Customer comments on this selection.
 Excellent source for Real Estate Bloggers
There are many great books on blogging, this book in particular was extremely helpful to me as a new blogger not only because it relates specifically to my field, but because it helped me with basics and it was easy to read and follow. The book is up-to-date, filled with great resources and examples and recommend it to anyone who is considering blogging. It talks about subjects like finding your voice to finding your audience in order to be successful at blogging.
 A focus on all the wrong things
I delayed buying this book, hoping that it wouldn't be as bad as it proved to be.
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br /It's a muddled brain dump of both good and bad advice about blogging, but with a focus on all the wrong things.
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br /The single biggest problem is that it panders to the standard real estate agent thinking that there's a magic bullet out there that will give the agent an edge over his or her competitors. The current magic bullet is blogging.
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br /Left out of the books is any serious discussion of what should have been the starting point: a blog can't attract an audience without a focus on delivering something of value to a targeted audience.
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br /The authors pay modest homage to this concept, but virtually everything they write undermines it. They encourage agents to write about anything and everything, and tell them what they want to hear: you can be an expert simply by claiming to be one and having a blog.
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br /Agents should spend the time learning something substantive that consumers want to know instead of reading this book.
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br /The popularity of this book will do much to undermine any potential value that real estate blogging has to those agents who want to pursue it as a way of developing, honing and communicating real expertise. An army of idiot brokers will, on the advice of the authors, be babbling on with no focus and will discourage anyone from even looking at the occasional good real estate blog.
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br /Real estate blogging, if the authors of this book find an audience that follows their advice, will be just as useless a field of garbage as real estate agent Web sites have become.
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Blogging Captures the Imagination of the Real Estate Industry
In 2004, however, blogs unexpectedly vaulted into the forefront of major media, and today there are thought to be more than 30 million bloggers contributing on some kind of regular basis - a community that grows by the thousands every single day.
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br /Blogging is rapidly developing into an instrument whose purpose, among others, is to establish an online presence, improve visibility, build a sense of community, maintain an open dialogue for clients and prospects, and offer valuable information - all of which is accomplished in a facade-less, unfiltered, much more candid way.
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br /Therefore, by definition blogging has a huge potential in real estate - both for brokers and agents. It is another untapped, powerful tool for the tech-savvy agent, another hi-tech weapon in the real estate sales arsenal that should be used in tandem with the myriad of Internet-related innovations like websites, search engine optimization, and video and audio broadcasting, to strengthen the agent's overall marketing package and enable him or her to present a homes sale or purchase experience that leaves client expectations in the dust.
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br /As more traditional marketing avenues and vehicles continue to lose market share to their digital cousins, the real estate industry would be wise to gain as much understanding as we can about all of the potential advantages inherent in the organic World Wide Web, and all the new strategies, including blogging. In this new book, Richard expertly details and clarifies this new phenomenon for real estate professionals. It is the best book on blogging for real estate professionals.
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br /Embrace, explore, and engage it. Conquer its intricacies, share in its knowledge base, maximize its huge potential and then set a path to become the real estate blogging authority in your local market.
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br /Stefan Swanepoel
br /Thirteen time author including
br /Real Estate confronts Reality (1997) Real Estate confronts the Future (2004) and Swanepoel Trends Report (2007)
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A great resource for real estate professionals
Real estate agents certainly have a much harder job today than they did in the pre-Internet days. I often wonder how so many of them continue to make a living when there are a variety of online solutions for buying and selling a house. How do they justify their commission? Stand out in the crowd?
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br /One way to become better known as the local real estate expert, and a very good one, I might add, is to consider getting into the blogosphere. Become the well-known real estate expert in your community. Offer all sorts of great insight on how to prep your house for sale or what to look for in your next home purchase.
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br /If you're in the real estate business or know someone who is, Realty Blogging is a "must read." The authors do a fantastic job of putting everything you need to know about blogging in general, but aimed at the real estate market, in a book that's less than 200 pages long. Much of their advice can also be applied outside of blogging (e.g., positioning yourself as the expert and exploiting niches). Another nice touch is that they not only offer coverage of the more popular blogging platforms, they also set up their own, where readers can start a blog in an environment that's very realtor-friendly.
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br /The best real estate agents also seem to be outstanding at personal networking. Blogging is a natural networking extension, but with the added benefits of being much broader and offering 24/7 access. I know a lot of the real estate agents out there are "old school" and all, but I think any agent without a blog is really missing a huge opportunity. If you're the new real estate agent in the area, what better way to build brand recognition and a following than starting a blog to share your real estate wisdom and advice?
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br /I also like the form factor of this one (small trim size, less than 200 pages, inexpensively priced) and wonder what other vertical segments might be right for a blogging book like this...
A Must-Have for Any Bloggers' Library...
Man! I thought I was inspired to be a Blog-master before the book showed up on my front porch! Even after I read only a few chapters my mind was about to *POP!*- but in a good way... Realty Blogging was referred to my by a fellow blogger, so I ordered it right away. See, I am new to the Blogosphere and am NOT very tech-savvy, not even a little bit. So, there were a lot of "unknowns" to me about blogging. Besides the fact that this book was crammed packed with useful information, what I LOVED was that it was not written in "Geek-Speak" -I could understand everything. (Yay!) I also appreciated how it broke down all the different facets of blogging- what it is, why a real estate agent should do it, and how to effectively maintain a blog... It is a valuable reference book for any real estate agent in any stage of blogging. Because it was so packed with info., I will be able to reference it again and again as I grow as a blogger. Buy it. Read it. Keep it handy.
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