It’s not a secret that blogging is a long term commitment. If you are expecting to start blogging today and start receiving leads tomorrow — well, you better think again and you should not even start the process. Blogging is a marathon, and you’ve got to be committed to the long term in order to be successful. Remember, you don’t have to write every single day — you just have to remain consistent.

This is geared toward new agents who are just beginning, but maybe those that have been blogging awhile will gain a nugget or two as well.

Let’s get started (make sure you have Google Analytics installed on your blog before you start)..

Month 1

I’ve already written a 30 day strategy for those just starting their blog, so you should follow that for the first 30 days of your real estate blogging career.

Month 2

With month 2, the focus should be — surprise, surprise — more content. Additionally, start targeting a few local reporters to build relationships with.

Week 1: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], A must see, amazing listing in [city name], 5 Hole in the Walls You’ve Never Heard of in [city name]

Week 2: Spend two hours reading content written by local reporters. Leave at least 5 comments on articles they’ve written. Write a post on your own blog with your thoughts about a topic that one of the reporters you’ve targeted wrote about and link to their article in your post. Make sure to email the reporter a link to the post.

Week 3: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], Random article about whatever is on your mind, [business name] – Why it’s my choice for dry cleaning service in [city name].

Week 4: 5 most walkable homes in [city name], Listings between 300-500k in [city name], Random – pick any topic being discussed in the media and write a post with your opinion on the subject.

Month 3

Month 3’s focus is — more CONTENT. Try as you might, you can’t run away from this content thing.

Week 1: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], Try creating a video answering a question you have recently answered via email & upload the video to YouTube (& embed it into a blog post), My 3 favorite outdoor activities in [city name].

Week 2: 3 biggest price drops on listings in [city name], Current [city name] mortgage rates and what they mean to you

Week 3: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], [neighborhood name] – [city name] neighborhood of the week, 5 day care providers to interview in [city name]

Week 4: Most expensive listings in [city name], My 5 favorite coffee spots in [city name], Film another short video answering another question from your inbox and post it to YouTube & embed it into a blog post

Month 4

By now, you should have at least one decent relationship with a local journalist covering your market. And, oh yea, did I mention you’ve got to write more content this month?

Week 1: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], [store name] – the best hardware spot in [city name], The best 3 thai restaurants in [city name].

Week 2: Email your best media contact with three potential stories they may be interested in (hint, what are people in your area interested in?), Listings between 700-900k in [city name]

Week 3: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], [neighborhood name] – [city name] neighborhood of the week, Contact information and addresses of elementary schools in [city name]

Week 4: Spend 2-3 hours pouring through your Google Analytics data. Look at your most popular pages and what search terms visitors are finding those posts from and write another post about that topic (making sure to link back to your original post somewhere in your new article).

Month 5

You should start to see a decent amount of uptick in your traffic numbers if you’ve been blogging for 5 months.

Week 1: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], Current [city name] mortgage rates and what they mean to you.

Week 2: Spend 30 minutes a day each day this week and read other articles about your city. Make sure to leave comments on every article with an intelligent thought relating to the article (DON’T just say “Great post”).

Week 3: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], The 5 newest listings in [city name] for the week of [date range]

Week 4: [neighborhood name] – [city name] neighborhood of the week

Month 6

Week 1: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], The best outdoor festivals in [city name] for [year]

Week 2: [Restaurant name] – my favorite Sushi restaurant in [city name], [neighborhood name] – [city name] neighborhood of the week

Week 3: Real Estate Market Update for [city name], [restaurant name] – Why it’s the best Italian food in [city name].

Week 4: 5 most expensive listings in [city name], Random – write about whatever you want (does not have to be related to real estate), My favorite outdoor activities in [city name].

What are you waiting for? You’ve got a blogging marathon ahead of you. Get started.

And of course, it goes without saying that you should leave any ideas I missed in the comments here.

Note: There is a revised and updated 6 Month Blogging Strategy doc as part of Geek Estate Pro.

[photo via hubspot]