Honolulu Real Estate Views 502nd Post!
September 25th, 2009 categories: Rants & Riffs
502 posts and about 375 hours later, here we are today. My odyssey in blogging germinated 20 months ago while I sat at a seminar listening to a talk about the power of the Internet. It became clear then and that as time goes by the Internet will become more relevant to selling Honolulu real estate and traditional forms of marketing will go the way of the dinosaurs. Like many a Honolulu Realtor, I had a “static” website, just because you were supposed to have one, but there was no effort in addressing Google or the other search engines. I could see that in addition to my strong client base, I needed a proactive plan to have my site show up on page 1 of Google’s organic search for Honolulu real estate. As I write this blog post my site is on Google’s page 1. This is out of 11,400,000 results!
Many people ask me how I continuously post? Kudos needs to go out to my coaches at The Real Estate Tomato. First they taught me the simple but technical side of writing and posting in a manner that would be positive to the search engine spiders. Secondly, when I asked them how I would come up with my daily posts, they told me that because I have been in real estate sales for 27 years I have vast stores of information and knowledge that a less experienced agent/broker could not fake. I am always amazed at how easily posts come to mind, thus confirming that The Tomato people were absolutely right. Here are 7 realizations I’ve had as a result of the last 501 blog posts.
1. It’s cathartic to write. I find that blogging has a therapeutic affect. I sit down at the keyboard with a stressful edge and at the end of posting I feel as though a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
2. Though I have much to learn about writing, my confidence in expressing myself with the written word has improved greatly. I don’t have the courage to go back and read my first post, but the constant writing has made me a better author.
3. I am more informed. I have a goal to post blogs 4 out of 5 business days each and every week. As a result, I visit 13 news sources every morning with an eye for articles that are relevant to the Honolulu real estate market. Sometimes I agree with the thesis and at other times I don’t. In any case, because I am writing I have had to become more knowledgeable and informed to support my positions at my blog.
4. I have become more critical of other peoples pronouncements concerning Honolulu homes and condos. I understand that attitudes drive a market and that some opinion makers have a bent that flies in the face of what I know from being in the market everyday. I see journalists drawing conclusions based on surface statistics, when a deeper look at the numbers shows an opposite conclusion. As real estate professional, I feel it is my duty to speak up when I see someone acting in a wrong-headed way.
5. Blogging has a great deal in common with home ownership versus being a renter. A friend of mine, who was formally at the largest firm on Oahu, pointed out that their firm may be ahead of me in Google, but they have paid a great deal of money to be there. They are renting that location, as soon as they stop paying they will fall out of that position. On the flipside, I own my position…as long as I post blog articles. In essence, I’ve paid 375 hours to move into a position that can only be lost if someone posts more than me, or if the search engines decide that my posts are no longer important.
6. In the last 20 months, there has been a geometric decline in the relevance of newspapers to the sale of Oahu real estate. I am advertising less and less with the local papers and this is because an advertisement can be placed and I will not receive a single phone call! Given how thin the Sunday papers have become, I believe other advertisers are discovering that their marketing dollars are better spent in other media.
7. Finally, the functionality of this blog needs to be upgraded. To this end, I am in the process of planning a major upgrade to this site. Things that are on the table include easier property searches, giving users the ability to create customized and automated searches, adding a value my home feature and creating an easier way to find similar posts at the blog. Since I am going through the process of recreating my layout and functionality, please feel fee to email me any suggested changes that might help you have a better experience.
For those of you who have been following me since May of 2008, let me send you a BIG “Thank You!” If you are new to my community, thank you for coming and I hope that you continue to find value in my posts. On a final note, I am happy to blog on real estate oriented ideas that I have not yet considered, if you have one that you would like to see an article on, email me at keahi@lava.net or call me at 808-398-3220.
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Congrats Keahi, what an accomplishment!
The best thing about blogging in my opinion is you cannot fake it, and your readers know. You either know real estate or you don’t. That’s why you succeed.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing the new design.
Wow! Congratulations on being #1 on Googles page for
Honolulu real estate!
What a great blog. You have certainly motivated me and I am sure many others!