Blogging secrets from The Apple, Peeled's Ana Maria Sencovici. Presented at REMarTech on April 29, 2010 in New York City. Learn more at http://greenpearlevents.com/remartech.

1. ®
Blogging Primer Seminar
Real Estate Marketing & Technology Academy
April 29, 2010
Ana Maria Sencovici

2. Table of Contents
The Deep The Set- The The
Dive up Content Marketing
• What’s a • Choosing a • Content • Growing your
blog, blogging drivers community
anyway? platform • Best • Tracking
• What is it to • Choosing a practices tools
you? domain • Plan for dry • Deciphering
• Is blogging • Designing spells the metrics
for you? your blog • Developing a
• Other community
questions to
consider
www.theapplepeeled.com 2

3. The Deep Dive
• What’s a blog, anyway?
• The NYC real estate blogging landscape
• What is it to you?
• Is blogging for you?
• Other questions to consider
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 3 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

4. What’s a blog, anyway?
‘A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological
order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a
blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are
called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”. A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. A
blog comprises text, hypertext, images, and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other
files). Blogs use a conversational style of documentation. Often blogs focus on a particular “area of
interest”, such as Washington, D.C.’s political goings-on. Some blogs discuss personal experiences.’
(Wikipedia)
Reference source
Your personal thoughts Lead generation tool
Personal diary Breaking-news outlet Collection of links
Daily pulpit Political soapbox
Advertizing platform
Whatever you want it to be
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 4 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

5. The Blogging Landscape
NYC Real Estate
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 5 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

6. What is it to you?
A question of personal brand
We are all our own chief branding officers.
 What differentiates you from everyone else who
might have a similar background or set of
experiences?
 What skills, abilities, knowledge and attitudes do
you have that will make people want to work with,
follow or "friend" you, online or off?
 What value can you create for others?
 What will make you satisfied and fulfilled that you
are indeed making a contribution?
 What is your overarching mission and purpose in
what you do?
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 6 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

7. Is blogging for you?
A realistic look in the mirror
 Your personality  Your skill-set
o How thick skinned are you? o How are your communication skills?
o Are you willing to be in the public o Are you a good and creative writer?
spotlight?
o Do you have a sense of humor? o How technologically savvy are you?
o Do you have a mix of ego and
humility?
o Are you a self-starter? Should you decide that creating your own
o How disciplined are you? blog is not for you, there are other ways to
benefit from the advantages of blogging
 Your level of commitment without doing it all yourself:
o Time: if not daily, how often?
•Write every now and then as a guest contributor
o Financial
• Blogging software
on other, more established blogs
• Upgrades •Write as often as you’d like without the hassle of
• Domain name the set-up and maintenance via outsourcing
• Web hosting services
• Support costs •Offer yourself up for interviews to bloggers and
• Web designers the general media
• Bells & whistles (add-ons, themes)
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 7 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

8. Other questions to consider
 Your message
o What are you trying to say and why?
Finding your unique value
 Your niche
o What aspect of the market will you focus on?
o What kind of topics are off-limits?
 Your angle
o Professional vs. personal
o Funny vs. serious
o What words would you want your
readers to use in describing your site?
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 8 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

9. The Setup
• Choosing a blogging platform
• Choosing a domain
• Designing your blog
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 9 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

10. Choosing a blogging platform
Hosted blogging services
The pros and cons of choosing a developer-hosted platform
Pros: it takes care of … Cons:
–Web domain management – Ultimately, you’re not in
–Software maintenance and upgrades control of your own blog
– Less customizable
–Data storage and backup – Depending on the service,
–Template design and management you are a part of the other
company’s look and feel
Popular service providers Basics to look for in web hosting
Blogger.com • User-friendly interface / control panel
Typepad.com • Good comment management system
Wordpress.com • Spam deterrents
LiveJournal.com • Rss feeds (a computer-readable version of your
blog which helps your content appear in other
newsreaders, websites and blogs)
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 10 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

11. Choosing a blogging platform
Self-hosted blogging services
The pros and cons of choosing a self-hosted platform
Pros: Cons:
–Enhanced design personalization – More time consuming
–Customization of every aspect of your blog – Extra costs
(your own domain name, domain email – Tech support is limited if you
addresses, etc.) mess up
–Control, should something go wrong
–SEO / higher page ranks
Popular service providers Basics to look for in web hosting
Wordpress.org (different than .com) • Reliability and uptime guarantees
Movable type • Data transfer limits
Drupal • How much disk-space comes with it
Expression Engine • Tech support / telephone hours / email support
• Popular providers: godaddy.com, doteasy.com,
nexcess.net
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 11 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

12. Choosing a domain name
Why have one?
Why have your own domain name?
• Build credibility and a sense of professionalism around your blog
• Can enhance the brand of your business, service or identity
• Provides benefit of email addresses with the same domain, creating one holistic
entity
• Can enhance your search engine ranking
Many theories abound about dos and don’ts, yet personal tastes also
come into play; successful blogs exist that broke all the “rules”
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 12 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

13. Factors to consider in choosing a name
Long-term vision
Consider the kind of traffic you want to build
• Loyal readers: most likely to build relationships with you, be your “ambassadors”
• Search engine traffic: best for generating click-through ad revenue
• Link followers: referral traffic from other sites, can often flood sites, good “afterglow”
Keyword-based domain Brandable domain
Think about your goals and objectives for the blog
• What is your blog’s focus? (news aggregator, building reviews, tips & hints, neighborhood focus,
etc.) Make sure the name reflects this.
• What is your intention for the blog? (generate leads, build your brand, sell ad revenue, etc.)
• What’s your style? (multi-author, longer posts vs. snippets, pictures, videos)
• What’s your tone? (formal, conversational, funny, scandalous)
• Who is your audience? (professionals, out-of-towners, real estate aficionados, buyers, renters)
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 13 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

14. More domain factors to consider
Preparing for future growth
• Make it expandable if you’re thinking big (will other sub-blogs grow under the domain?)
• Don’t make it too “trendy” such that it quickly becomes dated
Does size really matter?
• The shorter the better generally
• Easier to remember
• Less room for misspellings
• Better word-of-mouth marketing
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Easy to pronounce
• Generally avoid hyphens and numbers
Dot what? (top level domains or “TLDs”)
• People generally assume .com or .net
• Most believe .com is the most powerful – stay away from little known TLDs
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 14 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

15. Designing your blog
The basic anatomy of what makes a blog a blog
Branding – Logo - Header
Reverse
chronological
order
Archives
Sidebar
Blog-roll
Posts / entries
Frequent updates Permalinks News
(info: date,
author, time, Other links
category,)
Most
Categories recent
posts
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 15 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

16. A matter of design
Key elements and best practices
 The header
o The first element that people see: a first impression. Make it memorable!
o Include a logo and some visual flourish to make it unique
 Post headlines
o Larger and bolder font / color than the general text without cluttering the page
o Make it easy for readers to scan through multiple headlines
 Navigation
o Make it intuitive and reader-friendly (do not overload with pages, categories or columns)
o Ensure that topics of interest are accessible and clearly marked
 Archives
o Increase the usability and the stickiness of your site by giving readers easy access to past posts
 Site search
o Key to providing readers a way to search for what’s on their mind on their own via keywords
 Comments
o Make sure they are prominent enough to be seen and their design reflects a respect for commenters
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 16 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

17. Getting some help
Themes and skins and plug-ins, oh my!
Themes Skins Plug-ins
A skin is usually a "visual Plug-ins can do anything
A theme serves as a from improving the user
look" that is an overlay
functional and cosmetic experience to maximizing
to a theme. Most skins
foundation that provides your blogging power.
allow you to change the Popular ones include
the building blocks for
overall look via styles thumbnails, comment
the customizing your
and without a complete management, spam filters
blog.
redesign of a theme. and social media links.
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 17 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

18. The Content
• Content drivers
• Best practices
• Plan for dry-spells
• Creating a community
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 18 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

19. Is content really that important?
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 19 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

20. Primary content drivers
Interaction • Start a conversation and encourage its continuation
• Address topics people are already thinking about
Relevance • Put yourself in their shoes
• Make one key point: what’s your bottom line?
Focus • What is the message you want taken away?
• Grab the readers’ attention
Catchiness • Ask a provocative question or present a “Top 3” list
• Relate the content to readers’ personal experiences
Memorability • Instill an emotional reaction in your readers
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 20 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

21. Blogging best practices
• More often at first to build momentum
Blog often • Be disciplined; create a set time
• Track your visitors
• Profile your • Don’t let
Know your Kiss perfection perfection
audience
•Note which topics
audience good-bye paralyze you
Perpetual
generate most
interest Learning
• Take a stand; take a risk Own your Write how • Avoid formality
• Not everyone will like • Be yourself and relate
what you say or agree topic you speak to your readers
with it
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 21 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

22. Plan for dry-spells
• Stockpile timeless posts
• Recycle your “classics”
• Post a photo or video
• Develop a survey or contest
• Write about a relevant book, TV show
or website
• Conduct an interview
• Ask for suggestions and feedback
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 22 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

23. Developing a community
Fuel the
Admit your
conversation
mistakes and
to keep it
fix them
going
Respond to Keep people
comments in-line; don’t
when accept mis-
appropriate behavior
Ask readers Make
for input and Community yourself
feedback accessible
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 23 Dive
The Set-up The Content
Marketing

24. The Marketing
• Growing your community
• Tracking tools
• Deciphering the metrics
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 24 The Set-up The Content
Dive Marketing

25. Your community
10 Ways of Growing It
 Link it up
o Link to other blogs for credit to their ideas and relationship building
o Link to your past blog posts that are relevant to your topic at hand
 Get involved
o Join conversations of interest to you on other blogs
o Contribute to those topics (don’t be a link spammer) by adding value and becoming a trusted resource
 Extend your brand
o Get word of your blog out on your marketing collateral, business cards, etc.
o Include a live link in your e-stationery; keep it clean, avoid more than 2 links to avoid the “junk” label
 Share and share alike
o You have your own unique URLs now for each and every post; make sure they are shareable across
multiple social media platforms
o Create and maintain a profile on your selected platforms, whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter
 RSS
o Make sure the RSS feed image on your blog is recognizable and well-placed for your readers to find so
they can subscribe to your brilliance
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 25 The Set-up The Content
Dive Marketing

26. Your community
10 Ways of Growing It (con’t)
 Become a favorite
o Allow readers to socially bookmark and tag you via sites like Digg, del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon
o This will help your blog rank higher on search engines and increase traffic/links to your site
 Invite guest bloggers
o Infuses new ideas and perspectives into your blog
o Guests will help promote your blog by promoting themselves (and vice versa)
 Get on directories
o Submit your blog to online directories to increase reach
o Little to do thereafter so it requires no additional maintenance
 Have a big mouth
o Talk about your blog with everyone you know; have your elevator pitch ready to go
o Use your own material as a resource with your clients when questions arise, reinforcing the
conversations you have with them
 Submit to media channels
o Send articles to different blogs or media channels if you think they may be valuable to their readership
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 26 The Set-up The Content
Dive Marketing

27. What about leads?
“I want more business”
Content is King
www.theapplepeeled.com 27

28. Tracking Tools
Many abound
Google Analytics
Pikwik
Reinvigorate
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 28 The Set-up The Content
Dive Marketing

29. Deciphering the metrics
The Basics
Visitor Trending
• Bounce Rate: how many visitors come to your site and then leave without viewing any extra pages, the
lower the better
• Average Page Views: how many pages your visitors are viewing per session, the more the better. (You can
also find similar page view data under Visitor Loyalty: Length of Visit and Depth of Visit.)
• Time On Site: indicates the stickiness of your site. The longer they stay, the more opportunity for them to
click, read and comment.
• Visits: enables you to understand the trends of your visitors, in terms of daily, weekly or seasonal trends.
When does your greatest traffic come in? What time of day or week? It allows you to gauge when to best
publish your posts.
Traffic
• Traffic Sources: how are people finding your site, through which sources (search engines, directly, referring
sites)
• Direct Traffic: readers who type in your URL in their browser or used a bookmark to visit you
• Referring Sites: which other sites or blogs are referring you the traffic; helps you gauge which
“investments” in social media are working and which are not
• Search Engines: readers who find your blog via keyword searches on Google or other search engines.
Knowing these keywords can help you optimize your content to give readers information they seek
The Deep The
www.theapplepeeled.com 29 The Set-up The Content
Dive Marketing

30. Now what?
Parting thoughts
Your questions
www.theapplepeeled.com 30