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ROI for Blogging

Posted in Real Estate Bloggers By G Dewald | Union Street Media, Tuesday, March 11, 2008.

Hello everyone,

I recently made a post about how to calculate ROI for blogging. It was inspired by last month's homegain.com kerfuffle. I'd appreciate any feedback or commentary at the Union Street blog.

I generally blog about real estate technology and marketing for real estate (real estate agents and offices are my target audience so I try to write about things that will be helpful for them). I take topic requests when I can fit them in so feel free to ask.

Take care

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Submitted by on March 14, 2008 - 12:24pm.

Here is the comment I left on your blog...

Interesting idea...

Here's the problem I have with accurately calculating the ROI of my blog.

First, the line between my static site and my blog is very blurry. I use the same IDX search on both, and it's not sophisticated enough to tell me if a direct contact comes from the static site, or the blog.

Second, how do you value a "pipeline" of prospects. I've several hundred on auto-listings, some of which may not become prospects for many (many) months. But that pipeline is very valuable. I just don't know how to put a dollar value on it.

Finally, it's possible (probable in fact) that someone may read the blog for months on end before reaching out and making contact. There is a lot of value in those types of readers, but quantifying that is impossible.

Jay Thompson
Broker / Owner
Thompson's Realty

Blog: www.PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com

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Submitted by Vlad Zablotskyy on March 14, 2008 - 12:30pm.

I think the best way to keep track on your ROI is through Google Analytics... I think I had written about it on my blog... I have to dig it up.

 
Submitted by REBloggirl on March 14, 2008 - 2:08pm.

I love this idea. I think anyone with a good lead generator on their blog with differing ids on their sites can measure ROI for each site. I know we track the traffic numbers and how much of that traffic converts to leads and I know our Realtors are tracking how many of those leads convert to sales.

Blog: www.rsspieces.com

 
Submitted by G Dewald | Union Street Media on March 17, 2008 - 6:55am.

Thanks for commenting, Jay! I've posted a response that I furthers the conversation. I'm also going to be turning off moderated comments as soon as I get approval from my superiors, I can't stand moderated comments.

I forgot to address your issue with the blurred lines between blog and business site. But the answer is likely setting up a custom segment in your analytics package. As Vlad mentions, Google Analytics is a fine and free data gathering tool. Using GA you could determine which of your leads/visitors are visiting your blog and track their conversion process on your business site as well. It get's pretty geeky from there but send me an email off-list and I might be able to show you how that's done.

I definitely admit that there are a host of problems in calculating ROI. That's part of why I put the offer at the end of the post, I want to do a white paper on the subject from which we might all learn a few tricks and tips.

Thanks again for your great comment!

g

 
Submitted by on March 17, 2008 - 7:56am.

I'm very curious what you other realtors are using on your sites, specifically, for lead generation. Is it an IDX search feature? A form that the viewer completes? An email reply to something? Some kind of automated 'drip' campaign ala Top Producer style? I haven't figured out the best way to do this and would appreciate your advice & knowledge as to what you're doing and how it works for you.
Thanks in advance.
Lori

 
Submitted by on March 17, 2008 - 8:54am.

HI Lori,

I use all of the above, IDX on my site, they must register, I use intersend.com for email drips. But, I call them on the phone when they leave a number and the ROI is much better.
Missy Caulk
Ann Arbor, MI
Missy@MissyCaulk.com

www.AnnArborRealEstateTalk.com
www.SearchAnnArborHouses.com

 
Submitted by Fred Carver on March 17, 2008 - 9:03am.

Good morning,

I have two web site both of which are capable to responding to inquiries from the public and both have tracking info for me to review where they came from, when, which listing they looked at(if they are my listing) link to my office and mls listings and a back end office for my clients to see the activity on their listings. Plus I can add anybody to my mls search program for a more specific property search. I feel most inquries are just looking, everyone is at a different time frame, like 6 months away from buying or selling, moving from another area, just curious, etc. We have made it easy for the public to look, and looking they are. Value to all of this?; it's very time consumimg sometimes for me, but I see it as a service to possible clients and certainly another tool in my listing advatanges to list with me. With two web sites, three blogs plus my own blogging on other sites,like Active Rain, I make sure the public is aware of me, plus other Realtors are doing the same. Where is it going and what's it worth, well I have made several sales from my online business, and that's all I'm looking for.

 
Submitted by Kaye Thomas on March 17, 2008 - 9:07am.

I also posted this on your blog:

I agree with Jay. I know how many people read my blog on a daily basis and how many view each of my two websites. I have over 250 people that are receiving information from me on a daily or monthly basis and I’ve had about $3000000 in transactions so far this year that are directly from my blog.

As far as what I use I have IDX and response pages on both my websites where people have to sign up for access. On my blog I have a lot of people who ask questions via comments but I allow anonymous comments.

One of the things I’ve found on my blog is that people will return over and over and then one day let you know they are ready to do somethingby calling or e-mailing me. I find people coming to my open houses because of what they are reading on my blog and that’s hard to translate into a fixed number.

 
Submitted by Toby Boyce on March 27, 2008 - 5:17am.

i don't see the value of determining ROI for a blog. Coming from the Public Relations world -- I see my blog more as the "free newspaper" article that hits U.S. Today. How many people did that impact?

I don't know, and I'll be honest I've studied all the PR models and all of them fall short in one of two ways ...
1. they place too much value on the action, not the result.
2. they don't place enough value on the "editorial content" that is provided over advertising.

In my business model, blogging is simply a cost of doing business.

 
Submitted by G Dewald | Union Street Media on March 27, 2008 - 6:14am.

Toby,

I agree with you that blog posts are no substitute for sales (the action vs the result). The original inspiration for the post was an assertion that blogging has zero value. Which, of course, I scoffed at. But then I thought to myself: does it? Why not measure and find out.

What do you think of Forrester Research analayst Charlene Li's breakdown for putting numbers to blog activity?

(See the chart at http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/01/new_roi_of_blog.html)

How would value editorial over advertising? I'm sure PR guys get that all the time.

 
Submitted by Vlad Zablotskyy on March 27, 2008 - 6:33am.

As I mentioned before, Google Analytics is a great free tool that any one can use. In many other industries number of subscribers determines how popular and influential blogs are. In fact the price of some blogs where determined by factoring in the number of RSS and e-mail subscribers.

I just recently wrote an article how I track "subscription" goals with Google Analytics on my own blog. I thought you may find it interesting:

http://www.go-beyond-mls.com/track-feed-subscribers-with-google-analytic...

Vlad Zablotskyy

 
Submitted by on April 3, 2008 - 10:15pm.

I blog for my local market. My passion is to understand the truth about our market place, good or bad, and share the nuances with whomever cares to read so that they can make better decisions about one of the biggest purchases in their lives.

In 2006-2007, for every 1200-1500 unique visitor to my blog I closed one transaction. In 2008, I think that rate will be lower given the number of defaults and foreclosures in the pipeline this year.

My average transaction was nearly double the area median, I think because Internet shoppers are more sophisticated and have higher disposable incomes. Plus, they're way more fun!

Diane Cohn
Realtor, ABR
Chase International

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