Why Blog?

December 4, 2007 |

The video above I recorded yesterday from the open house I was holding. The comments and the blog post on AgentGenius that I mentioned can be found here.

While I was at the NAR convention at the blogger Q&A booth, the most popular question I heard from non-bloggers was, “how much business do you get from your blog?” The honest answer is, “I don’t really know.” As a direct result of the blog, I know I have had at least one listing, and one buyer contacted me through the blog. That is in almost 2 years of blogging. Some of you are looking at that and thinking, “man, what a crappy ROI.” If that is your attitude, than blogging is not for you. This is not to say that you can’t use blogging as a lead generation tool, there are certainly good ways of doing that, but as with any business tool, if you are looking for instant success, you may want to keep on looking.

I do not look at my blog merely as a lead generation tool. If it does generate leads for me, that is just wonderful. The fact of the matter is that I have derived plenty of benefit from blogging that has more to do with enhancing and strengthening my business than it does with generating business.

I know that blogging has made me a better agent. It has forced me to stay in tune with issues and find resources that I might otherwise have ignored or simply been unaware of. It has helped me form relationships with people who have deeply affected me and the way that I practice real estate. All of this has also been a benefit to my clients.

Of course I blog for me, but I blog more for YOU. I blog for you whether you are a Realtor or a consumer; a customer or a client. I want everyone to have as much access to as many valuable resources as possible, and blogging is a way for me to do that. Blogging also allows me to start and hold conversations with clients and customers. It allows me to establish rapport with them, and it allows them to get to know be a little bit before we ever work together.

The benefits of blogging is something that I have been thinking about more and more in the last few days. It is a topic that you will read and hear a lot more about as I try to explain to you something that might not be obvious, but is powerful once it is realized.

The benefits to blogging are numerous and real, even if they might be virtually impossible to quantify. That’s the funny thing about passion– it can be like that sometimes.

Posted by Daniel Rothamel | Filed Under AgentGenius, Blogging, Industry Issues 

Comments

5 Responses to “Why Blog?”

  1. ines on December 4th, 2007 2:46 am

    Hi Daniel - blogging is definitely a good way to supplement your marketing strategy and I agree that you should not only look at is as a lead-generation tool. But the reality is that for a lot of people, blogging contributes to a great percentage of their business.
    We are better agents because of blogging and many of us are becoming the experts in our local markets.

    We still use some traditional marketing tools, but can also tell you we have changed our marketing strategy because of the changing market - a lot of those “traditional” marketing methods were not giving us results.

    Thanks for your detailed answer by the way - I really appreciate you taking the time (next time don’t get me dizzy thought) : )

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  2. Michael Bergin on December 4th, 2007 4:12 am

    Thanks for the input. I have recently signed up for a blog and I wanted to talk with other Realtors regarding their experiances and reasons for blogging. Very helpful.

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  3. Kristal Kraft on December 5th, 2007 11:41 pm

    Blogging increases your awareness about your surroundings. I find myself pondering a blog topic and learning new things all the time. It’s fun to share what I learn, it’s also very rewarding.

    It frustrates me when Realtors want to know the ROI on every move they make. Sometimes you do things just because.

    I do believe what we give out to the universe, we get back.

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  4. Daniel Rothamel on December 6th, 2007 12:35 am

    Great input, everyone.

    There are tremendous rewards to blogging. Not all of them are directly monetary. If money is the only reward you seek, well . . .

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  5. Liz Luby on December 15th, 2007 12:11 am

    Hi Daniel,
    I’m very new to the real estate blogging community…and to posting on other people’s blogs. But I really like your thoughts here so I decided to speak up. The video elements on your blog are great! I found your “Why Blog” video this morning and played a couple of soundbites in a little presentation I was asked to give to some of the REALTORS in my office. I doubt that any of them will actually try blogging, but at least you’ve given me some inspiring and neat ideas. Best of luck to you, Liz

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