The Content Problem – and a Couple Potential Solutions
“What do I write about?” and “I don’t have time to write”
It’s the classic content problem. I hear those two sentiments almost daily from real estate agents around the country. Once you have a blog or website (ideally, they should be integrated into one website) setup, you still have to attract traffic to it for it to produce business for you. Even the best converting websites on the planet are largely worthless if you can’t get traffic to them.
Content is important for two reasons:
- Traffic acquisition – quality unique content is the biggest driver of organic search traffic.
- Engagement – once you attract traffic, you want to keep them interested with fresh content to maximize the chances they end up as return traffic.
For those that don’t want to produce content, here are a couple options to consider:
Hire a Freelance Writer or Virtual Assistant: Freelance writers are a great way to populate your website with great 100% unique content on a consistent basis. Frankly, given how many times I hear the complaint about the time it takes to produce content, I’m surprised more agents and brokers don’t take this route. Cost is across the board, depending on the experience and quality of the writer you’re hiring.
Bring the Blog: They write real estate and mortgage content on a daily basis and automatically post that content to your blog so there is always something new to read. The content is generic, but they do substitute your keywords into the content where possible. Here is an example blog post. I’ve known Dan Green a long time, and anything he does is something to take seriously in my mind. Cost is $57 per month.
Or, you could employ both tactics at once to increase both your engagement once you have attracted someone and maximize the chances of attracting organize SEO traffic.
How are you handling your content problem?
Mark Jacobs
Posted at 15:32h, 26 AprilGreat post, content is king
Intown Elite
Posted at 13:40h, 27 AprilDoes “Bring the Blog” post the same articles on all of their customers’ blogs? Could run into a duplicate content issue with Google.
drewmeyers
Posted at 16:42h, 27 AprilYes, the content is the same. But they swap out keywords where possible. BTB content is an engagement thing, not a traffic acquisition/SEO thing — at least IMHO.
Chris Adams
Posted at 17:12h, 29 AprilAlso, duplicate content problems/penalties only apply when the same content appears on your site more than once. If the same content is being found across multiple websites, then it’s simply a matter of Google deciding which is the original source and thus who gets the credit – all the other sites don’t get penalized, instead they just don’t get the benefit. i.e. it’s a neutral position.
Intown Elite
Posted at 13:19h, 10 MayThat’s why I said duplicate content “issue” as opposed to “penalty”. It’s most likely that I would not be considered the “original source” and therefore would not “get the credit.” Sorry, not for me.
John Evan Miller
Posted at 16:26h, 27 AprilThe hiring of a freelance writer is definitely a great idea–that way you can spend your time focusing on the bigger picture while the freelance writer can do what they do best–develop content.
Chris Adams
Posted at 17:10h, 29 AprilI have mixed feelings about outsourcing the writing. Something is definitely better than nothing, but at the same time it should really be stressed that the agent put together their own material. Even if they couldn’t write more than a couple articles a month, I think that would be plenty adequate.
The main reason outsourced writing doesn’t work is that it is often very generic and rehashed material. Consumers can sniff weak content in a heart beat because they’re used to such high quality material everywhere else they go (movies, ads, news, TV, etc.).
One alternative for those agents who feel they can’t write is to write anyway and send off the semi-finished article to a editor to have it spruced up and polished.
Clarifying My View on the Content Problem | | GeekEstate BlogGeekEstate Blog
Posted at 06:33h, 06 May[…] I wrote about the content problem, I mentioned two options for those who don’t want to create their own content. The fact […]
The Only Unique Content You Have -- Is YOU - GeekEstate Blog
Posted at 15:40h, 08 August[…] been thinking more about the content problem lately. One of the best ways to generate traffic is to create great […]
Going Deep with Custom Local Content in 2014 - GeekEstate Blog
Posted at 10:10h, 30 December[…] organic, high quality traffic to your site. I’ve written about hyper local blogging and the content problem (clarifying post here) multiple […]