Do you know what I’ve learnt about the world over my past 30 odd years? Nobody markets better than a real estate agent. Seriously, think about it … (and there’s no offense intended here) but hiring a real estate agent is one of the least critical parts of buying a house yet, they’ve done a miraculous job of not only convincing us that they’re value but … actually becoming valuable!

I’m sure there was a time in history when people hired an agent to buy them a house because either you lacked the time to visit properties or you lived too far away from the home you intend to buy but these days, you drive past a house and you should be able to decide to buy or not to buy. Ditto for selling. Yet, real estate sales people have become so much more than simple sales tools (take that how you want), in an age that everybody watches home makeover shows an agent can really make the difference between a profitable sale and a break even sale so … how the heck do they do it? More and more often, they’re turing to the web and using techniques that all bloggers should utilize:

Respect people who take the time to comment. If somebody takes the time to read your article and actually comment on it take the time to post a thank you, or send them an email to show your appreciation.

Visit the blogs and websites of people who visit yours.  Visit the blog or website of every single person who takes the time to visit your website, some of the best articles I read on the net are from people who’ve contacted me via this site and I learn so much from every one of them.

Read. I spent two years teaching at a local community college and learnt more in a three hour class from the students then I could have possibly taught them. Read every blog you can, every news article and every magazine piece then send the people featured a quick note to thank them for the great piece.

Share. Do you know how I built my website to a PR5 and pulled myself up 2,000,000 rankings with Alexa? I shared. There are millions of awesome websites out there with amazing content.  When I was writing this piece, I also read a great piece here that talked about many of the same concepts. Many bloggers would try to hide that … but why? They’re afraid you’ll go read it. Guess what, I want you to go read it, it’s a great article.

Be honest. Let people know your motivations, why you’re writing and what you hope to gain from it. People will read your content if it’s good and they’ll come back if it’s worth their time so don’t trick people, just let them learn.

Be positive. I can’t tell you how hard it is to always write in a positive tone but if you want people to be positive about you and your blog you have to be positive about the world as well. 

Really Listen. Sometimes I hate the feedback I receive, fortunately most people are kind enough to write to be privately if they want to bash me. It hurts, I resent it but I also learn from it and my blog changes to fit the desires of my audience, not my moods.

Funny equals Money. Or as the Joker would ask … why so serious? Blogs are light, airy and fun. If you want to write stuffy old boring text, there are jobs for freelance obituary writers all the time. 

Blog, but mean it. Quality matters so before you hit that publish button, make sure you really want the world to read your blog. I throw out more posts than I publish around here and so should you. Before you write a piece, make sure it’s the best piece you can possibly write.

Focus on them, not you. Writing a blog has nothing to do with you. I know that’s tough but it’s the truth. People are generally selfish, if you can write a post that helps them or better yet saves them money, then people will love you.