My Projects
Overlook Neighborhood Real Estate – #6 of 45
It Halloween Sunday and I am squeezing in my daily post. My tip of the day is to get the production schedule such that there is a day off. The goal for next weekend is all post for Saturday and Sunday are scheduled to run and any content above that is fun creative stuff not obligated.
Overlook neighborhood Real Estate
The Overlook Neighborhood is home to Addidas World Headquarter which used to be a hospital. We consider it one of the close in core neighbohods with ewasy access to town via light rail and just west of Mississipi and Alberta Arts. Homes for sale in the Overlook Neighborhood tend to range between $250,000 to $450,00 and built between 1920-1950 with some recent modern infill.
Hawthorne Neighborhood Real Estate #5 of 45
Consistency and focus are not my strong suite, but I am loving this project a week into it. I strongly suggest you find a topic and produce one piece of content per day for 30 days. Don’t phone it in! focus on one “term” that you already know brings you benefit and hit it hard for 30 days.
Hawthorne District Real Estate
Homes for sale in the Hawthorne District range from about $250-600K. The housing styles tend to be craftsman and bungalows. Hawthorne, Belmont and Division St. create possibly the best neighborhood on the planet if you want to stroll to great food. If your looking for an eclectic vibe Hawthorne District is worth checking out.
Hawthorne District Real Estate Page
Forest Heights Real Estate – #4 of 45
OK we are settling into a routine with our team to produce our basic neighborhood landing pages. The first few days felt a little unstable but only four days into it we have a solid routine and today we will finish our documentation on every step. We are providing the document to all of our M agents along with weekly trainings/workshops.
#4 Forest Heights neighborhood
Forest heights is an interesting Neighborhood about ten minutes from the NW Portland/Nob Hill area. It is a planned community with a Small “Town Center” Forest Heights Real Estate is a mix of housing from attached homes to Large Executive homes with dramatic views.
45 Neighborhoods – Day 3 of 45
Dale would be proud. I have committed to 45 post tracking our building of neighborhood landing pages. One of the main reasons I am doing this is for the acountability commiting to the posts creates. I hope this can provide some insight to others as well.
Something struck me late last night as I was working on our site. That people that know more about the neighborhood than I do, the actual residents are going to find the landing pages. I asked myself if I thought they would approve of how we are representing their neighborhood. The thought is causing me to take a little more care in the creation of these pages.
#3 Brooklyn Neighborhood in SE Portland
Just across the Ross Island bridge to the south of powell lies the Brooklyn Neighborhood. The location provides easy access to division street just to the north and to Sellwood to the south. Homes for Sale in Brooklyn Tend to run in the $300,000 range.
Brooklyn Real Estate
45 Portland Neighborhoods – 2 of 45
Second day so far so good!
What we have learned as of day two
1. Identify search terms
2. Have tracking in place to monitor progress
3. Google calendar to manage teams activities
4. A plan in writing with detailed instructions
Hillsdale Real Estate landing page
So here it is the 2nd of 45 Neighborhood landing pages done and published on our site. All about Hillsdale Real Estate. This was easy because I live within biking distance and I am in the neighborhood several time per week. You Must go to Baker and Spice and have a maple twist.
45 Portland Neighborhoods in 45 days
Focus focus focus…conversion conversion conversion! As some of you may have picked up from my recent posts and talks, I am becoming militant about conversion! There is so much talk in our RE tech crowd about SM, WordPress, blogging dead or not etc. and I contend that unless there is a direct connection than can be documented and repeated it is not all that useful to our industry.
What does this have to do with 45 Portland neighborhoods? …well an analysis of new how out team produces new clients revealed that a significant portion of our web registrations originate through a Google search that combines a neighborhood name with either “real estate” or “homes for sale”. We built and tested several neighborhood landing pages and a strategy to promote the pages with a series of posts. Now that the prototyping is done and tested it is time to switch to operation mode and get some shit done that makes us money. BAM!
I will be describing the process over the next 45 days showing the example neighborhood page and hopefully some insight on the keys to converting neighborhood content into new appointments and closed transaction.
Portland Neighborhood #1 of 45 – Portland Heights
Portland Heights Real Estate is on the high end for our area. I drive through it every day on the way to work and when our little brokerage really takes off I would love to buy one of the spectacular moderns. The page took about 4 hours to build, I walked the neighborhood for 20 min taking pictures and a video with my iPhone, I used next gen gallery, and embed video served from you tube. The listing are pulled in using our Homequest IDX plug in short code.
Conversion on this page happen when the 3rd listing view is attempted and from request showings.
There are numerous on page details and conversion strategies to discuss, but this is only day one so….see you tomorrow;)
Yes…the Real Estate Blog is Dead!
My opinion is based on several years of running sites for My wife’s team and working with agents at M Realty.
When it comes to generating leads from search, the past, present and future of real estate sites is SEO, not blogging, transparency, authenticity and finding your voice. The way to get clients is to show up where the most concentrated group of most motivated buyers/sellers are hanging out and ask for the business. This is why SEO focused content kills blogging…it is targeted directly at the relevant phrases and lands on pages designed to satisfy needs AND convert into conversation. Directing visitors interested in Portland Real Estate to our site generates appointments with new clients. People searching for Homes for sale in Sellwood neighborhood will register on IDX display of listing in the neighborhood. As I tailor most of my content to support the landing pages for valuable terms am I still a blogger or have I become an SEO focused content writer…is there a difference?
I am defining the Real Estate agent blog as an agent site to publish thoughts and ideas about real estate and possibly other things. A traditional agent blog can have solid impact in the direct support of an agent sphere relationships. It can become a dynamic newsletter of sorts that can be referenced in facebook and can be the content source of actual email newsletter campaign. This site will not (in general) produce quality organic traffic from search engines that will convert into clients at a rate that justifies the effort. Unless the site is used as a support to a more traditional campaign of meeting people IRL and direct marketing its ROI sucks. If you feel it is your calling to write and this is you outlet fantastic…do it because you love it. If you see a blog as a lead generator think twice.
IMO…the future of agent sites that have measurable ROI are hybrid site that use blogging platforms (WordPress) and employ very good on page SEO targeted to terms that convert leading to landing pages that generate registrations of some sort. The “blog” or “dynamic” content serves to supplement the high quality static landing pages that are the primary conversion points of the site. That is not to say the site necessarily must become a cold site with no agent personality coming through.
The future of web generated leads belongs to agents who become very proficient in SEO, understand conversion, and can write for the humans and bots that end up on the landing pages.
Don’t get me wrong I am all for transparency and authenticity. However I would suggest spending significant time and effort on the structure and conversion so your authentic, transparent voice will produce a significant number of transactions not just an opportunity to lead a session at Barcamp. WOW that was a tad snark wasn’t it 