Watch the video. Decide and then connect with me on twitter.
Do You Want More Comments On Your Blog?
One of the great things about blogging, that in a way “come with the territory”, in an opportunity to encourage comments and create very vibrant communities of like minded people. However a blog owner you probably know that it takes time and hard work to foster discussions on your blog. In fact every one of us has a few posts on our blogs with zero comments.
photo credit: kk+Here are what I consider to be the most helpful things you can do and widgets you can use to encourage comments on your blog.
- Ask. Asking your visitors to react in a form of a comment to what you have written is the easiest thing you can do. In fact, you can even modify your template in such a way that every single post will end with an encouragement like this: “I have spoken, now is your turn!”
- Respond to comments. Some bloggers respond to every single comment, while others respond to many comments at once. However you decide to respond to people commenting on your blog is completely up to you. But doing so you have an opportunity not only to acknowledge the comments made by others, but also to answer additional questions and ever criticism.
- Allow your readers to follow the conversation(s). On this blog I use a plugin that allows the author of the comment to subscribe to subsequent comments on the post he or she just commented. The plugin is called Subscribe to Comments. Every time the new comment is entered the subscriber receives and e-mail containing the comment. It keeps him or her updated without actual need to visit your blog.
- Comment on other blogs. Yes the golden rule works in here as well.
- Link to other blogs. If your post was inspired by another blog, make sure to link to that blog. Not only it’s just the matter of being kind, but often times you will find that the author of the original post will come and comment on your writing.
- Use threaded comments plugin. I find this plugin to be really useful because it allows to respond to a particular comment.
Unfortunately #3 and #6 meant only for WordPress users. But the other four steps may help to increase the comments on your blog nonetheless.
If you have not put much effort into encouraging conversations on your blog, now is a good time. You will not regret it.
Top Real Estate Blog And A Quick Look At Frequency Of Posts
photo credit: Ordinary GuyYou probably have heard in the past, that in order to have a successful blog, the quality of your posts matter over the quantity. While in some cases it may be true, majority bloggers in order to succeed need to blog more frequently, without of course neglecting the quality. There are at two reasons why you would want to post frequently on your blog:
- You want people to subscribe to your blog. And when they do, they in a way expect you to write. That is why they have subscribed to your blog.
- Frequent posts will invite Googlebot to your blog more often.
This week, after another update of our 100 Top Real Estate Blogs, I have decided to put some interesting statistics together to find out how frequently are the new posts produced by the blogs on the list. I picked two groups of blogs: a)blogs 1 through 10; b) blogs 91 through 100. These 20 blogs collectively produced 354 posts during last week. Top ten blogs had written 312 of those posts! While the bottom 10 only 42.
Blogs 1 through 10
| Position | Blog Name | Weekly Posts | |
|
|
1 | Curbed | 123 |
|
|
2 | Inman News Blog | 20 |
|
|
3 | BloodhoundBlog | 35 |
|
|
4 | Lansner on Real Estate | 20 |
|
|
5 | Brownstoner | 71 |
|
|
6 | Zillow Blog | 7 |
|
|
7 | Overseas Investment Blog | 6 |
|
|
8 | BiggerPockets Blog | 10 |
|
|
9 | Future of Real Estate Marketing | 5 |
|
|
10 | Sellsius Real Estate Blog | 15 |
|
|
|||
|
|
Total Posts Per Week | 312 | |
|
|
Total Weekly Posts Per Blog | 31.2 | |
|
|
Total Daily Posts Per Blog | 4.46 |
Blogs 91 through 100
| Position | Blog Name | Weekly Posts | |
|
|
91 | The Property Monger | 1 |
|
|
92 | The Silver Fern | 0 |
|
|
93 | nyc BLOG estate | 2 |
|
|
94 | Connect2Agents | 5 |
|
|
95 | Cob Real Estate Blog | 1 |
|
|
96 | Arcadia Housing Blog | 7 |
|
|
97 | Uncle Jack’s Very Vintage Vegas | 17 |
|
|
98 | Smyrna Winnings Homes | 4 |
|
|
99 | St. Johns Real Estate Blog | 4 |
|
|
100 | Utah Luxury | 1 |
|
|
|||
|
|
Total Posts Per Week | 42 | |
|
|
Total Weekly Posts Per Blog | 4.2 | |
|
|
Total Daily Posts Per Blog | 0.6 |
Feel free to comment.
Morning At New Penn Insurance Associates
Today I had an absolute pleasure to pay a visit to New Penn Insurance Associates. My friend Stan (on the right in the photo) works there so the visit was combination of business and pleasure. I will write more about this wonderful and hard working group of people in the future. If you are a New Jersey real estate agent, they might be just the people whose phone number (800.927.7475) you might want to have programmed in your cell phone.
From left to right: John, Kathy and Stan
Oh Fizber…
Fizber website just got bigger by about… 15,000 pages. Can you imagine? Well this time around it seams like they are trying to provide some useful data about neighborhood safety. Announcing the launch of crime and safety resource on their website today, Fizber’s VP of Marketing Julia Foster was quoted in a press release:
Crime rates are based on local crime statistics from the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department. We reveal the safety from crime for every community in America, and show you how each community compares to other communities nationwide, so you can make good decisions for you and your family.
Not so long ago I posted a video, in which founding CEO of PropertyMaps defended their decision to publish neighborhood data on sex offenders. Fizber’s safety information does not include that information.