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Congratulations on deciding to launch your real estate blog! To help make your blog as successful as possible, we’re going to show you how to crush your first real estate blog post.
Blogging (aka content marketing) is a smart move for real estate agents. It generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing, but costs 62% less!By establishing a strong online presence, you’re building credibility as an agent, and giving Google content to index on your site. This means Google is more likely to send users to your website. And that means free, passive leads for you!
As a professional real estate content writer, I have several tips to help you crush your first real estate blog post and establish a lead-generating real estate blog. And I’m so excited to share these tips with you!
Quick note: this article was originally published in April 2018. This is the new and improved version.
Laying the Foundation for Your First Real Estate Blog Post
Before you can write your first real estate blog post you need to have your systems in place to support your new blog.
Do you have your own website?
Your own website is a must in today’s competitive market. That one page on your broker’s website is simply not good enough. When people search online for an agent in your area, they’ll never find you on your broker’s site. You need your own site to build your online presence and eventually rank on Page 1 of those Google search results.
Believe it or not, it’s entirely possible to build your own professional-quality real estate website. And you’ll save a fortune compared to hiring a web designer or paying monthly to rent a website. Check out How to Build a Real Estate Website for completely free step-by-step instructions on building your own website.
Do you have the blog function enabled?
If you already have your own site, you just need to enable blog posts. It should be easy enough to do on your own. If your site uses WordPress, we have a post to show you how to add a blog to your site in just 5 minutes.
Alright, you’ve got your website and your blog enabled. Let’s start your first real estate blog post!
Selecting the Topic for Your First Real Estate Blog Post
I’ll make this really easy for you…
Instead of discussing the process for choosing your blog post topics, I’m just going to tell you what to write your first post about. Because I have reviewed enough agent blogs to know what your first post should be, and there’s no reason to beat around the bush about it!
Your first post should cover everything people need to know before moving to your area. And you should title it “Everything You Need to Know Before Moving to [City]”.
This is the perfect topic for your first real estate blog post because it is:
- Useful. You’ll be able to provide valuable information to your readers from your very first post.
- Evergreen. This post will remain useful and relevant for years to come.
- SEO-friendly. If you’re brand new to SEO, check out Intro to SEO for REALTORS. SEO is basically all about being found online. And the keywords “moving to [city]” work well for getting found online. For example, around 1,600 people google “Moving to San Diego” every month. But that set of keywords has low competition, meaning it’s easier to rank on search engines for those keywords. Your city’s stats will vary, but it’s going to be a great place to start building SEO, whatever city you serve.
- Long-form. You can easily write over 1,500 words on this topic (and Google values long-form posts!).
- A way to show off your local knowledge. This post proves that you’re an expert on your city.
- Primed for linking. You’ll have so many opportunities to link to city services and local businesses with this topic. Linking to other sites so they can be found more easily online garners goodwill and can boost your network.
- Social Media-ready. This post will do well on social media because your audience doesn’t have to be from your city to enjoy it. Anyone who’s ever thought about moving to your city from anywhere can appreciate this post.
Don’t miss this opportunity to kick off your blog with a bang by using this topic as your first real estate blog post.
Outlining Your First Real Estate Blog Post
Organization is one of the secrets to a solid blog post. It makes your information easy to consume and comprehend.
So before you even start writing, create a clean, logical outline.
For this “move-to-[city]” topic, a simple list makes perfect sense. Ask yourself, “what are people surprised to learn when they move (or even visit) here?” and type up a list of those things.
Once you have a brainstormed list, you can start rearranging and editing the items so they flow well. If you have dozens of items, consider grouping them together by category.
Here’s a partial sample of an outline grouped by category:
What You Need to Know About Food Before Moving to [City]
You have to choose a sandwich place: Are you Team Arthur’s or Team Subway?
If you’re having new people over, assume everyone is a vegan with a nut allergy.
Swedish banana pizza is acceptable, but Hawaiian pineapple pizza is not.
What You Need to Know About Driving Before Moving to [City]
We don’t have Uber yet, but you can get a “Five Dollar Holler”.
All the cool kids get their vehicles from Bryson.
Snowbirds (retirees from the north) arrive in early December; be prepared to brake…a lot.
Parking is free almost everywhere.
What You Need to Know About Entertainment Before Moving to [City]
The city just approved plans to open a new cinema next year.
The community theater is top-notch and frequented by our local “high society”.
Bars close at 2:00am. Not 2:01. 2:00.
If you want to join a volunteer organization, talk to JoAnne.
Notice how the outline looks like a list of headers. Headers and sub-headers make your content easy to consume and improve your SEO. So use them liberally.
Writing Your First Real Estate Blog Post
With your outline done, you finally get to start writing!
Your outline will make the writing process nice and easy. Simply fill in a few sentences about each of the headers and sub-headers from your outline.
As you write, remember, this is a blog, not a term paper or a novel. Here are a few pro tips to write like a blogger:
- Use short sentences and short paragraphs.
- Write as if you’re just talking to a friend who’s asking for advice.
- It’s fine to bend the rules of “proper grammar”.
- Ending sentences with a preposition isn’t something to worry about.
- Neither are sentence fragments.
- And you can absolutely begin a sentence with a conjunction.
Let’s do an example using a sub-header from the sample outline:
We don’t have Uber yet, but you can call a “Five Dollar Holler”.
For a town of only 50,000, we have a pretty hot nightlife. You’ll find raging nightclubs, sophisticated co*cktail lounges, and laid-back honky-tonk bars open until 2:00am. We also have zero tolerance for drinking and driving. So until we get Uber (come on, Uber, our town isn’t that small), call a Five Dollar Holler to get you and your friends home safely.
Rates start at just $5 for a single rider in Zone 1 and go up to $11 for Zone 4 on the edge of town. Drivers are limited, so give them a little time (20 minutes or so) to get to you. And maybe avoid that 2:00am closing time rush. They run 7:45am until 4:00am every day of the week.
That’s all there is to it!
Add Images to Your First Real Estate Blog Post
Images are vital to good blog posts. They add visual interest, breaking up the wall of text. And they make your post more shareable on social media. Obviously, the more people share your post, the more potential future clients you can reach.
Of course you need to be careful when selecting your images. You don’t want to end up on the receiving end of an image licensing lawsuit.
If you’re just getting started, there are several sites where you can download royalty-free images:
- Pexels
- Pixabay
- Kaboompics
If you want far more image options and more distinction for your brand, you may want to consider a paid service:
Interesting side note: did you know you can make money selling your photos to these stock image sites? Learn how to make money selling stock photos online.
Editing Your First Real Estate Blog Post
When you’re done adding your images, you need to edit to make sure your content makes sense.
This is surprisingly difficult to do yourself. See, sometimes what you write doesn’t clearly convey what you mean. But you already know what you mean, so you can’t recognize those spots because they make perfect sense to you. Seriously, it’s why authors always thank their editors in the Acknowledgments.
If you don’t want to hire a freelance editor, at least have a trusted colleague or friend read your post to make sure everything makes sense to them. They should be able to tell you if you need to clarify any of your points or rearrange sentences so they read better to your audience.
Proofreading Your First Real Estate Blog Post
Next up is proofreading. And yes, proofreading is different than editing. Proofreading is getting into the nitty-gritty grammar and spelling details.
It’s catching the “it’s” when you meant “its” and the “your” when you meant “you’re”.
Like editing, proofreading is best done by someone who’s not you. But it can be done on your own. First, try proofreading software like Grammarly. The software will catch a lot, but language is a tricky thing, so you’ll still need a human to go back through your writing and proofread.
If you’re proofing your own work, try copy-and-pasting your post into Google Translate and having the Google voice read it back to you. It forces you to read through your post slowly, and you’ll sometimes hear errors that your eyes skim right over (like how you typed “than” when you meant “that”).
Publishing Your First Real Estate Blog Post
Ok, take a deep breath. It’s time to click “Publish” and send your post out into the world.
If you suddenly come down with a case of the self-doubts, don’t sweat it. It happens to everyone. I’ve written hundreds of blog posts, and I still get butterflies for a moment before clicking publish every time. But you’ve taken the time to write a well-organized, useful piece of content, and it needs to be shared with all those people who need to know Everything They Need to Know Before They Move to [City]!
So just do it. Click Publish!
Promoting Your First Real Estate Blog Post
You know how we just talked about those moment-of-publish butterflies? Well, it’s kinda funny we get those butterflies because no one is going to see your post as soon as you click Publish.
The internet is a big place. I just googled “real estate blog” and Google returned an estimated 155,000,000 search results. No one will ever find your blog unless you actively promote it. In fact, the single greatest misconception in blogging is that the masses flock to your site as soon as you publish your post. That’s not how it works. You have to push your blog posts in front of audiences. And even then, there’s a lot of competing content, so you have to really work to be seen.
One more time to hit the point home: No one will ever find your blog unless you actively promote it.
So, how do you promote your new post? There are literally hundreds of ways to promote. But you don’t have all day, so let’s just go over the beginner-friendly basics. Here are the first ways you should promote your post:
- Post a link on your social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. You can also create a post on Instagram to direct your followers to the website link in your bio (only really big Instagram accounts have the power to link directly from posts).
- Notify any business or organization you linked to in your post. They might want to share your post on their social media accounts as well!
- Email your email list. You should absolutely be collecting emails from Day 1 as an Agent. And contacting your list periodically to stay in their mind. Blog posts are a great reason to touch base. Don’t have much of a list yet? Read this post on how to grow your real estate mailing list.
What Now?
Now that your blog is officially launched and your first post is published, you’re totally done! Kick back with a drink and watch the leads roll in!
You saw right through that, huh?
This first post is just the beginning. Your next step is to strategically plan out your future posts. Ideally, you’ll publish one post per week. So grab a calendar and decide which topics you’ll cover and when those posts will be published. And make sure you promote each post as they’re published.
If you need some real estate blog topics to get you started, I’ve got you covered! Just enter your info below to get a list of over 100 real estate blog ideas delivered to your inbox!
One Last Thing
Tag me on social when you promote your post so I can be one of the first to like, share, and comment on your new blog! I’m @KeyRealEstateResources. And if you have blogging questions, feel free to reach out. I’m happy to answer them for you.
All the best to you and your new real estate blog!
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