The Two Sins Writers Commit That Business Bloggers Can’t Afford

by Brian Brady

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

Here are two tips to help you avoid failure in real estate/mortgage weblogging:

1- Don’t commit the first sin; being boring. Make doing business with you fun for your customers. NBC Radio did a survey of radio personality Howard Stern’s audience. Half loved him and half hated him. The former group listened for an average of something like 25 minutes, the latter listened for something like 47 minutes. The reason both groups gave for listening? They wanted to see what he was going to say next.

Consider this first post:

Mortgage rates have declined some 1/2 of 1% in the past two weeks. We advised you to float your rate, back on December 27, 2007 but I warned you that the decline may be short-lived.

Lock all loans at application. If you have a loan in processing, and are floating the mortgage rate, lock your rate. The worldwide liquidity injection has had its desired effect. The anticipated Fed rate cut, on January 30, 2008, is already built into the pricing. there is more risk to mortgage rates rising than there is reward for holding out for a lower rate.

BORING!!!! What the hell was the author thinking? Now, let’s see what happens after he asked his readers what was wrong (fortunately, they gave it to him straight):

I fell in love with ARMs again, after a five month hiatus. Hey! It’s Valentine’s Day so I can tell you a love story. This love affair has been going on since I was in my 20s. The sexy allure of adjustable-rate mortgages were replaced by the stability of that old battle-axe, the fixed rate loan. The culprit was the flat yield curve. I dig curves so my eyes popped out of my head when I opened my e-mail this morning.

Adjustable-rate mortgages walked into my life like a wild-eyed, long-haired, bombshell on a Harley, toting a bottle of tequila. Normally, I balance her beauty with the risk she presents but I promise you, she’s a changed woman. This time, she promises to stay put for a ten-year period. Frankly, ten years is plenty of time for me to outlast a few bumps in the economic road; it’s a relationship worth having.

I’m talking about the spread between a 30 year, fixed rate loan and an ARM with a ten-year fixed period. The 30 year mortgage is around 6.0% while the ten-year fixed rate ARM is offered at 5.25%. Ten years is a LONG time, regardless of the economy, so I’m recommending that over the fixed rate loan.

A little more…sexy, huh? The result? A referral in the inbox (directly referencing the 10/1 ARM product) and a phone call from a past customer (asking about refinancing).

Nobody will forgive you for being boring. They’ll just click and move on to someone else. Readers are ruthless; most won’t stop to give you constructive criticism. Greg Swann calls it “evoking a visceral response”. I call it “making the frog jump”. You should call it standard blogging practice.

2- Never insult your customers. This one’s the governor for that big honkin’ engine I gave you in tip #1. You can do that by assuming two things: they’re not that smart and being “clubby” with your blogging buddies. If you’re blogging for business, it starts with the customer. All articles should be “checked” with this simple question WWCD (what will customers do ?) before you hit the publish button. You’ll make mistakes with this sin (we all do) ; atone by deleting immediately.

Don’t be boring and don’t insult your customers. Sounds simple, right? It’s hardly simple. Here are some fabulous examples of successful articles for you:

Danilo Bogdanovic called out the Loudon County Assessor for potentially misrepresenting the assessed valuations. The flak was a threat from Kaufman’s office. I was flat out wrong when I questioned Danilo’s accuracy. While I did understand my math, I didn’t understand the political process of tax assessments in Loudon County. This post was effective because it was both exciting AND championed the cause of the customer. GOOGLE “Todd Kaufman County Assessor” and you’ll see the results.

Laurie Manny of Long Beach Real Estate Home busted a local pol for his involvement in property encroachments in a an exclusive Long Beach conclave. She made consumers aware of potential property line disputes and essential disclosure items.

Read anything Geno Petro writes; my home boy (we’re both from Philly) is anything but boring. Still, Geno engages the audience and drives the message of “truth in advertising” home with Memoirs of a Big, Fat Liar. His closing promise of a “ladybug in a juice glass” will have you howling all the way to the phone to call him.

Bloodhound UNCHAINED is live and tickets are for sale. It’s going to be bigger than democracy with all the masterminding and instruction we can pack into three days. Here’s what I’m going to promise you; this ain’t gonna be your father’s marketing conference. You’ll be making history, not studying it at UNCHAINED.

Nobody’s going to be claiming tenure here. We don’t care how long you’ve been blogging, we care about how effective you are (or can be). If you plan on ruminating about the good old days of blogging, you’ll be in the wrong place. If you long to be “in the RE.net club”, we’re probably not your choice. We’re talking about efficacy at UNCHAINED. That’s a ten-dollar word for effectiveness which is a fancy word for your phones ringing off the hook and your inbox blowing up.

Attitude expected.