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As we enter into the golden age of blogging, and the maturity of social media websites like Facebook, Linkedin, ActiveRain, and others. I’ve begun to see a trend emerging among real estate professionals. Many of them simply don’t care about social networking, reading other blogs, participating in a community, or contributing in any way. Does anyone else see that?
In some respects I even see that happening in my own online experience. The hundreds of feeds in my Bloglines reader just don’t do it for me like they used to. I broke my addiction to points on ActiveRain, and I’m totally bored with websites like myspace.
Maybe it’s just me… but there seems to be a similar sentiment with other bloggers that I talk to out there. The focus has shifted more towards lead generation, and monetization. Gone are my 2004 blogging days where I was simply excited just to receive 1 comment.
As we usher in a new generation of hungry bloggers, what will we see? Will they spend alot of their time in social media or jump straight for the money and bypass all the time wasting sites out there?
Maybe I’m just growing weary of the number of options. Who is able to manage 50 different profiles anyway? The People I’ve seen that do it effectively are the full time guys that make a living from it based on advertising or some other model… That’s great for them, but what about the real estate agent that only has 2 hours per week to develop an online presence?
Waste 30 minutes on facebook customizing your profile, take 15 minutes on Activerain to make a couple of comments, take another 15 to invite 2 friends to Linkedin, take 30 minutes browsing your rss reader, another 15 minutes reading top stories on digg… and what does that leave you? 15 minutes to actually spend time writing a blog post.
As I see it, there are a few solutions to this problem…
Define Your Goal:
How will you achieve your goal?
Here are some strategies, assuming you want to generate leads through blogging:
- Be diligent to write 3–4 new posts a week. Most of these should be about a local market
- Put yourself on a strict regimen to blog. Look at it like an appointment with your computer
- Block out your time: 1 hour writing, 30 minutes reading, 20 minutes commenting, 30 minutes researching, etc.
- If you want to network with other bloggers or real estate professionals, only do it to generate referral business
- There is nothing wrong with enjoying your blogging efforts, just stay focused on your goals.
How will you avoid getting sidetracked and wasting time?
- Don’t visit Myspace or Facebook during business hours (unless you have an exact strategy for generating business from them)
- Don’t waste time on Digg, Reddit, and other social bookmarking sites looking for something interesting to read
- Don’t use your Stumble toolbar unless you have a clear strategy to use it properly to drive traffic
- Don’t wander aimlessly around on the web looking for content… instead, set up an rss reader and block time out for reading
- Don’t waste time participating in Active Rain only for the points
- If you want to harness the power of the internet to generate business, cut out those time wasting activities that sidetrack you from the important stuff.
You have to ask yourself, “am I doing this for money, or is it just a hobby?” The focused person who can answer that question definitively will be successful.
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Related posts:
- Socialize Your Media
- Project Blogger… A Competition For Blogging Coaches
- 5 Reasons to Start Blogging Today
- You Know You’re a Social Media Rock Star When…
- Is the Stress of Blogging Literally Killing You?
October 5th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Good post Justin. Just found you through a link on another blog.
I am new to the blogosphere, so I am struggling to find time to do things I feel I need to do and constantly thinking I do not have time to do enough. Your post gives me some great guidelines to work by.
Thanks!
October 6th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Jason - thanks for a practical game plan - cause I still need time to actually sell real estate to the leads that come in!
October 6th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Oops - Justin - I am having a totally blonde morning - misspelled your name and left mine out - Ok - shows I can’t answer my kids and blog at the same time - lol - Cyndee Haydon
October 7th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Justin, I’ve found myself struggling with keeping up. Your post is very pertinent to where I am. I think scheduling the time and limiting unfocused searches will help me with addressing some of the blogging burnout. Thanks!
October 12th, 2007 at 3:28 am
Justin-
How do I set-up an rss reader and what purpose does that serve?
MJ
October 12th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
We work so hard working our business that we don’t have time to work on our business! Great post Justin and just when I was starting to feel the screen sucking me in last night. Thanks Janis Gagliardi
October 12th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Hi MJ,
There are a number of different reasons to use an RSS reader. One of which is to have an easy place to go to read all of your RSS feeds. These could include blogs, news websites, etc. Once you place the feed into your reader, you can read everything in one easy place.
My reader of choice is: Bloglines.com
October 13th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Excellent post Justin. I was just coming around to the very same way of thinking. You did a good job of pointing the way out of the maze.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:09 am
Justin - It can be so easy to lose focus and think we are busy because we spend hours online working on our online presence. But many of the things you pointed out really don’t generate business and that is what this is all about. I like how you say to set an appointment and block out the time. - Ashley
November 6th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Justin,
That was a very helpful post. I definitely struggle with knowing where to put my energy and time (warm market vs. internet, etc), and this helped me to think more about that. Thanks!
November 6th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I almost feel this blog was written about me! I started out on Active Rain and have became moderatly successful. THEN, through others links and curiousity, found all these different “feed engines’? I found you on Digg. Point is, for a guy like me, how much is too much? You are absolutely right, I can’t keep track of all this and run my business,but, if I don’t, I won’t have much of a business! Catch 22
I like the comment on the schedule. Simple, but we-I tend to loose track of the simple ideas to keep things manageable. Do you have a post on on basics, like one.
Get this bar, subscribe to this, comment on that lol, just lost here! Forgive the link http://www.activerain.com/jeffselan
November 10th, 2007 at 3:22 am
Nice post.. I can see how people become addicted to some of these sites and can waste a ton of time. They say, “Time is money.” we should spend it reaching out to our clients..
November 12th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Hi Jason, Thanks for this post. It’s so important to have a game plan for this process. The tips the provide are truly helpful tools to assess where to spend time to get the most benefit from blogging efforts.
November 14th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Hi Justin,
I noted that you pointed out to readers not to be concerned about the points on AR - the point system allows one to satisfy their ego.
I truly wonder at times why a real estate agent should post material there and not on their own blog?
January 7th, 2008 at 5:45 am
I agree with Glenn–why would a real estate agent not post material on their own blog??
February 5th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Great post! I too have decided I need to take a more direct line to prospecting and assisting people with thier real estate needs and not just doing the bloggin other activities for entertainment. As more time goes on more agents will just focus thier efforts to lead generation and online presents.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Excellent suggestions, Jason. Thank you for clearing a few things up for me. I read or hear about a lot of the social networking sites that you have mentioned and have spent time settting up profiles. Why? Because I thought that was someone that I should be doing. But what I really need to do is to stay focused on keep on blogging to reach my goal of generating leads.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for the tips. I struggle with this myself even though I haven’t been blogging that long!