A Call to Action - Blogging is a Bona Fide Force
By Patrick Kitano, Monday, March 19, 2007.Bookmarking Sites
Last week on Transparent, I sounded the call to action to Realtors about blogging - there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that blogs can soon potentially lock up Google's top page for local search keywords, i.e. "Your city real estate", based on blogs' powerful search ranking qualities. There are only 10 spots on that top page, and once they are taken, it will be tough for a new blog with little "Google juice" to displace a blog occupying one of the top ten. Those top ten Google spots per locale will in effect work like the "Yellow Pages" listings of the future, except they are organic and free.
And Realtors, there's more potential advertising space that have constraints. If you start a blog, you want your readers to subscribe and read your blog via a feedreader like Google Reader, Bloglines or Netvibes. Feedreaders were built for organized "economical" reading so a reader doesn't have sift through everything... by definition these feedreaders have limited space or they wouldn't be economical. Bookmarks, RSS and other tagging systems like del.icio.us are also space constrained. Athol Kay left a recent comment that reflects the rapidly expanding real estate blogosphere:
Finally, there's limited space on the blogrolls that other blogs use to promote your site.
Conclusion: Blogging as a real estate marketing paradigm now can't be ignored without consequence... and I'm guessing 90% of America's Realtors have no clue about the impending loss of this online "ad space". Real estate blogging has a proven first mover advantage in the race to occupy Google top page listings, feedreader slots and blogroll links. And as Athol confirms, critical mass of too many blogs is rapidly approaching... blogs that start up in 2008 will be facing a much greater uphill battle as literally thousands of blogs launch.this year (note Active Rain already has 20,000 members who will soon realize blogging's power).
Caution: a few real estate bloggers have commented on how competitive blogging might become as more blogs come online. Today on Transparent, I've addressed how new bloggers should understand that supporting the community and encouraging open communication, especially with fellow bloggers who may even be competitor agents, is the best way to develop their blog property. And it's up to the old timers to show them how.
Pat Kitano, Transparent Real Estate
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Submitted by Anonymous on March 19, 2007 - 9:19am.
To respond to Athol's complaint, the blog reader I personally recommend is Google Reader. It does indeed have a "Mark all as read because I'm feeling overwhelmed" button.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 19, 2007 - 11:38am.
In your last paragraph Caution statement, there's some good food for thought. Though the final touches aren't yet on it, the idea of competitors cooperating for exposure to garner search engine position is a key piece of the blogging platform at SuperListingSite.com.
The next generation of bloggers are starting one lap behind, and it's a long lap. Building a mass of local content will go a long way toward overtaking the leaders.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 19, 2007 - 3:30pm.
Those who are starting this Race to Google Top Ten Fame a bit late will need to be consistent and persistent. Google, Yahoo, and MSN seem to really thrive on blogs/sites that are updated on a consistent basis with a good mix of posts. You probably won't see an impact for a couple of months or so but you will see a difference if you keep at it.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 19, 2007 - 4:33pm.
Unfortunately many real estate bloggers do not give accurate information; instead they rely on veiled statistics that don't give the entire picture.
Submitted by Anonymous on March 20, 2007 - 7:59am.
Yay I got mentioned in Inman... oh noes I'm fake swearing!
I have Google Reader Kevin, I poked around and discovered the "mark all as read" button finally. Phew.
I'm not sure you can wait to 2008 to start a blog and hope to be able to climb into the top ten in your area, not without insane effort.
I started my first blog in October 2006 and I felt late to the party, switching to a better platform in March 2007 and I feel like I'm "pitting under green" to continue Jim's racing metaphor.
We have critical mass in terms of bloggers blogging, the crunch coming is when major brokerages are pushed out of the top ten. When a single agent is "more authoritive" per Google than their brokerage is going to be the tipping point. How do you fire/discpline page rank?
Brokerages MUST get a blogger or a website content department or something to stay ahead of the curve.
Submitted by Anonymous on April 23, 2007 - 9:22am.
Great article. I attende a seminar with Dustin Luther (Raincityguide.com) founder and it was great. It was a seminar on blogging and it was a page turner for me.
Interesting comments...guess I am going to be a little late...hopefully not too!
Keith