What are you to do? Give the Real Estate Tomato a call, or visit their site to check out how they work. They help real estate professionals and brokerages to create a blog-based web presence that's custom designed around marketing real estate and doing the business.
WordPress As The Platform
WordPress isn't the most widely-used blog platform in the world for no reason. I absolutely love it, and the many plugins that are developed freely by third party developers show that they love it too. What the uninitiated do not understand is that it's a website just like any other, only better. The use of the word "blog" confuses those who do not understand it. It is an easily adaptable CMS, or Content Management System.
This allows the user to concentrate on the content, writing what needs to be written for the site visitors, and for the search engines. WordPress takes care of placing it onto the site where it will be easily located by both visitors and search engines. You don't need a web designer, and you don't have to send them your content for placement on the site. And, you don't have to pay them again if you want to delete or change it.
Extensive Customization
I'm no slouch with getting what I want out of the WordPress software using themes and plugins. But, there are still things I would never attempt. One of those is messing around with the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the core structure of the PHP files that make it all work. This does limit me in some ways, but I make do.
However, for those many who don't even want to learn what I've learned over the last couple of years, there is help at The Real Estate Tomato. They customize a site for every customer. They manipulate all of those files that scare me to death. I don't even like looking at them, as I'm afraid I'll mess them up accidentally.
So, the average real estate agent or broker who wants a custom web presence that will bring them leads and commissions should consider a look at this company's services. The sites they create bring all of the benefits of blogging to your real estate practice, and they are custom-tailored for real estate. They have even designed their own plugins for more functionality and marketing power.
Training With Tomato University
The most beautiful website won't mean a thing if you don't have the right content. And, with a blogsite, it's even more critical. The fear that you can't blog successfully is largely unfounded. Most real estate professionals can do it. They just need to know how. The "how" includes:
- What type of content do your visitors want and need?
- What resources are available to you in producing content?
- What does the layout of an effective real estate blog look like?
- How do you create interaction with your visitors on their terms?
- What does lead generation look like?
- What are the differences in this approach as compared to the old website lead forms, then drip email and phone calls?
- In other words, and summarized, what works and what doesn't in real estate blogging?
What I realized when talking to that commercial broker was that my "do-it-myself" approach to real estate blogging is probably not suitable for more than a small percentage of the agents and brokers out there. If that's you, here is a tutorial on getting your WordPress site up and running. For the very large group that don't want to even look at it, take a look at the products at The Real Estate Tomato.
