Self-Financing Real Estate Blog June 27, 2006
John Vanhara
Here is the new and smart concept. I like businesses which are able to self finance themselves so I don’t have to put too much money in them.
Here is what you can do with your real estate blog. First if you don’t have too much time it is good idea to find copywriter who will write for your blog. Expect to pay $50-$100 per month for daily posts. At the same time place ads or sell links on your blog and get the $50-$100 back in advertising income. Do that for 6-12 months. Grow traffic and if you will feel you don’t want to sell links anymore take them off. That way you grow your real estate advertising medium with no out of pocket cost.
I use this concept myself and it works great. Let me know how it works for you.
Detailed instructions how to upgrade Wordpress March 18, 2006
John Vanhara
I have spend last few days upgrading different blogs we use. There are great instructions for everything related to Wordpress, but sometimes it is hard to find what you are looking for. So if you are going to upgrade Wordpress check this: http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress#Detailed_Instructions
Changing picture in Wordpress March 16, 2006
John Vanhara
Kubrick is one of the most popular theme in Wordpress. Here is a great explanation how to change the header picture.
I am no graphic designer and it took me about 15 minutes to do it. But for this small website blog that’s enough for now. Check this Atlanta Real Estate blog with my new header picture.
Blogging for hire January 26, 2006
John Vanhara
Chris Garret in Could You Blog For Hire explains how you can get someone writing for your blog ….
“There are a few options, you can freelance your writing to companies or even “Ghost Blog”. Ghost Blogging involves writing for a company as if you are part of the company. You “become” a member of the staff…”
If you are afraid to start your own real estate blog, because you don’t have enough time to write or basically don’t feel like writer, why don’t you hire someone to write for you blog? It is not expensive and you can have fresh content on your site every day.
How many visitors will bring your real estate blog? January 25, 2006
John Vanhara
Some real estate agents will never do any action, because they don’t believe they can do any change. I know that from my own experience. When I give advice to someone and say it will work and will cost them nearly nothing they rarely believe me (but what motivation I have to lie? I am not selling them anything.). On the other hand they often believe some sales person who tells them to buy website, their marketing tool or advertising, which will bring nearly miracles and all they need to do is to write a check. Often signing contract for at least 12 months is required, in case they really see it is not working for them so they cannot go back:-)
I don’t believe in crap like that. There are many tools which doesn’t cost money (like free blog software Wordpress). Such tools can bring substantial results with small effort. But I am very frustrated when talking to many agents (often inside my own company) to see they rather believe in writing check or waste time instead of doing something what makes sense and doesn’t cost much.
Therefore I am bringing some real examples. This was a real estate web for commercial real estate with very mediocre number of visitors (30-40 a day). That’s not enough to bring substantial amount of leads. And it as flat like that for about year or maybe even longer.
We have placed a WordPress blog on this site in December 2005. As you can see from the stats the number of unique daily visitors nearly doubled in December (average 61 per day). January is already on 113 unique visitors per day!
If you don’t do any action with your real estate website even after I post examples like that then there is no help! Success is very close, but you have to look at right places. My only reason why I am publishing information like this is total frustration with real estate marketing companies and the way they treat real estate agents. You don’t need to pay hundreds or thousands to make hundreds thousands in commissions. The tools are here. Just use them!
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