What is a blog? It is a web log, an online chronicle. Think of it as a diary you post on the Internet. People who can e-mail have the technological ability to host a blog.

Chris Bubny, past Director of Community Development for Blogging Systems, a real estate blog marketing and technology provider and the founder of Web Effectual, shares his thoughts, “The real estate industry as a whole is making the plunge into the Web 2.0 phenomenon. New media marketing tools such as blogs are being used to share information, attract search engines, and demonstrate expertise. 77% of buyers now use the Internet to search for a home. Accordingly, it's imperative for real estate agents to build and maintain a strong Internet presence and blogs provide a uniquely effective way to do just that.”

Bubny continues, “Blogs provide a low-cost, high-results tool for networking, community building, competitive differentiation, marketing, sales, customer relations management, media contacts, and collaboration.”

Sara MacLennan, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Johnston in Edmonton and a blogger, explains why blogging benefits Realtors, “Blogging works because search engines love blogs - there is no way to optimize a website for search engines as well as a blog. Also, blogs create an ability to connect with potential clients online; it creates community. The online generation is upon us and these consumers do not respond to newspaper ads or bus benches. They especially don't want to be bothered with cold calls or junk mail. This generation prefers to seek you out, to search for you online and learn as much as they can before contacting a real live person. The blog affords us the opportunity to connect with consumers and demonstrate our expertise when they are only thinking about buying or selling a home. It builds up a level of trust.”

MacLennan shares their blogging story, “When we first started we had a few hundred unique visitors to our blog a month. In September 2006 we had over 3,600 unique visitors and 6,000 page views to our blog which is darn good considering we are a four-person operation in a pretty small market. That's on top of more than 20,000 page views our website received in September. In terms of actual business, about 35% of our business comes from the web after one year of online marketing. Our blog is closely tied into our website so it is tough to say what percentage originates directly from the blog, but most of the clients we've worked with say they found us through our blog.”

Why Should You Blog?

There are many upsides to blogging:

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