Real estate blogging is still considered one of the most important tools for investors, agents, and brands. But what if you can’t afford to blog? Or at least not well?
The Importance of the Real Estate Blog
If you ever doubt the importance and value of the real estate blog, just Google “real estate.” The top results all have blogs. Their blogs are the main drivers of their positions, value, and revenues even if their blog isn’t the first page you see. This is true of Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com.
Blogs are still the lead and revenue pumping heart of most successful businesses today, especially in real estate. Many careers and businesses are blogs. Rock Star Finance reports many individual bloggers clocking in a net worth of over $1M. The Huffington Post sold for over $300M, and now brings in over $2.3M per month. Trulia bought Market Leader for $355M, largely on the strength of content on Realestate.com. Zillow in turn bought Trulia for $3.5 BILLION. None of these have the type of profit margins that those selling actual real estate do.
The bottom line is that a blog is a marketing tool with multi-billion dollar potential.
Unfortunately many new real estate investors, agents, and small businesses are waking up to the fact that a great blog requires an investment. One which some aren’t prepared to make. So what if you can’t afford to maintain a great real estate blog? What are the alternatives? What’s the game plan?
How Much Does a Real Estate Blog Cost?
The cost of setting up, managing, posting on, and promoting a real estate blog can vary widely. Some may almost be able to achieve this for free. Others may spend as much as $100K to commission the writing and design of a single post. There may be little need for lavish waste, but a great blog that produces good results can require an investment. No one doubts that a Bentley or Ferrari costs more to make and sell than a Corolla or moped.
The costs involved in real estate blogging can include:
- Domain name registration
- Hosting
- Branding materials
- Graphics
- Technical setup
- Data entry assistants
- Copywriters
- Redesign
- Promotion
“If You Can’t Afford to do it Right, You Can’t Afford to do it Wrong”
Many of those new to the industry have plans to roll out a blog. Then they hop online to an outsourcing portal like Upwork to find a real estate blog writer. They often find out that due to demand their rates have risen significantly. Finding a good blog writer for $5, or even $10 an hour appears to be a myth. Finding an amazing one that will help you stand out in the market for $50 an hour might even seem challenging. Many have only budgeted a couple hundred dollars a month for this part of their real estate business and marketing. It’s no secret that poor quality blogs, cannot only fail to deliver results, but can be counterproductive and sabotage your reputation with Google, and others. So if you encounter this, and don’t feel you can roll out great blog posts on the budget you set, and you certainly don’t want to waste your budget on blogs that aren’t going to produce, what do you do?
3 Solutions
- Increase Your Real Estate Blogging Budget
The most obvious answer to closing this gap may simply be to raise your budget. This may mean reallocating dollars from another part of your business. Or reinvesting more of your proceeds and splurging a little less on everyday items.
- Scale Back Your Volume Goals
Daily blogs can help compound results, but don’t sacrifice consistency or quality for more volume. One way to go is to bet on your results and invest heavily upfront. Move up your budget, do better work, and let the results pay for more as you go. If you go too cheap or weak you won’t get the results to keep fueling your lead generation. Or spread out your content to what you can stick with consistently for longer. For example; publishing a better quality post or report once a month, or once a quarter.
- Alternative Marketing
Some may decide to put their capital into other forms of marketing in the short term, and then invest their gains into better blogging as they see the rewards. This may include social, Google ads, direct mail, cold calling, or even knocking on doors.
Summary
A real estate blog can be one of the most important and valuable tools available today. Some aren’t prepared for the investment required to unleash an awesome, top producing real estate blog. There are adjustments to be made to fix that. Others might invest in shorter term avenues first, and then get into blogging once they have the resources.
