It seems that every day I speak to someone who wants to start a blog, but they don’t know where to start. Many of these people seem genuinely afraid of making a huge mistake. Relax! It’s not that scary! :) The blogs here at RealTown offer soooo many great features that the beginner sometimes gets overwhelmed. Just remember, pretty much everything can be undone.  So to those of you who wonder: “How do I get started?” just take it one step at a time.

Most of the questions people ask me are “What should I write about?”, “What should my title be?”, “Which template should I use”, “How do I get my image up there?” etc… To these people, I recommend that you don’t sweat these details yet. What should you write about? It doesn’t matter; just start writing about whatever comes to mind. While you are writing your first few entries you’ll see that certain topics are easy for you to write about, these are probably the topics you will want to focus on with your blog… getting the first few entries written should also make it a lot easier to come up with a blog title, a blog description, and categories. Once you get going, you don’t want to be changing your Blog Title very often as that could hurt your standing on Google (and other search engines) but changing it once or twice when you just start out won’t hurt you.

Keep in mind, your blog doesn’t have to be about your business; it can be about ANYTHING! Your town, your hobbies, travel, food, things you like, your pets, things that start with the letter ‘L’, anything! Most people I speak to are Realtors, and most seem to think that their blog needs to be about Real Estate (usually specific to their local market) if they want to generate business from their blog. Personally, I don’t think this is the case.

As a realtor, you know that the most important thing is that a potential client knows your name whenever they decide to buy or sell. Maybe your blog is about local restaurants… if people are interested in reading about what you have to say about your local food, they will probably subscribe to your blog or add it to their ‘favorites’. Your name will be in their face every time they look at your most recent review. Somewhere on your blog it will probably be mentioned that you are in the Real Estate business, so when Jane Doe decides to sell her house, maybe she’ll contact that nice Realtor who likes the same restaurants she does.

I’m not necessarily saying your blog shouldn’t be about Real Estate, I am just encouraging you to explore all your options. Sometimes finding new things to write about can be challenging, so don’t lock yourself into any topic that is too specific. If you do keep your blog’s focus on Real Estate, maybe consider adding a category for “Other Stuff”, your pets, your family, jokes, musings etc… This helps create a more personal bond between you and the reader (aka your potential future client). Show them that not only do you know your way around the Real Estate business, but you might have something in common with them on a more personal level as well.

The most important thing is that you update your blog as often as possible. If you want to write about 10 completely unrelated topics, that’s fine, just organize them into different categories so visitors can find what they want.
Don’t wait on the details… You can change your title later, you can change your template later, you can edit everything any time you want. If you have an idea for a blog entry, just start blogging! You can fuss with the background color and settings some other day.

If you don’t start now, your competitors will!