For those of you who have an outside blog or who visit the real blogosphere, you may have noticed that guest blogging is pretty popular. There are many reasons to invite someone to appear as a guest in your blog, but mainly it has to do with getting a different perspective for your readers.
If you are a Realtor, it may benefit you to have a mortgage broker, a stager, an appraiser or any other real estate service provider write an article in your blog in order to give your readers a complete perspective of our industry. You can also invite another Realtor in order to reinforce a topic or simply to get their point of view.
I love to see Brian Brady making guest appearances in Laurie Manny's blog, with that she is able to give great mortgage expertise to her customers, and he is able to go in depth into the loan industry in a way that complements her blog.
I had the pleasure of having my first guest blogger in Miamism.com and as much as I can try to describe my excitement, all I can say is that it is similar to the feeling a little kid gets when they put on a new pair of shoes for the first time. ( I hope you get that analogy, because if you don't...the point I am trying to make goes right out the window).
So I really, really thank my guest blogger for making an appearance and I hope she comes back again! If you are at least a little bit curious, you will have to check out THE GUEST POST for yourself! : ) Here's a hint: she has a great sense of humor, a great writing style, and a ficticious husband like me....and you may even hear a faint <flap, flap> when she is around.
Ines.... this is a great idea.... I am jealous because I know Brian has started doing this in different ways.... and I have been thinking of ways to go about this. But congrats on picking a great blogger as Mariana to be your first guest speaker.
Overall, I can see this idea taking off now... great job at promoting your blog and others to help drive traffic to it. To me, it's like back linking and or love linking .... in a way.
GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!! What a great surprise wake up to shuch positive comments!!
Dena - I'm sure you guessed it before going to Miamism.
Jeff - What Brian is amazing....he is charing his knowledge everywhere and personally, I don't know how he does it because he's great at it too!
Sally - it took me months to venture out into the "real world" - but it's pretty cool once you start reading.
Cyndee - Nothing like giving a Miamian a Colorado perspective!
Rich - YESSSSsssssss!
William - thank you......I will take a look at your blog.
Rondel - It's been a lot of work and still is, so I thank you.
John - I totally agree (about mixing things up and a great first guest blogger)
Maggie - there are still some links missing but we were having some technical issues - I can't wait to see what you come up with in your New Blog.
Missy - MIX IT UP A BIT - That's exactly the point!
Desiree - glad you visited. It should bring traffic to both of us since I did mention her site a couple of times. But I think the idea is to offer different content to your audience.
Steve - let me know what you think!
Missy - this is what the HTML code looked like for the highlighting
<font color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">
and ended in
</font></span>
let me know if it works!
great job Ines...
guest blogging has been fun for me... I've been on a few sites already and looking for more all the time...
I feel it helps combine great minds but also gives even more credibility to your site
David - credibility is key!!
I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE OUR STRATEGY FOR DOING THIS: just before I invided Mariana to guest blog at Miamism - I had sent out 4000 post cards to our local market that only read miamism.com - the whole point was to create curiosity and for people to visit the site - once there, an article like Mariana's on the front page would help the site's credibility and would hopefullly begin to establish local readership.
This is what the card looked like:
A mixture of print adds and Internet marketing is key for a successful blog readership!
Rick and Ines,
That is a great idea!! I hadn't thought about having a guest blogger before! Thanks!!
Hi Ines, and congratulations on your first guest blogger. Not only is it a wonderful idea to expose your audience to outside ideas and opinions but...
From a marketing point of view, like great talk shows such as Charlie Rose(PBS), Oprah, Larry King, etc... the variety makes our blogs more interesting to the readers which should help to keep their interest. Great stuff!
Ines..... what an incredible marketing plan..... question, do you want to share this with everyone? Since you mentioned, why not do a blog on it.... I would, but I don't want to take credit for it. That is an excellent idea in marketing......
Jeannette - I can't take the credit for it - a lot of bloggers are doing it - and I do think it's a great idea.
Marti - I totally agree, and the variety is not only in the form of a different industry or a different perspective, but a different writing style as well, which can be refreshing at times.
George - thank you! Have I told you how much I love shoes? : )
Jeff - that's why I shared the postcard here, because I don't mind sharing - I will definitely do a blog once all the marketing material is ready.
Mariana - the graphic designer I am working with is so detail oriented and we are getting along beautifully - our whole marketing plan is coming right along!
Lexa - I really have to think hard about that question. Since getting in real estate, I have found that marketing comes really natural to me - must be the architectural background and the fact that I am so visual and detail oriented but can't take all the credit myself. Getting involved with Project Blogger, has given me a lot of information on marketing. I encourage everyone to look into the judging results to get unbelievable ideas.
Paul Chaney has also been instrumental in guiding me with certain details - like reinforcing the fact that you have to market your blog locally in different ways (with e-mail, business cards, print media.....etc).
I will be able to assess the number of hits by next week - it takes a perior of 2 weeks for the 4,000 cards to be distributed - it will be an interest experiment.
Jeff - thanks!
Hi Ines,
You have given me a lot to think about in regards to guest blogging. Your strategy for doing this is genious. I've been thinking about how I could incorporate or participate as a guest blogger and came up with a possible topic idea for other agents and posted it on my blog at Jennifer's Agent Solutions Blog.
Thanks again and great job on the post Mairana!
Ciao!
Jennifer - thanks for that.....especially coming from an expert! Will definitely go take a look at your link.
Kristopher - I hope your curiosity was satisfied : )
WOW 2 Blogs! I am SO impressed.. REALLY! My question is HOW THE HECK DO YOU DO IT? Where do you find the time? are your posts similar or the same as what you put on Active Rain? ugh.. so many questions, so little time! :o)
Ines...
I heard all this flapping and then it dawned on me that it was coming from Miami...
Nice work Ladies :)
TLW...ROAR!
HUm..looking at all this excitement.I have to check that project Blogger...woazer Ines. Quite the Marketing Plan!!!That guest blogging system/program is very very innovative.To give a personal touch is the thing about your Miamism site.
my assistants need to learn podcats.I have to do it myself otherwise.
That is lots of work. Great job.I heard from an Inam video that the most important thing in blogging is to have a voice. I think readers recognize your style, i.e, yours.