Why start a blog plus 10 tips to make it work.

2. 1. Own your domain. Move away from having something like yoursite.blogspot.com, or yoursite.typepad.com or yoursite.wordpress.com. Nothing against those platforms, but if you expect your blog to be a legitimate part of your business, you need to get serious about it and invest some time, money and energy. It's more professional if your domain sits as yoursite.com and you can set up your own email as [email_address] . When choosing a domain, go for short and memorable. It's easier to remember citynameviews.com for example than it is to remember cityname-homes-for-sale.com. Basically, I'd avoid dashes in the url if possible. It's easier to spell out, speak, and remember.

3. 2. Consider hiring a professional designer or at the very least, purchase a professional theme like the one's offered by StudioPress.com. A good site design, in addition to content, goes a long way in establishing trust with your site visitors.

4. 3. Once your site is ready, start promoting it everywhere . Not in a spammy way, but do get the word out. Include it in all of your print materials. Email your database to share your new site and ask for feedback. Share it through your various social networks with people who are willing to share it for you. Do what you can to help get the work out initially.

5. 4. Comment on other blogs. I t hink @MitchJoel said it best, “the best way to grow your own community, is by playing in other people's communities.” In other words, to get noticed, you have to be willing to get out there an engage elsewhere first.

6. 5. Keep a notepad handy to jot down content ideas every where you go. Personally, I prefer moleskine's. When a new post idea pops into my head, I jot down tentative post titles and fill out a brief outline. I do this while I'm at the cafe, when I'm at the bookstore, during lunch and just about any time inspiration strikes. This way, I have an endless database of content ideas I can refer to when it's time to write a new post.

7. 6. People love to share great content. As David Meerman Scott said in his book “World Wide Rave,” people are less interested in your products and services and are more interested in finding solutions to their own problems. So the best way to attract a captive audience is to create content that's helpful in nature. Think tutorials, How To's, and share Case Studies on how others are being successful. Not only will they gravitate to your content, they'll want to share your content as a result of how helpful it is. .

8. 7. Make it easy for people to share your content . The best way to do this is by enabling social sharing options like the Twitter RT Button, the Facebook Like & Share Buttons, the LinkedIn Share Button, and share via email. But don't over do it. Remember, less is more. Just make sure you're making it easy for people to share your content if and when they want to.

9. 8. They say the money is in the mailing list. So start building that database early with an opt-in form to your newsletter – the key is to send people unique, relevant and timely content that they won't find on the website.

10. 10. Install a web analytics tool and start tracking site visitors, totals and traffic sources . Google Analytics is great and so is sitemeter.com. If you really want to step it up though, I'd check out visistat.com.

11. 10. Publish fresh new content often. Remember, the success of your blog is dependent on your ability to consistently develop fresh new content. When you publish something new, you're giving readers a reason to come back and visit/engage with your content. When you don't publish something new, you give them a reason to replace your blog with something else to read.

12. Ricardo Bueno Speaker ricardobueno.info Author, Real Estate Blog Topics realestateblogtopics.com Blogger ricardobueno.com Follow me: @Ribeezie