However, where the realtors are concerned, setting up agent websites can make their wallets lighter by several hundred dollars in addition to the requirement of paying a monthly fee of approximately $30-60 for running the website. In such a situation the realtor blogs are an advantage as many of them can be set up for free and with maintenance costs of just $5-10 per month. In fact, there are many realtors who have created their own blogs to complement their realtor websites.

Realtor blogs are more advantageous than agent websites since in the blog entries are always made in a reverse chronological order. This way the most recent information is available first. Since the most up-to-date information is available almost at a glance, the client is more attracted to the blog than to the website. Also, since blogs are nothing but personalized websites, there are greater chances of the blog being updated rather than agent websites.

Unlike the websites for realtors that just provide information regarding properties available, photographs, contact information etc., blogs are more personalized in that they present the information from the standpoint of the realtor. This gives a more comprehensive view about a property to the client than the information available through websites.

Both agent websites and blogs provide property information to prospective clients albeit in different ways. However, realtor blogs seem to have a slight edge over the websites for realtors because they provide up-to-date information at a glance and in a more personalized manner. Additionally, costs of setting up and maintaining a blog are a lot less than maintaining a website. Owing to these reasons it is quite possible that blogs might gain an upper-hand over websites in the online real estate scenario.

All said and done, using realtor websites and blogs as a complement to each other would be best option in expanding a real estate business as both have their own plus and minus points.

Although blogs appear to be better than realtor websites, for realtors it would be wise to use both the websites and the blogs to advertise their business and stand out in a large crowd.

This marketing technique builds upon knowing what a WordPress blog is. If you’re unfamiliar with WordPress or blogs in general, check out WordPress’s website and the rest of this article will make much more sense.

So now that you know some of the basics of what a WordPress blog is and what a Studio theme/template is for your blog, we can go a little more in-depth about search engine optimization (SEO) marketing for your blog, which is what’s going to drive all that wonderful, free, targeted traffic to your blog.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a big term but the concept is simple. And it’s a great marketing idea for us Realtors or agents to learn if you want free traffic visiting your website or blog.

Let me explain…

You know when you do a Google search for something and a list of website results are returned that match your search term you typed in? There are usually pages and pages of results but you only look at the first 1-2 pages, right?

Well, if you look in the upper search bar, you’ll see the total number of results that Google found, which is usually in the millions. You’d have to go through pages and pages of results to see the millions of website results.

So how do some of these websites owners have the marketing genius to get listed on the first 1-2 pages while the other millions of websites stay at the bottom of the results? SEO marketing!

There are ways to optimize your website so that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN Bing, etc. rank your website to be most relevant to what the person is searching for. Therefore, you get rewarded with a higher ranking on the results page and get more traffic to your real estate website or blog.

Tons of SEO companies and tech guys try to “game” the search engines so their sites come up as the #1 or #2 result. The problem is that search engines like Google are changing their requirements all the time so it’s almost impossible to artificially get higher rankings.

But of course, there are some foundational ways to get higher rankings and most of them directly relate to the content on your site.

The content on your site, or the text/words, is one of the main aspects search engines scan to evaluate your website. This is why I think blogs are so effective because you are constantly writing new, relevant content for search engines to find.

You can do the same thing with regular static websites but it’s tougher. You’d have to constantly update and add new content, which is much more time consuming and technically difficult than with a WordPress blog. Plus, WordPress is much more user-friendly for “non-techy” Realtors or agents like me.

Here’s where we start to get a little more technical so buckle up…

Within your WordPress blog, there are tools called “plugins” that software developers have made to enhance different aspects of your WordPress blog. They’re incredible for all aspects of your marketing.

Many plugins are free, some cost a little money. They’re easy to install; you just search for the plugin you want, download it and activate it and “Forget about it!” (sorry, that’s my best Italian impression).

For example, I use a plugin called “Contact Form 7″, which automatically creates a contact form on our “Contact Us” page. I don’t have to deal with any programming, coding, HTML or any of that junk. I just download the plugin, adjust the settings and it’s up and running on my WordPress blog. It seems like programmers have thought of a solution like this for anything you can think of. It’s fabulous!

Since most of us web surfers don’t look past the first 1-2 pages of results when searching, we need to get our Realtor or agent blogs up as high as possible on those results pages, right? Of course, that assumes you want free, automated traffic.

This is going to be a little tough to picture if you haven’t seen or used a WordPress blog but we’ll try it anyway. When you write a post for your blog, you’ll be writing a Title, a Description and the actual Content (or Body) of your blog post.

The title you write will show up on the search engine results page. Go ahead and do a search on Google right now so you know what I’m talking about. See that blue colored “headline” for all the results? That’s the title. Just like any other marketing piece, the title or headline is vital to catch your prospects attention. So put extra effort into this part.

Underneath that title will be your description, which will tell the surfer what your post is all about, in a nutshell. See it? It’s usually about 2 sentences long, right under the blue colored title.

The content of your blog post won’t show up on the search results page but search engines will still be scouring that content with their little robots.

Now, there are certain “keywords” that people commonly search with, like “Seattle real estate” or “real estate jobs”. Search engines want to see good keywords in your title, description and blog post content.

Anyway, I hope this marketing idea wasn’t too hard to follow along with. If you’re a “techy” you’re probably saying, “Dude, give me a break. I already know this stuff.” And the rest of you are thinking, “Blog what? Search eng… huh?” In either case, this is a great marketing tool to use and learn more about.

Now go close some deals!

Some great real estate marketing ideas center around blogging. You can optimize your blog for keywords that your customers are looking for. Once you get a high ranking in the search engines you will receive loads of highly targeted traffic. Once on your blog there are a few real estate marketing ideas you can use to get them familiar with you.

1. Make your site interactive and keep them coming back for the information you provide.

2. Use polls about your community and let members of your blog vote on them. Make your polls interesting and about current events happening in your community.

3. Make posts about what is going on in your community to show that you are concerned with your visitors welfare. If you offer any open house or classes on home buying tips post this on your blog to let everyone know when this will happen.

These real estate marketing ideas can be implemented without cost to you. When trying a new marketing idea it is important to test the water first and see if it will be cost effective. Blogging costs nothing and is a very effective tool in your marketing arsenal. Start learning this important skill and get your blog on the internet. You will see it start gaining high page rank with the search engines and bringing you new customers.