket. Witness what’s happening with Active Rain – if you don’t own the content, it can be manipulated or deleted with no warning.
Ownership and control are the keys; in blogging and in real estate business and brokerage.
But I dig the agribusiness analogy, and I’ll respond that I’d rather be like Joel Salatin than Monsanto.
Joel-
I am glad that you said this. Folks like Heather and Jay and Ginger Wilcox and Ines have been providing excellent content and really have set the standard for real estate blogs. A standard that the average real estate agent cannot match.
Facebook fan/business page wall posts require far less content to generate comments and with the right post, some interactivity.
I first started noticing that I get far more comments on my own blog on the RSS feed to Facebook than I do on the blog itself. This tells me that people are going to Facebook for content, community, entertainment and many other things that they could get on blogs before.
I no longer recommend that an agent start a blog as a means to foster community, I think that community is happening on Facebook now.
But, I do believe that a blog still has a place in the mix. Jay brought this up in his post about leaving AR, and that is you MUST control your content. My advice these days is to have a blog, post your content there and bring it over to Facebook via RSS or simple copy and paste.
As ever, good stuff.
Blogs sometimes are about credibility. It’s not always about snaring ‘passers by’ but more about putting a prospective customer at ease when they research you I feel.
I think your context for agent sites is right on. Realtor websites need toi be retired. Old news.
Jeffery -
You wrote, “I however think that Jay may have gone a bit over to the dark side, in my opinion, since his blog seems to be more and more about advertising and less about real estate content.”
Really? I have five 125×125 graphics for products I use and recommend on the home page, almost at the bottom of the home page, and 4 of those are in the sidebar (the bottom of the sidebar) on individual posts, and one small banner at the very bottom of individual posts. That’s it. A visitor has to scroll, a lot — and past content — to even see those ads.
“A recent visit to his site surprised me to have to hunt around for the actual blog post”
This puzzles me as all the content for the last seven articles is prominently displayed on the home page. Or at least I thought it was prominent.
You are referring to PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com, correct?
Can you shoot me an email or give me a call some time as I’d like to understand more what you’re seeing. The last thing I want is a visitor to think my site is more about ads than content. I need to fix it, quickly, if that is the impression people are getting.
Not so long ago I read a post that websites were done, yet agents are still getting found and generating client connections.
I love statistics as much as the next guy, but there is usually various ways to look at the causation.
That slowing of new blogs could be that people who are inclined to start a blog have done so and it’s not new anymore. The slowed link-backs to Jay’s (awesome) content maybe that agents are spending more time on their own content than in “RE.net”. I know I am.
I’ve seen significant growth in blog followers in the past six months. More so than any other time in the past three-four years. I think this is partly because we my competitors aren’t keeping up with their content and doing just what you said – the same ‘ol market stats and blah, blah, blah.
I’d like to back you up on this with some analytics that prove you are right(or at least that there are options). After reading this I checked our stats for the last 30 days. We are leveraging exactly what you mentioned with lots of video done without a budget and a solid Facebook Page with an inexpensive ppc campaign. We had 1300 keyword phrases from Google which we view as the icing. The cake is now social media and Facebook alone during the same 30 days sent us 9,996 visits! Love getting new visitors through search but the community element to Facebook and even Twitter to a lesser extent are winning right now. Your Time of Death is right if the real estte blog is built for strictly SEO. When used as an extension to a passionate social media community it is alive and kicking. Good stuff as always!
I love seeing articles like this one.
Jay, I will give you a call later today but wanted to explain myself better. My usual rule of taking my time with a post was broken and I was dealing with too many things at once and did not explain my comments well.
The general point that Joel is making is that everyone is writing for traffic and google to get people to a site to sell them something. I have always believed that click through advertisements like Joel’s mentioned industrialized content production goal is bad for the real estate agent to use.
I re-visted your site this morning and found your statements to be very accurate. My brief visit the other day was overwhelmed with too many things going on. Much of what I saw that kept my eye from finding your content was the various social media bars. widgets, etc. Of course it does not help that I am color blind and did not recognize the green post banners.
Everyone please except my apology for the previous statement made in haste. Again I have the highest respect for Jay and what he had done for real estate bloggers all over the Country.
I think that Matthew has really hit the issue. I no longer worry about national attention or top google searches but promote my site via other social media sites, local advertising, and various other cost effective methods. I keep a close track of what the readership reads and try to provide that for them on an on-going basis while continuing to write more of the meaty content along the way. SDL does come up on many Google long tail searches and specific property searches in San Diego which will continue to be very important.
I have to chime in with another dissenting opinion. Yes, it’s hard to continue to produce relevant local information each week. But, I continue to (try to) do so and have found that my facebook business page has been a huge help in increasing the number of visits to my blog. Visits by local readers – the same people I hope will call me with a real estate need. However, I also see a large number of local agents who are throwing up fb pages and have no place to point their readers for more detailed information. You’ll begin to see those pages abandoned as well when they realize that there is no quick fix, road to riches on the internet for the average agent.
“I keep a close track of what the readership reads and try to provide that for them on an on-going basis…”
Do that Jefferey (or anyone else) and you WILL be successful, whether your platform is a blog, a Facebook page, or a snail-mailed letter.
I’ve always said, “Write for your readers, not for Google”.
Google is smart, it will figure out what your writing is about. Your readers are smart too, and if you don’t write for them, they’ll figure that out too.
Thanks for the further explanation Jeffery. MY home page is WAY too busy and you bring up a very interesting point regarding color-blindness. There are a lot of folks out there with that condition. I need to ponder a better way to highlight content and work on decluttering the page.
Content creation has never been easy – I’m not sure what has really changed.
I think the problem real estate bloggers (and all real estate agents) face is a lack of focus. If you are trying to start a real estate blog about NYC, or Boston or Seattle you are always going to run into competition from the big guns – newspapers, tv, Zillow, Trulia, etc.
Go “hyper-local” and the dynamics start to change. Sure the NY Times does an article about my little mountain town every few years, but sometimes they interview me so it turns out ok. But none of these big guns knows a thing about neighborhoods in my little town of 6000. Why does Chiwawa River Pines have more foreclosures than Ponderosa Estates? That’s a question buyers in my market are asking, but not even the local paper is interested in writing about it.
The long tail is still very powerful. There are so many profitable niches available in cities and towns across the country. If I were to start again today in a new town a blog would still be the cornerstone of my business.
Blogging is dead… long live the blog.
Great post, Joel.
I’ll have more thoughts on this later — with backlinks to you!
-rsh
Joel,
The blog is not dead, but the cheese has definitely been moved.
Like any media technology, as 1000Watt knows best, you must constantly change and re-evaluate. Hyperlocalism has always been the way to go. No mega farm can compete. This cost of entry is too high.
In the end, doesn’t content beat pure rank. Aggregate good content from your blog to all your social sites via the many available tools. If your content resonates with people, they will find you.
[...] estate blog and shift your attention to other things like email newsletters, video and Facebook? The Death of the Real Estate Blog tries to make that [...]
Good link bait post, Joel. What’s next, a post about Realtors being disintermediated by web-based discounters? Or, Realtor commissions being too high? Or, perhaps, leads aren’t leads?
Back on topic. The best part of the post by far is Jay’s comment about links. Now that’s news, big news! Well, for the blog geeks anyway, it’s big news. Write more about that.
One thought, most of Jay’s links come from (techy) Realtors, so the very strong switch away from blog links and toward Facebook links may represent what’s happening among those early adopter Realtors, more than what’s happening among the general home buying and selling population. Those Realtors may just be moving on to the next big thing.
Now, that I think about it, we haven’t had many real estate blog controversies lately. What’s up with that? Hmmm, maybe real estate bloggers are reading fewer real estate blogs. Maybe that part of the technology adoption process has played out, they’re all into Facebook or whatever now.
But really, your target audience with a real estate blogs isn’t other real estate agents but potential home buyers and sellers so there’s no big loss there business-wise, other than the SEO advantages of those links from other real estate blogs.
And come on, Joel, to say blogs are dead but video blogs are the next big thing! Really? You don’t think video blogging is blogging? You really had to make some contortions to get to your thesis about real estate blogging being dead.
My thesis is video blogging is indeed blogging and I agree that it will be big.
Video blogging hasn’t taken off yet in generating business as far as I know but it likely will. I think they’ll eventually hit on a winning formula.
Here is a super real estate (video) blog, http://eastvalleyteam.com. It’s great fun watching how the use of video is evolving on Dean and Kristin’s blog. I can’t wait to see where they go next.
BTW, Joel, I think real estate consulting is dead because all the information can now be found online.
Jay is spot on, the way consumers are commenting and linking is a change we just reported on.
While we are getting plenty of page views on our blog the conversation and sharing of our pages is taking place on Facebook – here is our take on the phenomenon:
http://www.webrealestatetools.com/real-estate-tools/are-comments-really-dead-on-blogs
See you all in San Fransisco where we can all converse in person ..
Lots to think about here and I’ll try and get to each of your comments individually, but let me just play with this idea a little…
What I am thinking is on its last legs, is the idea of the real estate blog. Beyond a few stand outs that have built active communities – let’s just call them what most of them today really are.
Agent web sites.
Now, is the agent web site dead? Heck no. Should your web site have lots of dynamic content? Of course. Are these sites going to be built off of WordPress? More than likely.
Just not sure we should really call them blogs anymore.
It seems to me the name is a little outdated for what’s really going on and our thinking needs to evolve somewhat.
Joel, good point and rather a question of semantics, but I still don’t agree with the main thrust of your argument.
Rob Haun posed the question a year or so back as to why real estate agents had so many sites and argued that it made sense to combine them. At the time I thought he was way off, but today I only have the primary blog that also serves as my website, community guides, contact information, market statistics, and an occasional rant.
The heart of SDL continues to be a blog, with between 4 to 7 posts per week depending on how busy I am with other things. There are many real estate blogs across the country and I will still stand that they are not dead and provide valuable content for the consumer without having to stike up a conversation. Judging by the behavior of many of our associates on Trulia and Zillow I know why they are hesitant to engage with us. I may have a reader on my blog for over a year before they send an e-mail or give me a call, the blog allows them to see how I work, what my core values are, and hopefully gives them some good advice rather than chasing them down the street at the open house.
Interesting that Peter said the real estate consumer has stopped commenting on sites. Besides for a few major bloggers, the majority of posting going on is between real estate agents and those that call themselves social media experts. You can find consumers on Trulia and Zillow but there rarely step out of the shadows to comment on an individual blog.
Joel, perhaps we should call them clogs….combination website and blog.
Totally correct. If I’m talking to a lead (just being ornery), I call it my website but to other Realtors, especially other online Realtors, I call it my blog.
It’s a stupid name, blog, but it has meaning.
For example, if I meet a Realtor in the flesh and he says he has a website, I want to roll my eyes, but if he says he has blog, I’m a lot more interested in talking to him. If he can manage a blog, that’s shows a higher level of sophistication than just paying a vendor to put up a website.
Regarding comments on blog posts, I recently had more comments on one post than I probably have had in the history of the website/blog. And they were all consumer comments, too. bit.ly/9TFmMs
But comments are down overall. No more bust/no bust rant threads anymore.
(Comments could be also down because many consumers have reached capitulation regarding real estate, and they’ll eventually come out and play again when the real estate market is more sunny.)
Joel, terrific conversation. As many folks on this thread know I’ve been taking a pretty aggressive stance related to this over at ActiveRain of late. I believe that on the whole blogging is an un-natural act for most Realtors because of the skillset it requires. And I also believe social will eclipse SEO in return, if it hasn’t already.
IMO Jay and Heather are unicorns in the blogging/SEO forest, for every 2 who are amazing it it – there are 100′s who get limited return.
As Facebook continues to emerge we’re going to see many more people have success in that arena just because it’s right in the sweetspot for strong Real Estate pros. It’s a relationship and sphere builder. And at the same time the consumer’s interaction with the web is shifting from search centric to social centric. Those two things are a bid deal combined.
That said, I do believe the strongest bloggers are going to have an edge in this world as well. Great thinking & insight stands out and establishes credibility.
Nice post. Personally we have gotten a great amount of business and gained credibility through our blog. I agree that we need to take advantage of new forms of social media however the blog can be a really current and helpful way to maintain and gain relationships.
it seems like many have missed the point i took from joel, which is that the whole thing has become quite cookie-cutter. i search local RE blogs from time to time, and it is a little sad that i can generally name the theme the agent is using, and guess the order of pages, titles, etc. there are a few stars in many micro-spheres, followed by a couple of quality late bloomers, followed by…meh.
i think that the best advice i’ve heard from anyone is “be. your. self.” the ones that really stand out to me don’t look like anything else. there is a different flavor, or feel to the site that keeps me wanting more. or in the words of a world famous RE blogger:
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” ~Dr. Seuss
joel, i like your final words. where there is mediocrity, there is opportunity.
Hype is fascinating because it distracts. Blogging as a discipline tends to wither quickly when the impetus is hype. Analysis of where leads come from requires attention to the details. It also requires honesty to admit that as ‘fun’ as some sites may be, the numbers don’t support the time we spend on them.
This also requires a willingness to believe what your numbers (behind the scenes on your site) reveal about your business. Sort of like the state of your health which might look different when the physician shows you your test results vs how you appear. For me, blogging has proved to be the backbone for business leads & referrals over the past 4 years. Like Teresa…I love blogs like this!
@Barrett
“Hyperlocalism has always been the way to go. No mega farm can compete.”
Not so sure about that.Check out Patch.com, I think you’d be surprised where AOL is going with this hyperlocal idea. It’s powered by Seed.com – funny how the farm metaphors keep popping up!
@Jason
Bingo.
Good blogs require hard work… The degree of difficulty comes from your ability or desire to write in an engaging way on a regular basis. The dead real estate blogs are the ones that likely should be dead (buried in the SERPs) because they are poorly written, almost never updated and often-times duplicated content.
As a web designer, I have consulted with many agents who have had great ideas. I’ve designed a website, got all excited for them and then either watched the site turn stagnant or end up a mess of wikipedia copied articles. I sure can’t blame them though — Often times the idea of blogging sounds great until you are there staring at a blank wysiwyg editor with a blinking cursor.
With all of that said, I will agree that many blogs are dead, but won’t agree that blogs all together are dead. And I say this, even despite the complex scraper sites that are all the rage since Google’s “May Day” update.
no way is blogging dead. In fact, ironically, this post and the subsequent dialog here is a shining example that it’s alive and well!
I do agree that the SEO stuff is an elusive target for me (and for most) but that’s just not the focus (or it shouldn’t be)
I found my way to this post because several folks mentioned it to me face to face yesterday and then I saw a link to it from someone else’s “list of great posts”. And that’s a better kind of “link back”
Facebook mirrors this exactly. The traffic and conversations of my friends leads me to content — not google at all (very rare now)
Blog is not dead, but as Jay said, the traffic patterns are changing to a more social (and more authentic) path.
Hi Joel
I had similar thoughts on the limitation of blogging 2.5 years ago:
http://blog.homegain.com/blogging-and-social-networking/the-case-against-blogging/comment-page-2/
Awesome! This is one of the healthiest, most positive discussions I’ve seen on real estate blogs in a long time. Raised the hair on the back of my neck when I read it (good content and writing). Comments were all spot on. End result is that I’m revisiting the goals and objectives of my blog (again), to make sure I’m evolving with the changing times. Thank you all!
After thinking about it, here’s one more brainstorming comment about Jay’s shift in comment traffic patterns.
The number of blog posts from Jay are WAY down. And, I assume his personal interactions on Facebook are WAY up. I bet that shift alone explains much/most of the shift in his comment patterns.
I’ll guess that for many of his Facebook friends – the most involved ones, the ones who love the interaction on Facebook – his blog has become a bit like a scribd.com, a place to put larger articles. Those folks focus on Facebook because that’s where they find more personal interaction with Jay, who’s a great guy. But that’s just a guess.
My hypothesis this afternoon is that if Jay took the time he puts into Facebook, and put it into his blogs instead, his blog comments would increase. It may very well be, however, that it’s more productive business-wise for Jay to split his time.
In his book, The New Rules Of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott makes a simple point…content drives action. If you have something that’s relevant and resonates with buyers and sellers, they’ll read it…and the opposite holds true for horrible content. While brokerage websites focus on “the search” and other things that buyers and sellers could care less about, blogs that help create solutions to problems should do well. I tell agents to stop thinking like agents…or you’ll never stand out. Blogs allow brokerage / agents to showcase their talent, knowledge and value. Show me a brokerage website that can accomplish that. Get past the homepage and they’re all the same. Just like here, every blog post is a new home homepage that allows you to interact with viewers.
Not all of us are great writers (and it’s something all agents desperately need to work on), but a blog is a great place to start the learning process, and maybe one day be able to turn it into something as good as 1000WATT.
I’m learning something by reading your blog…because of the quality of your content and ensuing comments. This is the AHA moment of taking great thoughts and turning it into something valuable. And we all know that this industry suffers from a lack substance
[...] was reading Joel Burslem’s “The Death of the Real Estate Blog” post the other day and one of the comments stood out like a sore thumb to me. It was a [...]
John wrote: “My hypothesis this afternoon is that if Jay took the time he puts into Facebook, and put it into his blogs instead, his blog comments would increase. It may very well be, however, that it’s more productive business-wise for Jay to split his time.”
John – I don’t spend a whole lot of time on FaceBook. No question, at all, my posting frequency on TPREG is down. That’s due to lots of things, including a significant chunk of time managing the business.
But time on Facebook and Twitter certainly does take time away from the blog.
Excellent points in your comment, there clearly could be a correlation between content production and the shift from how that content is recognized. I decided here at Inman Connect SF this week that I need to re-dedicate myself to content publishing. And the VAST majority of that will be on the blog.
This has been a great discussion! Joel, it was great to see you this week. Too brief. Enjoy that new baby girl!!
[...] San Francisco there was a heated discussion generated by Joel Burslem’s recent blog called “The Death of the Real Estate Blog” for 1000 Watt Consulting . I don’t think that I have ever been in a room so filled with the [...]
[...] note link building is not dead yet. Jay Thompson deserves credit for prompting this discussion with his comment here. Jay – you now have 70kish + 1 backlinks… | [...]
I think it’s important to acknowledge that the real estate industry is always a bit behind when it comes to technology. A majority of agents are still paying for static Web sites, have only recently started using Facebook personal profiles, and don’t have any idea what to do with Twitter.
The useful real estate blogs that exist in a given market are actually pretty rare. I don’t think that’s because the medium is dead, I think it’s because most agents find it challenging to produce useful content on a consistent basis, backed by a solid editorial plan.
I started my blog, Inside San Francisco Real Estate, in Oct 2008, and it has become an integral and regular source of leads and business. I don’t see this changing; I expect to double my online leads in 2011. For me, the blog will be dead when my stats themselves die, and I cease getting related business.
Had a conversation with Kris Berg some time ago … the gist of it is there are many, many times we’d love to stab our blogs with a fork and be done with it all. Except the pesky things keep bringing in the business.
Everything I love and everything I hate about real estate blogging has been encapsulated in this comment thread, from the idea that you have to be hyperlocal (you don’t) to the death of the blog war (a lost art) to the hope that everyone keeps saying blogging is dead so those of us who have put the last four or so years into it can go back to doing it amongst ourselves and it won’t be so hard to find the quality content.
Now that I think about it, real estate blogging must be dead because all the consultants now are telling me how to run my business off Facebook. Or maybe it’s soon to become a better place.
[...] Blogs Dead? Posted on July 23, 2010 by Land Sale Marketing Joel Burslem is calling it, the real estate blog is dead. Does this mean you need to shut down your land blog, or not even start one? [...]
I have a micro-niche blog revolving around one high end country club community. I know my readership is small, but that’s ok. It is still well worth the effort I put into it on a daily basis. I don’t need thousands of readers to make an excellent living. I sell multi-million dollar homes on a regular basis as a result of my blog. My blog is definitely not dead. I have been doing it for 2 years and will continue for many more years. It establishes credibility and authority that I am a true neighborhood specialist.
[...] at my open house today know about my real estate blogIn light of Joel Burslem’s recent post on The Death of the Real Estate Blog, the blog recognition from Ted’s open house attendees certainly seems a good sign for Ted’s [...]