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Best to disregard people who don't want to be entertained. Sour people can't give you enough money to make spending time with them worthwhile.
Best to disregard people who want only to be entertained. They will make you yearn for sour people.
Best to disregard people who do not agree with me. Who the heck knows what's going on under their hoods?
Seriously, I liked your 10%--20% thinking. And if you love real estate, it will be difficult to categorize good writing with real estate themes.
And NEVER swipe photos from Silverfall's blog. Never. Ever.
I kinda liked my "improved" photos.
You know I made real estate highly entertaining that day.
Work on having a robust "back" to the website, because that is where success is made. Nobody wants to go to a website and see puffery and fluff and somebody else's idea of "entertainment." They want to see your expertise, and they want it unencumbered by irrelevant text.
Or to use a different metaphor: You're using the "Cow model" of the web user, who stands still and happily chews on whatever text you feed it. The reality is the "Shark Model", where web users never "read" websites -- they scan them like sharks, always moving until they find what they want.
That's an intriguing and apt metaphor, so let me carry it further. Every decent real estate website has a property search feature and some local data. Most sites also have a "For Buyers" and "For Sellers" section with generic real estate articles. The sharks see this stuff as "tuna" - basic food that they can get almost anywhere - and will eat it as needed.
But sharks love to eat squid, much more than tuna. Unfortunately, squid are harder to find. In my eyes, the squid are the distinctive website personality and the engaging original content (which may or may be done in an "entertaining" style). When a shark swims by, I want to show that my spot has both tuna and squid on today's menu. Furthermore, I want the chance to teach the shark that my site is a good place to eat regularly because squid are plentiful here.
And I don't mind that the shark always uses the drive-through and gets the meal "to go". I mostly care that they keep coming back to my place when hungry, instead of somewhere else.
That's an intriguing and apt metaphor, so let me carry it further. Every decent real estate website has a property search feature and some local data. Most sites also have a "For Buyers" and "For Sellers" section with generic real estate articles. The sharks see this stuff as "tuna" - basic food that they can get almost anywhere - and will eat it as needed.
But sharks love to eat squid, much more than tuna. Unfortunately, squid are harder to find. In my eyes, the squid are the distinctive website personality and the engaging original content (which may or may be done in an "entertaining" style). When a shark swims by, I want to show that my spot has both tuna and squid on today's menu. Furthermore, I want the chance to teach the shark that my site is a good place to eat regularly because squid are plentiful here.
And I don't mind that the shark always uses the drive-through and gets the meal "to go". I mostly care that they keep coming back to my place when hungry, instead of somewhere else.
Moderation and balance are key, I think.
I wrote a blog on ActiveRain about property tax revaluation in 2008.
It has over 21000 clicks. And briefly, GOOG ranked it higher than the Wake County Dept. of Revenue tax site. Pretty cool.
I consider it to be a real estate-oriented post.
But, one of the real keys is that it was timely, with hot keywords.
But, I get more contacts from my neighborhood posts.
Most interestingly, folks on AR often say their posts about merchants and festivals, and other non-real estate community events create more clicks and contacts. Many times they are nuisance contacts, but they give the opportunity to make a friend.
But, I get more contacts from my neighborhood posts.
Most interestingly, folks on AR often say their posts about merchants and festivals, and other non-real estate community events create more clicks and contacts. Many times they are nuisance contacts, but they give the opportunity to make a friend.
Very interesting points, Mike! I took a quick look at my website which currently has a 75% real estate / 25% non-real estate division in the articles.
Using the past two months of data, my 10 most popular posts are evenly split between real estate topics and "other." And the top three posts cover topics that would appeal equally across the country. So it looks like I need to beef up the "local" aspects of my site to reach the right people. Thanks for the tip!
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