Yes, all real estate agents should be blogging
Remember when blogging looked like a fad – just some kind of vanity thing that let people post their thoughts to the world. Many of the early blogs looked like diary entries. I recall being shocked that a copywriter had a blog filled with grammatical errors and misspellings – and a friend telling me that it didn’t matter, because a blog was just personal rambling.
All that has changed.
Now, real estate blogging is an important marketing tool – for agents and for anyone else in business.
That’s why, just as all real estate agents should have their own websites, all agents should be blogging. And I believe they should be blogging on Active Rain as well as on their own websites.
No – I don’t work for Active Rain and I’m not paid a commission for recruiting new bloggers. I encourage it because I believe it’s beneficial to you. Active Rain is an “authority” site in Google’s eyes, so your posts are MUCH more likely to be indexed highly and found by prospective buyers and sellers than they will be if they reside only on your own site.
For one thing, blogging is a very important way to let the world know that you are a neighborhood or niche expert.
When prospects see you writing about everything from your new 
listings to the neighborhood dog park, the 4th of July celebration, the state of your market, and everything in between, they form the opinion that YOU are the person in the know. You’re the person who can help them because you know the territory and you know the answers to their questions – it’s that simple.
Your Active Rain blog, when done properly, will also help promote your own website. Each time you post on AR, your signature will (or anyway should) include a link back to your site.
If your site includes good community pages, good buyer and seller advice, or anything else useful to the blog reader, you should also link directly to those pages every time you blog about those topics. The more relevant links leading to your site, the higher you’ll rank with Google.
Of course, you do have to use good SEO practices in your title and your content. The good news is that if you aren’t sure how to do that, Active Rain University has videos to teach you.
After that, you can share your posts on Facebook, Twitter, and the other social media sites you use – giving your expertise even more exposure.
But… you tell me you can’t write.
Your grammar is terrible and you can’t spell. You can get around that, because nothing says you have to write the content yourself.
Write out the information you want to include in your post, then enlist a family member or hire a talented high school student to edit and polish it for you. My guess is your local High School English teacher could help you find someone with those skills. Or – if you have an assistant, get the assistant to either write or polish your posts.
Because I’m a real estate copywriter, I sometimes get inquiries asking if I can write blog posts for agents. Yes, I can, but only some of them.
As with all marketing activities, consistency is important!
That’s why I offer pre-written blog posts to fill in for those times when you don’t have time to 
write or can’t come up with even one idea. You can read all about them here.
I’ll also write “exclusive to you” posts on topics of your choice. However, I can’t write from first-hand knowledge of the places and events in your city – and I believe they are important.
I also can’t go take the photos to go with them, and the photos are important. Show your community to the world through pictures!
You can even publish posts that don’t have many words if your photo depicts something beautiful or interesting.
Your grammar doesn’t have to STAY poor!
If your grammar is poor and you’d like it to be better, get my Grammar Guide for Real Estate Agents.
It’s a clear and concise guide to avoiding the most common grammar, spelling, and word usage mistakes routinely made by real estate agents.(See, you are NOT alone in your struggle with grammar.)
It even includes tricks and hints to help you remember.
Read it, study it, and keep it handy for quick reference when you’re writing.