Blogging provides real estate agents with a huge potential to position themselves for success. However, many of them are not taking advantage of the opportunity to do so.  Through blogging, REALTORS® can 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 an unfiltered direct way.

Lead generation is also a key reason why real estate professionals should be engaged in blogging.  Not only can blogging gain search engine optimization (SEO), in other words, placement in search engine searches, but through providing answers to relevant and accurate answers to consumer questions, agents can be “experts” to potential clients and therefore gain the trust of buyers and sellers.

So, what then is a blog?
According to Wikipedia, a “blog” is (a blend of the term web log)[1] a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.  Or perhaps a blog can be described as a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging.” Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries.” A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger.” A blog comprises text, hypertext, images and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other files).

10 Reasons to Start a Blog:

  1. Express your thoughts and opinions
  2. To promote or market yourself and/or services and/or a product (listings for example in real estate)
  3. To help people by providing answers to questions or information
  4. Establish yourself as an expert
  5. Connect with others like yourself
  6. To make a difference
  7. To stay knowledgeable and active in a particular field or topic
  8. Stay connected and engaged
  9. To make money
  10. To have fun and be creative

Did you know that you have a free HAR blog?  As a Houston REALTOR®, you are one of the best sources of information for area schools, neighborhoods, communities and local issues. Use that knowledge to your advantage by writing about it in your blog. Your blog can reach millions of online users and you will be promoting yourself and your knowledge. All you have to do is create your blog on HAR.com. Blogging through HAR provides a great platform to promote yourself. Because HAR.com is a high-ranking Web site on Google, the likelihood of your blog being indexed is much higher.  To sign up for your free blog, you will need to log in to the HAR Members Only Login. From the Dashboard Menu – Click on Tools – Under Tools, click on Manage Your Blog.

Here are a couple of real estate blogging success stories:

Rachel Rosson
Rachel Rosson with Greenwood King Properties created a post on her HAR Member Blog announcing that the West U Little League Seniors won the World Series for the first time. When conducting a search in Google, her blog was indexed and ranked No. 4.

Carolyn Hufstetler
Carolyn Hufstetler with Beth Wolff GMAC Real Estate created a post on her HAR Member Blog about an article she read in Forbes magazine that mentions Houston as one of the best places to make a living in the United States. When conducting a search in Google, her blog was indexed and ranked No. 3.


Jack Perry
Jack Perry with Greenwood King Properties created a post on his HAR Member Blog about his favorite townhome community in Houston: Ethan’s Glen Townhomes. When conducting a search in Google, his blog was indexed and ranked No. 5.

10 Ways to Start a Blog and be Successful at Blogging:

  1. Define your goals
  2. Know your audience
  3. Be consistent
  4. Be inviting
  5. Be visible
  6. Be persistent
  7. Take risks
  8. Ask for help
  9. Keep learning
  10. Be yourself

In conclusion, the key benefit of blogging is that it’s a low-cost marketing device with ease of web publishing.  It also enables creation of a web presence and reputation, establishing great social media presence, possible search engine optimization and demonstrates your knowledge and expertise in defined areas. Blogging can also generate media and connect potential PR opportunities.