Why do you read the stuff on this site?  Do you follow and get feeds for techie, geeky, hot off the press articles and ideas?  Do you love the idea of writing, being quoted, seeing your name shared around the net on Facebook, Google+ or in a post by a hip blogger?

Yeah, me too.  And when we left off in the last episode of this series I had explained that wanting and craving all the knowledge, sizzle and kudos from people in your hood might just not fill up your coffers with anything BUT kudos.  Money….perhaps not so much.  So here’s some info that you can really take to the bank.  I’m going to let you in on a couple of people and ideas that allowed me to move my real estate blog from an avocation to a valuable tool in my vocation.  And it’s possible your internet strategy might suck.  Yeah, I’m talking to you.

Think Big….But Think Client….Not Agent

(First an apology.  So many people have helped me, and I’ve learned really important things from a simple post, call or face to face meeting, that I’m only going to be mention a few of those folks.  But any of you who know me, and who helped me….you know who you are, and you know how much you’ve given).

To be successful in your quest to have your blog or your web site, your Facebook or Google+ accounts or Twitter generate money for you….you’re going to have to think BIG.  I was fortunate enough to begin reading some blogging that was being done by Kris Berg, a local real estate agent here in the San Diego area.  And what followed from that was an introduction to an unbelievable group of agents, technology folks and hip thinkers who had been brought together by Greg Swann, a real estate agent in the Phoenix, AZ area.  His brainchild, Bloodhound Blog, brought together some of the very brightest and most successful agents and technology thinkers in the U.S., and the topics ranged from real estate law, mortgage insights, web and internet technologies, marketing and staying abreast of companies and players at Zillow and NAR, all the way to music, fiction writing, philosophy and dogs.  I read vociferously, attended and met Greg and many others, including our good friend David Gibbons, and partially because I’m handy with words and a bit of a miscreant, was invited to write for the Bloodhound Blog.

And so…..I was thinking big, but as you’ll see, big stuff about me….not big enough stuff for my clients.

 Skinning Cats and Humble Pie

By now my web site had picked up quite a few links because of my Bloodhound friends, and I had switched to Thesis Theme, which allowed me to really feel like I could control my blog’s success.  Perhaps like yourselves I’d read something interesting, dash off to Google to figure out exactly how to make it happen, and then implement the latest and greatest blog or WordPress fad of the week.  I was….as they say….happening.

But my business (real estate you’ll remember) wasn’t getting any bigger because of my blog.  My head was bigger.  My expenses were bigger.  My technology IQ was bigger.  But my pocketbook….same size.  And as the next year rolled by I found that there were a couple of names, a couple of authors, a couple of themes that were beginning to find a place in almost everything I read and felt to be true.  And their theme was that an awful lot of what the blogging world was doing, a lot of what I was doing, was BS.  (Yeah, BS!).

Jeff Brown (widely known as “Bawldguy”) is one of the most successful and articulate real estate professionals in America.  He’s a no nonsense, get er done type guy, and he talks always about “skinning cats.”  No offense to “cat people”, but this phrase means you’re either doing something, or thinking about doing something.  Jeff was writing that you can’t expect your blog or site to do the work for you.  It’s a tool, but if you think it’s going to “skin the cat” for you, then you’re the tool.

And then there was Brian Brady, “America’s #1 Mortgage Broker”, teaching that you had to be belly to belly, out networking, using Facebook, doing Meetups….or the Google juice you were getting would sour before it could pay dividends.  And meanwhile my new friends Cheryl Johnson and Scott Schang in LA were skinning anything that moved, taking action, gaining clients, implementing web strategies that also involved networking strategies.  I, well I just continued to have great ideas.

You Don’t Need I-deas – You Need I-do’s

At this point in my life, my real estate profession notwithstanding, lots of personal things happened in my life.  They make good stories, and if you’re in San Diego give me a call, buy me a drink, and I’ll reciprocate with a good story and a drink as well.  But we all have our stories, don’t we?  And I was beginning to doubt myself, doubt whether I could move my efforts into blogging and social networking that would pay actual business dividends instead of simply meeting new wonderfully gifted people.  I didn’t need any more ideas.  I needed to start doing.  I needed to start skinning cats.

So through Ryan Hartman I met Chris Johnson.  Both of these guys are to die for.  Funny.  Very talented.  Very outspoken.  Smart.  And Chris gave me a kick in the butt that started me tumbling down a path that has picked up snow, picked up momentum, picked up my attitude, and more importantly, picked up my pocketbook.  Chris took a look at my site, pronounced it mostly “crap”, and proceeded to tell me I was “all over the place.”  What, he asked, was I trying to get across to my audience.  Heck, who WAS my audience?  Was I trying to impress other Realtors, lenders or writers, or was I hoping that if I was “cool enough” some unsuspecting homeowner would want to list his home with me?

Oh by the way, this isn’t Jerry Springer.  I’m not asking for your pity, sympathy, and certainly not for your approval.  I’m just asking you to look at yourself, look at your past practices, and see if somewhere in there any of this sounds familiar.  If it does, keep reading…..

And I knew he was right, of course.  Right up the road Scott Schang, who had started his internet marketing after me, had grown his business 50 fold.  Other people I had helped with my ideas were actually getting 30 to 50 visitors a day to their site…and capturing leads and clients…..selling homes.  I had been kicked and helped up by lots of folks, but I still hadn’t made my way out of the muck.

I Was Getting Virtual Results – So I Changed to Virtual Results

I was getting results, of course.  Just not the kind of results you want if you are expected to bring home the bacon.  My results were actually virtual results (“Almost or nearly as described, but not completely or according to strict definitions” Wikipedia).  I was having success, but as Chris Johnson pointed out, success as what?  I needed to have my compass re-oriented, my sails trimmed, and my destination clear in hand.

Fortunately (and fortune does seem to find me when I’m most lost) I regained contact with a very savvy, opinionated, well seasoned technology and SEO guy by the name of Jim Marks.  I’d run across him at a couple of RE Barcamp meetings, liked his style (which is pretty much “take it or leave it”), and his message seemed clearer to me than most of the other talking heads.  And he shared a secret with me that I’m now going to share with you.

Clients come to the internet to look for homes….not to see how cool you are.  And, he shared, if you’ll simply put home searches at the head of all your marketing you’re going to get results, real results, real leads, from this “virtual” experience we call internet marketing.

So I took his advice and tried it, and I’d like to share a detailed analysis of how changing the emphasis of my blog and internet marketing to a CLIENT ORIENTED approach (not agent oriented) has changed my marketing and sales fortunes for ever.  I’ll do this in my next article, which if you are a real estate professional trying to gain traction in attracting and maintaining internet customers, will be a must read.  And you should come back, because I’m going to tell you how this shift in marketing took me from a dozen or so stragglers a week to 40-50 daily visitors, visitors who are registering, providing names, emails and phone numbers…..so that I can get in front of them and make them paying clients.

If your web site or blog virtually are sucking up your time without paying out dividends in the form of registering clients, and you want to talk about it, give me a call.  Or come back for my last installment in this series where I’ll put some rubber on the road with why and how the Virtual Results approach to SEO and real estate marketing works so well. 

No, I don’t work for these guys.  I’m baring a bit of my soul in hopes that you’ll model this results kind of marketing for your real estate business.