North San Diego County Association of REALTORS Wordpress Webinar 9.10

To WORDPRESS or NOT To WORDPRESS Bring More Leads to You NSDCAR Webinar 9/16/10 Jeff Dowler

Some Goals…  WHY have a Real Estate Blog  WHY Wordpress  HOW to Create a Wordpress Blog  Wordpress.com VS. a Self-Hosted Blog  Setting up a Self-Hosted Blog  Lead Generation  Resources

What About Those Clients? Where do you find them? How do you find them? Where is your next one coming from?

The Old Way: The New Way Meeting face to face, events, telephone calls, referrals, cold calling, postcards, print ads Social networking – what we have always done and are doing, but now can do in a new way

Why a Real Estate Blog?  Branding  Communication  Build meaningful relationships  Demonstrate your expertise  Niche marketing – Sellers, Buyers, Community  Search engine optimization (SEO) and web positioning  Competitive edge – Not many are blogging (NAR says 4% of REALTORS®)

More Reasons Why…  Build self-awareness  Build critical thinking  Develop your reputation  Establish credibility  Improve your writing skills  Acquire information as you research  Lead Generation  Have fun

Why WORDPRESS?  Popular  Most Highly Recommended  Google Loves It  Functionality  FREE  Self-hosting Option with Low Cost

Setting Up a Wordpress Blog  Go to Wordpress.com  Sign up for a free account  Give your blog a name (mybestblog.wordpress.com)  Complete the information about yourself  Decide on your settings (can be changed)  Pick your template

Wordpress.com

Sign Up for an Account

Next Steps  GoDaddy.com  Select a URL to use for marketing (MyBestBlog.com)  Purchase the URL (2 year minimum)  Forward NEW URL to your Wordress.com site (MyBlog.Wordpress.com)

I Have a Blog…Now What??  Write compelling content  Add photos  Add video  Schedule your posts  Be interesting and informative  Write regularly

Setting Up a Listing Blog  Go to Wordpress.com and sign in to your account  Create a new blog  Give your blog a name (123mainstreet.wordpress.com)  Purchase your marketing URL (123MainStreet.com)  Start writing your posts – stagger the publishing dates  Add photos and video

Disadvantages of Wordpress.com  You are limited to their templates (with some flexibility of the look and widgets you can add)  You don’t control nor own your blog  You can’t have an IDX on your blog

Advantages of a Self-Hosted Blog  You control the content  Thousands of themes to personalize  Numerous widgets and plug-ins to enhance functionality and make it YOURS  Can add an IDX (e.g., Diverse Solutions, 1 Park Place, Wolfnet, IDX Broker)  You don’t need to know HTML to easily update your site  Good SEO

What’s Needed for Self Hosting  Domain (e.g., from GoDaddy.com)  Hosting site  Wordpress files downloaded from Wordpress  Ideas for your blog – look, title, focus/niche, functionality, pages, categories  Comments – how will you handle them?  Web Developer (unless you are pretty technical yourself and have time)

Self-Hosting - Domain  GoDaddy.com probably least expensive  Buy for at least 2 years (NOT spam)  Think of your keywords for your niche – geographic, demographic – what will consumers look for??  Consider buying variations of your URL

Self-Hosting – Server  Pick a server to host your blog  BlueHost is $6.95.month  www.WebHostingGeeks.com for a review of the 10 top hosting sites (from about $2/month to almost $13/month)

Final Thoughts  Make a Wordpress Blog part of your on-line marketing and lead generation  Create a plan – THINK about what you want to do  Consider your audience/niche and who you are trying to reach  Reach out to the many resources that are available to you – people, tutorials, websites, webinars, books  Don’t stay behind the computer

LEAD GENERATION Remain top-of-mind ~ Write regularly Meaningful content Issues affecting buyers and sellers Focus on a niche Knowledge and expertise Make it interesting and useful Call to action Contact information Market it ~ Don’t Keep Your Blog a Secret

Resources  ActiveRain – I can invite you  E-books  RE Bar Camps (http://www.facebook.com/REBarCampCAR.EXPO)  YouTube.com tutorials  Tech Tuesday (C.A.R. in Anaheim)  Send me an email – JDowler@remax.net – for a list of great articles and some e-books

North San Diego County Association of REALTORS Wordpress Webinar 9.10

by Jeff Dowler on Sep 24, 2010

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North San Diego County Association of REALTORS Wordpress Webinar 9.10 — Presentation Transcript