It's been over 2 years since I've written a consumer facing blog post.
After blogging daily for almost 10 years it was time for a break, a nice long break. I've honored a commitment to produce Ask An Ambassador posts every Tuesday, but I've passed on writing more consumer facing content. It's not that there aren't opportunities, I've just chosen to use my time elsewhere.
That choice might seem foolish on the surface, but there's something working on our behalf until I'm ready to pick up the keyboard and produce more consumer content.
EVERGREEN POSTS.
Posts fall into two primary categories:
1. Temporary. They have a shelf life. Once the local event is over, once the market conditions change, once the topic du jour has passed, they lose effectiveness.
2. Evergreen. These posts don't have an expiration date and are valid year after year after year. For us, that's general information about Cincinnati patio homes, specific subdivisions, specific home builders, etc. While some posts might need refreshing (e.g. new construction wraps up in a subdivision). for the most part I can leave them as is, and they'll work just as well for me in 2022 and 2023 and 2024 as they did when I wrote them in the 2010s.
If I look back over the last two years, 75% of our closed deals have come from ActiveRain blogging and/or associated IDX pages on our Wordpress site. Note that in that same time frame I've provided ZERO new content beyond IDX pages refreshing themselves with the latest For Sale and Sold homes.
That's 75% of our business coming to us with no requests for referral fees, no fees paid to Zillow or any other lead production company. Our primary expense for generating that business is the costs of maintaining our Wordpress site (less than $200 a month all in). And our evergreen posts target a price point which allows us to do fewer overall deals, and still be productive. Productivity that's essential when you're an engineer/real estate agent/zookeeper.
Not every post has to be evergreen. Understand your audience and what generates your business. If you need more posts focused on attracting referral business, go for it. If your business is mainly sphere based, temporary type posts may be just the ticket.
But the more evergreen content you produce, the more options for you if you need emphasis elsewhere. It's okay for blogging to take a backseat to other demands.
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
Comments (11)Subscribe to CommentsComment