| Quick Links | | | | | |  | | Weblogs | | | Our MyST Blogsite generates highly qualified leads compared to other venues of online lead generation. One of the primary reasons is we have a trust factor, which we built (and continue to build) by providing dependable and accurate information through the blogsite. As a result, actions are more meaningful for business and the customer." |
| | Excerpt from: Marketing. Communication. Results. |  | | September 30, 2007 | | Should you focus your Web 2.0 content into one domain or spread it around on free conversational blogging sites? There's no simple answer, but here are some observations and a few helpful tips. | The recent earthquake felt by real estate agents who have invested heavily in ActiveRain as a means of blogging and participation in the conversational web was a surprise to many who believed ActiveRain was a place to build brand equity, enhance outbound communication, and benefit from participation in the blogosphere. While all of these attributes remain true, the idea that AR was almost acquired by Move.com (and could be acquired by any larger company) turned out to be unsettling news. The details of the buyout (about $33 million) and the lawsuit brought by ActiveRain against Move for backing out of the deal are interesting, but not nearly as interesting as the reactions of the ActiveRain community. Joel Burslem (Future of Real Estate) comments ... "Thousands of real estate professionals have moved their conversations online over the last year as blogging has become more and more popular and has become an important part of a Realtor’s marketing arsenal. Don’t be fooled, your content is very valuable. Platforms like ActiveRain, Trulia Voices, Zillow Q&A all seek to tap this knowledge base and build massive databases which they hope to monetize. ActiveRain’s near-acquisition shows just how much your words can be worth. On the flip side, and mostly because of the communities that have developed around these sites, people start to feel very personally attached to their blogs, their profiles, whatever. They start to feel like it’s their own little corner of the Web."
And therein lies the rub -- Your ActiveRain blog is not really "your corner of the web"; it's a thin slice of someone else's corner. While the words you write are indeed your words and your copyright, your content is freely offered at the pleasure of the community provider. If they choose to change the publishing and/or participation terms, you have little control. But this is the domain of communities - it's a deal that is fair - they take all responsibility for the infrastructure; you take responsibility for contributing interesting content. And the benefits are obvious; your content is made visible to additional prospects; the gravity of a community is far greater than your own domain. But some downside aspects also exist: - The community could be absorbed into another community.
- The community may go out of business without the slightest warning.
- The community might eventually charge fees to avoid going out of business.
- The community might shift its policies or focus in ways that are not conducive to your own business focus.
Any of these outcomes could be counter productive to your business objectives; at worst, leaving you with nothing. As one observer notes... "The only way you own your content is to host it yourself." This is not entirely true. MyST Blogsite hosts business and corporate blogsites for hundreds of clients including many real estate firms. Our terms of service doesn’t lay any claim to our client’s content or domains. In fact, the service and XML API is designed specifically to protect the client’s content, brand, and domain. MyST even provides access to copies of the client’s content for up to a year after service cancellation. We also provide web services to download 100% of the content at the client’s discretion 24/7. So, is it wise to spread your domain expertise across one or more community sites? I think it is if you follow these simple guidelines. - Don't rely [solely] on free community sites as your primary blogging solution. You already have a primary web domain; create your primary blogsite domain as a sub-domain (i.e., blog.myDomain.com).
- Always maintain a backup copy of everything you write on these community portals. Since almost all of them support RSS, consider using a desktop news reader such as Feedemon to subscribe to all your community blog feeds. Most RSS news readers can be configured to cache all posts to your PC - you'll have a complete XML version of your content should you ever need it.
- Always link from your free community blogs to your primary blogsite.
- Spend only a portion of your time blogging on free community sites. Make it a point to write 2 posts on your primary blogsite for every post you write on community sites.
- Adopt the philosphy that your primary blogsite and website is the "authoritative" place where your marketing message and brand equity is maintained.
- Leverage your blogsite and website content by publishing excerpts from your primary content on free community sites with links back to the complete posts.
- Where possible, syndicate your primary blogsite content into your community sites. FaceBook offers this capability.
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| | Guest Weblogs | | | | | | |  | | Blogsite Feeds | | | MyST Blogsite Briefings | | | | | | | | | I spoke with a group of bloggers in Phoenix recently. What I found is that very few had any business from their blogs despite a lot of effort. I have 5 closings and 7 active buyers directly from [our MyST blogsite] in 2008. I know because I ask. One person told me they have been reading my blog for almost a year before they called me to buy a property." | – | Artur Ciesielski, Realty Executive |
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